Glass by Suzanne D. Williams Read Free Book Online Page B

one point. He retraced his footsteps, running his palm down the wall as a guide, at a d oorway coming to a halt. Voices distant but distinct lifted through the wall. He turned into the room and followed the sound, taking a stance at the edge of what felt like an ornate ladies’ vanity.
    The voices con tinued, but they were raised in tone, harsh.
    I went for a swim. Cerise. You, yourself, have told me I’m free to do so.
    The other voice was older, gravelly. With Mr. Garner? Ironic. Her grandmother. His insides churned.
    With Andre. Isn’t that what you wanted?
    What she wanted? What did that mean? He’d said her grandmother had planned this, and she’d said the old woman was recreating the past. Surely, that’s all she referred to.
    I never told you to cuddle up with him.
    Cuddle up?
    I’m doing what I want to do, not what you’ve ordered me to. Any feelings I have are my own. I don’t need you or some … some old story to dictate them to me.
    There was a thud and a third voice entered the mix. This one sounded older. Yolanda.
    She’s not well, Cerise said. Be sure she takes her medication. I’m going to bed.
    Aware he was out of place, he turned himself around and exited the doorway into the hall. He was some fifteen minutes relocating to the right passage, enough time that Cerise had reached his bedroom first.
    “Where were you?” she asked.
    He slipped inside the space. “I got lost. It is dark and the house is huge.” He made no mention of what he’d heard. That she’d argued with her grandmother about him was best kept secret.
    She trailed after him, shutting the bedroom door behind her. At the bedside, she grasped his shoulders and thrust him down onto the mattress flat on his back. She lowered her mouth to his, pressing in, the rich curves of her flesh begging his attention.
    Startled, he took hold of her and pushed her back. “Cerise.”
    “ You’ve proved yourself to me,” she said. “I know we only have tonight, so here I am. Make me forget it all.”
    Her desperate words barely had time to land before she reached up and unfastened the swimsuit top. It fluttered to her waist, and he froze. “Cerise, please … I didn’t mean …”
    “You want me,” she said. “And I want you. Tomorrow it’ll all be gone, but I’ll have this to remember. Let us do what our bodies demand.”
    He raised the bed sheet over her chest. “Tomorrow I will still exist and so will you. But if we do this, you’ll have regrets.”
    “No regrets. I want to know what Andre Garner is like.”
    He pulled himself from beneath her, sitting upright. Clasping the bed sheet with one hand, he shucked his shirt. It was slightly damp from his swim. He tossed it to her. “Put that on.”
    What little light the darkness spread through the nearby window highlighted the confusion on her face. “You can’t?” she asked.
    He nodded toward the shirt. “I can, but … the shirt please, Cerise.”
    She obeyed, tucking her feet to her chest after. “I don’t understand. You can but you won’t? Is it because of who I am? I know our parents …”
    He cut her off. “No, that has nothing to do with it. I thought you’ d understand by now; I didn’t know any of what you’ve told me before coming here. To me, you’re a beautiful woman who I want to know for herself.”
    “That’s all?” Her voice rose. “You kiss me because I’m beautiful, but not because …”
    “Because I want you.” He interrupted her. “I want to do all the things you’ve offered. But I can’t because morality demands something greater of me.”
    “Morality,” she said, repeating the word. “This is your Christian thing.”
    “It isn’t a ‘Christian thing.’ It’s living according to the rules God has set for a single man to live by.”
    “Rules?” She laughed. “You’ve been after me to set aside the rules. You wanted to see my hair, wanted me in the pool, you … you … I thought you were promising me something my mother never