Postcards From Last Summer by Roz Bailey Read Free Book Online Page A

he’d said, sampling the mound of one breast as if he’d discovered gold.
    She’d moved into his arms and kissed him hard, rubbing against him to feel the hard lump under his jeans. She’d never done this, not all the way, but she figured it was about time she became a woman, and doing it with Kevin would serve the double purpose of getting rid of the virginity badge and wrapping him up as her boyfriend.
    When he pressed into her, it seemed like it couldn’t happen. It hurt too much, the stinging pressure between her legs, and Darcy let out a yelp and pushed him away. They had to be doing something wrong for it to hurt this much.
    â€œIt’s okay,” he whispered into her ear as he looked down at their joined crotches and pressed, hard.
    â€œOw!” She squeezed back tears, but he didn’t seem to notice.
    â€œIt’s smooth going from here,” he said. He started moving slowly then, in and out, in a rhythm that made Darcy wonder how many times he’d done this before. The thought of Kevin doing this with other girls brought on a pang of anger, but that quickly faded as he drove into her in easy rhythm, the gentle stroke of his body against hers reminding her that this was it—she and Kevin were finally together.
    In the warmth that washed over her after that, she told him how she felt about him, how she’d always wanted to be his girlfriend. He’d seemed surprised that she’d given him her virginity, surprised that she was interested in him. When she mentioned being his girlfriend he told her he was “cool with that,” that he really liked her but couldn’t really get tied down right now.
    Not the response she’d anticipated, but she figured it was a start.
    Since that summer seven years ago they had dated off and on, always over the summer, always at the whim of Kevin and his male buddies who, as far as Darcy was concerned, spent way too much time smoking pot and waiting for killer waves to roll in. One summer Darcy gave him an ultimatum: be a good boyfriend or lose her forever. Kevin had failed, and Darcy had tried to move on. But she found herself back in Kevin’s arms, more specifically rocking in the back of his van, the first day of the very next summer. She knew her parents kept hoping she’d meet a more worthy man—a son of one of Dad’s investors, a Great Egg millionaire’s son, a Bennington boy with a strong moral code and a financially secure future. But that hadn’t happened, and though she’d dated other guys and had good sex with enough of them to form some basis of comparison, Kevin was the one she always returned to, the boy who brought that electrical charge into the room, the guy she wanted to be connected with, the only guy who could save her from her family, and from herself.
    Taking a sip of her drink, she checked the landing, where three guys paused on their way to the bar.
    Fish, David, and Kevin.
    Darcy felt sparks fly as his eyes met hers. Trite, yes, but undeniably true. There was a potent chemistry between them. She was glad he’d made it, glad he’d recovered from this morning so that he could get out and party on this important night, the sendoff into summer.
    He swaggered over, his jeans low on his hips, his Billabong T-shirt torn at the shoulder. “Darcy . . .” He leaned over her, his curly gold-tipped bangs in his eyes as he pressed his tongue to his lower lip. That adorable lick-smacking thing, as if he couldn’t wait to kiss her. “Hey, how’s it going?”
    She shrugged, trying to appear casual. “Okay, I guess. Another Hamptons summer.”
    â€œI hear you.” He leaned closer, teetering a bit, and she smelled the burnt smoke of weed on him. “You look fucking great,” he whispered with a sly smile.
    She grinned, loving his giddiness. “I know. And you look a lot better than you did this morning.”
    â€œYeah.” He swiped his