"Oh sure. I'll break into my piggy bank tomorrow," I said and sprawled out beside him.
"No, really," he said turning. "Why can't we do something like that? I could find a job and make enough to do payments on an old boat. It doesn't have to be seaworthy, just liveable."
"Cary, I'm not exactly legally on my own yet," I pointed out. "Do you think Grandma Olivia would permit us to live like that within her precious world? Or your father?"
"I don't care. We'll defy them all. We'll just run of and get married."
"What?" I started to laugh, but saw he was serious. "I'm not going to start life the way my mother did," I said. "I'm not going to be impulsive and then regret it every day and make everyone else's life miserable."
"Is that what she did?"
"Yes. She made my step-father hate himself, hate what he was doing, hate his family. The more unhappy she was, the more unhappy he became. And then we all suffered."
"I'd work myself to the bone to make you happy, Melody," he said. His green eyes were soft and luminous in the dim light of the small lantern.
"Sometimes, you can't help what happens around you, and then you only feel guilty and hate yourself, Cary. Let's not be foolish. Let's be smarter than our parents, okay?"
He nodded.
"As long as you promise not to run off and marry the first rich man who proposes to you," he said.
"I would never do that," I said. "I want much more than a hefty bank account."
He laughed, and then looked serious again, his eyes burning with such love that the stretch of silence between us began to palpitate with sensuality. He kissed my right cheek and then my left before he cupped my head so he could tip it at an angle that made his next kiss a kiss on my lips, intense enough to take my breath away.
He leaned over me and then pressed his lips to my wet hair.
"Melody," he whispered as if my name were a prayer. His lips were at my ear. "Melody."
He was doing exactly what I dreamed Kenneth would do. But this wasn't Kenneth. It was Cary who loved me, Cary who made my body respond quickly.
The tingling in my body became long, overwhelming waves of deep passion that filled my thighs and made me moan through my slightly opened mouth. He caught my breath between his own lips and kissed me again, his hands finding my breasts, the thumbs rolling over my nipples.
Above us the thunder crashed, and through the window I could see lightning crackle. The towel I had wrapped around my waist came apart. I closed my eyes and lay back as he moved his mouth down over my lips, over my chin, to my neck and then my breasts. I heard him fumbling with his pants.
"Cary--"
"I'm ready this time," he whispered. "You don't have to worry about getting pregnant."
My eyes snapped open.
"Cary, no."
"I love you, Melody, completely, fully."
Was this going to happen? Would I let it happen?
The dark voice of my heavy conscience began to warn me, but all I could see was Uncle Jacob's face of displeasure smeared into one giant blob with huge, hostile eyes. It was as if he were the voice of my conscience now and that was a voice I wanted to defy, to despise.
I am not evil. I am not the devil's own daughter. There is nothing bad in my blood and my mother's sins are not my sins, I fired back in my thoughts.
Cary and I were doing exactly what Uncle Jacob had forbidden, but who was he to forbid anything? What Cary and I felt for each other at this moment was pure and good, I cried. I will not feel guilty for loving him.
I felt him against me, throbbing, lifting me gently, kissing me with lips so hot they drove away even the thought of a chill. And then he was there, pressing forward. The sharp, short pain I felt frightened me for an instant and then that passed and was replaced with a sensation so th
rilling it vibrated throughout my body. Soon we were both clinging to each other with a passionate desperation that pressed me back to the border between consciousness and unconsciousness. I rose and fell with the waves that lifted the boat beneath us. The storm that raged died away and was replaced by a blazing sun inside me. We quivered against each other, both of us exploding, our sex sweetening our lips.
"I want to be one with you forever and ever," he pledged as we reached the end and eased our bodies, folding softly into each other's arms, our breaths still heavy, our hearts still pounding. We lay there, waiting for it to all to subside. I kept my eyes closed and after another few minutes, I heard him move away and start to dress himself.