His One and Only

“My ex-girlfriend,” he corrected. “And being a fellow guy, I’m guessing he was trying to make you jealous, but it backfired, ‘cause all that happened is you ended up defending him against me and getting your glasses broke.”

She laughed, but continued shaking her head, “No, you’re wrong.”

“I’m not wrong,” he said. And he stepped closer.

The smile faded from her face. “You are.”

“No, I’m not,” he said.

“Yes, you are—”

He cut her off with a kiss, and she let out a little whimper of surprise before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him back.

The plan had been one make-out session with Josie, one make-out session only. He’d known he’d like the making out part, just not how much.

What started off soft soon blazed into something red hot. He pushed his tongue inside her mouth and explored it with rough passion, but soon even that wasn’t enough. Making sounds he’d never made with Mindy deep in his throat, he pushed her into the nearest shed wall, his large body blanketing hers.

“Why the hell do you taste so good?” he asked against her mouth, like cinnamon and something else he couldn’t name. It made him want to taste other parts of her body, just to see.

And just like that, what he’d originally intended as nothing more than a make-out session raged out of control.

He unbuckled her jeans and bent down.

“Beau? What are you doing?” she asked and then gasped when he buried his head between her legs, kissing her there with just as much passion as he’d kissed her lips.

“Oh my God,” she gasped out. “What’s happening? What’s happening?”

Then her pelvis went rigid against his face and she came with a sweet cry.

Any thought he might have had about not ing her went right out the shed window when she arched her into his mouth, overcome with the . He stood. She looked so beautiful with her jeans and panties pooled around her ankles, in only a long-sleeved, boat-neck t-shirt covering her top half. Her womanhood glistened with her and called to him like no other girl’s ever had.

Their eyes locked for what felt to him to be a centuries-long moment, during which either of them could have turned back. But then she surprised him, by reaching out to him as tentatively as she had reached out to take his gift just a few minutes ago.

She stroked his face and looked into his eyes with what seemed like sincere wonderment. “Is this really happening?” she asked. “Or are you messing with me? Tell me the truth, Beau Prescott.”

Now he shook his head. What had started out as a trick on his part had morphed into something else, something he’d been trying to resist but couldn’t deny himself any longer. And he spoke the truth when he said, “No, Josie, no. I want to be with you. I never wanted to be with another girl the way I want to be with you.”

Her eyes softened and she stepped all the way out of her jeans and panties before tugging his head down, this time bringing his mouth to meet hers.

His heart just about exploded. Could it be Josie felt the same way he did? That they’d both been trying to fight their feelings for one another all this time? He kissed her with all the eagerness of the schoolboy he was and the passion of the man she made him want to be. A man worthy of Josie Witherspoon.

But then the time for introspection came to an end. He pulled a condom out of his wallet and put it on, stopping only to kiss her pretty lips every few seconds or so until it was finally on. He pushed into her, but then froze when she gasped out in pain and he could feel that he’d hit an unexpected barrier.

“You’re a …” he said, his face paling above hers. “I didn’t even think about it or else I would have gone slower. I would have…”

She covered his mouth with her hand. “Beau, I’m okay. I’m glad it’s gone, and I’m glad it’s you, okay?”

Those words sent him over the edge. He wrapped her leg around his waist, loving the way her soft thigh felt against his hard body. Then he was moving inside of her with tentative strokes that got bolder as a sweet fire began to build in both of them.

The very last fragments of his original plan disappeared without a trace and were soon replaced with the intent to make her his. He didn’t care what his father said or the rest of town. He was Beau Prescott, and he’d make Josie Witherspoon his girl no matter what it took.

“Beau, Beau,” she said, so goddamn pretty against his shoulder as her breath hitched faster and faster. She was almost there.

And so was he. But he wouldn’t let himself come first, he swore. He’d think about football, Mike’s grandma in a bikini, the yard tools in the shed, anything if it meant giving her as much pleasure as possible.

“Oh, Beau!” she whispered with awe. “I’m…”

Her whole body arched into his again, and he couldn’t hold on anymore. “Oh hell, Josie.” He released into the condom with a groan.

Then he collapsed against her, spent and happier than he’d been when he’d thrown that fifty-yard touchdown at the state championship game the year before. For a few moments they stood there together, arms around each other, breathing hard, both in shock over what had just happened.

Until a sharp voice behind him said, “Josie Marie Witherspoon!”

And all hell broke loose.

“Oh, my God. Mama!” Josie pushed against his chest. “Get off me!”

He pulled out of her, hastily pulling his own jeans up over his waist.

Loretta Witherspoon stood there with a plate of food he recognized as leftovers from the dinner she’d served his family earlier that night, her face a combination of shock and anger. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Oh, Lord, help me.”

“Mama, no. It’s not what you think.” Josie said. He turned towards her and found she was already back in her jeans.

“It’s exactly what I think,” Loretta snapped, her eyes filled with disgust. “I can’t even look at you.”

“Loretta, calm down, I can explain,” Beau began.

But Josie interrupted him. “Mama, I made a mistake. But I swear to you I’m not—”

Before she could finish that sentence, Loretta had already turned around and headed out the door, her angry words trailing back towards them both. “I don’t believe you could do this to me! After all I done told you, after all I’ve done for you.”

“Mama, I swear I’m not in love with him. We were just messing around. Mama, please!”

She started to go after her, but Beau who had been about to claim his undying love for Josie before she began swearing up and down that she didn’t feel that way about him, grabbed her arm.

“What do you mean you made a mistake?” he asked her.

She gave him a withering look. “You know exactly what I mean, Beau Prescott. You came in here with all your sweet talk and your featherweight glasses, and I ended up doing something I shouldn’t have, ever.”

“Why not?” he asked.

She tried to snatch her arm back, but he wouldn’t let go.

“Why not?” he asked again.

She glared at him. “Because you’re Beau Prescott, rich hole quarterback, and I’m better than that.”

Her words felt worse than a punch to the gut, and he dropped her arm. “You think that’s all there is to me?”

“I know that’s all there is to you,” she spat back. “And I must have lost my damn mind to let you anywhere near me.”

She angrily readjusted her new glasses on her face. Then as if remembering where she got them from, she said. “But thank you for the glasses. Now we’re even, I guess.”

With that, she ran after her mother, leaving him there like he wasn’t even worth a goodbye. And for the rest of the weekend, she refused to so much as look at him, much less explain why she had turned on a dime like that, all hot for him one minute, then acting like he was a walking pile of radioactive waste the next.

He tried to corner her on Sunday morning after he saw Loretta leave for church without her.

“Josie, if it’s Loretta you’re upset about, I can make her understand. But you’ve got to give me something here.”

Josie rolled her eyes. “It’s not my mama, Beau, it’s you. I shouldn’t have touched you with a ten-foot pole. I know it. She knows it. Everybody knows it but you. So just leave me alone, okay?”

Then she’d walked away from him again, leaving him to simmer over the contempt he’d heard in her voice, like what he’d regarded as the single best moment of his life had been the single worst moment of hers. Really, it had seemed like more of an eye for an eye than hurt feelings when he came up to her and Colin in the hallway the following Monday at school, his body thrumming with boiling anger.

They were laughing over something at her locker. Those two always seemed to be laughing together, like they were the only people on Earth clever enough for the other’s company.