Josh & Hannah (Redwood Falls 1)

Her sixteenth birthday party started with a bang, and before too long, music was playing and kids were both mingling and eating cake. It seemed as if everyone took a turn and spoke to her, wishing her a happy birthday and laughing and joking with her. Everyone spoke to her except for one person.

Although he didn’t come speak to her, it seemed as if Josh’s eyes never left her. He hung back against the wall, and talked to Ty, Ethan, or Katie, or whoever happened to come stand next to him.

But the whole time he stood there … he watched Hannah.

It occurred to her that he might expect her to come speak to him first, maybe to thank him for coming, and she was about to do that. Except Steven and his friends came up to her and began joking around with her, and Hannah began to have a lot of fun. Steven’s friends were always so studious in trig class that she’d never really gotten to know them. She had a lot in common with the three of them, as they were taking several of the same accelerated classes. Time passed swiftly as they all stood and talked, and for maybe five seconds, she actually forgot about Josh.

And it was during those five seconds that she glanced up and found Josh standing over her. His hand slid behind her back and he pulled her into his side with an utterly possessive hold. Heat lacerated her insides, and she continued to look up at him, wondering what he was doing, but he still didn’t give her his full attention. Although his arm was wrapped around her like a vise, his gaze was focused on the three boys who surrounded her.

One by one, his attention focused on one guy and then the next and finally the last, until silence descended on the small group and Steven cleared his throat. “Well, happy birthday, Hannah. We have to go, we have to get up early and practice for debate.”

“Oh, okay,” she said softly, silently horrified that Josh had once again treated Steven so abominably. “Thanks for coming. I’ll see y’all Monday.” She moved away from Josh to hug each one of them in turn, and as she did so, she felt an unwavering tension take hold of him until the three guys had left.

Josh’s arm snaked out and wrapped around her again, and he pulled her chin up with one hand and looked down into her face. “Happy birthday,” he said softly.

Hannah gave him her best dirty look as she tried to assimilate the fact that he’d just run off her friends. “I can’t believe you did that,” she whispered under her breath, so no one but he would hear her.

“Did what?” he asked, frowning, even though Hannah was absolutely sure he knew exactly what he’d done.

“I can’t believe that you ignore me for days and days and days and then the very second that a guy tries to speak to me, you barrel over here and act as if I belong to you.”

His fingers tightened on her waist and his brows drew down into a grimace and the pleasant look on his face disappeared completely. He didn’t answer her for several long seconds, and when he did, he drew each word out, enunciating each syllable. “I didn’t run over here the second they started talking to you. I bit my goddamn lip until I tasted blood and waited as long as I could. And you do belong to me.”

His words induced heat within her system, but she’d seen him act this way before, and it hadn’t meant much then, so she wouldn’t let herself get too excited now. “Is this like the dibs thing?”

“The dibs thing?” he repeated.

“Yeah, you know, the dibs thing where you tell your friends that they can’t have me because you’ve already called dibs and then you turn around and tell me that it doesn’t mean anything. Because I have to tell you, Josh, you can’t keep doing that. A year is a long time, and I don’t have many friends to spare, and you keep running them all off!” she finished angrily.

His eyes dropped to her lips. “No, it’s not like the dibs thing.”

She stood under his spell; the feel of his fingers biting into her was exquisite and was sending beguiling need down her spine. “What then?”

Josh lifted his head and looked around. He wanted nothing more than to get Hannah out of here. Mrs. Anderson was cleaning up, and Ava and Ethan had disappeared. Ty and Kayla were sitting on the sofa, and Katie was picking up plates, helping to clean up the mess. It was obvious the party was breaking up.

He made a quick decision and began to implement it. “So, you got a new car?”

He watched her frown at the change of subject. “Yes,” she said simply.

“You want to show it to me?”

“Sure, I guess.”

“We’ll have to run Katie to the house, and then we can take it for a ride, okay?”

“Okay.”

****

Half an hour later, Hannah pulled away from Josh’s house after they dropped Katie off. She stopped at the mailbox that stood like a lonely sentinel on the dirt road. “Where do you want to go?”

“What time do you have to be home?”

“I’m spending the night with Ava, but she and Ethan won’t even notice I’m missing, probably for awhile.”

He gave her a crooked smile. “Okay, good. My truck’s parked there, anyway. Why don’t we drive down to the washout under the bridge across from the Tanner spread?”

Hannah had lived in this county as long as she could remember and she had no idea where he was talking about. She knew she was staring at him as if he was speaking a foreign language, and the thought of driving off into the dark countryside with Josh was both intimidating and exciting. “Um, okay. Which way?”

“You don’t know?”

She shook her head.

“Turn left.”

Hannah turned and carefully accelerated. Josh continued to give her directions and about twenty minutes later, they were pulling underneath an old wooden bridge out in the middle of nowhere. She put the car in park and let it idle. It was pitch black out here and her nerves were seriously rattled. If Josh wasn’t with her, she didn’t even think she’d be able to find her way home. He’d directed her down more farm-to-market roads and dirt roads than she could have possibly memorized before they’d found the place.

“Cut the engine,” he said.

Hannah let out a shaky breath and did as he said. She turned to face him and raised her eyes to his. His hand shot out and he sank his fingers through her hair and held her face up to his. His eyes narrowed and he didn’t waste any time getting back to the subject they’d left hanging when they’d stood talking at the Andersons’ house. “You belong to me, Hannah. No questions, no debate. You understand that?”

A frisson of both excitement and panic shot down Hannah’s spine and landed in the pit of her stomach. Something had changed with him. “I don’t belong to you … because … because you said … you said I had to be seventeen.”

As she noted his set expression, his tense mouth and his jaw fixed in lines of implacability, she nervously wet her dry lips. His eyes dropped to her mouth and his eyes dilated. “I changed my mind.”

****

When Josh dropped his mouth over hers, all he could think about was pushing her into the backseat

with him, not to try something with her that he shouldn’t, but just because it would be so much more comfortable for them.

But that move would be beyond foolish and incredibly dangerous.

So he comforted himself by kissing her. Kissing her the way he’d been dreaming about ever since they’d had that incredible night together when Ty’s parents had been out of town. As he parted her lips and thrust his tongue inside, tasting her the only way that he’d allow himself, he felt a tremor run through her body. He reached up, and pushed his other hand through her hair, and held her face bracketed in his palms. He slanted his head for a better fit, and kissed her like he’d been dreaming of doing. Her hands reached up and wrapped around his wrists, and he was vaguely aware through the buzzing in his brain that she was holding on for dear life.

With only the slight assurance the sheriff had given him, Josh felt a modicum of peace settling into his bloodstream, along with the lust he always felt when Hannah was near. True, he’d have to learn to control his need until she was older, but for right now, satisfaction, hard and intense, swept through him at the realization that she was his. In the back of his mind, he knew at some point her parents would have to know, and he wasn’t looking forward to that conversation in any way, but for now, all he could think about was the fact that no one would ever have Hannah but him. He would have all of her kisses, he would be the guy who took her out and held her clamped to his side; he would be the one who eventually took her virginity.

Oh, yeah, that shit was sweet. Just the knowledge of what his future held with Hannah was enough to keep him going for a long, long time. And for now, he would be the one who protected her and watched out for her; he would be the one who had exclusive rights to everything about her. Maybe it did bother him that he probably didn’t deserve someone as perfect as Hannah. But, he’d have to get over it, because she was his, and he wasn’t going to give her up just because her family was better off than his. And if she found out that he was so fucking crazy about her that he was almost obsessed with it? Well … he’d try to hide that from her. She didn’t need to know what he’d been going through the last few weeks thinking that he couldn’t have her … almost foaming at the mouth in pain and frustration.