Arousing Love, a teen novel (8 page)

“We better stop, we’re getting too
passionate.”

“I know,” she said breathlessly. “I’m sorry,
I’m being stupid again.”

“It’s okay, I like it when you’re
stupid.”

She laughed. “I like it too, ‘cause you stop
us before we go too far.”

“I wish I didn’t—”

She stopped my words with her mouth, and we
kissed again.

Joanna pulled away this time. “I wanna give
you something special as a reward, and I just thought of something
we can do. Come on.”

She grabbed my hand and started leading me
down the path again.

“What are we doing?”

“You’ll see.” She giggled.

I resisted, pulling her to a stop. “What is
it?”

She smiled. “We’re going swimming.”

I laughed. I knew what that meant.

We ran down to the now deserted beach.

Joanna looked at me. “Shall we?”

“No, not here. Let’s go ‘round the point,
it’s more private there.”

We walked around the rocky headland to the
secluded cove on the other side, where a small sandy beach lay bare
to the moonlight.

“Wow,” she looked around. “I didn’t even know
about this place. It’s very romantic.”

We stood there for a moment, looking at each
other, before we started taking our clothes off. She finished
first, and I could see all of her, her bare skin luminescent in the
moonlight.

I kicked off my underpants into the pile with
my other clothes, and stood there naked. She’d never seen me like
this before. She smiled as I took her hand in mine, and we ran
together into the sea.

Joanna squealed as the water surged up around
us, but it wasn’t that cold—it felt invigorating and
liberating.

We fell into the sea and immediately grabbed
for each other, pulling our bodies together, our flesh touching as
the waves broke around us.

My hands moved down her body, but before I
could explore too much, she let go of me and swam away. I groped
for her and grabbed a leg, feeling along it for the rest of her.
S
he slipped out of my grasp and got away, squealing and
giggling as I chased after her.

She let me catch her in the shallows and
stood up, her body glistening in the moonlight. She was so
beautiful.

I stood up next to her, so close we were
almost touching, the waves crashing all around us. She reached out
and gently stroked her fingertips down my chest and stomach,
tracing the contours of my muscles.

I reached for her too, my hands cupping her
perfectly formed breasts. They were so soft to touch, their smooth,
rounded flesh contrasting with her pronounced nipples.

We kissed as my hands explored more of her,
curving down her body over smooth, wet skin, until my fingertips
reached the fringe of her pubic hair.

She stopped my hand with hers. “Zach
. . .
we should go. My parents
will be wondering where we are.” She kept hold of my hand and
started wading back to shore.

We found our clothes on the beach.

“How are we gonna get dry? I can’t put my
dress on while I’m wet, it’ll soak right through.”

“Yeah, we didn’t think of that. We could
build a fire and sit around it ’til we dry off?”

“That’ll take forever.”

“It’d be romantic though.” I grinned.

“This is serious. We’ll be all wet, and my
parents will figure out what we’ve been doing.”

“It’s okay, just use my shirt to dry off,
we’ll go back to the shack and dry off properly.”

“We’ll be gone so long.”

“Let’s just worry about one thing at a
time.”

“Okay.” She seemed to relax, like she was
trusting me to get us out of this situation. She started drying
herself with my shirt while I pulled my pants on over wet, clingy
legs.

When she’d finished, she handed it to me and
I put on my now damp shirt. She put on her dress, and we headed
back around the point carrying our shoes and underwear. I could
still hear distant music coming from the campground.

“We might still make it back before it
finishes.”

We ran together along the beach, laughing and
giggling at the crazy situation we were in. When we made it to the
shack, I got some towels from the bathroom, and she took off her
dress and started to dry herself.

I watched her for a moment. “I’ll go get my
mom’s hairdryer.”

“Okay, thanks.” She smiled at me.

I came back with the hairdryer and she dried
her hair and some damp spots on her dress. I peeled off my clothes
and dried myself too, then changed into a new shirt and some pants
similar to what I’d been wearing.

“No one’s going to guess we’ve been
swimming.”

“Yeah, but they’re gonna ask us where we’ve
been.” She pushed open the door and we headed back to the
campground.

“So what should we say?”

“I don’t know. I hate lying to my
parents.”

“We’ll just say we went for a walk after our
performance.”

“Yeah, we walked down to the beach and back.
That wouldn’t be lying.”

The campground was deserted. I could hear
music in the distance, and we made our way towards it. The music
stopped, and we picked up our pace. We soon joined the crowd around
the edge of the amphitheatre. Joanna started pressing her way
through, and I followed her.

A man on stage spoke into a microphone, “And
now, for the moment you’ve been waiting for
. . .
the winner of this year’s talent
contest is
. . .
Joanna and
accompanist.”

We both froze and looked at each other. She
looked stunned.

“You won!”

She just stood there, so I started pushing
her towards the stage.

“There she is.” The man on stage pointed to
us, and the crowd parted. Joanna walked up the stairs still looking
completely dazed.

“Smile!” I called out to her.

She smiled as the man handed her a trophy and
everyone clapped. I caught sight of her parents, her father was
capturing the moment with a video camera, and her mom had tears
rolling down her cheeks. I couldn’t help being caught up in the
emotion of it all, I had a big lump in my throat as I smiled up at
my beautiful Joanna.

She graciously took her trophy and retreated
back down the stairs. The crowd was still clapping as she came to
me, smiling and holding her trophy up for me to see.

Her mom and dad came to us, and Joanna hugged
them both. We stayed there in a huddle as the crowd around us began
to dissipate. Her parents were bubbling with joy. They didn’t even
ask us where we’d been.

We collected our guitars from under the stage
and started walking back up the hill. A few people called out their
congratulations, and Joanna thanked each of them.

“Wasn’t this a great night!” Her father
enthused. “I got it all on video. You were so good. You deserved to
win.”

“It was wonderful.” Her mother still had
tears in her eyes. “I knew you’d win. You were good too, Zach.”

I grinned and looked at Joanna, who gave me a
happy, relieved smile.

When we reached their campsite, I said my
goodnights and walked home with my guitar, whistling the tune to
Joanna’s song.

I was proud of Joanna. The more I knew her
the more there was to love about her.
I guess that’s what love
is like, you fall in love with someone you hardly know, and then
you get to know them and your love deepens, or you begin to fall
out of love. I never knew love happened so fast, I thought you had
to know everything about a person first to truly love them. But
love doesn’t wait for that. Love is blind.

Four

I awoke to a knock at the door and looked at
the clock—8:22am. I eased out of bed, rubbing my eyes as I went and
opened the door. All annoyance evaporated at the sight of Joanna
standing there.

“Good morning.” Her smile was like a
sunrise.

“Hi!” I opened the door wider for her to come
in, and she looked me over admiringly—I was wearing only boxer
shorts. I closed the door behind her, and she wrapped me in her
arms, smiling up at me so lovingly.

“Am I still dreaming?” I laughed. “What are
you doing here?”

She laughed too. “My dad sent me to ask if
you’d like to come to church with us this morning.”

“Oh
. . .
”
My smile froze. “Which church?”
Not my parent’s church.

“I don’t know, we haven’t decided yet.”

“I have to take a shower first. Can you wait
for me?”

“Sure.” She smiled up at me, and I kissed her
petal-soft lips. She returned my kiss with passion, her hands
caressing my body. I was growing increasingly aware my boxer shorts
weren’t hiding the way she was making me feel.

“You better go take your shower.” She
giggled.

“Yeah.” I sighed.

I went into the bathroom and turned on the
water. She was still watching me through the open doorway. When it
was hot enough, I slipped off my shorts and stepped into its warm
stream.

After a quick shower, I wrapped a towel
around my waist, and she openly admired me as I came back into the
room. It felt so sexy being admired like that.

I stood there, looking at her looking at me.
“Hmm, maybe I should go,” I said in a falsetto voice. I made to
walk past her, then suddenly veered and kissed her on the lips.

She laughed and ripped my towel away. I
gasped and she fell into a fit of giggles.

After I’d dressed, we walked out into the
warm sunshine. It was another beautiful day with Joanna, and I felt
happy. We held hands and walked slowly.

When we got to her campsite, her parents were
already waiting for us in their car.

“There you are! We were just about to come
and find you.” Her dad leaned out the car window. “Come on, we’re
gonna be late.”

Her mom smiled at me as we climbed in the
back seat. “Nice to see you again this morning, Zach.”

We drove into town and parked in the parking
lot of a large church. It wasn’t my parent’s church, but it still
made me nervous.

It was pretty grand inside, with plush
seating facing a stage with a large stained glass window behind it.
We sat near the back. I looked around and I recognized some people.
The meeting started with some singing. I didn’t know any of the
songs, but I liked listening to Joanna sing them.

The pastor then got up and started speaking
about the blessings of God. He mostly talked about financial
blessing and stressed that giving to the church would bring God’s
blessing on their finances so they could continue to be a blessing
to others. I couldn’t help but compare his message to what I’d read
the other night.
This isn’t what Jesus taught. He said don’t
seek after the things of this world, and you can’t love both God
and money. What’s wrong with these Christians? Don’t they read
their Bibles?

After he’d finished speaking, he asked people
to give their money, and they handed around a collection basket. I
watched one guy stuffing money into it.
This is so wrong. It’s
just a big con.
You could see what they spent their money on,
and it wasn’t the poor and needy. I felt disgusted by it all.

After the service, Joanna’s Father drove us
home. “I’m sorry about that, that wasn’t the right church to take
you to.”

“Yeah, I knew that guy wasn’t speaking the
truth.”

“They think it’s true, Zach. Everyone likes
the idea of God blessing them with nice things and a happy,
comfortable life in this world. But why would God want to bless our
greed and worldly consumerism? He doesn’t want to bless us when all
we’d do is use it selfishly on our own pleasure and comfort. He
doesn’t want spoiled children, he wants children of good character.
Jesus didn’t die to give us luxury in this world. He gives us life
so we can live for him and go to the poor and the sick and the lost
and bless them with his love and the good news of the gospel.”

He shook his head. “It’s such a shallow form
of Christianity. They live for themselves, they don’t know anything
of denying themselves taking up the cross and following Jesus, they
just fit their Christianity around their worldly lifestyle. They
see the blessings God has for them, but they don’t see the blessing
God wants them to be to this world, because that requires
sacrifice. That’s what true worship is, Zach, laying down your
life, and everything this world offers, and living for God. Our
reward is eternal not temporary. We’re not supposed to run after
the things of this world but seek after the things of God, and
trust him to take care of our needs.”

I was surprised at the passionate way he
spoke. He obviously cared deeply about it.

“Tell him about revival, Dad.”

He glanced at us in the rearview mirror.
“Revival, that’s what the church desperately needs.”

“What is it?” I asked, not sure I really
wanted to know.

“It’s an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, when
God’s holy presence comes upon a place so powerfully, all the
people become very aware of their sins and repent, and they’re
purified and made holy and righteous and full of love for one
another. It’s an exciting time. Miracles happen and many people are
saved. The last time it happened here in a big way was a hundred
years ago, but I believe we’re going to see another revival soon,
and the church as we know it will be completely changed. That’s
what I’m praying for.”

He pulled into their campsite and parked.

“Can me and Zach go to the beach?” Joanna
asked.

Her parents looked at us, and her father
smiled. “I think you’ve earned some time alone together. But stay
where people can see you, no going off in private anywhere.”

Joanna’s father grinned as we both agreed. I
could tell he liked me. I wondered just how far he was willing to
bend the rules for us. While Joanna went to get changed in her
tent, I decided to try my luck and find out.