B0079G5GMK EBOK (20 page)

Eventually they were all too tired to play and the floor that
was shimmering in a dim light
started to fill up with dancers. From the corner of her eye Clarissa saw Emilie sneaking into her grandma's bedroom and coming back with a bag that looked heavy. Emilie slipped into the kitchen and Stella appeared next to Clarissa.

“Hey,” Clarissa said quietly.

“Hey,” Stella answered, embarrassed.

Clarissa stared at her reddish neck and swollen lips.

“I guess you're having a good time,” Clarissa said and tried not to laugh.

Stella staggered nervously and looked at her helplessly.

“Jonas is so good!” Stella sighed.

“I can only imagine,” Clarissa mumbled and hugged Stella quickly.

Stella took her hand and dragged her into the kitchen. Clarissa looked at her questioningly, but Stell
a was quiet. Clarissa stopped at
the doorway. Emilie and Caitlin
were sitting
by the table that was full of different kinds of ciders.

“Let's get drunk,” Caitlin yelled and opened the first can. A light foam fizzed from the can and Caitlin took it to her lips, challenging them all.

“Well, what are you waiting for!”
said Emilie
and took a can.

Clarissa stared at her friends, who had apparently got
ten the big
idea of getting drunk for the first time in honor of her birthday. She took a few steps back, but Stella grabbed her top and pressed a cold can of cider into her hand. “Oh no, you don't! Laugh a little! It's your birthday!”

“I'm not sure if this is wise,” Clarissa mumbled.

“Who cares? At least this is fun!” Emilie giggled.

Clarissa lifted her shoulders and drank from the can. The cider tasted like sweet pear juice, with some carbonic acid in it. She licked her lips and drank some more. This time, however, she drank longer. She looked at her friends and lifted
up the can
. A small burp slipped from her mouth and she giggled.

“Oops,” Clarissa laughed and got the others bursting into a nasal horse-like laughter.

“Happy birthday to my best friend ever,”
said Stella
and lifted her can to toast.

“Happy birthday,” Caitlin and Emilie repeated.

“And you'll never guess what you're going to get from us,” Stella s
aid as she
peeked into the living room.

Clarissa looked at her with her eyes wide open with horror and got up fast. The room seemed to rock around her and she sat back, gasping.

“Well, not that, you fool,” Stella snapped indignantly. “On the other hand, Adam would probably look edible, wearing only red twine,” Stella continu
ed and the others laughed
.

Clarissa blushed and tried to get her head sober. She couldn't be drunk from one cider, or could she? She wasn't sure thou
gh, if this was her first or
second, as Stella had mixed their cans at some point. If this was her second she might be drunk, as tw
o half-liter cans of cider could
do the job.

“We're going to a spa!” Emilie yelled.

Caitlin nodded ex
c
ited
ly
and yelled. “Can you imagine! A girls' weekend out in a spa! Just the four of us and a couple of stunning male masseurs!”

“Oh,” Clarissa said
, trying
to look ex
c
ited.

A girls' weekend was always fun, but right now she would prefer staying home. She smiled at her friends, but they seemed to be drunk as
well and
didn't even notice how tamely she took the news. They danced and laughed around the kitchen like som
e crazy people. Clarissa got up and sneaked out through
the back door of the kitchen.

The freezing cold air helped her to clear her head
. S
he leaned heavily on the railing of the porch and gasped. The sound of someone moving behind her made her turn fast.

“I can see that your senses still work, even though you're drunk,” Adam said
,
smiling at her.

Clarissa turned and tried to focus her eyes on his. She pressed her hand to his chest to push him away, but changed her mind and pulled him closer. Adam grunted, but di
dn't do anything to step away
from her hands. Clarissa touched the coarse skin
on his face and his soft mouth
with wonder.

“Clarissa,” Adam moaned quietly.

Clarissa didn't care about his begging, and pressed her lips lightly on his. Neither of them moved. She felt his hot breath on her skin and touched his lips softly with her tongue. That was more than enough for Adam. He pressed her close to him and let his mouth scarf her innocent lips. His hands were everywhere, touching and groping, and she liked it. She was brave enough to taste his mouth and touch his body, and all she wanted to do was to rip his clothes off right now, right here. She was just about to put her hands under his blouse when Adam pushed her away harshly.

“No,” Adam grunted staunchly. “
Not like this.”

Clarissa looked at him, her eyes full of confusion. What did he mean? She didn't understand and tried to touch him again. Adam grabbed her hands and kept her away. He shook his head.

“I want you to
be sober.” Adam said quietly. “
And I want you to remember tomorrow what you did today.”

“Adam, please! Touch me,” Clarissa begged. “I will remember, I promise.”

“No,” Adam whispered and pushed her away.

In a second he was gone and Clarissa found herself standing on the cold porch alone. She was stunned. Adam had left her just like that. Well, she
wasn't going to cry after him
that was sure. She
straightened her clothes and went back inside to the warm kitchen. Other people had taken the ciders and beers from their bags and they all seemed to be
quite drunk. Stella was sitting astride
on Jonas and they were practically gobbling up each other. Emilie
was trying to seduce a
f
rightened
Blake and Caitlin had cornered Ciall in front of the fridge door. Joshua
was standing there trying
to find Clarissa. When their eyes met, he loped in front of her.

“I've been looking for you,” Joshua grunted.

“And here I am,” Clarissa said smiling and tried to laugh.

She was sure she looked like crap, but it didn't seem to bother him. Joshua led her to the living room that seemed to have changed into some kind of a gloomy cave of passion. Clarissa shivered. She grabbed the half full cider can from the table next to her and drank it until it was empty. Joshua took the can from her and looked at her strictly.

“Are you out of your mind!” Joshua raged. “Look around you! Do you want to end up in bed with some drunken teenage kid, just because you're too drunk to know what you're doing?”

Joshua shook her lightly and Clarissa sniffed.

“Let go of me. I wanna dance,” Clarissa snapped.

Joshua sighed and followed her humbly, but she stopped him.

“Not with you. I wanna dance by myself,” Clarissa said harshly and pushed him away.

Joshua s
pread out his arms and backed away
.

“As you like, princess,” Joshua said a bit mockingly and turned. “I'll be outside, if you need me,” he grunted, before he left her alone.

Clarissa watched the dancing couples that were glued to each other. She sighed and took a full can of cider near the wall.

“What the hell, it's my seventeenth birthday only once,” she mumb
led and drank the whole can in one long gulp
.

The cider went to her head really fast. She noticed herself groping on the dance floor and bumping into the other dancers, unti
l someone grabbed her tightly by
the hip.

“Carefully, mo gaol,” Adam said, amused.

“Adam,” Clarissa sighed and latched on to him.

“Easy,” Adam advised and kept her gently close to him.

They
slowly
started to
move to the music and touch
each other. Somewhere deep down inside her, Clarissa felt how accusingly Joshua
was looking
at them through the window, but she was way too messed up to react to it. Adam turned her on with a slow play and when the burn inside of them was too hot, Clarissa let him lead her upstairs and to the bedroom that was meant for her granny's friends.

Clarissa opened her eyes, exhausted, and tried to see the room around her. She lifted herself, half-sitting, and dropped back to bed. Holding her head, she dug her way back to the depths
of her duvet. The winter sun
brightened the room and the brightness of the sun made her head ache. What a night, she thought, stupefied. She remembered, crystal clear, almost everything from last night. At least until that part where Emilie
had
put some ciders on the table and they
had
decided to celebrate her birthday by getti
ng drunk. She remembered dimly
that Adam had been at the party and that they had danced together
for almost the entire
evening. She also remembered Joshu
a being cranky and his eyes burning
with rage. She had ignored him and had sneaked out of the party with Adam, but what then? What had happened? The rest of the night was a mystery. What had they done and where had they gone? Clarissa shrugged. Every single muscle of her body hurt. She couldn't be in that b
ad a shape that a few hours on the
dance floor made her feel like crap. Or could she? Oh, God, she was thirsty!

Clarissa forced herself to sit. She looked nonchalantly at the familiar room around her. Luckily her grandma and grandpa had let them use their house for their parties. This was not the moment she wanted to see he
r parents. She didn't want her d
ad to know anything about her huge hangover. Mom probably knew already, so it was useless to even try to hide anything from her. Alcohol was so not her thing. Clarissa let her gaze wander round the room and snorted as she saw a messy heap
of clothes on the floor. She had
probably
been
in a hurry to get to bed last night. A couple of empty cider cans
were lying
on the floor and a large man's shoes were lying next to a large dark brown armchair.

She stared at the shoes and
sighed. She had no idea
how the shoes had gotten there, so she thought they must've been there all the time. She had probably been so drunk that she just missed them. She looked at the armchair and gulped. She raised her hand to her naked breast and covered herself with a bla
nket. On the armchair there was
a pair of dark grey jeans, a black shirt, a black leather jacket, socks and black undies. She stared at the men's undies with her eyes open. Clarissa shut her eyes and begged. She hoped that when she opened her eyes, everything would be as before. That she had only imagined the men's undies on her grandma's armchair. She felt a tickle on her side and reached to scratch it. Her fingers met someone else's fingers.

Clarissa turned fast. Adam
was lying
on the other side of the bed and for once, his black eyes seemed to laugh. She brushed his fingers away and backed away as far as she could. Images from last night flashed in her mind. Messy, mixed images, and Adam was in each of them. Clarissa knew without looking that she was naked, and when she observed Adam carefully, she was sure that he was naked as well. Well, at least to his waistline.

“No,” a tiny moan slipped from her mouth.

“Good morning, mo gaol,” Adam said and grinned boldly.

“No,” Clarissa repeated as panic crawled in her mind.

Adam reached and touched her. Before she could escape, he had taken her into his arms. Clarissa lay there like a stick. She tried to ignore his warm, delicious smelling body that was wrapped around her. He was naked, that was for sure. Adam touched her skin gently and kissed her neck and her upper back.

“Shh, calm down. It's alright,” Adam comforted her like she was a wild horse.

“Relax,” Adam nibbled at her ear and whispered something in Gaelic to her.

Bit by bit she relaxed and let Adam turn her and face him. Still calm, he started to kiss her deeper and his touch became demanding. Clarissa sighed with pleasure and without noticing, touched him back.

“That's it,” Adam urged her, gently.

“You see, it's all easy,” Adam looked at her with eyes black from lust and Clarissa saw how hard it was for him to hold back.

Clarissa didn't understand what happened next. Adam melted her smoothly, and when their bodies finally joined together, her mind exploded. She was as one with Adam. She saw herself running as a wolf beside Adam. Forever. Just her and Adam. And finally, when they had satisfied their hunger, she crawled into his arms, shaking. The connection was still there. She saw everything that he did, understood everything as he did. She looked at him, confused, and saw such an enormous love from his ey
es that it went over her mind.