Hidden Gem (31 page)

Gemma laughed nervously.
 
“My turn?” she repeated.

“Yeah, get changed! I want to get in the water before it’s dark out,” Damian said.
 
“Meet me downstairs.”
 
He kissed her on the lips, stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.
 
She exhaled in relief and then immediately scolded herself for being relieved of anything.
 
What are you scared of, you baby?
She felt a heat in her cheeks.
 
Her body tingled.
 
She steadied herself on the wooden post of the bed as she undid her shorts and let them fall down her smooth legs.
 
A part of her wished that she had caught a glimpse of Damian changing.
 
All she ever saw of the male body were backup dancers changing between sets.
 
There was absolutely nothing sensual about that.
 
Everything about Damian though, was sensual.
 
His full lips, his deep brown eyes, his perfect body.
 
She partly wished he had stayed in the room as she was getting undressed.

She kicked off her underwear and pulled on the bikini top as she gazed out the window.
 
Damian was walking along the shoreline.
 
The remnants of daylight outlined his lean silhouette as he kicked at the water.

Gemma rushed out of the house and sprinted towards him.
 
He turned to see her looking innocently sexy, as if she were running straight out of a 1960s pinup poster.
 
The breeze blew her chestnut waves back.
 
Her lithe legs flitted across the sand.
 
He smiled at the perfect image as he held his arms out.
 
Gemma jumped into his them, wrapping her legs around his waist.
 
They kissed passionately, allowing the waves of the ocean to lull them into the water.
 
They kissed with a hint of knowledge that very soon, they would do more than just that.

~

Around 2am, they noticed Gavin and Leah, wrapped in Damian’s towel and making their way back to the house.
 
They had spent hours on the beach, watching from a distance as the other occupants of the shore house came and went.

“We better beat them to the showers,” Damian said.
 
Gemma giggled as he picked her up and carried her into the house.
 
Covered in salt water and sand, their wet footsteps tiptoed past the
drunk
athletes in the common room.
 
Gemma laughed under her breath as Kate woke up for a brief moment to wave at Gemma before passing out fully clothed on top of Paul again.

“Do you want to go first?” Gemma asked as they approached the bathroom door.
 
Damian opened his mouth but said nothing.
 
They stood awkwardly for a second.
 
“I mean, I can go first or…” Gemma bit her lip.
 
She wanted him to join her but she felt too shy to suggest it herself.
 
She was no Leah, who was not only experienced
but
unabashed about her desires.
 
She tried but couldn’t channel Queen Bee, despite reminding herself that she had made the first move on Tyler Chase.

“Um, well… I’ll go.
 
I’m a guy, we’re quick with these things, right?” Damian shrugged with an easygoing smile that she knew he put on for her sake.
 
He stepped into the bathroom and shut the door quickly.
 
The awkward tension between the two of them had been growing to a breaking point, but Gemma wasn’t sure if either of them would ever step up and make a move.
 
She was painfully shy in the department and he was far too much of a gentleman.

When Gemma finished showering, she slipped into the lavender cashmere nightgown she had bought just for the occasion of post-prom.
 
The straps were made of a fine lace that braided into the soft fabric of the fitted gown.
 
It stopped mid-thigh with matching lace trimming the hem.
 
She fluffed her hair, spraying Burberry perfume into the air and twirling underneath the misty cloud of it.
 
She exhaled, shaking off her nerves as she opened the door and stepped into the cool air of the corridor.
 
Butterflies fluttered in her stomach as she peeked into the room.

Damian’s long limbs were stretched out across the crisp white linen sheets of the bed.
 
In his Bruins t-shirt and black boxers, he looked effortlessly sexy.
 
Gemma bit her lip as she stepped into the bedroom.
 
Damian turned to her, smiling for a split second before his jaw dropped.

“I… you…” he stuttered as he laughed at himself.
 
Gemma climbed into bed and draped her body over his, kissing him.
 
She was so nervous her lips trembled as she pressed them against his.
 
He tried to calm her, stroking the small of her back with his fingertips.
 
He propped himself up on his elbows and ran his lips along her collarbone.

She reached a hand up his tee shirt, feeling the smooth skin and muscular ridges of his abs.
 
Her laugh was soft and nervous as Damian sat up and took his tee shirt off for her.
 
He tossed it aside, landing it on the bedside lamp.
 
Gemma reached over, switching the lamp off.

The moonlight beamed in through the picture window beside the bed.
 
In the darkness, she recalled the confidence of Queen Bee in that dark room with Tyler Chase in Los Angeles.
 
With steadier hands, she pulled Damian’s face in and kissed him with a greater poise.
 
She felt his hands run up her legs and underneath her nightgown.
 
Gemma raised her arms over her head as Damian pushed the cashmere up over her head, tossing the gown to the floor.
 
She sat in front of him, straddling his hips in only her black lace underwear.

“Your turn,” Gemma whispered.
 
They laughed together as she slipped down onto the bed and stretched her body alongside his.
 
He rolled on top of her, kissing her softly as he pulled the lace off her thighs and down to her ankles.
 
She kicked them off the end of the bed as she slid her fingertips under the elastic of his boxers and pushed them down past the V of his hipbones.
 
Their breath picked up the adrenaline coursing through their bodies and Gemma’s nerves returned.
 
She began to tremble once again.
 
Damian threw his boxers off the bed and turned back to her.
 
He ran his hands down the soft skin of her shoulders and kissed her on the forehead.

“Are you okay?” he asked, softly.

“Yes,” she breathed.
 
“I think so.”

“Do you want to do this?”

Gemma bit her lip, peering past Damian’s arms at the Bruins tee shirt wrapped around the lamp.
 
“I do.”
 
She lowered her eyes, unsure if she should let go of the words on the tip of her tongue.
 
They escaped anyway.
 
“But I don’t know if I can handle getting this close to you when you’re moving across the country in two weeks.”
 
She quickly peered up at him, looking to detect signs of anger before he could mask them.
 
There were none, but it didn’t help her distress.
 
“I’m sorry.”
 

Damian nodded, lowering himself beside Gemma and pulling her in close.
 
She could feel his warmth in their embrace with nothing between their bare
skin
.
 
She tucked her head under his chin and sighed.

“Don’t apologize,” Damian said as he un-tucked Gemma’s face from the crook of his neck.
 
He kissed her softly.
 
“I love you.”
 
Gemma felt a lump in her throat as she kissed him back.

“I love you too.”

She couldn’t think of a better person to be her first love.
 
She remembered wishing for a boy as she sipped on
cava
in Spain.
 
Even then, she hadn’t fantasized something as perfect as what she had in that moment with Damian.
 
She wished she could have recognized earlier how wonderful he was.
 
Better to have loved and lost,
she thought with a sigh.
 
Even if you lost far too early
.

They were silent as they rested beside each other.
 
Gemma took in his scent, touched his soft skin and hard muscles,
listened
to his breath.
 
She wanted every sense to remember the moment.

“Where does this leave us?” Damian asked
,
his deep voice laced with melancholy.
 
He stroked her hair gently, planting soft kisses on the apples of her cheeks and the tip of her nose.

“I won’t even have the summer with you,” Gemma whispered.
 
Upon announcing his decision to attend UCLA, Damian’s family scheduled a trip to California right after graduation.
 
They reasoned that after visiting relatives in Burbank, he could settle down in L.A to familiarize
himself
with the city before the fall semester.
 

Damian smiled sadly.
 
“And you’re positive you can’t skip senior year and just move with me?” he asked.
 
Gemma giggled, almost to remind herself that she shouldn’t actually consider the idea.
 
“I mean, you don’t even have to skip senior year, you can just continue high school somewhere near campus! You liked it there, right?”

“Stop it, Damian,” Gemma playfully pushed his shoulder.
 
“Can’t you just be mean and awful?”

He laughed, his eyes crinkling. “Why?”

 
“So I’ll hate you and it’ll be easier to let you go.”

“I could never be mean or awful to you,” he said.
 
“I don’t ever want to see your heart broken.”

“You’re too good to me,” Gemma murmured.

Damian pulled her into him tighter.
 
“You deserve all the good you get.
 
And more.”

“Promise not to forget about me when you’re a famous NBA star,” Gemma teased.

“If that ever happens,” Damian laughed.
 
“After I pay off my parents’ mortgage and take my mom on a shopping spree, you will be the first person I take out for a night of luxury.”

“What do you think your girlfriend then will think about that?” Gemma asked.

“Well, ideally you’d be my girlfriend then and you wouldn’t be jealous of yourself,” Damian laughed.
 
“But if it’s some other girl, then I’ll warn her on our first date that this is a promise I made a long time ago, and if she can’t deal, we’re just going to have to end it now.”
 
Gemma burst out laughing and nestled closer against him.
 
They held each other close, watching the sun glitter across the ocean as the day began to break.

With her grandmother and Mira on one side her and her parents on the other, Gemma felt comforted as she watched Gavin receive his diploma.
 
They had spent much of his high school years separated, but she knew this separation would feel different.
 
He was going off to
college
.
 
It was an entirely new stage in Gavin’s life.
 
Being just a year behind him, she knew that she would face the same thing soon.

“I can’t believe this day has come,” Malcolm said, pushing his Tom Ford aviators to the top of his head.
 
“Considering the trouble this boy has gotten into over the years.”

“I’ll say,” Emily nodded in agreement.

In the past week, Gemma’s parents had successfully moved her grandmother back to the states.
 
Celebrations were being planned left and right and Gemma could hardly keep track.
 
Her house was not only busy and full,
but
comforting and warm in a way that she hadn’t felt in awhile.
 
It was exactly what she needed to keep her distracted from the end of her relationship with Damian.
 
Nonetheless, watching them march to “Pomp and Circumstance” in their caps and gowns made her choke up.