Daylight

Pet’s POV

Once we got back to the room—our room—I took a shower and put on my pajamas, silently cursing myself for what I’d be wearing. Stupid Hello Kitty pj’s.

Joe cleaned up too and changed into a t-shirt and pajama pants. Then we channel-surfed for a few minutes before he found a movie we agreed on. I was tired, but I didn’t want the evening to be over just yet. Also, my nerves were at a pretty high pitch, and my heart was pounding. I thought a movie would be a great distraction—maybe for both of us.

I’d literally never been in that situation before—had never allowed it—and frankly, I didn’t know what the hell to do. I thought it wise to keep my thoughts to myself, and to let him make the first move. Because I sure as hell can’t do it, I thought.

We propped all the pillows on one of the beds and sat watching the movie in silence for awhile. After a bit, though, I noticed Joe looking at me instead of the screen.

I turned my head to look him right in the eye. “What?” I asked.
He just blinked at me. “You know, you’re really very pretty,” he murmured, his eyes scanning my face. I loved the way he rolled his r’s.
I couldn’t help but smile at that. “Thanks. Is that your standard pickup line?”
His brows knitted in confusion for a second. “Uh…I don’t have what you’d call a standard pickup line, Pet.”
“Oh.” I swallowed and was starting to feel embarrassed under his intense gaze.

Shit, what had I gotten myself into? I was already going crazy, and Joe hadn’t even touched me yet. I turned my head away, pretending to watch the TV again, but there was no way I could concentrate on anything else at that point. Stupid nerves.

There was a brief silence, then: “Pet?”
“Yeah?”
“Summat wrong?” He shifted onto his side to get a better look at my face.
“Uh, no, why?” God, I suck at this. Seriously.
“You’ve gone so quiet,” he answered, pushing a stray lock out of my eyes.
“We are watching a movie,” was all I could think of to say.

(I’m actually trying to figure out if you want to…you know…..)

I tried to smile in a reassuring way, but failed miserably.

“Hmmmmm.” Joe kept looking at me. “Can I ask you summat, Pet?”
“What?”
I could see from the corner of my eye that he was suddenly very close. I could feel his breath on my burning cheek.
“Would you mind if I…kissed you?”

My face got even hotter, as if that was possible. “Uh…s-s-sure…?” I stammered out.

Joe smiled and slid an arm under my neck, pulling me closer to him. I shut my eyes, waiting.

Instead of kissing me right away, though, he surprised me by stroking the side of my face softly, with just his fingertips. They were hard and a little rough from years of playing guitar. Then he rubbed his thumb along my bottom lip, making what felt like an electric current shoot through me. I gasped and opened my eyes just in time to feel his lips touching mine.

Oh wow, was all I could think. He was so gentle; I didn’t think the first boy I ever kissed was that gentle. Most of my so-called experience within the last few years had been with guys all too eager to get on to the good stuff, you know: groping, fondling, and pulling at my clothes or theirs.

But not Joe; he wasn’t trying to undress me, or roll on top of me, which was refreshing. He just held me close, sinking his fingers into my hair, kissing me over and over again, his breath sweet, his lips tremendously soft. The tip of his tongue traced the outline of my mouth—very sexy—and I couldn’t help it, I sighed and let him in. Joe groaned and pressed a little tighter against me.

Damn, but he smells good, I thought. I tangled my free hand into his still-damp hair, cupping his head in my palm and pulling him even closer. But now it was my turn to groan. Yeah, I could feel that he was very hard against my leg—not much to prevent me from feeling that through those thin pajama pants—but the real issue was that my shoulder, trapped under his arm, was beginning to lose feeling. It twitched involuntarily.

I grimaced, reluctantly breaking the kiss, and Joe finally came up for air. When he saw my expression, he glanced at my arm and correctly guessed at the problem.
“Sorry, Pet…lemme fix that,” he grinned, and rolled me on top of him.

My hair fell down around his face, and he pushed it back behind my ear, smiling all the while. I could feel his heart beating fast against my chest; I hadn’t realized till just that moment how hard my own breath was coming. Despite the air-conditioned cool of the room, our bodies were radiating heat, and I shivered just a little, thinking about what Mo and Sal had said to me.

Maybe this won’t be too bad, I thought.

I ran my hand along Joe’s arm and he captured it, holding it to the place where I could feel his heart.
“See what you do to me?” he asked softly. “So pretty…so warm…so sweet…” he whispered, and began kissing me again.
Pleasure was starting to invade all my senses, blocking out pretty much everything else around me. Goddamn, but I was in way over my head.
My eyes rolled back when Joe finally moved to my neck, kissing and licking. My whole body was trembling now, and it wasn’t all fear.

Joe stopped kissing me again. “All right then, Pet? Are ya cold?” he murmured against my collarbone.
I shrugged. “Kinda, maybe, a little,” I whispered back.
“Really?” he responded. “Because I’m gettin’ a bit warm meself. D’you mind?” With that, he gently moved me to the side, then sat up and pulled off his shirt.
He was right: he really was warm, the skin on his chest flushed, and, I noticed, so much softer than his hands. Unlike a lot of the other guys I’d seen around Warped, he was unmarked except for a single tattoo: a stylized sun right over his heart. He had a few freckles, magnified now on his tanned skin, and I couldn’t resist touching him, then following my hands with my lips.

Joe sighed in pleasure, his body somewhere between total relaxation and the tension of anticipation. His hands kept caressing my hair, never really moving anywhere else. In a way, that was okay with me, as I was too shy to return a more intimate touch, and certainly wouldn’t have been able to start something myself.

But isn’t that about to change? My nerves were getting the best of me, but I wouldn’t let them win this time.
Doubt crept into my head. Did he not want this? Didn’t he want me? I had to know.
It was now or never.

Quickly, before I could change my mind, I rolled over on top of him, straddling his waist. Joe opened his eyes to see me about to pull off my own shirt.

His hands grabbed my wrists, holding them firmly.

“Wait,” he said.