were having a field day inside her. She didn't want to feel that
way--not today, anyway.
She wanted to be carefree, to laugh, to celebrate. After all, she had Austin with her, and they were alone
Not liking where that thought might lead, she suddenly picked up ahandful of moist sand and tossed it at him. It splattered across hischest, then stuck to the front of his T-shirt.
Austin peered down, then back up, giving her an incredulous, look.
"Why you little" -- Laughing, Cassie didn't give him time to finish the
sentence. She took off running down the beach, certain he was on her heels.
Before she realized her own in r tent ion she headed up a hill toward
the wooded area where she'd spent hours daydreaming about boys.
"What was that for?" he called out.
"For being so damn nosy," she hollered back without turning around.
Her breath was coming in gasps now, and she was having difficulty
keeping her footing. The sand was dry and deep, and she didn't seem to be making any progress.
"Whoa, brat."
His voice she expected, but not his hand on her arm. Because of that
unexpected gesture and what it did to her equilibrium, Cassie lost herbalance and hit the sand hard, belly first.
"Hey, are you hurt?" Austin demanded, a breathlessness in his tone, aswell.
Cassie didn't say anything for the longest time, though she heard theanxious note in his voice. Let him wonder if she was hurt. It would serve him right. After all, he had caused her to fall.
"Dammit, Cassie, answer me!"
Suddenly she twisted onto her back. He was kneeling beside her, leaningover her, close enough that she could see the paper-thin lines etchedaround his eyes and smell the mint on his breath.
It was in that moment that their eyes met. And held. It was also in thatmoment that Cassie did something so totally brazen and forbidden thateven she couldn't believe it.
Grasping the back of his neck, she pulled his head down, stopping hislips just shy of hers. For that brief second, they were alone in a worldall their own.
Waves lapped, seagulls squawked, wind blew. They were unaware of nature,only of each other. Cassie's lips parted as she eased him closer.
"What the hell" -- Austin might as well not have opened his mouth. Heknew he didn't have a chance of finishing his sentence, even if he'dwanted to, which he didn't. Still, he almost choked when she made alittle mewing sound, then forced his lips onto hers.
At first he was too stunned to respond, a myriad of emotions stampedingthrough him, trampling every rational thought, every facet of hisconscience.
His mind was the worst; it seemed to short-circuit from disbelief.
And shock.
That had to be what made him take this madness to an even higher level.But when he tasted her soft, quivering lips at the same time that hertongue flicked his, he was a goner.
His mouth ground into hers, wet and hot and more demanding by thesecond.
Instead of his boldness frightening her into ending this insanity, shegave him back as good as he gave.
She caught his bottom lip between her teeth and sucked on it. The top ofhis head nearly came off, not to mention what was happening below hisbelt. He was certain he was about to explode.
Yet somehow he found the courage and the fortitude to try to right thewrong that was happening between them. God, had he lost what mind he hadleft, letting her get the best of him like this?
No!
He jerked his head back, though not far. She had a grip on him thatwouldn't quit.
"Cassie, Cassie," he rasped.
"This is" -- "What I've been wanting," she whispered in a heated tonebefore fastening her lips onto his once again, as if determined todevour him.
If someone had put a gun to his head and told him that if he didn'tstop, his brains would be splattered all over the sand, he would havesaid go ahead and pull the trigger. That was what her hot, wet,all-consuming lips were doing to him.
Crazed and making sounds that even he didn't recognize, Austin managedto expose her breasts, so he could suck one tender nipple, then theother.
Her animalistic sounds answered his as he yanked her flimsy shorts andpanties down over her hips. With her help, they puddled around herankles.
Before he could make another move, she shoved her hand down and unzippedhis cutoffs, immediately latching onto his penis, positioning it betweenher thighs.
"Cassie!"
He might as well not have said anything. She seemed to have her mind andbody set on one thing, and that was having him inside her. When shespread her legs and her stiff curls teased his erection, his groanpierced the air.
"Now, please," she pleaded, her eyes wide and glazed as they peered upat him. Begging eyes, he thought later.
He knew she was in the throes of an orgasm.
Groaning louder, he thrust into her, feeling her small cavity expand totake all of him. Even so, he didn't move, still praying for the strengthto abort this insanity.
As if she sensed that his mind was a war zone, she positioned her legsaround his thighs, locking him inside.
"Please!" she cried.
His entire body throbbing from the pain of holding back, he cursedcaution and began riding her as if she were one of his friskyThoroughbreds--hard, fast and explosive.
As quickly as it began, it was over.
Spent and sated, he collapsed on top of her, but only for a second.
Then the realization of what he had just done slammed into his gut likea sharp knife.
He buried his hands in the sand on either side of her and raised himself far enough to glare into her still- wide eyes.
"Dammit, Cassie, do you realize what the hell we just did?"
"We made love."
Austin's face darkened.
"Love? I don't think so. Love had nothing to do with it. What I did was
fuck my best friend's daughter."
"How dare you!" she whispered.
"You ... you make it sound so ugly, so dirty." Her chin was quivering,
and tears darkened her eyes.
"That's because it is."
"Get off me," she cried suddenly.
"Dammit, Cassie, we have to talk." "No! I said get off me."
Using words he hadn't used in a long time, Austin struggled to his feet.
But before he could reach down and help her up, she bounded upright, yanked her clothes into place and took off running.
"Shit," he said, his mind racing at the same speed as his heart.
"Cassie, stop!"
She kept right on going, and he didn't have the courage to run after her.
Instead, he simply stood there, wondering what the hell he was going to
do.
Cassie stared at herself in the mirror. Even though she looked smashing in a short, black silk designer dress that hugged her body just enough to do justice to her curves but not enough to look suggestive, she couldn't stand the sight of herself.
She grabbed her stomach and turned away, fighting off the nausea that threatened to send her to the toilet. What had she done? And why? She hadn't been able to answer that then, nor could she now. All she could think about was that she'd forced him to take her.
When his lips had finally claimed hers, a heady excitement had made her so dizzy that she had lost all perspective. And when he had jerked off her top, exposed her breasts, then sucked her nipples, there was no way she could have pulled back, not with heat spearing between her thighs.
Would he tell her daddy? That thought was what made her stomach heave
again.
Still, if she had to do it all over again, would there be a repeat performance? Yes.
She was sick, but not sorry.
With that unsettling thought in mind, Cassie hurried out of her room and headed down the stairs. She entered the dining room tentatively, as
though she had a scarlet letter branded across her breasts.
"It's about time, my dear," Wilma said through gritted teeth.
Cassie knew her mother was in the midst of having that hissy fit, though