The Wedding She Survived novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The First Night

He broke term four first, right there in the school parking lot.

His hands came up from my waist to my ribs, and he pulled me against him until there was no space left between us.

I kissed him until I had to stop for air, and then I kissed him again.

A car door slammed somewhere behind us, and I laughed against his mouth.

"Not here," I said.

"Say where."

"Tonight."

"Your mother," he said.

"Leave my mother to me."

At home, I stood in the kitchen doorway and told her I was going out.

She was at the stove, stirring a pot.

She looked at my face for a long time.

"The kids can sleep in my room," she said at last. "I'll do the bath and the stories. Go, baby."

"Mom."

"You've done everything alone for five years," she said, and she smiled, and her eyes were wet. "Go."

I kissed her cheek, and I went out the back.

I crossed the street in the dark with my heart going hard.

He opened the door before I knocked.

He didn't say a word.

He shut it behind me, and I pushed him back against it and kissed him, and his hands went into my hair.

"Willa," he said, rough. "Are you sure?"

"One question," I said. "That's your one."

"Then yes."

I pulled his shirt up over his head and dropped it on the floor.

He was leaner than I remembered, with a scar low on his ribs that I didn't know.

I put my mouth on it, and he groaned, and his hand tightened in my hair.

He walked me backward into the bedroom.

The lamp was on, and the bed was made up with plain gray sheets.

He stripped my sweater off over my head, and my bra, and he stopped and looked.

"You're so beautiful," he said, and his voice cracked.

"Stop talking," I said. "Touch me."

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