The first time I ever saw your face
He looked at him from across the crowded room. "This is wrong", he though to himself. "His girlfriend is one of my best friends and I'm already spoken for", Ric thought as he stared at the figure across the room. It was a crowded room, people bursting out at the seams, but through all the madness of hundreds of people all dancing to blaring music, he only had eyes for one person.
It had been a long process and not even Ric himself had noticed it creeping up on him. From the day the Holdens arrived in Summer Bay Ric had found him getting on with all the family famously, but Lucas in particular. He thought nothing of it, he and Cassie were going out and Maddie and Cass had become great friends so it was only natural that the 3 should hang out together. So then when Luc arrived in town and him and Maddie finally became an item, it was just a natural progression that he should join their 'gang', and at the time, Ric thought nothing of it. But as the time progressed, Ric found himself not being drawn to how him and Luc were both great sports players and had many other similarities besides, but his blonde tousled hair, the way his toned torso glistened when he came out of the sea and the way his eyes lit up every time he smiled, which fortunately for Ric, was pretty often.
So when Cass and Maddie had decided that they wanted to go to a 'Girls only – no boys allowed party, the boys, feeling left out, managed to wrangle their way into another party. Ric had excused himself from Luc's company – finding those piercing blue eyes all too much to bear – and found himself at the other side of the room sipping a lemonade watching Luc hold a captivated audience in conversation, and feeling a piercing stab of jealousy course through his body.

When I first arrived in the Bay, I had no idea that things would turn out like this. I had come to Summer Bay a pretty gawky and quiet teenager and, after starring in Colleen's truly awful play, found love with my beautiful girl Matilda. But now, I don't know what's changed inside of me. Whether in fact anything actually has. Maybe it's just me responding to what has surfaced from the depths of my psyche. It's just the way he looks at me with that look of longing his eyes. The way that says, "I want you right now – I don't care about the consequences". But it's not right, we're both spoken for, and we're all one big group, it would cause too many problems. Hurting Mattie doesn't bear thinking about….but Ric just looks at me, I've seen it when we've shared surreptitious glances walking back up the beach after surfing. Or when one of the girls cracks a stupid joke about sun-baking and about how it's just a fantastic way to pass the time, and then for a split second our eyes connect and electricity sizzles through my body. Now, at this party, I have the perfect opportunity.

I just wanna touch him. Have him do things to me that no one's ever done to me before. I can't win. I can't stand being near him….it takes too much self control, but either way we're stuck. If I say that I don't wanna hang out with him anymore, the girls will get suspicious. But if I hang around him for much longer I might do something the girls wouldn't want to see….

I think that my brain's gonna explode…..Ric is walking towards me……with a blazing look in his eyes.
What am I gonna do? Too late for any more thinking, he's here.

"Hey Luc, I'm back, sorry, I had to go and get a drink, I was really thirsty" I say, joining Luc at a small table in the corner and trying desperately hard to keep a sense of neutrality in my voice.
"No probs mate" he replies. Maybe it was the combination of the alcohol I had drunk previously in the evening or the adrenaline rush that I was having at the thought of the opportunity that was before me, I become totally spontaneous. "Do you wanna come with me and see if we can beat the girls at their own game and dance with me?" "Sure", Luc said, but before I could move I was stopped in my tracks. I could feel a hand on me. Not daring to look down or to find it's owner, I held my gaze away and could feel it making long and slow movements up and down my thigh.

I knew I had an opportunity at this party that was too good to pass up. Yeah, OK, maybe I was slightly less inhibited than I would normally be, but surely that's not a bad thing? I've seen the looks he gives me, the little eye catches we share, the way he smiles at me. It was now or never. I start off with a friendly pat on the leg as if to say "Yeah, I'd love to come and dance with you". But then I seize the moment. I make long, slow movements up and down his thigh under the table and each of us is too lost in the moment to say a word. I begin to slowly but surely edge my way up to inbetween his legs, every time getting closer and then running my hand back away down his thigh again.

There's still all the people dancing around us. But at this moment in time it just feels like it's me and him in the entire world. I feel him continuing to rub his hand up and down my thigh, each time getting closer to the spot, then pulling away just as I think he's about to get near it. Still scared to look at his face, afraid of what I might see in it, he gently takes my hand and places it on his leg. I start to rub his leg up and down and whisper in his ear, "Do you fancy a dance now you're all warmed up?"

I allow Ric to lead me onto the dancefloor just as a slow song is playing. For the first time, I look straight into his face and see this hard, blazing look of want and desire in his eyes. I allow him to pull my face to his and he kisses me. He then gently probes his tongue and our tongues duel as the kiss deepens. I realise that this is what I've wanted for a long time.

Luc's hands begin to explore my body. "Luc, do you wanna take this somewhere more private?" I ask him? He says, "Yeah, in more ways than one!" And thrilled by his reply I lead him out of the party.
It looks like that, for once in our lives, our lazyness has actually served a useful purpose. When the girls had gone to the party, we didn't have any way of getting into town very easily, so we agreed to go to a mate's house down the road, so luckily we weren't very far away from home. "Your place or mine?" I ask Ric? "Yours", he replies, "'Cos Sal and Flynn are home and didn't Beth and your Dad say that they were going to the cinema tonight? We'd have the place to ourselves" he replies, rather cheekily.
As soon as Luc closes the door to his room, I'm onto his bed like a shot. He crawls over and joins me. He looks into my eyes and kisses me like I've never been kissed before. Our tongues duel and I prise his mouth open and the kiss deepens. He begins to kiss me everywhere – slowly but surely systematically working his way down my body. I begin to harden underneath him and I think he can feel it as a small moan of pleasure escapes his lips.

I begin to slowly unbutton Ric's shirt, only pausing the kissing to lift it over his head. He then does the same to me. At first this made me feel really self conscious, but then I got all the reassurance I needed as I felt Ric harden. I then begin to work on his trousers, slowly putting my hand down them to take them off to reveal his toned and athletic legs. All the while he is kissing me – my neck, my chest, slowly working his way down.

I begin to get more frantic. I pull at Luc's trousers, frustrated at not being able to discard them quickly enough, I want to know what it is like to feel his body melt into mine. I then begin to play with the top of his boxers, running my finger like a feather around the edge. As I roll over, it is my turn to feel Luc underneath me and boy does it feel good.

I lie there, kissing Ric and touching him and I feel his hand in mine slowly guiding it between his legs. He begins to arch up and the moans of pleasure become more frequent, the electricity sizzling through every fibre of my body. We slowly but surely discard his boxers and the feeling of him, naked on top of me, sends shivers down my spine.

I gently pull at Luc's boxers and as they come down I put my hand between his legs and more moans come out, I was right, I knew that he wanted me and he wanted me bad. As we lie there, each kissing every inch of the other's body, I begin to push myself against him.

If I didn't know any better I would say that my brain is gonna explode. I can't explain the sensations that I'm feeling.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Several hours later, laying intwined in Ric's arms, I hear the door shut with a BANG. "Oh my God, the girls are back!" Quickly, I shake Ric who rouses slowly. "What are we gonna do if we get caught like this?" No amount of explaining can get rid of this one!" Luckily the girls, probably thinking that we're up watching the footie – either that or camped out together, run noisily straight past us and into Maddie's room. I lie there in his strong arms feeling guilty at what has happened but knowing that I couldn't change it even if I had wanted to.

I knew that in the morning we would have a bit of explaining and/or excuse making to do, and that our feelings for each other couldn't go unnoticed for ever, but right at that moment in time, I felt so safe wrapped around him that nothing in the world could make me care about what tomorrow would bring.