Chapter Ten – At the Lake.

I'm packing for the weekend, deliberating between taking my prettiest and sexiest nightwear for Royce's benefit, or filling my bag with fleece pyjamas and thermal underwear for the warmth. I'm also panicking slightly about the prospect of spending an entire weekend with Royce's parents and his aunt and uncle.

"What are you doing?" Jasper comes in to my room and leans against my desk.

"Packing. I'm going to Royce's family's cabin at the lake for the weekend, remember?" I throw both lots of sleepwear in, figuring I can work it out once I'm there. It's not as though the slinky silk and lace things take up much space.

Jasper frowns. "Rose, are you really sure that's a good idea?"

I sigh impatiently. "Jasper, you worry too much." I go to the closet, returning with a handful of underwear and socks that I pack. "Will you get me my make-up bag from the bathroom? Please?"

Jasper rolls his eyes but does what I ask him while I add jeans and t-shirts to my bag, then tuck the make-up bag he brings me down the side.

"Jas," I say slowly, "Can I ask you a question?"

"I think you just did," Jasper says, smiling as he sits backwards in my desk chair.

"Ha ha, you pedant. It was something else I wanted to ask you…just for informational purposes you know, not for any personal reasons." I don't look at Jasper as I carefully fold my wool jacket and pack it neatly.

"That sounds frightening, but okay, go ahead."

"Does it really make much difference to guy whether he wears a condom during sex or not? I mean, is it better or…whatever?"

Jasper's cheeks flame scarlet. "Shit Rosalie, there's only one reason you'd be asking that and I…"

"I said it was just for informational purposes only!" I exclaim, laughing in embarrassment. "It's not personal!"

"Sure, sure," Jasper shakes his head. "Well, for informational purposes only then…I wouldn't know."

"Really?" I look at him in surprise. "But you and Faith, last year…"

"Played it safe every single time," Jasper says, looking at me directly.

"Oh." I zip up my bag and sit on the bed. "Well, like I said, informational purposes only. I was just curious."

Jasper shrugged. "As I said, no personal experience. Ned says it's a little different, maybe a bit better," he says, referring to one of his friends, "But for most guys getting to have sex at all is great enough that they don't care. So if Royce is giving you a hard time just tell him to shove it because…"

"Oh, shut up!" I said, irritated. "Why do you always have to preach at me? I never gave you any grief about you and Faith and it wasn't as though she and I were friends. You don't even know Royce and yet you keep making judgements…"

"Okay, okay, I give in!" Jasper holds his hands up in surrender and grins at me. "I just want you to be safe and careful Rose, that's all."

"I can make choices for myself," I say pointedly. "But thank you all the same."

"His parents are going to be there anyway, aren't they?" Jasper asks.

I nod, moving over to the dressing table and brushing my hair before dividing it into two and beginning to braid. "Yes, his parents and his aunt and uncle. So you know I'm going to have to be on my best behaviour."

Jasper snorts. "Best behaviour, you…yeah right."

"You know I can be perfectly angelic when I have a mind to be!" But I'm laughing too…no one knows me like Jasper and even his teasing is done with loving good humour.

As I finish my braids I hear Dad calling from downstairs. He's just got home, and Royce and his parents have arrived at the same time to pick me up. I quickly shrug into my cardigan sweater and pull on my boots and clatter down the stairs with my duffel bag slung over my shoulder.

Dad's outside, talking to Royce's dad by the limousine pulled up at the kerb. Royce is waiting for me in the doorway, and I stop in front of him with a smile.

"Hi."

"You look cute." Royce tugs on one of my plaits, pulling my face closer to his so he can kiss me, and sliding the strap of my bag off. "I'll carry this for you."

I look at the limousine and raise my eyebrows at Royce. "Even going to a cabin in the woods you can't drive around in a car like normal people?"

Royce rolls his eyes at me. "I know. But the old man didn't want to drive because he's got some work to finish up on the way, and since Carver would be coming anyway – he's Dad's security guy – he thought he may as well drive."

To be honest I'm just feeling intimidated by the limousine and the way it reminds me of Royce's family's extreme wealth. My dad is very successful in his field and we certainly don't struggle for money, but we're not in the same league as the Kings. The idea of spending the next couple of hours face to face with Royce's parents in the back of a limo isn't settling my nerves either. But I make a conscious effort to let go of the braid I've wound around my hand in my agitation and follow Royce down the front walk to the car.

The driver takes my bag from Royce and stows it in the trunk, while Royce grabs my hand and takes me over to his father. "Dad, this is Rosalie."

The look Mr King gives me is coolly assessing, and for a moment I want to back away. The man is cold. But then his face lightens and he smiles in a way that is so much like Royce that I instinctively smile back. Whatever criteria he was judging me by, I think I've passed and won his approval, at least for now.

"Rosalie, it's great to meet you at last," he says, shaking my hand firmly. "RJ talks about you a lot."

"It's nice to meet you too." I return his grip. "Thank you for having me for the weekend."

"You're very welcome." He turns back to my dad and they finish their conversation. They've met on a few prior occasions and know a lot of the same people.

Royce, standing where no one can see him, slides a hand down inside my jeans and squeezes my ass, and I resist the urge to turn around and thump him. Instead I subtly reach behind me and grab his wrist, trying unsuccessfully to pull him away. Royce laughs under his breath, and it's not until I give up that he takes his hand out of my pants.

"Have a good time and be a good girl," Dad says to me. "I'll see you Monday."

I give him a quick kiss and then Royce guides me into the car and pushes me to the far corner where I take a seat. Royce's mother is seated across from me, and she points to the phone held up to her ear and then mimes a hello to me. I smile and nod in a silent return greeting.

I'm self-conscious at first, driving through the Rochester traffic and then out towards the lake in the luxury car, with Royce's mother making polite conversation and his father talking on the phone and flipping through screens on a tablet computer. But Royce is relaxed, and when Mrs King answers another call on her phone he starts teasing me with gummi worms and then we play some games on the ipad and share his earbuds to listen to music, and it's not a bad drive in the end.

The cabin leaves me speechless. I'm expecting something small and woodsy, a three bears sort of cabin, small and cosy. Although the cabin is made of wood, that's the only way it resembles the house of my imagination- instead it's a vast split level home with enormous windows offering beautiful views of the lake and the woods. Inside, the cabin features beautiful timber and an amazing natural stone fireplace along with luxury furnishings and every mod con you can imagine.

"This is gorgeous," I tell Royce, and he hugs me.

"I'm glad you came."

"RJ, you can show Rosalie upstairs," his mother says. "She can sleep in the blue room, and Leyton and Caroline will have the yellow room. You'll have your room of course."

For a fleeting moment Royce looks angry, but then he grins at his mom and picks up my bag as well as his own. "Come on upstairs and I'll show you your room."

I follow him up the spiral staircase to the upper floor, and he stops by the first door at the head of the stairs. "This is my room," he says, throwing his bag in. I look past him and see a room with a mix of striped wallpaper and wooden walls, a stars-and-stripes quilt cover on the wood framed bed and a low window seat piled with cushions.

Royce smiles at me a little ruefully. "Mom's put you in the room at the other end of the hall…I think she's trying to tell me something."

I giggle, but I really don't mind where I sleep. Royce and I do end up in bed a lot, but the idea of sleeping together all night and having sex in the same house as his parents feels weird.

The blue room is smaller than his room and beautiful. The walls are painted a light eggshell blue, and the antique brass bed is covered with beautiful blue and white embroidered linens. There's also an old fashioned dressing table against the wall and a steamer trunk at the end of the bed, which Royce drops my bag on to.

"The bathroom is across the hall and there are towels in there," Royce says. "You'll have to share it with Carver, he's sleeping in the room next to mine. I've got my own bathroom, and the yellow room, where my aunt and uncle will stay has its own bathroom too."

I shrug, looking around. "That's fine…this is really nice."

"Mmmm, yeah," Royce says, but he obviously has other things on his mind. I find out what it is a minute later when he suddenly grins wickedly and picks me up, tossing me onto the bed. I shriek, but before I can move he's pounced and is on top of me, trapping me between his legs and grabbing my wrists. "I thought we should check out the bed," he murmurs, kissing my neck. "You know I've never brought a girl to the cabin, I've never fucked anyone here…we need to see if this bed is going to be a good place for it…." He mouths at my earlobe and then nips at it, grinding his hips against me and pushing me deeper into the soft bed.

"Royce!" I protest weakly, but my actions belie any objection as I arch my neck to give him better access and willingly open my legs when he nudges me with his knee.

"Oh, you like it," Royce says in a low voice, releasing my wrists so his hands are free to start roaming over my body.

"Yeah, but….your mom…" Oh, his hands are so distracting!

"Don't worry so much." Royce starts fumbling with the buttons on my jeans, but before he can get very far I hear his mother calling us from downstairs. "Oh, fuck it," he mutters, and then stands up and hauls me to my feet. "Come on babe."

Downstairs, Royce's aunt and uncle have arrived and his mother is setting out a snack. I'm introduced to Leyton and Caroline, and it's pretty obvious that Leyton is Mr King's younger brother- he looks startlingly like him. Royce and I eat the cheese and crackers and pick at the antipasto platter as the adults talk, and then drift over to sit on one of the plump sofas that look out over the lake.

When Royce eventually yawns and announces we're going up to bed, his mother watches us climb the stairs. I can't help feeling self-conscious as Royce kisses me at the head of the stairs and I walk alone towards my room.

I use the bathroom first and then hurry down the hallway to my room. I know I won't go to Royce's room, but I am fairly sure he'll be coming in to me either later tonight or early tomorrow morning so I slip in to one of my sexy sleeping outfits, a deep green satin and lace short nightgown, and hope he'll see it. When I climb in to it, the bed is luxuriously soft and the fluffy bedding makes me feel like I'm lying in a cloud.

I'm nearly asleep when I finally hear the catch of the door open and then close as Royce lets himself in. He's wearing a pair of pyjama pants that he drops on the floor before he slides into bed beside me, pulling me close against his naked body.

"I thought Leyton and Caroline would never shut up and go to bed," Royce murmurs. "I kept thinking about you here and getting so hard….and I didn't even know you were wearing this." Royce's hands stroke the slippery satin of my nightgown and he growls as he squeezes my breast and kisses the back of my neck.

I can feel him getting harder by the minute, and I roll over and face him, running my hands down his chest and then wrapping them round his cock. Royce groans lightly, watching me in the lamplight.

"You're so sexy."

I work him with my hands as he plays with my breasts, and then leans in and kisses me hard, his tongue in my mouth. I let go of his cock and curl one of my hands up in his hair, rubbing myself against him lightly. "And guess what?" I murmur into his mouth. "Something you'll like…"

"More than this?" Royce bends my leg up over his hip and rubs the head of his cock over my clit, making me shiver.

"I'm on the pill, so you don't have to use a condom," I whisper, pressing closer.

"About fucking time," Royce hisses exultantly, pushing me onto my back and thrusting into me in almost the same moment.

I gasp as he slams into me again, hard enough that it feels like I'll bruise as he keeps on. I dig my hands into his chest and try to hold him back but it's impossible, and it's not until I say, "Wait…slow down!" that Royce even looks at me.

"What?" he pants.

"It's too hard…you're hurting me."

For a second Royce grinds against me, irritated. "There's no such thing as too hard babe." But when I dig my fingernails into him even harder he grimaces at me and then grins, rolling off me onto his back and pulling me hard by the arm so that I end up straddling his prone body.

"Your turn then," he says. "Go on top and fuck me however hard or soft you want, and let me watch you." His eyes are deeply shadowed in the lamplight, but his teeth gleam as grins up at me. "Just keep it quiet."

I can see the marks my nails have left in his chest as I plant my hands on his ribs and rise up on my knees, trying to work out how to do this. For a moment I'm incredibly self-conscious about the way he's looking at me as he hitches my nightgown up around my hips, but then I find his cock and slide down onto it, gasping at the feeling of depth and fullness.

This is good. Royce plays with my breasts, which intensifies my arousal, but apart from that he lets me keep control as I move on him, experimenting with what feels good and what doesn't work. And when I find out what does work for me it really works, and I come in only minutes, biting my lip hard to hold back my noise. Royce grabs my hips then and holds me hard down on him as he drives up into me, sometimes so hard it hurts, but before I can tell him to stop he does it again and then he comes, pulling me down to lie on top of him so that his noises are muffled in my shoulder.

I roll off, curling up against him and resting my head on his arm as his fingers lightly play with the ends of my hair. "I love you," I say softly.

"I love you too," Royce says, giving me a sleepy smile and a kiss. "I have to go back to my room though…see you in the morning?"

I nod and he gently tugs on my hair before stepping into his pyjama pants and vanishing from the room, the door closing behind him with a quiet click.

This is where condoms make a difference I think, feeling the wetness seeping out of my and onto the bed. Yuck. With a sigh I slide over to a different patch of sheet and close my eyes, snuggling down into the pillows and drifting off to sleep.