Chapter 3

"You picked the perfect night."

Kairi knew Sora was talking about the spectacular star-filled sky,

but to her, any night with Sora would seem perfect.

She was learning so much about him that she'd never known before —

like what a great mouth he had. And how wonderful he could make her

feel when he touched her. She'd hated hearing about his expertise

with other women, how much they'd enjoyed him, how good he was. But

she certainly loved experiencing it first hand.

She was seeing Sora as a man in the most basic sense, not just as a

friend, not just as a person she'd always admired above all others.

All the things she'd ever felt for him were colliding in an

interesting, if confusing way.

She trusted Sora, she always had, but believing that he wanted her

sexually was a pretty abstract notion for her. It was almost as hard

to believe as him telling her that other men wanted her. Or that the

women in the community admired her.

Strange...but oh, she so desperately wanted to believe. All of it.

Kairi knelt down on the blanket he'd spread beneath a tall sheltering

oak and watched Sora with new eyes. He was gentle as always, but now

in a new and different way. When he touched her, it was with a near

reverence that threatened to break her heart. No one had ever

treated her that way. Not the townsfolk, not even her own parents.

Shaking off that thought, she looked around at the shadowed land and

said, "I love it here. I always have."

Sora tossed a few pillows at the top of the blanket, his big body

and endearing face visible in the moonlight and starshine. "From the

time we were in junior high, you've always loved it here. Know what

I think?"

She hoped he was thinking about her and what she wanted to do to

him. "What?"

"I think you like it here because it's so different from your home."

That was certainly true enough. While he'd been raised on a

sprawling farm that showed the pride of caring for that land, she'd

grown up in a crowded bungalow that was forever in need of repair.

Her mother, more inclined to weep over what needed to be done than

to actually do it, had claimed there was no reason to pretty up the

postage stamp-sized yard when the house looked so awful. And her

father hadn't cared two figs whether or not the plumbing leaked or

the shingles blew off the roof. Or if the town disdained their

disreputable presence.

Kairi cared. Even before her father passed away, she'd learned how to

fix what her parents wouldn't. And in the process, she'd alienated

herself from the other kids, because none of them could understand

her or her strange priorities. Rather than buy a new blouse, she'd

worked hard at various odd jobs to buy new tools. While they went to

dances, she'd worked on plumbing. Only Sora had ever understood what

had driven her.

Just as he understood her curiosity now.

"Take off your shirt, Sora. I want to look at you."

The night air was balmy and warm and Sora did as she asked without

hesitation. "You too," he suggested roughly.

Kairi shook her head. "If I do, you'll probably get distracted and I

won't get to do what I want."

"What is it you want, Kairi?"

"To touch you. To make you feel the same way you make me feel."