Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, zip. I do have a crappy job that takes me away from writing though.

AN: This chapter jumps perspectives like the previous. If its hard to follow, do tell, and I'll probably just put it back to Maddie's perspective.

Seduction of Summer

Chapter Four – Thinking bout me, bout you…

"Change will come
Change is here
Love fades out
Then love appears"

- Collective Souls, Reunion

I stretched from my laying position, once again trying to become more comfortable, when I heard voices getting closer. Connecting the dots, I turned the music up louder to block out all sound completely, and was left drowning in bass with a singsong voice whispering sweet lyrics into my ears. Better to block out reality than to actually live it, as long as I can avoid it, I'll be happy. However the music didn't seem to block my thought flow as easily as it blocked the sound of voices and feet crunching the bush land below them.

Thinking about one particular male that the feet belonged to made it even harder to avoid the topic that had been flowing through my mind all morning. Did I love Luke?

With his hands, his face, and that body? Of course I did. But there was also more than my sexual attraction towards him. He was vulnerable, and sweet, and caring, and protective, and while these traits did get a little repetitive at times the fact that I knew he would always be there for me was kind of nice in the end.

Watching Ric dote on Cassie before Luke had made me want something like that. I'd had it for a while, but did I want to throw it away now because of something like sex?

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Watching Maddie next to me, her eyes shut tight, as if blocking the world out, I wondered about her and Luke, and whether they would be strong enough to survive this. The four of us had grown to be very close in the last couple of months.

It was such a cliché, two girls best friends, two guy best friends, and two couples. It's like, the basis for every teenage-targeted soap opera, but that's all I had ever thought about. How cliched it was. Not how perfect it was, or rather, how imperfect it was.

Not how fragile the situation was either.

Ric and I had had our time on the rocks, but were still recovering, slowly. Sometimes I wondered if things had been swept under the bed too quickly, things that could come back to haunt our relationship in the end. But never had I questioned Maddie and Luke. They always seemed to perfect. So right for one another.

Like I had told Maddie when Ric and I had first gotten together. "There's someone out there for you, you've just got to be patient and willing to wait." Lou and behold, the Holden's had arrived in the house next door. Another cliché, the boy/girl next door. It had all seemed perfect.

What's the next cliché? Maddie becoming a party girl to get her inner angst out? I don't think so, she's too with it for that.

Sighing, I rolled over, and heard voices in the background. No wonder Maddie turned the music up, I thought she wants to avoid them. She wants to avoid reality.

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As we reached a clearing, I quickly looked around for any sign of the girls. Or any sign of Maddie. Anxious to make everything alright, in the short five minutes it had taken Ric and I to get here, I had formed an apology in my mind, and a topic to kick start probably my most important conversation to date.

Sex.

With Maddie.

Something I knew deep down I wanted.

But now to get her to actually speak to me. Even from this distance I could see her headphones plugged into her ears, a sure sign she wasn't ready to talk to me yet. I breathed out a breath I had been holding, and sat down on the grass on the opposite side of the lake. At least I could watch her now without her knowing.

Without a mum, it was rather hard growing up, especially when it came to the girl thing. My dad and Jack made it work for me though. They taught me how to be polite, showed me how to treat girls right. I guess deep down it didn't matter. I was alone in the world, and I wrote in my journal about everything I was feeling. That was until we moved to Summer Bay. That was until Maddie.

Seeing her for the first time. I just knew. And that's what it's all about. Knowing that you love someone enough.

I'll admit I've had my fair share of cold showers in the morning after waking up with her next to me. And I've spent hours of my time talking with Ric about everything (not that Maddie or Cassie knew about that) but I just, didn't want to push her into anything.

She made the first move this morning.

Watching her across the lake, I knew. I knew everything would be okay after tonight.

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Luke was sitting down staring across the lake when I reached him. Leaving him to walk by himself because I'd forgotten my towel, I could now see him looking longingly at Maddie's form, and instantly felt sorry for my friend. Knowing he could use the support in this time of need, I sat down next to him. Cassie would understand my absence for just a little longer; she was doing the same thing for Maddie.

I could make out their figures across the lake, lying in their typical position. No matter the season, while Luke and I surfed, the girls would lay for hours in the sun. Lord knows why, they were both naturally tanned as it were. But they seemed to enjoy themselves, so who was I to question females and their quirks.

Thinking about Cassie and myself, and Luke and Maddie, I wondered if the problems between Luke andMaddie had come about because there had been no problems. Cassie and I had managed to become stronger after our initial problems; well… eventually we'd become stronger.

It had taken that stupid, stupid mistake about Cassie's counseling partner for me to realise just how much I really loved her. It took a while until she was able to forgive me, but Flynn's illness had brought us closer together once again. Maddie and Lukes only problem had been their first kiss, and after that, smooth sailing. Is that why they are having problems now?

After sitting for lord knows how long, I was finally sick of the tension. Shoving Luke up, I pushed him towards the lake, in the hopes that a little swim with help ease the tension surrounding the strained couple. I looked towards Cassie, eager for her to catch my drift, and I was met with a mischievous grin and a subtle wink. God I loved that girl.

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Before I had any chance to protest, Cassie has taken the headphones from me and pulled me quickly into the water. My body, hot from the sun baking, reacted quickly to the cold water, breaking out into goose bumps before it could adjust. Shivering slightly, I was too shocked to react when Cassie splashed water at me, simply turning away, hoping to go back to my music as soon as possible. But she was relentless, continuing to spray water at me.

Fine, if this is how she wants to play it. Bring it on.

Unprepared for a full counter attack that was about to take place, Cassie fell backwards into the water when I began to splash back at her.

Erupting in fits of laughter, a battle began to rage between the two of us, and this caused a distraction. It was too late to back out once I saw Ric and Luke coming round to join us. Ric headed straight for Cassie, tackling her into the water, and then pulling her close.

It suddenly all clicked as Luke waded towards me, and I caught Cassie's eye.

I may have won the battle, but she had won the war.

Nodding in acknowledgement of what had just occurred, I turned away from Cassie, knowing she would want full details later. Hopefully they would be more juicy than teary, I thought to myself, finally allowing my eyes to trail upwards, lingering on his glistening chest, wet from the water.

He stopped infront of me, but not close enough. My body was aching with the need of his touch, but I refused to be the first to give in.

Our eyes met, and I almost melted. Forcing my icy glare to continue, I folded my arms across my chest expecting him to do something.

And he did.

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Grabbing Maddie by the hips, I pulled her into (what I hoped would be) the most passion filled kiss she'd ever had. Pulling her closer still, I deepened the kiss within seconds, hoping to soften her up before I made my big apology. Or announcement.

I felt her wrap her arms around my neck, and begin playing with my hair at the base. God, if only she knew how wild that drove me. How everything about her drives me insane. I guess it was just up for me to show her.

I ran my fingers up and down her sides, then across her belly, grazing it slightly. She didn't flinch like I thought she would, so I took that as a sign of encouragement.

Moving my lips down the side of her neck, sucking gently on her collarbone, I felt her move her neck to make it more comfortable for the both of us.

My hands continued to travel across the top of her swimmer bottoms, a feather light touch was all I needed, with the added pleasure of my lips on her neck, and a small moan escaped Maddie's lips.

I pulled away from her, and she pulled away from me. Knee deep in water, we were both breathing heavily from the extreme amount of effort our activity that had just occurred had taken.

I couldn't remember a time when making out had taken so much out of me. It was as if all my emotions from the last six months had finally boiled over. There was so much want, and need, and desire existing between the two of us, I must've been blind never to notice it before. You could cut the sexual tension with a knife.

I looked at her, one hand on a hip, the other lightly running her hands over her stomach as I had done only moments earlier. Her eyes were slightly closed, obviously still feeling the effects of our kiss. I could watch her for hours like this, lost in her own little world of lust and love. Knowing I could cause this kind of reaction both intimidated and enthralled me.

I wanted to do this too her again and again. Knowing what I knew now, I didn't think I would be able to last till tonight. I took a step towards her, hoping to resume where we had left off, when her eyes snapped open.

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I laughed as I watched Maddie and Luke attack one another in the water. Didn't take them long, did it now? Feeling the need for an exit as the make out session became pretty heavy pretty quickly, I pulled Ric up with me and nodded in the direction of the camp.

Immediately he followed me, giving me his towel seconds after he realized mine was on the other side of the lake. Taking my hand in his, we walked down the pathway that would lead us back to the campsite; content with the work we had done for our two best friends, wanting to be alone.

Lately, we'd spent a lot of time with Maddie and Luke; trying to make up for the lost time we'd had in the aftermath of Flynn's death. Maybe it was to calm my own sense of guilt, because I didn't think Maddie or Luke blamed us for becoming slightly withdrawn, but I didn't really know.

Maybe it had been me avoiding spending time alone with Ric because I couldn't figure out what was going on.

We were together, and I loved him. But I felt different. We didn't speak about Flynn. He is barely mentioned at home in conversations, and when he is, we act like it was some big slip of the tongue, like we didn't mean to mention him, especially not around Sally.

For all intensive purposes, we'd deleted that part of our lives.

Sometimes I thought I could see Ric mulling over this too. Sometimes I thought I saw small tears forming in his eyes on any occasion when the word 'Flynn' was spoken in our household. But as soon as it would appear, it would be gone in an instant. Ric heart had become like steel since his death. He remained close only to those who had known him best before the death, and refused to open up at all. I wondered what this would eventually do to our relationship.

Would it tear it apart?

Or would we continue to live in the shadow of the death of a man who had loved us like his own children?

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Cassie continued to stare off into space as we walked over to our tent. She'd been like that for the entire walk back, but I knew better to interrupt her. Cassie would get like this lately, going off into her own little world, thinking about everything that's happened, and everything that could happen.

I knew in my heart she was thinking about Flynn, she did that a lot, when she thought she was alone. She had lost so many people in her life already; she knew how to deal with these situations better than me. I had to block them out. It's how I continued to live. It was too painful to think about him, to painful to remember I'd lost the first person that had really cared about me. I'd lost my dad. And sometimes, that was too much to deal with.

While Cassie needed to think about Flynn and remember him, it just too damn much for me to do that. So I pretended, along with Sally, to be fine about everything. Trying to forget everything that he was for me, trying not to mention his name.

Because if I forget, then he wont haunt me any more.

At least, that's what I thought.

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I suddenly realised what was going on. Luke wanted me. And he wanted me bad. Enjoying the blissful state I had been in while kissing him, I had closed my eyes, wanting to relive that moment over and over, when a strange thought had come to mind. Why did he kiss me like that?

The simple answer, he wanted me. He knew what he finally wanted. He finally got what I wanted.

I wanted him.

I instantly opened my eyes to see him walking towards me, a look of lust in his eyes. Darting my eyes around us, I noticed Cassie and Ric had disappeared discretely during our 'seven minutes in heaven'. Thank god, because when I was done with him, Luke wouldn't know what hit him.

Seductively walking towards him, a plan formulating in my mind, I reached him, but didn't touch. When he went to put his arms on my hips to tug me closer, I slapped them away, wriggling my index finger as if to say "Don't even go there buddy".

This was all me.

Kissing from his collarbone up towards his ear, I softly whispered in his ear "Finally got it, Luke?" before quickly sucking on his ear lobe, then blowing softly. I saw him shiver, then nod slowly, swallowing a lump that seemed to be caught in his throat. Letting my finger nails graze up and down his chest, I felt his nipples harden under my touch.

Knowing I could do such things to him gave me a very powerful feeling; one a woman (most men would agree) should never have over a man. Looking up through my eyelashes, I played with the top of his board shorts, before letting the tips of my fingers run lower, up his thigh, up higher, until a sharp intake of breath told me I had run my fingertips over my target.

I stood on my tiptoes once more, so my mouth could reach his ear. "That's okay,' I said 'because I want you too". And with that, all resolve broke. Luke's lips crashed down onto mine, so hard they initially hurt. But his biting on my lower lip, begging for access took away all thoughts of pain, as I felt his hands running over the entirety of my body. Finding my weak spots as only he knew how, I felt my knees begin to buckle, as I melted away into the kiss, into the feeling, into the pure passion and lust that was going to take my virginity there and then in the lake.

His hands found their way up my thigh, creeping closer and closer. A sharp pain shot to the middle of my legs, as I realised I wanted to my touched, to be tortured until I screamed and begged for more. Almost there, I thought, beginning to undo his board shorts tie, hoping to be rid of them as soon as possible. Making out in clothing had created restrictions, making out in swimmers was better… but I wanted the feel of his entire body against me. I wanted to know what he could make me feel. What I could make him feel.

Abruptly, as I began to slide down his shorts, Luke pulled away from me, his facial expression telling me everything I needed to know. I turned on my heels, hoping that when I left, the lake would swallow him whole, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me close to him, putting his arms around my waist stopping me from going anywhere.

"This is wrong Maddie,' he began.

I sighed. This had already been such a long day.

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'No, you've got to listen to me' I begged, hoping she would give me just moments to explain. 'I want this' I said, gesturing between the two of us, ' I want this more than you could ever imagine. It may have taken your not-so-subtle wake up call this morning for me to realise, but I have. I want all of you Maddie, just not standing in the middle of a lake in the middle of nowhere. It situation needs to be treated right. Like, tonight… that's if you're willing?" I finished, finally looking towards her.

Under my scrutiny she turned her face down, as if she was processing everything in her mind. Eventually I saw a smile cross her face, and she jumped onto me so hard that we both fell into the water. She kissed me passionately, and I took that for a yes. There really was no turning back now.

I just hoped we both knew that.

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AN: Done. Enjoy; tell me if I'm boring you, by repeating myself or not putting enough drama in. Although I can tell you, in the next couple of chapters there an urgent phone call, a surprise return, and a drunken kiss… ohhh, drama, drama, drama… I hope.