CHAPTER 5
On Thursday morning, Cate woke up far too early. She was stupidly nervous. She’d never been on a date before. Was this a date or were they just “hanging out”?
Ugh, Cate flung back the covers and swung her legs out of bed. She really hated that phrase. What did “hanging out” even mean? It wasn’t like they were going to spend the afternoon swinging on the monkey bars in the children’s playground, were they? Although if they did, Cate bit her lip, Kian’s t-shirt might ride up a little… She’d spent enough time looking at his bare chest in Heat magazine, she was eager to see it for herself. Maybe, even lick it?
“You’re such a dork,” Cate shook her head.
Cate turned on the shower and while she waited for the water to heat up, she kicked off her pyjama bottoms, which were sticking to her clammy legs. He probably won’t even turn up. Cate stopped with her vest top halfway over her head. Ugh, she hadn’t thought about that. She balled up her vest and threw it at the white, wicker laundry basket in the corner of the bathroom. It missed.
Of course, he’s not going to turn up. He’s Kian freaking Warner and you’re… well, you’re… Cate Klein.
Cate peeled down her panties and climbed into the shower.
If… okay, when he doesn’t turn up, how long can I wait for him before I look like a big, fat loser?
But what if he does turn up?
As she was brushing her teeth, she noticed a few stray eyebrows which needed plucking. “Ouch,” she winced as the tiny black hairs seemed to want to stay embedded in her skin. By the time she’d got them all, her eyes were watering so much, she could barely see. As she reached up to rub them, she dropped her tweezers on the floor. Cate still couldn’t see where they’d landed, it sounded like they were under the sink. She took a couple of steps forward and found them with the bottom of her foot. “Ouch,” she yelped. She crouched down and picked up the tweezers. As she got up, she didn’t realise she was almost underneath the sink basin and banged her head on it.
“This is ridiculous,” Cate sat down in the middle of the bathroom floor. She was just glad that she couldn’t see herself – her eyes were still watering but she couldn’t rub them because she was too busy soothing her injured foot and top of head. It was like that game Rocco and Luca liked to play where they tried to rub their tummies and pat the tops of their heads at the same time. The arch of her foot was bleeding a little. Cate reached for some toilet paper and tried to pat it dry; it was difficult because her feet were really ticklish. So you’re not supposed to be able to tickle your own feet, huh? Cate bit her lip, trying really hard not to laugh as she cleaned the blood off her foot. I wish somebody would tell my feet that.
When she got up, she looked at herself in the mirror. “Seriously,” Cate said to her reflection, stifling a giggle. “You look so sexy right now.” Her hair, which she’d washed and conditioned was tangled up like a bird’s nest on the top of her head where she’d banged it on the sink, her eyebrows were perfectly plucked but the eyes underneath were bloodshot and she was clutching a bloodied sheet of toilet paper.
Still giggling, she hobbled over to her wardrobe and pulled open the door.
She had to carefully pick her way through her wardrobe to the rail at the back; the carpet was littered with stacks of her favourite books. She’d scanned through them last night, trying to work out how she should act in the very unlikely event that Kian actually turned up at the library this afternoon. “Not very helpful,” Cate scolded them. She knew all about Red Rooms of Pain though. She imagined Kian in just a pair of faded blue jeans, holding a long, thin whip. Ugh, she felt her lady parts start throbbing. “Stop it.”
Cate rifled through her meagre clothes, looking for the perfect outfit. She couldn’t just pull on her usual uniform of jeans and black polo-neck jumper. Today, just in case, she had to be… Ugh, why am I so completely and utterly rubbish at this?
Cate picked up her favourite pair of dark blue jeans. OK, they’ll do but what to wear with them? Most of her tops were black and high-necked but she did have one, where was it? Yes, Cate found it at the far end of the railing. Sinead had persuaded her to buy it during one of their pre-college shopping trips but she’d never worn it. It was too clingy and it had a V-neck.
Cate tried it on and looked at herself in the mirror. The wool was super-soft against her skin. Even though it was modest by everybody else’s standards, it still felt too low for Cate. She was sure that if she leaned forward, somebody would be able to see the top of her bra. She rummaged through the drawers and eventually found a scarf with swirls of blues, reds and purples, a birthday present from Remy. Cate tried to remember how Remy had shown her how to wear it. When she’d finished, she stood back and looked at herself in the mirror again. Not too bad. The dark blue jeans made her butt look good. The jumper and scarf were OK. She twisted her hair and clipped it at the back of her head.
When she went downstairs, Irene was in the kitchen drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. “You’re still here?” Cate was surprised; during the week she hardly saw her Mum.
“They’re fumigating the office,” Irene frowned. “Why they couldn’t do it on the weekend, I don’t know?”
Cate adjusted the scarf around her neck, wondering if her Mum would notice that she looked different this morning.
“That’s too bad. I, um, I might be home late tonight.”
“That’s fine,” Irene said, without looking up from the newspaper.
Cate tried not to feel too disappointed. “There’s this project for Psychology, it’s kind of a group thing.”
“That’s good.” Cate could tell her Mum wasn’t really listening to her.
When she got to college, she’d just parked up when she saw Sinead walking across the car park. “Hey stranger,” Sinead bumped her arm.
“Hey,” Cate adjusted the scarf around her neck and waited for Sinead to say something about it. But Sinead was already craning her neck, looking around the car park instead. For Jake, Cate assumed. Sure enough, Sinead spotted Jake’s car pull into the car park. “Oh look there’s Jake, I’d better go. I’ll call you.”
That afternoon, Cate got to the public library far too early. She hated being late for anything. Because of this, she always had a book in her bag. She’d just finished the 3rd chapter of Jane Eyre when Kian rapped on the window, making her jump.
“Sorry,” Kian grinned. Cate hastily stashed her book back in her bag and unlocked the doors.
Instead of the passenger seat next to her, Kian climbed in the back seat.
“What are you doing back there?” Cate laughed.
“It’s easier to hide back here,” Kian said, slouching down.
Cate drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “Where should we go?”
“We could go back to my place?” Kian suggested.
“Uh, no,” Cate replied.
“Why not?” Kian raised an eyebrow, “don’t you trust yourself to be alone with me?”
“Yeah, that’s totally it,” Cate laughed. “But seriously, you live next door to my brother, don’t you think he might be a bit suspicious if he comes home and find his little sister’s car parked in your driveway?”
“Hadn’t thought of that,” Kian said, scratching his head. Suddenly his eyes lit up. “I know a place.” He gave Cate the 1st set of directions.
“Turn here,” Kian said and they drove down a long, bumpy dirt track. It felt vaguely familiar to Cate. At the end of the track was a small car park. There was a low stone wall, a couple of wooden benches and beyond that was Mill Lake.
When they were little, Jean used to take Cate and Sinead there to feed the ducks. Cate had spent most of her school holidays at Sinead’s house while Irene was building her consulting business.
There were a couple of cars parked near the café but Kian directed her to park at the other side, sheltered by the trees.
Cate turned off the engine and asked, “What do you want to do now?”
“Well, we can’t make out with you sat there and me sat here, can we?”
Cate got out of the car and climbed into the backseat with him. As the door clicked shut, Cate felt her stomach tie itself up in knots. She couldn’t believe that she was really here, about to make out with Kian. As he moved closer, she felt his thigh press against hers; she could feel the heat of his skin even through his jeans. She looked down at his thigh; his dark-blue jeans were pulled tight across his muscles. Cate felt completely out of her depth. He wasn’t like the boys at college, who all wore Super Dry hoodies and CK One aftershave. Kian wore a white cotton shirt and a black leather jacket. He smelled like soap and leather.
“Take off your jacket,” Kian instructed. Cate quickly obeyed; glad to have something to occupy her hands.
Kian liked how easily she submitted to him. Underneath her jacket, she was wearing a black, wool jumper which fitted close to her body. His hands itched to hold the gentle curve of her waist. As she stretched, the hem of her jumper rode up a little, exposing a sliver of her soft skin. While she was distracted, putting her jacket on the front seat, he let his eyes roam up her torso. She was wearing a fussy scarf, which he wanted to remove. Underneath it, he could just see the outlines of her soft, round breasts.
When she turned back to him, he could tell she was nervous. She worried at her bottom lip with her teeth.
He reached up and gently held her face. Her eyes shot up to his. Kian felt a jolt as he looked into her eyes; they were like a black hole, drawing him deeper.
Cate felt the warmth of his hands on her face. She felt like a plasma ball, as though he was drawing out all of her worries and uncertainties into his strong hands. She noticed that his eyes changed colour as he watched her, from warm, dark chocolate to burning, jet-black.
“May I?” He asked, gesturing at her hairclip.
Cate nodded, she couldn’t speak. He gently pulled the clip out of her hair and tossed it to one side, letting her long, inky-black hair tumble down her back.
“Fuck,” Kian murmured, threading his fingers through her hair. Cate felt her scalp come out in goose bumps. “Your hair is gorgeous.”
He allowed himself to picture her underneath him; that gorgeous black hair fanned out across his crisp, white sheets.
He brushed her hair to one side, exposing her slender neck. Cate gripped on to his shoulder as if she was in danger of melting into a puddle on the backseat. Even his shoulder was hard muscle. Is there any part of him that’s soft? Cate wondered. Her eyes wandered down to his groin and she blushed furiously.
Cate had seven metal studs and a cuff at the top of each ear. Kian swirled his tongue over the first of the studs. “Mm,” Cate shivered. She felt his grin against her skin.
“Is that good?” He murmured.
“Yes,” Cate said breathlessly. Kian traced the shell of her ear with his tongue, teasing each of the metal studs. The car windows had misted over, hiding them from the outside world.
“Your hair smells fucking incredible,” Kian groaned, his warm breath tickling her skin.
“It’s blackberries,” Cate blurted out. “My shampoo.”
“Fucking love it.”
He gently unwound her scarf and put it on the parcel shelf behind their heads. The deep-v of her jumper, no longer hidden by the scarf, allowed him a tantalising glimpse of the soft flesh at the tops of her breasts.
His kisses moved lower, exploring her neck. If he could tell she liked something, he lingered there before moving on. Those moments when he found her pleasure points were fucking addictive; how her body jolted against him. He could hear her breath catch in the back of her throat and her fingers tightened almost painfully against his shoulder.
He couldn’t hide his grin when he remembered that jackass Jake calling Cate frigid. She was anything but; the girl in his arms right now was so fucking hot, the way she responded to him. He kissed her pulse point, feeling her thundering heartbeat. She was like that for him. “Kian,” Cate whimpered softly. He was so tempted to draw her soft skin between his lips, to leave his mark on her.
Cate felt braver, sliding her hand inside his leather jacket. Although he was lean, every inch of him was rock-hard muscle. She traced the outline of them with her fingers; the only barrier was his white shirt. When she reached his pectoral, she faltered. It was strange to feel his heart beating against her fingers.
Kian slid her down so she was lying on the backseat. Cate stopped; he’d positioned himself carefully so he didn’t crush her but she could still feel the weight of his body pressing her into the seat.
Kian pulled back. “Is this OK?”
“Mm,” Cate nodded, not wanting to admit how much she liked what he was doing.
“Angel, if you want to stop…”
“I don’t,” Cate blurted out before quickly clapping a hand over her mouth.
Kian raised an eyebrow; his eyes turning jet-black. He removed her hand from over her mouth and pressed it against the seat at the side of her head. “Good, because I really…”
He leaned forward so their lips were just millimetres apart and they were breathing each other in. “Really want to kiss you again.”
Kian slowly licked her lips with the tip of his tongue, building her frustration before parting them, sweeping his tongue inside her mouth. As he pressed her down into the seat, their bodies moulded together. He felt her soft breasts rubbing against his chest. Cate slid her hands around to his back; she dragged her nails up and down, over his shirt.
“Mm,” Kian groaned, “keep doing that.”