Chapter 23

WE SAT AROUND in the comfy living room having tea after dinner. Kate’s dad, Oke, had stumbled in about seven and he did look stoned. He was genial and welcoming, though.

“My baby has a boyfriend. My baby. Oh, Katarina, you have a boyfriend,” he kept saying over and over. About half past eight, he started to snore in a big easy chair in the corner. It was already dark and no one moved to turn any lights on.

“And you are both going to exhibit your paintings at this grand show?” Gypsy asked.

“Yes, Mama,” Kate said. “It was really because of Tony, but the agent wants both of our work. We need a dozen pieces each. We’ll be painting non-stop all winter.”

“Don’t neglect your classes,” Gypsy reminded us. “Tomorrow I want to see your new works. Both of you.”

“Can Tony draw you, Mama?” Kate blurted out. I was dumbfounded.

“Clothed,” I said quickly. “Dressed like you are tonight. I love the way fabric moves.”

“Oh? You like movement? Hmm. Maybe you should draw us tomorrow night, eh, Lyubitshka?”

“Excuse me,” I said. “What’s that mean? The name you call Kate?”

“Oh. It’s a Romani word. Lyubitshka. It simply means ‘Love.’ We use it as a little endearment,” Gypsy said.

“You really are a gypsy?”

“Oh yes. Didn’t Katarina tell you? I escaped from Romania when I was a little girl.”

“Sounds like an exciting story,” I said.

“Perhaps, but for another time. It’s dark. You should find your way to bed while you can still see. Do you have a light, Katarina?”

“Yes, Mama. Willow can show Tony to his room if it’s okay.”

“Nonsense. You are a big girl, Katarina. You know I am not critical. You may take Tony to the caravan.”

“But ... uh ... Mama...”

“It is all right, my little love,” Gypsy said. “It will be better this way.”

Gypsy got a flashlight and joined us after we retrieved our backpacks. I didn’t know where we were headed, but Gypsy led us out behind the house. I couldn’t see it very well, but running my flashlight up the sides and across the wheels, I realized we were being led to a Gypsy wagon. It was all painted and everything.

“Wow!” I said.

“Papa gave this to Mama for her birthday a few years ago,” Kate said. “He made it, but she painted it. We all helped.”

Inside, Gypsy lit a Coleman lantern. The inside was beautiful.

“This is amazing,” I said as I looked around. It was surprisingly spacious and there was a huge bed at the end of the room. In fact, the bed kind of dominated the whole place.

“It was for a retreat. Sometimes the community gets too noisy and crowded for me,” Gypsy said.

Man, she must really like isolation. There were only like a couple dozen people within miles of here and it got too noisy and crowded?

“Come into the house to use the bathroom,” Gypsy said as she turned to leave. “We don’t lock our doors.”

When she was gone, Kate glanced at me and then stood with her head down looking at the floor.

“If this is uncomfortable, Tony, I’ll go sleep with my sister. It’s okay,” she said.

I reached for her and pulled her into my arms.

“Kitten, do you think I’d pass up the opportunity to sleep with you?” I asked. I was trying to be light about it.

“But no...”

“We both made a promise, remember?” I said. We’d promised Lissa and Melody that we wouldn’t make love without them. It would be tempting, sleeping alone with Kate in the middle of nowhere. But no matter how much I like—love—Kate, I wouldn’t do anything that risked my relationship with Melody and Lissa.

We managed to get into the bathroom and back to the caravan, then turned our backs to each other while we changed into bedclothes. Me in my standard cut-off sweats and a T-shirt. Kate in... Oh my god! She was wearing the same cute little button-up pajama top and shorty pants she was wearing the first time I sketched her at the party last spring. I reached for her and for the first time on this trip we kissed.

Seeing her in that pajama set reminded me of the soft tentative kiss she’d given me in the contest. This kiss was like that. Oh, we’d shared some pretty steamy kisses over the past few weeks, but this kiss was all sweetness and uncertainty, exploring how the other would respond, waiting, advancing. We might have kissed for five minutes or more. Out here in the backwoods of Oregon, time didn’t really make a difference.

When we finally pulled away from our kiss, Kate reached over and turned out the lantern. We felt our way into the bed and cuddled up with each other.

It was heavenly.

Kate was in my arms, spooned against me. I nuzzled her neck and she turned her head far enough that we could renew our kiss. It was beautiful. My right hand slid up from her hip to cup her breast and I realized I’d slipped up under her pajama top. Kate gasped into my mouth as my hand wrapped around her breast and her nipple pressed into my palm. She didn’t pull away. Instead she moaned a little and pressed back against me—into my very hard prick, lodged between her nether cheeks.

Then Kate jumped away from me like I was on fire.

“Oh!”

“I’m sorry, Kate. I ... it ... just...”

“I know. It just surprised me,” she said. “I’m flattered. Really. I just...”

We couldn’t really see each other. It’s not like there were streetlights outside the window. In fact, I couldn’t remember if there was a window. It was pitch black. I took the opportunity to rearrange myself so I was pressed against my belly instead of tenting straight out.

“Um ... I know about this stuff,” Kate said. “If ... um ... you need ... you need to ... I could...”

“Kate?” I said. What was she getting at?

“I could wait outside a while,” she gasped.

I broke up laughing. In the darkness, I could hear her tittering, too.

“You’d step outside so I could masturbate?” I asked.

“Yeah. I know boys...”

“That’s it, Kate. You know boys. I’m not like that, at least not any longer. I don’t need to relieve it.”

“But...”

“I can’t do anything about getting an erection,” I said. I knew by the heat in my face that I was blushing and I was willing to bet Kate was, too, but the complete darkness made me bold. “I’ll try not to point it at you, but Kate, you turn me on big time. I don’t need to go out and relieve myself. In the first place, it wouldn’t do any good. I’d just get hard again as soon as we cuddled up or started kissing.”

“You like being hard, don’t you, Tony?” Kate said.

“Uh ... yeah. How did you know? There’s something about being aroused that tells me, man, I really like this girl. She makes me feel way good. She turns me on. All my nerves come alive and every touch is better—not just a touch of my cock, but my fingers, my lips, my back. When I touched your breast, I felt so alive.”

“You understand,” Kate said. She closed the space between us and we hugged. She had to feel my hardness, but at least it wasn’t poking straight out at her. “I love being excited. I love the feeling of being near you or Melody or Lissa. And I don’t want it to end. I don’t want to get to the point where I say, ‘There, it’s done.’ I want this to last.”

“It will last, Kitten. Even when we get to the point where we can’t hold back any longer, it will just start building again,” I said. “But we don’t have to rush it.”

“We should get some sleep,” Kate said. “How about if you face that way and I curl up behind you? Would that be okay?”

“Of course it would, Kitten,” I said.

I rolled toward the other side and Kate spooned behind me. I felt her hand as it slid under my T-shirt and lightly brushed my nipples. Well, turnabout’s fair play. I willed myself not to come from her touch and eventually was able to just lie there and enjoy her soft caress. Just before sleep claimed me I heard her whisper.

“I love you.”

“Katarina, your brother and sister haven’t seen you since Christmas. Go walk with them. All they’ve talked about for the past week is you coming home. I’ll play cards with Tony,” Gypsy said.

“Mother...” Kate began.

“Katarina. Lyubitshka. Go.”

Kate slipped up beside me and kissed me on the cheek. We’d been sitting at the breakfast table after we cleared and washed the dishes, just chatting and having another cup of tea. Apparently they didn’t drink much in the way of coffee out here. But the tea was good.