Breath of Scandal Read online

  “What’d you think of the sermon tonight?” Donna Dee asked. “Did you feel God’s breath on the back of your neck every time the preacher said the word fornication?”

  Jade had been uncomfortable with the subject of the sermon, but she replied evenly, “I’ve got nothing to be guilty about.”

  “Yet,” Donna Dee said.

  Jade sighed in consternation. “I knew I never should have confided in you that Gary and I had talked about it.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Donna Dee exclaimed. “Y’all have been going together for three years. Everybody thinks you’ve already done it a million times.”

  Jade bit her lower lip. “My mother included. We had an argument before Gary picked me up tonight.”

  “So?” Donna Dee borrowed a lipstick from Jade’s purse and spread it on. “You’re always having arguments with your mom. I hate to say it, Jade, but your mom’s a real bitch.”

  “She doesn’t understand that I love Gary.”

  “Sure she does. That’s the problem. She doesn’t want you to love him. She thinks you can do better than him.”

  “There is no one better.”

  “You know what I mean,” Donna Dee said, still searching through Jade’s purse. “She’d like to see you wind up with somebody rich and influential, you know—somebody like Neal.”

  Jade shuddered with disgust. “Fat chance.”

  “Do you think he really felt up Florene at the country club Valentine’s dance? Or was she just bragging? She can be all mouth.”

  “I don’t think being felt up by Neal Patchett is anything to brag about.”

  “Well, you’re the exception.”

  “Thank heaven.”

  “Neal’s good-looking,” Donna Dee observed.

  “I can’t stand him. Look at him now. He thinks he’s so cool.”

  The two girls watched Neal and his friends encircle Gary where he was waiting in line to place his take-out order. Neal punched Gary in the shoulder a couple of times, and when Gary told him to cut it out, he assumed a boxer’s stance.

  “He’s so obnoxious,” Jade said with distaste.

  “Yeah. I wish Hutch didn’t hang around with him so much.”

  It was no secret that Donna Dee was madly in love with Hutch Jolly. She wore her heart on her sleeve. Secretly, Jade thought Hutch looked and acted like a bumpkin, but, at the risk of hurting Donna Dee’s feelings, she never voiced her opinion.

  Nor had she ever told Donna Dee about all the times Hutch had called her asking for dates. She had declined his invitations because of Gary. But even if she hadn’t had a steady boyfriend, she would never have dated Hutch because of Donna Dee.

  “You don’t like Hutch, do you, Jade?” Donna Dee asked her now.

  “I like him fine.” Truthfully, Hutch made her uncomfortable. They had trigonometry class together, and she often caught him staring at her. Whenever she did, he would blush beneath his freckles, then assume an arrogant air to cover his embarrassment.

  “What’s wrong with him?” There was a defensive edge to Donna Dee’s voice.

  “Nothing. Honestly. Nothing except the company he keeps.”

  “Do you think he’ll invite me to the prom, Jade? I’ll die if he doesn’t.”

  “You won’t die,” Jade said wearily. Donna Dee looked so crestfallen at Jade’s lack of empathy that she changed her tone. “I’m sorry, Donna Dee. I hope Hutch asks you. Really, I do.”

  Their senior prom, coming up in May, already seemed trivial and juvenile. To Jade it represented just one more delay in Gary and her getting on with their lives. She certainly didn’t think it was anything to get in a big stew over, although maybe that was because she was guaranteed a date with Gary. Unlike Donna Dee, she didn’t have to worry about the disgrace of not having an escort on that momentous night.

  “I can’t think of anybody else Hutch would ask, can you?” Donna Dee asked worriedly.

  “No.” Jade glanced at her wristwatch. “What’s taking so long? I’ve got to be home by ten or my mother will start in again.”

  “And you’ve got to leave time to park, huh?” Donna Dee gazed at her friend and whispered, “When you and Gary make out, do you just want to die from being so turned on?”

  “Yes,” Jade admitted, shivering slightly. “And because we have to stop.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  Jade’s sleek, dark brows pulled together into a frown. “If Gary and I love each other, how can it be wrong, Donna Dee?”

  “I never said it was.”

  “But the preacher does. And the Bible does. My mother does. Everybody does.”

  “Everybody says that fornication—”

  “Don’t use that word for it. It’s such an ugly word.”

  “What would you call it then?”

  “Making love.”

  Donna Dee shrugged. “Same difference. Anyway, everybody says that lovemaking outside of marriage is a sin, but does anybody really believe that?” Donna Dee shook her head of dark, straight hair. “I don’t think so. I think everybody except us is sinning like crazy and having a damn good time. If I had a chance, I would.”

  “Would you?” Jade asked, wanting her friend’s endorsement.

  “If Hutch asked me, you bet your sweet ass I would.”

  Jade looked at Gary through the windshield and felt a warm rush of pleasure, coupled with anxiety. “Maybe it’s not a sin. Maybe it’s time Gary and I stopped listening to the preacher and followed our instincts. Oh, I just don’t know,” she moaned. “We’ve talked the subject to death and we only end up more frustrated than before.”

  “Oh, for pity’s sake,” Donna Dee grumbled. “I’m going back inside. See ya.”

  “Wait, Donna Dee,” Jade said, catching her sleeve. “Are you mad?”

  “No.”

  “You sound mad.”

  “Well gee, Jade, I wish I had your problems. I wish I had your naturally wavy black hair and flawless skin. I wish I had big blue eyes and eyelashes a mile long. I wish I had a boyfriend who panted after my body but also respected me. I wish I had a computer brain and a full scholarship to college.”

  “I haven’t got the scholarship yet,” Jade said, minimizing Donna Dee’s backhanded compliments.

  “Oh, but you will. It’s only a matter of time. Everything always turns out right for you, Jade. That’s why it’s annoying as hell to listen to you whine. What have you got to complain about?

  “You’re gorgeous without even trying. You’re smart. You’re popular. You’ll probably be valedictorian of our class, and if not you, then the boy who worships the ground you walk on and the air you breathe. If you want to screw yourselves into delirium, do it. If you don’t, don’t. But shut up about it, okay?”

  After her outburst, Donna Dee swore beneath her breath. In a softer tone, she said, “You ought to pay me to be your best friend, Jade. It isn’t an easy job, you know.”

  She snatched up her purse and stepped onto the pavement, closing the car door behind her.

  * * *

  “Hi, Gary.” Neal’s tone was deceptively friendly. Matching it, Lamar and Hutch repeated him.

  “Hi, y’all.” Gary’s smile was open and guileless. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing much,” Neal replied. “You heard anything about your scholarship yet?”

  “Not yet. Neither has Jade. Could be any day now, though.”

  “Do you want nuts on those sundaes, Gary?” the waitress in the window asked.

  “Sure.”

  “Sure,” Neal drawled. He looked toward the car where Jade was sitting. “Jade loves nuts. Big ones.”

  Hutch sputtered with laughter. Lamar snickered.

  Gary’s smile vanished. “Cut it out, Neal,” he said crossly. He glanced over his shoulder toward the car.

  Innocently, Neal raised his hands. “It was a joke. Can’t you take a joke?” Playfully, he punched Gary’s shoulder.

  Gary flinched angrily. “Not where Jade’s concerned.”<
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  “Here you go, Gary,” the waitress said, sliding the two desserts through the window. “One butterscotch sundae and one chocolate. That’ll be a dollar fifty.”

  “Thanks.” Gary paid her, then pulled two paper napkins from the dispenser and took a sundae in each hand. He turned away from the window, but Neal blocked his path, flanked by Hutch and Lamar.

  “Which one’s Jade’s?”

  Missing the point of Neal’s seemingly innocuous question, Gary shrugged. “The butterscotch.”

  Each sundae was crowned with a bright red cherry. Neal took the cherry by its stalk and plucked it off the mound of whipped cream. He sucked it into his mouth, then, with a dramatic gesture, pulled the stem out. He rolled the cherry in his mouth before catching it between his front teeth where it was visible. Looking directly at Jade, he suggestively sank his teeth into it, then chewed it with lascivious pleasure before swallowing it.

  Facing Gary, he smirked. “Tell your girl friend I enjoyed eating her cherry.”

  “You sorry son of a bitch. Eat this.”

  Gary shoved one of the sundaes into Neal’s smug face. Neal, taken completely off guard, staggered backward, choking on the goo that covered his face. Gary seized the advantage. Hooking his heel around Neal’s, he yanked hard, pulling Neal off his feet. He went down backward onto the pavement.

  Gary stood above him. “Keep your filthy mouth shut about Jade.” He dumped the second sundae into Neal’s lap, then strode to his car.

  Neal leaped to his feet, sputtering threats. “I’ll kill you for that, Parker. Nobody fucks with me like that and gets away with it.” He became aware of the comic spectacle he was making of himself and diverted his fury. “Jesus Christ!” he shouted to his two friends, who were immobilized with shock over seeing Neal outdone. “Are you gonna just stand there with your thumbs up your asses? Help me out here.”

  Hutch and Lamar sprang forward, offering handkerchiefs and paper napkins. As he wiped his face clean, Neal glared at Gary’s retreating car. The farmer might think he had gotten the best of him, but he had another think coming.

  Chapter Two

  “I should have beaten him to within an inch of his life.”

  “You made your point, Gary.” Jade laughed when she remembered Neal’s flabbergasted expression as the soft frozen custard dripped off his nose.

  “Why didn’t I give him what he really had coming?”

  “Because you’re not a Neanderthal like him. A fistfight is beneath your dignity. Besides, you were outnumbered. You would have had to fight Hutch and Lamar, too.”

  “I’m not afraid of them!”

  Jade thought that expending so much energy on machismo was ridiculous, but she did her best to stroke Gary’s ego. “Please stop fretting about it. Neal’s not worth it.” After a short silence, she asked, “What did he say to make you so mad?”

  “Something typical of him,” he replied dismissively. “One of his sly innuendos. His mind is a septic tank. He insulted you.” He slammed his fist into his opposite palm. “God, he’s a son of a bitch. I don’t care how rich he is, he’s vermin.”

  “Knowing that, why are you letting him spoil our time together? I’ve got to be home soon.”

  Gary had soft brown hair and tender amber eyes. Gentleness was more at home on his face than anger. At Jade’s mild rebuke, his face relaxed into its usual affable expression. He stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “You’re right. It would tickle Neal to know he had ruined our evening. It’s just that I hate to hear your name coming out of his filthy mouth.”

  She combed her fingers up through his hair. “I love you, Gary Parker.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Kissing her with fervor and passion, he pressed his hand against the small of her back, bringing together as much of their bodies as was possible within the confines of the front seat of his car. He had parked in a remote spot on a road that bordered one of the tidal swamps.

  Outside, the February evening was cool and damp. Inside the car, it was warm and getting warmer. Within minutes, the windows were fogged up. Jade and Gary were breathing heavily, their fine young bodies on fire with the kind of lust the preacher’s sermon had condemned. Gary buried his fingers in her thick, inky-dark hair. He slipped his other hand beneath her sweater. “Jade?” She looked up at him, her eyes fluid with desire. “You know I love you, don’t you?”

  She took his hand and guided it to her breast. “I know you love me.”

  They had started dating in their sophomore year. Before that, Jade had been escorted to school dances and parties by boys whose parents served as chaperons. She had met boys at the movie theater on Friday nights, but Donna Dee had always been with her. Beyond some hand-holding and an occasional, chaste good-night kiss, Jade hadn’t had intimate contact with the opposite sex until she went out with Gary. She hadn’t wanted to.

  On their second date, he had parted her lips and French kissed her. Some girls claimed to love that; others said the very idea of it was revolting. After that night, Jade firmly believed that the latter group was comprised of those who had never been French kissed. Feeling Gary’s tongue moving inside her mouth had been the most delicious sensation she had ever experienced.

  For months, those deeply satisfying kisses were the extent of their necking. Their intimacy developed gradually, as their initial physical attraction matured into something stronger. She had yearned to feel his hand on her breast long before he had dared to place it there. From touching her through her clothing, he had advanced to reaching inside to caress bare skin. Now, her breast filled his gently kneading hand. They tempered the abandon with which they kissed so that they could fully experience the pleasure of their caresses. His lips whisked hers as she reached into his letter jacket and unbuttoned his shirt. Her hands moved over his smooth, hard chest. Reaching behind her, he unfastened her bra with a skill that he had developed from practice. He touched her nipples. They hardened beneath his stroking fingers.

  Jade murmured her delight. When he pressed his open mouth over one nipple and applied his tongue to it, she gave a soft cry of longing. “Gary, I want to make love.”

  “I know. I know.”

  Her pantyhose fit tightly, but he worked his hand beneath them and into the dense curls that had been mashed flat. Only in the last few weeks had they allowed themselves to go this far. It was still new and strange and wonderful to feel Gary’s fingers caressing the most secretive part of her body.

  She bit her lower lip to hold back her moans of pleasure. Her breasts were raised to sensitive peaks that he gently sponged with his tongue. She wanted to weep from the joy of sharing her body with him. Tonight, she decided to return the pleasure he so unselfishly gave her. She loved his tall, solid, athlete’s body and wanted to know it more intimately. Reaching between his thighs, she awkwardly pressed her palm against the fly of his pants.

  Gary’s head snapped back. He sucked in a sharp breath. His caressing hand fell still beneath her pantyhose.

  “Jade?”

  She was embarrassed, but resolutely kept her hand where it was instead of drawing it back. “Hmm?”

  “You don’t have to do that. What I mean is, I don’t want you to think I expect it.”

  “I know. But I want to.” Her palm applied more pressure.

  Whispering her name repeatedly, he grappled with his belt buckle, a button, and his zipper, then tentatively guided her hand inside his trousers. Beneath his underwear his skin was hot. His shaft was hard. He folded her fingers around it. Jade was shocked by how big it was. She’d had indications, of course, but feeling an indistinct bulge against her belly through her clothes was far different from enclosing his fully extended sex with her hand.

  While he kissed her fiercely, she bashfully explored his erection. Her hand made a sliding motion up and down that stopped his breath. He groaned her name and slipped his finger up between the fleshy lips of her sex.

  The motion caused a friction unlike anything Jade had ever fel
t. She tilted her hips up, reaching for him, reaching for something that eluded her. Again he moved his finger. It was like being skimmed by Fourth of July sparklers. Her entire lower body tingled.

  “Gary?” This was a marvelous discovery. She wanted to tell him about it, share it with him. “Gary?” Her hand closed tightly around his penis.

  With a low, frustrated growl, Gary pulled away from her and sat up. He pushed her hand away from his lap. “Stop. If you don’t, I’m going to make a mess.”

  “I don’t care,” she whispered.

  “I do.” Crossing his hands over the top of the steering wheel, he ground his forehead against his white knuckles. “Jade, I’m sick of this shit. I want to do it so bad.”

  The promising tingles that she had felt now blinked and went out. She regretted that. They had been stunning, breathtaking, almost scary, but she wished she could have found out what they led to. Was it an orgasm?

  But her primary concern was for Gary, who she knew was far more frustrated than she. She moved closer to him and smoothed her hand over his head.

  “I don’t know which is worse,” he said hoarsely, “not touching you at all, or touching you to this point, where I want you so much I hurt all over.”

  “I think not touching at all would be much worse. For me anyway.”

  “It would be hell for me, too. But we can’t go on like this.”

  “Then let’s not.”

  He raised his head and looked at her. For several moments, his brown eyes searched her face. Then he lowered his gaze and shook his head regretfully. “We can’t, Jade. You’re the best thing I’ve got going for me. I can’t ruin it.”

  “Why would making love ruin it?”

  “What if you got pregnant?”

  “I wouldn’t. Not if we take precautions.”

  “You still could. Then our chances for getting out of this place,” he jutted his chin toward the windshield, “would be shot to hell. I’d have to grow soybeans for Ivan Patchett, and you’d have to go to work in his goddamn factory. Everybody would say I had no better sense than my daddy, and they’d be right.”