Nobody's Fool Read Free Page A

hopes for the evening, the last social event of the senior year. She’d designed her own dress, painstakingly worked on the beading and the detail for over a month. She’d envisioned her and Chip together, dancing, chatting with everyone, being crowned prom king and queen. They’d been crowned, but Chip had barely been sober enough to get to the stage. As the evening wore on and he kept stepping out for more drinks with his team, Jolie’d had enough and left without a word to anyone.
    “Want to come in for a while?” she asked Courtney. “Watch a movie or something?”
    “Okay.”
    He’d been in her room often enough, ever since childhood, but Court always acted like it was a special privilege to be invited.
    In the bathroom Jolie changed into a faded pink warm-up suit. She released her elaborate updo but left her makeup on. Her earlier disappointment had been replaced with a weird kind of anticipation.
    By the time she returned to the bedroom, Courtney had shrugged out of his jacket and toed off his shoes. He’d made himself comfortable on one side of Jolie’s double bed and was leafing through her collection of DVD’s.
    “ Bridget Jones’s Diary ?” he asked, holding up the case.
    “How fitting,” she said without a trace of irony.
    She popped the DVD in and hit play before settling herself on the other side of the bed. They’d watched movies in her room many times over the years. They’d grown up together, played together, walked to school together. Even their parents were best friends.
    Courtney turned to look at her. “The thing is,” he said in a perfect imitation of Colin Firth. “I like you. Just the way you are.”
    Jolie smiled. She leaned up and kissed his cheek. He turned his head and tried to turn it into something more. He’d tried this before, but she always neatly dodged the move, forcing him to settle for her snuggling next to him while they watched their movie.
    But tonight she thought, why not?
    She let him kiss her for real, but she wasn’t prepared for what it did to her. This was no junior high kiss. The boy next door had learned a lot since then. So had she. Or she thought she had. But Courtney’s kiss churned up all kinds of things inside of her. She kissed him for real, and it seemed to go on forever. They were feverish and out of control. Of course kissing wouldn’t be enough. With boys, Jolie had learned, it never was.
    His hands slid beneath her hoodie to caress her back. She wasn’t wearing a bra. Could she have made it any easier for him? His hands, when they cupped her breasts, were warm and firm. Her nipples peaked against his thumbs. Why wasn’t she pushing him away, telling him that was enough?
    She undid the buttons on his shirt and with her help he shrugged out of it. He unzipped her hoodie and pushed it off. It all felt so good. So right. Courtney’s hand splayed across her bottom and kept her pressed against his hard-on. Jolie wiggled out of the elastic waist warm-up pants and kicked them away.
    “Jolie.” Courtney’s voice was a choked whisper. His lips and his hands moved over her while she writhed against him, searching for something more.
    He slid inside her panties and she sucked in a breath. She was slick and wet and his fingers rubbing against her felt divine.
    Her fingers found the waistband of his pants, the zipper, the button.
    “Jo,” he whispered.
    She pushed and pulled and with his help his pants joined hers. The movie played silently—somehow the sound had been muted—but the light from the screen was enough for them to see each other.
    Refusing to be afraid—this was Courtney, after all—Jolie slid her fingers beneath the waistband of his briefs and closed around him. He groaned while she marveled at the smoothness of his skin over his length.
    She didn’t get to explore for long before he grabbed her wrist and stilled. He’d withdrawn his fingers from her panties, leaving her wet and needy. His gaze fixed on hers. “If you don’t