Page 74 of Beautiful Small Things
“Spending time with you must be corrupting me,” I smile.
Orion turns his head and smiles. I can’t see his eyes, but I know there is sincerity and genuine affection behind those glasses. Then something snags his attention, and he reaches out.
“What is this?” he asks, grabbing my book from under the mattress.
No, No, No, No, No. “Give me that!” I screech.
“What do we have here?” he teases, reading the title and then turning it over to read the blurb on the back. “Iris, are you reading a dirty book? Is this part of the new, reckless you?”
“Give me the book, Orion,” I say again with more authority, standing up to snatch it from his hand, but he’s holding it over my head, making it impossible.
“I know,” he says. “Let’s have a book club.” He’s still holding the book out of my reach as I try to jump up to reach it. It doesn’t help that I have the legs of a corgi dog and a four-inch vertical leap.
With his arms fully extended, he opens the book and begins to read, and of course, he opens to a page with the word “cock,” because that’s my luck.
He begins reading, and I die a little inside with each word. “He stares down at me, spread open and wet for him, while he strokes his cock.” And I’m dead. I quit trying to retrieve my book and fall face-first into the pool. Death by belly flop.
I stay under as long as I can, and when I come up, Orion is crouched on the edge with a wicked smile. “That’s some hot stuff, Purple Rain. Who knew you were so wild?”
“I guess there’s a lot you don’t know about me,” I say, pulling myself up and sitting on the side of the pool.
“Is there, now?” he teases. There’s a moment of silence before he licks his lips and speaks again. “Are you interested in experiencing the things in this book?”
I want to die. Somehow, I muster the courage to answer like a mature adult. “Eventually, yes. I’m a woman, Orion. I may be a genius, but I still have sexual thoughts and feelings.”
“I just don’t want to see you get hurt,” he says solemnly.
“We all get hurt sometimes. It’s part of life. I’ve kept myself away from a lot of experiences, but the more I talk to my dad and Jem, the more I realize that I should live a little more.”
“I can understand that,” Orion says. “But can you do something for me?”
“What’s that,” I say, lifting my shoulders and turning my head to look at him.
“Before you do anything in that book with anyone,” he pauses and takes a deep breath, “talk to me first.”
“Why?” I question.
“Because if you do any of those things, I want them to be with me,” he says, emerald green eyes looking straight into my violet ones.
I swallow past the lump in my throat as my heart takes off in a full gallop. “That’s not funny, Orion. I don’t appreciate you making fun of me.”
His face looks pained as he speaks. “Iris, I would never do that.”
I drop my head and watch my feet kick in the cool blue water below me. “Where did this idea come from?”
Suddenly, warm fingers find my own and thread through them as Orion again studies my face. “Maybe it was always there,” he whispers. It seems natural to hold hands like this and suddenly I begin to question everything I’m feeling.
“But you’ve never seemed remotely interested in me,” I state. “You pushed me toward Henry. Why would you do that?’
“I don’t know,” he says. “Lately, my feelings have been changing. Maybe it’s because we are getting older? Maybe I’m finally realizing something I should’ve seen long ago? I just know it’s how I feel.”
It’s as if I’m trapped somewhere between a dream and reality. It’s not that boys haven’t been interested in me, but finding a boyfriend was never a priority. I’ve spent most of my time reading, surfing, and studying.
“Do you have much experience with the things in that book?” I ask nervously, looking at our hands.
Orion releases a deeply masculine laugh. It’s as if he’s turned into a man in the last five minutes right before my eyes. “I have some experience,” he says. “More than you.”
I wince at his words. My inexperience is suddenly bothersome. I’ve truly never minded before, but right now, I feel inferior.
