His parents’ yacht was docked here. We’d taken it out on New Year’s when they were too busy with their own party. We’d snuck back out here a couple times since then. But nothing was as magical as being on the water when the fireworks burst overhead.
He killed the engine, and I followed him down the row of docks before stopping in front of his parents’. He helped me climb on board, and we ventured below deck.
Ash found a bottle of champagne in the wet bar. “Shall we?”
“You have to drive home,” I reminded him.
He drew me back into the bedroom. “What if we didn’t go back home?”
“My mom would freak out.”
“Your mom doesn’t get home until, like, six when she’s working over night. We could be back before then.”
I put my hand on the bottle. “Just talk to me.”
He set it down and took a seat on the edge of the bed. “They told me I wasn’t allowed to date.”
“Which you already knew.”
“Yeah. I told them it was bullshit and that I was going to take you to prom.” He ran a hand back through his hair. “That’s when it got rough.”
I took a seat next to him. “You can tell me.”
“You don’t want to hear it.”
“It’s okay, Ash.”
“They said that this was a phase and I’d get over it. That I was too good for you and someone like you only liked me for my money.”
I laughed in a self-deprecating manner. “Well, at least they got that out of their system.”
“It was terrible. I defended you. I told them you weren’t like that.”
“You don’t even have any money yet,” I said with a grin, nudging his shoulder.
He chuckled. “Thanks for that.”
“Look, it’s not anything I haven’t heard before. You don’t think the girls at school haven’t said every horrible thing imaginable to me? That I’m a poor scholarship student with no fashion. That I only caught you by opening my legs. That I must be some whore to keep you.”
“Who is saying that?” he demanded.
I put my hand on him again. “Honestly, it doesn’t matter. It hurts, but they don’t say it because of me. They say it because they’re projecting. I get messed up about it when it happens, but afterward, I know they only do it because they’re insecure. And your parents are only saying it because they think they’re protecting you. They think that keeping you from dating and keeping you from ‘someone like me’ will help you get further in life. They likely don’t want you to make the same mistakes they made.”
“That is very levelheaded, Lila,” he said calmly.
“I’ve had three years of this at school. My mom handles it with a calm demeanor.” I straightened and imitated my mom’s gentle but firm speech. “Girls in high school hurt people when they’re hurting. Give them grace.”
Ash relaxed a little more. “You sound just like her.”
“I have a dozen of them. But she always says the same thing. I can only be who and what I am, and I don’t want to be anyone else. And I don’t want to stoop to their level.”
“That’s all fine and well for the bitchy girls at school, but what the fuck am I supposed to do about my parents?”
I sighed and flopped back on the bed. “I don’t know, Ash. What do you want to do?”
“Move in with your mom?”
I giggled. “She’d adopt you in a heartbeat.”
“Might get awkward.”
“I wouldn’t mind having you right down the hall.”
“Yeah?” he asked as if suddenly realizing that I was lying back on a bed. His hands slid up my bare legs to the skintight acro shorts and up the torso of my leotard. “You have me here, right now.”
“I do. But you haven’t figured out what you’re going to do about your parents.”
He moved his body next to mine, pressing kisses across my collarbone and down across my ribs. “We’re still going to prom, Lila. Whether they want me to go or not.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
His finger hooked the leotard strap, dragging it down my arm and exposing my breast. I shivered despite the warm, humid air in the cabin. He cupped my breast in his hand, rubbing the nipple between his fingers. I arched against him, my breathing uneven at the contact. Then, his mouth replaced his fingers, and I moaned into the empty space.
“Ash,” I murmured.
He pulled down the other side of my leotard, dragging the material to my waist and baring me completely before him.