Under the Blood Moon by Jenny Garcia (latest books to read TXT) 📖

to know me? Why? "Umm I guess." I stand up, look in the mirror fix my hair and make sure my make up isn't smeared. I don’t know why I care what he thinks he is a total stranger. I grab the clothes that I scattered on the floor and push them under my bed. I walk to the door and take a deep breath and turn the knob. The door opens and our eyes meet. Right away the sparks begin to fly. My body heat is rising and my palms begin to sweat. My heart begins to beat loud and my mouth dries. I long for him to touch my skin again and feel the desire once more. I shove these thoughts out of my mind and try to control myself. All I want to do is grab this man that I don't know and kiss him with all the passion I have growing inside me. I don’t know why I want him so badly but I feel like I am going to lose control of myself.

 

 He turns away from me and heads for the love seat. He gestures to the chair asking if he can sit. I nod slowly not removing my eyes from him. Sitting down he turns to me and says "So, do you know my mom?" he asked. "No I have never met her before and I had never heard of her before. Why should I know who she is?" my words dripping with sarcasm. He gave me a sideways grin "You’re feisty aren't you? I am not saying you should know her I was just wondering because I have never heard of any of you." There is a long silence between us and then I blurt out "So what made you guys want to come here?" He looks up the ceiling and ran his hands through his golden hair "Well, I guess your mom wanted to see mine. I don’t really know she didn’t tell me much. All I know is that I was being forced to come up here. No offense." I look away “None taken, I didn’t want to come here either. I don’t like coming up here anymore. Its gets old after 17 years of spending every summer here.” He nods his head in agreement.

“Your Dad didn’t want to join you guys?” He looks to the floor and his expression changed instantly to sadness. I made a grave mistake asking him this question and I regretted it. I made him sad and now I feel horrible. Why do I always put my foot in my mouth?

“My Dad… is working, he didn’t have time.” For some reason I feel like he is lying to me. I am not going to keep asking. I don’t want him to know that I care. The last thing I want is Travis to find out how I am feeling towards him so he can use me like Derek did.

 "So, Niki, how old are you?" He lets out a sigh. I can tell that he is trying hard to change to topic of our conversation.

 "I will be 18 in 2 weeks" Trying to relax I lay down on my bed looking up at the ceiling. Maybe if I don't make eye contact with him the desire will fade. 

"Nice, I’m 18 as well. So what are we going to do for your birthday? You know that it’s going to be during the Blood Moon?" His face changes expressions and I can tell that he regrets asking me that.

"I don’t know my parents to the same thing every year, cake and ice cream. I don’t get to see my friends nor do anything fun because my parent don't let them come to the Lake House. Every year since I was 13 I have been forced to come here. I used to enjoy it but it gets old after a while. So what the hell is a Blood Moon" I can feel him become uncomfortable. So I change the subject, "So Travis where are you from?"

 “We live in Oregon. It rains a lot. There are a lot of things to do and lots of different types of people. I like it there. Where do you guys live?" He leans forward and I catch the scent of his cologne. I breathe in deeply and feel my emotions take over my whole body. Desire is running through me and I can hardly hold myself on the bed. I hope that he doesn’t notice and think I am creepy. I try to regain focus and answer his question.

“We live in New York, well, the countryside of it. I have been to the city a lot but I prefer the country." I roll on my side and attempt to make eye contact with Travis without be totally taken over. He just stares at me. For a second I get lost in his emerald eyes and let out a sigh. He smiles out of the corner of his mouth and says “You like the way I smell don’t you?” Oh my god! I don’t know how he could have known that. My face turns tomato red, “What would make you think that?” I lay flat on my back trying to mask my embarrassment.

He sits back in the love seat and crosses his legs, “Well, when I leaned forward you took a deep breath in and then smiled. I assume you smelled me. It’s ok Niki you smell sweet too.” I sit up quickly and he winks at me. Anger is now heating my chest and moving though my whole body.

“You’re really conceded aren’t you?” I snap at him. He lets out a loud chuckle. “Am I wrong?” There is a silence between us as I try to figure out an excuse.

 "Niki, Travis, come here please." Thank god, saved by my mother. There is no way I was clever enough to talk my way out of that situation.

"Ok we're coming" Travis yells back. "To be continued" he winks at me sending butterflies through my whole body. I force myself to keep my emotions in check no wanting him to see the effect that he has over me. He extends his hand to help me off my bed. Everything inside me wanted to grab his hand but instead I say "I got it, I’m a big girl, I can get up on my own."

"Yes ma'am" he says with a wink. God this man is making me crazy.

 Walking down the hall I can feel his eyes on my back and then his hand on my shoulder. I suddenly get a vision of the dream I had when I was in the forest and I felt someone grab my shoulder. I gasp and turn around and put my back against the wall "What’s wrong?" he whispers "Nothing...sorry". I start to walk down the hall trying to collect myself and put distance between us. We both walk into the living room and sit on the couch. He sits right next to me and I wish he would move. The last thing I want is to lose control of myself and jump him in front of our parents. I move down a little just so we are not touching and I can control myself. “So what's up?" I ask my Mom. “Well we were talking about dinner and we have to go into town to shop. Did you want to come with us?" Travis says no so I immediately agree to go. Anything to get away from him would be great right now. Even a trip stuck with my mother and the crazy lady. I need a break for this over coming feeling I have when I am around him. My mom grabs her purse and we are out the door.

Walking through the grocery store is calming. Finally I am getting a break from the uncontrollable desire I am feeling for Travis. What is wrong with me? I don’t want to fall in love with his man. God I can't believe I even thought the L-word. After my last heartbreak I don't think that I want to feel love again. It’s too painful. Nothing ever is...forever.

***

My Jr. year of high school is when my crush on Derek started. He was a football player and of course I was in love with him. I was Captain of the swimming team so obviously I was invisible to him. We had almost every class together and I would sit as close to him as I could without him noticing, which wasn't hard. I didn’t have the courage to talk to him nor did I think he wanted to talk to me.

One day I turned around to pass some papers back to the other students in my row and I caught him staring at me. My face flashed red and he noticed it. This happened in almost every class for the rest of the day. In our last class, when the bell rang and school was out, I jump out of my seat and out the door. I was walking down the hall trying to get away as fast as I could. As much as I wanted to talk with him, I was too embarrassed to say a word. I made it outside and was to my car when I hear "Hey Niki." Oh my god he is right behind me. I must have looked like an idiot trying to get away from him and he was right behind me the whole time. "Hi D-Derek" God I hate when I stutter.

"Where are you going?" he comes inches from me and then leans against my car with his arms crossed."Umm I have swim practice." I motion over to the school pool."No anymore you don't." He smiled at me with a grin that could turn a nun red in the face. "I think that we should go get something to eat. Don't you?" Before I could answer he takes my hand and leads me over to his lifted bright blue truck. He opens my door and helps me into the cab. He gets in, starts the truck and we are off. For a while we didn’t say anything to each other. Finally I squeaked out "Where are we going?"

"Well I thought that we would go to Betties. You know the diner at the end of town?" He gives me a sideways smile that makes me blush again.

"Ya I know the place. Why did you want to eat with me Derek? You have never talked to me before?" I see him look at me out of the corner of his eye with disappointment.

"Well, Niki, I have liked you for a long time and I thought that it was finally time to talk to you and make you my girl."

"Make me your girl? You don’t even know me." I almost shout it. "Yea Niki" he giggles "I want you to be mine. I have plenty of time to get to know you but I don’t want someone else to snatch you up." He says every word so confidently I fall for his charm. The grin on my face won't come off and it just seems to get bigger at hearing this. I am smiling so much my face is starting to hurt. "Well maybe we should just eat first and see what happens from there." My voice is shaking.

"Whatever you want Niki." He puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me to him.

After that day we were never apart. We sat in every class together and every day after school and practice we were together. I fell madly in love with him. I thought that his feels were the same, but I was wrong. We were together for 8 months and the Spring Fling was coming up in 2 days. Obviously we were going together. I was so excited to be going with Derek. I had never gone to a dance at school before. I never was