"Small wrapped package."
I open his closet and peek inside at a jumbled mess of clothes. I could so never marry a man that had a messy closet. I'm just saying.
"You're cold," he says huskily.
I close the door and walk closer to his bed and examine his chest of drawers.
"You're getting warmer."
I open his top drawer. He keeps condoms there, underneath his boxers. I eye an unopened box of them. I grab the box and hold them up. "Is this it?"
He laughs. "Nope."
I shut the drawer, look in the rest and move to his desk.
"You're getting even warmer."
I look around his desk, in his drawers, don't find anything, so I walk over to his bed.
"Oh, yeah, now you're getting very warm."
"I am." I smile at him then strip off my shirt to reveal the leopard bra he's been dying to see.
"Aw, damn, Keatie." He hops off the bed quickly and stands in front of me staring at the bra. Then his eyes follow his hands as they move slowly across it. He's touching the bra almost reverently. Like it's a trophy.
His hands caress their way down my sides and grip my waist. I reach through the open sides of his shirt, run my hands up his back, then pull his shirt off. He undoes my bra, letting it fall to the floor. I let him kiss my chest for a few minutes. His shirt is still in my hand, so I pull it over my head, putting it on.
He stands back admiring me in the shirt he just had on. "That may be the sexiest thing I've ever seen you in."
Then he grabs me, throws me on the bed, and strips off our shorts.
"I am so late," I say as I'm getting dressed. "I'm going to have to pretend I got sick or something."
"You got something alright," he says with a satisfied grin.
I laugh. "Were you my present?"
"Shit, no. I almost forgot." He grabs his shorts off the floor, pulls a small wrapped box out of his pocket, and sets it in my hand. "Open it."
I untie the distinctive robin's egg blue ribbon, open the box, and pull out a little blue pouch. I turn the pouch upside down and out drops a necklace. A Tiffany key necklace. My mom went a little crazy with the key necklaces for me when they came out, but I don't have one like this.
"It's really pretty."
He takes it out of my hand and says, "Let me put it on you."
I hold my hair up while he fastens it around my neck.
He leans in and whispers in my ear, "I know we're supposed to be taking it slow. I know you don't want to be in a relationship until we're sure, but I wanted to give you this." He runs kisses across my face and when he gets to my lips, he murmurs, "It's the key to my heart."
Awww. Ohmigawd, that's so adorable.
But no.
No. No. No.
I unfasten it and take it off.
"Dawson, I can't accept this."
"Why not?"
"You know why."
"You think I'm still in love with Whitney."
"I think you're not ready to be giving away your heart."
"Fine then," he says, while fastening it around his own neck. "I'm wearing it. I want you to see it every day. When you're ready, you take it back."
I give him a long, sweet kiss. "You have a deal."
He smacks my ass and says, "You're so late."
I roll late into the sleepover, wearing Dawson's ring on my thumb. I don't know why it mattered. They're just standing around chatting, eating pizza. I'm thinking I can not wait to go to NYC and eat some healthy food. I text Tommy.
Me: Staying at the loft this weekend. How do I get in?
Tommy: I'll have someone meet you, what time?
Me: Saturday, 10am?
Tommy: Will do. Will you have guests? I'll have some food brought in.
Me: Healthy food, PLEASE!! And uh, me+1.
Tommy: Gorgeous?
Me: Uh....
Tommy: I think I already know you slept with him. Your freak out texts last week?
Me: Still, its kinda embarrassing.
Tommy: Naw, it's natural. Have fun baby and make him treat you right.
Me: He asked me out tonight <3 Tommy: We wanna meet him.
Me: He said yes, so you will soon.
Tommy: Love you, baby.
Me: Give the girls a kiss for me, and tell mom I miss her. (This all got cut. And I'm so glad she didn't just have everything completely done for her. That she had to order in food herself. That she had to hire a decorator and choose items for it. It was a more grown-up way for her to do things, and it made the loft that much more important to her.) Then my phone buzzes with a Facebook notification. I read it.
OMG!!!!!.
OHHHHH MYYYY FREAKING GOSH!!!.
I've been away from Dawson for like three and a half minutes. And in that time he put that he is in a relationship with me, and I have to approve it!
I quickly do. And I'm really really excited about this. The fact that he put it on his wall and so quickly!!
Doesn't that mean he's excited about it and wants everyone to know??!!!
Pretty soon, my phone is buzzing away.
Annie texts me: OMG!!! When did he ask you? What did he say???
Maggie comes flying over to me, giggling and hugging me. "Oh my gosh Congratulations!!! I am sooooo happy for you. He is SOOOOO DREAMY!"
"Who's dreamy?" Peyton and another senior dancer, Robyn, ask. (We don't know who Robyn is.) Maggie and I don't get a chance to respond because Katie is running at me screaming, "Keatynnnnnnn!!!!! I just saw Facebook!!!! Why didn't you tell me? I shouldn't have to find these things out online!!!!"
"Uh, it just happened. I mean, like that's why I was late. And I haven't got a chance to talk to you yet. I didn't think he would like post it right away."
Robyn is like, "So what happened?"
Katie says dreamily, "Dawson asked Keatyn out."
"Oh, really?" Peyton snaps.
I hold up the ring. "Got the ring and everything." And I can't help but grin like a maniac.
Robyn says, "Well, that's awkward."
"Why is it awkward?"
"Cuz he's Peyton's ex."
"Well it might be if she wasn't going out with Jake. And they broke up like five months ago."
And the sleepover is pretty fun. I'm feeling a little high and happy. And the relationship status is getting lots of likes and comments from his friends. Dawson texts me constantly until he finally falls asleep on me at 2:30. I can't wait to leave to go to New York with him in the morning. We're meeting at 7am to take the train in. He told me one thing that made me really happy. He said that he was going to wait and ask me to go out with him when we were in NY, like somewhere more romantic, but he decided we should be going out before people hear we're spending the weekend together. And I thought that was very thoughtful. Then he was naughtily telling me all the things he wants to do to me this weekend. And well, those things actually sound more fun than shopping. Oh, I guess the other kinda weird thing that happened is that Peyton is my Dance team big sister. She's supposed to be my mentor or something. Now if you ask me, that IS awkward. (All of this got cut, too. I swear, I cut a full book's worth of words in most the books I write. LOL.) Saturday, September 10th Which way to the bedroom?
7am (So this is where things get really different. This scene doesn't end up happening until the very end of Kiss Me, and a lot more transpires in between. Two weeks worth of Keatyn drama, which is a lot that I added. In the end, this happens after the weekend trip that Whitney planned to get Dawson away from Keatyn backfired. But, once they do get there, much of what happens here, does happen in the published version.) Really wishing I wasn't up this early. I've tried to look sexy all week, but today, I just didn't have the stamina for it. So I pulled my hair back into a pony, threw on a cute sweatsuit for the train ride into New York. I keep thinking if I can just get to the train, I can sleep for another hour or so. The screeching, laughing girls were up all freaking night. I have had exactly one hour and fourteen minutes of sleep. My ass is seriously dragging.
But when I walk out the dorm door and see Dawson walking up the path, my heart does a little flip, and I bounce happily down the stairs and into his arms. He gives me a big hug and says, "Let's roll."
We walk to his car, and he drives us to the train station, we hop a train and both sleep. We are at the loft a bit early, so we stop at the coffee shop down the block and talk about our plans for the weekend. What we want to do, what I need to do. I have a couple specific stores I need to go to, and he has a couple specific things he wants to do TO me. We agree that once we get to the loft, we'll change quick and get my shopping done. Then we can spend the rest of the day roaming around. Maybe go to the museum, grab some dinner, and then go back and do all the things on his TO DO list.
But it doesn't go down quite as planned. We no more than get in the loft, and he has me pinned on the sleek leather couch, kissing me, sliding my tank off my shoulders, pulling off my sweats. And there's something so hot about the way he wants me. The way he can't seem to wait. How his kisses are so urgent. How his hands are everywhere. How I can't get him close enough to me, how I want him closer, how I'm guiding him towards me. How he is like the train we were just on, running quickly down the track, one single destination.
He had told me last night how he was going to go slow, kiss every part of my body, touch every square inch of me, but all of that seems forgotten now. This is like fast and furious. It's a lot like the first time we did it. Hard, fast, primal.
He's kissing me sweetly, grazing his lips across my cheeks, up by my hairline. "So much for our plan." I say.
"I'm sorry, I just, I don't know what you do to me. No one has ever made me like this. I just want you so badly, I can hardly stand it. It's like I'm an animal." He laughs then gets serious. "I love you, Keatie. God, this is amazing. We're like amazing together."
"So you wanna see the rest of the loft?"
"So long as you stay dressed like that."
"Uh, I'm not dressed."
"Exactly."
"We have to go shopping today. There are dresses on hold for me to look at for homecoming, and my mom will be mad if I don't go get one of them."
"You gotta date I don't know about?"
"No, I don't have a date yet. But I'm going, and I'm gonna need a dress."
"And I get to watch you try them on?"
"You get to see me in them, but no, you don't get to be in the dressing room with me. But I would like a boy's opinion. I wanna look good."
"Dang. And I was just thinking you look really good naked."
He pulls me up, I grab a cashmere throw off the chair, wrap it around me. He picks me up, says, "Which way to the bedroom?" and carries me giggling in there.
This time, he did all the things he threatened to do to me. Slowly kissing me, rubbing me, torturing me really, until I couldn't wait anymore. And it was slow and amazing and tender and after we both fell asleep.
The phone next to the bed is ringing. I answer it. It's Tommy.
"Well since you answered the phone, I guess that means you got in okay? Everything okay? There plenty of food?"
"Uh, everything's fine. I haven't had a chance to look in the kitchen yet."
"Yet? Didn't you get there at like ten? You've been there four hours, what have you been doing? Oh, shit, forget I asked that. Sorry."
"Naw, it's okay. We've actually been asleep. I had a dance sleepover thing last night and only got about two hours of sleep. I'm glad you called because I need to go look at those dresses Kym has been going on about."
"Since you have a boyfriend, does that mean you have a date?"
"Oh, um, no he hasn't asked me yet. I don't know if he will. He had big plans of taking the girl he dated the last two years. Well except they have been broken up for months, but I don't know. If he goes with someone else, then I'll make Dallas go with me. He's fun. We'd have a blast."
"So your boyfriend might take another girl to the dance. That's messed up."
"Bye, Tommy."
Dawson woke up at some point during my conversation with Tommy. I tell him, "I'm gonna shower, get ready, then we need to go, okay?"