The Reunion

All the times she had caught him staring at her, all the times she had felt him behind her in the halls, all the times she had walked right past him with her nose in the air because she couldn't look him in the eyes. They had a mutual attraction to each other that they couldn't voice from their social standings alone. And his was much stronger, his protective instincts kicking in the second he saw George hit her and she would be forever grateful but there was only one problem. How was she going to tell him when he thought that she was nothing more than a snob that lived on the hill?

But she wasn't a snob and he wasn't the worthless piece of dog shit everyone claimed he was. He may come from the wrong side of the tracks and more than likely didn't know the difference between a salad fork and a shrimp fork but he had just saved her from getting beaten and possibly raped and if she had to take the criticism from her friends, she owed him more than a simple thank you, she owed him– She winced when Zeke's knee connected with George's testicles and she watched as he collapsed to the asphalt , his loud, painful groan a true indication that he had just been thoroughly defeated by the badass of Oak Hills.

Cate slowly stepped around the cement pillar, watching as Zeke turned on his heel and walked back across the parking lot without so much as a 'how are you, are you okay'. Okay, so maybe she had figured him wrong, he really was the bastard that everyone called him and he didn't give a shit about her or anyone else. She looked down at George who was still writhing in pain and reached up with a trembling hand to brush a lock of hair back from her face that had escaped her ponytail in the struggle. She pressed her bruised cheek to the rough cement and stared across the parking lot at Zeke as he threw one muscled thigh over the seat of his motorcycle and sat down, shoving that long hair out of his eyes before he pulled on his helmet. She could have sworn she felt his eyes on her across the parking lot as he tugged on his leather gloves, but she could have been wrong about that, too.

When Zeke started the motorcycle, the heavy rumble of the Harley's engine had George getting to his feet and limping across the parking lot towards his car as fast as he could on one good leg, smearing the blood across his face with one hand, his other one was still clutching his aching testicles and penis. Cate slumped against the pillar and watched as the Mustang backed out over the curb, bouncing back onto the road, the tires squealing on the asphalt as her ride home sped away into the night. How could she be such a fool? She should have just listened to her gut and never gone to the festivities with George.

She heard the loud, heavy rumble of the Harley's engine as it was revved and she looked across the lot at Zeke, feeling his hot coffee-brown eyes on hers right before he reached up and slapped the visor down on his helmet. And how could she not speak up and tell Zeke how she felt about him? She reached up and wiped the lone tear away from the corner of her eye before it had a chance to escape and let out a long breath as her savior pulled away from the curb, both of them leaving her alone and three miles from home. She stepped off the two foot wide curb, wrapped her arms around her torso and starting walking home in the dark. She was at the end of the parking lot when Zeke rolled to a stop beside her and she looked up at him just as he pushed the visor up on his helmet.

Zeke was a lot of things, be he wasn't a chicken shit. His smile was hidden under his helmet but the corners of his eyes crinkled in the act. Her family could hate him in the morning; he wasn't letting her out of his sight anytime tonight. He motioned at her with a slight jerk of his head. "Get on," he yelled above the loud, heavy engine vibrating between his thighs.

Cate nodded and braced her hands on his leather clad shoulders as she swung her thigh over the rear of the bike, dropping down onto the seat behind him. She rested her sneaker clad feet on the chrome footrests and wrapped her arms around his strong, muscular torso, pressing her cheek against the soft leather of his jacket and breathing in the scent of the animal hide as she squeezed the outside of his denim encased muscled thighs with the inside of her smooth, sleek bare ones. She smiled against his back and didn't protest in the least when he pulled out of the parking lot and tore down the street in the opposite direction of her house. She had the wind in her hair, her arms wrapped tight around her tattooed knight in denim and leather and the roar of the Harley's engine in her ears as they rode off into the darkness under the starry sky, the light of the full moon guiding their way.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Zeke dug the pack of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket and shook one out, putting it between his lips and lighting it, watching in the moonlight as Cate walked down the gentle slope to the rocks that lined the water's edge, the moon's silvery glow reflecting off the inky, rippling surface. He unzipped his jacket and shucked it off, tossing it over the motorcycle's seat and walked over to the huge oak tree, squatting down onto his haunches next to the base as he blew out a long stream of smoke. He could see the faint orange glow of a bonfire on the other side of the reservoir; hear the echoes of the voices as they were carried across the water, the sound of someone screaming and then the loud splash as they were thrown into the water. The far side of the reservoir was a well-known party spot but the isolated side that they were on was only accessible by bicycles or foot traffic along the trail, or in his case, on his motorcycle. He put the cigarette between his lips and took a long drag off of it, the end glowing brightly in the night, and slowly exhaled, watching Cate as she skipped rocks across the water through the smoke as it slowly dissipated in the darkness.

She was absolutely breathtaking in the moonlight with the way that the light played off her features, off her curves. He let his gaze slowly side over her from his perch several feet away. The soft cotton of her fitted white tank top clung to her slender torso and her small breasts, emphasizing their perfect shape, and was tucked into her cut-off denim shorts that were a helluva a lot shorter than the skirts that she wore to school, the soft, worn denim hugging her hips and the curve of her sweet little ass that he always admired from afar. He felt his cock start to stir in his jeans as he let his gaze slowly take in every inch of her long, sleek legs. The frayed edges of her shorts showed off all but three inches of those impressive gams, and he felt his cock jerk hard, filling with a sudden rush of blood, remembering just how it had felt to have her legs squeezing his as she sat behind him on the back of his motorcycle, her small breasts pressed into his back, her arms wrapped around him tight. He blew out a long stream of smoke as he ground the cigarette out against the sole of his boot, flicking the butt out across the ground to land somewhere in the grass.

Zeke straightened and reached down to adjust his hardening cock behind the fly of his snug-fitting jeans, thankful that she still had her back to him. If she knew how many times he had come up here and painted this particular oak tree with his semen she would more than likely run back up the hill to the road than jack him off, but she had gotten on the back of his motorcycle... He could have his choice of several girls in the school and with one phone call, one passed note in the halls, he could have them shoved up against the tree as he pounded his aching cock in and out of them from behind but he never summoned any of them, instead he came up here and jacked himself off thinking about Cate, thinking about her small yet perfect breasts, her sleek thighs wrapped around him, her forget-me-not blue eyes gazing deep into his until he screamed her name into the air and left his spent semen to dry on the bark of the tree, speeding through town to get back to the school before the lunch break was over.

He shoved his fingers through his long hair, pushing it out of his face and leaned his shoulder against the rough bark of the tree and crossed his arms over his broad chest, content with just watching her pretty much like he did every day. He never really felt like he was stalking her, more like he was just staying back to make sure no harm ever came to her, mainly just during school hours. But now since that piece of shit decided he wanted to have his way with her, unsuccessfully he hoped, he felt like he needed to keep an eye on her twenty-four/seven so nothing like that would happen again. But he couldn't, that would just scare her off and that was the last thing he wanted to do. When she turned around and started walking back up the slope towards him, a smile started to twitch at the corner of his mouth. She was here with him now and that was all that mattered.

Cate brushed a lock of hair back from her face as she walked back up the incline to where Zeke was standing under the huge oak tree, the moonlight playing off his strong features in the darkness. She didn't protest when he drove up to the reservoir, actually she needed the time to clear her head and to collect herself emotionally before she went home, even though she was pushing her curfew as it was, and he more than likely needed to calm down, too. She smiled at him as she got closer, his face becoming more distinguishable in the moonlight.

He was a hard guy to figure out, he always seemed so angry and she had never seen him smile, he avoided confrontation as much as he could but when someone took a swing at him he dropped them on their ass, and he never talked to her–tonight was the first time he'd said two words to her–yet he had come to her rescue tonight. She could barely see his banged up and bloody knuckles in the dark and she knew that they must hurt like hell. If it hadn't have been for him, she'd be calling her mother to come and pick her up from the hospital. She stopped in front of him and tipped her head back just slightly to look up at him. "Thank you for tonight. You... you didn't have to do that."

Zeke looked down at her. There was so little that she, that anyone, knew about him. He kept everything bottled up inside him, kept to himself so he didn't have to explain his actions to anyone, yet sometimes, people just wouldn't leave him the hell alone. But this was Cate, not some nosy idiot that just needed to mind their own business or pass judgment on him because of his long hair and grim outlook on life. She had willingly climbed onto the back of his Harley, wrapped her arms around him... so he owed her an explanation, more so he owed her the truth. "Yes, I did. I couldn't just sit back and watch that piece of shit hit you. Nothing pisses me off more than when–"

He angrily shoved his hands through his long hair, pushing it away from his face as he drew in a deep breath to calm his already overwrought nerves, biting his own tongue before he said too much. He looked down at her, waiting for her to run at the sudden change in his tone but she didn't, nor did she flinch when he drew his hands up into tight fist. He leaned his shoulders against the rough bark of the tree, slammed his balled up fists into it and looked down at the scuffed toes of his boots as he drew in several calming breaths.

When he looked up at her, into those blue eyes that were watching him in the darkness, he strangely felt a little bit of peace, felt like everything was just perfect with Cate, his Cate with the forget-me-not blue eyes. "My old man would come home drunk at night and beat the shit out of my mother. I use to hide under my bed but I could still hear her screaming, crying. He would hit her so hard that she would– I could hear her when she hit the floor. I was ten when I had finally had enough of the crying, the beatings. He came home one night in a drunken rage and when he took a swing at my mother, I took a swing at him with a baseball bat. My mom and I haven't stayed in a town long enough for him to find us again."

Cate listened as he unburdened himself of his pain, of his afflictions that had plagued him for the past eight years. No wonder he never let himself get close to anyone, really make any friends, he may have to uproot himself in a matter of seconds and hightail it out of town just to protect his mother. She slowly reached up, half expecting him to recoil from her touch, and pushed a lock of soft brown hair back from his face so she could see those coffee-brown eyes of his that were still clouded with so much anger, so much emotions. She had a feeling that she was the only one he had ever said anything to and she felt honored that he would trust her with his deepest secret, his darkest fear.

When he didn't try to pull away from her she slowly trailed her fingertips down the right side of his face. "Was that how you got this? From your father?" she asked, tracing the scar that cut diagonally down his cheek, ending a few centimeters from the corner of his mouth. It was an old scar that had healed on its own without stitches, leaving him with a jagged, uneven disfigurement that she found absolutely sexy, even more so since it led directly to his bottom lip that was too full, too sensual for any man. She slowly drew the tip of her finger along his soft, full bottom lip.

No other girl had ever had such a profound effect on him, she had his breath coming in quick, short bursts and his heart slamming hard into his ribcage from the mere touch of her fingers alone. And when she softly drew her finger across his bottom lip, he felt a sudden rush of blood head straight for his groin. Zeke reached up and closed his fingers around her hand, drawing it away from his mouth as he gazed down at her in the pale moonlight. She was standing so close to him that he could smell her shampoo, feel her warm breath on his face and if she moved a fraction of an inch closer she would be able to feel his cock, hard and throbbing against her belly.

He looked down into her eyes that were turned up to him as he held her much smaller, softer hand in his, slowly drawing the rough pad of his thumb over the back of her hand. His gaze dropped to that sexy, persuasive mouth of hers that he wanted to kiss, feel upon his flesh. But kissing her right now would be... uncouth. "Yeah, it is. Telling people you got sliced in a knife fight sounds more macho than cutting your face on a broken lamp when your old man backhanded you across the face. Why were you with that asshole in the first place?"

Cate felt an electrical jolt shoot straight up her arm from the mere touch of his calloused hand on hers and she quickly pulled it out of his grasp, shoving her hands into the hip pockets of her shorts. She felt her heart leap into her throat and she swallowed hard, trying to push it back down where it belonged. She still couldn't believe that she was finally alone with Zeke, the misunderstood badass; she just wished that he had been the one that had asked her out instead of that jerk. She gazed up at him in the moonlight. "I was flattered that George asked me, so I said yes. Besides, I got tired of holding my breath waiting for you to finally speak one word to me. I may live on the hill, Zeke, but I'm not a snob."

Zeke snorted, crossing his arms over his broad chest as he looked down at her. How could he ask her out when she was always with her friends? They would have laughed in his face and made the situation even more humiliating, him asking out a rich girl, like that was ever going to happen. But she wasn't with her friends now, and no one was here to judge her yet he could still feel that air of haughtiness that surrounded her. "Not a snob? When you walk around the school with your friends, you all have your noses stuck so high into the air that I was worried when you went out in the rain that you'd drown. And you walk by me so fast in the hall, it's like you're afraid of me."

"Afraid of you?" Cate squeaked, glaring up at him, glad that it was hard to make out the smug look he had on his face in the darkness. If he only knew half of the mixed up emotions she was experiencing every time she looked at him, the feelings she had never felt before for another guy, how tormenting it was for her to even be this close to him. "The only thing I'm afraid of is the feelings I have for you. I've wanted to talk to you ever since I saw you that morning coming out of the administrator's office. But I didn't know how to approach you then and I still don't know how to approach you now. You always have this don't-mess-with-me-attitude that scares everybody off and you're constantly staring at me and it makes me nervous. Every time I walk past you in the hall my stomach twists up into a knot and I can't catch my breath. And I'm so frustrated with what I'm feeling that I don't know whether to scream or–"

"Or what, Catie-girl?" Zeke goaded. He was egging her on, pushing her to make the first move. He fully expected her to spin around on her heel and march back up to where he had parked the motorcycle or runaway entirely and try to make it back to the road in the darkness, fully expected her to slap him across the face and call him a bastard. But she was the scared little rich girl that was out alone in the darkness with the badass of the county, out where she shouldn't be on a school night, out with the one person her parents would never allow her to even associate with, and he was beginning to wonder why he was even wasting his time with her.

She saw the look on his face, felt his coffee-brown eyes suddenly darken with the mixed up emotions he held bottled up inside his own self, and a tiny indistinguishable cry escaped her throat. Without thinking about the consequences, without caring if anyone found out tomorrow, she reached up and curled her hands around the back of his neck, stood on tiptoe and kissed him. It was full-on mouth to mouth contact, her soft lips against his tense ones, and she didn't know who was more surprised by the kiss, him or her. When she felt his mouth start to soften under hers she lifted her head, a sudden wave of embarrassment washed over her. She was glad it was dark outside or he would have seen her cheeks start to flame. She dropped her hands from his neck and took a step back from him. "Sorry, I– I should not have done that."

He looked down at her in the moonlight, all tension leaving his body only to be replaced with need and a burning desire for her and her alone. All the times he wanted to kiss her, all the times he thought about her while he was up here under this tree– He drew in a ragged breath, the warm air scented with her perfume filling his lungs, and as the thought of any and all consequences of bringing her up here quickly left his lust-filled brain, he reached out and cupped the back of her head in his calloused hand, dragging her closer. "Guess again," he growled right before his mouth came crashing down on hers.

He kissed her hard, his tongue pushing boldly and without permission into her mouth, sliding hotly, erotically across hers. He tightened his hold on her head and deepened the kiss, stealing her ability to breathe as he swallowed her feeble moan. He roughly dragged his hand down her back and dug his calloused fingers into one firm denim covered ass cheek, lifting her against him as he turned around and pressed her back against the rough bark, pinning her body between the trunk of the tree and his own hard, unyielding and aching body. His mouth devoured hers. She tasted like sin, nothing but pure unadulterated sin, because he was surly going to burn in hell for kissing her and he didn't give a shit anymore. She was his, at least for tonight.

Cate moaned and instinctively reached up to curl her fingers into his surprisingly soft long hair, arching against the broad expanse of his chest as his hard, heavy body pushed hers back against the tree. She couldn't feel nor did she care if the bark scratched her skin, all she could feel was Zeke's hands on her body, his lips on hers and his wicked, wicked tongue assaulting her mouth and her senses. He tasted like sin, nothing but pure wickedness and she quickly found herself succumbing to his unscrupulous ways. She felt an unfamiliar ache in her belly and a rush of wet heat to suddenly flood parts of her body that were finally starting to awaken and she kissed him back, her tongue sliding hotly along his, moaning in his mouth as the fingers that were dug into her ass pulled her sharply into the solid ridge of his hard, thick cock. She fisted her fingers even tighter in his hair, gasping for breath as his mouth left hers to trail down the side of her neck, his hot tongue darting out to taste what his lips were gliding over. "Zeke," she moaned, arching against him, pressing her belly against the evidence of his burning arousal, the ache in her abdomen growing even stronger.