Unlawful Contact by Pamela Clare

You know you want to read it. If you’re good, I’ll put more up tomorrow… 😆

PROLOGUE

Grand Junction, Colorado

June 9, 1996

Sophie Alton walked through the party, wishing she’d stayed home. Heavy metal pumped from car speakers, blaring so loudly that she could barely hear herself think. Kids stood and sat among the cottonwoods, drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, making out.

She didn’t belong here. She wasn’t sure why she’d let Candy talk her into to coming to this stupid graduation party. Did she really think Hunt was going to notice her?

She saw him through the trees, leaning against his car, talking with Dawn Harper and Kendra Willis. He wore a black T-shirt that hugged his broad shoulders and a pair of low-slung jeans. His thick brown hair looked like he’d just gotten out of bed, his square jaw covered with dark stubble. He was taller and bigger than the other boys, and though she couldn’t see them from here, she knew his eyes were a deep green. He was by far the cutest guy in the graduating class. Just seeing him made her feel like she was melting.

But Sophie wasn’t an idiot. A guy like Hunt wasn’t about to waste time on a flat-chested sophomore when he could have pretty senior girls like Dawn and Kendra. Besides, he probably liked girls who partied, not nerdy girls who studied all the time.

He glanced her direction, saw her watching him.

She gasped, looked away, and walked faster.

Her grandma had warned her that Hunt was trouble. She’d said his mother had gone to prison and that he would probably follow in her footsteps. It seemed unfair to blame him for things his mother had done, though he did seem to get into trouble a lot. He was the kid teachers blamed for everything, even things he hadn’t done. Once during a school assembly, someone had pulled the fire alarm, and they’d blamed Hunt, even though he’d been sitting in the bleachers at the time. Sophie had known where he was sitting when the alarm went off because she’d been watching him. She’d told the principal this, but he hadn’t listened.

Hunt had just shrugged his shoulders and grinned when they’d led him away, as if to say, “It happens all the time.”

Sophie had felt sorry for him.

She glanced around, looking for Candy. Maybe she could talk Candy into letting her borrow her pickup truck so she could drive home. Or maybe one of the other kids would be heading back into town soon.

But how will you know if they’ve been drinking?

She wouldn’t know. She’d have to trust them not to drive drunk, and she wasn’t sure she trusted even Candy to tell the truth about that. And where was Candy anyway?

Realizing she was stuck at the party until Candy surfaced again, she walked toward the edge of the crowd, stepping over empty plastic beer cups, potato chip bags, and clusters of prickly pear cactus, looking for someplace she could sit down and be by herself.

A group of girls broke into giggles as she passed.

“She’s such a nerd! I bet she studies all night.”

“Do you think she’s ever kissed a guy?”

“Are you kidding? She’s a total virgin.”

Sophie felt her face burn.

“I heard her parents are dead.”

The breath left her lungs in a rush, and her step faltered, tears stinging her eyes. She wanted to run, but then they would know she’d heard them and she’d feel even more humiliated. She forced herself to keep her gaze straight ahead and to walk slowly.

Her parents were dead. They’d been dead for almost a year, run over by a drunk driver while crossing the street in Denver. She and her little brother, David, had gotten the terrible news late one night and had found themselves on the way to their grandma’s house in Grand Junction the next morning. Everyone told Sophie how she needed to think of the future, how she needed to become the young woman her parents knew she could be. But no matter how hard she fought not to be a big baby about it, she couldn’t stop missing her mom and dad.

She saw an outcropping of rock and went to stand on the other side of it where no one could see her cry. But someone was already there.

“Fuck off, stupid bitch!”

A group of boys huddled together, putting something that looked like whitish rocks into a strange, little pipe. Drugs. They were doing drugs.

“Get lost!”

Momentarily speechless, Sophie took a step backwards. “S-sorry!”

One of the boys grabbed her roughly around the wrist and dragged her forward, his sunburned face a wide grin. “Maybe we should keep her around. You know how horny this stuff makes me.”

Shock became fear. She shook her head, tried to pull her arm free. “No!”

“Bad idea. How do we know she won’t narc?” one of them asked. “Besides, you know you can’t get it up on this shit.”

A deep voice came from behind her. “Get your hands off her, Patrick, or I’ll stuff your balls down your throat!”

The boy let go of her so fast that she stumbled backward and almost fell in the grass. “Sorry, Hunt. I didn’t know she was here with you.”

Astonished, Sophie turned and saw Hunt standing behind her, glaring at the group of boys, his jaw tight, his mouth a grim line.

His gaze met hers and grew softer. “Come on, Sophie. You don’t want to hang around with these losers.”

Sophie didn’t need to be asked twice. She followed him to his car.

# # #

Hunt looked at the girl who sat in his passenger seat, feeling a strange tenderness in his chest. She’d put on her seatbelt the moment she’d gotten into the car and now sat with her hands folded in her lap, her pretty face downcast and half hidden by a fall of strawberry-blond hair. He’d always thought she was one of the prettiest girls in school, her eyes a deep blue, her skin pale and creamy, her mouth full and pink. She wasn’t short, but she wasn’t tall either, her slender build, her little nose and the slant of her eyes making him think of a fairy sprite more than a human girl. But she was a smart fairy sprite, making honor roll despite what had happened to her. He had to respect that.

He’d heard what those stupid girls had said about her, and he’d watched her hurry away from the party, looking like she might cry. He’d realized she was headed straight for Patrick and his meth-head buddies, but he hadn’t gotten to her fast enough to keep her away from them. He’d wanted to beat the shit out of Patrick for grabbing her and scaring her like that.

“You okay?” He tucked her hair behind her ear, unveiling her face.

Her cheeks wet with tears, she nodded. “Thanks.”

He stuck his key in the ignition of his ’55 Chevy Bel Air, turned it, and gunned the engine once just to feel its power. It had belonged to his grandfather, and Hunt had mowed a lot of lawns to earn the money to fix it up. “This isn’t exactly your scene, is it?”

She sniffed, shook her head. “No.”

“Where do you want me to take you?” He kicked the car into drive and steered through the trees and partiers toward the dirt road that headed through the adobes back to town.

“I guess I should go home, but… ”

“But what?”

“If my grandma sees I’ve been crying, she’ll ask me what happened, and then I’ll have to tell her I was here. I’ll probably get grounded. She’s pretty strict.”

Hunt was struck by her honesty. If he’d have been in her situation, he’d have solved the problem by telling a bald-faced lie.

That’s why you’re a loser and she’s not, dumbshit.

“Then I won’t take you home—not yet. Ever been up to the Monument?”

She looked up at him, and he could see the wariness in her eyes.

He pushed on the brake, reached under his seat, and pulled out his tire iron. “I’m not going to hurt you, Sophie. See this? If I do anything you don’t like, just hit me with it.”

Her fairy-sprite lips curved into a smile. “I don’t think I could really hit you.”

“You’re not supposed to tell me that. It makes it hard for me to be afraid of you.”

She laughed. “You’re not afraid of me.”

But a part of him was.

# # #

Sophie stared up at the stars, Hunt’s arm around her shoulder, his voice a deep purr in her ear as he explained the constellations, his car radio playing some romantic old Elvis song.

“Over there is Leo.” He pointed toward a configuration of stars just above the western horizon. “See that star, the brightest one? That’s Regulus.”

She looked where he pointed, tried to see a lion, and thought maybe she did. “Which is your favorite constellation?”

“I suppose my favorite is Orion, but he’s not up yet. He’s really easy to spot, though. He’s got three bright stars for his belt.”

“Why do you like him best?”

He smiled, looked straight at her. “He’s the hunter.”

She couldn’t believe this was happening, one of the worst nights of her life becoming one of the best. He’d taken her to get sodas, then he’d driven her to Colorado National Monument, where they’d gotten out of the car and looked over the guardrail at the vast expanse of desert and canyon beyond, the cliffs and rock outcroppings dark shadows against the night. Then he’d driven her along a road made for tourists until he’d found a place to park.

“Got that tire iron?” he’d joked as he’d killed the engine.

They had talked until their sodas were gone and then talked some more. She’d found she could tell him anything—about her school in Denver, about the loneliness she’d felt since coming to Grand Junction, about missing her parents.

“You want them back again, and there’s nothing you can do to get them back,” he’d said, pulling her against his chest when her eyes had filled with tears. “I know.”

Then he’d told her how his mom had gone to prison twice and how he’d been placed in one foster home after another, fighting with the social workers who wanted to put him up for adoption, refusing to cooperate.

“Is that why you get into trouble so much?” she’d asked.

He’d looked at her, something like surprise on his handsome face.

“I guess so,” he’d said, after a moment’s silence. “If I’d have been a good kid like you, they’d have found a new home for me and taken me from my mom. No matter what she’s done, she’s still my mom. She didn’t deserve that.”

They’d talked about school, about their favorite teachers, about what they wanted to be one day. Sophie’d told him how she’d always wanted to be a reporter so that she could travel and meet people. He’d told her he liked science, especially astronomy and geology.

“I always wanted to be an astronaut,” he’d said, shrugging as if he’d just said something ridiculous.

“You could still try. Really, you could. Why not shoot for the stars?”

He’d laughed, shaken his head—and dropped a bomb. “I don’t think any college would take me, at least not yet. I enlisted in the Army. I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

“You’re leaving?” The revelation had stunned her—and left an ache in her chest.

She hated saying goodbye, hated being left behind.

He’d looked down at her and grinned. “Gonna miss me, sprite?”

And as he showed her the stars, opening up the sky to her, Sophie realized she was going to miss him. She’d spent only a few short hours with him, but she already felt like she’d known him forever.

“Up from Leo is Virgo. Can you see it there? And that really bright star is Spica. If you follow it to the south—”

“Hunt?” Sophie was afraid to ask him, was afraid to say it, but he was leaving in the morning. If she didn’t say it now, she’d probably never get another chance.

“Hmmm?”

Heart slamming, she forced herself to speak. “I… I want you to kiss me.”

For a moment he said nothing, but looked into her eyes as if trying to see inside her. Then he cupped her face with his left hand, ran his thumb over her lips, and ducked down.

Sophie had been kissed before, but she’d never been kissed like this.

He brushed his lips over hers again and again, soft butterfly caresses that made her whimper. Then he kissed the corners of her mouth, tasting her lips one at a time. And when she was sure she couldn’t take it another second, he took her mouth in a scorching, full-on kiss.

The heat of it stunned her, stole her breath, made her brain go blank. She heard herself moan, her body turning to hot jelly. She clung to him, instinctively following his lead, opening her mouth to the velvet strokes of his tongue, so new and strange to her. By the time he pulled back, she was shaking.

“Hunt?”

“Yeah, sprite?” He sounded breathless.

“Do that again.”

He groaned, fisted a hand in her hair, and crushed her against him, his mouth plundering hers, lips and tongues and teeth, until she was gasping for breath.

But all too soon he let her go and faced forward, his fist so tight around the steering wheel that his knuckles turned white. “I think it’s time to get you home.”

She scooted closer, still shaking. “No, Hunt, please!”

He looked down at her, his forehead furrowed, his lips wet. “If I don’t take you home now, you’re not going to get home till morning.”

She took his face between her hands, felt the rough stubble of his whiskers against her palms. “But that’s what I want! I want—”

“What?”

“You.”

She heard the breath rush from his lungs, felt some kind of battle raging inside him, knew he didn’t believe her.

“I heard what those girls said to you. You shouldn’t feel bad about being a virgin. That’s a beautiful thing. You should save it for a man who makes you feel special. You should save it for—”

“For you.” She’d never been more sure of anything in her life.

He turned in his seat to face her once again, ran his knuckles down her cheek. “But I’m the kid who always gets in trouble, remember?”

“Not with me you’re not.”

Hunt couldn’t believe what she was offering him. How could a smart girl like Sophie Alton would see anything in him? “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

She nodded, her eyes looking impossibly big in the dark. “That’s why it has to be now.”

He couldn’t argue with that. Besides, if she wanted to have sex with him badly enough that he couldn’t talk her out of it, he wasn’t stupid enough to stop her. He wanted her—bad.

“Come on.”

He grabbed the blanket he kept in his trunk, took Sophie’s trembling hand in his, and led her to a secluded copse of piñon pine away from the road. Then he spread the blanket on the warm, sandy ground.

If he’d expected her to get cold feet, he was wrong. The moment he turned to her, she wrapped her arms around his neck, stood on her toes, and kissed him. His little fairy sprite was passionate. Well, that was fine by him.

He drew her down to the blanket beside him, kissed her until his mouth burned, until he’d tasted her lips in every possibly way, until they were both breathless, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

“God, Sophie, you are so sweet!”

Slowly, he undid the buttons of her blouse to reveal a lacy white bra and two small but perfect breasts.

“I-I’m flat chested.” She looked away.

“Who told you that?” He pressed his lips against the lace, felt her body tense, heard her gasp. “I think you’re perfect.”

Unable to suppress a hungry groan, he unfastened the clasp, lowered his mouth to a tight, pink nipple and sucked.

“Oh!” She arched off the blanket with a cry, her fingers digging into his hair.

Soon she was twisting beneath him, her head turning from side to side, her silky hair a tangled mass, and he was so hard and so turned on from the sight and taste of her that it hurt. He knew he needed to go slowly, but he didn’t think he could wait much longer. He ran his hand down the satin skin of her belly, unbuttoned her jeans, then tugged them off with her panties, exposing the soft curls of her muff and a pair of smooth, slender legs.

He’d expected her to be shy, but she wasn’t. Instead of hiding herself from him, she tried to undress him, tugging his T-shirt out of his jeans and fumbling with the buttons of his fly.

“I want to touch you!” Her voice was a breathy whisper.

“Yeah.” He liked that idea.

He yanked off his shirt, then guided her uncertain fingers, nearly coming undone when she slid her hands over the skin of his bare ass to push his jeans and boxers out of the way.

“Can I see?” she asked.

“See?” And then he understood.

She’d never seen a dick before, at least not a hard one.

He rolled onto his side, took her hand and guided it to his stiff cock, his entire body tensing when her fingers closed around him.

Sophie hadn’t thought an erect penis would be so big. Or so hard. Or so silky. “I thought it would be like a hot dog.”

He gave a snort. Then laughed. “A hot dog?”

She stroked him, ran her thumb over the moistened tip, felt his body jerk, his laughter catching in his throat, becoming a moan. Hungry for him, she explored him with her hands—his erection, his belly, his chest with its mat of dark curls.

And then he was kissing her again, his lips burning a path over her mouth, down her throat to her breasts, his fingers seeking between her thighs, teasing that secret part of her until she felt damp and hot and achy.

“I want to taste you!” His breath was cool against the heat of her wet, tingling nipples, his hand persistent between her thighs.

Surely he didn’t mean…

Oh, but he did!

Shocked to her core, she tried to stop him. “Hunt, no! You don’t have to—”

“I want to.” His hard thigh pressed between hers, nudged her legs apart. Then he kissed his way down her body, the heat of his mouth and the anticipation raising bumps on her skin.

When at last he kissed her there, he did it with the same attention he’d given her mouth, his lips and tongue unbearably hot, the sweet tug of his lips so intense it almost made her scream. Never had she felt anything like this. She bit her lip, held her breath, fought not to break apart.

“Mmm.” He groaned, nipping her sensitive inner thigh. “God, you taste good!”

He took her with his mouth again, this time sliding first one finger, then two deep inside her, stretching her, stroking her, setting her body on fire.

Breath left her lungs in a low, keening cry—and the heat inside her exploded. Molten gold blazed through her, the sensation both scorching and sweet. Only when the pleasure had ebbed did he stop, his lips finding a path up her belly, over her breasts, to her mouth. He tasted wild and musky, and she realized it was her flavor on his lips.

“Are you sure you want to do this, sprite? We can just hold at third base if you want, and you can stay a virgin. I won’t be angry.”

She could see on his face that it cost him something to say those words, and it struck her as excruciatingly sweet that he would give her the chance to back out. Most guys probably wouldn’t do that. But then he was special. Hadn’t she always sensed that?

She pressed her fingers against his lips to quiet him, her decision made the moment he’d kissed her. “I want it to be you, Hunt. I want you.”

“Thank God! I want you more than any girl I’ve ever known!” He stretched himself out above her, lifted one of her slender legs, and wrapped it around his waist. “But there’s something you should know.”

Sophie slid her shaky hands up the muscles of his chest. “Wh-what?”

“I’ve never done this with a virgin. I might hurt you.” Then nudged himself slowly into her, breath hissing from between his clenched teeth, his gaze locked with hers, his muscles tense.

She gave a surprised gasp at the pain, then felt him withdraw.

Had she scared him off?

She drew him closer. “Don’t stop! It doesn’t hurt—too much.”

He gave her a lopsided grin, sweat on his forehead and chest. “I don’t plan to stop, sprite. I’m just letting you get used to me.”

She felt his hips shift, felt him slide slowly into her again, stretching her past the pain, the fullness both piercing and hot. “Oh! Oh, Hunt, yes!”

He groaned, his eyes closed. “God, Sophie! You feel so good! So wet and tight! I don’t think this will last very long.”

Then he began to move, his motions reigniting the fire inside her, the pleasure building thrust upon thrust, until the stars seemed to explode and rain down around them, leaving them both panting and sweaty in the cool summer night.

# # #

Hunt stroked Sophie’s hair, staring at the star-strewn sky above, his senses filled with her. “It’s different with you.”

She lifted her head off his chest, looked at him through sleepy eyes. “What’s different?”

“Everything.”

# # #

They lay together on the blanket, dozing, talking, laughing. He made love to her twice more, holding her until the sun came up and turned the canyon walls pink. Then he dressed her, crooning an old fifties love song, his lips pressed against her hair.

“One starry night, I kissed your lips / One starry night, I held you tight / You and I under the starry sky.”

But the happiness Sophie had felt through the night seemed to dim with the daylight. All too soon, she found herself sitting in his car just down the street from her grandma’s house, fighting tears as silence stretched between them.

“What are you going to tell your grandma?”

“I don’t know. That I just lost my virginity to the guy she warned me about.” She laughed despite the heaviness in her chest and realized that something had changed. She no longer cared what her grandmother thought.

Hunt frowned. “She warned you about me?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, she was right, wasn’t she?”

Sophie shook her head, clasped his big hand tightly. “No, she was dead wrong.”

More silence.

“I liked you from the first moment I saw you,” he said at last.

“Really?” She found that hard to believe. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

He reached over, ran a finger down her cheek. “I didn’t think a guy like me would stand a chance with a girl as smart and sweet as you.”

“That’s stupid!” she snapped, feeling genuinely angry. But one look at his face and her anger was gone. He truly believed what he’d said. “I liked you from the first time I saw you, too. I’m going to miss you, Hunt.”

“I’d promise to stay in touch, but I’ve never written a letter in my life.”

She stared down at their entwined fingers. “I wish…”

“Me, too. But it’s better this way. You have better things to do than hang around with a loser like me. You’re going to go to college, become a famous journalist and end up on the TV news. I’ll be able to watch you and think, ‘See that beautiful woman? She gave you the sweetest night of your life.’”

His words seemed to shoot straight through her heart.

Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, fought to keep her voice steady. “And what about you?”

He shrugged. “Who knows. Maybe I’ll try to be an astronaut after all. Might as well shoot for the stars, right?”

She nodded, swallowed her tears, unable to speak.

“Stay away from Patrick and his gang. Promise?”

She nodded again.

“And don’t listen to what anyone in this town has to say. You’re beautiful, and one day the perfect man will come along and sweep you away. Tough luck for me, isn’t it?” He gave a little laugh, then his voice grew tight. “I won’t forget you, fairy sprite.”

And as she watched him drive away in his blue ’55 Chevy, tears streaming down her face, Sophie knew she’d never forget him either.