AN: As a head's up, there's some slight non-consent and reluctance in this chapter. And always, despite the fact that David calls our lead character "kid," everyone in this story is 18 years or older.
*
They say there's one guy in the world for every girl. One man who'll stand by you through everything and put all the others to shame. He's the kind of guy who lets you have the last slice of cheesecake; who doesn't kick you when you hog the sheets -- the kind of guy who holds your hair when you're puking up last night's tequila.
The fabled perfect man is
not
someone who makes a teenager pedal a tandem bike up a hill while he laughs at you and eats ice-cream.
The perfect man...is not David Kim.
"I'm sorry, but...how does this have anything to do with paying off your couch?"
I struggled to speak as I peddled. I'd never ridden a tandem bike before, and the weight on the backend was making it painfully slow for me to ascend the hill. I don't know why I'd agreed to the task in the first place. Blaine warned me about David, and ever since I'd arrived on his doorstep a mere 17 minutes late for our little "date," he'd done nothing but give me snarky attitude.
"I said you had to spend time with me. A mere hour every day for a month." David cast me a sly smile over his soy strawberry cone. I'd had to watch him buy two and then devour both before my eyes while I dragged his damn bike up a hill.
"So, what?" I paused in pedaling to avoid running my front tire into a tree stump. "My pain and suffering is payment for the couch?"
"Something like that," David ran his tongue along his wrist to catch a little of the cream. "You're going really slow, kid."
Visibly, I seethed. David was taking his sweet time walking up the bike trail beside me, and looking crisp and clean in a button-down and slacks.
"The point of a tandem bike is to have two people ride it," I stopped abruptly. Sweat was pouring off my forehead and sliding down my neck. The hair I'd spent half an hour straightening and fussing over in the bathroom had quickly become tangled and frizzy.
Against David's advice, I'd decided on a flowing sundress instead of shorts, and already the crisp white fabric was glued to my skin. As transparent as it had become, I was thankful for making the last minute decision of wearing a bra.
Not so much for wearing hot pink thong panties.
"And in case you haven't noticed, I don't sweat gracefully."
"Yeah it's...it's quite an unfortunate sight." David craned his head a little to get a better look at my ass, and then took a long lick of his ice cream. I couldn't help but notice the way his tongue moved, and though I fought hard against it, imagined it running over my skin. Between my thighs...
"Damn it!" I struggled to steady the bike over a pothole, and I heard David laugh.
"Easy. Tandems are pricey. You don't want to end up owing me more, do you?"
Grumbling softly, I started to pedal again.
"Or worse, hurt that pretty little ass of yours," David reached out to squeeze where he shouldn't be squeezing, and I panicked. In an attempt to avoid his hand, I let my feet off the pedals and slid backward down the hill.
"Use the hand brakes, fetus!" I heard David's yell, but my heart was beating so fast and the ground beneath me moving so quickly that I couldn't think straight. Without thinking about the brakes, I scraped my heels in the dirt in a desperate attempt to get some friction going. But when a corner of my dress snagged in the chain, I began to topple and could only watch in horror as the ground came whizzing up towards my face.
I was sure I'd rolled a few times down the hill before landing on my back again. Another thud sounded off, and I assumed it was the tandem bike crashing down next to me.
"Holy shit," David muttered. There was a splatter of something wet against my cheek, and it quickly worked its way down to my lips.
High-fat Soy Vanilla-Strawberry swirl...
When I opened my eyes, I saw David leaning over me. The ice-cream cone in his hands had disappeared, but there was a bright pink smudge of crème on the corner of his mouth. On the surface he seemed as bored-looking as usual, but when I focused, I could hear his breath coming in quick pants and see sweat on his brow.
He ran down after me.
The first thing I tried to do was stand, but David quickly placed a hand on my chest to stop me.
"You're bleeding," he said the words matter-of-factly. I almost didn't believe it until I saw the gash on my right calf and my cut up ankles. Before, when Blaine said David would only hurt me, I hadn't been expecting full-on bike trauma.
A simple "Yeah," was all I could manage. David approached me cautiously, as if scared I'd burst into tears, but it only took a moment for the smirk to settle back on his lips.
"Jeeze; even toddlers know how to ride bikes, kid." He lifted the edge of my dress a little to get a look at the wound and then sighed, fingering a torn section.
"I told you to wear shorts," David muttered, but then let his hand mold around my thigh. I didn't meet his eyes, but I knew he was staring. His warm fingertips were tracing odd patterns on my exposed skin and making me shiver.
"Stop trying to peek at me," I snatched back the edge and dragged myself into a standing position. As soon as I stood, however, I felt the pain. David leapt into action immediately, and when I stumbled, let me fall against his chest.
"I think...we have to go back to your apartment," I announced, and then felt David chuckle. It was a low sound that made his chest rumble and me blush.
"You move quick, don't you, fetus? If you wanted to fuck, all you had to do was ask." He ruffled my hair with another condescending little smirk and I couldn't stand it. It was already blatantly obvious that he was older than me, but the last thing I wanted was for him to actually make a big deal out of it.
I started to pout, but David took me by surprise when he hoisted me in his arms, bridal-style. My face was smushed against his chest and I could feel his hands dangerously close to my ass. I would have yelled again, but the potential for humiliation was too great.
"I can walk if you just let me lean against your shoulder," I mumbled into his shirt as he walked.
"Yeah, but this is nice, kid." he adjusted me in his arms. "I feel like I'm getting in touch with my inner child."
"I'm 18, not eight." I stretched my arms up around his neck for support as he began to speed up. "So stop calling me 'kid'!"
Around us, a few heads turned, and I buried my face in David's neck. For someone so paranoid about standing out in a crowd, I sure was doing a great job humiliating myself. Instead of focusing on the way David smelled strangely of sugary candies, I turned my gaze over his shoulder and sighed.
"Get down," David reached up suddenly and pulled on my arm.
"But I—
"—I'm not carrying you inside. If you can banter with me, you can walk." He lowered his arms and let me use the brick wall for support. I was surprised when I saw the front of his apartment building.
"Th-that was..." I stammered as David swiped a card over the keypad. "How far away from the park were we?"
"It's a ten minute walk," he snickered at me as I stumbled up the first few steps. I let him guide me down the hall, but when he opened his front door, he rolled his eyes as I tried to avoid his yapping dog at the entryway. "You took forever with that damn bike. Speaking of which, I had to leave it behind. If it's not there tomorrow, you owe me three hundred bucks."
Instead of giving him my choice of a few choice words, I merely avoided the familiarity of David's water stained couch, and let myself fall into a sitting position on a white fur rug.
"Fetus, if you stain that too, I'm not going to be so friendly." David cast me a glare over his shoulder, but I settled myself down anyway.
"Will you stop calling me that?" something in me snapped. "Jesus Christ, have you ever been in a relationship that didn't involve sarcasm and belittling?"
"Have you ever been in a relationship that didn't involve getting fucked up the ass by a man older than your father?" David's tone was completely flat.
I didn't know how to respond. There wasn't a single trace of anything apologetic on his face, and I couldn't believe it. What kind of man said those things about a woman?
Out loud?
The word 'tactless' crossed my mind, and suddenly it wasn't so hard to imagine David with Blaine, after all. She too, almost always said what was on her mind.
"I'm sorry," David turned his back on me and started rooting through the kitchen drawers for something. "Did that one hit too close to home?"
Once he settled on the item-- a traveler's first aid kit -- he came to my side on the floor. After his last dig, I was reluctant to let David touch my leg, but the way I saw it, he wasn't going to let me waste any more of his time.
"You have nice legs, kid." He placed both hands on my thighs and leaned in close.
I turned my face from his. "Don't say stuff like that."
"Like what? The 'nice legs' thing or the 'kid' thing?" David was breathing on my ear and I could smell the fresh strawberry from his ice cream. It was much better than cigarettes, but gave me a strange feeling.
The only man I'd ever been close to, aside from my first, was Mark, and thinking about him put butterflies in my stomach. Without noticing, I began to sweat again. Before I'd gone over to David's that afternoon, Blaine stressed to me how important it was for me to keep my distance. Explicitly, that meant no touching, no kissing, and certainly no sex. I wasn't certain what Blaine's intentions truly were with the lecture, but she assured me the whole thing was "for my own good." Honestly, it puzzled me. I couldn't figure out if she was truly concerned I'd get into something I couldn't handle, or if she was nervous about my proximity to a man that
she
really wanted.
Regardless of whatever she was after, some part of me wanted to rebel. I told myself I'd be a good girl
as usual
, but something stopped me from wearing a regular t-shirt and jeans. It was an inkling, a strange, naughty little voice that hand me picking out a tight thong instead of "granny panties" and deciding on a dress instead of the shorts David had insisted on.
'No,'
I scolded myself. '
It's not like I wanted to-to impress him or something! No way!'
So as much as I wanted to lean in, I kept my face turned toward his patio area. Through the sliding glass I could see his clothesline and the pair of panties I'd left behind earlier. The whole thing was beyond embarrassing.
"First you're mocking me, now you're flirting?" I screwed up my face in disgust, but David didn't miss a beat.
"What can I say? I have a soft spot for
