This series was originally published under another pen name. I am consolidating my young girl stories under the Mannheim Knot banner.
There were two things in Adam O’Dair’s life that were extraordinary. First and foremost, were his parents. To say his mother and father had a commanding presence was like saying Scarlett Johansson was kind of cute. The second extraordinary thing in Adam’s life was Emma Wahl. To him, it seemed that no boy had ever had so sweet and kind a girl for a best friend. Over the course of a few weeks in his eighth grade year, Adam would come to know both his family and Emma in ways he had never imagined possible.
Adam came downstairs that Monday morning in his typical early morning fog. He barely listened as his younger brother, Seth, chattered on and on about the latest episode of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Adam liked the show, too, especially the gorgeous British girl, Agent Simmons. But this early in the morning he wasn’t ready to dig deeply enough into his knowledge of Marvel’s B-list to discuss theories of which character from the comics certain guest stars might turn out to be down the road.
“Seth,” their father called from the kitchen, where he was helping a pretty young woman whom Adam had never seen before make the boys their breakfast, “Adam’s pre-occupied with teenage thoughts. Tell Sadie about your theories.” Seth hustled over from the table and began to chat up the twenty-something girl, probably a college student from her looks. It didn’t seem at all unusual to the ten-year-old that a gorgeous young brunette he had never met would be standing in the kitchen in only his father’s t-shirt and her teal panties. The girl, as all their dad’s conquests seem to be, was instantly taken with Seth. That was normal enough to Adam, too. What struck Adam as somewhat amazing was that his father’s parade of beauties never ended. Whenever the boy asked his father about it, his father just smiled and said, “Someday you’ll understand it, son.”
“Dan?” the girl asked. “How does Adam like his eggs?”
“Over easy, Sadie,” the man answered as he settled in next to his son at the table. “How’s my firstborn?” Dan asked, gently gripping Adam’s shoulder. He used to always rough up the boy’s hair, but these days Adam spent a lot of time trying to get it just right, and his dad was cool about not messing with it anymore.
“Just tired, Dad.”
“You seem tired a lot lately. Getting enough sleep?” Adam blushed at his dad’s question. Dad knew why Adam stayed up late most nights lately. “You know,” his dad said gently, “those girls on the internet look the same at eight o’clock as they do at twelve. I could just tell Seth that he can’t come to your room after seven-thirty anymore. You won’t have to wait until you’re sure he’s asleep. You can do what you need to do earlier and still be asleep before ten.”
Adam didn’t want to admit what he was doing, but he knew it was pointless to try and wheedle out of it where his dad was concerned. Besides, Dad understood these things and was totally cool about them. Adam knew the hang-up was his own. “Thanks, Dad. That might help.”
“As for this morning, you don’t have to go to school. I have some other plans for you. We’ll send you back in the afternoon.”
“What plans?” Adam asked. His dad’s surprises were usually pretty entertaining.
“Wait until the others are gone, son.”
Half an hour later, Dan’s executive assistant showed up to take the boys to school. Penny was a very efficient woman, and if you saw her at the office, you would think she was someone who was always serious and almost too professional. But when it was just Adam’s family, or one of Dan’s girls, Penny was always happy and usually a little mischievous. “Penny, my dear,” Dan said. “I’m driving Adam in after his appointment this morning. Would you mind dropping Sadie off by campus?”
“She’ll have to put on pants, first,” Penny said with a smile. “But no, I wouldn’t mind at all.” Penny looked at Sadie’s long legs and seemed almost hungry. Dan looked at Sadie for a second, and then the college girl turned to Penny. Her expression changed to one that seemed to mirror the way Penny looked at her. Sadie’s hand almost touched the front of her panties, but she caught herself, smiled and blushed. Adam wasn’t quite sure what had just happened, but he was pretty sure Dad was somehow doing Penny a favor in exchange for Penny doing him one.
Soon enough, Adam was alone with his father. “Go get a couple hours’ sleep, son. We start at nine-thirty.” Adam had no idea what to expect, but the two hours of sleep was a welcome gift.
He came back downstairs at the appointed time and found his father furiously signing papers while he talked on the headset of his phone. Dad had quite a few days when he never even went into the office, but the place seemed to run like clockwork anyway. From what little Adam knew of the office supply business Dad ran, it made more money every day. In the beginning, they used to move to bigger houses every couple years, but that had stopped. This house had everything they needed and more, and it was close to Mom’s place, so the boys got to spend plenty of time with her. Everybody in the family got along, even after the divorce. Mom even slept over in Dad’s room sometimes, but the boys had long ago given up hope that their parents were reuniting. Everybody was at peace with the arrangement, so Adam didn’t stress about it much.
“I’ve got to go, Miguel, my nine-thirty is here,” Dad said. “Talk to you again tomorrow…. What, Penny? She’s running an errand for me. Probably be in after lunch. Bye, Miguel.” Apparently dropping Sadie off at the dorms took Penny all morning. Adam was pretty sure what was happening there. Dad and Penny seemed to like the same type of girls. “Ah! Heir to the empire!” Dad said by way of greeting Adam.
“Doesn’t Seth get some of the empire, too?”
“Your mom’s giving him his own,” Dad said, putting all his papers neatly back into a folder, “Publishing is a better field for Seth anyhow. It’s harder than hell to get you to read, and harder than hell to get him to stop. Not that either of you would really need the help being successful anyway, but there are more entertaining things to life than trying to chase down the almighty dollar.” Dad smiled for a moment, and Adam was pretty sure he was talking about girls like Sadie. “Deck chairs!” Dad ordered and pointed Adam out onto the patio by the pool. The early-morning chill had lifted just like Adam’s early-morning daze. They sat in the sun and soaked it all in. The whole family liked to be outdoors whenever possible. Mom did too, obviously. She had come over and set up her laptop on the deck.
“Colleen, Adam’s up,” Dad declared as they approached her.
“And here I thought the sun just came out from behind the clouds. Turns out the sunshine I felt was just my oldest boy.”
“When did you get here, Mom?”
“About an hour ago. Have a seat, Adam.”
“So, Mom, Dad, what’s up?”
“Right to the point, good,” Dad said. “We’ll get to it as fast as we can, too. Adam, have you ever had days when you felt like there was something big right in front of you, but something was keeping you from grabbing it?”
“Only when Mariel Swank wears a tight sweater and hangs out with her high school boyfriend,” Adam quipped.
“I cannot believe that girl is only thirteen!” Mom declared, as always understanding what Adam felt. It was impossible keeping secrets from either of his parents. Adam had grown used to speaking openly in front of them.
“Most of my girls aren’t that blessed, and they’re usually at least ten years older.” Dan seemed to be visualizing Mariel in a tight sweater, but when Colleen chucked him gently on the leg he turned his gaze back to Adam. They waited for the boy to answer the question seriously.
“All the time, Dad. It’s like I’m supposed to be somebody else, but some mysterious force is keeping me from becoming him.”
“Well, my man, your mom and I don’t want you to ever be anyone else. We think you’re the absolute best. Seth, too. But there are more layers to you, and we can tell you exactly what’s keeping you from reaching them.”
“What?” he asked, fearing he was going to get a lecture about his inconsistent academic efforts.
“Us,” Mom said.
Adam was lost. He said so.
“Son,” Colleen said, “you and I aren’t exactly what you would call one hundred percent human. We’re something a little more. So are Dan and Seth.”
“Um, what are we, Mom?”
Colleen smiled. She leaned back into her chair and stole a sip from Dan’s iced tea. For some reason the sun seemed to shine a little more brightly in that moment and her blonde hair glowed almost like a golden halo around her head. “There’s lots of names for our people, depending on culture and language. The name most of us prefer is Tuatha de Danaan or Fair Folk.”
“Fairies?” Adam said disappointed, even though he wasn’t completely buying it.
“That’s one name for some of our relatives,” his father said. “We’re descended from a race that’s far older than humans. We are precious few, so we don’t upset their culture too much. Pixies, leprechauns, sprites, even some dark folk like imps and succubi are all descendants of the same race. We are the most human of the lot, and when fully realized, the most powerful.”
“You’re serious about this?” Adam asked.
His mom placed a gentle hand on Adam’s knee. “Very serious, son. You are as close to a purebred son of Mother Danu as there is left in the world, and that makes you pretty… boss. Is that a good word to describe it to someone your age?”
“In 1957, yes,” Adam teased, but he was still too focused on what she had just said to enjoy the chuckle she got out of it. He turned to his other parent. “Dad, this is fairy tale shit.”
“Some call them fairy tales. We call them our family history. Look, I know you’re having a hard time swallowing this. Just think about it, though. Don’t Mom and I always know too much? Aren’t we always enjoying a never-ending stream of beautiful young conquests who never make any demands on us? Didn’t you just see me serve my lesbian friend up a hot, straight co-ed with no more than a glance at the girl?”
“Oh, good for Penny,” Mom declared. “She was having a rough month after she lost Megan. She needed a romp.”
“I-I never put it together that way,” Adam said, as if he should have seen it all along.
“We never permitted it,” Dan said and took his ex-wife’s hand. “Mom and I haven’t messed with you and Seth very much, but we have kept you from realizing certain things. Our power is one thing we’ve kept you from seeing. Your own power is the other. Aside from that, we haven’t changed a thing about you.”
“I can do what you do?” Adam asked, the implications swirling in his head. “Girls like Sadie?”
“Eventually,” Mom said, “but let’s start more at your own level, shall we? I really think a boy ought to start out by losing his virginity with a girl his own age, a girl he really likes and cares for. There’s plenty of time for co-eds and models and…”
Dan interrupted and sighed a little, “… prima ballerinas.”
“Got a little drool on your chin there, Dad,” Adam joked. He was becoming at ease with all this. He realized why. “You’re letting it all settle into my brain a little at a time, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Your father and I are going to hold you to a pace you can handle, Adam. If we cut you loose right now, we’d be having to clean up the mess after you took Miss Mokowski over her desk during biology class.”
“God, she’s hot!” Dan whispered. Colleen playfully punched him on the arm. “A distant second, my love.”
Colleen kept the conversation going forward. “In a year or two, you can have her, son. First you’ll need to learn how to be discrete about things. It wouldn’t do to have you inadvertently destroy her career as an educator.”
“Yeah, if we got caught…”
“Or,” his father said sadly, “to get her emotionally and morally so confused she quits her job.”
“You screwed up, didn’t you?” Adam asked, for the first time in his life realizing that his father could make huge mistakes, too.
“Yes. But Miss Merritt got her life back on track once I realized my error. She’s a grandma, now. Her oldest daughter just had her first child.”
“Sam had the baby? Oh, I bet it’s beautiful, just like Samantha. Boy or girl, Dan?”
“Boy. Adam, I arranged for Miss Merritt to get a good job in a field she loves, and I introduced her to her husband. But I accidentally put her through hell for a few years before I figured out how to fix it all.”
“So, walk me through it slow, then, Dad.”
“To begin with, we’re only going to let you see some things you haven’t seen before, and we’re going to unleash your ability to charm, but not to control.”
“What’s the difference between the two, Da?” When did he start referring to his dad by an old Irish diminutive? There were lots of things creeping into his brain.
“Charm simply means that people are able to see that there’s something special about you, particularly women since you have definitely decided that’s the way you swing,” his mom answered. “The attraction they feel to you doesn’t mean you can make them do things any more than any other boy they have a crush on would be able to make them. That would be control, or compulsion. You will have that someday in the not-too-distant future.”
“But not until you think I’m ready, Mam?” Now he was going all Irish with his mother.
“Well, honey, by the time you’re seventeen or eighteen, there’s probably not going to be much we could do about it without getting into some very heavy-handed things we would never do to our own son. For now, though, what we think is best is that you learn how to handle people kindly. Then, when you have your full set of abilities you will hopefully show kindness as well.”
“Why would I be mean if I had control?”
His father smiled a little sadly. “It can be fun as hell to be mean,” he said. “Listening to a lover beg is something that you will probably someday want to experience. It’s quite a thrill, actually. But if you learn to be kind, you can end the experience in a way that makes her feel good about herself and allows her to get on with her life with one strange but happy memory.”
“Okay…?” Adam said, still a little unsure of the whole thing.
“Well, take Mariel for example,” his mother explained. “Wouldn’t you love to have that little princess on her knees begging to suck your cock while you played with her big titties?”
“Mam!” Adam turned red, but he knew it was true. She gave him a stern look and he answered her question truthfully. “I want to hear her squeal while I bend her over a table and take her from behind. I want to have her know that she can’t say no to me,” he admitted.
“It’s perfectly normal, sweetie. Boys think like that, trust me. I’ve picked up plenty of those thoughts headed in my direction. The time will come, son. But doing that to her right now, without the right skill set to put her pieces all back in place afterwards would be just plain brutal.”
Dan added his thoughts. “We’re not brutal men. Hell, son, we’re the good guys, as much as any race of people can be such a thing.”
“You’re right, sir. I don’t want to be brutal—in the end.”
“Perfect attitude, son. Perfect,” Dan said with a nod. “Now, we’re also going to let you begin to see the general shape of people’s minds. You won’t be getting into their specific thoughts, just seeing kind of the whole picture of their being. Think of it like a bouquet of flowers. From a few feet away, you can see whether or not it’s well-shaped, and even pick out flowers that are starting to decay. But if you get closer, you can see each flower individually; then closer, you can see every petal. Then closer, you spy every imperfection on each petal. In the end, if you parse it enough, it loses its beauty. You are going to be able to see a girl’s mind like it’s a bouquet, from a reasonable distance. You’ll be able to tell which ones are the prettiest and most well put-together. You’ll also be able to see which ones are really suffering from rot.”
“Men’s minds look like a grove in the forest to us,” Colleen added. “Same general idea, though.”
“And then I can try and pick the best bouquet out of the bunch? Find the girl with the best spirit, not just the best body?”
“Exactly. But, Adam, you realize these bouquets have their own free will?” Dan asked.
“So, I have to turn on the charm and see if they choose me?”
“I don’t have a stupid son,” his father said with a smile, “Just two brilliant ones. Let’s go practice.”
“Where, Da?”
“The mall. Shopgirls range from lovely young things to bitter little snots. You’ll see a nice variety of girls. Come along. Colleen?”
“Love to,” she said and took her ex-husband’s hand.
Adam had the most fascinating two hours of his young life at the mall that morning. He saw a whole new world. When he looked at the well-dressed and effervescent young woman at the jewelry store on the way in, he saw that her mind and soul were filled with dark ugly patches. She was helping a young couple pick out wedding rings, and she seemed to be enjoying every moment of their happy occasion, but her bouquet was horrid. “What’s with her, Da?” Adam asked as they gazed across the hallway from the pretzel stand to the jeweler’s.
“She’s had a few bad breaks,” Dan sighed, “but mostly she just doesn’t like people who don’t have much to offer her. She’s working hard on trying to break up the boss’s marriage and getting hitched to a rich jeweler.”
“Even if she pulls it off,” Colleen said, “she won’t be happy. She’ll keep going after richer men. Pretty though, isn’t she?”
Adam relaxed his gaze and saw her smile and laugh with the young couple who kept moving further and further down the counter toward the cheaper rings. Adam had to admit that if he had met the young woman yesterday, he would have thought she was an angel. Upon closer inspection of her mind, the prospective bride seemed nice, though. Adam checked the groom. The groom’s grove of trees looked like a nice, green place where a girl would feel safe taking a rest. Adam was happy for them.
All morning long, Adam gauged young women. The most beautiful bouquet he saw belonged to a slightly chubby girl with nose rings and hair dyed jet black. She was working at a store that mainly sold t-shirts and caps to skaters. “Mam, she’s kind of…”
“Amazing!” his mother concluded the sentence for him. “Sings lead in a rock band that hasn’t quite taken off yet. Record exec tells them their sound is great but the girl isn’t the sex bomb his label wants. She believes in herself, though.”
Dan took out his phone and took a couple notes. “I’m going to speak to that label-man. A girl like this deserves a break.”
For the first time that day, Adam realized what his parents were. This power could go way beyond getting horizontal with any girl you chose. There was some opportunity to do real good here.
“We can’t rule their race and their world, mac. But we can do little things here and there to make some people’s lives a bit nicer.”
“I love you, old man.”
“I know, son. But it’s nice to hear.”
On the way over to the school, Adam’s parents explained how they had gotten married to bring Fair Folk children into the world. They had tried to make the marriage work, but with their abilities there was just too much fun to be had as single people. Their old habits were too hard to break. They stayed close together and both remained part of their boys’ lives. They’d decided the boys would stay with Dan, since his life more closely mirrored what theirs would become. Colleen was going to advise them if they needed help understanding girls, but Dan was the one who knew what their moral decisions would need to be. “Men and women are equals, honey,” Colleen explained to Adam. “But that doesn’t mean we’re the same. Our race knows that better than anyone. We can make more choices, control our world, better than those around us. Given that freedom, our women make many of the same choices as our men in most ways, but often for different reasons. Dan is a better guide for you. Even with all my gifts I don’t think like a man. Nor do I wish to.”
“She’s lying, son. Our men and women aren’t equals. They’re better people than we are. Humans are pretty equal that way, but our women have proven time and again that they’re more powerful and thoughtful. They have more of the goddess in them than we do.”
“I wasn’t going to say it,” Colleen said with a little smile. She reached over and stroked Dan’s thigh.
“Get a room, you two,” Adam said and hopped out of the car. When he turned around to watch them drive off, the car was still. His parents were making out in the front seat. It was nice to know that divorced or not, his mam and da were the love of one another’s lives.
Adam walked into school and gave the office his note, excusing him from the morning due to ‘illness.’ He hadn’t taken three steps outside the office before Emma was on him. She squeezed his arm gently. “You okay, doofus?” she asked sweetly.
“Fine, ditz,” he said. “Not sick at all. Da just wanted to hang out for the morning.”
“He’s Da, now? Trying to be more Irish to suck up to your parents? It’s cute, but you hardly need it. You have the coolest dad in the world anyway,” she said with a sigh.
“You have no idea, Wahl,” he answered. “And by the way, your crush is showing.”
“Sorry. Not drooling or anything am I?” she asked. She had long ago given up trying to conceal her adoration of Adam’s dad. Adam was now suddenly grateful that his da hadn’t taken advantage of it. Emma was a treasure, and the temptation was probably there on Dan’s end, too.
“No drool. Actually you look extra cute today,” Adam said.
Emma gasped, smiled, and then punched him on the arm. “Dork,” she said, trying to act like she was mad at him for breaking that little wall between the two best friends. It occurred to him that the two of them actually acted a lot like his parents did when other people were around them. Adam found he was actually afraid to look at her mind. She was too close, too precious to him. He looked at her physical form instead.
Emma was skinny, had light freckles and short black hair. She wore little round glasses and had braces. She was almost entirely bereft of any form of curves, and her movements alternated between graceful and unbelievably clumsy. She could dance like she belonged in a video, but she ran into a door frame at least once a week. To hear her parts described in isolation, one might mistakenly believe she was less than fetching. In truth, Adam found her to be adorable. The parts all came together in a way that made him think of her as one of the real cuties in his class. Some, but not all, of the other guys thought so, too. “She’s gonna be a beauty, son,” his da had often commented, but never pushed Adam into anything romantic with the girl. He really didn’t interfere with those things.
“Emma,” Adam sighed, “your cuteness is a little too obvious not to mention once in a while. I’ll try to control my raging hormones.”
“You need a girlfriend, O’Dair,” she said brightly. “Let’s get you one.” Adam couldn’t help but notice that her hand had returned to his upper arm, and her touch was slightly different than normal. There was nothing overt in it, and she was trying hard not to be affected by his words, but he knew they meant something to her.
For the rest of the afternoon, Emma would discretely point out a girl in class, and Adam would study her. To Emma it would seem he was checking out her body, but he was looking at the girls in an all new way. He turned up his nose at luscious Sarah Waterford. Her curves were amazing, but her bouquet had some real dark spots. He nodded enthusiastically at awkward Jenny Flyner. The little brunette had a habit of blurting out things at inappropriate times, but Adam saw that her bouquet was mostly brightly colored tulips. Adam was shocked when he studied shy Melanie White. The quiet girl just seemed like your typical wallflower, but when he looked at her bouquet it was nearly dead. She had very little warmth to her at all. He shook his head in near terror. Emma seemed confused, but pointed out cute little Mindy Terval. Adam grinned and gave two thumbs up. Somehow, her bouquet of tiger lilies looked naughty to him, and naughty in a way he found very appealing. She looked like she was a couple years younger than the other girls, but her thoughts were lusty. When Emma pointed out Miss Mokowski, Adam just turned red and dropped his head to the desk with a thud. Her bouquet looked like it was ready to burst into flames. Fire orchids. She was a sexual dynamo. She would have broken Adam in half.
“Okay, Adam?” the red-haired teacher asked when she heard the thump of his head hitting the desk.
“Um, he was kind of sick this morning, Miss M,” Emma answered quickly. “He came in this afternoon to try and tough it out.”
“Well, A for the effort, and A for Adam,” the teacher said sweetly. “But one day of school isn’t worth risking your health. We only have ten minutes left in the day, Adam. Hang in there, okay, sweetie?” She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. Adam didn’t dare look at her. He gave a thumbs-up, but kept his head down.
“That was hysterical!” Emma cried when she got him out into the hallway after class. “She trip your trigger, little man?”
“She’d break my trigger right off, Emma.”
“So, you want me to start working on Mindy Terval for you?”
“Cool, if you can pull it off,” he said enthusiastically. He looked up into Emma’s eyes and smiled. She was grinning at him. The rest of the traffic in the hallway sort of faded. Adam did what he’d been afraid to do all day. He looked at his best friend’s mind. At first glance the sight was so amazing that he was certain his own mind was playing tricks on him. He saw a beautiful bouquet of white roses, huge and tightly packed. But mixed in with the white roses was a bundle of red roses in the shape of a heart. When he was certain that the gorgeous display truly was his friend’s mind, and not a product of his own hopeful imagination, Adam slumped back against the lockers.
“Maybe you really are sick,” Emma declared, taking his hand.
“Why don’t you walk me home?” he asked. “Just in case.” He smiled his best charming smile. When she found herself bathed in Adam’s newly unleashed charm, Emma’s look of concern for her friend became the expression of a girl who was nearly overwhelmed. She almost looked afraid of what she was suddenly feeling.
“Okay,” she said softly. She started to release his hand, but he kept hold of it. “Okay,” she whispered again, “Adam.”
“I KNEW it!” Wendy Pfeiffer cried. “It was bound to happen. They were too cute together.”
Adam looked up to see Wendy and her friend Chancey Haroll. They were beaming at them. These two were the class romantics in many ways, always trying to couple kids up. “Oh, crap,” Emma muttered.
“Just go with it,” Adam said and followed an instinct he hadn’t seen coming. He stood up straight and swiftly kissed Emma. Her soft lips, backed by firm braces, created a surface that was a wonderful mix of the tender and the strong. And it was warm and wonderful.
“Asshole,” Emma whispered as she pulled back for a moment. Then she kissed him back.
“Oh, he’s that kind of sick,” Miss M’s voice said as she emerged from her classroom on the way to volleyball practice. “I compliment your taste in diseases to contract, Adam. Emma’s a sweetheart.” She smiled at them as they turned bright red. “Oh, and school rules require me to tell you to get your lips off each other in the hallway.” She looked sternly at them for a moment. “So, go somewhere else and kiss him, Emma.” She put one hand on each of their backs and ushered them toward the door. “Young love,” she sighed and laughed merrily as she continued on her way to the gym.
Adam and Emma never bothered to go to their lockers. They needed to get away from everyone’s prying eyes. “Sorry,” he said as they got outside the big glass doors, “I just couldn’t help it. You’re just too wonderful to describe.”
“I think I hate you,” she said, not letting go of his hand. “We were best friends. That’s shot to hell now.”
“You kissed me back!”
“Of course I did! I’m in love with you, doofus.”
“But you just said…”
“Adam, you were my best friend. I don’t think you know how much that means to a girl. Boys do friends differently. It’ll never be the same between us now.”
“But it was pretty cool for a minute there when we were, you know, kissing and stuff.”
“Duh!”
“So? That’s good, right?”
“You are so stupid, Adam. I love where this is going, but how about giving me thirty seconds to mourn my best friendship going to hell?” She still didn’t release his hand. She walked very fast and seemed genuinely angry with him. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” she cried, suddenly stopping. She dropped her books, threw her arms around his neck and really, really kissed him. His books hit the ground as her slender body filled his arms; her barely-there chest crushed against him. She opened her mouth and darted her tongue between his lips. She kissed him tenderly for a long moment. “Fuck!” she declared, resting her head on his shoulder. “It’s really, really bad.”
“I think I love you,” he said, hoping it was the right thing to say.
“Better do more than think it,” she said. “I’m giving up everything we had for this.”
Adam was finally beginning to understand her. When she cried, it had always been on his shoulder. When she hated the older girls at school for calling her the ‘titless wonder’ it was him she had vented to about it. When she’d broken her ankle skateboarding, he was the one who brought her her homework. He even read her the chapters out of ‘Tuck Everlasting’. She hadn’t asked him to. He just did it because he thought she’d like it. She feared it would all go away if the romance failed. She was probably right. There was no way that she could know about the ace Adam had up his sleeve. His parents could help fix her broken heart if that ever happened. She also didn’t know that he had seen what she was inside, and that he was hopelessly, helplessly in love with her. And Adam also now realized that he always had been. He had just been too comfortable in their friendship to let anything change that.
“I don’t want to give up anything we have together, Emma,” he said. He decided the more she knew the better. “I think I’ve always been in love with you. I just wasn’t old enough to see it until today. Or maybe it just turned into true romantic love today, but either way I know it’s the real thing.”
Emma kissed him again, then. “It sure as hell jumped up a couple notches today, didn’t it?” she said when she brought her cheek back down to his shoulder. “I kind of started to see you the way you really are or something.” She took his hand again. They gathered up their books and resumed walking. “It’s all your fault, doofus,” she said with a sigh.
“It is, Emma. Totally my fault.” She seemed satisfied with that, and walked on swinging his hand slightly. Within fifty yards, she was practically skipping in delight.
He hadn’t pressed his advantage for two weeks. They kissed, hugged, held hands, snuggled. Adam’s dad spoke nothing of it, but seemed a little concerned that the boy had begun by falling into an all-out love instead of a few naughty trysts. It was complicated. Adam could see that, too. But he didn’t care. Emma had to be his first. And as far as he was concerned, she could be his last and only, too. His mind might have seen the difficult road ahead, but his heart had other notions.
It was the second Saturday of their romance, and Adam found himself alone with Emma in her house. Her parents had taken her older brother to some kind of music competition and wouldn’t be back until Sunday afternoon. The quiet house was like a giant cloud of pressure on them. They both knew that their bodies yearned for something beyond what they had been getting. And they knew that there was now nothing in the way of that except their own misgivings. Well, Emma’s misgivings to be honest. Adam couldn’t think of anything beyond the moment.
“You are so beautiful, Emma,” he said, trying to start things.
“Please,” she said with a giggle. “I’m a stick with glasses and braces.”
“Knock it off, Emma,” he said. “You know I’m not the only guy in class who thinks you’re cute.”
“Cute? Maybe if you squint your eyes just right. Beautiful? No.”
“Very beautiful, and sexy as hell,” he said.
“Love has made you blind, dork.”
“I know why you’re doing this,” Adam said.
“Doing what?”
“Acting like you’re some kind of awkward, goofy little girl. You’re afraid of what might happen if you ever admit that you’re more than that.”
“Quit acting like you’re older and wiser, Adam. I turned fourteen. You’re thirteen for another two weeks yet.”
“I’m not wise. I’m just willing to admit that you have the most beautiful mind and face and body I’ve ever seen, and I’m totally in love with you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered and stared into the darkness around them. The light of the TV was the only thing keeping the house from total blackness. “Don’t say anymore, please,” she said in the same helpless whisper as before.
“I want to take you upstairs and lay you down on your bed, Emma.”
“Please, Adam, don’t say this.”
“I look at your sweet little ass in your jeans every day, and it makes me want you so bad,” he said softly.
“Oh, God.”
“I want to kiss my way down your neck and onto your bare shoulders. I want to run my hands over your skin.”
“Adam, stop talking.”
“You’re the one, Emma. Haven’t we always been the one for each other? We just didn’t know it until two weeks ago.”
“Fuck,” she said softly, her eyes closed. She sat straight up for a few seconds. “Call your dad. Tell him you’re staying over. He’ll be cool about it.” She walked away from him and headed to her bedroom.
Adam’s dad was cool about it. He didn’t say much other than, “She’s a real treasure, son.” They had already talked about how their race only had children when both partners made it their heart’s wish. There was nothing left to say besides what his father had said.
Emma sat on the edge of her bed. She had changed into a little nightie. It was kind of a light purple. Adam had seen her wearing a top that color one day last week and told her it looked good on her. She’d obviously remembered. This whole scenario had been kicking around in her head lately as well. Adam pulled at the bottom of his shirt and looked to her for approval. She beckoned him over. Emma removed the shirt for him, and loosened his belt. As he worked his way out of the pants, she pressed her ear to his bare chest and listened to his heart. She had often done that lately, but never when he was without a shirt. When he was wearing nothing but his red boxer briefs, he crawled into bed with her.
They kissed for a while. He constantly brushed his hand through her hair. He loved how soft and rich it was. Her tongue had become something of a marvel to him as of late. She seemed to be able to make it tease and caress and love his lips and mouth in ways he hadn’t known a tongue could achieve. Now, he saw her tongue’s actions as being something of a metaphor for what their bodies wanted to do. He moved his kisses down her neck and opened the tie on the front of her nightie. It slid back and exposed her bare shoulders. He hadn’t been lying about his desire to kiss them. They were slender and pale and perfect.
Adam hadn’t anticipated what a profound effect his kisses to her shoulders would have on Emma. She clutched the back of his head and gasped. “Oh, Adam! Please love me. Please don’t let this just be a game to you!”
“I do love you, Emma. I do love you.” In response, she opened her nightie the rest of the way and let it fall. She leaned back and offered her chest to him. She was not a ‘titless wonder’. There were little swells there, and her slightly oblong areolae were topped by perfect little nipples that rose to meet his eager lips. She cooed and squirmed to his touch, and her fingers stroked the hair on the back of his head. Her slender hips reached to his body, and he felt the brush of her panties against his hip. She was warm all over her thin body, but there was no doubt that what lie beneath the panties was the warmest part of all.
Adam didn’t want to rush his first visit to her tender little breasts, but the temptation drawing him downward was too great. He rolled her to her back and kept kissing her chest as he slid the panties off of her hips. She lifted her bottom to help him. He kissed his way down her flat belly and began to catch a whiff of her sex. It was wonderful to him, a foreign smell, an exotic one. He had never even gotten a sniff of it off his fingers, so he was experiencing something completely new.
He knew that something so wonderful needed to be loved, so he set his mind to doing it. When she had slid the panties off over her ankles, she opened to him, and he gently touched and stroked the hair on her mound. It was softer and straighter than he had imagined it being. The edges were perhaps trimmed a little, but she had never done anything to remove her soft covering of black. She slid upwards slightly toward his fingertips, inviting the tender visitors to explore the wonders below the hair. Adam hadn’t known that skin could be so soft, but everything he touched seemed to be made of the most delicate and sensitive flesh he had ever felt. He treated it with sweetness, and it responded with moisture and warmth.
He loved it. He absolutely loved the wonder of her sex. He had to kiss it, to show how he felt. When he did, she drew in a sharp breath and then exhaled slowly. “Oh, yes,” she said. “Yes, please, Adam.”
He kissed it, in turns feverishly and then slowly. At last, he grew bold enough to taste it, and to use his fingers to open her folds slightly and trace his tongue along the insides of her. She moaned softly and grasped his head lightly. It was almost by accident that he found the thin little stem and brushed it with the tip of his tongue. Her grip tightened, and her heels came up and pressed into his back. She was holding him there, willing him to press on with his efforts. He began to try and discover everything his mouth could do. He kissed, licked and sucked. He even used hot breath to stimulate her. She seemed to love it all. More of the sweet, light nectar formed, and Adam savored the taste of it.
Finally, he sensed that she wanted more to happen. He slid a finger into the tight passage he found there and moved it back and forth, in and out. His mouth then centered on the little stem, and she groaned in a way that told him it was okay to keep going. He loved her little intimate space for everything he was worth, and then something overtook her. She began to tremble. He paused for a moment. “Don’t stop! God, don’t stop!” she cried softly, almost on the point of tears. He kept at it, and the tremble grew into twists and turns of her hips. Finally, she grasped his head tightly and bucked her hips into him. He kept the finger moving. Emma took three quick, sharp breaths and drove her heels hard into his back. She squeaked slightly, and then suddenly relaxed. It felt to Adam as if his finger was being squeezed for a few seconds, and then Emma stopped her trembling altogether. “Kiss me,” she whispered.
Adam climbed up to her lips, and she kissed him deeply. “Did you…?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah,” she said with a nod and a smile. “It was… sweeter than I thought it would be. When I do it myself, there’s never any real love, you understand?”
“Yes,” he said. “It was kind of amazing. I was just trying anything it seemed like you liked.”
“Well, it was wonderful, Adam.” Emma rolled him to his back and pulled his red boxer briefs away from him. “Whoa,” she said. “That’s bigger than I thought it’d be.” She looked frightened for a moment. “Don’t worry, Adam. I’m not scared enough to quit on you.” She brought her mouth down on him then. He could tell she was in the same spot he had been. She was just trying to figure out how to make it feel good for him. She figured it out.
She could barely open her mouth wide enough to get him in. They were a few tries away from figuring out to remove the rubber bands on her braces before they started. But she had a gifted tongue, and she put it to work on him without hesitation. Again, it wrapped around him like her whole body was beginning to want to wrap around his. Twisting and turning, her slender tongue pleasured him as far down the shaft as it could go. Then, she brought it up to the tip and caressed and loved it. She finally lowered her whole mouth on him again and began to suck as she slid up and down the boy’s rigid staff. Adam tried to keep still, but he lacked the experience and discipline to manage it. “I need to move!” he whispered urgently. “I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”
“Let’s put it where we know it can move, then,” she said. She gently massaged it as she rolled to her back. Adam looked down at the girl who had been so timid, but who seemed to be growing bolder with every passing minute. She nodded. “Take it, Adam. It’s always been meant for you.”
Adam crawled between her legs. Emma had never let go of his shaft. It was her slender hand that guided him to the opening, and gently worked the tip into her. She winced a little as it first began to stretch her. “I love you, Emma.”
“Love you, too. You’re going to have to push from here on out,” she said and bit her lip. Adam began to push inside of her. She was wet and willing and trying to throw her legs out as wide as they could go to make it all work. The fact that she was so small that even his rather normal adolescent shaft seemed big to her prevented it from being an easy thing for her to do, however. “Owie,” she whimpered softly as tears rolled back down her temples. Adam hesitated, but she grabbed his behind and exerted gentle pressure. He pushed harder, and the barrier gave way. He froze again, but she used her hands to urge him deeper. He bottomed out and then she held him in place. “I love you,” she said and kissed him. “One more second,” she said and took a deep breath. “Okay. Go slow.”
Adam felt a strong urge to do anything but go slowly. He was surrounded by warmth and incredible tightness, and his brain and hips were screaming to draw in and out, to hammer deeply inside of her and then withdraw to do it again. But his love for her overpowered everything else, and he marshaled his urges. He learned that he could savor every second of tender lovemaking with his innocent and adoring girlfriend. Her sex clutched at him as he slowly withdrew, and it wrapped him in a hot embrace when he pushed back into her. Every sensation was both as strong as a firm grip and as light as a feather. He felt like he hadn’t ever been alive until that instant. He kissed her over and over, and she returned the kisses with equal fervor. He could taste tears in her kisses. She was weeping, but he realized it wasn’t with pain or regret. It was all so damned deep between the two of them. It all meant so much. “Oh, Emma,” he whispered.
“It doesn’t hurt like before,” she said. “You can do what you want, I think.” She clung tightly to his neck. “I don’t mean I think. I mean it’s okay. Do what you want, Adam.”
Adam took her tiny bottom in his hands and began to push into her with more speed. He buried his chin in above her shoulder and let his hips fly. He went deep and hard and fast. He loved her, but he desired her slender little body and all its pleasures, too. He took her at her word that she was ready. She began to moan and groan in a way that both said that it was hard for her to take and that she didn’t want it to stop. She was willing to let her body get pushed to its limits if she could get more love from him, give more pleasure to him. Adam wasn’t exactly reading her mind, but he found he could feel things coming from her. Her legs wrapped around him, and it felt like the two young lovers were trying to push themselves into one being.
The effects of this increase in passion didn’t take long to set in on Adam’s body. He began to feel a pull at the base of his shaft, and pressure building behind it. The pressure crept its way upward until it was pushing on the underside of his shaft, just beneath the head. The whole world hung in that tiny spot for a moment, and then the flood gate broke loose. Adam groaned, and he buried himself deep inside of Emma. A jumbled, rolling rush of warmth burst through his shaft and escaped into his lover’s sex. Again and again his body pushed the warmth into her. Emma made a soft sighing sound and wrapped her legs around his haunches. Her slender hands clutched at his bottom.
“Oh, Adam,” she panted. “That was intense.”
“Good intense?” he asked as he caught his breath.
“The best intense,” she said. They were quiet for a moment. “Well, that was nice,” she said. “I’ll maybe call you again sometime. You need cab fare?”
“I love you, too,” he answered.
They lay in one another’s arms until they regained the strength to try it again. It went longer that time, and Emma wasn’t at all squeamish about kneeling and letting him try it from behind. She liked it from the physical standpoint, but said she liked it best when they were in each other’s arms. The next morning, she tried it from the top. For some reason it made her cry, and she said it was too beautiful to describe to look down at him. “That’s our special one,” she decided. “That’s when I need to be able to see how much you love me.”
Adam left after making her breakfast. Neither of them wanted him to be there when her parents arrived. As they spent an hour on the phone that evening, they spoke softly of how much they loved one another. Neither of them knew the heartbreak and the elation that lie in wait for them. The years to come would see them grow apart and then bring them back together again. Secrets would be shared, and their lives would become filled with things they could not foresee. But never, in all that time, would either stop loving the other.
