Anna Maria by Scarlet Vance (best book club books .TXT) 📕

I push my pillow onto my head farther. Katie, my little sister, opens my door. She climbs onto my bed and lifts my pillow.

“Why are you trying to smother yourself?”

Her voice is muffled by the music coming from the room next to mine. I shoot out of my bed and storm out of my room and down the hall. I pound on the door. A boy I’ve never seen before opens the door. He is at least six inches taller than me. He has shagged black hair and sea green eyes. I look down and see he isn’t wearing a shirt. His tanned skin is glistening with sweat. A drop slides down his six pack. I force myself to look back up.

“Can you please turn your music down?” my voice has more venom then I intended.

“Why?” he counters while looking me up and down.

Self-conscience, I run a hand through my hair. “Cause I’m trying to sleep and your music is too loud.”

He leans against the door jam. “So.” He says in a voice that can melt butter.

“Anna.” Katie’s sweet voice comes from behind me.

I turn around to find a tired looking Katie rubbing her eye. I pick her up and turn back Katie lays her head on my shoulder. I glare at the new boy.

“You see? I'm not the only one affect by your music level.” I rest my head on Katie's.

He picks up a remote and turns the volume down. He stares at me like I’m supposed to say something. I turn and walk back to my room without another word. If that bastard thought he was going to get a thank you out of me, he was badly mistaken. I set the now sleeping Katie on my bed. She rolls over and grabs the stuffed bear I got on Valentine’s Days from my parents a week before they died. I put the clothes I decided to wear today in a pile on the foot of my bed and head for my bathroom. I turn on the hot water while taking my pajama’s off. I step into the shower. The steaming hot water pours around me. I stand in the streams of water for a while before finishing my shower and getting out. I wrap a towel under my arms and around my body. The towel comes to my mid-thigh. I wring out my hair and dry it with another towel. I walk out of my bathroom into my bedroom. I stop dead in my tracks; Katie's arms are wrapped around my new “neighbor”.

“Anna! Anna!” Katie squeals, “Look what Alex gave me!” she holds up a little blue stuffed kitten.

Alex looks at me with a smile on his face then his smile disappears and shoots up, he looks down embarrassed. I suddenly realize that all I am in is a towel and I wrap my arms around myself. Alex starts leaving but Katie grabs his hand.

“Please don’t go!” she looks at him with pleading eyes.

“Your sister needs to get dressed though.” Alex kneels down in front of her.

“But…I don’t want you to go!” she wraps her arms around his neck again.

“Why don’t you come to my room?” he asks.

She releases her hold on him and runs out the door squealing. Alex rises slowly and turns toward me. The way his green eyes take me in tells me that he’s not like any other boy I know. Most boys don’t even notice me because of my brown hair and blue eyes. It is such a common combination that people just don’t notice me. I do have a boy or two wanting me to do things with them but they don’t want to date me. So, of course being the self-respecting woman I am, I told them no. Soon they realized that I wanted a boyfriend not just a fling. Boys started taking me out on dates hoping I would have sex with them. As soon as I realized that I just stopped dating altogether. I haven’t seen that look since I was thirteen and my mom was pregnant with Katie. I was hanging out with my friends and a boy who was hanging out with his cousin.

“What are you still doing in my room?” I ask in a strangled voice.

“I wanted to let you know that I’m not as bad as you might think. And I-“

“You have no idea what I am thinking!” I hiss.

While I said that I walked over to him and poked him in the chest. He pushes my hand away.

“Don’t poke me and let me talk,” he sounds angry.

“What are you going to do if I don’t?” I ask teasingly.

When he doesn’t answer I poke him again, but this time he grabs my hand. I try to pull away, but he won’t let go. I grab his fingers and try to pry his fingers off my wrist. He grabs my other wrist and pulls me into his naked chest. He lowers his face to mine. I feel his hot breath on my face. I can also smell the pleasant musky scent. It reminds me of a scent I smelled in Bath & Body Works but I’m not sure on which scent it is. I blink in surprise at how close he is to me. My body is suddenly aware of the fact that I’m in the arms of an attractive boy … in my room … by my bed … half naked. I look into his eyes and I can see anger and something else there. But the other thing disappears in the next second. He locks my arms behind my back causing me to be pulled into him more.

“Listen to me!” he growls.

Shocked I try to pull back, but it doesn’t work out so well. As I pull back we both loose balance and he falls on top of me. Pain shoots up my arms and I bit back a scream. Tears slide down my cheeks and I whimper. Alex moves my hands out from under me and checks them. He kisses each of my wrists slowly. He looks up at me from under his eyelashes. My insides melt, turning to butter. He allows me to move my hands, so I take that time to surprise him, but I surprise myself as well. I take his face in my hands and pull him down to me. I close my eyes as our lips meet in a slow, soft kiss. He seems to be resisting a little so I run my tongue along his bottom lip. He lets go of my wrists and grabs my thighs. He bends my legs causing the towel to ride up, showing more of my legs. I pull him into me and I feel how hard he is. He groans as I move my hand down to his pants to unbutton them. He breaks away from our kiss and sits up. I look at him questioningly and he nods toward my door. I roll my head to look at my door. I realize we forgot the door was open and there stands a curious Katie.

“Omigoodness!” I squeal pushing my towel down.

Alex helps me up but I can tell he would rather have me on the floor with him on me. He goes over to Katie, picking her up, he leaves me alone. Wanting more than a kiss I walk over to the bed and look at the clothes I gathered there before my shower. Not wanting to wear that outfit anymore, I put them away. Instead I put on my sky blue bikini top and my blue floral swimming shorts. I normally wear this outfit for sunbathing, so when I walk into the kitchen all the boys whistle, except Alex. I grab a banana off the middle of the table and head for the refrigerator to get the strawberries. I don’t see any strawberries so I grab the bag of cherries and a water bottle. I straighten up when I hear Katie start crying. I turn around to find Jennabell holding Katie's blue cat. Everyone stops talking and Jennabell looks like she isn’t breathing. Everyone knew by now not to mess with Katie or they would be in a world of trouble. I sit my stuff on the counter then turn around facing Jennabell. I don’t know what expression I’m wearing but it seems to be scaring everyone. I walk over to Jennabell and take the cat from her.

“Is this yours?” I ask in a sweet voice.

Jennabell shakes her head. I hand the cat to Katie, who is sitting on Alex’s lap now. She stops crying and takes the cat then turns into Alex’s chest squeezing the cat. With Jennabell being around the same age as me I’m not afraid of hurting her. I push Jennabell into the wall and hold her there with one of my arms pinning her shoulders to the wall. Jennabell squeals and I hear everyone hold their breath.

“Then why did you have it?” I whisper.

Jennabell doesn’t say anything, but she looks around, panicked.

“Huh?” I push harder.

She squeals again then there is a hand on my shoulder. I look to see Alex, who is holding Katie, looks concerned. He isn’t concerned for Jennabell but for me. Then I notice that Mrs. Patterson is yelling at me to let Jennabell go.

“Anna Maria! I swear if you don’t let her go right now I will send you to your uncle’s!” Mrs. Patterson threatens.

I let go of Jennabell not because of Mrs. Patterson’s threat, but because of the way Alex’s looking at me. Though the threat is pretty scary. The thought of my uncle makes my heart race. Just talking about him makes me shiver. There is no one and anything that will make me go see my uncle. Jennabell slumps down to the floor and starts crying. Mrs. Patterson kneels down beside her and takes Jennabell in her arms. They rise slowly and Mrs. Patterson glares at me from over the top of Jennabell’s head. I take the sobbing Katie from Alex and start walking out of the kitchen. But Mrs. Patterson calls my name and I stop in the door way.

“I thought you would have learned your lesson by now. It is the reason you lost your last boyfriend, right?” she asks.

“Right,” I mutter.

I walk outside and sit Katie down on the steps. She runs over to the playground. I sit down in my normal tanning chair and lay back. I curse silently as soon as I realize that I forgot my food. I start to sit up but a hand closes over my eyes and pulls me back down. A rough masculine voice whispers in my ear, telling me to open my mouth. I open my mouth and something drops into my mouth. I bite down and the juices of a cherry swirls around my taste buds. I open my eyes to find Alex sitting in the grass next to me. He had my food sitting in his lap. I grab my banana off his knee and slowly peel it. I break off a small part and plop it in my mouth. He picks up a cherry by the stem and bites into it. His tongue snakes out and licks the juice off his lips.

“Can you do something for me?” I ask as taking a handful of cherries.

“And what is this something?” he asks looking down at the cherries.

“Can you put sun tan lotion on my back?” I pick up the lotion from its place and hand it to Alex.

“I never said I would,” he looks up at me and I don’t know what happened but he takes the bottle.

I slide up in my chair and he sits behind me. I hear him squirt the lotion onto his hand. Then the cool lotion is