Bill suited the action to the word, getting up and leaning over the handlebars and pumping the pedals at a lunatic rate. Looking at Bill's back, which was amazingly broad for a boy of eleven-going-on-twelve, watching it work under the duffel coat, the shoulders slanting first one way and then the other as he shifted his weight from one pedal to the other, Richie suddenly became sure that they were invulnerable...they would live forever and ever.

I promise to keep my hands to myself. I'm too exhausted to make a move on you.

Because I was there that day, and so were you.

Be myself. If only I remembered what it was like to be myself. I__ a fucking waitress in a crappy bar in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I was going nowhere. I had nothing to give him beside myself and my heart and he denied me.

Don__ cry,__ he breathed out so very close to my face. Just a little closer and I__ feel his lips ghosting against mine. __t__ like a punch in my guts when you cry.__ __ou shouldn__ touch me,__ I said, but despite my words, I didn__ try to move away from his touch. A tear ran to my upper lip and I tasted it with the very tip of my tongue. Nolan__ eyes darkened when he followed it, not straying from my mouth. I could see goosebumps over his skin on his neck and on his forearms. __olan?

He gently sucked on my lower lip, biting it carefully with his teeth. It sent tingles all over my body and I had to hold on to his strong shoulders, firm under my fingers. I opened my mouth and tugged once on his lip ring. What happened next was the best sound I had ever heard before. He groaned so deeply that I couldn__ keep my answering moan quiet.