Page 96 of Stags

And none of Rora’s shared friends seemed to have been poisoned against her by Maibell, which Rora had worried might happen.

Still, they left.

At Stockton’s place, he called up into the house to tell his dad that he was home, but there was no answer.

They went up to look into what Stockton called his father’s study, a big room with a billiard table on one side and a desk and a couch and easy chairs on the other—it sort of seemed like a man cave to Rora. Anyway, it was empty.

“Too bad,” said Stockton, “I wanted him to meet you.”

“Another time,” she said.

“Yeah,” he said.

They went to Stockton’s room, and he bounced around, asking her if she wanted to watch TV or just listen to music. Then he spent a bunch of time changing the music before saying that he could probably be doing this with the app on his phone instead of using the TV remote.

She was perched on his bed because there was nowhere else to sit.

He came over and sat down next to her. “Swear to the sun above, Rora, I didn’t just bring you here because I wanted to try something.”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t thinking that!”

“Well, we’re in my room, and… and…”

“It’s okay,” she said.

He eyed her.

She gave him a small smile.

He leaned over and kissed her.

She sighed, surrendering to that.

They kissed gentle, long, thorough kisses for a while, and then he pulled away, and tucked her hair out of her face, looking into her eyes. “That probably did not make it seem like I was not out to try something.”

She giggled. “I want to, you know.”

He traced the outline of her cheek and her jaw. “I’m not trying to pressure you or anything. We have time. It’s only been, like, a week.”

“Oh, are we moving too fast?” She winced. “Sorry. You’re right. We can wait.”

“W-well… you…” He looked at her lips. “I mean, I think it would be up to you if you think it’s too fast.”

“It would be up to both of us?”

“I’m fine with it being fast,” he said with a mischievous little grin.

She grinned back. “Oh, you are, huh? I see.”

“Obviously,” he said. “I would have… at the hotel last Saturday.”

“No, you wouldn’t have! You stopped it.”

“Yeah, but only because… I mean, you might have let me do that if I hadn’t, but you would’ve regretted it.”

“Because of Maibell? Because that’s taken care of, I mean, as best as it can be, I suppose.”

He ran a lock of her hair between his thumb and forefinger. “Because you wouldn’t have been ready.”

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