The Book of Firsts

Ten

The question of whether they were being targeted was the very thing I asked Rin on Tuesday.

"I wish I could believe it was just an accident," he said, handing me a steaming cup of peppermint tea. "But it doesn’t look that way, and not being an accident means it’s something that could happen again, in some form. At this stage there’s no way to know whether it’s a random arsonist, or targeting someone in the Rowing Club, or just the school."

"The police are investigating?"

"Yes, though the school uses a security firm that will probably be more involved. There are quite a few cameras on the grounds—fortunately nowhere that can monitor the ins and outs of this garden—but there were none down at the boat shed."

"What happens to the Rowing Club? And the challenges?"

"No Rowing Club for a while. All the sculls were destroyed. Insured, of course, but we’re unlikely to get replacements before the mid-term break, and we don’t row in winter. We’ll probably take up a temporary club, which is a whole world of complications in itself. Until then we’ll randomly draw challenges." He smiled slowly, producing an expression very different from the warm, gentle version he used for his student council role. "We had a foot race for you on Sunday, Cheshire. My advantage."

"Did Bran try to win?" I asked, curiously.

"Bran’s good at keeping his motives to himself. How was he last week?"

"I think he would have preferred this challenge with someone he already knew and liked," I said. "But he has offered to teach me to dance, so I guess he’s planning on trying to get to know me enough to not be entirely uncomfortable getting me naked." I gave Rin a straight look. "Next challenge, he’ll either relax with me, or this will stop."

Rin sighed. "Yes, we can’t go ahead if he doesn’t want to do it. You need to learn to dance, Cheshire?"

"Well, I’ve never had occasion to waltz or anything like that."

"Corascur has its own ballroom dancing club, and it’s worked into the sports curriculum, since a solid portion of the students will eventually attend formal balls. There’ll be a handful of slow dances, which will allow the majority of students to participate. The rest will mostly be waltz, some foxtrot and quickstep, and probably at least one tango. I can only help on the waltz and foxtrot, though—you’ll need Bran for anything more complicated."

"Bran dances that well?"

"Meggan is part of the Dance Club, so he didn’t have a lot of choice, though I’m fairly sure he enjoys dance for its own sake. That’s an odd change of expression, Cheshire."

"Meggan Forster is Bran’s ex-girlfriend?"

"Your study of us missed that? Yes, ever since the beginning of middle school, until last year. I take it you’ve met?"

"Meggan was one of the Rose Court members with us at the Trafala. No wonder Bran was so strange. I was walking down the street with her."

Rin put down his cup, eyebrows lifted, seeming primarily entertained. "And he managed not to be unforgivably rude? I’ll take that as a good sign. Usually, Bran’s mood drops massively if he sees Meggan anywhere. The question of whether he really wanted to play with you must have distracted him."

I thought about asking why they’d broken up, but decided it fell into the category of none of my business.

"What made you three run for school council?" I asked, instead. "It seems to be a big time commitment."

"It is. In part family expectation—we’re walking a line between conforming and readying our plans this year. Next year will be confrontations and yelling, but we’ve been working toward making our choices possible for a long time."

"I hear you’re going to be a doctor."

"The expectation is more medical research combined with business administration, but there’s no objection to starting with practice."

"Are you interested in any of that?"

"Not in the slightest. But both sets of parents—I have two steps—all absolutely expect me to follow their lead, going through medical practice into pharmaceuticals. It took Bran and Kyou to let me realise there was even the possibility of something else. I did briefly mention that I wanted to be a musician, around the time I was nine, but never made that mistake again. What about your parents, Cheshire? Do they approve of engineering?"

"They’re very supportive. The only negative I can hold to their account—and it’s not really a negative, since I don’t think I’d change the way I’ve grown up—was obliging me to switch schools a lot, which has done interesting things to my academic record. But my parents will cover all course and basic living costs for whatever degrees I want."

"What are they like?"

I told him about my parents. My mother, whose interest in how things work had developed into a career as a highly-valued problem-solver. And my father writing under countless pen names, which over nearly twenty years had built from next-to-nothing to an income able to afford Corascur’s over-the-top school fees.

"Which of them do you take after more?" he asked, leading me into the summer house.

"Most people will say I’m the image of my mother," I said. "I think my sense of humour’s more like my Dad’s, though. Quiet amusement, a tendency to sit on the sidelines eating popcorn, a little teasing."

"More than a little, from what I’ve observed." He paused, turning serious. "Despite my enthusiasm last week, before going further I wanted to confirm that you’re comfortable doing this. Today particularly. I don’t want you to feel pressured."

"I’m very good at saying no to things I dislike. Having second thoughts?"

"The one thing Bran did talk about was the consequences of exposure."

I nodded. My year here would be very uncomfortable if this got out, and might follow me for all of my life.

"Now that that book’s been destroyed, the only likely exposure is overheard conversations, and I’m going to trust to your collective intelligence to not be chatting about me anywhere it’s possible to be overheard. Otherwise, even if someone did walk in here at just the wrong moment, that’d only reveal me as having a tryst with whichever of you happened to be here at the time. That one would sensibly tell people I’m their latest girlfriend, and we’d get in trouble for having sex on school grounds, which from what I’ve read on the forums is not all that remarkable. As scandals go, very minor, and more likely to impact you than me."

He tilted his head, eyes half-closing, then nodded. "If that happened, it’d be best to end the competition at whatever challenge we’d all completed." That said, he looked down at me. "With music or without?"

"Wouldn’t telling you my preferences be cheating?"

"Cheating is a viable strategy," he said, and scrolled through his phone, then set it down as it started playing something languid and instrumental.

Reaching out a hand, he pulled me onto his lap and kissed me, slow and sure. No hurry, and no lack of control today. His hands moved over me, holding mine still when I tried to respond. He didn’t pause in his kisses even as he removed my shirt and then my bra, only stopping when he took off my skirt and then underpants, lifting me easily, as if I was a doll. Being with someone as tall as Rin continued to disconcert me, and with me naked, and him fully dressed—not even his tie askew—I felt at a disadvantage.

Fortunately, he seemed to realise. His hands stilled, and then he said huskily into my ear: "I really liked it when you undressed me. Now I can enjoy the view while you do. What is it you do to keep yourself fit, Cheshire?"

I slid off his lap, regaining equilibrium. "Usually jogging in the afternoon, since exercise helps me sleep, though I’m not in a good area for it this year. Yoga every second or third morning."

"Yoga? I look forward to seeing how flexible you are." He seemed entertained, then then frowned. "Kyou seems to have lost count."

I glanced down at my very-decorated breast. "I think he liked that you’d see them."

Rin laughed. "I’ll restrain myself from sending a return message, or you’ll end up with no undamaged skin." He ran a thumb lightly across the series of hickeys Kyou had put on me, making me shiver. Then he lowered his lashes and looked at me through them as he added: "Cheshire, I’m feeling overdressed."

Rin going into flirtatious mode gave me a vision of an endless field of women collapsing at his feet. "You’re dangerous when you want something," I remarked, and pulled loose his tie.

He really did like it, not hiding the intensity of his reaction. When he stood up so I could remove his pants, I slipped around behind him and curled my arms around him before working on his belt buckle. His stomach quivered in reaction. When I reached the stage of removing his boxer-briefs, I drew them down, and then amused myself exploring the shape of his penis. Long, with a large head.

"I can feel your pulse," I said.

"Is this your definition of a little teasing?" Rin asked, his voice uneven.

I traced a fingernail along the underside of his shaft. "Could be."

He took a very firm hold of my hand, and then captured the other one when I tried to use it instead. Turning, he let go of my hands and lifted me by my armpits, walking over to the blanket he’d placed beneath the window and setting me down.

"Too much?" I asked.

"Call it…off-script," Rin said, pressing downward on my shoulders and kneeling with me when I responded. He stroked a finger along my jaw, tilted my chin, and kissed me lightly.

I stopped playing around, and simply allowed myself to be touched. He began working his way down my throat, across my right shoulder, and then down my arm. Tiny butterfly kisses. Autumn sunlight filtered through the window and caught his face as he kissed my palm, and then each of my fingertips. The Three Kings all had fine eyelashes, but Rin’s were particularly good: light brown and very long, perfectly complementing his pale gold eyes. They glimmered in the light, as delicate as his touch.

He crossed to my other hand, and repeated his path in reverse. When he reached my throat, he guided me to lay down, then worked his way down my chest between my breasts. Ghost touches across my stomach, my hip, and down my leg. I lay obediently still, looking at the sky through the window and tortured by the slow build, but also highly pleased by it.

Rin did not make the mistake of pretending to be romantically engaged, but left me in no doubt that he was enjoying himself. Kyou even more so. Bran…would I be able to do this with him?

By the time Rin had kissed the hollow of both my ankles and worked his way to my breasts, I really wanted him to stop kissing me and start doing other things, but since he’d managed the whole production after I’d teased him rock-hard, all I did when he began kissing each of the hickeys Kyou had left was catch a lock of his hair, wondering what he looked like with it down. It was fine hair, mostly straight, but with a loose curl visible at the ends, and it slipped through my fingers as he moved up to face me.

His eyes were so dilated I could only see a rim of pale gold, and he stared down at me for a long moment before saying: "Tell me if this hurts."

He went very slowly, having trouble because while I was very wet, my insides had all tightened with anticipation. I worked to make myself relax more, and I think it helped because he slid forward soon after, part of his weight coming down on me. I felt very full, but it wasn’t painful.

Height came into play again, because my face was positioned at his lower throat. I kissed his collarbone and murmured: "Do Kyou and Bran know you have an…advantage in this game?"

Rin let out his breath in a tiny snort, but said: "Sometimes it’s a handicap, so I expect it will even out."

After gauging my reaction, he began a slow, steady movement. I experimented with shifting the position of my legs, and finally wrapped them around him, holding on tight. This seemed to reassure him, and he increased his pace, and even put some strength into it when I gasped and clenched my legs tighter.

I came very quickly, digging my fingers into his ribs and lifting myself toward him as I did, then loosening, and he responded by slowing, then speeding up again. His breath was harsh in his throat, and the continued motion made me feel I was suspended in a tingling sea. I tightened my legs again, keeping our bodies as close as possible until he flooded me with heat, and then stilled.

Shifting his weight off me, Rin lay on his back beside me, one of his hands finding mine and tangling together lightly. A companionable gesture.

"I like this music," I said. "It reminds me of the ocean."

He lifted his head to look down at me, wearing a sudden, pleased expression quite unlike either his gentle mask, or the more edged smile he had previously offered me. But then he lay back down again.

"Do you like the ocean, Cheshire?"

"I like water. I’ve lived on a couple of islands, and I often listen to ocean sounds to help me sleep. Is the music yours?"

"I suppose I was being very obvious. Yes, my latest piece, background for an underwater section. Are you musical, Cheshire?"

"I can read sheet music. Whenever I changed schools, I used to pretend I’d never learned anything and let the teacher suggest an instrument. Piccolo, saxophone, xylophone, guitar, and recorder. Piano four times, so I can play to a low level, and I can find the chords on the guitar. Occasionally I was shuffled into the choir. If I had infinite time, I’d probably continue with the piano. But there’s never enough time for everything I want to do."

He hummed softly, a solemn sound, then started kissing me again.