I Remember You

  I REMEMBER YOU

  By

  Scarlett Metal

  I REMBER YOU

  Scarlett Metal

  Copyright © 2013 by Scarlett Metal

  All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect is appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  The following story contains mature themes, strong language, and sexual situations. It is intended for adult readers.

  Cover design by Purple Girl Design Ebook Covers.

  Edited by KM Krick.

  Lyrics provided by Crystal Peik.

  Dedication

  This is book is dedicated to my Aunt Shirley and Uncle Russ. Married sixty-two years, may we all know a love like yours.

  Love you!

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  1999

  “Lance, I can’t. I’m not ready.”

  Lance moved his lips down Samantha’s neck. “Please, baby.”

  Samantha closed her eyes for a second, reveling in the feel of his lips on the sensitive spot on her neck. He was such a good kisser and the heavy weight of his body felt so comforting on her, but she wasn’t ready to have sex with him yet. She moved her hands up to his chest and gently pushed him off. “I can’t,” she murmured, hoping she sounded convincing, if not to him, then at least to herself.

  Lance rolled off her with a sigh, putting his arm around her shoulders. She moved to her side, settling herself tight up against him and rested her head on his chest. “Please don’t be mad,” she said her voice barely a whisper. Lance had been pressuring her to have sex with him for the past couple of months. Part of her wanted to, but something kept holding her back.

  They’d been together on and off for the last four years since she was thirteen. He was a year older than her. They’d started seriously dating six months ago and she wasn’t ready to take that step with him. She needed more time.

  She loved him with all of her heart. That wasn’t the issue. Even though she was only seventeen, there was something about him and their relationship that told her they’d be together forever, that Lance was her soul mate. She knew he felt the same way; he’d told her on numerous occasions. Her best friend Renee told her he could be saying those things to get into her pants, but the look in his eyes when he said them made her believe it deep in her soul. She could see the raw love and emotion there. They had always seemed to have this crazy connection that brought them back to each other over and over again, no matter what, even at such a young age.

  Samantha picked her head up and turned around to look at the clock near her bed. “Babe, you better go. My mom will be home soon.” She got up off the bed and straightened her shirt. Samantha’s parents were divorced. She lived with her mom who worked full time, leaving Samantha and her sister home alone fairly often. Lance would sneak over and the two of them would spend hours making out on her bed. Lately though, he didn’t seem content with just kissing.

  She got up from the bed and grabbed a hair band from her dresser, throwing her long blond hair back into a ponytail. Watching him in the mirror as he got up off the bed and slipped on his shoes, she couldn’t help but second-guess herself. She wanted him, so what was she waiting for? These marathon make-out sessions left her feeling unsatisfied with a dull ache deep in her belly, like something was missing. She resisted the urge to brush the blonde piece of soft hair that fell over his eyes as he bent over to tie his shoes.

  He stood up and grabbed her around the waist and kissed her softly. She could feel how excited he was as he pressed his hips into hers. “Maybe soon?” He looked down at her with his gray eyes pleading.

  Getting up on tiptoe, she reached up to kiss him. He was so much taller than her and she loved it. He would wrap her up in his arms and she always felt so safe and secure against him.

  She rested her head on his chest. “Maybe.” She was afraid if she didn’t give in soon, Lance would move on and find someone that would be.

  ***

  Lance drove away from Samantha’s with a smile and a raging hard on. He loved her so much and God, he loved to kiss those lips of hers. When he left, the sight of her standing in the doorway with her lips swollen from his kisses tugged at his heartstrings.

  She was so innocent and kissed him with such passion. Yes, he harassed her about wanting more, but honestly, he was fine with kissing her for hours. The soft whimpers she made when his lips moved to her neck drove him wild. When he would slide his hand under her shirt, his thumb stroking her hard nipple, she would moan and arch beneath him. She was so responsive to his touch. He shuddered at the memory.

  He pulled up to the apartment he shared with his mom. There was a car in the driveway he

  didn’t recognize. Must be one of Mom’s friends. He took a deep breath to compose himself, shaking thoughts of his desire for Samantha out of his head before going inside. Mom’s friend didn’t need to see him with a big tent in the front of his pants. He opened the door and stopped when he saw her.

  It was Nicole.

  Nicole was his old girlfriend, if you could even call her that. She was someone he went out with a few times when he and Samantha were having one of their “off” stretches. They had a volatile relationship with lots of fighting. And lots of sex. Before he went back to Samantha this last time, he thought he’d ended it for good with her. Samantha was his future, and he wasn’t going to let her mess it up.

  “What are you doing here?” He asked, scowling at her.

  The tall redhead stood up from the couch and smiled sweetly at him. “Hello Lance.”

  He didn’t say anything in return but looked over to his mom for an explanation. She shrugged and shook her head. “Nicole stopped by and said she had to talk to you. I told her I wasn’t sure when you’d be home, but she said it was important and insisted on waiting.”

  He turned back to her. “Nicole, can you excuse my mother and me for a minute?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer before he took his mom’s arm and headed down the hallway of the tiny apartment. He led her into her bedroom and shut the door behind them.

  He started pacing the room nervously, running his hand roughly through his hair. “Did she say what she wanted? She shouldn’t be here, Mom. I’m back with Samantha now. She knows about Nicole, but I promised I’d never see her again.”

  His mom looked up at him from her seat on the bed. “Lance, I have no idea! But you better find out and get rid of her quickly. Samantha’s put up with enough of your shit for too long. If you aren’t careful, you’ll lose her for good.”

  Lance shook his head and scrubbed his face with his hand as he sighed. “Ok, I’m going to see what she wants and then tell her to leave. Can you stay here please?”

  His mom nodded. “Just be quick.”

  Lance left his mom and went back to Nicole. Whatever could she want that she had to see him tonight?

  He sat down on the edge of the chair as far from her as he could, tapping his foot impatiently. “What’s going on, Nicole? I told you I didn’t want to see you again; that we were through.”

  Nicole smoothed her neatly manicured fingers o
ver her super short skirt. Lance had to fight the urge to roll his eyes and tell her to hurry it up. “Well, as you know, when we were together, we had sex.”

  Lance nodded, feeling his heart pound in his chest as his skin turned cold. They had used birth control, so there was no way she was about to tell him what he had a feeling she was going to say.

  She tossed her long curls over her shoulder and took a deep breath. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I guess I just will.” She looked at him, her blue eyes cold as steel. “Lance, I’m pregnant.”

  Lance thought he was going to throw up. This couldn’t be happening. He had to be dreaming. He stood up from the chair. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Nicole! You told me you were on the pill. I asked you repeatedly if we were ok.” He fisted his hands at his sides as Nicole broke out sobbing.

  Lance’s mom came out of her room. “What’s going on out here? Is everything ok?” She stopped in her tracks when she saw him standing over Nicole on the couch while her shoulders shook as she cried.

  “Nicole says she’s pregnant,” Lance muttered at his mom as he walked over to the window in the front of the room.

  She went over to Nicole, sitting next to her on the couch. “I think maybe you should leave right now. He needs to calm down some before he can talk about this.” She stood up and helped Nicole off the couch, walking her to the door. “He’ll call you in a few days.”

  She shut the door before Nicole could say another word and turned to Lance. He was sitting back on the chair, his face in his hands.

  He looked up at his mom, his eyes filled with tears. “What am I going to tell Samantha?”

  Chapter Two

  “Maybe I should just do it. Get it over with,” Samantha said to her friend as they sat in Starbucks. After Lance had left her house, she’d called her best friend Renee to meet her there for some coffee and girl talk.

  Renee rolled her blue eyes. “Yeah, cause that sounds romantic,” she mumbled.

  “Well, I do love him.” Samantha played with the coffee cup in front of her. “So much. And he can kiss like no one’s business.” She grinned. Her clothes suddenly seemed to be too tight as she thought back to the earlier make out session with Lance.

  “Kissing and having sex are two totally different things. And he should respect you when you tell him you aren’t ready.” Renee liked Lance, but always protested when Samantha would tell her he asked for sex. “Most of all, he should be with you no matter what.”

  Samantha sighed and nodded. “He’s the one, Renee. I know it sounds silly, but I feel it deep in my soul. He’s the one I’m going to be with the rest of my life. He’s my soul mate.”

  Even though she didn’t say anything, Samantha could see the disapproval in Renee’s eyes. It wasn’t the first time Samantha told her friend this. And every time she did, Renee told her she was crazy and way too young to talk like that. “Don’t even say it, Renee. I know how you feel about it. But I know.”

  Samantha drank the rest of her coffee. “I gotta get home and study for my history test

  tomorrow.” She stood up, grabbing her purse and giving Renee a hug. “Thanks for listening as always.”

  Renee hugged her back. “Anytime. Don’t do anything rash, ok?” Samantha could see the worry in her eyes.

  Sam appreciated her friend’s concern, but Renee didn’t seem to get how she felt about Lance. Renee never even had a serious boyfriend. “I promise,” she said to make her friend happy, not sure what she was going to do. “See you tomorrow at school.” She headed out the door and to her car.

  On the way home, Samantha couldn’t help but think about Lance. Who was she kidding, she

  thought about him all the time. They’d had such a tumultuous relationship when they first met, but things seemed to have finally smoothed out and they were genuinely happy for the first time.

  Lance and Samantha came from two different worlds socially. She went to private school and when they first met through a mutual friend in Samantha’s neighborhood, he had considered her nothing but a rich stuck up snob. He was from a broken home, and his family didn’t have much money, but Samantha never cared. Lance had been the one who seemed to have issues with it. They fought a lot about it when they first started dating and were always on-again, off-again. She knew during some of their “off” times, he dated someone else. He’d even told her they had slept together a few times. It made Samantha a little bit jealous she wouldn’t be Lance’s first, but she eventually got over it and they had moved on.

  Samantha pulled up to her house and parked the car in the driveway before heading inside. Her mom was already in bed, but there was a note on the kitchen table that Lance had called and he wanted her to call him back. She glanced at the clock. It was almost 10, but she didn’t care. She wanted to say goodnight to him, to hear his voice before she fell asleep for the night.

  She grabbed the cordless phone from the counter and headed for her room. She dialed his number with shaky fingers. Even after all this time, she still had butterflies when she was about to talk to him.

  “Hello?” He answered on the second ring and her breath caught in her throat when she heard his voice.

  “Hey you,” she said softly, settling back on her bed. The deep sound of his voice always soothed her.

  “How was coffee with Renee?” He asked.

  “Good. What did you do after you left here?”

  There was silence on the other end of the phone. “Hello?” She sat up on the bed. Something seemed wrong.

  “Sorry, thought I heard my mom say something, but it was nothing,” he paused. “I came home and watched TV with Mom.”

  “Oh, sounds exciting,” she mumbled. Something in his voice wasn’t right. Maybe he was just tired. “Are you ok?”

  He took a deep breath. “Yeah. Just tired. What are you doing tomorrow night?”

  Yep, tired. She relaxed and smiled into the phone. “Something with you.”

  He laughed softly and a shiver ran through her as she pictured his sexy crooked smile. “Yes. Wanna come over after dinner?”

  “I’ll be there,” she replied quickly with a grin. She’d spend every waking moment with him if she could.

  “Good. I’ll see you then. Sweet dreams. Oh, and hey Samantha?”

  “Yes, Lance?” She held her breath.

  “I love you...Always,” he almost whispered, his voice thick with emotion.

  Her heart skipped a beat at his words. What brought this on? “I love you too, Lance. Good night.”

  She hung up and sighed, setting the phone on the nightstand by her bed. She changed into her pajamas and went to her bathroom to wash her face, but she couldn’t stop thinking about her conversation with Lance. Something seemed off even though he said he was just tired. He couldn’t be upset with her for not sleeping with him, could he? She hoped not. Despite his constant requests for sex, she never thought it would be something he’d break up with her over.

  Suddenly she was anxious to see him tomorrow night and make sure everything was ok between them.

  ***

  Lance couldn’t sit still as he waited for Samantha. He would sit for a minute on the couch, only to get up to straighten something on the coffee table and then move over to the chair. His mom was gone, so he and Samantha would have the place to themselves. Normally, all he would think about was touching her and kissing her when he got her alone, but tonight, he had other plans.

  He had talked to Nicole earlier that evening on the phone. Lance figured it was safer to do it that way in case he lost his temper with her again.

  “Are you sure you’re pregnant?” He’d asked her, still not wanting to believe it.

  “Yes, Lance, I’m sure. I’ve taken five home pregnancy tests. I go see the doctor next week,” she spit back at him.

  “And it’s mine? There was no one else while we were together?” He thought it was a fair question. Nicole had a reputation and he’d heard from more than one person he wasn’t the only one she’d
slept with during the time they’d been together.

  “Asshole!” She had screamed into the phone before hanging up on him.

  “Bitch,” he’d muttered as he hung up the phone. Did he tell Samantha or wait until he knew for sure the baby was his? He rubbed his hands on his jeans. He had to tell her now what was going on or she’d never forgive him. He’d told Samantha he’d sex with Nicole while they were apart and while she didn’t like it, she had accepted it. He wasn’t so sure she’d accept this though.

  Lance ran his shaking hands through his shaggy dark hair. He’d go downstairs to play his guitar; that always calmed his nerves. He taped a note on the door for Samantha to let her know to come on in when she arrived as he was downstairs. She wouldn’t be surprised to find him down there. They often spent hours in his basement with him playing music for her. He loved the looks of pure love and adoration she gave him when he was playing his guitar. It made him feel like a rock star.