Arousing Love, a teen novel Read Online Free Page B

it.”
    “I hate it too.”
    “You’re a deep thinker, aren’t you
Joanna?”
    She smiled. “I guess.”
    “It’s good to be able to think for yourself.
There’re people trying to force their thinking on us all the
time.”
    “Like who?”
    “You know, like the media, and all the
politically correct stuff. They’re deliberately guiding our
thinking in certain ways, which is like social engineering. It’s
not all bad, but this is meant to be the land of the free, and it’s
not freedom if we’re taught what to think. It’s
indoctrination.”
    “You’re a deep thinker too, aren’t you
Zach?”
    “I like to think so.” I grinned.
    “Do you believe in God?” Her eyes searched
mine.
    “Uh, yeah, I guess. I don’t see much good in
Christianity, though. Mostly a lot of hypocrites who think they’re
better than everyone else.”
    “I’m a Christian.”
    “Oh . . . . ”
    “Not that I’m perfect or anything, as you’ve
already seen.”
    “Well, I didn’t mean you . . . and from what I’ve seen, you look
pretty perfect to me.” I smiled, hoping I hadn’t offended her too
much.
    She smiled too. “I don’t think of myself as
better than anyone else, but I try to be what a Christian is
supposed to be. I’m not always good at that, but I guess God is
still working on me. Hey, can I play you one of my songs? It’s kind
of about this.”
    “You write songs?” She just kept surprising
me.
    “Yeah.” She got my guitar and sat down on the
bed. “I don’t usually play my songs for other people, so don’t
laugh or anything.”
    “Okay.”
    She gave the guitar a quick tune. “It’s
called ‘Why Me.’”
    She started plucking the strings in an
intricate melody, and then began to sing in a sweet, lilting voice.
It was a song about the love of God who saved her even while she
was still a sinner. She closed her eyes and sang with a gentle
intensity, it was amazing.
    When she finished, I clapped. “Wow, that was
so good. You sing with such emotion.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah, and you’re really good with the
guitar. You think you could teach me to play like that?”
    “Sure, I could try. Actually, I was gonna ask
you something . . . ”
    “What’s that?”
    “You think you could paint me a picture?” She
grinned.
    I smiled. “That’s funny. I was going to ask
if I could paint your portrait.”
    She laughed. “Not nude though.”
    “No.” I grinned. “I can just paint that in
later, from memory.”
    She laughed and grabbed my pillow to swing at
me, and that’s when she saw her bikini lying there where my pillow
had been. She just stared at it.
    I was so embarrassed. “Oh yeah, I was gonna
give those back to you.”
    She gave me a strange look, then started
laughing. “I’d let you keep them, since you obviously like them so
much, but I kind of need them for swimming.”
    I laughed too. She’s so amazing, she never
makes me feel bad about anything.
    “Hey, is that your camera up there? We should
take some photos!”
    I looked up where she was looking. “Yeah,
that’s a great idea.”
    I got the camera from the top shelf and we
started taking photos of each other. We tried to take one with both
of us in the same shot but we were giggling like crazy and all the
photos looked like we were drunk.
    We fell back on the bed laughing, and lay
there looking at each other.
    She smiled at me, and I leaned over and
kissed her smiling lips, followed by another, and another, covering
her mouth with tiny kisses. She responded with little kisses of her
own, our lips opening and closing over each other’s, sharing each
other’s quickened breath. The tips of our tongues touched, sending
sensations through me.
    I stroked my fingers through her soft hair.
“You’re so beautiful,” I whispered.
    We lay there for a long time, completely
consumed with each other like nothing else existed, just staring
into each other’s eyes, our souls communing.
    Joanna sat up. “What time is it?” She