Summer's Edge Read Online Free Page A

only sold in the school shade of bottle green which looked awful through white tennis wear, no one ever did unless they were playing a match.
    They walked together over to the school cricket pitch and sat on the grassy slope near the pavilion.  
    "He’s going to freak you know," Jules said.
    "Maybe he won’t recognise her in different clothes."
    "He’ll recognise the three of us."
    They watched the play for some time. Mr Walker was focused on his job and not on any spectators around the place. Alice was impressed by how athletic he looked as he walked about the pitch. He really was stunning with his tan and his tall, muscular figure. All the First Eleven boys looked wimpy next to him.
    It was when he passed near to where they were sitting that he finally saw Alice, stopped and froze. Her stomach lurched. Then he turned away and went back to the practice.
    "See, he’s decided to ignore you," Jules said. "All for the best."
    Alice said nothing. She hadn’t really thought about how he might react, but she still felt crushed.
    "Should we go?" Becky asked.
    "No, that would look really weird, and besides Mike Jackson looks totally fit in cricket whites."  
    Mike captained the school cricket team and was one of the heartthrobs of Fairmount. But the problem with being in the Upper Sixth was that most girls preferred to date boys a year or so older. These were now long gone to university and the boys in their own year were in turn dating girls in lower years. Alice could also remember when Mike was several inches shorter than them and it detracted from his charms now.
    "I wouldn’t have thought Mike Jackson was your type," Becky said.
    "He’s not. Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy looking, though. You know his older brother’s playing for Worcestershire?"
    "I don’t remember him having an older brother."
    "A few years before our time. Joe Jackson." Jules said.
    Alice remained silent throughout this. She was still feeling disappointed and uncertain. She tried to tell herself it was for the best. Really, she should be grateful that he had just decided to move past it.
    But she still felt embarrassed. She picked at the grass next to her, pulling off a small flower, avoiding looking at the play.
    Then a shadow fell over them. She looked up.  
    It was Mr Walker.
    "I want a word with you. In the pavilion, now," he ordered her. His eyes pierced into hers and he looked furious.
    Numb, she obeyed, walking ahead of him.
    Inside it was empty and he closed the door behind them and turned to her.
    "What the fuck do you think you’re playing at?"
    He was absolutely incensed. He stood there, suddenly the adult, the authority, not just some guy she had kissed in a pub.  
    Someone she had compromised. Alice couldn’t think of anything to say.  
    She stood there in front of him. His scent of faint cologne and sun-warmed skin was disturbingly familiar to her, mingling with the dusty wood and sports equipment smell of the pavilion.
    "Did you know who I was?" he asked.
    "Yes." There didn’t seem to be any point in lying.
    He glared at her and she looked back at him. His eyes pierced into her, their light grey-blue contrasting with his tanned complexion. He was one of the most devastatingly attractive men she had ever seen. All the more so now as his anger turned his face into carved steel.
    As terrified and awkward as Alice felt, she also felt slightly defiant. After all she hadn’t done anything wrong or illegal.
    Then suddenly he grasped her by the shoulders and brought his mouth down on hers, hard. Surprised, she initially squirmed to escape his grasp then yielded as her forced his tongue into her mouth. His lips were bruising hers, he was almost biting her yet she wanted more.  
    Her hands, which had pushed against his chest to try and get away, went round his neck and she arched against him.
    He was trying to hurt her, devour her. Punish her. All at once. But he wanted her too. She could taste his need, raw and urgent. Feel the hotness