"Dare," said the boy laconically.
Sylvia looked briefly around the others before facing him as he leaned against the ladder. She seemed to swallow, then said: "I'll do you a favor, cousin. Since we're sort of in twos, the rest of us, I mean, I think you ought to make up to Maryon, so's she's not left out of things. So… I dare you to give her a big, real, romantic kiss and hug. All right?"
"Righto," said the taller, golden-haired Colin and, pushing himself away from the ladder, stepped quickly over to stand in front of Maryon, whose pulse was already palpitating at this sudden thrust to prominence. "Stand up, luv," he said, taking her elbow, "and let's show them what it's all about, eh?"
Something in his manner, something in his subtly burning stare, something she could almost smell reminded her suddenly, sharply, of Michael, so that as she got to her feet, her knees felt weak and she almost sat down again. Letting him take the initiative, she gladly surrendered herself to him, uncaring now of what he might do with her or of what might happen. She felt maybe this might be what 'being in love' was like, being shaky like this, and a bit faint and helpless.
Colin put one arm about her, under her long jacket, and tightened his hand about her waist. His other hand held her just behind the shoulder and, putting one lean leg behind hers, and the other between them, leaned her so that she was just off balance. The hand behind her slipped a little lower and pulled her tight in against him, while the other touched her neck and raised her face toward his. Looking down at her with a strange light in his eyes, he bent to kiss her and, instinctively, she opened her mouth and thrust with her tongue as Mike had taught her to do. She felt him start, then his lips were hard on hers and their tongues began to battle in their mouths, each pushing and withdrawing, sucking and wriggling. The hand at her back cupped her ass, now, outside the cloth of her skirt, so that her unprotected groin was ground into by his hip, and against her own hip she felt his large softness through the layers of thin material. Now she put up her own arms about his neck and pulled herself up harder against him, dealing with him as she'd often done with her brother, knowing that this was the right way for grown-ups – somehow Mike and Colin both seemed grown-up – to kiss and show their affection for each other. And she now desperately wanted to show her affection for the English boy.
She closed her big blue eyes and plumped up her soft red cherub lips and gave as much of herself to him as she was able, not seeing the surprised and grinning faces of the others about her as they intently watched. She wriggled her hips a bit, to better adjust to his height, and felt his hidden flesh roll around to her belly so that she was able to press it between them. The hand at her cute little butt was clasping, grasping, squeezing her deliciously and, except for the strain on her arms, she would have been prepared to have gone on kissing like that forever. But after a while she felt a tap on her shoulder and, dazed, she opened her eyes to see Sylvia standing over them.
"Okay, okay, enough already," the bigger girl said, parting the two like the referee at a wrestling match on TV. "Well," she continued, as Maryon dropped weakly to her bale of hay, "you really know how to kiss, don't you? Perhaps you can give us lessons, huh?"
Karen and the others giggled, but she saw that Colin was staring at her with an odd light in his eyes, as if he'd just discovered something curious, startling, and worthy of further investigation. His face looked hot and flushed. "Thanks," he said, surprisingly, then took his cousin aside for a moment and whispered something quickly in her ear.
Maryon was very pleased with herself at having come through this experience so well and having acted not at all like the little kid girl they seemed to have expected. She even managed to wink at Karen, who was stroking Derek's hand where he held her round the waist, his hand red and fleshy on the girl's pale bare skin.
"All right, Johnny, it's your turn now to be Inquisitor," said Sylvia, returning. She dropped down onto the straw where her boyfriend had been sitting as he got up and stood in front of the small group.
"You first?" he asked her.
"Not really… put me last, after Colin. That way it all works out equal," she said, stretching out with an arm bent beneath her head, so that beneath each cup of her halter a full crescent of tanned soft flesh spilled.
"Looks like it's your turn again, kid," said Johnny, hitching up his jeans and looking at the still flushed Maryon, who could hardly keep her covert eyes off Colin, who'd returned to his stance by the ladder.
"Oh, um… oh, I'll take another Dare," she said, somewhat breathlessly. Her eleven-year-old body wholly ached that it would have something to do with Colin.
But she was to be disappointed. Johnny scratched his stomach, in deep thought, while she willed him with her eyes to please have her kiss Colin, or something. "Okay," he said, after a while, "here's what you do. You see the way Karen's got her hair down, in a ponytail, so that it sticks out, then hangs down? Well…" he winked quickly at Derek, "… you have to go and take off her vest, but you have to do it so that you don't pull her hair up with its neck… understand? We'll watch you, and you pay a forfeit if you mess it up. Go on, now. Karen, you kneel down there, so you're not too tall. You can put your arms up, to help her, that's all."
Obediently Karen dropped forward on her knees, and held her hands up over her head, quivering slightly. She looked down at the floor, but as Maryon approached she thought she saw a glint in those greeny-blue eyes from under the long, dark lashes.
At first the problem didn't seem too difficult… the neck of the top was wide and the hole it caused quite large. The others crowded round to observe everything. Maryon considered. If she took the thing by its bottom edge and lifted, the way it would normally come off, she might not be able to see at the back properly to make sure the ponytail wasn't disturbed. The other way was more awkward, but it might be better in the end. Carefully she reached down, standing behind her friend, and hooked her fingers under the neckline at each side. She gently began to lift and the garment slid up the slim body without trouble until, just as Maryon had the ponytail safely hanging down inside the back, the front caught on Karen's chin. Try as she might, she just could not get the two things, the hair and the jaw, clear of the top's hole, even when she tried putting her hands at front and back instead of at the side. Johnny and Derek and Colin, she saw without really looking, were much more interested in looking at Karen's body than at her efforts, but Sylvia kept a hard eye on her struggles with the recalcitrant top.
Finally, just when she thought she had it clear all around and triumphantly jerked smoothly upward along the upraised arms, the thing caught under Karen's nose, the back pulled forward, and her hand snagged against the girl's long black hair and bent it up into a loop.
"Not quite! Not quite!" laughed Sylvia, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. "You didn't quite make it, kid."
In disgust, not caring, Maryon swiftly tugged the top up over Karen's bare arms and half-threw it at Johnny. "There!" she said. "That's the best I could do. Did I hurt your nose, Karen? I'm sorry."
Throwing one slim arm over her naked, pale, shallow breasts, Karen, half hunching her shoulders, rubbed briefly at her nose, then sniffed up at Maryon. "It's all right, baby," she said. "Don't worry about it."
She reached for her top, but Johnny, stepping back, passed it to Derek. "Not yet, babe," he told her and, with a pout, she sat down, brought her knees up against her chest and put her arms about them, and waited for Johnny to ask her her choice.
When the question came, "Truth!" she declared, in a husky voice.
"Is it true that you're wearing nothing under your Levi's?" asked Johnny. "And you'll have to prove it."