Touching Toni: Part 1

Best friends find they both want something more.

Based on a post by L Kilkenny. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.

Jake awoke from what was apparently a very good dream since he could feel his erection straining against his boxers. Lying on his side, facing the wall, he was still in that transition between sleep and wakefulness. Taking a deep breath and stretching he noticed a distinct and familiar smell. It was floral and fresh with a hint of strawberry. He started to roll over but something was pressed against his back. Craning his head around the first thing he saw were bare feet with red painted toe nails, ankles crossed with one foot lightly bouncing. Turning his head further, he saw bare legs, smooth, shapely, tan, and athletic. He next saw blue-jean shorts over narrow hips, a tucked in white tee shirt concealing firm, proud  tits, one of which was covered by a cascade of blue-black hair which came almost to the waist, a long slender neck, clean jawline, supple lips, narrow nose, and deep emerald green eyes. The eyes, and the lips, held a smile as Jake looked at his unexpected visitor.

"Morning sleepy head," Toni said pertly.

"Hey Toni," Jake said sleepily, in his deep soft voice. "What's up?"

"Uh, not you," she joked. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to wake up today. I started to wake you once, but you sounded like you were having a really good dream so I just got comfortable and waited for you to wake up."

"What time is it? How long have you been here?" Jake asked, still keeping his back to her because his erection was still raging.

Toni looked down at her phone. "It's 9:30 in the morning and I've been here about an hour or so."

"So what are you doing here so early on a Saturday morning?"

"Will you go with me to the mall today?" Toni asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure. I just need to take a shower," Jake said.

"Okay," she said looking at him with her trademark half-smile. She waited a full five seconds to see if he would move. He didn't.

"I'm going to get some orange juice," she said getting up off the bed. "You want some?"

"Uh, sure," he said, still looking back over his shoulder.

Toni left her sandals on the floor next to his bed and padded barefoot out the door, headed to the kitchen.

Jake jumped out of bed with tented boxers. He grabbed some clean underwear, a pair of khaki shorts and a tee shirt and headed down the hall to the bathroom, but only after looking both ways at the door to make sure no one would see him.

Turning on the shower as soon as he got inside the bathroom, he stripped his boxers off and threw them in the hamper.

Feeling the water before stepping into the shower, he put both hands on the wall and let the water flow over his head and down his back. At 6'3" he had to bend slightly at the waist to get his head below the shower head. His broad back was pale compared to his face, neck and arms which were nicely tanned. Jake had the classic farmer's tan, meaning he was rarely out in the sun without a shirt on. The reason for that was evident in the raised red scars crisscrossing his back.

Fostered.

Jake had grown up in the foster care system. His mother had abandoned him on the steps of a church in Cleveland, Ohio when he was a day old. He was handed over to social services and placed with a family that made a living out of gaming the foster care system. Child care was not on their list of priorities. He was barely fed, never loved, and when the man of the house had a little too much to drink, the boy became the target of his evil inclinations.

When he was 6 years old, and after a particularly harsh beating, he had waited until his foster parents had finally passed out from drink, took the only thing he owned, a small metal car with one wheel missing, and he left. It was raining and cold. He didn't know where he was going, but he knew he wasn't staying here anymore.

He walked down the dimly lit sidewalk, passed street corners where hookers and drug dealers plied their trades, past darkened alleyways where junkies snorted and injected drugs, some of them for the last time. He felt invisible, as he had so often in his home. Unseen and unheard until fate or just plain bad luck seemed to shine a spotlight upon him, making him the most visible thing in the room. A target. On this night though, thankfully, he remained invisible. Cold and wet, but invisible to those around him.

Suddenly he smelled something that smelled like heaven. Someone was cooking and his stomach was growling. Driven by hunger, he followed his nose down an alley until he found a door propped open and the smells coming out where too much to resist. He went inside and found a pan of fresh bread rolls. He grabbed one and started eating. He didn't hear the large man that walked up behind him.

"Would you like a glass of milk with that?" a voice behind him asked.

He spun around like a cornered animal, looking for an escape.

The man could see the fear in the boy's eyes. He backed up so that he wasn't too imposing and knelt down on one knee. "It's okay son, I'm not going to hurt you," he said holding his empty hands, palms out, toward him. "Would you like some eggs and bacon?" he asked.

"What's bacon?" the boy asked quietly.

"What's bacon?" the man asked stunned. "Well son, it's only the best dang breakfast food on the planet. It's practically its own food group."

"I've never had any bacon," he said, unable to meet the man's eyes.

"What's your name son?"

The boy stood, not answering, looking down at the floor.

"It's okay son, you're not in trouble. My name's Mike." He held out his large hand.

The boy automatically flinched back, away from his hand.

"Hey, hey, hey; it's okay. No one's going to hurt you, I promise," Mike said soothingly. "You do have a name don't you?"

The boy shook his head slowly, side to side.

"Well, how about we call you, uh, Jake?"

"Jake," the boy whispered. It was the first time in memory that he had an actual name, other than kid, brat, bastard, or any of a hundred names of the type. He nodded his head and said again, "Jake."

"Okay Jake, how about those eggs and bacon?"

"Okay," Jake said, his head slowly nodded.

Scrambled eggs and bacon soon became Jake's favorite food in the world. It was so good. He had eaten two scrambled eggs and was on his 6th piece of bacon when he heard someone knocking on the back door of the diner.

"Jake, this is John." Mike said, introducing the man who came in. "John is a policeman and he helps people."

"Hey Jake," John said. Mike had already warned him about trying to touch the boy. "Like Mike said, I'm a police detective. My job is to help people. Do you need help, Jake?"

Jake sat, looking at Mike and John for a few moments before very slowly nodding his head.

"Okay, finish your breakfast, and we'll get Mike to make you a sack lunch to take with us, and we'll go for a ride in my car, okay?"

"Okay," Jake whispered.

"Hey Mike, would you have any of MJ's clothes here? He's about Jake's size isn't he?" John asked. MJ was Mike Jr., Mike's 5 year old son.

"You know, I think I do. I keep a change of clothes for him here because whenever he comes by to visit he invariably gets something on his shirt or his pants so I keep a couple sets of clothes here."

Mike left the room and soon came back with a shirt, pair of pants, and even a pair of sneakers.

"Hey Jake, would you like to change into some dry clothes?"

"Okay," Jake said.

"All right, come on back here where you can have some privacy."

Mike took Jake to his office and gave him the clothes, "Here you go bud, put these on."

Mike closed the door, but walked around the side of the office where there was a window. He just wanted to make sure Jake could get changed okay. When he looked through the window, the blood drained from his face. "John," he hissed.

John came over and looked through the window. He saw Jake gingerly removing his old, wet tee shirt. The red lashes across his back were angry, swollen, and fresh. "My God," Mike said in an emotional whisper. John simply shook his head. In his line of work, he had seen this type of thing far too often, and he never got used to it.

When he was changed, Jake was taken to the police department where he was able to give the names of his foster parents. They were arrested, charged, and would be in prison for many years to come.

John called his sister, Diane, in Texas, because he knew that she and her husband had recently found out that they would never be able to have children and had been talking about adopting. He arranged with the social services representative to meet with Diane and Bob Hardin. Within the month, Jake was getting on his first airplane, bound for Dallas, Texas.

Bob and Diane understood the uphill battle they faced with Jake. They knew that years of abuse would be hard to overcome, but they were kind, patient, supportive and now Jake was 18, having just graduated in the top five percent of his class, with academic scholarships for pretty much anywhere he wanted to go. He still had his physical scars, and his emotional scars. He still did not like to be touched. He would willingly accept physical contact from only three people. His adopted parents and Toni Flint.

Jake moved in with Bob and Diane, to a quiet suburb in The Colony, Texas. Soon after, he was outside, playing in their spacious back hard. Though his adoptive parents had bought him many new toys, he still played with his familiar old three wheeled car. On this day, as he played, he heard a voice call to him with a simple, "Hi."

Jake turned to see a girl about his age standing at the fence between his yard and the yard next door. She was tan with long hair that was shiny black like a crow's wing. She had green eyes that seemed to look into his soul.

"Hi," Jake said.

"What's your name?"

"Jake."

"Hi Jake, I'm Toni."

"Isn't that a boy's name?"

"Not when you spell it with an 'I'," she said pertly.

"Do you want to play?" Jake asked her.

"Sure." Toni climbed the chain link fence without a moment's hesitation.

"What are you playing?" Toni asked him.

"Cars," Jake said.

"Okay. Do you have another car?"

"No, but you can play with mine," Jake said, handing her the beat up little car.

"Thank you," Toni said.

After playing and talking for a while, they heard a voice calling. "Toni, Toni Flint!"

"Oh, there's my mom," Toni said, holding the little car out to Jake.

"You can keep it," Jake said quietly.

Toni looked at the pitiful little car and smiled a little half smile. "Thank you," she said and reached out and grabbed Jake in a big hug. Jake stood stock still for a second before slowly reaching his arms around her.

Diane Hardin, watching from the kitchen window smiled, even as a tear fell from her eye.

Toni and Jake has been inseparable best friends ever since.

Morning Routine.

After taking care of his morning wood, Jake finished showering, jumped out, dried off quickly, brushed his teeth, shaved, put on after shave and deodorant, and finally put on his shorts and tee shirt. Back in his room, he found Toni, again laying back on his bed, holding her phone in one hand and a pop tart in the other. Two glasses of orange juice, one already half empty, sat on the bedside table.

He was still rubbing his head with a towel when he walked into the room. He threw the towel on the desk chair, and grabbed some socks and shoes. Putting them on, he said, "Okay, ready to go."

Toni looked over at him and shook her head while making little clucking noises with her tongue. Swinging her long legs over the side of the bed, she pointed back at the desk chair.

"Sit," she commanded.

Jake looked at Toni and sat back down in the desk chair.

Walking over to his dresser, she picked up a comb and walked around behind his chair. She ran her fingers through his wild mass of blonde hair. His hair was close cut on the sides and back, but longer on the top in what was called a side-part fade. For some reason, he always forgot to comb his hair. He was very hygienic, always clean, showered, shaved, but he never seemed to remember to comb his hair.

His first year of school after moving in with the Hardin's, he would catch the school bus in front of Toni's house. He would always be there, sitting on her steps waiting for her. Most mornings his hair would be sticking every direction at once. She started carrying a comb in her backpack. She would take it out, work her way through his blonde hair before she would finally step back, look him over and declare him, "Good to Go." What she didn't know what that Jake's mother made sure his hair was combed before he left the house, but he would intentionally mess it up on the walk over to Toni's so that he could feel her hands on his head as she combed his hair.

Today she was standing behind him, pulling the comb through his hair, setting the part, before spinning his chair around and looking down into his pale, ice-blue eyes as he looked up at her, and smiled. She looked back up to his hair, combed a few stray locks into place and declared him, "Good to go."

Mall Walking.

Walking through the mall they made quite the pair. Jake at 6'3" with wide shoulders and narrow hips, wore an orange University of Texas tee shirt, khaki cargo shorts, and black Under Armor running shoes. Toni was 5'10", her dark skin and raven black hair, evidence of her Native American ancestry from her father's side, but whose emerald eyes were definitely a throwback to her mother's Icelandic family roots.

"Are we looking for anything in particular today?" Jake asked as they rode the escalator up to the second floor.

"We're meeting Kaylee and she and I have to do a little quick shopping. Then I was hoping we could go by the lake and maybe grill some burgers, and hang out. It's the beginning of summer and we've graduated high school so this is our last summer before we all scatter and go off to college."

When he didn't respond, she looked up at him and saw in his eyes a combination of fear, anxiety, and sadness.

"Jake?" Toni asked, putting her hand on his arm.

"Yeah?" he said. The look in his eyes was gone. This worried her more than the fear, this was his mask that he had learned to put on in the years before he came to Texas. The mask that he hides behind when he feels like he needs to retreat into himself.

"Oh Jake...." Toni started, concern showing in her eyes.

"Hey guys, over here!" they heard as they reached the top of the escalator.

Coming toward them was Kaylee Anderson, her brown wavy hair bouncing as she trotted toward them. She was cute with a big smile and big chocolate brown eyes. At 5'3" she seemed tiny next to Jake and Toni. What most people noticed about her though were the 36 D  tits that seemed oddly out of place on her otherwise tiny frame.

"Kaylee!" Toni said, hugging her best girl friend.

"I'm so glad to see you guys," Kaylee said. "Hey, Jake."

"Hey, Kaylee," Jake smiled at her. Kaylee had been friends with Toni and Jake since the 9th grade, so she knew Jake's aversion to physical contact, so even though she was a "hugger," she knew not to try to hug Jake.

"Have you found anything yet?" Toni asked.

"I haven't really looked yet, I was waiting on you. This is kind of a two person job. I need your opinion."

"Well let's get to it."

The two girls headed off with Jake close behind. He wasn't paying much attention until the girls turned into a store with swim suits adorning all the mannequins in the windows.

"I think I'll wait out here in the concourse."

"But Jake, we need your opinion on our new swim suits," Kaylee said.

"Toni can give you an opinion," Jake said nervously.

"A man's opinion is always better," Kaylee insisted.

"Please," Toni said.

Jake looked over and saw exactly what he expected to see. Toni's pout face, that she knew he couldn't say no to.

"Ugh, okay, let’s get this over with," Jake sighed.

Kaylee clapped her tiny hands and Toni hooked her arm in his and pulled him along.

Fitting Room.

Jake was sitting in a chair close to the dressing rooms and the girls had both gone back with several suits each.

Kaylee was the first to come out. She had a bright yellow two piece bikini that looked like the structural integrity of the string holding the top up may have been at its design limits. She spun around two times allowing him to see the front and the back. The bottoms were high cut at the hips and hugged tightly to her rounded back side.

"Well?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah, Kaylee, it looks great," Jake stammered. He could feel his ears getting red.

"Jake Hardin, are you blushing?" Kaylee trilled.

"No, er, oh come on, Kaylee, you know I'm not the right guy for this," Jake said, looking anywhere other than directly at her.

Kaylee just laughed and headed back to the dressing room. Jake leaned over, putting his head in his hands and rubbing his eyes. "How do I get myself into these situations?" he asked, to no one in particular.

"Jake?"

Jake looked up and froze. Toni stood there in a turquoise two piece. The contrast between her dark skin and the suit was amazing. The top showed off her perfect  tits. He could faintly see the outline of her nipples through the fabric of the top. The bottom of the suit was small but tasteful. Toni actually looked a little bashful as she turned slowly for his inspection. Jake could feel his temperature rising up his neck and into his face; and that wasn't all that was rising.

"Wow," Jake said, his deep voice barely audible.

"Do you like it?" Toni asked almost bashfully.

"Uh, yeah Toni, it, uh, looks great on you," he said. He was staring and he knew it, but he couldn't look away.

"You really think so?" she asked, looking down at herself.

"Yeah, Toni, I really think so; you're, I mean it's beautiful," he said, reverently.

Was he saying "I'm beautiful?" she asked herself, looking up to see him openly staring at her. She felt butterflies in her stomach and a familiar warming sensation a little further down.

"Yeah, I like this one too, I think I'll get it," she said, turning to walk back to the dressing room. Passing a full length mirror she looked and saw Jake's reflection. It appeared that his eyes were glued to her ass as she retreated. Her lips curled up in her little half smile.

Grub.

They made a stop at the grocery store where they picked up some premade hamburger patties, hot dogs, buns, condiments, salad fixings, drinks, paper plates, napkins, charcoal, and some ice. Most of this went into the large ice-chest in the bed of Jake's truck. With everything chilling in the ice chest, they headed for Lewisville Lake.

They found one of the public camping areas, close to the water, with picnic tables and a grill. Evidently, the girls had been on their phones during the drive because within a half hour several of their other friends showed up.

While the guys messed around in the water, the girls laid out on towels to work on their tans, and so everyone could see their new swim suits.

Jake was busy getting the grill going when a group of guys about their age came wandering up. Evidently they knew a couple of the guys and girls from their group and they were talking. One of the group, a tall jock-type named Travis, seemed especially interested in Toni. He was maybe an inch taller than Jake and looked like he'd been chiseled out of stone. He was currently laying on a towel next to Toni and was talking to her as they tanned.

Jake was watching from his place at the grill. The burgers were about ready so he called out for everyone to come and eat. As Toni and Travis got up Jake noticed that Travis slid his arm around Toni's waist and drew her right up against his body. Jake saw the flash in her green eyes, like lightening behind a cloud, as she reached down and peeled Travis' hand off her hip. She said something to him that Jake didn't hear, but he saw the angry look on Travis' face as he just stopped and watched Toni walk off.

"Everything okay?" Jake asked as Toni walked up with her paper plate with an empty bun on it.

"Huh, oh yeah," she said, realizing that Jake must have seen her exchange with Travis. "Just a miscommunication."

"Okay," Jake said, using his tongs to put a patty with melted hot pepper cheese on her bun because he knew it was her favorite.

"Mmm, that looks and smells wonderful Jake. You are such a wonderful cook," she beamed at him.

After everyone had eaten, Jake built a large fire in the fire pit and everyone sat round it on towels or a couple of small cut logs someone had left there. Some of the group had kind of paired off, guy and girl, and they sat close, talking low or laughing softly. Kaylee was talking to a guy named Steve. Toni was making her rounds talking with everyone, but when she sat down it was always next to Jake. They had been talking for a bit when Toni said she needed to run up to the public restroom.

"You want me to go with you?" Jake asked.

"That's okay, you've worked all evening cooking and building the fire. You just rest. I'll be right back," she said, walking off into the darkness.

Ten minutes later, when she hadn't returned, Jake scanned the crowd and noticed that Travis was nowhere to be seen. Getting a bad feeling, Jake got up and started up toward the public restrooms. As he neared the small metal building he could hear voices. One was female and angry, the other was male and was hushed but insistent.

"If you don't leave here immediately, I'm going to scream," said a voice he now recognized as Toni.

"You've been teasing me all day. The least you could do is give me a blow job or a hand job," the male voice demanded.

"Well that's not happening. Now get out of my way and let me go." Toni said. He could hear her voice trembling in either fear, anger, or both.

As Jake approached the door of the women's restroom he heard the male voice say "Get on your knees, bitch!" followed by Toni's squeal.

"Get your damn hands off me, Travis!"

The years of helplessness Jake had felt as a child suddenly began to well up from some deep dark place. Oh how he had prayed, even though at the time he didn't know what it was or who he was praying to, for someone, something to save him. Now he was grown, and someone he loved was in that place of fear and helplessness, but now, he could be the instrument of salvation, he could stop now what no one stopped when he was so in need. He felt energized as his adrenaline spiked and he charged, hitting the door with his shoulder at full speed. The lock exploded as the door flew inward. He saw Travis holding the hair on the back of Toni's head and he was trying to force her to the floor. She was struggling with him and was clawing at his arm.

Jake, still at a full run lowered his shoulder and hit the larger, more muscular Travis, just as he spun toward the door, right in the solar plexus, driving him all the way to the wall, knocking all of the air out of Travis' lungs. Travis was standing against the wall with mouth open wide, trying to suck air back into his deflated lungs.

Jake knew this wasn't the evil man who had inflicted so much pain on him, deprived him of his early childhood, and even marked him to this day with the physical and mental scars he left, but Jake also knew that Travis was cut from the same cloth, evil and vindictive, using force and power to take what he wanted.

Jake set his feet and swung from the hip, driving his fist up under Travis' bottom jaw, slamming it shut and snapping his head back into the metal wall. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, out cold.

Turning to Toni, he saw her standing there, her eyes wide and mouth slightly open. She looked like she was in shock, but suddenly her eyes focused, on Jake, and she ran to him, wrapping her arms around his chest and hugging him tightly.

"Oh Jake," she cried. "Thank God you got here when you did."

"Are you okay, Toni?" Jake asked, holding her head to his chest and feeling her tears wetting the front of his tee shirt.

"I am now. Thank you so much Jake." Her sobs began to subside.

Without realizing it, his hand was stroking her soft hair. "Let's get out of this bathroom and then we need to call the cops," he said.

Jake and Toni found a picnic table just up the road from the restroom and called 911. They were connected to the State Park Service who had a State Park Ranger there within minutes. They were telling the Ranger the story when Travis came walking out of the women's restroom, holding his jaw and still a little unsteady on his feet. Based on Toni and Jake's statement, Travis was arrested for battery and taken away by the Ranger.

After the Ranger left with Travis, Toni looked over at Jake and asked, "Jake, where did that come from? I've never seen you like that."

"I don't know. I thought he was hurting you. I just wanted to stop him."

"Well, I'd say you did that," she giggled nervously.

Jake was glad to hear her laugh.

"Come on," he said, still holding his arm protectively around her.

When they got back to the campsite most of the people had left. Kaylee and Steve were standing beside Steve's car, kissing as he prepared to leave.

The guys who had arrived with Travis were looking for him.

"I think I saw him being taken away in the back of a Park Ranger's truck." Jake offered innocently.

The boys looked at each other and started back toward their car.

Jake put the fire out, cleaned up their trash and put it in the trash barrel, before packing up the towels and ice chest in the back of his pickup.

Both girls wanted to ride in the front, so Toni got in first and scooted over by Jake while Kaylee rode shotgun. Kaylee was talking about Steve and how much she liked him.

"How'd it go with Travis?" Kaylee asked Toni. "I saw you talking to him earlier, but after supper I never saw you two together."

"He started talking to me when I was laying out. He seemed nice enough, but all he talked about was himself, how he was a star football player and he'd dated all the cheerleaders. When we got up to eat, he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me up against him. I removed his hand from my hip and told him if he wanted to keep it, he'd better keep it off me. He didn't talk to me anymore after that and I was completely fine with that. Later, after it got dark, I went up to the restroom and had just finished and came out of the stall, and there he was, standing right there in the girls restroom, smiling at me. I asked him what he thought he was doing in the women's restroom and he starts going off about how I'd been teasing him and how he knew I wanted him. He actually came right out and said I needed to give him a blow job or a hand job. I told him to go kick rocks and started to leave when he grabbed me by the back of my hair and tried to force me down on my knees while he untied the string on his shorts."

"Oh my God, Toni. I had no idea. What did he do to you?" Kaylee asked, her eyes now big as saucers.

"Well, like I said, he was going to force me to my knees. I guess he thought he was going to make me give him a blow job, but before he could get me all the way down, the bathroom door exploded. It swung open with metal pieces of the lock scattering across the concrete floor, and what looked like a charging bull came flying in, tackled Travis into the wall, and then punched him so hard it knocked him out cold."

"Someone saved you? Who, who was it?"

"I'll give you one guess." Toni leaned her head over on Jake's shoulder.

"Jake? Oh my God. Travis was a big guy and Jake knocked him out with one punch?"

Jake's face was red with embarrassment at the praise from the girls.

"Well, I think he hit his head on the wall before I hit him so he was probably half knocked out already," Jake said quietly.

"I'm so sorry that happened to you Toni. I'll be sure to let Steve know what a predator Travis is," she said. "And Jake, I'm so glad you were there for her. She could have been raped, or worse, that's so scary." Kaylee felt an uncontrollable tremor just thinking about what could have happened to her friend.

For the rest of the drive everybody seemed busy with their own thoughts. Kaylee was still thinking about Steve and what had happened to Toni,

Toni was thinking about her harrowing experience with Travis, but more than that, she was thinking about Jake blasting through the door to save her. Feelings that she'd been having for the past year for Jake were only getting stronger. She was suddenly exhausted and laid her head over on Jake's shoulder.

Jake was driving along, replaying tonight's events over and over in his head. The scared look on Toni's face would be forever ingrained in his mind. She had been his best friend for years. They were "thicker than thieves" his mother used to say.

He had been content with that for a long time, but the last couple of years his feelings for her had been changing, evolving. He was thinking of Toni more and more, and his thoughts were going far beyond what best friends should be thinking. He felt her head lay over on his shoulder and she put her hand in the crook of his arm and pulled his arm over to her. Her touch on his bare skin was electric. The heat from her hand radiated up his arm to engulf his whole body in a warmth he'd never experienced.

They dropped Kaylee off at her house and then drove back to Jake's house. He parked his truck and walked Toni to her front door. She was still holding on to his arm. At the front door, she looked at him and leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you Jake, for being my best friend and for always being there for me," Toni said, looking into his ice-blue eyes.

"You have always been there for me too, Toni."

Toni hugged him tightly, feeling the scars on his back, beneath this shirt. Jake laid his cheek on the top of her head, enjoying the faint smell of her strawberry shampoo, and the coconut smell of tanning oil.

"Good night, Toni," Jake said, finally releasing her.

"Good night, Jake," Toni replied.

Jake stood and watched her until she unlocked the door and slipped inside, waving to him before she shut and locked the door. Only then did he turn and start walking back to his house next door.

Casualties.

A week after Toni's near miss with Travis, word got back to her that he had two shattered teeth and a fractured jaw from Jake hitting him. His Dad, who he was staying with for the summer, had to bail him out of jail and Travis was now confined to his Dad's house until his case came up in court. She was nervous about testifying, but if she didn't do something, the next girl might not be so lucky as to have someone like Jake there to save them.

Jake had seemed more protective since the incident. He had been texting her whenever she was out. Once he even called, which was unusual for Jake. He didn't mind texting, but rarely called on the phone. When he did text or call, he was just wanting to check and make sure she was okay, and each time it made her heart swell, knowing how much he cared for her, and wondering if there could be something more between them.

Toni knew the kind of abuse he had suffered as a small child. Over the years, he had opened up to her about his past. Probably even more so than with his adoptive parents, or the counselor he had seen for several years. Outwardly, he had adjusted well to his new life, but inwardly, at least some of the time, he was still that innocent little child who had suffered so much at the hands of pure evil, so while he mostly looked for the good in people, he was all too aware of the evils that could lurk within someone.

Toni was also becoming aware of a growing desire for Jake. A desire that went well beyond best friends. He had invaded her dreams, even before the incident with Travis, and several times since. She dreamed of those ice-blue eyes, that blonde hair sticking in every direction as once. Those wide shoulders, narrow waist and perfect ass. His voice, deep and resonant, sent tingles through her private parts and left her with damp panties on more than one occasion.

To be continued. Based on a post by L Kilkenny, for Literotica.