Don't Tempt Me

"Home Sweet Home." Taylor announced, kicking open the passenger's side door on my car.

"Hey!" I scolded him with a frown. "Watch the apolstery there, buddy."

"Oh, not your precious car again." He leaned over and patted the spot he'd kicked, rubbing it. He spoke sarcastically and softly, saying:

"I'm sorry."

"She has a name." I deepened my frown, using an indignant tone.

"I am not calling your car by it's name." He rolled his eyes.

"Then you're not really sorry."

"What? Oh, for Pete's sake.."

"It's not Pete, it's Louise." I corrected him with a smug smile.

"That.. is not worth a response." He turned around and stared at me. I cracked a smile at the disbelief written all over his face.

"Sure it is. Now apologize like you mean it."

I love being stubborn.

"I don't think so."

I hate when he's more stubborn than me. I frowned again.

"Hey, I crawled around in the mud for you today, the least you could do is be nice to my car. After all, she did give you a ride over there, sacrificing the rubber on her tires for driving on those horrible back roads you insisted I take to get there. I've never seen so many potholes in one road in my life."

"And you hit every one of them." He stepped out of the car with a laugh.

"Wait a minute.. This isn't fair. I sacrifice my Sunday morning to.. to-" I gestured to my mud streaked clothes, for once without words to describe how frustrated I felt.

"Then you have the nerve to tease me-"

"Exactly." He turned to go into his house. At the moment, I wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug attitude from him. Thinking quickly, I reached down, removed one of my shoes, and got out of my car. Someone upstairs must've been on my side, for with my terrible aim I still managed to whack him in the back of the head with it, just as he was walking up the stairs to the front door.

"Oww!" He turned around to face me. I rested my elbow on the roof of Louise and smiled innocently. He just shook his head and went inside. I grinned and followed, picking up my shoe on my way in.

Ahhh..

I thought for the thousandth time since stepping into the shower. I closed my eyes again, feeling the reassuring feeling of water tickling down my body. It felt wonderful to be clean again, although it'd taken quite a bit of scrubbing to remove all of the mud. The worst place was underneath my toenails, trust me. It was hard to repress the temptation to use Taylor's toothbrush down there, just to get him back for the driving comment earlier, but I managed to restrain myself. That's a little too disgusting even for my revengeful taste. Instead, I opted for annoying the living daylights out of him.

"Aren't you done yet in there?" Taylor banged so loudly on the door I thought he'd rattle it off its hinges. I ignored him and hummed softly.

"Maggie!" He tried again.

"Almost!" I called in a sing-song voice that I knew would irritate him. I'd answered that way the last three times he'd interrupted my peaceful shower.

"You've said that three times." Like a predictable male, Taylor stated the obvious. I still caught the pout in his voice, though muffled by the door.

"I'll be done in about five minutes."

"You've also said that!" He proclaimed with one last thump on the door. "Don't tempt me to come in there."

"Eeek!" I yelled in a high-pitched, feminine voice. "Don't you dare, Taylor Hanson!"

"Shut up," I heard him laughing despite his frustration.

"Make me."

"Like I said, don't tempt me."

Oh, so now we're going to throw threats back and forth. I see how it is. Two can play this.

"Your mother wears combat boots."

"Only on weekends." He retorted. "Now get outta there!"

"The more you ask me, the longer I'm going to take." I called cheerfully, but turned off the water. I leaned over and grabbed a fluffy towel from a nearby rack on the wall. Wrapping it around my body and making sure it was secure, I finally opened the door and breathed in the cool air that flowed past me.

"All done." I announced cheerfully, winking at him. He reached his arms up to my throat level, pretending to hold back the urge to strangle me.

"My God, it's like a sauna in here." He remarked, fanning the warm air away from his face with his hand. "Hurry up and get dressed, Mom and Dad have something to show us downstairs."

"I'm not going down like this," I gestured to my towel. It barely came down to mid-thigh length.

"I wouldn't mind if you did." He smirked at me, reaching his arm out to yank the towel off.

"I'm sure you wouldn't, but you're parents would." I slapped his arm playfully. "Now forfeit some old, comfortable clothes, Mister, and pronto."

"Yes Ma-am." He spoke in a dry southern accent, a terrible imitation if I say so myself. "Right this here wa-aaay."

"Just give me some damn clothes already." I followed him down the hall to his bedroom.

"Boy, someone's cranky today." He noted, opening the door for me. I stepped inside and crossed my arms over my chest. Or rather lack of a chest, I assure you I'm nearly flat as a pancake.

"Damn straight." I frowned.

"And what filthy language for a lil' lady!" He clicked his tongue as he headed over to his closet. After burying his hands into a pile of laundry, he revealed a T-shirt and old pair of sweatpants I recognized as the outfit he usually wore to work on the Jeep with Zac.

"How sweet," I remarked, taking the clothes in my hands and inspecting them carefully. "You gave me your greasiest outfit, huh?"

"Only the best for my best." He walked over and kissed the top of my head lightly.

"Your best.. as in you have other girls?" I looked up at him with a grin.

"Of course. It's Sunday, so I'm with you." He laughed and circled his arms tightly around my waist. "I've gotta keep my options open for all the other teenies in my life."

"Get outta here so I can get dressed, you pimp." I pushed him away lightly.

"What can I say? I'm da' man." He swaggered out of the room, walking like he owned the earth and everything upon its ground.

"Just get outta here." I repeated, slamming the door in his face.

"Get in here, Maggie," Taylor called to me from the living room.

"Yes, Master." As I replied sarcastically, I sat next to him on the place he'd patted with his hand. As he reached his arm across my shoulders, he called out:

"She's hear finally! Let's get this thing started."

"This thing?" I asked him curiously, question marks practically drawn in my eyes.

"Mmm-hmm." He laughed, his arm bumping lightly against the back of my neck. "Mom and Dad videotaped the games today."

"They did?" My mouth dropped open. This was news to me.

"Yup."

"Oh, great."

"You'll love this." He promised me.

"Isn't that what you said about playing mud volleyball in the first place?"

"Yup." He said again. "This will be just like reliving it all over again."

"This would be one of those experiences I'd rather not think about for awhile, if you don't mind."

"Oh come on!" He scoffed at me. "Admit it; you had fun today."

"I did not."

"Yes you did. I saw you laughing when you hit the mud."

"That wasn't laughing, I was choking." I corrected him.

"Whatever. You had fun today and you know it, you just don't want to admit it."

"Ha. You'd like to think so." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Don't tempt me on that either." He cut me off by leaning over and kissing me gently. Expecting one of our usual small pecks, I leaned back to break away, but Taylor's hand slid to the back of my head as he locked his lips against mine, deepening the kiss. Even though I closed my eyes and opened my mouth slightly, I still wasn't prepared for him sliding his tongue inside it.

"Eww.. Taylor, that's gross." I immediately broke away and wiped my lips clean. He stared at me.

"Did I just hear you correctly?" He pretended to clean out his ears, rubbing their insides with his pinky fingers.

"Yeah." I made a face.

"How can you not like French kissing?" He spoke like it was incredibly abnormal.

"Think about it: your tongue against mine. Do you know how many germs live in your spit? Millions." I defended myself.

"Way to kill the mood." He rolled his eyes. "You just don't like it because you've never done it before, right?"

"Not true at all!" I said, my cheeks turning warm with embarrassment. Truth was, I had done this before, only about seven years ago. Certainly hadn't come up between me and Zac when we'd dated.

"Calm down there. Let me guess: you did it and it sucked?"

"No.." I said slowly.

"Are you sexually repressed?"

"Do I look like I am?" I looked at him in surprise. Far be it for someone like Taylor Hanson to ever throw surprises at me, but I was almost convinced that he was being serious here. Sincerity wasn't exactly in his vocabulary either.

"A little.. yeah." He pretended to examine me thoroughly through narrowed eyes.

"Oh that's right, I forgot what a huge, horny slut I am deep inside." I said sarcastically. "Forgive me for forgetting about that."

"Hey, you're a slut, I'm a pimp; it's a perfect relationship."

"Gee, thanks. Love you too." I couldn't believe we were having this conversation.

"Seriously though, what's the big deal?"

"I just don't like it." I dropped my voice to a quieter tone, serious this time like he'd asked.

"You just don't like it?" He repeated.

"Nope."

".. Why not?"

"I just don't!" I cried, throwing my hands up in the air.

"Just don't what?" Isaac popped into the living room, Sarah at his side.

"Don't.. understand why your family insists on videotaping every second of your lives." I covered quickly, pointing to their stack of family videos on the floor next to the television. It had to be at least two feet tall and the Hansons still had more than half their kids to put through high school.

"I mean," I continued. "This day is certainly something I could live with being off the record."

"You didn't have fun today?" Sarah asked with a knowing grin, taking a seat on the other couch in the room.

"I could think of better things to do with my time." Sarcasm to the core. "Like.. rearranging my sock drawer backwards, for example."

"She's in denial." Taylor announced to them over my head.

"Can't be in denial, that's in Egypt." Zac laughed hysterically at his joke as he joined the conversation.

"Nice one Zac." Taylor retorted. "You read that off the back of a Bazooka bubblegum wrapper?"

"As a matter of fact.. No." He sat down on the floor in front of me. It was about two seconds before he leaned over and grabbed one of my feet, his fingers threatening to tickle the bottom of it. I screamed with anguish at him:

"Zac, don't!" He knew how incredibly ticklish I was.

The last thing we need here was an all-out tickle orgy, with me at it's center. It wouldn't be before long that I was certain I'd feel-

"Ahh!" There it was: Taylor fingers in my sides.

Here those two go again, ganging up on me.

"Boys, leave the poor girl alone." Bless Mrs. Hanson-- Diana, I mean. Eventually, I'll get that right.

"Thank you." I breathed a sigh of relief as her two mischievous sons released me from their grips. Two innocent smiles were cast up at their mother.

"Where's Dad?" Taylor asked innocently. His mother gave him a look of warning, not buying it for a second. I couldn't blame her, I'd only been close to him for half a year and I didn't even believe the wide-eyed, you-can't-possibly-be-angry-with-me look plastered on his face. What can I say though? The boy had good looks and he sure knew how to use them to his advantage. I wasn't sure if I liked that or not though, often coming up with the short end of the stick in that department.

"Getting the tape recorder set up." Walker replied, showing up. "Let's get started here."

"Oh, God." I covered my hands over my eyes as we all witnessed me getting slugged with a pile of mud in my stomach again.

"I can't believe you got this part on tape."

"Shh.. the best part's coming up." Zac silenced me. As I opened my eyes again, I groaned at the sight of me tackling Taylor and pinning him down in the mud. It looked like an episode of WWF gone off the deep end. Still, horrified reactions aside, I had to admit the scene made me smile.

"You don't know your own strength, Babe." Taylor patted my back softly.

"You should've guessed that when I kicked your aaaa--butt in self-defense class last year." I corrected my language. After all, there were parents present. Parents that I didn't want to form a negative image of me and not allow me to continue dating their son on the grounds of filthy language, a bad habit of mine. It was my most popular New Year's Eve resolution, cleaning up my language I mean. Not that the Hansons would ever not let me see Taylor, but still.. the possibility existed.

"I remember that." Taylor looked at me. "That was not fun."

"Talk about sexual repression." Ike interrupted us with a laugh as Taylor and I fought it out on the big screen. I darted my eyes quickly to him.

"What do you mean?" I demanded, trying to make it sound light-hearted. Deep down, I was a little alarmed.

"I'm only joking.." Ike held up his hands in defense. "It just looks kinda bad on tape, that's all."

"Shut up you two!" Zac scolded the both of us this time.

"Here's the best part.." His eyes widened with delight as I attempted my first serve.

"Bonk!" He laughed with delight as the ball bounced off the kid's head again.

"Poor kid didn't know what hit him." I felt a twinge, still feeling a little guilty about that.

"Aww.. you didn't really hurt him. We just hafta give you a hard time about it." Sarah offered.

"Gee thanks. Love you too." I stuck my tongue out at her.

"You.. have the maturity of a two-year old, Maggie." This time it was me who smiled with innocence.