Chapter 14
This teasing has to end.
Once classes began again, our lives became mad busy. I would only see Grey or Chelsea when I rode with them, either to campus or back home. Our schedules were so different. Each of us had individual pursuits, working toward different degrees. Chelsea was a social media influencer majoring in marketing. Grey trained for the Olympics twice daily while completing a public policy degree. At the same time, I worked at the gym and focused on my challenging pharmacy classes.
Grey and I hadn’t spoken of that day in his room again, though I caught him stealing glances more. I hadn’t heard from or seen Carter since the day in the parking lot. The football team started its season with two away games. This past weekend was their first home game. Our team, led by Carter, the quarterback and captain, was at the top of our division with three straight wins. I’d watched him play on TV, mesmerized like thousands of fans, wondering if my chance had passed since he was back in the spotlight with the NFL draft looming in the very near future.
I wanted to reach out to him, but something about the semester beginning seemed to work like a switch, and I’d drifted back to the old Darren. I was afraid to remind him that he had said he would honor his bets and owed me a date. Glasses, baggy clothes, tennis shoes, and hair pulled in a big puff had returned. My only concession to sexy was the crop tops I’d grown fond of once I discovered the gym.
I’d slunk back into a side character. And maybe I’d only been the main attraction because Chelsea had been gone most of the summer. Now that she’d returned home, word traveled like an infectious disease that a newly single Chelsea Phillips walked the campus. Grey didn’t have to avoid or hurt her feelings with all the men vying for a chance to date her. She’d built a popular following on social media over the two years she’d been with Carmello, thanks to her beauty and sex appeal. Men approached me, hoping to get closer to her. Not a day passed that she wasn’t entertaining some guy on the phone or in our living room. Even Grey would disappear from time to time and wouldn’t come home until the wee hours of the morning. And I... I was watching my friends live their best lives again.
Nothing would change in my life with a birthday fast approaching, and how I’d been moving, I would still be a virgin at twenty-one. Maybe I should have slept with Carter that night when we played games, or even had sex with Grey. I might still be sitting alone at the coffeehouse on campus, but I would at least have experience. I placed my Beats on my ears and plopped my head down on my Nike backpack. Listening to theUntil the End of Timeremix by Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake probably wasn’t a good choice, given the lack of interest I’d received from Carter or any guy on campus. Their song about a forever love reminded me that I’d never even had a temporary love.
Suddenly, my earphones were plucked off my ears, and I sat up in surprise as Carter slid in front of me. “What are you listening to?”
He placed my Beats on his ears and grinned. “Hmmm... I like this song. It’s sexy.”
“Yeah, it is.” I wished I had a mirror or could use my cell to check my looks without being obvious. I pictured a hot mess and tried to convince myself that Carter only saw a pretty mess.
“Miss me?” Carter slid my earphones to rest around his neck, picked up my strawberry smoothie, and took a sip.
“I don’t know,” I replied. Using my self-pity to keep me from jumping into Carter’s lap at how damn fine he looked today. A purple and gold bandana adorned his head, representing the college’s colors, and he wore a white practice jersey, beige cargo shorts, and purple Jordans.
Carter’s brows raised. “You don’t know?”
“No.” I snapped, “All I know is that I haven’t heard from you after you promised we were good.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t promise shit. Except that, we would go out. And the phone goes both ways. I’m not the one in a relationship.”
I shrugged, pushing back my guilt. “So, when is this magical date supposed to happen?”
Carter settled back in his chair. “Might renege on my bet since you're coming at me with all this noise, like I’m wrong. Don’t want to imagine how you’d act if I went up in you like I wanted to.”
“Past tense?” I folded my arms, trying not to give attitude because everything he said was right. It’s not his fault that he believed I had a man. “Like you don’t want me anymore?”
“Depends.” He sipped on my smoothie again and moved his foot between my feet underneath the table until his leg touched mine. My lower lips clenched, and I fought against closing my eyes and being lulled by lust. My poor mood channeled my inner toughness because right now, I didn’t give a fuck if he walked away. Frustrated unfairly with his nonchalance.
“On what?” I barely kept the irritation out of my tone.
Carter quirked a brow. “Whether you can prove you missed me.”
I tilted my head, debating whether or not to be honest that I missed him or keep him guessing. “In the second gameagainst Tennessee, you threw three touchdown passes and ran forty yards for one touchdown. Probably beat yourself up for fumbling in the fourth quarter, almost losing the game. Probably didn’t matter that you then could see down the field past the defense, ready to annihilate you and throw that game-winning touchdown with three seconds left. I could talk about your first or third game, but that might make you think I only watched the games everyone else watched.”
He bit his lip to stop himself from grinning while I stared at him, refusing to smile. This teasing between us had become exhausting. I wanted to come clean, but that required believing we had something. Something more than whatever this was.
Carter removed my Beats from his neck. He then glanced around the empty shop, except for the barista, and grabbed my hand.
“Where are we going? I can’t leave my stuff,” I protested, though I didn’t care what happened to my bag or my Beats. The way he rose and tugged me up with him, taking control. Giving me no choice had my body humming.
“Dude, can you watch her things for me?” He asked the bored barista, who nodded and watched curiously as Carter pulled me toward the two unisex bathrooms.
I gripped his bicep, anticipating what he planned to do to me.
Carter had barely closed the door before his tongue found my mouth and had me pressed against the nearest wall. I eagerly wrapped my arms around his neck, and our tongues dipped, tasted, and explored each other’s mouths. My strawberry mixed with his mint. The perfect kiss. I moaned when his hands raised my Aaliyah t-shirt and lifted my bra to suck on my nipples. I fisted his hair that peeked from his bandana as he pulled and sucked on my rigid buds while massaging my brown orbs.
He lifted his head to kiss me again, and his thick and hard dick pressed insistently against my mound. “Darren, I need you.”
“Mm... I need you, too.” And my body did cry for him. My sex ached from his kisses and his touches. Demanding a release.
