The funny thing is, it was actually the movie that saved the evening. We couldn’t decide what to see. She was interested in the latest superhero movie and I wanted to see a psychological thriller. We split the difference and settled on a comedy.
It sucked.
It was hideous. We laughed at all the wrong things. We cringed as the punch lines landed like rocks. We shook our heads at the poor delivery of what were meant to be heartfelt scenes.
It was the best part of an otherwise unremarkable evening. But as the lights came on, I became acutely aware that our respite from awkwardness was coming to an end.
“It could’ve been worse,” I said. “I’m not sure how, but I’m pretty sure it could’ve been worse.”
We both laughed. I stuck my hand out and she took it. Her hands were delicate and her fingertips cool. Holding onto her felt like holding on to a ghost. In fact, everything about her felt a little otherworldly. Her skin was just too flawless and her smell a little too flowery. It made me feel like I was looking at one of those pin-up girls from the 50’s. Everything about her was designed to invite you in, but it promised nothing.
There was nothing wrong with Angelique. Nothing at all. Maybe that was the problem. There were no flaws. No acne scars, no weird calluses on her hands, no smell of wood or sweat that mingles with her soap. Nothing unique or special.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said. She followed, happily chatting away about all the things in the movie that made her laugh despite how awful it was.
“Maybe the point was for it to be so bad that you just had to laugh,” I said.
She paused for a moment and looked up at me as if I had just said something brilliant. Yeah, I get why Damon was so into her. She was really good for a man’s ego.
“Maybe. I never thought of it like that! Like maybe all of those horrible slapstick movies aren’t really as bad as I think they are. Maybe they’re really good because the point was to be bad.”
“Maybe. Although, I think slapstick just plays on the absurd. It relies a lot on physical comedy.”
“Why would anybody want to be absurd?”
“Sometimes absurd things help us to see the reality of our situation.” I looked down at her confused face and realized I had lost her. “What I mean is, sometimes you only see the reality of your situation when you pull it out to its most extreme conclusion. It’s like playing chess. You have to be able to see a few moves ahead of where you are now to know what to do.”
“I’ve never played chess. I’m more of a checkers and Jenga kind of girl,” she said and smiled up at me.
“I’ll have to show you how to play some time,” I offered.
“Sounds great!” She squeezed my hand for emphasis, but I already knew she was thinking of ways to get out of it. That was okay because I had no real intention of trying to teach her.
“Hey, can we pass by Reyna’s house? She’s having a football party, it’s Mid State’s homecoming this weekend and her brother goes there,” she said.
“Sure.” I didn’t have anything else to do tonight and as long as I showed up before dawn, neither of my parents cared when I got home.
“Great!” She clapped her hands and climbed into the car, grinning from ear to ear. I got the feeling that I had agreed to take a walk through my own personal hell, but I couldn’t back out now.
Even someone who wasn’t into sports would know enough to know that Mid State’s football team sucked, and people only rooted for them out of misplaced loyalty to the Mid State brand. Their basketball team was much better, and I’d heard that they had a few good archers as well.
Angelique directed me to Reyna’s house, which was decorated in the school’s green and gold colors. Balloons bobbed in the air above the mailbox, the porch was covered in green and gold streamers, and somebody took it upon themselves to spray paint the Mid State mascot on the bushes in the front yard.
There were a lot of cars parked up and down the street, so I assumed there were a fair number of people gathered in Reyna’s house to watch the game. The smell of barbecue hit my nose and my stomach growled.
“Come on,” Angelique said as she exited the vehicle. “Reyna’s parents always let her have the whole house to herself when she has a party. They escape to the upstairs and never show their faces.”
I wasn’t sure why that mattered so much, but I could begin to guess. Reyna and I weren’t close, but we knew each other well enough for me to know that she was a good student with less than attentive parents.
Angelique seemed to know everybody inside and was pointing out which cars belonged to whom. I’m not a shy person, but spending time watching a stupid football game with guys and girls I didn’t really know didn’t seem like a successful conclusion of the first date between Angelique and me. But still, I said nothing.
I followed her in, and was greeted by a huge buffet table with every snack known to man laid out in an elaborate spread on green and gold platters. Reyna excused herself from a group of people who were sitting at the back of the room where a huge, wall mounted, plasma screen television was playing the game.
“We have ribs in the kitchen and sodas out back in a bucket,” Reyna explained.
“Cool,” I nodded. I made eye contact with a few guys who I knew vaguely from school.
“Go Chucks!” Angelique announced her support loudly, managing to pull my attention back to her. She seemed very happy to be here, and that was all that was supposed to matter in that moment.
“God, only my brother could choose a school with the world’s lamest mascot. The Woodchucks? Who tested that idea?” Reyna complained.
“I think they inherited the mascot. Once upon a time, woodchucks were considered badass, but the school hasn’t kept up with the times, and now nobody dares to change it,” I chimed in.
“Maybe.” Reyna shrugged and took a plate full of chips back to her seat in front of the television.
“I’ll show you around,” Angelique said, grabbing me by the wrist and walking through the main room and down a hall. “The kitchen is through there and the back door is there,” she said.
“Where’s the bathroom?”
“There’s one here, but Reyna’s parents prefer it if we use the one downstairs.” She grabbed my hand and gave me a knowing look. “I’ll show you.”
Halfway pulling me into a stairwell, she flipped on a dim light. We rushed down a flight of creaking wooden steps into a finished basement suite. I couldn’t help but notice how silent it was downstairs compared to the den in the house.
“There,” Angelique pointed to a door in the corner.
I slipped into the bathroom and emptied my bladder, then spent a little while trying to face myself in the mirror. Despite her best efforts, I was miserable. I felt pathetic regardless of the fact that everything around me seemed to be great. I shouldn’t even be here, but I was because this was what everybody expected from me. I was lost at sea right now and I wasn’t sure how to get back to shore.
I opened the door and walked right into Angelique.
“You didn’t have to wait for me, you know?”
“I know,” she said, looking up at me with hopeful eyes. I knew what she wanted, but I couldn’t give it to her. Suddenly, she leaned in and grabbed the back of my head with her cool, delicate, palm and bundled us into a deep kiss.
I was too shocked to react at first, and then, slowly, I found my muscle memory. My body began to respond without my consent. My lips moved against hers in a rehearsed kiss, one designed to be pleasurable, but also one that wasn’t designed for her.
I closed my eyes and held onto her soft, warm, body. As I exhaled her scent, I found myself falling deeper into her seduction.
“Ah, Anna.”
I heard the words before I realized that I was the one to say them.
Angelique froze immediately. She took a step back and looked up at me with a puzzle in her eyes.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t ha-”
“How much time do yo
u think we need to let go by before people presume we’ve done this before?”
Her transformation was amazing. In place of the doting and fawning girl I walked in here with was one who had an iron gaze and her voice was clear and formal.
“You’re not mad?”
She shook her head.
“Honestly, I haven’t been able to get Damon out of my head all night.”
“You miss him?”
“I know you don’t like him. He was really shitty to your sister, and I didn’t really help matters. But, I loved him. We just can’t be together now and I get that, but still…I think about him all the time, you know?” She said the words in the same flat tone of voice that my mom uses to order Chinese food.
“So why are you here with me?”
“Because you are the better guy.”
I chuckled. “I don’t feel like the better guy. I feel like the guy who is standing in a basement, making out with one woman while thinking about another.”
“At least you’re still thinking about her.”
“I don’t want to, though. I want to be normal. I want to forget everything about her and how she made me feel.”
“Then you’ll be free,” Angelique said, looking far away.
“Exactly,” I agreed.
“Anna is a lucky girl. Does she know how much you still love her?”
“No!”
“Maybe you should tell her. I mean, you don’t have to get back together or anything. Just tell her that she still means the world to you.”
“And then what?”
“I don’t know, walk away,” she said. I could tell she was projecting. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that what she was saying to me was exactly what she wanted Damon to do.
“What about you and me?” I asked.
She gave me a sultry look. The kind that you see in classic movies.
“Well, she’s the past and I’m the future. There’s no reason why we can’t enjoy each other right now while you’re getting over your past. We can forget them together. Don’t worry about the emotions or any of that tough stuff. Just… I dunno, focus on the things that feel good.”
She leaned over, put her hand on my crotch and pressed her body against mine. All of her soft curves began to feel very warm and very real to me, and before I knew what to think, we were kissing again. Only this time I wasn’t lost in my memories of kissing Anna. Now I was lost in a feeling that was a lot more present and a lot less emotional.
“We can’t be gone too long,” I said against her lips. “They’ll start looking for us.”
“Yeah, but not for a while.”
“How long is a while?”
She smiled again, that same sultry smile that short circuits men’s brains.
“Long enough.”
Chapter 15
One Year Ago
The sunset made her hair look like it was a cascade of molten rock. She was shy, her cheeks tainted pink, her hands nervously trailing circles on bare skin. Anna had never looked more beautiful to me.
“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” I said, because when it came to her, I cared. Before she’d even slipped a single article of clothing from her body, I was rock hard and ready to claim her, but even then, it didn’t matter. If she wasn’t ready, and I mean really ready, then my claiming her would have to wait for another day. Hell, an entire lifetime if that’s what it would take. I could deal with the blue balls, but I couldn’t deal with her regretting anything about us.
Anna shook her head, making the long tresses dance across her shoulders and down her chest, catching my attention and threatening to never let it go.
“I want to,” she whispered, her voice hoarse and breathy.
“We can wait if you’re not ready, Anna. We’ve got all the time in the world. It doesn’t have to be today.” Anna was the kind of girl I would wait eternity for. If she had me walk out of here with balls bluer than sapphire and a painfully rod-hard erection, then so be it. So when I told her I would wait, I meant every single word.
She pressed her lips together into a worried line.
“It has to be today,” she said. “I don’t know when I’ll have another opportunity like this.”
Worry crept into her eyes and it made her even more beautiful. I grabbed her hands and looked her in the eyes.
“It doesn’t have to be today. It can be whenever you’re ready.”
“Don’t you want to-”
“Oh God, YES! I’m a teenage boy. It’s pretty much one of the three things I am willing to do at any moment of any day, no matter what. You’re fucking incredible, Anna. So incredible that I haven’t a single problem with taking things as quickly or as slowly as you want to take them.” I caught her chin with the tip of my finger and urged her head in my direction. “If I have to spend the next two years jerking off to the thought of you, I’m okay with that too.”
She shook her head at me and laughed.
“You’re something else, Adam Randt.”
“I’m also serious.”
She shifted, letting the blankets pooled around her hips slip apart slightly, revealing one long, strong leg. My eyes followed the curve of her leg from the heel to the dark shadow at the base of her hips where her leg disappeared. I began to kick myself for being a “nice guy”. Any other guy would’ve been naked and buried balls deep inside her by now, and I was actively trying to talk her out of having sex with me.
I was nervous too, but not enough to turn back if she wanted to go all the way. All of the stupid fantasies I’d had about her and every other girl I’d ever been attracted to came flooding into my mind. Would she let me get that far? Would she like it? Would it be an epic disaster? I was beginning to realize that porn might not be the best tutorial on how to please a woman. Regardless, it was all I had to go on. I’d have to wing it if I didn’t want this to end up being a traumatic experience for us both.
“I don’t want it to be spontaneous. I don’t want it to be some weird bang in the back of the car or under a bridge. I want it to be special. I want it to be relaxed.” She twisted her fingers together.
“You don’t look relaxed.”
“It’s my first time. I can’t be completely relaxed.” She gave me a half smile that made the corner of her eyes crinkle.
I reached out and gathered her warm body against mine. Her skin was always warm, even in the winter. It was like she had an oven in her chest that made all of her golden skin heat up to just the right degree.
“Luminous,” I whispered.
“What?”
“You’re luminous. But not like the stars, more like the sun,” I explained.
“Sweet talker, I’m already naked. You don’t have to try so hard,” she chuckled.
“Yeah, I do.”
She relaxed against my body, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.
“I want this. I want it to be with you. So, don’t try to talk me out of it now. You’ve proven that you’re the right guy. I won’t regret it, no matter what happens,” she whispered in my ear.
I let my hand roam up her back and back down to her hips and thighs. She shuddered and pressed her body harder against mine.
The sun had slinked lower in the sky and the last rays of the day cast the room in long shadows. I laid her body down on the mattress, her hair spilling around her like a halo. Her breasts were perfect, tear shaped with dark tips. I couldn’t tell if it was the cool air or arousal that made them hard, but I watched them become tight buds and gave into the desire to lick them.
Anna buried her fingers in my hair, cradling my head against her chest and I intensified my attention, sucking on her right breast and fondling the other with my free hand. She rewarded me with a whimper, and then another. And the sound of her…God…the sound of her moaning and the shortness of her breath was as close to heaven as I was sure I was ever going to get.
Immediately, my sweatpants didn’t feel like a good hiding spot for my erection, but instead, an ann
oyance. Why the hell did I wear sweatpants anyway? Who wore sweatpants to a deflowering? Then again, what did you wear to your first time? At the moment I was just angry that I hadn’t left them at the door with my shoes. Now I was paying the price, my cock imprisoned in layers of cotton. I reached down and palmed the throbbing member. It was a fruitless effort. There was only one thing that my body wanted, and it wasn’t my hand.
As if sensing the problem, Anna lifted her leg and slipped her toes into the waist of my pants and pulled them down, taking my underwear with it. The movement not only got rid of my clothing, but put me exactly where I wanted to be, between her thighs. I kicked the clothes away from my ankles and laid, cradled between her thighs, kissing her body.
Her skin tasted clean, like she’d just stepped out of the shower and didn’t bother to put on any of the flowery lotions or body sprays that made girls taste like a medicine cabinet.
As I made my way down her body I could smell her sex and the moisture gathering there. The sound of her breathing alone was a turn on. Everything about that moment was like a fantasy.
I made my way back up her body, nuzzling her left breast on the way up. She gripped my hair tightly in her fist and cried out. My eyes flickered to her face and relief washed over me. Anna was drenched in pleasure. Whatever she was feeling, it was obviously good. Knowing I could please her, knowing I could make her cry out like that, only made me want her more. I wanted to touch her more. I wanted to explore her more deeply. And I was greedy. I wanted to be the only man to see her like this. I wanted to be the only man to ever make love to her. And all of that is coming from someone who had never thought much about virginity. I’d always considered it an antiquated issue, something dirty old men liked to hold over the heads of young girls to keep them from enjoying their bodies. I never put any importance on it. But that day, lying between her thighs, with her panting and clawing at my back, I was glad that I was the first and the only. I didn’t just want to be with her. I wanted to take her virginity. I wanted her body to only ever respond this way to one body...mine.
“Can I fuck you, Anna?”
Filthy Pride: Dark Bully Romance Page 10