“Go get them.” His voice was unrelenting.
I walked over to pick up my stuff, bending my knees rather than lean down with my ass in the air. I came back to the car. “Can you drive me to my car? It’s at school.”
“After we talk. Get in.”
I opened the car door and climbed in, dumping the book bag and clothes on the floor in front of me. Lacey hadn’t bothered to toss one of her towels with my things. The wet bathing suit was going to do a number on the car seat. My hair was hanging bedraggled around me but at least it was no longer dripping.
We sat in silence, each staring in front of us. I snuck a sidelong glance and saw a muscle in his jaw ticking.
“Callum please drive us somewhere. I don’t want to sit in front of Lacey’s house.”
He ignored me, still sitting there, as if choosing his words. He spoke finally through gritted teeth. “So after telling Lacey to say you weren’t here, you changed your mind?”
“No!” I clenched my fist in my lap. “I didn’t even know you were here, and I had told her nothing. She did that herself. We just had a big blow up about it. How did you find me anyway?”
“Charlotte thought you might be here.”
I sighed. “OK. Now take me to my car.”
He paused as if to take that in, then started the ignition. Anger was radiating off him, and his voice was clipped when he spoke. “We have more to say. The guys are practicing at my house so we’ll go to yours.”
“My dad might be home.”
“He’s not. I was just there.”
As we pulled up at a red light his eyes flicked over to me. He leaned over to grab a handful of my clothes off the floor, and thrust them on my lap. “Cover yourself up. I can’t think straight with you looking like that.”
Could he make me feel any worse? I tossed the clothes back on the floor and swung toward him in the seat, spitting out venomously, “Don’t you tell me what to do with my body. You rejected me, so you have no right to say one word to me about how I look.”
He snorted angrily. “I rejected you? That would mean you had bothered to put yourself out there and offer yourself to me, which you haven’t, except for ten minutes this afternoon before canceling the offer.”
“You didn’t text back.”
“I was practicing and didn’t check my phone till you’d sent both messages.”
We were at my house now and he pulled into the driveway, fast. I unbuckled my seatbelt so I could face him. “You purposefully sabotaged your exam.”
When his eyes narrowed in question I went on. “That’s right. I know all about it. Ferguson told me. Just after I sent you that first text. So, screw you.” I turned back around in my seat, my arms crossed over my chest.
“You wanted to play this game with me but not risk anything, keep me and Bryce both going. After that scene in the cafeteria on Friday I decided this game is over.”
“That wasn’t for your benefit.”
He looked bitter. “I know.” There was a long pause, while he looked down at the steering wheel and then smacked it. When he finally spoke his voice was like ice. “Jenny we’re done. Go find Bryce.”
I started crying then, hard. “I don’t want Bryce!” I sobbed. I had gathered my book bag and clothes into my lap, and was squeezing them tight as if for comfort.
Callum turned to me, his voice like a knife, “What. Do. You. Want?”
“YOU! I want you!” I was screaming now. “And it hurts so much that you don’t feel the same way.”
I opened the car door and climbed out with my stuff, stumbling toward my house. I looked back at the car when I heard the door slam. Callum was moving fast around the side of the car and toward me, like a panther. When he got close instead of stopping he walked straight into me, grabbing my head in his hands and slamming his mouth down on mine in a rough hard kiss. I tried to push him away but he wouldn’t let go. His hands were holding my head so tight I couldn’t turn away and his mouth was demanding, fusing to my lips so that I couldn’t breathe. I gave in and started kissing him back, desperately, angrily, my hands reaching up to the back of his neck, pulling at his hair hard, forcing us even closer together. I pressed myself into his body but it was as if I were trying to knock him over rather than surrender. His hands moved to my waist and he lifted me up, and I threw my legs around him, squeezing tight, trying to hurt him. My suit was drying but was still damp and I could feel the heat of his body penetrating it, and on my bare skin. I could also feel him against me, hard. His hands moved to my ass and gripped it. He walked up my front steps carrying me as if I weighed nothing, somehow seeing where he was going although his mouth was still moving against mine. At the door he dropped me down and stood there without touching me.
“Get your keys out and open the goddamned door.” His voice was still furious but at least it wasn’t cold. I grabbed the keys out of the front pocket of my book bag and unlocked the door, flinging it open. He sprang on me as soon as the door was open, bodily pushing me inside so that I stumbled and would have fallen over if his strong hands hadn’t caught me. He slammed the door with his foot.
Standing in front of him, so angry and aroused and vulnerable, I started trembling all over. He noticed and suddenly his face softened, and he looked at me with aching tenderness. His grip on my arms loosened and he spoke.
“You’re shaking. Is that for me?”
I looked away. “Why do you ask? You know it is.” I said it softly now, my anger abated, my pride gone.
“Look at me.”
I turned my gaze to him, waiting.
His voice was soft. “I am so crazy about you I am out of my mind.” My eyes popped at that, a sharp burst of elation spiking through my veins like a drug.
He was stroking my arm now, his fingers slipping forward to the soft swell of skin between my armpit and breasts that wasn’t covered by the triangle of bikini top. My eyes were glued to his face, soaking in his words.
“That look on your face when douchebag was kissing your neck almost destroyed me. I know that if I fuck you, I will be lost. But I accept my fate.”
He slid his hands behind my neck and tugged sharply at the red tie there, pulling it loose and causing the strings to come undone and the top of the bikini to drop below my waist. His eyes raked over my breasts. Then his hand was on my back, pulling the second tie loose, and the bikini top fell to the floor altogether.
He tugged at the two strings on either side of the bikini bottom, and as the bows came undone, I widened my stance so that the scrap of red fabric could fall.
“Do you want this too?” He ground out, his voice almost menacing, but it turned me on so much I felt myself get dripping wet.
He continued. “If not, now is the time to stop this because my self control is almost gone.”
I nodded, eyes tense. “Please don’t stop.” I said softly.
My words triggered something inside him, because he pounced then, pushing me down, causing me to lose my balance but breaking my fall with his strong arms so that before I knew it I was flat on my back on the soft oriental rug in the foyer, and he was on top of me, his hard body pressing me down. He was kissing me all over, his face buried in my neck, his hands running through my hair. He nipped me hard on the neck and then licked the spot when I cried out, his hands running up my sides, squeezing my breasts, and soon a hand was between my legs, stroking me, and I let my knees flop apart to give him greater access. I reached the bottom of his t-shirt to pull it up, frustrated, and he paused long enough to put his hand over his back and yank it off before tossing it to the side. I was already grabbing at the waistband of his jeans, unsnapping them, and shoving them down, using my feet to push them past his knees. He reached down to help, pulling off his boxer briefs as well. I stroked his hard chest and arms all the while. Then we were both naked, skin on skin, on the rug, Callum’s hardness pushing between my legs.
Callum sat back to reach for his jeans and pulled a condom from the pocket, tearing open the wrapper and quickly sheathing him
self while I watched. Then his eyes flew to mine as he leaned forward, bracing himself over me on his forearms, and pushed against my opening. Where he stayed, hovering, taut. I mewled in frustration.
“Callum…” I looked at him beseechingly, trying to pull him toward me.
“Once we do this, you’re mine. Bryce is dead to you. Do you understand?” I nodded, my eyes wide at his intensity.
“Say it. Say the words.” His voice was strained but determined, the command non-negotiable.
I found the strength to say, “But then Noelle, Jessica and the rest are also history.”
“Absolutely.”
I reached up and stroked his cheek, tearing up again. “Then I’m yours. I’m yours already, and for as long as you’ll have me. And you’re mine.” I choked out.
His eyes blazing, triumphant, he entered me, all the way, causing me to shudder. He pulled back and started thrusting slowly but deeply. “You feel like paradise. I have dreamt of this moment for so long.” He then thrust faster, harder, and I could feel my arousal mounting.
I was pushing my hips up to him, wanting him to take me even harder, deeper, and he was burying his head in my neck, biting my ear, our chests rubbing each other. Then his head was just above me, and I was looking into his eyes as my pleasure built. The primal look of hunger on his face, the loss of control, sent me over the edge and I came hard, moaning and calling out his name. He came right after, thrusting to his climax, letting out a sharp shout. We dropped flat onto the rug, him lying on top of me, dripping with sweat. While our bodies calmed down we nuzzled and stroked each other.
A little while later he lay on his back and I rested on his chest. I licked his nipple and stared up at him.
“So, for me that was pretty, um, mind-blowing. But I know you have a lot of experience and I hope you hadn’t built it up in your mind too much so that when we finally did it”-
Callum was kissing my head as I spoke but then cut me off. “Jenny. That was even better than I could have imagined. I’m reeling from it, from you.”
His words warmed me to the core.
Finally he sat up and removed the condom, tying it up. He got up and walked toward the bathroom down the end of the hall.
While Callum was down the hall, I got off the floor and collected our things, and headed to my room to grab some clothes. I started to get dressed. Callum followed me in from the bathroom, and he watched me as I pulled on panties, a bra, t-shirt and jeans.
“What are you doing?” He was looking at me with consternation. “What’s the hurry?”
“I thought I should end things with Bryce pretty much immediately.”
His face broke out in a relieved smile. Once he’d gotten dressed, he sat on the edge of the bed. I climbed onto his lap, my phone in hand, and typed a message to Bryce while Callum nuzzled my neck.
We need to talk.
Chapter 24
Soon after, Callum drove me back to school. He hopped out and walked me the three feet to my car, then kept kissing me there in the now empty parking lot.
“So what’s tomorrow going to look like?”
He kissed me on the forehead. “What do you want it to look like? I’ll carry your books and shit, if that’s what you want, or we can keep it on the down low. I know you’re mine and I don’t give a shit about the rest of them.”
I snuggled into him, my arms wrapped around his waist. “Let’s just play it by ear, OK? I’ll call you later.”
An hour later I called Lacey, having just gotten back from an unpleasant if predictable scene at Bryce’s house. The only surprise was that Lacey hadn’t told him about my leaving with Callum earlier, so the breakup was entirely unexpected. He was seriously pissed about being dumped, especially when I had to admit, when pressed, that Callum was involved. But then he called me a cunt and accused me of ‘whoring around’. After that any lingering guilt I felt about my treatment of him disappeared. However painful the conversation was, I had no regrets about my decision and I realized I should have ended things with Bryce long ago. Lacey was another matter.
The call to Lacey went to voicemail. “Please call me. We need to talk.” I texted her with the same message.
I called Tina and poured it all out, but ended the conversation soon. “I have to try to reach Lacey. I’ll call you later.”
“You realize that your friendship with Lacey might have taken more than just a hit, right? It might be over.”
I sighed. “I know.”
It had been such an emotional day that I soon felt exhausted. Pushing through the exhaustion I did homework until my phone finally rang with Lacey’s ringtone.
“Hi.”
She got right to it. “What did you want to say to me?”
“I broke up with Bryce.”
“So I heard. From Kai.”
“I’m with Callum.”
“I figured, after what went down this afternoon. By the way, your boyfriend is very lucky: the football team isn’t going to beat the shit out of him, because the Dixon boys complained to the coach about the beating at Alex’s, and so the coach has Bryce and Kai and the others on a very short leash.”
I was very relieved to hear this. But there was more I wanted to say.
“I know you hate Callum but I want you to know that I really care about this guy.”
“Jenny I don’t give a shit about Callum. The problem here is that I’m supposed to be your friend and you didn’t tell me anything. It’s like you never trusted me.”
I sighed. “You’re right. You were so hostile toward Callum that I couldn’t open up to you. I wanted things to work out with Bryce, I really did. But the spark wasn’t there.”
I wanted you to go out with Bryce, sure, but if you’d been honest and said you weren’t interested in him I would have accepted that. You could have told me.”
“I did tell you, but you blew it off every time. You always defended him.”
“Fuck you, Jenny.”
I felt the tears come then, which hadn’t happened with Bryce.
Surprisingly, Lacey was still on the line. “If Callum was so important why did you never ask me about why I hate him so much?”
“I figured it was just you being judgmental.”
“Thanks for that. Have I ever said anything to cut you down? Have I?” It was true that she hadn’t. She was tough on other people and bossy as hell, but she never had made me feel bad about myself.
“OK you’re right, you gave me no reason not to trust you, but I just didn’t. And I’m sorry.” I paused, knowing the damage to the friendship was irreparable. “So now at least can you tell me your story with Callum?”
“You should just ask him yourself. But I’ll tell it so you hear my side, because I’m sure he’ll spin it in his favor.” I heard her take a deep breath. “It goes back to Freshman year. I was already moving in the popular crowd, hanging out with upper classmen. The social pressures really got to me then- I guess I was young and naïve in a way that I’m no longer. Anyway, I got detention after school once for some infraction and you know who was in there with me that afternoon?”
“Callum?”
Lacey snorted. “No, thank God. Matt.”
I was astonished. “Callum’s bandmate?”
“That’s the one. We got to talking, and he was so kind and funny, and yet with this underlying strength. He didn’t want anything from me, except just to be with me. I’d never encountered anyone like him. He was a junior then and couldn’t care less about any of the popularity bullshit that I was consumed by. I told him about how much I liked Drama but it wasn’t cool so I couldn’t do it and he gave me a pep talk about standing up to the dragons, as he called them. We talked for two straight hours and they had to ask us to leave when our detention time was up. Can you imagine? I think I was a little in love by the end of that day. I felt like he could save me, or at least make me strong enough to save myself.
“The next day at lunch I was sitting with my so-called friends and Matt walked up. He lea
ned over and- I’ll never forget this- he said, ‘come on, Princess, I’m rescuing you from the dragons.’ And he took my hand and led me to a different table. We sat together, just like that. From the looks on their faces my friends were completely floored, and so were Matt’s friends, including Callum. At the end of lunch Matt said he would skip his band practice to hang out with me that afternoon. But guess what happened? After school he bailed on me. Said he couldn’t let down his band like that. I found out later that Callum had torn Matt a new one for trying to choose me over the band, so Matt caved and chose the band of course. I give Callum points for strategy: coming down hard before things got deeper with us, because how could I, after 24 hours, compete with his childhood friends? Matt let me down gently but I could tell he was bailing on more than hanging out after school that one day. It was the end of us. The dragons let me back in after my momentary lapse in sanity, though it took me a good week to regain my position. For a while after that Matt would say hi if we ran into each other but then I got sick of waiting for it so I began ignoring him. I don’t think we exchanged one word the year before he graduated.”
“Are you still hung up on him?”
“NO. God no. I’m six boyfriends on from him. It never would have worked out anyway. But I’m pissed that whatever there was between us didn’t run its course, and that your fucktard boyfriend interfered.” I remembered now how she’d asked about Matt in a roundabout way. I had to admit that Callum had been kind of a shit, but there were two sides to every story.
“I’m sorry I hurt you with Callum of all people.”
“I’ll survive. Have a nice life.” She hung up abruptly.
The next morning at school I kept to myself between classes, successfully avoiding any fall-out from the break-up. Lunch would be another matter. I dreaded that moment of decision, tray in hand: I knew I was no longer welcome at Lacey’s table, but I wasn’t thrilled to sit with Callum’s groupies either. So I acted preemptively. I went straight to lunch after third period, rather than depositing my books in my locker. That way I would be one of the first people there and I would sit alone, and people could join me or not. In the near-empty cafeteria, I was heading to a table with my tray when someone called my name. It was Sandy Steampunk from the drama club party, aka Jamie. He was holding a tray too.
Tutor Me Page 19