Falling In Between

by Devon Ashley

  He secured me in his arms as he shut the door behind me, then twisted me back against the car. With the same seductive look he kept flashing in the rearview mirror, he pressed into me and my body leaned backwards, following the curves of his car. He followed me all the way, and when we could go no farther, his lips finally pressed on mine.

  My body shivered and I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with the cool breeze that just blew by. One of his hands found the small of my back as mine found their way around his neck. One thing I learned this past week when I kissed him goodbye each night: I loved the silky feel of his hair on my fingers as I combed through his brown locks, and tonight was no exception.

  We stayed like that until the phone in his pocket began ringing. He grunted and apologized as he pulled it out, but he didn’t release the pressure he used to keep me pinned to the car.

  “What?” he whined, annoyed once he saw the name of our interrupter. I gently scratched his scalp with my nails and his face softened again. He said ‘uh-huh’ a few times, followed it up with an ‘alright’ and then snapped the phone shut again. He slipped it back into his pocket and sighed as he gently stroked my cheek.

  “Think you can put up with me a little longer?”

  Oh, I think I could allow him to bother me with his sweet, sweet kisses just a wee bit longer…“What’s going on?”

  “Sophie and Jhett just took over your bedroom for awhile.” I felt an urge to roll my eyes into the back of my head, but then they would’ve lost sight of the way Robert was looking down on me, so I forced them to stay put. “Of course they did. No wonder they took off running. They probably planned that as far back as the restaurant.”

  “Well, that leaves us two options. We can either hike into the woods and go to one of our spots, or we can sneak you into my dorm room.”

  My dimples made a sudden appearance cause he intentionally left out option number three: we hang out in the common room like we already did every night this week. I was kinda tired of it myself. And if he was thinking the same thing I was right now, we weren’t gonna get the kind of privacy we wanted in any place labeled ‘common’.

  I think it actually surprised him when I pushed him off me and led him to the dormitories with nothing but a smile. When we got inside, he left me alone in the commons to check the floors for any roaming teachers that could catch us. In a few minutes he came back to get me.

  “We’re good. They haven’t even noticed our camera yet.”

  A few people turned their heads with intrigue as he pulled me across the threshold to the male dorm rooms. He had me through his door lickety split and I got a rush the way he immediately picked up where we left off at the car.

  He twisted us farther into the room and I almost ate it when I tripped over a shoe. If he hadn’t had such a tight grip on my body I’d be on the floor right now.

  “Sorry. Jhett’s a little lazy when it comes to picking up behind himself.”

  Laughing between kisses, I added, “So is Sophie.”

  He danced me in circles the rest of the way, and once he was backed up to his bed he stroked my cheeks and said, “I have to admit, I didn’t think you were going to choose this option.”

  “You thought I’d choose hidden option number three and make us hang out in the commons.”

  He managed a straight face but he clearly played dumb. “No, I’m sure I listed that as an option.”

  I placed my hands on his shoulders and pushed down until he collapsed to a sitting position. I smoothly slid inside his legs and replied, “Nope. You didn’t.”

  His arms swept behind and pressed into the back of my hips, nudging me closer. “I assure you it was purely accidental.”

  “Uh-huh.” One after the other, I placed each knee on the bed outside his waist and sat myself on his lap. Before he could attack again, I quickly pressed my index finger against his lips. “Don’t get too excited cause making out with our clothes on is as far as I’m gonna go for awhile. You’re not gonna need to reach into that bedside table any time soon.”

  He smiled, leaned in to kiss our noses and replied, “I knew that long before I ever asked you out.”

  That bewildered me a little but before I could even form a question, he added, “Last spring you went on a date with Richard Blevins.”

  I automatically rolled my eyes and shook my head sideways, which was apparently pretty entertaining. “Let me just say right out the gate that I’m willing to give most people at least one date. Even if it goes against my better judgment, I’m willing to give them one chance to prove I had them pegged wrong. With Richard–”

  “You didn’t have him pegged wrong.”

  “No-oooo,” I replied quickly, drawing the word out for several seconds. “What exactly did you hear?”

  “That he took you out and you couldn’t be bothered to even kiss him goodnight. Then he said some crap about not being interested cause you’d require too much work.”

  I burst out laughing, and remembering where I was, I threw my hand over my mouth to quiet the sound. “The extra work would have been convincing me to go out on a second date with him. That loser spent the entire night talking about himself and all the luxury items he owned. Maybe it would’ve impressed some of the wealthier girls in this school but I honestly had no idea what the hell he was talking about. And technically, his daddy owned all those things, not him. I may have been willing to give him three hours but I have way higher standards when it comes to who I’ll actually kiss.”

  “Well, I’m glad you went out with him.”

  I’m pretty sure I gave him the most funky, most unattractive face I’ve ever produced. “That’s a mean thing to say.”

  “Okay, granted. Even agreeing to go on a date with Richard Blevins was an act of complete stupidity on your part.” He paused to wail cause I yanked really hard on the hair I was fingering. “But, when he said your name, I realized he was talking about this girl in my Lit class. He was trying to convince everyone you weren’t worth dating, but everything he said made me think the complete opposite. Any girl that’ll blow off that dumbass gets a gold star in my book, and that’s when I started noticing you last March.”

  “Yet it took me drowning for you to ask me out,” I teased.

  “Alright, I was a little slow and summer was right around the corner. I figured I’d ask you out when we came back this year.”

  “A little slow this year too?”

  “I never saw you!” he said defensively. “Not only do we not have any classes together but our classrooms couldn’t be any farther apart.”

  I had to give him that one. There really wasn’t enough time to see each other between classes, even when we did know where the other would be.

  I leaned in and gave him a quick skim on the lips. “You are so lucky I drowned that night.”

  He huffed. “Please. You’re just lucky I was close enough to save your drowning ass.”

  I tugged his hair again but I couldn’t keep from smiling. “Call it even?”

  “Not a chance. I plan on holding that over your head for the rest of your life.”

  He pulled my abdomen tight against his and slowly rolled us backwards onto the bed. Our kisses were soft and slow and every touch fed the fire that burned within. I was a little disappointed when his phone rang an hour later, and by the groan he gave reaching for the phone, he was too. We weren’t making out at that point but I was so enamored as we lay on our sides, just watching each other, letting our hands do all the flirting.

  “Yeah?” he said into the phone, followed a few seconds later with, “Okay.”

  His hand stroked my cheek and it felt so good I closed my eyes and smiled. It stopped, but I still lay there happy – until I heard the click.

  My eyes shot open and I saw his phone in the air between us.

  “Did you just take a picture?”

  He turned the phone to show me the picture of me happily lying in his bed. “Wallpaper. Do you mind?”

  “So long as you k
eep them clean.”

  He released a roll of laughter and kissed my forehead before climbing over me. “I’ve got to go check the halls again so you can get out of here quietly.”

  He left the room and I shifted to my back and stretched head to toe. The bedside table was literally inches from my head and my curiosity got the best of me. I pulled open the drawer and sure enough, the box of condoms was there, unopened like he said. I closed the drawer again and smiled for some reason; maybe cause it proved he didn’t expect sex soon enough to even bother putting one in his wallet.

  I rolled onto my stomach and let my body melt into his featherbed, smiling as I breathed in the familiar scent of cologne that still lingered in the fabric.

  Ahhh…..If this was heaven, sign me up.

  His door opened and closed again, but I didn’t bother to get up, or even move for that matter. My body didn’t wanna leave this heavenly spot.

  The bed shifted around my legs as his body weight pressed in, and he slowly crawled the length of the bed, finally hovering over my entire body. He leaned far enough down to press into me, but still held his own weight. His breath was warm and moist on my neck. After a few deep kisses re-lit the embers within, he quietly said, “Is it wrong that I love seeing you all happy in my bed?”

  My lips curled even more. “I like your bed. It’s soft and it smells like you, and I find that very comforting.”

  His groan was almost a whine. “You’re making it very difficult to take you back to your room, do you know that?”

  “Then don’t.”

  “Any moment now Jhett’s going to come through that door and completely ruin the lure of this bed, and I want to keep you coming back.”

  It was my turn to groan, but he was right. I could already imagine the multitude of things Jhett could do to ruin this moment of bliss for me.

  “Alright,” I whined.

  The pressure above me lifted and I let him peel me from the sweet, fluffy bed. He pulled his shirt over his head and for the second time, I became slightly flustered with his naked torso within inches of me. He handed it to me while he dug another shirt out of his chest and put it on.

  I moved to hand it back, but he shook his head and said, “That’s for your bed. Maybe breathing me in will get you thinking of me when you sleep, too.”

  Awww…I think my heart just did a little happy dance.

  Yep…flutters.

  Jhett passed us in the commons where Robert and I were kissing goodnight. Of course he had to whistle at us and get what few people who weren’t already gawking at us to turn their heads. But I was on cloud nine, so I didn’t care. And later that night, I snuggled up with his shirt and let his sultry scent put me to sleep with a smile on my face.

  As I zigzagged my way through the trees, I stopped to lean against the last one before the open field. A group of guys were playing a game of soccer on the far end. It was hard to catch a glimpse of the players rushing back and forth from this distance, but I was pretty sure I spotted Chance. He was actually pretty good at maneuvering the ball in and out of his feet as he tried to push past his opponent. He kicked the ball to a teammate, and a few seconds later he just stopped dead in the field and turned in my direction.

  He must have sensed someone watching him cause he honed in on me faster than a buxom blonde beauty on a wealthy ninety year old man. When he did, he bailed from the game right when the ball got passed back to him. His teammate yelled his frustration when Chance’s opponent swept in and kicked the ball back in the opposite direction.

  I can’t believe he even saw me. I was nowhere close to the game. I shook my head in disbelief as he jogged towards me.

  “Hey,” I said before he pecked me on the lips.

  “I didn’t know you were coming here.”

  “Neither did I.” I had literally popped into this dream a few trees back. If I hadn’t known he played soccer, I wouldn’t have even paid attention to that game. It was weird that I looked for him period, but after two weeks of him in my dreams, I pretty much expected him to be there when I fell asleep each night.

  “You can get back to your game. I’ll wait here till you’re done.”

  He waved it off. “Nah. I play with these guys all the time.”

  We looked to the field and I noticed someone had jumped in from the sidelines to take his place in the game.

  “All yours.” He grabbed my hand and led me towards the parking lot. “I do want to change first though.”

  Thank God. I didn’t wanna say anything, but he’d already worked up quite a sweat and I didn’t fancy the idea of being pulled in close enough to touch cold, sweaty clothes. Ick. He pulled a bag out of the back part of the cab and took a few minutes in the bathroom. The Chance that climbed back into the truck was sweat-free, dressed in jeans and a tee, and sprayed down with cologne.

  “So what do you wanna do?” I asked as he started the truck.

  “Do you play pool?”

  I couldn’t help but huff. “Are you seriously suggesting the clichéd date of bending a girl over just so you can show her how to use a stick properly?”

  “Well, when you put it that way…” By the look on his face, that’s exactly what he was hoping to do. “If you prefer, we can go with the cheesy date and hit the putt-putt course and racing track.”

  I scrunched my nose and shook my head.

  “Well, normally I would suggest swimming but you’re a little freaked out with water right now.”

  I nodded my head, this time agreeing with him.

  “So you tell me. What do you think we should do? Unless you want to hit another restaurant or movie theatre.”

  “Eh. I think you were right with the first choice. Pool it is.”

  I pulled my seatbelt across my chest and ten minutes later we parked behind a building called BoJoe’s.

  “This is a bar, not a pool hall.”

  He cut the truck’s engine. “Yeah. My friend’s older brother is one of the owners.”

  “Bo or Joe?”

  Chuckling, he replied, “Joe. It’s Bobby and Joseph, actually. They’ve got a private room in the back they only let friends and family use. If it’s free, he’ll let us use it. Just give me a second to check.”

  He walked around the building, and after a few minutes he wedged the back door open with the rock lying next to it. He opened my door and let me out, then leaned into the truck to pull his keys from the ignition.

  He kicked the rock out behind us and closed us off in the room that was immediately to our right. There was a pool table off to the left, a sitting area off to the right and a small wet bar on the far back wall with a couple of stools. When Chance dimmed the lights, I turned back to glare at him.

  “What? The light was hurting my eyes.”

  “Yet you seem to be able to play soccer mid day with zero clouds in the sky.”

  “Such an over-analyzer.” He grabbed a stick from the wall and set up the balls on the table. “Now do you know how to play or not?”

  “No.” I stood before the wall of sticks, noticing the different heights and designs. “Does it matter which stick I choose?” He practically snorted. I quickly pointed my finger at him. “Don’t go there!” Such a dirty mind.

  It took a moment, but his laughter finally died down. He cleared his throat before saying, “It’s called a cue. And no, any cue will be fine for what we’re doing.” He lifted the rack around the balls and came to my end of the table, where I was twirling the cue I’d chosen. With an evil, seductive grin, he leaned against the table and asked, “So, which set of balls would you like to play with today?”

  My eyes shot north. “Must everything become a sexual innuendo with you?”

  “I was simply asking if you preferred solids or stripes.”

  “Uh-huh. I’ll take the stripes, thank you very much.”

  He leaned in slowly, like he was gonna come in for a kiss, but he stopped at the last second and pushed me sideways. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to break so you don
’t poke a hole through my friend’s table.”

  I shrugged and stepped aside, watching as he leaned over. Silly me, I couldn’t help but notice the way his body curved in that stance, his back taking shape as the shirt was stretched tight when his arms extended over the table. He slid the cue in and out of his hand a few times, pausing to cock his eyebrows at me, then hit the white ball hard. It crashed into the triangle of balls and sent them rolling in every direction, one of the solid balls going straight to the corner pocket.

  “Alright, come here.” He motioned me to follow him near where the white ball stopped. “Left foot forward, right a little back.” I did as he said, and of course, he wrapped his body around mine from behind. I leaned over and he adjusted my left hand as soon as I put it down.

  “Okay, place the shaft of the cue stick on the crease of your thumb.”

  I angled my head to see his face. “Please tell me it’s not really called the shaft.”

  He buried his head between my neck and shoulder, causing the laughter to sound more like hiccups. I dropped my head back in frustration. After a moment, he whispered in my ear, “You want to know what they call the back end of the cue with all the wrapping?”

  “Probably not.”

  His right hand swept across my back right cheek, coming dangerously close to slipping up my shorts. “The butt.”

  “Seriously, what pervert got to name this thing?”

  He pressed his body firmly into mine. “And the back of the cue is called the bumper.” And with emphasis on the last word, he nudged me with his pelvis.

  “All right. That’s it.” I dropped my cue, spun to face him, and began pushing him across the room. He only went about a foot each time, so I had to push a lot.

  “What?” he cried playfully. “I was just giving you the breakdown of proper pool terms.”

  “Uh-huh. I’ll never get a single shot off with you behind me.”

  “So…what? You just want me to sit way in the corner and watch?” A light went off in his head that made him pause to think over his words. “You know, you’re right. I can admire you much better from afar. Take it all in.”