by Marian Tee
“No,” he exploded. “I did that once and it was hell!”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying—”
“Then maybe you can understand this.” Without any warning, Alex was suddenly cupping her face, his lips covering hers in the next instant.
Ianne froze in his arms.
Alex Rockford was kissing…her.
His lips were nothing like she imagined they would be. Sometimes, she would dream that he was so in love with her he would lose control and kiss her passionately, wildly, and urgently. Other times, Ianne would dream that he would be so sweet and tender with her, kissing her with soft brushes of his lips, treating her like she was something breakable.
But the reality was so much better because he was all those combined and more. His body, hard and strong, pressed against hers, making Ianne feel ridiculously and deliciously weak. His lips had an addictive flavor to them, making her weak to his command and she blindly followed his lead, her tongue tangling with his in a kiss that left her shaky and breathless.
Her breasts felt so swollen in their confines, her nipples thrusting so ardently that she knew its shape was more than visible against the thin cotton of her shirt.
Alex’s hands were moving now, caressing her neck and then moving down, one hand holding her waist while another swept her back before moving forward, brushing the side of her breast.
His touch was electrifying, making her gasp against his mouth.
The sound of Ianne’s gasp made Alex stiffen. It was only that moment he belatedly remembered they were in a public place, and there he was, seconds away from making love to her.
It took every bit of his control to lift his head and break their kiss. Looking down at her, something primitive rushed inside him at the sight of Ianne’s desire-clouded eyes and kiss-swollen lips.
“I can’t believe the time we wasted,” he said under his tone.
Before she could stop herself, Ianne said, “You were the one who dated another girl.” She tried not to sound accusing, but it was impossible.
Alex looked at her incredulously. “What did you expect me to do? You practically told me I had no chance with you!”
“I never told you anything like that!”
He bit out with explicit accuracy, “Just because you’re friends doesn’t mean you’re automatically compatible.”
Chapter Five
Ianne couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “That was why you hooked up with Zelda?”
He looked like he wanted to strangle her.
She didn’t blame him. She had the same urge herself. Right now, she was totally echoing his sentiments. She couldn’t believe how much time they had wasted. Years. They had wasted years avoiding each other when they had both—
Ianne had a sudden attack of insecurity, which she sadly didn’t find surprising. She was so used to being either overlooked or forced to change that she had a hard time accepting any person would appreciate the real her, faults and all.
“I saw you before that time with Zelda,” she mumbled, unable to look into Alex’s eyes as she recounted one of the most painful days of her life. “The two of you were flirting—”
“I don’t flirt with her. I never did,” Alex said in a chillingly cold voice. “If you saw us together, then she was the one trying to flirt—”
“It doesn’t matter now, does it? You still went out with her.”
“Because you pushed me away!”
“I didn’t push you away,” Ianne insisted. “I told you, I saw the two of you together and then suddenly you were asking me these questions about friends dating. I thought you were talking about her so I told you…”
“That friends aren’t necessarily compatible with each other romantically,” he ended heavily for her.
She said sickly, “Yes.” Alex let her go then, and she tried not to let him know how empty and alone she felt. God, she was so pathetic. He had just come back in her life and she was already totally dependent on him. She couldn’t even recall being this dependent on him when they were friends.
Alex raked a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe everything that happened was just because of a simple misunderstanding.”
Her lips tightened.
Seeing that, he swore.
Ianne blinked, her resentment temporarily forgotten. She couldn’t think of an instance prior to today that Alex had cursed in her presence.
“I’m sorry,” he gritted out. “It’s my fault. What happened between us…if I hadn’t hooked up with Zelda, maybe we could have still fixed things between us…” He didn’t say anything else, knowing that regrets were useless. He had fucked up, plain and simple, and for over two years he had forced both of them to pay the consequences.
She whispered, “Why did you never try to talk to me after you and…her—”
“Because I was too proud,” he confessed harshly. “I was a stupid proud sixteen year old who didn’t want to risk seeing the girl he loved and forgetting all about pride and self-respect. I was afraid that if I took one look at you, I’d end up begging you to take your chance on me.”
The words had Ianne inhaling sharply. She couldn’t believe Alex had felt that strongly about her…and she hadn’t suspected a thing.
“We’re too good at pretending,” she said softly.
Alex visibly hesitated before saying carefully, “There was one time I had a problem with my desktop and I was planning to visit your shop and maybe bury the hatchet, but when I told Zelda about it, she totally lost it. We had a major row that day and it was only when she practically threatened to make your life hell in school that I told myself maybe we weren’t really meant to be friends either.”
She paled at Alex’s words. Why had Zelda been so adamant about Alex not making peace with her?
“She was jealous of our friendship, I think,” Alex murmured.
Perhaps that was so, but somehow Ianne was unconvinced. She had this really bad feeling that it was more than that. What if Zelda had guessed how Ianne had really felt about Alex?
Seeing the worry on her face, he said, “Don’t waste your time thinking about her. She’s out of our lives now.”
Was she really? Ianne wanted to ask but she was too terrified of the answer to do so. She told herself that it didn’t matter this time. The new Ianne 2.0 was braver…and sneakier. Even if Alex did have lingering feelings of love? Lust? Affection?
Well, whatever he may still feel for Zelda, Ianne was determined not to let him go without a fight this time.
Looking at Alex under her lashes, one thing became clear to Ianne, and she did her best not to smile like a Cheshire cat. Get ready, Alex, because no matter what you do this time, I’m going to catch you…and I’m not letting go.
The smile Ianne was doing her best to keep off her lips gave everything away. His lips compressed, and Alex struggled just as hard not to let his own amusement show. He wondered if Ianne would ever realize just how much he loved her and that because he felt so strongly about her, there were more than a few things she would not be able to hide from him.
She was hatching a plan, Alex guessed, and that plan more than likely had something to do with him. A plan, he slowly realized as he studied the way Ianne was blushing at her secret thoughts, which most likely had something to do with seduction.
“You’re smiling,” Ianne gasped when she caught sight of Alex’s beautifully curving lips. She looked at him suspiciously. “Why are you smiling?”
“Because you’re smiling, too,” he pointed out innocently and tried not to laugh out loud when Ianne then did her best to look more nonchalant than panicky at his observant remark.
Alex was content to merely gaze at Ianne as she visibly struggled with her thoughts. Only one clear thought remained in his mind as he looked at her in absolute leisure.
Ianne Clayton was as fuckable as ever, and this time he was certain that it was a fact he would soon experience for himself. Ianne Clayton was always been meant to be his, and it was time t
o turn their destiny into reality.
****
“If you don’t stop smiling, I swear to God I’m going to kick you out of the car.”
Train’s irritable comment didn’t faze Ianne. She was too busy sighing and dreaming about Alex. This was it, she thought giddily. This was really it. This time, she just knew she and Alex would be together. And when they did become a couple, she wouldn’t let anything or anyone tear them apart. They were going to live happily—
“Ianne,” Train growled, ruthlessly hauling her out of dreamland and bringing her back to reality with unforgiving speed.
Ianne sniffed. “Give me a break! I’m making up for lost time.”
“What does that even mean?”
“I didn’t let myself even think of him for two years, you know. So I’ve been badly deprived of my Alex Rockford fantasies.” She promptly closed her eyes after that and leaned back against her seat. Immediately, the image of Alex reappeared in her mind. This time, they were on a beach and Alex was wearing the sexiest pair of swimming trunks. He was sexy and tanned all over, and when her gaze moved over his body from head to toe, that was when she realized he was so unbelievably aroused, his erection a bulging—
A giggle escaped Ianne.
“That’s it!”
Her eyes flew open just in time to see Train moving to throttle her. Ianne quickly jerked forward, nearly bumping her head against the windshield of Middy’s car. “All right, I’ll stop dreaming, I promise!”
“Fantasies are just fantasies, Ianne. You need to remember that.”
Reclaiming her seat, Ianne muttered under her breath, “Says the girl who owns all the Disney Princess movies—”
Middy burst into laughter as Ianne quickly moved forward again to avoid being strangled.
Train was still glaring at her.
Ianne wisely tried to distract her friend by pretending to be worried. “Today’s the first day of cheerleading practice and I’m kinda nervous about it.”
The distraction worked. In high school, Train had been the most fun-loving girl. But after her family went bankrupt and she had to take over her father’s company nearly single-handedly, Train had deliberately turned herself into a staunchly responsible mother hen, always doing the right thing for herself and for others. It was, sadly, Train’s way of dealing with the fact that her father had been exposed as a bigamist…and a con artist before dying in prison.
“Everything will turn out great,” Train assured her soberly. “I don’t see how it can’t when you were #2 during tryouts. That’s a huge thing.”
Ianne was wringing her hands on her lap, something she tended to do when she needed to relieve herself of stress. “But what about the girl who had the same name as Zelda? What if it’s really her?”
Train sniffed disdainfully. “I doubt it’s her. I mean, come on. What’s she going to study here? I saw her type once, you know. Two-finger system.” She paused. “But…it could be possible. I just learned that Evergreen’s actually started offering some kind of multimedia blah-blah course. It’s an artsy course, the first of its kind. It could be that’s what she’s taking.”
Ianne asked impatiently, “So what are you saying? Do you think it’s her or not?”
Train thought for a moment then shrugged. “I’m bad with calculating probabilities. Could be anything…”
This time, Ianne was the one who wanted to throttle her friend.
The rest of the day passed slowly, with Ianne alternating between being excited and nervous about cheerleading practice after class. It didn’t help that she was receiving a continuous flow of text messages from Alex, all of them deceptively innocent at the start until of course Ianne’s overactive imagination started coming up with crazy hypotheses.
I’d really like to see you…
But what did those ellipses mean? That he wanted to see her…naked?
When the bell signaling the end of her last class rang, Ianne left as quickly as she could and tore down the field after changing into her practice outfit. By the time she reached the place where the other new members of the cheerleading squad were seated on the lower rows of the bleachers, Ianne was panting. But she didn’t mind. Being almost dehydrated was better than being one of the unfortunate victims of Gee’s scathing tongue.
The American twins waved at Ianne to sit beside them. “Congratulations!”
“Same,” she told them, genuinely happy for the two. “Sally and Sara, right?”
Sally with the blue highlights nodded. “Yup.” Her eyes twinkled. “You were so amazing during tryouts. We talked about you after tryouts and how you totally blew us away with your moves.” Sara with the pink highlights simply smiled and nodded at her twin’s words.
“You totally deserve topping the list.”
“I’m number two—”
Sally laughed. “Oh, you didn’t know? The top position is always claimed by one of the senior cheerleaders, basically the captain’s way of keeping the whole team on its toes. So, anyway, that makes you the number one recruit among this year’s new girls.”
“I was just lucky,” she said awkwardly.
“Oh, you! You were amazing, and that’s that.” Sally looked at Ianne admiringly. “And it’s so unfair that you have the hottest outfit, too!”
Ianne tried not to wince, still having a hard time accepting such compliments. Her outfit was one of the many that Middy had “donated” to her. It’s time, her friend had told her in a funny-but-serious voice that only a girl who could so confidently wear neon-pink sunglasses to school could have, to pass on the baton and have newbies like you take over the world of cheerleading.
But before Ianne had been able to thank her friend, Middy was looking at her sadly as she said, “Just don’t think you’ll look as wonderful as I am in cheerleading. I’m one of the best, you know.”
She had answered as solemnly as she could, “I know.”
For today’s “hottest outfit”, she had paired a baby-blue racer back that had the words “cheerleaders rack” printed in bold letters with another pair of jazz pants, which was expensive enough to keep her from worrying about VPLs.
While waiting alongside the others for the cheerleaders (the twins and Ianne didn’t consider themselves real cheerleaders yet) to arrive, they decided to while the time away with a little stretching exercise.
The three of them chatted while bending over their legs, and when Ianne got to talking about the dance classes she had attended and other lessons she had taken throughout the years, the twins urged Ianne to show them a couple of steps.
Before she knew it, Ianne was having fun teaching a couple of the basic moves of Middle Eastern folk dancing to the rest of the recruits. After, Ianne and the others were doubled over in laughter as the twins pretended to be pregnant belly dancers.
And that was how the cheerleaders found them.
A shrill whistle pierced through their noisy laughter and shrieks, and everyone hastily jumped apart from each other somewhat guiltily.
It was also then that Ianne saw Zelda.
And as loathe as she was to admit it, she saw that Zelda was still making heads turn.
Although Zelda wasn’t exquisitely beautiful like Jacy was, she was still very attractive. A delicately molded face with exotic features combined with a petite, fashionably dressed Coca Cola bottle figure made Zelda look like a Hawaiian porcelain doll.
Today, she was wearing a pink tank top, matching it with a short white pleated skirt (Ianne hoped she had a pair of shorts underneath that) and sneakers.
When their eyes met, Zelda’s gaze was somewhat indecipherable. Ianne tried her best to look unconcerned but she had a feeling she hadn’t succeeded. Inside herself, she was panicking.
She knew.
Everything in Zelda’s gaze confirmed it.
Somehow, Zelda knew that Ianne had always been in love with Alex.
Chapter Six
“Amanda, you’re up next. Go,” Gee barked over an hour later.
The gir
l had a petrified look on her face, and Ianne could only empathize. Gee was even scarier when in uniform¸ and the way she barked orders made all of them jump. Their names were randomly called to go front and center, with Gee asking them to perform a series of moves.
Ianne was confused when most decided to pass up on the simple jumps and go straight to the slightly more difficult ones like cartwheels, back rolls, and splits.
She tried to keep her jaw from falling when Zelda only performed a split. Was the other girl that confident about her standing with the team? Every move executed perfectly earned a recruit a set number of points, and those points would eventually be used to determine their “position” in the squad.
When Zelda was asked to make a cheer, Ianne leaned forward expectantly. Cheers, according to the sites she browsed, must be short, catchy, sensible, and original. Since Zelda was practically a cheerleading veteran, whatever she had to dish out ought to be good.
Zelda took a deep breath, causing her impressive bosom to rise and fall.
Around them, a couple of guys wolf-whistled at the sight. There was more than one varsity team practicing on the field with them today, and most of them had stopped to watch them jump through Gee’s hoops.
Zee’s arms shot up in the air. “Go E-VER-GREEN! Go, go, go!”
Okaaaay. At least Zelda got the “short” part right.
Ianne’s name was one of the last called and as she made her way to the front, she told herself that she would do anything to get as many points as she could. Never mind if that would make her look like a desperate, pathetic, brownie-point-hungry recruit. She was one, so there was no point pretending otherwise.
Ianne 2.0 activate!
Gee’s eyes were narrowed at her when she gave Ianne her first command. “Toe touch.”
The move required her to make an aerial split with her arms in a slightly lower T motion, like a tree with slightly-low-stooping branches.
Ianne executed it flawlessly, having practiced her landing every night in her room. It had caused Ianne a few pretty bumps on the head every time she accidentally hit the ceiling, but today made all the pain worth it.