But yeah…for now, she was ABD. It was a derisive term used by degree holders, the ones who’d managed to cross the finish line. They were the pretentious snobs who put the letters after their names so they’d feel like their education was worth the effort and money. You know, John Smith, MA, or Sally Reed, MBA. The most obvious (and arguably the one that deserved it) was Robert Jones, PhD. But for those who had managed to finish the coursework but had choked when it came to writing their thesis, they would be the sad ABDs. For now, that was Steph: Stephanie Cook, ABD.
“There’s something to be said for BOB,” I said before taking a sip of my coffee.
“BOB?” Steph asked.
“Yeah, your Battery-Operated Boyfriend. The only time he’ll let you down is when his batteries have died, and that’s not really his fault.” Steph blushed when I said that. I thought it was doubly funny, considering she was studying psychology. She’d have to get used to human behavior if she planned to study it.
Lindsey finished laughing and said, “Seriously, Jessica? I thought you’d sworn off men forever after Robb. I thought BOB was going to be your boyfriend forever.”
I laughed and sat in one of the chairs. I hadn’t meant to have a girl chat, but they’d pulled me in. “Yeah, so did I. But that was before Kage.”
“Kage?”
I nodded and Lindsey feigned fanning herself. I smiled. “I have never felt this way about any guy. There’s something about him…”
Lindsey grinned. “Big dick?”
I smiled and shook my head. “You won’t hear me complaining, but in all seriousness…he feels like someone I’ve known forever.”
Steph raised her eyebrows and Lindsey asked, “So what does that mean?”
I stood up and pushed the chair in, then grabbed my coffee. “That means I think he really is my boyfriend.”
“Ooh.” And, speaking of that boyfriend, I wanted to go snuggle up next to him. Or, if he was still sleeping, I was going to do some studying.
“Later, ladies,” I said, sauntering off toward my bedroom. I heard them giggling, and one of them whispered that she couldn’t wait to see what he looked like, but I missed the rest as I got closer to my room.
I’d left the door open a crack, and I realized he might have overheard our entire conversation. Well, I supposed that wouldn’t matter. It wasn’t like I’d been hiding my feelings for him anyway.
I closed the door behind me and walked toward the bed. Kage stretched and rolled onto his back when he heard the click of the door latch. He opened his eyes to look at me. “I thought only Fay and her bunch talked about sex. I didn’t realize all women are like that.”
I couldn’t help the grin that spread over my face. “Oops.” I took another sip of my coffee. “I guess you might as well know. We are.” He looked so irresistible, his face sleepy looking but gorgeous as always, his smile crinkling his eyes and carving dimples in his cheeks. I set the coffee mug on the nightstand and pulled my panties down, leaving the shirt on. “But I promise you I think you’re a whole lot better than BOB.”
“Are you sure? You can at least point him in the right direction.”
“Your sense of direction is just fine. And you’re warm and snuggly.” I got under the covers and placed my hand on his chest, sliding it down his belly until I reached his cock. Yes. He was ready for me. “And I think you might even be quieter.”
He grinned and raised his eyebrows. “Really? Are you quieter?”
I straddled him and slid him inside me. “With you?” I sighed. “No way.” He slid his hands up my torso to cup my breasts, his thumbs brushing over my nipples. Yeah…little BOB was good in a pinch and he never talked back, but there was nothing like the real deal, especially a guy like Kage who knew how to use it. Not only that, but BOB didn’t smell like a man. He didn’t have a mane I could grab onto or eyes I could gaze into. Kage did. And Kage had a beautiful mind. I could snuggle up next to him and talk about my hopes and fears.
Oh, but even as I got closer to the orgasm building inside me, I realized there was one fear I hadn’t discussed with him. It was something we’d have to talk about today. But as he slid his hand back down my body so he could touch my clit, the idea vanished into thin air. I gasped, taking in a deep breath, and felt my thighs tighten, ready to come again. But then I felt self-conscious, because my roommates had just been discussing how Steph had been able to gauge my obvious pleasure based on my noise level. If only I’d thought sooner, I could have cranked the iPod. Instead, I leaned over and buried my head in the pillow Kage’s head rested on, sacrificing the intensity of the orgasm for silence. Oh, don’t get me wrong. It was still good, still incredible and, yeah, better than one of BOB’s, but it was subdued. At least it was quiet and I wouldn’t have to be teased more by my roomies. And Kage was quiet too as he pumped inside of me. I rested my body on top of him. How much simpler things would be if we could just stay like this forever.
Chapter Fourteen
KAGE SHARED MY coffee with me and then sat on the edge of the bed, pulling his jeans on. I was lying on the bed, my head resting on a pillow, the sheet draped across half my body. Until I got chilly in my room (which was inevitable), I didn’t mind giving Kage a last glimpse of me. Kage’s leaving was probably for the best, because he would distract me from my work if he stayed around all day. He turned to look at me and said, “What’s wrong?”
No, I wasn’t sad that he’d be leaving, because I was feeling better about us. I wanted to be honest with him, though. Whether our relationship was new or not, I didn’t feel as though I should soft-shoe my problems. I did keep my insecurities about him secret, but I felt that other things I needed to be aboveboard about.
That didn’t mean those things were easy for me to talk about. So I shrugged, looking down at the bed. He frowned and turned all the way around, touching the bottom of my chin with his finger. I looked in his eyes. “What is it, Jessica?”
“I told you about my car, didn’t I?”
I saw recognition in his eyes and they softened. “Yeah…I remember you said something about that when you told me what was going on. So what’s up with it?”
“It’s dead. I took it to the guy who works on my car and he cut me a deal. Eight hundred dollars, plus a thorough house cleaning, and he’d fix my car. He’s giving me a discount.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“The transmission.”
Kage made a face. “Ouch.”
“Yeah.”
He inhaled. “You were going to get it from Fay, but you told her the next day to keep her money, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. She gave me half before, and I guess I should give it back to her, but I’m not going to. I already gave it to Carl anyway.”
“Carl?”
“The guy who works on my car.”
“Eight hundred’s not bad for a transmission.”
“I know, but if you don’t have the money, it might as well be thousands of dollars.”
He searched my eyes. “So you need four hundred?”
I nodded. “Until then, I’m screwed.”
“I can give it to you.”
“Oh, no, Kage. I can’t ask you to do that. You’re going to have to move into a new place, so you probably need all the money you can hang onto for deposits and stuff.”
“Look, Mark doesn’t care if I stay with him for a year. He told me as much. If it means I wait another month for my own place, I don’t give a shit. I want to help you. You had it all figured out before.”
I closed my eyes. “Yeah, by doing something I never should have even considered.”
“Would you stop that, Jessica? Didn’t we talk about that?” I opened my eyes again to look at him. “We never would have met if not for that…and you feel like the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” He kissed me then, a slow, sweet, smoldering kiss, one that made me melt. “So accept the damn money.” I couldn’t really say no to him, not then. “Do you need a ride tonight?”
“I
can catch the bus there. My problem is getting a ride home.”
“When do you get off work?”
“Sometime after eleven.”
He winced. “I can do that. But I’m gonna want to see you too. That a problem?”
I grinned. “As long as I can study this afternoon and I can get to sleep before two, I think I can manage.”
“Don’t worry. I have to work in the morning. I can’t stay up all night either.”
I stuck out my hand. “Deal.”
He shook his head and slid his hand in my hair just over my ear. “Deal.” He kissed me once more. If he didn’t stop, there was no way I’d get any studying done that afternoon. Part of me almost didn’t care.
* * *
Monday morning was the oddest Monday I’d had in a long time. Kage was up at four-thirty, asking if he could use my shower. I mumbled to him that it would be fine and tried to go back to sleep. But it wasn’t going to happen at that point, especially after getting him a towel and showing him what bottle of shampoo was mine.
We couldn’t resist a quickie before he left, but he asked if I needed a ride anywhere that day. I assured him I didn’t. He’d already brought me four hundred in cash the night before, so I was going to head over to Carl’s after classes to get him working on my car.
All day long, I could hardly concentrate on the things I should have. Classes, I half-assed, because my head was wrapped around Kage. I didn’t even know if my essay was any good. A huge chunk of me didn’t care, because all of me was falling in love. It was more than love, though. Kage felt like a once-in-a-lifetime guy, and Fay was an idiot to let him go.
I really shouldn’t have half-assed classes, though. I might have been smart enough to get a master’s degree, but I was nowhere near the top of my class. Most of my peers blew me away on a regular basis because of the shit they’d see in the literature we were reading. I’d see just a story, maybe a theme, some deep meaning, but they’d see a whole other story. And the prof would encourage them and ask more questions, so I knew these folks were on the right track. I often felt like a pretender, but no way was I going to open my mouth and confirm their (or my) suspicions. I needed this degree. It was one of the ways I was going to pull myself out of the cesspool I’d been born in.
I didn’t have work Monday night. I did some Mondays, but not this one. I usually only worked one, maybe two shifts Monday through Thursday, because I worked Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. It allowed me time to study and get homework done throughout the week.
I was surprised I was able to focus on schoolwork that afternoon, but I was. Kage was tucked in the back of my mind—yes, he was there, but I was able to put him on hold a little so I could give my reading the attention it not only deserved but needed. I couldn’t just skim or breeze over the reading for my classes. I had to be sure I understood it as fully as possible. I’d be eaten alive in seminar if not. I wouldn’t be able to continually half-ass participation in classes. I’d been known as a student who participated often, so my silence would not sit well. Once or twice a semester, sure, but at some point, I’d be called on it. One of the ways I could get my head around a particularly difficult text was to talk about it. I had to begin with a rudimentary knowledge of it (thus, the reading), but then I had to hash it out with my peers and professor. Only then could I feel like I got it, like it became a part of my brain. If I stopped doing that now, I knew I’d fail.
Kage asked if he could see me that night, and I wasn’t going to tell him he couldn’t, even if it meant putting off a little schoolwork. Late afternoon, I met Carl at his house and gave him the rest of the money. I also offered to start spring cleaning his house, one room at a time, two days a week. He preferred Saturday and Sunday, and I was prepared to argue at first but then realized I could get it done faster if I spent more time on it. So I planned to clean his house for five hours each day and then see how much I had left. I also gave him a list of cleaning supplies I’d need. For starters, the man’s broom was toast. It looked like he’d dunked it in an industrial fryer and then played street hockey with it—in a pile of dirt. I doubted that thing that swept decently in years. And he obviously thought dish soap was the ultimate cleaner for everything.
So, when Kage came over that night, he asked what I was doing Tuesday night. “Studying,” I said. More often than not, that would be my answer. And it should have been my answer, since it was the main reason why I was in this town, why I’d been there for over four years working my ass off.
He was stroking my back, brushing my hair aside, kissing me along the spine. “Did you want to watch me and the band practice?”
The idea of watching him with his band made me excited. I almost rolled over to grab him and kiss him and tell him, “Hell, yeah,” but I was enjoying the slow torture he was subjecting my flesh to. “I’d love that.”
“We practice in Mark’s basement. That’s where I’m staying. Maybe you’d want to spend the night with me then?”
I smiled, but I doubted he could see it. “Yeah. I could do that. Could you have me to the campus by nine?”
He brought his lips to my ear. The warmth of his breath gave me chills, but I didn’t object to his nude body pressed up against mine again. “Sweetheart, I’ll have you home by six-thirty or earlier. I have to work Wednesday morning, remember?”
I felt a breathy laugh escape my throat. “I guess that’ll work.” I’d forgotten about his job. His fingers slid between my thighs and made me also forget anything else I might have thought to say.
Chapter Fifteen
TUESDAY EVENING, KAGE stopped by my apartment. On the way to Mark’s place, he asked, “You hungry?”
I shrugged. I hadn’t had lunch, but I’d had an apple an hour earlier. I could eat a little something, but I wasn’t starving. “Whatever.”
“Mark’s feeding the gang. I told him to make a little extra for you. You like steak okay?”
“That’s fine.” I was preoccupied. I was thinking about three things. One was the massive housecleaning project I’d put off until the weekend. I wouldn’t feel okay until that was behind me. I didn’t even know if Carl would start working on my car until he was seeing my efforts. Why? Because he knew that, in the past, I would take the easy BJ over cleaning. Yeah, that’s how much I dreaded cleaning his pigsty.
The second thing on my mind was classes. I had a huge annotated bibliography project due for one of my classes and I hadn’t even begun the research for it yet. I didn’t have to write a paper, but I had to show my skills as a researcher. I knew I’d fail for sure if I didn’t start steadily working on the research, and I needed to begin sooner rather than later. Starting by spring break would be too late. And I knew I wouldn’t start on it tonight because of Kage…and I wouldn’t start it tomorrow night because of work…and every day I put it off made it that much heavier in my head.
The third thing on my mind was how unbelievably horny I was getting just thinking about watching Kage play bass and sing. Oh, I hoped I hadn’t built it up too much in my mind. What if he and his band sucked? Well, I’d be disappointed. I wouldn’t say anything negative. No, I’d be a nice girlfriend. And I would still adore the man. I’d still be aroused too, but I didn’t know how to fake liking something. Ask me to fake an orgasm, and I could do it and do it well, but I had no idea how to pretend I thought something was good if it wasn’t. Well…I’d just have to pray they were good. If not, maybe my acting skills would improve over the next few hours.
We got to Mark’s home, a ranch-style house in nearby Pueblo West. There was some land around his house, but he had neighbors close by. I wouldn’t be able to hop on a bike and visit Kage here—it was too far away. Once I got my car, it would be a different story, but for now, he was off limits unless he came to fetch me.
He jumped out of his truck and walked around to the passenger side. I’d already opened the door, but his hands were around my waist sliding me down just as I unbuckled my seatbelt. I smiled at him but didn’t say anyt
hing. He grinned back, a devilish twinkle in his beautiful eyes, and consumed me with a passionate kiss that promised more than dinner and a concert. He was planning to make me feel quite satisfied before night’s end.
I felt my pussy clench against itself in anticipation.
A tiny part of me felt guilty about not studying that night…a very tiny part of me. The rest of myself was relishing this feeling of new love, something I hadn’t felt in a long time. As Kage closed the truck door behind me and grabbed my hand, I caught him peeking at my knee. This morning, I’d put on a snug skirt that ended above the knees, and I’d had him in mind when I’d pulled it out of the closet. It was nice to see he appreciated it. Before we got to the front door, he asked, “You still okay with spending the night?”
Yep. I had my toothbrush and comb with me. Everything else could wait until he had me back at my apartment the next morning. I knew too that I’d need to ride him hard after watching him perform for me. I grinned. “Only if you’re okay having me here.”
“Are you kidding?” He squeezed my hand. “Of course, I am.”
I leaned my head against his arm as he opened the door. Then I walked through with him beside me.
Mark’s place was nice. It wasn’t huge, but it was nothing for this little college girl to sneeze at. The walls were a soft cream color and the ceilings were vaulted, making the space look a lot bigger than it was. The windows were also large, letting in lots of natural light. The scenery wasn’t much, just the typical semi-arid prairie those of us living in Pueblo had grown used to, because the campus was surrounded by it, but he had a nice view of the Front Range mountains and snow-capped Pikes Peak in particular. There were times I missed being surrounded by mountains, having them up close, but I guessed having them at a distance was a symbol for the fact that I was no longer being smothered by my old life. My new life was free, and the mountains miles away signified that. They were still close enough that I could appreciate their beauty, but they weren’t hovering over me.
Be Careful What You Wish For Page 10