by Nicole Fox
My dad lifts his chin. “What decision is that?”
“I’m letting you go,” I say simply. “I do not respect you, and I don’t want or need you in my life.”
He scoffs, his brows pinching together in anger. “That’s hardly fair. Every boy needs a man’s influence in his life.”
“A real man stands by his woman,” I say. “A real man protects his family and cherishes them, and you didn’t do any of those things. You aren’t capable of them. You abandoned a good woman and your son to live with an abusive, manipulative bitch, and that’s all I need to know about you.”
“That’s my wife you’re talking about.”
“And God help you for that.”
I extend my hand, and, surprisingly, my dad takes it.
I look into his eyes, shake his hand, and say the last words I’d ever care to say to my father: “Now fuck off.”
The party at Finn’s is an all-out rager.
J.C. insisted it would be a small gathering of people, twenty or thirty, but there are at least one hundred people in Finn’s house.
Caleb spent twenty minutes taking pictures to send as proof to Finn.
“You’re such a snitch!” J.C. says.
“I’m the one who’s supposed to be house-sitting,” Caleb argues. “I don’t want to be held responsible for your ridiculous party.”
Penny twines her fingers with me. “They fight like a married couple.”
“I don’t understand that phrase. Is that supposed to be a good thing? Should we be fighting more?”
Penny shakes her head. “No, I think we fought enough at the beginning of our relationship that we can get along for the rest of it and be fine.”
I notice her take a long drink after that, clearly not wanting to elaborate on how long “the rest of it” might be.
The question of what we’ll do now that high school is over has been hanging over us ever since Penny got her acceptance letter to Northeastern.
But Penny hasn’t dared ask the question. She doesn’t want to pressure me.
“I’m going to go find Haley. I need to pee,” she says, spinning away from me and disappearing into the crowd.
Despite their past differences, Haley and Penny have grown closer the last few months.
J.C. suggested they could be having an affair, and I shut it down. That’s just his wishful thinking.
Spank bank material, as he would say.
As soon as Penny is gone, J.C. pulls me into a game of beer pong, the soundtrack to which is Caleb complaining about rings from the cups being left on the table.
We win two matches before I finally pull myself away and go to find Penny.
“This is our last party together,” J.C. shouts. “Can’t you forget about Penny for five minutes?”
I ignore him and head downstairs.
The party in the basement is more subdued than upstairs. The music is a distant thumping, and everyone is sitting around in a circle, chatting and drinking.
A few people wave to me, but I make it clear I’m not here to chat. I scan the room, searching for Penny.
Then, I see her, sitting with a few other girls on an L-shaped couch drinking a bright pink wine cooler.
May in Texas is already blazing hot, so Penny’s in a long, flowing sundress with two high slits up the front of both of her thighs. The neckline is low, revealing her perfect cleavage, and the whole thing is tied up with a cute bow right between her breasts.
She’s gorgeous. The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.
Every time I see her, it feels like the first time.
But this moment really takes me back.
Especially when Penny turns to me, her eyes searching before she even finds me, like she can feel me watching her.
Our eyes meet, she smiles, and it is freshman year all over again.
I walk towards her, purposefully, and she excuses herself from her friends and meets me halfway. “Sorry, I got caught up talking. Did you need something?”
“You.”
She flushes, and I pinch her chin between my thumb and forefinger and press my lips to hers gently.
It’s not lost on me that the basement of Finn’s house is where Penny and I took the first baby steps of our relationship.
Being here again, with her, feels like coming full circle.
“Truth or dare?”
Penny pulls back and looks up at me, a mischievous smile tugging at the corner of her pink mouth. “Dare.”
“I dare you to go with me into that storage closet.”
I don’t need to point out which one. Penny grabs my hand and pulls me across the room into the closet.
The light that illuminated the space four years ago is still there.
With the door shut, blocking out the noise of the party, and the red mood lighting, I feel just as giddy as I did back then.
“What now?” Penny asks.
“I suppose it’s your turn to ask me.”
“Truth or dare.”
I consider it for a second. “Truth.”
Penny looks disappointed for a second before she chews on her lip nervously and glances up at me. “Are you going to come with me to Boston?”
I knew what she’d ask me if given the chance, and I already have my answer planned.
“No, I’m not going to go with you to Boston.”
Her face falls, and I wrap my arms around her.
“Don’t be sad, Penn.”
“I knew there was a chance you might not, but… I never let myself think about what that would mean.”
“And what does it mean?”
She pushes away from me and crosses her arms, her eyes going misty. “Well, do you want to be in a long-distance relationship?”
“God, no,” I wince and stick out my tongue. “That would be miserable, wouldn’t it?”
Her chin wobbles, and it nearly breaks me.
“You deserve someone who can be there for you, Penn. You deserve someone who has their own dreams, not some little puppy dog who follows you around wherever you go.”
“You aren’t a little puppy dog,” she snaps. “You do have dreams.”
“I know, which is why I’m not going with you to Boston.”
Finally, Penny breaks.
A tear streams down her cheek, but she isn’t sad.
She’s angry.
She slaps my chest. “How can you be so cruel, Noah? Don’t you care about me at all? Don’t you want to be with me?”
“I’m not being cruel. I’m being practical.”
She slaps me again. “I should be thrilled to be getting out of this godforsaken town, but all I can think about is how you won’t be there with you. You know, part of me thinks I’d be happier staying here with my nightmare of a mother if it meant I could be with you.”
I smile and have to bite back a laugh.
That’s the last straw for Penny.
She pummels my chest with both hands, giving Tank and his biker bros a run for their money, and forces me up against the concrete wall.
“Why are you acting like this?”
I grab her fists and pin them to her sides. “Because I’m not going with you to Boston. I’m driving up a week later by myself.”
She frowns for a second, confused before the information has a chance to sink in.
When it does, her eyes go wide. “You’re coming with me?”
I shake my head. “I’m going for me. I sent in an audition tape for a band up in the Boston area, and they got back to me two weeks ago that they’d like to have me. There will be some touring here and there, but for the most part, we’ll be in Boston. I’m going to be in a real band and—”
Penny throws herself at me, wrapping her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck as she pulls me into a deep, sensual kiss.
The moment starts sweet enough, but it quickly grows hot.
Penny can’t seem to get close enough to me, rolling herself against me with each kiss, her fingers tugging at my hair.
“I assume this news pleases you?”
“You’re such an asshole,” she whispers, biting my neck. When she pulls back, her green eyes are shimmery with emotion. “We’re going to Boston.”
Two years ago, I never would have imagined this moment could be possible.
I thought Penny and I would go our separate ways and never cross paths again.
It made me sick.
Even then, in the midst of hating her, I loved this girl more than anything in the world.
Only now can I let myself feel that love in its entirety.
“Truth or dare?”
Penny rubs her nose along the length of mine and whispers against my lips. “Dare.”
“I dare you to let me take you against a rickety shelf of Christmas decorations.” I tip my head towards the shelf behind us.
Penny giggles when she sees a box of “X-mas decorations” on the shelf behind us, remembering our encounter in here years ago.
“I thought you wanted to have the space and time to lay me down and taste every part of me. Isn’t that what you said last time?”
“Yes, but that’s before I knew.”
“Knew what?” she asks, pulling back to see my face.
“Before I knew we had forever.”
Penny beams at me, happiness radiating out of her, and then she kisses me.
I walk the three steps across the room to pin her against the shelf.
To my surprise, it’s sturdier than it looks. The shelf is the perfect height that I can rest Penny on the edge of it, freeing up my hands to slide into the slits of her dress and find the heat between her legs.
Her panties are a dainty lace and absolutely soaked. I push them aside and swipe my finger through her wetness.
She bucks against my finger, ready, begging.
We have time for slow love making later. Tonight is about doing what I wish I could have done four years ago.
So, I slip my finger inside of her up to the second knuckle.
Penny arches her back, thrusting against my hand, and I add a second finger.
She moans my name and then reaches down between us to undo my pants. Her movements are clumsy and frantic.
But when she wraps her small hand around my length and strokes me, I’m positive she’s the single most graceful person on the planet. It feels exquisite.
“Reliving my freshman fantasy apparently gives me the endurance of a freshman,” I hiss, pumping gently into her hand at the same time I pulse my fingers into her. “This feels incredible.”
“Has this been a fantasy of yours?” she asks.
“For years,” I admit. “The things I wanted to do to you…”
Penny lets go of me, slides off of the shelf, and holds her arms out to the side. “Do them.”
“What?” I ask, feeling the sudden desire to pinch myself.
“Whatever you want to do,” she says, licking her lips. “Do it. Now. Let me be your fantasy.”
The words alone are almost enough to send me over the edge. The most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen telling me to do whatever I want to her?
God, help me. I’m a bad, bad man.
I look at the Santa Claus night light next to the door. “Avert your eyes, Santa.”
Penny laughs, but the sound stops when I slide the straps of her sundress off of her shoulders.
She isn’t wearing a bra underneath, so her breasts are perfectly bared before me, and I lean forward to take one in my mouth, lavishing it with kisses.
Then, I push Penny to her knees.
She wastes no time, wrapping her hand around my base and taking me into her mouth. Her lips are full and soft around me, and the sight of me sliding between them is beyond even what my imagination could have conjured at the tender age of fifteen.
I want to stay like this for hours, but I won’t last another ten minutes.
Not with the way her tongue is swirling around me and the way her mouth makes a popping sound as she slides off the end of me just before plunging back on.
Much too soon, I grab Penny’s hand and help her stand up.
Then, I turn her around, take both of her hands in mine, and wrap them around the support beam of the shelf.
I hook my fingers in the delicate lace material of her panties and slide them down her toned, tanned legs.
Her back arches, and I can see the small dimples on either side of her back, just above her round ass.
Every inch of her is beautiful, perfect.
I told myself this would be fast, but it’s hard to have sex with Penny without admiring every inch of her.
It’s like going to Rome with your eyes closed.
You can’t help but stop and look around a bit.
Penny reaches behind her and takes my length in her hand again, stroking me, and it doesn’t take long before the pressure inside of me is near to bursting.
I grab my condom out of my jeans and then kick them off.
I don’t want anything coming between us now.
Penny presses her hips out to meet me, and I position myself at her opening and shove in to the hilt.
“Fuck,” I moan, squeezing her hips and holding her tightly against me. “You feel so good.”
“I’m so full.”
I pull out of her slowly, savoring every single sensation, and then plunge back in.
Again and again, our bodies slap together, and Penny arches her body more and more to meet me, opening herself for me.
I slide one hand up her stomach and flick my finger across her pointed nipple. She gasps and tips her head back in a moan.
There is nothing sexier than knowing what I’m doing to her.
Knowing she enjoys the way our bodies move together.
Being inside of Penny is bliss. Her body squeezes around me in the best kind of embrace.
I don’t want to leave, but I can feel the release building inside of me.
I slip my other hand between her legs and find her clit immediately. It’s swollen, practically throbbing against my finger, and Penny cries out at the faintest touch.
“Noah, yes,” she whimpers. “Touch me.”
I pump into her from behind while circling one finger over her center with my other hand wrapped around her breast, using it like a handle to pull her against me.
It’s the teenage boy’s fantasy trifecta.
Penny’s cries grow louder and louder, to the point I’m worried the people outside the closet are going to hear us, though I can’t find it within me to give a single fuck.
“Fuck me, Noah,” she says, knowing how much I like it when her pretty mouth talks dirty. “I’m going to come. Come with me, Noah. Come.”
Her body tenses, and I feel her pulse around my cock. Her body squeezes me, and I’m helpless to hold back. I groan and thrust into her, finding a trembling release as Penny finds one of her own.
In the end, we’re left standing, shaking, holding onto one another and the shelf for support.
And it’s everything I could ever hope for.
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I found my angel.
Then I broke her wings.
Alexis should’ve never set foot in my world.
Men like me stain girls like her. We take their innocence and tear it to shreds.
She thinks she’s tough. She thinks she can handle me.
But she doesn’t know just how deep my darkness goes.
It was for the best that I claimed her for a night and left her behind.
Anything more than that would have been cruel.
I thought I’d seen the last of Alexis Wright.
So imagine my surprise two years later when the door to m
y office opens…
And she walks in.
The girl I ravaged. The girl I devoured.
Now that’s she’s in front of me again, I have just two questions for her:
First—what is she doing here?
And second…
What does she mean, “our baby”?
Alexis
It is getting dark outside.
I flick on the lamp at my desk and stretch up in my chair, trying to avoid the inevitable end-of-the-day hunch. My stomach grumbles and I slide open the bottom drawer of my desk, eyeing the goodies inside. Ah, yes, the good ol’ secret snack drawer. It’s a secret not because I’m ashamed of how much I snack, but because Vicky Oberman in the cubicle across from me will pop over the divider like a meerkat if she hears the tell-tale crinkle of a bag of chips.
I pull out a packet of Twizzlers and slide the drawer shut. I stare at the blinking cursor on my computer screen while I gnaw on the end of a stick of strawberry licorice. I told my fiancé, Grant, that I would be home late tonight because I wanted to finish up this story, but I’m not sure I can be bothered.
It’s just a fluff piece—the unlikely story of how a community center caretaker found the exact skates he used to wear when he visited the center as a child. Mr. Finkel spent half of the interview reminiscing about how much everything used to cost in those days (a can of soda—a nickel; a hot dog—a quarter; two scoops of ice cream—ten cents), and the rest of the time talking about how kids these days have no appreciation for the luxury of having a community center to go to.
Now, it is my job as the dedicated local news journalist to turn that pile of boring jelly into a thought-provoking article examining the role of community centers in empowering the youth of tomorrow.
Or at least, that’s how I’ve decided to spin it. My editor, Debbie Harris, just wants me to write the story. In fact, her exact words were, “Nobody’s going to read it but that caretaker, so just make sure you don’t misspell the guy’s name.”
Debbie makes no bones about how she doesn’t expend time or energy on the puff pieces when there are bigger stories to tell. I just wish she would give me one of those bigger stories. My work at the New York Union so far has involved precious little in the way of substance.