by Lucy Smoke
“We’re stuck!” I said. “The door’s locked. What are we supposed to do? We can’t stay in here.”
“Calm down.” I felt myself being turned and wide, warm palms cupped my face. “It’s going to be okay. The others know where we’ve gone. They’ll come looking for us.”
I turned, blinking and squinting into the dark. My knee bumped into one of the lower shelves and I cursed and a sharp pain ricocheted up my leg. “Here.” Darren pressed me back toward the door, flipping the both of us so it was his back against the flat surface. “Let’s just sit down so we don’t hurt ourselves. Wait it out. They’ll come eventually.”
“Can’t you just break the door down?” I whimpered. I wasn’t normally so pathetic, and I didn’t normally have such an intense fear of the dark. I wasn’t even claustrophobic, but the combination did something to me. And it wasn’t anything good. Was it just me or were the walls too close together?
Darren chuckled and he urged me to sink into him as we slipped to the floor. Him sitting on his ass with his back pressed to the door and me against his chest. “I don’t want to have to pay for it,” he said. “Some of the guys that go here might be able to pay for it, but there’s a reason I’ve got a work study job.”
I swallowed against a dry throat and closed my eyes, pressing my cheek into his chest. It was better when I just tried to pretend that we weren’t here. That we were somewhere else—just two college students lounging somewhere open and bright with no walls and no darkness.
“Tell me about it,” I forced out.
“Tell you about what?” he asked, sounding confused.
“Your work,” I said. “Distract me.”
“What do you want to know?” he inquired.
I rubbed my nose against his pec, noting how good he smelled—some sort of masculine cologne. “Do you like it?” I asked.
I felt more than saw his shoulders rise and fall in a shrug. “It’s alright I guess. I don’t exactly want to work in a library in the future so it seems kind of pointless.”
“Then why did you take this job?” I sighed, my breath blowing out against his skin making him shudder. So soon? I wondered. Again? But he followed through on his answer, distracting me.
Darren groaned. “Believe it or not, there aren’t many work study opportunities out there. They don’t give the best jobs to the kids who are too poor to afford college normally.”
I snorted. “Tell me about it. I got kicked out of the sorority I was trying to pledge to partially because I couldn’t afford a bid.”
He shook his head, his chin bumping against the top of my scalp as he did so. “I heard,” he said. “That’s stupid.”
That was right, I realized. Cody had said that they all knew. They knew about Victoria and Cody’s feelings for me and … they knew the truth. It was funny. After so many months, I’d forgotten what it felt like to tell people what had actually happened. My side of the story.
I reached up and pressed a palm to his chest, feeling his heart beat under my fingertips. “I’d always hoped to make new friends in college,” I admitted quietly. “And when I was kicked out and ostracized, it hurt. I felt like all of my dreams had been crushed.” I couldn’t say why, but there was something about the sanctuary, the privacy of the dark that made my words feel anonymous. Even though I knew he knew, it felt safe to say it here. Trapped in a closet. In the dark. With a man I’d fucked not ten minutes before. I knew hardly anything about him, but Cody had said they liked me—all of them, including Darren.
“You’ll make new friends, Jamie,” he whispered, his fingers playing with the ends of my hair. “You’re too good of a person not to.”
I lifted up and stared at him, trying desperately to see him in the darkness, but it was impossible. I would’ve given almost anything in that moment to see his face. “Why do you like me?” I blurted.
Darren’s hands stilled, and then almost as if he were trying to divert his own attention, they resumed a beat later. “It’s … hard to explain,” he began.
“Will you try?” I asked. “Please. I need to know that this isn’t fake. That I’m not going to walk out of here in the morning and find out the four of you have gone off and told everyone and—”
His hand whipped up and covered my mouth and though I couldn’t see him, I could sense the intensity of his expression by his words as he spoke. “We would never do that,” he hissed. “Absolutely not. I swear that to you, Jamie. I know that this seems kind of crazy to you and you’re unsure, but the four of us … we’ve been dreaming about something like this since we first decided that none of us were willing to give up our crush.”
“Crush…” I mumbled against his fingers as he gingerly released me. “That sounds so childish.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right, but I don’t know what else to call it. We weren’t stalking you or anything, but you were in some of our classes. We saw you with the sorority and … you weren’t ever like them. There was something about you that stood out. When you smiled, it seemed so genuine.”
“It was,” I confessed. “Especially back then. I thought I’d found my tribe. High school wasn’t as rough for me as it was for others, but I never felt like I could be particularly close with anyone. I never had a best friend like most people. When I came here, I decided to make a change. To search for friends who would truly care about me and…” I drifted off remembering my first day of sorority Rush week. Victoria had sold it so well. A club. A group of sisters. Dedicated. Loyal. Best friends forever. I was calling them childish for using the term ‘crush’, but the reality was, I’d been the childish one. Believing that it could be that simple.
“Cody wasn’t the first one interested,” Darren continued after a brief moment of silence. “But he was the first one who decided to make a move. He broke up with Victoria and was planning on asking you out the weekend you got kicked out.”
I was stunned by this news. “I never heard anything like that,” I said.
“Of course you didn’t, Jamie,” Darren replied. “Like I said, we don’t talk about our private lives like that. Cody didn’t tell anyone, assuming Victoria would. But she didn’t. Instead, she plotted a way to get him back. She kicked you out and then went to him with her threat before he had a chance to find you.”
“And he got back together with her for me,” I said, unable to disguise the venom in my tone. Victoria was a bitch, vindictive and spiteful.
“He asked us for help,” Darren said.
“He did?” I blinked.
“Yeah, and that’s when we decided—the four of us—that we would give you some time and then…” His words drifted off and I leaned forward, wanting to hear more.
“And then?” I prompted.
“We had a plan, but Victoria broke up with Cody before we could execute it.”
“It’s been months, though,” I said. “Surely—”
“It doesn’t matter.” Darren’s hands slid over my arms, down to my wrists and then my hands. “Victoria won’t be a problem anymore.”
“If…” I started hesitantly. “And I do mean if—I agree to try this … relationship … after we leave here. If she sees me with Cody, she’ll retaliate. Her mind’s twisted. Even if she doesn’t want him anymore, I’m sure she won’t be happy to see us together.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart.” Darren cupped both of my hands in his, warming them against his skin. “We’ll be ready for her. I promise.”
He dropped my hands and lifted his to cup the back of my neck, dragging me forward and pressing his lips to mine. I sighed and gave over, but just as I leaned into his massive body the door was yanked open and the two of us tumbled out.
11
“What are you doing?” Taylor’s curious gaze landed on Darren and I as we fell in a heap at his feet.
Blinking up as the muted light of the rest of the library finally reached us along with cool, unstifled air, I watched as Taylor shifted back and reached down. He clasped my hand and helped dra
w me to my feet.
“We got locked in,” Darren said as he, too, rose to his feet and reached back to grab the box of supplies.
“We were wondering what was taking you so long,” Taylor commented with a nod, though I noticed that his hand remained on my arm.
“It would’ve been longer if you hadn’t come looking,” I told him with a sigh of relief. “Really glad you did—I do not like being locked in dark closets.” Darren flashed me a look that could only be described as heated and dangerous. I swallowed roughly. “Well, not for extended periods of time,” I amended. The first ten minutes had been distractingly nice. It was only after the sex had been completed that I’d started to freak out.
“Let’s head up stairs then and get back with the rest of the guys,” Taylor suggested.
Darren led the way, moving ahead as Taylor held my hand and walked alongside me. Every so often, I’d tilt my head back and stare at the underside of his square jaw, wondering if Dare had been right. They all liked me. They would all be willing to let this last. I was the only one who could make the final decision.
“We found blankets, another couple of flashlights, and I spotted some old walkies on one of the shelves—don’t know why they have those, but I figured they couldn’t hurt so I tossed them in with the rest of the stuff,” Darren said the second we entered the study room again. Dex and Cody lifted their heads.
“How old is this stuff?” Taylor asked, peeking over the side of the box as it landed on the table. “When was the last time they updated their emergency supplies?”
“There’s a first-aid kit, at least,” I said, plucking it from the box. I opened the box and blinked. “Never mind, it’s empty.”
“Man, they don’t update this shit at all, do they?” Taylor raised an eyebrow as I chucked the empty first-aid kit back into the box and reached for one of the walkies. There were several—at least four.
“I haven’t played with one of these since I was a kid,” I admitted, turning the switch on. After a brief shriek of static, it cleared, and I turned the volume down. An idea popped into my head. “Hey,” I said, catching their attention. “What if we played hide and seek?”
“In the library?” Cody asked.
“Where else?” I laughed. “I mean if we’re stuck in here and on a study break, why not?” I almost expected them to scoff and insist that we would be better spending our time fucking on the table again, but Taylor whooped.
“That sounds fun as hell,” he said. “Alone in the library, in the dark on a snowy stormy night. When are we going to get this chance again?”
“Uhh.” I put the walkie gingerly back in the box. “Maybe we should, uh, just take a couple and partner up?” The way he put it made me a little nervous. They were hot and hell on a girl’s sex drive, but they were still guys—and I was not into being pranked in the middle of a snowstorm in the dark.
“I think it sounds fun,” Darren offered.
“I’m in,” Cody said.
“So, who gets—?” Darren began.
“Jamie’s with me,” Dex announced.
I glanced at him over the box and noted the deep hue of hunger in his gaze.
“Damn,” Taylor huffed. “Well, I guess I can get you next time, sweetcheeks.”
“Where are we gonna start?” Cody asked.
“How about Cody—you be ‘it’—and Taylor and I will be a team and since Dex has Jamie, they’ll be a team. First team to find you wins.”
“Do I get a walkie?” he asked.
Darren looked at me and I shrugged. “There’s really no need for you to have one, but if you want one...”
“There’s only four,” Dex said, pulling two out of the box. “Team members should each have one.”
“We can’t share?” I asked.
Dex smirked at me, tossing the walkie. I gasped and grabbed it as it hit me in the chest. “You really haven’t played this in a long time. We’re supposed to communicate with each other not with them.” He punctuated ‘them’ with a nod toward Taylor and Darren who already had their walkies.
“I don’t want to be by myself,” I said quickly.
I still wanted to play, but now that Taylor had pointed it out, I didn’t like the idea of roaming the library in the dark by myself.
Dex raised his eyebrows as I handed Cody the walkie. “It’ll be fine,” I assured him. “You can carry the walkie just to check on the other team if we need to. Cody will have it if something happens. He needs it to do the countdown anyway.”
“You know we could probably just use our cell phones,” Dex pointed out.
“What would be the fun in that?” Darren asked, shaking his head. “No, we’re doing this old school.”
I rolled my eyes, reaching for Dex’s hand. “Come on. We’ll head out first. We’ll use the walkies to start the game and pause. We shouldn’t need them for anything else.”
Dex followed as I led him out into the bookshelves. I paused, unsure which way to go, but he flipped his hand around, taking my wrist and pulled me in a new direction, away from the staircase. “This way,” he said. “They’ll expect us to go to a different floor. The music section is back here, we can wait there until they let us know they’re ready.”
We walked through the aisles of books in the near darkness, shadows in every corner, and the creaking sound of the snowstorm outside, whistling through the old rafters. I rounded the corner of a bookcase and tripped on a new square of carpet that hadn’t been tacked down correctly, nearly falling face first into a study cubicle. Dex turned and grabbed my upper arms, yanking me up and back into his chest. My heart stuttered and took off like a startled horse, thumping and racing in my chest.
“Th-thanks.”
“You need to be careful where you step,” he warned.
It was a bit late for that, but I nodded anyway, forgetting that he could hardly see me. In the middle of the music section on the upper floor of the library, there were no windows. Instead of letting me go like I expected, Dex turned me and pressed me back against the solid end of the bookcase. I gasped as he pressed a jean clad leg between mine and let his hands roam. He pressed the walkie into my hand.
“Don’t drop it,” he ordered. I nodded again. “Use your words, baby. I can’t see you.”
“I won’t drop it,” I promised.
“Good girl.” Dex trailed his hands down my sides, groping the hem of my shirt and lifting it as he slipped his hands between my legs. “What have we here?” My thighs tightened. I knew what he’d found.
Dex pulled his hands away, his fingers sticky. “You naughty girl. What were you and Darren doing downstairs? You were getting more than supplies, weren’t you?”
“We—” I tried to say, but he didn’t let me finish.
Before I could finish my sentence, Dex simply slipped his fingers into my mouth where I could taste the remnants of Darren’s cum and my own wetness. “Suck,” he ordered. It wasn’t the command, itself, but how he said it—with authority, with that deep, vibrating tone—that made me want to obey, and obey I did. I sucked his fingers clean, trembling the entire time, turned on by the filthiness of the act.
“Look at that,” he said. Despite the fact that we didn’t have to whisper, he kept his voice low and his lips close to my ear. Every puff of breath skittering over my skin sent goosebumps down my spine. He slipped his hand back between my legs. “You’re still so wet. I bet you like it dirty, don’t you?” His fingers rubbed against my clit and I moaned.
Dex clamped his free hand over my mouth. “I know, baby. I know it feels good, but you have to be really quiet for me. You don’t want the others to know where we are, do you? We’re gonna be real quiet while we wait for them to get ready. Do you think you can do that for me?” I nodded. If he put his fingers back on me, I’d bite my lip until it bled to keep quiet for him, and for what I knew he was about to do to me—something absolutely sinful.
“Good girl. I don’t want the others to catch wind of what we’re doing. Not just yet,”
he said. “I don’t mind sharing, but I want a little taste first.”
My eyes widened as his hand slipped away. Dex grabbed my waist with both hands as he slowly sank to his knees. Jerking one of my legs up over his shoulder, Dex blew a hot breath across the sensitive skin of my slit. I gasped before clamping my mouth shut and shuddering as he slipped a finger in next. I closed my eyes and clenched around his finger, feeling him pull out and add another before scissoring them apart.
Dex leaned forward and licked straight up my center, keeping his fingers inside me. He flicked my clit with his tongue once, twice, three times before he closed his mouth over it. The walkie nearly slipped out of my damn hand. At the very last moment, I clutched it tighter as my free hand snapped to Dex’s hair. I grabbed on for dear life, hoping to God I didn’t hurt him in the process. Because, good fucking Lord, this man’s mouth was a gift from the heavens.
Dex smiled against my inner thighs, adding a third finger into my pussy and pumping them a few times. I couldn’t feel my fingertips, it felt so good. I panted and bit down hard on my bottom lip to keep from crying out when Dex sucked my clit back into his mouth and began lashing it with his tongue.
“Fuck!” I couldn’t stop myself. It was too much. I shook in Dex’s arms, coming apart in under a few minutes. I gasped as my orgasm rocketed through me. When Dex rose to face me, he licked his lips and my heart nearly stopped.
"Shh." Dex put his finger over my lips. I could smell my own musk on his skin and I opened my mouth to take his fingers in and suck the cum from them. Leaning over me, his breath puffed across my forehead and cheek. I tried to look at him, but it was impossible to make out the expression on his face in the dark.
A wave of static interrupted the quiet moment between the two of us. "Ready," Cody's voice said over the walkie. Dex turned the volume down until Cody's words were just a whisper. "Starting countdown. One … two … three..."
Dex gripped my arm and walked backwards, leading me between aisles filled with dusty old books and vinyl records that hadn't been touched in decades. "Four … five … six..."