for the game. Have you guys decided where you are going afterwards?”
“No, not yet.”
“I am sure you guys are going to do great.”
“So you are going to be there tonight, right?”
Clarke said she would. “Good, I was hoping you could meet us at the locker room and pick up some dinner before you go back to Senna’s. Maybe go to the party if you are feeling up to it.”
She said she would think about it and waved to them as they dropped her off. She had feeling that things were going to change even more. She had a feeling that something was going to happen. Clarke just wasn’t sure what.
***
Clarke got to the game a few minutes after it started and found a seat by her parents. Senna wasn’t going to go, so she had arrived solo. Her mom was still upset that she wasn’t staying at home, but Clarke found herself more worried about her stepbrothers on the field. They were playing well and soon the home team was way in front.
Never having like sporting events at school, she had to admit that the excitement was palpable. Just because she was not enthused, did not mean that it was not contagious in the thick of things. Clarke found herself chanting and rooting like the rest of them when it was all over. Jared had scored the last touchdown of the night. Everyone was starting to get up and she hung back after the game. She knew she was going to go meet him like he asked.
She was nervous and waited until the stream of players freshly showered and dressed ,were finally started to come out. Clarke ignored a few cat calls and moved into the first tile-lined hallway. Her blood pounded in her ears as she peeked around the locker room. “Jared? Brandon? Are you guys ready?”
“Hey glad you made it.”
She balked at Jared in only a towel. Her eyes immediately went to his need, so clear with the tight garment wrapped around him. “Sorry to come in. I guess you meant outside. I shouldn’t be here.”
While she said it, her feet didn’t move. Clarke didn’t want to go anywhere. She wanted another kiss, his body pushed up against hers in nothing but a towel. “It’s just us here. You don’t have to leave.”
“Where is Brandon?”
“He’s taking a shower. Just you and me right now.”
“Oh.” Her gaze went to the wall, anywhere but the hard rippling body in front of her. “Maybe I should wait outside, so you can um, change.”
“Is that what you really want to do?”
It wasn’t what she wanted to do, but propriety told her it was what she should do. His hand on her arm stopped her as Clarke went to turn away. “Your eyes tell me that you want another kiss.”
She looked up and he was standing over her like before. That time though, she knew what would happen if their lips collided once more. The worst had already transpired, the guilt already felt, so now what she wanted more than anything was to feel the pleasure from it again.
His lips moved closer, inches from hers. “But we can’t Jared.”
“Can’t and shouldn’t are too different things Clarke. Just because we shouldn’t, doesn’t mean that we can’t. I want to.”
She did too and it was Clarke that leaned in the last few inches to make first contact. Jared took it as permission and moved to cup her face. Her small whimper spurred him on even more, convinced that she was as needy as he was. His body roamed over hers, pressing her up against him with a hard hand encircling her waist.
His lips left hers gasping, biting on her throat. Clarke had lost all sense of what was right and wrong. All she could think about was the way he made her feel. If it was wrong to be with him, she didn’t want to be right.
Her hands pushed on the towel between them. She wanted more than anything to finally see what ground against her so wonderfully. Clarke’s hand came in contact with his hot manhood and she heard him groan before he bit her shoulder. Looking down at what she gripped in her hand, Clarke had a feeling she was crossing the line of no
Stefan Zweig, Anthea Bell