Hefty Page 4

  Fuck.

  I can’t control myself.

  There she is in the mirror, naked, coming on my fingers, her nipples in juicy little points, so sexy, she shouldn’t even be real…and my cock is being strangled.

  It aches. It aches.

  To say nothing of my balls, which are furiously trying to climb inside my body.

  Tightening. Squeezing.

  Before I can temper my own actions, I’m throwing Jill face down on the bed and pinning her down with my considerable weight, pumping my cock into the split of her ass, humping her through my sweatpants, grunting and groaning into her hair.

  “I’ll wreck this pretty little cheerleader ass. I’ll fucking wreck it.”

  I watch her fingers curl into the bedspread and worry I’m behaving like an animal, or worse, scaring her, but I can’t stop. I’m bucking against her so wildly, the bed bumps across the floor. Every single one of my muscles is pulled tight as a bow string, a bead of sweat rolling down my temple and…mother of God.

  She lifts her ass just in inch, moaning my name and I hit pussy. I hit Jill’s pussy.

  I come so hard, my teeth grind down and I bellow in my throat like a bull, just barely trapping the sound with her shoulder. My stomach seems to cave in on itself, squeezing, my balls pulsing, pulsing, emptying themselves as I continue to hump her brokenly, ejaculating against her cunt from behind, nothing but a layer of sweatpants between us. My spurts are rolling down the insides of my thighs, soaking the front of my sweatpants, so that eventually my thrusts against her bottom produce a sloppy sound and it makes me come more. Harder.

  Until finally I’m totally spent. More finished than I’ve been in my life.

  But I’m not relaxed. God no.

  I’m climb off Jill, anxiously turning her over, searching her beautiful features for signs of stress or tears or disgust. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”

  “Uh-uh,” she says huskily, her lips turning up at the corners, a lazy, languid smile stealing across her face. “No, Zach. You didn’t hurt me. That was…that was…”

  I hold my breath.

  She throws her arms around my neck, hugging me tight. “Wonderful.”

  My arms go around her, too, hauling her up against me, whispering a grateful prayer up at the ceiling. God. I squeeze my eyes shut. Every time I think I’m as in love with Jill as I can get, I go deeper. There’s a voice in the back of my head, telling me I’m going to have my heart ripped out, but I don’t listen. I can’t. I’ve got the girl of my dreams naked in my arms and even if it means I’ll eventually get my chest slashed into two halves, I’m not giving this up.

  No, I’ll keep this feeling as long as she’ll give it to me.

  “Zach?”

  I trail my fingers up and down her spine. Man, she’s soft. Everywhere.

  “Yeah, Jilly Beans?”

  She looks up at me through her eyelashes, leans up and French kisses me slowly, wetly until my cock starts to stiffen again. “We’re going to break your third rule,” she whispers right against my mouth. “Just thought you should know.”

  I can only lay there with a knot in my throat as she dresses quickly and climbs back out the window. And I spend the night listening to her giggle drift through my bedroom door, replaying her promise over and over again, wondering if I was an idiot to think any rules could apply to something as addictive and intense as this.

  Wondering how long it will take her to leave me in her rearview.

  5

  Jill

  Monday morning can’t come fast enough.

  I want to see Zach again.

  Even if he made me promise to keep this new part of our relationship a secret at school, I just want to be around him. Even more than usual—and that is really saying something, considering I always feel like I’m holding my breath until that first glimpse of him in the hallways of Juniper High.

  Once again, I’m surprised how bold I was in his bedroom on Saturday night. But I wasn’t lying when I told Zach I trust him. That trust made it easier to let go and then it was like flying. Every time I think of our reflections in the mirror, I shiver, the walls of my flesh compressing, prickly heat racing down to my toes. Has he been thinking about it nonstop, too?

  Maybe once we’ve spent some more time together, he’ll want to be with me. Out in the open. He won’t be worried about his fellow honor students judging him for dating the head cheerleader who could barely pass geometry.

  Zach was really sweet to call me intelligent the other night, but I know he was just being kind to me, like he always is. This is the same guy who once pretended to ride a roller coaster with me at Six Flags, then snuck me out the exit door before we could actually board the ride, because I was terrified. And then he bought me a waffle cone, sat beside me on a bench and waited for everyone else to catch up.

  He’s the best. That’s why I love him.

  So I need to be happy with the arrangement. And anyway, no one can stop me from daydreaming about us walking down the hallways holding hands.

  A little flip in my stomach signals that Zach is coming.

  I check my reflection in the mirror I have taped up inside my locker and brush nonexistent wrinkles from the skirt of my blue and white flowery sundress. Swallowing the butterflies in my throat, I turn my head to watch Zach approach and my knees go weak. He’s a foot taller than any of the students he passes, so cool and unassuming in his jeans and navy long-sleeved shirt, pushed up to the elbows, backpack over one shoulder. Boots. A few days’ growth of his beard.

  My thighs squeeze together at the memory of him driving those huge hips against my bottom. I’ll wreck this pretty little cheerleader ass. I’ll fucking wreck it.

  Anticipation crackles in my tummy. Want for more. If he asked me to make out with him right here and now, in front of everyone, I would do it without question, because I’m that desperate for more of his kisses. More of his fingers on me. Inside me, maybe, next time.

  Zach’s moss-green eyes find me through the sea of students and they warm, his mouth lifting in a lopsided smile. Is he going to come talk to me? In front of everyone? That wouldn’t be unusual, right? Everyone knows we’re close because of my friendship with Harper.

  He keeps coming in my direction and I know I’m smiling like a total idiot. His gaze travels down the front of my dress, catching on the short hem where it brushes me high on my thighs. A muscle ticks in his cheek. I’m aware of my appearance enough to know these heeled sandals do a lot for my legs, making them look longer, and I hope he’s picturing them wrapped around his waist. I hope he can’t wait another day to touch me. I can’t.

  When Zach is about ten feet away, something in his expression changes. He looks at something behind me and his stride slows. I glance back over my shoulder and see my friends from the squad are closing in, huddled together and laughing at something on one of their phones.

  And when I turn back, Zach is gone.

  Quickly, I turn and bury my head in my locker, so no one will witness the burning humiliation on my face. I expected Zach to be standoffish in front of the smarter kids, but the cheerleaders, too? Maybe he just wants to avoid anyone speculating that something might be going on.

  After all, when one word of gossip is whispered at this small school, everyone has heard it within the hour.

  Stop being so sensitive. You knew the rules.

  With a restoring breath, I reach into my locker for my sociology textbook, but it’s nowhere to be found. I must have left it at home. Shoot. The sociology teacher deducts points for not being prepared in class and I really can’t afford to have my grade falter.

  I turn to one of my friends who are chattering away at the locker beside mine.

  “Hey, Mindy. You don’t have sociology today, right?”

  “No.” She combs her fingers through her bangs. “Tomorrow.”

  “Is your book in your car? Can I borrow it?”

  She shrugs and starts to rummage through her backpack for keys. “Sure. It’s in the backseat.”

  “Thanks.”

  A minute later I’m jogging across campus toward the parking lot, well aware that I’m going to be late and already cringing over the hard time my teacher is going to give me. But at least he won’t ding me, points-wise. The parking lot is pretty clear of students right now, since most of them have made their way to the next period. I turn in the circle looking for Mindy’s red Honda Accord, pressing her unlock button a few times until I see the lights flashing.

  As I’m hustling toward it, I notice two low-to-the-ground sports cars at the end of the parking lot. They’re side by side revving their engines, senior guys standing around and encouraging them with whistles and shouts. What are they doing?

  It’s not until I hear the squeal of tires that I realize they’re racing.

  Drag racing.

  In the school parking lot.

  And I’m right in their path.

  They have to see me, right? If they do, they must be pretty sure I’ll get out of the way in time, because they don’t slow down. They only speed up. At first I’m frozen, but my survival instinct kicks in and I throw myself in between two parked cars, scraping my knee painfully on the asphalt. I squeeze my eyes shut waiting for them to pass, but they never do.

  There’s a loud metal on metal screech, immediately followed by a deafening crash.

  The car I’m hiding behind skids toward me, knocking me into the vehicle on the other side and I smack my head, landing flat on my back on the blacktop. There’s some shouting in the distance and eventually around me, but I just lie there, trying to regain my equilibrium. The sun winks in and out behind clouds above me. My knee is a sharp throb.

  I’m lucky to be alive, that much I know, even through the daze.

  “Jill!”

  Zach’s panicked shout is what finally causes me to sit up slowly. I blink a couple of times and wait for a flood of disorientation, but thankfully it doesn’t come. Probably no concussion. As a cheerleader, I take spills all the time while practicing stunts and I think I’m more stunned than anything. Who expects to almost get mowed down by a car in the school parking lot?

  Zach is still calling my name, sounding more and more anxious, and I realize the front ends of the cars on either side of me have been wedged together. No one can see me on the ground. So I put up a hand, waving it—and Zach is there an instant later, launching himself over the damaged cars and kneeling down on the ground beside me.

  He’s sucking wind, his green eyes haunted as they travel over me. When he sees my bloody knee, he chokes a sound, raking his fingers through his hair. “Oh my God, Jill, baby, are you okay? Are you?”

  “Yes. I’m fine.”

  His hands shake, hesitating over my bloody knee. “Jesus. I couldn’t find you. I couldn’t find you. I thought…” He shakes his head vigorously. “What the fuck happened?”

  I open my mouth to tell him, then stop.

  Obviously, I can’t lie. But if I tell him the guys almost hit me while racing, I have a feeling he won’t react well. And I won’t have him messing up his amazing school record over me. Not when he’s destined for bigger, better things.

  Zach latches on to my hesitation, eyes narrowing.

  This is the most even-tempered man I know, except maybe when he’s on the football field. But there’s nothing even about him now. Jagged rage spikes in his expression and he’s pushing to his booted feet, vaulting over the mangled wreckage.

  “Zach, no,” I call after him.

  I stand and limp forward, but there’s no way I’ll get over the smashed front ends of these cars with my injury, so I hobble around the back as fast as I can, adrenaline pounding in my ears. When I make it out into the parking lot, students are standing around in droves, obviously drawn outside by the loud crash. Zach has one of the drivers by the neck, holding him off the ground against his totaled car. “You almost killed her, you piece of shit,” Zach roars, bashing the student onto the vehicle, the guy’s head and limbs flailing like a rag doll. A security guard is trying to drag Zach off the other student with no luck. He’s half Zach’s size.

  It’s up to me to stop him from doing something he’ll regret.

  “Zach!” I shout, limping over and laying a hand on his arm.

  A tremor goes through him and he looks down at me with a wild expression. Like he’s lost in some vengeful place inside his own head and I’m calling to him from another planet. “Jill,” he says hoarsely.

  That’s the moment the whole ordeal catches up with me, so the tears that gather in my eyes are real. “My knee hurts so bad. You have to take me to the nurse.”

  A light clicks on behind his eyes. His Adam’s apple swells and plummets.

  He looks at the student he’s holding off the ground and tosses him down to the pavement with a snarl, his fingers flexing at his sides, visibly restraining himself. And then he turns on a heel and scoops me up, carrying me through the thongs of gaping students toward the main building where the nurse’s office is located. No one moves, they just watch us pass. But I don’t have time to worry about their opinions or how they might bother Zach, I just lay my head on his big shoulder, confident I’m in the best care possible and let all of my concerns wash away.

  “How did you know I was in the parking lot?”

  His heart hammers against my ear. “When I heard the crash, I went looking for you. I just wanted to know…I got nervous. And then you weren’t in class, where you’re supposed to be.” He has to take several deep breaths before continuing. “I saw your friends and one of them said you’d run out to grab a book from her car. Everything after that is a blur. Until now.”

  My pulse clamors. “Because you’re holding me?”

  Several beats pass. “Yes,” he rasps, jaw tight. “Are you hurt anywhere besides your knee?”

  I’m still reeling from the fact that Zach admitted holding me had such an effect on him. What does it mean? “I bumped my head, but not too hard. It’ll just be a little sore.”

  “Christ. Your head?” He kicks open the front door of the main building and carries me through the opening. “It could have been worse. You’re getting checked anyway.”

  “It’s really not—”

  “Please don’t argue with me. I just…I really need to know you’re okay.”

  I look up at him, my knight in shining armor and I’m more in love than ever. And I almost tell him, right there outside the nurse’s office, but my fear that he doesn’t feel the same keeps my lips sealed. Maybe if I’d had more courage, we could have avoided what came next.

  6

  Zach

  I pace back and forth in front of the bed in the nurse’s office, watching as the woman shines a pen light in Jill’s eyes to determine if she has a concussion.

  I’m a cross between sick to my stomach and livid beyond words.

  Racing. They were racing near my Jill.

  If they’d hit her…

  A bellow lodges in my throat and I press a fist to my lips, keeping it from escaping. I’ve already revealed way too much about how I feel today. I need to calm down. Stop walking the office like a caged animal, my hands poised to rip the bars off if something serious is wrong with her. If I’d stopped to talk to her in the hallway, she wouldn’t have been in the parking lot at the exact wrong time. This is my fault. I didn’t want her friends to laugh at her for talking to me, but I didn’t know the alternative was her nearly getting run over. Goddammit.

  What is taking the nurse so long?

  “Is it a concussion?” I ask, unable to stand the suspense any longer. If she has a head injury, I’m taking her to the hospital immediately.

  The nurse looks back at me with speculation. “No. No concussion.” Her smile is tight as she stands. “Let’s get that knee cleaned and bandaged, then you can sit here for a while and rest, all right?”

  “That sounds perfect, thank you,” Jill murmurs.

  I try not to stare over the nurse’s shoulder while she’s cleaning up Jill’s knee, but I can’t help it. I wince every time Jill does, a vein beating in my forehead at the sight of gravel pieces embedded in her beautiful skin. God, I should have killed those little shits for what they did. What if I’d run into the parking lot and seen Jill lying still in the middle of the lane? I don’t even think I’d be here right now. I think I immediately would have left earth, unable to bear a second without her alive.

  “Okay, you’re all set,” the nurse is saying. “Keep the ice pack on for fifteen minutes, then I’ll send you back to class.” The older woman gives me the side eye. “I assume you’re going to stand guard over her?”

  I grunt. Nod once.

  The nurse leaves, pulling the partition curtain behind her, and Jill smiles up at me from her prone position, her blonde hair fanned out around her. “Will you text Harper and let her know I’m okay?” She licks her lips almost nervously. “I-I mean she might have heard by now that you…came to get me. But just in case.”

  “Sure,” I say, tugging out my phone and firing off a text to my sister.

  I’ve got Jill.

  In other words, she’s fine. She’s safe. And I won’t let it be any other way.

  “How do you feel?” I ask, stowing my phone and kneeling down beside the bed.

  “Good.” Is she looking at my mouth or it that my imagination? “Thank you for coming to get me.”

  Her gratitude makes the tips of my ears burn. “Of course I did.”

  A few seconds tick by. “Zach?”

  “Hmm.”

  “Why do you always come to my rescue?”

  This conversation is veering toward dangerous territory. The answer is, because I love you. I’ve always loved you. But this physical relationship between us is so new. She asked me to help her explore her sexual urges—safely. As far as I know, that’s all she wants. End of story. That’s what makes sense considering how different we are. Her perfect, me an overgrown barbarian. If I tell her the truth about my feelings, I might terrify her. Lose what we have, even if it’s only temporary.