Chapter 19 – Maggie
The song changes to something slower as the crowd of people around Kaleb and I disperse.
“You were amazing. I’m glad you called tonight,” Kaleb says, wrapping his arms around my waist snuggly and pulling me in closer.
I nod in response, because I don’t have the words to explain why I called tonight other than my self-esteem had taken a bruising a few weeks ago after Clay Cameron rocked my world with his sinful mouth in a dirty locker room.
He valiantly fought some mean looking guy, won, and made my childhood heart swoon in a matter of minutes, then basically told me to get lost rather than allow me to even see his dick.
A bruising to my self-esteem would be putting it mildly. More like a lethal blow.
Maybe it was a bad idea to call Kaleb, of all people, but I knew he’d come through. He’s always had a way of distracting me and reminding me that I have plenty going for me.
Kaleb and I have known each other since high school.
Now, he works as a carpenter in town, helping his dad’s business while saving up to buy his parents’ house so that they can retire.
He isn’t a bad guy—just reckless, like most twenty-somethings in our small town.
He also happens to be the guy I’d lost my virginity to three years ago, and, well, the only guy I’ve slept with since.
As his hands slide past my hips, settling at the top of my butt, I consider moving them—but I don’t.
I know it’s pathetic, enjoying the feeling of being wanted.
But tonight, I need it. I just need to lick my wounds, forget Clay’s rejection for a little while, and then get back to crushing all of my dreams tomorrow like the bad ass that I know I am.
“Whatcha got going on later tonight?” he asks, and I realize, now’s the time to give him my made-up excuse so that I can get home safely without being persuaded into lackluster sex with an ex.
“My dad’s off work so I was planning on spending time with him. Sorry.”
I can see the disappointment flash across his face before he smiles and nods. “No worries. Maybe tomorrow night.”
Maybe...Maybe not…
We continue dancing until the song ends and I shift out of his grip.
“I’m going to go grab a drink. Do you want something?” he asks.
I raise my brow in response.
He shrugs. “Fake ID. Remember?”
Oh, yea…
That’s the other thing about Kaleb. He doesn’t think about the future. He rarely thinks about the consequences of his decisions and the impact that they might have on him if he gets caught doing something illegal.
“I’m good,” I respond.
He shrugs and walks off, leaving me standing in a sea of swaying bodies on the dance floor.
The music feels distant now and I decide I need some fresh air.
I weave through the crowd, almost reaching the exit when a hand clamps around my wrist. Instinctively, I jerk back, ready to fight, until I see who it is that’s holding me.
“Clay...?”
He’s glaring down at me with a murderous expression, looking annoyingly handsome in a baseball cap pulled low over his face, a tight, button up shirt that highlights every chiseled muscle in his chest, fitted jeans and worn cowboy boots.
“Why are you with that boy again?” he demands.
I laugh - loudly - as I yank my wrist free from his grip. “First of all, he isn’t a boy. He’s twenty years old, just like me. But I guess you still think I’m a little girl, so it makes sense why you’d call him that. And secondly, whatever, Clay.”
Maybe I would have melted into those green eyes two weeks ago, but now I’m just annoyed with the intrusion of running into him in a place I went to escape and distract myself from him.
Hot.
Cold.
Hot.
Cold.
I never know which version of Clay Cameron I’m going to get, and the constant whiplash is beyond exhausting.
Frustrated, I spin on my heel and storm out of the facility, shoving hard against the exit door as I burst into the stifling Texan heat.
So much for fresh air. With summer in full swing, and a relentless heatwave adding to the fire scares we’ve had in the city, it’s sweltering—even though it’s nearly eight o’clock at night now.
I head toward the parking lot, not sure where I’m going as dusk begins to settle in.
The crunch of gravel behind me tells me Clay’s following, but I’m too furious to care.
By the time I reach the edge of the parking lot, almost at the main road, he’s still on my heels.
I think about calling an Uber to get me out of here, but instead, I whirl around, seething.
“What the hell are you doing, following me, Clay?!” I shout.
He has the balls to look surprised by my outburst and almost a little hurt as he steps backward, giving us some space.
“No,” I step forward until our bodies are brushing.
My chest. His chest.
My thighs. His thighs.
He’s so much taller and our height difference is ridiculous, but I reach up anyways, poking him in the sternum just to make my point clear.
“You don’t get to look all innocent and wounded little Clay Cameron, right now. You…” I lower my voice even though there’s no one around us for miles, “ate my pussy like it was sushi, made me come so hard I saw the moon, and then told me to leave.”
He draws in a breath and steps backwards again, that stupid wounded look on his face is in full effect, and I loathe the way it makes me want to comfort him when I’m the one who he should be comforting.
He doesn’t deserve it!
“I… I didn’t... I told you to leave because I was trying to protect you.”
“Protect me!? Protect me from who?!”
“From me,” he looks down at the ground and I want to laugh. When he looks up again, I realize he’s being serious.
“Why would I need protected from you?”
He shakes his head like he’s trying to make sense of it somehow, “You’re so… innoce-."
“Don’t,” I snap, cutting him off because if he calls me innocent one more time, I might just burn down this bar and the whole parking lot with it.
“Ok...you’re so much younger than me. You deserve to be with someone your age who’s good to you. I should be apologizing for taking advantage of you.”
Now I’m confused.
“How did you take advantage of me? I’m pretty sure I spread my legs wide willingly, gripped the back of your neck and then you offered up the most mind-blowing orgasm I’ve ever had. At one point, I was riding your face. If anything, I used you.”
He shakes his head, “You can’t say stuff like that Maggie.”
“What part? Because I’m not a kid anymore, Clay! When are you going to see that? I’m a woman who has needs.”
He shakes his head again, scrubbing his face with one of his big, thick, worn hands exasperatedly.
Of course, now all I’m thinking about is those hands and how it’d feel to have them all over my body and between my legs, sliding inside of me, caressing my body.
I can feel my nipples harden underneath my shirt and slickness pool between my legs.
“I’m selfish and fucked up,” he responds.
“And I’m horny.”
His eyes snap up to mine again, fire licking behind them as he steps towards me.
“I’m a selfish enough man to take what I want without thinking of the repercussions, Maggie,” he warns.
I shake my head, “You’re not taking anything. It’s being given to you.”
“What are you saying?” his eyes narrow.
My mind is racing, unable to keep up with the way my clit is throbbing in my shorts and the heat spreading throughout my body. Would it be such a bad thing to have sex with Clay?
Over the past two weeks I’ve had plenty of time to think and have separated my mind from my heart.
At least I think that I have.
He’s made it clear that he’s completely unavailable, unable to give anyone a real relationship, and his mood swings are exhausting. Plus, I’m going back to school in two months and no number of orgasms will change my mind on finishing my degree in Houston at the school I love.
“You know what I’m saying,” My mouth moves before my head can keep up.
I’m so damn turned on all I can think about now is being laid out on his bed, the one I slept on a few weeks ago, while his big body crushes mine and his cock slams into me.
I wonder how it’ll feel. I’m guessing it’ll be nothing like how it felt with Kaleb.
“This doesn’t have to be a big deal. I get that you’re all ′moody and damaged Clay Cameron who’s worried about hurting women and therefore can’t even engage with them.
′ I’m heading back to school in two months.
We could just have... fun. Unless” I swallow, wondering if maybe this is the reason he dismissed me two weeks ago, “Unless you’re not attracted to me. ”
He steps forward again and this time neither of us backs up. Our bodies are pressed together as he looks down at me, completely feral.
“You think I don’t want to put my cock inside of that tight, pussy? You think I haven’t been fantasizing about it since I saw you last? To fit it perfectly to my width. For me to teach you all the ways to suck me? For it to be my name that you’re screaming when you touch yourself at night?”
I shudder, my body thrumming with excitement and anticipation, “I think I’ll take all of the above.”
He shakes his head again, a fleeting smile tugging at the corner of his lips before it disappears.
“Teach me what you like, Clay. Friends-with-benefits for the summer? No one has to know if that’s what you’re so worried about.”
He growls, the last threads of his control snapping as he scoops me up, tosses me over his shoulder and storms across the parking lot to his truck.
“Buckle up, because I’m taking you to my apartment where I’ll be treating you nothing like a friend.”