by Krista Wolf
That said, I knew his feelings ran deep. Adam and Dante had more than confirmed it. I’d crack him later tonight, just as I’d already cracked them. It might even be fun…
My mind drifted back to reality, where Chloe was letting out a long, relieved breath. She settled back in her chair and considered me for a moment, before bringing her bright red fingernails together.
“I didn’t tell you this,” she said, “but Cosmo is already excited.”
I nodded perfunctorily. “Good, because I—” My brows suddenly came together. “Wait… what?”
“I gave them most of your preview,” my boss said. “Brooke… holy shit. They absolutely loved it.” She stopped herself and waved one hand. “No, wait, that’s not strong enough. They were over the fucking moon about it.”
A tingle of exhilaration raced up my spine. “Really?”
Chloe nodded excitedly. “The whole personal angle you took, with Hannah? They ate it right up. They’re even moving it up an issue. They can’t wait to get it to print.”
I clapped my hands together. I never clapped my hands together. It was a good sign.
“Wow,” my boss sighed, picking up the hard copy. “I can’t believe it’s finally done.” She was practically spinning in her chair. “You wouldn’t believe how much sleep I’ve lost over this.”
“Me too,” I muttered.
“I mean, I always knew you had it in you. That if I just gave you everything you needed, you’d come through with…”
Her voice trailed off strangely. I glanced down, to find her reading the manuscript.
“Wait… who’s Madison?”
“Madison is Hannah. I changed her name.”
Chloe’s head jerked back, like she’d received a shock. “Wait… what?”
“I changed her name,” I repeated. “I changed all the names. You know… to keep things from—”
“I thought you said Hannah was real?” Chloe asked.
“She is.”
“Exactly. She’s so real, she drives the article. She’s totally believable. The whole scenario, including her three lovers… it all works so well because it is real.”
“So what if the names are different?” I asked, not understanding. “It’s the same article. The same exact—”
“No,” said Chloe abruptly. “We’re keeping the names.”
An uneasy feeling shot through me. “What?”
“You only used first names, right? So no one’s in danger of being identified.”
I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. She was using my own logic against me.
“Yes, but—”
“The names stay,” Chloe reiterated. “Cosmo won’t like the change. It’ll only confuse them. They’ve already seen the rough outline, and they’re already working on the article’s title.”
“What’s so confusing about a few name changes?” I asked, already exasperated. “No one has even read this thing yet! They won’t even know the names were ever changed!”
“I’ll know,” my boss said abruptly. “The editors at Cosmo will know.”
“I have full creative control,” I practically shouted. “Remember? That was the agreement. Full. Creative. Control.”
“This isn’t creative,” she countered. “It’s just an aesthetic. I’m not changing your article. And I’m not changing those names.”
I had to sit down. Even if it was in the uncomfortable metal chair.
“Chloe… please don’t do this. I need the names changed. I need to protect the people I used to write this thing.”
She stared back at me harshly… and in that moment I knew. She wouldn’t ever budge. She wouldn’t risk rattling her contacts at Cosmo, or their editors.
No matter what came out of my mouth, in her mind it was already done.
“Listen…” I pleaded. Panic was setting in. I was trying hard to maintain control. “What if I talked to them? What if I can somehow explain what happened?”
But my boss was already shaking her head.
“I’m forbidding you now, Brooke. No way. No how.”
My mind raced, looking for another option. A way around her. A way to defy her without my boss knowing I’d defied her at all.
But Chloe saw through me like I was a pane of glass.
“I’ll know the very moment you try,” she said, as if reading my mind. “You talk to anyone over there and it’s your job, Brooke,” she said coldly. “Instantly.”
I got up from the chair on two shaky legs. Slowly, I ambled out of her office.
“Instantly and irrevocably,” she called after me.
Thirty-Seven
TREY
“Hey professor… got a minute?”
I was almost all the way to my car. Way in the back of the secondary faculty parking lot, between the mounds of pushed-up snow that the plows had shoved against the light poles.
The blonde approaching me now had come seemingly from out of nowhere. She’d been hiding behind a drift, or a tree, or…
“I botched that last test,” she said sadly. “Bad. I mean… real bad. As in, my average is so low, there’s probably no way I can pass your class.”
She stood there with a finger hooked into her mouth, trying to look helpless. Trying to look sexy at the same time of course, but it was the helpless part she needed work on.
“It’s still pretty early in the semester,” I replied skeptically. “You’ll get plenty of other chances to get your average up.”
She took another two or three steps closer, and into the light. I noticed she was all done up. Long blonde hair, combed and straightened. Cherry red lipstick, over a pretty, pouty mouth.
“I might fail my other tests too,” she sulked. “I’m just… bad.” She took another step that was more of a strut. “Really, really bad.”
My pulse quickened just looking at her. She was absolutely gorgeous. Dripping with sex appeal, even in the faded light of the parking lot’s far-flung overheads.
“Professor?”
The word meant nothing to me right now. I was too busy envisioning my hands on her body. Imagining how incredible it would feel to just push her into a snowbank… to nudge her legs apart, right here, right out in the cold.
How hot it would feel to sink straight into her. To bottom out in that tight, gorgeous pussy and start pounding away…
“What if I don’t want to wait until the next test?” the blonde was asking innocently. “What if I want to get my average up… now?”
She was close enough to reach for me, and so she did. A delicate hand slid between us. It closed heavily over the bulge that had rapidly appeared between my legs.
“I… can’t get involved with students,” I sighed. “It’s against the rules.”
“That’s funny,” she chuckled evilly. “Considering the last time I came to your place, you fucked me so hard you had to stuff my panties in my mouth to keep me quiet.”
She was rubbing more firmly now. Manipulating me with a slow, familiar rhythm.
“Hello Hannah,” I said evenly.
She made a tsk-tsk sound with her tongue. Even so, her hand never stopped moving.
“You know my name’s not Hannah,” she said, sounding a little bit wounded. “I already told you what it was.”
“Yeah, well if you’re going to pretend to be one of my students, I can pretend you’re still the girl I fell for.”
It was cold, I knew. Maybe even below the belt. But I felt it was also warranted.
“I’m still the same girl you fell for,” she said defensively. “It’s only my name that’s different.”
The wind picked up, sending an icy chill through the parking field. I watched it whip her hair over her face. She still looked angelic.
“The guys told me you might be coming around,” I said. “That you paid them a visit.”
“Paid them a visit…” she repeated, with a little laugh. “Is that how they put it?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Well, did
they tell you what else happened during our ‘visit’?”
They sure had. In the interests of coming clean, they’d given me every last gory detail. I’d been mad at first, but the anger was soon replaced by an intense jealousy. Mostly a jealousy that I hadn’t been there.
“Maybe,” I said at last.
Hannah — or Brooke, rather — slid even closer, pressing her body firmly against mine. She was shielding herself from the wind. But that wasn’t all she was doing.
“And what do you think?”
“About?”
“About forgiving me,” she said plainly. “About forgetting that I did something foolish and selfish and stupid, and realize that everything we had, everything I felt for all three of you, was one-hundred percent real.”
She’d dropped all pretenses, set all jokes aside. She was being serious now. Heartfelt. I knew it even without staring down into those sapphire blue eyes, but I stared anyway.
“I’ve already forgiven you,” I said truthfully. “Maybe this whole thing started on a lie, but even I can see it’s progressed way past that. Not just for you either, Brooke. But for us.”
The instant elation on her face made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Part of it was my forgiveness. The other part, was me using her real name.
“I thought about this a lot,” I said. “If we’re actually going to do this — I mean really, truly do this — we probably need to be a little more honest with ourselves. Keeping things secret from friends, family, co-workers… well, it’s gonna be hard. Short term anyway.”
“And what about long term?”
“Long term…” I breathed heavily. Pulling her against me, I cracked a smile. “I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
She snuggled in, staring up at me with a look that could get me to do just about anything. Only she wasn’t asking for anything. Anything other than acceptance.
“You know,” I quipped. “If you’re going to come here as a student, you could’ve at least dressed up as one. White blouse. Plaid skirt. Knee socks…” I scratched at my chin. “Maybe a bright red lollipop rolling around on your tongue?”
Brooke laughed. “I’m pretty sure you’re thinking of a different kind of school girl,” she chided me.
“Yeah yeah…” I shrugged.
“Still…” she said, drawing the word out with tantalizing slowness. “I’m thinking I could do all that. If you’re serious about it, that is.”
“Oh, I’m deadly serious.”
She giggled musically, as her face drew inexorably closer to mine. “Good.”
I couldn’t take another second. I grabbed her ass with both hands and lifted her into the air, kissing her long and hard as her legs slid eagerly around my waist. Brooke locked her ankles behind my back. She threw her arms over my shoulders, and slipped her sweet, wonderful tongue into my mouth.
Damn…
I was a total fool. A complete and utter asshole really, to even consider letting something this good get away. Kissing her in the cold, feeling the warmth of her body against mine, I vowed silently to never let such a thing happen again.
It had to be five or ten minutes before I set her down again. Before our lips finally parted, and her feet touched the ground.
“You know, I’ve had the urge to throw you in that snowbank and fuck you senseless,” I admitted.
Brooke looked down a little fearfully at the cold mound of ice and snow.
“Uhhh…. raincheck on that?” she laughed.
“Alright,” I conceded. “How about I take you back to my place and I screw you until you can’t remember either of your names?”
“Offer accepted,” she said, kissing me again.
We had to pry ourselves from each other, just long enough to walk the dozen or so remaining steps to my car. When we got there my smile disappeared in an instant. Brooke’s laugher trailed off at the same time, dying against the wind.
All four of my tires were flat.
“Fuck,” I swore, circling slowly around my vehicle. I bent to inspect them. Even in the semi-darkness I could see the tires weren’t just flat, they were slashed through.
“I— I’m so sorry, Trey,” Brooke apologized. She looked genuinely upset. “I— I just… don’t know what to say.”
“Well,” I grumbled, heaving an angry sigh. “Looks like you might not be the only student failing one of my classes.”
Thirty-Eight
BROOKE
It only took a minute to call one of Trey’s good friends, who also happened to manage a garage. It was already late, dark, and cold, but “Jeff” assured Trey he’d be sending a tow truck, ‘sometime’ during the night.
“What now?” I asked, shivering.
Trey tucked his keys into the front passenger wheel well. Then he smiled, and interlaced his fingers with mine. “My place.”
We began the arduous journey back across the frozen campus, hand in hand. I thought maybe four flat tires might spoil the evening, but Trey still seemed in a fine mood despite his misfortune.
Not exactly a misfortune, is it?
I felt guilty. Shitty as hell. And that’s because I was fairly sure Trey’s tires hadn’t been cut by any of his students, from any one of his classes.
In other words, it had to be Chris.
It was the second strange thing that had happened in twenty-four hours. Because as I’d left Adam and Dante’s place this morning, I noticed someone had used their finger to draw a big heart on the windshield of my car.
Normally I’d chalk it up to someone who happened to walk by, tracing something cute in the condensation, on a whim. But no, last night had been an ice storm. Every vehicle on every street was covered in a thick layer of frost. Someone had actually climbed onto my hood and created the big, symmetrical heart by chipping away at the ice. Such a thing took dedication. Time.
And psychosis. Don’t forget psychosis.
Luckily, the guys hadn’t seen it. They’d walked me to the curb and kissed me goodbye without ever noticing what happened. But now… this.
“I’m so sorry you need all new tires,” I apologized again, as we crossed into the next quad.
“Used tires,” Trey corrected me. “I can’t afford new ones.”
“Oh.”
“Besides, what in the world are you apologizing for?” he smiled. “You didn’t do it.” We walked a few steps more before he raised a dramatic eyebrow. “Or did you?”
“Fuck no,” I laughed, trying hard for it to not come out nervous.
“Good,” said Trey. “Because I’ve had more than my share of crazy ex-girlfriends. I might even be the crazy ex-girlfriend all-time champion.”
“Does that title come with a belt?”
“A belt dangling with a shitload of baggage,” he smiled. “But it’s a title I’m more than happy to hand over, to the next poor guy.”
We arrived back at his apartment, cold and shivering. I was looking forward to warmth. To jacking the heat up and throwing some blankets over us and—
“Aww, shit.”
Trey was frowning, and patting his pockets. He dropped his arms helplessly at his sides.
“You left your apartment key back with the car, didn’t you?”
He nodded dumbly. “How the hell didn’t I think of that?”
“It’s the curse of the nerd,” I needled him. “You’re smart as hell when it comes to everything complicated, but it’s the simple things that—”
He scooped me up and tickled me, all in one motion. I laughed and screamed, uncontrollably, as he exacted his revenge. When he was all done retaliating, the both of us tumbled, still giggling, into the snow.
“Fucking hell,” Trey breathed, still laughing, staring up at the sky. His breath was creating great white plumes of steam in the crisp night air. “I really don’t wanna walk back.”
“We don’t have to,” I said.
“I guess we could go down to the housing office,” Trey continued. “It’s a lot closer. They’ll find someone
who could let us in, or maybe—”
“Did you hear me?” I poked him. “My car’s not far from here. Let’s just go to my place.”
Trey jumped up and lifted me from the snow. His cheeks were flushed with excitement and cold, his dark eyes glimmering in the frozen moonlight.
“And exactly what will we do at your place?” he asked suggestively.
His cowlick had flopped back and frozen itself in an upright position. It made him look like he was wearing a pompadour. It was absolutely adorable.
“What won’t we do?” I teased, grabbing and pulling him in the direction of my car.
Thirty-Nine
BROOKE
We started off slow, which was a nice change of pace for us. Kissing and grinding against one another’s bodies, in the warmth and softness of my cozy bed.
In time the clothes came off, and we began exploring each other further. Trey pushed me onto my stomach and straddled my legs, where I could feel his heavy balls resting hotly against the backs of my thighs.
Oh God.
I was already wet and incredibly slick. Ready for anything. It was a complete surprise however, when I felt a sudden rush of cold, dribbling across my back.
“What the—”
“Sorry if it’s not warm yet,” Trey chuckled.
The smell reached my nostrils a second later; jasmine and vanilla. He’d grabbed the bottle of scented oil near the end of my bed — the one I sometimes used to massage my hands, when they were tired. The one I’d originally bought for much more sensual reasons, but never got around to using…
Eat shit, Chris.
Right now Trey was working the oil into my skin, pressing down hard with his two big hands. He started at my shoulders, kneading gently. Working his thumbs in small, tight circles, while using his palms to smooth the muscles in exactly the direction they were supposed to go.
“Holy shit…” I purred, directly into my pillow. “You know what the hell you’re doing, don’t you?”
