Chapter Eight
“Mm, I’m famished,” said Kendra, taking a big bite of an English muffin half, slathered in butter and strawberry jam.
Ray chuckled as he set a platter of scrambled eggs and bacon on the table, then went to fetch more toasted muffins and the pot of coffee. After what we’ve been up to the past,” he glanced at the kitchen click, “twenty hours, I’m pretty hungry too.”
Kendra grinned and flicked her tongue out to catch a glob of jam from the corner of her mouth.
Ray froze, watching, enthralled. He groaned. “God, you drive me crazy.”
Kendra giggled and licked her lips for emphasis.
“Tease,” Ray’s face wore a pained expression.
“Pushover.” Kendra grinned.
“Yeah, but you’re not the one sitting here with a raging hard-on now,” he said.
“Maybe so, but I’m pretty sure my panties are soaked through.”
Ray closed his eye and groaned again. “Can you die from too much horniness?”
Kendra giggled just as a shrill chirping sound could be heard. “I think that’s my cell,” she said, looking around for her purse. She spotted it on the small table by the kitchen back door and jumped up to retrieve it. She brought it back to the table, sat down, and rummaged through until she found her phone.
She looked at the screen. “It’s my girlfriend, Aisha,” she said. She pressed it on. “Hey girl.” She listened a moment, her smile turning into a frown. “What’s the matter?” She listened again, then, “Just stay put and I’ll come get you.” There was a brief response and Kendra stood. “It’s okay. Just wait. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She ended the call and gaped at Ray.
“Aisha’s at the hospital.”
“What?” Ray said. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure. She was crying so hard I could hardly understand her. She looked at Ray and prayed he’d understand. “I have to go help her,” she said
“Of course,” Ray said. He stood and quickly began to clear the table. “I’ll come with you.”
“You don’t have to” she said.
Ray wiped his hands, then came around the table and pulled Kendra into his arms. “I know, but I want to. You’re my girl now. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you deal with this crisis on your own?”
“Boyfriend?” Kendra felt a rush of gratitude move through her. She looked up at him, eyes wide with surprise.
“That’s all right, isn’t it?” Ray asked, concern apparent in his expression. “After the night we’ve shared, I feel so close to you, and I want this to be something more than just a casual frolic.”
“You do?” At a loss for words, she could only gaze at him and smile tentatively.
“Don’t you?” He, on the other hand, continued to look worried.
She pressed herself against him, as tears welled in her eyes. Not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. “Oh yes, I do. I really do.”
She felt, rather than heard, his deep sigh of relief. “Good then. So let’s go and help your friend.”
Kendra went on tiptoe and kissed him. “I could so easily fall in love with you,” she said.
“Looks like we have something to talk about later,” Ray said, and Kendra could only agree.
After quickly dressing, Ray drove Kendra to the local hospital, where Aisha waited in the emergency room. As was usual for a city hospital, the ER was busy, and it took a while to get a nurse to stop long enough to direct them to a curtained off cubicle in an adjoining corridor.
The couple found Aisha, dressed in a hospital gown, sitting up on the bed, holding an icepack to her already swollen right cheek.
Kendra rushed over to her friend and grabbed her left hand. “What happened?”
Aisha burst into tears and for a long few minutes Kendra just stood and held her friend close, murmuring words of comfort. Once the outburst died down, and Aisha had mopped up her tears and blown her nose, she was able to tell her story.
“Since you had a date last night,” she smiled wanly over Kendra’s shoulder at Ray, “I went out with a bunch of the gang to one of the clubs downtown. And I ran into Jason—”
“Jason! My?—” Kendra stopped herself. She didn’t want Ray getting the wrong idea. She glanced at him over her shoulder, but he was focused on Aisha.
“Yeah. Anyway, he was there with a bunch of the basketball team and they were having a pretty good time. Jason asked me to dance, so we did. We danced a lot, and he was buying me drinks. He seemed to really like me, Kendra.”
Aisha burst into tears again.
Kendra shuddered, not certain she wanted to hear what her friend had to share.
“I’m sure he does like you,” she said, attempting to soothe the other girl. “You’re a very lovable girl.”
Aisha sniffled and gave Kendra a watery smile. “You have to say that because you’re my best friend.”
Kendra squeezed Aisha’s hand. “Nonsense, I mean every word. Tell me the rest.”
“Well, it was last call, so we had to leave, and Jason said he knew where there was an after hours party.”
“That figures,” Kendra muttered.
“Yeah, well, we all decided to drive over to it—”
“What?” Kendra interrupted. “After all that drinking, you got behind the wheel of a car?”
“No not me,” said Aisha, her face flushed with embarrassment. “Jason said he was okay to drive, so we went in his car.”
“Oh God, Aisha.”
The other girl started to whimper again, and fresh tears coursed down her face. “I know. It was so stupid. And he was driving so fast, and I got scared, and I begged him to stop and let me out, but he just laughed and kept going even faster...”
“The stupid fool,” said Ray.
Kendra looked over and saw the anger in his eyes. She was about to protest that Aisha was foolish, yes, but not stupid, when he spoke again. “That boy should have more sense than to put you in that kind of danger,” he said to Aisha.
“I feel stupid for getting in the car,” she said.
“I’m just glad you’re okay,” said Kendra. “You are okay, aren’t you?”
Aisha nodded then tilted her head to the right indicating her swollen cheek. “I’ll have a shiner for sure. I hit my cheek on the window frame of the car. But I had on my seatbelt and the airbags deployed, so when we hit the tree, I was pretty safe, considering. I’m stiff, but in a couple of days that’ll be gone. I just feel so stupid.” Another burst of emotion accompanied these words. And Kendra had to dig in her purse for a tissue for her friend, the tiny hospital tissue box already depleted.
“You’re not stupid,” she said. “And you’ve learned a big lesson from this experience. What about Jason? Is he okay?”
“I haven’t heard anything” said Aisha. “It’s been pretty crazy around here.”
Ray stepped forward and clasped Kendra’s arm. “I’ll go see what I can find out about the boy.”
“Okay. Thanks baby.” Kendra gave him a warm smile. He kissed her forehead, smiled at Aisha, then strode off toward the nurse’s station. The girls watched him go.
“He’s really nice,” said Aisha, looking speculatively at her friend.
“He is.” Strangely, Kendra felt a bit bashful about her new found feelings for Ray. “We spent the night together,” she finally offered.
“Seriously?” Aisha gasped, and grinned. “So?”
Kendra felt the heat in her face and knew she was blushing. She’d never had this feeling of giddy excitement about a man before. She rather liked it. “It was...amazing,” she said at last. “I really, really like him. In fact, I think I could love him.”
“Wow.” Aisha’s eyes were wide with wonder. “Do you think he feels the same way?”
Kendra nodded, then turned her head as she heard footsteps approaching. It was Ray, and her heart skipped a beat as he approached, her stomach swirling with butterflies.
“Jason has a fractured arm, and some bruis
ing of his ribcage. But otherwise is fine. The nurse said he’s been released already. I guess his family came to collect him.”
“And he didn’t check on Aisha? What a douche!”
“That’s okay,” said Aisha. “I don’t think I really want to see him again anyway.”
“Have you called your folks yet?” Kendra asked her friend.
Aisha frowned and shook her head. “I was too scared. My dad will kill me.”
“Nonsense. Your dad is a pussycat and loves you to death. He’ll just be relieved that you’re okay. Do you want me to call them for you?”
“Would you?” The gratitude on Aisha’s face was almost comical.
“The nurse told me that you have to stay overnight,” Ray said. “They have to watch you for concussion. But you should be fine to go home tomorrow.”
“Thanks Professor Simmons,” Aisha said, blushing.
“Please. Ray,” he said and smiled.
Kendra watched the exchange between her friend and her lover and admired how he had stepped up to help her, and how warm and accepting he was of Aisha. It made her realize all the more what a truly good man he was, and how stupid she would be to let him go.
Several hours later, Kendra and Ray were back at her apartment, cuddled together on her bed. They had called Aisha’s parents who were driving up the following morning to pick up Aisha. Then Kendra felt compelled to call Jason and tell him what an ass he had been to risk her best friend’s life by getting behind the wheel of a car while under the influence. He sounded suitably chastised, especially since the police had already paid him a visit and taken his license. It would be a long time before he’d be driving again.
“So what about this Jason character. How is he your Jason?” Ray asked.
“Oh, you caught that.”
“Uh-huh. So?”
“I went out with him once, right after that first time I came on to you and you turned me down.”
“Idiot that I was,” Ray said sourly.
Kendra giggled. “Well, I guess my ego needed a boost.”
Ray kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry sweetheart.”
Kendra looked sincerely into Ray’s eyes. “I want you to know I left the date early. I realized Jason was just a boy, and I had already fallen for a man.”
Ray grinned. “So I don’t need to be jealous?”
“Not even a little bit.” Kendra grinned back.
“You look exhausted,” Ray murmured, gently kissing Kendra’s neck.
“I am. If you recall, for some reason, I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
He chuckled. “Hm. I do seem to remember something about that.”
“And then, all this drama today,” she said and yawned. “I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“Do you want me to go home and leave you alone to rest?” Ray made a move to get up, but Kendra grabbed his arms and pulled them tighter around her. He settled back, spooning once more against her backside.
“Please stay,” she said. “I love feeling you against me.”
“I love it too sweetheart,” he said and the feel of his hard dick against her ass was proof of that.
Kendra grinned and wiggled ever so slightly against him.
“Tease,” he mumbled.
“Pushover.”
He adjusted a bit closer to her, and heard her sigh. He lifted his head slightly and saw that her eyes were closed. And within a very few moments, her slowed regular breathing indicated that she had fallen asleep.
He laid his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes, content to just hold Kendra like this forever.
Chapter Nine
Kendra was momentarily disoriented when she woke in the morning. A montage of the previous couple of days flashed through her mind, and she sat up looking around her room for Ray. He was gone.
She fell back on the bed, devastated. He’d left some time in the night...or maybe when he awoke this morning. Maybe yesterday had been too much drama. She couldn’t really blame him if he felt that way. Why would he want to deal with college-aged stupidity when he didn’t have to?
She ran a hand over her face and smoothed hair off her forehead. She decided to get up and shower, wanting nothing more than to feel fresh and clean.
After a shower and a chance to brush her teeth, she did feel somewhat more confident, although her heart was sore from Ray’s desertion. She realized that she was dangerously close to being in love with the man, and to lose him now would be to break that very same heart.
But first things, first. She retrieved her phone from her purse and punched in the number of the hospital, which patched her through to Aisha’s bedside. Her friend sounded much improved with the arrival of morning.
“How’s your cheek?” Kendra asked.
“I look like I did two rounds with Mike Tyson and lost,” said Aisha, “But it doesn’t hurt too much.”
“I called your folks last night.”
“They’re here already,” said Aisha, and there was no sign of upset in her voice. “They drove through the night.”
Kendra heard a sniffle and knew her soft-hearted friend was crying again.
“You were right. They weren’t mad, just worried and my dad hugged me so tight I thought he’d bust my ribs.” Aisha chuckled.
Kendra smiled at the picture this painted.
“So, I’m going to go home with them for a few days to rest and recuperate.”
“Good. I’m glad,” said Kendra, feeling relief.
“I don’t suppose you’ll miss me though, with your new boyfriend and all.”
Kendra could hear the smile in Aisha’s words, and didn’t have the heart to tell her friend about Ray’s morning vanishing act. “You’re right. But I’ll miss you a little.”
Aisha laughed, which made Kendra smile. “Oh, here come Mom and Dad. I gotta go. I love you. See you in a week or so.”
“Okay, sweetie. Feel better.” Kendra heard the click of the call ending and turned off her phone, setting it on her bedside table.
She was just trying to decide about what to do next, when she heard a soft knock on the door.
Her heart swelled when she opened the door and found Ray standing there holding a tray with two large coffees and a bag that smelled heavenly. He hadn’t left her. He’d merely gone to get them some breakfast.
“Morning sleepyhead,” he said, placing a peck on her cheek as he breezed by her into the room. He walked over to her desk and set the coffees and bag of food down. He turned back to her and pulled her into his arms.
“Mmmm, you smell good. You had a shower already?”
She nodded, too moved by his presence to speak.
“Damn, and here I hoped we could have one together.”
She looked up at him with a grin and slapped his arm. “You have a one track mind.”
He grinned back down at her. “And you love it.”
She gazed up at him with all the emotion that was filling her heart. “I do. I do love...” She stopped, nervous to finish that thought.
“What were you going to say?” he asked, his expression suddenly intense and inscrutable.
“Nothing. Later. What’s for breakfast?”
He squinted at her a moment, then obviously chose to let it go. “I have breakfast bagels with bacon and cheese, hash browns, yogurt with berries and coffee. Will that do?”
“Oh my God, gimme gimme. I’m starving.”
Ray laughed and handed her a coffee, then grabbed his own coffee and the bag and headed back to sit on the bed, his back braced against the headboard. Kendra sat cross-legged on her side of the bed, facing him. He placed the bag between them and opened it, reaching in to grab the wrapped up bagel and the little sleeve that held the hash browns, and handed them to her.
Kendra quickly unwrapped the sandwich and took a large bite.
“Oh God, that tastes sooo good,” she said, with a moan of appreciation.
“I thought you might be ready for some food. We really didn’t get to do just
ice to my breakfast yesterday morning, didn’t stop for lunch at the hospital, then fell asleep before we could have any dinner last night. So we’re both in need of some sustenance.”
Kendra paused mid-bite and smiled at Ray. “Thanks,” she said.
“For what?”
“For this.” Kendra indicated their picnic. “And for coming to the hospital with me, and for staying with me last night just holding me close. You’re a special man, Ray Simmons.”
Ray set his bagel down and reached over to claim one of Kendra’s hands. He ran his thumb over her fingers and looked deeply into her eyes. “I’d do anything for you, sweetheart. I hope you know that. See, I figured out something this past couple of days.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I figured out that I have some pretty strong feelings for you already.”
“You do?”
“Kendra, I think I’m falling in love with you.”
There was long pause, then, “You do?”
“Yes. I do. And I hope that someday you can feel the same way about me, because baby, I’m not going anywhere, anytime soon unless you want me to. I just want to be with you, and only you. Is that okay?”
Kendra beamed. “It’s more than okay. I feel exactly the same way.”
“You do?” Ray’s eyes went wide with wonder, and his grin went from ear to ear.
“Yes. I—I think I love you, Ray.”
Ray let out a whoop and rolled up onto his knees, knocking the bag of food to the floor before grabbing Kendra into his arms.
“My coffee!” she squealed.
Ray took it from her and put it beside his own on the bedside table, then pulled her onto his lap and kissed her long and soundly. He loosened the belt of her robe and pulled the sides apart until she lay exposed to his view. He scanned his eyes down her lush and lovely form. With one hand he cupped her breast and caressed the nipple until the tiny nub stood puckered and proud. He skimmed his hand down over her stomach into the thatch of curls that hid her secret delights.
Using one finger, he probed the moist soft folds of her labia, seeking out the dark, wet depths of her pussy. She writhed in his arms, and sighed her contentment. His finger found his target and gently slid into her cunt. She was already so wet for him, so hot and tight. Her vaginal muscles clasped his finger, seeming to suck him in deeper.
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