Protecting Emma

by ML Michaels

  The heat in her body told her that it didn't matter. She had to have Kris. She had to have him now. She had to have him in whatever way he'd have her.

  Kris led her to the driver's door and dropped in, pulling her onto his lap and closing the door behind her. She leaned down so her head wouldn't press against the ceiling and continued kissing him, tasting the salt of his skin and the lust on his tongue. He ran his hands all over her legs, sliding over the fabric of her tights. She was glad she'd worn a skirt, though she wasn't sure what he planned to do about her leggings.

  This question was quickly answered as Kris reached between her thighs and ripped a hole through her tights, sliding his fingers past her panties and into her pussy. Paula moaned against his lips, rocking back and forward on his fingers as he bit at her lip.

  "You're so hot," he murmured. "Oh God. You're so wet."

  Those words may as well have gone straight from his mouth to her clit. She was alive on top of him, rocking against his hand. He buried two fingers inside and probed her, making heavy lustful noises against her ear.

  Paula needed more. She reached down and undid his zipper with fumbling hands, pulling him out and stroking at his member. She made a satisfied hum of pleasure, which caused Kris to nip at her neck.

  He moved his fingers out of her and replaced them with his cock, pulling down on her hips until there was no space between them. They were one. She rocked back and forth, feeling her clit rub against his jeans. The sensation was fantastic, and she moved more vigorously to get more of it.

  Kris sighed and pulled her mouth to his again, lancing her with his tongue with a passion so heady that it sent Paula into a spin. He dropped a hand between them and began to massage her clit, rubbing it in tight circles that caused her to pant in anticipation of her orgasm. It was coming. She could feel herself climbing that mountain, about to crest over and descend into chaos. And what lovely chaos it would be.

  "Come for me, baby," he whispered into her ear.

  And she was done.

  Her heart nearly beat out of her chest. She soared, calling his name over and over as she spasmed around his cock. Kris responded in kind, burying himself to the hilt and exhaling sharply as he reached his own earth-shattering orgasm.

  They took a moment to breath, still locked together in the afterglow of their embrace. Kris pulled back and looked deep into Paula’s eyes.

  "How are you feeling?" he asked. His face was full of concern. She could tell that the weight of her answer would affect him.

  That shook Paula. It showed her that he truly cared, which was something that a few hours ago she had been questioning.

  "A lot better," she said. "I just wish Steph wasn't such a bitch."

  He slid her off of him and onto the passenger seat. "Tell me about it," he said wryly. "God, why I ever dated her, I'll never know."

  Paula readjusted her skirt and underwear. "Because she's hot?"

  Kris rolled his head to look over at her, buttoning his jeans. "So are you. But you're not crazy."

  Paula smiled. "Not in the same way at least."

  He drove her back to school and gave her a quick peck on the cheek when she got out. "Will you come to my game this week?" he asked.

  Paula nodded enthusiastically. "Sure."

  "Good, then I'll see you in class tomorrow." He laughed. "If my dad doesn't kill me, anyway."

  Paula cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

  He looked at her guiltily. "I may or may not have skipped both class and hockey practice to come here," he said. "He tends to keep tabs on me, and I don't think he's going to be happy."

  Paula gave him a reassuring stroke on the arm. "Well if you need to de-stress, you know where to find me."

  After he was gone, she felt light on her feet and in her heart. Kris had skipped school and practice for her. That definitely meant something. She felt like if it came to it, he would really go to bat for her. Maybe he’d tell off Steph the next time she started being a cantankerous bitch. That was something well worth imagining.

  When she got back in her room, Steph was gone. She was glad of it. It was getting harder and harder to face the girl. Though, Paula supposed, as long as she had Kris and Steph was proved wrong, there were worse situations that she could be in.

  Kris hadn’t heard from his dad yet come Monday morning. He and Paula had made plans to hang out after class, and when he cancelled them, she figured that he was probably going home to see his parents and try and smooth things over. Paula decided that she'd go grab some food from the corner store, bring it over to his dorm, and surprise him when he came home. She wanted to be there to help him relax, like she had that night they sat and silently watched Netflix together.

  After getting a couple bags of chips, unsure of what it was that he liked to eat, Paula walked over to his residence hall. It was smaller than hers, and much nicer. At first she thought she would have a problem finding him. She didn’t even know what room he was in, after all. When she got inside, however, she just had to follow the sounds of the yelling. Though she didn't know right away that it was Kris and his dad who were making such a ruckus, she had a feeling that nobody would be being that much of an asshole to his son except Kris' dad based on what Kris had described.

  As she got closer to source of the the rage, she began to hear snippets of the conversation.

  "—Can't believe you'd spit in my face like this! I talked to Steph and she told me that you started going out with some girl, and that's where you were yesterday. Is that true?" a loud male voice boomed.

  When Paula reached the hall outside his room, she could see that a guy she assumed was his roommate was leaning against the wall at the end of the hall, looking thoroughly nonplussed with the situation.

  She took a deep breath and turned the corner.

  Paula didn't know why she thought that would help the situation. It must have come from some dumb part of her that thought she would be able to stop some of his torment. Though she was as meek in her own life, she felt that she simply could not stand by while this man attacked Kris.

  When she stepped into the doorway, both men turned and stared at her. Paula could sort of see the resemblance the two men’s facial features, but that was where the similarities ended. Kris' father looked mean, and his face was red with rage. His eyes had nothing but malice in them, and she wondered what had gone so wrong in his life that he needed to be such a prick.

  "Is that her?" the man said, pointing an accusatory finger at her. "That's the piece of ass that you're sacrificing your future for?"

  Paula opened her mouth to defend herself and Kris, but he beat her to it.

  "I'm not sacrificing my future, dad," he spat. "And she's nothing. It was just a little dalliance. I'll be more focused now."

  His words hit Paula like a brick to the chest. She immediately stumbled backward, turned around, and walked away. All of her anxiety about her relationship with Kris overwhelmed her, and Steph's voice rang in her ears. He doesn't want you. He must be really desperate to have slept with you.

  Idiot.

  Paula tried not to cry but failed as soon as she was behind the safety of her dorm room door. Except it wasn't safe there, was it? It was at that moment, while unoccupied and free from torment, but she would be with Steph for the rest of the year. Steph would no doubt taunt her mercilessly as soon as she got wind of what had happened today.

  Paula began to pack. She used the pain and rage in her heart to steady her shaking hands as she put all of her possessions into a suitcase, turned out the light, and walked out the door.

  Paula was glad that Kris didn't know where her parents lived. Unlike his dad, they weren't likely to yell at her if Kris turned up, but she nonetheless didn't want him anywhere near them. When she was home she got to pretend that her shame at being used by Kris hadn't happened. Her parents only knew that she had missed them and had wanted to come home. Despite what would be a longer commute to school, she knew it was where she needed to be.

  It
didn't help that Kris still left her messages. Tons of them. He filled up her voicemail, but she never listened to any of them.

  When she went back to school, after taking another personal day—which her grades most definitely permitted—Paula decided that she would bring things back to the level they had been with Kris before the night they sat and watched Netflix together. They would be polite acquaintances, and they would get their work done and then go on their way. Separately.

  Kris, it seemed, had other plans.

  "Why have you been ignoring my calls," he asked, when she got into class.

  "I've been busy."

  "Where have you been?" he asked. "I've been looking for you. Steph said that you had dropped out."

  Paula snorted. Steph would.

  "I don't want to talk about it, Kris," Paula shot back. "I just want to do my work and get on with my day. I'm sure you want to do the same." She looked at him haughtily. "No petty distractions or dalliances, right?"

  Kris shrunk under her gaze. "I'm sorry about that," he said. "I really am."

  Just then the professor took to the front of the room and began to lecture. Paula blocked Kris out for the rest of the class. She knew that if she didn't ignore him, and if she actually talked to him, she would break down and cry in front of all of these people.

  Instead, Paula tried to breathe through the pain, as her father had told her to do when she broke her arm when she was little. But this kind of pain was of a different caliber. Less visible, it still tore at her nonetheless.

  She raced out of the room as soon as the professor dismissed them. She practically ran to her next class, wanting to avoid any further confrontation with Kris. Before, she might have let him catch her. She might have even listened to him. That foolish girl might have even believed him. But everything had clicked into place for her now, and she wasn't in any mood to be fooled again.

  Kris was ashamed of her. What else could explain it? He hadn't wanted to walk hand in hand with her in public, he hadn't confronted Steph about her mistreatment of Paula. He hadn't done anything but drag her away to remote places and screw her.

  And now it had come raining down on him, and he expected to be able to smooth her ruffled feathers and probably take her out somewhere and bang her again.

  So not happening.

  The rest of the day dragged on, but it was Friday. That meant two things—Kris would be too occupied at his game to try and find her anywhere, and she had a whole weekend for him to forget about her. She decided to go and spend the rest of her evening in the library, since studying in her room at her parents' house just made her kind of depressed.

  Though it was a Friday, midterms were coming up, and the library was full. That was fine. Paula found she didn't really care anymore. She'd just find a quiet table on the side, get her stuff out, and study until her brain fell out of her skull. That actually seemed like a fairly tantalizing prospect, now that she thought of it. Maybe if she studied hard enough, she'd become brain dead and forget how she had fallen in love with her college's hockey star and how he'd just been using her.

  Oh no. She'd admitted it. She'd admitted that she loved Kris Graham.

  Paula made a quick detour to the library bathrooms, where she locked herself in one of the stalls and reflected on how ridiculous it was that her college life had become more of an eighties high school movie than the fun, educating experience all her guidance counsellors had promised it would be. She hadn't had any of this drama in high school.

  She hadn't loved anyone in high school. She hadn’t shared the most special part of herself with a boy in high school

  Paula tried to cry as quietly as possible, and thankfully either nobody noticed or nobody cared. She was there for awhile, taking some time to let herself breathe and feel. It was okay to feel, right? It was okay to love.

  It was just hard to have your heart broken.

  When she came out of the stall, she fixed the makeup smeared under her eyes, splashed some cold water on her face, and assessed herself in the mirror. She saw her curly hair, hanging just above her shoulders, and frowned. She didn’t look a bit like the bubbly and beautiful Meg Ryan. That thought only made her more depressed.

  Resolving not to cry again, Paula walked out of the bathroom with her head held high. Things would get better. She didn't need Kris in her life to give her meaning. She had her studies. She had her parents. God, it was about time she got some friends.

  She laughed to herself at this thought, settling in at a table with another girl. The girl looked up at her from her book.

  "Can't tell whether you're laughing because of something I did, or because midterms have broken you."

  Paula laughed again. "Midterms have broken me. I can't stop writing things backward."

  The girl smiled, a great wide smile that took over her whole face. "Glad I'm not the only one." She reached her hand out. "I'm Erica."

  "Paula." They shook hands, and Erica smiled sheepishly. "I don't think I can do anymore studying, but I can't go back to my dorm," she whispered. "My freaking roommate is in there loudly screwing some guy from the football team."

  "Yikes," Paula said. "Been there. Sucks that you have to deal with that."

  The girl sighed. "I put in for a room change, but apparently they've only got doubles left. I can't afford that on my own. God I hate dorms sometimes."

  Paula looked at the girl strangely, a thought crossing her mind. She wasn't sure whether it would be weird to say anything about the rooming situation yet, though, so she decided she'd wait on that. For now, it was just nice to have someone to talk to.

  The girls chatted in hushed whispers for awhile. They rest of the library was growing louder too, as the sky outside darkened into a thick, charcoal gray. Paula spied Kris’ roommate across the room and managed to give him a quick nod without immediately bursting into tears. That was progress, right? Anyway, it looked to Paula that he was too busy checking his phone to really care if the girl his roommate had been sleeping with began to cry. Nonetheless, it was nice not to have to go fall apart. Paula felt almost most balanced and stable.

  For the time being, at least. She knew that what had happened with Kris was going to overwhelm her again eventually. Maybe it would be in twenty minutes. Maybe it would be in eight hours, when she was tucked away in her bed, trying to sleep. But at that moment, she felt at ease.

  After awhile, the chatter in the library grew to such an intensity that Erica and Paula both looked up from their little huddle to see what all the commotion was. Paula thought that maybe someone had passed out or something. It had happened before. Stress did different things to different people. Paula had not expected, for a minute, what the actual disruption would be.

  Standing a few desks away, wearing his hockey uniform with no shoes, was Kris.

  Paula gaped. "What are you doing?" she asked.

  He was panting, his face covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Paula looked over at the clock, noting that he should have been at his game. He must have run all the way over.

  "I heard you were here," he said, "I had to see you."

  The whole room hushed in order to better hear the exchange.

  "I don't have anything to say to you," Paula said shakily. She chanced a look at Erica, who was staring at Kris with a wide-eyed expression. A string of drool from her face wouldn’t have looked out of place.

  "I think that you do," he said. "Hopefully the same thing that I have to say to you."

  His booming voice carried through the room. A crowd of students, bored by their midterm study, had begun to gather to see how it played out.

  "I don't have anything to be sorry about," Paula replied, confused.

  Kris smiled and shook his sweaty head, crossing the room until he was mere feet from her. "I didn't leave in the middle of my game to tell you I was sorry," he said. "I know you don't want to hear that."

  Paula stared at him wordlessly, her eyes framing the question that her lips couldn't speak.

  Kris took an
other step. “There are a million tiny little things, Paula,” he said. “That when you add them up, mean we’re supposed to be together.”

  Paula’s heart thudded happily in her chest. “Kris…”

  “I’m not done,” he said, a teasing smile on his lips. “I have one more thing to say.”

  “Yes?” she said.

  “I stole that from Sleepless in Seattle so don’t quote me or everyone will know I’m a fraud.” Paula scowled at him, and he put his hands up in a placating gesture. “Okay, I guess two more things to say.”

  Paula felt like the whole library was leaning in toward them as he took the final step between them and wrapped his arms around her.

  “I love you,” he murmured, pressing his lips against hers.

  “What did he say?” shouted someone from the crowd.

  “He said that he loves her!” Erica shouted back.

  As the crowd began to cheer, Paula and Kris laughed against each others mouths. Though the applause was short, and soon people were yelling at them to get a room, Paula couldn’t contain the joy in her heart.

  “I love you too,” she said when they broke.

  “Good,” he said. “Cause my coach is going to kill me.”

  The End

  *****

  The Perfect Rebound: A BBW Contemporary Western Cowboy Pregnancy Billionaire Romance

  By Bess Hart

  Sometimes Madison Stone just couldn’t believe her luck.

  It had just been a year ago, she mused, that she had been a struggling entry level writer at a small public relations firm in her hometown of Plainview, Georgia; a pleasant enough place that paid her barely enough income to cover her rent at a modest studio apartment. She spent the gist of each day finding new and innovative ways to describe a locally produced brand of shoe polish, in addition to drafting some cutting edge press releases about upcoming hog roast and poker run events.

  Finally, she took a chance and dared to dream, taking off for the hustle and bustle of downtown Atlanta and managing to score an executive public relations position at Barnes and Callas, a prestigious firm that managed international accounts in the areas of fashion and cosmetics.