They all raised a hand.
“How many of you have aspirations to hold a job and make some money?”
Every one of them raised their hands again.
“How many of you want that video shown at your wedding rehearsal dinner in front of your grandparents, parents, and future in-laws?”
No one raised their hand.
“Yeah. I didn’t think so.” Vivi eyed them all up. “I want the Varsity squad on the right side of the room, and the JV squad on the left.”
The girls shuffled and stood, eleven on each side. Vivi faced the Varsity squad. “Stacey? Are you the captain?” Stacey nodded. “I’m going to ask you a question, which you will answer for your squad. I expect the truth. If I find out differently, tonight, tomorrow, or six months from now, everyone loses their position. Understood?”
Stacey nodded.
“Did any foolishness go on during the bus ride last week to or from the varsity game?”
“The varsity game was here at home last week. No bus ride.”
Vivi breathed a sigh of relief.
“All right. Going forward, if cheerleaders have not been forbidden from the team buses, I expect y’all to sit in your seats and handle yourselves in an appropriate manner, which will be further discussed at a later date. I’m going to dismiss this squad to wait in the hall for me, if you don’t mind.”
They filed out without a word. Vivi followed them and shut the door before turning on the eleven remaining underclassmen. She tilted her head.
“This…video might seem tame in today’s world and none of your faces were clearly shown. But it sends a very clear message about who you are. Maybe you didn’t all participate, but as a team, a squad, you’re all tainted by this. So, because words don’t teach, and my real fear is that the next video you find yourselves in online won’t be quite so tame, I’m going to require all eleven of you to show this to your parents. Tonight. I want you to hear what the people who love you have to say about this kind of behavior being broadcast around the world before it becomes some college admissions counselor turning you down for your first-choice school. Get y’all thinking a little bit harder about your actions in public in this day and age of social media. I’ll need a phone call from either your mother or your father tonight. No messages left. I want to speak to them directly. It’ll give me a chance to introduce myself.”
She made them get out their phones and add her as a contact, giving them both her home and cell phone numbers. Then she required them to send her their contact information. Once she was sure she had everyone’s, she said, “If I don’t get one hundred percent parental participation, you girls, along with the Varsity squad, will be banned from the pep rally and the game tomorrow night.” She watched their mouths gape open. “Understood?”
She eyed every one of them. They were embarrassed. They were angry. They were hating their new faculty advisor. Until Mr. Baker stepped in and Vivi told him she had the situation under control. Then they all breathed a sigh of relief.
How bad was this Mr. Baker? Vivi wondered.
Once he backed out of the room, Vivi quietly suggested they all take a look at their social media pages, accounts, etc. this evening and delete anything that might raise the eyebrows of their parents, college admissions counselors, or job interviewers.
Vivi thought it might be in her best interest to double check on that as well.
Chapter Thirteen
“What the hell happened with the JV coaches?” Lane asked Vivi as they Skyped that evening.
“Why? What did you hear?”
“The JV game was canceled, and there are rumors that the coaches are going to be fired.”
“Oh. Wow. I’m sorry to hear that,” Vivi said, and meant it.
“What do you know?” Lane asked.
“What do you know?” she replied.
“I asked you first.”
“I asked you as a student who has probably heard a rumor or two already. I’ll share if you share.”
Lane was quiet. Too quiet. His face was serious, and he was obviously disgruntled.
“Lane?”
“I’ll share if you share? What is up with that?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I’d just like to get your take on things before I tell you what I know. I was made the faculty advisor for the cheerleaders today and-”
Lane cut her off with a long whistle.
“What?”
“Now that’s gonna be a job.”
“Are you kidding or serious?” Vivi leaned toward the computer screen, trying to read him better. She didn’t like talking to him this way. She couldn’t read his facial expressions well enough, and she really missed touching him.
“Serious. Some of those girls…well, actually some of those girls are really nice. Stacey Collins is crazy smart. Normal. I guess a lot of them are no big problem. But a few of them?” He whistled again.
“Yeah. I got the picture-in video form-this afternoon. Seems the young ones got themselves into a bit of trouble.”
“And now the coaches are getting fired?”
“They were on the bus. They should have put an end to that kind of nonsense before it even began.”
Lane shrugged. “They won.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means that the bus ride gets rowdy when we win. Especially if it’s a big win.”
“So how rowdy does the bus ride get?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“I kinda do. I need to know what I’m up against. Principal Levendusky wants me to shape these girls up or he’s firing the squad, so to speak.”
“S.B., stuff happens on those buses all the time. That video of the JV squad strutting their stuff is nothing compared to the crap that has gone on in previous years. And really, it was no big deal. No reason for good coaches to be fired over dumb teenage stuff.”
“Lane?”
“Yes?”
“Do you have a passcode on your phone?”
“I do.”
“Do you have any pictures of me on your phone?”
“You know I do.”
“You need to delete them. Now. I hadn’t thought about it before, but if someone gets a hold of your phone and sees our text messages, our pictures…”
“Yeah. Okay. I get it.”
“How ‘bout your Facebook page, or any other form of social media?”
Lane shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ll check. I’ll take care of all of it, I will.”
Vivi tried not to panic.
“Lane, did you forward any of my pictures to…to Lam or anyone?”
All the lines on Lane’s face went taut. “S.B.? Are you asking me if I took that picture you sent me in your underwear and texted it to all my friends? If I posted it on social media? What the hell kind of a guy do you think I am?”
“Lane, please. It never even occurred to me until today. Until I was standing in front of twenty-two women practically my own age and giving them a lecture on how social media can come back to haunt you.”
“And you think I’d do that to you?”
“No.”
They stared hard at each other through the magic of the internet.
“Good,” Lane finally said.
As much as she really, really wanted to, Vivi instinctively knew better than to say one more word on the subject. She did trust Lane. She was crazy about Lane. This was not Lane’s fault. So she bit back her concerns and changed the subject. “How was football practice?”
“Fine. We’re ready. You coming to the game tomorrow night?”
Vivi blinked. “Why wouldn’t I be at your game?”
“Because you’re acting a little crazy.”
“I am?”
Lane sighed. “Yes. You are.”
There was a long pause where the two of them just sat and stared at each other. A sadness overwhelmed her as she started to realize she was making life difficult for him without even trying. Vivi reached out and touched a finger to t
he screen. Lane touched his finger to hers.
“Lane-” she started, the sinking feeling she had pouring into his beautiful name.
“Unh-huh. No,” he insisted. “You’re tired. You’re under stress. Go get some sleep, Sleeping Beauty. Lam will have a note for you at the end of class tomorrow. Sweet dreams,” he said, before he closed his laptop.
Lane flopped back onto his bed and growled as he rubbed his hands over his face.
He was dating a fucking teacher.
Day two and the ramifications were worse than he could have imagined. Day two and he was being interrogated by the faculty advisor to the cheerleaders about what goes on inside of the team bus after a big win. Day two and he needed to close down every account he held on social media. Day two and he had to delete his all-time favorite picture.
Of Vivi.
In her underwear.
The same underwear she’d greeted him in on the night he was never gonna forget. Back when she was just a co-ed, warm and sweet and shy. Back when his biggest challenge was working his way into a kiss under a full moon, on a beautiful beach, and convincing her to celebrate their birthdays together. Back when he didn’t know his way around a woman’s body anywhere near as well as he was going to four days later. Back when Vivi taught him everything he longed to learn through her sighs and her moans and her pleas and her tears.
He’d hit the bedroom light that night and kissed her lips in short, sweet kisses. He felt the tender skin of the curve of her waist under the glide of his fingertips as he slowly maneuvered her backward toward the king-size bed. She sat down abruptly when it hit the backs of her legs, and he knelt on the floor in front of her so her pretty face was perfectly level with his to renew their kiss. While her hands found his hair, his hands found her knees and spread them so he could edge his way in closer, his fingertips drifting slowly up her silky thighs to the edge of that sky-blue lace she wore. His thumbs met in the middle and felt her heat and dampness as they stroked over the lace. He wasn’t tentative. The tequila shots had made him bold. Made him want. And he definitely wanted her naked beneath him.
He kissed down her neck, and she must have liked that because she let her head fall back so he’d have plenty of flesh to work with. He got to that soft little spot right before her collar bone and sucked the skin of it into his mouth. Sucking on Vivi satisfied a longing he wasn’t even aware he had, but it also further stimulated his desire to lay his naked body down over hers.
His hands stroked up her back and both of them went to work removing her bra. No fooling around trying to finesse it open with his fingers, he had it unhooked and sliding from her shoulders in a few short seconds.
And then there was flesh. Soft, pliant, luxurious flesh to fill his hands, to mold with his fingers, to drop his mouth down onto and tease that tantalizing stiff peak with his tongue, drawing it right into his mouth. God, he loved sucking on her flesh. There was something so satisfying about having a piece of her in his mouth. He lost himself in the feel of it. Sucking harder because he wanted to. Needed too. But when he heard her moan, he brought himself back from the deep and released her, asking if he’d hurt her.
Vivi panted no. No, he hadn’t hurt her. At all. She insisted she didn’t want him to stop, so he laid her upper body flat on the bed, leaned his lower body against her and went back at it. This time he continued to satisfy his own need to suck, and nip, and squeeze, and…suck, but now he was paying attention to how his need drove hers. It kind of blew his mind how his own pleasure ratcheted up a notch with every little response he drew from her.
He began to follow his instincts, to do exactly what he craved with his hands and his mouth while listening for, and feeling for, her response. And the more he did that, the more responsive Sleeping Beauty got. And the more responsive she got, the bolder he became. When the thought first struck him, he didn’t second-guess a thing. He went down to his knees, slid her little panties off her legs and put his mouth on skin so baby smooth it made him groan. She was bare except for a tiny little triangle pointing the way to heaven, and his tongue enjoyed the sensation of her silky, fleshy outer lips before the rest of his mouth wanted in on the action. He feasted on Beauty in a way he never before imagined. He’d barely gotten started when she went off. Big. He felt it and heard it in a way that really got his attention.
He liked that she came. Was proud that he did that. Yet, it sort of surprised him, because he’d just started figuring things out down there, and he wanted to figure out more. But when he lifted his head and looked up her glorious body, the tan lines from her bikini brought home the fact that he had a naked woman stretched out before him. His cock immediately bitch slapped him and told him it was time to stop fooling around, pull out a condom, and get the thing on. His brain couldn’t argue with any of that logic.
He grabbed the condom from his pocket as he unzipped his shorts and pulled them off, along with his boxers. He stood for a moment gazing at the miracle lying on the bed. Sleeping Beauty was talking. He knew it because he saw her mouth move, but hell if he heard a word through the pounding in his chest, in his head. In his dick. He watched as she rolled over and crawled up the bed, pulling the comforter and sheets down and crawling underneath. Her ass was just as tempting without that little blue bow, causing him to open the condom packet with his teeth and sheath himself. He crawled onto the bed, throwing sheets and blankets out of his way to get to his Beauty.
Naked, not sleeping, Beauty.
Tempting, delicious, shy little smile, Beauty.
He kissed her as he positioned himself between her legs, and God love her, she wrapped those feminine little limbs around his hips, giving him nothing but a green light and an easy angle to work with. He probably should have kissed her again. Probably should have taken more time, but his brain had stopped functioning and his hand was guiding his cock into the soft, sweet flesh that was primed and ready to take him in. He wasn’t any bigger than the next guy in the locker room, but next to her body, he seemed large, felt huge when the tip of his cock squeezed itself into her opening. He wasn’t breathing when he backed out and tried it again, going a little deeper this time. Three more tries and he was in deep enough to use both hands to prop himself up. He held his weight off Beauty as he rocked against her, slipping in a little easier every time.
He grunted. He sweated. He closed his eyes. He felt every damn sensation as her body welcomed him, cocooned him, made him want to burst into tears at the incredible pleasure it gave. He mumbled something, wasn’t even sure what it was. Appreciation in some form or another. And then he was in deep, as deep as he’d ever been, and he was afraid to move. Afraid to break the spell of how good it felt to be connected to Vivi in such an intimate, amazing, life-affirming way.
He was sure that nothing in his life was ever gonna be better than this.
And then he started to move.
He hadn’t thought about it. It was a simple instinct that just took over, and that’s when everything went on autopilot. His arms wrapped around Vivi, his hands slid down to her hips, pulling her against him while he went up on one knee for leverage. He ground himself deep and hard and fast, and holy shit, he felt his balls tighten. The pleasure became excruciating, and please let that condom hold, he came hard, and long, and deep, and wide.
His body shook, vibrating with his release, which went on and on. He drew in a ragged breath, hung his head between Vivi’s neck and shoulder, and groaned into the mattress.
When his awareness started to return, he felt Vivi’s hands soothing him along his back, felt her body soft and easy beneath him, and felt himself easing up inside her. He really didn’t want to move, would have preferred to stay right there, but getting rid of the condom was probably time sensitive. He turned his head and kissed her neck, told her how amazing she made him feel and begged her not to move while he took care of business.
When he came back to the bed, he pulled the rest of the condoms out of his pants pocket and set them on the bedside table. Then he ta
ckled Beauty with his hands and his lips, causing her to laugh and tackle him back. He managed to get her underneath him again, kissing her silly until he got a little serious and pulled back to look at her sweet smile.
“Teach me something,” he said as he brushed the hair from her face. He leaned to his side so he could look at her, give her some breathing room.
“Like what?”
“How you like to be touched.”
Beauty blinked at him.
“Here,” he said, as he slid his hand down over her tummy and tickled the flesh around that tempting little triangle of hair.
“Hmm,” she sighed, her eyes drifting closed.
He couldn’t help but smile as her body relaxed into the mattress, relaxed under his hand.
“You’re doing just fine,” she said as he touched her lightly, skimming his fingertips over the silky skin of her inner thighs, gently caressing the coveted area between her legs. He pulled her right leg closer to him, and then cupped her sex with his hand, rubbing in slow, small circles.
He dropped his head to the pillow and whispered in her ear. “Do you like that?” he asked.
“Mmm.”
He felt her pelvis push into his hand.
“Why did you do that?” he asked against her ear. “You want more pressure?” She nodded her head, and he gave her what she wanted. “Like that?”
“The heel of your palm,” she whispered, and he realized, yeah, that’s where her hot spot is, as he applied a little more pressure at the top of her sex, which freed up his fingers. Without any thought at all, his middle finger slipped between her lips and circled around the entrance to heaven.
He wondered what would happen if he just let that finger slide right up, drift over her clit, so he tried it, and yeah, the little moan she made told him it worked like a charm. He did it again, licking the skin of her neck before whispering, “You like that?”
“Mmm.”
“Feeling a little woozy?” he teased.
She opened her eyes and smiled at him. “Definitely woozy.”
He leaned over and kissed her mouth, his finger stroking up and down the length of her sex. “Is this the magic spot?” he asked against her lips, his finger finding, studying, laying claim to the precious nub where she’d wanted more pressure.
Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom Page 67
