“No.” She brings her fingers to my lips and I kiss them. “It’s not that, I promise.” She shifts in my arms to get a better look at me. “It’s just this whole wedding thing. It’s silly. I’m silly. All I need is you, Cruise, and yet a very psychotic part of me demands I have the perfect chapel—the perfect dress, which by the way I don’t. Long story—not going there.”
“Got it.” I comb my fingers through her hair, and my dick pokes up from the bubbles to see if the game is still on. “It’s not silly and you’re definitely not silly. The reason you feel so strongly is because deep down those are things you’ve always wanted. Those are your heart’s desires and they’re powerful. Trust me, we can and we will have both of those things. Go to the shop and pick out any dress, Kenny. I want you to have the one you’ve got your heart set on.”
“No, really, it’s okay. After that cake we won’t be able to afford it. Besides, I’ll feel terrible spending another dime.” She cinches up an inch to land a kiss on my lips. “I have a pair of white sweats I can throw on. They’re from Garrison, so it’s sort of a double bonus.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you were naked. On second thought—save that for the wedding night. Besides, I’ll feel terrible if you miss out on the dress of your dreams. I promise you, we’ll be fine. Go and pick out your dress tomorrow and I’ll run by once you give me the all-clear and pay for it—sight unseen. I promise I won’t take a peek.”
“Nice try, Elton, but it’s not happening. We’re starving college students. I get that.”
“Correction, you’re a college student. I’m just starving.” Suddenly I feel like shit. Maybe I should have waited to ask Kenny to marry me. But then, if the point was to wait for my finances to perk up, I have a feeling I would’ve been dead and buried by then. I should have realized Kenny had dreams of her wedding day, and now I feel like an ass for deflating them all.
“You’re enough, Cruise Elton.” She pulls her lips roughly over mine and my dick grinds for attention. “Come here.” She reaches down tenderly and guides me in.
I let out a guttural groan that stretches out far longer than I want it to. “Oh, that feels so damn good.” I should have figured the only thing in the world that could heal me was Kenny herself.
And now that I’ve set a bruise on her dreams, I want to return the favor and heal those, too.
Kenny moves her hips over mine, easy and gentle. I run my hand down over her back, grazing lower until it touches down over her special spot and I bring her right there with me in the erotic exchange.
I bite my lip and push my head back into the tub just before I’m about to lose it. I wait until Kenny quivers over me with a loud guttural cry, then push in deep inside her. We ride that wave together, with Kenny wrapped around me tight as a coil. I don’t think I can name one thing that has ever made me as happy as Kenny has. She deserves the world, and I want to be the one to give it to her.
“Well done, Professor Elton,” she pants hotly in my ear.
I give a little chuckle. “I could get used to that title.”
Too bad it won’t be true.
10
WITCHES AND BITCHES
Kendall
Halloween.
Bleh. After I turned thirteen and the candy haul trickled to nothing, it wasn’t much more than a party holiday. Then again, I didn’t do much partying back in high school, so I’m actually looking forward to getting dressed up and having fun tonight.
Cruise and I meander into the kitchen after a long night of chocolate wars. Poor guy. He’s limping a little, and who could blame him? He practically had his penis throttled by that measly bit of rubber. That satanic device should have come with a warning. But then again, it might have. Who reads warning labels, anyway? I should have known Cruise was too big for that thing. That was one of the first things Ally and Lauren told me when I met them, that Cruise Elton had a very special part of him that was the size of a telephone pole. And that sounds just about right. Although they both happened to hear it secondhand. It would be beyond weird if my best friends had slept with my future husband. It’s weird enough that one of them is sleeping with my brother. But it’s a good weird.
Cruise heads over to the coffeemaker and I join him to start breakfast. We both stop cold and turn to look at the man sitting at the table, reading from his laptop.
It’s Professor Curl-Your-Toes.
Crap! Did he spend the night? Did he curl Molly’s toes? Oh God, I have a feeling the entire day is about to go to shit.
“Morning.” He glances at us briefly before turning his attention back to the screen. His hair is sticking up in the back, and, as if his bedhead isn’t incriminating enough, he’s wearing nothing but a rumpled T-shirt and boxers. He slides his glasses up the bridge of his nose, pretending things are status quo, and he continues to leer at his computer screen.
Molly comes strutting down the hall wrapped in a robe, with her hair slicked back, fresh from the shower, and I’ll be damned if she’s not downright glowing.
“I see you two are up,” she snarks at Cruise and me before heading over and wrapping her arms around her creative writing professor.
Holy smokes. Cruise is going to commit a homicide in less than three seconds.
Cruise gags. His face turns an ashen shade of purple. He staggers over to the opposite end of the table, and for a second I think he’s going to tip the whole thing over on the unsuspecting soul hiding behind gold-rimmed glasses.
Kurt jumps to his feet. “I think he’s having another episode,” he tells Molly. “Do you need me to call an ambulance?” He directs his words to Cruise, nice and slow, like there are some serious mental issues to contend with.
“Oh”—Cruise nods with a touch of a psychotic laugh—“we’ll be needing an ambulance all right, but it won’t be for me.”
Molly lets out a scream as she throws herself over her own version of the naughty professor.
God. This is going to end in tragedy, and now I’ll never get him to edit my stuff again.
“It’s against school policy to sleep with a student,” Cruise barks while rounding the table, inching his way to a felony.
“That didn’t stop you!” Molly snipes.
She’s got him there. But then again, he did get fired for it.
Kurt holds out a hand while unwisely removing himself from Molly’s protective shelter. “Look, it’s technically not against academic policy and procedures for a student and—”
Cruise blindsides him with a left hook that sends poor Kurt and his questionable policies backward and onto the floor.
“No!” Molly screeches as if she just witnessed the slaughter of a baby seal. “You can’t do this to me.” Molly cradles Kurt’s head in her lap while wailing up at her brother. “Do you see me hitting Kenny?”
“That’s different.” Cruise knocks a chair down just for the hell of it.
“How is it different?” She screams it at the top of her lungs, and I think for once we’re generating more noise before 7:00 a.m. than the Plague.
“It just is!” Cruise roars back.
Molly lets out an ear-piercing cry of frustration. “I’m lucky he came back after watching the two of you run around last night covered in feces, and you with your broken dick leash!”
I suck in a breath.
“God! We weren’t—it wasn’t a leash—and it was chocolate.” I sputter it out so fast Molly doesn’t even blink in my direction.
“I don’t care what it was,” she barks. “You’re both sick! The two of you think you’re better than everybody else and you’re not.” She glowers at Cruise with a strangulating stare. “And I’m sick and tired of being treated like a kid. Come on, Kurt.” She pulls him up. “Let’s go somewhere we’re wanted.”
“No, wait.” Cruise shakes his head. He lets out a heated breath while squeezing his eyes shut tight. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I hit you.” He flails his hand toward the poor soul. “And I’m sorry I treated you like a little girl.” He takes a ste
p toward Molly. “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Well, I’m not a little girl, and the only one hurting me around here is you! I’m getting my stuff and moving in with Kurt.” She gets right in Cruise’s face. “Just try and stop me!”
She speeds off to her bedroom and slams the door.
“Molly, wait!” Kurt maneuvers around Cruise with his hands out in the event he has to spontaneously fend him off. “I’m pretty sure there’s a policy against professors and students living together.” He bolts down the hall and bravely entombs himself in the room with Molly.
“Crap.” Cruise winces. “I just can’t seem to do anything right lately.”
“I’m still here.” I go over and wrap my arms around his waist.
“You’re the only thing I’ve ever done right, Kenny.” He sags into me with those powder-blue eyes that I can’t get enough of. “You sure you want to saddle yourself with a loser like me?”
“Are you kidding?” I brush my lips over his ear. “You’re a far cry from a loser and just to prove it, I’m going to saddle you right now.”
I drag him off to the bedroom.
On to chapter eight.
After a rather luxurious yet sort of aching lovemaking session with Cruise—who swore he was fine yet winced his way through it—I head to school, sans Molly. I decide to skip my first two classes and instead take up residency outside the student café, clicking away at my keyboard with all the delicious details about last night’s confectionary delight. Not even the throngs of people in various levels of costume can distract me. Well, except for the zombie who’s running loose and threatening to eat unsuspecting people. Judging by that lewd grin on his face, he means it. Maybe he distracts me a little, but nonetheless, details pour out of me and onto my parched keyboard like a shower in springtime.
My phone goes off and it’s a text from Lauren. Where are you?
I’m just about to text her back when my phone buzzes again, and this time it’s a text from Ally. Have you seen it?
Have I seen it? I glance around. Have I seen what? ~K
I text Lauren back and tell her I’m at the café.
The students in the café seem to be their usual, less than enthusiastic selves. I look for clues of whatever “it” might be, but all I see are clusters of girls reading the school newspaper, and every now and again they break into the requisite cackles. Usually, whenever someone’s got their nose buried in that glorified dishrag, there’s a sex-driven article in it.
I take in a quick breath.
“Oh no.” Wait—my book is strictly by subscription only. My heart starts beating again. Thank God. For a second—
“This!” Ally pops up, rattling a newspaper in my face, and before I can snatch it, Lauren materializes and plucks it right back.
Lauren’s face is covered with green pancake makeup. It takes a moment to register she’s in full costume, and the pointed hat that just landed at my feet belongs to none other than the Wicked Witch herself.
“What?” I jump up and wrestle Lauren for the paper, ignoring the fact she’s decked out in her Elphaba garb. We tumble to the floor, and I victoriously snatch the paper, tearing it in two in the process.
I pull my half forward, but all I see is the partial word essor, and own below that in a giant block font.
“Let me see this.” I pluck the other half from Lauren’s green fingers.
“Could the Naughty Professor be one of Garrison’s own?” I take in a sharp breath, and then another and another until I think I might pass out.
“Breathe.” Ally smacks me on the back.
“This is terrible.” I plunge my face in the crinkled paper and sniff into the ink.
“Cut the drama—it’s not so terrible.” Lauren plucks me up until we’re all seated around my laptop, with the latest chapter in all its kinky glory winking back at me. I snap the laptop shut because suddenly it all feels devious, like I’m trying to pull a fast one on Cruise.
“Honestly, it’s nothing, Kendall.” Ally sags in her seat, sorry for me because we both know it’s something.
“I’m over it.” Lauren tosses the paper behind us. “Let’s change the subject.”
“How did it go last night?” Ally leans in close.
I do my best to shake it off. Maybe Ally’s right and it’s not a big deal. “Your dick ring nearly cost me a lifetime of pleasure,” I tell her. “And by the way”—I turn to Lauren—“thank you for the chocolate cake. Cruise never tasted so good.” We let out a wild cackle, and suddenly I feel strangely connected to the girls seated with me. “You know”—I reach out and pick up their hands—“I’ve never felt so close to anybody before. Well, of the female persuasion.” I’m not even sure I ever felt this close to my own mother.
“Aww!” Lauren and Ally sing in unison, and the three of us engage in a rather awkward group hug.
“So”—I take a deep breath—“I suppose it’s time I come clean to Cruise. And then of course he’ll hate me and we’ll cancel the wedding, though ironically, there isn’t one thing I actually have to cancel.” I sag in my seat. “No chapel, no dress, no cake, and no reception. I guess it was sort of a joke to think I could ever have those things to begin with.”
“What about the dress from Patagonia?” Ally looks genuinely worried about the Vera I have trekking all those long miles to get to me.
“It’s not scheduled to arrive until next year. So there’s that.”
“Would you stop with the pity party?” Lauren’s eyes glow like hot coals. I hate to say it but green skin becomes her, and that wart she glued to her upper lip has an odd touch of glamour to it. “Would you look at yourself? Quitting? Feeling sorry for yourself? Is this who Kendall Jordan is? I think not. You and Cruise are the happiest couple I know. And yes, I’m demoting Cal and me.” She glances over at Ally. “Sorry, but you and Morgan, too.” Lauren makes a face. “You and Cruise are what other couples wish they could be. You’re fearless, both in and out of the bedroom. You’re willing to risk it all for love and if you lose it all—well, you still have each other.”
My face heats up at the thought of all the ways Cruise and I have been fearless. More like reckless.
I shake my head. I’m too emotionally choked up to correct her.
“Okay.” She plants her palms on the table. “Name three things you need to make your wedding day perfect.”
“Cruise.” A part of me wants to repeat his name two more times, but a very selfish part of me overrides the urge. “A beautiful dress, and the chapel at Garrison.” There, I said it. It feels like a giant boulder just rolled off my chest.
“Okay.” Lauren gives one of those circular nods that exudes absolutely zero confidence in whatever she’s agreeing to. “You’ll have Cruise. You’ll wear a beautiful dress.” She closes her eyes for a moment as if she’s trying to call out an incantation. “And you’ll have it at Garrison.”
“Just like that?” I’m partially intrigued by her willingness to believe it.
“Just like that.”
I wish I could believe it, too.
Later that night, Cruise and I pull up to Alpha Sigma Phi and both sigh with contentment.
“This is where it all began,” I say, hugging the witch’s hat on my lap. That’s pretty much the extent of my costume, unless you count my little black dress.
Outside, a ton of people mill around the mini Greek mansion in costume—mostly girls in slut versions of just about every character known to man.
“See?” I point over at a group of vampire jocks. “Now don’t you regret not wearing a costume?”
Cruise pinches at his five-o’clock shadow, and my panties melt just looking at him.
“I am in costume.” He tweaks my knee and glances out the window. “I’m your broom.”
I reach for the door handle and pause. “You mean my groom?”
“No, I mean your broom.” He gives a little wink, opening his door. “I’ll let you ride me around the bedroom once we get home.” br />
“Very funny.” We head up the walk together. “But of course I’ll take you up on it.” I squash the pointed hat that I picked up at the student store this afternoon onto my head. “Hey, you know what?” I pull him in by the waist as we make our way up the steps. “I’m sort of in the mood to fly around Alpha Sigma Phi.” I run my hand down the back of his jeans and give his bottom a squeeze. “Are you up to taking me to the moon in a few minutes?”
“Hell yes.” He leans in and gives me a generous kiss. “Let me check in with Pen, and we’ll head back to the cabin.”
“No, not the cabin. Here. I want you to fly me around right here in the very place we met. It’ll be special. Bathroom or closet?” I give a coy smile. I barely got the latest installment to Kurt this afternoon, which reminds me—I should probably let Cruise know that Molly wasn’t in class. Although something tells me I should wait until I’ve had a chance to test out my new broom.
Cruise glances around—probably looking for Pen, whom I spot toward the back, by the refreshments table.
“Come, come.” I pull Cruise along through the dimly lit room teeming with bodies. Oddly, there’s no music, but then again, the crowd is so loud I wouldn’t be surprised if it was drowned out.
Pen steps away from his harem for a moment. He’s bare-chested and he’s got on a huge chain necklace with a gaudy dollar sign attached. It’s only when he high-fives Cruise that I notice he’s wearing a purple velvet cape, and I’m afraid to ask.
“So you finally channeled your inner douche.” Cruise socks his half brother on the arm. “I’m liking it.”
“Takes one to know one,” Pen counters. “I’m a pimp, by the way. And these are my midnight ladies.”
The ready-and-willing harlots ogle Cruise like he might be their next victim, and I’m quick to step next to my future broom.
“We were just about to take off.” Cruise slaps him on the back. “We’ll get together later this week and hang out, man.”
“Oh no, we weren’t.” The Penny in me gives Professor Belton a stern look. “You were just about to walk me to the bathroom.” I tilt into him until my cleavage quivers as if it’s begging. I know for a fact the bra I’m wearing is like Kryptonite to both the real and imagined naughty professor.