Forever Ours (12 page)

“That is so creepy.”

“Creepy and romantic.”

She shakes her head and holds up her hand to look at the ring. Finally, she turns to me and places her hand on my cheek. “I promise to love you forever,
and
— ”

“There’s an
and?”

“
And
… I promise to make sure they bury me next to you so you can still sing me to sleep when we’re dead.”

“Now
that
is romantic.”

She smiles, looking very impressed with herself. I lean over to plant a kiss on her cheek and she throws her arms around my neck. I lose my balance and fall backward. She lands on top of me and plants a kiss on my mouth. I grab her face before she can sit up again and lick her cheek.

“Ew!” She pushes off me and I laugh as we both sit up.

She straightens her shirt as she sits up straight and I lean in to whisper in her ear. “I’ll settle for your cheek, but I’d rather lick you in other places.”

She shakes her head, but I can see her brain working. Probably trying to think of a way to cut this outing short so we can go back to her bedroom or her dorm and lick each other. Not that I would object.

But first, I have a song I want to sing. What can I say? It’s the performer in me.

I grab the guitar and begin playing an upbeat sort of bubble-gum pop song I’ve been working on since the day Claire first gave herself to me. I don’t normally write that type of music, but I was on a bit of a high after that day. It seemed appropriate.

Claire spins around on the grass so she’s facing me and I begin the first verse.

“Sun in your hair, ignites my insides,

Glow of your skin, lights me up right,

Touch of your hand, I’m on my knees here,

Begging please, baby just stay near,

Yeah, right here.

‘Cause we don’t have to go nowhere,
 

This place is ours, it’s everywhere,

Yeah, we can stay,

Stay forever.

Ours.

It’ll stay forever ours.”

I’m about to start the second verse when she gasps. “Forever Ours? Is that the name of the song?”

I place my hand over the strings of my guitar to stop the resonant sound. “Yeah, why?”

Her eyes widen as she smiles. “I got you something. This is so funny.”

She reaches into the back pocket of her jeans and pulls out a smooth glass heart about half the size of my palm. She hands it to me and waits impatiently as I read the words engraved on the heart:
Ever thine, ever mine, ever ours.

“I got it at a little stationery shop off campus.”

I chuckle as I realize what I said to her two months ago stuck in her head, too. “Thank you,” I say, then I kiss the corner of her mouth. “It’s perfect.”

She smiles and taps my guitar. “Sorry, I interrupted you. Can you finish the song now?”

I start the song from the beginning again, and by the second verse, a crowd of about six people have gathered around to listen. When the song is over, the crowd has grown to at least a dozen. They clap loudly and one man asks if I have a change bucket, but I tell him that’s not necessary.

“Another one,” Claire insists and the crowd joins in her plea.

I get the feeling I always get when I step onto a stage; that mixture of nervousness and excitement. That rush that I can’t get enough of. And I slip right into another upbeat song.

After four songs, I have to quit. The crowd is getting too thick and I don’t have a stage here to separate us. The last thing I need is for Claire and I to get crushed on the day I promise to love her until the day I die.
 

I give my appreciation to the crowd and say my goodbyes. A few people ask for my name so they can look for my album, but I have to tell them I’m not signed yet. Still feels good to be asked.

“Where are we going?” I ask as Claire and I walk back to my bike.

“I don’t care. Wherever you go, I go.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Claire

Forever Studying

Senia and I went to our first college party last week. And she met a boy. A very handsome, very strong football player. Tar-Heel running back Justin Neely. I think the only way to get Senia to come out of her shell may be to ply her with alcohol.

Of course, I don’t drink. I never have. After losing my mother to a heroin overdose, I swore I’d never drink or do drugs. And I really have no desire to break that promise to myself.

But I must admit that it was fun to see Senia finally let loose a little. I wasn’t aware just how shy she was until she opened up to me the second week of school. I had just asked her if she wanted to go get something to eat at the campus café and she rejected me.
 

I didn’t think anything of it; though I was a bit disappointed. I’ve never really had any girlfriends, unless you count Rachel. But we only attended high school together for three weeks before she graduated. She’s always seemed a little annoyed by my immaturity.

I thought Senia would finally be my chance at having a normal female friendship, but she didn’t seem interested. So I grabbed some cash out of my wallet and I was all set to go to the café alone. Then Senia stopped me.

She opened up to me about how she only had a couple of friends in high school, but they went to a different school. And they weren’t even good friends because her dad refused to let her go out partying or even to the mall or the movies. By the end of our discussion, I was beginning to think I had it good as a foster child.

So I gave her some time to loosen up a little, then we went to our first party last week. Neither of us are huge partiers, so we kept to ourselves most of the night. Until handsome Justin Neely approached shy little Senia and offered her a bottle of beer.

If it had been a cup, I would have made her reject the drink. But Justin opened the bottle right there in front of us, as if he knows the rules of staying safe at a college party. Never accept a drink from a stranger. Unless it’s an unopened beverage.

One beer led to two tequila shots. Which led to another beer. Which led to me practically carrying her back to the dorm. And she’s been babbling about Justin for eight days straight.

“He’s taking me to meet his sister today,” Senia says while brushing her dark, luxurious hair.

“Wow. Sounds serious. Do you mind if I make your bed?”

“Go ahead. Is Chris coming over?”

I smile in response. It’s really all I can do. I haven’t seen Chris in six days, but it seems like an eternity. I’m giddy with excitement.

Today, Chris and I aren’t going to stay in the dorm and have sex for hours. Not that I object to that. But I was thinking we could get out for a change.
 

I know we’re way past the dating phase of our relationship, but four months of weekends filled with almost nothing but sex and breakfast food feels almost wrong. Almost. I mean, we went to Moore Square a couple of months ago and that was beautiful.

And it’s so cold outside. I thought we’d go get some coffee. Or something that normal couples do.

Then again, Chris is the only guy I’ve ever really been with. I’m not sure I know what normal couples do. They’d probably envy us.
 

Senia twists her hair and pins up one side of her hair. “How do I look?”

She’s wearing a killer red dress she ordered online from an independent designer, accentuated by red lipstick.
 

“You look stunning.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

She sighs with relief. “Oh, my God, Claire. I think I’m in love.”

“After one week?”

“Is that stupid?”

I smile, but I shake my head. “Not at all. I think I fell in love with Chris the moment I saw him.”

Her phone rings and she grabs it off the desk. “Hello? … I’ll be right out.” She turns to me as she tucks the phone into her purse, looking slightly panicked. “He’s here. I’ll see you later. What time is a good time to come back?”

“Anytime you want. Chris and I are going out tonight.”

“Really?”

“Yep.”

She looks a little conflicted. “Is it a special occasion?”

“Nope. Just trying something different for a change.”

She still looks confused. “But you guys stay in because you hardly ever see each other,” she says, as if I don’t know this. “If I were with him, I’d be staying in every night.”

“What?”

“Oops. I’m not supposed to say stuff like that, am I? Sorry.”

I laugh as I finish making my bed. “Good luck meeting the family.”

“Thanks.”

Twenty minutes later, I hear a knock at the door and I jump up from the bed. I grab my purse off the nightstand and drop my phone in. Then I open the door.
 

Chris is standing with his hands behind his back, looking down at me with that half-smile he flashes when he’s on stage. His crowd smile. It’s ridiculously hot and I hate that he’s using it on me.

“Wanna study?” he asks in his sexiest voice.

Study
is Chris’s code word for oral sex. Chris may not be in school, but he’s been doing a lot of studying lately. And it’s as if my body has been conditioned to respond to this word. Whenever anyone mentions the word
study
, I get an ache between my legs.

Oh, who am I kidding.
Senia is right. Chris and I only see each other on weekends; most of the time. There have been a few weekends where we didn’t see each other at all because I was too busy studying or he was doing a show. Next week, I’ll be studying for finals, so I won’t see him until I go home for the winter holidays the following week.
 

I have no willpower.

I open the door and yank him inside. I throw my purse onto Senia’s bed and throw my arms around him. He laughs when I try to kiss him. Then he starts pushing me away.

“What are you doing?” I whine.

“Hold on, babe. I had something a bit slower planned for us tonight.”

He brings his hand forward from behind his back and I smile. He’s holding a jar of honey and I can only imagine what he has planned for us.

“I’m gonna turn around and close my eyes. You’re going to get naked and hide a dab of this somewhere on your body. Then we’re going to turn off the lights and I’m going to try to find it with my mouth.”

He hands me the jar and smiles as he turns around. I set the jar on my bed and quickly undress. The obvious place to hide a dab of honey is between my legs, but I think I’ll make him work for it.
 

Once I’m done, I place the jar of honey on the nightstand, still open in case we need more later. Then I lie down on my bed.

“I’m ready.”

He turns around and ogles me for a bit, before he reaches under the lampshade and turns off the light. The room isn’t completely dark, so I have a nice view as Chris undresses next to the bed. Then he reaches down and traces his finger from my ankle to my center, but he doesn’t shove his fingers inside me or caress my clit the way he normally does. He just pulls his hand away, leaving me aching for more.
 

He sits on the foot of the bed and grabs my ankle. Bringing my ankle to his mouth, I hold my breath as he licks underneath the arch of my foot. I feel it right in between my legs, as if his mouth is on my aching nub instead.

Then he traces his tongue up to my ankle and lifts my leg straight up in the air. He kisses his way down the back of my leg and I try to remember to breathe. When he reaches the place where the back of my thigh melts into my cheek, he moves to the side and nuzzles his nose against my slit. As if he doesn’t want to place his mouth there, to save that spot for later.

He tastes his way up and down my other leg, then he flips me over onto my stomach. He lies on top of me, his erection prodding my backside as he brushes my hair over my shoulder and tastes the back of my neck. He’s going to find the honey soon.

He kisses every inch of my neck and shoulders, his hand reaching under me to massage my breast as his erection grinds softly between the outer region of my cheeks. Then he moves down, laying a trail of kisses down my spine until he reaches my lower back. His mouth lingers just above my ass, where I left the dab of honey.

He licks me clean, then he turns me onto my side as he positions himself behind me. His hand reaches forward and quickly finds my clit as he whispers in my ear. “Good job, babe.”

I whimper as he continues to massage my pleasure spot. Then he grabs my thigh and spreads my legs so he can enter from behind.
 

“How about we skip the spooning and get straight to forking?”

I gasp and laugh at the same time as the tip of his erection hits my cervix. His fingers strum my clit as his other hand slides up and pinches my nipple. He buries his face in my neck and bites me softly.
 

“You’re so fucking hot,” he groans.
 

“Oh, Chris,” I cry, as my body begins to tremble. “Don’t stop.”

He sucks on my earlobe and his breath in my ear sends shiver down my neck. “I love you.”

As soon as he murmurs this into my ear, I realize he’s not using a condom. I squeeze my eyes shut and and grab his hand to push it back down between my legs. It’s too late now.