“Are you safe?” Henry asked.
Val hissed, “Bye,” and hung up.
Henry flipped his phone closed, telling Libby, “The bookies are sending their henchmen after Dean. Tonight.”
“Who was that?” she asked.
“Marcus’s girlfriend.”
“He’s the ringleader,” Libby exclaimed and he glanced at her. Just how much did she know? She was looking at him speculatively. “How do you know Val?”
He flushed. “It’s a long story.”
Libby let it go. “Where is Dean now?”
“Study group.” Henry snorted. “That’s what he calls it anyway. He’ll be back at our room by… seven?”
Libby’s eyes were bright with something. Fear? Excitement? “I think I have a plan.”
Chapter Nine
“This will be perfect.” Libby popped a mini-tape into Henry’s recorder, snapping it closed and clicking record.
He stood at his desk, arms crossed. “I’m not letting you do this.”
“Don’t be a sexist pig.” Libby stuck her tongue out, hitting rewind and then play. Their voices came out of the little machine, sounding tinny but clear enough.
“I should be the one,” Henry insisted. “He already told me. It would be easy for me to get him to talk about it.”
“We’ve been over this!” Libby rewound the tape to the beginning again, leaving the recorder on the bed. “If it’s you on that tape, and the NCAA comes in to investigate, it could jeopardize your hockey scholarship.”
“But-”
Libby hopped off the bed, shaking her finger at him. “Listen to me. I’ve already lost everything. I gave up my job at the paper. I have nothing left to lose.” She stopped as she got close to him and saw the fierce expression on his face. “Well, almost nothing…”
“I’m not leaving you alone with him.” Henry’s jaw was working just thinking about it. This was insane. It was beyond insane. It was downright dangerous. “No way. Not after what happened to Elaine.”
Libby glared at him. “You don’t have any choice.”
“I’ll hide under the bed.” He couldn’t leave her alone in this room with Dean. He wouldn’t.
She laughed. “You’re crazy.”
“It will work,” he insisted, going over and picking up the recorder. “And you don’t have to worry about working this. I’ll do it.”
“You’re awful big,” Libby said speculatively, but she actually seemed relieved at the thought of him being in the room. She dropped to her knees, lifting his Hudson Bay blanket. “Is there room under your bed?”
Henry flushed when she pulled a box out. “Hey, what’s this?” Before he had a chance to shove it back under, she’d flipped it open and her jaw dropped. “Well… that’s a lot of porn.” She winked at him. “And you said you’d never read the Kama Sutra?”
Henry sighed. “You know that long story I didn’t tell you earlier?”
Libby just studied him with raised eyebrows, so he took a deep breath and told her-about pledging at the fraternity, about the Fleshlight and Val.
“So that’s what they did this year,” Libby mused, taking the cap off the Fleshlight and staring at it. “They had a competition last year too…”
What sort of competition had they had last year-involving prostitutes? He wanted to ask, but he was almost afraid to.
“And you won?” Libby murmured, using her index finger to prod the Fleshlight, as if she could bring it to life. Seeing Val holding it had been hot, but seeing Libby with it just felt…weird.
“Do you like using it?” She was half-smiling, amused.
He shrugged. “What’s not to like?”
“And that girl who called you…” Libby put the cap back on the Fleshlight and dropped it into the box. “That was the girl?”
“We’re just friends.” He made sure to make that point.
“Friends huh?” Libby arched her eyebrow. “Friends with benefits?”
“No.” He watched her shut the box and shove it back under the bed. “She’s a sweet girl and all, but…”
“But…what?” Curious, she crawled up onto the bed to sit next to him and he remembered bringing her back here after the football game, months ago now, how they’d spent hours listening to music and talking. He’d never felt anything like it before, that feeling of being with her, just being. It was intoxicating. Addictive.
“But she’s not you,” he finished.
“Oh, Henry.” Libby leaned her red head against his arm. “I wish I didn’t like you so damned much.”
His mouth felt dry. “Do you really?”
“What?” She lifted her head and gazed up at him.
“Do you really like me?”
Her eyes softened and she reached a hand out, linking her fingers with his. “Did you ever doubt it?”
He shrugged, swallowed, couldn’t speak. He’d thought nothing could be more important to him than doing what he loved, being on the ice-pursuing that dream and whatever made it possible was all that would ever matter to him-but he was wrong.
This girl made everything else in his life seem small in comparison.
Libby knelt up on the bed beside him, taking his face in her soft little hands. “Yes,” she said, leaning in to kiss his cheek. “Yes, Henry.” She kissed his other cheek, her mouth impossibly soft. “Yes and yes and yes,” she whispered, the words muffled and lost in their kiss.
Henry felt it happening and knew it wasn’t the best timing in the world, but neither of them could stop it. It was as if their kiss had kindled something deeply buried in them that gave them both a heady fever.
Her mouth was soft, but demanding, asking more of him, and he gave it to her, pressing her back onto his bed. She welcomed him, her slender jean-clad thighs squeezing, arms wrapped around his neck.
Then she broke the kiss, struggling with her hoodie and he helped her, groaning when he saw her in just her bra and jeans, her red hair fanned out under her. Henry took his shirt off too, and her eyes brightened as she explored his skin with her long, delicate fingers, tracing the dark line of hair down from his navel to the button of his jeans.
She undid the button, then the zipper, tugging at his jeans, and Henry hopped off the bed, shoving them down his hips as he watched her do her own, wiggling out of them and tossing them with his on the floor. Now she was just wearing a white bra and panties and little pick socks.
“Come keep me warm.” She shivered, reaching her hand out for him, and he joined her on the bed again, the two of them kissing and rolling around, fumbling, moaning, exploring. He discovered she really liked her neck kissed and licked-she made soft kitten-like sounds when he did that, her hips bucking under his.
He tried to take his time, but he was so eager for her that her bra was undone and her panties gone before he could even savor the sight of her body with them on. Her nipples were a pale, puffy pink, so very tiny under his tongue. Her breasts were little handfuls that practically melted into the flesh of her chest when she lay down, giving her a more boy-like appearance-yet everything about her was all-girl, from the beyond-soft silk of her skin to the tender cries of pleasure he extracted from her slender throat.
When his tonguing exploration reached the dip of her navel, his cock throbbed as if he’d found the promise land. Her belly was soft and pale and taut and he kissed his way down to the curly edge of her pubic hair. She whimpered in anticipation, her hand moving in his hair, waiting for him to part her red sea and drink her soothing waters. As soon as he tasted her, he was addicted, her clit a tiny, hidden treasure, the pink folds of her pussy a traceable map.
“Oh Henry…” She sighed as she came, so very pretty, her eyelids fluttering closed, her hips moving. He could fit her whole ass in the span of his hands and he did, lifting her to his mouth to drink her all up.
“Kiss me,” she begged him, sucking the taste of her own pussy off his tongue. He didn’t think his cock could get any harder, but then she was tugging his boxers off and stroking it against the skin of her inner thigh as they kissed.
“Ohhh, I want you inside me so bad.” She opened her eyes, still breathing hard. “Do you have anything?”