Time for that later, though, she thought. Her plan, conceived in mere seconds after Alex had mentioned this party two days ago, moved along quite well. She could maintain her self-control long enough to see it through.
* * *
“Oh my God,” Jocelyn panted in disbelief. “You still want more?” Even as she protested, though, her hand tugged weakly on his hip as if to encourage him.
“Is that okay?” Alex asked. “Are you sore? Do you want to rest?”
“No,” Jocelyn said, gulping for air. “I’m a little sensitive, but you feel so good I don’t want you to stop. I just can’t believe you can keep going.”
“I’ve got an arousing partner,” Alex grinned, leaning in to kiss her lightly on the lips. Their slow mutual grind continued. “So you’re okay? You don’t want to rest?”
“I don’t know if I can do anything in return, but yeah, I want more,” she confessed. “I just don’t want to be one of those stuck up girls who just lie there thinkin’ they’re all that, but I’m already worn out.”
“That’s alright,” Alex said. He looked down at the dark-skinned beauty spread out beneath him and smiled. “You are all that.”
She beamed with appreciation. Then she learned what it felt like when he was gentle.
* * *
“…seduced her like she’s just some common trollop, and now he’s in bed with her doing-!”
“I know,” Rachel said, a hungrily appreciative look on her face. She sat with Hannah on her rooftop, doing absolutely nothing to conceal her interest. “I can see him and your girl right now. So fucking hot. She’s a moaner, too.”
“You don’t see anything wrong with this?!” Jocelyn’s guardian angel pressed. He stood on the rooftop’s ledge, glaring down at Rachel in exasperation.
“Of course I do,” Rachel nodded, still staring toward the house. “This is nine kinds of fucked up. I’ve got no drink, I’ve got no popcorn…” And I’m not in that bed with him instead of her, she added silently, but that was best kept to herself.
“Rachel,” Hannah counseled, “you’re not being very nice to Sidney. He’s a fine guardian angel with an excellent track record.”
“Well Sidney should quit being such a Mary about all this!” Rachel snorted. She looked up at the other guardian. “Seriously, loosen up! She led him up to that bedroom. And he’s not the first guy she’s been with, is he?” Sidney folded his arms and looked away. Rachel pressed. “Is he? How many guys, Sidney?”
“Three,” huffed the angel standing beside her. “Though the only one that she wasn’t in love with before now was that Gabriel boy.”
“Hah!” Rachel snapped, then blinked. “Wait, is that the same one dating that Taylor girl?”
“Gabriel pined away for Jocelyn before dating Taylor,” Sidney frowned. He waved his hand dismissively. “It was brief. I think they were both dazzled by one another’s popularity. Jocelyn indulged him a bit too far, but broke it off. I knew then she could do better. Just like now.”
“Fat chance of that,” Rachel responded dryly. “I wonder if Taylor’s coming tonight, though?”
Then she saw another guardian angel fly out of the second floor. This one was a tall woman with dark hair, broad shoulders, and icy, accusatory blue eyes directed straight at Rachel. “You!” she barked. “I need to talk to you about your Alex and that raging, indiscriminate whore!”
* * *
“I should quit smokin’ these,” Trish muttered.
Wade pulled the lighter away from her cigarette as she took a long drag. He was happy to have such pretty company out on the front porch. “Ah wouldn’t have pegged you for a smoker.”
“I’m not so much,” shrugged the petite, bespectacled brunette. She wore jeans and a Firefly t-shirt under a simple jacket. “Just socially. I quit once already, but I get out to parties where people smoke and I get the urge. Usually I’m better about fighting it.”
“Not tonight, though, huh?”
“Nah.” Trish glanced out to the street where more people were coming up, and then back again. “I saw you come out here and I figured, ‘Why not?’”
“Aw! Y’all came out here just to smoke with me?” Wade smiled. He said it mainly as a joke.
“Yeah.” She took a breath of cleaner air. “I like your accent,” she managed to get out.
“Ah’m happy to have your company, but y’know you don’t have to smoke.”
“I know,” she nodded, and then quietly blurted out, “I just wanted to have something to do with my mouth and my hands.” Wade blinked. Trish took a long, self-conscious drag of her cigarette and then coughed. “So how’d you get here?” she asked.
“Uh. Went to high school with Sherri. What about you?”
“I’m in Sherri’s self-defense class at the UW.”
“Oh, you’re a Husky? What’s your major?”
“I’m doubling in English Lit and Computer Science. What about you?”
Wade blinked again. “That’s a combo. Huh…well, I kinda just got out of the Army an’ now I’m at North Seattle doin’ the EMT program.”
“Why’d you get out?”
“Got hit in Afghanistan.”
Trish’s lips pursed, making Wade wonder if she already knew that. Now that he thought about it, he could’ve sworn she was in the living room earlier. His suspicions rose further when she leaned in and asked, mischievously, “Can I see your scar?”
Before Wade could work out a witty rejoinder, he realized the new arrivals stood glaring at him at the foot of the front porch. They were all quite tall, even compared to him.
Gabriel wasted no time. “Where’s Alex?”
“Oh, hi, Gabriel,” Wade said before taking another drag on his cigarette. He counted four towering basketball players behind the equally towering speaker. “How y’all doin’?”
“I’m here to find Alex and I’m here to talk to Taylor. His stupid Facebook said he was coming and I saw her car down the hill, so I know they’re both here.”
Wade didn’t move out from in front of the door. “Wow. That’s some hard-core deductive reasonin’ there. U-dub’s really raisin’ them academic standards on y’all student athletes, huh?”
Gabriel’s eyes flared. Behind him, his teammates began to shuffle and murmur like the good goon squad they clearly were. “You gonna move out of the way?”
Wade tossed down his cigarette, then pulled out a new one and lit it up. “Nope,” he smiled. “Least not ‘til I finish mah cigarette. Hey, Trish? Could y’all do me a huge favor an’ let Alex know that Gabriel’s here lookin’ for him? An’ Taylor, too.”
“Uh. I don’t know either of them.”
“Aw,” Wade nodded, obviously knowing that already. “Taylor’s a beautiful brunette. She’s a sweetie. Kinda girl ya just wanna take care of, unless you’re a jackass. Alex Carlisle, though? Don’t know him? Well, tell ya whut, jus’ go to th’ kitchen an’ let the guy tendin’ bar know what’s up. His name’s Drew. He knows ‘em both.”
Quickly understanding the situation, Trish slipped inside.
“Yo, why we waitin’ outside here?” complained one of Gabriel’s companions. According to his game jersey, he was Number 14.
“No shit,” said another, a tall and lanky blond guy in a Huskies jacket. “Let’s just move him.”
“Y’all’re welcome t’ move me,” Wade offered helpfully, “but th’ first one tries gets t’ find out why Gabe here ain’t made a move. He might know a thing or two ‘bout me that y’all don’t.”
* * *
Rachel’s rooftop grew crowded.
Seeing Gabriel and his entourage approach, the blonde angel gave out a loud, clear whistle. Along with the five basketball players came a few guardian angels, who pulled away from their charges to meet their brethren on Rachel’s rooftop.
“Hey, Timothy! What’s up with this shit?” Rachel asked. Her question was as much a friendly taunt as it was genuine curiosity. Her spirits remained high despite the haranguing from Taylor’s guardian angel, Julia.