CHAPTER FOUR
Jennie
Oh shit, oh shit. What the hell is going on? Slowly, I make my way from the bathroom to my bed, and lie on it, staring at the ceiling. Did that really just happen?
But the ache between my legs and my mussed sheets tell the story because there must be so much sperm staining them. Jason had gallons to give, and I took it all like a whore, the sex was that good.
It’s not that I’ve never had sex before. I have, but the guys in my past don’t even compare. There was Teddy who was cute but so small that I couldn’t even tell when he was inside. And there was George who was revealed to be gay after a year of hoping and waiting by me. Go figure.
So to be suddenly presented with an alpha male like Jason was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Everything about him was insanely attractive. It wasn’t just the good looks but the realization that he has an actual career as a movie producer, and seems to be quite successful too. I loved Ladies of the East, and when he said he’d produced that, my heart had thrilled inside.
So yes, my escort delivered what he promised. He gave me the ride of my life, and here I am now completely wrung out with a sore pussy to boot. But strangely, a tingle ran through my cunt because despite the fact that he made love to me for hours, all I want is more.
I bolted straight up in bed. What the hell? I wanted more? With Jason Morgan no less? No way. This guy was my nemesis in high school. Well, not him precisely, but he was definitely part of the cool clique that harassed me. You know, the jocks with letter jackets who swaggered down the halls with skinny blonde cheerleaders on their arms. And his girlfriend had been the worst. Savannah had been the Queen Bee of the mean girls, and a particularly bad incident stuck out in my mind.
“Um Jennie,” she cooed one day when I was getting books from my locker. Savannah stood behind me, hip cocked to one side, with two of her cronies, Heather and Justine giggling. “You’re missing something,” she said.
Quickly, I looked down, checking my outfit. Everything looked okay. I was wearing a sweatshirt and loose jeans, and my sneakers were tied. Nothing looked out of place, even if the outfit was boring.
But like an animal sensing danger, a bead of sweat broke out on my brow. The blow was coming, and I could feel the blade hanging in the air over my head.
“What is it?” I asked timidly. “Did I do something wrong?”
“Oh no!” Savannah said with a mock frown. “Nothing wrong at all. Sorry, I guess you’re not missing anything at all. My bad.”
And with that, the woman spun around, straight blonde strands flying in my face. I brushed them away, coughing a bit as her friends tittered and the three of them made their way down the hall.
But when I turned back to my locker, I saw what they’d done. There was a jock strap filled with shit lying smack dab on top of my history book. It was absolutely filthy in every way. The jock strap was used and stained, almost gray with age, while the shit stunk up my locker to high heaven.
I choked for real then, almost vomiting into my hand. How could they do this? There had to be laws against bullying and harassment. But did I tell on Savannah? Did I report her and her mean friends to the principal? No. Instead, like the timid girl I was, I gingerly got a plastic bag and chucked the jock strap inside, soiling my fingers with poo. And then I threw it into the dumpster where no one could see. That’s how pathetic I was. I did nothing, not even saying a word to Savannah when I saw her later in the day during fifth period.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” she asked sweetly, batting her lashes at me. Her friends surrounding us laughed, including Jason. The handsome male had one arm slung around her narrow shoulders even if he didn’t laugh quite as hard as the others, since he didn’t know what they were laughing about.
“Um, no,” I mumbled, looking down at my feet. “Excuse me please.”
And that’s how the interaction ended. I scuttled away, head down and cheeks pink, even as tears rose in my eyes. Because life wasn’t fair! I was the one who’d been pranked, and now my locker would smell to high heaven for the rest of the semester. I should have screamed and yelled at the blonde princess. I should have punched her in the face, or at the very least, pulled some nasty trick in retaliation.
But the old Jennie wasn’t like that. Instead, the old Jennie hunched her shoulders and slunk off, defeated once again.
So you can see why this high school reunion means so much to me. It’s my chance to shine and show that I’m no longer some shy pansy to be taken advantage of. I’m sassy and smart, with a real job and a life in a cosmopolitan city. I’ve left Charleston in my past, moving onto bigger and better things.
But Jason’s presence complicated things because it threw my motivations into question. With all these feelings swirling in my breast, had I really moved on? Why was I coming back with dreams of showing how awesome my new life was? Was it insecurity? Was I pathetic without even realizing it? Plus, I still had memories of Jason by Savannah’s side and they weren’t pleasant. So what if he’d moved on as well and was now a fancy movie producer out in LA? That didn’t make what had happened long ago okay.
I swallowed again. What to do? I wasn’t sure. The thoughts in my head were so mixed up and I had no idea what to make of the situation. On the one hand, I’d just had crazy good sex with the man of my dreams. Except that he wasn’t perfect. He, too, had a past, and unfortunately that past came with painful memories for me, even Jason he wasn’t directly responsible for the hurt.
So I rolled onto my side and picked up my cell. Hmmm. Maybe my friend Tessa was up. Tessa’s also an editorial assistant at Sophisticate. We’d bonded over long nights obsessing over adverbs and adjectives, debating which punctuation marks go where. I know, we’re big nerds but working in a pressure cooker environment made us fast friends.
“Heeeey,” sang Tessa when she picked up. “What’s up?” she asked.
“Not a lot,” I fibbed a little. Of course, I’d just had the best sex of my life so that was patently untrue. “Just calling to say hi.”
“Oh hi!” she burbled. “Oh my god, I have to tell you what happened at work today. That stupid intern messed up my piece, did I mention? I can’t wait until you’re back Jennie. I need help putting these teen girls in their place.”
I rolled my eyes. Sophisticate has a steady stream of seventeen year-old interns who are pretty much good for nothing. They’re usually girls with rich parents who want to land them something in the fashion industry for the summer. Little do they know that being an editorial assistant is real work, and not just fluff and nonsense.
So Tessa droned on and on about the latest company politics until I interrupted hesitantly.
“Um, I met someone,” I said. “He’s really cute.”
My buddy squealed.
“Oh my god, really? I knew you went back for your high school reunion, but come on, Charleston is so small. What does he look like?” she giggled.
I laughed a little too, omitting the part where I’d hired Jason as my escort.
“Well, he’s really hot with black hair and blue eyes.”
“My favorite!” Tessa squealed again. “Oh my god, tell me more.”
I nodded, already feeling warm from the memory of Jason.
“Well, the thing is that he used to be captain of the football team.”
“So?” asked Tessa. “He’s built. I got it. Or has he dissolved into fat? You know former athletes,” she said sadly. “They stop playing sports and then turn into big puddles of fat because they’re so used to eating like horses, but don’t realize their level of physical activity has gone down a ton. It’s really sad.”
“No, no, that’s not it,” I said quickly. “Besides, you and I shouldn’t say anything. We’re not small girls ourselves.”
“We’re not,” agreed Tessa amiably, “but still, I want a guy who’s ripped. So is he ripped? Does he have muscles bulging out everywhere?”
“Yes,” I said firmly. “And I mean everywhere.”
Silence for a moment.
“Oh my god, you slept with him, didn’t you?” asked Tessa in a scandalized whisper. “You dirty ho! What was it like?”
I giggled again, going hot as my pussy clenched.
“It was amazing,” I admitted. “Except I’m scared Tessa. I mean, he used to be the popular guy, and I was such a loser at the time. It’s freaky that this is happening.”
“Who cares?” my friend scoffed. “That was ages ago. Ancient history. It doesn’t even matter.”
“But it does,” I said in a small voice. “Some of those memories really hurt, and unfortunately, Jason has a part in them.”
“Shit,” said my friend slowly. “Was he mean to you? Like did he call you names and shit?”
I took a deep breath.
“No, not exactly,” I admitted. “But his girlfriend at the time, this blonde named Savannah, did the nastiest things, and he just watched and listened. He didn’t care two cents about the fact that I was being bullied although he could have stepped in at any time.”
Tessa took a deep breath.
“Listen, you’re not going to like what I’m saying, but it kind of sounds like a teenage guy,” she said slowly. “Everyone that age is filled with hormones and uncertainty, and they want to fit in with the crowd. So he probably didn’t say anything because he was only seventeen himself,” she offered.
Maybe that was true, but I wasn’t so sure.
“But Jason wasn’t just part of the clique,” I insisted. “He was the leader. He could have shut Savannah up. He could have told the other kids to shut their traps, and they would have listened. But he didn’t.”
Tessa thought for a moment.
“Yeah, but you know how high school is. It’s a fucking cesspool, and I think it’s that way for everyone, not just us. Even though we were the obvious “losers,” I think high school really sucks even for the people who are supposedly at the top of the food chain.”
“What do you mean?” I asked suspiciously. “Tessa, are you on his side or mine? What’s going on?”
“No, no!” she protested. “I’m just saying that at my high school there was this one girl who was so beautiful and bitchy. I hated her with a passion. Would have killed her with my bare hands if it wasn’t against the law. But you know what? She missed graduation, and we couldn’t figure out why. It was only months later that I learned she’d gotten knocked up by her stepdad and went into labor early. The baby died.”
Oh shit. That was a hundred times worse than what I was facing.
“See?” asked Tessa. “I used to hate that girl, but when I heard what had happened to her, I couldn’t feel anything but sorry. Because what must it have been like? Her going home every night, only to get knocked up by her stepdad. And then the baby dying too. That was awful.”
I swallowed heavily.
“Maybe I shouldn’t be so judgmental,” I acknowledged. “After all, it was ten years ago.”
“Yeah,” said Tessa. “Why not just roll with it? Have a good time. After all, you’re just there for a couple days. Soon you’ll be back and that guy will be nothing but a memory. So live it up! Get it on with the high school quarterback as a revenge fuck. Do it for me,” she cajoled. “Come on, do it for good ole Tess.”
And I had to laugh at that before saying my goodbyes and hanging up because on the one hand, Tess was right. I should enjoy myself. I was here to attend my high school reunion, and if I got to sleep with a hot guy as well? All the better. After all, I’m twenty-eight and single, so what better time to enjoy myself with no strings?
But that was the thing. It was Jason Morgan doing the caressing, and this was more complicated than a fly-by-night session. This was someone that I actually knew and had history with, even if there wasn’t a lot. Plus, I’d hired him. He was a movie producer moonlighting as a male escort, and I had the credit card bill to prove that he was nothing but a casual hook-up. Paid arm candy, that’s all.
But Jason had just given me the best orgasm of my life, and my body still ached longingly at the memory. Plus, he was so much more than some dumb model who had the personality of a cardboard sheet. The alpha was magnetic, charming, and charismatic, and inside my soul yearned for this to be something more.
Stop it, the voice in my head said. Don’t catch feelings, Jennie. Don’t be a dumb girl because this is exactly the wrong time for that to happen. The only problem was … when has my heart ever listened to my head?