Breathless 3 (Breathless #3) (8 page)

Johnny joked about how he would tell all the frat guys
that he’d “struck gold” with me, letting them think that he meant how wealthy
my family was and how well-connected, when what he really knew the “prize” as
he put it, was me myself. “Don’t get me wrong; if any of those guys I played
hockey with wants to give me a job when I graduate, I’m not going to turn them
down.”

“Aren’t you planning on going into the majors?” I
asked him. Johnny shrugged.

“It’s iffy, getting in there. There’s a lot of
scrutiny. I’d love to keep playing, but it’s really difficult to get a spot on
a team.” He looked at me. “Besides, I’d hate to spend so much time away from
you.”

“But if you love to play…” I realized I was talking as
if we’d just go on being together and felt an instinctive spurt of fear that
had nothing to do with baseless suspicions. “I mean, don’t rule anything out.
You’re a great player, you’ve got good grades.”

“We’ll see how the future unfolds. For now, I’m happy
to just be with you and get through school as well as I can manage.”

We finally made it back to campus and Johnny pulled
into the temporary parking next to the dorms. I was exhausted, but as he lifted
me down from the high seat, wrapping his arms around me, I thought about what
it would take to sneak Johnny into my room again. He kissed me, his hands
wandering over my body slowly — not enough to be indecent, but enough to set a
little tingling fire starting through my belly, down into my hips. I wanted
him. I wished that I had the energy to do more than kiss him; I wished that the
stupid dorm wasn’t girls-only at night.

Johnny and I kissed for what seemed like hours,
breaking away to murmur silly little things to each other before starting up
again. I knew that neither of us wanted to separate, that neither of us wanted
to be the one to break off and end the night. It had been a stupid party with
my parents, but the little tryst in my bedroom and the drive to and from had
made it a lot better than it might have been. I hoped that I would never have
to go to another one of my parents’ events by myself ever again — and I hoped,
deep down, that I could just keep going to them with Johnny.

Finally, Johnny broke away from my lips, looking down
at me. We were both panting slightly, and I could feel the ridge of his
hardening erection pressing into me, showing that he was starting to get as
turned on as I was. We’d have to stop or find a way to keep going somewhere
more private. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you,” Johnny said,
smiling slightly at me. “Since the moment I first laid eyes on you, actually.”
I tilted my head, confused. A little voice in the back of my mind warned me to
expect something terrible, though it wouldn’t specify exactly what it could be.

“What’s that?” I asked, smiling up at him. Johnny
kissed me lightly on the lips once more, barely a peck.

“I love you.” My eyes widened. Of all the things I had
expected to come out of his
mouth, that
had not been
on the list; we had only been seeing each other a few weeks. I couldn’t imagine
any guy Johnny’s age or mine being ready to say that so soon. He’d wanted to
tell me that since he first saw me?

“You’re kidding me,” I said, giving him a playful
nudge. Johnny shook his head, still smiling.

“Nope. Ever since you ran into me, right when that
happened and I saw your beautiful face, I thought to myself ‘God, I love this
girl.’” I blushed, smiling like an idiot.

“Before you even knew my name?” I laughed, delighted
and more pleased than I could ever remember being. “What if my name was
like—Gretchen, or something?” Johnny laughed.

“I don’t love you for your name, dummy,” he told me,
kissing my forehead. “I love you because you’re sweet and beautiful and funny
and smart.” Johnny kissed my lips once more. “I never want to be without you
again. I want to just keep making you happy, making you smile exactly like this.”
I blushed a deeper red, not quite able to meet his gaze for a moment.

“I love you, too,” I said finally, looking up into his
bright eyes. We kissed one final time and then Johnny broke away, giving me a
nudge towards the dorms. I watched him climb up into the truck and walked
towards the entrance of the dorm building, still smiling like an idiot.

Chapter
Ten

A few days later, I was once more happy, comfortable,
and content with my life the way it stood. I was confident about Johnny and how
he felt about me, I was glad that I hadn’t broached what was probably a
needlessly painful subject just to satisfy stupid paranoia that I was feeling.
Whoever had commented anonymously on Claire White’s memorial page obviously had
a grudge against Johnny and the stupid girl from the dining hall had obviously
just wanted me out of the way so that she could go after him herself.
Everything was the way that it should be.

I had told Georgia the next morning after my parents’
anniversary party about what Johnny had said and she had beamed. “See? I told
you
you
should give him the benefit of the doubt.” I
felt a little guilty over the fact that I had let her linger in the belief that
Johnny and I had talked about the situation even though we hadn’t, but I
couldn’t bring myself to correct her. But everything was all good in my life,
so it wasn’t like there was much to worry about on that score.

Just like we had before, Johnny and I texted each
other constantly through the rest of the weekend, chatting about silly things —
stupid class assignments and group projects, things going on in the Phi Kappa
house, and upcoming games. There was an away game coming up, which made me a
little sad. After taking a few days away from him, I wanted to make up for lost
time. But I knew that I didn’t really have much grounds to complain. After all,
if Johnny wasn’t the hotshot hockey player that he had always been, he might
not have had those particular qualities that made me love him. I didn’t want to
change anything about him at all.

I went to class and managed to focus on the things the
professors were saying; it was definitely better for everyone when Johnny and I
were together — at least from my perspective. I could daydream about him and
still manage to get my notes down, still manage to somehow absorb whatever was
going on around me. It was a really good compromise and I indulged myself as
much as I could stand, especially when it came to telling Johnny about the
little fantasies I entertained or hearing about the ones he had thought up involving
me.

We
could go out to the woods again, make a whole night of it,
Johnny suggested.
Not just have s’mores,
but actually cook a meal, and then I’ve got this really comfy tent we could
sleep in…or not sleep,
haha
.
I countered that he
would have to find a way to deal with the mosquitoes and he suggested that
keeping me in the tent through the night was good enough to prevent getting
bitten.

Well,
we could take a trip to my parents’ house,
I suggested.
I mean, yeah, they won’t let us sleep in the
same room, but what’s to stop us from sneaking out to the hot tub after they’ve
gone to bed? I’ve never had sex in a hot tub before.

Back and forth the messages flew between us; they
weren’t all crazy and sexy, but a lot of them were, and I joked to Johnny that
with the plans we’d stacked up between us — different fantasies and ideas —
we’d never manage to make it through finals, we’d be too busy getting each
other off.

We met for lunch every day and Johnny walked me to
class every morning, catching me halfway from the dining hall to the building
and taking advantage of the fact that I always left a little early to pull me
off to the side where we could have some privacy and make out with me. I was in
a nearly-constant state of bliss, spending more time with the man I loved
without doubting him. Everyone had more or less accepted the fact that Johnny
was into me wasn’t on the market anymore. I guessed that Georgia might have let
slip the fact that he had said “I love you” to someone in the dorms. I still
got envying glances from the girls, especially when Johnny and I walked around
campus together holding hands, obviously a couple, but no one made any real,
overt moves to flirt with him while I was around.

Earlier in the morning, Johnny had walked me to class,
giving me a last, lingering kiss when we got to the door that put me in the
perfect state of mind to daydream. Fortunately, the class I was in would be
more difficult to fail than it would be to pass. Introduction to Academic Life
was the least challenging of all of my classes, of any class I had ever taken.
The lesson of the day was about procrastination and good work habits, and while
the professor droned on about calendars and using different apps to manage our
college work load and make sure we didn’t have finals sneak up on us all at
once, I started to think about Johnny.

My favorite little fantasy about him was taking him to
my parents’ house while they were out on vacation. We would lounge around in
the hot tub, making out, touching each other everywhere, getting really hot and
heavy, and maybe making love for a little while. Then we’d go back up to my
room again. I imagined Johnny laying me in my bed, going down on me, teasing me
the way he always did — bringing me to the edge of climaxing and then backing
off, over and over again until I was sure I would die if he didn’t let me
orgasm.

I was just starting to get really turned on, able to
feel how wet I was becoming, to feel the heat in my cheeks and chest as I
imagined Johnny slithering up along my body to kiss me on the lips and finally
give me what I wanted, when my phone started vibrating in my pocket. I pulled
it out carefully to keep from getting caught, but instead of a text from
Johnny, it was my mom calling me. I frowned. I had been careful to tell her
about when I had classes—but of course, she didn’t even pay attention. I rolled
my eyes and pressed the button to stop the vibrating. It was probably just an
invitation for Johnny and me to come to dinner.

As I walked over to my second class of the day, my
phone started vibrating again; once more, it was mom. I rolled my eyes and told
myself that I would deal with it later. She always managed to forget anything
about my life that wasn’t convenient to her. It vibrated two more times during
class with calls from her and by the time I was out of class for a couple of hours,
lunch and a little break before my afternoon classes, I saw that she had left a
couple of messages. I walked out to the little seating area off to the side of
the building outside and decided that whatever it was obvious she thought was
urgent; I listened to the first message. “Hey, Becky. I really need you to give
me a call back.” That was fairly standard, but Mom’s voice sounded tense. Maybe
she’d had a fight with Dad. Or maybe there was some huge catering mishap and
she needed to vent. “Becky-love,” the second one — tenser than the first —
started out. “Please give me a call back as soon as you get this. We really
need to talk. Really. We need to talk.”

Oh
good grief,
I thought to myself, watching as my
classmates drifted towards the dining hall. My stomach was rumbling, too. I’d
listen to the last message and then text mom to let her know I would call her
back soon, and then I’d eat something. Whatever was going on in her life could
not possibly be that urgent.
Oh God —
what if Dad’s been in an accident?
That would be a big deal. That would be
a huge deal. No wonder Mom would have completely forgotten about my schedule —
my schedule wouldn’t matter in the face of that. I opened up the most recent
voicemail and held the phone to my ear. “Becky, I know you’re busy, but please,
please give me a call back as soon as you can. Your father and I hired a
private investigator to look into Johnny. Before you roll your eyes at me or
doing that, you really need to listen. We knew you two were getting serious, so
we had him checked out just as a matter of course. Becky! Becky — you have to
stay away from him. He’s dangerous. Call me back just as soon as you can,
sweetie.” I stared at my phone for a long moment as the shock rolled over me. I
had no idea what to do.

Continued
in Breathless #4, the breathless series on June 18th.
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