Broken Road (27 page)

Just then he heard someone turning the doorknob to the back door. He quickly placed the Bible exactly as he had found it on the bed and darted out of the room, softly shutting the door behind him. He swiftly raced across the hall to his room. For once he was thankful for Benjamin’s many idiosyncrasies. If he hadn’t spent so much time wiping his feet and turning the doorknob, John never would have made it to his room in time.

Angel received two additional nonverbal, semi-asthmatic phone calls over the next two weeks. She informed Ileana of the calls, but still did not say anything to Jarrod. He had enough on his plate with classes, studies, baseball, and physical therapy. Not to mention that he always made a point of stopping by to see Angel at night, even if it was only for half an hour. He would always ask if she was alright or if she needed anything, forever attentive to her needs and desires.

They were lying on her bed watching television one night when he turned to her and began nibbling gently on her ear. She smiled while closing her eyes and slowly turned toward him. He stopped to look at her, really look at her, and then lowered his head to kiss her. His kiss was soft and gentle at first, turning eager and demanding as the sensual fire between them built to a crescendo. She couldn’t help but return his kisses with loving urgency.

As he placed his right hand on her collarbone, he began to softly stroke her shoulder and neck with his fingertips, leaving her breathless. He lowered his head into the crook that formed between her neck and shoulder and began to trail kisses up and down it. While he continued nuzzling her neck, she placed both her hands upon his shoulders as he positioned himself over her body, pressing his onto hers. They both moaned with eagerness and fervor. Taking his time, Jarrod began to unbutton the top buttons of her blouse while giving her featherlike kisses on the parts he slowly exposed. Angel felt like she was going to burst from desire.

Jarrod looked up at her and in a gravelly voice said, “I want to be with you so badly.” She slowly opened her eyes and while trying to slow down her breathing to a more manageable level, said, “I want to be with you too…but…”

“But what?” he whispered as he continued to rain light kisses on her cheeks, eyes, forehead, and lips.

“Ohhh…” She responded to his kisses and touch. “I…umm…oh, God, that’s nice…”

Jarrod smiled as he noted her response. He loved how she looked when her body was wild with longing. Her face was lightly flushed, her succulent lips pink and swollen from his kisses, and her eyes full of want and need. Her physical reaction to his caresses fueled his desire, and once again his mouth claimed hers as his tongue began its probing exploration that drove her into a feverish madness.

Knowing she needed to slow things down, she hesitantly broke away from the kiss and breathlessly mumbled, “Jarrod, we need to…ohhh…dear God, that feels so good. Yes…yes…no. Wait…wait. We need to stop.”

“Angel, let me make love to you. Please…please,” he found himself pleading as he continued kissing and caressing her. His hand traveled up along her thigh, making its way near the pinnacle of her pulsating need.

In the midst of this erotic haze she found herself in, she became acutely conscious of the fact that she needed to put a stop to their actions before it was too late. She hated to do so, but she just couldn’t let it go any further. It was always better to step on the brakes slowly as opposed to pulling on the emergency brake at the last minute.

She sat up and scooted away from him while she began to rebutton her blouse. Jarrod groaned in despair and turned to lie flat on his back in frustration. He tried to slow down his breathing enough that he could speak.

Finally, when he felt better control over his body, he looked over at her and said, “Why did you stop? I thought you said you wanted to be with me.”

She blushed at the memory and stared down at her hands while softly saying, “I do want to be with you. But not here in a dorm room. Not now when Ava is expected back at any moment. I…I…” She lowered her voice to a bare whisper and turned to face Jarrod before saying, “I want my first time to be special.”

Jarrod looked at her for a moment with a mixture of shock and pleasure in his eyes. “Your first time? You mean you’ve never been intimate with anyone before?”

“No,” she said, mortified to be discussing her sex life, or rather lack of one, with him. “You seemed shocked. I’m not my cousin Morgan, you know,” she said defensively.

“Believe me, I know. Don’t ever compare yourself to her. She’s not in the same league as you,” he said frustrated. He sat up, leaning against the headboard. “Why would you bring her up at a moment like this anyway? I don’t want to be thinking of her when I’m with you.”

“I can’t help it. I hate the thought of you touching her the way you touch me,” she said through tear-glazed eyes.

He gaped at her in blank disbelief and with quiet firmness said, “The way I touched her is completely different from how I touch you.”

“How is it different? You made love to her, didn’t you?”

“We never made love. We had sex. There’s a difference.”

“Wow. That makes me feel a lot better,” she said sarcastically. “So basically you’re saying you found my cousin so hot that you couldn’t keep your hands off of her.”

“Angel, I’m not going to apologize for having a relationship with her. It’s part of the past and now it’s over. It was over before you and I ever met.”

“Only because she ended it,” she persisted.

“I would have ended it eventually. I didn’t love her.”

He sat up, placed both his hands tenderly on her cheeks, smiled faintly while he gazed into a pair of dazed green eyes, and said, “I’m sorry if it bothers you that she and I were together. But I can’t change the fact that we were. I want you to know that what I feel for you and what you and I share is nothing like what she and I had. She was nothing more than a high school passing fancy.”

She nodded and through a voice thick with unshed tears, said, “Does it bother you that I haven’t any experience…in that area?”

He pressed a feather-light kiss on her lips, drew her close, and said, “I love the fact that you’ve never been physically intimate with anyone. I love knowing that no one has ever touched you or known you in that way. I love knowing that when we are finally together, I’ll be the one to experience that special moment with you.” He bent forward and kissed her slowly. “But do you know what I love the most?”

“What?”

“You…I love you,” he said as he leaned forward and kissed her again. This time the kiss was deep and languorous.

She gave him the gift he loved more than anything. The smile that no other person on the face of the earth could ever replicate. The smile that made the sun appear dull and gloomy. The smile that warmed his heart and brought him to his knees.

And then she whispered back, “I love you too.”

Angel was gloriously happy today. The sun was shining brightly, the birds were whistling a merry tune, and the breeze was softly blowing, causing her hair to tousle in the wind. She sat on the grass and looked over at Ileana and said, “I love him! I love him! I love him!”

Ileana, who was lying on her back with her hands behind her head and eyes closed, simply responded, “Yes, I know, and I’m very, very happy for you. Now shut up.”

“He loves me too,” Angel said in a singsong tone.

“Very nice. Shut up,” Ileana responded in the same singsong tone. She was happy for her best friend. If anyone in this world deserved absolute, pure, arrant happiness, it would be Angel.

Suddenly a dark shadow loomed over the two girls, blocking the sun completely. Both ladies looked up at once and were forced to blink numerous times to make out what, or in this case, who was causing the shadow. There appeared to be a dark silhouette of a man outlined by the light of the sun, which was directly behind him.

“Umm…excuse me…b-b-but…umm…,” he faltered.

“Yes?” said Angel as she tried to get a clearer view of the man.

“I was w-wondering if I c-c-could…if I could…ask you a few questions.”

“What sort of questions?” asked Ileana.

“I’m c-c-conducting a s-survey for a p-paper I’m w-working on,” he responded as he looked down at his notebook. More nervous than he’d ever been in his entire life, it was distressingly presenting itself through his vexatious stammering.

“Are you a student here?” asked Angel a bit nervously.

“Yes.”

“No offense, but aren’t you a bit old to be a student?” asked Ileana. Now that they had a clearer view of the man, it was obvious he was in his mid, maybe even late, twenties.

“G-g-graduate s-student,” he said. He glanced up to briefly look at Angel and then immediately brought his head down again, this time looking toward the ground rather than his notebook.

Ileana looked at the spot of grass directly in front of the stranger to see what it was he found so riveting.

“Graduate student, huh?” she said, eyeing him suspiciously.

“What sort of questions do you have?” asked Angel.

“Just a few. The paper is about how s-s-students adjust to c-college life…”

“What class is this for?” questioned Ileana. Something about this man just didn’t feel right. She always felt uncomfortable around people who couldn’t make eye contact with her, but this was different. This man flat-out scared the bejesus out of her.

“S-s-sociology,” he stated.

Both girls looked at each other, hesitating whether to participate in the survey or not. It wasn’t like Angel not to help someone when he needed her assistance, but something about this man made her wary and tense.

“Will it take long?” asked Angel. “We have to get to class.”

“No…just a f-f-few minutes,” he replied. Her voice was so soft and sweet, just as he had imagined. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of jade green, and her lashes seem to go on forever. She had an air of innocence that emanated from her being, causing him to want to dive into her taintless, merciful soul. Once she was his, truly his in every sense of the word, he would worship her for all eternity. He swore this to himself. Now that they’d met, he instinctively knew they were truly meant to be together. She would become his religion, a religion he would have a blind, excessive idolatrous veneration for.

“Okay, well then, let’s speed things up a bit, shall we?” said Ileana dryly as she sat up and started to collect her books, which were scattered about on the grass next to her. She wasn’t comfortable with this man and wanted to bring their interface to an end as quickly as possible. She noticed he kept flexing his hands open and shut and shuffling his feet back and forth. He reminded her of a dancer with no rhythm trying to get his groove on with no music playing. His hair was so greasy, it looked as though he had taken a handful of lard and rubbed it on his head this morning. And what was up with those eyebrows? They looked like two furry caterpillars nestled above his eyes.

“What did you say your name was again?” Ileana asked.

“I…d-d-didn’t say. It’s Benjamin,” he stated.

“Benjamin what? What’s your last name?”

“Smith,” he said.

“And you say you’re a student here?”

“Yes.” He needed to hurry up. The friend was beginning to irk him. She was asking too many questions. How was he supposed to build a bond with Angelise when her friend continually interrupted them with her interminable questions?

“Where are you…f-f-from?” He directed the question to Angel.

“Bradenton, Florida,” she responded. He immediately wrote that down on a notepad.

“I’m also from Bradenton,” said Ileana, noting he did not write her answer down. Strange.

“Do you l-l-like it…here?” He once again glanced at Angel when asking the question and then quickly lowered his head.

“Yes. Very much,” she responded as she watched him jot her reply down.

“It’s alright,” added Ileana, noting again that he would only write down Angel’s answers. Her brows furrowed in concern.

“What is your favorite m-m-movie?”

“What the hell does that have to do with adjusting to college life?” cried out Ileana.

“The questions are…are…v-v-very general,” he said while tugging at his hair.