Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (112 page)

She gave him a half-hearted smile.  "I don't know if I should.”

"Look Tor, I've known for a long time now that I've got no future with Molli.  She's pretty, but beyond that there's just not much there.  I can't worry about how the heck I'm gonna pay for school with someone hanging on who's never going to be anything more than a trophy wife." 

She frowned at him.  "Then why are you still with her?"

"She's really attached to me.  I've been trying to figure out a way to let her down gently.  But she just doesn't get it.  She's making these plans about going away to school together when it's obvious she won't ever make it into a decent school with her grades.  I could get into a good school as long as I keep my grades up.  With me it's just the money.  I love my family more than anything and wouldn't give them up for the world.  I just wish sometimes that there was more money you know?  Molli’s so in love with me and I don't want to hurt her.  I think I'm gonna break up with her after graduation.  It's hard Tor."

She looked away from him, trying to figure out if anything he was telling her was remotely true.  She knew that Jude got decent grades in school, though he couldn't touch his little brother in the brains department.  He had mentioned the issue of money for college before, of not wanting to be in debt for years with student loans, and that made sense to her.

But what he had told her about Molli all seemed like an excuse.  Wouldn't it hurt Molli less to break up with her now, she thought, when they'd only been together a relatively short time, than at the end of the school year when they'd been together another six or seven months?  And she also didn't buy into his whole excuse about how in love with him Molli was. 

Tory had virtually worshipped the ground he'd walked on, doing everything for him besides going to bed with him.  Helping him watch his brother and sisters, helping him with chores, helping him study.  Hell, she'd helped his mom fold laundry and read stories to his little sisters, and braided Joelle's hair one night.  She'd practically been part of the family, and he was telling her that Molli was attached to him she thought? 

She had a feeling that all he was trying to do was talk her into going to bed with him again.  All of the crap he'd told her about wanting to wake up with her in his arms sounded like a come on line. 

"Tor?" 

"Yes Jude?"

How she missed Tony she thought.  He didn't need come on lines.  He was perfectly obvious about it when he wanted to get her into bed. 

"Will you stay with me please?"

"Yeah."

"Cool.  You wanna see what's on TV?  Or we've got some new video games if you want to play something, or I've got some new CDs if you want to listen to music.  Whatever you want."

He was trying so hard to please her that she almost felt bad thinking badly of his intentions, but it all seemed too cozy.  Your girlfriend's out of town so you decide to invite your ex over for a little sex on the side. 

"TV will be fine."

They watched TV until a little after ten, when Jude yawned.  "You 'bout ready for bed?  I had to get up early this morning.  My parents told me that if I was staying home I had to catch up on the laundry and I had some extra papers to deliver this morning so I'm pretty beat."

She nodded.  She wasn't really tired but she wasn't going to argue with him.  He watched the stupidest crap on TV, she thought, laughing like the shit was funny when she thought it was all just dumb.  She had conveniently forgotten about that part of him.  The part that played video games with his brother like he was thirteen himself and watched crap on TV that made her want to never turn on a TV set again. 

She followed him down the hall towards his room, wondering when he was going to get around to seducing her.  She knew that he wanted sex again.  He had paused too long at a racy movie.  She'd caught him sneaking a look at her face to see if she was into it before he'd turned the channel.  And the hand that was around her shoulders had been dipping closer and closer to her breast as the night went on.

She'd wanted to tell him to get it over with and just grab her boob, but instead she'd sat with him staring at the TV, trying to figure out what was supposed to be so funny.  Even Tony, who had a sense of humor that always hung dangerously close to the gutter, had never watched the kind of farts must be hilarious because everybody's laughing shit that Jude thought was funny.  He never would have checked to see if she was into some cheap love scene while turning the channels.  And if he wanted his hand on her tit, he'd put it there. 

She held back a sigh as she followed him to his bedroom.  Why was she thinking about Tony when this was what she had wanted for so long she wondered? 

Jude wasn't that good in bed.  That was what was unfortunately bugging her most.  How did expect her to wait on the sidelines for him to break up with Molli when he couldn't give her a damn orgasm she thought? 

He was looking at her expectantly as he took his jeans off.  Finally he sighed when she stood there, making no attempt to remove more than her shoes and socks. 

"You want one of my t-shirts to sleep in?" 

He'd stripped to his boxers.  She couldn't help but notice how scrawny his legs were.  And hairy.  He looked like a little old man with no pants on she thought.  She had the sudden urge to giggle.  She bit hard into her bottom lip to stop herself. 

"That would be fine.  Thanks."

He rummaged in his dresser for a t-shirt and handed it to her, brushing his hand against hers.  "Can I kiss you?"

She wanted to roll her eyes at him, because he was driving her crazy.  He had never asked for her permission to kiss her when they were going out she thought.  He'd just done it.  And he certainly hadn't asked if he could kiss her earlier when they had ended up making out on the couch. 

Figuring that if either of them were going to get any sexual gratification tonight, she was going to have to do the work, she pulled him to her and kissed him almost roughly, probing his mouth with her tongue. 

She pulled back minutes later and undressed herself, discarding her clothes in an untidy pile on the floor.  He stood looking at her for a minute.  When she raised an eyebrow at him, as if saying 'well', he finally dug around in his night stand for a condom. 

She watched him put the condom on with a shaky hand and then they both stood there for a moment just looking at one another.  She didn't want to play childish bullshit games she thought.  She was a woman or close enough.  There was no way she was going to have sex with him again and not at least get off.

She stepped towards him and then shoved him as gently but meaningfully as possible to the bed.  Straddling him, enjoying the almost stunned expression on his face, she cupped his condom covered penis in her hand, rubbing it against the wetness between her legs.  Moaning, trying her best not to think of Tony, she spread her legs and pulled him inside of her. 

He came quickly, almost pathetically quick she thought, but she still pressed her body against his, keeping him inside her until she had achieved her own orgasm.  She moved off of him.  He still had a bit of a dazed expression on his face. 

She supposed it made sense to him at least. 

She still loved him, though she was asking herself more and more why that was so, but she couldn't quite fool herself into thinking that she'd just made love to him.  She'd screwed him, and he couldn't keep up with her. 

She thought that a shower was probably in order but when he returned to the room, he pulled a pair of pajama bottoms out of the bottom drawer of his dresser and climbed into bed.  He just looked at her as she stood beside the bed and then he patted the bed beside him.  "You comin’?"

"Uh," she started, and then decided to leave it alone.  It seemed pretty unhygienic to her not to take a shower after having sex, especially more than once.  But she just turned away from him, and picked up her panties from the floor, putting them on and then adding his t-shirt over top. 

How could finally getting what she wanted feel so wrong?  How could she possibly miss Tony's bed with its squeaks that seemed loud enough to wake neighbors for miles around she thought?  At least you could move in Tony's bed without having to worry about falling off of the end.

As she lay beside him, unable to sleep because her mind was too conflicted, she realized that he snored.  She wondered how his brother could stand to sleep in the same room with him when he snored so loud.  Poor Jacob, she thought as she drifted to sleep what seemed like hours later. 

Chapter 6

Jude awoke her early the next morning.  She could see that he had showered because his hair was wet.  She sat up in bed, rubbing her weary eyes and was about to ask him if she could take a shower when he said “Come out to the kitchen when you get dressed.  I've got breakfast in the oven and there's coffee.  If you want to eat before I take you back to school you'd better hurry.  I have to go check on this guy's dogs since the family is out of town."

And then he was gone, no good morning, no I love you, not even thanks for fucking me last night she thought.  Muttering a curse under her breath, hoping that the school would still be empty enough that she'd have the shower room to herself when she got back, she went to the tiny bathroom that linked his bedroom with his sisters' and used the toilet. 

Finished, she washed her hands and splashed some water on her face.  You look like shit Tory she thought to herself as she looked at herself in the mirror.  Her hair was a mess and her mouth tasted horrible, both from not brushing her teeth and from smoking the night before.  She could use a cigarette about now, she thought as she left the bathroom and quickly dressed. 

Maybe she could convince Jude to buy her a pack or to give her one of his if he had extra she thought.  She'd pay him for it of course, though with Tony it wouldn't have been an issue.  She was welcome to whatever was in his house, whether it be cigarettes, pot, alcohol or food.  But Jude certainly wasn't Tony and he wasn't making the money that Tony was either.

She pulled her hair back into its usual ponytail and went into the kitchen.  Jude was sitting at the table, smoking a cigarette and reading a gaming magazine.  There was a plate of frosted cinnamon rolls in the middle of the table and a mug of coffee sitting in front of him.

"You want coffee?"  He barely glanced up from the magazine. 

"No thanks.  Can I have a cigarette?"

He nodded absently, sliding the pack over to her.  "The cinnamon rolls just came out so you might want to wait a minute.  You want some juice?  I think we have some orange juice or there's apple.  The girls always have to have it."

"Orange juice would be fine, thanks."

He placed the magazine face down on the table, dug a glass out of the cupboard and poured juice into it, sat it in front of her, then went back to his magazine. 

"Jude.  Do you think you could buy me a pack of cigarettes?  Or if you've got an extra pack I could buy them from you.  I know I gotta quit but I really don't feel like it right now."

"Yeah, I got an extra pack.   Well, my dad does, but as long as I replace them it's not a big deal.  Three bucks should cover it."

"Sure." He dug a pack of generic cigarettes out a carton in the freezer. 

She dug in her shoulder bag, and found that the smallest bill she had was a five.  She handed it to him when he gave her the cigarettes, wondering if it would be rude to ask for the change. 

"I don't have any ones.” He sat back down at the table and pulled a cinnamon roll from the cluster in the middle of the plate.  "I'll get it back to ya later."

"Sure."

"If you ever need me to buy smokes for you, just give me a call and if I'm not busy I'll get them for you.  You have to be careful though.  Molli said that some girl got kicked out a while back when they did a random search and she had cigarettes."

Why did he have to bring Molli up when they'd just spent the night together and she was barely feeling awake she wondered?  And she knew for a fact that the girl who had supposedly been kicked out of school for being caught with cigarettes had been kicked out because she'd had not only cigarettes but crystal meth and coke.  They'd also found a used condom in her trash can, making it pretty obvious that she'd had a guy in her room recently.  And if Molli had any brains she'd know that. 

But Tory thought bitterly, as she pulled apart the cinnamon roll on the small plate in front of her Molli didn't have brains, but she did have Jude, though only for a few months more if she were to believe his story. 

"I'm pretty used to staying under the radar.  I'm not dumb enough to smoke in my room either."

"You've always been pretty good at staying out of the way when you need to I guess."

What the hell was that supposed to mean Tory thought, gulping down the rest of her juice? 

It was obvious that he was ready to go, whether she was or not.  He gathered the dishes and put them in the sink and wrapped the remaining cinnamon rolls, leaving them on the counter by the toaster. 

"You ready?"

There was a trace of impatience in his voice that she did not appreciate.  He had begged her to stay with him last night and he'd dragged her out of bed at six am and was now kicking her out of his house she thought.  She wondered what exactly it was that had him in such a hurry, as she followed him silently to the door.

Was it possible that he was meeting Molli later, she pondered as she stood next to his truck watching him lock the front door of the trailer?

She had assumed the truck was locked, so she stood there, feeling like an idiot when he want around to the drivers’ side and got in without unlocking the door.  He pushed the passenger door open and started the truck without waiting for her to get in. 

She climbed in, thinking the way he was treating her was almost funny.  Once she had served her purpose, he'd wanted nothing more than to get rid of her.

She had no idea what was going on in Jude's head as they drove back towards the school.  She wasn't completely sure that she wanted to know. 

He stopped the truck by the sign and leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.  She was about to reach for the door handle when he put a hand on her arm. 

"Thank you Tory.  It was really nice.  Almost like old times."

Sure she thought, besides the fact that she had slept with him.  "I had a nice time too."

"Are you gonna be around over Christmas break?"

"I'll probably be around 'til the weekend at least."

"Cool.  Maybe we can get together then." 

Of course she thought, because Molli would be out of town then, too, assuming that her family gave a shit about her. 

"Yeah."

"You were great Tor.  A little aggressive last night, but all in all, I think we're pretty good together.  I wish that you'd trusted me enough before to know that I'd never do anything to hurt you.  Then I probably wouldn't be playing the waiting game with Molli right now."

Giving him a smile that she hoped didn't appear as fake as it felt; she kissed him on the cheek.  "You'd better get yourself in gear Jude.  I know you've got a busy day ahead of you."

"Sure do.”  He paused only long enough to let her out of the truck before he turned it around and pointed it back in the direction of town. 

He waved out the open window at her as he passed by, cigarette in hand.  "Nice seeing you Tor.  Call me." 

And then he was gone.  Nice to see you, want to screw me when my girlfriend's out of town?  I know you already gave it up to someone else so there's nothing to stop you from sleeping with me now right? 

Trying to decide if she had enough time to take a couple drags off a cigarette before she got too close to the school, she stood still for a moment.  Finally deciding she did, she dug in her purse and drew out a cigarette and some matches.  Walking slowly, she managed to smoke half a cigarette, keeping close to the trees that bordered the road. 

She put the cigarette out on her shoe, and tucked it carefully back into her purse, afraid that it would break.  That was another thing about Tony she thought.  He never smoked cheap cigarettes,
joking to her that if he was going to get lung cancer he was going to get it from something that was pleasant to smoke. 

She didn't look down on Jude's dad for smoking generics.  She figured that with a family of six to feed you had to make some allowances but she also figured that if Jude wanted to smoke, he should be paying for his own damn cigarettes and not smoking his dad's. 

She neared the school and saw Ron stationed outside the door, drinking coffee from a thermos. 

"Good morning young lady.  You look tired.  Did you have a long night with the family?"

"You could say that.  Have a nice day Ron."

He gave her a nod and a polite smile as he shut the door behind her.  She paused in the hallway.  She could hear noise coming from the commons and figured girls had begun arriving back at school.  She hurried toward the stairs, knowing that if she wanted to take a shower in peace, she was going to have to do it before too many more girls got back. 

She had clean clothes and her hygiene products ready moments later and was headed down the hall a minute after.  She showered quickly but thoroughly, and was dressed and heading down the hall twenty minutes later

She closed her door, and returned her toiletries to their places, tossing her dirty clothes into the hamper. 

She was tired but she didn't think that she could fall asleep just yet.  She pulled a book out the bag in her closet and settled in to read, trying not to think of Tony or what had happened between her and Jude.

After reading two chapters, she could hardly keep her eyes open.  It was still pretty quiet so she figured that it was safe to try to take a nap.  She removed her jeans, and lay down on the bed, closing her eyes.