Living With The Player

CAMILLA RENÉE

FRIDAY.

“You scent, It’s better than I ever imagined.”

Dylan grunts fill the entire room as he kisses me up to my thighs, snugging his nose over my skin and then pressing his mouth on my inner skin.

I moan, giving little regard to how loud I must sound, or who might be attracted to what we were doing.

I’m clad in my panties only, which soon meet their fate on the floor. Dylan steps away, holding my gaze as he makes quick words of his shirt.

Kneading my legs, I crawl to the edge of the bed, attempting to reach his belt buckle.

He passes me a knowing look, chuckles, and then tosses his head back, allowing me room to his body.

I peel the pants off his skin, reaching for the waistband of his boxer briefs.

His hands meet mine and he halts that movement.

“Not yet.”

He grumbles, concealing his head in the corner of my neck.

“Lay back.”

His gentle commands ring in my ears. Obeying, I straighten my legs and return my back to the bed, all without breaking his gaze.

Smirking, he bent the knee and crawled after me, halting above my waist. Back to where he began.

“Much more beautiful than I could ever imagine.”

He speaks more to himself and then settles between my legs. His lips angle directly at my opening, but he merely blows a kiss and moves to the side.

I do not appreciate his gentle assault on my lips. Once again I tug on the sheets and struggle to breathe, coming out with pants and then sputters of his name.

“Patience.”

He breathes over me, tilting his face to my centre.

“Finally.”

I wail as his lips meet mine. My other lips.

His tongue. I was wrong. I don’t prefer his tongue in my mouth, I like it better between my legs.

No rush. He starts slow. Licking. Tasting. Relinquishing. Then he picks me up the pace, drawing his bottom lip over my clit.

A scream peels out of my mouth. I clutch the sheet and shut my eyes.

He does it again and in time I reach out to pull his head, hoping to hold him in place.

He’s faster. Pinning both hands with his, then sucking even slower.

“Dylan.”

I rasp, reminding myself that I needed air. I needed it as much as I wanted Dylan’s tongue-

“Oh, God.”

I grunt, and cover my face with the sheets, screaming into the cotton material as Dylan takes me over the edge with his mouth.

Just as I feel myself close, he takes his face off.

My breaths come up shaggy, but I make him out in the room, tugging his boxers off each leg, then reaching for a thin foil, ripping it apart, then wrapping it over his cock.

I gulp. It’s truly been a while.

“Soaked.”

He remarks like last time, jabbing each leg forward to meet his skin. It’s as hot as mine.

I open my eyes and look at him. I don’t break contact again, not even when he thrusts himself inside me. His motion is swift but cautious.

“Oh, my God.”

“It’s not entirely in.”

He states, his tone hinting amusement.

“It’s not what?”

I half yell.

Chuckling, “Raise your hips, press my back on the bed, and try to keep your knees steady.”

I swallow hard, following his directives.

“You can take it.”

He whispers, then fills me with all of him. It stung a little, but my body stretches to accommodate his.

“Move.”

I seethe, hardly recognising my voice. And he does move.

Slowly at first, then his pace becomes needy. His back falls, and both hands plopped on the bed. I close my eyes and a faint image of that night comes into view.

“Look at me Darlin, only me. It’s just you and I. No one else matters right now.”

I bob my head and blink it back, circling my legs around his waist. Grunting, he plunges harder and my hands meet him, letting him own me completely.

****

SATURDAY.

Dylan and I didn’t get up until 9 AM this morning, and it took a lot of convincing to leave his bed and house to my dorm. After last night, we cuddled for a few minutes, watched a movie, and then went to bed. This morning, reality hit and I needed to talk with my best friend.

So here I am, pulling the door to my room, half expecting Kyle to be in her arms.

“Where’s Kyle?”

I blurt my thoughts. My best friend scrambles with her pillow, blinking the sleep away from her lids, tucking her hair more than once.

I strut into the room to sit at the edge of my bed.

My legs are crossed with an amused expression on my face.

“Are you okay?” I taunt, absorbing her clothes. She creaks of sex. We both knew that.

“Are you?”

“I’ll admit I got laid if you do.”

Gasping, she hopped off the bed and landed right next to me, sniffling my hair.

“I knew you looked different. I don’t. Wow! How did it? Kyle said someone came over. I have a lot of questions.”

“I can imagine. So, did you get laid?”

A blush springs on both cheeks. “It’s fucking obvious. I don’t even need to ask.”

“Aren’t you annoyed?”

“Well, I’m not sure how I’m feeling. It’s like this huge weight has gotten off my chest.”

“Wait. I’m missing something here. You didn’t get together with Jimmy, did you?”

I give a tiny Bob in negation. That’s all it takes for my best friend to get on her feet and scream.

“You… Dylan… You and Dylan…”

She mumbles incoherently, pointing in the air and back to me.

I bury my face in a cluster of both palms, groaning loudly.

“How did I miss this? What the hell? Okay. We need to play secret sharing. Now!”

Motioning a hand over the other, she exhaled and calmly returned to the bed.

“Alright then. You begin.”

I left the edge to a more comfortable position, propping my elbows on my laps.

“I slept with Kyle yesterday. It wasn’t the right time to be fucking him, but with you gone and our relationship hanging on a thread, I needed the distraction.”

I narrow my gaze, taunting her with a gleaming look in my eyes.

“Stop looking at me like that!”

She shrieks, covering her face in her palms.

“It seems we are in sync.”

“Nope. You having sex with Dylan isn’t a secret, so give me something else like how on earth did you switch boys so fast? You’re quite the player, Miss Renée.”

She elbows me lightly and then plops down beside me.

Over the next fifteen minutes, I tell the tale of Harper, Dylan, and Jimmy. How they are connected, how I was a pawn at some point, and how I figured the entire thing out. I blurred out some details about the fight club, for Dylan’s sake.

“This is quite the plot, and I figured my life was a movie, but yours may just be a best seller.”

Her back flattens against the headboard. I giggle and then play with the idle strands of my hair.

“So you and Jimmy are over? I should kick his fucking junk for toying with you like that. The nerve of that bastard!”

“Jimmy was a pawn, an important pawn, but he was the messenger. The actual villain of the story is Harper.”

“And he was in this dorm? I should get the entire place sprayed and rid of his scent.”

I toss my head back and laugh.

“It’s fine. I don’t want to think about either of them.”

“Do you think they’ll back off? Jimmy included. I mean, from your words, he seems adamant about getting together with you, then Harper has this obsession with Dylan. I’ve studied it in sociology. It doesn’t end well.”

Shrugging, I toss my head to the corner before parting my bottom lip. I didn’t know how to reply appropriately.

Harper does seem relentless in pursuing Dylan. He traced him from New York to Cal-U. He’s been following both of us from day one. Lurking in shadows.

“It only gets worse, especially once they realise they’ve lost. Then they take drastic actions. Their cognitive functioning is just gone. All they can see are those trying to keep them away from the ones they want.”

“Maybe I should call Dylan? Ask him what we could do? A restraining order might help. I didn’t think it’ll be serious.”

“He barged into our dorm Cam, that’s an indication.”

My heart raced twice as fast. How did I miss those signs? Harper is like a ticking bomb. He’s getting closer to destruct.

“Cam?”

“About Kyle and I, I need you to understand it wasn’t my intention to lie or deceive, I just didn’t want you to see me in another light or think less of me. It’s no excuse, but I’m sorry.”

Her blonde hair falls forward, covering her features.

“Those eight months of silence before college. I withdrew from the world because Dylan hurt me that night at the party. I had to walk in on him screwing someone else. Paula.”

Her hair snaps in the air and locates my eyes, blinking back in disbelief.

“What!? Why didn’t you say something? How could he?..”

“It looks like aeons just striding in there and watching them, but it happened. I told no one aside from Jimmy who was there. He may have put two in two with Harper’s aid, of course. My parents. His parents. You. I hide from everyone. For the same reason as you did, and I got so mad when you did it.”

I sigh softly. “I got upset about something I was guilty of.”

I added, then lightly chuckled.

“That was wrong, so I apologise as well.”

Miranda struggled to blink back too many trickles of tears, eventually succumbing to them and pulling me in for a hug. I choked on a chuckle, on the verge of crying as well.

“So you’re not mad at me? I don’t have to break up with Kyle? I like him…”

She spouted between tears.

“I like that you like him and no, I’m not mad at you anymore.”

I ran my left palm over her back soothingly. A chortle or two comes out to prevent more tears.

“That’s enough. No more crying. It’s the weekend and you and I should head to the movies or have lunch together. You can let me in on the many secrets of Kyle Evans in bed.”

I sensed her body still then, filling with heat. She’s blushing.

“But I need to make a phone call first. I have to get my mind off Harper. I’ll just call Dylan, then we can leave? Sounds good.”

She nodded, her head resting on one side of my shoulder.

Pulling away, I reached for my phone and dialled Dylan’s number, tapping repetitively, waiting for him to pick up.

Nothing. I rang his cell thrice. That’s weird.

“Dylan isn’t picking up.”

I announced. Miranda threw on a fresh T-shirt and then returned to my side.

“He was home when you left, right? Maybe we can stop by there since it’s important.”

“No, I’ll just call him later.”

I swallow the bile in my throat, forcibly willing my mind to accept that nothing was wrong.

“Alright, I’ll just text Kyle and inform him about the outing.”

“Okay.”

I mumbled quietly, gripping my cell phone still. It’s all the talks of Harper that have me riled. Everything’s fine.

****

Miranda and I bought tickets for Marvel’s eternal, which got delayed and then shifted to an hour later. In between, Dylan called back and the noise from impatient viewers surpassed my ring tone. I drifted from the crowd to call back.

Luckily, he answered on the first ring and I released a breath. One I’ve been holding in my throat for too long.

“I called you thrice this morning.”

I state, my tone nothing but accusing.

“Were you worried, darling?”

I hear muffled chuckles.

“It’s not funny.”

“I was sleeping. That’s what weekends are for. Why were you all worked up?”

Sleeping. Of course. All my worry about nothing. I strode further down the lobby, away from the crowd so I could listen well.

“Nothing, Miranda was saying something about Harper and his obsession, which might end up badly and I needed to talk to you. Maybe we should talk to the authorities or get a restraining order.”

His silence is loud. For half a minute, Dylan more or less just breathes over the line.

“Harper functions like a man with nothing to lose. He’s like an animal, and he’ll bite it provoked. The restraining order may only rile him up.”

“We can’t do anything. What if he goes after me or you? Even Miranda could be a victim of mind games.”

“I know him, Camilla. He can’t do much unless we try to push him.”

“So technically, your way out is doing nothing than living in constant fear of Harper showing up when we least expect it? He’s not going to stop. He wants you.”

“Camilla…”

“I’m getting the restraining order. It’ll help calm my nerves. I understand if you don’t want one.”

“That’s not what I mean. You’re getting it wrong. I just think that getting it might make matters worse. Harper is unpredictable.”

I chortle.

“If he’s unpredictable, what makes you so sure he won’t bite before making barking sounds? How can you tell this isn’t a battle, and the war hasn’t even begun? I worry Dylan.”

“I know…”

“No. You don’t. I have to go now. The movie may commence any moment.”

“Darlin.”

I drop the call and then spin around.

“You’re smarter than I give credit for, but it’s too late. You can’t restrain me when I have you.”

Two breaths. One for Harper to utter those words to my face, pulling off a taunting smirk, and the next for my body to come crashing down from the impact of a gun at the side of my face.

“Dylan is wrong. I do have something to lose now-Him. I was wrong as well. I told him there’s nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose. I’d like to adjust that quote. There’s no one more psychotic than a man who’s on the verge of losing the one thing-the only thing he holds dearly.”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Harper’s tall figure hovers over mine. Smirking, he bends the knee and his face exhales over mine. I flinch, then squeeze my eyes.

“Don’t be sad. Dylan will be joining us soon.”

He muses and more figures loom over me. One of them sticks a needle in my arm and I hear something rolling on the ground right before I’m picked up and placed into it.

****