Carter
Hope had still been asleepwhen I had left this morning. I needed to work off this frustration I was carrying. After returning to my room after our encounter, I had spent a copious amount of time with my hand and the remainder of the early morning tossing and turning. At seven, I decided to pack my gym bag and head off to the university to get in a workout before I had to take one of my final exams.
As the elevator opened to our floor, all I could think of was my pillow, but the closer I got to my apartment, all I could hear was music. I had one hell of a headache from being up all night, and when I stopped outside the door, I realized the music was coming from inside my apartment.
My head pounded. The music was even louder when I opened the door. Dropping my gym bag on the floor, I glanced around the corner and saw the sexiest pair of fucking legs I had seen in a while. They were smooth and well defined and were flung over the back of my couch, and for a moment I thought about what they would be like wrapped around my neck as I buried my face between her creamy thighs. However, I didn’t need a repeat of what happened this morning, so I did my best to stop those thoughts. I had no right to think of her that way anymore anyway. She wasn’t mine, but fuck it, there was nothing wrong with looking, so I leaned up against the wall and just took in the sight before me. I noticed the remote for the stereo lay on the table beside me. I smiled to myself, grabbed the remote, and shut the godawful noise off.
“What the...”
“You’re finally awake,” I chuckled.
The legs disappeared, and Hope popped her head up and looked in my direction. “Good morning, Carter! Hope it’s okay that I was listening to your stereo. I felt like some music.”
Her blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun, and she wore a thin, little, black tank top that left nothing to my imagination, a hot-pink bra on underneath. It was hard enough to draw my eyes away from her beautiful breasts that were almost spilling out of her tank top. She wore snug little jean shorts, and when she turned around to set her drink down on the table, the cheeks of her tight, round ass hung out the bottom of those short shorts, which just led back to her damn legs. I could feel myself getting hard and had to avert my eyes away from her and concentrate on something else, but it did little good, my dick was already throbbing.
“Sorry about the noise, Carter. I wasn’t sure when you’d be home. I got up and had a quick shower. I had this in my bag from work last night, so I got dressed and made myself comfortable while waiting for you to come back.”
She came around and flung that hot little body at me, giving me a hug. I prayed that she wouldn’t be able to feel my growing excitement. As she wrapped her arms around me, I noticed that she still wore the same damn body lotion; a light fresh mix of citrus invaded my senses. She smelled good enough to fucking eat.
“I see that,” I said, wrapping my arm around her and pulling her against me for a quick hug. “So, you comfortable here? You’re going to stay here until you find something, right?”
“Well, I really don’t want to impose on you and I do have that hotel room.”
“Hope, give it a rest. I told you you’re not the kind of girl that stays there. So, unless you found something else, I won’t have it any other way. You’ll stay here with me. I’ll be busy with work and studying anyway, so if you’re worried about seeing me often, I can assure you that we probably won’t even cross paths. You have free rein, and you can have what’s-his-name here if you want.”
I averted my eyes. I knew his damn name—it felt like poison on my tongue, but I wanted to know if she was still involved with Trent, and this was the easiest way to find out. It would be better this way, instead of coming home to find them together.
“It’s okay. No need to have Trent here. I’ll find a place as soon as I can.” Well, that blew up in my face. I didn’t get the answer I needed, and I watched as she walked back around the couch to grab her water. Her phone suddenly pinged with a message. She grabbed it from the table, and I could see the tension roll through her body as she read whatever was on the screen. She rapidly typed out a message but still sat there, a frown on her face, staring at the screen, finally tearing her eyes away and looking back at me. “So, what’s going on?”
She threw her phone back down on the table and sat down on the couch. I grabbed a bottle of water and then joined her. “I’m not going to lie to you, Hope. I find it odd that you are in the city working at Joe’s. So, are you at least going to tell me what you are doing here?”
“I told you, I left home. I thought maybe I might look into going back to school.”
“I see.” I took a drink, emptying the water bottle. “Why? Isn’t what’s-his-face going to take care of you?”
She hung her head. “Carter, you know what his name is, and I don’t want to be kept by him. I want to do this for me, to prove to my parents that I can.”
I frowned. “Are things not so good in paradise, Hope? I mean, that is why you left me, because things would be easier, right? That way you didn’t have to go to school or work.”
A deep pink color rose to her cheeks, and she looked away. “I have to go get my things. I don’t want to have to pay for another week.” She got up from the couch, leaving me sitting there, water bottle in hand.
“I asked you a question. That is why you left me, isn’t it?” I needed to know, and it couldn’t wait. “You left me because I was never good enough for your father...or for you. With me, you would have to work for what we needed. It wasn’t going to be handed to you on a silver platter.” I followed her into my roommate’s room—her room for now. She had her little backpack that she was using as a purse sitting on the bed, and her head was in her hands. “That’s why, isn’t it?”
“I never left you, Carter. You came here to look at apartments, and you never came back.”
“I did too. I spent a couple weeks here, and after I found this place I came right back. I called and left you a message. I wanted you to come with me. I wanted to surprise you, but it seems you were already...preoccupied.”
“What are you talking about?” The look on her face scared me; it told me she really didn’t know what I was talking about.
“I left you a message. I told you I was through here, that I’d found us a place. You never returned my call and when I returned, I saw you in the park. I watched as you kissed him. I thought maybe I was mistaken, so I watched you for a bit. You walked home with my best friend, hand in hand, and there on your front porch he kissed you again.”
“What park?”
“The park by your house.”
She blinked hard. “Carter, no, you left the message that you were through with me. You didn’t even have the decency to tell me to my face. Instead, you left a message on my family’s answering machine. I was totally devastated, Carter.”
I stopped. Had she not gotten my message? “Did you not get my message?”