Leslie's Curl & Dye Page 10

  “N-no. But—”

  “So I consent. To… whatever.”

  KC didn’t respond. Just sat there like a bump on a log, staring at me. Which made me feel like shit. If he wanted me, he would have been all over me. Right?

  I sighed, suddenly sad and embarrassed and feeling utterly stupid. “I can take a hint. Yes to airhead sorority girls. No to smart girls. Got it.”

  “Whoa, whoa there,” he drawled, the Austin, Texas coming out in his voice. He grabbed my hips, pulling me closer. “Where uh…” KC licked his lips and let his eyes wander to the hard nubs of my nipples standing at attention and poking through my nightshirt. “Where you going?”

  “Back to my room,” I mumbled, making moves like I was really leaving, but hoping he wouldn’t let me.

  “You woke me up to go back to your room five minutes later? We’re talking. See? My lips are moving, your lips are moving. Sometimes my lips might say stupid things. How about your lips?”

  “My lips don’t say… or do stupid things.”

  “They don’t? So if my lips and your lips met up, that wouldn’t be a stupid thing?”

  I shrugged, drawing my lips in to hide the smile that wanted to creep across them. But then I realized he wouldn’t be able to kiss me that way, so I released them.

  “I was thinking,” he mumbled, his eyes on my lips. “When you and me were talking, in your room. I was thinking about kissing you. Would that have been stupid?”

  I shook my head. And lifted my face to his. “It would be stupid if you didn’t kiss me now, though.”

  “Like… this?” Soft lips fluttered from my shoulder to my neck, up one side, down the other, and then around again. I shuddered, my temperature rising.

  “Yeah…” I was barely breathing, my eyelids at half mast. KC sat up, moving his legs underneath him and pushing me on my back. He stretched out on top of me and settled into the space between my legs, pressing his long rigid hardness into my core.

  And then his mouth devoured mine.

  It took everything in me to suppress a moan and to not buck my hips into his. He knew what he was doing and, truthfully, I was in the mood to lay back and let him do it. Let his hands rub my skin so gently and softly, with such care and tenderness it almost tickled. Let his lips dust me with kisses wherever he pleased, feather soft.

  “That good?” He whispered. I opened my eyes and brought myself out of the pleasurable trance he’d just coaxed me into.

  “Mmmmmm…” He smiled down at me, then pulled back to pull his t-shirt over his head. He laid half on, half off of me, his warmth and weight like a heavy, familiar blanket.

  “You want to do this, right?”

  “Yeah. You do too, right?”

  He nodded, dropping a trail of kisses along the side of my neck. “Been wanting to. I didn’t think— well, we can talk about that later, but I have some time to make up for.”

  “You really, really do. You can start by taking these clothes off of me.”

  “Mmm… tired,” he whined, closing his eyes. “You woke me up out of some good sleep. You do it. I’ll watch.”

  I giggled. “I was looking forward to you doing it. I dare you.” He groaned. “Double dare you.”

  “Now you’re getting wild. I haven’t turned down a lot of double dares in my life.”

  “Triple. Dog. Dare you.”

  “Man… a triple dog dare? You’re not playing around Leslie. You wanna be stripped, huh?”

  “That was the point of me asking you to take my clothes off, yes.”

  “Guess I gotta do it then.” He sat up and reached toward the head of the bed and pulled down the bedspread and sheets again. He climbed inside, kicking the sheets down, piling up pillows under his head.

  “Come on, girl. Whatcha waitin’ for?”

  I’d be stupid not to move. I sat up and crawled across the bed on all fours, closer and closer until my lips met his, until our tongues swirled together and we were, as quietly as possible, moaning in harmony. I moved up until I was straddling him again. KC’s hands spanned my waist, rubbing up and down, the calluses he’d developed on his finger tips and palms wreaking havoc on my nerve endings.

  Like an expert, he gathered the hem of my nightshirt and pulled it up. My arms lifted so the shirt came off and landed next to the bed. My nipples stood at attention, puffing up in the cool air of the room. He pulled me toward him so he could take one and then the other into his warm mouth. I struggled to stay quiet, biting down on my lip while his tongue flicked the sensitive tips back and forth. I writhed on top of him, working myself into a heated, trembling frenzy.

  I wanted KC so very, very badly.

  I rose up onto my knees and hooked my thumbs into the waistband of my panties. “Pull,” I whispered. He obeyed, pulling the thin material down my hips. I kicked out of one side and then the other. They went flying, landing on the other side of the room.

  “I have to find those when we’re done.”

  “Okay,” he said, laughing.

  “I’m serious! What if Kendrick comes home to find some chick’s underwear on his side of the room?”

  He shook his head, still laughing. “Then he’ll know I got some.”

  “Oh, he’ll know anyway. Men don’t believe in not kissing and telling.”

  “You saying I have a big mouth?”

  “I’m saying you’ll probably tell Kendrick before he even makes it back to campus. Am I wrong?”

  KC paused, pondering for a moment, then shrugged and sucked his teeth. “I’ll probably wait at least until he parks the car.”

  I laughed, out loud. KC covered my mouth with his. Very quickly, as his the tip of his tongue swirled and teased mine, I was lost again in the space between reality and a dream.

  “Here,” he said, pulling us out of the kiss and bucking up his hips. “Let’s give us something else to find.” He lifted his hips and pulled his briefs down, then fished them out from between the sheets and tossed them to the other side of the room. “There. Now we both have some skin in the game.”

  Now there was, blissfully, nothing between us. I felt him, pulsing and red-hot. I knew he was a guy and a particularly strong wind could do the same thing, but I loved imagining that I was doing that to him. Me. Nerdy black girl Leslie Baker made sexy basketball player Kade Cavanaugh throb with sexual desire.

  “KC… do you have uhm…”

  “Oh,” he whispered, snapping his fingers and hopping off of the bed. He opened a cabinet in the set above the desk and pulled out a box, then a few small squares from the box and put it back. Then he picked up one of the squares and ripped it open, pulling out the latex ring and rolling it on.

  Sheathed, KC was… impressive. I swallowed hard. A few times. I… I can take that.

  KC got back into the bed and laid down next to me, pulling the sheets and blanket over us.

  “So, uh. Not that I’m giving advice or anything, but I think you might find it easier if you uh… ride. Just for a few minutes until you’re… used to me.”

  “I’m not a virgin,” I protested, like I wasn’t nervous about that very thing a few minutes ago.

  “I didn’t say you were. I just…I’m not trying to brag or anything but I’m a lot. I want you to have control.”

  “Oh.” That made sense. I guessed. “Okay. So I should…”

  “Come on over here, girl,” he said in an almost growl, the gold flecks in his eyes glowing bright.

  Well, since he put it that way… “Yes, sir.”

  I sat up and straddled him, centering myself above him. And, with a moan that was much louder than I intended it to be, sank onto him slowly, feeling my walls stretch to accommodate him.

  “Shit, KC...” I whispered with a giggle. He was grinning while biting down on his bottom lip to keep from moaning too loudly.

  “Lemme know when you’re good,” he whispered.

  “Oh, I’m good. I’m real…” I shuddered. “I’m real fucking good right now.”

  KC began to bu
ck his hips in rhythm and time with my movements. Slow, steady. Deeper, deeper. Nothing strenuous. Or loud. At first.

  He fit me like a glove, like he was made for me, filling every void oh-so-well. It was like he knew me, knew my body, how to hit a spot to make me squirm or squeal or bite my lip or roll my eyes; how to make my hips twitch and convulse, how to hold out and when to let go. He was showing off, at that moment.

  Intensity and the pure joy of being with him won out over trying to remember that we were in a twin bed on the men’s side of a University dorm. The headboard tapped against the wall in rhythm with our movements, but I’d stopped hearing it.

  My body moved against his, sweat beading up and dripping and mixing and pooling between us. KC’s breaths came in heavy grunts and short, stuttered gasps. He was shaking, he was so close, and then he was there, tossing his head back, arching up and into me, gripping my hips and squeezing hard, letting out a long, hissing breath. That was all I needed.

  “Uhhhhfuck… I’m coming!”

  “Good for you,” came a male voice from the other side of the wall. “Some of us want to sleep, so wrap it up!”

  I collapsed onto KC’s chest in a fit of giggles. It just slipped out, and kind of loud, the declaration that I had reached the climax of all climaxes with KC, who I’d wanted to give me a climax since I’d met him. But I didn’t care. I would just have to deal with the inevitable teasing.

  Or rather KC would have to deal with it, and something told me he wouldn't mind. He laughed, rubbing my back, muttering in my ear over my moans and deep sighs.

  “Now this whole side of the floor knows I got some.”

  “If it wasn’t so damn good, I wouldn’t have been loud.”

  “I got bragging rights, though.”

  I groaned again, rolling off of him and snuggling up next to him, a leg between his, his arm behind me and curling over my waist.

  “I didn’t ever picture having sex with you, Leslie.”

  “Sure, you didn’t.”

  “I didn’t. I mean, I wasn’t planning on making a move. I didn’t want to like… mess things up with us. But I’m glad you made a move.”

  I rolled my head up, putting my lips in perfect position for a kiss. I imagined a wide, post-sex, hazy grin plastered across my face. “Me too.”

  “And I won the dare, too. Clearly I won all night long.”

  “Congratulations. Are you kicking me out, or can I go to sleep?”

  One arm tightened around me, the other stretched to flip the switch on the light above the desk. “You can’t leave. We don’t know where your panties are.”

  What I thought was the beginning of something wonderful between me and my best friend didn’t turn out to be so wonderful. KC was... different. Distant. I couldn’t get him on the phone for anything. He was never in his room, wouldn’t meet me for lunch, didn’t want to hang out at all. He didn't do anything but sit at the library and go to the gym. When we managed to be in the same room, the air was stilted and stiff, like we weren't close anymore, like we hadn't shared something intimate that was meaningful.

  I was embarrassed. I had ruined what we had and he wanted nothing to do with me.

  A few weeks later, KC asked me to come to his room. I was relieved, thinking that whatever had crawled up his ass since we’d had sex had finally crawled out.

  He was sitting at a small side table that separated his side from Kendrick's side. I'd brought a box of Mike & Ike's, and sat down across from him, hoping that if I acted normal he would, too.

  He started talking, but he wasn’t saying anything sweet. “I wanted to say I’m sorry for not being around. I know I’ve been off the grid for a minute.”

  “Yeah, you have. Is… everything okay with you?”

  He opened his mouth to answer but hesitated. Then he shook his head. “No, actually. I uh… I have some news. And I wanted to make sure to tell you in person before it got around.”

  “Okay.” I poured some candy from the box and popped a few into my mouth. I was disappointed that we weren’t talking about the sex we’d had or how we were going to hang out together a lot now. KC didn’t look like a teenager halfway in love with the girl sitting across from him. But he did look like he needed to talk. I gestured for him to go ahead and tell me whatever it was he had to tell me.

  “Uh, so. I’m… not going to be around much anymore. Well… anymore. I’m packing up and leaving Healy this weekend.”

  “You’re… what? Packing up and…. what?”

  “I’m dropping out, Leslie. I have to go home. I have a chance to enter the NBA draft in June. I need to work out, relax my knee, get ready.”

  “But… if the draft is in June, why do you have to leave now? What about your scholarship? What about this internship we’ve working for all year?”

  He sucked his teeth. “Girl, you can have that internship. You’re winning anyway. I have other things I need to concentrate on. And I want to save my folks some money. My tuition is taken care of but they’re paying my dorm fees and my food plan.”

  “I mean… I don’t understand why you have to do this now? While you’re in college. The draft is every year, right? It’s not like this is the last NBA draft ever, KC.”

  “Might not be the last draft ever, but in three years, who knows what my knee is gonna be doing? I want the chance to play now, while I have a chance, before it gets worse. I’d rather play awhile and retire from NBA than never get the chance to go because my knee went out.”

  I was stunned into utter silence. He talked and talked about his dreams and goals and plans of playing for a pro basketball team. I just stared at him, not believing the words I was hearing.

  “But Les… I want us to stay in touch, you know what I’m saying? I want us to be friends.”

  Friends. After we'd given in to (what I had thought was) a mutual longing and mixed our sweat and joined our bodies and had that... intense experience together… he wanted to be friends.

  All I heard, of course, was ‘being with you was cool and all but it wasn’t enough to make me want to stay here. I don’t want to date you and I’m about to be rich and famous with lots of girls around me but make sure you sit by the phone and wait for me to call.’

  Yeah, no. Fuck all of that and fuck you, Kade Cavanaugh.

  “If you leave Healy, drop out of fucking college where you have a scholarship to do this draft bullshit because you’re too impatient to wait until you graduate….” I sighed, picking up the box of candy I’d been sharing with him and pulling the strap of my backpack over my shoulder. “Don’t bother trying to talk to me. I’m not interested in being your groupie sitting back here at Healy while you’re off being an NBA superstar.”

  His face fell. His expression was so… helpless, almost desperate. He shrugged those big shoulders and quietly said, "Les, I don't know what you want me to say. I have to do this. I thought you would support me on this.”

  “Well, you thought wrong. Have a nice life, baller.”

  And unless it was on TV, I never saw him again until I showed up at Kendrick's house that night.

  It's crazy how life sometimes brings you full circle.

  Or maybe it was just that in this stupidly small town, you couldn't just avoid a person for the rest of your life.

  Chapter Eleven

  Leslie

  * * *

  The recreation center was packed, swarming with people from end to end for the city council meeting. The meeting had been moved, at the last minute, to the gymnasium, much to the chagrin of the youth basketball team. Their regular practice was being pushed back an hour, so they were standing around in gym clothes, shooting death glares at everyone milling about, drinking coffee, slowly moving toward a seat.

  I spotted KC across the room and kept an eye on him, exactly as I had so many years before at the mixer where I had met him. He looked nice in a sport coat, Guys N' Dolls polo shirt and a pair of well-fitting slacks. A few people from his staff were there too, including TC, all wearing
Guys N' Dolls logo shirts and nice pants or jeans.

  Tam and I had come in whatever we'd thrown on to wear to work. Lucky jeans, a fitted blouse and sandals was going to have to work for the Curl & Dye team. Daddy and Pops had, thankfully, changed out of their overalls into short sleeved shirts and jeans. The Jessup brothers were sitting behind us, as were Frank Crawford his sons from Crawford Appliance and Hardware.

  The word must have gotten around town that folks were supposed to show up at tonight's meeting, because a group of people I'd certainly not spoken to were in attendance-- Gerald, owner of the Kwik-E-Mart; Sheila from the Kit Kat Lounge; Ella from Ella's Boutique and about twenty other residents of Potter Lake were loading in and finding seats.

  And, of course Earline, who was none too pleased with me. She'd come in to get her hair done earlier that day, more surly and mean than I’d ever seen her. Tamera did her hair and her brows. Earline paid and walked right out, but not before poking a bony finger in my arm and telling me that I ought to be ashamed of myself.

  “Your mama and Grandy didn't raise you to go against city leaders. I hope you know what you're doing and what you're putting at risk." Then she huffed and, her freshly coiffured head held high, marched right out of my salon.

  Somebody told me that Earline was thinking about moving her standing appointment over to Guys N' Dolls. I laughed and laughed. I really wanted them to mess up her hair and jack up her eyebrows. Really wanted that.

  "Let's get started," Jack Cable, head of the city council announced, taking a seat at the table. "We have a full house and we've allocated time on the agenda to discuss a matter put before us by a member of our community. I want to remind everyone that this is an official proceeding. Minutes are being taken and this meeting is being recorded. We will remain civil and discuss our issues peacefully."

  He paused, taking a breath to look down at his notes, it seemed. Looked more to me like he was bracing himself. "Let us begin with opening prayer, followed by the reading of the minutes from the last meeting and the agenda for tonight's meeting."