The Challenge (14 page)

He kissed down along my neck, and worked his tongue over nipples, making them hard. Henry sucked and licked my nipples until I thought I was going to melt into the sheets. He didn't stay there long, however, before he worked his way down to my belly. This was brand new to me, as David had never done that. I didn't know how I'd react, but as soon as his tongue started moving against my clit, I stopped thinking for a second.

Dear God, is there anything this man can't do with that tongue of his? I gasped and moaned as he continued to alternatively lick and suck on my clit. I made a mental note to ask Henry later if he was some kind of wizard. It was either that, or I had really, REALLY bad taste in men before him. God, I loved what he's doing! I felt myself beginning to lose control as his tongue continued to swirl around and around. Henry stuck a finger deep inside of me just as I climaxed. My head exploded with stars and I felt like I was going to black out for a second.

"How was that?" Henry asked me.

All I could think about was having his cock inside of me.

"Okay, too much waiting," I said, grabbing his still clothed shoulders, well aware that the only thing I had on now was my socks. I pulled him up and kissed him, before flipping him onto his back, and straddling his waist.

"Uh...Kris,"

"What?"

"I don't...umm...have..."

"Silly little English boy!" I said, leaning down. I kissed his ear, before whispering, "You really think I'd date a hornball and not be on the pill?" With that, I moved backwards and lowered myself onto him. He felt better than I imagined as he slide his huge cock slowly into me. Henry's hands remained on my waist for a while, but after finding a pace both of us were comfortable with, he let go. We started making passionate love, both of us moaning and panting as the tempo picked up.

This sweet, delicious act made me feel a sudden rush of gratitude towards Lauren. If she hadn't broken up with Henry, I wouldn't be here with him having the best sex I've ever had. I should send her flowers, I thought with a smile.

Everything seemed to go into slow motion after we both exploded at the same time. I wasn't even aware of falling asleep after Henry lay down next to me, with his arms wrapped lovingly around me. Then the phone rang, and that made me open my eyes. I looked over to see Henry standing a few feet away, naked, talking on the phone. His back was to me.

"She's sort of...asleep," Henry said. "Well, I gave her the tour, and then we sat down, and she fell asleep after a while." He turned around and jumped. Guess he didn't think I'd be awake. "Oh...umm...she's awake now." He held the phone away, and covered the bottom. "It's your uncle."

"Of course it is," I muttered, holding out my hand. He handed me the phone, then sat down on the bed next to me, as I sat up. "Hey, Uncle Ethan."

"You realize you two have been gone about three hours now?" Ethan said.

"Really?" I replied. I looked at Henry, and he suddenly had that mischievous look on his face again. He pressed a finger to his lips, before moving closer and removing the blanket from me.

"Kristina, are you listening?" Ethan suddenly asked.

"What? Oh sorry," I said. How could I be listening to my uncle, as Henry leaned over and began kissing my neck, occasionally licking or nipping at me. If that wasn't bad enough, he also was doing what he did to start this whole thing. I bit my lip to stop from moaning.

"Well, you should be coming back soon," Ethan said.

"I should?" I asked. God...how dumb do I sound?

"What are you doing?" Ethan asked, suddenly suspicious.

"Nothing," I said, trying to push Henry off. "I'll be back in a while, I promise," hanging up the phone quickly. "God dammit, Henry! You almost got me into trouble."

"Aw, poor baby," Henry teased, looking at me. I opened my mouth to say something, but he suddenly swooped down and kissed me. That little...He knew I would say something! Okay, okay, thinking abilities gone again.

I THINK I finally realized the meaning of happiness, not complete happiness, mind you, but a sense of peace. If it wasn't for school, then I would have complete happiness.

As it was, a week after Henry and I returned from our cottages, we were sitting out in the courtyard with our friends and all the girls were sitting on their boyfriends' laps. I was half asleep, relaxing my head against Henry's shoulder. His arms were wrapped around and, more than ever, I felt protected. Henry made me feel like a belonged to something bigger than myself and I believe I truly did. But with the good came the bad and these new emotions brought out ancient ones that tore at my heart long before I met Henry. Part of my attention focused on the sound of his heart beating and the other part dealt with the inner battle I was having.

Should I tell Henry my secret? He deserved to know. I was just afraid of what he'd do. I really didn't know the whole truth behind that fight, but I'm pretty sure if Henry knew the whole truth, he might actually kill David. I shivered. Sure...the jackass deserved it, but if Henry killed him then he would be thrown in jail and I would never see him again!

"You okay?" Henry whispered. He must have felt me shiver.

"Yeah...I'm fine," I whispered back, tilting my head up to look at him.

He kissed my forehead and turned his attention back to everyone else. It was such a great thing that he readily accepted things as they happened. He may not have wanted to sometimes, but apart from that time when he was drunk and found out about the David incident, or part of it at least, he hadn't pushed me into telling him anything if I felt too uncomfortable about it.

"Hey, Kris," Lena said. I lifted my head and looked at her. "Are we still doing the girls' night tonight?"

"So far as I know, unless you've all got other plans," I said.

"I'm in," Henry said.

"Are you a girl now, princess?" I asked.

"No."

"Then you're not allowed."

"Yeah, man. Besides, we gotta get that paper tonight," Curtis said.

I had completely forgotten about the guys all working at the same place. Even though I spent so much time with Henry, it just didn't seem like he actually had a job sometimes.

"Right...work," Henry acknowledged. He dropped his head onto my shoulder. "You'd think working at a club means you could get pissed all the time. I haven't had a bloody drink there, yet!"

"We're too busy serving to actually drink anything ourselves," James said.

I smiled and shared a glance with Lena. I knew what she was thinking just from the look on her face. We were going to bug the guys tonight. The look on their faces when we showed up to get shitfaced without them would be priceless.

My amusement was soon smothered at the sight of Lauren and David. After they had broken up, people rarely saw them together. Now they were together and talking. Lauren had her arms crossed and kept stealing glances at us. I didn't like the look on her face and I shifted a bit closer to Henry. His arms tightened around me, so I assumed he noticed them, too.

HENRY

GOD, WORKING WAS a bloody bore! I don't know why I even agreed to get this job with the guys. I looked down at the different bottles of booze. Oh yeah, that was why. Well, now I'd changed my mind because it was cutting into my time with Kris. Who would have known that going away for a weekend could do so much good?

"Henry, quit thinking about your girlfriend and serve!" Mark ordered me.

Right...my job. I went back to serving a small group of businessmen, occasionally looking around to spot someone from school. It wasn't until I had gone on break that I noticed that Lauren was there-and she looked pretty damn good. I hated myself for thinking that

. Another thing I noticed was that there were a lot of guys around her, but she seemed to be ignoring them. Actually, she was looking at me and I had the sinking feeling that the little minx's intentions were bad.

This would to be the point where any normal guy in a good relationship would make it his goal to avoid the ex. God help me...I was trying to keep that goal. I really was.

At around ten that night, I was surprised to see Kris and the girls in the club. They must have been there for a bit because Lauren had already sniffed Kris out and was gawking at her. Kris avoided looking at her and wondered over to the bar.

"Hey, Kris!" Lukas said, "I thought you had a girls' night planned."

"That doesn't mean we can't come bug you guys," Kris teased. "Do you know where Henry might be?"

"He's on break," Curtis informed her. "He's probably around somewhere."

I smiled as I listened in on their conversation from around the corner.

"Ok...I'll search," Kris said. "Thanks." She turned around and made her way through the crowd.

I figured I'd let her look for a bit before I graced her with my presence.

"Hey, Baby."

I turned, expecting to maybe see Kris there. The smile on my face faded when I saw Lauren standing behind me. Then I began praying that Kris didn't see her talking to me. "What do you want, Lauren?" I asked.

"I just wanted to talk to you," Lauren said, pouting.

"Well, go on then."

"I miss you, baaaaaby. Come backs to me," Lauren giggled. She was obviously drunk.

In all honesty, this had been what I originally wanted. As I looked at her, I remembered the time I had spent with her. We had been together for almost two years. Then I started remembering the girl I was currently with: the way she smiled, how great she looked when she wasn't even trying and how I wanted to comfort her whenever she looked uncomfortable about something.

"Lauren, the times we had were great," I said. Lauren smiled. "But I've got Kris now."

"You'll never love her the way you loved me," Lauren implored, her smile failing.

"Yeah...I know. I don't really think it's possible to love two people the same way." I ignored the look on Lauren's face. "What we had is in the past. I think the only place where we actually worked out was back in England."

Lauren probably would have snapped. She would have gone mental. She would have yelled and screamed and stomped and demanded to know what the stupid little blonde had that she didn't. She would have done all of these things, but unbeknownst to me she had seen Kris just a few feet away. A wicked smile crossed her face and she quickly replaced it with a resolved look.

"Okay, fine," Lauren resigned herself. I looked at her in surprise. "But...can I have just...one more kiss. For old time's sake? Please?"

I shouldn't. I knew I shouldn't. But she was promising to leave me alone. Kris wasn't there. The guys were all at the bar. There was no one to really know.

"Fine," I agreed, finally. Lauren smiled and put an arm around my neck. She stood on her tip toes and kissed me. I didn't mean to, but I started thinking of all the kisses we had shared. Then my mind was flooded with all the kisses I had shared with Kris, and without even thinking, I started kissing back.

KRIS

I TOLD LENA what I saw at the bar. Why wouldn't I? She had the right to know why I suddenly left. She had the right to know why I was ready to kill someone. She had the right to know why I had spent the night crying until I was out of tears.

"I'm gonna kill him!" Lena shouted. "No...I'm going to torture him to the brink of death, but not let him die."

"No!" I yelled. "Stop! It was just a deal. He got what he wanted. Sure it was a great three months, but...it's over."

"You seriously cannot be fine with this," Lena said in disbelief.

"Sure," I lied. "Can we just not talk about this?" I asked and she let it go.

The weekend passed too quickly for my liking. I talked Uncle Ethan into letting me stay at Grandma's place. It was a lot easier to avoid Henry there than at home. Monday was a problem, though. I called Lukas and Lena early and asked them for a ride, but instead of waiting, I walked over to their place. Lukas was confused and I'm sure he could tell something had happened, but he didn't ask questions. We got to school early and I was relieved that Henry's car wasn't there yet. He'd be there soon, though, and he'd be mad too. I had ignored all his calls over the weekend and finally just turned off my phone after I lost count of how many times he called.

"What are you gonna do?" Lena whispered as we walked towards homeroom. I had successfully avoided Henry, but he would be sitting beside me soon.

"Ignore him," I offered as a suggestion.

"Good luck with that!" Lena replied.

When we got to the classroom, the door was locked, meaning that Mr. Blackmore was late. Henry had showed up and was talking with James as they were leaned against the wall next to the door. Lena took my hand and squeezed it.

"Hey, Girls, where have you been all morning?" James asked.

"Oh, just walking around," Lena said.

"Since when do you actually walk around the school?" James asked. He was teasing, of course.

"How's your grandma doing?" Henry asked with an err of caution in his voice.

I raised an eyebrow.

Henry shrugged. "Your uncle said you were there all weekend."

I caved and told him she was improving, but kept it brief.

"Umm...oh look, Mr. Blackmore!" Lena said in an attempt to snuff the awkwardness.

I don't know how she did it, but Lena managed to convince the teacher to let her switch spots with Henry. He was now three seats in front of me and to the left. I looked at Lena and mouthed 'Thank you'. She just smiled slightly, even though she looked almost as uneasy as me.

I was free from Henry for the next period. Then lunch rolled around. Everyone sat in their normal spots, except I made it so Henry had to sit across from me at an angle. Sam was directly across from me and Henry was next to her. I avoided looking at him and was thankful for the loud noise so I didn't have to hear his stupid accent. Somehow I was able to go through the entire lunch period without talking to him, albeit I could barely eat anything-nothing could feed the pit of despair that plagued my stomach.

"You gonna be okay?" Lena asked as I walked her to her next class. I had a free period before Drama.