Romance: Close Encounters Boxed Set Books 1 thru 6 ( New Adult and College Series Books 1 thru 6) (19 page)

SEVENTEEN

~CLARISSA~

Ken and Jake bring down their dining table so we can seat eight. The four of us manage to get a decent dinner on the table and our men seem happy to have a home cooked meal. We’re having a good time, joking and laughing, keeping things light and fun. I pause for a moment and look at each of my roommates and the men they’ve chosen for themselves. All of them are nice guys, even Jake, the bad boy of the group. He has been a pleasant surprise. Good for Kara, she seems really happy, all my roommates seem really happy, myself included. Jason catches me looking at everyone and offers me his warm smile.

“The food is great babe,” he says, rubbing my back. He’s such a sweetheart and he makes my heart sing. Things are so good between us. It took us awhile to get here, but I’m glad to have him in my life.

“Okay does everyone have their fake ID’s to get into Club Zero?” Deena asks, ever the corruptor. We all nod yes, except for Lexi.

“I don’t have a fake ID?” Lexi says dejectedly.

“You and Clarissa look alike, just use hers. Do your hair the same and you will have no problem passing for her,” Deena says, solving the problem. Lexi and I look at each other.

“She’s right. I’ve always thought we could pass for sisters,” Lexi says with a smile.

“You guys totally could,” Troy says in agreement.

“Well, I take that as a compliment because Lexi is adorable,” I say, smiling back at her.

“You both are adorable,” Jason chimes in.

“You guys are nauseating you know that,” Deena says with a laugh and Jason leans over and kisses me just to irritate her even more.

The girls leave the table to go and change into our club going dresses. I’m wearing a Herve Leger Bandage dress in black, his dresses make me feel so sexy.

“Do you think this dress is too much?” I ask Deena with a twirl.

“You rock that dress girl,” Deena says. When I walk out into the living room, all of us are wearing black dresses.

Jason comes up to me in the kitchen.

“You look amazing in that dress Clarissa,” he says, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing the back of my neck.

“Thank you,” I say eating up the compliment. Jason makes me feel like the sexiest girl around. Grant used to also, why am I thinking about him just now?

Lexi, Troy and I pile into Jason’s G-Wagon and Ken drives Kara and Jake and we follow each other to Club Zero, which is in Hollywood. I love driving down the Sunset Strip, it’s outside of my bubble world and I like the seediness of it. We pull into Club Zero’s valet area and as the valet opens my door he looks straight up my skirt.

“Good evening and welcome,” he greets me. We’re able to bypass the line because Jason’s family knows the owner. Once inside we make our way through the sea of bodies, to the VIP tables toward the back. We all scoot into the high back circular booth and order our drinks from the scantily clad server who eyes our men admiringly. I watch the guys to see who checks out her cleavage and not a single one does. They’re behaving like such gentlemen with class and decorum, how very impressive of them.
I Need Your Love
by Elle Goulding starts and I have to dance.

“Jason,” I call across the table and point to the dance floor. He gives me a smile and we walk out to the dance floor and work our way out to the middle. There are lots of hot bodies out here, and Jason gets up close and personal as he grinds on me and I shake what I’ve got. His hands are on me, touching me everywhere and I love it. It’s so dark in here, no one notices when his hand is up my dress and in my panties. He’s my naughty boy.

“Stop,” I yell into his ear and he can barely hear me as a wicked smile plays across his gorgeous face and I kiss it off. Our tongues dance along with our bodies. My hand goes to his crotch and just as I suspected he has a raging hard on. I look at him and laugh. The song changes to a slow one.  And he pulls me close so I can now feel his arousal pressing against my belly.

“I love you.” Did I just hear right? I’m not sure if he just said he loves me. I don’t react, I play like I didn’t hear him, I’m really not sure if that’s what he said, plus I’m not ready to say it back. Why you ask? Grant still crosses my mind from time to time, that’s why. I keep my eyes closed. The song ends and we pull apart and I won’t make eye contact with Jason. I know, I’m acting weird, I just didn’t expect it, that’s all. He leads me by the hand back to our table.

“I need a drink,” I say once we get back to the table and sit down. Only Lexi and Troy are seated, the others must be on the dance floor. I can feel Jason looking at me curiously. To be honest, I’m freaking out a little.

“I need to go to the ladies room,” I announce to the table standing up.

“I’ll go with you,” Lexi says, standing up too.

“This is a cool club. Are you having fun?” Lexi asks as we’re standing in front of the mirror checking our hair and make-up.

“I’m not sure if I heard right, but I think Jason just told me he loved me on the dance floor,” I sigh out.

“Wow, why are you acting less than thrilled about it?” Lexi questions.

“I’m not ready to say it back,” I clip out.

“Oh,” is all Lexi says.

“I still think about my secret lover,” I say, turning and looking her straight in the eye.

“Have you had any contact with him?”

“No, he stopped texting and calling me,” I say, although little does she know I see him practically every day in class.

“You’re over him, right?”

“I guess,” I reply softly.

“That didn’t sound very convincing,” Lexi says.

“I know, but it’s definitely over. It has to be,” I say wistfully, but I feel a twinge of something inside me. I think it’s a pain in my heart.

“You need to follow your heart Clarissa,” sweet Lexi tells me.

“It’s not that simple for me. Let’s head back to the table.” I say, scooting her towards the door. Once we return to the table, Jason and Troy are standing up and they signal for us to go dance. I get out there and get lost in the music and have a good time with Jason and my friends. By 1:00 in the morning we are starting to yawn and ready to call it a night. Deena’s going to stay at Ken’s tonight, so Jason can stay at my place. I rarely ever want to spend the night at that frat house, especially since I know Jason slept with Nicole in that bed, gross.

I slip into my nighty and crawl into bed and Jason strips himself nude and squeezes into my twin size bed with me.

“That was fun, did you have a good time?” he asks.

“I always have a good time when I’m dancing,” I reply. He tips my chin towards him and kisses me deeply as he moves on top of me.

“Did you hear what I said to you on the dance floor tonight?” he asks softly. I was hoping he wouldn’t.

“I wasn’t sure I heard right,” I reply.

“You did, and your body tensed. Your whole demeanor changed for the rest of the night,” he says and I can hear the hurt in his voice.

“I’m sorry Jason, I’m close, but just not quite ready to say it back,” I say as I caress his face with my hand.

“No need to apologize. If you’re not feeling it yet, you’re not feeling it. I won’t push it,” he says. Now I feel bad.

“I care deeply for you and I love being with you,” is the best I can offer right now.

“I can be happy with you caring deeply for me, for the time being,” he says, offering me a smile. I can’t say those three words until I know in my heart that I mean it. He rolls onto his back and pulls me close. No more words are said between us as we drift off to sleep.

*****

At the end of the sixty days, none of us met the challenge, not even Deena! Deena and Ken seem to have settled in together. I don’t see her having hook ups anymore, or stumbling into our room in the middle of the night with some random hunky guy. That never happened again, thank goodness. Although one afternoon she walked in on Jason and I while he was still roaming around our room in his birthday suit and had to drop to the floor to hide his privates behind my bed! It was actually pretty funny. Then one evening Jason and I came back after dinner and when I walked into my bedroom, Kara and Jake were in there half undressed. I guess Lexi was using their room with Troy so they thought they would use my room for their sexy time. We all just laughed about it. I’m not sure if Deena and Ken have made any kind of commitment to each other, I don’t even bother asking her anymore. Who would have ever thought that this group of hunky
Close Encounter
worthy guys would ‘settle down’ so to speak. Even within our foursome, Deena tried to corrupt us into her way of thinking, which may be common around campus, but Kara, Lexi and I just couldn’t go through with it in the end. I’m actually thinking of hiring a cleaning lady to come in every two weeks, maybe we can all chip in to pay for her, anything so I don’t have to clean, I hate cleaning!

~~To be Continued~~

~~In Close Encounters 6~~

New Adult and College Romance Series

Book 6

C.C. Cartwright

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Copyright © 2015 by C. C. Cartwright

Cover Design by Louisa Maggio of LM Creations

ONE

~CLARISSA~

It is such a relief to have the Close Encounters Challenge behind us. We have found a cleaning lady who comes in every two weeks and it works out perfectly.

Jason and I are still going strong. I haven’t communicated with Professor Montgomery since our last phone call. But I can’t help noticing a perky coed in class who walks up to his desk every other day after class to ask for ‘help’. I wonder if he will proposition her. For all I know, maybe they’re already sleeping together. I try to read their body language, but I can’t tell, plus I don’t want to make it obvious that I’m staring at them.

Jason is taking me down to his house in Emerald Bay for the weekend. Troy and Lexi are coming down tomorrow.

While we’re there his parents show up unexpectedly right when we’re dragging ourselves out of bed on Saturday morning. They almost hear us, but luckily we had just finished having our morning love session. Jason left the bedroom to go to the kitchen and make us some coffee and I barely let him leave, I was ready for more sexy time. It’s a good thing he got away from me or else his parents might have heard us! Once he got out there, within five minutes I heard some voices, so I listened by the door and realized it was his Mom and Dad. Shit, I would hope the first time I met them it would be under better circumstances, but I brush my teeth, fix my hair and put on some make up and try to look presentable before I walk out of the bedroom.

“My parents are here babe,” Jason says coming up to me in the bathroom.

“I know, I could hear from the door,” I say.

“It’s okay, I just told them you were here with me and they want to meet you,” he says sweetly as he comes up to wrap me in a hug.

“I had hoped our first meeting wouldn’t be so awkward Jason. Did you know they were coming?”

“I had absolutely no idea.”

“You don’t think they heard us earlier? I would be mortified.”

“No, they just walked in as I was making us coffee. Come on out when you’re ready,” he says giving me a peck on the lips. I take one last look at myself before walking out to the scrutiny and appraisal from his parents. Here goes nothing.

“Mom, Dad this is my girlfriend Clarissa. Clarissa this is my Mom and Dad,” Jason says by way of introduction. I can feel his mother eye me from head to toe before she offers me a warm smile that I return.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, it’s a pleasure to meet you both,” I say with a sweet smile as I walk over and shake each of their hands.

“Clarissa, it’s nice to finally meet you. We’ve heard such wonderful things about you from Jason,” his mother says warmly and his father just smiles and nods his head in agreement. His parents are just how I imagined they would be, casually elegant. I’ve seen the family pictures up around the house.

“What brings you guys down here?” Jason asks as we all sit down in the family room.

“We wanted to go to Roger’s Garden for a few things and thought we would stop in and check on the house,” his Dad says.

“We drove down last night and Troy and his girlfriend are coming this morning and then we’re heading down to the beach,” Jason says.

“We haven’t seen Troy in a while, he has a girlfriend now?”

“He’s dating Clarissa’s roommate Lexi,” Jason offers.

“Oh how nice. Well we’ll be off then and leave you kids to enjoy the beach,” his Dad says standing up and his Mom follows suit. I guess they want to give their son his privacy to ‘play house’ with his girlfriend. They act pretty cool about it all. We walk them out to their car and say our goodbyes.

“That was a little awkward,” I say once we’re back in the kitchen and Jason is pouring us some coffee.

“I know, I’m sorry. I had no idea they were coming by this morning. If it’s any consolation, I’m sure they liked you babe,” Jason says as he leans against the center island without a shirt on looking so damn sexy.

“I’m sure they could tell we had been you know,” I say raising my eyebrows and going up to him and pressing my body against his. He pulls me into his growing manhood.

“I don’t think I’m finished with you,” Jason says putting his mug on the counter. He looks lustfully into my eyes as I place my mug on the counter next to his. I lean into his hard chiseled body and press my hand to his arousal and give it a squeeze. I drop to my knees as I pepper kisses down his chest and continue lower down his abs to his treasure trail.

“Damn Clarissa,” Jason sighs out looking down at me with a sinful smirk.

The next thing we know, the doorbell rings and then they start knocking.

“Shit, that must be Troy and Lexi. You can finish me later,” Jason says wickedly as I stand up and he pulls up his boxers. He gives me a quick kiss and heads to the front door. I pick up my coffee mug and follow him, thinking what a naughty girl I’ve become.