Nic's Devotion: An Endless Series: Book One (11 page)

     But again, I wasn’t sure what I did want from her. 

     Right now I enjoyed spending time with her which was
something completely out of the norm for me. My only enjoyment from any chick
generally consisted of twenty to thirty minutes of sexual pounding relief,
after that I couldn’t wait to get away from them, but Carrie called to more
than just my lust. Hell, just holding her hand made me happier than I’d ever
been, and that scared the shit out of me. Maybe that was why I didn’t want to
look into my feelings all that deeply.

     Groupies and other girls continued to pursue me. Nikki
and that chick from the parking lot―I still couldn’t remember her
name―were around everywhere letting me know that they were ready for the
next round anytime. I wasn’t interested though, and my dick was only half hard
in their presence, and that was only because I walked around half hard all day
from my thoughts about Carrie. She was becoming an obsession and my incessant
lust wasn’t going to be appeased until I had her under me…and me in her.

     However, from the beginning I knew she wasn’t
experienced and was even somewhat uneasy with being touched, so I managed my
lust; hiding my hard-on’s and taking care of them at the house. I just hadn’t
figured out if her wariness was because she was completely innocent or if
something bad had happened to her…that second thought always sent anger burning
through me…for that reason I’d been using the time each night to touch her as
often as I could hoping to get her accustomed to me. It was something I needed
from her. I wanted her completely at ease with me, and hell, I wanted—needed—to
touch her all the time. I kept them casual and innocent; a stroke to her face,
a rub to her shoulder, and I held her hand every night during the drive.

     I should get a damn medal for being able to control my
hunger for her. Every morning this week I’d woken in torment with a throbbing
erection from dreaming about her. Well, except for that one morning when I’d
reverted back to high school and jizzed myself awake. What a mess!

     Consequently, I pushed my lust to the back of my mind
as best I could and simply took pleasure in our platonic friendship. It was a
first for me and particularly difficult and painful at times since she wrung
such a visceral reaction from me, but I was an athlete so difficult and painful
weren’t new things to me.

     Inside the cafeteria Carrie grabbed some soup, bread,
and water while I grabbed a sandwich and water. I had already eaten earlier,
but this was a good late night snack. Carrie added a few cookies to her order
with a smile my way. We then sat with our food and talked about our classes. I
found out her school schedule and made an offhanded comment that Tuesday,
Wednesday and Friday we had the same hours free during the afternoon and low
and behold it was around lunch time. She grinned, but then grimaced explaining
that normally her lunches were spent working for one of her Professor’s grading
and filing, but then she brightened and said that Wednesday’s were typically
free with a Tuesday now and then.

     Damn, this girl had a full schedule. If she lived on
campus so many of her money problems would disappear. From the comments she
made it sounded like she paid for a lot of things that would be free if she
took full advantage of her scholarship.

     She never talked about her mother or father. In fact,
from her reaction Saturday I surmised that there was something possibly dark in
regards to the story of him. However, I wasn’t going to press her on either of
them because it wasn’t like I talked about my parent’s. Shit, if her parents
were anything like mine I totally understood her avoidance of the subject.

     “I’ve been racking my brain and I think I’ve found
something interesting enough to pull you away from your homework, and it took
me all of two minutes.” We had finished eating and were heading back to the
truck.  

     Carrie gave me a look as I opened the truck door and
helped her in. “As long as two, wow.” She responded drolly.

     I smiled loving it when she gave me attitude. “Yes,
well, it was a difficult decision based on the importance of your education.”

     “I appreciate the concern.” She replied pseudo
seriously. Giving her a grin I shut the door and jogged around to the driver’s
side.

     “So, what did you come up with…to do, that is?” Carrie
asked tentatively as I climbed in and started the truck. Although her tone was
diffident her expression was wide open displaying acute curiosity.

     “I thought we’d go to Theater Park.” I pulled out of
the parking spot.

     Carrie frowned. “What’s Theater Park?”

     I threw her a shocked look. “You’ve never heard of
Theater Park. It’s one of the most popular attractions in Charlottesville. I’d
thought everyone had heard of it. How could you live in Charlottesville and not
know about Theater Park? It was almost sacrilegious.” I shook my head in
appalled denial. 

     “I’ve only been here three years, but even so I haven’t
even heard the name in passing that I remember. What is it?” Carrie asked again
in confusion. 

     “It’s not far from here, and now I want it to be a
surprise for you.” I turned north at the end of Campus Drive. It took about
twenty minutes to get there and during that time Carrie and I filled the
silence on the music we liked. I found out she didn’t like any specific genre.
Her likes ranged from some country songs, to oldies, to pop, to rock. I told
her that I was wholly against country and most pop, and that I liked certain
classic oldies, but that alternative and rock were what I liked best. Carrie
said that alternative was her least favorite.

     At her statement I had to hook up my phone to the truck
radio to let her hear some of what I liked. She suffered with a smile through
segments of several songs before she finally admitted to a partiality to one
but it was only for the music and not the vocals. I lamented at her lack of
taste which had her laughing. 

     We’d reached our destination and I found a surprisingly
prime parking spot on the road in front of the Park. Grabbing my skull cap from
the back seat I pulled it on my head and then reached over tugging Carrie’s
beanie cap lower over her ears. She still wore it constantly and I realized it
was another way she hid and protected herself. However, I was able to take
pleasure in some of her hair which I did by stroking my fingers down the glossy
black braid that trailed over her shoulder.   

     “Put your gloves on.” I instructed doing the same.

     “Bossy.” She mumbled.

     Grinning, I took Carrie’s hand as we exited the truck
and led her into the park; I had never been a hand holding guy until I met her.

     “Are you warm enough?” I asked.

     “At the moment, but I’m not sure how long that will
last.” She answered with a grin. Her cheeks were already getting pink from the
chill.

     “Yeah, you don’t seem like you’re all that thick
skinned.” I commented teasingly.

     She laughed and I thought it sounded kind of strained.
“It depends what I need it for, but I have to admit that the cold penetrates
rather quickly.”

     “We’ll only be here for about thirty minutes.” I stated
pulling her closer to my side.

     There were quite a few people milling around even with
the temperature in the thirties. As we neared the center of the park music and
other sounds could be heard. Carrie gave me a curious look as they began to
reach her ears. Moving around a bend we came upon the first entertainment.

     “Oh, my gosh.” Carrie exclaimed with a delighted and
dazzling smile.

     Theater Park was a place people went to watch
individuals showcase whatever talents they had, a sort of America’s Got Talent.
The park was free, but each act had a donation box people could drop money in.

     The first performance we came up on consisted of a
couple guys doing some crazy martial art dancing; their arms, legs, and heads
doing movements that seemed totally impossible. Carrie and I watched them for
about five minutes before I moved her on to the next act, but not before
dropping a couple dollars in the donation box when Carrie wasn’t watching.

     The next act was a guy performing magic tricks; from
card tricks to sleight of hand, like pulling dollar bills out of people’s
wallets with his name written on it. That shit was just eerie. And even though
Carrie was almost entirely covered I saw the guys gaze light on her and then he
made a beeline straight for her. He looked a couple years older than me and was
somewhat good-looking, and I stood stiffly and possessively at Carrie’s side as
the guy had her write her name on a piece of paper, burn it, then seconds later
he opened up a brand new bag of potato chips pulling the same piece of paper
out of the bag. I didn’t like the attention he was showing Carrie, but even I
couldn’t deny the trick was impressive, and Carrie loved it. 

     She gasped in shock and enchantment smiling crazily
which only made her more beautiful. I watched the guy blink dazedly, shake his
head, and then proceed to ask for her help in performing another trick. Rolling
my eyes internally I gritted my teeth in annoyance at his continued attention
but remained silent since she was finding it so entertaining. Once he was done
with the second trick though I moved us along to the next attraction. I really
didn’t like other guys fawning over her, but I knew it was something that would
happen a lot because she was just too gorgeous to overlook. And even though I
disliked the guy on principle I dropped five bucks in his donation box for
making her smile. 

     After thirty minutes and several more acts I asked
Carrie if she was ready to leave, but she said she wanted to keep going if it
was all right with me. The expressive look of pleasure on her face made it
difficult to deny her request even though I could see that the cold was getting
to her. So we continued through the park to another attraction, but after
another fifteen minutes her shivering was too difficult for me to ignore and I
led her back to the truck. I hated seeing the disappointment on her face at
having to leave, but the girls’ lips were almost entirely blue and quivering
from the cold.

     Tucking her back in the truck I started the engine and
blasted the heat. Reaching over I removed her gloves and rubbed her ice cold
hands between mine. I gave her a stern look. “We should have gotten you out of
the weather earlier. You’re like ice and shaking from the cold.”

     “I…it waasss s…soo mmmuchh fun though.” She said
shakily her gaze focused on my hands warming hers.

     Without a single thought otherwise I said. “I promise
I’ll bring you back anytime you want.”

     Her bright blue eyes lifted to mine. The look in them
took a hold of something inside my chest and wouldn’t let go. I didn’t want it
to. It was an expression of both hope and disillusionment. It said: she wanted
to believe me but she wasn’t going to put too much of her faith in my promise.
It was weird that I could decipher what her look expressed, but there it was
plain as day. Maybe the reason I could read it so well was because I’d seen the
look too many times to count in my own mirror growing up; hoping for something
from my parents yet never receiving it.

     Whatever disappointment she’d suffered had left a mark.
I didn’t want to add to it. “I promise.” I repeated forcefully.

     She seemed to study my eyes for a moment and then
nodded. I knew she would never ask me to bring her back, just like she never
asked me for a ride or anything else, but I made a vow to myself that I would
bring her back so that she would never doubt my promises to her. She would
never doubt me.

     Carrie’s hands had warmed so I reluctantly released
them and put the truck in gear. We rode in silence back to her apartment and
the closer we got the tenser I became. A question was weighing on my mind and I
was uncertain on how to approach Carrie about it.

     As I put the truck in park in front of Carrie’s
apartment she unbuckled her seatbelt and shifted to face me. “Thank you again
for the ride, Nic, and for taking me to the park. It was one of the most
enjoyable things I’ve done in a long time outside of water.” 

     My lip curled at her reference to water. That was high
praise indeed with everything she’d told me about her love of water.

     “Carrie, I was wondering if you would want to come
watch the team’s home scrimmage game tomorrow at eleven? If you’re not working
that is.”

     Complete silence met my rushed inquiry for several
seconds and I actually started to sweat. Damn! I’d never asked anyone to one of
my games before and it was more difficult than I thought…the asking as well as
the waiting for an answer. Hell, I wasn’t accustomed to asking anyone for
anything, but I’d put myself out there more for Carrie in the last week than I
had for anyone else in my life since my parents. 

     Carrie voice finally broke the laden silence. “We are
switching up Saturday’s. Since I had the morning shift last Saturday I have to
work the night shift this Saturday, and that doesn’t start until three.”

     My shoulders loosened. “So you want to go?” 

     She nodded and smiled enthusiastically. “Yeah, I’d love
to go.”

     I was getting that fucking jittery feeling in my chest
again. “The team has to be there at ten. I could pick you up and you could sit
with Noah’s girlfriend. You’d like her; she’s pretty cool for a girl.”

     Carrie smiled hesitantly at my joke. “Okay…that sounds
good. She won’t mind?”

     I noticed the slight uncertainty in her response
telling me she was nervous about meeting someone new. I hadn’t been lying when
I’d said Amanda was a pretty cool girl. She was one of the nicest girls I knew,
real and unpretentious, completely unlike the many other females that hung
around. I had a feeling she would get along with Carrie like a house on fire.