Unbroken Promises (26 page)

She could have sworn she saw desire in his eyes for her. Beth knew Jesse would have never allowed himself to feel or think lustful thoughts toward her if he didn’t see her as a woman. She truly believed that night was going to be the beginning of a new relationship between them.

The part of the old verse that asked if the Ethiopian can change his skin or a leopard his spots led her to question whether Jesse would ever change his ways. He loved women. He may always be a womanizer. Heck, he’d probably screw a snake if he could find a way to hold its head down. As for as Beth was concerned, Becky was as close to a snake as it gets.

“Oh well,” she was tired of thinking about everything. She could tell the drink Cody brought her was making her feel lightheaded. It had a soothing effect, one she welcomed. Maybe it would help her frazzled nerves.

Clay stood up and offered her his hand. She took it and he pulled her up for a long hug.

They pulled apart when they heard clapping all around them. Beth blushed as she looked up at Clay. He looked about the same as she felt, all dreamy looking.

He just grinned and said, “Let’s get away from all these eyes.” Beth couldn’t help but wonder what everyone was going to think when they walked into the tent together. For a brief moment, she wished Jesse were here to watch her walk in there with Clay—just to make him jealous. Beth hoped the threats Jesse made her meant he was worried about losing her. She hoped it wasn’t just because he thought he was losing his little admirer and it hurt his ego.

Beth grabbed Clay’s hand as they walked across the gritty sand and into the illuminated tent.

Clay had left a lantern lit for them so it wouldn’t be dark when they came back. Beth had been afraid it would burn the tent down, but he assured her it would be fine.

He held out his arms and she went into them willingly. He kissed her lips softly and then her forehead before he hugged her again.

“For months I’ve fantasized about having you in my bed and now all I want to do is go to sleep,” Clay joked.

Beth started giggling. “I know; I’m sleepy, too. Cody said that drink would knock our lights out. There’s no telling what was put in them.”

Clay turned out the lantern. Then he gently pulled Beth down beside him on the sleeping bags and cuddled up next to her from behind as they both fell into a deep sleep.

When Jesse saw them get up and hug each other while everyone watched, he wanted to go over and tear them apart. He couldn’t stand Clay’s hands on Beth much longer.

After he saw that they were heading toward the tent, he went ahead and got out of the jeep and walked barefooted across the still warm sand to the place where he had made a slit in the green canvas tent earlier. A strong breeze from the ocean dried the sweat that had formed on his forehead and thankfully blew away the pesky mosquitoes that were using him for dinner. He would give Clay and Beth a few minutes to go into a deep sleep. But, if he saw Clay fondle her, he was going in ahead of time. If he had to, he’d carry her out over his shoulder, screaming and crying but he wasn’t going to let that jerk fondle her.

Jesse didn’t have to wait or witness too much before the doctored punch took over and they cuddled up and went to sleep.

Jesse slipped inside then. It was dark but the light from the campfire made it possible for him to see the different shapes within the tent. He quietly and carefully felt his way to the pallet.

Jesse grabbed Clay’s arm and rolled him away from Beth. He didn’t want to waste any time because anything could go wrong. One of their friends could decide to sleep inside with them.

He had dreamed of being with Beth so many times and so many ways, but this was definitely not one of them. Desperate means called for desperate measures. He hated to acknowledge he was a desperate man, but the fact remained he wouldn’t be here now if that weren’t so.

Beth had on her bikini under a long T-shirt that went down to her knees. All he had on was a pair of swimming shorts, which he quickly pushed off. After he removed them, he laid them where he could easily find them.

Jesse got between Beth and Clay and started pulling up her shirt very slowly. When he got it past her hips, he rolled halfway on top of her. Beth started mumbling as if she was trying to wake up, so he picked up the pace. He was lucky because her bathing suit bottom tied, so he gently pulled one side lose and then the other. Then he rolled all the way on top but held his upper body up on his elbows.

“Sstop, Clay, you said we’d only cud-dle,” Beth murmured haltingly. At the same time she was trying to twist away from him, she pulled her knee up to put some space between them. She was also doing her best to tug her shirt back down with her clumsy hands.

Her knee was now between his legs as she continued to struggle, and twist from side to side.

Her moaning was getting louder and louder. “Getoff, get-offf. I’lll scream,” she slurred loudly.

Jesse was afraid she was about to holler out, so he bent his head and started kissing her mouth thoroughly. He gradually moved to her cheek and then on to her neck.

Slowly all the fighting stopped and in the end Beth sighed, “Okay, Clay, I’m tired of fightin’, I givein, make love to me. I want youto.”

Beth’s words were still slurred and indistinct but Jesse understood each word she said and it ripped his heart out of his chest. He could hardly breathe because her words took the breath right out of him. He didn’t know if he could go on, but anger took over and he started kissing her more demandingly. All thoughts of pleasuring her disintegrated.

He loved to please women; was an expert at pleasing them. He had especially wanted to give pleasure to this one, his future wife, but not any more. Hell, she thought he was someone else.

He knew this is what he expected she would believe; but, to hear her verbally say it, killed him.

He knew she was weak from the punch, but she was kissing him back and allowing him full access. She allowed her knee to fall back down from between his legs. When he lifted his body up slightly, she slid her legs apart for him to lie between without him even trying to nudge them open.

He shoved her shirt all the way up but not off. However, he did untie her top and threw it down by his shorts. Then he was all over her with his lips and tongue. He sucked and tugged on her nipples not as gently as he would have done on their wedding night but more roughly. She wasn’t making love to him but to Clay. His hand slid slowly down her smooth belly. His fingers circled the silky curls, gently parted her soft folds and slid one long roughened finger inside her wet center. She was hot and slick but very small. The sweet liquid that moistened his fingers and the way her hips arched and undulated against his hand angered him.

He scooted all the way down and put his face where his hand had been. He knew he only had a small amount of time, but he wasn’t leaving until he tasted her essence. The ecstasy of her heat was so great he literally had to force himself to leave. With a final, savoring lick, he quickly made his way back up her body to her mouth where he began kissing her meticulously before moving on to her neck.

He went back to her lips as he positioned himself over her, and pushed the wide head of his erection into her opening. He forced his way inside her tightness with a strong steady stroke, but he immediately butted up against her barrier. He felt it give a little, but he didn’t break through.

Beth was whimpering under his mouth and twisting her body in an attempt to throw him off. For a split second, he thought about stopping.

Then Beth turned her head from his kiss, “It won’t work Clay; you’re too big,” She panted out.

After hearing her, Jesse reared back, flexed his hips, and drove it home. If he hadn’t driven as hard as he did, he would never have made it through the thickness of her hymen. He never had sex with a virgin before but her cherry seemed abnormally thick to him. He looked down at Beth and saw she had bit down on her bent index finger as she tried to subdue her scream. He immediately covered her mouth with his again. He didn’t relent but kept up strong piston-driving strokes. She was like a vice constricting around him, gripping him, so tight and searing.

It was only after a few more steady drives that he exploded. He thought he would pass out, his climax was so powerful.

Jesse just wanted to collapse and not move, but he only rested long enough to slow his breathing down. He reached down, found his shorts, and pulled them on. He was pulling Beth’s shirt back down her body when he reached between her legs with his hand. Then he turned over and rubbed the blood on the bottom of Clay’s stomach. It was enough blood to see the intended purpose. Then he jerked her shirt the rest of the way down and got up. As a last-minute thought, he felt around, grabbed her top, and stuffed it in his back pocket as a souvenir.

When Jesse left he found Cody where he told him to stay. He told Cody to go into the tent and watch to make sure nothing happened if, for some reason, Clay woke up. He instructed him to let Beth sleep a little while and then take her home.

Jesse sternly reiterated for Cody not to let Beth out of his sight and to keep him updated on what she was doing and where she was going. Cody was to make any excuse he needed to make sure he stayed with her at all times. If she left the house, he was to go with her, especially if she went with Clay.

After talking to Cody, Jesse went back to Beaux’s jeep, climbed in the back seat and collapsed from both physical and emotional exhaustion.

“Take me home, Beaux, and you may have to carry me in when we get there.”

“Dat bad, huh?”

“It was both torment and ecstasy at the same time.”

Beth, fully awake now, was in agony. “Oh, geesh, Jesse, that hurt! I’m glad it didn’t last long because I couldn’t have taken another minute !” Beth thought as she went over what had just happened. Jesse had just raucously ripped her apart. She could still feel the agonizing burn from when he rammed deep inside her, ripping through her flesh. “He could have been a little more gentle,” Beth grimaced as she tried to move.

She knew he acted out in anger because he was mad at her. All because he thought that she thought he was Clay. “Stupid man,” she mused, shaking her head slightly. He should have known, as soon as he was close enough for her to smell him, she would know immediately who he was. She had known his scent far too long to mistake him for someone else.

Besides, if that wasn’t proof enough, Clay didn’t have a hair on his chest. It was slick and smooth and, although Jesse’s chest wasn’t bushy, he had quite a bit of hair. He was minus a few now because she ripped them out when he rammed into her. She knew she hurt him when she purposely called him “Clay,” but he deserved every bit of anguish he felt.

Beth felt she had offered Jesse everything she had to give—her love, her body, her very being, only to have him throw it back in her face unwanted. She wasn’t a child anymore, so he couldn’t use that excuse any longer, especially since it didn’t bother him to take Becky, who was younger than she was.

It was bad enough that he left her when she had physically begged him to stay and be with her, but it was too much when she walked outside and found him making love with another woman. It was more that she could take. She wanted revenge.

She would never in this lifetime figure out how that happened so fast. He had only been gone a few minutes when she decided to throw out the trash before she went to bed.

It was actually so painful she couldn’t believe it was real. She knew she must have stood there with her mouth open for five minute before she realized she wasn’t going to wake up from a bad dream. What she was seeing was reality.

In anger, she promised Jesse he wasn’t going take her virginity or marry her. She didn’t mean it, but she was determined to make him feel a little of what she felt that night. She didn’t feel one bit guilty for hurting him. He had hurt her beyond belief.

Suddenly she thought about what Jesse had said and it made her laugh a little. He promised he would do both those things. Beth had to give him credit where credit was due. Unlike her, he had yet to break a promise. Then a big smile crept across her face when she remembered the second promise he said he would keep. “Oh, dear Gussy, this had turned out to be a wonderful day.” Beth thought as she curled up to rest.

She hadn’t been laying there long when she heard the tent whisk open again. Surely, Jesse wasn’t coming back for more; she hoped not. She was still stinging from the first time.

Beth barely lifted her eyelids. The opened flap allowed more of the campfire light to filter in, so she was able to see that it was Cody standing there trying to get his bearings. What in the world was Cody doing in here? Then it came to her, this whole night’s events had been a conspiracy. The two of them and the good Lord only knew who else was involved in Jesse’s plan.

She didn’t know if she should feel offended or flattered that he would go to so much trouble to be with her. She decided to be flattered because she couldn’t stop the giddy feeling if she tried.

Jesse must feel something for her. She knew him well enough to know he would have never taken her virginity just for spite. She had dreamed a million times of how it would be when she was finally with Jesse, and the way things just happened tonight was certainly not one of them.

She could have never in her most vivid imagination dreamed up this episode. The more she thought about the manner in which Jesse had just taken her the more she thought that it was romantic in a rough sort of way. She loved him so much she guessed that, most likely any way he would have done it, would have been romantic to her.

She felt so much lighter of heart now. She only prayed she wasn’t setting herself up for another heartache. She knew she would never recover if he had sex with anyone else after tonight.

“Beth, get up, I need you to ride home with me. I’m not feeling so well. If I get sick on the way home, I’ll need you to take over.”

If Beth ever heard a crock of bull, she was hearing one now. She knew there wasn’t a thing wrong with Cody; first of all, he wouldn’t be driving if he were sick from drinking too much.