Longhorns Ch. 02

"Mom, gotta head home—meet you there. K, bye."

Meredith's eyes widened.

"She's here?" she asked in horror.

"She's, like, twenty minutes from the apartment," Virginia said gravely. "And she's got a key."

Virginia's mother Caroline paid for half the rent, while Collette, saint that she was, paid the other half. One of those women knew about and basically didn't mind Meredith living in the apartment as a freeloader. The other was headed over there and would throw a fit in...nineteen minutes.

"She'll throw me out," Meredith said dejectedly. "She hates me."

Virginia knew Meredith had always labored to be liked by everyone with whom she came in contact. Caroline Neckar-Gaye was an exception to a long history of success in that regard. For some reason, the woman was simply convinced that Meredith—sweet, innocent, and, well, dirt-poor Meredith—was not the sort of person to be seen with her daughter. Discovering her secretly living with Virginia would provoke a complete shitstorm.

"Shit. Shit. Shit" Virginia repeated, as if her wires had come loose.

She had to think of a plan. She didn't have much time, but Meredith needed her. Then she had it.

"I'll text Robbie—he'll move your stuff."

Meredith looked worried.

"Where? His place?"

"Yeah," Virginia said. "He'll stash it at his place. My mom will probably jet after, like, an hour."

Crossing her fingers, Virginia sent Robbie a desperate text:

"Mom cming ovr. Cant know Meris there. Hide her shit @ ur place."

After a few seconds, her phone rang. She shook her head, then picked up.

"God, you're old."

Meredith looked a little annoyed she was making small talk.

"I hate texting," he responded. "You want me to hide Meredith's stuff? How'm I gonna know—"

"Most of her shit is in boxes still. Her clothes are in the hall closet. You don't have much time, so just grab the boxes and get the clothes out and we'll take our chances with the rest."

"What about her?"

"What about her?"

"If your mom's over, shouldn't she sleep somewhere else?"

Virginia felt a sudden pang of fear.

He's not trying to, like, angle for kind of sleep-over, is he?

"We'll figure it out later."

She hung up abruptly, and though she felt a little bad about doing so, there wasn't time to waste.

"What's going on?" Meredith asked worriedly.

"He's going to hide your stuff until—"

"No, I mean, you. You know I won't be able to stay over there if your mom's gonna just crash the place uninvited. Why did you just hang up on him when he asked you—"

"Time," Virginia said curtly. "Same reason I'm hanging up on you right now. We've got to get home. Now."

Meredith acquiesced to Virginia's wishes and let the matter drop. A couple of blocks before they reached their complex, Virginia pulled over. She couldn't bring Meredith home with her, and god only knew whether Robert got everything out in time. Most of all, Virginia felt like a bitch. She was still letting her own hang-ups get between things with her best friend and with her special-guy-who-maybe-might-be-her-boyfriend-someday.

"Wait, like, five minutes then go to Robert's. I'll text him that you're coming over. Then just...be normal."

Meredith hopped out, apparently OK with the plan, and Virginia raced the last leg of the way to her apartment complex. Hustling to the door, she fumbled with her keys. Instead, the door swung open.

"Honey, you're all sweaty," her mother, dressed immaculately with a pristine face full of make-up, said. "Though I suppose it's good you're exercising."

Virginia's mother spoke with a crisp, though non-descript WASPy accent, with certainly little Texan twang discernible if any. She'd only moved south ten years ago, with Virginia's father, brother, and Virginia. Virginia's brother Chip (the name he chose to avoid actually being called "Chester") took after Caroline most: all sharp angles, lean and wiry. Virginia got her dad's looks: rounder, big smile, and, to her mind at least, fat.

Her hang-ups over weight originated from the way her mother policed her eating and physical activity as a kid. Try as she might, Virginia could never be as thin as her mother, who seemed to effortlessly have the body Virginia assumed was the ideal: slender, lean, and graceful, not soft and jiggly like her.

"It's great to see you too, Mom," she forced herself to say. "If you would've called first—"

"Oh, I don't mind if the place is a mess," she said. "I just wanted to surprise you."

Virginia took her first opportunity to glance around the apartment. It looked cleaner than it had in a long time. Following her mother into the bedroom, she was shocked to find that not only had Robert taken Meredith's stuff away, but he'd also tidied the place up and hidden both her bong and her vibrator, two things she'd both forgotten to mention and was grateful for her mother not to see.

I'm going to have to give him a little something special.

When her mother had her back turned, Virginia stole an opportunity to peek into the hall closet, and, true to form, Robert had cleaned it out. There were only a few traces of Meredith remaining, most of which could be blamed on Collette, who, as usual, was in a lab somewhere.

"So, mom, what are your plans?" Virginia asked tentatively.

"Well, honey, I was thinking you could show me around campus tomorrow. We'll do lunch before, and maybe dinner out on Lake Travis. I'm not sure what we'll do the other days."

"...other days?"

"Virginia, you don't sound very happy to see—"

"No, mom, I'm thrilled," she lied. "It's just—I've got work to do for school and—"

"Oh, honey, I've got work to do, too. I have four days here to get this apartment back to a livable condition. I don't see how you college kids put up with such a pig sty..."

Though her mother continued to drone on about the filthiness of her recently cleaned apartment, Virginia felt the sudden sinking realization that her mother was going to monopolize all her free time for the next four days. That meant four days of stupid frou-frou dinners, four days of inane, gratuitous sightseeing, four days of snide comments about every aspect of her life.

Four days of not having sex with Robbie.

Four days of Meredith playing house with him in the apartment across the courtyard.

Virginia felt sick to her stomach. Over and over she reassured herself that everything would be fine, though she also considered just paying for a motel room for Meredith. Surely she'd turn such an offer down, but crashing on Robbie's couch? It wouldn't seem like a burden at all. And he'd go along with it, thinking little of it.

As her mother dragged her around all day, buying her clothes she'd never wear, offering advice she'd never heed, Virginia was forced to confront an essential truth: all of a sudden, this mattered. At first, she didn't want to lose a boyfriend—enough that it seemed like a better bet to just not have a boyfriend. Now she didn't want to lose Robbie, irrespective of what label they were putting on the thing between them.

It wasn't like she was in love with him, at least not yet. Maybe it was just that, at the moment, she couldn't find a reason why she wouldn't feel that way, one day. They had started as friends, something she had never done with a guy before. He'd been nothing but good to her, and if anybody had a reason to run screaming the other direction, it was him. She trusted him. On the other hand, she didn't trust him, not enough at least, and that made her feel a little guilty.

When her mother finally retired to her hotel room, Virginia headed directly to his place. She felt trepidation standing at his door—it's not that she expected to find the two of them fucking on the sofa when she went inside. Her fears were more banal, but also more plausible: they'd be there, sharing their little jokes, giving each sidelong glances, all that junior high shit that guys ate up when it came to Meredith.

For the first time since she finagled a key out of Robert, she bothered to knock. At least that way she would interrupt whatever scintillating conversation was taking place.

"Mom-ed out?" he asked her, standing in the doorway.

He seemed at ease and suspiciously well-dressed for 10:30 PM. As she stepped in, her head swiveled, trying to find Meredith.

"She's not here," he added, closing the door behind her.

"You mean Meri?" she asked, playing dumb unconvincingly.

"Nice," he said with a nod. "I told her I didn't want her around, classing the place up. She's staying at the Courtyard over off Parmer. I had points left over and—"

Virginia didn't let Robert finish before kissing him. It hadn't been a conscious decision; Virginia herself only noticed it was happening after she'd practically tackled him.

"Slow down!"

"Sorry," she replied. "I've been stuck with my mom all day."

"It's just..." he said. "After Halloween—you said we would talk. It's been almost a month, and we, well, didn't."

"You're choosing talking over sex?" Virginia asked jokingly.

"Shit, it's an either-or proposition?"

"No," Virginia said sheepishly, "I'm way too horny to give up just because your dumb obsession with talking."

"I'll make it quick," he promised. "I just...I want to be honest with you. Always."

Where is he going?

"I know when this whole thing started it was just a casual, hook-up thing," he began. "Maybe it's because I was born in olden times, but I...it's hard for me to do that completely. I mean this—us."

Virginia made a promise to herself, that she would not cry if he said they shouldn't do this anymore.

"Listen," he said ominously, "I like you. A lot."

I'm feeling deja vu.

"And I...respected what you said when you told me you didn't want a boyfriend. I knew what I was getting into. But, I thought...well, maybe I didn't really think. Because, let's face it, you're way too hot for me to be able to think clearly and you could probably get me to do just about anything for you."

He's not upset enough to be telling me to stop bothering him. Is this what I think it is?

"To be honest, I'm not giving you an ultimatum or anything. Maybe I'm just wanting to revisit that whole boyfriend thing, because, I...it's not just about sex, or hanging out, or whatever to me. Like, at first the age thing was big. But more and more it just doesn't matter. I like you, and I want...something more."

Virginia was beaming.

"Yes, I'll marry you."

She got a thrill out of the brief look of shock that caused him to jump. Their relationship would have to be built on him buying her beer, her constantly messing with him—and lots of sex.

"Why don't we start with a date?"

"Why don't we start me climbing on top of you and move on to the date when my stupid mom leaves town?"

Virginia started to unbutton Robert's shirt, before he pulled it over his head swiftly. She liked to see him go wild, since he was normally so terminally chill. She wanted to have that effect on him, to make him lose his cool, and when he spun her around and bent her over the back of the couch, she felt her knees almost buckle.

"Tell me you want me," he whispered in her ear from behind her.

"God yes," she sighed, "don't tease me."

Robert pulled her panties down and tossed them aside. Virginia turned her head to see them land on the curved metal back of the dining chair, as Robert pulled her black and white striped skirt up so that it bunched around her waist.

Virginia was momentarily afraid he was going to just shove it in her all at once. On one level, the thought was arousing—him taking her like an animal, mad with passion. Yet she knew it might hurt, too, and she didn't want to lose the tenderness and the pleasure she knew Robert could give her.

He pulled her hair to one side and kissed her neck.

"Now if you were just a couple of inches taller..."

"You like it," she said, giggling. "Good things come in small—"

Virginia almost lost her breath when Robert's tongue found just the right place. She hadn't even noticed when he went to his knees behind her. It was another thing she'd never actually experienced before, a guy going down on her from behind. It felt...dirtier, hotter, than the other way, even though the angle wasn't quite right.

Not tall enough...got it.

Virginia took the opportunity to take her own top off. Robert was making her squirm, and it took a second before she could manage to unfasten her bra. Despite the more challenging position, it was only a matter of moments before Robert had found a rhythm of sorts. What started as a warm, tingling feeling had grown into a fire, a longing inside for him.

There was still a little part of her that felt self-conscious, with his big hands spreading her apart for his tongue to work his magic. There was something wrong about feeling so good, a feeling of guilt all the more mysterious in that it arose for no reason. She wasn't religious or hung-up about sex, at least not more than most people. It was deeper than that—a vague but persistent sense that she just didn't deserve unalloyed happiness, that every good thing had to come with some equivalent bad thing, just waiting around the corner.

"Robert," she sighed.

He spun her around, and she almost laughed when she saw how slick his mouth and chin were.

Guess I'm 'ready.'

He didn't pause for long, though, and now that he was facing her, he had much better access to her sensitive clit. Running her fingers through his hair, she couldn't stop herself from moaning in pleasure. When she climaxed for the first time, it was with Robert's name on her lips.

"Let me get a condom—"

"Wait," she asked. "I'm not...I mean...if you're not seeing anybody else. You don't have to..."

Did I really just say that? Shit—is he fucking other girls?

"Are you sure?"

I'm not sure about anything ever.

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

"Only in a good way," he replied, pulling her in for a kiss.

She tasted herself, but it wasn't bad. As long as he kept doing that to her, she'd kiss him anytime he wanted.

"You can tell me if there's somebody else," she said.

"You know there isn't."

Virginia reached down to stroke Robert's cock. In truth, she wanted to experience sex without a condom for the first time, too. She'd always been smart in the past—no way would she 100% trust the guys she'd been with in the past, to say nothing about the small chance her birth control pill wouldn't work. With Robert, though, it felt like a reward for the both of them—something to recognize the trust they'd built.

"Well, you know I'm on the pill," she replied. "And there's no one but you, either, so you don't have to wear one if you don't want to."

Grabbing her underneath her thighs, just below her ass, Robert unexpectedly lifted her up in the air. Virginia wrapped her arms around him, mostly out of sudden fear of toppling over.

"I'm too fat for you to—"

"Are you joking?" he asked with genuine confusion. "Or do you think I'm that weak?"

Virginia giggled a little as he carried her back to the bedroom.

"I'm not a stick."

"You're fucking perfect," he said, laying her down surprisingly gracefully on the bed. "And I do have muscles after all."

Robert hovered over her, his cock grazing across her labia, still damp from her explosive orgasm.

"Let me suck it first," she asked. "Before, you know."

"I'm sorry," he said facetiously, "you'll have to repeat that for me, I couldn't hear."

Virginia laughed.

"Please, oh please, stud, let me suck your monster hard cock," she said, as if she were in the throes of climax. "Or else I'll have to return to Women's Prison and settle for a five-way lesbo orgy."

"You're pardoned," Robert said with a kiss.

He rolled over, and it was Virginia's time to show her appreciation for him. To her, it wasn't about balancing the scales though, trading one oral orgasm for another. In a weird way, it was selfish even—she loved the feeling of him straining, yearning, wanting her, while she had the power to withhold or to give him incredible pleasure.

Not that she planned to withhold anything from him tonight, of course. Virginia knew that Robert was going to have more than one earth-shattering orgasm tonight. It was kind of nice to be in control of things, to have him just laying back and watching her, while she could focus on getting the biggest reaction possible from him.

She started by licking up and down his shaft, kissing and slurping the head while she ran her fingers delicately over his balls. Her friends would talk about their guys' equipment, and she appreciated how Robert, without being weird about it, was always well-groomed and clean down there. She could taste faintly the salt of sweat on his skin, though, the same taste she knew he must get when he kissed and sucked her breasts. It was good, visceral, real.

Taking him deeper inside, she felt her mouth begin to water. Robert's eyes were glued to her, as she used everything at her disposal to make him weak with desire for her. Time moved slowly; she could feel everything, the spit running down her chin, Robert's cock, soft and hard at the same time, warm and throbbing in her mouth, the almost imperceptible way he lifted his hips when she went down on him, trying without seeming to try to feel every inch of himself in her, a strange, lightheaded sensation from breathing just a little bit less than she should.

And there were his eyes, and they sparkled with intensity, that she knew was there, even when it was hidden.

"Ride me now," he commanded, and she was happy to comply.

She threw a leg over him and found his cock with her hand. In a moment, she had sunk down onto him, as he filled her with his throbbing tool. She begun by moving slowly, never letting him withdraw much from her. She didn't need to feel him thrusting in and out to come, and the second he was inside her she knew that, however selfishly, this wasn't going to be just about him, that she was going to have another orgasm. He would just have to get used to that kind of thing from her—she could be greedy, and, for the first time, her vibrator came in second place.

What if next time Robert used it on me at the same time? Virginia, you are a fucking genius...

Robert's hands found her ass, and he pulled her in, as if there were some way he could go deeper inside her. She felt his eyes wander hungrily over her body, and she lowered herself towards him, knowing what he wanted. He took her nipple into his mouth, sucking and licking it before moving to the next one. No matter what she thought about her body, she knew—because, really, how couldn't she?—that guys loved her tits. With Robert, at least, he seemed to like the rest of her.

He kissed her in the space between her breasts, so that his face was covered on both sides. Then he started to thrust, lifting her off the bed. He'd managed to wriggle his hand between them, and the sudden jolt of feeling her clit directly stimulated sent her into an unexpectedly quick orgasm.

Damn, I go from frigid to premature ejaculator in, like, a month. What the hell is his secret?

The second time it was different—more of a whole body feeling then before, and in truth she felt so sated that she knew she couldn't go again, at least not right away. Maybe some girls can come over and over again—Virginia wasn't going to get that greedy. For now, she just wanted to feel Robert coming inside her for the first time.

"Do you want to switch?" she asked. "I want you to come."

"Yeah," he responded, "me too. But I don't want you to get off."

"Oops, already did," she said with a wry smile.

"I would have too if we didn't take this lovely conversation break."

"How are you grumpy right now?" she asked playfully