* * *
Coach Kelly was verygood at acting like I was just another one of her cheerleaders.
She called me Miss Jones like it wasn’t the most common name on the fucking planet. I wanted her to call me Mary; I wanted to hear it come from her mouth—the letters rolling on her tongue while her eyes met mine.
I craved it, I wanted it.
Ineededit.
The small taste I’d had wasn’t enough. It wasn’t real; it was a made-up world that Mary didn’t live in.
It was as if my next breath simply did not come until I saw her face, felt her presence. My heart beat fast, and the corners of my lips lifted. It was a magnetic pull, like a force to be reckoned with.
And reckoning I was.
The cheer skirt was short, only coming to my upper thighs since I was thick and curvy there. My ass didn’t help the problem, the back lifting and often getting caught on my boy shorts.
I had already replaced my green ones with black ones, Coach Kelly chastising me because it wasn’t part of the uniform. But I liked it when she got after me.
I smiled to myself, remembering the way she got really close to my face, asking me if I understood why that wasn’t ‘acceptable.’
I had nodded yes, of course.
Her breath on my face, her sharp blue eyes piercing into mine… I was like a live wire, and if she touched me, the electricity would shock us both.
Ugh, I lived for those moments.
Even when she was angry and determined, she’d completely focus on me, and I’d cherish every moment.
I wanted to hear her say filthy things to me. Those degrading, thoughtless words that brought goosebumps to my skin and a panting breath to my lips.
I didn’t exactly know why it did those things to me. Thecontrol,the assertiveness and sheerforceof it all.
She was in charge, and everyone knew it. I could see it in how Courtney mimicked her movement. How Rachel was so focused on Coach’s face that she stared; her eyes holding onto the captivating vision before her.
Notice me, notice me.
“Miss Jones, you’re late. Twenty sit-ups and thirty-five jumping jacks. “Now, drop your bags.” Her claps made my ears ring, and my nipples harden as I broke out into a run and dropped my bag on the way.
I dropped to my knees and leaned back into a crunch at her feet. She looked down over me as if I was a nuisance and turned her attention back to the girls she led in front of her.
She wanted me, and I knew this by how her eyes lingered, the way her touchlingered.
I stood after I finished, wiping off my skirt and walking back to my bag.
I looked over my shoulder at Ava, and her eyes had been watching my ass as I walked away.
I bit my lip in acknowledgement of where her eyes were. She knew what she did. She let me see her checking out my ass. I felt the urge to bend over, so she could see more. I didn’t though. I just walked back to the bleachers with satisfaction radiating from my cheeks.
She wants me.
There was a heavy silence as everyone sat. The cool autumn breeze that rustled the leaves and trees created a moment of alchemy, of magic.
Ava shuddered. “You forgot the jumping jacks.”
I kept my eyes on her and got into position for the jumping jacks.
Her gaze drifted down to my breasts, but always made its way back to my eyes.