Within two weeks, Camilla had moved her few belongings—mostly clothes and cosmetics—into DeAndre's apartment. Much as she would like to have spent twenty-four hours a day in bed with him, she knew that they both needed to study, and he had to spend a lot of time in football practice, to say nothing of participating in games either at their home stadium or on the road.
In late November, she ran into one of her friends coming out of the library. This girl, Cynthia, gazed at her with wide eyes and a peculiar sort of smirk.
"Well, look at you!" Cynthia said as they gave each other a token hug.
"What about me?" Camilla said.
"You're DeAndre's girl, aren't you?"
"I suppose I am."
"You're one lucky female! You must know he's, like, the Big Man on Campus."
"Well, I guess he's a big football star."
"Girl, you don't know the half of it! He's
really, really good!
I mean, this guy could end up in the NFL!"
Camilla was taken aback. "He's that good?"
"So they say. And I have to tell you, he's
never
had an actual girlfriend before."
"Is that right?"
Well, I guess that makes me special.
"I guess he's just choosy when it comes to women."
Cynthia now gave her an even more peculiar look. "Oh, I wouldn't say that."
"What do you mean?" Camilla said, suddenly getting hostile.
"Hey, don't chew my head off! Let's just say there are
lots and lots
of girls around campus who've, um, shall we say, have enjoyed his favors. But he's one of those 'love-'em-and-leave-'em' type of guys. And he seems to have a particular fondness for white flesh!"
Camilla was really angry now. "You're lying. That's just not the way he is. He's sweet and kind and respectful and—"
"Have you asked him about his past? He's a senior, just like us. Since you don't care about sports, you don't know anything about what he's done before he hooked up with you. But hey, don't sweat it! If he's taken you on as 'his girl,' you should just enjoy it while it lasts."
The obvious implication of Cynthia's comment was that it wasn't going to last long.
Camilla walked away feeling confused and even vaguely horrified. No, there was no way a guy like DeAndre—the one who had taken such umbrage at his teammates' pounding of her during that locker-room gangbang—was himself a philanderer. "Love-'em-and-leave-'em," eh? Well, he'd find out that Camilla Stevens was one girl who wouldn't be tossed aside so easily!
She came home to DeAndre's apartment and began cooking dinner. She'd never been much for cooking before, but now she made efforts to improve her culinary skills, even asking her mom for help on specifically Southern dishes that DeAndre might like. (She really wanted to ask
his
mom's advice, but DeAndre had been curiously reticent in giving any information about his parents.) She was lost in thought as she was whipping up some spaghetti and meat sauce, and hardly noticed DeAndre coming into the place until he popped into the kitchen, greeted her with a tight hug and a long, deep kiss on her mouth, and said, "Hey, babe, what's going on?"
"Nothing much," she said moodily, looking away from him.
He could tell immediately that something was wrong. He'd been around her so intensely these last few weeks that he had already come to know every fluctuation in her temperament. He pulled her away from the kitchen—the pasta was already cooking away in a big pot of water and didn't need much attention—and led her to the dining table, sitting her down at a chair.
"What's wrong, babe?" he said with obvious concern.
Camilla gazed longingly at him. She already felt so attached to this man, and they had already exchanged such passionate vows of love and devotion, that she could hardly believe he was the kind of man her friend had hinted at.
"I was just talking to someone," she said, looking away from him, "and she said—well, she said you . . ."
"I what?" he said, although he seemed to know what she was about to say.
"You've been with a lot of girls," she said, her face crumpling as she came close to tears.
DeAndre just looked at her for a time, saying nothing. Then he sighed.
"I have been," he said at last, "but that was all in the past. I don't do that sort of thing anymore."
"How many did you do?" she asked, almost fearful of the response.
"Oh, Camilla, I don't know," he said wearily.
"You don't know? You have no idea?"
"Well, it's not as if I was keeping count!"
"Can you guess?"
He gazed down at his hands for a long time before saying, "Probably three or four hundred."
Camilla gasped. "That many?"
"Yeah, that many," he said, his voice full of self-disgust. "Look, dear, you don't understand what it is to be a star athlete. I could have gone to some big Division I school like Ohio State or Alabama—all the scouts were after me in high school. But for various reasons I wanted to stay close to home. So when I came here, my reputation as a football star preceded me. And maybe it went to my head. I knew there were a lot more important things than playing football, but I was young and cocky, and I guess it tickled me to have all these girls throwing themselves at me."
"But—but you didn't have relationships with any of them?"
"Not a one."
"Why not?"
"They just didn't interest me that way. Anyway, most of them didn't want relationships with me either. All they wanted to do was to tell their friends, 'Hey, DeAndre Wilkins stuffed his cock into me,' and I suppose that made them feel special."
"Then—why me?" Her unspoken question was obvious:
Why haven't you tossed me aside the way you did with all those other girls?
He looked at her almost as if she were a difficult problem in quadratic equations. "There's something about you—something soft and tender and vulnerable—that touches my heart. You think you're tough, but you're not tough. I don't say you're fragile either—you're no one's pushover. But you have deep feelings, and so do I. And that"—he paused significantly—"that's why I love you."
"I love you too, dearest."
She had climbed onto his lap, throwing her arms around his neck. And, since he was only wearing a sweatshirt and sweat pants, she had easily pulled his growing cock out of his pants and slid it into herself, pulling away the crotch of her panties to accommodate him. Neither of them thrust into the other: this connection of their sexual parts symbolized a far more profound connection that they felt in their minds and hearts.
They kissed each other lightly, but otherwise this fully clothed coupling was as tender as a butterfly's wings. It was some minutes later that Camilla sensed the stirrings of her climax, and as she started quivering and shaking, she stimulated DeAndre to pour his seed into her as he held her tight. After they were finished, they continued to remain locked together.
Quite a while later, Camilla regretfully slipped off of him and said, "I guess I'll finish cooking dinner."
*
DeAndre wanted Camilla to come to the family home for Christmas, and she was happy to oblige.
"I'm really looking forward to meeting your parents," she said.
When he said nothing in response, she said, "They'll be there, won't they?"
"My father will," was all he said.
A chill of foreboding came over her.
What about your mom? She's not dead or anything, is she?
With a tremor in her voice she said, "And your mom?"
DeAndre looked away from her. "She—she left my dad a few years ago."
"Omigod, I'm so sorry! What happened?"
"I don't know. He doesn't either."
"He doesn't know? How can that be? What did she say?"
"Not much. Just something about feeling 'trapped' or 'confined,' or stuff like that."
"Did they have arguments?"
"None that I ever heard."
"Oh, DeAndre, that doesn't make any sense!"