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Welcome to the Church of The Reverend Cotton Mather.  This story is
the sole property of the author, and may not be copied or downloaded 
for the intent of profit. Permission is freely given for anyone to 
download or copy for their personal pleasure or use, as long as 
there is no intent to charge money or barter for the privilege of 
acquiring this material.

   (Copyright 2005, revisions c. 2007, R.C. Mather)

E-Mail all comments to RevCottonMather at hotmail dot com
Don't be shy!  I enjoy hearing from you.

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THE COMPETITIVE EDGE:
PLAYING THE GAME III

A Novel

by R.C. Mather



- 19 -

CUTE BUTTS



True to her boast, Kayla found a new way to wake me up in the morning.

We were sleeping together on one of the double beds in our hotel
room, having fallen into slumber as we snuggled beneath the covers.
Sometime during the night Kay had stolen the blanket, and one side of
me had gotten cold enough I woke up. I moved closer to her and pulled
the covers back over me and went back to sleep, with Kayla's body
heat warming me. As morning approached, she must have backed into me
and woken up with my morning hardon pressing against her butt. She
coaxed me awake as she pulled my hard cock through her legs to rest
against her bare pussy lips. She idly rubbed on the head, and it was
this stimulation that finally dragged me up from the well of slumber.

I started to stretch, an unconscious reaction to waking, and as my
back arched, my pelvis moved against her backside. My cock slipped
through her pussy, and the contact started her glands. Moisture began
gathering and transferring to my rod, hot and exciting moisture.
Kayla was using just her thumb and index finger to play with my cock
as I slipped my arm around her. I was fully awake by then, aware of
my situation, and willing to take any advantage my Luscious was going
to grant. I grasped her breast and pulled her back to me, and I began
to nibble at her exposed neck.

Kayla giggled and tilted her head a little, giving me more access to
the tender skin under her ear, and she grabbed my cock in her fist
and began to jack me in short, hard strokes. It was almost like she
was pretending to be a boy, with my cock jutting out from between her
legs.

As I played with her boob and pinched her nipple, her pussy drooled
more lubrication out onto the shaft of my cock. It was getting
slippery down there, and I was feeling the need to bury myself in
someplace dark, warm, wet, and cozy. Kayla must have been feeling the
same way, because she didn't complain when I flexed my hips back and
my cock slipped away from her hand. I hunched, and she helped me by
doing something with her hips that allowed the head of my cock to
easily find the way. She sighed as I took hold of my cock and guided
it to her opening, and began to slide home.

"You are such a tease," I roughly whispered into her ear as my cock
found its way.

"Me?" she replied, glancing over her shoulder at me. She clutched my
hand to her breast, squeezing me hard against her sensitive flesh.
"It seems to me you are the one taking advantage here."

"I wouldn't call it taking advantage," I said. This was a new
phenomenon we were experiencing, and it came to me in a flash of what
I thought at the time was prescience. We were actually having a
conversation as we were making love, instead of grimacing and
groaning and concentrating on achieving the peak in the shortest
amount of time. It was less intense, but quite loving. "I would say
it was more a case of accepting that which had been offered."

I bumped into her for emphasis, and I felt her tense up just a
little as the sensations burst through her. In response, she
tightened up her vaginal muscles against me, temporarily impeding me
from stroking into her. It was my turn to tense up.

"Accepting an offer?" She was continuing the conversation, but once
she started squeezing my cock with her pussy, I was having a little
trouble keeping track. "There I was, sound asleep, when I was
accosted - accosted, I tell you! - by an unknown appendage. I was 
merely investigating when you interceded."

"Mighty big words for a high school junior," I said. "Is that what
I'm doing? Interceding?"

"Oh, yes," she sighed. "Interceding. And well, too." She bumped her
ass back against my groin. "Do me a favor? Could you intercede a
little faster?"

I had vowed to myself a long time before to never disappoint this
girl, and I decided this was a good time to prove myself. "Your
desire is my command," I said, and I bent to my task. With enthusiasm.

Before too long, we had the bed sheets thrown to the foot of the
bed, I was holding Kayla's leg up in the air, and I was pounding into
her hard from behind her. She was grunting every time I bottomed out
in her, and the bed was rocking and thumping with our efforts. I was
sweating, and Kayla's skin glowed with her own sheen of perspiration.
Her tight ass jiggled each time I thrust into her, my pelvis hitting
against her, and my balls were swinging like they were hinged. I
loved watching her ass cheeks undulate as I pounded against her. I
was in a zone, seemingly calm as I worked her, waiting to feel her
tumble over before I was going to allow myself to come.

It felt like we were building together to give her a massive orgasm.
I was moving as fast and as hard as I could, giving her no respite.
Kayla was more passive because of the restriction of movement her
position demanded of her, but she was doing what she could to
contribute, squeezing and relaxing the muscles of her lower body.

I pulled out of her and rolled her over onto her back. She began
moaning at the loss of sensation, the lack of the feeling of being
filled.

"Oh, no, don't stop," she began.

I wordlessly grabbed her by her ankles and pushed her legs back
until her knees nearly touched her shoulders. I thrust back into her
roughly, my cock immediately buried fully inside her.

"Ah," she moaned, and she let her legs rest on my shoulders. She was
rolled into a tight little ball, completely open to me, with her
pussy tilted up for maximum depth, and I took advantage. I began to
fuck her hard, and she continued her climb up. A pillow cushioned her
head from the wall, an inadvertent layer of protection from a
possible concussion as we continued with our frenzied coupling.

I stayed on her like that, grimacing and clenching my teeth with the
effort, until I felt the subtle changes in her. Her pussy got a
little wetter and a little hotter, her breath began hitching
raggedly, and she was nearly there. I dropped my head down and nipped
at her left nipple, pressing her legs even harder up against herself,
and that was the last bit of stimulus she needed. She screeched, her
voice high and breathy, and she clutched her hands to the back of my
neck and tensed up, pulling my mouth harder against her breast, and
she came. Spectacularly.

She could hardly move, rolled up as she was, but her pussy exuded a
fresh batch of fluid, and her body began to tremble. Her eyes were
squeezed shut, her mouth was stretched open in a rictus of pleasure,
and her arms squeezed against me. I felt her liquids oozing down my
balls and pooling beneath us, and the combination was all I needed to
join her. I jettisoned my essence to splash against her spasming
walls and her cervix.

Her body accepted my offering, and it triggered another seizure
within her. Her pussy muscles seemed to ripple as they worked to milk
my cock of all it contained, and I felt my balls contract as they
offered up the last of my sperm for her. Kayla cried out again, the
sound forced from her overwhelmed body, as I collapsed down on her.
Her legs slipped from my shoulders and slid down my sides until they
were splayed out on the bed. Only then did her body begin to give her
a respite as her muscles relaxed in the aftershocks of her rolling
orgasms.

I pushed my chest up from her and looked down at her. She was
flushed, bright red from her forehead down across her chest. Her
nipples and areolae were bright red, swollen and tender looking. Her
diaphragm was working to get oxygen into her lungs, and she was
sweaty where we were still connected, my slowly softening cock still
buried deep inside her.

In one of those quirky moments that help to make life even more
worthwhile, our morning had turned from a tender moment of lovemaking
into a sweat-filled fuck session, but there were no complaints from
Kayla or me.

We were lying side by side recuperating from our aerobic wake-up
when the telephone rang. Kayla picked it up, but it was for me. I
took the phone from her.

"Yo," I said in my very best Rocky voice.

"Yo yourself," said Spencer. "Time to rise and shine, Soccer Boy.
Breakfast with the team in fifteen."

"Thanks, man," I said. "I'll be there."

I crawled out of bed and trudged to the bathroom. Just before going
in, I turned back to look at my love. She was lying on her side, her
arms tucked, as she watched me.

"I've got to shower, and I've got to hurry," I said. "I've got to be
downstairs in fifteen minutes. No goofing around this morning."

Kayla rolled her eyes. "As if I have any energy left to goof
around," she said.

I wasn't sure I believed her. Sometimes Kayla showed me she had a
nearly insatiable side. She did have more willpower than I, though.

She didn't join me in the shower. I was a little bit relieved, and a
little bit disappointed. I was completely worn out, but it would have
been a nice morning if we could have just stood together in the
shower.

'As if we would be able to do just that,' I reminded myself. If she
had shown up, I knew I wouldn't have been able to keep my hands to
myself, good intentions or not.

The shower refreshed me. I wrapped a towel around my waist and
walked back into the bedroom. Kayla was still in bed, and she had
pulled the sheets back over her. Her eyes were closed, and she looked
like she was asleep. I tried to be quiet as I stepped over to my
duffel bag by her side of the bed. I bent over to rummage around,
looking for clothes, when I felt Kayla's hand run up my thigh,
underneath the towel, and up to my ass. It surprised the hell out of
me, and I jumped up and whirled around. Kayla was trying to suppress
a giggle as she watched my antics.

"I thought you were asleep," I said.

"I was kind of dozing when I heard you," she said. "I opened my
eyes, and you were sticking your big butt in my face, so I thought
I'd cop a feel."

I shook my finger at her in mock retribution. "I want you to love me
for my mind, not my butt," I said.

"Oh, I do," she said with a smile. "You can't help it if a cute butt
is attached to your desirable mind, though."

That rocked me back a little. Girls had cute butts, not guys. It had
never occurred to me until that moment that girls might look at a
guy's body, just like guys liked looking at girls. Suddenly I was hit
by a severe attack of the shys. 'Jesus, Porter, you're embarrassed,' 
I realized with no small amount of dismay. 'How could that be?'

I must have turned red, because Kayla let out with a startled laugh,
and she jumped out of bed. She put her arms around my neck and pulled
me down so she could kiss me.

"Oh, Seanie, it's all right," she said as she hugged me. "It's
nothing to be embarrassed about. Girls can think about guys, you
know. And you are a very good-looking guy. All my friends think so,
too."

"I'm not sure that makes me feel any better," I said. "Guys are
just... guys. I've never considered if a guy is good looking or not."

"Really?" She pulled her head away so she could look me in the eye.
"Sometimes that's all the girls I know can talk about." She shook her
head. "Some of them can be so shallow sometimes," she said, almost to
herself.

"Who? Like, Jaimie?"

"Oh, no, not Jaimie," said Kayla. "She's only got eyes for Jake. I
don't think she even realizes other boys exist."

"Jake will be happy to hear that," I said.

Kay reached up and grabbed my ears. "Don't you dare say anything to
him," she said seriously. "He's in love with her, she's in love with
him. He doesn't need to think she's being obsessive or anything."

"Okay, okay," I said. "Just don't hurt me." I reached up and gently
pulled her hands away from my ears. It was her way of getting my
attention, but having her nearly naked in my arms was attention
enough, especially with me just wearing a barely closed towel.

"Oops," she said with a smile. "Sorry, Sean." She stood up on tiptoe
and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "Now, if you'll pardon me, I
need my beauty sleep." She crawled back in bed and pulled the sheet
back over her.

I just stood there for a moment, gazing down at her. "No, you
don't," I said. "If you were any more beautiful, you wouldn't be
human."

She didn't answer, but she did look pleased. I found my clothes and
hurriedly dressed before the temptation to stay with her overtook me.



* * * * * * * * * *



I got downstairs just in time. I grabbed my food and slid into a
seat at a table with Spencer, Jesse, and Bryan when Pick and Eddie
walked in. Pick looked around the room, and headed for the buffet
line. We had more film to watch this morning, and then a practice
after that. We were having a team lunch with the press and the
organizers of the tournament, and then our afternoon and evening was
our own. I had just left my Luscious, and I was already looking
forward to seeing her again in a few hours.

After breakfast, we filed into a conference room that was set up
with a projector and a portable screen. Stan Harvard was already
there, threading film into the projector, as we settled into seats.
Pick ambled up to stand in front of the white screen.

"We got two pieces of film to study this morning, gentlemen," he
said. "I want you to take a look at our game against North Carolina
first. We're going to be critiquing ourselves pretty severely, all of
us. I believe we've got some holes to plug, and you can bet that the
Gamecocks will find 'em if we don't get rid of 'em."

Stan gave Pick a thumbs-up to let him know he was ready with the
film. Pick nodded and continued, "The second film will be another
South Carolina game. You all saw them play against Maryland, and
today we're going to watch them in a non-conference game they played
a couple of weeks ago against Indiana." He looked around the room at
his players. "Y'all pay attention, now. This ain't no kid stuff. We
got some work to do between now and tomorrow noon. Okay?"

With that, Stan started up the projector. Eddie, stationed by the
door, flipped the light switches, and we spent the next two hours
watching the games. There was no sound with the film, but Pick stayed
up by the screen and provided his own commentary.

We paid attention, and we learned.



* * * * * * * * * *



Kayla and I spent the afternoon with Eric and Keisha poking around
the Smithsonian. It was a cool and rainy day, a good day to spend
indoors, and we took our time in the various halls and exhibits,
wandering around pretty much aimlessly, holding hands. We ate a light
supper at a place near the Georgetown campus, and we called it an
early night.

We took a cab back to our hotel, and I lingered outside while Kayla
went in. I watched through the revolving door until I saw her get
into the elevator, and I strolled in, trying to look casual. I did
the same routine as the previous night, wandered around the lobby and
the restaurant looking for teammates, trying to offload any
suspicions.

Luke was sitting at a table in the closed lobby bar, playing gin
with Spencer. Dan Ortega was slouched in a third chair, watching the
play and looking bored, and Frenchy was standing behind him with his
arms crossed. I pulled another chair over and sat down opposite Dan.

"Did you just stay here all day, Dan?" I asked.

"Yeah," he replied. "Boring as hell. Nothing to do."

"Why didn't you go out with somebody?"

"Raining," he said. "Cold. Lazy. Take your choice."

Luke slapped a card down on the pile, upside-down. "Gin, you sly
bastard!" he cried. "I finally got you!"

Spencer laughed. "Just don't do that victory dance like the last
time," he said.

I looked inquiringly at the guys. Dan shrugged.

"Goldman's been cleaning Luke's clock," he said. "Luke won his first
hand finally, and he did a jig around the table to celebrate. It was
pretty freakin' funny."

"Hey, you know how it is," said Luke, not the least bit embarrassed.
"You've gotta enjoy the few wins against this asshole you can manage.
I never seen anybody so lucky at cards."

Spencer shrugged expressively. "Some guys are lucky in cards, some
are lucky in love."

All three glanced quickly over at me. Frenchy just stood silently,
watching the interaction. I expected him to launch into an
explanation about how the French were the world's greatest lovers,
but he stayed uncharacteristically quiet.

"What?" I tried for an innocent look. From the expressions on Luke's
and Spencer's faces, I failed.

I stretched and faked a yawn. "I think I'm going to head upstairs,"
I said.

"Curfew is ten tonight," Luke reminded me.

I gave him a warning look, and glanced at Dan to see if he had
noticed Luke's slip. "I'm heading up now," I said pointedly.

"Oh. Yeah, okay," said Luke. It was lame, but maybe it would pass
right over Dan. He still was desultorily sitting there, seemingly
uninterested in anything going on around him. Frenchy was watching me
with a calculating look on his face. It made me nervous as I walked
away, as if there was a gun aimed right between my shoulder blades.

It got worse once I got to my room. I called Kayla to tell her I
would be up sometime after ten, and I could tell right away she was
upset.

"What's the matter, sweetie?" I asked.

"Sean, I... I think you should stay in your own room tonight."

"What? Why?"

She was very hesitant. "Just before I got in the elevator, your
coach - Coach Pick? He came out of the restaurant. He looked right at
me, Sean. I think he recognized me."

"No, couldn't be," I assured her. "He only saw you, what, that one
weekend? That was two years ago, Kay. He may have seen you, and he
may even have thought he might have met you before, but there's no
way he would remember where or when. He's way too busy, and he's met
way too many other people since then."

"Still, it's just one night..."

"I don't want us to spend our last night together... not together.
You know?"

"Sean..."

"It'll be okay, I promise. Just wait for my call, okay?"

She was reluctant, but she finally agreed. "Okay, Sean. I'm nervous
about it, though."

"No sweat," I said magnanimously. "I'm in tight with Pick's team
leaders. It will work out."

She sighed. "You're sure?"

"I'll call you when I'm on my way up to you," I said.

I took a shower and put on my running shorts and a clean t-shirt. I
turned back my bed and switched the television to TBS. They were
warming up for Halloween by showing some of the better horror or
suspense movies on the weekends, and tonight's movie was "Jaws."
Richard Dreyfuss was doing his Duddy Kravitz laugh, Roy Scheider was
playing the neurotic sheriff, and Robert Shaw chewed up scenery right
up until he himself was chewed up by Bruce the Shark. In a dark and
quiet room, it was still, even nine years later, an intense and nail-
biting film. I watched avidly, and Luke settled in to watch, too,
after he came upstairs. We were quietly watching as the movie built
up its suspense, and the knock on the door was startling. I got up
and answered.

It was Eddie, doing his room check, and I opened the door for him
and got back to the movie. Eddie stepped in to see what we were
watching, and he got involved in it for a few minutes, too.

At the next commercial break, he remembered his duties. "Gotta go
check the other rooms," he said, almost as a reminder to himself.
"See you men in the morning." He closed the door behind him, and Luke
and I stayed where we were, engrossed in the movie.

As bits of the exploded shark began drifting to the bottom of the
ocean, I suddenly remembered Kayla. I jumped up and called her. She
sounded sleepy when she picked up the phone.

"I'm coming up," I said.

"It's so late," she said groggily.

"Open the door for me," I said, and I hung up. I grabbed my stuff
and waved to Luke. I opened our door slowly, peered out, and saw the
coast was clear. I hustled over to the stairway door and took the
steps two at a time up to the sixth floor.

Kayla was waiting for me with the door propped against her bare
foot. She smiled at me and gave me a quick, small kiss before
stepping aside and letting me in.

"Sorry," she said. "I think I was asleep. I'm glad you're here."

She was wearing a long Winnie the Pooh nightshirt. Her pale hair was
loosely tied back and a little disheveled from her pillow. She looked
vulnerable, and completely lovely.

We climbed into the double bed and snuggled together. Considering
how tired she seemed, I was willing to lie there in her arms and let
her fall back asleep, and it seemed like that was what she was going
to do. She relaxed against me, and her breathing steadied out. I
contented myself with having her next to me, and I began to think
about how nice it would be to spend the rest of our lives together
like this, sleeping side by side.

Her little nap must have revitalized her, though, because before too
long I felt her stirring next to me. She tightened her arms around
me, and she lifted up her face to mine and kissed me. I thought it
was just going to be a last good-night kiss, but it turned into
something else, and before long we were turning toward each other,
pressing our bodies against each other, and letting our hands wander
along some of the interesting contours we encountered.

I had just run my hand under the hem of her nightshirt, and was
caressing her butt cheek, when she opened her mouth against mine. Her
tongue darted out to touch the tip of mine, and the contest was on.

This was not one of those heated and hurried couplings, but was
evolving into a tender lovemaking session. Not the burning heat of
the previous night, but more of a steady, slow rising that would
eventually build into a substantial mutual climax.

We pleasured each other, each doing a little giving and a little
receiving, until, toward the last, Kayla finally rolled over onto her
back and pulled me on top of her. She reached down between us and
guided my cock into her pussy, and as I slid into her welcoming
depths, she arched her back, sighed, and held me tightly to her.

For me, it was like coming home. I was where I always wanted to be,
where I felt I belonged. 'We fit so well together,' I thought as we
made love. 'We move so well together. This can only be forever.'

No sooner had these thoughts crossed my mind, as we slowly and
lovingly built each other up, when the jarring sound of the telephone
on the nightstand rudely intruded itself.

'Don't answer, don't answer,' I silently pleaded as we stopped moving
together. Kayla opened her eyes, and I saw the fear in them. With me
still on top of her, buried deeply inside her, she twisted around and
picked up the telephone, and everything changed.

Damn it all, but everything changed.






(Continued in Chapter 20)


  
CE19