massive, beautiful chest. Flat planes of muscle that spread forever. Muscle she could sink her fingers into. Rest her cheek against. Nuzzle.
She squeezed her eyes shut and slapped a hand to her forehead. “Ugh, no!” she scolded herself. She held her breath until the unwelcome image began to have black dots pierce it. With a whoosh of air, she threw herself onto her side. She did
not
want to think of that
creature
as a sexual object. She hadn’t thought of a man in that way since she was seventeen — too young, naïve, uneducated, and hormonal to know better.
Bad.
Very
bad
.
For perhaps the millionth time since last night, Abilene’s grave warning flitted through her head.
Grace heaved a sigh, and with her eyes squinched shut as tightly as possible, she put her right hand beneath the sheets. She began to trail it down her body slowly, giving her mind — already at the verge of panic — time to accept the inevitable: they were going to have to do this. Her fingertips passed through the valley between her breasts. Grace’s skin began to crawl. They reached her soft, rounded belly. A fine tremor settled into Grace’s arms. They reached the elastic band of her panties.
Grace’s mind bailed ship.
“Seth, this isn’t funny,” she said, clutching her hands to her breasts and eyeing her boyfriend’s best friend, Joe, where he stood silhouetted in the doorway. Whatever was going on, his addition to the private moment between Grace and her boyfriend was unwelcome.
Grace couldn’t see his eyes in the darkness of the room, but she imagined they were glowering as Joe’s dark form observed her where she lay half-naked on Seth’s bed. “Wow, you got this far,” he said to Seth with a sneer. “You sure you need my help for the rest?”
From where he sat beside her on the bed, Seth laughed the same vibrant laugh that had first gotten Grace to notice him. “Man, this is as far as she ever goes.” Seth gestured Joe into the room. “Let’s do this. I’m so ready for it to be over.”
Grace tried to snatch the sheet over her body, but Seth was sitting on it, and he didn’t budge. Dread was slowly fermenting in her stomach. “Um, I should go,” she offered timidly. Both men turned to her like hawks spotting prey. “My roommate is expecting me.”
They laughed, and then Joe entered the room, closed the door behind him, and clicked the lock into place. The snick of the gears shot through the last of Grace’s hesitation and hopeful doubt. She jumped up from the bed where she and Seth had been kissing and touching only moments before, and snatched her shirt from the floor, making a beeline for the door.
Joe easily snatched her against his chest as she tried to push past him in the small dorm room and flung her back to the bed.
That was the moment when Grace fully realized that they were going to rape her. Her vision wavered, and she turned her eyes upon Seth as he stood from the bed and began to undo his jeans. “Why would you — ” she swallowed down a panicked sob. “Seth … I love you. Don’t do this.”
Joe let out an abrupt bark of laughter. “Oh my God!” He clapped Seth on the back. “You’re good, man, you’re good. You got her to love you? That wasn’t part of the deal. Shit, not even I’m that cruel.”
Grace scrambled back on the bed and hit the wall with a thud.
“Shut the fuck up, man, and just grab her arms. Let’s get it done.” He made a noise of disgust. “Look at her. She’s such a fat cow.” He glanced down and Grace’s eyes automatically followed, landing on his flaccid penis. She turned her face into the wall with a gasp. “How am I even going to get it up?” Seth asked.
Grace moaned, wondering why, with what was about to happen, his words were what were hurting her most. Like a child, she covered her head with her arms. Light shattered her attempt at hiding as her arms were jerked over her head. Joe held her down and said, “You’ll figure something out, man.
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