CHAPTER 36: 36-TOO MUCH INTIMACY

Clementine:

"Put on a good act," Troy whispered in my ear as his arms tightened around my waist. I felt so weird being touched by him, so I had no clue who to focus on my best friend, who was holding me like he would eat me alive, or the faun, the monster who would literally eat me alive.

Troy’s scent was very dusky, more like the kind of scent that would make someone lose their mind. His touch was extremely warm. His hands were strong and powerful. I had always known that, but I didn’t know how they would feel on someone’s body.

The way he held me close, his bottom pressed tightly against my back, was so odd. And then, the way his lips touched my skin, so soft. The kisses he placed near my ear were making me slightly shake. My shoulder would lift higher the more he kissed around my cheek and earlobe.

I didn’t understand why he had to get so intimate just for the show, but he didn’t stop. He began licking my earlobe, and I was afraid of letting out a moan because that was my sensitive spot. I was beginning to feel my eyes close, and because I couldn’t push him away, since it was literally our plan, I had to endure it.

Or should I say, I was kind of enjoying his touch, and I hated my body for it. The way my body was heating up, it was unlike anything I had ever felt before.

Then he started to whisper into my ear, "We need to get away now, because it seems like he’s ready to come at us."

Troy woke me up from whatever trance I had fallen into, and once he pulled back, he said, "Come, my love, let’s take a walk," he held his hand out to me, putting on a show for the faun, who was watching us with his eyes wide open.

I could only imagine him going through the same trauma of watching his wife with the guy who was introduced as a best friend.

"Sure," I said, my voice quite shaky. Even Troy narrowed his eyes, because he wanted to know what was wrong with me.

That was how we knew the plan was working, when the faun couldn’t even follow us for a while. We had started to walk away, and after a while, we began to briskly step farther from it. At this point, we knew he could wake up at any moment and realize what was going on.

So now we were pretty far away from him.

"That was crazy. I can’t believe it worked," Troy said, making me uncomfortably shift away from him.

"What?" he asked, then began to nod his head. "Yeah, you never got to enjoy how I taste," he said, and I rolled my eyes.

"Listen, I know you’re upset about—" he began to start again, just because he thought I would listen to him now. I began to shut him down.

"I don’t want to hear it," I said.

We were now walking away, trying to find a place where we could again be spotted together.

"Right," he said, scoffing as always.

After a while, we reached a beautiful water stream, and we began to wait near it. We had to create certain moments to lure him to the point that he would lose his mind and stop focusing on his environment, and more on trying to get to us.

As we sat down, starting to wait for his arrival, I noticed how Troy was looking at me.

"What did you say to him happened?" I said.

"I showed him the clip of us kissing."

As he started talking, I had to snap at him.

"No, you kissed me! And now I know why you did it because you wanted to create a scene where I’m caught cheating on him. What else did you tell him?" I asked uncomfortably watching his face.

"I told him after that we had sex," he added, and I began to shake my head.

"You’re so pathetic."

I meant it, to be honest. And surprisingly enough, he didn’t argue against it, because he knew he was pathetic.

But what I absolutely did not expect was that he suddenly got up and squatted down in front of me, which instantly weirded me out.

He began to caress my face while I watched him with my eyes wide open.

"He’s right behind you," he uttered, not opening his mouth too much, and that was when I knew why he was suddenly acting so weird.

I had not been touched like this by anyone, so this task was pretty terrifying for me.

He began to run his fingers along my cheeks, touching the strands of my hair and pushing them off my face.

"You know what?" he whispered. "I always knew you were extremely good looking," he whispered, making me clench my fist not because I was angry, but because I was trying to hold in my emotions.

What the fuck was he talking about?

"You don’t have to speak," I uttered, reminding him that he didn’t have to act like he was talking while acting.

He leaned over and cupped my face in his hands, his eyes fixed on my lips. Since we had been arguing a lot, we hadn’t even discussed how far we would go to convince the Faun that we were the same lovers he had once caught in his bed. However, I couldn’t push him away, it would expose our plan. So I began to let Troy take the lead, but he was doing things that made me feel strange about him. Since he had been my best friend for so long, I had never expected us to become this close. When he first kissed me in the library, I was obviously shocked. He slowly brushed his lips against mine, and my entire body shuddered. My hands moved on their own, and I gripped his wrists, almost as if for support, while he kept holding my face. Then he began to press our lips together, more firmly.