Chapter 34
Coming home to Arkadia wasn't as tough as Bellamy had expected. Sure, the time away had been nice, but it'd also added up. Going to see all those attractions and buying all that food and paying for a hotel room that was out of his price range meant that he had to replenish his funds. Which meant he had to get back to work. Luckily, his crew didn't have to work on New Year's Day. Still had to work on New Year's Eve, but he could handle that. The on-campus build at the library was nearing its final stages, so the work wasn't too strenuous anymore. It'd be onto another project after this.
"You're late," Roan said as he ambled on site.
"I know." He put on his hard hat, hoping the clock on his dashboard was right and that he was only ten minutes late and not twenty. "You think Emerson noticed?"
"Probably."
Damn. Bellamy looked around for his boss, and indeed, there he was, walking around supervising all the work that was being done, barking orders. His eyes met Bellamy's for a second, and he shook his head disappointedly, a sure sign that, yes, he had noticed that Bellamy hadn't been there on time.
"How was the time with your girl?" Roan asked.
"Great." Bellamy grabbed a hammer in an attempt to look like he was busy, but his mind was still in Wilmington and on everything that had happened there. One thing in particular. "I got to feel the baby kick." He still couldn't believe he'd felt it already. Most of the stuff he'd read had said he'd probably have to wait a few more weeks, but every pregnancy was different, and he wasn't about to complain that his daughter wanted to say hello to him a little earlier than usual.
"Crazy, huh?" Roan said.
"Yeah." He couldn't wait to feel her kick again.
"It's gonna be even crazier after she's born," Roan warned him. "Hey, you still need help with that nursey?"
"Yeah, if you got a free weekend anytime soon." He could try to build some stuff on his own, but he was still a bit of a novice when it came to construction. Roan was a pro.
"We'll find a day to work on it," Roan assured him. "But, uh, speaking of work . . . you better get to it. You don't wanna give Emerson any reason to fire you."
Bellamy looked over at Emerson again, discouraged to see that his boss was still eyeing him. Yeah, that probably meant it was time to actually do something with that hammer in his hand, so he forced his mind to leave Wilmington and got to work.
...
As midnight approached and the New Year's Eve party at Raven and Murphy's apartment wore on, Clarke started to get tired of dancing. But Raven insisted that they dance "like they were young again." Which . . . okay, she hadn't realized she was old. She didn't feel old despite feeling so pregnant. Even Harper had quit dancing half an hour ago and was hanging out in the kitchen with everyone else now.
When the current song finally ended, Clarke decided, "Okay, that's enough dancing."
"No, that was only, like, ten songs," Raven protested.
"Twenty," Clarke corrected. Yes, she'd been keeping count. "I can't dance like this."
"You look hot," Raven insisted.
"I look like a planet." It was good exercise and everything, especially since she'd mostly spent her first day back home lying in bed napping and watching TV, but dancing with her perfectly slim, trim, fit best friend made her feel self-conscious.
"Fine." Raven groaned and at last quit dancing. She picked up a pen and a pad of yellow sticky notes off her coffee table and handed them both to Clarke, instructing, "Here, write down your New Year's resolution. I'm gonna put 'em in a bowl and then have everyone pick one out after midnight. We'll guess who made which one."
"Resolutions, huh? I haven't made one of those for a while." Didn't most people resolve to diet or work out or give up soda or something? A lot of people ended up breaking their resolutions and just making the exact same one for the next year, too.
Clarke zoned out a bit, the tip of the pen on the paper, ready to write down what she resolved to do. But there were a number of things that came to mind, some easier to accomplish than others, and her pen stayed still.
"Come on," Raven urged impatiently, "yours is easy."
Snapping herself out of her daze, Clarke said, "Right," and jotted down what was obvious. This year, she was having a baby, so this year, her resolution was pretty damn important. Since her dad and Alyssa were having a baby, though, too, she tacked on something to do with that, then tore the sticky note off, folded it, and handed it to Raven.
As her friend flittered around collecting everyone else's New Year's resolutions before the clock struck midnight, Clarke joined Bellamy at the kitchen table. He'd planted himself there about an hour ago, and the arrangement of empty cans of beer in front of him were evidence of just what he'd been doing.
"Hey," he said, reaching out for her hand when she was close enough, "how's my designated driver?"
"Still designated." She sat down on his lap and asked, "How about you? Having fun?"
"Yeah." He burped, and she could definitely smell the alcohol on that burp, and then he boasted, "I just beat Murphy at arm-wrestling."
"Of course you did. Look at your arms." She squeezed his biceps, admiring how large they were. "They're great arms to have."
Either consciously or unconsciously, he flexed his muscles a bit, but then he finished off the beer in his hand and switched topics completely. "Did you know Murphy makes more money doing YouTube than I do working construction?"
"Oh, yeah. YouTube's pretty lucrative these days, and he's got followers," she said. "If Raven wasn't so frugal with money, I'm sure they'd be living in a really lavish apartment by now." She couldn't take her hands off his muscles. In fact, she was becoming increasingly distracted by them.
"Are you still thinking about my arms?" he asked.
"Yeah." They were just so strong and encompassing. "And other parts of you." She grinned flirtatiously.
"You wanna fuck in the New Year?" he offered.
"Most normal couples just kiss."
"Well, we're not normal."
No, they weren't, but they were still in an apartment that wasn't their own. "Maybe we could just make out heavily," she suggested.
"Like they're doin'?" He motioned to Jasper and Maya, who'd barely come up for air since showing up a couple hours ago.
"Did Jasper lose his virginity?" she asked. Because judging by the amount of tongue he was using . . . it certainly looked like he had.
"Yeah," Bellamy confirmed. "He was so excited."
"Aw, they're in love."
"Everyone's in love here."
She looked around at all the couples—no single people tonight since Lexa had gone to visit Costia over the holidays; and Miller had brought a date to the party, a really hot guy named Bryan who just happened to have a really hot job: firefighter. "What about them?" she asked, motioning to the two boys, who were doing a better job socializing than Jasper and Maya but still seemed to end up pressed up together in the corner of the kitchen to make out a lot.
"That's lust right now. That's close enough," Bellamy said. "And lust can become love. Just look at us."
She smiled, not exactly sure when her lust for Bellamy had transformed into love for him. It'd happened fluidly and naturally, so she couldn't pinpoint an exact moment. But she hadn't been able to stop it from happening. And no one else had been able to, either.
...
Clarke raced downstairs with her car keys in hand, surprised to see that her mom was home already. She'd been showering and blow-drying her hair, though, so it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that she hadn't heard her mother's car pull into the garage or that she hadn't heard her come in.
"Hey, Mom," she said, slowing her pace just a bit.
Without even so much as a 'hey' in response, her mom stopped what she was doing in the kitchen and spun around with an angry look on her face. "Where do you think you're going?"
Clarke stopped in her tracks, taken aback by her mother's hostile tone. "To Bellamy's," she answered. "I'll be home by 11:00."
Her mom came towards her, shaking her head vehemently. "Oh, no, you're not going anywhere."
"What?" 11:00 was totally reasonable. Totally. "Why not?"
"Why not? Why not?" her mom resounded shrilly. "Do you even remember how drunk you were the other night?"
Well . . . not remembering was kind of a side effect of being drunk, wasn't it? "No, actually," she said. They hadn't really talked about it a whole lot and had pretty much been keeping their distance these past couple days. So she'd just assumed that it was water under the bridge at this point.
"Well, it wasn't pretty," her mom said. "I'll tell you that much."
She sighed impatiently, feeling like, the longer this conversation wore on, the worse it would get. "Look, Mom, I know you're disappointed in me for that," she said, "but . . . it's not the first time I've ever had a drink before."
"You're not helping your case."
"I'm just saying, there's alcohol at almost every single party. Even the parking lot parties we had during football season," she tried to explain, all in the name of honesty. But if honesty wouldn't work, she could make some promises. "But I don't wanna drink that much again. And I won't," she declared. "I never would have even gotten drunk if Bellamy wasn't there."
Unfortunately, her mom took that to mean, "So he pressured you to drink?"
"No. I—I just knew he'd take care of me and make sure I got home safe."
"Oh, well, aren't you so responsible?" her mom bit out sarcastically.
Clearly they weren't getting anywhere, so Clarke tried to offer up any reassurances she could, just anything to get her out of their and over to her boyfriend's, where his mom would not come down on her so harshly because she saw her as a young adult more so than a kid. "Look, I won't do that again, if that's what you want," she vowed. "I promise."
"Well, of course that's what I want, but that's not all I want, Clarke," her mother growled. "I want you to go back to being my mature and sensible daughter. Is that too much to ask?"
"I still am your daughter."
"No, you're—you're Bellamy's girlfriend," her mom bit out.. "And I couldn't stop you when you decided to start having sex with him, and I couldn't stop you when you decided to get drunk the other night . . . but I can stop you from seeing him now."
Clarke instantly stiffened. "What do you mean?"
When her mom spoke again, she spoke firmly, with conviction and an authoritarian style Clarke had never heard her use before. "You're not allowed to see him anymore."
Not allowed? Her mind rebelled against that idea at once. Not allowed? "You can't do that," she said. It wasn't fair.
"Oh, yes, I can. I am your mother. You live under my roof, so you live under my rules."
Clarke's stomach began to knot up. This was serious. This was her mom laying down the law in a way she never had before.
"And just in case you're wondering, I ran this by your father," her mom added, "and he agrees with me."
Desperately, Clarke tried to think of some kind of compromise, but if even her dad was on board with this, then her options felt limited. "So you guys are just gonna forbid me from seeing him?" she said tearfully, clutching her car keys in her hand, knowing that, if she chose to, she could just run right out that door and take off.
"It's for the best," her mother said.
"The best for who? You?" How could any of this be for the best when the thought of not getting to be with Bellamy filled her with an ache that was going to keep her up all night? She didn't want to go over to his place to go get drunk or even to have sex tonight. She just wanted to be around him. In a few more months, he'd be down in Florida, and she'd still be here, and she wouldn't get to spend all this time with him anymore. "Look, Mom, I'm sorry I'm not your little girl anymore," she apologized, even though she wasn't really sorry for just growing up. "But I am still your daughter, and . . . please, you just have to trust me."
Not even wavering in her decision, her mom shook her head. "I don't," she said bluntly. "When it comes to that boy, Clarke . . . I don't trust your judgment."
Clarke stared at her in disbelief, shocked. The fact that her mom didn't like Bellamy was no huge revelation, but this? Hearing that her mom didn't even trust her anymore? That was.
As tempting as it was to just break the rules and go to Bellamy's anyway, Clarke felt too devastated to even enjoy her night with him and his family anymore. So she ran back upstairs, not even bothering to disguise the fact that she was crying now. She wanted her mom to know how bad this made her feel. Because she needed her mom to change her mind.
...
"What's wrong?" Bellamy asked, rubbing her back.
"Nothing," she said, placing her hand on his chest. "I was just thinking about how many New Year's Eves we missed out on together. I mean, my junior year, I just stayed home. Senior year, Raven dragged me out to a party and got a little drunk, so . . . I ended up kissing Raven."
"If you hadn't realized you were bi before . . ."
"And then the next year, I was with Lexa, and both years after that, I was with Finn," she recalled. God, last New Year's Eve had been awful. She and Finn had been arguing about something stupid—she couldn't even remember what, and they hadn't even kissed at midnight. "What about you?" she asked him.
"It's all a little fuzzy," he admitted.
"Well, what about last year?"
He had to think about it for a few seconds before he said, "I think I was with . . . Sofia? Was there a Sofia on that list I gave you?"
"There were several Sofias on that list."
"Yeah, well, that's who I kissed on New Year's. And the other years . . ." He tried to remember, but eventually he just gave up and shrugged. "I don't know."
"How romantic," she deadpanned.
"I know. I just wish I'd come home sooner so I could've been kissing you."
That would have been nice. As much as she'd always cherished her time spent with Bellamy in high school and loved being with him again now, she couldn't help but look back on all that time in between and wish they hadn't wasted it. "Well, we'll just have to make up for it this year," she decided.
"By making out heavily?"
"Or . . ." The more she thought about it, the more willing she was to . . . be a little more daring.
"The New Year's sex?" he said a little too loudly.
"Shh!" she hushed him. No need to publicize it.
"You're down for that now?"
"Can't really resist," she said. "But we have to be inconspicuous."
"Got it." He nodded, but then only a few seconds later, he was lifting her up off his lap, setting her down on her feet, and bolting up from his chair. He ran towards the bathroom, practically plowing through Monty and Harper. "Outta my way!"
Oh, god, she thought, shaking her head in embarrassment. He couldn't have made that more obvious if he'd tried.
As Bellamy slipped into the bathroom, Monty and Harper approached her, and Monty asked, "What's wrong with him?"
She shrugged cluelessly and said, "When you gotta go, you gotta go." Hopefully he didn't get started without her, because unlike him, she was going to try to draw a little less attention to herself. Wasn't going to be easy in an apartment this small, though.
Keeping careful watch of the clock, Clarke moseyed around a bit more, first filling up a glass of water from the kitchen sink, then pretending to be all interested in the new pillows on Raven and Murphy's couch. Finally, while everyone else was in the midst of talking and laughing about . . . something, she seized her opportunity for an escape. She scampered to the bathroom and peeked over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching as she slowly twisted the doorknob. But Bellamy ended up just yanking her inside and slamming the door shut.
"That was not inconspicuous," she told him.
"I don't care." He kissed her heatedly and, yeah, a bit drunkenly, and her hands immediately roamed his broad, bare chest. How considerate of him to have already taken his shirt off and unfastened his jeans. Making things easy on her. His words all blended together when he asked, "How much time do we have?"
"I don't know," she said. "Seven minutes. Eight." She really wasn't sure. But if they timed it right, they could definitely fuck in the next year of their lives. That honestly sounded . . . exhilarating and perfect.
Already ridding her of her clothes, he asked her, "You want me to eat you out?"
"Yeah." What kind of question was that? Of course she did.
"Yeah?" His eyes gleamed with mischief and excitement as he helped her out of everything but her bra. "Here, get up here," he said, hoisting her up onto the sink counter. She noticed that he had to put a little extra effort into lifting her up these days.
Raven and Murphy's bathroom wasn't exactly spotless. Raven had makeup items and hair products strewn all about the bathroom sink, so Clarke had to move some of them out of the way to get comfortable. Bellamy helped her get situated with her hips right on the edge of the sink, and to the best of her ability, she spread her legs. It wasn't all that easy to do with her belly in the way. She wasn't too big for this yet, though. And hell, even when she was too big, they'd still find a way.
Bellamy's dedication to performing amazing oral sex was truly admirable. Clarke had always enjoyed how he just go so into it, how he got off on getting her off, so when he got down on his knees and pressed his face up in between her legs, her thighs quivered with anticipation. With the clock ticking towards midnight, it wasn't like they could take it slow, so he pressed his tongue right up into her folds, giving her several long, flat licks before focusing in on her clit.
Bellamy had lots of different techniques that he used to stimulate her, and she wasn't picky, so she pretty much enjoyed any of them. But one surefire way to build her up fast was to flick the tip of his tongue against her clit. And that was exactly what he did. "Mmm . . ." she moaned, reveling in the teasing of it all. It didn't take a lot of pressure or anything. Just that slight touch of his tongue made her feel so tingly and alert. "Oh, yeah, Bellamy. Oh, that feels so good."
Bellamy managed to push her legs a bit further out to the sides, spreading her open even more, and he switched tactics then, running his tongue from side to side, still focusing on that little bundle of nerves. The change in tactics, though small, was noticeable, and for a moment, it made her feel like she was falling off the counter, even though she hadn't moved anywhere.
They must have been a bit too loud, because suddenly there was a knock on the door, followed by Raven's voice. "Clarke? You okay in there?"
"I'm fine!" she answered a bit too quickly. It took everything she had to suppress a loud moan when Bellamy inserted a finger into her. "I, uh . . . I started feeling sick, so . . . Bellamy's holding my hair back." More like Bellamy's going down on me, she thought, but whatever.
"If that's your story," Raven said, and Clarke listened as she walked away from the door.
Lifting his head up just slightly, Bellamy whispered, "She doesn't believe you."
"Any reason why she should?" Reaching down, she grabbed his hair, trying to press his face into her pussy again. "You came flying in here like a bat out of hell."
"I was eager." He gave her lower lips one big kiss, then grinned and asked, "You gonna cum for me?"
"Uh-huh." The relative thrill of doing this while all their friends were out in the other room had her arousal at a peak.
Bellamy lowered his mouth onto her again, using his agile tongue to make tiny circles on her clit now while he continued to pump one finger inside of her. That finger was soon joined by another, and when she felt him making 'come hither' motion on the inside, she was a goner. She came hard, all over his chin and his hand, and he lapped up every drop he could get.
When he was done, he sat back and said, "You're such a good girl."
"Mmm." She slid down off the counter and said, "I love it when you say things like that."
Standing up, he said, "I love it when you cum," and got to work taking off his jeans. "I wanna fuck you."
"Probably just a couple minutes left," she estimated, unhooking her bra. Even the comfier maternity ones made her breasts feel caged in.
As he shoved his boxers down and stepped out of them, he motioned for her to turn around and said, "Bend over."
Being told to bend over by Bellamy Blake was something she'd never grow tired of hearing. Under normal circumstances, she preferred fucking face to face, but being pregnant had caused her to appreciate doggy style and all its glorious variations much more.
There was still no time to take it slow, so Bellamy didn't. He moved up against her, lined his cock up with her entrance, and teased it by just barely pushing in a few times. But that didn't last long before, all of a sudden, he grabbed her hips and just plunged right in. With anyone else, especially someone of his size, it may have hurt a little, but with him, it just felt good. She was used to the feel of him, and she loved the feel of him. Over the years, she'd spent countless nights fantasizing about scenarios just like this.
"Oh, shit," he swore, holding onto her hips as he began to move. "You feel so fuckin' good."
"You feel good inside me." She wasn't sure if they'd both just gotten better at sex, or if her hormones truly did have such an impact on her arousal, or maybe if absence really did just make the heart grow fonder, because getting fucked by Bellamy was even better than she remembered. His hips just rammed hers so good, causing their skin to smack together. "Oh!" she cried out.
"Shh . . ." he shushed her.
But it was no use, was it? They hadn't been inconspicuous, and they hadn't been as quiet as they could have been, and all their friends knew how horny they were for each other. She really hoped they weren't all standing on the other side of that door, getting a good laugh out of all of this, but she couldn't contain herself as she murmured, "Oh, yeah, fuck me, Bellamy."
A low growl rose up from his throat, and he increased the pace of his thrusts. His breathing was coming in ragged, heavy pants now, and when she chanced a glance at their reflections in the mirror, she saw that he was squeezing his eyes shut, almost as if he couldn't watch what they were doing or he'd cum too soon. She tried to watch, but it was too much for her, too, and she had to lower her head.
"Bellamy? Clarke?" Raven's voice rang out again. "About a minute 'til midnight. You guys wanna come join us?"
No, I just wanna cum, Clarke thought stubbornly, but she couldn't even muster any words.
"No, thanks," Bellamy rasped out. "We're good." His hips stilled momentarily, and his hands came around to cup her stomach. When it seemed like Raven had gone away again, he bent forward and spoke quietly in Clarke's ear, "Can you hold out for one more minute, babe?"
"Can you?" she taunted. Sure, having had one orgasm already, she was primed for another, but he was drunk, so it wasn't like his stamina would be at an all-time high.
It definitely seemed like it was becoming a struggle for Bellamy to hold out, so he slowed his pace a bit and started fucking her with long, deep strokes instead. Her insides felt like they were fluttering in anticipation, especially when they heard their friends out in the other room start the countdown to midnight.
"Ten! Nine! Eight!"
Oh, god, they were so close.
"Seven! Six! Five!"
So close.
"Four! Three! Two! One!"
Her pussy clenched, and as her friends screamed out, "Happy New Year!" she gripped down hard on the edge of the counter and moaned her boyfriend's name. He came a few seconds after, grinding his cock as far into her as he could, and it was one of those orgasms where she swore she could feel his release. It was just this pulsating . . . warmth.
His cock twitched inside her even after they were done, and he bent all the way forward and pressed a sloppy kiss to her shoulder. "Happy New Year, Princess," he breathed against her heated skin. She smiled, too dazed to formulate a response. But she hoped he knew how excited she was to ring in a new year with him.
...
If it was really true that the way you rang in New Year's Eve was the way you spent the rest of the new year, then Bellamy was fine with that. Because that would mean he'd get to spend the whole next year fucking Clarke. No complaints.
"Look at that," Murphy said teasingly when they finally emerged from the bathroom about ten minutes after midnight. "It's a dual walk of shame."
Their friends snickered.
"Who said I was ashamed of anything?" Bellamy countered.
"No, he's right," Clarke mumbled, blushing. "It is kind of embarrassing."
It wasn't to him, though. Hell, he was more proud than anything else.
"Good thing your sister's not here," Miller said. He and Bryan had taken his seat at the table and had their arms wrapped around each other.
"Yeah, good thing," Raven agreed, "but in my bathroom? Seriously?"
"I'm sorry, but you don't know what it's like to have these hormones I have right now," Clarke said. "I'm insatiable."
"For food or for sex?" Murphy asked.
"Both, actually."
Bellamy just smirked. Yep, hungry and horny. That was his girl.
"Did you guys at least clean up after yourselves?" Raven asked.
"Yes," Clarke answered.
"Thank you." Shifting gears, Raven held up a bowl and said, "Alright, now that the incredibly insatiable duo has rejoined us, who wants to find out what we all resolved to do this year?"
Murphy cackled and said, "I've never met a New Year's resolution I won't break."
"Everyone take one," Raven said, walking around with the bowl, letting everyone grab one small piece of paper out of it, "and then you have to guess whose it is." Once everyone had grabbed one, she asked, "Who wants to start?"
"I will," Harper volunteered. "Because this one is super obvious." She cleared her throat, then read off, "Be a good mom and big sister."
Everyone looked right at Clarke.
"Aww, you will be," Raven assured her. "Okay, Monty, you're up."
"This one just says . . ." He made a face. "Take over the world."
Before anyone could even guess, Murphy raised his hand. "That's mine."
"Well, that'll happen," Raven mumbled sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Okay, the one I have must be Harper's, because it has a lot of dance moves on it I can't even pronounce."
"I need to get better at Foutees and Grand Jetes," Harper claimed.
"Whatever those are," Raven said. "Murphy, you're up."
"Jesus Christ," Murphy swore, "this one's a whole fuckin' novel."
Probably mine, Bellamy thought. He had a lot of resolutions.
"Be a good dad," Murphy read. "Build the nursery. Get a promotion. Maintain the beard. Get Clarke's parents to like me. Stay fit." Even though it was already obvious whose he was reading, he squinted at the last line, what was probably nearly illegible handwriting, and said, "What's this? Hardcore anal?" He glanced up at Bellamy questioningly.
"Yep," he confirmed, nodding unabashedly. Anal sex was one of his resolutions. He had yet to show Clarke how good he'd gotten at it.
To her credit, she didn't freak out on him for including that, nor did she seem to become very embarrassed. How could she, really? They'd already snuck into the bathroom to fuck in the new year. They'd already done their dual walk of shame, and she'd already admitted to being insatiable for sex. Nothing to be embarrassed about anymore.
"Well," Murphy said, "that's one way to stay fit."
Bellamy just smiled as they continued on to the next person. Hopefully all those resolutions of his came true, because if they did, then it was going to be a very good new year.
