Perion Ch. 11

PREDATORS. EAT. PRAY.

The trees across the Perion Campus were nearly barren. Winter was right around the corner. The temperature had dropped. The student body had bundled up...

... And HATE was in the air.

UDW Week had finally arrived at Perion University.

UDW. The University of the Divine Word.

The private, religiously-founded academic institution that rested a mere 30 miles from the Perion campus.

Home of the UDW Paladins.

Hated rivals of the Perion Predators.

Perion vs. UDW. It was one of College Football's oldest traditions... and it marked, each season, the final regular-season football game for each team.

This week--or any other week, for that matter--Perion students could travel over to the university bookstore and purchase official, Perion-licensed "Go Predators! Beat the Paladins!" shirts. They could even find a few pieces of Perion-sanctioned "I'd never let my child go to UDW!" apparel.

But these weren't the shirts that actually sold.

These weren't the shirts that were purchased by the caseload from unlicensed, off-campus dealers. The shirts emblazoned with the play-on-words anthem that was as ingrained in the mind of every Perion student as the Perion fight song was.

The shirts that at least 200 of the 500 students sitting in the lecture hall today for Kelsie McCollum's Introduction to Psychology course were proudly sporting. Each shirt dyed royal blue... with those three proud words stamped in gold across the chest.

PREDATORS. EAT. PRAY.

Kelsie didn't know much about the game of football itself... but she nonetheless understood, with crystal clarity, exactly what mattered this week.

The Perion Predators tackle football team had dragged itself to a half-decent season. Yes, there had been that slump in the middle, and no, the team hadn't looked tremendously impressive while escaping with tight victories over the past several weeks. But this had been precisely the kind of season that so many Perion fans were familiar with: The kind of season that would ultimately be defined, for better or worse, by how the team played in this game, this week.

And as Kelsie knew oh-so-well... this glaring reality applied just as strongly to Perion's starting quarterback as it did to the team as a whole.

Unfortunately--both across campus and within the sporting media--people didn't seem to think that Chris Weathers had a great performance left in him this season. It was obvious to everyone who watched the Predators play that Chris remained unfocused and tentative on the field.

Only a select few, of course, continued to understand the stressors that were really at the root of his problems.

Chris was, Kelsie knew, caught in a vicious Catch-22.

If he played better football--and over the past two weeks, he had, indeed, improved slightly--that performance was likely to re-energize the interest of a certain Pi Shop vixen.

Which it had.

Cooper Deering had begun to regularly message Chris again. She was prodding now, clearly looking for updates on his father. She had no doubt decided that she was sick of answering questions from her sorority sisters about when she'd next be seeing this giant boy... who might still, apparently, have a future in professional football after all.

And, of course, the return of Cooper Deering into the life of Chris Weathers had only made Kelsie's man more stressed, and more worried about Kelsie's well-being... and all of this, of course, was only going to make it more likely that he performed poorly in his most vital game of the year.

This would have all been bad enough on its own... but it got worse.

Chris's parents, previously too nervous to come watch him play for Perion in person, would be attending this week's home game against UDW. His father, in particular, wanted to support Chris during what would be, thus far, the most crucial moment of his college career.

Which meant that Chris's Dad would be sitting with the other Perion fans within the Predators' stadium... very much not sick, very much able to talk, and ultimately, very much right there... right where the emerald-eyed Captain of the Preditorettes dancers could see him--and then realize that Chris Weathers had been lying to her for more than a month.

In other words: The Kelsie McCollum & Chris Weathers train was about to run out of track.

They both knew it. They'd both been obsessing over it. They had no idea what to do about it.

And, in Kelsie's case, this was an ordeal that, lately, she had been enduring alone.

Chris was now practicing and preparing for the UDW game nonstop. Kelsie had barely seen her man in days. The rest of the members of Kelsie's tiny social circle had been just as absent from Kelsie's life; they were now just as occupied as Chris was--In their case, occupied by lust.

Recently, the only friend Kelsie had seen more of than usual was Erika Lim... and that was only because Erika now attended nearly every Perion Flag Football practice... so that she could glue her eyes to Jacqueline Sullivan, her new romantic partner. Jason Lim, meanwhile, remained just as present at Perion practices as ever, and he was just as invested in Alexia Ramos's presence as Erika was invested in Jacqueline's.

To quote Bridget Orikeke: "Eye-fucking my teammates is now a Lim FAMILY activity!"

And, of course... outside of Flag Football practices... Kelsie almost never saw Alexia, Jason, Erika, or Jacqueline. For very obvious reasons.

Alexia and Jason were now attempting, daily, to melt the walls of Brain Residential College with the heat of their sweaty, nasty passion, within Jason's electronically enhanced dorm room... or, as Kaykay called it: "The FuckTrix".

As for Jacqueline and Erika: Who knew where they were every day? Jacqueline's dorm? Erika's dorm? The off-campus apartment for "Kelsie and Chris" that Jacqueline had, after all, paid for, and had every right to use?

Wherever the two lesbian lovers were tasting each other's bodies every day... it certainly wasn't anywhere near Howard Hall or Kelsie's dorm room.

And so, even now, surrounded by hundreds of other undergrads within this cavernous lecture hall... Kelsie McCollum felt alone. And scared. And more obsessed with UDW Week than any other Perion student, for reasons that other Perion students couldn't possibly grasp.

As the day's Intro to Psych lecture reached its conclusion, the course professor remained at her lectern to make a special announcement.

"First things first!" she began. "PREDATORS?"

"EAT PRAY!!!" the lecture hall thundered in response.

"Well done!" the professor returned. "I'm sorry, none of you get special course credit for that! But you have all done your proud duty as Perion students!"

"Now, moving on..." she proceeded.

"... I know that you are all aware of today's special after-class lecture..."

The hall broke into a mixture of cheers and whistles.

Kelsie had completely forgotten. There had been so much going on in her life that she had overlooked a semesterly event that was quite well-known on the Perion campus: The notorious Psychology of Human Sexuality lecture.

There was no grade to be earned by sitting in on this after-class lecture... but that didn't stop it from being one of the most popular academic offerings at Perion University. Students who weren't even enrolled in Introduction to Psychology would drop in after the normal lecture and remain for the entirety of the two-hour presentation that followed it. The reason, of course, was the subject matter.

Sex.

The lecture was devoted to discussing how men and women could react very differently in various sexual situations. The goal was to educate Perion students on sexual biology... so that these students could then apply this understanding within their own romantic relationships.

Don't blame your partner personally for something that is hardwired into his or her biology! Understand your differences so that you can appreciate and work through them!

Kelsie had been incredibly interested in listening to this lecture, given the nuclear explosion that had recently occurred within her own sexual world. She had simply forgotten that it was scheduled for today. But now that she had been reminded, Kelsie was most definitely sticking around. If anything... she simply needed the distraction.

And so, for the next two hours, Kelsie remained in her seat, and listened to the full presentation...

... And then, about 90 minutes in, during the discussion of one particular topic...

... The seed of an idea sprouted in Kelsie's mind, and then took root.

Now, the idea wouldn't go away.

No matter how hard Kelsie tried to shoo it from her thoughts.

It was ludicrous.

It was reckless.

It was, honestly, a quite distressing concept, in-and-of-itself.

But as Kelsie departed the lecture hall, and marched through the cold November air to catch the end of Flag Football practice, she was plagued by one overpowering thought.

This was something.

And Kelsie had nothing else.

**************

"Girl..." Kaykay ventured, "... Are you HIGH?"

Jacqueline, for her part, was briefly at a loss for words.

"... Look, Kelsie," the fire-haired model-quarterback finally managed. "Let me be clear here: I am very, very grateful to you! The LAST time you had a very un-Kelsie-like idea, it worked out EXTREMELY WELL for me! But, um... THIS ONE?"

Kelsie's cheeks were a deep red. She stared, embarrassed, down at the grass of the Flag Football field on which she was now standing.

"It could work... maybe..." she mumbled.

"Yes, Kelsie!" Kaykay exclaimed. "Just like I COULD go back to Howard Hall and find Michael B. Jordan in my bed waiting to stick his tongue in my pussy! What COULD happen and what WILL happen have a way of not being the same thing!"

The blue-and-gold-braided athlete, sensing that she had overstepped, reached out her dark arm and put her hand on Kelsie's shoulder in sympathy.

"Kelsie," Kaykay offered, "This definitely is a good idea for SOMEBODY! Like... ME, for example! I just don't think it's a good idea for Y'ALL!"

Kaykay withdrew her hand... then used the same toned, muscular arm to deliver a punch to the shoulder of the curvy Latina standing to her right.

"Alexia... a little HELP here?" Kaykay demanded.

Alexia Ramos didn't respond.

Instead--as the eyes of her teammates and her blond bestie shifted toward her, expectantly--Alexia stared off into space, lost in thought. Her tanned brow was furrowed. Her focus was deep.

The conversation tailed off... as Kelsie, Kaykay and Jacqueline all watched Alexia furiously assemble the pieces of a mysterious mental puzzle.

Alexia finally looked up.

Kelsie could now detect a slight gleam in her roommate's eye.

"But, what if..." Alexia began slowly.

"What if... it DID work?"

"WHAT?" Kaykay exclaimed. "Alexia, you're not helpi--"

"THINK." Alexia interrupted. Now she was looking up at Jacqueline. "THINK about it, Jacq..."

"... What if it DID WORK?"

Now it was Jacqueline with a glint in her jade eyes as she appeared to slide together the pieces of her own mental jigsaw.

Kaykay remained flummoxed.

"What's with you two? What am I not--"

Alexia grabbed Kaykay with one hand and Jacqueline with the other. She dragged her teammates away from Kelsie, threw her arms around them, and huddled with them as if they were preparing a Flag Football play.

For several minutes, Kelsie watched as her athletic friends conferred in animated, hushed tones. As the conversation proceeded, the eyes of the brilliantly-shaded trio grew progressively wider. At last, the three stared into each other's eyes and shared a uniform, resolute nod.

Alexia, Kaykay, and Jacqueline broke their huddle and returned to stand, with pregnant intent, in front of Kelsie.

"Okay, Kelsie." Alexia offered.

"You should do it."

Kelsie's eyes widened. Jacqueline and Kaykay joined Alexia in offering nods of support.

"And..." Alexia gathered strength, forcing herself to say the words that came next.

"... It should be Jason."

"WHAT?!" Kaykay and Jacqueline exclaimed in unison, each of them spinning their heads toward the short, curvaceous girl between them. "WHY?!"

Alexia's face was resolute.

"You know why," she replied softly.

Kelsie's expression darkened.

"NO, ALEXIA! That's NOT what this is ab--"

Alexia reached out and stopped her friend from going any further.

"Kels... I KNOW."

"But it's GOING to be him."

"And don't worry.

"I'll be right there with you."

******************

"Kelsie, you know I'd never turn down even a second of time with you..."

As Kelsie and Chris stepped out of the rideshare car that they had traveled in--as they had done so many times before--to the front door of their off-campus tryst den, Chris's face looked as troubled as ever.

"... I just don't know how... how GOOD I'm going to be for you right now?" Chris finished. "I'm kind of... in a shitty headspace? And especially with us only having a short amount of time today... I guess I just wanted to apologize in advance."

"Chris!" Kelsie stopped to lean upward and give her huge man a tender kiss. "You never have to apologize to me! You're perfect. All I care about is that you're with me."

Kelsie smiled up at Chris... then spun towards the door before her expression could waver.

She still couldn't believe that she was actually going to do this.

Kelsie stepped up the stairs ahead of Chris. When she reached the door at the top, Kelsie paused. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Kels?" Chris inquired with concern as he arrived next to her. "Are you okay?"

The pale blond girl didn't reply. Instead, she opened her sapphire eyes and pushed open the apartment door.

And there they were. Standing at the ready on the other side.

"OH! HEY!" Chris offered with jovial surprise as he followed Kelsie into the apartment.

"What's up, Lexi! What's up, Jason! I didn't even know y'all knew how to get here!"

Chris looked down at Kelsie with a charitable smile.

"I think we should probably go, Kels! I think our spot is booked up today!"

Kelsie almost winced at Chris's words.

Her man clearly hadn't clocked the facial expressions of the curvy Latina and the lanky Korean.

Alexia looked stoic, determined.

Jason looked... to say the least... conflicted...

Here, at this literal and figurative threshold, Kelsie might just have wavered... but her eyes now found Alexia's.

As she had done so many times before, Alexia now told Kelsie--this time silently, through her resolute gaze and her firm nod--that Kelsie had the strength to do this.

Kelsie took another deep breath.

"No, Chris..." Kelsie began.

"I told them to come here..."

"... And I need you to come into the bedroom with me."

"Uh..." Chris was clearly confused. "OK? Well... it was good to see you guys, I guess?"

And then Chris realized... as he took Kelsie's hand and followed her to the bedroom... that Jason and Alexia were following right behind them.

"Wait... uh... what's going on here?"

Kelsie could see, as they entered the bedroom, that Alexia had pulled two wooden chairs from the living room of the apartment into the bedroom and arranged them against the wall by the foot of the bed. Now, Alexia stepped forward, grabbed Chris's hand, and tugged him toward the chairs.

"Chris," Alexia directed, "Come sit down next to me."

Chris cast a thoroughly flummoxed smile at Kelsie... but Kelsie answered his gaze with a determined nod. Chris, his kind visage now at a complete loss, did as he was told.

Kelsie deliberately climbed onto the bed... then turned back to face her man.

"Chris," Kelsie managed, "You know you're my whole world, right?"

"... Sure?" Chris returned. "Of course?"

"Well..." Kelsie continued. "I need you to promise me something, okay?"

Chris's tone grew more wary, but his answer was no less firm.

"Uh... of course, Kels."

Kelsie stared with trepidation into her giant man's sweet eyes.

"Promise me... promise me you won't get out of that chair until I tell you to. No matter what."

Chris's mouth was hanging open now. He seemed to move, briefly, to offer some sort of perplexed protest...

... but in the end, the needful gaze of his pale blond sweetheart won out.

"Okay," Chris vowed softly.

Kelsie could see that Alexia, who had never let go of Chris's huge hand, was now gripping it tightly. Kelsie's bestie now looked away from Chris, and upward... to Jason.

"Go ahead," Alexia commanded.

Now Jason seemed to want to offer up his own words of protest. Alexia pointed to the bed.

"GO, Jason."

The Hawaiian programmer relented... and climbed onto the bed next to Kelsie... and, with trepidation... began to remove his clothing.

"What the fuck?" Chris blurted. "Bro! What are you--"

And then Chris froze...

... As he watched his shy sweetheart unzip and remove her parka... and then lift her t-shirt over her head.

As Kelsie pulled off her shoes and socks and unbuttoned her jeans, she wanted, so badly, to look anywhere other than the tortured eyes of the giant boy she cared for so deeply.

But Kelsie knew that keeping eye contact with her man was now of vital importance.

Kelsie slowly stripped until she was only wearing her now-cherished red bra and panties.

Jason was now completely naked. His eyes were closed. His penis was clearly, well... torn. Caught between Kelsie's half-naked presence and a clear expectation that, at any moment, a torrent of Chris Weathers punches might rain down upon Jason's head.

But Jason's conflicted member, Kelsie knew, would have little resistance against what was coming next.

"Chris..." Kelsie began softly, as she slid toward Jason.

"... You are my everything. You belong to me. And I completely belong to you."

Never taking her eyes off the giant, tormented boy in the chair, Kelsie leaned down toward Jason's tan stomach.

Kelsie deliberately extended her pink tongue from beneath her red-painted lips. In a single smooth, long stroke, she pressed it against the base of Jason's stomach and licked upward. Kelsie ran her tongue over Jason's belly button, and up to the base of his chest.

"This boy doesn't belong to me," Kelsie murmured. "He belongs to Alexia."

Jason's breaths were deep now. His penis had jumped at the sensation of Kelsie's touch, and it was rapidly growing more erect.

Chris, meanwhile, looked as if he was going to be sick.

Kelsie forced herself onward.

"I'm yours, Chris," she whispered. "I will only ever be yours..."

"... But I'm going to taste this boy now."

Jason let out a soft groan of anticipation.

Kelsie slid her tongue back down Jason's quivering body...

... until she reached the base of his shaft.

And then Kelsie--without ever shifting her blue eyes away from Chris--began to run her tongue up and down Jason's dick.

"My whole body is for you, Chris," Kelsie intoned as she licked Jason. "My soul is for you. And only you."

Now Kelsie began to deliver barely perceptible kisses to the head of Jason's penis. Jason was doing his best to control himself--presumably, with his own safety in mind--but the Korean boy's heaving breaths betrayed his pleasure as he heard the gentle pops of Kelsie's red lips leaving their mark on his pulsating cock.

Kelsie felt as though the look of Chris's face was going to shatter her heart. But Chris did not look away. He kept his anguished eyes glued to those of his petite blond treasure.

"I don't know what I'd ever do if I lost you, Chris," Kelsie declared, her voice barely above a whisper. Now, she ever-so-softly took the head of Jason's dick between her teeth, delivering a hint of punishment that solicited a soft moan from the Hawaiian boy whose eyes remained firmly shut.

"Now," Kelsie made herself continue, "I'm going to taste him more. Even though I know that my mouth is only for you."

As Jason's deep breaths surged, Kelsie parted her red lips and slowly drove his dick into her mouth. She took several inches of him within her, but gently, without stressing her throat. As repeated moans finally escaped from Jason's lips, Kelsie moved her lips backward and forward, allowing him to be pleasured by her mouth.

To Kelsie, it looked as though the white-knuckle grip of Alexia's hand was somehow the only thing keeping her agonized boyfriend seated within his chair. For her own part, Alexia looked... okay enough, given the circumstances. Kelsie knew that her bestie was glad that her sweet Hawaiian boy was being driven onward toward ecstacy... but Alexia was not, in any way, a fan of how that was happening.

At last, after Kelsie had allowed her best friend's new lover to claim her mouth, to ever-so-slightly feel the impact of his tip against her throat with stroke after soft stroke, Kelsie withdrew.

"Chris, you are all that I think of when I'm not with you," Kelsie pledged. "I dreamed about you every night for weeks after I first met you. I still dream about you today. I dream about the life we'll have together."

Now Kelsie was getting on all-fours, turning away from Jason... and lowering her panties to her knees.

"Oh God... no..." Chris begged softly, still frozen next to Alexia.

Jason, with his closed eyes, would never have found Kelsie on his own... nor, she knew, would he have had the courage to initiate the next step. No... Kelsie was going to have to do this herself.

She was going to have to take Jason's glistening, tan penis within her own fingers... and guide it between her pale legs... and into her pussy.

Kelsie was so used to being filled by Chris's enormity that she might have barely registered the entry of the slender boy behind her... but Chris's horrified face now told Kelsie all that she needed to know.

Kelsie worked herself backward until, at last, she felt her soft, milky butt press firmly against Jason's pelvis.

"Oh Goddd..." Jason couldn't resist moaning.

"Chris," Kelsie promised as she began to take Jason's full length in and out of her, "This pussy will only ever belong to you. Just like my entire heart belongs to you. And you know that Jason's heart and body belong to Alexia now. You KNOW this."

Kelsie's ass was slapping against Jason with regular rhythm now. Jason couldn't resist increasing his speed as the sensational caress of Alexia's best friend's supple backside seized control of him. Now Jason could no longer repress his desire to lift his hands, to grab Kelsie on each side, to power himself deep into her.

Kelsie would never have allowed Jason to take things this far for more than a few seconds... but she knew, and could sense, that a few seconds was all the time that she would need.

"Oh God!!!" Jason moaned with guilt-ridden pleasure. "I'm so sorry!!! I'm SO SORRY!!! I'm going to cum!!!"

This, at last, would have been the final lightning bolt to Chris's agonized heart that would have prompted him to lunge upward from his chair...

... but Alexia was faster.

In the blink of an eye, the curvy athlete shot from her chair and onto the bed.

As Kelsie and Jason pulled away from each other, Alexia dove down, spun Jason toward her... and powered her dark lips onto Jason's cock.

"Oh, GOD!!! I'm so SORRY!!! Oh, FUCKKKK!"

Jason stared down at his lover with twisted, ecstatic regret--just as Chris had once stared down at Kelsie--and exploded into Alexia's waiting mouth.

Just as she had on that horrible night in Pi Pi Pi, Alexia masterfully pumped every drop of cum from this erupting dick... but this time, it was the right dick. Jason's dick. The dick that Alexia now claimed as her own.

Kelsie's bestie summoned forth all that her man had to give her, swallowed it... and then grabbed Jason by the arm, and tugged him, naked and spent, from the bedroom. Alexia slammed the door behind them.

Kelsie and Chris were now alone.

Kelsie tugged her panties back up, jumped off the bed, and straddled her stunned, miserable man atop his chair.

"Chris, LOOK AT ME!" Kelsie begged, staring deep into her lover's agonized azure eyes.

"None of that, that just happened, means ANYTHING!"

"You KNOW Jason belongs to Alexia! You KNOW I belong to you! You KNOW that absolutely nothing has changed!"

"But I know that that KILLED YOU!" Kelsie cried with understanding. "It killed you as a MAN! Because you care about me so, so much, and you need to claim me, and compete for me, and win me!"

"And Chris: That is ALL THAT HAPPENS at the end of this!" Kelsie vowed, boring her way through her man's wide eyes and into his very soul.

"All that happens now is that YOU WIN!"

"Right now," Kelsie proceeded, lustily and frantically, "Your dick is filling up with more cum that it ever has in your whole life! And you are going to shoot every single bit of it into my pussy! And you are going to feel as much pleasure as you have ever felt! And you are GOING TO WIN!"

Kelsie hopped off of her giant man and returned to the bed.

"But you can't take me YET, Chris," Kelsie pleaded, staring back at her man, presented to him, her face pressed down onto the sheets, her ass up in the air, calling to him from behind her red panties.

"You have to PUNISH me first, Chris! You have to SPANK ME for doing that to you!"

And now, at last, was the terrifying moment of truth.

Kelsie had, effectively, risked it all. She had bet the stability of her and Chris's relationship on this instant. She had sent her poor man, whom she cared about more than anything on Earth, into Hell. And now she prayed that she could pull him back.

For an excruciating instant, Chris remained frozen in his chair: His eyes wide, his mouth open, his body and spirit grappling with the trauma of the prior minutes.

And then his eyes arrived upon Kelsie's milky white thighs... and the delicate, upturned ass that awaited his conquering justice.

And then Chris's clothes were wantonly torn from his body.

And then Chris was behind her.

And his open palm was cracking across her backside.

And Kelsie was embracing that luscious, necessary, stinging pain.

"You think you can just DO THAT TO ME?" Chris questioned lustily.

Again came the stinging slap of his hand across her panties.

"No, I can't!" Kelsie whimpered with pain and passion. "I was SO BAD! I was SO, SO BAD!"

Chris roughly tugged Kelsie's panties back down to her knees.

"You think you can just make me fucking WATCH as you FUCK ANOTHER MAN?"

His next slap rippled across her bare ass, and both the sound of the action and Kelsie's submissive moan echoed through the room. Then came another spank, and another.

Kelsie took the pain of each lashing with ecstatic gratitude... and now she waited.

Waited for the next phase of her punishment. Waited for the dominating thrust of Chris's enormous cock to bring her helpless body to justice.

Instead, Kelsie felt Chris's powerful arms.

Grabbing her. Lifting her in the air. Spinning her around. Carrying her off of the bed.

Pinning her against the wall, as her delicate legs wrapped around his powerful, standing frame.

Chris lifted his hand up and wrapped it around Kelsie's throat--applying no pressure at all, but simply leaving it there, as a reminder. A reminder that Kelsie was being punished. That she'd been a bad girl. That this was for her own good. That, as she stared with fervent longing into her man's dominant eyes, Kelsie had to take what was coming to her.

Chris powered his massive cock within her. He was going to make Kelsie feel every inch of his manhood on each penetrating plunge.

"You belong to ME!!" Chris shouted, feeding his punishing length deep with Kelsie, as hard as he could, again and again and again. "This beautiful fucking body belongs to ME!!"

"IT DOES!" Kelsie wailed. "I belong to YOU! I was SO BAD! I filled your giant dick with so much seed, and I need to TAKE IT ALL until I LEARN MY LESSON!"

"Fucking TAKE IT!" Chris moaned as his titanic release approached.

"Take your FUCKING PUNISHMENT!!

And, finally, as Chris buried his ravenous blue eyes within Kelsie's, he erupted inside of her.

"OHHHHH FUCKING TAKE ITTTTT!!" Chris groaned, time after time, as the raw power of his orgasm overwhelmed him, as wave after wave of cum jetted from his dick. For second after glorious second. For longer than he'd ever orgasmed in his life.

As her body was flooded with Chris's endless passion, Kelsie's spirit was flooded with emotion.

Passion. Relief. Lust. Gratitude.

And, above all, the confidence she needed to see her plan through to the end.

"Chris!" Kelsie began, gazing into those kind blue eyes as the seemingly never-ending waves of her man's pleasure finally subsided.

"I know how hard these months have been for you!"

"I know that you would do absolutely anything for me!"

"I know how much everything that has happened, between us and to us, has stressed you out!"

"I know it's affected how you play. I know it's affecting you now. I know how worried you are about what happens this week. About what happens AFTER this week!"

"It's JUST like the stress you felt in that chair JUST NOW! Agonizing about something that you didn't think you could control!"

Kelsie reached up her arm, grabbed her man's head, and pulled it tight to her own until they were nose-to-nose.

"But YOU LISTEN TO ME, Chris Weathers!" Kelsie pledged with fiery intensity.

"WHATEVER happens this week--with Cooper, with UDW, any of it---NONE OF IT MATTERS!"

"Because at the end of it all, months from now, YEARS from now... I WILL STILL BE HERE!"

"I'm not going ANYWHERE, Chris!"

"No matter WHAT happens... WE FOUND EACH OTHER!"

Kelsie pressed her red lips against Chris's and gave him the deepest kiss she could summon.

"You just felt your body COMPETE for me, Chris! And WIN ME!"

"Because, as long as we have EACH OTHER..."

"No matter WHAT kind of stress and pain you feel..."

"... in the end... all you will EVER do... IS WIN!"

Kelsie reached up her other arm.

She cupped her lover's huge head between her hands.

She stared as far into his soul as believed she possibly could.

"NOW..." Kelsie finished.

"GO WIN."

*********************

"Well, that's your ballgame."

The Perion Football radio broadcaster paused.

"And now, we assume, Chris Weathers will be heading over to visit the UDW campus..."

The announcer took a dramatic, long, final pause.

"... TO BURN THE ENTIRE PLACE TO THE GROUND!!!"

It was, simply, one of the greatest performances that any Perion Football fan had ever seen.

He had completed his first 13 passes.

He had thrown for five touchdowns.

He had passed for more yards than all but four other Perion quarterbacks, in any game, ever.

Chris Weathers had ANNIHILATED the Paladins.

And it went far beyond the raw statistics.

Chris had spent the entire game practically screaming his teammates to victory.

He had walked out of the locker room after halftime, stepped onto the field, looked at the UDW defense, pointed to the far end zone, and yelled, "We're going RIGHT THERE!"... and then done exactly that.

Chris had even nearly gotten in a full-blown fistfight with a UDW defender in the second quarter, before his teammates pulled him away.

A headline for Perion's online student newspaper, published later that night, summed it up best:

WHERE THE HECK HAS *THIS GUY* BEEN???

On the same website, readers would soon find a story on another, related topic... though Perion's student journalists were far from the only ones who had noticed it.

After the game, as he had celebrated with his teammates... Chris Weathers had been joined on the field by Perion University's other elite quarterback.

The one who had just led Perion's Flag Football team to a Conference Championship and entry in the College Flag Football Playoffs.

Jacqueline Sullivan.

Perion's two gorgeous, tall, talented quarterbacks, hugging as they celebrated a glorious victory over the hated UDW Paladins: It had made for a striking image.

Everyone knew, of course, that Jacqueline Sullivan was a proud lesbian, and that this was no romantic entanglement...

... But then, in his postgame press conference, Chris had specifically talked to the assembled media about the time he had recently spent with Jacqueline Sullivan... and Alexia Ramos, and Bridget Orikeke, and the whole Flag Football team. Practicing. Throwing. Getting better.

It was a perfect media narrative.

"Two Perion Quarterbacks--one male, one female--push each other towards on-field glory."

It was the exact narrative that Jacqueline, Alexia, and Kaykay had hoped for.

It was the exact narrative that Jacqueline Sullivan had stoked the fire of, on the field after the game...

... When Jacqueline had made sure that she had been the first beautiful, green-eyed Perion woman to arrive at Chris Weathers's side.

As Jacqueline had stood there, next to Perion's Man Of The Hour, planting the "Weathers and Sullivan: Perion's Heroes!" seed in the mind of every fan and sportswriter... Jacqueline hadn't needed to look around.

As Jacqueline had delivered a trademark playful punch to Chris's ribs... then turned to run back to the front row of the student section... where she high-fived Alexia Ramos and Bridget Orikeke... and then delivered a demonstrative, theatrical, telling hug... to an overjoyed Kelsie McCollum... Jacqueline hadn't needed to go searching with her eyes.

Jacqueline knew.

They all knew.

She had been right there.

On the field.

Watching.

In her glittering Perion Predatorette uniform.

Cooper Deering had seen the entire thing.