Chapter 5

Jace POV

“Welcome Cuddlers!”, Sharon welcomed us all cheerfully and clapped her hands excitedly. “I'm so glad so many people came. I can see some familiar faces, and some new ones.”

She grinned at all of us, which crept me a bit out actually.

The drive to the “Center Of Cuddling” didn't take long, but the ride was kind of awkward, at least for me. Magnus and Izzy chatted happily away, so maybe it was imagination, but it still seemed really uncomfortable for me.

“At first, we're all getting some name tags, so we can talk to each other on a first name basis. Cuddlers, go grab a heart sticker from this box, write the name of your partner on it and put it on your partner. This will be our first station.”

I frowned slightly at the Lady standing there, telling us all this stuff, looking completely serious about all of this and smiling the whole time. Didn't her cheeks hurt from all the smiling?

“I will go grab two and bring a pencil”, Clary mumbled and stood up to go get us two stickers.

She came back seconds later with two stickers in the form of two red hearts and a black pencil. She hold one sticker out to me and gave me the pencil.

I nodded at her, showing her my thanks. The sticker looked strange, like I said it was a red heart, with a thick darker red line on the outside and little hearts around it. Frowning I just grabbed the pencil and wrote “Clary” on the sticker. Okay, now the putting on part. I looked a little uncomfortable at Clary and she was already staring at me. She sat up a little straighter and pointed at her stomach. I smiled a little and put the sticker on her stomach and I couldn't help but caress one time to many over the sticker and her stomach. Clary's breath hitched, but I ignored it and sat back sighing quietly.

Clary took the pencil from my grasp and wrote my name on the heart. Her hand writing was delicate and more accurate than mine, it was beautiful and fitted her perfectly. When she was finished she put the heart sticker right above my heart and she too, caressed one time too many over my chest and it still didn't last long enough for me.

“Everybody finished?”, Sharon asked. “Great! Now the real fun can start!”

She clapped excitedly in her hands and smiled at all of us.

“Please follow me.”

Sharon turned around and we followed her into another room. In that room, the curtains were closed, on the floor lay mattresses, pillows and blankets and the only light in the room came from a lot of candles.

“Okay, now. If any of you want to cuddle with someone new that you don't already know, say it now or stay with your cuddle partner for the rest of the night.”

A girl in her mid twenties stepped forward and smiled at Sharon.

“I would like to change cuddle partners with Clary. Brandon is okay with that.”

The girl smiled back at a red haired guy, a little older than her, but he smirked at Clary. The girl smiled at me, probably trying to look seductive, which she didn't.

“That's great Katherine, it's always good to try to meet someone new”, Sharon smiled at the girl.

What? No way! Bad enough Magnus got me into this with Clary, because it probably would get really awkward but I would definitely not cuddle with some stranger! The thing is, I couldn't exactly voice my thoughts out, so instead I took a step forward as well and grabbed Clary's waist.

I pulled her back to my front, wrapping my arms around her waist and resting my chin on her shoulder, hoping she would play along. And thank God, she did!

“It's our first cuddle party and we want to stay together”, Clary said and smiled kindly at Sharon.

“Oh, of course, of course”, Sharon gushed. “Young love, we don't want to separate two lovers.”

She winked at us and looked apologetically at Katherine and Brandon. Katherine glared slightly at Clary and Brandon looked actually kind of bored. He probably didn't really care who he could get his filthy hands on. I shuddered just thinking of him and Clary together.

“Anybody else?”, Sharon asked.

A little girl, probably around 16 stepped forward. She blushed a little but asked if she could cuddle with Simon. I was as shocked as he was! His jaw actually fell open and he looked with big eyes at the girl, while the girl smiled shyly at him.

“Back off”, Izzy snarled. “He is mine!”

The girl looked actually terrified when she saw the look on Isabelle's face.

“Izzy”, Simon whispered in her ear. “Calm down.”

But she still kept glaring at the poor little girl, that tried to hide behind a few others. After another five minutes Sharon started with the 'lesson'.

Every couple took one mattress and was meant to sit opposite each other, facing each other, not touching. Sharon got two other woman, her cuddle assistants Molly and Sarah. Both were in her fifties, looked kind of nice, but a little weird too with their colorful clothing and make up.

“Now we are going to start with a small exercise”, Sharon began to explain. “One of you will start. You will use both hands at the same time and caress slowly up the legs of your partner, over the hips, the sides of the upper body, down the length of the arms, up again, slowly and please gentle over the face. Then you will switch. Any questions? No? Okay. Please close your eyes while you are being caressed and please be all quiet and just feel.”

I gulped nervously and looked at Clary.

“You wanna start or should I?”, she asked. “If it's okay for you I would like to start?”

The way she was looking at me, I tried and tried to find out what she was thinking but I just couldn't figure it our, so I just nodded and closed my eyes. A moment later I felt Clary's small hands on my legs and I think my heart skipped a beat, just to start beating again with more speed than before. My breath become a little labored and I hoped she didn't notice. Her small hands were slow, all so slow and teasing, but still not slow enough, so I could feel her a little longer. When her hands went past my knees and on my thighs I prayed to God I wouldn't burst and Clary wouldn't notice the effect she had on me. Without stopping anywhere or showing me otherwise that he had noticed, her hands went to my hips. Clary needed to get in her knees in front of me so she could reach my hips and I felt her body shift lightly. Her hands went over the sides of stomach, my chest, then to my shoulders. For a short moment I could almost taste her breath on my tongue. Her hands wandered down the length of my arms, to my hands. She took a hold of both of my hands, squeezed them lightly and went up again, not giving me the chance to react somehow. Her hands wandered up my throat and I gulped. Her soft fingertips touched my face, mesmerizing every feature on my face. My chin, my cheeks, my forehead, even my ears, temple, eyelids, nose and finally she touched my lips.

My eyes fluttered open and I was surprised to see Clary so close. Her eyes were trained on my lips, that parted without my will. She suddenly looked straight into my eyes, nothing more and nothing less, with her fingertips still on my lips.

“Okay!”, Sharon shouted breaking our moment.

Clary and I both jumped a little and Clary sat back down, blushing lightly and avoiding my eyes. It was actually cute and I couldn't help but smile at her.

“Switch!”

Clary closed her eyes and titled her head, raising her chin high and proving her confidence to me. I chuckled, hopefully too low for her to hear. I hesitated only a second before my hands touched Clary's bare legs. Her breath hitched and I saw her taking a deep breath. I wanted to feel her skin on my skin as long as possible, so I took my time letting ma hands slide over her soft skin. When my hands touched her thighs I saw her arms tremble a little and I couldn't help but smirk a little. I looked at her face, but she still had her eyes close, but bit her lip lightly.

Then my hands cascaded the length of her torso and I was carefully not to touch her anywhere near her breasts, I didn't want her to think bad of me. Then I caressed from her shoulders, to her hands. Instead of taking her hands in my, like she did, I played with her fingers for a moment. She giggled lightly and just that sound made me love Magnus for the idea of coming here and dragging me along. My hands went up her arms again, over her delicate throat and then I touched her face. Her breath left her mouth all at once and her shoulders dropped slightly. My fingertips went carefully over her face, I went the same way she did, and like I did, she opened her eyes when my fingertips touched her lips.

“Great job!”, Sharon interrupted us – again!

I glared at the stupid woman and Clary giggled lightly. I couldn't help but smile at her. She smiled back at me and I think my heart just tried to rip out of my chest, it pounded that strong right now.

“Now, I want you all to lay down. I want all the men to hold their woman in their arms, how I don't care, you can spoon or the woman can lay on your chest or whatever, I just want the men to put their arms around the woman, okay?”

I raised an eyebrow at Clary. For me it was all the same, if she lay on my chest or if I could press myself against her back, I was glad to have her in my arms for once.

“Chest”, Clary decided.

So I lay down on my back and Clary followed suit. She pressed her body against mine, lay her head on my chest, just above my heart and had her hand beside my heart, drawing small patterns there. I sighed in contentment and put my arms around her small fragile body.

“Okay, while you lay there I want you to tell each other something personal. You both have five minutes, yes? Start.”

“Wanna start?”, Clary asked giggling.

She put her chin on my chest and smiled up at me. I couldn't help but chuckle, but glared playfully at her, nudging her with my shoulder, so she would start with her story.

“You know this is kind of unfair”, she mumbled, but still lay back down and started her story. “Okay. Something personal, right? Okay, I have something, but promise you won't tell anybody else and you know how I mean that and don't use this against me, okay?”

This unnerved me a little bit. What was she going to tell me? This really sounded serious and I wasn't sure if I really wanted her to continue.

She looked up at me, waiting for a response. I nodded slightly, looking concerned at Clary. Before she could lay down again, I grabbed her chin and made her look at me again. I hoped she would read me again, like she did so many times before and could tell that I wasn't forcing her to tell me something serious.

“It's okay, I want to tell you”, she smiled a little and smiled back.

She lay her head back down on my chest and began drawing her patterns again. She then sighed and began telling me her story.

“Okay, so I don't know how much you know about me from Isabelle, so maybe I will tell you some things you already know. When I was a lot younger, around nine or ten, my mum, dad and brother lived far away from here, doesn't matter where exactly. The important thing is that my brother is seven years older than me. One night we went out, celebrating the 20^th wedding day of my parents. We went to a restaurant out of town, which was more classy and stuff like that. We had a lot of fun and a great evening.” Clary sighed. “But it didn't stay like that. This evening my parents told my brother and me that my mother was pregnant again. When we drove back our car broke down. I don't remember why, but I remember falling asleep. My father was calm and collected, my mum because of her pregnancy was more paranoid. I woke up again from shouting. A car had pulled over and there were three men outside of our car. They were threatening my mother. Like I said I don't remember much but my mum told me later that one of them wanted to rape my mum and me. My father, he saw red. He just lunged at the first guy and smashed his face into the hood of our car, he was unconscious almost instantly. He and John – my brother – went for the other two. The two other men overpowered my dad and my brother. I was stupid and naive and thought I could help, so I left the safe car and ran to help my dad. But the other man saw me coming and grabbed me.” I pulled my arms tighter around Clary, suddenly afraid of what she might say next. “The man had his hands around my throat and I couldn't breath any longer, I heard my mother scream for the man to let me go, but he just laughed. My mum distracted him enough so that my dad could free me from the grasp of the man and I was free. I ran back to my mum who hugged me tight. But while my dad was fighting with new found strength, my brother was beaten to a bloody pulp. He was only seventeen. Oh God, John.” Clary's voice began to tremble and I started rubbing her back. “My dad didn't notice and my mum and I couldn't do anything. But my mum did. I didn't even know she had a gun, but she apparently did. She went back to the car and came back with one. It wasn't like in the movies where she yells for the mugger to stop or she will shoot them, she said nothing she just shot the man. She shot him twice, one bullet hit his stomach, the other his chest and he died seconds after he hit the ground. My mother had murdered someone and we all had seen it. The problem was that when the breakdown service for our car came, they would see the two unconscious men and the dead body, so we had to do something. But it was too late for us to even think about something. Someone had heard the shots and a truck stopped right behind our car. A man stepped out of it, asked us if we were okay and told us he had already called the police. My father tried to stay calm and thanked the man, they talked until the police arrived. When the police arrived they wanted to know what happened. My brother stepped up and told the police he shot the man. We all were shocked, my mum, my dad, hell I was! I only understood it a few months later. My mum shot someone, during self defense or the defense of her son or whatever, but she still shot someone. She was pregnant so my brother didn't want her to go prison and the thing was that all the blood of the man was on John's chest. So John went into prison. M- My mum lost the baby. We found out three weeks after the attack. I have absolutely no idea why, but the judge gave my brother the fault of her miscarriage and so his two years in prison turned into three and four months.”