“Jake,” I whispered as he stayed in position, neck bent, apparently studying our connection.
The instant I said his name, his head shot back, his hands released my legs but they did this curling them around his back and he dropped his torso to mine.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
I opened my mouth but didn’t say anything when his hand came up, cupped my cheek and his thumb pressed against my lips.
“Don’t,” he repeated. “Don’t say anything, baby. Don’t think anything. Don’t be anything but with me. Not until I get you safe. Not until we can talk this out where I know you’re good. Promise me that.”
“I don’t—” I started, my lips moving under his thumb, but I stopped when he pressed in with his entire body.
“Promise me that, honey.” He was again whispering.
He held my eyes with his now beautiful blue ones and I let him do this for long moments.
Then I nodded.
I barely got that movement in before he pulled out. I felt my lips part at the unwelcome but still lovely sensation but I didn’t get to process it.
Jake reached beyond me to his bag. He came back with a towel and his eyes held mine as he gently pressed it between my legs, cleaning him from me.
I knew my face got soft because that felt rather nice and I knew this because his face reciprocated the gesture.
I couldn’t see me but I still would argue his look was better.
He tossed the towel somewhere I couldn’t see. I felt his hands working at his shorts before his fingers were at my hips. He yanked me roughly off the table but he didn’t let me teeter. One arm slid around me tight and held me to him as his fingers worked my skirt, yanking it back down. Then both hands were to my waist and I was up and my bottom was planted on the table.
Once he got me there, I watched him move quickly. His back to me, he went through the room, first picking up my purse and coat then moving to the wall to snatch up my panties.
I bit my lip when he did this and not in embarrassment. It was highly titillating watching Jake in boxing trunks seize my panties from the floor by the cinderblock wall where he’d first taken me.
It was not romantic in any sense.
But having been the one who experienced it, I knew it was the most romantic thing that had ever happened to me. In fact, I knew if any other woman had had it, she’d feel the same.
Yet, I was uncertain.
There was something wrong.
Something that needed to be made right.
This thought made my lips move and they moved to call a quiet, trembling, “Jake.”
He was on his way back to me and at his name, he did this swiftly. He dumped my purse and coat on the table beside me, wrapped a taped hand around my jaw and dipped his face close as he shoved my panties in his workout bag.
When my eyes went from his bag to his, he instantly started speaking.
“Stick with me,” he urged.
My voice was still trembling when I agreed, “All right.”
“All right, baby,” he said gently before he dipped his head and touched his mouth to mine.
And this time, having had him, having given him me, that touch was even sweeter.
After that, he wasted no time. He turned to his bag, dug out a workout jacket in navy blue and shrugged it on. Hands still taped, he tugged out a matching pair of pants and yanked them on over his trunks.
He zipped up the jacket before he pulled me from the table and grabbed my coat. He held it up for me and I turned in a circle, gliding my arms into the sleeves as he settled it on my shoulders.
Once my coat was on, he grabbed the strap on his bag, dropped it on his shoulder and dug into a side pouch, pulling out his keys. He then snatched up my purse and handed it to me.
I took it.
He took my hand and dragged me to the door. He unlocked it and dragged me out.
Immediately, he hauled me close, his hand dropping mine to clasp me around my shoulders and pull me so tight to his side I had to turn slightly, pressing my front to him to accommodate the demands of his arm.
Not only for comfort but for connection, I was sliding my arm around his waist when it happened.
I knew they were there but I was so affected by what just happened, in a fog, I didn’t really notice all the people milling about the hall until the clapping started, the hooting began and then someone close by shouted, “Fuck yeah! Class plowed by The Truck!”
We stopped so abruptly I swayed and I dazedly watched Jake’s hand slice up, long finger pointed at something.
I looked to where he was pointing and I saw a man in an unbecoming tracksuit (Jake’s was much better), his face paling as Jake clipped out supremely irately, “Shut your f**kin’ mouth.”
His mouth was partly open when Jake made this command but it clamped shut and his lips thinned, such was his intent to clamp it very shut.
Jake moved us again and it was when we were about to hit the door to the outside that it penetrated that the applause, hooting and that comment were not about congratulating Jake on winning his fight.
It was congratulating Jake on doing what it was clear many had heard us doing in the locker room.
Good God.
“Jake,” I whispered yet again and it was trembling even more this time.
He pushed out the door and ordered quietly, “Josie, stick with me.”
I said nothing but I stuck with him mostly because he was holding me so close and he was so determined to get us where we were going I had no choice.
We made it to his truck. He beeped the locks and had me in before I could blink.
With shaking hands, I buckled in as he tossed his bag in the back and pulled himself behind the wheel.
“My car is here,” I told him something he had to know.
He looked to me even as he turned the key in the ignition. “We’ll come get it tomorrow, honey.”
Tomorrow?
I didn’t ask. He was engaged in backing out of his parking spot and with that behemoth of a vehicle, I thought his attention should be focused on this endeavor.
I looked back out the windshield when we started moving forward.
It wasn’t until we were on our way, headed back to Magdalene when I noticed he had his mobile in his hand. And I noticed this only when I heard Jake talking into it and I looked to him to see he had it to his ear.
“Con?” A pause then, “Yeah, son.” Another pause then, “Yeah, I won. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. Listen, I’m not gonna be home tonight.”
I drew in a sharp breath and saw Jake’s eyes flash to me then back to the road and he kept speaking.
“Curfew’s still solid, bud. You’re on the honor system tonight. Don’t disappoint me.” He was silent a moment and then, “Okay, Con. See you tomorrow.”