Emerald Flight: Wildest Dreams (continued)

He waited until he was standing next to her to unlock the car. He reached past Jenna and opened the door for her. A small smile danced across her lips as she climbed inside. Scott swallowed, feeling her physical presence uncomfortably close as she slid past him into the car. After making absolutely certain that she was safely inside, he closed the door. The last thing he needed was to gift her with a bruise that matched the one on that had finally managed to mostly fade on his left leg.

As Scott dropped into the driver’s seat and closed his door, he saw that Jenna had pulled off her coat. It was not particularly warm inside the car, but warmer than it was outside.

Probably trying to get away from the wet, sticky soda, Scott guessed.

He turned away and slid the key into the ignition slot. Before continuing, he paused, catching some additional movement in the edge of his vision. He turned to look and froze, completely unprepared for what he witnessed next.

Jenna was peeling her uniform shirt up over her head. Scott thought that he should probably look away, but breathed a little easier when he saw that she was not completely naked underneath it, nor was she wearing only a scanty bra beneath.

I really should stop looking, he thought, but the suggestion did not take hold.

Jenna rolled up the shirt and placed it on her lap. She looked up at Scott. Her smile was not exactly demure, but neither did it carry any hint of embarrassment.

“You’ve never seen a girl in a sports bra before?”

Scott nodded, still unable to take his eyes away. The smooth fabric conformed wonderfully to the curves of her breasts.

“Why?” he managed to get out in a hoarse whisper.

“Because you wouldn’t have told me to,” she told him. Her eyes watched his. “And I was getting cold.”

Scott nodded very slightly in understanding.

“Want me to take it off too?”

Yes! “No.”

She was smiling playfully, but Scott had no doubt that she might have done it readily if he had agreed.

What is it with her?

Scott swallowed hard, closed his eyes, and forced himself to turn away before opening them again. Beside him, Jenna had pulled the coat back up, but had not closed it entirely. Little bits of the light-colored fabric and her dark skin where visible in the swashes of light. It took considerable effort for Scott to ignore the feeling of his jeans tightening across the front.

“Turn right when you leave the parking lot,” she told him. “And then five lights down to Mulligan, and then a left there.”

Scott nodded; and started the car. He knew that area. She lived, probably renting or still living at home, in a lower middle class area of town. It was an older section of the neighborhood, originally built about four decades earlier. It was not the best part of town, but neither was it the worst. Scott probably would not have walked alone in it at night, and he was definitely going to make certain that Jenna made it safely inside with the door locked before he left her there.

She had settled back in the seat and was taking a tentative sip from her bottle. When its contents did not erupt all over her again, she took a deeper swallow. Glanced toward Scott, she gave him a warm smile and offered him the bottle. Scott shook his head in genial refusal and shifted the car into gear.

Jenna remained quiet during their brief voyage back down the main street. She appeared completely relaxed with him, Scott noted, and wondered if she was always so daring. He knew that he was a good and decent guy, but there were a lot of ones out there who were not, particularly if given such an opportunity. Scott suspected that Jenna could hold her own if accosted, but she was only one girl and most guys, like him, would likely have both several pounds and inches on her.

None of this seemed to be going through her mind at the moment, from what he could tell. Sipping occasionally from the soda bottle, she looked out at the road ahead. She was about to indicate to Scott where the turn was when him flipped on the turn signal and pulled into the turn lane to wait for the light to change

Jenna leaned forward, peering through the harshly illuminated darkness to take a better look at the street signs. As she leaned forward, part of the coat slid away, again revealing the fabric of the sports bra and the skin along her belly. Scott knew he was staring, and that she had not done it deliberately, and looked away quickly, focused on the seemingly unchanging hue of the traffic light. Fortunately, it switched to green before he could say something that might prove to be embarrassing.

He turned left and pulled on the street that Jenna had indicated and slowed, awaiting her directions. This section of the neighborhood was darker than he had remembered, with many of the overhead street lights not working. Scott was glad now that he had been there and she had not been forced to walk this alone.

“Thirty-nine forty-seven,” she told him. “Almost at the end on the right. There’s usually a big green pickup parked at the curb next door.”

Scott nodded and tried to read the address numbers as they rolled past. Most of those painted on the curb were faded or badly eroded, making it difficult to judge their progress. Almost none of the houses themselves had visible address signs.

Thirty-eight twenty-one . . . Close.

Scott slowed, not wanting to miss the house when he located found it. In the headlights ahead, he saw what appeared to be an large avocado-green pickup truck. He slowed the car almost to a stop as they passed it and managed to make out the address of the house next to it.

That could be thirty-nine forty-seven . . . or forty-one.

He took a chance and eased to the curb in front of the house. That Jenna began unbuckling her seatbelt, and did not question him why he was stopping there, told him that he guessed correctly.

Scott unfastened his own seatbelt and was on her side of the car as she tucked her coat closed around her. He grabbed her backpack from the floor before she could reach for it. She smiled at him in return and led him up the walkway, staying close to his side.

“I think everyone else is out tonight,” she told him in a loud whisper. “At least they remembered to leave the light on.”

Scott eyed the low-wattage porch light and wondered how much protection it really offered. She fumbled with her keys for a moment and then worked both locks open. The door opened into a dark entryway.

Jenna turned and looked at Scott, seeming less self-assured that he had ever seen her.

“Do you want to come inside for a minute?” she asked. “Just until I check things out?”

Scott nodded his agreement, despite a small knot forming in the region of his stomach. Jenna made no move to take the backpack from him, so he carried it inside.

She closed the door behind them and paused, appearing to listen for sounds in other parts of the house. Scott could hear nothing unusual, other for what sounded like an aging refrigerator being overworked. Jenna stood alert, but did not seem particularly alarmed. She stepped forward and switched on some of the lights and Scott could see her relax considerably.

As he quickly surveyed the main room off the foyer, he guessed that magnitude of disorder he saw was typical for the occupants of the house and not the results of it having been recently ransacked.

“Roommates,” Jenna shrugged, grimacing apologetically.

She seemed almost as displeased as Scott would have been had he arrived home to find that Thad had left an equivalent disaster area in his wake—and he had made those discoveries on more than a handful of occasions after some of his brother’s more boisterous gatherings.

“I’ll be okay,” she said quietly, looking over toward him. “Thanks.”

She stepped to him and reached for the backpack. She was pressed up against him, her dark eyes searching for his.

“Thank you,” she repeated. Her voice had fallen to a faint whisper. Scott had nearly released his hold on the backpack when she kissed him, pressing her lips lightly against his.

She moved away, but still close. Scott stared down at her, suddenly breathless. Even his thoughts seemed lost.

“I will take it off for you, you know,” she said. Her eyes never released their hold on his.

Scott opened his mouth, but no words came forth—not even a sound, just a single breath.

Jenna did not hesitate. She closed her mouth with his again. Within moments, her tongue probed for his. Scott considered resisting, of answering to all of the reasons why this was a really bad idea. Before he could react, though, he felt her hand caress the front of his jeans. He swallowed past the lump in his throat, knowing exactly what her fingers were learning there.

She pulled her mouth away slowly and smiled happily at him. Her hand might have been removed too, but Scott was not certain.

“That’s good,” she said, in a soft tone that both satisfied and victorious. “I thought I’d lost my touch.”

“You haven’t,” Scott breathed. “Trust me.”

She let her coat fall from her shoulders. Catching it with one hand, she tossed it over the back of a nearby chair.

“Stay with me for a little while,” she asked him. “We don’t have to do anything. But just stay?”

Scott looked down at her. Her dark eyes were shining, half-pleading and half . . . something else?

Passionate? he wondered.

Surprised to discover that he was still holding the backpack, he held it out to her. He intended to decline, to wish her a good night, and then leave.

“Okay,” was what he said. “For a little while.”

Her smile brightened and she led him down the hallway.

She stopped at the first door on the left and used a key to open it.

Must have real trustworthy housemates . . .

She switched on a single light, casting a faint yellowish glow over the room. It would not be enough to read or study by, Scott decided, guessing that there were other lighting sources available.

“I’ll be right back,” Jenna told him with a quick smile, and disappeared back down the hall.

Scott looked around the room without stepping further inside. It was disorderly, but not nearly in the state if chaos that the living room had been. This room looked more like someone had been in a rush to leave and had not had quite enough time to tidy up first.

There was a worn, inexpensive desk with a small stack of papers and books. From what he can discern from their covers, Scott guessed them to be textbooks from her college courses. There was also a large empty area where he guessed her laptop rested when she was working. Perpendicular to the desk, wedged into the corner of the room, was what Scott judged to be a twin–sized mattress and box spring, stacked directly on the floor. The covers were pulled up, but not neatly tucked.

Next to the desk, within reach of the bed as well, was a short bookcase filled with books of assorted sizes and colors. Scott was just about to step in for a closer look when he heard Jenna’s soft footfalls behind him.

“Sorry,” she said, as if reading his assessment of her room. “It’s been a week. Mid-terms.”

Scott nodded. He completely understood. During exam weeks, things had sometimes gotten so intense that there were days when he had not shaved—but never for more than two days in a row, though.

She was carrying two bottles of water and handed him one.

“I thought you could use it after two beers.”

Scott nodded and smiled his gratitude.

“And I never drink if I’m going to try to study,” she went on. “Otherwise . . .” she made an exaggerated expression of falling into sleep.

Scott grinned, laughing softly.

“Sorry,” she added, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the bed. “There’s nowhere else to sit,” she said. “I don’t usually have a lot of people over.”

She dropped down into the lightweight folding chair in the front of the desk, dropping the backpack lightly beside it. Scott perched carefully on the edge of the mattress, balancing the water bottle on the carpet in front of his feet.

Jenna twisted open her bottle and drained about a third of it, before sighing in satisfaction. “Better,” she said, giving Scott another smile.

He realized then that she was still wearing the same clothing—sports bra and dark work pants—while untying and kicking off her shoes. She wiggled her toes, clad in matching dark socks, and sighed again. Scott considered offering to massage them for her, judging that should be a safe enough suggestion without overt overtones toward anything else.

The idea never made it to his lips, though. Jenna stood and approached him, standing directly in front on him see that his eyes squarely met her exposed navel. He felt her hands land lightly on each of his shoulder and he looked upward to find Jenna studying him. For a moment, he awkwardly wondered if she was finding him an interesting psychological specimen for her studies.