Chapter 8

Jay’s turn:

Lena likes kissing and hugging and she’s very agile and energetic and… Last night I thought we’d… We didn’t. God knows I wanted to, but Lena’s precious and if I’m misreading this, I could move her away from me. I don’t want that. If she wants to play and tease, then we’ll play, and I’ll get teased, and that’s just the way it is.

Then she almost killed me this morning.

I got out of bed to ease the pressure in my bladder, returned to bed. She did the same thing. When she returned to bedside, I said, “Just a few more minutes, babe.”

“Sure,” she smiled. Crawled in beside me. She was just soooo close, bright-eyed, smiling. And I KNOW she likes kissing. Let’s see…

My hands grasped her waist, pulling her to me. This time, I just did it – moving my arms to embrace her, pulling her body full length against mine. Erection? You better believe. And I pulled her against it. I know she felt it. Her body was fluid, forming against me.

Motel room. Privacy is rather spotty. Yesterday morning she disappeared into the bathroom to get dressed. I got dressed in the room.

This morning, though, she turned her back to me, peeled that nightshirt off over her head, leaving her standing in her panties, naked from there up.

All I could do was squeak her name.

“Oh, you can’t see anything,” she giggled. GIGGLED! And she pulled her pants on, then, still turned away, put on her bra, then the blouse she was going to wear today. She was still buttoning it up when she turned back to me, still giggling.

“Payback for that last kiss,” she grinned.

“You don’t play fair,” I said.

“Oh, I don’t?” her eyes flashed sassily.

Okay, two can play this game. I hooked my thumbs in the waistband of my pajama bottoms, staring into her eyes, and I bent, pulling them down to my feet. Still looking at her face, I stood up. I was wearing nothing but blue briefs. She likes blue. Her favorite color.

I kept watching her face, pulled my jeans up, filled my pockets, pulled a lightweight shirt over my head.

“Still like your game?” I queried.

The little darlin’ actually licked her lips.

I plopped down on the chair to put on my socks and shoes. She started past me. Ain’t gonna happen. I tossed an arm around her waist, pulling her down into my lap.

She squealed. Squealed again when I got my lips on her neck. “Jay!”

“I don’t think I got enough of you, Lena.”

“Mmmm-hmmm,” she said, kissing me, then she bounced, twisted, straddled me.

Oh, god… her jeans. My jeans. A couple of pairs of underwear. All there was between me and what may very well be nirvana on earth.

Kissssss. “How much of me do you want?”

I looked at those blue eyes. “All of you.”

“Be careful what you wish for,” she said. We kept on kissing, my hands roaming, holding her in place, her hands cupping the back of my head, just to let me know that she wasn’t trying to escape my kisses because she was landing some of her own.

Down below? Enough movement to make me hard enough to cut diamonds. She HAD to feel it. My hands moved down her back, landed just below the waist of her jeans. She looked at me with a very mischievous grin, kissed me on the nose and jumped off.

“We need to pack up,” she smirked.

“You DO know how to play this game.”

“I know lots of things, Jay. I know that YOU are a dangerous man to be around.”

“You’re kidding me, little blonde-haired girl. That ‘you can’t see anything’ move, and I’m the dangerous one?’

“Yes, YOU. You think I’d do that if I wasn’t badly tempted?”

“But then…”

“Oh, it just feels GOOD to feel good with you, Jay. You. Me. I’m perfectly safe and I’m playing with things I never played with before.”

“Like my heart…”

“You’re healthy as a horse, remember?” she asked. “You’re just barely middle aged. You’ll survive a little elevated heart rate.”

“The other heart.”

Her face turned serious. “Jay, I am decidedly NOT playing with that. You’re my best friend. I want it to always be that way…” She was packing her bags.

I straightened up. “Death knell. ‘We’ll ALWAYS be friends…’ Just what a guy needs to hear.”

She looked at me funny. Stopped stuffing things, stepped up to me, grabbed my hips, pulling me against her in what she has to know is past a friendly hug. “Jay. More, okay? Oh, so much more. But the kissy-kissy smoochie-smoochie… Right now, okay? I, uh…”

I touched her face. “You have me.”

“Good. I want to have you across the breakfast table. Then on the road to Chattanooga.”

“See?!? You just did it again.”

“What’d I do?” she squeaked.

“Tender moment. Then totally clinical.”

She smirked. “Okay, I’ll admit to this one. It’s not the time to get so serious. I know what you are to me. You need to understand what I am to you. Think about it.”

I thought. Finished packing. She and I did a double check to make sure we had everything, then we hit the parking lot, breakfast being the immediate goal. She’s looking at Chattanooga on my iPad while we drive.

Out of the clear blue – “So what am I to you, Jay? Be honest.”

“I’ve always been honest with you.”

“Okay. You see us in bed?”

“Honest?”

“Yes. I wanna know.”

“Says the girl who’s been in my bed two nights in a row.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Okay. I’m male. Being this close to you, of course I think about going…”

“Quick fuck?”

She’d NEVER used that word before. It sounded alien coming from her lips.

“Anything that you and I did together, for me it would be closer to ‘worship’ than ‘quick fuck.’”

“Worship?”

“Yes.”

“You do know that I’m a virgin, don’t you?”

“We never actually talked about it,” I said.

“I am. That’s why we aren’t going any further.”

“Good to know…”

“It’s not like that, Jay. You and me… I… You get me going. I almost lost it twice this morning. The first time when you grabbed me when I got back in bed with you. That one was YOUR fault. The second time, when you and me… On the chair…” She looked at me hard. “You’re my man, Jay.”

“Just like that.”

“Yep. D’ya know that Mom’s only been with ONE guy her whole life?”

“Uh, no. Not exactly a topic of conversation.”

“She and I had a conversation before I left, Jay. She admitted that to me. Said that what she had with Dad, they built together and it’s had to withstand some storms, and that I’d better have my head on straight because the sexual revolution – her phrase – leaves a lot of casualties.”

“Mom’s advice to her daughter. She loves you, little darlin’. She gave you the best she had.”

She sighed. “Yeah, I know. That last week, though, she and I, we were up and down… about me leaving. She wanted me out and independent, but I really think she has a picture of me being out and independent there in town where I was on a kind of short leash.”

“Fledgling leaving the nest,” I said. “Stressful time for a mom, I’d imagine. She has a good daughter. Lots of thoughts she was thinking…”

“Jay, I know a lot of girls in high school that had a lot of guys. I wasn’t one of ‘em. I don’t want to be the girl who has a lot of guys. I wanna be like Mom. At least that part. I want… I think I want a career outside the home, maybe. But I want ONE husband. Right now, you and me, the kissy… the tease, that’s, like, dating. But that one thing…”

“You’re saving for your husband. Whoever he is, I wonder if he even realizes what a rare gem he’s going to get.”

“Oh, now you sound sad, Jay. Don’t…”

“Well, Lena…”

“What’s wrong, Jay? Did I say something wrong? Give me an honest answer…”

“Lena, I know there’s a lot of years between us…”

“Not that many,” she said.

“What if I wanted to be that guy?” I expected horror. I expected derisive laughter. I got… her face lit up

I expected horror. I expected derisive laughter. I got… her face lit up. “I knew you’d finally admit it, Jay.”

“I didn’t start this trip like this, Lena.”

“Oh, I know, Jay. Honorable, very conventional Jay. Moral Jay. Decent Jay. None of those are compatible with bedding some random teen.”

“None of them is compatible with bedding his best friend,” I countered.

“Mom’s Dad’s best friend,” she said. Her expression – open, honest… hopeful.

“What’re you saying, Lena?”

“Gosh, Jay. Make ME say it. We said we LOVED each other. You meant it, right?”

“I will mean it until I die, Lena.”

“I said it, too, Jay. I expected…”

“What DID you expect, sweetness? Two days, you KNOW that sparks fly between us in more ways than you teasing me to the point of distraction. Yeah, you’re FUN – to talk with, to travel with, to just hang around with. And you KNOW about the rest.”

“I don’t know what I expected.”

“Well, Lena…”

“Okay. Ulterior motive. I sort of fantasized that you’d fall irretrievably in love with me and sweep me off my feet…”

“I am irretrievably in love. I can’t do much sweeping while I’m driving.”

“Don’t mock me, Jay. I’m vulnerable.”

“I know you’re vulnerable. I’m trying to be honorable here, Lena…”

“Be honorable, then.”

We drove some miles while she paid attention to the iPad.

“Still honorable, Jay?”

“It’s who I am.”

“Even when you grabbed me this morning and pulled me against you? I felt…”

“I’m honorable. Not dead. You’re cute, you’re fun. You kiss good. And you make me feel good.”

“I got an idea. I mean, if you want to stay honorable…”

“What’s that?”

“We’ll be in Tennessee this afternoon. I have my driver’s license and birth certificate and my social security card. I brought them so I could start work. In Tennessee, I can use them to prove my age. I’m eighteen, and I can get married in Tennessee without my parents’ permission.”

Okay, I’m not dumb. I believed her when she said ‘love’. I believed ME when I said ‘love’. Certainly, somewhere in my head I thought this relationship would move along and at some undetermined day in the future, marriage might be a result. This soon, though, this was a cold, wet slap of reality.