Page 18 of Threat of Danger
He could even remember the smell: all pizza-saucy goodness and the mouthwatering scent of baking crust. He’d looked around. Ian and Michael weren’t there yet.
Four girls giggled in the back, hunched around their table, whispering. The two facing him he knew from high school: Pam Novak and Audrey White. The other two had their backs to the door, so he couldn’t tell who they were.
After Derek picked up his two slices of pepperoni pie and a can of soda, he went to sit with them. He tossed his tray on the red-checkered tablecloth. “Hey.”
“Hi, Derek.”
They made room for him, and he slid in, onto the red plastic bench.
One of the girls facing away from the door was someone he didn’t recognize, but the other one was his neighbor, Jess Taylor. He grinned at her. “Jess.”
Then he took a second look. Her golden hair was longer, straighter, her makeup more sophisticated, her sweater sleek, emphasizing her curves. That sweet, innocent air of hers still clung to her, but little Jess next door had definitely grown up. Something about the way her powder-blue knitted sweater clung to her chest made Derek’s throat go dry.
“You’re back,” she stated the obvious, pink tinging her cheeks.
Yep, she still nursed that crush. He leaned back in the booth, and a sense of well-being washed over him. All was well in his world.
Jess’s crush—bordering on hero worship—had fed Derek’s teenage ego tremendously over the years. The way her eyes lit up when he got on the school bus and passed by her was worth getting up for in the morning. When, at the start of their junior year, he’d bought a used pickup truck, he’d offered her rides to school and back just so he wouldn’t have to miss that smile, her hot blushes, and the way she always grew awkward in his presence.
She had a great sense of humor, good taste in music and comic books, and she was smart as a whip. Riding with her was no sacrifice.
His parents were always fighting, his mother always moving out and then back in. His father’d be sober, then on weeklong benders. Jess Taylor had been the one constant in Derek’s life, and he appreciated her for that. She was the one thing he missed most while away in college.
Being friends with her was great. But anything else with her had always been off-limits. Jess was Mr.Taylor’s daughter, the girl next door. Derek had known damn well that Mr.Taylor would run down anyone who messed with his little girl.
“Hey, so, we gotta go.” Pam stood, and the two other girls stood with her. “See you later, Jess.”
Jess looked at her friends, startled. Some kind of eye-swishing communication must have passed over Derek’s head, because, a moment later, blushing furiously, Jess said, “Oh, sure.”
Both Jess and Derek stood to let the girls out of the booth. A second later, the giggling trio was gone, Jess and Derek back on the red plastic benches, just the two of them.
She’d already eaten her pizza. He attacked his, his eyes treacherously shifting to the curves her soft sweater accentuated rather than concealed. He was pretty sure he was tenting his pants under the table.
“How’s college treating you?” he asked between bites, hoping Ian and Michael wouldn’t show. He didn’t want to share her. Ian was a freaking dog. If he went after Jess, Derek would have to hurt him.
“It’s OK. But I kind of wish I’d chosen a school somewhere farther away. Seems weird to be still living at home.” She looked away for a second or two, trying not to be obvious about staring at him. She sucked in her lips, then popped them out again in a nervous gesture.
He spaced out there for a second, bowled over by desire.
A moment of awkward silence passed before she asked, “How is rugby? Do you like your new team?”
He shrugged. He loved playing, but he wasn’t given to waxing poetic. He was too distracted by her mouth to think about the game.
Had Jess’s lips always been this full? She switched to sucking in just her bottom lip, then raking it with her even, white teeth before it escaped torture, over and over again.Wet and swollen.Derek nearly groaned.
He swallowed the last of his pizza. “So, you want to see a movie?”
Her entire face lit up.
God, nobody ever looked at him like Jess. He immediately felt as if he’d grown two inches. Which, of course, he had—way more than two—but not in overall height.
“Sure.” Her breasts bounced as she jumped from the booth.
Derek tugged his SVC rugby jacket down to cover his crotch.
She looked at him, her gaze hesitating on his face. She clearly misinterpreted the lust in his eyes for reluctance, because she said, “If you want to do something else ...”
“Come on.” He grabbed her hand. Thesomething elsehe wanted to do with her might shock her to her innocent soul.It’s Jess. It’s just a movie. I can resist and not be an asshole, he told himself as he drew her through the restaurant, weaving among the tables.
