The Understorey, Book One of The Leaving Series (17 page)

    “Oh my God Jules.” I
breathed deeply. “You have to stop doing that.”
I leaned my forehead against hers and closed my eyes.
    “Stop doing what?” She exhaled with feeling.

Honeysuckle and orange swam through my head.
I grabbed her face without thinking and kissed her mouth so
severely it pinned her to the seat. A low hum from the bottom of
her throat escaped her lips and sent me spiraling out of control.
Blackness surrounded us, only our spark to help guide our
movements. She sucked in a breath and kissed me back fiercely only
to force ourselves to pull away when it started to get beyond our
control.

    “Oh Lord, Jules. I’m
scared.”
    “Why?”
    “All I’m going to be able to think about is
kissing you from this moment on.” I dragged my hand over my mouth
and down my chin. “We’re in trouble.”
She giggled.
    “I’m serious Jules. I’m in the worst trouble of
my life right now.”
    “No, you’re not. We’ll be able to restrain
ourselves.”
I paused and smiled, showing every tooth.
    “Not right now though, right?”
    “Not right now,” she grinned.

I grabbed her face once more, desperate to
get my fill of her. I had taken my first hit of Jules only a few
hours before and had already swiftly become a junkie. Addicted.

    Eventually, she had to
remind me of our plans. I forced myself from her, shut her door,
and walked over to the driver’s side. I placed one hand on the roof
to steady myself and let the other lie still on the handle of the
door. I took three deep breaths trying to cleanse Jules’
intoxicating high from my brain. I got into the truck, buckled
myself in and stared straight ahead, placing both my hands on the
steering wheel. My knuckles turned white from the self-induced
deprivation of trying to fight the bubbling need to grab her.

My keys were in the pocket of my jeans but I
was too afraid to remove my hand from its grip to retrieve them. I
knew if I did it that I'd just end up attacking Jules.

    “Jules?” I
swallowed.
    “Yes love?”
I tried to stabilize my breathing.
    “I’ll be right back. Sit tight.”
    “Okay? You alright?”
    “I will be, “I said, peeling my hands from the
wheel and stepping from the cab.

I closed the door and walked a few feet away
and started to pace. I made sure not to look in Jules’ direction.
No eye contact.
Breathe. Just breathe,
I told myself.
I heard Jules get out and close her door. I held two fingers up to
stay her at the front of the truck, purposely averting my eyes.

    “Please Jules. Stay
there.”
    “I can’t.”
    “Why?” I looked up at her and caught her gaze.
She was just as hungry for me as I was for her. I inhaled a painful
breath. She bit her bottom lip and I knew then that she had no idea
how that tortured me, otherwise she never would have done it.
    “I can’t,” she said and rushed over to me.
I grabbed her face and brought it close to mine.
    “We are in trouble aren’t we?”
    “Heaps.”
    “We’re going to need a plan Jules.”
    “I know,” she gulped.
    “I’m kind of panicking here.”
    “It doesn’t help that I’m touching you. I think
I need to let go of you Elliott.”
I released her but our natural pull was an agonizing thing to
fight. I needed to take charge before all heck broke loose.
    “Okay, get in the car. Strap yourself in. Tight.
And I’ll do the same. We’ll go to dinner and take it easy. I think
it will help being somewhere other people are. Think we can we can
survive the drive?” She nodded then crookedly bit her bottom
lip.
    “Gosh damn it Jules!”
She jumped.
    “I’m sorry. I’m sorry but you
have
to
stop biting your bottom lip. You have no idea what that does to
me!”
    “Sorry,” she said sheepishly.
She unknowingly bit her bottom lip out of habit.
    “Jules!” I yelled.
    “Sorry,” she burst out laughing. “It’s a
habit.”
    “Oh my God. Just get in the truck,” I said,
deflecting my gaze.

I took my keys out and hopped in the cab, put
on my seat belt like that was somehow going to keep me from
attacking Jules again, started the truck and immediately put it
into drive. I glanced at the clock on my dash.
    “Oh no! Look at the time Jules!”
    “Well, crap. No dinner then. We can’t risk
possible traffic. My dad would be pissed if we were late.”
I sighed deeply when we had to stop at a red light.
    “I gotta’ get you out of this truck,” I said,
laughing nervously.
    “I gotta’ get out of this truck.”
She looked at me and I tried my damnedest not to look her way but
just could not resist.
    “Shit,” I said, reaching for her, only to be
restrained harshly by my seat belt.

I unbuckled my belt, threw it in park, and
attacked her again, frantically brushing my lips over hers. I
buried my face in her neck and breathed in her inviting perfume. I
began to whisper in her ear but the car behind us honked their horn
that the light had turned green and I was forced back into my seat.
I struggled and fought myself to put my seat belt back on all while
keeping my burrowing gaze on Jules. I put the truck in drive and
didn’t break my stare until the last possible second.

    “Maybe it’s because it’s
so new,” I offered.
    “No. That’s not it. It’s the voltage. It
magnifies everything tenfold. It’s always going to feel like this
Elliott.”

Jules brushed her bangs from her forehead and
kept her hands there trying to get as much air as possible to her
face.

    “How do you know?” I
asked.
    “You know too. I felt that you knew.”
    “You’re right.”
    “What are we going to do Elliott?” Her voice
slightly panicked.
    “We’re going to figure out a way that this won’t
dominate our entire lives. I’m seriously considering bringing Maddy
with us everywhere we go.”
We both laughed hysterically.

“But for right now,” I said, “we have to
change the subject or I will very soon need to pull over and
neither of us wants that.”

“I kind of do,” she whispered under her
breath.

“Jules! Don’t tempt me! God!”

“Sorry, but I do.......okay.......where did
we leave off earlier. Oh hell,” she realized, “talking music just
riles us up. How about our papers? Let’s talk about that.”

    “That’s no good.”
    “Why?”
    “Because our first kiss was at the library where
we were writing our papers,” I laughed and drug my hand over my
mouth.
    “I’ve got a topic for you.”
    “I’m all ears love.”
    “Mrs. Kitt has been informing on us.”
    “What?” I asked, genuinely shocked.
That did
it.
    “Yup. Apparently she reports to my mom how we
act during class and at school. I wouldn’t put it past her if she
has spies everywhere. She told my mom that she thinks we’re, and I
quote, ‘inappropriate’.”
    “What the hell! We are
not
inappropriate!”
    “I know and that’s exactly what I told my mom
and dad.”
    “And?”
    “They believe me.”
I exhaled slowly.
    “Well, good,” I said.
    From there, we talked for over an hour about
anything that would keep us from clawing at each other, including
Sawyer. I told her firmly that Sawyer could no longer be a friend
of hers and she firmly told me to mind my own business. I wasn’t
going to press it again until it became a problem. I resisted the
urge to pull over at least fifteen times the first hour but,
eventually, we both calmed down enough to distract ourselves with
lots more talking and lots more laughing.

Jules got comfortable and removed her shoes,
stretched her painted feet across our shared seat, and rested them
on my lap. I placed my right hand on her ankles and we enjoyed the
purring heat. I slid my hand over the soft skin of her foot and
pinched her delicate ankle bone between my forefinger and thumb and
the spark flared even more. I ran circles with my thumb across the
top of her foot and when she started to get drowsy I let her fall
asleep, never taking my hand from her leg.    

I dragged the pad of my thumb along the arch
of her foot and was rewarded with a sharp intake of a sleepy
breath. That tickled me and my laugh almost woke her but she
settled once more against the seat. She had her legs crossed and
while massaging the foot in my hand I noticed the foot underneath
it had a toe ring around the middle toe. I uncrossed them and
re-crossed them with the toe ring foot on top this time.

I hadn’t seen it before because it was hidden
beneath her other foot but the ring was connected to a chain. I
followed the chain with my finger and had to peel back a little of
the cuff of her jean to reveal the ankle bracelet it was connected
to. It was extremely attractive on her. I dropped her foot to
regain control of myself. It did very funny things to my chest and
stomach.

To distract myself, I turned the radio on and
Matt & Kim’s ‘Daylight’ came on. I focused on the road ahead of
me, dragging my hand over my mouth yet again. I glimpsed her
direction.
You’re gonna’ be the death of me.
I smiled.
But who would have thought death could be this sweet?

When I felt in control of myself again I laid
my hand on her knee and got the surprise of my life when I felt her
dreams. They matched mine perfectly and the ones that didn’t
quickly became mine.

    We arrived in Bramwell
with half an hour to spare and there was no way I was going to drop
her off early if I didn’t have to. I woke her when we were close to
home and we both decided the rock bridge was the perfect spot to
waste the time. I grabbed my flashlight from my glove box and we
crunched in silence through the brush to our little spot. I lifted
her onto its face and we laid side by side pointing out
constellations, wishing we were kissing instead.

With ten minutes to spare I gathered up the
courage to grab her face and we shared three sweet, thoughtful,
controlled kisses before I decided it was time to go back. We
discovered a third very convenient use for our gift. It kept us
very warm, despite the chill growing in the air. She protested when
I held out my hand to go but I didn’t want to disrespect her father
and insisted I take her back. We trudged our way through the
sticky, brisk air back to my truck but felt perfectly warm as we
held hands. When we got into the truck she slid in close to me and
I draped my hand over her shoulder. We rode in blissful silence. I
parked in front of The Perry House and jumped out to open Jules’
door. I grabbed her hand and we inched slowly to her front
porch.

    “What time is your
curfew?” She asked.
    “Two a.m. on the weekends,” I said.
    “Mine too,” she said, “but it won’t be tonight
because I’ve already spent nine hours with you. My dad would never
go for it.”
    “Oh,” I laughed, “that’s okay. I’ll see you in
church tomorrow morning right?”
    “Yeah, but that’s over ten hours away and I’m
afraid I’ll have withdrawals,” she taunted.
    “One more for the road then?”

We smiled and I drew her near to my body, but
heard the creak of her front door as it began to swing open forcing
me to let go of Jules’ waist. It was her dad.
Darn.

    “Darn,” Jules whispered my
unspoken thought.
    “Hi, Mr. Jacobs,” I said.
    “Hello Elliott, thank you for bringing Jules
home on time.”
    “Of course,” I said and walked the few feet back
to my truck to grab Jules’ bag from the bed.

She turned her back toward her dad and held
out her hand for it. She squeezed my hand when she took it from me
and winked.

    “See you at church
tomorrow,” she said.
    “See ya’,” I said, not wanting to leave, wishing
we could sit on her porch and talk and kiss until the sun
rose.
    I turned toward my truck and felt Jules’ eyes
return to her father’s.
    “Did you have fun?” He asked her as I counted
the sounds of each step she took up her porch.
I could hear every word.
    “I did, thank you for asking pop.”
    “Did you kiss ‘em?” He teased.
    “Dad! Stop it!” Jules’ voiced trailed off before
the door closed.

I shook my head and laughed as I shoved the
keys into the ignition and drove the two miles to my parents'
farmhouse. When I got home my dad was in the red barn refinishing
some old doors he found in a nearby junkyard to replace two of the
interior doors of the house. My truck bit at the popping gravel
driveway as I parked it just outside the barn. The door squeaked
open before I slammed it shut.

    “Hey dad,” I said, pulling
my fingers through my hair.
    “Hey son,” he said, glancing up at me, “did you
have fun?”
    “I did, dad. I really did.”
    “I can tell,” he laughed.
    “What? What’s that supposed to mean?” My eyes
wide as saucers.
    “Your lips son, their swollen, from kissing I
assume.”
    I pressed my lips together before lifting a
finger to feel them. They were definitely raw but I didn’t know
that was visible to the world.
    “Yeah, well,” was all I could say.
    “As long as it’s just kissing, I don’t have a
problem with it. You just make sure it’s only that. Keep your hands
in your pockets if you have to. You hear me?”
    “Yes sir.”
If I had revealed why I so adamantly agreed with him, he wouldn’t
have believed me. I wouldn’t have done anything to Jules that I
wouldn’t want done to my own daughter. Jules was precious to
me.
    “Get any homework at all done?”
    “Yes sir, probably not as much as I should have
but enough. The paper’s not due for two weeks yet. I’m in pretty
good shape.”
    “Good. Good,” he said, sanding off some old red
paint. “Well you better get yourself into that house son. Your
mama’s been waiting all day to talk to you.”
    “Okay dad. Need any help?”
    “Nope. Now get.”

I walked up the little hill my house sat on
top of and thought of how Jules was safely becoming a permanent
fixture in my life. When I entered through the kitchen, my mom was
at her huge ceramic farm sink, peeling potatoes for Sunday’s potato
salad. When she saw me she threw down her peeler and wiped her
hands on a blue and white dishtowel.