Old Habits

by Tabatha Kiss

  I look in the window at Will’s face. “Holy shit, Will.” I point at Tucker. “Are you seeing this?”

  “Jovie...” He stares harder at me. “Get in.”

  I gasp and hop inside. “Oh, my God. You set this up, didn’t you?”

  “Just keep your head down.”

  “You planned a diversion so no one would see you picking me up.”

  He smirks. “Shh.”

  I swoon a little harder. “It has property damage and everything.”

  “It’s just a little dent. An easy fix.”

  “I’m so proud of you!”

  “Head down, please.”

  I slide into the seat, obscuring myself as we ride away from the square unnoticed. “Wait, whose car is this?” I ask.

  “I borrowed it from the shop,” he answers.

  My jaw drops. “You stole it?”

  “I borrowed it to take it for a test drive,” he says. “We had to rebuild the engine yesterday. It’d be unethical to return it without testing it first.”

  “You are so gonna get laid for this.”

  He laughs.

  We ride for several blocks until we reach Lucky’s bar. Will pulls around back and parks in the shadowed corner of the lot where the Bolt sits there by itself.

  “Come on,” he says, throwing open his door. “Before someone sees us.”

  I hop out with him. “We’re just leaving this stolen car here?”

  “No, Tucker’s going to pick it up later.” He opens the bike seat and takes the two helmets out. “Let’s go.”

  I take mine from him and quickly check the strap to make sure it’s in place before sliding it onto my head. “Where are we going?” I ask through the shield.

  He straddles the bike and reaches into his jacket for his keys. “I’ll explain when we get there.”

  I take the seat behind him and wrap my arms around his waist, enjoying the sudden rush of vibrations between my legs as Will revs the engine.

  We take off onto the highway at high speed and Clover disappears behind us.

  Chapter 21

  Jovie

  We ride for at least twenty minutes. The rush of it chills and thrills me to the bone. I hook my thumbs into the belt loops of Will’s jeans, just like I always used to do in order to hang on. He doesn’t mind. He never did.

  Farmland and plains become hills of concrete as we reach Overland Park but Will rides off the main roads as we pass through the city. I twist in my seat, glancing over my shoulder at the old, yet new, surroundings. I haven’t been through here in a long while.

  Will turns into a parking lot and I read the brightly-lit signage as we pass by it.

  A community college?

  He navigates the campus quickly, taking the narrow turns with no thought or hesitation and I tighten my grip on his belt. The school is mostly deserted at this hour, save the random bunches of students rushing home from late afternoon classes.

  We come to a stop in a parking lot outside of a building labeled Auto Lab. A pure white garage door sits closed in front of us, dim lights just barely illuminating the small windows in the middle.

  “And we’re here,” Will says after sliding his helmet off.

  I do the same and run my fingers through my hair to make sure it’s not too out of whack. “And just where is here?”

  The garage door slides open and a man stands there with one arm extended over his head, holding it in place to keep it from rolling closed again. “Hey, Will.” He grins.

  Will steps off the bike and gives me his hand to help me down. “Hey, Aaron,” he says. “It’s good to see you.”

  “You, too.” The man eyes me and I take a closer look myself. He wears a dark jumpsuit with dirty knees. He’s young, maybe a few years older than we are, with thick hair and a long goatee. “And you’re Jovie,” he says.

  “I am.” I nod.

  “Come on in.”

  Will takes hold of his handlebars and guides his bike into the garage. I follow close behind, my eyes constantly glancing around. This place seems a lot like Marv’s back home, but cleaner with newer technology.

  Aaron slides the door closed and secures it down. “Okay, guys. You have an hour before shift change.”

  I raise a brow as Will shakes his hand.

  “Thanks, Aaron,” Will tells him. “I appreciate it.”

  Aaron flashes me a knowing grin as he walks through the door in the corner and closes it behind him.

  I squint at Will. “You know that guy?”

  “Yeah, that’s Aaron.”

  “Yes, and who is Aaron?”

  “Night shift janitor. We used to hang out when I’d stay late to study. He’s a cool guy.”

  “Is there anybody in Kansas that doesn’t like you?”

  He shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Figures.” I take another look around. “So, this is where you went to school?”

  “Yep,” he answers. “Everything I know about cars I learned in this very room.”

  “Well, not everything,” I tease. “I’m pretty sure I taught you a thing or two about cars.”

  He points a finger. “You taught me a thing or two about the backseat, yes, but under the hood…”

  “Okay, okay.” I hold up my hands. “I concede.”

  “It took me about two years to get my degree in Automotive Technology.”

  “Sounds fancy. I’d have just called it Car Shit.”

  He laughs. “Marv hired me on at the shop about a year in, so I worked it and learned it all at once.”

  “You kept really busy,” I say.

  “I had to. If I didn’t, then…” He pauses. “I just had to.”

  I stare a little closer at his eyes, easily sensing the pain as it quickly dispels. “Will, why did you bring me here?”

  He takes a breath. “Well, I’ve been thinking about our blank slate.” I wince and he holds up a hand. “Just hear me out before you make the face.”

  I force a neutral expression and stay quiet.

  “I’m not going to ask you anything about your life over the last four years,” he says, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you about my life. I want you to know what I’ve been up to. If you don’t want to know, that’s fine, too. We’ll ride right on back home but this place was a big part of me for a while and I wanted to share it with you.”

  I smile. “That sounds reasonable.”

  “And…” he leans back against the seat of his bike, “I wanted to get you alone again and that’s difficult to accomplish back home nowadays.”

  “So, you brought me out of town,” I nod, “and shut me up in a garage.”

  He frowns. “Yeah, it seemed more romantic in my head…”

  I chuckle and step toward him. “No, it’s not bad.”

  “No?”

  “It has potential.”

  I take hold of his jacket and lean in to kiss him. He instantly parts his lips and kisses me back. His fingers crawl behind me and I twitch with the shivers racing down to my ankles.

  Will shifts back and throws one leg over his bike, sitting down on the seat with that smirk in his eyes. I go with him and straddle his waist, facing him on the seat with my legs resting on his.

  His hands travel up and over my breasts to my shoulders, slowly sliding my jacket down my arms. I let it slip off my back to the floor and Will leans in to kiss my neck above my tank top.

  I smile wider with each warm press of his lips on my skin. “Do you remember our first time together?” I ask.

  “How could I forget?” He nods, smiling. “The spring fling. Junior year. I went with Blair McQueen but she ditched me to dance with Roger Peck and never came back.”

  “Bryan Sumner.” I recall my date, cringing. “He tried to force himself on me in the boy’s bathroom.”

  Will slides his hands around my waist to draw us just a little closer. “I walked in and your lipstick was smeared and your mascara was running.” He kisses my collarbone. “He’d torn your dr
ess and the strap was hanging off your arm like this.” He hooks a finger under my strap and slides it down to reveal more of my skin.

  I smile. “You kicked his ass.”

  “Well,” he chuckles, “I got in a few good hits before Vice Principal Sanders walked in. I looked up and you were gone... but then I walked outside to my bike and there you were.”

  “I waited for twenty whole minutes. You’re lucky I didn’t get bored.”

  He rests his forehead on my chest. “You slapped the seat and asked, ‘does this POS seat two?’”

  I throw my head back and laugh. “Whatever happened to that crappy, old moped?”

  “Got rid of it when I bought the Bolt senior year.”

  “You rode us out of town and we stopped somewhere just off the highway by the woods,” I say, letting the memory fill my head. “I turned on the seat to face you, just like this.”

  I ease myself closer, sliding up to rest my legs a little higher on his thighs.

  “You kissed my forehead,” he says, “and I remember my ears started ringing, like all the blood vessels in my brain were about to explode at once, but I heard you thanking me.”

  “Of course. You saved me.”

  He kisses my neck. “You could have taken him.”

  “But I didn’t have to.”

  “Then... I don’t know.” He draws my tank down an inch further, exposing a little more of my cleavage to kiss. “Things get a little fuzzy...”

  I push his leather jacket down his arms, feeling his strong biceps flex with my passing touch. “Well, we made out for a while,” I say. “It took forever for you to get up the nerve to touch my boob.”

  He chuckles, digging his teeth in. “Oh, it’s all coming back to me now.”

  “Then, I reached down, like this...” I slide my hand toward his belt, “and I unzipped your pants... like this.”

  He keeps his stare on me as I flick the button on his jeans. “I thought I was in for a handjob because that’s all any girl I knew ever did.”

  I raise a brow. “Except me.”

  “Except you,” he says, sighing as I slide one hand into his briefs.

  His stiff cock twitches as I wrap my fingers around it and tease him with a few firm strokes.

  He grins and tightens his grip on my waist. “Best nineteen seconds of my life.”

  My head falls to his shoulder as I laugh. “Was it?”

  “At the time, yeah,” he says, hovering by my lips. “You said, ‘don’t worry. With a cock like that, you’ll learn how to use it.’” He kisses me once, his breath full of heat.

  “I was right,” I say. “You did learn how to use it.”

  “I had a good teacher.” He gazes into my eyes. “From then on... It was all about Jovie Ross.”

  I pause my stroke. “Until we broke up.”

  “No...” His lips brush mine. “It’s always been you, Jove.”

  We fall against each other, touching and stroking. I squeeze his shaft, forcing him to groan and his hands push beneath my skirt in retaliation. He invades my panties, effortlessly pushing the crotch aside to plunge his thick fingers into my begging core. I gasp as desire tears me apart from the inside out.

  Will plays me with his closed eyes, easily targeting the exact spot that makes me moan against his lips. I almost can’t function as his rigid knuckles take me over. My muscles turn to jelly and my heart pounds against my ribs. He brings me so close, just a few more seconds of it would have me writhing and shaking on his hand but I’d rather save it.

  I push up onto my toes, positioning myself over his cock and he withdraws his fingers.

  Will laughs through his smirk. “Flying past third base here, aren’t we?” he asks.

  I align us a little closer. “Baseball is so boring.”

  “Agreed.”

  He reaches into his back pocket, quickly withdrawing the condom hidden inside. I wait with bated breath as he rips it open and expertly sheathes himself.

  I chuckle. “I see you had plans for tonight.”

  “Jovie, I’ve been carrying that around since the moment I knew you came home,” he quips.

  “You cocky bastard.”

  I slide downward, penetrating myself on him and we both groan with a lustful vengeance.

  Years of longing and waiting have come down to this and we waste no moment of it. Will pulls me down, guiding himself as far in as he’ll go and I bite my lip to keep from crying out his name as I round my hips on him.

  I meet each upward thrust until my thighs burn and my toes turn numb. His lips never leave me, sliding from my neck to my mouth and down to my breasts. I run my fingers through his hair, delighting in his painful groans as I grip his scalp and scratch at his back through his shirt.

  We find a rhythm quickly; a new yet oh-so-familiar grind. What began as desperate, animalistic greed shifts into a slower, deliberate movement that curls my toes and I feel the desire trembling inside of him.

  He eases forward to lay me back along the gas tank. Dizziness rushes my gut but I put my trust in him as I reach over my head to grip the handlebars and hold on.

  Will fucks me slowly, easily maintaining our balance with one leg on the floor. I moan with my knees up around his waist. Every part of me throbs with a deep pleasure unlike any I’ve felt before now. My heart beats with his. Our tongues dance together. His cock fills me over and over again, each wild thrust bringing me closer to climax. His grunt becomes a growl and I know he’s just as close as I am.

  “Will.” I gasp. “Come with me.”

  He can’t speak but he doesn’t need to. He kisses me in response, crushing our lips together as he thrusts a little faster.

  I lean back as the tension mounts in me. I dig my nails into the clutch as his grip on me tightens. It’s painful but that just excites me even more. I look into his open eyes and he does the same to me, locking our passions together for a few final thrusts.

  We break down, each feeling a crushing, long-awaited orgasm from our head to our toes. Spots flood my vision as my body twitches and my lungs burn. Will lays his head against my shoulder, grunting and breathing hard as the wave runs through him. We hold onto each other, clinging with every ounce of strength we can find.

  After a minute, Will raises his head. “I’ve missed you so much,” he whispers.

  I run a finger along his sweat-covered forehead to brush the hair out of his eyes. “I missed you, too,” I say.

  I lower my stiff legs and he helps draw me up to sit. Jolts of pleasure still fire up my spine and I rest in his embrace as I glance around the car lab.

  “Man, college is more fun than I thought it’d be,” I say.

  Will laughs.

  Chapter 22

  Will

  By the time we make it home to Clover, the streets are deserted. Still, I turn off the main roads as soon as I can just in case someone recognizes my bike and realizes that’s Jovie riding on the back of it.

  I feel Jovie pat my arm and I look to the left, following her pointed finger toward the high school parking lot as we pass by it. Nearly two dozen cars are parked together by the entrance — not exactly a sight one sees at nine at night.

  I hit the brake and pull over to the side of the road.

  Jovie slides her shield up. “Town meeting?” she asks.

  I shake my head. “Not tonight.”

  “Then, what’s going on?”

  We look at each other and our lips curl with the same devious smiles we saved for the more rebellious nights of our youth. I rev the engine and accelerate into the parking lot, rolling all the way to the school entrance and stopping there.

  The door is unlocked. We walk inside the dark and shadowed lobby and slink past the front desk and principal’s office. A few voices travel toward us from the gymnasium down the hall. Jovie’s hand finds its way into mine and we take light steps to the propped-open doorway.

  About thirty people sit around the gym, clumped together on folding chairs in groups of a half-dozen or so but w
ith no practical reason as far as I can tell.

  Coach Rogers stands at the front with a laptop connected to a projector, showing off various slides as he does for visual aids at every town meeting but there wasn’t one scheduled for tonight.

  What are they doing here?

  I listen closely as Coach continues talking back and forth with the small crowd but my sense of hearing fades as Jovie lays her hand on my chest. There’s a layer of cotton fabric between our skin but a rush of warmth still ripples down my abs. I look down into her big, smiling eyes and this entire evening flashes in my head again.

  I made love to my Jovie again. Finally. I felt her body writhing against mine, just as warm and tight as she was before. The real intimate details of her came rushing back like the way her hands shake for several minutes after orgasm. Things that no one else in the world would know except me.

  She comes closer and grows two inches taller as she pushes up onto her toes. Our lips touch, silently pursing in a slow kiss. I pull her against me and her hands falls to my waist while mine settle on either side of her face.

  “Okay, let’s talk about the Jovie situation.”

  Her heels touch the floor, breaking our kiss.

  “As you all are aware,” Coach continues, “Jovie Ross has reappeared in town and has already displayed some interesting behavior.”

  “Interesting?”

  I look into the gym again and watch as Lucky cries out from her chair.

  “More like criminal,” she says. “She’s already driven people away from my bar. I could go bankrupt.”

  “And let’s not forget that tantrum she threw in the town square!” someone adds.

  “Get her out!”

  “Well, now…” Coach tries to subdue the scattered shouts. “Technically, she hasn’t broken any laws—”

  “We don’t care!”

  Mrs. Clark’s shrilling voice carries over the others. “She assaulted me on my own porch!”

  “Clover was fine without her!”

  “We should make her leave! Her useless father, too!”

  Jovie recoils, her face torn apart in the shadowed hallway as the voices get louder.

  Rage drives me forward and I reach for the door.

  “Wait,” she whispers. “Will, don’t—”