Dirty Thoughts - Megan Erickson Page 0,68
another for Jenna. “Dr. Pepper,” he said, handing it to her. She smiled, somewhat hesitantly. She’d always loved that soda. He’d never liked the taste of it, but he sure did love the taste of Dr. Pepper and Jenna.
He hoped he got a chance later.
CAL WAS KILLING her. And confusing her.
It was the little touches. The compliments. The hand-delivered Dr. Pepper, like no time had passed.
She dissected his actions and words in her head on the drive to the theater. While Cal was buying tickets. While she sucked on the straw of her Dr. Pepper. If Cal meant to give this a shot, it would change everything, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for it.
So she tried to ignore the touches and the compliments as they took their seats in the crowded theater. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d been to a movie theater since dating Cal back in high school, but there was something special about this time. Maybe it was Asher’s presence, as he soaked up their attention like a sponge. The kid was desperate to spend time with adults who cared about him, who paid attention to him. And even though Jenna’s mind was occupied with Cal, she still made sure to listen to Asher.
“So, I read,” Asher was saying, sitting on her right in the dimly lit theater while the previews played, “that Sam Andrews broke his arm at the end of filming, so they had to do a lot of tricky camera work to cover it up.”
Jenna winced. “Ouch. Did he break it during filming?”
Asher munched on his popcorn and shook his head. “He was jumping on a trampoline or something with his nieces and nephews.”
“Oh wow, poor guy.”
Cal shifted in his seat on her left, his jean-clad thigh brushing hers. She didn’t move away.
“And,” Asher continued, oblivious to the heat that was curling in her gut, “one of the stunt guys got third-degree burns on his chest from a mistimed explosion.”
“Oh my God!”
Asher leaned forward. “Thanks for the popcorn. I think it’s fresh because it’s really crunchy.” Then he sat back in his seat and took a sip of his drink.
Teenagers and their attention spans.
Cal placed his arm on the armrest between them. Jenna stared at it, then lifted her gaze to Cal’s face. He was staring straight ahead at the trivia game on the screen.
“Drew Barrymore!” Asher crowed in response to the question, Who played Gertie in E.T.? He dropped his soda in the cup holder. “I’m going to go to the bathroom real quick. Is that cool?”
Cal nodded and Asher left, walking quickly down the aisle.
Jenna bit her lips as another trivia question came on, but her attention wasn’t on the screen. She wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone what it was about if asked. Her mind was on Asher and how Cal treated him. She lowered her gaze to her lap and ran her fingers along an imperfection in the denim of her jeans. “You’re really good with him,” she said softly.
Cal grunted. “Eh, it’s like riding a bike.”
She faced him again, and this time, he turned his head and met her gaze. “Something changed, didn’t it?” She hoped he didn’t make her explain further right now.
“Yup,” Cal said.
She turned her head, but strong fingers gripped her head and forced it back. Cal’s jaw was set, and his eyes were narrowed, glowing like liquid silver as they reflected the colors on the screen in front of them.
He looked like he was going to speak, but instead he pressed his mouth to hers in a kiss that wasn’t so chaste, because he moved his lips, and there was his tongue, and by the time he was finished, she was a puddle in her seat.
And with that, he let go of her chin, dropped his hand into her lap, and laced his fingers with hers. Then he turned his face to the screen. “Pirates of the Caribbean!” he shouted in response to the trivia question.
ASHER CAME BACK, but Cal kept up the touches throughout the movie, rubbing the skin between Jenna’s thumb and forefinger with his thumb. Sometimes his fingers strayed a little to her inner thigh, which scrambled her brain and made her lose track of the plot of the movie.
The back of his fingers brushed her jaw and neck as he slung his arm over the back of her chair. The warmth of his leg against hers infused her whole body with a searing heat.
At one point,