Breathless #2 (The Breathless Romance Series - Book #2) (3 page)

I shivered and moaned softly against Johnny’s lips as
I felt his hands beginning to slip up underneath my tee shirt, his fingers cold
against my skin. He teased my breasts through my shirt and I arched into his
touch, forgetting everything that the nasty girl from the dining hall had said
about him, forgetting about Claire White, forgetting about everything but how
good it felt to kiss Johnny, to feel his body pressed against mine. “God,”
Johnny murmured against my lips, his hands wandering all over me underneath my
shirt until I felt my pussy starting to get wet, “I wish I could just rip off
all your clothes right now and screw you right up against this wall.” I could
feel the hard ridge of his quickly-hardening cock straining at his jeans,
digging into my hip, as Johnny pressed up against me, kissing me more and more
hungrily. He pulled back with a shudder, taking a shaking breath. “You have no
idea how much I missed you,” he told me, smiling sweetly.

“Probably about as much as I missed you—though in
fairness to me, I didn’t have a game to occupy my thoughts.” Johnny laughed,
kissing me on the lips again lightly, giving my breasts one last lingering
caress through the fabric of my bra before he backed off slightly.

“I thought about you the whole time,” he said,
reaching out and tweaking at the ponytail I’d put my hair into. “Especially on
the bus home, when half the team was snoring—you’re a lot more fun to sleep
with.” I rolled my eyes.

“I certainly hope you’re not sleeping with your
teammates the way you slept with me—that would make things pretty complicated
on the team.”

“That would bring a new meaning to ‘male bonding,’”
Johnny countered. “God, it’s good to see you. I thought I’d be happy just
hearing your voice but it only made it worse. I almost called you late last
night, just to hear you again.” I was grinning, blushing, unable to help
myself—I was so happy Johnny was back, so happy he’d immediately come to look
for me, that he had kept enough information about me in mind to know I’d be
going to class.

“Shit! I just remembered—I’m going to be late for
class!” Johnny laughed, leaning in and kissing me on the forehead.

“Let me walk you there,” he suggested. I nodded; maybe
if I was late but showed up on Johnny’s arm, it wouldn’t be so bad—certainly he
seemed to be able to get away with anything. “I meant to ask you,” he said,
pulling me free of the wall and leading me back towards the walkway. “What have
you got going on tonight? Any plans?” I grinned, rolling my eyes at him.

“Oh yeah,” I said. “Real hot date. I was planning on
sitting in my dorm room all night, waiting for you to call me, hoping you
would.” Johnny grinned, draping his arm around my shoulder and holding me close
as we walked towards the
Marchman
building.

“Well, since we don’t have a game tonight, and I’d
rather spend time with you than any of the guys at my frat…” Johnny gave me a
playful nudge. “Would you let me take you out? I promise I won’t keep you out
late unless you absolutely want me to.” My heart leaped in my chest and I could
barely contain my excitement; Johnny might not be serious about me—and of
course I couldn’t expect him to be so soon—but at least he wanted to see me
again. At least he had made an effort to get up early and chase me down on my
way to class, and at least he wanted to take me out on a real date. That was
something; a much bigger deal than just inviting me to his frat’s party.

“I do not even care how late we’re out,” I said,
shaking my head. “It’d be worth it to be all sleep-deprived tomorrow morning.”
Johnny grinned and pulled me close against him as we made our way down the
walkway. As he walked with me towards my first class of the day, I felt myself
finally starting to relax for the first time since the girl from the dining
hall had dropped the bomb on me about Claire White; in fact, I felt even more
relaxed than I had even the morning after Johnny and I had slept together for
the first time. Nothing could bring me down from how good I felt just to be
with him and to know that he wanted to take me out, that he wanted to spend
more time with me and that he had missed me.

I felt like I was walking on air, joking and laughing
with Johnny as we went along. He told me about the game—and I somehow managed
to cover for the fact that I knew absolutely nothing at all about hockey. I
grinned and reacted with surprise and as much enthusiasm as I could muster even
as I struggled to puzzle through the different terms he used, and tried to
piece together anything more than a basic understanding of the fact that our
team had won. When he told me about a brawl, I shuddered and listened to the
gory details, the timeout someone had been forced to take, the foul shot. I
told myself that I was going to make sure to look up as much as I could about
hockey when I got back to the dorm later in the day, so I could at least
pretend like I could follow what he was saying.

I was barely looking around, so only noticed
completely by chance that the girl from the dining hall was in front of the
Marchman
building, smoking a cigarette before her class, as
Johnny and I approached. She must have caught sight of us before I had noticed
her there—the look she gave me was so disgusted, so bitter, that I almost
laughed at her to her face. But I told myself that I had been raised better
than that; I would be classy, even if she was an asshole. I simply turned my
attention back onto Johnny and laughed as he finished up telling me a story
about a prank the team had pulled on the coach during their rest stop the night
before. It felt good to ignore her, and especially good to know that there was
nothing she could say to me in front of Johnny. I thought to myself that it
absolutely served her right to see me looking so happy with the guy I was rapidly
developing feelings for. I wanted her to absolutely know that none of her
stupid tricks was going to get in the way of my happiness.

As we reached my classroom, Johnny gave me another
quick kiss, and I glanced into the open door of the room; the professor was
already there, calling the class to order. Johnny peeked his head in and called
out a greeting to the professor, taking responsibility for me being late. “I
had to waylay her for a few minutes,” he said. “You know—missing each other and
all. I hope you’ll forgive Becky for my sake.” Everyone whispered amongst
themselves as I quickly went into the room and sat down, pulling the stuff out
of my bag. Johnny gave me a last, quick glance and a grin before he ducked out
of the classroom, disappearing down the hall.

Chapter
Four

Johnny and I spent the rest of the day exchanging
texts, flirting with each other and arranging the details of our night out. I
did have class the next day, but I couldn’t bring myself to worry too much
about being exhausted for my classes; in the very worst case scenario, I was
sure I could manage to send my professor an email claiming to be sick, maybe go
to the campus clinic and work up a fever. Although Johnny told me to go ahead
and eat dinner at the dining hall—since after all I was going to be paying for
it whether I ate or not—he didn’t give me many details about where we were
going, apart from the fact that I should wear really comfortable shoes.
As cute as you looked in those heels they
will not be a good idea where we’re going,
he told me in a text, with a
little emoji with its tongue sticking out added.

Instead of actually eating in the dining hall, I
grabbed
a to
go box and filled it with stuff that I
could easily eat with my hands in my room. I told Georgia about the date when
we met up for lunch, and she was excited for me—glad that I hadn’t broached the
topic of the girl who had committed suicide, and pleased that Johnny had made
it a priority to find me to ask me out. “Girl, you need to face that he’s
actually, really into you,” she had said.

I decided that since Johnny hadn’t told me anything
other than to wear comfortable shoes, we were going to be doing a good bit of
walking; to me, that meant that there was no way in hell I was going to wear
the kind of outfit that Gigi had talked me into for the frat party the week
before. I went with a comfortable, long skirt that came just past my knees, a
pair of sneakers, and a shirt that buttoned up the back, thinking that that
would cover any eventuality; I could be comfortable and still look nice.

I dashed into the shower as soon as I finished eating,
washing my hair and shaving my legs, and put on a little bit of makeup—not
enough for it to be noticeable, but just enough to highlight my features. While
I’ve never been super vain, I have known since I was about sixteen that I’m
cute enough on my own. I was practically vibrating by the time I was done,
ready for Johnny to call me to let me know he was in the pick-up circle next to
the dorm; I paced back and forth across the living room common area, wishing
that Georgia was there just so that I could have someone to vent to about how
impatient I felt.

Finally, my phone rang, and I leaped towards my purse
on the coffee table to grab it. It was Johnny. “Right outside your dorm, baby,”
he said, and I could hear the grin in his voice. I told him I’d be right down
and once more didn’t even bother with the elevator; it was all well and good
for when I was moving my stuff into the building, but like most of the machines
on campus it was more than a little slow, and the last thing I wanted was to
chance being trapped in it when all I wanted was to get to Johnny.

I stepped out of the dorm and walked quickly to the
loop, looking around. I spotted a couple of cars, but no one was in them; they
were courting a ticket from the campus cops, leaving their vehicles there for
longer than maybe an hour. I nearly jumped when I heard a loud,
larger-than-life horn honk, and spun around to take in the sight of a huge, red
pickup truck, the source of the horn. It was tricked out, with fancy rims, and
so high off the ground that I wondered if anyone could get into it without a
ladder. I spotted Johnny seated behind the wheel, waving at me, and shook my
head, laughing; if I didn’t know better, I would have thought the truck was
compensating for something—but I did know better.

I hurried over and heard the door on the driver’s side
open as I got closer to the huge vehicle. Johnny leaped out of the cab, coming
around to give me a fast, hungry kiss. “Perfect,” he told me, looking me up and
down. “Good choice of shoes, and you still look just—way too hot to be real.”
Johnny kissed me again and helped me up into the passenger side, giving me his
shoulder to boost myself with as I put my foot up on the step and giving me a
little shove to assist.

“It’s like trying to get on a horse,” I said, shaking
my head at him. Johnny laughed and closed the door behind me, making his way
quickly around the front of the truck back to the driver’s side. “So; where are
we going that I need to be able to walk?” Johnny turned the key in the ignition
and gave me another quick grin.

“It’s a surprise,” he said, pulling away from the
curb. He turned on the stereo and we drove away from campus, already starting
to talk about our favorite bands and groups once more as we headed out on our
way to the mystery location where Johnny had planned for our date to be. I was
tingling with anticipation; I had never been a huge outdoors person, but I had
been to summer camp several times, and I was not averse to anything that would
get me some time alone with Johnny.

I figured maybe he would take me to a park or
something; that would be romantic—but as we drove out, further and further away
from the town where the campus was located, I started to feel a little bit
worried. “You do know where we’re going, right?” I asked, trying to keep my
voice as playful as possible. Johnny laughed.

“I know exactly where we’re going, no worries.” I
pushed aside any misgivings that we’d be wandering around in the deepening
dark, running out of gas, and that Johnny would just refuse to ask for
directions until we were stranded.

He took a turnoff into a forest preserve area and
started into the woods, and I felt myself getting worried again, but for a
different reason. Stories about girls who were lulled into a sense of security
by how nice a guy was only to find themselves murdered brutally filled my head.
The question of who Claire White was flickered through my mind; had her death
really been a suicide? As the woods thickened around us, I found myself looking
around. If the worst happened and Johnny for some reason wanted to kill me, I
hoped I could get away.

I finally looked over at Johnny and the sight of him
made me relax. There was no fiendish glee on his face, only concentration as he
wove his way through and around the barely-existing trail through the woods.
There was no way that Johnny was the kind of person who could kill a girl in
the middle of nowhere; he was just too sweet. He was too kind. I couldn’t believe
he was even capable of hurting someone—unless it was in a brawl on the ice. The
truck shuddered and shifted and Johnny turned onto an even-smaller trail, where
I worried his truck wouldn’t even fit. I heard the branches around us scraping
and whacking against the cab, along the sides. “You’re absolutely sure you know
where you’re going?” I said, forcing myself to smile, even though I knew it was
a nervous little grin.

“You’ll love it once we get there, I promise,” Johnny
said. I pressed my lips together and tried to keep myself from yelping as the
truck bounced along the rough, tiny trail. I had to have faith in Johnny. I had
to believe that he had gone down this particular trail in his truck before, and
knew how to avoid running right into a tree, or off of the trail itself. My
heart was beating faster and I was totally at a loss—I couldn’t decide whether
he was trying to kill me, or just foolish and daring, or that he’d had a great
idea and I was just being a coward.