| “Promises” A short story based on the WB Series, “Tarzan” By MissingT *** Promises Part 1 “You should go after him.” Jane stopped her pacing to stare at her sister. She opened her mouth to snap at her, thought better of it, and just scowled instead before going back to angrily wearing a path in the floorboards. “Yeah, scowl if you want…” Nikki continued. She may be the younger one, but her big sister was acting like a child, “…but it’s your own fault, y’know.” This time Jane didn’t stop herself, “What the hell are you talking about?” she stood with her hands on her hips glaring, “I didn’t hop out the damn window!” “Look, Jane,” Nikki plopped down on the edge of the messed up bed, “I don’t know what happened this time…” then looking around at the tangled sheets, she smiled knowingly and amended, “…well, I know what happened-” “Nikki!” “OK, the point is, I don’t know what made him take off this time, but I do know that he’s over the moon for you, and you obviously feel the same way, anybody with a brain could see it - except you. You’re sending him mixed signals, Jane, how’s he supposed to know what you’re feeling now?” “I thought it was pretty clear.” Jane said half to herself, sinking to the bed beside Nikki. What she was thinking about, though, was the look of confusion on John’s face when he had seen her tears. She knew her sister was right, how was John supposed to know these weren’t the same kind of tears she’d cried the night she’d been in his room at the cabin? Or any other time he’d seen her sad, for that matter. “Damn” she swore, but her heart wasn’t in it. Her anger was subsiding. It had been more of a jumble of emotions she couldn’t name, anyway. She put her hands to her temples. Nikki put a comforting arm around her big sister, “Go to him, Jane.” ************************************** Jane showered and dressed, her body on autopilot, her mind wondering what on earth she was going to say to John. He had looked so hurt. She knew from experience how he could be when he was hurt. She wondered if he’d even speak to her. She have to find a way. She wandered into the kitchen, her mind beginning to form a bit of a plan, and found Nikki rummaging in the fridge and digging out the pizza leftovers. “So,” she teased, “you bring me any surprises back?” She rested her elbows on the counter. “I’d have thought you’d been surprised enough when I came home early,” Nikki grinned wickedly and wiggled her eyebrows. Jane’s cheeks colored. Then she grinned, “Guess you got your surprise then, too, huh?” Nikki’s eyes grew wide, surprised that Jane would be teasing about the whole thing, then both sisters burst into laughter. A few minutes later, after they’d polished off the pizza, Nikki ventured, “So, I thought you were going to find John and straighten things out. Uh- no pun intended.” “I am, but I seriously doubt he went straight home to Kathleen’s, he’ll want to cool off first. I have an idea, though. Still up for the mall?” Nikki gave her a happy “are you kidding?” look. “Of course!” Jane laughed, “Forgot who I was talking to there for a second.” By early evening, they left the mall, tired and happy. Nikki with three complete new outfits, including shoes, from Jane for Christmas and for putting up with her. Jane carried two big boxes and a smile, convinced this plan was going to be good, and surprise John a little in the process. Promises Part 2 “Is he here?” Jane stood in the entrance hall, holding her boxes and hoping Kathleen had the answer she wanted to hear. “I thought he was still with you.” Kathleen looked a little disappointed. Then she took notice of the boxes under Jane’s arms with a raised eyebrow. Jane looked sheepish, “I’ll have to explain these to you another time. Do you mind if I go up and see…?” “No, of course not. Should I offer you good luck?” “I think I can use all the help I can get,” Jane sighed, and headed off toward the stairs. ******************************************* “John?” Jane made her way directly to the waterfall, knowing she had found him there both times before at about this time of day. This time it wouldn’t be accidentally, though. She moved slower as she got closer, hoping he’d be there and hoping to surprise him. She stopped, took a peek around the tree, and was more than a little disappointed, but she wasn’t giving up. She was far from convinced he wasn’t hiding up here. She set the boxes down on the stone bench and began slowly walking around the atrium, looking up as much as around. “C’mon, John. You can’t hide from me forever.” She heard the slightest rustle and peered up into the branches but couldn’t see anything other than more branches and the skylights. Maybe she’d been mistaken. “Okay, have it your way,” she said in a voice meant to be heard up by the ceiling if necessary, “If you won’t come down, I’ll talk and you listen.” Silence, “John, when two people care for each other, they talk about things, they don’t just run off.” Still Jane heard nothing. She was getting frustrated again. “John, I have something to say to you, but I’m not going to talk to myself…” She waited a long minute, walking slowly down all the paths in the foliage and ending up back at the waterfall. Shaking her head, she sighed her disappointment at not finding him here. She picked up one box, leaving the larger one on the bench for him to find. ‘Let him wonder when he opens it,’ she thought, ‘maybe then he’ll come looking for an explanation.’ Picking up the smaller box to take with her, she turned to go, then stopped with a gasp, dropping the box and spilling the contents. John was sitting at a crouch directly in front of her. He gathered the things she had dropped and pulled himself slowly to his full height, never letting his eyes leave hers. Jane smiled from ear to ear. She couldn’t help it. Damn, but it was sexy when he did that! “Well,” she said, “so much for being surprised when you open yours.” Only then did he look down at what he was holding in his hands, his mind as confused as his emotions, but only for a second. He smiled a small slow smile that pulled up one side of his mouth and showed half his teeth, remembering. “Ice skates.” “Yep..you promised me a date.” His smile faded, his eyes clouded. He took a step nearer, laid the skates aside, and searching Jane’s face said, “I made you sad.” She laid a hand on his arm, “No, John, that’s what I came to tell you. I understand why you thought so…” he was listening intently, “but tears aren’t always bad.” She stepped closer, too, looking into his eyes and saying softly, “People cry when they are very happy, too,” her eyes beginning to shine with tears even now. He understood, and his heart felt lighter, that slow smile curling back across his face. He caressed her cheek with the backs of his fingertips, then tangled his fingers in her hair, “I made you happy?” She nodded, grinning through her tears, “And these are happy tears?” One fell and he wiped it away with his thumb. She nodded again, he was so close she could smell the fresh air on him and her heart sped up a little. Slowly - achingly so for Jane - he put his other arm around her waist and pulled her tight against him. The hand in her hair he slid slowly to cradle the back of her head as he leaned in and breathed “Jane” against her lips before claiming her mouth with his. Jane’s head spun, her heart stopped - then started again in overtime, heat curled in her stomach. She couldn’t believe the effect he had on her. When he pulled away, she was trembling. He was smiling, recognizing exactly what he’d done to her. “Let’s go skating.” She blinked, clearing her kiss clouded brain while he turned to open the larger box that contained his skates. Her eyes grew wide as she caught sight of the backs of his bare shoulders…and the little red half moon impressions her fingernails had left not so many hours earlier. She blushed, remembering. “Um, John, you might wanna keep your shirt on for a couple days…” Promises Part 3 Jane made John find a pair of socks to wear inside his ice skates. He frowned at her at first, thinking the less he had to put on his feet, the better. But once he had them on and inside the skates, he thought they at least made the skates feel better. Jane had done a good job picking out the skates, guessing on the size of his father’s shoes he’d worn at the trial and adding a half size since he’d said the shoes were too tight. She was relieved to find the ice not too crowded, she wasn’t sure how much of a task it was going to be to teach John to stay up on the thin blades of the skates. As it turned out, John was a natural, having a very developed sense of balance earned from years on the treetops. Jane on the other hand, had not been on ice skates since high school and ended up on her butt almost immediately, looking up to see John holding out his hand to her and trying not to laugh. He pulled her up and held her close. “Relax.” She was thinking, “with you this close, impossible” but she tried anyway. “More.” he spoke close to her ear and her knees went weak. “Better,” he grinned. He kept hold of her until she got her balance, then led her by the hand around the ice. “You never cease to amaze me,” she said half an hour later, grinning and catching her breath. His eyes held a question. “How come you were so good at this and I looked like an awkward teenager?” she said in way of explanation. “You are not awkward, Jane.” His eyes were heated, boring deeply into hers. “Hot chocolate?” a vendor was offering them a cup. Jane looked up blankly, not having heard a word. “Unless you two don’t need warmed up…” The man chuckled and looked knowingly at John. Jane blushed and hoped her cheeks were pink enough from the cold to hide it, “Ah, hot chocolate sounds good.” She took the offered drinks, handed one to John, and paid the vendor who walked off saying “aah, young love” under his breath. Jane looked down into her cup and tried to cool her embarrassment, and her reaction to John’s heated gaze. He was tipping his cup to his lips already. “Oh wait it’s…” “OW!” “…hot.” Jane started to say something sympathetic, but the look on his face made her laugh instead. He was licking the foam off his top lip, eyes wide, smiling like a little kid. “So…you like chocolate?” she mentally shook herself to clear the images this put in her head. What had come over her? But she knew, because she was looking right at him. Tarzan. ********************************** They entered Jane’s apartment, tired and happy, and on Jane’s part cold. John never seemed to notice extreme temperatures, she thought. They dropped their skates inside the door and Nikki looked up from where she sat on the couch. “Hey, you two kiss and make up?” Jane smiled and let his presence speak for itself, and asked instead, “What’d you have for supper? You ate, right?” John came close and put his arm around her gently, possessing without crowding. Nikki’s smile could have lit the room. “Yeah, I did, and you know, I’m really tired…I think I’ll turn in early.” She stretched dramatically, turned off the tv, and practically skipped to her room. Jane just shook her head. “Hungry?” she asked, turning in his arms to face him, but her mind went blank at the sight of him looking at her, eyes dark and hot. “Yes.” he said, and he kissed her with all that was in him, leaning her slightly over the back of the couch in the process. “John…” she said breathlessly when he pulled his mouth from hers, “I want you closer.” He looked into her eyes, saw everything he was feeling reflected there, lifted her up and carried her down the hall to grant her wish. *************************************** They took it slower this time, lingering over each moment as if it may be their last. John helped Jane out of her clothes, branding her with his eyes, looking at every inch of her the way he’d wanted to for so long, with nothing blocking his view of her bare skin. Lift me up He trailed his fingers over every place he looked, drawing sighs and delicious shivers from Jane. Finally he looked directly into her eyes, just centimeters from his own, “You’re beautiful.” I've been waiting forever for this She returned the favor, removing every stitch he was wearing, and letting her hands linger all the places she’d longed to touch for weeks. But she didn’t return his compliment, “beautiful” just was not enough, nor was any other word ever invented, so she just looked at him and let her eyes do the speaking. When the answer to all my dreams He understood. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her onto the bed, where they became hopelessly lost in each other. Lift me up Jane woke a few hours later, still wrapped in John’s
arms, thinking that somehow this felt like a promise… Promises Part 4 Jane and Nikki had a tradition from their childhood of cinnamon rolls eaten in their pajamas sitting by the tree on Christmas morning. They had foregone the tree since both had figured they would have been at their parents’ house, but they ate the cinnamon rolls sitting on opposite ends of the couch with their feet up. “Sooo,” Nikki began, “where’s John?” Jane looked with uncommon interest at her roll, trying to hide the smile she couldn’t seem to help, “He went home last night.” Nikki feigned ignorance “Last night..?” Jane couldn’t help it, her grin got the better of her, “Last night…this morning…it was dark, anyway.” Nikki wiggled her feet in the couch with glee. “So, why isn’t he having breakfast with us?” “Kathleen had plans for breakfast for the two of them. I have the feeling it’s her first Christmas in a long time she has had a family member willing to share it with her.” “Yeah,” Nikki agreed wholeheartedly, “Lord knows her brother is a creep!” Thinking of Richard made Jane uneasy, he’d been way too quiet lately, and she wasn’t naïve enough to think he had just given up…She changed the subject. “Here…” she pulled a small box out of the couch cushion where she had hidden it in the wee hours after John left and she couldn’t sleep. “Merry Christmas.” “Janie!” Nikki squealed, “But you already bought me stuff!” She was already ripping into the paper. “Yeah, well, they go with.” Jane smiled as Nikki held up the small but detailed gold hoop earrings. Nikki dove across the couch and enveloped her sister in a big bear hug. “Jane, these are beautiful! You are the best sister ever!” Then just as quickly she flopped back to her end, nearly pouting. “I didn’t get you anything!” “Yeah, well, girls in college aren’t supposed to have money to spend on their big sisters. Anyway, you were here for me yesterday, that’s the best a sister can do.” Nikki thought she would get teary eyed, so she hopped from the couch saying, “Well, I’m going to try these on!” then halfway to the hallway she stopped and said, “Sis, there’s something you can do for me, too…” “Anything, Nik” Nikki grinned a huge, you-got-it-coming grin, “Move your bed away from the wall.” ********************************* John had not gone back to sleep either. Jane had woke him in the early hours coming back from the kitchen. She’d finally gotten hungry after skipping supper the night before. “I missed you.” he had told her. “I was only gone a second!” “I know.” He grabbed her and pulled her close. “John, I don’t want to send you away, but Kathleen will probably want you there in the morning.” “Yes. She made plans.” He nuzzled her neck. “Mmmm - you should…go…so you’ll be…presentable…” John hadn’t answered. He hooked one leg around hers, rolled onto his back, and circling her waist with his hands, put her exactly where he wanted her. Jane had grabbed the headboard and simply held on… “John? You don’t like the quiche?” Kathleen was eyeing him knowingly. It was obvious he was thinking of Jane. “Yes..no. It’s good.” He’d barely eaten any, his mind was elsewhere. She leaned back in her chair and said casually, “I had an idea this morning, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before…” she had his attention for the moment. “Jane and her sister are alone today, aren’t they?” Now she had his full attention. “Do you think they’d like to spend some time with us here today?” If ever John had the urge to kiss his aunt, it was now. Instead he smiled brightly and said, “I think Jane would like that. And Nikki.” **************************************** Not too many miles away, Richard sat at his desk facing Nash. This was just another day to him. A monitor blinked at the side of the desk. “He was out in public for hours last evening,” he ranted. Nash just shook his head and waited for the tirade to come to a point. “The more he’s out there, fitting in, looking normal, the less of a hold I have on him! He’s smarter than I gave him credit for, it’s already going to be harder to convince anyone that I need him locked up here and under protection. The angle is going to have to lie in proving him dangerous to others.” He began pacing. “He still has that violent edge, I know it…” he rubbed his cheek recalling the beating he took from his nephew, and the bitterness of him not being convicted and put into Richard’s own “protective” custody. “A man doesn’t lose what is in his nature just like that.” He picked up a paper on which he logged the hours John had spent where, thanks to the tracking device that still transmitted from the locket he wore. “Jane Porter.” He ground her name through his teeth. “That meddling bi---! If it weren’t for her, John would still be here, and I’d have controlling shares of Greystoke by now!” Nash sensed his boss’s anger rising and absently retreated back a step. Richard turned his attention that direction. “The answer lies with Porter, and I’m going to find it! That. Is. A. Promise! Promises Part 5 Jane and Nikki happily accepted Kathleen’s invitation and arrived an hour later at her front door in style. Kathleen had insisted on sending her limo for them since it was a special day. Nikki looked around wide eyed, having never seen the inside of a place quite so huge belonging to just one person. “Would you like a tour?” Kathleen offered, smiling at Nikki’s youth and innocence. “Are you serious?!” Nikki beamed. Jane nudged her. “I mean, yes thank you, I’d love it!” Nikki corrected not curbing her enthusiasm at all. Kathleen’s smile grew, “Well, why don’t I show you around then?” They walked through the foyer, passing the biggest live Christmas tree the two had ever seen, and up the stairs. Jane suddenly realized that she had only seen a small portion of the huge house herself. They glanced in the offices where Kathleen ran her paper, explored the library that held more books than a person could ever read, and had tea in a very formal, very beautiful sitting room that Kathleen told them was specifically for that purpose when the house was built. “Sometimes I like a little old fashioned tradition, so I kept it this way.” After tea, they moved on to the wing that housed the atrium, and the rooms that had belonged to John’s family, peeking in the rooms that were opened and passing by the ones that were closed. They were walking the corridor back toward the stairs, Kathleen and Nikki leading, when Jane was suddenly, silently pulled aside by John into a previously closed doorway. He quietly pushed it back closed, standing in front of her and reaching around her to do it. “John,” Jane smiled, “I don’t think this is the…” he moved aside and her last thought was barely finished, “…time.” She was standing in what had to be his childhood bedroom. Jane nearly cried, realizing that he had wanted to share a part of himself with her. She took a deep breath, “Do you remember any of this?” “It was a long time ago.” Was all he said at first. Then, “I remember her singing. My mother.” Jane’s heart ached at the thought of a 5 year old John listening to his mother sing him to sleep. She sniffed and looked around, blinking hard. John came close to her, “Are you sad?” “No,” she shook her head, then looked in his eyes, “I’m very touched you wanted to share this with me.” They explored the room together for a few minutes, looking at the baseball glove that was well used and the books that apparently had been his favorites judging by the use they had seen, everything telling her a little something about the boy he had been and the parents who never got to raise him. She turned and sat on the edge of the twin bed, and noticed the wedding picture Kathleen had given John sitting in a frame on the bedside table. She picked it up and looked closer, “Wow, this is beautiful.” “Yes. They loved each other very much.” He sat down beside her and looked at the photo over her shoulder. “You can remember that?” Jane was a little surprised. “I can see it in their eyes.” He ran his fingers down the picture, as if touching it could connect him to them a little more. “There are more,” he suddenly said, pulling his hand away and going to the shelf, “do you want to see them?” Jane’s heart was full almost to bursting, with which emotion she couldn’t tell, so she just nodded. They spent the next half hour looking through some of the albums, until Jane remembered that she had left Kathleen to entertain Nikki and they decided it was best to put them away for now. As they walked, hand in hand, toward the door, Jane slowed and pulled him back. “Thank you for sharing this with me. This is the best Christmas present anyone ever gave me,” and at that moment she decided she had one to give him too. She stepped close, tears in her eyes, and looked straight into his. “I love you.” John finally understood first hand how a person could have happy tears. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, lifting her to her toes so they were face to face and kissed her soundly. “Stay with me Jane…always.” She understood what he was asking, and realized that somewhere between the cabin and yesterday, she had lost her fear of always…she was only afraid of an ‘always’ without him. With tears falling down her cheeks, looking at the ones standing in his eyes she answered. “I belong with you.” Promises Part 6 After a few awkward moments re-joining Kathleen and Nikki- and less than subtle suggestive glances from Nikki- the rest of the day was like a fairy tale. Jane thought that in the absence of her own family, there was no better substitute than Kathleen. Just as she had said to Jane a couple of days ago, she treated her like family. Even nicer in Jane’s view was that she treated Nikki like family, too. Kathleen noticed that John was more relaxed than she thought she had ever seen him, and he was smiling almost constantly. Of course, he had Jane by his side most of the time, and when she was not beside him, his eyes followed her, full of so much love it made her heart break, it was so beautiful. This was the way it should be. She used to wish she and Richard could put aside their differences sometimes, being that they had been the only family each other had. She missed holidays shared with family. Today more than made up for that. Today, she felt she had family. Dinner was elaborate and delicious. Jane was shocked at the sight of everything and said, “Kathleen, surely you didn’t go to all this trouble for us?!” “It was no trouble, and it’s for all of us. Having you here makes this day extra special for me.” she lifted her wine glass, “It may seem a little silly, but I’m going to make a toast…I have my nephew back and I have him here. I can see he is happy, and it is because of you, Jane. So…to family,” she glanced at everyone present, making a point of including Nikki, “and to one of the best Christmases I can ever remember.” **************************************** Hours later, they sat talking and laughing, sharing stories from past holidays. John was particularly attentive, hearing stories of his father made him proud to belong to such a man, and sad to not have known him any better at the same time. He noticed the sad look in his aunt’s eyes when she spoke of Richard, the way he was in his youth, even though she was smiling at the stories she was telling. He could hear from her telling that, even in his younger days, Richard had not been someone who liked to lose. ****************************************** Richard sat alone in semi-darkness, slouched across the leather couch in his office, shirt and tie loosened, highball glass in his hand. He had been drinking, alone, for a while now and he picked up the inter-office phone extension and punched a button. “Is it ready?” A nervous voice on the other end replied, “The preliminary tests look good, but-” “How soon is all I want to know.” “Sir, we can’t be sure. To use it on a person at this point…well, I can’t promise it wouldn’t kill him. This is a whole new use for this kind of drug-” Richard sat up and slammed his glass on the table, “How soon, damn it!” “Technically speaking - without having tested it and going by the primate tests - you should have him here in a week.” Richard replaced the receiver to it’s cradle without answering. A week. He took a long last drink. That gave him plenty of time… ************************************ “Hey, Sam! Merry Christmas!” Jane’s phone had rung just as she and Nikki were being driven away from Kathleen’s. “Where you at, Partner? I came to your house looking’ for you…bringin’ you a gift…and you’re not here!” Jane smiled at his teasing, “Well, stand outside a minute and you’ll see us. We’re on our way home.” “Outside?! Gurl who do you think I am…Jack Frost?” “Five minutes, Sam,” she laughed and hung up. Sam whistled long and low when they stepped out of the limo, shaking his head, “my, my, my, steppin’ up in the world…just what have you been into while you’ve been gone?” Jane was smiling more than he thought he could ever remember, “Kathleen had us over for Christmas dinner.” Nikki stepped over and hugged Sam with one arm, adding a peck to his cheek. She seemed to Jane like the only one who could get away with that . “Hi, sister,” and endearment he picked up from listening to Jane. He circled each lady’s shoulder with one arm and walked them up to the apartment. “So, you have a gift for me,” Jane teased, opening the door. Sam noticed she was using her left hand. Sam smiled like the cat who ate the canary. “You,” he said dramatically, “are coming back to work Monday.” Jane was speechless, a wide grin splitting her face. “Go ahead,” Sam gloated, “Tell me I’m da man.” “No, wait…” Jane looked confused, “I haven’t got a release from the doctor yet.” “Don’t tell me you’re doubting your partner now…I have a few connections. All you have to do is make a phone call to your doc to comfirm.” Jane smiled. What an ending to an already perfect day! “Sam,” she said in mock concession, “I gotta hand it to you…you are the man.” “And don’t you forget it!” ************************ Promises Part 7 “You’re staying for supper, right?” Jane was giving Sam a look that said this was a statement, not a question, “I’m buying, I owe you at least that much.” Sam, not on to turn down free food when the opportunity presented itself, said, “Make it Chinese and I’m yours for the evening.” “Good,” Nikki chimed in, “Come sit with me Sam-o and I’ll keep you entertained ‘till Jane’s done ordering. You know she’ll only order from that one certain place, and they can’t ever understand you on the phone…” she rolled her eyes. It did indeed take Jane a good ten minutes to get her order straight. She sighed and set the handset in its cradle, walking from the kitchen toward where Sam and Nikki sat on the couch, thick as thieves, both suddenly silent and studying her with silly, guilty grins. “Uh,oh…y’know what? I’m not even asking!” But the two of them looked back at each other, Nikki wearing an ‘I told ya so’ smirk and Sam just shaking his head and saying “mm-mm-mm.” Jane’s curiosity got the best of her, “What?” “Nothin’ “ “Nothing” “Uh-huh,” she eyed them suspiciously. “So…when’s dinner?” Sam changed the subject. Jane let it drop. For now. She’d corner Nikki later… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ They sat on the living room floor, empty cartons stacked for disposal later. Nikki was watching Sam intently, looking nervous as he related the story to her for the first time about the night Jane was shot. But Sam was beginning to grin, “…and then your sister say’s ‘no wait…I’m a virgin’ I coulda swallowed my mic!” “Sam! That’s my little sister you’re talking to! Keep it clean will ya?” She turned to Nikki, “The whole time I’m standing there trying to stall these creeps and Sam is laughing in my ear!” “Well, yeah! I’d have too…remember, I live here!” Jane wasn’t sure if Nikki was referring to the mornings Mike had still been there, or more recent events. She looked at her sister, and Nikki was wiggling her eyebrows. Jane flushed. That answered that question. Nikki glanced at Sam. “So, Jane,” he began, “I hear you might need a little muscle around here…” “Uh-oh,” Jane thought, she’d seen that look before… “Something about moving a bed…” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “So, you gonna tell me?” Jane had taken their ribbing good naturedly, as it had been intended. She was just too happy right now to care. Now she was in her room, combing out her wet hair with Nikki on her bed looking at her reflection in the mirror. She looked back at her sister through the glass. “Tell you what?” Nikki rolled her eyes, “What happened to you and John this morning? You two were missing an awfully long time.” Jane gave Nikki her best big-sister look, “Not what you’re thinking. Get you mind up outta the gutter.” But she smiled as she said it. “Sooooo…” Nikki prompted. “So nothing. He showed me some things that belonged to him as a kid. Some old pictures and stuff.” It wasn’t her words but the look on her face that had Nikki’s heart melting. “Well, I never saw old pictures make anyone look like that.” Jane didn’t answer. She wasn’t ready to share everything with Nikki just yet. The window opening with a bang saved her from having to. John hopped in, smiling disarmingly at Jane. She returned him a smile with no less brilliance. “K, so…I’ll just go now,” Nikki left the room unnoticed, closing the door behind her. John stepped close, taking a handful of her wet hair and running it through his fingers, but looking into her eyes. “I missed you.” Jane felt giddy, breathless, with him that close. She was grinning like a teenager facing her first crush. John, glad that he could finally do exactly what he was thinking about doing whenever she was near, pulled her close and kissed her hungrily. Jane’s comb fell to the floor forgotten as she reached both hands up to grab on to either side of his head and return his kiss with equal abandon. It took him all of two seconds to react, lifting her and starting toward her bed. “John, wait…” she panted against his lips. He pulled back and looked at her, questioning with his eyes. “We have to move the bed…” |