Dave: Junior Year (Three Daves #2) (3 page)

Chapter 3

Jen walked to Chris’s barn-shaped house, and they caught a ride with one of her roommates. They ditched their coats in the car and waited in line just inside the doors of the warehouse to pay the fifteen-dollar cover charge. The building was a huge, open space with beige, metal walls ribbed every few feet. At one end was a plywood stage loaded with microphones, equipment, and a maze of extension cords. A long folding table stood at the other end of the building, serving as the bar. Behind the table was a line of kegs and bartenders with Mohawks and facial piercings.

The lighting was low, and a moderate-sized crowd populated the room. The line at the door had grown to extend outside by the time Jen and the other girls had gotten their hands stamped, so it promised to be a packed house. Jen’s eyes flicked around the warehouse, scanning for Dave.

The situation reminded her too much of the time she’d met David to see that band last year. Their first date. She wasn’t sure whether Dave was thinking of this as a date or if he’d asked her to come tonight as a friend. She tried to convince herself that either way was fine—just as long as she didn’t end up running out of the place in horror like she had with David.

As she and Chris walked toward the bar, she forced herself to stop looking around for Dave. If he wanted to be with her, he’d find her. Before she’d gotten across the building to the beer, she heard his now familiar growl from behind her.

“Damn. You look good in black,” he said.

Jen turned and saw Dave’s beautiful face smiling down on her—or rather, at her T-shirt. Kate was slim and about a B-cup, so the shirt Jen had borrowed stretched tight across her more ample breasts. Dave’s emerald eyes were firmly planted on that particular strip of cotton.

“You look
really
good in black.” He reached an arm around her waist, pulling her close.

Jen felt starstruck in his presence. He was every bit as gorgeous as she’d idealized him in her memory. She gazed up at him as her body pressed into his. She had no words and didn’t need them. He bent his head and pressed his cool lips to hers, letting Jen know he wanted to be more than friends. Definitely. A jolt charged from her lips to the back of her knees, making her grateful for the support of his arm around her. The small, simple kiss was surprisingly powerful.

As soon as Dave straightened, he released Jen and peeled off his studded leather jacket. “Try this on.”

Jen didn’t hesitate to slide her arms into his warm coat. The sleeves were long on her, but the form-fitted jacket hugged her sides. She bit her bottom lip to stop from cringing at the fact that a guy’s coat fit her so well. When she glanced up at Dave, the wolfish way his eyes drank her in told her he was more than okay with it. He reached his arm over her shoulders and pulled her across the room to the side of the stage where David and Ellie stood.

On the way, Jen looked around for Chris. She’d already disappeared into the thickening crowd. Jen knew her friend wouldn’t mind being ditched so soon. It wasn’t as if Chris hadn’t done the same thing to Jen a bazillion times before.

“Look at your girl, Vid!” Dave announced once they’d reached David and Ellie. “Doesn’t she look amazing in leather?”

David’s eyebrows rose, silently teasing Jen when she looked at him. She shook her head, giving her eyes a half roll. She tried to be chill but knew she must be blushing furiously.

“Ooh, yeah,” Ellie said, stepping forward. “I’ve got a thing for leather. What do you say, Jenny?” She leaned her face toward Jen’s, looking very much as if she was going to kiss her. Jen jerked her head back, shooting a startled look at David.

He grabbed Ellie’s arm, stopping her. “Knock it off, Ell,”

Ellie turned a defiant glare onto David. “Guess she’s not into it.”

Dave tightened his arm protectively over Jen’s shoulder and steered her toward the bar. “You’re such a freak, Ellie,” he called over his shoulder as they walked away.

Jen stood behind Dave as he waited in line at the bar, relishing the warmth his heavy jacket still carried from his body. After a couple of minutes, he turned around with two plastic cups filled to the rim and handed one to Jen. “Slam it,” he ordered.

She gulped it down, glad for the excuse to get a jump start on her buzz after the weirdness with Ellie.

“Not a drop spilled,” Dave said as he took her empty cup. “Looks like I got me a party girl.” He winked and turned back to the bar to get their cups refilled. With fresh beers in hand, he led her to the edge of the makeshift dance floor. They watched the band set up and tune their instruments.

Dave lit a cigarette. After a puff, he said, “Glad to see you here. I wasn’t sure sorority girls ever went to places like the Garage.”

“I’m not a sorority girl!” Jen said with exaggerated offense.

“No?” He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Never have been and never will be.”

Dave smiled his brilliant smile and raised his cup for a toast. “I knew I liked you.”

Jen smiled and tapped his beer with hers. They sipped, and then Jen asked, “How do you know David and Ellie?”

“Everyone knows Ellie, right? I used to hang out with her brother. Him and all my roommates graduated CIU last year, so Ell set me up with some guys who had an extra room to rent in their house. How about you? How do you know them?”

“I guess I don’t really know Ellie, but I’ve been friends with David since freshman year. He went to high school with one of my good friends. She’s here tonight.” Jen scanned the room to see if she could find Chris. She thought she’d caught a glimpse of her near the stage earlier.

As she looked in that direction, Dave bent and murmured into her ear, “You’re not going to leave me for your friends again, are you?”

Jen turned toward him. His face was only inches from hers. The idea that she’d ever willingly leave this beautiful creature was ridiculous. The beam of his gaze once again left her speechless, so she merely shook her head from side to side.

“Good.” His eyelids drooped seductively, and Jen readied for another kiss. They were preempted when the first chords from the band’s guitars ripped through the room. Their attention snapped to the stage. A spontaneous mosh pit formed directly in front of it. Dave dropped his cigarette onto the floor and snuffed it with his boot. They slammed what was left of their beer, lest a drop be wasted, and danced on the perimeter of the frenzy.

Jen worked up a sweat in the leather jacket and pushed it off her shoulders. Dave seemed so turned on by her in it that she had no inclination to take it off completely. After a few songs, he left her to brave the mosh pit. He stayed in there for an impressive amount of time, but eventually came flying out, slamming into an unprepared bystander and splattering beer everywhere. Jen laughed.

Once he’d regained his balance, he looked around until his eyes landed on her. She was still giggling. He walked slowly, panther-like, toward her. “You think that’s funny, huh?” His tone would’ve been threatening if his perfect lips hadn’t been twisted into an alluring smile.

“No, I don’t. I think it’s
hilarious
!”

He lunged at her, slipping his hands inside the cuffs of his jacket and grabbing her wrists. “Let’s see how hilarious you think it is from the inside.” He pulled her toward the mosh pit.

“No!” Jen screamed, pulling back.

She was no match for his lean muscles, and they slowly inched toward the heaving throng. Dave’s eyes carried an evil glint. His mouth pressed into a small, wicked smile as he dragged her ever closer.

“Dave, please! I really don’t want to go in there,” she pleaded. “I was wrong. It wasn’t funny. It wasn’t funny at all. You’re a god for lasting as long as you did. Please don’t. Please!”

He stopped moving, but retained his grip on her wrists, which she just noticed were stinging. “A god, huh?” He cocked an eyebrow.

Jen nodded furiously and took the opportunity to take a step backward.

“Hmm, maybe I’ll have to rethink this,” he said, following her as she continued moving away from the pit to safety. He pressed her wrists against her chest, pushing her backward. They continued moving in this direction until Jen felt a wall against her back. Dave moved in closer, sidling his tight body right up against hers. Lifting her wrists, he held them above her head against the cool metal wall.

He tilted his face down toward hers so that his hot breath tickled her face. “Is this better?”

“Uh-huh,” Jen breathed, watching his face move in closer.

His mouth clamped down on hers, and Jen stopped all resistance. She’d always scoffed at couples who made out in public, but with Dave’s delicious lips prying hers apart and his firm, powerful body pinning her against the wall, she didn’t care what anyone else thought, wasn’t even conscious there was anyone else in the room.

They eventually broke apart for another beer, and a cigarette for Dave, but they never found their way back to the dance floor before closing time, preferring less populated spaces where they could resume their make out. The heat generated by Dave’s plentiful kisses left Jen nearly combusting under his leather jacket. She hadn’t realized how suffocated she’d felt until the end of the night when they stepped outside into the cool night air and he pulled the coat off of her, sliding his own arms into the heavy sleeves. Getting hit by the first blast of December wind felt like breathing again. The next gust bit through Kate’s sweaty T-shirt as Jen ran with Dave to his friend’s car. He pulled her into the backseat and onto his lap.

Any tiny bit of decorum they’d maintained in the warehouse was thrown off the second the car door slammed shut. Dave wrapped his hand around the back of Jen’s head, bringing her face back to his. She didn’t hesitate to plaster herself to him, oblivious to the crush of bodies around them. Jen wondered if it was possible for her to become addicted to the nicotine on Dave’s breath. She couldn’t seem to get enough of it. She didn’t normally like the taste of cigarettes, but on Dave, the flavor was sweet as well as smoky. Her jaw ached with the strain of opening so wide for so long, but still she wanted more.

Her hands threaded through his sandy spikes while his wandered to grope her back and thighs. One of his hands made its way between their fused bodies and up her shirt. Jen separated her mouth from his with the intention of reprimanding him, but one blast of his hot, sweet breath on her face and a calculated brush of his tickling thumb over her erect nipple sent her biting and licking over his jaw and down his neck.

When Dave spoke, it was in a husky voice. “Jason, take us to my house.”

Jen broke suction on his neck and turned toward Jason. “No! I’m going to Longbourn—I mean Netherfield Park Apartments.”

Dave groaned and gripped her face in one of his hands, bringing it back around toward him, stopping only when her lips brushed against his. “You’re killing me,” he moaned in a whisper. With his other hand, he held her body close and pressed his hips into her so she could feel the rock hard proof of how much she was killing him. He practically throbbed through his jeans into the soft flesh under her thigh.

I’m sorry.” She touched a baby kiss onto his luscious lips and shifted her weight, hoping less pressure directly onto him would help ease his excitement. Laying her head on his shoulder, she listened to his heart pump. They stayed quiet until they reached the Netherfield parking lot, struggling to regain control of their breathing.

As the car slowed to a stop, the murmur of Dave’s deep voice tickled her eardrum. “C’mon, good girl, be bad. Invite me in.”

Dave. In her bed. All night.

“I can’t,” she whispered, wishing she could say anything else. But even if she decided to forget her plan to wait until she was in a serious relationship, she couldn’t sleep with a guy she didn’t know at all.

She sat up and opened the door. After a quick, sheepish thank you to Jason for the ride, she slid off Dave’s lap. As she stood, Dave pulled her to him for one final long, wet kiss. Jen pushed herself up with one hand on his chest, finally conscientious of the other passengers, who’d become vocally impatient with the amorous duo. Dave remained seated but groaned a low, feline growl. The growl trembled against Jen’s fingertips and rippled all the way through her. It took everything she had to not climb back on top of him.

As she walked on love-weak legs to her apartment, she was proud of herself. Ever since her disastrous proposition to David at the beginning of the semester, she’d been concerned she was on the verge of tossing away the ideals she’d held close for so long. She worried the lessons would bust beyond their five-time limit and become a more frequent thing. Resisting gorgeous, sexy, delicious Dave had shown her she was stronger than she’d given herself credit for.

Chapter 4

Jen’s pride in her self-control turned into doubt over the next several weeks. It was perfectly understandable that Dave hadn’t contacted her in the midst of finals or over Christmas break. But when she returned to campus mid-January, her heart jumped with hope every time her phone buzzed. It was never Dave. The longer she went without hearing from him, the more her stomach churned when she thought of all the black tops and jeans she’d added to her wardrobe over break. She tried telling herself she’d wanted to update her look, anyhow, but she knew she’d bought it all for Dave. Meanwhile, he’d already forgotten her.

Just as she wrote off Dave as yet another dead-end chapter in the most boring love story ever, she ran into him at Meryton Hall, the building where she went for Accounting II. He stood in the stairwell, talking to a cute, burlyish guy from her class. She put her head down, intending to scoot past him unnoticed. Over Christmas break she’d had the longer side of her hair lopped off so that it was now straight along the bottom—it was possible he wouldn’t even recognize her.

“Hey, good girl!” The sound of his deep voice sent a pleasant shiver through her.

“Oh, hey, I didn’t even notice you.” She continued climbing the stairs, though at a slower pace.

“Hold up,” he called to her and turned back to the guy. Jen saw a baggie discreetly pass from Dave’s pocket into the guy’s jacket. Then the guy took off up the stairs and disappeared through the doorway to Jen’s classroom. Dave reached back into his pocket and pulled out a small stack of wrinkled, orange postcards. He held one out and Jen descended the steps to take one. “New band, some buddies of mine. They’re playing Thursday at Theodore’s, just north of downtown. You know it?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“I’ll see you there, then?” he asked with an enticing tilt of his head.

“Uh, maybe,” Jen stammered.

Dave stepped close and bent over Jen, tilting her chin up so that their faces were barely an inch apart. He brushed his lips over hers, tugging at her bottom lip with his teeth and sucking it into his mouth. He slowly released her wet lip and rested his forehead on hers, piercing her with his cut-glass eyes. “How about definitely?”

“’Kay.”

Dave backed away, wearing a victorious smirk, and trotted down the stairs, stopping part way down to turn and give Jen a devilish wink and smile. If Jen hadn’t already decided to go to Theo’s after the kiss, that smile alone would’ve sold her on it.

She stepped into class and walked past the guy from the stairwell to sit by her friends Joe and Marcy. The three of them had become tight the previous semester in Consumer Affairs when they’d worked on a big project together. She passed the orange card to Joe, who sat in front of Marcy. “Do you guys want to go?”

“I’m in,” said Marcy, peering over Joe’s shoulder. “But Theo’s is a hike. We’ll need a car.”

“Let me see if my roommate and her boyfriend will come. He has a car.” Jen preferred not to involve Chris in the outing. She’d been referring to Jen as “the Make-out Queen” ever since that night at the Garage, and Jen preferred to not get heckled as she reclaimed the throne.

***

Jen, Maria, Tom, Marcy, and her roommate Laura, arrived early at Theo’s and grabbed a long table on the top floor. It gave them a decent balcony view of the stage below. They saved one end of the table for Joe and his friends, who arrived shortly afterward. The place was enormous, with two levels and four long bars scattered throughout. Jen looked around for Dave.

Maria had been testy about him always expecting Jen to meet him places and never picking her up himself. Jen halfway suspected her roommate’s irritation had more to do with him noticing Jen the night they’d met rather than Maria. That was something that rarely happened when the two girls were right next to each other. Jen explained that Dave didn’t have his own car, but that didn’t satisfy Maria.

On the way to pick up Marcy and Laura earlier that night, she’d delivered an ultimatum to Jen: “You’d better invite him to the dinner party we’re throwing at our apartment next Saturday, and he better say yes or you’re through with him. Got it?”

“Fine,” Jen had grumbled, just to shut her up. She was eager for Dave to prove to Maria that he was a decent guy. She finally spied him on the stage, setting up instruments. “There he is! I’m going to let him know we’re here.” She rushed down the stairs. He smiled when he saw her coming and jumped down from the stage. His eyes were wide and bright, and he moved with nervous energy. His short spikes had grown out since before Christmas and flopped in the most attractive way.

“You came,” he said.

“Yeah. I brought a bunch of people. We have a big table up there.” Jen pointed upstairs.

“Cool.” Dave threw his arm over her shoulders and squeezed. “I’m totally stoked. These guys are incredible.”

Jen wrapped her arm around his tight waist, keeping her face tilted up at him, ready for a mind-numbing kiss. But Dave was distracted, looking back at the instruments.

“You’re busy, so I’ll see you in a little bit, okay?” she said.

“Yeah, great.” He hopped onto the stage and resumed messing with the hook-ups.

Jen rejoined her friends. Before long, the band started banging out a mix of cover tunes that were more mainstream than Jen had expected. The band wasn’t bad. A few songs in, Jen, Marcy, Laura, and Maria headed down to the dance floor. While they danced, Jen peered into the small mosh pit that had formed near the stage. She was looking for Dave’s mussed head thrashing above the crowd, but she didn’t see him there or anywhere else.

After working up a sweat, the girls went back upstairs. Jen was surprised to see Dave standing at the end of her table, talking to Joe’s friends. He smiled when he saw her and came over to her. Sliding both of his hands into either side of her damp hair, he tilted her face up toward him. “Man, you’re so cute when you’re all sweaty.” He ducked his head and ran the tip of his tongue up her neck to her jaw line. “Tasty,” he growled into her ear.

Jen wrinkled her nose, at the same time fighting an urge to jump him right there in the middle of the bar. As he released his hands from her head, she slid an arm around his waist. “Meet my friends. This is Tom, Maria, Marcy, and Laura.” Everyone nodded politely, though Jen hoped Dave hadn’t noticed Maria’s skeptical glare. “That’s Joe and his dudes down there. Looks like you already know some of them.”

“We’re acquainted,” Dave said.

Just then, the band announced that they’d be taking a break. Dave whipped his head toward the stage. “Better go see what my boys need.” He gave Jen a quick kiss on the forehead and was gone.

She didn’t dare leave the table once the band started up again. An hour and a half later, Dave still hadn’t come back to see her. Jen didn’t worry about it until her friends started making noises about going home. She didn’t want to leave without seeing Dave again, at least to say goodbye.

She glanced around the huge, crowded bar. It would take forever to find him, and Jen couldn’t ask her friends to wait. Maria had made several remarks in the last hour about “scumbags who invite girls out and then ignore them.” It was so unfair. Maria didn’t understand what a big night this was for Dave or how excited he was about the band…and Maria hadn’t felt his delectable tongue tickle her neck.

Joe and his friends appeared to be just getting warmed up and probably wouldn’t leave for a while. Jen could stay and get a ride home with them. She watched one of Joe’s friends slip a condom over the end of his beer bottle. He shook the bottle and the guys whooped as the prophylactic inflated from the gas released by exploding beer bubbles. Jen was glad to see they’d finally found a use for their condoms, but wasn’t sure the possibility of more time with Dave would be worth the extra time she’d be forced to spend alone with
them.

While an old-school Clash song blared from the stage, Jen stalled, hoping something would happen to help her decide what to do—something like Dave appearing out of a fog on a white stallion.

“Jen, you coming or not?” Maria asked. Her tone carried a thinly veiled threat on Jen’s life if the answer was
not
.

Tom leaned across the table toward Jen, making sure to catch her eyes in his mild, friendly gaze. “You should definitely go now.” Ah Tom, a man of so few yet such wise words. Jen nodded her reluctant agreement and stood, glancing around all the way to the door for one last peek at Dave. No such luck.

Maria turned around in the front seat of the car and pestered Jen the entire ride home. “What did he say about Saturday?”

“Nothing!” Jen explained yet again. “I barely got a chance to say anything to him, okay?”

“We drove all the way out here, and he hardly even talks to you? You can do so much better. Right, Tom?”

“Right, hon,” Tom replied, although Jen was pretty sure he’d only heard a small percentage of what Maria had said.

“You gotta learn from me how a man should behave.” Maria patted her boyfriend on the shoulder. Jen adored Tom, but she doubted she could ever be happy with someone so docile.

***

The next afternoon, Jen’s phone rang. It was on the counter in the kitchen. Maria was closest to it, so she glanced down and picked it up. “This is Maria speaking.” A pause was followed by, “Who? Oh, Dave.” She shot a pointed look at Jen, who’d been eating ramen noodles on the couch while she paged through her Consumer Psychology text. Jen shot her hand out for the phone. “Oh, yeah, the band was good,” Maria continued. “Were you there? Oh, right. I forgot ’cause I hardly saw you.”

Jen tried to shut Maria up with a fierce glare.

Maria’s mouth curled at the corners as she came closer. “I guess you want to talk to Jen. Here she is.” She held the phone out, mouthing, “Saturday,” before she relinquished control. She then crossed her arms and stood sentry over Jen to make sure she asked.

“You disappeared last night,” Dave said. His voice was extra deep and thick, like he’d just woken up. A thrill rushed through Jen at the idea of him thinking of her first thing after waking. At one-thirty in the afternoon. On a weekday.

“I had class early this morning, so…but the band was great,” Jen said.

“Yeah, they’re frickin’ brilliant, aren’t they?”

Maria tapped her foot, her olive features set rigid.

Jen clamped her eyelids tight and went for it. “Hey, a week from Saturday my roommates and I are throwing a dinner party here at the apartment. Want to come?” She held her breath.

“Free food? Sure.”

Jen breathed. That had been easier than expected. “Great!” She gave Maria a jubilant thumbs-up. Maria narrowed her eyes as if she didn’t completely believe her, but walked away to let them finish their conversation in a modicum of privacy.