Winter Jacket: Finding Home (2 page)

“Nothing really. Something left over from the semester.” I couldn’t very well tell my boss that I was on a hunt to find my girlfriend who was hiding somewhere on campus and that her underwear was in my leather briefcase.

“I’m glad I bumped into you,” she said, ignoring the envelope for a moment. “We haven’t had the opportunity to really talk since the end of the semester.”

My eyes flicked back and forth between the Dean’s face and the dirt-smudged card in her hands. “I’ve been busy preparing for my sabbatical.”

“Oh, I know.” She tapped her fingers against the cardstock.

What Jessica didn’t know was the reason for the sabbatical. To her and the rest of the university staff, I was taking the semester break because it was something guaranteed in my contract that would let me work on projects to eventually promote me from Associate Professor to Professor. I was keeping the detail that I was moving across country to write for a TV show from my work colleagues. The school was already too much of a fishbowl without them knowing those things.

“Will you still be around, using your office this fall?” she asked. “Or are you really leaving?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” I lied. My job was protected because of tenure, but I didn’t need to give this woman another reason to make my professional life difficult. “I’ve obviously never had a sabbatical before, so I need to figure out what environment will be most conducive to getting work done.”

Jessica made a humming noise. “Well, I hope you won’t be a stranger.”

She slowly handed me the envelope, and I pushed down the urge to yank it from her hands. Our fingers brushed as the exchange was made.

“Enjoy your sabbatical, Elle.”

“Thank you,” I said, bobbing my head in gratitude. “I’ll do my best.”

I waited until the Dean had put enough distance between us with her departure before tearing into the newest clue. “The only place in winter you won’t need a jacket.”

I wondered if this was purposeful, this clue-led trip down memory lane: first Plath’s book, then gardening, and now the comment about a winter jacket. It had been Hunter’s blue winter jacket that had started this all. Even the answer to her riddle brought back memories of time spent with my girlfriend.

I left the campus garden and all but skipped in the direction of the Life Sciences complex. Attached to the building were two small greenhouses that served as ecosystems, one tropical and the other arid. As her clue suggested, regardless of the temperature outside, the greenhouses remained balmy.

It reminded me of Nikole’s greenhouse across town. When she and Troian had left for California, Hunter had continued to care for the tiny seedlings Nikole had planted before Troian had gotten the head writing job for the television show I’d soon be joining. Because of her hours at the hospital, Hunter hadn’t been able to take off for Spring Break to go someplace warm with me, so she’d surprised me with a picnic in Nikole’s greenhouse instead.

I tugged on the handle to the science building’s main entrance, but the door didn’t budge. I tried the next door with an equal amount of success. They were all locked. I took a few steps backwards and peered up at the building, as if expecting it to reveal the answer to me. I checked Hunter’s clue again. This had to be what she was talking about. I had to get inside this building.

I dug around my school bag until I found my cell phone. The number for campus security was programmed into my contacts, and I pressed the buttons to call their offices.

“Campus security,” a raspy-voiced woman answered. “This is Connie.”

“Hi Connie, this is Professor Elle Graft. I’m trying to get into the Life Sciences building, but it’s all locked up. Could you possibly send someone over to let me in?”

“Have you tried using your campus ID?”

All of the campus buildings and even some of the inner doors were connected to card readers that eliminated the need for heavy key rings and bolstered campus security.

“I’m English faculty,” I said. “I don’t have access to this building.”

I expected her to ask why I needed to get into the science building, but the question never came. It was lucky because I didn’t have an appropriate answer.

“I’ll send someone right over, Professor.”

Time passed slowly as I stood outside of the Life Science building, waiting for campus security to show up and let me inside. I wondered how many more clues I would have to chase down before I found Hunter. All of these detours were beginning to frustrate me, but the giddy feelings reappeared when I saw the campus security vehicle pull up near the curb where I stood.

A man wearing the dark navy blue campus security uniform stepped out of the driver’s side. “Professor Graft?” he asked.

I nodded, confirming he’d found the right person. “Hello.”

A massive key ring was attached to his hip, and it jangled with each step closer. I wondered at the need for so many keys because of the new keycard system, but I kept the question to myself. If I didn’t question him, perhaps he wouldn’t question me.

“How’s your day going?” he greeted.

“Better now that you’re here,” I returned with a charming smile. “Thanks for the help.”

“It’s no problem. Around this time of year it’s nice to get calls. Breaks up the monotony of the days, ya know?” He swiped his card over the ID reader and the front door audibly unlocked. “Is that all you needed?”

“Yep,” I confirmed, pulling the entrance open before it automatically relocked. “Thanks again for your help.”

Although polite, I was curt and dismissive, and I wondered if he had directions to stay with me until I left the building, but I was sure he was anxious to return to the air conditioning of his running vehicle. “Okay. Well, call if you need us again.”

My sandals flip-flopped down the empty corridors of the abandoned building. I had to stop a few times to consult floor plans posted at intersecting hallways. I knew the building had greenhouses, but I didn’t know exactly where they were. The only time I had occasion to go inside the science building was for all-faculty meetings. The science building had the largest meeting space—a lecture hall reserved for the largest biology classes—but those meetings were rare—once a semester if that.

All of the classroom doors were closed and the lights were turned off inside them. Most of the overhead lights were on motion sensors and I walked in relative darkness down windowless hallways until the overhead lights flickered to life. It was eerie, more so than the silent library. I was used to the hushed whispers and quiet of the library, but buildings that held classes were always teeming with activity.

Before I could spook myself too much, one of the classroom doors opened and I found myself being tugged inside by the front of my shirt. The door shut behind me with a loud, jarring noise that echoed in my ears.

The room I’d been pulled into was a small laboratory classroom populated with nine long tables, two elevated stools assigned to each table. Lab stations equipped with natural gas outlets, Bunsen burners, beakers, and other glassware lined the perimeter of the classroom.

“This isn’t the greenhouse,” I astutely observed.

Hunter’s hands remained fisted in the front of my tank top. “There was one more clue for you, but I couldn’t wait.”

I took in the sight of my girlfriend from her leather sandals to the breezy cotton skirt that fell just above her knees to the spaghetti-strap camisole that showed off the dangerous v-cut of her defined collarbone.

“How did you get in here?” I asked. “The building’s locked.”

“I know people,” she grinned. The hands at the front of my shirt tightened and she pulled me closer to her.

I kissed her, soft and fleeting. Her lips parted for me to deepen the embrace, but I pulled away. “I liked your clues.”

“You didn’t think it was too cheesy?” she worried.

I ran my hands up her bare arms. “No. You’re adorable, Hunt.”

Hunter’s grin returned and she released her grip on the front of my shirt. “Are you ready for your prize now that you’ve found me?”

I licked my lips and lowered my voice to a rough rasp. “I’ve been ready since I found the first clue.”

Hunter maintained eye contact as she carefully walked backwards until her backside bumped against the edge of the nearest lab table. She set her palms flat on the table and lifted herself up to sit at its edge. She smoothed the material of her skirt beneath her and beckoned to me with a curling finger.

I obeyed her wordless request and stalked closer until I stood before her. “I understand the significance of the book and the garden and even the greenhouse, but is there something special about this classroom?”

“Not yet,” she smiled at me. “But ask me that question again in a little while.”

Her answer had me laughing. “Is this your plan?” I ran my hand down the center column of her neck, down her collarbone, and between her breasts. She arched her back and leaned into my touch. “Screw our way across campus?”

“Maybe.”

“That sounds like an awfully ambitious check list.”

“Luckily I have a girlfriend who turns me on with just a look.”

“I thought you had to work today.” Leave it to me to be practical at a moment like this.

“I switched shifts with Darcy.” Her breathing shallowed when my hands rounded her full breasts. “I also owe her a six-pack.”

I walked my fingers across the exposed skin at the top of her tank top. “Sounds like a good deal.”

“Too much talking.”

“I agree.”

Her smooth legs were too much to continue to ignore. My hands slid up the pale flesh, unobstructed by any clothing. “I love it when you wear skirts, baby,” I growled quietly, looking deep into her bright blue eyes.

My hands continued their journey up those irresistible stems, and I stopped when my fingertips brushed against where her underwear should have been. A quiet whimper fell from her parted mouth, and I smiled knowingly at the slight blush that crept onto her face. 

“You weren’t kidding,” I remarked. My fingers slid through her ready arousal. She was warm and swollen, and I couldn’t wait to taste her.

“About my underwear or about being turned on?”

“Both.” I leaned forward and pressed my mouth against the flushed skin of her bare neck.  “God, you’re wet,” I murmured into her. 

My mouth continued to travel, and I kissed along the hollow of her throat. She pulled off the elastic band that held my hair in a ponytail and ran her fingers through my wild waves, slightly tugging at the roots.  I bit her neck where it met the gentle decline of her shoulder. It wasn’t as hard as I would have liked, because I knew it upset her when I marked her for everyone to see. Apparently at nearly twenty-two, she was already too old for hickies.

I rubbed my hands along the insides of her smooth thighs and her legs parted a little more for me. With one hand at the nape of her neck and the other still under her skirt, I leaned her backwards, slowly reclining her until her back rested flush on the lab table. Thankful for the formidable size of the desk surface, I pulled myself up on the table as well.  I crawled on my knees and positioned myself between her legs, so our hips bumped against each other’s.

As I hovered over her, she lazily stroked my bare arms, the muscles twitching underneath my tank top.  “I love you, Ellio,” she crooned.  She reached for me and pulled my face down until we were kissing again.  It began as languid as her touch, but I knew the hunger that burned in both of our bellies.

I couldn’t help myself when my lower torso began to grind into her pussy. Hunter groaned when the rough denim of my cut-off shorts rubbed against her naked sex.  I thrust hard into her and she gasped, one long sweet breath rushing from her lungs. 

She wrapped those long, slender legs around me, forcing us tighter together. We pushed and pulled and ground against each other until I was breathing heavy and could feel the sweat pooling in the small of my back. The building was hot, but she was even hotter.

Needing to feel more of her, I slid a hand in between our bodies. I shoved the cotton material of her skirt out of the way, bunching it up around her slender waist.  She gasped again when my fingers slid through her slick folds. She arched into my touch, silently demanding to feel more of me as well.

My fingers found their way to her seeping hole, and I gathered her arousal, swirling my fingertips around the entrance of her sex.  Not wanting her clit to feel left out, I spread some of the thick juices on the throbbing bundle of nerves.

“Oh, God,” she moaned, her eyes rolling back.

I grunted as I pushed two fingers into her tight, unrelenting channel.  She was so tight around my fingers, it was a miracle I didn’t cum just from the feeling of her insides pulling at me.  “Hunter,” I whimpered.

I grabbed onto her hands with my unoccupied hand and held both of her arms above her head.  I pinned her wrists against the lab table, which felt cold and hard in comparison to the warm, soft body beneath me. I began a slow, even rhythm with my fingers. I could feel and hear her getting wetter with every thrust. The clicking noise in the classroom was music to my ears. I kept my gentle, but insistent hold on her wrists with my free hand. Our sweaty foreheads touched, and I pressed my lips against her open, gasping mouth. I could practically taste her as she groaned into me.