On His Knees by Tabatha Kiss
Chapter 39
Jenna
What the hell was I smoking when I made my schedule this semester? Three lectures on Monday mornings?
Past Jenna was a real bitch.
Though, Present Jenna’s decisions as of late haven’t been the smartest either.
I quickly climb out of my car in the driveway, grabbing my backpack and keys as I move. If I linger in this space for too long, then my mind wanders to places I don’t want it to be.
Don’t talk.
Just moan.
Nope. Stop that.
I target my thoughts elsewhere. I still have a bit of energy left in me, so an afternoon run sounds pretty good right about now.
I close the door behind me, my eyes instantly wandering into the kitchen toward the table.
Nope. Stop—
You’re right. I should stop—
Don’t you fucking dare.
I spin away and bolt down the hall toward my room instead. I shove the door open wide and drop my backpack on the floor with a heavy thump.
I can’t get him out of my head.
I can’t—
The back door opens and closes.
I freeze as feet shuffle along the kitchen floor.
Heidi’s on campus. I saw her a few minutes before I came home, which means...
I tense up.
There’s someone else in the house.
Another noise down the hall snaps me to attention.
Oh, god. Oh, god.
I rush toward my closet. I reach inside and snatch my umbrella from the corner as the floorboards creak just a few feet down from my doorway. They’re coming this way. Toward my room. Toward me.
I hold the umbrella over my head, armed and ready to leap out and take them by surprise.
I hop out into the hallway, ready to strike.
Seth startles backward, his hands and T-shirt caked with dirt and grime.
I scream. He screams.
“Dammit, Seth!”I lower the umbrella, relieved but still very annoyed. “What are you doing here?!”
“Getting the shit scared out of me, apparently!”
“Out of you?” I place a hand over my pounding heart. “Why are you in my house?!”
“Relax,” he says, eying the umbrella in my hand. “Heidi said I could swing by.”
“Well, I didn’t.” I retreat to my room. “Get out.”
“Wow…” He follows me to my doorway. “Someone’s feisty today.”
“I am not feisty. I’m just not in the mood for your shit right now.”
He purses his lips. “Feisty.”
“Piss off.”
“No, I like it. Keep it up.”
“Said no woman ever.”
He laughs. “That’s my girl.”
“Your what?”
“Speaking of, I think we should talk about the other night.”
“No, we shouldn’t,” I say, glaring harder. “I have nothing to say to you. And do not call me your girl. That is not a thing.”
Seth smiles. “I think—”
“I don’t care.”
“—that we—”
“Nope.”
He stops. “What part of this isn’t feisty?”
I exhale hard through the nose. “Why are you even here again?”
He takes a short step back into the hall. “Come with me,” he says. “I’ve got something to show you.”
He walks off down the hall to the kitchen.
“Seth,” I say with annoyance.
“Jenna.”
“Seth.”
“Jenna.”
I groan to myself before following his trail, far too curious. I find him waiting for me at the open back door with that dumb smirk on his face.
“Okay. I’m here. What is it?” I ask.
He steps outside. “Come on...”
“Seth.”
“Little farther…”
“Just tell me—”
“Come on.”
I stomp forward, watching my step as I walk outside.
Seth enters the basement, his shoes thumping down the old stairs.
Ugh.
I stop in the doorway as he reaches the bottom. The lights are on down below, but his shadow quickly disappears as his steps echo on the old concrete floor.
“Seth…”
“Come here.”
“I’m not going down there! Unfinished basements look like crime scenes.”
“Then, you don’t get to see what I did.”
I squint. “What did you do?”
He says nothing.
I sigh.
As I slowly descend the stairs, I keep my arms wrapped around me for an extra shield of protection against spiders. And Seth.
But mostly spiders.
And Seth.
I reach the bottom, spotting the old, broken dryer in the corner next to the washer. It’s been pulled out from the wall with an open toolbag sitting on top of it.
Seth shifts around behind it with a flashlight in one hand. He kneels, getting closer, and I instinctively shiver as I think of what else could crawl around back there.
“Okay, I’m here,” I say. “What is it?”
“Just... one... last...” He does… something and then steps out from behind it. “There. Should be all good now.”
“What should?”
He gestures at the machine.
“The dryer?” I ask.
He nods as he tosses his flashlight into the toolbag. “It’s good to go.”
“Good to go?”
“Yes.”
“Go as in… fixed?”
“Yes.”
“You fixed the dryer?”
“I checked it out when I was staying here,” he says. “Long story short, broken part. Ordered it from the manufacturer. Put it in.”
I gawk at him. “You actually fixed it?”
“I had to watch, like... three hours of YouTube videos to figure it out, but yeah.” He smiles. “Give it a try.”
I step forward. I spin the knob and hover a hand over it, pausing for a moment before pushing it in. The machine starts up and gently rocks in place. Haven’t seen it do that in… a while.
“Okay,” I say. “It’s working.”
“It’s working.”
“You... fixed it.”
“I fixed it.”
I furrow my brow, suspicious. “Why?”
He shrugs. “Drew told me it had been out of commission for a while, and I enjoy tinkering with stuff like this. I used to work summers in our uncle’s shop. Got pretty good at it.”
I stare at the dryer. Still working. “Well, thanks,” I say. “I’m sure Heidi will really appreciate this.”
Seth glances at me. “And you?”
“Well, I’ve kinda gotten used to my weekly trip to the laundromat, so...”
“Ah, I see.”
“I think I might continue doing that. But thanks, though. Real kind of you.”
“You’re not gonna use it out of spite, aren’t you?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
“All right,” he says with a smile. “Can’t be helped, I guess.”
“Well, if that’s it,” I step back, eager to get out of this basement, “I’m going to go back upstairs.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No.”
Seth grabs my arm, yanking me back to him.
“Seth, what—”
He hoists me up and sets me down on the dryer as if I weighed nothing at all. I gasp in surprise as heat rushes through my body. And that’s not just because the dryer has heated.
The dryer.
The basement.
This dirty, old corner.
“Ew, Seth—” I say, cringing. “No, no, no. It’s all dusty and gross—”
He silences me with a kiss. Slow and firm.
After a moment, he stops and looks at me, his lips lingering next to mine. “Jenna,” he whispers. “Come to my place tonight.”
“I’ll go anywhere you want if you get me off this damn dryer.”
“Jenna…” He smirks. “I’m serious.”
“Me, too.”
He exhales, but he doesn’t let me go. “Come to my place tonight.”
I swallow hard, focusing on his eyes instead. “No.”
“Come over. We’ll hang out.”
A warm shudder rushes up my back, then plummets right back down again. “What’s your game this time, Seth?” I ask.
“There’s no game.”
“Liar.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Said the liar.”
“Look me in the eye and tell me I’m lying when I say I want you,” he says.
I study him. No lie detected.
“Why are you doing this, Seth?” I ask.
“Well…” He nuzzles my hair back behind my ear. “You’re hot, you’re available, and I’m bored.”
I deflate. “You sure know exactly what to say to make a lady feel special.”
“Be honest, Fancy,” he says. “Our brief moments together have been the most fun you’ve had in a while, haven’t they?”
“Not really. Especially considering the moments immediately following those moments featured me filled with horror and regret for ever letting you touch me in the first place.”
“I’m—”
“Sorry?”I complete. “You know, it sounds less genuine every time you say it.”
“You’re right,” he says. “I’ve said that a lot lately.”
I nod.
“But I never lied to you.”
“Bullshit.”
“No, I mean it. All those things I said to you the other night were true.” He puts his hands on my knees. “How I wanted to rip you open and—”
“Seth, stop.”
“Why? Because you like it?” He smirks. “Because you’ll want more?”
I don’t answer.
“You know, I realized something,” he says. “Something about you and me... and us.”
He waits for me to acknowledge.
“What?” I say, reluctantly eager for more.
He runs a finger along the crevice of my legs, but I keep my thighs pinched tightly together as he leans in close to whisper. “I really, really like pissing you off.”
I scoff. “Oh, I’ve noticed.”
“No, you...” He pauses, his breath quickening. “You don’t get it. I... really like it.” He gently strokes my cheek. “You smacking me was one of the hottest moments of my life.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it, too.”
“Well, I didn’t not enjoy it, but I wouldn’t say it turned me on.”
His gaze lingers on my lips. “Are you sure about that?”
I quiver, but I don’t know why. He slides another finger down my legs, wanting me to open them, but I somehow keep them together.
“Jenna,”he says, his eyes smiling. “You said you’d give me what I wanted.”
“Um...” I squint. “I’m pretty sure you already got what you wanted.”
“You think a quick fuck on the seat of my truck was all I wanted?” He shakes his head once, his eyes never straying from mine. “I want so much more of you.”
His lips graze my chin. My eyes flutter closed as that sweet shiver returns. This time, his smooth touch pries my knees apart. The machine’s vibrations rumble beneath me, creating an intense throb that I can’t ignore.
Seth places himself between my open thighs. I gasp, our lips so close to touching as he curls an arm around my back to hold me in place.
I lean back an inch. “Seth?”
“Jenna?”
“Were you really going to take home another girl from Pajama Night?” I ask, sounding weak, but I have to know what he was thinking.
“No,” he says. “I just wanted to see you sweat.”
He kisses me, preventing me from saying anything more. His strong hand slides up my back and I can’t help but let him pull us even harder together. Bodies flush and tongues entwined. We embrace as easy as most people breathe.
Seth cups my face with his other hand, a touch far gentler than the rigid one on my spine. He breaks the kiss, pulling back a mere inch to look at me. His eyes, gold and wild, bore deep within me as if he can read my mind. As his lip curls, I know he can.
He knows I want to kiss him back.
Fuck it.
I kiss him as an even greater vibration rocks my core from the inside... no, wait. That’s definitely on the outside.
That’s the dryer.
Seth grabs me by the waist and pulls me off as the dryer lurches left and right. He swings us around and sets me down, placing himself between me and the violent mechanical smashing of the dryer slamming against the wall.
“Oh, shit,” I say.
Seth rushes to turn it off as a spray of sparks flashes from behind it. I hop backward, covering my mouth as I watch Seth heroically slapping the off button.
The dryer comes to a stop. I step back, my nose recoiling from a new, potent smell of smoke in the air.
Seth glares at it with his hands on his hips.
After a moment of safety, my lips twitch. “So, you fixed it, huh?” I ask.
He looks back at me, his eyes narrow and full of sex. “Don’t you—”
“Seth?”Heidi calls out from the top of the stairs. “Are you down there?”
I straighten up, quickly checking my disheveled appearance.
“Yeah, Heidi,” he says. “It’s me.”
I pat the dust off my ass before she arrives.
“What was that?” she asks. “I could hear it from my car in the driveway.”
“Nothing. Just a snag, that’s all.”
I smother the laugh in my throat. “Yeah. A snag.”
Heidi stops at bottom of the stairs. “Oh. Hey, Jenna.”
“Sup?” I say dryly. “Seth broke the dryer.”
“I did not break the dryer,” he argues.
“Looks broken to me.”
“It was broken before this.”
“Well, it wasn’t smoking before.”
He glares at me. Still narrow. Still full of sex.
“Don’t worry about it,” Heidi says, not noticing us clearly eye-fucking each other. “We’ll just leave it for the landlord to figure out… whenever he gets around to it.”
“Yeah,” Seth says, bowing his head. “Sorry I couldn’t fix it for you, little sister.”
She waves a hand, dispelling the smoke in front of her face. “Hey, it’s cool that you even tried. You staying for lunch? I brought pizza.”
“Sure,” he says. “I could eat.”
“Jenna?” she asks as she hops back up the stairs.
“Uh...” I pause, my lips still numb and raw. I look at Seth as he gives me one more long, lingering gaze that rattles my knees. “No,” I say, stepping back to follow her up. “I’ve got to get back to campus. I have a lab.”
Seth looks down. “Sweet,” he says behind me. “More for us.”
I don’t reply to it.
I just get as far away from Seth Newbury as possible.