❖
"I said hush,” Jackie whispers as she pulls Steve further back into the secluded alcove with her, a mischievous smile on her lips as she backs him up against a bookcase. ”You’re louder than you think you are, and we certainly wouldn’t want my father to find us here, now would we?”
Steve’s eyes are wide, a startled expression on his face as she pulls him into the very private little nook — but he makes no move to escape, and after a moment his hands slide around her waist, settling comfortable on her back. They’d been flirting for the better part of the past hour, and while he’d been enjoying the experience quite thoroughly for what it was he hadn’t anticipated her actually taking things that one step further. At all.
"The lord of the manor stumbling across us is pretty much the last thing I want right now," he replies, and she laughs, shaking her head a bit at his phrasing.
There might be the hard spines of ancient and probably expensive tomes poking into his back; there might be a clear and present danger of their being discovered at any moment, by any number of interested parties up to and including the young lady’s well-armed and very deadly father — but Steve doesn’t care. When she smiles and tilts her head up to him he leans down and kisses her, a soft and sweet kiss that Jackie allows to linger for a long and lovely moment.
When she finally ends the kiss, there’s a small smile on her lips and a gentle note in her voice. ”My good Captain,” she murmurs, pulling back a bit to look up at him, her fingers toying with the soft hair at the nape of his neck. ”Might I have permission to speak plainly?”
Steve’s brow furrows a bit, but he nods. ”You — you do.”
"You’ve not had a lot of experience with women, have you?"
"I — no. I’m sorry —"
Steve’s shoulders hunch a bit, and he instinctively starts to pull back, but she steps forward, pressing herself flush against him to prevent him from trying to slip away.
"Don’t apologize," she says softly, giving him a little squeeze that sends a pleasant thrill shooting through his body. "It certainly wasn’t a terrible kiss, don’t be mistaken. Just — a bit green. But, everyone has to start somewhere. So —" she pushes up on her tiptoes, and his arms tighten around her waist in response. "Let’s start here. Before I let you out of my sight tonight, Captain Rogers, you’ll know every last thing I’ve ever learned about the fine art of kissing. Does this meet with your approval?"
"Yes, ma’am — it damn well does," he murmurs, and even though he knows this is a one-time deal — knows it because what else could it be, with the War on and her the daughter of one of his closet and most trusted friends — there’s a little flutter in his heart at the wicked smile she gives him.
"Good. Then pay attention, Captain — school’s in."
