Chapter 2 Comparing Notes

Jemma felt her heart flip a little. "Would you mind repeating that." She heard herself saying.

His smile was indulgent and beautiful. "Steve Rogers. You might have heard of me." He was smiling at her like he found her the cutest little thing. She should have found it insulting but from him it made her feel warm inside, like they were sharing an inside joke.

"Not a scientist then?" Stupid girl, she chided herself. She was meeting her soulmate and now she was asking stupid questions. She wished for a reset button for her brain.

Steve chuckled. "No, Ma'am, but I like to keep up with the latest research, make sure no one is getting ready to create an army of me's without my moral code or sense of right or wrong." Jemma couldn't help the chuckle that bubbled to the surface. She relaxed marginally.

"You're quite charming." She blurted, then covered her mouth. "I'm sorry," she apologized, dropping her hand. "It seems my speech is the last eloquent thing you're going to hear me say. I seem to have lost my brain."

"It's Ok," Steve assured her. "I seem to have lost mine a little too." His confession helped though she didn't notice him becoming tongue tied. "We're gathering an audience." Steve glanced toward the door where a few curious students were starting to trickle in for the next lecture. "Maybe I could take you for a cup of coffee and we could get to know each other a little better?" The hopeful look in his eyes made her insides warm and she felt a little more at ease.

"I really shouldn't leave the campus. Fitz, he's my best friend, or at least he was until Ward tried to kills us, but be that as it may, he is just starting to depend on me. He's got my number if he starts to have any troubles. I shouldn't leave." She really wanted to, but she and Fitz were just beginning to rebuild their friendship. She wasn't about to be leave the campus incase he'd need her.

An idea sprang to mind. "I did notice that there are a couple of the lecture halls being refurbished. We could perhaps go to one of those and talk." Did she really just suggest Steve Rogers take her someplace more private? She hadn't meant it to be so forward.

Steve's eyes widened slightly. "I'd like that." He agreed, turning to offer her his arm. The gesture was such an old fashion one, it made her smile. She took his arm and followed him out into the hall.

Steve led Jemma to a row of seating toward the back of the empty lecture hall. The hall was in the middle of having its well worn wall paper removed, but for the moment there were no workmen around. He'd been a little surprised that the young scientist had suggested they go someplace so private, but considering they were soulmates, it was good she trusted him. She was so beautiful.

"You're friend Fitz, who tried to kill the both of you." He hadn't meant to lead with that, but the thought that someone tried to take this amazing woman, the other half of his soul from him before he'd even had a chance to meet her was unthinkable. He wanted to know who and why. If the culprit wasn't already dead or in custody, he'd make sure that happened.

Jemma's eyes had gone wide. "I don't think I can say," she told him hesitantly. "I don't want to keep anything from you, but I'm simply not at liberty to talk about it."

"Ah, yes you said you were a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent." Steve smiled. He was sure her clearance level was below his but he didn't like that he was making her so nervous. Not the way he wanted his first meeting to go. She seemed so young. He reached for something to put her at ease.

"Would you mind removing your hat," Jemma asked, surprising him. "You have such a lovely face. I'd like to be able to see you clearly." Steve could feel his face heating as he hastily pulled his hat from his head and set it in the chair next to them.

"I'm sorry, my Ma would have tanned my hide for sitting down with a lady without removing my hat. I guess I'm just a little nervous." Jemma smiled and laid a small hand against his forearm where it lay between them. Her touch sent shockwaves through is body. Very few people that weren't trying to kill him touched him.

"Did you give your mother much reason to scold you when you were young?" Jemma asked. "You seem so polite, its hard to imagine you being a ruffian." She was smiling as she let her hand trail down his. He filled his hand over and laced her fingers with his much larger ones.

"I ended up in alota fights," he told her sheepishly. "My ma was always patching me up and telling me to stay outa trouble." Jemma lit up with a huge smile. "What?" he couldn't help asking."

"When you talk about your mother you have such an accent. Its quite cute." She told him shyly.

"I wasn't so cute back then." He admitted. "I was sickly and small. You probably wouldn't have noticed me."

"I've seen your file when I was trying to help a man that had been exposed to Centepede. You were quite adorable. I would have noticed you Steven Rogers." He believed her. Before he knew what he was about to do himself, Steve used the hand that wasn't laced with Jemma's and cupped her cheek. He slowly leaned in, giving her time to pull away if she wasn't ready. Hesitating a hair's breadth from her lips, Steve was reassured when Jemma closed her eyes and tilted slight up to him. The first touch of his lips to hers pulled a small moan from her.

Steve slid his hand into her hair and gently held her in place. He was fighting his body. He wanted to dive in and lose himself in this perfect woman. This other half of him that fate had chosen to gift him with, but he didn't want to frighten her or disrespect her.

Sliding his lips along hers, he licked lightly at her soft mouth asking permission to taste her more fully. Jemma moaned and opened to him, her small hand fisting in his t-shirt, pulling him closer. When her tongue met his, dueling as she melted into him, Steve's good intentions went out the window. He released her hand and used both of his to angle her head just right.

Jemma was making tiny little whimpering noises in the back of her through as he learned her taste, her feel. A tiny voice in the back of his head that sounded a bit like a combination of his Ma and Bucky reminded him that he'd barely met Jemma and that he needed to protect her. With great effort he pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. They were both panting making it difficult for him to find his voice.

"I'm sorry Jemma," he told her. "I didn't mean to get carried away and take advantage…"

"Silly man," she interrupted, shocking him when she fisted both of her tiny hands in his hair and pulled him back down to her. He wasn't ready for her to suck his bottom lip between her small white teeth and nip at him. Jemma looked so innocent. The combination of shy aggression and innocence with a sprinkling of her sexy English accent was his undoing. Steve couldn't contain the growl that erupted from deep in his chest as he quickly deepened the kiss at the same time his hands slipped to her tiny waist. He easily picked her up and set her across his lap. The arm rest between the two seats had been getting in his way, now he was able to rest an arm across it and support his girl's back.

Jemma was making those little whimpering sounds again that sent shock waves right through Steve's body. Pulling her across his lap might not have been his best idea he decided when she squirmed closer to him, dragging her soft ass across his painfully hard erection.

"Jemma, I had to ping your phone to find you, Agent Coulson has been trying to get us…" Steve broke the kiss and turned toward the new voice and the young owner of it whose eyes had gone as wide as saucers. "Why ever are you on that man's lap."

Jemma had turned about 10 shades of red in a matter of moments. That all registered with Steve, but his mind was stuck on one thing. "Agent Coulson?" he questioned. "Phil Coulson died in the battle of New York?" He turned questioning eyes on Jemma. "I'm guessing this is your partner Fitz, is he talking about Phil Coulson?" Jemma's wide eyes as she tried to stand up from his lap. Steve's hands were still at her waist. He held her steady.

"You don't have to answer me Jemma. I can see it in your eyes." He told her, almost feeling bad for the stricken look on her face. "Phil Coulson is dead. If there is someone pretending to be him then I'll be damned if I will let my soulmate walk into that alone."

"But it's…" Fitz was struggling for a word. He looked at Jemma with wide eyes as Steve released her and she came to her feet.

"Classified," Jemma finished for him, her voice low. "Steve, there are things you don't understand."

"I'm a level 8 Agent, Jemma, same S.H.I.E.L.D. as you. Take me to Coulson. That's an order, Agent."