She slid into the car, pulling her legs out of the way as he closed the door after her. The car hummed with the silent engine and the cool air made her shiver slightly but allowed the breeze to loose the hairs stuck to her neck. Anna buckled her seatbelt with fumbling fingers as John entered the car and followed her example.

He waited a moment before speaking and turned to her. "Do you want me to drive you home?"

"No," She shook her head, "My car's on campus."

"Were you going back to it after your date?"

"That's how Alex and I usually did it." Anna sighed, "Won't be happening like that anymore."

"Is it wrong of me to assume you're in my car and not his right now because of me?"

"You're the inciting incident, John, not the cause." Anna propped her elbow on the door and rested her forehead in her palm. "Could you drive me back? I don't think I've got the energy to unravel what just happened."

"Sure."

They rode in silence, John following Anna's instructions to the faculty parking lot. He pulled his car into the space next to hers and left it running as he put a hand on her shoulder to stop her getting out of the car. "Please, Anna, don't shut me out. If this is my fault then I want to do what I can to fix it."

"You'd have to stop existing for that to happen and, even then, I don't think it'd do any good." Anna covered his hand with hers. "What happened tonight was no more your fault than your intention. Frankly it was a long time coming… I just needed a strength to finally admit something to myself and to him that I hadn't."

"May I ask what that was?"

Anna stared at him a moment, taking a deep breath, "That I didn't love him. That I could never love him when my heart's still twisted in knots over you."

His breath caught, "Anna?"

"I told you earlier." Anna pointed toward the building. "That you could go to the moon, and have no hope of ever coming back, and there wouldn't be a day you'd be out of my thoughts."

"But after what I did…"

"Just because I don't forgive you yet or trust you entirely doesn't mean I don't love you." Anna brought a hand up to caress his face. "I think I loved you from the first moment I saw you and I couldn't do anything but fall for you."

His fingers slip over hers, "I felt the same."

"Then, maybe," Anna smiled at him, "We could give it another go?"

"I'm yours to command." John's eyes teared slightly as he attempted a smile of his own. "I know that I don't deserve you or a second chance so whatever you're willing to give me I'll gladly offer you. Without reservation and without hesitation."

"Then let's start with a first date then." Anna put her hand on the door, "You can take me somewhere for a first date and we can work our way forward again."

"Like we don't know each other as well as we do?"

"Like we're high schools tripping over themselves to fall in love."

John frowned, "Not sure I like the idea of myself back in secondary school. Those weren't my best years."

"Aright then," Anna giggled, "Or like my eight a.m. lecture students trying so desperately to stay awake and learn how to judge the limit when they've already reached theirs."

"I know I reached mine when I left you." He sighed, "But I got my head so far up my own ass that-"

"Hey," Anna placed a finger over his lips, "We're moving forward, not back. What happened, happened and while I'm not yet ready to forgive you for it I'm not going to hold it against you. It's not a weapon to be used against you at my convenience."

"Then what is it?"

"A learning experience." Anna drew back, "One we'll learn never to do again."

"I can do that." John paused as Anna went to get out of the car, "There's something I wanted to tell you earlier, before Green interrupted."

"What?"

"Part of the decision, for the company to move forward, is to hire someone from the area to be manager of the Midwestern region."

"Oh?" Anna grimaced, "It wasn't part of the package that got Vera off your back was it?"

"Oh, heavens no." John shuddered, "She's out of the company with an ironclad set of preventative measures to keep her as far away from it as humanly possibly without sending her to the moon."

"Good because I don't want that toxic waste of space near my town."

"That's the thing." John let his face break into a grin, "My team agreed that you'd be the best option to lead the division."

"Me?"

"You're the one who showed me the best sights, guided the design decisions, and made it so we've won over the city council with our plans." John opened a hand to her, "If you want the position it's yours."

"I'm not nearly qualified to do that. I studied English and Maths, not business."

"You're smart, capable, and more than qualified to help us guide the company where it needs to go in this area."

Anna blew out the air staling in her lungs, "I'd have to think about it."

"I completely agree." John winced, "I'm sorry I sprung this on you."

"No, it's not that." Anna waved a hand with a shrug, "It's just that I only started this job six months ago and while I'm still in trial period they do want to offer me a longer contract with a chance at tenure within the next few years."

"Is that what you want?"

"I don't know." Anna gave a nervous laugh. "I think I could spend the rest of my life knowing what I want."

"Really?"

"Well," She winked at him, "Professionally, anyway."

"Glad to hear it." John went for his door. "Let me get your door for you."

He opened her door and closed it before escorting her the few feet to her car. Once she unlocked the doors, he opened this one as well, waiting until she settled before closing it. Anna rolled down her window to look at him.

"I'm glad you came back John. More than I can even say."

"Then know that I feel the same elation." He snagged her hand, to kiss the back of it. "Until tomorrow evening Anna."

"Until then, John."

She pulled at the skirt, cursing herself for the choice and wishing she had grabbed something that showed a little less leg. But when she caught sight of John, walking toward her with his jaw agape, Anna complimented the skirt. He stopped in front of her, swallowing with an audible sound, and tried to find the words to even form sentences.

Anna stuck out her hand to him, "I'm Anna, Anna Smith, Maths professor at Ohio University."

"John," He stumbled forward, taking her hand, "John Bates. I'm an industrialist entrepreneur."

"And what exactly does an industrialist entrepreneur do in an area like this?" Anna opened her hands to the small town street around them, "There's not much here to industrialize."

"I disagree." He puffed out his chest, acting affronted, "There's plenty here to work on and enjoy."

"Are you coming here to save our little town, Mr. Bates?"

"I think I'm here to remind everyone why this town is worth saving, Ms. Smith." He offered her his arm, "I do hope you enjoy a good period piece because I believe that was the only movie playing in this theater."

"I do rather." She took his arm, "Old fashioned love only conveyed through longing glances and suggestion. So romantic."

"Then I made a good choice."

John led them inside and found seats near the back. The theater itself did not have many viewing the movie but since it was a week from release on DVD Anna found she enjoyed the quiet. They settled close to one another and even allowed a few minutes of the movie to pass before John leaned his mouth to her ear.

"I hope you don't mind the impertinence but I'm having flashbacks to the first time we watched a movie together."

Anna's breath hitched and she forced herself to stare at the screen. "Are you now?"

"I am."

"How could you since this is the first movie we've ever seen together?" Anna teased, biting her lip to keep her face breaking the impassivity there."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I think I confused you for someone else then." John let a whisper of a kiss land near her ear. "Please forgive me."

Anna almost gave a flippant answer before realizing the possible deeper meaning there. She turned to him, the glow of the screen leaving his face in alternating shadows. "I want to, desperately. I just don't know if I can yet."

"When you can," He pulled her hand to his mouth, laying a kiss there, "Know that I'll receive it with the humblest of gratitude."

They settled back to watch the movie but Anna could not get the thoughts of their first time watching a movie in her basement out of her mind. Or, if she was bing honest, not watching a movie. From the quick glance she snuck to John she thought his slightly labored breathing and the way he shifted his hips meant he thought the same.

Grinning to herself, and grateful the screen darkened for a night scene, she slipped her hand from his grip and rested it ever-so-gently on his knee. John barely jerked under her and Anna risked her fingers in drawing circles through the fabric of his dress trousers. His leg twitched and Anna ran her fingers higher.

When she felt particularly bold she trailed her fingers over the tented fabric of his trousers and left the lightest of grazes over him. John snorted, an attempt to hide the gasping breath he heaved into his lungs, and Anna bit back her grin. Her ministrations had him straining against the confines of the fabric and even left his knuckles white enough to see in the dark of the theater.

He leaned his mouth to her ear again, voice thick and gravelly as he attempted to maintain his composure. "And what will you do, Ms. Smith, when we're caught for public indecency?"

"They'd have to catch us and since I don't plan on leaving here until the movie's over and they don't have cameras in here I don't see that as a likely scenario. Moreover," Her fingers flipped the catch on his belt and pulled his zipper down slowly, "If you can stay quiet then no one'll even know."

She turned her lips to his ear, leaving a kiss there, "Can you stay quiet John?"

He nodded, skin moving against her lips, and she gave another kiss. "Good. Then I'll continue shall I?"

"No," Anna barely had time to comprehend the negative before John flipped the armrest between them up and slid her over to sit on his lap to face the screen. "I think it's my turn now."

Anna grabbed at the armrest on his other side as John's fingers trailed up and down her exposed thighs, slipping under the fabric of her skirt to brush near her hips. Her other hand covered her mouth as her eyes closed. The movie played in flashes over her eyelids but all she could see was John raising his hips ever so slightly to brush the thinly covered erection he sported against the fabric of the skirt that barely covered her while his fingers teased ever closer.

She forced her eyes open, pushing her back to his chest, and gritted her teeth against the sensations he drove through her until her hand covered her mouth again when he ran a finger over the fabric of her knickers. They were not especially attractive but since his eyes were focused on the screen ahead of them it hardly mattered. And when he used them to drag the fabric over her sensitive nerves Anna was not entirely sure it mattered what they were made of. They did the job and right now their job almost had her biting her own hand.

Shifting over him, Anna angled to catch his fingers in the fabric and pull it away enough to slide one of his fingers where she needed him most. She felt his teeth sink into her shoulder when his fingers worked around the fabric of her knickers to pull and stroke over her. John's moan muffled in her shoulder and shirt but only barely. And she struggled to keep her own keening whimpers to small gasps timed with romantic moments on the screen before her when his other hand slipped under the fabric of her shirt to knead at her breasts through her bra.

John's hips bucked into her and Anna flipped the other armrest up to rest her knees on the fold down seats on either side of them. His fingers left their work at her damp folds and gripped up at her hip to position her over him. They timed it with a swell of music when the leads finally kissed and Anna sunk down.

At that moment, with her thoughts hazy and eyes failing to focus on anything, Anna realized she would risk jail for this. The chances of getting off with a warning were slimmer now that John buried himself to the hilt inside with every rotation of her hips and drive of his. But even if they spent a night in jail Anna thought each rise and fall of her own pleasure worth the small cell and smelly cot she imagined.

John's hand abandoned her breasts and returned to take the place on her hip while his other fingers took over their former occupation. She gyrated and writhed shamelessly toward his fingers and clamped her fingers over her nose while biting into her mouth when she tumbled over the edge. He followed soon after, biting into the marks on her shoulder as his body stuttered to completion.

They sat there, chests heaving, and Anna thanked whatever composers decided this particular movie needed such a rousing score. Her head tipped back to his shoulder and John's lips moved over her neck to reach her each. Shivers ran down her spine as he whispered to her.

"I won't take this as forgiveness, Ms. Smith, but I'm going to assume I'm on the right path to get it."

"Most definitely Mr. Bates." Anna turned to kiss him for the first time in such a long time. "Most definitely."