Page 23 of When the Walls Come Down
“I have a friend at work who keeps telling me to watch it.” But at the moment, the only thing I wanted to watch was her, casually sitting at my island, sipping wine, and lazily tracing the veins in the marble with her finger. Lucky fucking stone.
Just as she was asking, “What do you do for wor—” all hell broke loose.
The spaghetti water boiled over.
“Fuck!” I swore as I turned the flame down and tugged a dish towel from the drawer behind me. I had to pay more attention to what I was doing or my pretend dinner for one would easily become dinner for none.
“Put a wooden spoon across the pot,” she said. “I saw it on one of those life hack videos. I’m not sure if there’s any science to it, but it always works for me.”
After digging through another drawer, I grabbed a wooden spoon and did what she’d suggested just as the timer went off on the bread. Then, to make sure I wasn’t neglecting it, I gave the sauce a stir and read my instruction card.
Don’t freak when everything happens all at once.
I inwardly rolled my eyes. Thanks, Blake.
Out of my periphery, I saw her lean in and take a deep inhale.
“You know what? This smells amazing. Think you have enough to share?”
The card said to put a splash of water in with the noodles and I did as instructed while asking playfully, “Now who’s seducing who?”
She blinked slowly, and a completely new smile I hadn’t seen in all the time we’d spent together over the past two days pulled at the corner of her tempting mouth. “It pains me to admit this, big guy. But I think you are seducing me.” Her cheeks flushed, and she licked her lips before taking another drink.
That was good.
I was doing well.
I just had to not fuck anything up by ruining dinner or moving too fast or setting the place on fire. It was a lot for a guy who spent most of his time alone, but she was well worth the challenges.
I held up two fingers. “Two things, just really quick before I finish this up.” I poured more wine into her glass and topped mine off too. Then I rounded the island.
She sat up straight as I neared and the tension between us crackled.
We’d touched constantly on our date earlier, but since I’d been making dinner, I hadn’t had a chance to and that was about to change.
She spun on the stool, and I stepped closer. My fucking chest pounded so loudly that I could actually hear it pumping in my ears.
“Number one,” I began as I came to her legs, which she parted for me to stand between. “Don’t call me big guy. I was fat, remember?”
She laughed, low in her throat. A wonderfully joyful sound. “And two?” she asked.
“And two. With the whole seducing you thing. How’s a guy doing?”
Her head tipped up toward mine. “Better than expected,” she whispered, and her lids fell shut.
Kiss her, you fucking idiot.
The timing felt right, everything felt right, but there was no fucking way I was about to rush our first kiss.
That and—as fucked up as it was—I was worried I’d disappoint her. Yeah, I was in my thirties, but I’d only been with three women. Total. Two of them were only once, and the other was well…my life-sucking, fuck-with-the-lights-off, one-blow-job-in-four-years, lying, cheating ex-wife.
What if I wasn’t good enough? What if this was too soon? What if I made the move and then it all came to a screeching halt?
Was it worth the risk for just a quick, nothing-to-write-home-about, rushed kiss?
This date meant a lot to me. It was the fresh start I hadn’t even realized I’d needed. I didn’t want to push things with Maggie. I wanted to do this the right way, at the right time. In fact, I would have been fine with time just slowing the fuck down for an hour or two.
But for the sake of my ego and masculinity, we’ll focus more on the fact that I literally had a timer set to go off at any second.
However, I wasn’t the kind of guy to tease a woman. I was right there, so close, and she was waiting for me to make a move.
So I did.
My lips met the warm skin on the shoulder that had taunted me all day. She smelled faintly like perfume or something sweet, yet spicy too. What started as a peck to a mostly innocent part of her body, quickly turned into more when she sighed beside my ear.
That sound alone was the only reminder I needed that I’d only want more if I kept going. Still, I couldn’t stop but compromised by taking a little more, going a little further. I kissed and licked and savored my way across her clavicle, and then I slowed to a stop before I burned my apartment down.
