“Mmm. I feel like that was supposed to gross me out,” I snicker. “But mostly, I’m imagining your chest glistening under the sun.”
“Whatever turns you on.” Luke’s hand is larger than my butt cheek. His erection digs into my skin. But with one last, firm squeeze on my ass, he sighs and presses a kiss to my lips. “Come on. I promised dinner, not a fast fuck.”
“Oh… well…” I smile when his eyes come to mine. “That’s disappointing.”
He stands from my bed, lifting me as he goes, only to set me on my feet and press a long, close-mouthed kiss on my lips. Pulling back, he stands over me and grins. “We’ll do the fast fucking thing later. But for right now, we’re doing the dating thing. Gotta get the horse before the cart and all that.”
“Am I the horse, or the cart?”
He presses another kiss to my lips. Then one to the tip of my nose. “You’re the princess riding in the carriage. Come on, before I change my mind and decide to order room service.”
He takes my hand and leads me toward the door without giving me time to grab anything but my room key. No purse. No phone. And though I know I could dash back to where I left them by the sink, I choose not to. I choose to keep my hands empty, and instead dive head-first into this wonderful new adventure called dating.
I’ve done it in the past, of course. But this time feels a little different. Though, the reasons for why this is different are terrifying.
Luke leads us out of my room and into the hall, and just moments after the door swings shut, we descend the staircase and head toward the lobby. “I saw your friend on the way in.”
“Hmm?” In a daze, and thinking about the pulse between my legs, it takes me a minute longer to catch on to Luke’s words. “What friend?”
“Jason.” Luke says the name with a growl in the back of his throat. “He was down here when I walked in. Honestly, it pissed me off, and then it pissed me off that I was mad about it.” He leads me off the stairs and onto the bottom-floor landing, then we’re gliding toward the front door. “But then I remembered that I wasn’t gonna get pissy about that. So here we are, I gave you full disclosure, and now we’re heading outside together.” He opens the front doors and leads me out into the twilight. “And because you’re holding my hand,” he lifts our hands and shows us the way our fingers twine together, “means I’m doing pretty fucking good, so I literally have no reason to be mad.”
“But, wait…” I stop at the side of Luke’s truck, and glance up into his eyes. “Remind me again why you’re cranky about the existence of this guy you don’t know.”
“Because he likes you.” Luke smacks a kiss to the tip of my nose, and leaves me to climb into the truck myself.
He moves around to the driver’s side, slides in, and when I follow, he leans across the seat and slowly, gently grabs my seatbelt and works it into place. His aftershave wafts in the enclosed space between us. He smells so good, and when his broad shoulders brush over my chest, my breath catches and my brain scrambles.
“But to be fair,” he rumbles, low and deep, “if he didn’t like you, that would also piss me off.” Luke pulls back, but only an inch or so, so our breath mingles in the tiny space between us. “Because you’re so fucking beautiful, Ally. If he looked and didn’t like, that would also be offensive.”
“So either way, this new guy in town can’t win?”
“Well, yeah.” Chuckling, Luke pulls back and straightens out to fix his own belt, then starting the truck, he has us ambling forward just a moment later. “He looked, so now he can’t win. What he should have done was kept his fuckin’ eyes to himself. But no. He wants to be the big man, he wants to look and grin, so now he’s on my list.”
“And what list might that be?” Settling in for the short journey, I angle my body to face him while he drives. “What list are you compiling?”
“I compile loads of lists. Groceries. Workouts. Netflix binges.”
“Okay… and what list does Jason fall on?”
“Future rap sheet entries.” He grins when I scowl, and then grins some more until my stony glare turns back into a smile.
“And what list am I on?” I guess my analysis won’t wait until later. Though it scares me that I even care. “Where do I land on your list of lists?”
“Somewhere around ‘amazing-in-bed’ and ‘gonna-hold-on-to-that-one’.” He slows at an intersection and meets my gaze. “Trust me, I’m surprised too.”
My eyes narrow to slits as a self-destructive portion of my brain zooms right past the kind list, and screeches to a stop on the other. “How long is your bed list?”
“Just you,” he laughs. “For as long as you’ll keep me, there’s only you.”
When the single set of traffic lights in this town turns green ahead of us, Luke pushes his truck into gear and slowly putters across the intersection. “Ask me one of your questions.”
“What questions?”
“For your brain study. Ask me one of the questions.”
“Oh… hmm…”
I let my thoughts tumble around for a moment as we pull into the parking lot of an Italian restaurant I’m already partial to. Pinocchio’s delivers, and I’ve been in that hotel long enough now to have clocked in a few nights sitting on the end of my bed with a tub of creamy white pasta while I watch television.
Before I get to answer his question with one of my own, Luke cuts the engine, dives out of the truck, and races around to my door. Swinging it wide, he offers a hand, and adds some kind of gallant bow.
“Wow.” I take his poised hand, and slide out of the truck with a smile. The moment my toes touch the gravel parking lot, a question flashes into my mind. “I have it.”
“Have what?” Luke pulls me under his arm, and squeezes me close as we move toward the restaurant doors.
“My question.”
“Oh. Let us get a table.”
As soon as we walk inside, the hostess’s eyes lock on to my date, and bulge.
Someone has a crush, and part of me is smug that I’m not getting pissed off about it and picking fights. But there’s that self-destructive portion of my brain again, calling me a liar.
The hostess needn’t ask Luke’s name – he has a reputation in this town. She merely looks down at her reservations list – more actions in Luke’s favor – then grabs two wine glasses from the rack on the wall, and walks away for us to follow.
The restaurant is set up so it caters to almost any party type. Booths for families. Small tables for the couples. And on the far side of the room, massive tables sit inside partitioned spaces to afford the customer a little more privacy.
As soon as we arrive at a small table, Luke rushes to pull my chair out – more actions – he waits for me to position myself, and then as I lower and he pushes my chair in, he loses a point when he bites my neck and elicits a painful gasp.
“Now ask your question, Ally.” He presses a gentle kiss to where it hurts, then dashes around to his seat and drops down. “I’m your willing lab rat.”
Shaking my head, I go to work unfolding my cloth napkin. “Okay. Let’s say you were asked to go to the store to buy something.”