And there it was, staring right back at me, confirming that the man I was looking at, whose face I couldn’t see behind the other customers, was my ex. When he leaned back enough for me to catch a sliver of his profile, the suspicion was confirmed.
“Shit,” I hissed under my breath.
“Something wrong?” Duncan asked, glancing over his shoulder.
I quickly and internally debated telling him. But my nerves were so jangled I could hardly think straight. “It’s my ex,” I said. “He’s here.”
Duncan arched his eyebrows. “Your ex? Where?”
“That guy at the bar, the one with the blue watch and the dark hair. Pinstripe suit.”
He put his hand on my hip and gently led me out of the path of restaurant traffic. Then he sneakily glanced at the bar. I wasn’t sure what reaction to expect – maybe amusement – but it certainly wasn’t the one I saw. Once he realized who I was referring to, his expression tightened.
“OK. Let’s get out of here.”
His hand still on my hip, he led me around the restaurant, taking an indirect path to the exit. He moved quickly, so quickly I had a hard time keeping up. But we soon made it to the exit, relief washing over me.
Minutes later we were back in the car, on our way home. Neither of us had said a word to one another about the incident, although I did notice he’d acted strangely when he saw Andrew. Maybe he was a little jealous, though he had no reason to be. Obviously.
I couldn’t stop staring at him out of the corner of my eye. Duncan was handsome – like, stupidly handsome. And his profile, his eyes fixed ahead on the road, was impossible to not ogle. And, on top of that, my eyes kept drifting over his strong hands on the wheel and all the way to his crotch. No way a man like him wasn’t packing. I mean, not that I was shallow about matters like that. But they didn’t hurt.
We chatted idly on the way back, and I was determined to savor every minute. But as much as I tried to lose myself in conversation, I kept thinking back to the near-miss of seeing Andrew in the bar. I was relieved, sure. But I’d also been shaken. It was a reminder that as much as I’d wanted to escape my past, it was still there.
“You okay over there?” he asked. “Still thinking about what happened?”
There was no hiding my feelings from Duncan. He was too sharp for that.
“Yeah. You know – worlds colliding and all that.”
“I get it. But that’s life. You date people and they still exist, as much as we’d like to pretend otherwise.” He followed this up with a sly smile.
He was handling the incident well. But the way he’d acted, hurrying out of the restaurant with me, stuck in my head as strange. My stomach sank just a bit when the now-familiar sight of White Pines appeared in the distance.
“I have to admit,” I said. “It’s a little surprising that someone like you lives in a town like this.”
“Well, why do you live here?”
“The views, the quiet, the charm.”
“Same. And believe me, I spend enough time in big cities to more than make up for it. But I Iove having a little town to call home.”
I found myself wondering what sort of place he called home. Was it one of the chateau-like palaces up in the woods? Or one of the modern apartments that had recently been built? It wasn’t so much about wanting to know what he had, but more about wanting to get to know every bit of him.
We eventually pulled up to my apartment, Duncan coming to a stop and cutting the engine.
“I’ll walk you to the front door.” He opened the door for me and took my arm once more as he led me to my apartment.
Such a freaking gentleman.
At my door, he turned, looming over me with all six and a half feet of him, his eyes a brilliant blue even in the low light of the evening. “I had a wonderful time tonight.”
“So did I. But…”
“But?”
“But you know the one thing that would make it even better?”
He smiled that sly, cunning smile I was already growing to love. And I could tell he was reading my mind.
Duncan leaned in and placed his lips on mine, electricity shooting through my body as he kissed me. I felt like Jell-O, like I might melt into a puddle on the spot. He let his lips linger, his hands going to my hips and holding me firmly. Then he took them away, leaving me glowing.
“Was that what you were thinking?” he asked. “Because it sure as hell was what was on my mind.”
“You know it. And that’s the second kiss you stole from me.”
“Here’s to many more.”
I opened the door and prepared to step inside, but I wasn’t ready for the evening to be over, not by a longshot. I turned to him.
“Now,” I said. “There’s something I want to do without permission.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I reached forward and took his hand, pulling him toward me. Duncan was huge – had to be around two-thirty, at least. So when he followed my lead, I knew he was letting me.
Once he was inside my apartment, the door clicking shut, the two of us were all over each other. Duncan and I kissed, but this was no polite goodbye peck. My mouth opened and his did too, our tongues searching out one another’s as we kissed passionately, deeply.
He grabbed my hips, his strong hands taking hold of me as I sighed. No one had kissed me like that before, held me like that before, made me feel that way.
Who the hell was this guy?
My fingers danced over the buttons of his gray dress shirt, undoing them one-by-one. And the body underneath? Holy freaking moly. Dr. Duncan clearly practiced what he preached when it came to health, and he had the physique to prove it. His muscles were toned and sculpted, his shoulders round and solid, his chest two cut pecs, and his stomach shredded – not a drop of fat anywhere to be found on that six-pack.
I placed my fingers on his chest, moving my touch over his body. And as I took in the mouthwatering sight of him, he reached around and unzipped my dress. Once he reached my waist he went up to my shoulders, slowly peeling it down.
He shook his head as he exposed more and more of me, his eyes dropping to my breasts then moving down. I hadn’t expected to have sex that night, but I was still glad I erred on the side of caution and wore my one sexy set of bra and thong.
“Holy hell,” he said as I shimmied the dress down my legs. “You’re something else.”
I was turned on, soaking wet, ready for him to do with me whatever he wanted. And he didn’t waste any time. Duncan cut the distance between us, putting his hand between my legs and rubbing my clit through my panties. The sensation was so incredible that my knees felt like they might buckle beneath me.
“Oh…oh my God.” The words poured out of my mouth in a slow moan. Each stroke of his fingers over my clit brought me closer and closer to orgasm.
As if sensing I was weak in the knees, Duncan reached around me, scooping me off my feet and carrying me to the kitchen table. Once there, he peeled my panties down my legs and spread me open. I was wet and so ready for him.
“Does it feel good when I touch you like that?”
“So fucking good.”
He grabbed my inner thigh with one hand and slipped a pair of fingers into me. My eyes squeezed shut as he pushed in deep. I moaned, pressing my hips against his hand as he fingered me. He moved in and out, his thumb on my clit making slow circles in perfect tandem to his penetration. The sight of him in front of me, no shirt but still in his fitted dark slacks, an expression of tight concentration on his face as he brought me closer and closer to orgasm.