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I force myself to take my eyes off her delectable derriere as we reach our seats. Soft brown eyes meet mine as she turns to look up at me. “Is eating at the bar OK?” she asks.
“Perfect,” I reply, sliding onto my stool while not taking my eyes away from her face. I’m not even talking about our seats, and based on that deepening blush, she understands the sentiment completely. My heart gallops like a horse in the Kentucky derby.
We order our pies and a pint of warm cider, and while we wait, her mouth curves and all I want to do is cup her heart-shaped face and kiss her senseless. I want to see if she tastes as sinfully sweet as she looks.
“You’re staring at me,” she says, picking up the cardboard coaster with the bar’s logo printed on it and spinning it between her fingers.
“I like what I see.”
Her cheeks get brighter, and she smiles, but she doesn’t meet my gaze. I make her nervous. “And what do you see?” She chances a glance up, meeting my hungry gaze.
I want to say,‘My Christmas gift’or‘The woman I’m going to wake up next to tomorrow morning.’But something tells me being too forward might scare her away.
So, I go with, “A girl I’d like to know.”
Intimately. Biblically.
“What do you want to know?”
“Anything.”Everything. “Tell me about yourself. What do you do?”
“Well,” she begins hesitantly. “I came to Boston two months ago because I wanted to design clothes for plus-sized women.”
“Interesting. Why didn’t you go to LA, or New York?” I ask. “Paris, even?”
“Boston is just where I managed to get an internship. So far, all I’ve done is make coffee and get lunch for people. Not a lot of design work.”
“We’ve all got to start somewhere, I guess. How does your family feel about you living in a big city?”
“My family and I are very close, so it was hard on them when I said I wanted to leave Oakwood Falls. Dad’s very protective.” She huffs out a laugh. “He’s our little town’s sheriff, and I’m his only daughter. He sulked for a week before I left, but he came around. He drove me all the way here and helped me get my apartment together, actually.” Her face is soft as she talks about her dad.
I grin, loving she’s close to her kin. “What about your mom?”
She smiles, and her eyes brighten, and I feel an odd feeling wash over me and settle in my gut.“Mom’s a teacher at the local high school. She teaches English Lit. Gosh, it was mortifying walking into class on my first day of high school to have Mom wave at me from the front of the class. She’s a goof. The kids in her class adore her. She gets into trouble with the Principal because she has the kids learn lyrics to Beatles songs. She always told us that songs are the purest form of poetry because you get to sing them.”
“You sound happy when you talk about them,” I remark.
She shrugs, looking a little embarrassed. “Like I said, we’re close. Growing up, it was just Mom, Dad, and me at home, until Gran moved in with us a couple of years ago. Don’t get me started on her. She’s Mom’s mom, and she’s a terror. Dad has to threaten to lock her up now and then just to keep her in line.” She laughs, and that feeling in my gut solidifies as I watch her.I need to make her mine.
Our ciders are placed in front of us, and we’re told the pies won’t be too long.
“What about you?” she asks. “Can I ask what you do when you aren’t picking up lonely girls in awful diners?”
“I don’t pick up girls in diners, Sophia. You were my first,” I reply, watching as her face turns an endearing pink. I can’t help myself as I reach over and slowly trace the curve of her cheek before I lace our fingers together.
“That’s, ah…good to know.” Her words come out all breathy as she looks at our joined hands, then takes a big gulp of her drink. “You were telling me about what you do for a living,” she gasps once she’s drained her glass halfway. She’s completely adorable, and she has no idea what her innocence is doing to me.
“I own a medical equipment company calledPhase.You might have heard of it. It’s been in the news a lot because of a laser treatment we developed that cuts the cost of tattoo removal in half.”
Phaseis my baby. I started it fresh out of college and over the last fifteen years, I’ve built it up from scratch into the multi-million dollar company it is today. I look to see if this information changes her behavior toward me. People either get very nervous or go out of their way to get on my good side once they find out aboutPhase, but all she does is shake her head.
“I’m afraid I haven’t,” she says apologetically. “I don’t know much about the medical industry, and I never watch the news.” She suddenly flashes a grin at me.“You don’t look like someone who makes medical equipment. I’d expect glasses and a lanky build—lab coat. But you’re very...big.” She lets out an embarrassed laugh.“Oh, my gosh. Ignore me. I think this cider is going to my head.”
“It’s OK. And I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Oh, it is! Youmustknow how beautiful you are.” She self-consciously tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, lifting her glass to her lips and draining the last of it.
I watch her bemusedly.This beautiful goddess who doesn’t know she can bring men to their knees just by breathing thinks I’m beautiful.If I didn’t know it before, I know it now. She’s mine. She’s going to be mine for a good long time if I have anything to do about it.
