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That surprised a full-blown laugh out of him that had a couple heads turning his way.
"I'm serious. I've been studying the phenomenon for quite some time now. I've got a pie chart and everything."
Still chuckling, Luke motioned the waitress over as she was passing their table. "I'll have a beer, whatever you've got on tap, and you…?"
"Umm, oh. Can I get a Cosmo please? Thank you."
"You were saying you're a pack animal?" he prompted as the waitress left to get their drinks.
She gave him a dazzling smile, leaned toward him—making it a little harder to keep his eyes up than it was a moment ago—and continued, "I see older women alone all the time. Confident and poised. They don't need their friends along to go to a movie or dinner; they even brave the bathroom alone."
"No!" He gasped in mock wonder. "And you say you've got proof of this?"
She widened her eyes and nodded her head solemnly. "I do. I've managed to capture this phenomenon on surveillance video. Unfortunately, it's grainy and distorted, so it looks like every Bigfoot or UFO video ever made, but you can take my word—it's real."
The waitress brought their drinks, and they both sat back in their seats so she could place them on the table. "Are you guys ready to order or is it going to be drinks only tonight?"
"Are you hungry?" Luke asked. "Let me buy you dinner." The expression he saw on her face showed him that she was open to the idea but was feeling a little uncomfortable, probably because of the situation. He decided the best course of action was to take the bull by the horns. "I'll have the chicken Caesar salad." He smiled at Andie. "It's great here. They make their own dressing and don't lay it on too thick. Make it two?"
"Sure. That sounds perfect. Thanks."
As they finished their drinks and polished off a second round during their salads, the conversation never lagged. Luke found himself enchanted by her. She was lively, witty, and had an intellect that was as appealing as her figure. It was a potent mix. She told him about her work and the training they’d sent her into town for. She also told him that she was going to take a few extra days to visit family nearby now that it was all done. “Sorta like a mini vacation.” Andie smiled and fiddled with her napkin. “I can’t afford to travel much on my own so it’s a real treat getting to squeeze a trip to the farm in on the company’s plane ticket. It was really cool of my boss to let me take the extended time. The company hoards PTO like Smaug hoards his gold.” Then she winked at him over the rim of her cosmo and she was so irresistibly cute he wanted to pounce.
“Did you just make a Lord of The Rings reference?” Luke might be in love.
“Technically it was a Hobbit reference, but yeah. I did.” Yup, he thought. I’m in love.
"I gotta tell ya." He leaned close and spoke quietly, purposefully upping the intimacy by reaching out to grip the back of her chair so she wasalmostin his arms. "This has been the best damn date I've had in years."
"I'm having a great time too," she admitted and ignited the fire in him when she reached out and lightly ran her fingers over the back of the hand he had braced on the table in front of him. "I really am."
"If I don't get my hands on you soon—" He broke off, unsure how to articulate the hunger and need he felt simmering inside him without freaking her out. He said instead, "Dance with me."
Waiting for her consent felt like waiting for the answer to a much more important question. One he knew without a doubt he would be asking before the night was over… if she said yes to this one. She knew it too; he could read it in her eyes as she studied his face while she considered her choices.
His muscles bunched and tensed as the seconds wore on, and when she consented, with a dip of her chin and lowered lashes, he knew she was agreeing to more than just a dance.
The dance area was small with dark wood flooring and dim lighting. It was crowded enough to justify pulling Andie close, very close, and keeping her there. As her softness registered on his senses along with the mouthwatering scent of her, Luke had to force himself to keep his strength in check. What he wanted was to crush her to him and devour her, but he settled for pulling her in a little tighter, securing one arm low on her back, and then bringing their clasped hands up to rest against the thudding of his heart. They swayed to the music that pulsed with a slow thrumming rhythm that seemed to pump through his veins.
She fit against him magically, almost as if her body was made for that sole purpose alone, and the two of them glided through the first couple songs without separating an inch. Luke could feel the delicate heat of her against his thigh when he gave in to the need for more and inserted his leg between hers ever so slightly. Arousal turned his muscles to iron when she didn’t step back. Instead, she pressed even closer, and he felt her breath catch as she quivered in his embrace.
Luke let out a soft curse, lowered the hand on her back to the very edge of decency, and pressed her hips down hard while he flexed his thigh up. Andie’s body jolted, and with a small cry, she turned her face into the curve of his neck while her hips surged against his in reaction.
“God.” Her breath was damp and warm where it brushed just under his ear. “It’s been so long since I’ve felt like this. I can’t believe how good your hands feel on me.” Her nose brushed his lobe, and her lips feathered against his skin like the brush of butterfly wings.
He’d never been so turned on by so little in his life. With a groan, Luke turned his own face into the curve of her neck and muttered against the fragrant hollow, “Come upstairs with me. Now.” When she tensed, he added, “Don’t think. Don’t say no. Just come.”
He didn’t have pretty words for her. He wasn’t a flowers and poetry kind of guy. So he left it at that and prayed to God she wouldn’t turn him down, because he’d never wanted a woman more in his whole damn life than he wanted this one.
She was motionless in his arms for a moment; then, with a nod he could barely discern, she whispered, “Yes.”
It surprisedhim how hard he found it to walk from the lounge instead of run. His hand clasped hers so tightly he worried he might be hurting her, but even as he told himself to ease his grip, he couldn’t. There was a fire in his blood, a primal beat of need that refused to be watered down or diluted. It was urging him to take—take it all and take itnow.
The elevators required a key card in order to open, and hers was out and at the ready when they reached them. As soon as the doors closed, she was on him. He would have expected her to be demure. The type to say ‘I don’t ever do this kind of thing’ or the ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this’ or another cliché along those lines. Something to convince him or herself that she wasn’t easy. It would have been unnecessary, and he would have felt compelled to reassure her. He hated that step. He didn’t need her disclaimer that she was a good person; if he didn’t believe she was, he wouldn’t be taking her upstairs. So, it was like gasoline on the fire that she was skipping the unnecessary declaration. That she was confident enough in who she was and what she wanted that she didn’t need platitudes was a turn-on of Olympic proportions.
“Christ Jesus,” he muttered as he felt every delicious inch of her against him. Then her mouth opened with decadent heat on his neck, and his knees almost gave out when her tongue licked a trail of fire from his ear to his collarbone. Luke fisted one hand in her hair, and with the other, he grabbed onto her fabulous ass. Even as he pulled her body closer with one hand, he tugged her head back with the other and fastened his lips to hers in a kiss meant to empty her mind of all but him… them…thismoment.
When her knees buckled, he turned them until he had her flush against the wall. Her kiss was as hungry as his, her tongue delving into his mouth as her nails scraped little trails of fire along his scalp. He couldn’t get close enough, the clothes between them an unacceptable barrier. He groaned when he felt her leg slide up his and gripped her behind the knee to bring that limb higher so he could fit himself more fully against her. The need to consume was demolishing his higher thinking, and things like manners and proprieties were beyond him.
