The door slammed and she came rushing back out of the house barefoot with her shoes dangling from her fingertips. Her eyes were so wide and shining that it took me a few moments to even register the rest of her.
And when I did, I stopped short.
Her hair was still caught up in that swaying topknot, but she'd allowed a few tendrils to escape. They tumbled down to her shoulders in a waterfall of crazy ringlets, setting off her face like a portrait edged in gold that even the low light of the streetlamp couldn't dim. Her dress showed off strong arms and shoulders and the fabric just skimmed her curves, barely hinting at what lay underneath. I caught a glimpse of her carefully painted toes hidden in the grass and suddenly my mind was filled with the image of them curling in ecstasy as I made her come on my tongue.
I cleared my throat. "You look amazing," I told her.
She stopped and ran her hand down her simple red dress. "I look frumpy," she corrected.
I shook my head. "You're beautiful," I said. Because it was true. She was.
Her eyes flashed, but she didn't duck away when I bent to kiss her cheek. I let my lips linger there for as long as I could, and took a deep breath, smelling the last bits of sun on her shoulders.
She took deep breath of her own and let it out in a slow hiss. "Oh my God," she sighed. "I haven't gone out since I had Malcolm."
"How old is the little guy?" I asked. Then I held up my hand. "No, wait, I bet I can figure it out. How much do you bet me?”
She looked at me warily. "I don't really have much money," she said.
I shrugged. "Then we can wager something else."
"Like what?"
I grinned. "I'll think of something I'm sure." I lifted my finger. "But I bet I can guess his birthday."
She looked amused. "You really think you can, huh?"
I nodded. I really did. I didn't even have to touch my lucky coin.
Not with her here.
"Absolutely," I proclaimed.
She crossed her arms over her chest. "Okay, I'll take that bet," she laughed. "You're a strange one, you know that?"
"I think you'll see there's a method to my madness," I said, lightly running my fingers along her arm. Her skin was amazingly soft. "If I get it right, you have to kiss me."
Her eyes flashed again, and her face hardened a little. I held up my hands. "Just a kiss," I promised. "Nothing more."
She turned her head to the side, closed her eyes, and then opened them with a mischievous smile. "Fine," she said archly, tossing her head. "There's no way in hell you could guess his birthday anyway, that's like terrible odds..."
"One in three hundred and sixty-five," I agreed.
"I know. I was a server forever, I'm pretty great at math," she said testily. "Odds are in my favor."
I grinned. "And if I get it wrong, what happens?"
"If you get it wrong," she said, running her tongue over her teeth. She glanced over to the driveway. "You have to let me drive your fancy car over there."
I threw up my hands and backed away, feigning horror. "But, you'll just go plowing into things!"
She smacked me in the arm, and I laughed, because that meant she was starting to have fun, she was starting to feel comfortable, and for some reason that was really fucking important to me.
I tapped my finger on my chin for a moment and watched her watch me. Her son looked to be around two years old, but he was still in a rear-facing car seat so he was obviously younger. That meant spring... "April thirtieth," I blurted out.
Her eyes went wide. "What the fuck?" she breathed.
"I'm right?" I grinned triumphantly. I was as surprised as she was but there was no way I was going to let that on.
She smacked me again, harder this time. "How the fuck did you know that?" she demanded.
I rubbed my arm. "Wow, calm down there, Mike Tyson." I complained. "Damn sweet thing, you can throw a hell of a punch."
"Yes, I can," she declared without a trace of apology. "So don't mess with me. How did you know?"
"I swear. It was just a lucky guess." I started to grin. "So you sort of owe me a kiss now, don't you?"
She screwed up her mouth into this adorable little pout, with wrinkled nose and all. "You promise you're leaving tomorrow?"
I laughed out loud. "You really know how to make a guy feel special, don't you?" I teased, echoing the line she'd used on me earlier. When I'd insisted she was special.
But she didn't rise to the bait. Damn this girl and her caution, she was driving me fucking nuts. "Yes, I am leaving," I relented. "So all the more reason to have no regrets."
Something in her face shifted and she gave the very slightest of nods. I wasn't even sure if I was supposed to see it, but I was watching her so closely there was no way I could miss it. Like she'd had an argument with herself and somebody had just won.
Maybe it was me.
"So kiss me," she said with a defiant tilt to her head. "I owe you and I hate being in debt."
I pressed my lips together. Excitement made my hand tremble ever so slightly as I brought it up to catch the tumbling ringlet that bobbed near her mouth and tuck it behind her ear. She inhaled sharply as my hand moved behind her neck, and she lowered her eyelids, shadowing her cheekbones with her lashes.
I've always been one to go with my gut, but in this moment, my instinct was one of pure animal desire. My hands wanted to sink themselves into her hair, yanking down that topknot and wrapping those curls around my fists. Just the thought of kissing her had my cock at attention and my body ached to press against hers, trapping her against the car so that she couldn't move as I set about on a long, slow exploration of her smart little mouth. Every instinct I'd ever trusted was now trying to lead me astray, pushing me to go faster and further than I knew she was ready for.
So even though it went against every instinct I had, I held back. I bent slowly, letting her get used to my nearness before I brushed my lips against hers. It was tentative, almost chaste. I hadn't kissed a woman this shyly since grade school and yet?
It was fucking electric.
The second her lips met mine it was like a spark fucking ignited. My belly dropped, splashing down like I was on a rollercoaster, heat spreading out to my limbs. She made a small noise, barely audible, but that was better than any of the porn-star shrieks I'd heard in the bedroom before. She was so unsure, so untrusting, so that slight yielding pressure of her body against mine, the barest little hint of surrender when her skin brushed up against me was more erotic than anything I'd felt before. It didn't make any fucking sense. I was only kissing her, but somehow it was more intense than any other three-hour fuck-marathon I'd been part of in the past. And somehow, I knew — just by this one, chaste, hesitant kiss — that no matter how much I lost at the betting tables tonight, Charlie was going to be worth it.
I could barely wait to get started.