Chapter Two

Nicole knew without having to look up that it was William. “Would you like to dance?” he asked, his deep voice resonating through her body.

How much harm could there possibly be in dancing?

She allowed him to take her hand and lead her to the floor. Then she remembered her dance teacher saying, “I’ve seen people fall in love while dancing salsa,” and her breath caught in her throat.

She straightened her spine and let her shoulders fall back, imagining a post running through the middle of her body like she’d been taught. She and William faced each other for a few seconds, then he held his left hand out for her to grasp. As Nicole took it he pulled her close to his body, while his other hand rested on the small of her back. She tried to ignore the warmth of his hand through the lightweight fabric of her dress. He took one step back and she followed.

Salsa dancing is like making love. Both of you are in rhythm, or you’re not. There’s no faking it. The experience can either be unforgettable or disastrous. William was proving to be the former, and Wanda’s words kept floating around in Nicole’s head: a good dancer equals a good lover.

William didn’t just look into her eyes; he devoured her. Nicole had to admit she felt sexy in a way she hadn’t felt in years. When she slid her right hand loosely around William’s neck, he smiled and ran his fingers down the length of her arm. Such a simple gesture really, but it had been so long since she had been touched in an intimate way, her body reacted as if he had discovered her G-spot.

“How about a drink?” she said into his ear as the song ended, feeling a desperate need to regain her composure. Or a fire hose turned on me full blast. “I need to use the restroom. I’ll meet you at the bar.”

Without waiting for an answer, Nicole sidestepped the couple next to them and made her way back to the table. Only Paulina was there, chatting with another woman. Annie had just left, because she had to show a house early the next day and Wanda was “somewhere out there,” Paulina said, gesturing toward the dance floor. “You looked good dancing.”

“William’s a good dancer.” Nicole bent down to grab her purse from underneath the chair.

“Yes, he is,” she heard Paulina say. “A very good dancer.”

She stood up quickly to see if Paulina was thinking what Nicole thought she was thinking and ended up snagging her stockings on the chair. She watched in horror as the snag on her calf became a gaping hole, and a run proceeded to travel all the way up to her thigh. “Oh, that’s just great. Now what am I going to do?”

Paulina glanced at Nicole’s leg. “Take them off. No one will notice.”

“But they’re control top,” she said. “They were my underwear.”

Paulina shrugged. “Throw some caution to the wind.”

The only wind in the equation was the breeze between Nicole’s legs as she made her way to the bar after removing her mutilated pantyhose in the bathroom. Not only did she feel self-conscious now that parts of her body were jiggling a lot more, but she had to walk at just the right pace so her dress didn’t become stuck inside the crack of her rear end.

****

Wil couldn’t take his eyes off Nicole as she came toward him. God, she was sexy. Everything swayed on her: her hair, her breasts, her hips. There was something about older women that had always attracted him. They were confident, more interesting to talk to, and definitely more sexually driven than younger women.

He had been dying to ask Nicole out on a date each time he saw her, but the occasions were so brief, it never seemed appropriate. Until now. It was pure coincidence that she was here tonight and he always said, “When opportunity knocks, you’d better be ready.”

She shimmied in beside him, so close he could smell the muskiness of her perfume. Wil handed her a mojito. Their fingers touched, sending a little rush through him. Steady, Wil.

Nicole took a sip of her drink. “Aren’t you out past curfew?”

Ouch. He decided to let the dig about his age slide.

“Me? What about you? You’re the opposite of a vampire. You never go out at night.”

Her eyes narrowed. “How would you know?”

Great. Now he sounded like a stalker. “I have to pass your house on the way to my mom’s. I see your lights on.”

She seemed to relax a little. “Okay, guilty. I admit this is a rarity for me.”

Nicole’s eyes travelled past him and she shook her head no. Wil threw a quick glance over his shoulder. It was Ricky Z. Wil knew him casually. Go to enough clubs and you become familiar with the same faces. Not to mention their modus operandi. No doubt Ricky was trying to get in good with her by checking to see if she needed to be saved from some jerk. The fact that Nicole hadn’t nodded yes was a good sign.

“Bodyguard?” he asked.

“Just a friend looking out for me.”

Wil said nothing as he stared into her eyes, gathering his courage. A small smile played on his lips.

“Thanks for the round of drinks you sent over.”

“Will you let me take you out sometime, Nicole?”

“You’re kidding!” she blurted out.

Definitely not the response he was hoping for.

“I’m not kidding.”

“Do you know how old I am?”

He shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Of course it does.”

“Okay then, how old are you?”

“I’m forty-one,” she said. “That’s almost fifty.”

He let out a low whistle and said, “God, you look hot for your age.”

“How old are you?”

“How old do you want me to be?”

“I don’t know—forty-five?”

He hesitated only slightly. “Close. I’m twenty-eight. That’s almost thirty.” He really didn’t want to lie, but he was striking out so far.

She groaned in disappointment. “You’re just a puppy.”

His hands went around her waist, pulling her an inch closer to him. “A puppy in need of a good home. God, I could lose myself in those blue eyes of yours.”

“William…” she warned, removing hands that had ventured slightly lower.

“Wil.”

“Do you have some kind of bet going on with your friends, Wil? This has got to be a joke, right?”

Surprisingly, he was offended. “I never joke when it comes to matters of the heart.”

****

For once she had no comeback. Nicole was literally dumbfounded. Thank goodness her cell phone rang to break the awkward moment. When she saw it was Josh, she said, “It’s my son calling from New York. I have to take this.”

She answered right before it went to voice mail. “Josh? Hi, baby. Wait, I can’t hear you, it’s too loud.”

Plugging one ear didn’t help. Wil must have noticed her frustration, because he took her arm and led her away from the bar, toward an exit door. Through the door was a dark, gated alley. Once the door was closed, it was surprisingly quiet.

“Okay, Josh, I can hear you better now,” she told him, throwing Wil a grateful look. “How was your flight? Was your father on time to pick you up? How’s New York?”

“Mom, you’re asking too many questions,” Josh whined, but his voice became excited as he continued. “The city is so cool. As soon as we left the airport, Dad and Chrissy took me to Chinatown, which smelled really rank, but the food was awesome.”

She didn’t want to ask, really she didn’t. “Who’s Chrissy?”

“Dad’s friend.”

Friend, my ass.

“She’s older than fifteen, I hope.” Did that come out as biting as she thought it did?

“Of course she is,” Josh said, in all seriousness. “She’s one of the actresses in Dad’s movie.”

Of course she is. Nicole looked over at Wil, leaning against an iron railing, taking note of his upper arms straining against the fabric of his shirt, his slim hips—

“I forgot to tell you to feed Sammy, Mom.” Josh’s voice began to crackle on the line, leaving her to hear only bits and pieces of what he was saying.

“Who’s Sammy?”

“Sammy is—”

“What? I can’t hear you, you’re breaking up.”

“—feed him a fuzzy.”

“A fuzzy? Wait, what is Sammy? A turtle? Iguana?”

“Love you, Mom. ’Bye,” Josh said, right before the connection was lost.

She waited a few seconds before clicking off, missing the sound of her son’s voice and wishing they hadn’t gotten cut off so soon. “Stupid cell phones,” she muttered, slipping hers back inside her purse. “Thanks for bringing me out here. I wouldn’t have been able to hear anything inside.”

Wil came toward Nicole, took her face in his hands, and kissed her gently. She pulled back a fraction of an inch, keeping her eyes on his lips, marveling at their softness. He kissed her again, running his tongue lightly over her bottom lip and urging her lips apart. She opened her mouth to him and their kiss deepened as she savored the warmth of his tongue against hers. Nicole’s hands traveled up his back—his unbelievably rock-hard back—as he pressed her against the wall with his body. His back wasn’t the only part of his body that was hard, which made her moan softly in appreciation.

His hands moved down the sides of her body. It was only when one hand found its way under the hem of her dress and wandered up her thigh to rest on her naked backside did she snap back to reality and break away from him. “Uh-uh,” she said, taking his hand out from underneath her dress.

A knowing smile crept over Wil’s face. “Going commando, huh? Something tells me there’s more to you than meets the eye.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but actually, there isn’t. You’d be very bored,” she said, straightening her dress to avoid his eyes.

He let out a little laugh. “I don’t think so.”

The sensible voice inside her head screamed, Leave now or the next time he puts his hand under your dress you might not say no.

“I have to go,” she said, sprinting for the door that led back into the club.

Wil caught her arm. “Wait, not so fast. How about a kiss goodbye?”

Nicole leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “See ya ’round the neighborhood,” she told him, and then made a fast exit before she changed her mind.

****

Wil watched her go. He couldn’t go after her, what with the raging hard-on he had at the moment. He leaned his head back and let out a deep breath. He hadn’t been this turned on by a woman in a very long time. And when he felt the warm, bare skin of her ass, well, that did it for him. Only she had stopped him from going any further and now here he was, alone in a dark alley with an erection. It was a definite first for him.

Frustrated, he ran his fingers through his hair and thought about the situation. Nicole wouldn’t go out with him, but she had kissed him back. He had felt her resistance melt into a hot kiss that sent his pulse racing. So, he was too young to date, but not to kiss apparently.

He thought about the way they had danced together perfectly in rhythm. You could tell a lot about a woman by the way she moved, and Nicole moved confidently and gracefully. Wil closed his eyes and imagined her naked and moving on top of him.

Damn!

He felt the bulge in his pants that hadn’t gone down any and sighed. He concentrated on baseball, spreadsheets, and the price of gas. A few minutes later, he was able to go back inside the club. He was determined to come up with a way to be around Nicole so he could get the chance to kiss her again. Then he’d work on the naked part.

****

Nicole tried not to think about that kiss for the rest of the night, but that was like trying to tell a child they could have only one piece of Halloween candy. The next morning as she lay in bed, she allowed herself to fully indulge. She remembered how soft his lips had felt and how hard his body was. The stirring that she felt under her sheets made her realize, Wow, I still have a sex drive.

Then her over-think-everything gene kicked in. Could he be any more inappropriate for me? Even if she overlooked his age, there was still the matter of type. He certainly wasn’t her type. Granted, in her early twenties she went for the dangerous-looking tough guys, the ones with tattoos and poor grammar, but now she was in her forties—and a mother.

Maybe kissing Wil and having it stir up all kinds of sensations she thought had been put to rest was a sign that she was ready for some male companionship. But what kind of male companionship was she going to find in her age group? A new divorcé with two kids of his own? A forty-something man who had never been married?

Nicole wasn’t ready for any of the ups and downs that came with romantic entanglements. The older you were, the more baggage you brought to the table. She had neither the time nor the energy to nurture a new relationship. Her son was her priority, plain and simple. Always would be.

When Josh was a toddler, Stephen had walked out on her and left her in shock. What kind of man comes home and announces he is leaving, just like that? Without any discussion or attempt at counseling? Something closed up in her that day. She decided she’d never let herself get blindsided by love again—and she hadn’t. The downside was she also hadn’t had sex or even hugged a man in all this time either. Hell, she hadn’t even flirted with a man.

It had taken a while, but she had finally recovered emotionally from the trauma of her divorce. Why should she consider putting herself out there when there was the very real possibility of her heart getting slaughtered again?

“A kiss was all it was,” she said aloud to the pale-blue walls. Granted, a mind-blowing one, but hey, it had been a long time for her, so a kiss from the guy who changed the oil in her car would have probably been just as spectacular. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She needed to clean, she decided. Cleaning was the only thing she knew to do to regain a clear head.

Any sensual thoughts that might have been lingering completely vanished when Nicole entered Josh’s room. “My God, it looks as if we’ve been robbed.”

Every surface was covered with something: an article of clothing, books, a toy. Twenty minutes later, Nicole was able to see carpet again. Her restored state of calm lasted until she reached for a button-down shirt strewn across a small glass tank sitting on Josh’s desk.

“Oh, shit!” Nicole screamed, stumbling backward. In the tank a snake’s elongated body extended toward the top of the screened lid as if it wanted out. All inner calm exited through the window. It wasn’t a big snake—maybe two feet long and the width of a broom handle. But the fact that it was a snake, in her house, with no Josh to take care of it sent her running for the phone to call her absent snake-sitting son.

“You didn’t tell me Sammy was a snake, Josh,” she said as soon as Josh answered his cell phone. Nicole was desperately trying to control the shrillness in her voice so she didn’t sound like her own mother.

“I did, Mom. Last night. You must have missed that part.”

“I am not taking care of a snake, Joshua. I’ve let you have a lot of animals in this house—hamsters, guinea pigs, turtles—but I draw the line at snakes. Tell me where it came from so I can take it back.”

“You can’t. It’s Pearl’s snake and she went to Mexico with her family for the summer. She had no one to take care of Sammy.”

Nicole tried to picture Josh’s friend Pearl, a sweet, diminutive dark-haired girl with this snake wrapped around her arm. “Come on, Josh. You expect me to believe Sammy belongs to Pearl?”

“I swear it, Mom. She’s also got a scorpion and a tarantula, but some cousin is taking care of them.”

A scorpion and a tarantula, but they wouldn’t take the snake.

“Sammy’s harmless,” Josh went on. “He just sits there all day.”

Nicole’s voice went up a notch. “He’s not sitting, Josh. He’s stretched up like…like a…” Only phallic analogies came to mind.

Josh’s matter-of-fact voice informed her it meant he wanted to come out.

“Well, that’s not going to happen.”

“Or he’s hungry.”

She let out a big groan. “Okay, where’s his food?”

“You have to feed him a fuzzy.”

“Where are they?” she asked, scanning the room for a big bag of snake snacks.

“At the pet store. Ask for a fuzzy mouse.” Silence. “Mom, are you still there?”

Taking a deep breath before she spoke did not help the angry quiver in her voice. “Joshua Andrew Woods, not only did you not ask me permission to bring this reptile into our house, but now you expect me to care for it and feed it mice. You know I would never have said yes to this. I am not happy, Joshua. Not happy.”

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Sorry’s not going to get this snake fed,” she said, as a big ball of stress pulsated inside her head. “I’ll call you later when I’ve calmed down and thought this through, okay?”

“I tried to find someplace else for Sammy. Honest, Mom. Everyone I know was going away, too.”

Or at least that’s what they told you.

After Nicole hung up the phone she stared at Sammy, now stretched out on the bottom of the tank. “Let’s get one thing straight, Sammy.” She pointed a finger at his flat little head. “I am not letting you out. I am not holding you. I am not taking you for a walk.” Sammy shifted his head in her direction, his slithery tongue darting out of his mouth. “The only thing I will do for you is feed you and change your water, and if you don’t like it, you can go stay at a motel.”

As her luck would have it, there was no one home at Pearl’s house, five doors down, who spoke English. “I have Pearl’s serpente and I want to give it back,” Nicole said to the old woman who answered the door.

“No entiendo,” and a shake of the head was the response she got, which Nicole interpreted as No freakin’ way am I taking a snake.

As if her day hadn’t been lively enough already, there was Wil, about to knock on her front door, looking even younger in daylight. Her pulse jumped at the sight of him, and even more so when he gave her that easy smile of his and said, “Hey.”

“No.” She brushed by him to open the door.

“No, what?” he said, following her inside and coming up closely, too closely, beside her.

For a split second, Nicole considered how easy it would be to take him upstairs to her bedroom and end her self-imposed celibacy streak.

“Look, that kiss last night was a one-time thing. It was the mojitos that kissed you, not me. It’s not going to happen again.”

He shrugged. “Okay.”

She wasn’t sure whether his easy acceptance pissed her off or not.

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about snakes, would you? Turns out I’m snake-sitting for the summer.”

“Cool.”

“No, not cool. I don’t like snakes. They scare me.”

“There’s nothing to be scared of. Show me where it is.”

Wil laughed when he saw Sammy. “He’s just a baby, sweetheart. You have nothing to worry about.” He lifted the lid off the tank and swooped up the snake with one deft motion. “He’s a boa constrictor. They have great dispositions and they’re very gentle. Go ahead, touch him.”

Nicole took a few steps back. “Absolutely not.”

“Touching him will get rid of some of your fear.”

Nicole leveled a glare at Wil. “I’d rather have a root canal without Novocain.”

“Awww, look, you hurt his feelings.”

She couldn’t help but smile at how ridiculous that sounded. “And you can tell this how?”

“He’s frowning.”

“Hmmm, all I see are beady eyes and a forked tongue.”

“You know, snakes symbolize transformation; a new beginning of some kind, especially after a loss.” Wil continued to let Sammy roam over his torso.

Oh, to be that snake right now.

“In fact,” he said, “when they come into your life in some way, you should expect fast changes.”

She watched in awe as he allowed Sammy to slither inside his T-shirt until nothing but the tip of his tail showed. “Do you know the last time he ate?”

Nicole sighed. “He probably needs to eat.”

Out popped Sammy’s head at the hem of Wil’s shirt. When the snake tried to go down Wil’s pants, he gently pulled him out and placed him back in the tank. “Sorry, buddy. That territory’s for Nicole only,” he said, flashing a cocky smile at her, while she slowly shook her head in disbelief at what he’d just said.

After securing the lid, he grabbed her hand tightly. “Let’s get this snake some food. Come on, I’ll drive.”