A Date With Fate (16 page)

It’s my choice to live in a smaller town. I’m highly visible as an owner of an established store; a big fish in a little pond. For the most part, I’m very satisfied with my choices. This is one of those rare situations when I regretted never leaving Northfield. I know what a fish swimming in an aquarium feels like, and I long for the anonymity of the open ocean found in big city life.

My personal life seems to be of acute interest to many people. I know most of these people care about me, so fair enough. If Luke and I were going to continue seeing each other, it was probably necessary for Luke to meet my friends and family before the speculation grew too rampant and our dating was made into some big deal. Secrets appear juicy, but reality often proves duller than the fertile, dirty imagination. Dull is exactly the image I like to present where my personal life is concerned. To keep everyone out of my business; I was going to have to let them in it a little first.

Luke had been gone for work and we hadn’t been out in over three weeks. I had missed his last two phone calls because I was out on other dates. When I’ve missed his calls in the past, I don’t call him back unless he leaves a voicemail requesting I do.

Luke did ask me to call him back on Wednesday. My date was at a Euchre tournament with Rob. He’s a guy I consider more as a fun friend who likes playing cards as much as I do. It ran late. I was wiped and fell into bed when I got home. I meant to call Luke back, but crashed before I did.

Thursday’s date was with my octogenarian banker. Mr. Barkley is an old school charmer whom I adore and respect. He’s one of the last of a dying breed of gentlemen from a different era, and this is a great pity.

I have a vastly entertaining time sharing a late Thursday dinner at his bachelor pad at least once a month. My banker has forgotten more on most subjects than most people will ever know in their lifetime, and he’s a fascinating conversationalist. Mr. Barkley is very droll and debonair.

Last night, after a simple dinner of perfectly prepared oven roasted chicken with tarragon buttered root vegetables, I was sitting back on a plush loveseat. While sipping on my Chardonnay and nibbling a piece of dark chocolate, I teased my distinguished host.

“Mr. Barkley, with all due respect, if you were even fifteen years younger and didn’t manage my business affairs so expertly, I’d cave to temptation and give you a run for your money.”

Eyes twinkling roguishly, his patrician silver eyebrows were as waggish as his response. “My dear Miss Axelrod, were I even five years younger, it would be to your greatest pleasure to fire me.”

The Thursday night missed call from Luke had no voicemail. I had only been able to text Luke a quick hello in reply to his missed calls during the hectically busy last two days. This week had been hellish at the store. Getting with Luke over dinner and drinks after not seeing him for such a stretch was a plan I could totally get into.

My smile of welcome was enormous that evening when I looked up and saw him silently entering through the unlocked, back entrance of the store. Seeing him dressed all in black with a matching black expression on his swarthy face, it hit me how much I’d missed him.

I could see his eyes glittering from several feet away.

Bel’s had been closed for awhile and Luke had no idea Anna was over at the Fare finishing her own work. She must have been down behind the service bar and I’m sure he thought I was alone.

With no return smile, he pinned me with a look. It was rife with sexual intent. My body responded by shooting pings of tingling awareness down to my very favorite vacation spot in the universe. I didn’t say a word, finding myself fascinated and unable to look away from Luke’s mesmerizing eyes. I wondered vaguely if this was how a staked goat felt being stalked by a ravenous lion; happy to be the sacrificial offering and eaten alive. He strode up behind the counter and then I was up against my closed office door, his mouth on mine with demanding hunger.

His kisses seemed almost harsh or angry, but I was too busy loving the touch of his lips and tongue to care too much right then what his problem was. When I moaned my desire softly into his mouth and pressed up closely against him, Luke paused in his sensual assault on my senses.

Straightening up, he slid his hands down from encircling my waist to cup my bottom. He was staring down at me, broodingly silent and unmoving, while he held my ass in his hands. Then I felt his fingers slowly gathering up the hem of the back of my short, sweater dress. Feeling the thin fabric moving up higher, inch by inch, I was glad I’d chosen not to wear tights tonight. There was nothing but smooth thighs above my boots. His long fingers were absently stroking high on my thighs. Soon they were outlining the lower curves of my ass they’d found left exposed along the bottom edge of my boy shorts. Those fingers would come close, but never quite touch, the wetness his caresses and kisses were causing between my legs. His eyes were hidden beneath the lowered fan of his dark lashes and his mouth was serious, but I caught a flicker of satisfaction pass over his face at my unconcealed pleasure.

He slowly raised his eyes. I didn’t try to hide the aroused smile of happiness I wore as a result of his greeting. I didn’t even know if I could hide my desire should I want to for some reason; it felt like it would shine through. This man could bring me from zero to creaming my bikinis with only his knowing stare. His passionate kissing and intimate touches set me on fire in a way I’ve never experienced. I burned for him and let him know it.

I sensed something in Luke relax at my candid look. He smiled slowly, and heat flared openly in his eyes before I closed mine to his softer, slower kisses. He was expert and thorough, not missing touching on any area of my parted lips.

My hands flat on the door, I tilted my head back offering my exposed throat to his mouth. He leisurely kissed and sucked on me while his hands trailed up my sides, and teasingly skimmed over my breasts. At the feel of his teeth gently biting and then his tongue licking against my neck, my nipples hardened to tight, distended points obvious through even my bra and sweater dress. Luke continued to ignore them, except for brief, feather light touches with his fingers as he traced the curving fullness of my breasts with his hands.

I ran my fingers up the back of his thighs and squeezed his ass, digging into the rounded, taut muscles. I pulled him against me and rubbed his heavy arousal slowly against my lower stomach. I brought my hands between us, and ran my nails and palms up the front of each thigh. Lightly tracing over his balls, I cupped and softly squeezed him. Using both hands, I stroked up the length of his erection straining against the zipper of his pants. I allowed my roving fingers to apply harder pressure around the head of his dick for a moment, moving up and down. Luke murmured hoarse encouragement in my ear and pushed against my hands.

It was his turn to groan faintly when I sent my hands moving slowly up under his open jacket and along his hard stomach muscles. I caressed across his chest. I lingered over his flat nipples. I lightly pinched on the tips until they hardened into points I could feel through the cotton fabric of his shirt.

Luke pulled my hands away and held them down against my sides. He gave me quiet compliments while placing slow, open-mouthed kisses down my neck and across the tops of my breasts. I smiled dreamily.

Earlier this evening, I had dashed upstairs to get ready before my crew clocked out. Black is my color, and I was all about it tonight except for the sparkle of my silver jewelry. My mid-thigh length sweater dress was incredibly soft cashmere. A wide belt cinched in my waist, and I wore suede, high heeled boots that zipped up the back. A multi-strand necklace of delicate, silver chains graduated down from my throat and over my cleavage partially revealed by the scoop of the sweater’s wide neckline. My streaky blonde hair was twisted and piled up on my head in a tousled look. I wore diamond studs in my ears.

Squeezing his hands, I arched against him like a purring feline under his kisses. Luke murmured against my skin, “You look pretty tonight and smell so good.” He kissed the top curve of my right breast. I felt his tongue lightly lick my skin. “When you didn’t answer my calls…”

“I’m finished!” Anna popped up from behind the Deli case, shutting the sliding door with a thud while wiping her hands on a towel. “I am going to have to….”

Anna’s voice trailed off as she saw us. Luke had instantly spun around at the sound of her voice while keeping his left arm protectively around me. Even plastered boneless against the door and still in a sensual daze from Luke’s ministrations, I had to snicker at the identical shocked surprise on both their faces. Luke had made me forget we weren’t alone.

Anna recovered quickly. She made a beeline over to where we were standing. She glanced at me, and I groaned silently. I knew that innocent, quivering lips from trying-not-to-smile look. She gave in and grinned broadly.

“Hey, I’m Anna Johnson, Junior’s friend and partner. You must be Luke.” She dragged her gaze from Luke’s face and looked at me again with bright, inquisitive eyes that didn’t miss a detail of my unfocused state against the door. Her grin got bigger, if that was humanly possible. “I’m so happy to meet you.”

Luke bumped Anna’s fist with his own, losing his dark glare and smiling back easily. “Thanks, Anna. It’s great to meet you, too. You two have been friends a long time, since grade school, right?”

“Yes, first grade. Did she also happen to mention when we met she smacked me with her lunch box?”

I found my legs and pushed off the closed door to stand next to Luke while shaking my head and muttering, ‘And they’re off….”

Luke grinned, his dimple creasing his cheek. “No, she didn’t mention that part. She did that to you? Anabel seems to have violence issues. She smacks, she bites,” he squeezed my waist and slanted me a sly look, “she pushes. As her best friend, should I be worried, Anna?”

I rolled my eyes as Anna trilled with laughter. “Knowing her, I’d say you should worry most when Junior is quiet for too long. All the rest is just her way of showing affection.”

Luke chuckled, but I observed a calculating look fleetingly pass over his face as he spoke with Anna. If I hadn’t been watching him closely, I’d never have seen it flash by. It made me straighten to alertness, curious what he was up to.

“I think we’ll need to talk more about Anabel’s bad habits. This would be only for my future protection, of course.” Luke gave me a quick smile. He ran his hand lightly up my arm and settled his arm around my shoulder.

Laughing, Anna instantly agreed. “Oh, of course!”

Protesting, I yanked on the zipper of his leather jacket. “You’re both crazy. I haven’t heard even one bad habit mentioned here yet. What are you two talking about, anyway?”

They both groaned. Luke hugged me close while saying to Anna over my head, “Add delusional to the list, Anna.”

Anna was laughing, but I saw her fascination with Luke’s easy affection towards me. Moving away from his arms to walk a few steps to the checkout counter, I groaned again silently. I was really in for the third degree soon.

“Since Anabel has no bad habits,” Luke coughed into his fist and cleared his throat, “then what should you warn me about, Anna?” He leaned in and joked conspiratorially, “It must be all her dirty secrets only a best friend knows you want to tell me about.”

I relaxed. My earlier suspicions from seeing that look pass over his face melted away. Surely he wouldn’t announce his intentions to pump Anna for intel about me, not with me right there?

Luke and I have talked about anything and everything as we explore getting to know one another. Anything and everything except our personal pasts, if we were currently seeing anyone else, or our wants and needs in a relationship. We are carefully dancing around those touchy subjects.

I was happy never to go there. Those types of conversations got out of hand too easy. Talks like that invariably brought up issues. Issues caused misunderstandings and problems. Problems meant explanations, discussions, and more discussions. Enter next the resolutions, and then the ultimatums. Ultimatums brought on head-aches. Who in their right mind actively seeks a head-ache? One minute you are happily dating and thinking everything is groovy, and nothing needs fixing. The next you are depressed and contemplating lifelong self-pleasuring as the only answer.

I had no idea how Luke would react to finding out I was dating other men. Men can be so contrary. Too often in the past, it seems to drive a man nuts when they really get I’m not looking for a shout-it-to-the-world, sexually monogamous boyfriend scene. They see it as an insult or a challenge. It seems simple to me. If I care about one man enough, I will be monogamous to him because I want to be with no other man. You can’t force loyalty with words. It’s a gift you give with actions. Relationships don’t really come with an automatic, thirty-year guarantee regardless of the wear and tear of daily life.

I didn’t know what Luke intended to say to me about missing his recent calls before Anna interrupted moments ago. All these thoughts made me unsettled and slightly nervous, so I excused myself to finish closing up.

Walking into my office, I heard Anna giggling to Luke, “Junior is so full of dirty secrets; I wouldn’t even know where to begin. It doesn’t matter though, since I can’t tell you a single thing.”

‘Crap!’
With a man like Luke, that was the same as waving the red flag in a bull ring.

“Anna, was that a challenge I heard?” was Luke’s teasing response.

‘Crap and more crap!
Anna, use your brain here
….’

“God, no!” was Anna’s cheerful answer.

‘Thank you, I love you Anna!’

“There’s no challenge, Luke. Best friends are vaults. Period. The end. It’s a girl thing.”

“So, vaults and best friends are only a girl thing?” was the silken reply.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m sure there are many gay guys out there that know what I mean, but most straight guys don’t have a clue how a woman really thinks.”

“Yes, men are basically clueless idiots, aren’t we?” Luke easily agreed.