Human Hieroglyphix - Dex & Leila (10 page)

Remembering that I stored extra tooth supplies underneath the sink, I broke the seal on both a new toothbrush and new toothpaste and tried to get rid of that God awful taste.

I was feeling a lot more human when I left the tiny bathroom and hoped I looked that way too as I made my way into the kitchen and gingerly sat on one of the barstools.

Dex was at the stove, slowly scrambling eggs.  Still wearing nothing but a pair of jeans.

My eyes roamed over his broad shoulders and muscled back that were covered in tattoos.  Actually it appeared to be one big tattoo.

That disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans.

Jeans that hugged his ass perfectly.

I may have been hung over but even in my state, there was a scenic route in my kitchen and I was going to take it.

"Feeling better?" he asked softly, eyeing me over his shoulder before turning off the burner.

"Yes, thanks," I mumbled.

He moved to the coffee pot and poured me a cup before refilling his own that was sitting on the counter by the stove.

He eyed me over the rim of the coffee mug emblazoned with 'Oklahoma is OK!'. 

Some people collect shot glasses, others collect t-shirts.  But I, in my travels, collected coffee mugs.  But since I didn't travel that much, I only had about six or seven of them.

His level gaze on me had me squirming.  '

Well it might have been his gaze or the squirming might have been because of his well muscled chest on display.

"You do this often?" he asked.

"Which part?" I asked still not speaking in my normal voice.  The sounds that were coming out of my throat were thicker, gruffer.

"Drink yourself stupid," he said moving away from the counter at the stove to lean his elbows on the bar across from me.

"Never," I said between sips of my coffee.  "It's a first for me."

Dex didn't say anything as he again watched me over the rim of his cup.

"So.  My memory is very hazy."  I swallowed trying to force the words out of my throat as my gaze flitted around the room carefully avoiding him.  "What happened?"

I watched as he raised one of his broad, muscled and stunningly tattooed shoulders.

"Nothing much," he drawled.  "You were sucking them back at Henry's and then when the cops came, you told everyone I was your husband and we had to go home and fuck 'cause you were ovulating…"

"Calling Bullshit," I murmured taking another swallow of Dex's surprisingly good coffee.

He smiled.

"Would you believe that you got plastered at Henry's and then tried to have wild, monkey sex with me on the hood of my Jeep in your driveway while screaming 'Baby, you're so good..."

"Bullshit, again," I said cutting him off again, although it must be said that the thought of having sex with Dex had me squirming but in a much different way than my earlier squirms.

I may have been hung over, but Dex's smile was positively unnerving. 

And I couldn't help but smile back at him in return.

"Hey!  I know you," Dex said with the sound of wonder in his voice.  "You're the goose-bump, Blue Pansy girl, right?"

His outburst took me by surprise.

He
remembered
me?

He remembered
me
?

Goose-bumps?  He saw those when he was…when I was…geez.

I nodded slowly.

"Damn, girl.  You clean up nice."

Which begs the question, if he was admiring me now, the severely hung over 'me' with pasty green skin and swollen eyes that were probably due to me not taking the contacts out before sleeping--a definite no-no per Yvonne at Dr Eastland's office--then what version of 'me' had he seen that night in his shop?

"Thanks," I mumbled.  "So you want to tell me what
really
happened, Dex?"

He grabbed my mug along with his own and did a refill of each before answering.

"Dirk at Henry's was going to call you a cab because you were becoming wasted after three drinks.  Rather than that, I said I'd take you home." 

He placed my cup in front of me.

"How'd you know where I live?"

"I tried calling Crystal like you asked me to, but she didn't know you from the description I gave her.  I, ah, had to dig in your purse for the address, hope that's okay."  He sounded uncertain, unsure.

I took another sip of my coffee thinking.

"How'd I end up on the sofa?" I asked.

"Too heavy to heave you up the stairs, babe," Dex said unapologetically.  "But you were too far gone to be left alone.  So I left you on the couch after getting your shoes off  and I went upstairs and slept in your bed.  Checked on you a few times to make sure you were going to alright."

"You slept in my bed?"

"Uh-huh.  Smells of you.  Kind of a great smell actually," he admitted with a smile.  "Ready to eat, Leila?"

He said my name
.

I felt my heartbeat throbbing in several areas throughout my body that couldn't be chalked up to having a hangover.

I nodded wordlessly as I watched the Greek God that was currently in residence in my kitchen start to dish up toast and eggs.

Breakfast was over and Dex had gone upstairs to get his clothes while I moved slowly around my kitchen cleaning up.  My mind was skittering around trying to memorize everything about this morning but that seemed almost beyond my power due to three drinks.

Three freaking drinks.

But it got Dex to come in and stay the night, a portion of me whispered.

And he made you breakfast.

"Hey, Leila?" I heard him call and made my way to the living room noticing he had donned his t-shirt and was putting on his boots.

"Yeah?" I replied leaning my thighs against the back of the couch as I faced him.

"Would you like to have dinner with me tonight?" he said, his head still pointing at his boots.

"Yes, please," I answered.

His head came up quickly and his eyes caught mine as a slow grin made its way across his face.

"That's it?  'Yes, please'?"

"I don't know what you mean.  You asked, I answered,"  I was confused even more than the hangover excuse gave me.

He rose slowly and snagged his jacket from the back of the chair.

"Not used to talking with female that didn't involve a whole lot of bullshit," he said moving towards me until he was close.

Very close.

Heartbeat booming, kind of close.

I was still facing the fireplace and Dex was facing the front door when his hand reached across my upper chest before settling to grip my neck.  I twisted my head to look up at him.

"Like it, babe," he whispered looking directly at me.  "Like it a lot."

Then he did the most amazingly, weird thing.  Dex brought his nose alongside mine and slowly rubbed. 

I felt my hands grip the sofa cushions to hold myself steady.

"Pick you up at seven?" he murmured just millimeters away from my mouth.

I couldn't speak. 

My throat had closed and I was having enough trouble just trying to breathe.

So I nodded instead.

For a wordy-girl, I sure was speechless around him.

Chapter Twelve

'Major crisis,' my text began. 'First date with the man I've been crushing on.  Need wardrobe help STAT.'

It was two hours before Dex was supposed to pick me up and I was near tears.

I had taken a four hour nap and was starting to feel like my old self. 

Exactly like my old self that didn't have a clue on what to wear or how to behave or anything.  I understand that most females went through this sort of shit in their early teens, but it was my first time and I was not, repeat not, dealing with this well. 

As seen from the text I sent to all three of my girls, my new fashion gurus.

'Where's he taking you?' Cait responded.  I was just in the middle of texting 'don’t know' back to her when I heard from Marianne.

'Jeans and your sparkly purple tank. Black heels, leather jacket,' came Marianne's reply.

'Your new FMPs and a smile,' Crystal replied with a smiley faced icon.

'What's an FMP?' I texted back not realizing I had inadvertently sent it to all three of them.

After two 'LOLs' I finally got the explanation from Marianne, I think because she, more than either Cait or Crys, understood that this was my first walk down Fashion Lane.  'FMP = Fuck Me Pumps aka Heels'.

'OMG, we 4got 2 do makeup!' came from Crys.

'You have more makeup than the gloss, right?' came from Cait.

'Be over in ten,' I read from Marianne.

And she was although she was packing.  She came with her whole makeup drawer, no
seriously
, she had the whole DRAWER in her hand when I opened the door.  I couldn't help but laugh as I held the door open for her.

"Wow, you look wonderful," Marianne said coming in and moving straight to the dining room table and off-loaded the drawer.  "Turn around, honey, let me see the full effect."

So I did a brief swirl.

"Beautiful!  Where'd you get your hair done?"

And we were off, talking about my full day of Beauty yesterday.  About halfway through the conversation Marianne had seated me in one of the four chairs around the table and had begun applying stuff to my face.  I say 'stuff' because I, honest to God, didn't know what she putting on me.

"Okay, done!" Marianne said.  "Go look."

I moved quickly to the small bathroom underneath the stairs and flicked on the light before stepping to the mirror.

"Holy shit," I whispered turning my face from side to side to admire her handiwork.  My eyes looked smoky and huge but were balanced by my full, shiny mouth.  She had performed a miracle.

"What'd you think, Lei?  Too much?" she asked.

"Perfect," I replied quickly.  "Will you, at some point, teach me how to do this?"

Her arm went around my waist and I snaked my arm over her shoulders.

"It'd be my pleasure," she said to our reflections in the mirror.

I still had the front door open after watching Marianne leave when I saw Dex pull up.  My heart, beneath my purple, sequined tank top, sped up and I shoved my hands the back pockets of my jeans as I watched him make his way from the driveway to my front door.

"Hey, gorgeous.  How you doing?" Dex said, stopping to drop a kiss on my cheek before moving further into my house.

"Better than this morning," I said smiling while closing the door.

"You definitely look like you feel better, babe."  I saw Dex's eyes when they completed a full body scroll on me.

"And you're wearing a lot more clothes than you were wearing this morning,
babe
," I teased moving to slide my feet into my new black heels and grab my leather jacket.

I had already done my own full body assessment on him noticing that he was wearing a olive green lightweight sweater over a white t-shirt that exactly matched the green of his eyes.  Topped with a brown leather jacket that matched his boots in both color and suppleness, he looked like something out of a magazine.

"Ready?" he asked as he moved to help me with my coat, slipping his hand beneath my hair and pulling it out of the collar.

"Where're we going?" I asked turning back to lock the deadbolt as he waited for me on the porch stairs.

"Thought we'd start at The Roses and work it out from there."

I paused at the open door of his jeep.

"Start at the most expensive place in town and then work it out from there?"  I couldn't help it, I threw back my head as the laughter bubbled up from somewhere around my toes.

I heard him join me in and soon got caught up in the sound of his laughter, the beauty of Dex, as he laughed with me. 

As it wound down, I found my hand was planted in the middle of his chest and his hand was holding mine there.

In the quiet moments after our storm of laughter, our eyes caught and held. 

I saw his head begin to lower towards mine and I tilted my chin up further giving him a clear signal that I was…that I was, what?

His for the taking?  Nope, that'd be too much, too soon for me.

That I was interested in being kissed?  At the beginning of the evening?  Nope.  Didn't think that was a good idea, either.

He took the explanation out of my hands, and out of my head, when he did the whole nose stroke thing again.

Perfect.

Close enough that we shared a touch but not crossing the line for either one of us.

*.*.*.*.*

Felt like we'd spent hours at The Roses but when I looked at my phone it was only nine-thirty.  Not liked it dragged, but that I was just so aware of him, of Dex, that I couldn't really relax.