"It’s just not my thing," she replies. "But you – you're a serial dater, huh?”
"Looking to become a cereal one," I reply, gesturing to the board full of fancy products that she sells. She groans, slaps a hand to her forehead, as though the pun is downright painful to her.
"I can’t believe I didn’t see that coming," she replies. "Oh, sorry, can you just...?”
She gestures for me to wait a second while she serves a new batch of customers who have just come in. Even though she must be exhausted from running this place, she is bright and perky with them, laughs at their jokes, cracks a few of her own. She’s got such a rapport with everyone here, and I know that she’s the woman I need to take to that wedding with me.
She lets me sit with her for the rest of the evening, and she chats to me about running this place – about opening it so that she could make somewhere for people who didn’t want to party all the time to come and relax, something that she would have sought out when she was a little younger. And, when the clock passes midnight, people start to clear out, and she sighs and plants her hands on her hips.
"I guess I should kick you out now," she tells me, a little reluctantly. "I’m meant to be closing up..."
"I can help," I offer her, and she stares at me for a moment.
"Really?”
"Really," I reply, and I get to my feet and come around her side of the counter. "So. Tell me what I need to do."
She talks me through shutting off all the machines for the day, and positions me over by the sink to take care of the washing up. Normally, I would be in bed myself, ready for early morning CrossFit at six in the morning, but I know I couldn’t sleep even if I tried. My head is buzzing with the energy that she’s giving off, with the intensity of whatever I feel for her right now.
"You make a pretty good dishwasher," she remarks to me as she leans back against the counter and watches me at work. I would stand here all night and scrub every dish in this place if it meant that I would be able to stay here with her.
"Hire me," I shoot back at her, and she laughs.
"Don’t you run your own business?" she points out. "Might get in the way of that..."
"Might," I reply, and I dry my hands off and turn to her once I am done. "Or it might work out just fine."
"Hmm," she murmurs back, and she cups her hands around the tea that she has been sipping on for the last half-hour. The lights are off in the café, the only brightness coming from the streetlights filtering through the glass from outside. In the dim light, her skin seems to glow with this gorgeous golden tone that makes it hard to think about anything but her, her. Her.
I take a step towards her. Her eyes don’t shift from mine. I know that she can feel it, too. She might not be willing to admit it just yet, but there is something here between us – something that is not worth denying.
"So, how do I get paid for my work tonight?" I ask her playfully, and she reaches out to skim a hand up my bare arm.
"I can think of a few ways," she replies, and I reach down to grasp her hips, pull her closer to me. She lets out a little giggle, her eyes flashing with excitement at what is to come next.
And then – finally – I lower my lips down to hers, and I kiss her for the very first time.
Chapter Four
Lucky
As soon as our lips meet, I know that this connection is real. And I know that I am about to do something that is completely against all the rules that I live by.
I told myself, when I first started this place, that I wasn’t going to fall for anyone while I was getting it off the ground. I wasn’t going to distract myself with some random man. But then he walks in here, with that smile on his face, with that flirt in his voice, and I don’t know how in the hell I am meant to say no to him.
I don’t want to, that’s for sure. As he pushes me back against the counter, and I hurry to put my cup down before it drenches both of us, I wind my arms around him and forget about all the very sensible rules that keep my life in order. Because the way that he feels right now, the way that he is kissing me – I know that I am not going to be able to resist him.
His mouth is hungry and passionate against mine, and I arch my back to press myself against him, feeling the strength of his powerful, hard body. God, it feels like every nerve ending in my body is lighting up all at once. His hands move to my waist as he deepens the kiss, his tongue against my own, and hitches me up onto the counter so that I can wrap my arms around his neck and pull him close to me.
He traces his lips down to my neck, and I shiver and moan against him. To think, only a few minutes ago, this entire place was filled with people – and now, I am about to do something that breaks every health code in the state.
I don’t care.
I reach down to grasp his hair, pull him up to face me again, and kiss him once more. I need to feel him inside of me – I can already sense the hardness of his cock through his pants, and I part my legs and wrap them around him, grinding myself up against him hard. I need this. I need him.
"Please, don’t stop," I whimper in his ear. I can feel him smile against me, clearly cocky with the sureness that he’s got me right where he wants me. I don’t care. I am willing to give him anything that it takes if it means that he will take me right now. When I touch his skin, it’s like I am carving my name into wood, making sure that I will always be remembered there.
I let my fingers trail down his skin, pushing one hand up beneath his shirt so that I can feel his muscular stomach, and then gripping his cock through his pants with the other. He growls with want, his teeth against my ear, and unzips his pants and takes his hardness into his hand.
"Open your legs," he orders me, and I do as I am told at once. I am only wearing a dress, and I am glad that he has such easy access to me right now. I don’t want anything to get in the way of this, to get in the way of how damn good it feels to be with him in this way.
He reaches up between my thighs and rips my panties off, tossing them to the ground behind us, and moves towards me. The tip of his cock is pressed against my slit, and I can feel the delicious pressure of it beginning to open me up. I tip my head back and let out a moan, not sure how to tell him how much I want him right now.
"You want me to fuck you like this?” he asks, and I know he’s getting off on making me wait. He inches himself forward again, so that I can feel just his tip inside of me, and I let out another groan. This is almost too much for me to take...
"Yes, yes," I pant, and I hook my ankles behind his back to draw him into me. And, finally, he pushes all the way inside of me, and fills me with his cock for the very first time.
For a moment, the sensation is more than I can take. My whole body arches towards him, my hands gripping his shoulders, his back, his arms, anything that will ground me next to him the way that I need to be. He slides into me up to the hilt and then holds himself there for a moment, so I can feel his full length throbbing inside of me, his hardness filling me all the way up.
"Oh, fuck," he growls in my ear, and I know that it feels as good for him as it does for me. I want more. I shift my hips to the very edge of the counter, so that he can take every inch of me that he wants, and then, finally, he starts to really please me.