Heather is the luckiest bitch in the world right now. Her first date in years and the gods decide to bless her with this gorgeous heart palpitatingly (if that’s even a word) hot man. Thank you Jess. How was she going to survive the date and for that matter, participate in a conversation? This man's hotness is so off the charts that it rendered her mute.  When his amber eyes first locked on hers, a shiver so unexpected ran down her spine that it took her a few beats to recover. And goodness gracious, that light brown hair, what she wouldn’t give to run a hand through it… Relax Heather.

She seriously needed to regain her wits and was glad for the short walk to the next location, a small quaint coffee shop. This was more her speed anyway. A noisy bar isn’t a place for a first date and since Kylie’s disappearance, Heather only goes to bars when Jess and Kat drag her kicking and screaming. She likes the quiet atmosphere here and thought it would be the best place to have a relaxing conversation with mister sexy pants who is still holding her hand.

He guides Heather into the coffee shop and directs her to the booth in the corner. She takes a seat and waits patiently while he heads over to the barista to place their orders. When his back is to her, Heather's eyes follow his shapely ass, not forgetting to admire his tight black t- shirt that shows off his slender, muscular body. Involuntarily, she licks her lips at the sight of him, thinking of all the dirty things she’d like to do.

If that sight wasn’t enough, he yawns, stretching his arms above his head, causing his shirt to rise and his muscular back to come into view. Like a magnet, her eyes drop to his waist, and when she gets a peek of what’s under his clothing, the sight is glorious. Why is he wearing that stupid shirt?

She watches the sway of his hips as he leans against the counter to place his order and wonders what it would feel like if her legs were wrapped around them. The barista obviously is just as attracted to him, because her face is beet red, and it appears as though she is trying to keep it professional as she takes his order, but failing miserably. Poor thing.

Heather feels her pain, or perhaps her pleasure, as she continues to stare at his ass in those tight, dark blue jeans that fit him nicely.

“Jesus, Heather, you are not a cat in heat,” she mumbles to herself, while continuing to stare at this gorgeous specimen. She is startled when he abruptly turns around, fixing his penetrating gaze on her. A heart stopping smirk along with a raised eyebrow accompanies this. Heather’s eyes narrow at first, but then she switches to a grin in an attempt to hide what she was doing, probably failing miserably.

Did he just hear me? The thought runs through her mind, but she quickly squashes it as he turns back around to pay the barista, grabs the waiting coffees and heads toward their table. Heather glances around him and catches the barista and a few other staff members ogling his ass like she just did. One of them catches Heather’s eye and gives her a thumbs up sign while smiling big. Heather returns it with a small smirk to the swooning women at the counter, thanking all the gods in the world again that this man is out with her.

Yes, this man is hot and he knows it. In fact, now that she has taken a quick moment to ponder his demeanor and not his overpowering male hotness, she snaps out of the teenage hormonal version of herself. For the sake of all womankind, she needs to gain the upper hand on this date.

He saunters to the table and places both steaming cups of goodness on the table.

“Nice to finally have a spot to ourselves, eh?” He smiles, taking the empty seat across from her.

“Sure is,” Heather says, staring lazily at him. Snap out of it Heather.

She does.

In fact, she comes to a stark realization, which gives her more resolve to ward off his overpowering Alpha maleness that makes her dumb. Before she loses the nerve, or little Heather decides to take over her brain again, she goes in for the kill. “Can I ask you a question, Steve?” Heather leans forward, being careful not to get too close.  

“Ask me anything,” he responds, leaning in closer. Heather retreats a little and he takes the opportunity to inch in closer.

Before she loses her nerve, she blurts out, “Do you always use that smile in the hopes of getting laid?” Score one for women of the world.

Heather attempts successfully to hold back her giggle as his jaw drops. She was about to tell him that she takes it back when a deep hearty laugh follows. Even his laugh gives her the feels in her lady place. Gah!

Placing his hand over his chest, he mocks hurt, causing Heather to laugh right along with him. She hasn’t laughed this hard with a man in years and she likes it, especially with him.

That obvious huh,” he replies. “It usually works on strangers when I want something like a free coffee or a discount on movie tickets.”

“I can see why,” Heather whispers, bowing her head to try and hide the blush, but it’s a lost cause.  She looks up and catches his eyes again. How the hell can she keep the upper hand when he looks at her like that?”

“I mean you had me speechless at first,” she admits, “but now I’m immune to your evil powers.”

“Are you?” he responds, a little too breathy for her liking, and then moves in closer. “I still have a few tricks up my sleeve that you haven’t seen yet.”

Defiantly, Heather matches his movement inching forward. “You aren’t the only one who knows a few tricks.”

He places his hand on top of hers, caressing her skin with his thumb. “Should I be afraid then?” he says, staring at her lips like they are his last meal. “Of your tricks that is.”

Lust runs through Heather’s body when he moistens his lips with his tongue. What she wouldn’t give to suck on them. She is so getting kicked out of the sisterhood for letting these hormones take over.

“Perhaps it’s me that should be afraid of you,” she says, inching closer, wanting to feel the heat of his lips on hers.

“Maybe you should,” he responds, mirroring her forward motion.

Heather’s heart pounds as their lips become a whisper’s length apart. If she shifts her face a mere centimeter to the left, then their mouths would be touching ... a little bit closer then she’d be able to taste his …

A loud crashing noise causes them both to jerk back simultaneously, They both then stare at each other with similar knowing grins. Heather glances over his shoulder in time to catch an obviously annoyed patron rising from the floor, with her toppled chair under her.

Her eyes go back to his. “I guess someone doesn’t want us to get the party started too early.” She puts her hand over her mouth. Yup, totally out of the sisterhood. “I mean, uh.” Foot meet mouth.

He smiles, gently tugging her hand away from her face. “Too late. You said it.”

“Yeah, I have a tendency to speak before I think,” she mutters. “Sorry about that.”

“No worries, babe, I was thinking the same thing.” He winks at her.  

Babe?

Heather’s eyes glaze over as her mind absorbs the term of endearment he just used for her. The way his lips came together to form the actual word made her feel warm inside for some strange reason, an emotion that has been foreign to her for many years.

As he continues to hold and caress her hand, the callousness of his fingers sends subliminal signals of pleasure to her core. Her thoughts drift to how they would actually feel… holding her, touching her, his rough fingers…inside her. She is so turned on that she doesn’t even realize what he’s actually saying. She can only focus on the movement of his mouth.

Damn that mouth.

If it weren’t for the idiot over there who distracted them, she would be sampling this sexy goodness right now. She’s pretty sure that he can do some interesting things with those lips of his.

“Heather?” he calls, knocking her out of her thoughts, a slight strain in his voice.

“Huh, what?” she stammers, trying to remember what they were talking about.

“You’re doing that cute thing where you stare off into space like you’re deep in thought.”

He notices, she thinks to herself as she remains silent at his observation.

“What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?” He smirks, the smile appearing to be genuine but tense, as he strangely takes in an extremely deep breath through his nose, like he’s trying to smell her. Weird

“I, umm.” Her mind cannot formulate a response so he takes mercy on her, quickly changing the subject.

“So, Heather, how long have you lived in this town?”

“I’ve been here for the better part of two years,” she explains.  “I enjoy it because it still has the city feel, but if you need to get away from it all, there are plenty of quiet forests to roam in.”

“I totally agree,” he responds, nodding his head. “I prefer the woods, but definitely like to go to the city when I really want to party.”

“That’s cool,” Heather says, taking a sip of her coffee. “So, Jess didn’t tell me much about you,” she confesses. “What do you do for a living?”

“I do a lot of odd jobs here and there. How about you?”  Heather notices his evasive answer, but brushes it off and instead gets lost in his eyes.

They talk the entire night about her insane job and asshole boss. He tells her how much he loves the outdoors. He has a twinkle in his eye when he talks about running through the woods with his sister and friend. He mentions a brother, but quickly shuts down any further questions about him.

“Closing in 10 minutes,” the barista announces.

“I didn’t realize how much time had passed,” she whispers.

“Time flies when you’re talking to a beautiful lady.” He reaches out to caress her cheek but stops short, moving his hand back to his coffee cup.

“If you wanted to come back to my place for a drink you could have just asked.” She takes this chance to give him her own sexy smile.

His eyes brighten. “Touché, babe. Then let’s go.”

* * *

After the coffee shop, Max gives Heather a ride to her place. As they pull into the driveway, Heather panics for several reasons. First, there will be a man in her place, second, she can’t remember if her laundry was put away and third, there will be an extremely hot man in her home. She shakes off the nerves and rushes out of the car, wanting to get to her door first.

Searching for her keys during the trek from his car, Heather makes it to the top of the stairs, not realizing that Max is directly behind her. She yelps in surprise as he wraps his strong arms around her waist, placing soft kisses on her neck. Heather leans her head back to accept them, dropping her keys in the process.

He snickers and then whispers in her ear, “Aren’t you going to let me in?”

Feeling his hot breath on her neck, her body shivers. She holds it together and responds in a sarcastic tone, “I’m contemplating.”

“Let me help you make up your mind,” Max replies.

Spinning her around, he pushes her against the door and locks eyes with her for a beat as if asking for an invitation. She nods and then, in a flash, he puts his mouth on hers. The kiss is gentle at first, as if he wants to learn the contours of her lips and the taste of her mouth, but it quickly morphs into something more demanding, something raw and primal that she has never felt before. It scares Heather initially because she had never known that much passion could exist in someone, so she tries to pull away. Unfortunately, or fortunately for her, he tightens his hold deepening the kiss even more. She moans in his mouth because this feels oh so good. Her arms, as if having a mind of their own, effortlessly wrap around his neck and surrender to what she thought was only his need until she realizes that it’s her own.  

She figures he must be confident that she isn’t going to pull away again, because he loosens his hold on her and explores the rest her body. Heat courses through her as one of his hands glides slowly down her side, stopping at her breasts and squeezing them gently. She is currently thanking her lucky stars that she wore a corset. There is something about the way he is touching her and the feel of the silky material against her hard nipples that causes a surge of wetness to dampen her underwear.

This new feeling of arousal causes her to grind her hips against his and that is when she feels it. His hardness. And holy hell, the only thing that she can think of is yanking his jeans off, wrapping her legs around his and letting him take her right there on the porch.

As if he reads her mind, he grabs her by the ass, lifting her from the ground. She follows her lustful thoughts from moments ago and wraps her legs around his waist, allowing his jean-clad bulge to rub against her wet scrap of panties.

The kissing and grinding go on for so long that she loses track of time and just as she reaches for the buckle of his pants, a loud moan and thumping sound causes them to abruptly pull apart. They stare at each other panting, trying to figure out how a simple kiss became … that. Heather opens her mouth to speak when another thump hits the door, followed by an even louder mewl.

“What the hell was that?” he asks smiling at her, his eyes still filled with the heat of their encounter.

“That,” she motions to the door with her thumb, “is my boyfriend, Fred. He’s a jealous kitty.” Shrugging her shoulders, he helps her down, the whole time chucking at her response.

“Let’s get inside before someone see us and calls the cops.” Grinning, she lightly bumps his hip, and then bends over to pick up the keys. “Or Fred claws his way through the door and tries to murder us.”

As they both enter the house, she can barely hide the happiness that’s suddenly hit her. Not only is she totally getting laid, but also, she actually likes this guy and this could turn into more.

She leaves him in the living room, heading straight to the kitchen to grab a drink and some cat treats to appease her crazy animal. “Did you want anything to drink?” she yells while scanning the fridge. “I have beer and wine.”

“I’ll take a beer,” he shouts, his voice sounding as if he’s in a different part of the house. A sense of dread seeps into the pit of her stomach as a single thought rushes into head. Did I lock that door?

Rushing out of the kitchen, she runs to the room that contains the Kylie wall and hopes that he didn’t go in. Unfortunately, she is proven wrong when she catches him inside, just staring at the pictures. Her hands tremble and a lump forms in her throat, as she eyes him studying her obsession.

When he finally acknowledges her presence, the panic and fear of being judged by others for what she chooses to do with her life grips her so hard that she can barely move from where she stands. The silence between them lasts for a few beats and just as she’s about to break the silence, he does it for her.

“I…I was just looking for the bathroom and the door was open.” He frowns, but this doesn’t make her feel any better. “I’m really sorry I intruded.”

He attempts to approach her, but she backs away and whispers, “It’s okay. You probably think I’m crazy after seeing all this.” She goes to leave, but he grabs her by the arm, twisting her around to face him. She bows her head and mumbles, “I’ll understand if you want to end the date.”

He tips her chin up, their eyes lock and he says to her softly, “I’m not going anywhere, babe. Besides, you owe me a beer.”

She studies him intently, checking to see if his response is genuine, because it would kill her if it weren’t. It was. Warmth settles in her chest at this knowledge, but she senses that he has more to say.

“Just so you know, if you want to talk about it, I’m here.”

Talk about it? She barely knows the guy, so why would she tell him a thing? All thoughts of keeping her mouth fly out of her head as soon as he takes her hand, the warmth from it somehow enveloping her heart like a warm blanket. Her body visibly relaxes as he escorts her out of the space and back to the living room.

“Thanks,” she says, taking a seat on the couch. “I wasn't really prepared for a visitor tonight and that's why the door wasn’t locked. The only people that have been to my place are Jess and Kat. I keep others out, for obvious reasons,” she further explains.

"Don't worry about it, babe. You can tell me about it when you're ready. Even if you never want to, that's okay, too."

"Steve," she interjects.

"Yeah?"

"Let's go have that drink and, I'll tell you the entire story.”