Elaine left about ten minutes before Kit was due to arrive.

I practiced walking about in my black boots, and it wasn’t so bad. Elaine had persuaded me to wear stockings so it didn’t chaff too bad. When the doorbell rang I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as I walked to it.

I opened it to Kit’s sharply indrawn breath, and the smell of clean soap and mothballs. He must have dug out some long unused clothes from his cupboard.

“Wow,” he exclaimed.

“Elaine, you know, my best friend, I told you about her, made me up,” I babbled with a big grin.

“You look amazing.”

I wrinkled my nose. “You smell of mothballs.”

“Sorry.”

“I don’t know. I’ve always been a bit of sucker for the smell of mothballs. Mmmm.”

He reached forward, and cupping my buttocks with his large, calloused hands, pulled me close to his body. His body was warm, and the buttons on his shirt pressed into me. “Did somebody say something about sucking?” he asked.

“I might have mentioned it,” I whispered. This close I could smell his skin. My stomach tightened.

He kissed me long and lingeringly, and I felt my blood pulsing in my veins, and my stomach clench tightly. In his arms my body began to shiver with desire. Just when I thought my whole soul would be laid bare to him, he raised his head and whispered, “Do you know I’m batshit crazy about your scent? It’s fucking driving me insane. Aren’t you wearing panties, or something?”

I giggled. “You don’t think I would be that naughty, do you?”

He rubbed his hands sensuously around my butt cheeks, then stopped and said, incredulously, “You little tease. You’re not wearing any, are you?”

“Nope.”

He groaned. “Fuck, how am I supposed to eat knowing you’ve gone commando? Did I just feel the garters of your stocking against my leg?”

“Obviously, since I’m planning on seducing you tonight.”

“The only one seducing anyone tonight, will be me. Guess what I’m going to do to you this fine night?”

My cheeks burned. “I don’t know. What?”

“I’m gonna open your legs and make full use of my free parking permit for hours and hours.”

“You are a wild and wicked man, Kit Carson,” I mock-scolded while grinning stupidly up at him. Nobody had ever wanted me like this. Despite the fact that Sawyer seemed to have developed some kind of creepy possessiveness all of a sudden, until now, nobody wanted the blind girl. I was more like the town mascot. A way for them to feel good about themselves. No matter how bad things got at least, thank God, they still had their sight. Not like poor Lara, living all alone in darkness.

“Do you want to come in?” I asked.

“Do I ever?” he said. Without letting go of my body, he walked me backwards and shut the door with his foot.

“Want a drink? Elaine brought a bottle of shine, and there’s still some left.”

“Nope. I want to see your studio.”

I was suddenly shy. “Oh! Uh … it might not be your thing.”

“I don’t have much time for art, but I do want to see what you’ve created. It’ll be like peeking into your head.”

I bit my bottom lip. “Okay, but you don’t have to pretend you like it or anything like that if you don’t. I’m all right with the fact that it might not be to your taste.”

“You’ll never catch me pretending anything,” he said softly, almost absently, while his finger lightly stroked my cheek.

I took a step back from him, and squaring my shoulders led the way.

“Jesus, that’s some dress you have on. Even the back view is giving me a hard on,” he growled behind me.

I laughed and kept walking as if I was sophisticated and had men say such risqué things to me all the time, but there was more sway to my hips than there was before. It was quite amazing how quickly I had become such a sexual creature after a lifetime of being completely sexless.

At the door to my studio, I hesitated.

“I’m gonna have to see some day,” he whispered close to my ear.

I turned the knob and entered, knowing the first thing he would see would be Ella, my mermaid. No one, not even Elaine, had laid an eye on her yet. She was the biggest project I’d ever attempted. I knew in my heart that she was the best thing I had ever done, but that made me nervous as hell that she might not be as good as I thought she was. “This is Ella. She’s not completely finished yet. The rock she is sitting on still needs to be polished and painted,” I said nervously.

“Where’s the light switch?” he asked.

“Oh, of course.” I whirled around, fumbled at the wall and switched the light on. I hadn’t used it in years, and hoped it still worked.

He gasped behind me. I stood very still, and listened to him walk towards my mermaid.

“My God, Lara, this is … it’s … just … superb. Wow, I never imagined something so magical … and the colors, how? Wow.”

I heard him walk around the sculpture, then stop, and turn towards me. “You saw this in your head?”

I shrugged. “Yeah.”

“But the colors? They match and blend. How did you?” He seemed amazed.

I shrugged. “That’s the way my mind thinks a mermaid should look.”

“It’s incredible, Lara,” he said sincerely. “I don’t know what I expected, but not this. I wouldn’t even have expected something so accomplished from someone with sight, but someone who lived in darkness. It’s pure genius.”

He walked up to me. His wonderful scent filled my nostrils as I buried my face in his neck. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“No, thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being so beautiful.”

“I’m not beautiful,” I said automatically.

“Shall I let you see what I am looking at?”

“Okay.”

“Elaine has painted your eyes so they look really big. Your cheeks are pink, and your mouth is the same color as the ripest, most delicious strawberry. It is slightly open as if it is begging for a kiss … or my cock.”

“Or food,” I said cheekily.

He laughed, a rich, deep sound. “Come on, little minx,” he said, putting his arm under my hand.

He helped me into my coat and buttoned me in. It was lovely to feel so protected and safe. I locked my door and we walked down the path together. It was cold and I was careful in my black boots. He put me in the truck, closed the door, and went around to the driver’s side.