Jay held open the door to his Cadillac Escalade and helped me into the truck. I had just spent the last fifteen minutes in the bathroom of Lace doing an emergency touch up of my makeup and hair. I also changed out of my Lace tank top into a flowy top with ruffles around the sleeves that was a little more appropriate to be wearing in public, but left on my black shorts and high-heels. Thank goodness I had the extra shirt in my car.

Now I was getting into Jay’s truck and heading to a diner that he said had the best food I’d ever taste. I wasn’t entirely sure what made me change my mind about going to breakfast with him. Maybe it was the look into his inner psyche that his music gave me. Or maybe it was just the way he fucked with my head when he was so close. Either way, I had no idea what I was doing going to breakfast with him. I knew we’d never go anywhere. He was a player and only wanted sex. I was lost and looking for something to help me through my difficult times. We were doomed from the start, and I only saw heartache in my future if I let this go further.

There was just something about him though that made me want to spend time with him. I enjoyed his flirting and the way it made me feel. I enjoyed being his sole focus whenever he was around. And I loved the way he could make me laugh.

Wrap it all up in a beautiful package, and I was far too drawn to him for my own good. But damn it, I was going to go with it and just enjoy myself. I had enough to worry about without adding to it.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Jay broke our silence. The only noise was coming from the sound of the tires on the road and music playing lowly in the background.

He looked over at me, and I shrugged in answer. He and I had spent quite a bit of time together over the last week whenever he came into the club and walked me to my car, and it was rare that I lacked anything to say. Why was I so tongue-tied and nervous?

He chuckled under his breath and shook his head. “I would have never pictured you shy like this. It’s cute.”

“Sorry. Long night.” I felt the need to apologize for some odd reason.

“No sweat, baby. I kinda like you quiet and docile. Makes it more exciting when your claws come out.” He chuckled again, and I smiled at him.

Realizing being shy was getting me nowhere, I decided to go for broke. “Play your cards right and I’ll show you what my claws feel like dragging down your back,” I said as seductively as I could.

He raised his eyebrows as his head twisted in my direction. His eyes were heated and showed a hunger that made me flush all over. Lust had transformed his normally beautiful face into something far more magnificent. I could only imagine what it would be like to have him looking down on me like that as he was moving inside me. “Is breakfast a requirement? ‘Cause, we can head back to my place right now, T.”

Yes, please, my inner slut screamed.

“T?” I asked instead of climbing in his lap and getting things started.

“Yeah, T. It fits you.”

I gave him an astonished look. “All I can picture is Mr. T with his Mohawk and gold chains. I’m not sure that fits me at all, Jay. And if you subject me to that, I’m going to have to come up with an epic name for you.”

We pulled into a parking spot in front of the diner. He shut the truck off and turned to me with his arm propped on the steering wheel.

“If you want you can call me your king when I’m fucking the shit out of you.” His lips twitched, and I knew he was teasing me.

Thank God because calling him king wasn’t about to happen. Like ever.

“You’re an ass, not a king,” I said as I stepped out of the truck.

He bumped my shoulder as we walked into the restaurant. “I thought you liked my ass.”

I smacked said ass before grabbing a handful of it. Damn it was tight. “I’ve seen better.”

“I feel so violated!” He joked before he put his arm around my shoulder and gave me an affectionate squeeze. I leaned into him and enjoyed how hard his body was. Hard and warm and so very nice against mine.

The waitress on duty told us to sit wherever we wanted. Jay chose a booth towards the back where there was no one even remotely close to us. Not that the place was packed at two-thirty in the morning.

We settled across from each other in the booth. I picked up the menus that sat in a holder on the table against the wall, handing one to Jay and keeping one for me.

“Oh, they have breakfast and dinner food,” I noted looking over the menu.

“They have the best grits you’ll ever taste.”

I made a gagging noise and then took a sip of my water. “Ugh! Gross! I hate grits!”

“How could you possibly hate grits?” His smirk was downright adorable.

“Very easily.” My body shuddered remembering the night I threw them up in college. “Never again will a grit pass these lips.”

My words had Jay staring at my lips. He opened his mouth to say something, but just then the waitress came over to take our orders. I decided on a cheeseburger, fries and a chocolate milkshake. Jay got a double order of bacon, biscuits with gravy, and grits. Gross.

“So explain the ‘T’ thing to me. I need to understand.” I propped my chin in my hand and gave him an inquisitive look.

“What’s there to understand? And why is it that women always want to know more? Sometimes things just are what they are. No hidden meaning or agenda.”

I waved my hand at him dismissing that thought. “We don’t have enough time to get into the women’s psyche. Besides we were talking about me and why you think the nickname ‘T’ fits me. So why don’t we focus on that for now?”

Jay laughed and shook his head. “You’re fucking nutty.”

“Nutty yet lovable,” I agreed with a bob of my head.

Suddenly serious, he leaned forward and took my hands in his. His thumbs caressed my palms as he rocked my world when he playfully said, “You’re tantalizing.”

He lifted one of my hands and kissed it. I gasped at the contact and how intimate it felt when his tongue lightly brushed my skin before he retreated. “You’re tasty.”

His eyes honed in on my chest. “You have great tits and a fantastic tush.”

His voice dipped lower and had a sexy edge to it. “And you’re totally fucking beautiful.”

“Wow,” I whispered. I felt my breath coming a little harder and my pulse beating wildly. That was… I didn’t know what it was. I just knew it was all good. So very, very good. Shaking myself from the trance he had me in, I continued, “You came up with that all on your own and that quickly?”

“Totally fucking nutty.” He shook his head again as if I was downright amusing. “Baby, you do know what I do for a living right? I could whip out a whole verse on the fly.”

“Oh. Right,” I said with a hint of embarrassment. Maybe it wasn’t as good as I initially thought. Maybe it was just a game to him. I shouldn’t be surprised.

“So, can I call you ‘T’ without you freaking out?”

“Yeah. I’ll allow it.” I feigned indifference, not wanting to admit to him that I absolutely loved the nickname now. “Just don’t expect me to say, ‘I pity the fool.’”

I watched as his body began shaking and then his smooth laughter filled the air. He let go of my hands when the waitress brought out our food, but he didn’t stop laughing for several moments. I was secretly thrilled that I could amuse him. I had a feeling he took life a little too seriously. Or maybe people were afraid to make him laugh because they were intimated by him and weren’t real with him.

We both dug into our meals and I had to keep myself from staring in disgust at the pile of grits sitting in a bowl taunting me.

I had a mouth full of burger when he started asking me questions about my past. When I initially met him, I didn’t want to tell him anything personal, but for some reason I now wanted him to know everything. It felt as though we were forging a friendship, and that meant a lot to me. Even if things never went any further, I knew I wanted to keep Jay in my life.

“So tell me about Tori before her days at Lace.”

I set my burger down and wiped my mouth with a napkin. “I grew up in the M Streets until I was ten. By then my father had taken the oil company he ran with my uncle Ted to the next level. Once the money really started pouring in, we moved to a ranch outside of town.”

“Damn. So you come from big money. That why you drive a Lexus?” He raised his eyebrows, and his face registered shock.

I nodded my head and twirled a fry in my ketchup. “My mom died when I was a teenager. It was unexpected. A brain aneurysm. It sucked. Anyway, my dad started dating and subsequently marrying women who got younger and younger. I think he was just trying to alleviate the pain of losing my mom. I used to watch my parents together and dream about having that kind of love. It was magical. He looked at her like she hung the stars and the moon. And she thought he could do anything.”

“I can’t imagine it’s easy to move on from losing a true love,” he noted. His mouth pulled down into a frown.

“Yeah. We both floundered a bit when she passed.”

Appetite now gone, I dropped the fry and pushed my plate away. It was always so painful to remember how great life had been with my mom in it. She kissed my boo-boos. She rocked away my bad dreams. She gave me advice on boys when I hit puberty and when I had my first crush. When we were all together, I felt safe. Loved. Cherished. I’ve been lonely ever since. Because not only did I lose my mom, but I lost the dad I knew and loved as well. Now I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again.

“What?” Jay asked when he saw my eyes filled with tears. The look of tenderness and concern showing in his beautiful features had me completely breaking down.

“My dad is dying,” I choked out as hot tears spilled over and down my face.

Jay slid out from his side of the booth and into mine. He wrapped me up in his arms and let me cry silently into his shirt.

I sniffled and wiped my nose on a napkin after I settled down. “Sorry. I don’t really talk about this much.”

“Hey,” he said softly and his fingers on my chin turned my head until I was forced to make eye contact with him. “You don’t have to talk about it. Just know that I’m always here if you need a shoulder to cry on.”

The sincerity and truthfulness behind his words couldn’t be missed. It was threaded through each and every word he spoke to me. I admired that. There was something to be said about a tough guy being sweet and sensitive.

“Thank you,” I whispered. He turned his body further towards me, caging me in and making me feel protected. My eyes fluttered closed when his hand cupped my face, and his thumb moved back and forth gently over my cheek.

“You do know you’re beautiful, right? And your mom would be proud to see what a special woman you’ve become,” he whispered in my ear. When he was done speaking, he pulled back fractionally and stared into my eyes. Blue meeting green in an effort to communicate how genuine that statement was for him.

My breath hitched, and I fought hard to swallow past the lump that was building in my throat. He said the most perfect things at just the right time. In that moment, I really wanted this man beyond just in my bedroom. I wanted him in my life.

He leaned away and settled on my side of the booth, propping his foot up on the opposite side and stretching his arm along the back of the seat.

“What other songs did you like? Or is it presumptuous of me to assume you liked more than one song on that CD?” I was grateful for the lighter topic, since the chemistry between us was starting to feel a bit combustible.

“Not at all. I liked most of them, but ‘The Struggle’ spoke to me. I felt like you gave me a glimpse inside you. It was humbling to be given that opportunity. To hear how you struggled to be the son your mother would be proud of and the man that a woman would want to spend her life with. The man a daughter would want to call father. It was really very beautiful.”

I watched as something passed over his face that was both breathtaking and raw. Before I had a chance to put my finger on what it was, it was gone. Replaced with a serious look that made me cringe a little. I wanted the playful Jay back. Not the one that appeared to be lost in thoughts, and not all of them good.

“Although I have to say the song about fucking your best friend’s girl one night and then hitting an entire sorority the next was just as inspirational,” I deadpanned. “How did you possibly fit them in all in one night? Inquiring minds want to know.” I winked and hoped that would break the mood. It worked when he threw a fry from my plate at me.

“Brat.” He laughed with a half grin on his face.

“Really, though, is that true? Did you really have sex with that many women in the span of one night?”

He looked uncomfortable for a split second before answering. “Maybe not all of them, but there were quite a few.”

“Huh. So you’re a stallion then?” Growing up with horses I knew that stallions were often bred more than once in a day. If this story was true, I could imagine him going all night like a real thoroughbred. That thought was a little too much for my brain to comprehend.

“I haven’t had any complaints. And I’m certainly hung like one.”

“You know, they say the men who brag the most are the ones that shouldn’t be bragging.”

“Oh, Tori. Now you’re testing me. If you want me to show you, baby, it can be arranged.”

Yes, please, my inner slut begged again. She certainly was demanding to be heard tonight. And really I never let her come out and play. It might not be all that bad if I allowed it just this once.

The waitress cleared our dishes and left the check. When Jay went up to the front to pay, I reapplied some bubblegum flavored lip gloss and tried not to yawn too much. Maybe I was an old lady like Kim suggested. There was a time I could stay up until four in the morning and not think twice about it. Those days seemed so far away.

My hair was swept over my shoulder and Jay leaned in and spoke in my ear. “You ready?”

I nodded and allowed him to take my hand and help me up. Once we were in the car and driving away, I closed my eyes and fought falling asleep.

“Tired?” Jay asked as he fiddled with the radio.

“Mmmm,” I barely answered. Between the late hour and talking about my mom, which was always emotionally draining, I was wiped.

“Next time I’ll bring you home. I don’t like the idea of you driving while you’re this tired. Maybe I should follow you.” We pulled into Lace’s parking lot, and he parked next to my car.

“I’ll be fine. I don’t live too far from here anyway.” I was really disappointed that breakfast went by so quickly. I felt like we barely had time to get to know anything about each other. I wanted to know more about his life and his struggle to become the man he was. I felt like all we did was talk about me, and horse around a little.

“Come here,” he said when he turned in his seat. His hand shot out and wrapped around my neck before pulling me to him. I had no time to react. All I knew is that my stomach dipped as his soft lips met mine. The kiss started out slow, but I needed more from him, so I parted my lips and he wasted no time swooping in and claiming me with his tongue. From that point, things got a little wild. His hand wrapped in my hair and angled my head, taking the kiss deeper. One of my hands latched on to his head to unnecessarily hold him to me, while the other held onto his shoulder for dear life.

His tongue felt incredible gliding against mine. He tasted of bacon and Jay. That was the only way I could think to describe it. The taste had to be unique to him. I loved it. And boy could the man kiss. I could spend hours with my mouth to his. Drinking from him.

Tiny whimpers rising from the back of my throat made him groan into my mouth and pull me tighter to him. When we broke apart, I was leaning well over the console, practically on my knees. We stared into each other’s eyes for several moments, both breathing heavy from our make out session.

Needing a moment to gather my wits, I looked over his shoulder and realized the windows had begun fogging up. I started giggling softly, but it quickly escalated to a full out laughing fit. Not even in high school did I ever make out in a car and steam up the windows.

I finally sobered and glanced over to see him watching me with a grin on his face. God, he really was beautiful.

“I better get going,” I said reluctantly.

“Drive careful, baby,” he said softly. His hand settled on my neck, and he pulled me in for another kiss, but this one stayed soft and sweet. He licked his lip when he pulled away. “Tasty.”

That got quivers in multiple different regions of my body.

“Bye,” I murmured as I got out of the car.

The whole way home my skin felt like electricity was running just underneath it. Each time I would relive the kiss in my mind, I got butterflies that started in my stomach and ended as a pulse between my legs.

It was amazing that one simple kiss could affect me like this. Well, it wasn’t so simple in the end, but it was beautiful all the same.