Chapter 24
Edward left in plenty of time to make it to the restaurant without any troubles. He checked everything from the alley by his flat to the gas tank in his car. He wasn’t going to miss seeing Eva again.
When he pulled up to the restaurant, he was able to breathe normally again. “I’m here,” he said, looking at his reflection in the rearview mirror. He glanced at his watch. “Just after six-thirty.” He looked around the area and decided to go inside.
After he found a quiet table to the side, he let the waitress who brought him his scotch know to look for Eva. “You can’t miss her,” he said. “She is perfect.”
The waitress smiled at him with a sincerity he only saw in women who knew what real love was.
“Would you like another scotch?” The waitress stood next to him, waiting for his okay to take his glass. He looked down at it, not realizing he had drank it all. His mind was anywhere but there.
“Yes, please.” He looked at his watch again and just when his eyes registered that it was seven on the dot, he looked up and saw a woman walking toward him. He took a double take, knowing her face, but not recognizing the rest of her. He slowly stood up as she walked toward him, gracefully and reassuringly.
“Eva?” His eyes grew wide and his hand covered his heart.
Her long auburn hair was pulled up in a loose bun on the top of her head. The dress she wore hugged her body and flowed off her hips so naturally it looked like it was part of her. The champagne color swayed as she walked and swirled around her legs when she stopped at the table.
“Am I late?” Her lips were colored with a deep crimson he wasn’t used to seeing on her.
“You can be anything you want to be looking like that.” He was mesmerized.
“Do I look okay? Is it too much?”
“You….” He shook his head. “You are stunning.”
She sat across from him and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her skin glowed, her smile radiated, her hair shone, her eyes had that sparkle he remembered the first time they met.
“Would you like a drink, miss?” The waitress appeared seemingly out of nowhere again.
“Yes, thank you. I’ll just have a white wine.”
“So, what sort of seminar did you attend this evening? How to turn the heads of everyone you walk by?”
She giggled and lowered her gaze. “No. It was just a science seminar. This,” she said, holding her dress out “is for you.”
“I don’t know what to say. I didn’t think you could get any more beautiful.”
“Thank you.” She blushed a light shade of pink as she adjusted her chair. “You look quite handsome yourself.”
“Minus the large lump above my eye and protrusion on my lip.”
“Even with that, you look sexy.”
“Sexy? Did you just say I looked sexy?”
“I did.”
That made him smile. She seemed so much more relaxed, more in tune with him. He liked this side of her. As they ate, conversation seemed to flow easily. They had several things in common and they never tired of hearing stories from each other. She talked about her family and how much she missed having them in her life.
“It has been tough being away from them for this long,” she said. “Are you close with your parents?”
“Well, I used to be. I remember growing up, it was always me and my dad.” He swirled his drink around the ice cubes still floating along the top. “We did everything together. Well, until he got a promotion at work. Then he was always out of town on business. I barely saw him after that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I believe that everything happens for a reason. When I stopped hanging with my dad, I met Joseph. We became inseparable. Still are.”
“Really?”
“We went to college together and then,” he stopped himself from telling her about their successful business they started together. “then we just ended up in the same town. Even when I’m not working I find the time to catch up with him.” He tried to word it so he wasn’t technically lying to her. He hated lying. He wanted to come clean on everything. He looked deep into her eyes and wondered how she’d take it if he did.
“He sounds pretty important to you.”
“He is. We’ve been through a lot together.” He watched her, working up the nerve to come completely clean with her. “I have a confession to make.”
“Oh yeah?” The tone of her voice changed. It became softer, more seductive, more sexual.
Edward was very familiar with that sort of change in tone in a woman’s voice.
“I think I have a confession of my own,” she said, leaning into the table. She reached her hand across the table toward his arm and played with the cuff on his shirt. “You are looking quite sexy in that dress shirt and quite frankly, thanks to this wine,” she said, picking up her glass and looking inside it “it’s doing something to me.”
Edward felt a surge of adrenaline pick up speed and everything he had to say dissipated from his thoughts. He leaned toward her and absorbed her every move. “Continue, please.”
“I just sat through two hours of a seminar on the delusions and spiritual experiences of the human mind and all I could think about was what sort of experiences I could create with you.”
“Hmm, sounds like quite the interesting seminar.”
“Given the topic, you would think so, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, it wasn’t at all what it sounded like it would be about.”
“Let me guess. It was about what was to be as opposed to what someone perceives that to be.”
“Close. Let’s add some mental disorders in there and how they are so differently realized than that of the normal person.”
“I can see why you’d be misconstrued on that topic. I hope it wasn’t too much of a disappointment.”
“My own thoughts kept it interesting,” she said, smiling at him. “I’m sorry. I completely interrupted you. What were you going to say?”
He sat up straight, trying to remember what he was even talking about.
“You were about to make a confession?” she added.
“Ah. Yes. I was just going to say,” he drew out each word as he tried to think up something different to admit to. “I wanted to confess on how drawn I am to you.” He leaned forward and took her hand. “I cannot wait to get you closer to me.”
“You, you can’t?” she stammered.
“Want to go dancing?”
Her face crimsoned at what she thought he was talking about and she giggled nervously as she finished the last of her wine. “I’d love that.”
“Let’s do it.”
Edward stood up, managing the pain in his side and paid the bill. With his hand on the small of her back, he led her out the door.
“I’m parked down the street here,” he said, directing her down the sidewalk, his hand still on her back. Her dress scooped down to the middle of her back so he slowly crept his hand up until his fingers touched her skin, feeling her breathing change as he did. After a few more steps he caught himself looking for a secluded spot he could stop at. A break in the buildings, a small alleyway, anything. Each building was part of the previous so he did the next best thing and crossed the street. When she hesitated, he grabbed her hand and smiled at her.
“Come on.” He led her up a flight of stone stairs to an upper level of buildings. The building in front of them curved around to the back, leaving a deep corner that held shadows when the sun went down.
“What are you doing?” she asked playfully.
He pulled her into that corner and without explanation, collided into her. He used the pain and turned it into an aphrodisiac, feeding his fingers up around her neck and covering her mouth with his. They slammed into the wall of the building as his tongue thrust into her mouth. He heard her gasp and felt her hands on his back. He buried the pain of his broken ribs to the back of his mind not wanting to give up the moment for anything.
They explored each other with the inner depths of their being, hands groping along body parts craving to be touched, lips kissing exposed parts of the body adding goosebumps along the way, bodies pressing into one another screaming for more, screaming to get closer and begging for it to continue.
“Do you know how long I have waited,” she asked breathlessly. “to get this close to you?”
“No,” he said abruptly, continuing to explore her and take what he could.
“The moment I saw you in that coffee shop.”
“When we met.”
“Before that.”
“Before?” He briefly disconnected from her lips to lean back and look at her, astonished that she wanted him as badly as he wanted her at first sight.
“Hmmm.” She hesitated her confession to allow him to kiss her deeply once again, letting her body submit to his every touch. When his mouth moved down her neck, she put her head back and closed her eyes to catch her breath before continuing.
“When I saw you trying to flirt with that woman, I was instantly turned on by you.”
He stopped again and leaned back to look at her. His breathing was irregular as he cocked his head and smiled.
“I got your panties wet as soon as you saw me?” he asked as if it was the biggest compliment he had ever gotten.
Eva chuckled. “Yes. I suppose when you put it that way, you did.”
“I still got it,” he said, raising and lowering his eyebrows several times before moving toward the soft supple spots of her neck again.
She raised her head, giving him exposure and allowing him access to more than just her neck. She felt like she was falling in love with him.
“God, you are so soft,” he whispered. “You smell so fucking good.” He kissed her skin leaning into her. “Tell me, Eva.” He moved his kisses up to her jaw bone. “Have you ever,” his lips kissed her chin “touched yourself” he kissed her lips then looked into her eyes “while thinking of me?”
She merely nodded, mesmerized at the way her body felt with him.
“Tell me,” he whispered.
“I have.”
He felt her tremble.
“Several times. Late at night while in my bed. In the shower as the feel of the water hit certain parts of me, even in the loo while watching my reflection in the mirror.”
He pressed himself into her and felt himself losing control. His hands pulled the straps of her dress down her arms as his mouth followed along the curves of her shoulder. He felt her shudder when her breasts exposed themselves to the cool night air.
He knelt in front of her, his cheek sliding down her breast. He let the tautness of her nipple rub against his cheek causing her to shiver. When he took that nipple into his mouth and allowed his tongue to surround it, warming it then letting the cool air attack it once again, she moaned. He teased her with the tip of his tongue, flicking at it several times until she buried her hands into his hair and pulled him into her chest. He knew from her reaction that if he kept on with what he was doing to her, he would have been able to make her body orgasm just from teasing the way he teased her. He was tempted. He loved watching a woman respond to him but he stopped. He wanted his experience with Eva to be different. He stood up and looked her in the eyes before kissing her deeply. His tongue pushed through her lips and explored the warmth of her mouth. He wanted more and he knew she was ready to give herself to him.
“Eddie.” Her voice was barely audible.
“Yes.”
“I don’t think we are going dancing anymore, are we?”