by BJ Harvey
Clean up, aisle seven. He really has a thing about whispering into my ear.
“I hope you're blushing because you're flattered, Kate. I'm trying really hard to be the gentleman my mom raised me to be which means not kissing the shit out of you in your kitchen when you're still waking up and haven't had your morning coffee yet. Which…” one hand leaves my hip and reaches around, grabbing the coffee mug out of my hand and placing it on the kitchen counter in front me, “you'll find, is already poured and waiting for you.” He kisses my cheek as I stand there, unable to breathe.
This must be a dream. It has to be. No way is this my real kitchen, my real morning, my real life. No way would Zander, the God of Gorgeousness, be in my kitchen with his big strong hands on my hips, telling me that he wants to kiss the shit out of me.
Breathe, Kate. Breathe in. Breathe out.
“Thank you,” I croak as I turn around and grab the coffee he's poured for me.
“Anytime, Kate. I can make you breakfast too if you like,” he replies, the sly smile on his lips making sure I know that he knows what he's doing to me.
“Is it dinner for breakfast?” I ask, raising a brow and smirking at him, trying to hold back a grin.
“Very funny. I'll have you know that pancakes for dinner works every time. It worked last night, didn't it? You agreed to go on a date with me.” He walks around the island and sits down in front of a coffee mug and a bowl of cereal.
“You kind of told me I was going out on a date with you.” I lean forward, resting my elbows on the counter opposite where he's sitting, cradling my coffee.
“You still said okay,” he says with a smirk, drinking his coffee as my attention falls to his Adam's apple and then down to his chest. He's wearing a grey wife beater that gives me an unobstructed view of his toned arms. Actually, toned is too tame of a word; muscular, herculean even.
“I'll give you that one, but I don't eat till a bit later. So, our date today. Where are we going? A woman needs to have at least an idea of what to wear.” I look up and see him staring intensely at my cleavage. Oh yes, Zander. Two of us can play this game.
“They, I mean, you look gorgeous in anything.” He shakes his head, and his eyes rise to meet mine. He looks like the kid that has just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
I raise an eyebrow at him, and he grins at me. “Hey, I can't help it. I'm a guy, and it's a gorgeous rack.” He shrugs his shoulders, and I giggle.
“Boob man?”
“Anything Kate man.” Oh my god. Swoon!
“I'll let you off this time,” I say, smirking at him. “So clothes. Should I dress up, or down, or what?”
He raises his hand to his jaw and rubs his chin as if he's contemplating a chess move or something. “Okay, dress casual, comfortable, and able to walk for a little bit. Does that give you enough to work with?”
“That is perfect. I know just the thing. What time should I be ready by?” It's about now that I get lost in his eyes. I can see his mouth moving, but it's almost like a blur to me.
“Babe?” he asks, snapping me out of my blatant daydream.
“Ah, yeah. Sorry. So this afternoon?”
“Around one, babe. That work for you?”
“Of course.” I drink the last of my coffee and stand back up, putting my mug in the sink. “Well, I might go do some laundry, and maybe pop out and get groceries, but I'll make sure I'm dressed casual, comfortable and able to walk by one o'clock.”
“That reminds me. I need to give you some money for food.”
“Don't worry about it, Zan. It's fine.”
“No, it's not.” He stands up, grabs his wallet from his back pocket, and pulls out four fifty dollar bills before holding them out to me. I can't help but see that there was at a lot more where that came from. An invisible bucket of cold water drenches me as I remember how he earns that money. “Take it, Kate. I need to pay my way. You're doing me a favor by letting me stay here, so let me pay for the groceries,” he says. His voice is determined, so I just nod as he puts the money in my hand.
“Ok. Thank you. Well, I'll just see you later on then.”
“For sure. I'm looking forward to our first proper date,” he replies, smiling at me like I'm the most beautiful girl in the world. Shit, I could get used to this kind of attention.
I start to walk away, but then I stop, turn around and look at the fine specimen of a man that wants to date me.
“Zan, just so you know, I'm really looking forward to today too.” I turn and walk away with an extra swing in my hips for good measure as I feel the heat of his stare on my ass as I reach my room.
ZANDER
I have a confession.
Last night I carried out some reconnaissance and gathered some intel on Kate from Mac. I mean, who knows a girl better than her best friend? She told me to do something simple and easy going, don't try too hard to impress her straight off the bat, and to just be myself. So in short, Mac didn't really help me a lot. But since I've been thinking about what I would do and where I would go if I were to go on a date with her, I already knew where the date will start off.
Sitting in the living room waiting for Kate to come out of her room is torture. I'm actually nervous about a lot of things, the date included, of course. Will the date be what she imagined, or will it be too low key and casual for her? You can't imagine all the scenarios that are running through my head right now.
This morning, when I was messaging her as nightdancer, I felt really guilty about the whole internet dating thing. I should be honest with her. I should just come clean and tell her that I'm nightdancer and that I'm the one she's been talking to for the past five weeks. It should be as simple as that, right?
I'm worried about possible awkwardness if this dating thing doesn't go well between us. Amazingly, some of my normal dating concerns are null and void with Kate. I know she doesn't just want me for my body, but I know she likes what she sees because I've caught her checking me out a few times now, but I'm totally fine with my firebird checking me out. Every which way from Sunday, she can look and touch and…well, you get the picture. I definitely felt relieved when she said to me online this morning that she wasn't worried about awkwardness.
I hear her clear her throat, and I look up to be met by the hottest pair of legs I've seen in a long, long time.
My eyes travel up to a sunshine yellow dress, her hands clutching a silver handbag in front of her, then up to a silver drop necklace falling in the lush valley between her breasts. I see her beautiful face, her blue eyes sparkling down at me, and I'm completely and utterly hooked. Holy crap, I totally underestimated the effect this woman has on me. I stand up and run my hands down her bare arms from her shoulders down to her wrists.
“You look beautiful, Kate.”
I see the slight pink tinge of her cheeks as she looks down at the ground. Damn she's cute.
Leaning forward, I press my lips to her warm cheek, resisting the urge to wrap my hand around her waist, pull her up against me, and crash my lips against hers. “Shall we go?”
“Yeah. Let's do this.”
I put my hand on the small of her back as I lead her to the front door. Her skin is warm, heating my blood so quickly that I have to snatch my hand away. She glances at me briefly, and I cover the gesture with a quick smile and open the door, letting her leave first.
When we reach the sidewalk, she turns and looks at me. “So where too, Mr. Roberts?”
“Ah yes, the million dollar question. Well, I wanted to take you on a fun, easy going date. You know, the one that you remember forever and hold up against all other dates because it was just that cool?”
She giggles, and it is the sweetest most satisfying sound in the world. “Sounds awesome. So are we embracing our inner child?”
“But of course, my dear,” I reply in a bad Sean Connery impression.
“Righteous.”
I put on my best surfer impression. “Bodacious.”
“Holy crap, we sound l
ike the teenage mutant ninja turtles. This can't be good,” she says with a smile.
I laugh, then look down at her. She's just standing there, watching me.
“What?”
“You should laugh more often. I like it.”
I can't wipe the smile off my face. It's only the start of the date, but I'm already thinking of the second, and third and fourth. I'm glad that Kate is everything I expected her to be and more.
“The first stop is the Lincoln Park Zoo.”
“Are you serious?” she squeals, clapping her hands with glee. “I haven't been there in ages! It used to be one of my favorite places to go as a kid.”
“Well, I guess stop one for our day gets your tick of approval then. I must be doing well.”
I reach my hand down and grab hold of hers, entwining our fingers. She looks down at our now joined hands, and I don't miss both the surprise on her face, and then the slight grin she gets when she likes something.
Since Kate and Mac's apartment is only four blocks away from Lincoln Park, and it's a nice sunny day, we walk to the zoo, holding hands and chatting about Kate's job, and how Zach burned down our kitchen, and before long we arrive at our first stop for the afternoon.
I have to admit, this zoo idea was brilliant. We held hands for most of the way, stopping when I bought us an ice-cream. Our conversation never waned, and I was so relaxed with her that I didn't even think about whether I was making a good impression, or whether she was having a good time. It was like hanging out with a best friend, who just happens to be someone that I'd like to get to know a whole lot better than a friend. And best yet, I've managed to restrain myself from calling her firebird three times already.
After a few hours of seeing rhinos, monkeys, flamingos and even the snakes which freaked Kate out so that she stopped holding my hand and clung to my side-still not complaining-we left the zoo and started to walk back toward the apartment.
“So how are the repairs on the apartment going?” Kate asks as we stop at an intersection.
“Good, and not so good. Unfortunately, the damage was worse than they first thought, so it's going to be a few more weeks at least. Are you okay with that?” I ask, worried that maybe I've been totally misreading her, and this date was actually a sinking bomb.
“Hey now, you just went all tense. Please don't think I was asking about it because I want you to move out. I've had an awesome time today, Zan. It's been fun.” She looks up at me, and I'm struck by how gorgeous she is. The sunlight and blue sky serve to make her eyes shine even brighter, and when my eyes drop to her mouth, I know there is going to be no stopping this.
I lean my head down, my gaze lifting back to her eyes as I stop just a touch away from her lips. “Can I kiss you?” She nods and that is all the permission I need. I gently brush my lips against hers before pulling back.
“Again. Please,” she whispers. Her tongue darts out and grazes my lips as I open my mouth and let her take the lead. She wraps her arms around me, joining her hands behind my neck as she strains to deepen the kiss. I place my hands on her hips and move her closer as our tongues lazily move with the other. My cock is hard as rock, and I know she can feel it, but neither of us move against the other. It's like time stands still. With one last stroke of her tongue, she goes to move back, but not before I gently bite her lower lip, sucking on it gently before letting her go.
“Wow,” she says, looking around and realizing that we're still standing in the middle of the sidewalk, and we've missed the crossing signal. “Shit! We should probably move.”
“Gimme a minute, babe. I'm not fit for public consumption right now.” She looks down between us and giggles.
“You can laugh, but you caused this. You do it to me every time I just look at you.”
“You can't be serious?”
“Serious as a heart attack. You don't think I've been watching you for a while, babe? At that bachelorette party a year ago. Even back then, I could tell you were different. You were there, and you were having fun, but it wasn't really your thing, was it?”
“You could tell that while you were dancing and gyrating your hips around? Oh, and thrusting your junk in Sophie's face before slowly inching a banana into her mouth?” She's smiling, so I know she's teasing me.
Damn, she has a good memory.
I take a step closer to her, pulling her body close into mine once more. “Did I have this when I was doing all of that? No. You know why? Because nobody has made me feel the way you do with one look, one touch, one cute little giggle. Do you have a problem with me stripping?” My face is undoubtedly full of concern as I wait for her response.
“No, but it hasn't got anything to do with me. It's your job. The only thing that matters is whether you have a problem with it. Why do you ask?”
“Just wanted to check. That's all. I'm not going to be stripping forever. As soon as I'm graduated and assigned a precinct, I'm stopping.”
“That's good,” she replies with her hand on my chest, her fingers gripping ever so slightly into my flesh.
I pull my hand up and touch her nose, which she scrunches up adorably. “And besides, no one else has gotten drunk and tried to thrust their boobs into my face by touching their elbows behind their back yet, so I think I'll keep you around,” I add to break the mood.
“Oh my god, I can't believe you remember that!” She buries her face into my chest before pulling back.
I sneak a glance at her breasts, the silver drop necklace an enticing reminder of where I want to trail my tongue down in the very near future. “Babe, no man in their right mind would forget that.”
She smiles up at me, and I vow then and there to make her smile at me like that every day if she'll let me.
“And later that night, after that kiss, you still said no?” It's a question I knew she would ask, and I've been waiting to tell her why for a long time.
“I meant what I said. You're worth taking it slow with. I can't think of anything better than waiting out your three date rule. Hell, you could make me wait ten dates, and it would be worth it just to have a chance at taking it slow with you.”
After a moment of comfortable silence between us where I see her mind turning over everything I've just said, she smiles at me and changes the subject.
“So, Mr. Date Expert. Where to next?”
I look around and spot a games arcade on the other side of the road.
“Games,” I announce, taking her hand again as I make to cross the road.
“What do you mean, games?” she asks, walking quickly beside me.
We stop outside the arcade, and I look at her. Totally overdressed for an old and well past its prime games arcade, but that is Kate. All class with an awesome interior-and exterior, of course.
After exchanging some money for coins, we end up playing a car racing game where I let Kate win once before I totally kick her ass, but we both laugh all the way through it. We end the afternoon playing Whack-a-Mole and putting on a performance of our own when we ended up whacking each other and play fighting before I grabbed her for a hard and fast kiss when I lost. Satisfied that I've kissed her speechless, we head back home for the final surprise of the day.
KATE
Four hours ago I was a nervous wreck. Now, I'm lying on my bed, flat on my back with a goofy grin on my face as my mind replays all of the events of the afternoon. I feel like a fifteen year old who just had her first real kiss. Not the ones that you practice on the back of your hand, or with your geeky next door neighbor that your dick-head older brother dared you to kiss-yes, this was my life! No, this was the date of dates, the date of ALL dates. And it's not like it was fancy, expensive, or anything like that. No, it was thoughtful, it was fun, it was relaxed, and in all honestly, I had the best afternoon of my life.
The best surprise of all was when we got home after the games arcade to a picnic dinner laid out on the living room floor. The coffee table had been moved out, and a plaid, woolen blanket covered the carpet with a picnic hamper
and a bottle of champagne on ice with two champagne flutes.
I looked up at Zander who smiled at me. “Surprise.”
We sat down on the blanket, Zander with his long legs stretched out to the side, and me cross-legged. Not a great idea when you're wearing a sundress, but I made it work.
Over a dinner of smoked chicken sliders with cranberry sauce, flat bread and dips, and a chocolate mousse for dessert, he told me about his training at the academy and how soon he would be doing field training, which involves going out with an experienced police officer on the 'beat' in Chicago. I loved hearing the excitement in his voice, and how genuinely proud he was of the job he was training for.
Once we'd had enough dinner, I was kind of disappointed that he didn't jump me and try to make out on the blanket. That thought had me thinking all sorts of dirty possibilities, but no, Zander was determined to be the perfect gentleman. Even when I quirked my eyebrow at him as I stretched out on the blanket beside him, our picnic all cleared away, he just smiled adorably at me and shook his head no, to which I pouted. Yes. I pouted. He laughed at me and ran his thumb down my lip before cupping my jaw and looking at me.
I could see the indecision in his eyes, the desire to take this further yet amazingly, he seemed to have way more restraint than me.
“Right, Miss McGuinness. It's time I got you home,” he announced, moving away from me and standing up. After he'd pulled me up off the floor, he took my hand and led me down the hallway. As you can imagine, there were a lot of things going through my mind in that moment. Like whether I was overdue for my wax, or whether my room was tidy or a bombsite after I searched high and low for my shoes this morning. And finally, whether I had any condoms in my room, did he have any in his room, and exactly which room we were headed toward.
When we reached my closed bedroom door, he stopped and turned toward me. Lifting his hand up, he swept my hair away from my face and smiled down at me. “I had a wonderful time today.”
“I did too,” I said, obviously unable to form full sentences at that point. And I'd only had a few glasses of champagne!