by Rebel Wild
“Miss Montgomery,” I start when I feel I’m close enough for her to read my lips. “I want to apologize to you again for what happened the last time we saw each other.”
She looks around again and I finally figure out what she’s looking for. She needs something to communicate with. She obviously didn’t think she’d need her phone back here while stuffing boxes with envelopes. Now she has me looking because this is about to get weird if she can’t communicate. I can ask her yes or no questions but if she says no, I’d want to know the reason for her not wanting to go out. She finally remembers the small desk in the corner and searches it. She finds yellow note paper and pen and I read what she writes.
It’s not a problem. I’m okay.
I nod a little too long. I’ve suddenly lost my ability to speak. Just fucking ask her and get it over with.
“Have dinner with me?”
Her mouth falls open as she stares at my lips. I wish she wouldn’t do that. As necessary as I know it is for her, my dick sure doesn’t give a damn about her reasons. She shakes her head to stop her stare and starts to write.
You don’t have to do that. I won’t cause trouble for you. We could just forget about it.
Shit, she thinks I’m worried about her filing a complaint. Of course, she’s right I should be worried about hemming her up the way I did and kissing her without her consent. My legal team should have been all over this the moment after it happened. I’m off my game on all levels where she’s concerned. The fact that I’m standing so long thinking to my damn self is making her nervous so she writes again.
If you need me to sign something. I will.
“Not at all,” I tell her. Well, maybe. Shit, this isn’t going well. “Let me start again. Miss Montgomery, I would very much like to have dinner with you simply because I want to get to know you outside of work. It’s purely for the pleasure of your company.”
Like a date?
“Yes, I’m asking you out on a date.”
I don’t know if that’s allowed.
I smile at her words before I answer her.
“I assure you it is and remember this has absolutely nothing to do with work or your job here, whichever way you decide. I just want to go out with you. On a date.” She smiles, seconds from saying yes until what I recognize as uncertainty takes over. She’s thinking and I can tell she’s waging some eternal battle within herself. I have fought and lost that same damn battle with myself twice now and still counting. “Just say yes,” I tell her.
She nods her head. I decide to sign the word to make sure. Making a fist with my hand, I move it up and down to make it nod. She smiles at the sign and mirrors it. So, that’s a yes.
Chapter Five
“Will you relax,” Chloe signs to me as I try to stop myself from backing out of this date.
I don’t know what possessed me to say yes. It was a momentary act of insanity. I even tried to text him and back out of it right after he left the mailroom, but he wasn’t cooperating with me. He insisted that since I was off work tomorrow and my classes started late, tonight would be a perfect night for us to go out. How he knows my class schedule is a mystery to me and how he knew what dorm I was in was also a mystery until I remembered that file Buzz had on me. I bet he told him all of that information about me. I don’t get why he would even care.
“It’s going to be great,” Chloe continues to try and help. “You’re going to have fun. You’ll see.”
“How are we going to communicate? I can’t type on my phone or write on a stupid notepad while I’m trying to eat.”
“Stop stressing. That’s just one minor detail.”
“One that can make this date a disaster. I don’t know what I was thinking agreeing to go out with a hearing person that doesn’t know sign. It’s a bad idea.”
“No, it’s not. You’re going to go on this date and you’re going to have fun, whether you like it or not.”
He told me he’d pick me up promptly at six. I look at the clock and it’s 5:58.
“He’s not coming,” I try to sign to Chloe who’s pretending to be very interested in a magazine. I snatch it from her and I’m about to sign it again until I see the light above our room door flicker.
“He’s here.” She bounces out of her chair and runs to the door.
Oh, gosh, what do I do? Do I try to look busy? I go for the magazine that’s on the floor but change my mind. I just decide to stand and wait. I hope I don’t look as stupid as I feel.
Sampson, my assistant pulls up in the visitor parking of Reagan’s dormitory. I planned on coming alone until it dawned on me that it would be hard to drive while trying to communicate with her. Now he can drive while I focus all my attention on her. Hopefully, I can get her to relax enough so she doesn’t feel so self-conscious around me.
You can fucking do this, Dixon. You can put away your Dom for one damn night and be vanilla. Just a regular guy going out with a regular girl. Smile, laugh, act casual, don’t try to control everything, and for fuck’s sake remember you are not allowed to punish her.
I repeat the little pep-talk to myself until I get to her dorm room. I wonder how the hell she’s going to know I’m here until I read the sign that asks that you ring the bell. A young blonde girl opens the door and waves me in.
“Hi, I’m Chloe, Reagan’s roommate,” she says. Her voice is monotone, but I can understand her clearly. Her face lights up like she knows me, but I don’t think it’s from being on TV. I know I’ve seen her before.
“Reed Dixon,” I say, taking her offered hand, shaking it.
I glance around the room. It’s how I imagined it. Very girly, but a lot bigger than it looks from the outside. I find Reagan, who looks like she’s contemplating bolting out the door, so I turn my attention back to her roommate. If I would have looked a second longer, she’d have run.
“You look familiar to me,” I say to Chloe.
“Probably because I ran out in front of your car and you almost hit me.”
“That was you.” I have to stop myself from chewing her out.
“Sorry about that, by the way. I thought I could run across before the light changed.”
“Be more careful,” I tell her.
Her eyes widen as I stare her down.
“Ye… yes, sir.” She glances at Reagan before grabbing her bag. “Um, well, nice to meet you. I’m just gonna… go. You two have fun,” she says to me while signing something to Reagan before leaving us alone.
“Hi, Reagan,” I say to her. I make a point to use her first name. I want to start this off right. She waves at me. “You look beautiful,” I tell her and she truly does. She’s in a caged-strapped dress that falls just below her mid-thigh. It is sexy and understated. It can be classy or casual. When I told her I’d be taking her out to dinner, I didn’t specify the type of attire. The dress works beautifully. I’m impressed. She smiles shyly at me and points. She moves her finger up and down indicating she likes my outfit as well. “Shall we go?” I ask her and she nods.
I take hold of her hand as we walk. We spot Sampson getting out of the car to open the door for us and she smiles as if she knows him. She waves enthusiastically at him and he smiles at her. She begins to sign to him and to my shock the bastard signs back in answer. The surprise must be evident on my face because he quickly opens the door to let her in.
“What the hell was that?” I ask him before I get in after her.
“My sister’s deaf. We all grew up signing to her.”
“And why the hell am I just now hearing about this? I’ve known you forever.”
“We’ve never discussed things of such a private nature before, sir.”
I have to agree with him there. I store this information away for future reference before I get in.
“Is everything okay, Mr. Dixon?” her phone speaks once I take a seat next to her.
“Call me, Reed and everything’s fine. Just making sure he knows where to go.” She nods. She looks out the window when we pull off but turns her attention back to me when I touch the hand she has resting between us. “Thank you for agreeing to go out with me.”
“I almost backed out again,” she confesses and I smirk.
“I still wouldn’t have let you,” I tell her.
“Why?”
“Because I genuinely want to get to know you better. There’s something about you.”
“I’m nothing special. Just a girl like any other.”
“I doubt that. No other girl I’ve come across has me this intrigued and I have had my fair share.”
“I bet you have,” she types out, grinning at me.
“Really?” I raise an eyebrow at her. “And what makes you think so?”
Her eyes light up as she thinks and I wait until she types it out. This I have to hear.
“The way you walk,” her phone finally speaks for her. “It looks like you’ve used your pelvic muscles a lot.”
Now she’s got to be kidding me.
“Is that really what it looks like?”
“You have a very cocky walk.”
I imagine that word coming out of her mouth instead of her phone and it makes me hard.
“So, you’ve been checking me out?” I ask her and she looks guilty at being busted. “Good to know.”
We arrive at the Monterey Room restaurant at the start of the pier and are escorted to my usual table. I help her sit down as she looks around. I wonder what it must be like to depend so much on your sight when getting familiar with your surroundings. I can pretty much know most of what’s going on just by listening. I don’t know how I’d handle not being able to hear. I touch her hand to get her attention and her eyes shoot to mine.
“Have you been here before?” I ask her and wait for her to type.
“My friend’s Dad brought us here once right before we started college.”
“You like college?”
“Very much. I’m going to be lost once I leave.”
“Why?”
Her thumbs fly over her screen as she types.
“It’s a safe haven. A community I feel one hundred percent comfortable in because everyone’s just like me. I don’t have to wonder if people are just being nice to me out of pity because I can’t hear or not liking me for the same reason. I suppose I’m not explaining it very well.”
“You are. I understand all too well what it’s like to feel out of place in one way or another.”
“You hide it well if you ever feel that way.”
“It’s easy to hide what people don’t bother to try and see,” I say and she nods. “Chloe seems like good people.”
“The best when she’s not running out in front of cars. I love her.”
“She can speak,” I say it like she doesn’t already know. I chastise myself as she nods her head with a smile as she types.
“She lost her hearing late, so she learned how to speak.”
It dawns on me that at one point she was able to hear, so why can’t she speak? More importantly, how I can find out without giving away how deeply I’ve dug into her personal info.
“You were born deaf then?”
“I was 15 when I lost my hearing.”
“So, you can speak?”
She shakes her head and I can tell by the way she shifts herself and studies her menu that it’s an uncomfortable topic, so I drop it. The waiter’s on his way over anyway.
“Are you ready to order?” he asks.
Shit, how the hell are we going to do this?
She shows me what she wants by pointing it out on the menu. Of course. She could have easily shown the waiter so I’m assuming she’s making sure I’m okay with the dish. For fuck’s sake, she can order the whole damn menu for all I care.
“Is that really what you want?”
She nods her head and I order her Beef Wellington along with the pan-roasted duck for myself with a bottle of red wine.
“Can I also have a Brandy Old Fashioned with one ice cube, please?” her phone says.
“I’ll bring it right over,” the waiter says, collecting our menus. I wait until he leaves to pick up the conversation again.
“Brandy? I would never have guessed that.”
“Blame my mom. She’s from Wisconsin. It’s the unofficial state drink.”
“Because of the cold?”
“Winter break last year, I visited my aunt in Milwaukee and nearly froze to death, so I guess so.”
“When are you graduating?”
“June.”
“So, you’re twenty-two?”
She grins.
“Twenty-one. I’m perfectly legal.”
Her phone doesn’t convey it as cheeky as she probably wanted to say it, but at this point, I don’t think it would stop me if she wasn’t legal.
“Good to know,” I tell her. “Are you curious as to how old I am?”
“I already know you’re thirty-four.”
“And how do you know that?”
“I’ve been watching you on TV since I was a kid.”
“Ouch.”
The shocked expression on her face when she realized how that came out turns to amusement and she puts her hand over her face to hide her grin.
She types something, but the waiter returns with our food and her Brandy so she doesn’t let it play.
I’m pleased to see she’s eating her meal. Every actress on Bay-Hot would take a bite of salad, then go smoke for the rest of the lunch break. They didn’t have the energy to do shit and I’d have to choke down the smell of cigarette smoke all damn day.
“You don’t smoke, do you?”
She shakes her head with a frown and I shake mine telling her to forget it.
Just don’t freak her out again, Dixon. Keep it nice and easy.
As it stands, I think I’m doing well in keeping myself in check. She makes common gestures to let me know she likes the meal and I’m actually laughing at them. My favorite so far is her mmm-mmm-good face. The meal is over too quickly and I find myself nowhere near ready for the date to end.
“How about a walk along the pier?”
She nods. I get up and move behind her to pull out her chair. She looks back giving me a brilliant smile that nearly knocks me on my ass.
Hand in hand we walk along the nearly deserted pier looking out at the water. We come upon a bench that gives us a spectacular view of the sunset so we sit and watch as it sinks out of sight.
“Will you tell me about your family?” her phone asks.
“Not much to tell.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
I tell her all about my certifiably immature ass older brother by five years, Alex and my loveable, but extremely annoying little sister, Myra, whom Mom and Dad had late so she’s nineteen, and my parents Greta and Carl, somehow managing to keep us all from killing each other as we grew up. I don’t mention Ryan, instead, I pretend to be irritated with the whole Dixon clan until she narrows her eyes at me, knowing I’m full of shit.
The last remaining rays of sunlight reflecting off her skin are enchanting. I can’t help but stare at her. I play with the loose strands of her hair that’s mostly pent up behind her and I wonder how it would look falling around her with this dress on. Or with nothing on.
She slides closer to me and loops her arm underneath mine. I’m not what you call a touchy-feely type of guy. It’s nice enough for what it’s worth, but damn, I want to tie her up and fuck her sore.
No, you don’t. Nice, normal guy, Dixon.
I get a welcomed distraction when a strong wind blows by and lifts the soft fabric of her dress. It blows the hem of her skirt up her leg far enough for me to see the edges of her lace panties a
nd fuck yes, she doesn’t attempt to move it back down. Unable to resist, I take a chance and place the hand of the arm she’s cuddling up to on her thigh. I run it along her skin and damn, it’s like I’m touching downy hair, it is so soft. Not wanting to take my hand away, I tuck it between her thighs and knead the skin. The breeze is blowing the scent of her hair in my direction and the smell of fresh strawberries and cream waft through my nostrils, beckoning me closer. I go willingly and kiss the top of her head before I lay my cheek on her hair. Jesus, I could sit here all damn night with her like this. I have never been so content with another human being as I am right now.
This isn’t good. This shit is too damn perfect. No way can I keep this up long enough to keep her. And fuck me, I want her.
My hand is in his as he walks me back to my dorm room. I have to say the date went well once I got over my nerves. He turns me around before I can open my door.
“I had a wonderful time,” he says and I grin.
“I hope I satisfied your curiosity about me.”
“On the contrary. I don’t think I’ve scratched the surface of who you are. Maybe, next time?”
I kiss him on the cheek and try not to stare at his butt as he walks away. As soon as he’s out of sight the door opens and I’m yanked inside so hard I almost fall.
“Well, how was it?” Chloe says after I gain my footing.
“It was good.”
“Good? Just good?”
“Yes.”
“Was that what that peck on the cheek was about just now?”
“You sneaky skank. You were spying on us. Oh, why am I not surprised?”
“Because you know me. So, what gives?”
“It was a great date and he’s a very nice guy, surprisingly.”
“Nice? Why do you look upset with the word?”
I shrug.
“He’s just not the megalomaniac I thought he was.”