“Sounds good. Is that the place around the block from you? I think I’ve seen it.”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go,” he said, leaning forward and taking her bag.
“I can carry it,” she said.
“I got it.” He took it from her effortlessly and she smiled. He led her to the door while she grabbed her jacket along the way.
The light snow outside was beautiful, making everything in the City shimmer with romance. It made one want to cuddle up with a loved one.
When they got to the car, she and Kenneth exchanged hellos then she and Luke got in. Janie immediately pulled up the Miss Peaches website on her phone and told Kenneth to head toward her place while she and Luke looked at the menu and decided on their food.
“I’m so getting their mac and cheese. And fried okra,” Janie said with excitement.
“Mmm. I’m getting the fried chicken and mashed potatoes, with green beans,” he said after studying the menu.
“Oh, the mashed potatoes are incredible,” she moaned. “I might need to try a bite first to make sure you’ll like them, though,” she deadpanned.
He watched her silently as she made her orgasmic sounds while describing the food then said, “If trying a bite will cause you to make those sounds again, then okay,” he said cocking a sexy eyebrow at her.
Janie took a calming breath after the arousal hit her and pressed the button to call Kenneth since the privacy screen was up. “Kenneth, do you want anything for dinner?”
“Oh, no thanks, Miss Callahan.”
“It’s no problem, Kenneth,” Luke assured him.
“Um,” Kenneth said, obviously unsure of what to do.
“I’ll get you the same thing I’m getting,” Luke said as he dialed the restaurant.
“That sounds great, sir. Thank you.”
Luke smiled at his discomfiture and ordered the food as they made their way through the snowy streets of lower Manhattan. When the order had been placed, he looked over at Janie who was watching him.
“What are you thinking about? You’ve got that sly smile on your lips,” Luke observed.
She stretched her arms up. “This is just nice. I’m so relaxed,” she said, snuggling back into the seat. “I can’t wait to eat.”
He smiled indulgently. “We’re almost there.”
“I don’t even care what the calories are. I’m eating it all.”
He frowned. “Do you worry about that kind of thing a lot?”
She shrugged. “I wouldn’t say ‘worry’, but I’m always conscious of it. I still keep a food journal. I know me. If I don’t stay on top of my food intake, I get lazy. If I write it down then the reality is right there for me to see and I can adjust when necessary.”
“I hope you’re not unhealthy about it. Being healthy, that’s the most important thing. Not what you weigh or what size you are.” He looked sincerely concerned and her heart melted a little. “You’re curvy and beautiful. You don’t want to be a stick.”
“I’ll never be a stick, don’t worry about that. I promise I don’t do anything that would be considered unhealthy. I’ve found my comfortable weight and now I just want to maintain; be the best and healthiest me I can be.”
He nodded. “Okay. But still enjoy life. You only live once.”
She chuckled. “Yes, which is why I’ll be enjoying life tonight by eating that entire plate of mac and cheese with fried okra.”
“Good,” he smiled. “You deserve it. If you trusted me enough to make you cookies, I would make them for you so you could eat those too. But since you won’t let me do it by myself,” he sighed, “we’ll just have to find a time to make cookies together,” he said, punctuating those last few words with a heated look in her direction.
She let out a shaky sigh before she caught herself, then was looking at him incredulously. “First, you’re going to ‘eat my cookie’, then you’re going to ‘make cookies’ with me?” She gave him a steamy look. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were flirting with me, Daniels.”
“Just making sure you can handle the dirty talk and still hang with the big boys. Consider this research,” he said, circling his tongue along his top lip.
“Mmm, I like this kind of research. Maybe tonight you can finally tell me how you make a woman scream,” she said, dazzling him with a smile.
He gave her a heavy lidded look. “Què boca,” he said shaking his head.
“You started it,” she teased. She knew he was commenting on her mouth again and her smile got bigger while she blew him a kiss. Then she reclined back on the seat and closed her eyes, really letting her body relax for the first time in hours. “Thanks for picking me up. I was gonna take the subway but this is so much nicer.” She stretched her leg out and rolled her ankle, showing off the rubber soled shoes she usually wore while standing and cooking for a long period of time.
“Your feet hurt?”
“They’re a little achy, but nothing that a nice long shower won’t cure.”
“I’ll rub them for you after dinner,” Luke murmured.
She opened her eyes at that and felt heat slam into her girly parts. Play it cool, Janie. “You’re being very accommodating tonight, Mr. Daniels.”
He put his hand to his heart as if offended. “Am I usually unaccommodating?”
“You’re usually a pain in the ass,” she murmured with humor.
“Takes one to know one, baby.”
“So mature,” she said, feeling giddy at their banter. She closed her eyes again, trying to calm her racing heart. “I don’t know if I should let you near my feet. I imagine a foot rub by you wouldn’t be very relaxing.”
“O contraire. It would be very relaxing. I’ve had many years to perfect my craft. Ever since a certain eight year old introduced me to her feet, I’ve developed an art for foot massages. And after all, it’s the least I can do considering they’re achy because of my party,” he said chivalrously.
She continued to flirt. “I don’t know. It could be torturous with you trying to tickle me the whole time. Nope. Not relaxing at all,” she said opening her eyes and murmuring sexily at him.
“Oh, well,” he said dramatically. “I was just going to show you how I make a woman scream. But if you’re not interested –”
She reached her foot up and pushed his leg with it. “Shut up,” she laughed.
“What?” he laughed back then he shifted against the seat to really look at her. “You don’t think I can make you scream with pleasure from a foot massage?” His eyes were locked on hers in challenge.
Oh, dear sweet Lord. Yes, please.
The car slowed as they pulled up outside Miss Peaches. He shrugged with a smirk. “I’ll be right back.” He opened the door and climbed out of the car to run into the restaurant to get their food.
Holy shit. I mean really holy shit.
She took a cleansing breath, realizing her heart was pounding double time. If he touched just one foot, she was sure she’d have an orgasm within seconds. That’s how tightly she was wound at the moment. Not to mention she knew she had sensitive feet. If he really knew what he was doing…
Maybe she could win this challenge if she concentrated really hard. She’d let him rub her feet then she’d do everything within her power to not scream with pleasure and prove to him that she could play with the big boys.
His words from the week before floated into her consciousness: Next time you challenge me and want to play, Janie, you better remember something…when I play for real, I always win.
She sank back into the seat. Nope. She was definitely a goner.
Ten minutes later, they were sitting on her sofa, eating their food and enjoying some wine. Neither of them spoke much on the way to her place, but now that their coats and shoes were off, they were comfortably settled and Janie’s mind was going a hundred miles an hour.
All she could think of was that foot massage.
“How’s the mac and cheese?” Luke asked while he tore into h
is second piece of fried chicken.
“Awesome,” she groaned around a mouthful, her plate almost empty. He laughed at her moaning noises in between bites. “Have you tried the potatoes yet?”
“No. Went straight for the chicken, which is really good by the way. I know as a vegetarian you won’t try it. But it’s good, trust me. And I haven’t had the potatoes because I thought you were supposed to try them first to make sure that I’d like them,” he said with a glint in his eye.
“If you insist,” she said dramatically. She took her spoon and scooped out a bite of the buttery whipped creaminess, put it in her mouth then made an enormous show of how good they were, holding her stomach and moaning.
He rolled his eyes. “Can I have some now, drama queen?”
She nodded and smiled while licking the remnants of potato off of her spoon.
“Help me. My hands are full,” he said, both hands wrapped around the fried chicken.
She looked at him stupidly.
“Come on. Gimme a spoonful,” he said, holding up his hands as if proving to her that he couldn’t just put the chicken down to get his own bite. “After that reaction, I have to try them,” he said, finishing his statement by parting his lips slightly, waiting for her to shovel some into his waiting mouth with her spoon.
She felt a current of desire snake through her body when he opened his mouth and looked at her playfully, but she schooled her features even though she could feel her face flushing with heat. She put some mashed potatoes on her spoon then leaned forward to hold it in front of his mouth, pulling the spoon back and teasing him slightly when he moved his mouth forward. He gave her a look then moved quickly to capture the spoon in his mouth before she could pull it away again.
He chewed thoughtfully then swallowed.
“What do you think?” she asked. “They’re great, right?”
“I’ve had better,” he shrugged.
“What?!” she screeched. “Where?”
“The ones you made on Thanksgiving. Your mashed potatoes are better than these.”
She preened under his compliment then joked. “Was that another sexual innuendo? I’m trying to think what my ‘mashed potatoes’ could be,” she chuckled.
He licked his lips. “Something that’s smooth and creamy.” He made a point to look down her body and settle his gaze between her legs.
She knew she must’ve blushed to the roots of her hair. “Luke Daniels, you complain about my mouth and yell at me for saying certain things to men, but you’re worse than I am!”
“You said you wanted dirty talk. Do you want me to remove that from the list? I told you, tonight was research.” He looked at her with a sexy laziness, enjoying himself entirely too much. “If you can’t handle it,” he began, letting his voice hang at the end of his statement and taking another bite of chicken.
She narrowed her eyes at him and pointed her spoon at him. “I can absolutely handle it, Luke. It’s just that you haven’t talked to me this way, ever, until a couple of weeks ago so I’m just trying to retrain my brain.”
“Am I offending you?” he asked seriously. She thought he sounded concerned, but as always he was the master of removing emotion from his face, so she wasn’t sure.
“Of course not.” She made sure to catch his eye before adding, “I told you I like it. It’s on the list, isn’t it?”
He smirked. “It is indeed. How dirty do you like it, Janie Callahan?”
“Very dirty.” She made sure to take her time on the syllables of the word ‘very’, rolling it around on her tongue in a sultry tone. She decided right then and there that she was going to get that foot massage. And she wasn’t going to scream. Someone needed to teach him a lesson, so she’d just bite her lip off if necessary…but she absolutely, would, not, scream. No way, no how.
He must’ve read her mind, because he raised an eyebrow, as if impressed with her ‘very dirty’ comment and said, “Well, you better finish up your dinner then because I believe I promised you a foot massage, demonstrating how I make a woman scream with pleasure.” His eyes smiled at her. “I can talk dirty while doing it too,” he said, totally enjoying himself. “Can you handle it, baby?”
She was sure her eyes were glazed over because she was beyond turned on at this point, her heartbeat pounding between her legs where a pool of wetness soaked her panties. She took a deep breath. “I can take whatever you dish out, Daniels.”
He nodded, thinking. “You sure about that?”
“This is just to gather research so you can find the perfect guy for me, right?” she clarified, wondering how he would respond.
“Hm,” he sounded affirmatively. “This will help me know the direction I need to go in searching for that right man. Your reactions will show me what you like, what you need,” he said quietly. “Convincing you of my mad skills is just an added bonus,” he said with a quirk to his mouth.
She licked at her bottom lip and put her food down, then stretched out her body on the sofa. Looking at him, she rested her wrists above her head on the armrest.
“Game on, Lukey.”
“Well, this is going to be fun,” he said with a cocky grin, his eyes moving from her own then proceeding to her hands above her head then down her body. He set his food down and walked toward the bathroom. “I’m going to wash my hands. Where do you keep your body lotion?”
Holy shit, she was really doing this. “Bottom right drawer of the vanity in the bathroom.” She barely got the words out before he left the room. She breathed slowly and closed her eyes, digging deep for the strength she would need in the coming minutes. A realization struck her as her eyes flew open.
Shit! She bolted up off of the sofa.
“Luke,” she yelled. “I’ll get the lotion!” She practically collided into him as he was coming out of the bathroom, lotion in hand. “Oh, good,” she stammered. “You found it. That’s, that’s good,” she swallowed.
The color was high on his cheekbones, but again, his face was expressionless. The only thing that showed any emotion was his coloring. “Was there a problem?”
“No, no problem,” she stammered. Why would there be a problem? It’s only the same drawer where I keep my vibrator. And now I know you’ve seen it. No problem at all.
He took her arm and led her back to the sofa. She was already questioning whether she could pull this off without making a fool of herself. Now that she knew he’d seen her vibrator, she was completely off kilter.
“Lay down, just like you were. Keep your hands on the armrest like you had them before,” he said softly.
Holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit.
She took a deep breath and lay down on the sofa as she’d been just before her embarrassing realization. After one more calming breath she closed her eyes briefly just as she heard him turning off one of the side lamps. Her eyes opened to see the loft cast into shadows with a lone light left on near the kitchen.
Breathe, Janie.
He sat down at the foot of the sofa and peeled her socks off one at a time, placing her feet in his lap after doing so. He took one sock and stroked her foot to remove the fuzzies that had been left there and she jumped with a nervous laugh.
He chuckled. “Tickles already? This doesn’t bode well for you, Janie,” he teased.
“I got this,” she said, trying to bolster her courage.
He clasped his fingers together and stretched out his arms in front of him, cracking his knuckles as if preparing to get down and dirty. He grabbed the lotion. “It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again,” he said maniacally.
She gut laughed, knowing he was quoting the infamous creepy scene from Silence of the Lambs. After they’d had their chuckle, he spoke again.
“Just keep thinking it’s no different than when you were a kid. I used to make you scream with laughter all the time. Now you’re just going to be screaming with pleasure,” he said confidently, giving her an arrogant look. “I’m only going to touch your foot and talk to you.”
He lowered his voice. “You’re going to fight it with everything you’ve got, if I know you. But you will be screaming, Janie. Trust me. I told you when I play for real, I always win.”
She swallowed hard. “We’ll see,” she said with fake bravado. Then she took a breath and closed her eyes tightly.
“Uh, uh,” he said.
She opened her eyes not understanding. When she made eye contact with him he said, “Don’t close your eyes. Eyes on me. The whole time.” His look was one of challenge.
She swallowed and stared into his eyes. All of a sudden she was nervous. Luke was about to give her a foot massage and she was terrified.
“You okay?” he asked, placing his hand over one of her feet, his warm roughened hand on her cold toes feeling like heaven.
Play it cool, Janie. That’s your new mantra. “Why wouldn’t I be? I’m about to get a foot massage by the Luke Daniels. I hope I don’t scream too loudly. Wouldn’t wanna scare the neighbors,” she said cheekily. It came out breathy, like she was about to hyperventilate.
He smiled then squeezed some lotion into his hands. As he rubbed them together, he inhaled. “Now I know why you always smell like strawberries and vanilla,” he murmured. Then he looked back at her and said, “Keep your eyes on me. No looking away.”
Um. Okay.
“Okay,” she breathed.
His blue eyes looked intently into hers and he murmured, “Ready?”
She nodded and his hands engulfed one foot as he began rubbing.
Oh, my.
This wasn’t going to be easy. She immediately bit down on her bottom lip to keep from whimpering.
“Does it tickle?” he asked quietly watching her reaction. She looked at him and shook her head no. She took a deep breath and watched him. At the same time she noticed how fast her stomach was moving, her breaths coming quicker.
“Good, I don’t want it to. It should be relaxing. Sensual,” he said under his breath while looking at her.
Keeping eye contact during this was going to be harder than she realized. She didn’t know how long she could keep it up. It was as if he was stripping her soul. She felt vulnerable with him, especially while he looked her in the eye and she was trying not to melt under his touch and have a screaming orgasm.
Remembrance: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series Book 4) Page 14