by Leah Holden
I was pretty sure that I’d never met him before but I couldn’t shake that feeling that he reminded me of someone. In the end, I figured maybe it was because we were so right for each other—at least for that moment. Maybe we were even kindred spirits or maybe we’d met in another life.
Whatever!
Truly, I was just glad he’d shown up for the date and that he was a dish. I took a sip of the coffee and wished I’d gone for the milk; it would be difficult to talk with a scorched tongue.
Jared was looking at me intently and I shifted in my seat a little. I was feeling a little less comfortable under what felt like a laser beam.
Maybe I was out of my comfort zone because I was used to being in the position of power; I was used to being the good looking one—secure in the knowledge that my dates were probably grateful that I was roughly the same age, shape and size as my online picture. In any event, Jared’s picture had definitely not done him justice.
“You’re staring,” he said.
“Oh, sorry,” I said and smiled in an attempt to lessen my self-consciousness.
“So, do I have egg on my face?” He gave a crooked little smile that made my heart rate kick up a notch.
“No, nothing like that,” I giggled a little in what I assumed to be an attractively girlish and extremely endearing manner.
Get a grip Shaniah—you’re not the giggling type.
“I just thought your hair seemed a bit curlier in your profile picture,” I said.
His smile turned into a wide grin, and I imagined that maybe, for the first time, he too looked a bit uncomfortable—maybe even a little guilty.
He raised his coffee cup and watched me intently over the rim.
“I have a confession to make,” he said after he’d taken a sip.
Ah—there it was—if it looked too good to be true…
I was instantly apprehensive, of course, and I guess he was waiting for me to say something because he still seemed to be hesitating.
“Okay—I’m all ears,” I said.
“That wasn’t my picture.”
So, I had not been expecting that. Like, what did he mean it wasn’t his picture?
I tried to control the sudden nervous facial twitch.
“Okay, whose picture was it?”
“My cousin, Paul, set up my profile for me. He wrote all that blurb and stuck one of his old pictures on it—yeah, sorry about that.”
He was still grinning.
I was outraged.
I’d been tricked? What kind of person does that? Maybe now was a good time to tell him I didn’t do surprises and that just maybe—good looking or not—I was getting ready to walk.
“I knew it!” I said.
There was no way that a blurry picture could have hidden those eyes.
“We do share a strong family resemblance,” he said as if that made everything okay.
“So how do I even know that you’re who you say you are, now?” I reached for my purse instinctively. I mean, even psychotic axe murders could be gorgeous couldn’t they?
He pushed his hand into his pocket, fished out his wallet and slid his driver’s license across the table at me.
I studied the picture—it was more than a good likeness of him. The steel grey eyes were, in reality, just as forceful in this picture as they were in real life. I checked the date of birth and did the quick mental math. He must have just turned thirty-nine—at least that much added up. The name checked out too. I was assuming that the license wasn’t a fake!
I slid the license back across the table and took a very careful sip of my coffee because I had to do something while my brain was processing the new information.
“That’s a despicable thing to do,” I said finally. I was pretty sure I didn’t like being conned.
“Hey, blame it on Paul,” he said, looking even more devastating with that little boy caught in the act look. “I’d never have made the move otherwise and he’s been after me for a while to start dating.”
Start dating? What did that mean? Had he been living some kind of reclusive lifestyle?
“I see,” I said, trying hard to see where this was all going.
“So, how come you’re still single? You’re a beautiful woman; I wouldn’t have thought you’d need to turn to online dating.”
I stared at him. Yeah, like I hadn’t heard that before. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to give him too much information about myself.
“I enjoy being single,” I said.
Technically, it was the truth—I liked my freedom—well, as much freedom as you could have with an eight-year-old with health challenges to care for. But at least I didn’t have to worry about washing my husband’s socks or cleaning the house when I wasn’t in the mood.
I was only missing a reliable source of good sex and a willing ‘donor’ for the baby I’d decided I was probably ready to have before I got too old. Other than that, I think I had the whole single life thing covered.
“So, your profile says you’re an interior designer,” said Jared.
“I was…still am, I guess. Actually, I’m in between jobs,” I confessed. “My company had to cut back and my job was one of the first to go.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
He seemed so genuinely upset that I actually laughed out loud.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I loved the job but hated the company. Anyway, I got a good severance pay and I also qualified for Employment Insurance. It means I can take my time to look around for a new challenge. I think I’ve kind of decided to work for myself.”
“That sounds like a great idea,” he said.
“And you, how do you occupy your time?” I asked. I had decided to ignore anything he’d written on the dodgy profile with the equally dodgy picture. Maybe I should have quizzed him more carefully about his personal life before agreeing to meet him.
“Well, I am truly self-employed; that bit of my profile, at least, was accurate,” he said, reading my mind. “I mostly do investments.”
That didn’t mean much to me. For all I knew, he could have been a drug dealer investing in destroying lives.
He laughed suddenly, “Has anyone ever told you that your face is very transparent?”
I grinned back at him, “Yeah, well, just saying you do investments sounds very vague.”
“It is a very broad area. I do the usual stocks and shares, property and my latest venture is in the insurance industry.”
“That sounds interesting and lucrative,” I said, having a quick mental flash of myself as Mrs. Jared Turner with an unlimited credit card balance.
“It is,” he replied with a wink, “but let’s cut the boring stuff; tell me what you’re looking for.”
“What do you mean?”
“From life…from a date.”
Whoa! This dude was some kind of serious. Like what? You buy me a coffee and suddenly you’re my shrink?
“I’m not sure I care to share that right now,” I said, “Mostly because I don’t have a long list of criteria.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
I decided to flip the question, “What are you looking for?”
He leaned back comfortably in his seat and once again I was reminded of a jungle cat: large, powerful, lithe and wild—but oh so beautiful!
“A good woman,” said Jared easily as he continued his frank assessment of me.
I tried to look serious for a moment but lost the battle as I burst out laughing.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Well, I was just wondering how you’re defining a good woman. Like, is she someone who doesn’t rob banks, or is she someone who cooks your meals, washes your socks? What are the criteria?”
“None of the above necessarily,” he grinned back at me, “just a nice girl.”
Wow—that smile—those lips—those eyes—I tried to stay focused.
Where was I?
Oh yes—a nice girl. Was I a nice girl? I wasn’t sure. Did I even want to be a
nice girl? I wasn’t sure about that either.
I sipped the coffee again, carefully. My tongue had become accustomed to the heat, or maybe the nerve endings had been so badly damaged by that first sip, I was now incapable of feeling anything.
“You wanna get out of here?” he asked.
This guy is a con artist, Shaniah; he lured you here under false pretenses with his cousin’s photo.
I stared at his mouth.
“What do you have in mind?” I said, deciding to ignore any warning voice in my head.
“How about a drive? It’s a nice evening; we could go down to the lake.”
“My mother always told me not to take lifts from strangers,” I said.
He grinned, “Oh, come on, you’re safe with me.”
“I bet that’s what Jack the Ripper said to all his victims.”
He laughed out loud. It was such a pleasant sound that I was back to staring at his mouth, hungrily.
“So, you can drive your own car—that way if you start to get bored with me, you can just dump my ass, make an excuse and leave.”
I laughed again because I couldn’t see how anyone could get bored looking at this dream of a guy. My instincts told me that he didn’t look like a mass murderer, but that could have been my hormones taking over.
The sense of unease I had been experiencing earlier had diminished considerably once he’d confessed about the profile picture. The ‘mystery’ had apparently been solved so I suddenly thought, ‘like what the hell!’ I’d been kind of depressed lately—partly about the job situation and partly because the past year had been rather challenging. I’d already decided that I needed to shake stuff up anyway, so maybe I should just take the plunge and be brave, you know, see what he had in mind—down by the lake!
However, in keeping with the little I knew about life, I said, “Give me your license again.”
He handed it over without a word and I could only admire his confidence. I took out my cell and snapped a picture of the license and made the quick decision to text it with a brief note to Shellie, rather than to Ria. Shellie would understand what it meant. As my best friend, I felt that the least she could do was to help me keep my ass out of trouble. Ria was perhaps a bit too romantic and somewhat melodramatic to be my back up on this.
“What was all that about?” Jared looked intrigued.
“In case my body ends up in Lake Ontario.”
“I can see I’m going to have to work hard to earn your trust,” he said.
“Yeah, well, pulling that stunt with your cousin’s photo might not be helping your case any.”
“Point taken. But how do I know you haven’t just sent my details to a gang of identity thieves who are, at this moment, hacking into my bank accounts?”
“You don’t,” I said as I took up my purse.
I tried not to let his gentle laughter thrill me too much as we walked out of the coffee shop.
CHAPTER THREE
In the end, I drove my little Toyota Yaris behind his snazzy looking sports car all the way towards the Lakeshore.
The trip took a little over five minutes and when he pulled into the small parking lot, I drove into the slot beside his. The area felt intimate even though it was still early evening. There were a number of other cars dotted around and I could see a few people walking by the water’s edge which reassured me a little.
I killed the engine.
Jared was leaning against his car door, eyeing me up as I tried not to stumble on the uneven tarmac. To cover my nerves, I pretended to be intrigued by the lake which, even in the fading light, was breathtaking. The gentle sloshing of the waves against the rocks might have been somewhat soothing in broad daylight. At twilight, it seemed to hint of the danger that lay within the deep water.
“We have a choice,” Jared said as I drew up to stand in front of him. “We can’t exactly watch the sunset together if we’re in separate cars. We could, however, sit on one of those nice hard rocks down by the sandy area of the beach and work on developing hemorrhoids, or we can sit in my car.”
I giggled again and said, “I don’t mean to upset you but I think we might have missed the sunset.”
“Don’t be such a killjoy,” he said, smiling. “I can definitely see what looks suspiciously like a sunset over there. However, if you insist on being completely lacking in imagination, we could always just watch the waves together.”
I made another big show of peering into the lake.
“Why can’t we sit in my car?” I asked, thinking that maybe I should be paying greater attention to that voice in my head about personal safety.
He looked over at my small hybrid and then down at his long legs. I also allowed my gaze to follow the length of his legs starting at his toes and moving upward, trying desperately to keep my gaze from targeting any personal area. I was suddenly thankful for the fading light.
“We’ll be more comfortable in mine,” he was saying.
I smiled enigmatically because he still wasn’t looking like a serial killer.
Ah, who was I kidding? I was thinking about his lips. I needed to concentrate—try to focus on his eyes—well, as much as I could, given the circumstances.
“Okay, maybe for a little while,” I said, pretending that there had been any real decision to be made.
“You can leave the car door open a little if it makes you feel more comfortable.”
He had a point. The evening was warm enough and I didn’t want him to think I was in the habit of locking myself in strange men’s cars, so I left the door open.
“Now, that’s better, isn’t it?” he said, twiddling with the inbuilt stereo system. Classical music filled the car and before I could ask him to change it to something from the last decade or so, those delicious lips had covered mine.
My heart thumped aggressively in my chest and continued its rapid rhythm as his tongue sneaked ever so gently into my mouth.
I wasn’t ready. When was the last time that I’d been kissed like this? Maybe never—or if I had, I couldn’t remember! Plus, Todd seemed to have had an aversion to good all out kissing, so I had a lot of catching up to do.
The kiss ended as quickly and as unexpectedly as it had begun. I stared at him trying not to show my confusion.
I’d definitely regained some feeling in my tongue. I ran it slowly along my bottom lip.
Ah, what the heck? I leaned forward and the smile that spread across my face was merged into the kiss that I pressed against his eager lips.
Of course he kissed me back. What had I expected? We didn’t need to be in a parked car, down by the Lakeshore in fading daylight if we were merely intending to make meaningful conversation.
The kiss deepened.
There was a delicious rightness to the pressure of his lips, the taste of his breath, the stroke of his tongue, the nose that eventually brushed against mine and moved upwards as his lips put a gentle pressure on my eyelids, the side of my nose and down to my lips again. Sweet Jesus, how was he doing that? I almost devoured his tongue in my eagerness. It had definitely been far too long.
I closed my eyes until I felt I was in a whole other world—just the two of us in our own universe.
A fleeting thought ran through my mind again; this guy was smooth. But I banished the thought as he reached down and caressed my breast. I moaned out loud and pushed my chest forward so that my breast filled his hands as I aimed to communicate some of the need I was feeling. Man, I couldn’t believe how right this all felt, it was as if I’d come home; as if I’d known him my entire life.
When his lips covered the nipple on my left breast I pulled away—I needed to at least pretend to show some restraint. Yes, on the one hand, it was good to break free, to be bold, be bad and to be a not so nice girl. On the other hand though, familiarity feeling or not, this guy was a complete stranger.
“Someone will see us,” I mumbled against his lips as he tried to kiss me again. I was remembering that our newly developed universe consisted of a small
parking lot with other cars and that we would be providing a free peep show to anyone who decided to take a walk.
I pulled the car door shut because I was apparently more afraid of being spied on by neighborhood perverts and random Peeping Toms than being abducted by my date.
“The glass is tinted,” he replied. Nevertheless, he pulled away slowly as I tried to cram my boobs back into the lacy cup of my bra.
We sat in companionable silence for maybe less than a minute pretending that we were looking at waves in the black water ahead of us. But soon I could feel his gaze shift towards me and I too turned my head and leaned towards him because I’d really enjoyed the feel of his lips on mine.
As his hands cupped my breast and his breathing accelerated, I tensed right up again. I just wasn’t great with the making out in public scenario.
“Okay,” he said. “I get it; you’re not comfortable. I think I can sort out the immediate problem.”
He started the car engine and I freaked. “Hey, what’re you doing? Nobody said anything about going anywhere.”
“Relax,” he said, “We’re not going far.”
He drove off.
Shit! Shit! Shit! Was I totally insane?
“What about my car? People will think it’s been abandoned.”
What about my life?
I was imagining the potential headlines in the news the following morning, ‘Body of Missing Mother Found.’
I thought of Josh. Eight-years-old was so young. I needed to stay safe for him.
And yet, I was aware of an urgent need that had been growing since I had first clapped eyes on this new date from the internet. I was also aware of a tightening in my abdomen just thinking about the kiss. A terrible conflict was raging inside.
“Stop worrying,” said Jared and kept driving.
I thought again, ‘shit!’ This wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind when I’d agreed to come down to the lake. Really, if I wasn’t comfortable, then I needed to do something fast, you know, at least attempt to leap from the moving vehicle.
On the other hand, I was kind of thrilled at the anonymity of the situation. I mean, I really wasn’t feeling afraid of Jared per se. It was more a common sense reaction that I was experiencing. The lingering memory of a warning voice in my head—perhaps that was my mother’s voice ringing a bell somewhere there.