by KB Winters
Her melodic laugh carried through the gentle night breeze and ran down my spine. I pressed my hand against her back, absorbing her warmth and wishing there wasn’t a barrier between my hand and her skin. With her pressed against my body it was hard not to let my mind wander. There had been brief moments of flirtation over dinner, and we’d both appeared comfortable referring to the night as a date, but so far no major lines into a physical relationship had been crossed. Even now, standing together on the curb, could be perceived as nothing more than two good friends huddling together against the cold night air.
“Let’s do it,” Isla answered.
My heart lurched into double time and I smiled down at her. Her long hair got picked up by a small gust of wind and blew over her face. She sputtered and batted at the stray strands. “God, you’d think with the amount of hair spray I put on this mess…”
I laughed and brushed the hair aside, tucking the loose strands behind her ears. Time froze as my hands came to rest on either side of her face. Her eyes went wide and dark under the twinkling lights hanging from the awning over the restaurant entrance and I got lost in them. “Isla, you’re beautiful.”
Before she could respond, I leaned over her, closing the gap from our height difference and captured her full lips with my mouth. She went stiff and then promptly melted into my arms. Her lips were soft, like pillows, and tasted like the remnants of the chocolate cake we’d shared. I parted her lips with a flick of my tongue, and she purred in the back of her throat as she let me in. I explored the tip of her velvet soft tongue with my own and she clung to me as though she couldn’t stand on her own anymore.
Despite the significant height difference, we fit together perfectly, and her breasts pressed against my chest, making me wish for the second time that night, that our setting was different and that far less clothing was involved. My pulse raced with the layers of fantasy that crept into the kiss, and I pulled away before I could get too carried away. It had been a long time—a really long time—but I wasn’t willing to rush things with a woman like Isla. She was far too special to treat like some random girl I’d met in a bar.
When I pulled away from the kiss, Isla’s eyes stayed closed for another beat, before they opened and met mine. “Wow.”
I smiled at her as the daydream cleared from her eyes. “Yeah.”
A group of people went around us and the sound of their boisterous conversation pulled us out of the moment. “Should we take my car? Or would you rather go separately?”
She hesitated and for a moment, a streak of fear shivered through me, thinking she was about to back out of the second part of the evening. “I’ll take mine if it’s okay. I don’t want you to have to double back.”
I didn’t mind doubling back, but I accepted her terms and after she gave me brief directions, I walked her to her car and saw her leave the lot before going to my truck, which was just a few spots away from where she’d parked.
At Cuppa’s we met up again and ordered a couple of half-caf lattes and settled onto one of the well-worn couches. I took the seat by the arm, and to my surprise—and delight—Isla snuggled into my side as though we’d been together for months instead of hours.
“This is really nice,” she sighed, before taking a long sip of her drink. “It’s so funny, because I was just here, two days ago, and that was the first time we talked other than on the boards.”
“Yeah,” I agreed with a laugh. “Wow.”
“When was the last time you went on a date?” She asked, craning her neck up to look at me.
I chuckled. “You don’t even wanna know.”
She creased her brow. “Why not?”
“It’s been…a while.”
She laughed and relaxed back down. “You have no idea what a while even means…”
“What do you mean? How long for you?”
“No, no, no,” she pointed a wagging finger at me. “I asked you first.”
“All right.” I smirked. “I haven’t seen anyone since moving here, and before that, I was in the middle of the desert for six months. So, it’s been over a year. And even then…I wouldn’t really consider that a date.”
Isla pulled away and situated herself on the couch so she was sitting cross legged, facing me, her hands resting in her lap around her cup of coffee. “I haven’t gone on a date in four and a half years.”
Her answer shocked me. “How could that possibly be true? A girl that looks like you must get hit on every day of the week!”
“Ha! Hardly.”
I shook my head. “I call bullshit. Seriously, I’ve been sitting here with you all night, wondering how the hell I managed to get your attention.”
She raised her coffee cup to her lips as they quirked into a smile. “Consider yourself lucky, I guess.”
I laughed at her sassy retort. I knew full well that I’d only seen a glimmer of who Isla really was, and each new layer of her personality left me wanting more. “Very lucky.”
Blush covered her cheeks and she took a long sip. “So, why did you say you don’t think your last date could be called a date?”
“Well…” I hesitated for a moment.
“Come on. You won’t shock me, you know.”
“Back before my last tour, I wasn’t exactly looking for a relationship. My buddies and I—well, Miles and I, once Colton ran off and got himself hitched—we were more casual in our pursuit of the fairer sex.”
“Ah. The hit it and quit it variety. Charming.” She rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop herself from smiling.
I held up my hands in surrender. There was no point in denying it. “I’ll admit to not exactly having the best of intentions when I went out. But, in my defense, I never led girls on. I didn’t promise them I’d call and then…not. It was all just for fun. On both sides.”
Isla nodded and took another long sip and I wanted to reach into her mind and see what thoughts were going around the wheels that were obviously spinning.
“I had a nasty breakup,” I confessed. “After that, I don’t know, I got turned off by anything that was long term and complicated.”
Isla lowered her cup back to her lap and licked a stray bit of foam from her upper lip. “Remember what you said back at the restaurant? That I didn’t have to qualify myself to you? Same goes. I’ve made some bad decisions in my life too and I have a past. I’m sure not in a position to judge anyone else.”
I nodded and reached for one of her hands. She unwrapped it from the coffee cup and our fingers slid together. When she dragged her eyes away from our interlocked hands, she met my gaze. “One more question.”
“Anything.”
“What do you want now? I’m not worried about the past. I’m much more interested about right now. Back at dinner, you said you want your own family someday, so to me, that means you’re willing to trade in your hot hookup days. Do you see that happening soon?” Before I could answer, she rushed to add, “I only ask because I have a daughter. And if we…if we become something more…I have to know that it’s not a casual thing. You know?”
Her brutal honesty floored me. In the past, if a girl I was interested in had started that kind of conversation, I would have been searching for the quickest exit strategy. But with Isla, it only made me want to get closer to her. I tugged on her hand and pulled her close. I kissed her long and slow, letting our lips linger together, not caring who was watching.
“This is real, Isla. I know that sounds insane because this is our first date, but—”
“It doesn’t,” she said. “It doesn’t sound insane. Not to me.”
I smiled and kissed her again.
Chapter Ten
Isla
“Isla!” I jolted at the brash sound of my name and spilled coffee down the front of my blouse. Brushing at the dark liquid as it sank into the cotton fabric, I turned and saw the source of the stern voice. Kevin. Barreling towards me. “Where are the notes?” Each word was sharp and piercing.
I stopped dabbing at the spill
. “I put them on the conference room table. Are they not there?”
Kevin stopped short of foaming at the mouth and jerked a look over his shoulder. He locked one of the associates in his sights. “Check the conference room table!” he barked.
Seconds later, the associate rushed back down the hall, holding a copy of the freshly printed notes over his head. Kevin cursed under his breath and stalked off, without so much as an apology or thank you back in my direction.
“Sure, tear my ass a new one, when you didn’t even check the table. Mother fu—” I grit my teeth together before I lost control of my mouth.
Monday morning had rolled around all too quickly and left me in an incredibly grouchy mood. Lucas and I had shut down Cuppa’s and by the time we finally said goodnight—after a little steamy session up against the driver’s side door of my car—it was almost one in the morning. Neither one of my parents were awake when I got home and I hoped they hadn’t heard me sneaking in, as that would only lead to a lot of questions. I’d checked on Lily, pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, and floated down the hall to shower and get ready for bed. But even once I’d been tucked into bed, it had been impossible to sleep. My head and my heart were buzzing with excitement over every detail of my date with Lucas and had been content to replay every second on repeat until I finally drifted to dreamland well into the morning hours.
I’d been at work for less than an hour and I was ready to walk out. I muttered to myself as I went down the hall to the employee restroom. After a few minutes of scrubbing, I managed to fade the stain from my shirt, but in its wake, was a large wet patch.
“Perfect,” I sighed, taking in my reflection in the mirror. After hitting the snooze button three times, I’d been left with barely enough time to get Lily off to preschool, and had been forced to apply a sweep of mascara and lip gloss in the car while I waited for the drop off line to move. I’d tied my hair back in a low ponytail and prayed no one noticed my oily hair thanks to second day hair spray residue. “Two words, Isla: hot mess.”
I dawdled in the bathroom as long as I could get away with before going back to the front desk. In the week before Thanksgiving, Kevin had finally found it in his scroogey heart to hire a replacement for Rebecca, the assistant that had trained me. I’d met all of the candidates as they’d come in for their interviews, but hadn’t been sure which one he’d hired. When I got back to the front, I smirked at the busty brunette in a sweater so tight that I worried the buttons would pop off and blind someone.
That would make for an interesting lawsuit.
“Good morning,” I greeted, failing to connect her name and face.
She smiled through her deep red lipstick and extended her hand. “Lacey.”
“Right. Lacey. Nice to meet you. I’m Isla.”
“I’m so excited! I still can’t believe I got the job!” She shook my hand with surprising vigor and kept her smile in place like an overeager beauty queen contestant. She’d been in the office for less than five minutes and already had a dizzying amount of things to learn. First lesson, smiling and nodding wasn’t going to cut it. Then again, Kevin likely hadn’t been considering her filing skills when he’d done the interview…
“Great. Let’s get started.” I rounded the desk and pulled out the chair that had belonged to Rebecca. I’d stashed it away after bruising my knees on it repeatedly. Lacey took the chair and dropped her designer clutch onto the desk beside her computer. I took my normal chair and pulled up the inner office memo system. “We were closed last week, which means there is a ton of stuff to catch up with. We’re going to have to move fast through all of this, so take notes, and if I get to something you don’t understand, make a note of that too and we’ll go over it at the end of the day.”
Lacey nodded and I let myself feel hopeful. Perhaps I’d judged too quickly. I’d assumed that Kevin had hired her because of her…assets…but maybe there was more than just a winning smile and perky breasts. I made a mental note to dig out her resume when she went to lunch and refresh myself.
By mid-morning, I finally started to break free from the mountain of emails and messages that had piled up over the holiday. Lacey had done a lot of nodding and smiling and I hadn’t had time to slow down and ask her questions to see how much she was actually absorbing. I was getting more comfortable with my role as a trainer, which was a relief, since Kevin kept swooping up to the front every half an hour to check in.
“I’m going to go on a little break,” I told Lacey. “If the phone rings, go ahead and answer it. If you don’t know how to answer their question, take a message, and let them know they will get a call back in fifteen minutes.”
She nodded and took a note. “Okay.”
I wasn’t sure why she needed a physical note for such a simple instruction, but I shrugged it off and went to the employee break room to get a yogurt out of the fridge. I sighed and sank into one of the leather chairs in the corner and peeled back to top of the container. The sweet strawberry scent wafted to my nose and my stomach growled in response. I hadn’t been able to stop for breakfast and it had been a long time since the piece of cake I’d shared with Lucas.
I smiled at the memory and swirled my spoon over the creamy pink contents of the plastic cup.
“Umm, Isla—” I looked up at the sound of my name and saw Lacey peeking around the corner into the break room. “There’s someone here to see you.”
Lucas.
My stomach flipped over and I jolted from my seat, nearly losing my grip on the yogurt cup in my hand. I set it aside and brushed a hand over my hair. God, why hadn’t I washed it last night?
“I’ll be right there.”
She nodded and disappeared. I grabbed the yogurt and scarfed down the entire thing in three massive bites before tossing the container in the sink to rinse out on my lunch break. I waved my hand over the still-drying spot on my blouse, but quickly abandoned hope it would fade in three seconds. With one final smoothing over my hair and the back of my black pencil skirt, I power walked up to the front desk.
When I turned the final corner, all of the warmth and excitement in my heart, turned to a bone chilling cold that stole the breath right from my lungs.
There was a man standing in the lobby. He was holding a bouquet of white roses. He was smiling at me.
But he wasn’t Lucas.
It was Samuel.
My ex-fiancé.
Lily’s biological father.
The man who had wrecked my entire world without so much as an “I’m sorry” over four years ago.
“Isla. It’s so good to see you.” He said it like we’d just seen each other last weekend. The casual audacity of his tone was like nails raking over a chalkboard. Every defense went on red alert.
“What are you doing here?” I demanded, surprising myself with the ferocity of my tone.
The smile on his face faltered. “I came to see you.”
I scoffed, unable to hold back a bubbling, hysterical laugh. “Wow. Just wow. Samuel, take your flowers and leave. You have absolutely no right to be here.”
The smile rebounded on his face. “Isla, I think we both know that’s not true. If my math is right, we have a four-year-old reason for me to be here.”
My blood went ice cold in my veins and I gasped to find my next breath. He was here to see Lily.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lacey shifting nervously behind the desk. I wanted to scream, to tell her to get away, to leave me alone, but the words wouldn’t come out. The past that I’d kept meticulously packaged away in the corner of my mind, had now burst forth and I was desperate to put it back out of sight again.
“Get out,” I snarled at Samuel. “I don’t know how you found me, but you can’t be here.”
“Again, Isla,” he dropped his tone as though he were speaking to a small child, “I have every right to be here and you know it.”
“You have one minute or I’ll call security.”
“What the hell is going on out here?” I winced
at the booming voice coming from down the hall. Kevin stepped to my side and appraised the situation. “Isla, really? This is a place of business, not your high school prom. Young man, I’m afraid you and Isla will need to finish this elsewhere.”
I turned to Kevin. “There’s nothing to finish. He was leaving.” I darted a dark glance at Samuel.
“Actually, I had something I needed to talk to you about,” Samuel returned to his original good-guy tone.
Kevin rubbed his temples like the scene before him was the most stressful thing he’d had to deal with since his last board meeting. “Isla, take a personal day. I’m sure Lacey can handle the desk for the remainder of the day.”
The ice in my veins shattered as molten hot lava replaced it. “You cannot be serious!” I rounded on Kevin, squaring my petite frame against his towering, lanky body. “Kevin, this—” I waved back in Samuel’s general direction, not daring to look over at him, for fear that I’d launch myself across the lobby and knock him to the ground, “—has nothing to do with me. He just walked in here!”
Kevin waved off my explanation. “Isla, go deal with this and come back tomorrow when it’s handled and you can focus on your job.”
My fists balled tight at my sides. I’d never wanted to haul off and punch someone more in my entire life. Without waiting for my retort, Kevin spun in his wingtip shoes that probably cost more than my weekly salary, and stalked off down the hall as though he was the one put out by the entire affair.
Lacey cleared her throat. “I’ll be okay, Isla.”
Well that’s a relief, I scoffed to myself.
I gave her a curt nod and then turned my blazing glare on Samuel, who flashed a shit eating grin in my direction.
“Outside. Now.”
Samuel left the office, and I reached over to grab my purse from the back of my office chair before following him out.
“What the hell are you doing here, Samuel?” I demanded, storming up to him in the parking lot outside the office building.
He extended the bouquet of roses and I batted them away. “Damn, Isla, can’t you cut me some slack?”