“Mm-hmm.” He nuzzled at her temple as he kept speaking. “The debates of philosophers, the battle cries of Waterloo, sighs of ancient lovers, and now …” He brushed a kiss against her cheek. “… the two of us.”
Kate sat there for a moment, absorbing his words, and then her eyes fluttered closed as he kissed her again. Her hand floated up to rest against his cheek to keep Michael’s lips against hers as they gently explored each other’s mouths.
Michael broke away and rested his cheek against hers for a moment, his eyes closed as he breathed in her scent, the familiar bouquet of cake and sunshine. He imagined the argon swirling from his body into hers, wondering if the element had somehow led him to her. He wondered if it had led him to the wellspring of words that his life had suddenly become.
~~~
Wren put her magazine down and reached for her glass, glancing over at the door of the Club Room, and then did a double take.
“I don’t believe it,” she muttered to herself, sipping her wine and watching as David made his way toward the bar. “Out of all the bars in this town, he walks into mine.”
She hadn’t been in the mood to go straight home after work and so, after a quick detour, had found a bar that looked good and gotten herself comfortable at a table with her glossy magazine and a glass of wine. Wren leaned back in her seat, enjoying the opportunity to watch him as he ordered his drink and exchanged a few words and a laugh with the barman. He looked a bit tired today but still moved with the easy self-assurance that she always noticed about him. Wren watched as he accepted his drink, stuffed his change into his hip pocket and turned to survey the room with his back against the bar.
David’s face went blank with surprise as he saw Wren sitting at a small table against the wall, and she raised her glass to him in a silent toast across the room. Smiling, he picked up his glass and made his way toward her.
“May I?” he asked, indicating the empty chair, pulling it out and taking a seat when she nodded. “So, you’ve had that kinda day too, huh?” He nodded at her glass.
“It wasn’t so bad.” Wren shrugged, sipping at her wine. “I just couldn’t decide what I wanted to do tonight, so I figured I’d come have a drink first.” She set her glass down and waved a hand toward the drink David was still holding. “You too?”
“Something like that,” he agreed. “Busy day at work, and I wasn’t quite ready to go home and be a couch potato.”
The two of them looked at each other and then both sighed at the same time, which made them laugh.
“I guess if neither of us feels like doing much, we might as well do it together,” David ventured and caught the eye of a waiter to wave him over. “Join me for dinner?”
“Sure,” Wren said, surprised at her easy acceptance. Once again, her evening had taken an unexpected turn, and it involved David. “They’ve got a decent tapas menu unless you want to go through to the dining room.”
David got a copy of the menu and scanned it briefly, then looked up at her with an inquiring smile. He had left the office with no clear plans for the evening other than having a drink on his way home, but now things were looking up.
“That sounds good, let’s make ourselves comfortable.”
~~~
“So how’s your wine?” Michael asked, watching Kate as she sipped at her glass. They’d had a couple of drinks now and had ordered some small dishes to snack on.
“Nice. Want a taste?” She held out her glass.
“Don’t mind if I do.” Michael leaned over and kissed her again. Kate’s mouth opened like a flower beneath his as she leaned into him. He had rested his hand on her thigh and now slid it up over her waist to pull her against him. When he broke off the kiss, Kate drew in a shaking breath and licked her lips. “Penny for your thoughts?” he prompted.
Kate looked at Michael, feeling the familiar warmth begin as it spiraled down low into her abdomen, and then lower still where it began to stoke the embers. Michael’s touch on her arm added fuel to the fire.
“I’m thinking that maybe I don’t want you to go home tonight,” Kate said, before sliding her hand around the nape of his neck and pulling his face back to hers. This time when they broke apart, Kate was smiling. “How is it that we always end up necking like a pair of teenagers?”
“I have no idea,” Michael murmured as he kissed just under her earlobe. “But you won’t hear me complaining.” He hooked a finger in the neckline of her T-shirt and tugged at it so that he could drop a kiss on her collarbone. Looking up, he saw a warm flush begin at Kate’s throat and sweep up into her face.
“Just so you know,” Kate declared as she trailed a finger across Michael’s stubble, “I don’t make a habit of this.”
“Nor do I,” Michael said, watching Kate’s face as she smiled at his answer. Her eyes were heavy as she gazed at him, and he could see the effects her arousal was having on her. Her lips were full and pink, matching the high color in her cheeks, and her breathing was shallow. He could smell the sweetness of the wine on her breath, knowing it was interlaced with the eternal argon that was swirling into his own body as he inhaled.
They were distracted from each other when their food arrived: a platter of olives, dips, and crusty bread to be torn apart and eaten with their fingers.
Kate chewed slowly, enjoying the saltiness of the olives, then tore off a piece of bread to dip in some olive oil. It had been a busy day, and she ate with relish. A warm dribble of olive oil ran down her thumb, and as she licked it off she looked across at Michael. He had been about to sip his wine, but instead he sat watching her, his eyes dark as he watched her tongue flicker over her skin.
~~~
It wasn’t long before Kate invited him back to her place, an offer he accepted with alacrity.
“Make yourself at home,” Kate called over her shoulder as she dropped her bag by the door and headed for the kitchen.
Michael paused in the living room, gazing at the profusion of color and warmth in the room. It reminded him of the bakery. Artwork, prints, and postcards jostled for space, making the walls glow with color. He smiled as he saw the bookshelves and made his way toward them, curious to see what sort of reader Kate was. Running his fingers over the book spines, he saw that she seemed to be as eclectic in her reading tastes as she was with everything else. Tudor history, science fiction, autobiographies, the whole range was there. His eyes flickered quickly over the shelves, and he noted that he didn’t see any of his books there. He wasn’t sure if he felt relieved or disappointed, and he turned when he heard Kate’s footsteps approach.
“I should’ve known that you’d home in on the books.” Kate smiled as she walked toward him, a bottle of wine in one hand and two glasses in the other.
“Force of habit.” Michael smiled. “You’ve certainly got a good collection going here.”
“But none of yours,” Kate added. “I’ll have to change that. I think I’d like to see what you’ve come up with in the past.” She cocked her head as she looked at him. “Come to think of it, I haven’t looked up any of your books yet.”
“No rush,” Michael replied, taking the glasses from her and dropping a kiss on the tip of her nose. “You’ll probably find something on Google.”
“Hell, I can probably find myself on Google.” Kate laughed.
While Michael poured the wine, Kate kicked off her shoes and socks, sinking down onto the sofa beside him and stretched out her legs, crossing them at the ankles. She leaned forward and fumbled for the iPod dock remote, and soon one of her “chill” playlists was filtering through the apartment. Michael passed her a glass of wine, and she accepted it with a smile of thanks, chinking her glass against his before taking a sip.
Michael rested his arm around Kate’s shoulder, and she snuggled in against him, rubbing one of her feet up her calf as she gave a mild stretch of contentment.
“What’s that?” Michael gestured with his hand that held his glass of wine toward Kate’s feet.
“What’s wh
at?” Kate didn’t understand what he was looking at and moved her feet to look at the coffee table.
“Not the table. You.” Michael laughed, putting his class of wine down so that he could grasp Kate’s calf, pulling her leg across his lap. Curious, he traced his forefinger across the flowing script that ran around her inner ankle.
“There’s one on the other ankle too, see?” Kate lifted her other leg slightly to show him.
Enchanted, Michael maneuvered Kate so that she sat perpendicular to him, her thighs across his lap so that he could look at both ankles. It took him a moment to realize that the words he was reading weren’t in English.
“Latin?” he guessed and got a nod of acknowledgment. He mouthed the words to himself and then turned to her, curious to find out more. “I can’t even guess. You’ll have to tell me.”
Kate leaned forward. “This one,” she said, tracing her finger across her left ankle, “says ‘Receive Joy,’ and the other says ‘Give Joy.’” She leaned her shoulder against the couch, her breasts pressing against Michael’s arm as he rubbed his hand up and down her thigh, his other hand gently cupping an ankle.
“There’s a story behind them,” he said in a quiet voice, gently tracing a finger over the inked pattern, staring at the contrast of the ink against her pale skin, the way the letters flowed in a fluid wave as she flexed her foot.
“It’s something I read about when I was in college,” Kate began. “The Egyptians believed that when you reached the afterlife, your heart was weighed by the god Horus and you were asked two questions: did you find joy in your life, and did you bring joy to the lives of others.” She glanced down at the tattoos and gave a small smile. “I figured that was as good a template for a happy life as any.”
Michael nodded, his gaze not moving from Kate’s face as she spoke. “And the Latin?”
“I was a Literature major, so Latin made a kind of sense.” She smiled and wrinkled her nose at Michael. “And anyway, it’s like having a special secret, and I can choose who I let in on it.”
Michael reached over to pull her up and onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist as she dipped her head to kiss him. His arms tightened around her as she hesitantly touched the tip of her tongue to his lips, and he opened his mouth to draw her in. Within moments the kiss became urgent, more heated. Kate began squirming and then to Michael’s shock she wriggled out of his arms and off his lap completely.
“I’m sorry,” he said, lifting a hand out of reflex to run it through hair he realized was no longer there. “Have I done something wrong?”
“Quite the opposite,” Kate murmured and rose up on her knees so that she could throw a leg over his hips to straddle him where he sat on the sofa. She draped her arms around his shoulders, her fingers curling against the nape of his neck, and Michael closed his eyes as she lowered her mouth toward his. Michael’s hands floated up from her hips to clutch convulsively at the hem of her T-shirt, and he bunched the soft fabric in his hands before breaking off the kiss to gaze at her. Kate leaned her weight back, creating a delightful friction that had him biting his lip as she looked at him.
“What is it?” she whispered.
Michael dropped his head to rest his forehead against her throat, breathing in her familiar scent.
“I want …” He stopped and licked his lips, trying to gather his thoughts. “I want to touch you, so very much.” He looked into her eyes. “Can I have you?”
“Only if I can have you.” Kate smiled.
It was, Michael reflected later, the smile outside the bar that had sealed his fate. The way she had bitten her lip in an instant of vulnerability before she had given herself over to the evening ahead. Trailing kisses across Kate’s collarbone, he gently pushed her T-shirt up, watching with hooded eyes as she reached down to assist, taking it off and dropping it onto the floor before reaching to remove his. He had leaned forward as she had tugged at his collar, the sight of her disappearing for a moment as the shirt was pulled over his head. And then they were touching and tasting, their hands restless as they explored the topography of each other’s bodies.
Kate began to move her hips against his, making him groan into her mouth, and she shivered as he ran his fingertips and down her back, cupping her backside to pull her harder against him.
He reached up to trace the swell of her breast with a finger, following the edge of the lace cups, sliding the strap off her shoulder until she reached behind to unfasten the clasp, clutching his head to her chest.
“Kate,” he muttered between kisses, “I need … Can we …” He was stuttering, trying to find the words.
“Yes,” she answered, knowing that he was trying to say. She climbed off his lap and pulled him to his feet and took him to her bed.
~~~
David finished his drink, set the glass down with a flourish, and gestured at the almost empty glass Wren was nursing. “Can I get you another?”
Wren glanced at her drink and finished off the mouthful that was left. “Sure, why not?”
David excused himself from the table, returning a while later with two more glasses of red wine. He raised his glass to hers in a brief toast as he sat down, and then leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. The evening had taken an unexpected, but by no means unwelcome, turn.
He looked up as he heard Wren give a quiet snort of amusement, and then followed her gaze to see a couple in a nearby booth indulging in an overt display of affection. David raised an eyebrow at Wren and looked at the couple again, glancing away quickly as the woman’s hand disappeared beneath the table. He couldn’t see what she had done, but winced in sympathy as the man gave a sudden jerk. Enthusiasm was one thing, but style went a long way as well as far as he was concerned.
“Do you think it’s love?” he asked in a dry tone.
“Please,” Wren scoffed. “She’s practically eating that guy. I’m almost tempted to send her some cutlery so she can make a better job of it.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” David mused as he looked at the enthusiastic couple. “There certainly seems to be a level of fondness there.”
“For the next couple of hours at least,” Wren agreed. “I don’t think that’s Hallmark love you’re looking at there.”
David took a sip of wine and glanced at Wren again. “You don’t sound like a believer.”
Wren considered this for a moment. “Did you know that the word ‘love’ has more definitions than any other word in the dictionary? Just one little word, four letters, but it’s one of the most difficult things in the world to define. It’s like they invented a word for the condition and have been struggling to define it ever since,” Wren mused, holding her glass of wine up to admire the way the light shone through the red hue. She was pretty sure she had some silk at home that color.
“Condition? You make it sound like a sickness,” David replied in an amused tone.
“Well, it is.” Wren paused. “It’s viral. One person falls in love, and then it gets transmitted. You can’t eat, you can’t sleep, and the only thing that can cure you is someone else that’s suffering from it as well.”
There was a thoughtful silence between the two.
“All that fuss over just four letters,” Wren mused.
“True, but it’s just four out of twenty-six,” David pointed out.
“Interesting,” Wren said in a thoughtful tone as she leaned her elbows on the table and propped her chin in her hands. “I hadn’t thought of it like that.”
“Sure. You’re freaking out over four letters, but just think about the Roman alphabet: twenty-six letters supporting our entire culture.” David picked up his folded newspaper and gave it an idle glance. “Twenty-six fragile little squiggles that underpin everything we do.”
“Who said I was freaking out?” Wren said, frowning a little.
“Hey.” David shrugged. “You can get your freak on all you want. At least you’re prepared to talk about the subject without getting starry-eyed and grabbing the nearest
bridal magazine.”
Wren made the mistake of snorting with laughter just as she was about to sip her drink and was sent into a spasm of coughing as the alcohol hit her windpipe. Within seconds she was bent over in her chair coughing and sobbing for air as she tried to clear her throat. By the time she had gotten herself under control, David was helpless with laughter himself. Wren accepted a napkin and a glass of water from a passing waitress with a watery smile, and mopped at her streaming eyes, still giving the occasional cough as she settled back down.
“The last time that happened I was in grade school.”
“Oh, God, I’m so sorry,” David wheezed. “Are you okay?”
“I think I’ll live,” Wren replied. “I can’t believe that just happened, though.” She picked up her glass of water and took several small careful sips. “I suppose I should be used to expecting the unexpected whenever you’re around.”
~~~
A sound woke Michael up, and he blinked into the darkness of the room for a moment, unsure of where he was. The sound came again, and he realized that it had come from Kate, her head tucked against his shoulder. He hadn’t understood what she had said, and so he lay there in silence wondering if she was going to repeat herself.
She shifted her head a little, a small frown appearing on her forehead, and he gently reached over to brush a strand of hair off her face. Kate gave a soft sigh and repositioned herself against him in her sleep, her hand creeping up to rest on his chest. It was a small gesture, but to Michael it felt like a significant moment.
He knew he was falling in love with her.
Chapter 14
Afterglow and Google
Kate blinked and opened her eyes to discover Michael dropping a trail of kisses along the valley of her breasts, working his way up toward her throat. Michael’s hazel eyes crinkled as he gave her a sleepy smile. “Good morning,” he rumbled, before leaning in to nuzzle the side of her neck, nibbling and sucking on her delicate skin. Kate closed her eyes again, putting her arms around him to hold him closer, reveling in the feel of his body on top of hers and turning her head for his kiss.
Take the Cake Page 23