“You’re incorrigible,” she said at last, still grinning. “But I really do mean I won’t have sex with you, Niall. I’m not easy like that.”
“Perhaps so, but I haven’t unleashed the full force of my seductive arsenal against you as yet. Perhaps, once my weapons of sensual satisfaction have been deployed, you’ll be incapable of saying no. And all I need is one ‘yes’ to give us what we both want.”
He whispered the words feverishly into her ear, and then licked the shell of it and drew away, releasing her and putting some distance between them. He wanted to remain a man of his word, and not take what she didn’t freely offer, but if he kept touching her, the likelihood of him breaking his own rules would grow. He didn’t want to tempt fate.
She leaned away from him. “You can’t come if you can’t keep your hands to yourself, Niall,” she said, and when he smirked at her, she blushed, deepening her dusky complexion. “Stop it!”
She slapped at his arm and he laughed. There were so many ways to answer that, but he decided to spare her further blushes as much as possible. “I can’t promise not to come if the circumstances are right, lass,” he said. “But I promise to be on my best behavior until you ask me to behave badly.”
Sighing in resignation, she pulled all the way out of his arms and went back to the couch, picking up her drink as she sat and swallowing what was left in the glass.
“More?” When she nodded, Niall poured them both another glass and sat back, handing her the glass.
“So, where do you normally stay when you go away on holiday?”
Chapter Nine: Train Ride
Willa Mae was still trembling inside from the kisses Niall had laid on her. She was glad that he seemed able to control his baser urges better than she did, because by the time he was whispering that nonsense about ‘weapons of sensual satisfaction’, she was a mass of goo, and only his hand on her back had helped her stay upright. Glad of the change of subject, she was still reeling from the decision she’d made on the spur of the moment to invite him along on her holiday.
“I usually stay in the best of the inexpensive places,” she said. “I can’t afford to throw money away on a few days away, especially as I’ll have to feed myself while I’m there, and eating out is expensive. I have a mortgage…I can’t afford to waste money.”
She could see the wheels turning in his head, and she knew what that meant. He was planning something. She only hoped it was something she wouldn’t object to.
“Would you consider an upgrade?” he inquired, taking a long swallow from his wine glass. “As my contribution to the vacation budget, I’d like to pay for our accommodations.”
“Look, Niall…,” she began readying her objection.
“Look, Willa Mae,” he mimicked her, “will you please allow me to be a gentleman for once without objecting?”
She could see he was only half joking, and she supposed she owed it to him to try. She nodded and he continued.
“I’ll pay for us to be in a fancy hotel, and you can pay for all the meals. That sounds fair to me.”
Having never stayed in a fancy hotel on her own dime, Willa Mae had no way of knowing if it was a fair deal or not, but she was committed to the course now, and she secretly was beginning to feel excited about having Niall as her travel mate. He stirred her up, aggravated her, amused her, and turned her on like no one else ever had before. What harm could there be in having some fun with him? As long as she didn’t let her heart get involved, she could handle him.
“Okay. But please don’t spend too much money. It’s just for ten days.” She tried to inject some sense into him before he went off half cocked and splurged on some ritzy tourist trap.
“I promise to make your stay in Orlando the best you could ever hope for.”
Which wasn’t the promise she had wanted, but she could see he would not be persuaded to promise more than that. And as this wasn’t a competition, she’d stick to her rule of eating inexpensively, and making a lot of sandwiches. If he wanted to slum with the working class, he’d have to bear the realities of eating on a budget.
They finished the bottle of wine, and when he asked if she wanted dessert, she asked what was on offer. They poured over the room service menu together, and she finally went with chocolate ice cream with chocolate fudge and chocolate sprinkles on top.
“I take it chocolate is your favorite flavor?” he asked with a twinkle in his eyes.
“You take it correctly. I’m not much of a dessert person, and at the end of the day, chocolate usually does it for me.”
He chose some flan and after he placed their order, he asked, “Shouldn’t you be looking about train tickets, then? I’ll go ahead and get us a suite.” When she looked up at him sharply, he said, “With two bedrooms, so you can lock yourself away from me, okay?”
“Thank you.” She bit back the smile that threatened, because he was so irritated with her and she liked it. It meant she was doing something right.
He ignored her, excusing himself to go to what she supposed was his bedroom and returning with a tablet which he worked away on while she searched Amtrak for the best ticket prices. Once she found what she wanted, she reached for her wallet and booked the tickets for two. She paused for a moment over the sleeper car button, but at the last moment reminded herself that this was a one-time deal, that she was definitely not going to sleep with him, and that in the spirit of slumming it, Niall needed to deal with the coach experience. She hit ‘Submit’; and paid.
“You should know our train leaves at 3:15 tomorrow afternoon from Penn Station. So I’d better get going I still have to pack.”
“I’ve tried to mind your pennies, my lady,” he announced, “and booked us a suite with a full kitchen at a resort with superior ratings. Does that please you?”
She smiled at him, genuinely shocked that he would have taken her words seriously. “Yes. I don’t mind cooking, and we can shop for groceries when we get there. That’s part of the fun, actually, and I can take some for my grandma, who loves it when I bring her food from outside.”
“As long as you don’t spend half the time cooking. I hope we’ll be able to eat out once or twice?” He chuckled at her irate glare and added, “And I can’t wait to meet your grandmother,” he said. “If she’s anything like you are, she must be a real delight.”
Willa Mae tried not to take his words as more than a nice compliment. They didn’t mean anything, and she would do well to remember that. Their dessert arrived, and she sat back and finished it with gusto, unaware until the end that he had been watching her.
“Why are you always staring at me?” she asked huffily, wiping her lips.
“You are a beautiful woman. You fascinate me. I like to look at you.”
No more than I like to look at you, she thought, but you don’t catch me staring like that, do you? Did that make her some kind of paragon, because she managed to resist gawping at him like the village idiot? Probably not, since all she wanted to do right now was grab him and pull him in so she could kiss his face again.
“Thank you,” she managed to croak out instead. “I really need to go now. I’ll have to leave early to get to Penn station in time. And if we’re checking our luggage, it’ll mean getting there even earlier.”
“Just tell me what time we need to be there to make check in and when to come and get you,” he said.
“I’ll email it to you.” She stood up. “Ladies room?”
“Through there,” he said, pointing to his right.
In the elevator, he turned to her. “Thank you for coming to dinner with me, Willa Mae. I hope you weren’t too disappointed.”
“I had a nice evening, thanks, Niall,” she said primly, keeping her eyes on the descending numbers.
“I hope that we will be able to repeat it,” he said.
After he dropped her back at home, walking with her to her door and kissing her cheek, she hurried up to pack. She had never planned this quickly for a vacation before, nor booked tic
kets and had housing arranged. But she supposed that was all part of the adventure of this holiday. She never did anything on an impulse…everything had to be well thought out, and examined for flaws before she would sign off on it. Maybe this was what she needed…someone to push her into having some unplanned fun.
She packed way too much, but then she always did, because you never know, she told herself. Deciding that a larger suitcase would hold everything better than the usual smaller one she always used, as it would free her hands for her blanket and pocketbook. After sending the times to Niall, she took a shower and fell into bed. She must have been really tired, because she didn’t know when she fell asleep, and only woke up when the sun was peeping over the horizon.
The clock said she had four hours before Niall would be there, but she hurried out of bed anyway and made herself a small breakfast and fed the pets, and cleaned the cats’ litter box. It had been too late to call her neighbor the night before to tell her she’d be away, but her daughter was home, and since the girl was the one who looked after the cats and the fish, Willa Mae knew it wouldn’t be too much to call in an hour, especially as they would only need feeding again in the evening.
Deciding that she would only make two hoagies instead of all the food she usually stuffed into the insulated bag on these long trips to save money in the lounge and dinner cars, she assembled the fillings, and once the sandwiches were made, she put them in a smaller bag, along with two bottles of water. Then she cleaned up her apartment and put out the trash. She rolled her suitcase down the stairs and double checked that she had everything she needed. Remembering at the last moment that Niall had never taken a train for such a long ride, she got down another travel blanket and piled it on top of her own.
By the time he arrived, she was ready in her black capris and white sleeveless top, wedge-heeled sandals on her feet, her hair piled up in a ponytail. He carried her suitcase like it weighed nothing and deposited it on the back seat of his rental. She threw the blankets on top, and he eyed them curiously.
“It can get pretty chilly on the train, and especially at night, you’ll need it to keep warm.”
He nodded his understanding. “So which is mine?”
“Neither,” she said feeling suddenly impish. Something about the way he looked at her made her want to tease him. His grin said he understood exactly what she was doing. “They’re mine, but I’m letting you borrow the blue one for the trip.”
He laughed. “I’ll remember that.”
He made it sound like a threat, and her nerves kicked up at the thought of his punishments. If they were anything like the kisses she had shared with him, she didn’t mind it at all.
Penn Station was a chaotic madhouse, as usual, and yet, because she knew where to go, it was easy to navigate around the throngs of people waiting on the PATH and LIRR trains, the ones using the regular subway, and those going on Metro North to the northern suburbs of the city. Once their luggage had been checked, she led them into the Amtrak waiting area and found seats where they could see the board that tracked arrivals and departures.
“We have about an hour,” she said.
He nodded absently, looking around him with interest and curiosity. She watched his face as he took in the crowds of people hurrying in every direction. She knew it could be overwhelming, because the first few times she had taken the train, she had been slightly panicked. Now she felt like a pro, though there was nothing in Niall’s demeanor to suggest that he was panicking or worrying about anything.
“I guess this is very different from your experiences with trains, huh?”
“There are busy train stations in Europe,” he said. “But it’s always good to get the flavor of a place from watching how systems work, how people interact. Cities can be very impersonal.”
She nodded. “That’s true. That’s why I live where I do.” She sighed. “If it weren’t for the fact that I work in the city, I’d probably have moved to the country already.”
“Really?” You like the quiet?”
“Very much. It’s on my bucket list…to own a country place.”
The idea still made her smile. Some day, when she had made enough money to afford it, she wanted to buy a cozy little country cottage, just big enough for two, but not so big that if she never found anyone to share it with her, she’d feel like the loneliest woman in the world.
“Where would you like this country place? Will you buy it here, or abroad?” he seemed genuinely interested in her dream.
“Here, but only because I don’t like to fly.”
He smiled but didn’t respond, and she noted the way his lips curved upward even when he was serious. His eyelashes were long, longer than hers, and fanned his cheeks when he looked down at his cell phone. He put it to his ear and she realized it must have vibrated.
“Hello Mother,” he said.
Willa Mae tuned him out, taking the time to check out his hairy legs. He was wearing khaki cargo shorts and a tucked-in polo shirt. His feet wore loafers that matched his shirt, and his wristwatch gleamed around a thick, strong wrist. He wore a signet ring on his right hand, and she noted that he was left-handed. She let her eyes roam over his thick thighs, broad chest, and wide shoulders and wished she could allow herself to relax completely with him. Aside from the whole business aspect of their relationship, she knew very little about him. And she didn’t believe that lust was a proper foundation for starting something meaningful with anyone.
“Now you are staring, Willa Mae.”
She looked up guiltily, expecting to see at least amusement and perhaps annoyance in his gaze. What she saw took her breath away. Raw hunger shone from his eyes, hunger and admiration.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, lass. I am flattered that you find me compelling enough to stare at.”
Now his voice held a teasing note, and she laughed, grateful to him for lightening the mood.
“I’m sure you knew that all along, Niall,” she said. “We’ve already discussed your numerous paramours.”
“Jealous?”
“Shut up!”
He made her crazy with his teasing, and between amusement and desire, she was a mass of tension and want. They made desultory conversation until it was time to board the train, and once they were seated, she handed him his blanket.
“Have you had lunch?” she asked, and when he shook his head, she handed him a sandwich and a bottle of water.
“I’m going to catch up on my reading, if you don’t mind.” She began to unwrap her own sandwich.
“I have some reports to read, as well,” he said.
“Ah, a businessman’s holiday is what you call that.” She took a bite.
“Work never ends…”
“You can ignore it,” she interrupted him, looking up at him from under her lashes, before taking another bite.
“I shall, as soon as these reports are approved. Then you will have my undivided attention.” His eyes twinkled as he winked at her. “Perhaps you should be shoring up your defenses for then.”
Willa Mae laughed. “Very funny!”
She took her Kindle from her bag, found her place and turned back a page to remind herself of what had been happening. She ate as she read. She must have fallen asleep because she opened her eyes to find herself wrapped in warm arms, her head on Niall’s chest. She sat up, tracing her fingers around her mouth to make sure she hadn’t drooled, and inhaled to calm her jumping nerves.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”
“I’m rather glad you did,” he said, keeping his arm stretched across her shoulders. “You’re very soft and warm mo leannan. I enjoyed holding you and not having you argue with me first was a definite plus.”
Willa Mae wanted to be offended, but she laughed because he was right. She had been pissy with him almost from their first meeting, and she needed to relax. He hadn’t been a monster so far, and she knew he was exercising great restraint around her, for which she was grateful.
<
br /> “Did I snore?”
“No, sadly I cannot tease you about that.”
“Pity. That would have been a good punishment for your sassing me now.”
Now he laughed, and the rich sound wrapped her in warmth. Her belly rumbled and she reached into the insulated bag.
“What time’s dinner?” she asked.
“A young man just walked by asking for reservations. I made ours for eight. It’s five now.”
“Okay…I’ll just have a snack.”
She opened a pack of gummies and offered the bag to him. He took a few pieces of the candy, and she sat with the open bag and looked out the window at the passing scenery. By dinner time she was wide awake and super aware of him beside her. He had closed his eyes at some point, and she wondered if he was asleep or just resting them.
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