by Yvette Hines
With his fork, Drake pointed at her plate. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been around another person that enjoys asparagus. Not over other vegetables like broccoli.”
“No? Well, it is my favorite, especially if slightly al dente.” She speared one and bit into it; it crunched.
He smiled. “It sounds like it is cooked to perfection.”
“Mmm,” she moaned. “It is and very buttery.”
He cut into his steak and enjoyed his first bite of the tender, succulent meat. “I told you the restaurant was good.”
“Should I be concerned that you track down female passengers often and drag them out of their room for dinner?”
Chuckling, he shook his head. “No. This was a unique situation for me. Just doing my friend a favor. However, it is close and sometimes when a few of us get off, we swing in here to unwind and get a good meal.”
They ate in silence for a moment, then she asked, “Why did you say you didn’t take me for someone connected to a youth center?”
The serious tone of her voice didn’t escape him. She may be attempting to pretend that her question was light, but he wasn’t fooled. The captivating eyes of hers were shadowed, filled with curiosity.
“Well, your clothes for one. I’m not a shopper but it’s not hard to recognize they are expensive.”
“How can you be so sure?” She scooped up rice but didn’t lift it to her mouth.
“Your shoes, those red bottoms are a dead giveaway. Even though they are flat.”
Holding a forkful of rice in one hand and her wine in the other, she gave him a questioning glance—single eyebrow arched high. “I thought you said you didn’t know fashion.”
Waving his hands, he quickly corrected the knowledge he offered. “Antwan’s wife. She drove him crazy last year making sure he bought her a pair for her birthday. Trying to be a good friend I went with him to several high-end stores that carried them looking for her size.”
“Ah, I understand now.” After eating two forkfuls of rice, she prompted, “So, what else did you notice about me?”
“When we got to the restaurant you stood beside your chair without touching it, waiting for me to pull it out. Then as soon as we were settled you laid your cloth napkin in your lap and set your silverware up. Knife and spoon on one side, fork on the other.”
She leaned back in her chair. “You are very perceptive, Drake.”
He shrugged. “As a mechanic you have to constantly pay attention to details. Know when something doesn’t look right or looks different.”
“So, do I not look right or just different?”
“You look beautiful.” Shit, why did I say that? He could have punched himself. “I’m not trying to hit on you. Just an observation.”
Biting the side of her bottom lip, she met his gaze. “Thanks.” She brought her wine to her mouth and drank more than half of it. “You’re right. I was not raised in the same area as the youth who come to my center. My parents are rich. They raised my brother and me in an upper class neighborhood and environment, but after college we had to learn to live on our own.”
“Was that hard for you? Not depending on your parents financially.” He finished his meal.
“Not for me, but my brother struggled with it a lot. Let’s just say he is resourceful.” She forked off a piece of the flaky fish.
He waited until after she ate and swallowed the mouthful as he signaled the waiter over for more wine. “Out of all the things you could have done, why the center?”
Her eyes lit up; he could clearly see the joy and pride there. “I’ve always enjoyed being around kids. I’m not the teacher-type in the usual sense of the word. My degree is in management with a minor in early-childhood counseling. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it. Then one day I got off the wrong exit and was driving through this neighborhood, not a rough part of town or anything, but low income. I noticed the kids just hanging around the park. Sitting on front porches or standing around stores. I went into one store and asked the owner why so many of the youth were just doing nothing. He said there wasn’t any place for them besides school. During the summer if they didn’t go to a sports camp there was nothing for them. The owner explained to me that he had the same issue of what to do with his own son that was ten. I had an epiphany and started looking for a building. Queen City Youth Center was born. That was three years ago.”
“You are truly something. Most people would try to figure out if there was some charity they could donate to or worse, ignore the problem. But not you, Kiera.” Pleasure filled him, causing warmth to radiate from his gut and up around his heart simply because he had a chance to meet this woman and spend time with her. He knew nice people, but none who were genuinely kind as her.
“Your turn. Have you always been good tinkering with things or did you just happen into being a mechanic?” She thanked the waiter as he refilled her wine too, then he took their plates and walked away.
Drake took two sips of his wine and wished it were an ice-cold beer. In some ways he was trying to impress this lady because he wasn’t a wine person at all. However, when around class, his mother always said, you emulate class. He returned the glass to the table. “I’ve always been good with my hands. Even as a kid my mother said if one of my toys got broken I would just sit in the middle of the room and fiddle with it until I figured out how to make it work again.”
“My turn to be wowed.” She winked at him. “I’m not a patient enough person to work at a problem. If I can’t figure out a solution from the onset then I just move on.” She rested her forearms flat on the table and leaned forward. “How did planes become your thing?”
“Just kinda fell into that.” He shrugged. “I went to college for my auto mechanics certification. I was already working at a shop. The paper was just going to get me out of the apprentice position. I never thought about planes, that was my older brother’s deal. Vance worked his way through college to become a pilot. My brother got Antwan, my friend, a job at the airport. When Antwan heard that they were looking for plane engineers and the airline was offering training he let me know. It interested me. I got into the program and here I am.” He held his arms wide.
“Here you are.” She repeated her gaze still on his.
It did something to a man to have a woman actually fully enthralled in what he was saying. He figured it was because Kiera had a counseling background so she had been trained to listen.
The tension hung between them as they sat there staring at each other.
“Can I interest either of you in dessert?” The waiter broke the silence.
Not glancing away from Kiera, Drake said, “None for me.”
She licked her lips and her gaze shyly shifted away. “Um, I’m good thank you.”
“You want more wine?” Drake held a hand up, keeping the waiter at their table.
Kiera waved her hands before her. “Oh, no. I’ve had more than enough.”
Nodding the waiter took both of their glasses. “I’ll be right back with the check.”
“I’m glad I decided to come to dinner instead of ordering room service.” She smiled.
“So am I. I would have just tossed in a microwave meal at home and watched Sports Center.”
“You don’t cook?”
“I do. Remember I said I’m good with my hands. That’s with all things.”
A spark flashed in her eyes and he noted her large breasts rising and lowering with the deep breath she took.
“I remember.”
It wasn’t his intention to make the statement sexual in nature, but seeing the desire, he was experiencing, reflected in her gaze ignited the spark already firing off in him. His heart started to pound and heat shot down past his gut to his cock. It twitched in his pants. In a moment they would be getting up and the last thing he needed was to be sporting wood. He took several deep breaths to calm himself. She’d only agreed to dinner.
“Here you go. Let me know if you need anything else.” The waiter set t
he bill in the center of the table before he walked away.
“Well, I probably need to head up.” She grabbed her purse with one hand and reached for the bill with the other.
Moving faster, he covered the narrow, stiff leather billfold, pressing it to the table. “I have this.”
“Really, I can take care of it.”
He lowered his brow. “What kind of men have you been dating? When I ask a woman to dinner, I pay.”
She hesitated a moment, then withdrew her hand. Tilting her head again, she gave him a curious stare as if he were some sort of oddity. “Um, thanks.”
After a sharp nod, he collected the small case. As he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, he recalled a time when the bill was automatically given to the male at the table. However, now things were so PC that dates were either splitting the check or the women were paying. His mother and father would tear him a new asshole if they learned he was allowing such an action. Dan and Louise didn’t have much in the way of finances to offer their children, but manners they taught in spades.
They raised him and his brother to be old-school gentlemen. Drake did his best to keep to those values in a modern world that didn’t adhere to those standards any longer.
Putting in enough cash to cover the meal and tip, he then placed it back in the center. “May I escort you to your room?”
Smiling, she said, “I’d say that isn’t necessary, but I feel like you’d argue that point.”
After he rose, he then pushed his chair in, then went around to hers. “I would. See how well you’ve gotten to know me?”
Laughing, she stood as he slipped her chair back. “I’m trying to figure out what decade you’re from so that I can send a few other men back to it.”
“I know my male counterparts and you’d have to drug them in order to get them to board the time machine.” He walked out of the restaurant with her and headed toward the elevators. He had the urge to take her hand so he could feel how soft it was, but he didn’t.
“You’re probably right. Especially the ones I’ve been dating.” She glanced away, not before he caught the look of frustration in her features. The corners of her lips were tight.
The elevator dinged, then the thick doors parted.
“What kind of men were they?” He allowed her to step in first, then followed. He was very interested in the type of guys she went out with. Rich, was what he expected her to say.
“Losers. With good intentions, but…” She shrugged, keeping her focus on the numbers as they changed with each floor passed.
“You deserve better.”
She turned her head and smiled at him. “My mother has told me that my radar has been on the fritz all my life.”
The doors opened and they started in the direction of her room.
He wondered how she perceived him. Other’s opinion of him never meant anything, but maybe because his desire for Kiera was so strong it made him curious. “Maybe just bad timing.”
“Maybe.” She stopped at her room and faced him. “I really enjoyed dinner. Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure.” He stood before her, telling himself to walk away. But, he wanted to kiss her. A woman he barely knew and one who would be out of his life and state in the morning. That bit of knowledge didn’t stop the urge. “I’m sure you’re tired after the day you’ve had and need to get yourself some rest.”
“I should.” Blindly, she reached behind her and grasped the doorknob.
He thought she’d say good night and go in. However, she leaned against it, her gaze still on his face. There was too much going on in her expression for him to know what she was thinking. The last thing he wanted to do was read the wrong cue and get slapped. He stepped away, but paused when he heard her speak.
“Usually when I find myself compelled to do something impulsive I know the guy longer than three hours.”
Arching a brow at her, he allowed his gaze to travel from her lovely face to the toes of her expensive flats and back up, taking in everything—recording it all for memory retrieval later. “What are you feeling led to do?”
She moved away from the door, leaving only a foot between them. “Kiss you.”
His heart slammed against the backside of his sternum and his palms itched, wanting to touch her. Placing them on her hips, he drew her slowly toward him. “Would it alleviate some of your guilt if I told you I was feeling the same way?”
“Maybe a little.” She smiled, teasing him as she laid her palms flat on his chest. “It would help a lot more if you proved it.”
“Definitely.” He leaned in as he lowered his focus to her mouth. She had full, wide lips that seemed to beg him all through dinner to kiss them.
Halting his progress less than a breath away, he inhaled and took in everything. The warmth from her skin and her fragrance. It reminded him of some wild Madagascar vanilla that had spilled out all over the tarmac from a shipment. It was a raw, sweet smell that had stuck with him all day. He knew the aroma from Kiera would stay with him for days, possibly weeks.
Bold, she closed the small space he’d left, then rested her lips against his.
He groaned. Lifting a hand, he cupped the back of her head and held her in place. He enjoyed the feel of the soft coils ensnaring his fingers in her thick, natural hair. Slipping his tongue into her warmth he tasted the tang of the wine, the spice of her meal, and something indescribable as Kiera. It was the latter sampling that drove him, propelled his desire to the next level—need.
Thrusting in and out of her parted lips, he beckoned her to join him.
Her arms folded around his neck at some point and he felt the cushion of her breasts against his chest. She captured his tongue repeatedly and suckled it when he pushed inside. He flicked the tip of hers when he withdrew.
His mind flooded with images of his cock in her mouth and her recreating that same act. He angled his tongue up along the back of her teeth, just at the edge of the roof of her mouth where it was sensitive.
She moaned.
When he felt the coolness of the door against the back of his hand squeezing her hip, he recalled where they were. He didn’t have her in a private area where they could take this kiss to a possible next level. No, they were in a public hallway of the hotel. There was no telling if anyone or how many people may have walked by them as they made out like randy teens against her door.
Pulling back, his breath came out harsh and loud. Staring at her as she stood against her door, where he’d walked them into at some point during the kiss, he had to admit that his ego enjoyed the view of her moist, kiss-swollen lips and the raptured look on her face. He’d put that there.
“I think it is past time for you to bed down and for me to head home.” The words that came out were almost painful to say, but necessary. There was no way he could have sex with a woman he had no possibility of ever seeing again. Maybe when he was in his twenties or early thirties, but at thirty-six he had to make wiser choices. No matter what his dick wanted.
Right now there were things in his life he needed to see to first before he could even have a local relationship. Anything with Kiera at the moment would be long distance.
She lifted her lids and those passion-filled hazel eyes met his. “I think you’re right. This needs to end here.” She gave him a small smile as she pulled her arms down and away from him.
Giving her space, he stepped back. “I’ll say good night, then, and safe travels.”
Reaching into her purse she removed the room card. “Same to you.”
Moving away more, he watched her swipe the card, triggering the access to her room. After she opened the door, he gave her a nod. “Good luck with your meeting tomorrow.”
“Thank you.” With a final smile she closed the door.
He turned, then headed back to the elevator. Kiera Stanfield was a woman he wouldn’t soon forget.
Chapter Three
“How did your meeting go?”
Kiera looked up with a smile at the soun
d of the deep, textured, masculine voice of her father. “Dad.” She rose from the seat behind her desk and met him in the center of her office.
“Hello, angel.” Embracing her, he kissed her forehead.
“What brings you here? You’re a little far from City Center,” she teased as she moved out of his arms. This wasn’t the first time her father had been to her center. He’d come out with her after she got the loan for the place to start construction and been there at least a dozen times in the last three years. Her mother was another case. Lola had come for the opening ribbon cutting and that had been the one and only time she’d allowed her shadow to fall on the place.”
“I had an opening in my schedule so I figured I’d use the time to check in on my favorite daughter.” He waited for her to take one of the two hard plastic chairs at the front of her desk, then he claimed the other one.
She rolled her eyes. “More like a meeting ended sooner than you expected and you had some time to kill.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe.” The side smile told it all. “So, how was Salt Lake City?”
It had been a month since her horrific flights to the Beehive State. Also a month since she’d met, dined with, and kissed Drake Rhine. Her lips tingled as they always did when she thought of him, as if it had just been yesterday. The night and the moment were both so private to her she hadn’t even shared with Brigitte. “Good. Very good. I got to spend an hour picking Josh Clarke’s brain about successes and failures of running a center. As well as the most efficient way to raise money for it.”
“Ask your father.”
Shaking her head, she laughed. “Oh, no, Dad. You can’t raise Samson and I to fend for ourselves then toss your money out as a solution.”
“Only to you. And if you don’t tell your brother or mother all will be well.”
After she crossed her legs, she leaned back in the hard chair. “You’re incorrigible. I’ll pull the resources together to get what is needed here.”
“See.” He smacked his knee. “That is why I don’t feel bad wanting to back you financially. You have deep-rooted work ethic. Samson…” His words drifted away as he shook his head.