Chick with a Charm (6 page)

His heart was going crazy with anticipation, but he’d have to keep his cool until the issue of the dog had been settled. They couldn’t get naked until the dog—was her name Daisy?—had been allowed out to do her business. Griffin liked dogs a lot and he didn’t want to put this one through misery.

Lily paused in the small hallway where the mailboxes took up one wall. “I’m on the third floor, and there’s no elevator. You can wait down here if you want, while I go get Daisy.”

“That’s okay. I’ll go up with you.” But as he followed her up the stairs, he regretted the decision. He’d wanted to see her apartment, sort of get the lay of the land where this seduction would take place later on, but doing so meant having the chance to ogle her shapely rear all the way.

It meant following the trail of her scent, both her spicy perfume and her pheromone-laden woman’s aroma. The exertion of climbing made him breathe all the more deeply, until his impulse control began to dwindle. Much more of this, and he might—

“You don’t have to go all the way up.” She paused on the second landing and glanced back at him.

He was partway up, in more ways than one. “I’m fine.”

“Seriously, you can wait here. I’m used to this climb.”

“I’m okay, really.”

“No, you’re not. You’re panting worse than Daisy does.”

Terrific. He could tell her the truth, that he was panting out of sexual frustration, or he could end up looking like a wimp incapable of handling two flights of stairs. Or he could lie.

“I’m training for a marathon,” he said. “Mounting . . . I mean
climbing
the stairs is good for me.” Damn, even his vocabulary was skewed toward sex.

She shrugged. “If you say so.” She started up again, her heels tapping seductively on the wooden staircase.

Watching her fanny sway from side to side as she climbed was heaven. Dealing with the painful condition of his cock was hell. He shouldn’t look at her. He should simply put his head down and make the trek up the stairs like a blind man.

Of course he could no more look away than fly to the moon. Instead he created scenarios in which he caught up with her and they had doggie-style sex on the stairs. Or he joined her on the next landing, backed her up against the wall and took her standing up.

Apparently weeks of denying the attraction he felt for her had built up a hunger of monumental proportions. He couldn’t remember ever being this focused on sex with a woman, not even as a teenager. Besides that, his obsession was specific to Lily. He didn’t just need to have sex with someone ASAP, he needed to have it with her, and only her.

“Almost there,” she called over her shoulder.

Because he was worried about the telltale bulge under his fleece sweats, he forced himself to look at the stair treads instead of her backside for the last few steps.

“This is it.” She put her key in the lock of apartment 333. “I can hear Daisy whining.”

Too bad it was socially unacceptable for him to whine or he’d be doing it. God, how he wanted her. But the dog had to go out first. He got that.

As he stood hesitantly at the door to the apartment, mindful that the dog might not take to him right away, he wondered if she had a fireplace. There was a smoky scent in the air. Then, across a room that was filled with eye-popping primary colors, he spied the incense burner on the coffee table. That must be what had generated the smell.

Daisy was obviously ecstatic to see Lily. Lily dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around the wiggling, whining dog. “I missed you, too, sweetheart,” she murmured. “Now, I’d like you to meet my friend Griffin.”

He hadn’t been sure what to expect, given Lily’s warning about Daisy not being used to strangers. He’d thought maybe she’d look wary or back away, or maybe even growl a little.

Instead she lifted her head and looked him straight in the eye. It was eerie the instant connection he felt with her, as if they had some prior history. “Nice to meet you, Daisy,” he said.

She gave a short bark, as if in acknowledgment. Then she walked over to him with that same knowing gaze in her brown eyes. Her tail wagged slowly, and Griffin could swear she was smiling.

Crouching down, he held out his hand for her to sniff. She did, quite thoroughly; and then she gave his hand a lick.

“I guess it’s okay if I pet her,” he said.

“Apparently so.” Lily seemed slightly bemused herself. “She seems quite taken with you. I’ll get her leash.”

“Okay.” Griffin sank his fingers into Daisy’s soft golden fur and scratched behind her ears as she continued to stare at him. He was probably projecting thoughts on her that she wasn’t having, but she looked for all the world as if she’d seen him somewhere before and was trying to place him.

He had a similar feeling, as if he knew this dog. But that couldn’t be. “Where did you get her?” he called out to Lily.

“From the animal shelter. Why?”

“She acts as if she knows me, and she seems familiar to me, too. But none of my friends have—or had—a golden.” He stood as Lily arrived with Daisy’s leash and a black nylon jacket she held out to him.

“This is big on me,” she said. “If we’re going for coffee, you should have something.”

“Thanks.” He had planned to have coffee at her place because he didn’t have a jacket, but Lily had neatly solved that problem. “What about Daisy? Is she going for coffee, too?”

“There’s a café about a block away. They have outdoor seating and heaters. Daisy will be fine there. I wish we could go to Anica’s shop, Wicked Brew, but it’s not all that close and she isn’t open at night, anyway. She caters to the office crowd. So this is my second favorite spot.”

Apparently he’d have to drink some coffee tonight, after all. It didn’t really matter. The evening would still end the same, with both of them naked and enjoying a simultaneous orgasm. But that would take a little longer to accomplish than he’d figured.

They retraced their path down the stairs, this time with Daisy in the lead, Lily coming next and Griffin bringing up the rear. The jacket smelled like Lily, which wasn’t helping keep his mind off sex.

The dog was a distraction, though. Griffin decided to concentrate on Daisy in order to get through this coffee-date foreplay. “Was Daisy a stray?” he asked.

Lily took the steps quickly to keep up with Daisy, who seemed eager to get outside. “No, a family left her at the shelter. According to her record, they moved to England and decided not to try and take her.”

“Hard to imagine anyone leaving a beautiful dog like this.”

“Their loss is my gain. They didn’t appreciate her the way I do, or they never would have left her.”

“So your apartment allows pets?”

“Luckily they do. I didn’t think of that when I moved in, but now I’m really glad.”

“It’s funny; I made sure my apartment complex allows pets because I wanted to get a golden after I got settled in there. But then I . . . just never did.” He wondered now how he’d let that plan slip away.

Sure, he worked long hours, but he had the money to afford a pet sitter who could let the dog out once during the day. If he skipped the happy hour habit, he’d have plenty of time to get in a run with a dog each evening. But if he’d skipped happy hour, he never would have met Lily, and he sure as hell didn’t regret that.

“Maybe you just needed someone to nudge you.” Lily opened the front door and followed Daisy down the concrete steps. “My sister’s the one who convinced me to adopt a dog. I didn’t think I had time, but you make time.”

“Exactly.” Griffin decided then and there to get a dog, a golden like Daisy. By some twisted logic, he might have been waiting until he met the right woman so they could pick out a dog together, but that was nuts. The right woman would like the dog he chose, or she wouldn’t be the right woman, would she?

They paused so Daisy could pee in a little patch of gravel about halfway down the block.

“My only worry is that she doesn’t get enough aerobic exercise,” Lily said as she waited for Daisy to do her thing. “I’m not into running.”

“I’m surprised.” Griffin remembered his fantasy—tight black Lycra covering her long legs and a black sports bra. “You seem so—”

“Fit? Well, there are the stairs.”

“Unless you go up and down them twenty times a day, that’s not enough to keep you . . .” How could he describe the perfection of her body? “. . . looking that good.” Lame, totally lame. She looked more than good. She looked like a centerfold, someone he wanted to lick all over.

She laughed. “Then I guess it’s magic.”

He had no problem believing that. Some people were born with the kind of metabolism that kept them in wonderful shape. Lily’s kids could very well inherit that metabolism, which would be a bonus for them. And whoever had the privilege of creating those children with Lily would be one lucky bastard sharing her bed every night.

Griffin blinked. Where had all of that come from? His plan was for one hot night with Lily. Nothing in the plan included thoughts about sharing a bed long-term and making babies. In fact, he needed to be absolutely certain she had condoms so there wouldn’t be any chance of babies. He needed to get back on track.

The neighborhood coffee shop with the outdoor tables and heaters beckoned from the corner. A yellow neon sign told him it was called Harvey’s Hangout. With barrels of red geraniums defining the space and red umbrellas anchoring each wrought-iron table, the place was appealing, although Griffin was more interested in privacy than appeal. This spot offered no privacy whatsoever.

Two of the four sidewalk tables were occupied by couples. Romantic couples, at that, despite the lack of privacy. One pair was simply holding hands across the table while they talked, but the other couple had scooted their chairs close together and looked as if they might kiss at any moment.

Griffin thought that might be a good thing. Watching other people kiss could flip some switches for Lily, and he wanted that. Coffee, with its jack-you-up qualities, wasn’t going to help much. Wine would have been better, but a quick check of the chalkboard menu told him he didn’t have that option here.

“If you’ll grab a table, I’ll get our order,” he said. “Do you want anything besides coffee?”

“No, thanks. But a tall mocha cappuccino would be great.”

He tried not to put any significance on the fact that he always ordered the same thing. “Whipped cream?”

“A little.”

There it was, a grown-up version of the hot cocoa he used to love as a kid. It was what he always ordered when he had coffee in the evening. So Lily liked the same kind of coffee drink and the same kind of dog. So what? That didn’t mean they were compatible, that they had similar goals in life.

Lots of people probably liked mocha cappuccinos and golden retrievers. And had great bodies with a killer metabolism. It was natural that he wanted to undress her and have sex with her all night, but the relationship didn’t have to mean more than that.

He didn’t want to make it into more than it was. That had been his parents’ mistake, and he didn’t plan for history to repeat itself. He just needed to scratch this one, persistent sexual itch, and he’d be good to go.

The coffee shop smelled terrific. He’d been in dozens of coffee shops, and he couldn’t remember ever being surrounded by so many heartwarming scents. Coffee, chocolate, steamed milk, cinnamon, hazelnut, and vanilla all combined to give him a sense of rightness and well-being.

He gave his order to the nerdy guy behind the counter whose name tag identified him as Thomas.

“You must be here with Lily,” Thomas said.

“Yeah.” Griffin discovered a certain pride in admitting that. She might not be right for him long-term, but she was the kind of date a man could feel good about because she was . . . okay, he’d just admit it to himself and try not to feel like a shallow bastard: She was extremely hot. When men looked at Lily, they thought of tangled sheets and slick, naked skin.

As did Griffin, but the more he considered the nerdy guy imagining Lily like that, the less he liked it. All things considered, Griffin had no right to be possessive about Lily. He was in for the short haul.

That meant not caring who else was interested in the lovely Ms. Revere. Thomas wouldn’t stand a chance, anyway. He was too young, and not at all Lily’s type.

“She always orders this,” Thomas said. “I almost started making it when I saw her out there, but since she’s here with someone else, I thought she might change her mind.”

“Guess not.” Griffin recognized the adoration in Thomas’s eyes. Poor lovesick kid. Griffin tried not to feel smug. But any smugness vanished when another guy came out from the back, someone who was probably the owner.

He was casually dressed without being sloppy. Jeans and a white shirt, loafers, good haircut, midthirties. He could easily be Lily’s type. He breezed past Griffin, went out the front door and straight over to Lily.

She glanced up and smiled. The interloper, which was how Griffin thought of him, crouched down to pet Daisy, who thumped her tail on the sidewalk. The nerve of the guy, talking to Lily and petting her dog when she was out on a coffee date with someone else.

Griffin’s jaw tightened and his fist clenched. And that was ridiculous, because he had zero claim to Lily. Yet he continued to observe the interaction and continued to hate every second of it. He could hardly wait for his order to be ready so he could go out and break up that cozy little chat.

The mocha cappuccinos with a small amount of whipped cream appeared on the counter set into a cardboard tray. Griffin picked it up and made for the door. He couldn’t justify his behavior, but he planned to let the guy know right here and now that he was no longer welcome to hang around Lily. Not tonight, anyway.

Lily had known Brad Harvey for a couple of years. Three months ago they’d gone out on a date, which had convinced Lily of what she’d suspected before—she had no chemistry with Brad. He’d tried to change her mind, but in the end he’d had to settle for being friends.