Otherwise Engaged (22 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Daphne got
ready for her date with Bettina sitting on her bed, warning her about
heartbreakers the whole time. After the triathlon, she and Rain had made dinner
plans for the following weekend.

“When you told
me about this guy, I was worried, but I didn’t realize he was Skylar’s good
friend,” Bettina said. “The two of them are horrible to women. I’ve heard
stories. Plenty of them.”

“Yeah,” Daphne
murmured. “I’ve seen him in action. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“So you’re sure
this guy has changed?”

“I’d like to
think so.” She thought about the party, the race. She’d ridden home with Rain
from Bumpass. Every moment of it had been wonderful. They’d talked so much, as
if trying to catch each other up on all they’d missed over the past nine years.
When they’d gotten back to town, he’d taken her to see his parents. They’d been
thrilled to see her again. She hadn’t seen the two of them since they used to
come to SUNY to visit Rain.

“And what makes
you so optimistic?”

“I have my
reasons.” Daphne toyed with a bottle of perfume, her mind wandering to Rain
again. His kisses. His smile. The full and free way his laugh filled a room.
The way his arms wrapped around her, shutting out everything but him. Her blood
ran hot at thoughts of all they’d done in Puerto Rico. She’d wanted him so
badly. Heat pooled between her legs just thinking of how much she wanted him to
touch her like that again. They’d only kissed since then. And those kisses made
her knees buckle.
His lips on hers, his tongue slowly
exploring her mouth.
His hands roaming her back.

“Daphne. You
okay over there?” Bettina asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“Huh? What?”
Daphne nodded vigorously. “Oh yeah, yeah. Fine.” Daphne put down the perfume
bottle.

Bettina shook
her head and grinned.

“What?”

“You are so
gone over him. I can only hope you’re right about him changing.”

Daphne smiled
at her reflection. “Me, too.” She turned to face Bettina and rested against her
dresser. “He makes me so happy.”

Bettina raised
an eyebrow. “I can tell. You haven’t been able to wipe that loopy grin off your
face since Skylar’s party.”

“Yeah. And I
like it just where it is.”

“Yeah, there’s
no hope for you. You’re gone over this one.” Bettina laughed. “Let’s finish
getting your ready for this date. Did you plug in your curling iron yet?”

“Yep. It’s
ready.” Daphne pointed to her curling iron.

Once Daphne’s
hair was done, and she was slipping into a knee-length mauve dress, she heard a
knock at the door.

“He can’t be
here already,” she said. Rain had never been early for a thing in life.
Unless maybe it had to do with work.
She didn’t know much
about his work life other than he took it very seriously.

“He could, and
I think he is,” Bettina said. “Maybe he’s just as gone as you are after all.”

“Just shush and
go let him in,” Daphne said, shooing her cousin toward the door.

“I’m going, I’m
going.” Bettina laughed. Daphne scooted to the bedroom door and closed it
behind Bettina. She heard Bettina let Rain in as she zipped up her dress. At
the sound of Rain’s voice, she got a little woozy. How was it possible that she
was going on her first date with Rain Foster?

Get it together
,
she scolded herself
.
Grabbing her clutch and slipping into her silver heels, she took a deep breath,
opened the door, and went out to meet Rain.

He looked devastatingly
gorgeous in a pair of slacks and a lightweight sweater that showed off all the
hard work he’d done training for the triathlon. Her eyes went right to his
biceps.

“You look incredible,”
he said.

She met his
gaze, and it made the butterflies in her stomach worse. “Thanks,” she said. “So
do you,” she added meagerly.

“Well, I’m
going to get out of here. Let you two be alone,”
Bettina
said.

Daphne nodded,
barely aware that her cousin had spoken.

“It was nice
seeing you again,” Rain said.

“You, too.”
Bettina’s heels clicked across the hardwood, and the front door opened and
shut. The whole time, Daphne didn’t take her eyes away from Rain. She couldn’t.

“You ready to
get going?” he asked.

“Sure,” she
said.

He reached for
her arm. She linked it through his, hoping he wouldn’t notice the tremble she
was trying to suppress. Having him so close again was definitely having a huge
effect on her.

They went down
to his car.
The sleek seven series beemer.

“This car is
outrageous,” she said.

“In a good way
or a bad way?”

“Both,” she
said, thinking of how that car cost as much as many people made in a year. It
definitely cost more than she made in a year. It probably cost more than half
what she’d paid for her condo. Granted, she’d gotten a good deal on the condo,
but still.

He laughed and
held the passenger side door open for her. She smiled and slipped inside. He
walked around to the driver’s side and got in.

“You know what
the best thing about this car is?” he asked.

“What?”

“That you’re in
it.”

“Okay. Sure.”
She rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t get rid of that grin Bettina had called
her out on. Her cousin was right, as much as she hated to admit it. That grin
had been stuck there for days.

“No really. I
can’t believe you’re finally here,” he said. “With me.
In
this car.
About to go on a date.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I thought I’d
end up bitter and old and missing you and you’d be off somewhere happy and not
thinking about me and with some guy named Troy.”

She laughed.
“You remember Troy, huh?”

“Yep.” He gazed
at her in a possessive, hungry, greedy way that made her want to suggest they
skip dinner and go back inside her condo. “What happened to that guy?”

“Things just
kind of fizzled out.” She left out the fact that they’d fizzled out not too
long after Rain had started volunteering at Dogs for Vets.

“Hm. Good for
me. Not so good for him,” Rain said with a victorious little grin that drove
her crazy.

#

At the
restaurant, they ordered and then sat there looking at each other. Rain
couldn’t stop thinking about how lucky he was. He knew one thing, whatever she
wanted from now on, if he could provide it, she would have it.

“What?” Daphne
asked.

“What do you
mean?” He reached across the table and grabbed her hand.

“Why do you
keep staring at me like that?”

“Just thinking
about how happy I am to have you sitting across from me right now.”

“Oh.” She
smiled, and it lit up her entire, radiant face. “I’m glad we made it here,
too.”

“I talked to
Carolina the other day.”

“Oh.” She sat
up straighter in her chair and tapped her water glass on the table with her
free hand. “I should call her.”

“I told her how
I feel about you.”

Daphne glanced
up. “How’d she take it?”

“She said she
never wanted to talk to me again.”

Daphne’s mouth
dropped open. Fighting the urge to close it with his by covering it with a
kiss, he said, “Kidding, kidding. She’d kind of already guessed it. And she’s
okay with it. Nobody in the world can make her happier than Manny apparently.”

“And how do you
feel about that? Manny, I mean?”

He sat back in
his chair and held her gaze steadily across the table. “I’m glad she found
someone who makes her happy. And I’m glad I’ve found the same for myself.”

She nodded.
“Rain, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say or do here…”

“Whatever
you’re comfortable with.” He squeezed her hand and leaned forward. “I know I
haven’t made myself the easiest person to trust. And I understand I have to pay
the price for that. I’m just going to be here, waiting for you. You take all
the time you need. But don’t you ever think that I’m giving up on you. I
couldn’t dream of doing such a thing. Even if you found—someone
else—” He was quiet for a moment as the thought made his heart twitch. “I
wouldn’t be able to give up on you. Not possible. I’d just sit around, all
miserable, hoping and waiting for my chance. Even if it took freaking forever,
like in that book, Love in the Time of Cholera.”

The table was
silent until the server came back, inquiring as to whether they were ready to
order. Daphne ordered the lamb, and Rain had the duck. They gave their menus
back to the server.

“No steak for
you?” Daphne asked.

“I decided it’s
time for a change.” He reached for both of her hands across the table. She
slipped them into his. He caressed the backs of her hands with his thumbs. They
shared plenty of looks, but no words, for a while.

When he thought
he wouldn’t be able to bear the silence another second, she said, “So. When was
the last time you were on a date, Rain? A real, actual, date?”

He laughed, sat
back in his chair without letting go of her hands, and said, “It’s been a
while.
Months
maybe. My mom tries to set me up with
her friend’s daughters occasionally. Outside of that, I very rarely date. Man,
it might’ve been last summer when I was last on a date.”

“Well. You’re
doing a very good job tonight, so you don’t seem to be out of practice.”

He grinned.
“Thank you.” Squeezing her hands, he said, “Catch me up. What’s going on at
work? You had that project, right? With the new apartment complex?”

She nodded and
began telling him about it. They talked non-stop for the next couple of hours.
He wanted to know everything. He’d been left out of her life for long enough. No
more of that.

Later, when it
was time to go, they sat in the BMW in front of the restaurant.

“Where to now?”
he asked.

“Maybe we could
go to your place.” Her cheeks reddened. “I mean
,
I’ve
never seen it before. You could give me a tour.”

He nodded, barely
able to keep his enthusiasm in check at the idea of having her in his place.
This must mean things had gone well. “I’d love to,” he said.

He drove them
back to his place, and they went up to the top floor of the building to his
penthouse apartment. They wandered around for a while as he gave her a tour.
His mind wasn’t really on showing her the rooms in his place although he was
usually pleased to show off his place. He saved his bedroom for last.

“And this is
where I sleep,” he said, throwing open the door. She walked into the room. He’d
taken her coat earlier. She wrapped her arms around herself. He watched her take
in the high-quality black damask striped bedding he had over his king-sized
bed, the
hand-crafted
furniture imported from
Thailand. Everything in the room was top of the line. He’d had an interior
decorator pick it all out. He could afford the best, and so he made sure it
showed. The one thing that mattered most, though, money couldn’t get him. He
watched Daphne walking around, rubbing her bare upper arms with her hands.

“Cold?” he
asked. “I can turn up the heat.”

She shook her
head. Walking over to the window, she ran her hand down the side of one of the heavy
drape panels. “It’s beautiful.” She looked at him. “Everything here is.”

He had to agree
with her there, completing the perfection of the place. He walked over and
cupped her chin with his hand. He’d restrained himself all evening, but he
couldn’t any longer. He paused when his lips were inches away from hers, giving
her time to pull away if she wanted to. She didn’t budge.

Wrapping his
arms around her, he pressed his lips to hers. Pulled her to his body. He needed
to feel every inch of her pressed against him. Ecstasy he hadn’t felt since
they’d spent those four incredible days together in Puerto Rico shot through
every nerve in his body. His hand trailed down her back, explored the round
bottom he’d missed so much. He let his hand roam lower until it reached the
area between the backs of her thighs. She moaned and pressed closer to him.
Encouraged by this, he pulled her dress up so that his fingers could reach
between her legs. He ran them over the flimsy material of her panties. Her
breath caught in her throat, and she grinded against him.

“I haven’t been
with anybody since Puerto Rico,” she uttered, arching her back as he pushed the
fabric of her damp panties farther into her crotch.

“Me neither,”
he whispered into her ear before kissing it, his body rubbing against hers.
He wanted her so badly
,
it was painful
.
But in a good way.

She rocked
against his fingers, and he slipped her panties aside, pushing two fingers into
her body. She threw a leg around his hip, and he grabbed her thigh with his free
hand. She rode his fingers hard, the way he wanted her to ride another part of
him.

His tongue
slipped to her throat as his fingers continued to move inside her. Her head
fell back and she called out for him—a sound he’d missed so much—as
she came, shuddering as her body clamped and released his fingers over and
over.

When she was
finished, he kissed her long and slow while sliding her dress off her
shoulders.
Past her hips.
It hit the floor. Then he
pushed her panties down, and they followed the dress. She stepped out of both,
and he took a moment to admire her naked body. The puckered, erect nipples on
her perfectly round breasts.
Smooth brown skin.
The
way her slim waist rounded out into shapely hips. He couldn’t get enough of
drinking her in. His hard-on strained against his pants, needing freedom.