The Quest (13 page)

              “Lead the way.”

              We stood in line to place our order. Denver insisted that he buy, nice, a gentleman. Then we carried our loot outside and found a nice quiet table in the corner.

              “So tell me, how long have you been shooting?” Denver asked.

              “Several years now. I started at a very young age. My first camera was an AE-1. I loved that camera. Hated to stop using it.”

              “I understand. Had one myself.
”
He sipped his coffee slowly and smiled. “So tell me about your project you need help with.”

              I was losing concentration. I wasn’t ready to talk about the project. I wanted to talk to him about him. Now that I see him in person I’m even more impressed with his ruggedness. His manliness was spilling out all over the table and draining into my coffee. Making it sweeter mind you and utterly irresistible. There were so many questions I wanted to ask but it was just not the right time. I realized this guy will be one that would take some effort to get to know. This was not going to be one of those fly by the night guys, no he had substance. Something I’ve needed to see to give me hope in mankind.

              He was staring again. Beautiful dark brown eyes. I liked that. I guess he was wondering why I wasn’t talking and just staring back as if I didn’t hear his question. Oh, I heard it. I was just enjoying the view before it changed.

              “Cat got your tongue?” He laughed. Nice laugh too. Nice deep throat laugh that made the hair on my toes curl.

              “I’m sorry. Was lost in thought,” I lied. “It’s a new movie production they are shooting on the streets of Atlanta. The problem I’m having is needing to be in two places at once. They will be shooting several scenes due to time restraints on shutting down streets. Peach Tree Road is very busy so they are only allowed a few days of shooting time which leaves me in a pickle. The scenes they are shooting are important ones. Ones I can’t miss.”

              “Interesting. So when is the shoot?”

              “Next weekend. I’ll probably head that way early Friday morning. Shooting begins around sunrise.” I’m watching his every move as he tears off bite after bite of the pastry he ordered and plops it into his mouth. The feeling of jealousy wishing I was a pastry comes over me and then I snap back into reality when he moves his lips to comment.

              “Sweet. I’m game. I’ll need to see if I can take off work Friday first but I think I can swing it. We can ride together if you’d like. Give us a chance to get to know each other better.”

              “Sounds great!”

              “Where will we be staying? I’m assuming you're getting a hotel there right?”

              “Yes, actually there is a Hilton Garden Inn I’m quite fond of that has a wonderful cook to order breakfast and all their rooms have this lovely balcony that overlooks a garden.”

              “Sounds nice.”

              “It’s on the outskirts of Atlanta about fifteen minutes away from the shooting area.”

              Denver licked his fingers as he polished off the last bite of his pastry. I haven’t even started on mine. It’s been a pleasure watching him eat.

              “You better eat that before the flies do.” He knew I had been busy watching.

              “I am. Would you like a bite? It’s really good. I’ve had them here before.”

              “Sure.”

              I tore off a big piece that was loaded with frosting and cream, and then fed him the bite with my fingers. He stopped short of swallowing it all and grabbed my hand. He licked the remaining frosting and cream off my fingertips while staring into my eyes.

              What was I thinking? OMG! I can’t do this! I’m already wanting to misbehave with this man. No one had ever done that before. In public too mind you. Here we were out in the open air, sitting at a little corner table, surrounded by all the suits, and he licks the frosting off my fingers without a second thought like it’s something he has done to me before.

              Of course, I act all cool like it’s something he does to me every day. Truth was I was screaming inside. Those butterflies woke up when they felt his lips hit my fingertips. And now they won’t shut up. Damn butterflies. They know this is not the right time. They know we can’t go there. I need this man to help me on a project if we cave now that will never happen. We can’t be scaring him off.

              But quieting them was out of the question. They wanted to see more action, feel more of his lips, somewhere, anywhere, they didn’t care. More more! They screamed at me. They really liked him and were rooting for more of whatever he wanted to surprise us with. I wanted to throw up. I was a nervous wreck. My mind flashed forward to the trip, the hotel, the room, candlelight, romantic dinners, fluffy hotel pillows. I could read his mind no doubt he could read mine. Fluffy pillows were my favorite. It’s been a long time since I experienced fluffy pillows. And just think, this time next week I will be deep bedded lying amongst them.

              I pulled my hand back slowly and made a joke. I finished off my pastry re-licking my fingers as he watched. Yeah, my turn to make him squirm. But he just stared. Stared right into my eyes. Every time my eyes were upon him they locked with his. Intrigued you could say. After the smoke from the PDA cleared he started talking about his career as a photographer. We very quickly connected the dots of our lives. We were more similar than we had originally thought. We were both from out west, both daring, both had broken relationships, both eager for more, both somewhat guarded.

              “What are your thoughts on having dinner before next weekend? I’d like to take you out somewhere nice.”

              “I’d love that. When were you thinking?”

              “Tonight too soon for you?”

              “You don’t waste time do you?”

              “Why not? I’d like to get to know you better.”

              “Okay, tonight would be great.” The butterflies were happy once again. They liked the idea of seeing him again so soon. So did I.

              Tonight couldn’t have come soon enough for me. We finished our conversation and discarded our coffee cups. He kissed me goodbye on the cheek and told me he would pick me up at seven. I jotted down my address on the back of one my business cards and we said our goodbyes.

              All the way home all I could think of was Wow! What a really neat guy he was. Denver had everything I had ever wanted, but I knew he moved fast. I needed a halting plan on cooling his jets a little. I knew if he sucked my fingers at dinner I would be sitting in his lap before dessert came. But how do I cool him off? I really liked his show of affection and I so liked the attention he gave to my sticky fingers. My mind quickly dove to the thought of my whole body covered in frosting and how much fun it would be to spend hours with his tongue giving me a bath.

              Yeah, I was pretty much screwed. I pulled into my parking place, hiked the three flights of stairs to my door, and went in with a smile still plastered on my face. I was never washing my right hand again. I plopped on my couch, full of coffee and full of sweet thoughts of Denver. I wasn’t settled long before my phone buzzed. It was Denver. He sent a selfie with a sweet smile and a thank you text for meeting him this morning. He followed up with words of endearment on finally meeting me. He was quite pleased I was all that I said I was and more, he thought. He was looking forward to our dinner tonight. He said to dress cocktail and it will be a night I would never forget.

              With that last line, I smiled. I knew what that meant, but I wasn’t going there, or was I? What would be the harm? Oh yeah, project. I sighed to the butterflies and text him back, Can’t wait!

              At seven sharp he was at my door just as promised. He was wearing black slacks, a fitted black T-shirt with a nice gray blazer. I opted for the tried and true black strapless cocktail dress showing off the curves of my hips and my bare shoulders. It wasn’t the dress that showed off my bosom although it did show a little cleavage but not too much to spoil dinner.

              He arrived with flowers in hand and a bottle of wine for later he said. Later? He was thinking what I was thinking earlier, yeah not going there tonight, though. Too bad too. He had good taste in wine I noticed. The flowers were gorgeous! I put them in water, placed them on the bar, and then headed to the door. He stopped before opening it and grabbed me around the waist. He pulled me into his body and kissed me. The kind of kiss that was giving me second thoughts about behaving. Behaving? What’s that? I kissed him back letting him know I meant business too. No mistake, this guy had my interest.

              We arrived shortly at this unique little steak house that served the best steak in town. I had been here once, but I hadn’t been back due to the fact my budget doesn’t allow me to. It’s very expensive. My dinners consisted more of pizza and salads, not steak and seafood. They sat us in a very private booth in the back, away from the crowd, and very romantic. It made me smile. He opted to sit on the same side of the booth as me; again I was quite pleased with his behavior. No date had ever shared the same side of the booth with me. When we settled in I could feel his thigh touching mine. That was nice too and very comforting in a way.

              We ordered off the same menu agreeing to share our dishes with one another. And when the dishes arrived, we did. We spent an hour feeding each other bites and stealing small kisses here and there. The food was delicious, the wine was just right, the mood was topmost romantic, and he was quite the gentleman still. He made an impression on me. A very good one. I was beginning to believe I found him.

              We talked more about the project and he had some very good suggestions. We talked about booking separate rooms at the hotel, which I was pleased that he agreed to not share a room. I didn’t want to move too fast even though we had already been chatting for almost a month. We had talked about everything. I felt like I had known him all my life. He made me feel really comfortable and wanted. Very wanted. A feeling I hadn’t had in a long time. What was I afraid of? Nothing. That was my problem. I wasn’t afraid. I felt careless and fancy-free. I had given myself permission to enjoy my life. I had given myself permission to feel again, love again, and be wanted by someone other than you know who.

              This man intrigued me. He paid me the right amount of attention and kept me laughing or smiling non-stop. It felt good to laugh again. It felt really good sitting close to him smelling the scent that beaconed off his jacket. It was a very musty manly scent with a touch of freshness like he had just lathered in soap. At one point during the evening he leaned over to hear what I was saying and I almost bit his neck. He smelled that good!

              “So what do we do now?” I asked after the last dish was cleared from our table.

              “We could go back to your place, watch a movie, pop that bottle of wine.”

              “Hmm…sounds nice.”

              We left the restaurant almost skipping out the door in a hurry to get back to my place. Being alone was on both our minds. He held my hand in the car the whole way there while we chatted about what movie we would watch. Surprisingly we had nothing in common in that area. He was your typical guy that liked blood and gore, shoot ‘em up type movies with lots of fast action, I of course liked romantic chick types with steamy love scenes and mushy tales. So we agreed on listening to music instead. He had been taking a salsa dancing course and wanted to show me a few moves. It sounded like fun. It wasn’t snuggled up grubbing on the couch but I would be held in his arms and no doubt very close to his body. Salsa dancing I knew was very seductive. So again, I was impressed. The thought of being twirled in his arms made me sweat in places I wasn’t going to mention to him in fear he might want to check ‘em out. So again, I played it cool.

              I kicked off my shoes as he did his when we walked through the door. He slipped his jacket off laying it across the couch and revealed his broad shoulders through his tight T-shirt. I was kinda glad he had kept that jacket on all night. I wouldn’t have been able to sit next to him if he hadn’t. He had no idea how crazy I was about a muscle bound man. I loved to feel the curves of their biceps, see their chest dimples, and roar. He had no clue I was looking right through that shirt with X-ray vision now wishing we were somewhere naked.

              He made a comment about my beautiful hard wooden floors and scooted around in his socks. Yeah, that severed my attention away from his chest for a bit as I watched his butt wiggle and dance swaying too as he set the right music for us to dance. He followed me into the kitchen and popped the bottle of wine. I drank my first glass really fast.

              “Nervous?”

              “A little. I’ve never salsa danced before.” The beat was tantalizing and I could already feel my hips sway.

              “Don’t be. I’m an amateur. I’m just learning this stuff. I’ll be gentle, I promise.”

              He poured me another glass and instructed that I sip this one. He didn’t want me drunk and stepping on his toes. We both laughed our way into the living room. The room was dark candlelit; the mood was sassy and full of eager. He sat our glasses down and took me by the hand. He pressed my body up against him and began instruction. His arm was tight around my waist his other hand held mine. His hips moved and swayed as his feet danced around my pristine floor. I could feel his breath upon my face as he counted his steps making sure he didn’t miss a beat. I tripped and laughed over his toes not ashamed to admit I was no good at this style of dancing. But he didn’t care. The more I laughed the harder his body pressed up against mine, the tighter he held me. He was wasting no time reassuring me too. I felt like a princess at a ball with the handsome prince only wanting to dance with me.