Fire In His Eyes (Secrets & Seduction #1)(16)

“Hi,” she whispered. “I’m Kat, and you must be Monica. He’s sleeping?” she inquired indicating Victor.

“Yes, he is,” I whispered back. “He was exhausted.”

She came over to us and looked down at him. “Well, we better get him to bed.” She began to gently shake his shoulder. “Come on, boy, time for bed,” she whispered.

Victor sleepily opened one eye. “Kat?” he muttered. “I had a bad day.”

“I know, big boy, I know. Come on, Vic, Mon and I will get you to bed.” She automatically shortened my name like my sister did, and from the way she handled Victor I could tell she was very nurturing. I instinctively knew I would like her.

“Monica?” he turned as if he were surprised to see me and began to sit up. I got up and held on to one side of him, with Kat on the other and together steered him towards his room. He unfastened his jeans, and she pulled them down until he sat on the side of his bed, and then she pulled them the rest of the way off one leg at a time.

She began to make her way towards the exit. I laughed softly, and said, “It seems like you have done this before.”

“A time or two,” she nodded. “And don’t worry about me, Mon. I am like the Mom around here for these lost boys,” she whispered. “Goodnight, we’ll get to know each other in the morning.”

“Okay,” I whispered. “Good night, Kat.” She seemed pretty cool.

The door clicked shut, softly. Victor was already lying down on his side of the mattress, and he must have taken off his t-shirt when I was talking to Kat. “Wear my shirt and come here so I can hold you. I quickly got up and stripped out of my white t-shirt and black capris. I took off my lacy blue bra, but left the matching panties on. He sleepily muttered with one eye open, “Nice.” I took his t-shirt and pulled it over my head and scrambled in next to him in the middle of the bed wiggling my rear into him so that we were spooning. It felt nice to by lying with him like that. Dan had never slept over, and neither had I at his place.

“Your shirt smells good, like you.” And, it did. I clutched a handful and brought it to my nose inhaling his scent. His maleness, woodsy and spicy was intoxicating.

“So, do you,” he whispered in my hair. “It’s nice to have someone to hold on to at night, again.” And, with that he fell back to sleep softly snoring. He had said that I had been the first woman he had wanted to be with in a long while more than once. I held onto that. I had a little glimmer of hope. Just a little.

It took me awhile to relax, although I was very comfortable lying there in Victor’s arms, again a million thoughts raced through my mind. It took me awhile to fall asleep with Victor’s steady breathing in my ear, but eventually I did.

He was up before me the next morning. I heard him in the kitchen talking to someone, probably Kat. The smell of coffee and eggs probably woke me. I quickly got up, and pulled on my capris from the night before, but left his t-shirt on. I hastily went to the bathroom; I finger brushed my hair, and brushed my teeth after retrieving my tooth brush from my bag on the floor.

After that, I peeked out of the bedroom door anxious to see him, and both Victor and Kat turned towards the sound of the door opening.

“Morning, sleepy head. It’s after nine,” Victor teased. He was at the stove stirring a steaming pan of eggs. He cooked, too.

Kat laughed. She was sitting at the table in a long nightgown, sipping a cup of coffee. “Yeah, Victor has already run ten miles, showered, and made us breakfast at this ungodly hour.” Her murmur of displeasure made it sound that this was a common occurrence.

I laughed and joined her at the table. “Is there anything I can do?” I asked.

“Not a thing, Mi Cara. Eat and enjoy!” He placed a plate of scrambled eggs with a bit of cheese before me, and a cup of coffee. He was a in a much better mood this morning and seemed very refreshed. He placed a light kiss on the top of my head and then returned to the kitchen island to grab some plates for him and Kat then joined us at the table. We ate, and I enjoyed the teasing motherly-son banter between the two.

I learned that Kat was divorced, and forty five. She had grown up in the military, joined the military and had two grown children in Ohio where her ex lived. Military life was all she knew. She worked at MacDill Air Force Base in shipping and receiving and loved her job, and county. She was a gung-ho patriot. Victor, when in the military had been in charge of fitness, and did PT with the troops to ensure they were in top physical form and able to meet the physical fitness qualifications of the job. “Yeah, for one month out of the year, I would let him boss me around and scream at me, at what a lazy fat ass I was, but the rest of the year, I do the bossing around,” she teased.

“That’s right, Sergeant!” Victor laughed, but made the statement with respect and gave her a mock salute. I did not now about military ranks, but felt somehow that she must have out ranked him when he had been in the military.

As we finished breakfast Victor announced to Kat that he was going to take me canoeing in Pinellas Park this morning. We would join her and some of his other friends that lived in the complex all later for the pool party they were having around three. It was a surprise to me as he had not even mentioned these plans to me, but it would be nice to have a little alone time with him this morning, I thought.

“Okay, well, I will clean up, since you cooked, and you both go on ahead,” Kat stated as she began to clear the dishes from the table.