Put Me Back Together(58)

He said, “I like it so much it’s making me forget what we’re doing here.”


“Now, now, Lucas,” I said sternly as I saw Mario approaching with the first course. “Don’t get distracted.”

“With you around?” he said. “Impossible.”

Our eyes met as Mario set our salads in front of us and lifted their covers. “Bon appetit!” he said.



The meal was like one long dessert, with each course seemingly impossible to top until the next course did. We began with a salad of romaine lettuce, cucumbers, and berries with pecans and dark chocolate flakes. This was followed by a potato soup with bacon and chocolate chunks, braised pork chops, mashed potatoes, and green beans with fudge sauce, and a cheese and milk chocolate plate. By the time Mario was serving us our Nutella-filled churros I was basically having an orgasm at the table with every bite.

“Do I have chocolate all over my face?” I asked Lucas as I cleaned my plate. I’d basically been gobbling everything in front of me like a starving orphan. I wouldn’t have been surprised if my entire face was covered in chocolate by now.

“Nope,” Lucas answered. “Oh, but wait. You just have a little bit here…” He leaned forward and placed his lips a little to the right of my own, and I felt his tongue slowly lick at the corner of my mouth. His lips were warm and so tantalizingly close. I had only to turn my head a little to capture his mouth entirely, but before I could he pulled away. I had to suppress a whimper.

“No second dessert until we’re alone,” he warned.

“And when will that be?” I said, eyeing his lips, not caring if I sounded desperate. At that moment I was desperate to feel his lips on mine again.

“As soon as humanly possible,” Lucas said, and I saw him catch Mario’s eye and make a gesture with his hand that I presumed indicated he wanted to wrap things up. Now.

There was no check to pay, since we weren’t official customers. I assumed from the way Mario and he shook hands that they’d organized some alternate form of payment. I hoped Lucas didn’t have to take too many of Mario’s shifts at the club to cover the evening.

“She loved it, man,” I overheard Lucas saying as he patted Mario on the back. “I owe you big.”

“You’re a chocolate God and I would marry you if I could,” I said to Mario as I slipped on my coat.

He smiled widely as I said this and kept hold of my hand even once we’d stopped shaking.

“All right, enough of that,” Lucas said, taking back my hand and gripping it firmly. He didn’t seem to like the way Mario was looking at me at all, which amused me to no end.

As we went out the doors, I looked back at Mario and whispered, just loud enough for Lucas to hear, “Call me!”

Lucas growled and playfully grabbed me by the waist as we walked through the restaurant. “He can’t have you, you’re mine,” he murmured into my ear.

Yes I am, I thought but didn’t say.

When we reached the car, I snatched the keys out of his hand and opened the driver’s side door. “Maybe I should drive, since you had so much trouble with it earlier,” I teased, and though Lucas grinned, his mood seemed to have shifted.

It was snowing very lightly, insubstantial flakes that melted as soon as they hit the ground. The temperature was meant to go even higher tomorrow, so I knew that even if a light layer fell overnight, it would be gone by midday, snow that wasn’t meant to last. Lucas held out his hand to catch some flakes and we both watched as they melted in his palm.

Then he approached me and took my face in his hands. I yearned for him to kiss me again, and I was sure he would, but he spoke instead.

“The night of the party—why’d you run away?” he said.

The fear I’d been holding at bay crept into my body, gurgling in my stomach. I exhaled and looked down at the ground, trying to avoid his gaze. “You really want to talk about this now?” I said. “While I’m wearing this dress?” I wanted to distract him, to arouse him, anything to not have to answer this question, but he wasn’t letting it go.

“I want to know everything about you, Katie,” he said, running his hands over my hair and lightly pulling the strands all the way to their tips. “I want to understand you inside and out. I want to know your every thought, even if you’re thinking there’s something about me you don’t like.”

Something about him, or something about me? He had no idea what he was asking.

“What if I don’t want to tell you everything?” I said, trying to sound defiant, but ending up sounding like a whiny child instead.

“Then I’ll keep asking until you’re ready to tell,” he answered.

Gazing into Lucas’s honey-coloured eyes, I felt something click into place. I believed him. I believed he would wait for me to be ready to tell him all my secrets, and I thought I might just trust him enough to tell him one. Just one to start. A baby step secret. One piece of the whole giant puzzle, which, I was pretty sure, I’d never let him see. Not completely. That would probably kill me. But one secret wouldn’t hurt too badly, I thought. A first secret for a first date.

“When you…knocked down that…guy,” I began haltingly.

“Buck?” Lucas said.

I nodded, staring at his chin. “Your face changed. You were furious with him. You looked like you wanted to tear him apart.”