Playing It Safe(57)

Alex’s hand tightens on my waist as if he’s trying to keep himself in check. Quite honestly, I’m more shocked at Aiden’s performance than Alex’s. Seriously, what an *! But the performance is still not enough that I can’t say one more thing before he leaves.

“Don’t bother, Aiden.”

“Close the door behind you while you’re at it,” Alex adds with a dimpled smile.

Once the door snaps shut behind him, I exhale a shaky breath in the hopes that it will regulate my sanity and temper. Now I’m left with having to explain the situation to Alex, who did nothing wrong but show up for a date and walked in on a disaster in the making. I turn in his arms and look up at him. He’s still smiling from ear to ear.

“Now I have a good reason not to like him,” he says. “When I met him at the engagement party the other night, I thought he was a dick, but this just cements it.”

“Alex, I had no idea he was going to show up here,” I say.

“You don’t need to explain. I heard everything.”

“Don’t you want to know—”

“No, I don’t, Julia.” Alex’s hand comes up and cups my face softly. “As far as I’m concerned, the guy has already taken enough of our time tonight, so let’s forget about him and let me take you out to dinner.”

I grin with pleasure and relief, not only at what he just said, but at being so close to him again too. And now that I have a moment to appreciate him in all his splendid glory, my eyes make a path from the tiniest hint of tanned flesh visible at his neck and collar, to his black dress shoes, and then back up again where a lazy smile spreads across his face.

“Let’s start over, shall we?” he asks. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

“You look beautiful, Julia.”

“So do you.”

“Are you ready?” he asks, while taking his turn at looking me over from head to toe.

“I just need to get my keys and purse.”

I reach for both things on the foyer side table. When I turn around and try to take one step to start walking toward the door, he grabs my wrist.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

I scrunch my eyes while I think of what I could have forgotten. “Um, no. I have everything I need.”

Alex pulls me to him until I collide with his hard chest, and I put my hands out to brace myself. He cups the back of my neck while his other hand snakes around my waist, vanquishing what little space was left between us. When his lips touch mine, at first it’s a flutter of soft and light kisses as if we were becoming reacquainted. But it switches gears, and when I feel his tongue graze across my bottom lip, I lose myself to the kiss and to him. I grip onto the lapels of his jacket, and a soft moan escapes my throat, which encourages him further. He deepens the kiss but never once lets his hands wander.


I don’t know how long we stand there kissing, but when we break it off, we are both gasping for breath and our foreheads are resting on each other’s.

“Much better,” he says, his voice softer now as he caresses my cheek. “I’ve been thinking about doing that since you left me this morning.”

“You mean when I left you this afternoon.”

He tries to hide the smirk on his face, but the dimples give him away. “I stand corrected. I’ve been thinking of doing that since you left me this afternoon.”

Cupping my face with his hands, he presses a silky kiss to my already swollen lips that has me wanting so much more and has me quickly forgetting about dinner if we stay here any longer.

“Alex?”

“Julia?”

I keep my eyes closed as his mouth moves meticulously over to my neck, where he lavishes it with more kisses. “If you keep doing that, I’m not going to want dinner at all.”

I feel his smile against my skin, and then he stops and picks his head up to look at me. “I did promise you dinner, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

He answers by dropping his hands from my face and taking one of mine in his. After I lock the door, we walk to his car parked in my driveway, the whole time feeling oddly at ease and relaxed given the altercation with Aiden. But I’m not going to let him ruin my night at all. As of this moment tonight, I will not waste one more thought on him.

Alex opens my door for me and helps me in, then strides around the front of the car to his side. He gracefully slides in next to me before starting the car.

I turn in my seat to look at him as the dashboard illuminates his strong jaw and makes the blue of his eyes have an almost ethereal quality to them. Oh dear … I’m waxing poetic to myself about his eyes. Can you believe this? My thoughts sound as if they are straight out of a f*cking script for General Hospital. But I can’t help myself. He really is breathtakingly gorgeous, and I’m at a loss for words around him sometimes. And that’s how I know I’m elbow-deep in some shit I have no idea how to navigate through.

I always have something to say. Always. I basically can’t keep my mouth shut, ever. Men don’t make me stumble to find my words. Men don’t make me anxious. And men certainly don’t leave me wanting more.

“Where are we going?” I ask him.

“It’s a surprise.”

“I hate surprises, Alex.”