18. Zander
18
ZANDER
I knock on the door of the conference room, and Marr lifts her head from where it’s buried behind the laptop screen. She’s in a brainstorming session with Kristy and her team. Every pair of eyes turns from the projector toward me, but my attention is only on my girlfriend.
“Are we all set for tomorrow?” I ask from the doorstep.
She nods and then looks away. For some strange reason, she’s still shy around me in the office. I don’t understand why. It’s not like our relationship is a secret.
I step into the conference room, and everyone starts shuffling in their seats, turning my way.
I’m just checking on my girl, people.
Nevertheless, I praise my hardworking staff, toiling away on a Friday evening. “Great work, everyone. Keep it up.”
I reach to Marr as she slouches lower in her chair. Her coyness amuses me greatly.
“I’ll pick you up at twelve?” I ask in a hushed voice but still loud enough for everyone to hear.
She nods, looking at her laptop screen.
“Got a date, boss?” Kristy, sitting opposite Marr, grins at me .
“Sure do,” I reply with a grin of my own behind my blushing couch girl.
Everyone smiles, but Marr stays buried behind the black screen. The pink in her cheeks is the only indication that she’s not appalled by my Don Juan move.
“What do you say?” I put the car into park and point toward the sign.
“Pegasus Gallop Farms? What are we going to do here?” Marr clutches on the cuffs of her shirt, and I know the tugging will start any minute.
As much as I want our first date to be memorable, I’m also perceptive toward her anxiety issues. I wanted to take her outdoors, near nature someplace so we could talk in the quiet. So far, apart from the dinner where I basically invited myself to her and Kristy’s table, we haven’t been out. Our paltry time together has been through texts and calls.
“Horseback riding.” I get out of the car and wait for her to step out.
It takes a while before her door opens, and one after the other, the red canvas shoes softly land on the ground.
“Zander, I have never ridden a horse before. I… I can’t do it.” Her eyes nervously move from the green racecourse to the open fields.
I hold her hands in mine before she rips that cuff off.
“Marr, the guide will take us to the hills. He’s picked his most docile horse for you.” I tip her chin up with my finger. “It’s a smooth ride. I’m told you can see the whole town from the top.” I point my finger toward the top alpine meadows.
“How…do you know all this? I had no idea we had a horse farm in Cherrywood.” Her breathy voice and skittish manners, standing here like a deer in headlights, makes me want to fold her in my arms until she melts against me.
But one step at a time.
“I’ve been working on this date for a week now,” I confess, trying to tell her how important she, and this day, is to me.
“A week?” She licks her lips, and I’m about to forget my resolve of one step at a time before Bill joins us.
“Are you ready for the ride, miss?” he asks Marr.
When I booked the Date in the Hills package with Bill, I told him my girlfriend scares easily.
Marr gingerly nods her head as we shake hands with Bill. He leads us to the stables, and I grab Marr’s hand.
I turn her to me. “You can still say no. We can watch the horses grazing on the meadows. There’s no pressure.”
“Were you really…planning for a week?” She blinks those big blue eyes rapidly.
I nod. “I wanted our first date to be memorable.”
She looks between the two horses Bill’s leading out and then back me.
“If I don’t like—”
“You just say the word.”
“How are you feeling?” I look at Marr as she walks beside me on the jet-black mare.
“It feels…different. I can feel her…move.” She looks from the horse to me.
“But not bad, right?” I grin when she shakes her head.
Bill leads us to the brow of the hill, where a lunch basket is waiting for us. He lays a white picnic blanket on the ground and leaves us to return in a few hours.
“What do you think?” I ask Marr while passing her a glass of iced tea.
I’m hoping her answer to this question is amazing , but she replies in her own sweet style.
“You took me for date in the hills, on a horse, and had lunch delivered from Giovanni’s. I think I’m becoming a fan of dates.” She eyes the insulated food box from her favorite Italian restaurant.
“Does this mean that my attempt at making you forget all your previous dates was successful?” I smirk, but I’m only half joking. I want her to think about no other man but me.
Way to go, Zander! With this attitude, you’re going to scare her away.
The pink in her cheeks spreads beyond her neck and the collared T-shirt.
“How many dates do you think I’ve been on?” Her fingers play with the edges of the picnic blanket, and I cock an eyebrow at her.
What are you saying, couch girl?
Before I can start the guessing game, she turns and gazes ahead. From this far and at this height, Cherrywood is nothing but a doll village.
“I thought dates usually take place in crowded restaurants.”
“Dates can be anywhere you like.” I sit upright and move closer to her.
“You seem to have a lot of practice.” She looks my way, biting her lip in suspicion.
Does she know how alluring she looks right now?
“I am aware of the art of dating.” I grab her hand resting between us and bring it closer to my lips. “Doesn’t mean I’m a practitioner of the art.” I glance at her before placing a kiss on her palm. Her hand shivers under the touch of my lips. Her blue eyes gleam behind the red frames in the daylight. Watching her face reflecting my own excitement, I kiss her thumb, then her index finger and the next, until I reach her pinkie. I bite it softly, and her wide eyes close while a soft moan escapes her lips.
Her sun-kissed face, her slightly mussed hair by the wind, and the heavy rising and falling of her chest makes me forget every resolve. Since I met this girl, she has made me crazy. Crazy with fear, worry, nervousness, and passion.
What the hell was I thinking bringing her to such a secluded place?
I bring her face closer and lean down, covering her lips with mine.
First thing I notice is that she tastes divine.
But it takes me a second to register that she has gone rigid under my touch. My hands on her face feel her cold skin, and her wide eyes are filled with panic. But my body hasn’t received the memo yet, and my rock-solid cock throbs in sync with my heart.
“Marr—”
“C-can we...leave? P-please?” She stands up, straightening her shirt and already collecting the empty iced tea bottles.
Nothing makes a dick go limp like your girlfriend wanting to bolt on the first date without eating dessert.
I pack everything back after making a call to Bill.
Half-eaten pasta, untouched cannolis, extra iced tea, and fresh strawberries in the lunch basket are going to haunt me the rest of the day.