Chapter 27 #2
“A surprise, huh?” He kissed the corner of my mouth.
“I love surprises. Though if I’m being honest, you standing here asking me to be yours is already the best surprise.
I’m going to change out of my work clothes while you get everything in order.
That way I won’t see anything you don’t want me to.
” He winked before walking toward the stairs.
“Okay,” I said, turning to the kitchen where I retrieved the tiramisu from the fridge and placed it in the cooler bag.
A few minutes later, I heard the pad of his footsteps approaching. Turning, I found him leaning casually against the kitchen entryway, now dressed in a T-shirt that hugged the breadth of his shoulders and worn denim that fit snugly along the lines of his legs. The sight made my pulse trip anew.
“Alright, so what illustrious plans do you have for us?”
“I thought a picnic in the park.”
“I’m game. Are we driving or walking?”
“It’s only thirty minutes if we walk, so maybe we can save the gas?”
“Okie dokie, smokie jokie. Walking it is.”
We arrived at the park as the sun dipped beneath the horizon, lamplights flickering to life along the winding path. The air held that crisp quality of the first breath of autumn, the leaves on the trees holding a hint of color.
I guided us to a small grassy hill beneath a big oak, a pocket of privacy in the otherwise open terrain of the park.
Luke laid out the blanket I’d packed then lowered himself to sit cross-legged.
It was a date spun from my dreams, plucked from the quiet vaults of my imagination and given life beneath the evening sky.
We talked in that easy, meandering way Luke always inspired, touching on an array of topics, trading stories of our day, and laughing without restraint over the silliest of things.
Between bites of food, he stole lengthy kisses, displays of casual affection that made my heart skip each time.
A breeze whispered through the park, causing a shiver to chase through me. At once, Luke shifted, tugging me between his legs, settling me back against his chest. One strong arm looped around my middle, allowing his body heat to bleed into me.
“Are you ready for dessert?” I asked after a moment, reaching for the cooler bag.
“You know I can’t resist anything you bake. You’re a magician in the kitchen. Hey, that rhymes.”
He was such a loveable dork. As the lid came free from the container to reveal the dessert within, a delighted gasp escaped Luke.
“You made tiramisu!?”
“I know it’s your favorite. I wanted this to be special.”
“It was already special because it involved you,” he said, giving me an enthusiastic, slightly off-center kiss that landed between my upper lip and the corner of my mouth. “But you won’t find me saying no to your finest desserts. Best first date ever.”
Luke’s enthusiasm was why I loved doing stuff like this for him.
He never met my gestures with the entitlement I had grown accustom to with Vince.
Luke treated each offering as though it were a gift of staggering worth.
He honored every hour of effort with a kind of wide-eyed gratitude that made me want to spend my life giving to him and filling his days with surprises.
“Wanna walk a bit more?” Luke asked, rubbing his stomach after we’d finished. “Work off the thousand calories we inhaled?”
“Sure.”
We meandered further into the park until we came upon on one of those fitness trails, with sporadic equipment built into the landscape. Pull-up bars, parallel bars, a balance beam, scaling ladder, and in the distance a climbing rope.
I tilted my head toward the pull-up bar. “How many can you do in one go?”
“Pull-ups?”
“Yeah.”
“How many do you think?”
“I don’t know, over two hundred?”
“Two hundred!? Angel, I love that your estimation of my physical prowess rivals that of a Greek demigod or superhero, but I can barely get over thirty, and that’s on good day.”
“Well then, let’s see it. The people demand a performance.”
“The people, huh?”
“Yes, all one of us.”
Approaching the bar, he shook his arms, rolled his neck, muttering to himself, “Alright, Luke. Time to impress the boyfriend. No pressure. Only your entire reputation as a physical specimen on the line.”
The boyfriend. Something in me tripped, skipped, and then stumbled into airlessness. I knew that’s what we’d agreed upon, but hearing it out loud cemented its meaning. “Don’t worry, I’m already impressed, and I’ll be right here on the sidelines cheering you on.”
“I’ll have to dig out my old letterman’s jacket to complete the fantasy. Maybe let you wear it after the big game.”
Uh . . . wearing something of Luke’s with his name branded on it? Yes please.
He leapt up, catching the bar. For a second, he simply hung there, his shirt stretching tight across his chest, revealing the shifting ridges of his muscles beneath. With a smooth, deliberate motion, he hoisted himself upward, biceps contracting.
“One,” he exhaled.
His muscles rippled as he lowered, slowly, because Luke was the type of showoff who controlled the descent for maximum impact.
He rose again, the second pull-up smoother than the first. I stood there gaping, growing painfully aroused.
Luke’s muscular form on full display was too hot not to provoke that kind of reaction.
“Five,” Luke said, still counting his reps. “You alright? You’re looking a bit flushed.”
“I think my lungs have staged a full shutdown in protest of so much sexiness made flesh.” I raised a hand to my face. “Yep. Confirmed. No air exiting this body.”
“We can’t have that,” Luke said as he pulled himself up agin. “Next time I’ll have to take my shirt off to make sure I give you the full experience.”
“I’m not sure I’d survive.”
“Don’t worry, I’m CPR certified. I can breathe life back into you.”
“You already do,” I mumbled.
“Ten. What was that?”
“Nothing,” I said, sinking onto the nearest bench, propping my chin in my hand, and continuing to stare. Not even pretending to be subtle about it. I didn’t have to hide it anymore. I could watch as long as I wanted.
He reached fifteen. Then twenty. He dropped down at thirty-one.
“You realize this is deeply unfair to us mere mortals,” I said. “I thought you said you struggled to get past thirty.”
“Did I not make it clear I was trying to impress you?” he asked with a grin.
This man, just a bundle of feel-good sweetness.
“So, how’d I do?”
“Impressive,” I said in my best Darth Vadar voice, pausing before I repeated myself, emphasizing how impressive it was, because Luke wasn’t the only dork around, and for his responding laugh.
“I mean really, Luke, you’re made of Greek marble and fantasies.
You just performed a one-man thirst trap.
I think even the park bench is smoking.”
“It was only pull-ups.”
“It was temptation and sin disguised as exercise. The most erotic display of athleticism I have ever witnessed.”
“If that’s all it takes to get you worked up, I’m telling Ez I have a new gym partner. From now on I’m doing my workouts with you.”
“That’s a terrible idea.”
“Why is that?”
“Because there’s only so much self-control a man can possess in the presence of that much physical splendor.
And I’ve spent the last several months expending mine.
I’d probably end up banned from the premises—no, worse than that, arrested for initiating things that are illegal to initiate in public. ”
“Things like this?”
Catching me at the waist, he pulled me flush against him, engulfing me in the heady scent of him. Before I could so much as gasp, his mouth descended on mine. I liquefied under the intensity. My fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt. He was a drug. Lethal. Addictive. Impossible to quit.
It took several long moments for us to come apart. When we did, the cool night air did nothing to quell the fever that had seized me.
“Luke, while that was a phenomenal kiss, what I had in mind went about three bases beyond kissing.”
His voice dropped an octave. “Gotcha. In that case, now might be the time to enact phase two of this evening. The one where you climb me like a tree?”
My blood turned viscous and congealed from the tone of his voice.
I never thought I’d ever hear him speak with that edge of want, and certainly not directed at me.
Arousal ripped through me, propelling me forward as I seized his hand and tugged him along, my stride quick and purposeful as we headed back home.
“Who in the name of all things merciful and sane decided we should walk?” I complained.
“Mm, I believe that was you,” Luke said.
“Yes, well, that came from past me. Past me, who had romantic notions about starlit pacing and hand holding. Past me, who failed to account for how horny I would get watching you execute forty-five pull-ups like some sort of warrior prince. I’m going to travel back in time and slap past me across the face.
Possibly twice. We could be home right now, smothering each other in kisses. ”
Luke squeezed my hand. “The wait makes the anticipation sweeter and the moment hotter.”
“No,” I snapped. “It makes it that much longer until I can have you. In bed. Beneath me. Around me. Everywhere.”
“Who knew you were such a fiend?”
“I’ve been gone on you for months, pretending everything you do doesn’t make me fall that much more in love with you. Yes, I’m a fiend. But not just any fiend. I’m a fiend for you.”
He halted mid-stride.
“What?” I asked, unsure of what to make of the expression that had taken over his face.
“Love?”
Oh.
Shit.
I hadn’t meant to say that. The confession had been torn loose by momentum and my overzealous libido, unable to be contained any longer. And now it was out there, a bell unable to be unrung.