“This is just the start of our date, darlin’.” His tone is all warning. “You cannot look at me like that at the beginning of our date. Especially if you expect me to keep my hands to myself.”
I raise an eyebrow at the same time I step out onto the porch, closing my front door behind me.
“Now why would I have such an expectation?”
Again, my heart lights up at the way he tosses his head back to laugh.
I love you.
The three words remain on the tip of my tongue. I just barely hold them in … I can’t say them yet. Even with coming to the realization a week ago, and having seen Joel every day since then, I haven’t spoken those words to him or anyone else.
As silly as it sounds, it feels like as soon as I say them the feeling will disappear. I hold them in because I don’t want this sentiment to go anywhere.
“I hope you like lamb,” he says as we walk arm-in-arm toward his house.
“I told you, there isn’t anything I don’t eat.”
“Except for pudding.”
I nod. “Pudding is a no.”
“What is it about pudding you don’t like again?”
We arrive at his front door, and I pause to allow him to open the door before entering.
“When I was twelve, I had to have my appendix taken out,” I tell him while stepping into his home.
“I had some complications. Nothing too serious after a while, but I couldn’t eat much. Pudding was high on the list. My mother fed me pudding night and day while I was in the hospital.”
It was so long ago at this point, but the aversion to pudding of any kind that I developed during that time has stayed with me.
“The thought of putting it in my mouth turns my stomach.”
Lowering his head, Joel starts chuckling.
I replay what I’ve just said in my head. I press my lips together to keep from laughing at the same time I swat at his arm.
“You perverted old man. You know what I was talking about!”
That only makes him laugh louder, which, in turn, makes me burst into a fit of laughter.
“You said it, not me,” he says, wiping his eyes.
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
This little back and forth feels so natural and easy, I don’t even notice when Joel comes close enough to wrap an arm around my waist, pulling me into his arms.
“Nasty old man, huh?” His voice is deep and guttural.
“I believe I used the word ‘perverted’,” I correct while my eyes fall to his lips.
His response to that is to pull me into a kiss, silencing the both of us. My nipples instantly harden underneath my silk blouse.
Joel kisses me until my thoughts become one fuzzy, electricity charged spark that flows through my body, lighting everything in its wake on fire.
Slowly, he pulls back, but leans his forehead against mine with his arms wrapped around my waist.
“There’s a lot more where that came from.”
