I saw her across the space like a jolt of light in a pitch-black tunnel.
Her laugh cracked something open in me.
That hair—wild in the most beautiful way, tumbling in loose curly waves down to the middle of her back. Chestnut, with copper undertones that caught the light like flame. Natural. Untamed. Like her.
She was petite, almost delicate, but her body moved with confidence—all soft curves in all the right places, impossible not to notice.
That red shirt clung to her shoulders like temptation incarnate.
Her hands moved through the air like she was painting the music itself. And those eyes—green, bright, alive—like she saw more of the world than anyone else in the room.
She didn’t just walk. She moved like rhythm built her. Beat by beat. Note by note.
She didn’t dance to the music—she was the music.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
“Who is she?” I asked David, nodding in her direction.
He shrugged.
“No idea. She walked in with a couple of girls. Foreign, maybe. You’re staring.”
“I know.”
A few drinks later and I still hadn’t stopped. Couldn’t.
She was at the bar now. Alone. Perched on a high stool, legs crossed, a cocktail glass in one hand. Her blouse shimmered under the lights with every turn of her shoulder. The long asymmetrical sleeve slipping just slightly, exposing skin I wanted to touch.
Her lips—bare, full—sipped from the rim with a lazy, deliberate grace.
She wasn’t drinking to get drunk. She was drinking to savour it.
And beside her, in a small glass bowl, sat a few crumpled red foil wrappers—Valentine’s edition Hershey’s Kisses.
I blinked.
“Seriously? Who the hell eats chocolate at a bar?”
She did.
She picked one up with those elegant fingers, turning it slowly, studying it like it held secrets. Then she peeled it slowly. Like a ritual. Like seduction.
She didn’t eat it right away.
No. She brought it to her lips—those lips—and pressed the tip of the kiss to her mouth with this teasing reverence. Her eyes fluttered shut.
And when the chocolate hit her tongue, she sighed. Low. Intimate.
I felt something jolt through me. Sharp. Immediate. Carnal.
“What the hell? I didn’t know chocolate could do that to a man.”
I moved toward her before I could stop myself.
She noticed me as I stepped up beside her and gave me a playful, sideways smile.
“Do you always stare like that, or is it just me?”
