Callie felt tears prick the back of her eyes as she looked up at Jake. Hearing those sweet words come from him made her fall for him even harder.
“Thank you, that means a lot.”
Without stopping to think about what she was about to do, Callie stretched up and brushed a gentle kiss across his mouth. The brief contact was nowhere near enough. A second later Jake wrapped his hand around her head and pulled her in close. Their lips crashed together in a deeper embrace. When they finally separated, they were both breathing heavily, foreheads pressed together.
As Callie slowly pulled away, she ached with loss of the intense heat between her and Jake. If she was honest with herself that kiss had been, hands down, the best kiss of her life. She desperately wanted to feel his arms around her, and more. But this was their first official date and Callie had always had a personal rule not to be intimate on a first date. That rule had served her well over her limited dating life and she couldn’t let it go just because a handsome man turned her on like no one else ever had.
Thankfully, before either of them could feel any awkwardness at what had just happened, the sensual heat of the moment was diffused by the waitress arriving with their meals. The aroma of sundried tomatoes and garlic wafted up from the seafood dish Callie had chosen, making her mouth water. She made a sound of delighted anticipation, licking her lips before looking up in surprise when she heard a growling noise coming from Jake.
As they were still sitting side by side, his leg pressed against her as he leaned in close. His lips tickled her ear and his words sent shivers throughout her body as he whispered softly, “If you keep making those noises and licking your lips like that I may not be able to behave the way a gentleman should on a first date. Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?”
Callie marveled that she seemed to be having as strong an effect on Jake as he was on her. Since she was hesitant to push things too far too fast, Callie twirled some pasta around her fork, and tried to move the conversation forward.
“Okay. Your turn hot bartender. Tell me what makes Jake Evans the man he is.”
She was gratified to see Jake seemed to pick up on the unspoken signals she was sending, when he sat back with a comfortable ease and replied, “Born and raised here in Portland, my parents still have our family home up in Lake Oswego. I have one sister, she’s married to a great guy, and they have a four-year-old daughter who is the sweetest kid in the world.”
Jake’s eyes lit up as he talked about his family, love evident in every word he spoke. “It sounds cheesy, but my family is awesome. Mom and Dad have one of those crazy relationships where you’re impressed by how happy they are, grossed out by all the kissing and hugging, and curious whether they ever fight. When my grandfather was alive, we started doing monthly family dinners at his request, so we see each other pretty often. He always said there was nothing more important than family.” Jake’s eyes grew sad. “Pop died a couple of years ago. I miss him every day, but he’s the one who gave me the money I needed to open the bar. I named the place after him. His call sign in the Air Force was Lucky Strike, because as long as he had a picture of my grandma in the cockpit, he never missed his target. He always called her his lucky charm, so his buddies called him Lucky Strike.”
Callie covered his hand with her own, giving it a gentle, comforting squeeze. His pain over the loss of his grandfather was evident in his face, and she ached to take it away from him. She hoped her words would bring some small comfort. “It sounds like you have an incredible family, Jake. And I bet Pop is so proud of you right now.”
As the night wore on, talk moved from family, to friends and crazy college stories, to work. Jake laughed in disbelief at some of her wild ER stories, cringing when she shared the more graphic ones involving foreign objects in different body parts. Thankfully dinner was over and neither one of them were squeamish when she described one situation where she had a patient with a two-inch long nail embedded in his ass, after being accidentally shot by a nail gun.
* * *
After dinner, with a clear night sky above them, they went for a walk around downtown Portland. Jake tucked Callie against his side, pulling her close. She felt so good in his arms – like that was right where she was meant to be.
The night seemed to last forever, and yet all too soon, Jake was walking her up to her building. Once there he captured her lips in another passionate kiss that left them both breathless.
Jake knew he had to stop before things went too far, so he reluctantly pulled away from Callie. Staring at her, with a sense of wonderment that he didn’t even try to hide, he pressed one final sweet kiss to the back of her hand. Then leaning in close, he wrapped his hand gently around her head and whispered in her ear, “Goodnight, Gorgeous. Get yourself inside and into bed before I forget that I’m trying to be a gentleman and not take you right here, right now. I had the best time tonight, thank you.”
Without waiting for a reply, knowing her voice would be too tempting for him, Jake turned and strode to his car, where he waited to make sure Callie was safely inside her apartment before he drove away.
The drive back to his house was an uncomfortable one as Jake tried to adjust himself around the arousal he’d been feeling all night long. He was amazed at how incredible the night had been. Callie was everything he had ever looked for in a woman. Beautiful, smart, secure, funny, charming, the list went on. It had been hard to walk away from her at the end of the evening, but he respected that she was obviously not into sex on a first date. Still, he was confident she had been just as affected by their physical chemistry as he had been.
Thinking about when he could possibly see her again consumed his thoughts as he drove home, winding through the streets on autopilot, focusing on the road just enough for safety. Smiling to himself, he remembered one random fact Callie had shared over dinner, about her favorite breakfast food. As he drove home, Jake formulated a plan that he hoped would win his way into her home, her heart, and in a perfect world, her bed. After all, a new day meant a new date.
Chapter 6
The next morning Callie wandered into her kitchen and turned on her kettle to make some tea. Leaning against the counter, she thought back to the previous evening and how the date had ended. Had it been a colossal mistake not to invite Jake in at the end of their date? She had stayed true to her own morals by not giving in to the obvious sexual chemistry between them, but even now, hours later, her nipples tingled as she remembered the heat of his kisses last night.
As she watched the sun begin to wash the sky with shades of pink and orange, Callie jumped at the sound of a knock on her door. Who on earth would be knocking at her door this early? Opening the door, Jake was the last person she expected to be on the other side but she couldn’t deny the rush of excitement she felt seeing him there. He stood in front of her and held out a paper bag with the distinctive aroma of cinnamon buns wafting from it. With his messy hair and eyes that held enough of a touch of sleepiness in their deep brown depths she wondered just how quickly he had come over after waking up. Callie’s heart skipped a beat as she drank in his sexy gaze.
“Hey there, Gorgeous, did you sleep well? I didn’t, because I couldn’t stop thinking about you. And as I lay there fantasizing about worshipping your body, kissing and exploring every inch of you, I realized something. Today is a new day, which means breakfast together could count as a second date. So, tell me. What’s your opinion on second date sex? Personally, I’m a fan.”
It took a second for his erotic words to register in her still half-asleep mind, but when they did Callie didn’t hesitate to leap into Jake’s arms, winding her legs around his strong torso.
As she wrapped her arms around his neck and threaded her fingers through his hair, she murmured, “I don’t know which I’m more excited about. You, or cinnamon buns. I wonder which I should have first.”
His intense gaze penetrated her soul as he replied, “Me, Callie. Definitely me first.”
Jake crushed his mouth to hers, stealing away her breath and making it impossible for another word to be spoken. His strong arms held her as if she weighed less than a feather. Without ever losing contact with her mouth, he strode into her living room and sat down on her couch. Callie wriggled in closer, acutely aware of his hard length through the layers of his jeans and the thin cotton of her pajamas. The heat between them turned from a slow flicker to a blazing wildfire. It was as if the anticipation from last night had consumed them both in passion. Jake slid the straps of Callie’s tank top off her shoulders to free her breasts, then paused for a moment to say, “Callie, you’re perfect.”
The awe in his voice hit Callie like a bolt of lightning to her heart. In that intimate moment, she felt more beautiful, more desirable, than she ever had.
Jake leaned forward and captured her breast in his mouth, making Callie moan and arch towards him. Delicious heat rushed between her legs and she was dangerously close to release just from the feel of his mouth on her body. Jake moved to her other breast, giving it equal attention, teasing her nipples until they were stiff nubs under his tongue.
“Too many clothes,” she gasped, then reached for the hem of Jake’s shirt. He quickly leaned back and helped her pull off his shirt before he took Callie’s completely off and tossed them both into the corner of her living room.
