Break Away (24 page)

“So, what now?” Olivia laughed. “I guess I’ll, um… see you later?”

I put my hands on her hips and pulled her toward me. “Now, you give me a kiss… a good one… and call me when you’re done working. No matter how late it is.”

She smiled. “That can be arranged.” Standing on her tiptoes, she wrapped her arms around my neck, softly brushing her lips against mine. I swiped at her bottom lip with my tongue, and with a faint moan, she parted her lips. Because I couldn’t help myself, I took full advantage and deepened the kiss until my mind was hazy and we were both breathing heavily. Then, after placing one last soft kiss on her lips, I reluctantly let her go and turned away.

***

Despite the fact that I was stuck working the next few nights, Dex and I managed to find time to see each other. We would go out to lunch in between my shifts at the aquarium and the restaurant, or he would come in when I was working to have dinner or grab a beer. Not to mention that he sent me sweet—and sometimes dirty—text messages throughout the day, and every night when I got off work, we would talk on the phone. He hated the fact that I got home so late after my shifts at the restaurant, and I knew he wouldn’t sleep until he could confirm that I’d gotten home safe.

For someone who didn’t do relationships, Dex sure was good at it. When I teased him about it, he would say that it was easy with me because he wanted to do all this stuff anyway, so he didn’t even have to try.

Pretty damn sweet, right? Yeah, I was in trouble.

Aside from a few lingering kisses here and there, we hadn’t done anything physical since our first night together. I was aching to be with him again. Never once had it been this way with Steven, or anyone else for that matter. Every little touch from Dex left me heated and eager for more. I lay in bed with images of him drifting through my head and no way to cure the ache.

In other words, I was horny as hell.

Fortunately, I only had one more night shift at the restaurant, and then I would have a couple days off. Dex would be taking me on our first official date, and I was practically counting the minutes.

I met Nora in Charleston to go shopping for something to wear, since my clothing selection was limited, and I wanted to wear something nice that Dex hadn’t seen before. I didn’t have a lot of money to spend, but Nora suggested a boutique thrift store downtown with a selection of high-end clothing, most of which had been dropped off by wealthy women after being worn once or twice.

After browsing through multiple racks, I found a coral dress that caught my eye. It had a low neckline and was fitted through the bodice with a slight flair at the waist. It was the perfect combination of pretty and sexy, and it fit like it was made for me.

“That’s the one. it’s absolutely perfect!” Nora said when I stepped out of the dressing room.

“I don’t think I have any shoes to wear with it…” I mentally went through the three or four pairs of shoes I had in my closet and came up empty.

She smiled. “No, but I do. Pay for that dress and then let’s go raid my closet.”

We hurried over to the house that she and Jake were staying in, and she immediately brought me inside and led me to her closet. It reminded me of college when she would dress me for big dates, job interviews, or anything that required me to look somewhat decent. She’d always been so generous.

“How’s the wedding planning?” I asked while watching her dig through her closet.

“Good! I mean, we haven’t given it a ton of thought, but it’s not as though we’re in a rush. Right now, we’re getting used to our new life and enjoying being together.” Nora got a dreamy look in her eye whenever she spoke about Jake and for the first time I understood it. “We’re probably going to do something small, keep it simple, you know?”

“Simple is nice,” I agreed. “No sense in putting more pressure on yourselves. It should be the happiest day of your life, not something to stress over.”

“Exactly! We thought about doing a beach wedding, but then Jake had the idea to do it at his grandfather’s old fishing cabin where we had our first date. He recently fixed it all up, and it’s beautiful. It’s right on the water with a dock that we could turn into a makeshift aisle, and there’s a field nearby where we could set up a tent for the reception… it would be really special. And you should have seen how excited Jake was with the idea; it was adorable!”

I laughed. “He’s a sweetheart, that one. I can see why you held out for him all those years.”

“Totally worth it,” she smiled. From the corner of her closet she pulled out a pair of tan strappy heels. “Aha! Found them!”

After finding me the perfect shoes and a chunky, teal necklace to go with the dress, Nora and I spent the rest of the afternoon getting our nails done at a salon down the street. I was happier and more relaxed than I’d been in a long time, and I couldn’t wait for my date tomorrow.

I said goodbye to Nora and got in the car. As I was driving away, she called out to me, “Have fun tomorrow. I’ll be expecting details!”

A few minutes into my shift at the Seaside, Melanie approached me with a weird look on her face.

“Do you know that guy over there?” she asked, pointing to the man she had seated in my section. “He requested you, which seemed a little strange, so I wanted to give you a heads’ up.”

He was an older man, probably in his fifties, with gray hair and a rough look about him. I didn’t recognize him, but I must have known him from somewhere if he asked for me specifically.

I shrugged. “I don’t think so, but I’ve seen so many people in here that it’s hard to keep track. I probably waited on him at some point and made a good impression.”

Grabbing a menu, I walked over to his table with a friendly smile. “Good evening, sir… how are you doing tonight?”

He barely smiled in return, and he didn’t look at me with any familiarity. Instead he seemed to examine me; his hard, steel gray eyes probing me as if searching for something. When his lips turned up in a half smile, it seemed forced, like he was hiding behind it.

“I’m good,” he answered. “How’re you doin’, Olivia?”

Obviously, he knew me somehow, unless Melanie had given him my name, which was unlikely.

“Great, thank you,” I replied. “Can I start you off with something to drink?”

“Scotch, neat.”

By the time I returned with his drink, his intense demeanor seemed to have toned down a bit. Shortly after that, when I brought his food over to him, he was actually somewhat friendly.

“Have you lived here long?” he asked casually, grabbing a handful of fries from his plate.

“A few months or so,” I answered vaguely, wanting to avoid personal conversation. “It’s a great place though.”

“Yeah, it seems like it. It’s my first time here. I’m passing through on my way back to New York. I wish I could stay longer.”

I was momentarily distracted when I saw Dex and Sadie walk into the restaurant, and I couldn’t help but smile. My customer noticed when I stopped paying attention and followed my gaze across the room to where Dex and Sadie were waving at me.

“That your boyfriend?”

My focus snapped back to him, and I blushed furiously, searching for a way to steer the subject toward something else. “You, uh, said you’re from New York?” I muttered, hiding my flushed cheeks. “I used to live up there.”

“Is that so?” His lips curled in amusement. “What brought you here?”

“Just a change of scene, I suppose.” The topic of conversation made me uneasy, and I really wanted to get out of there. “Can I get you anything else?”

His eyes flickered to where Dex was sitting before he answered, “Just the check, please.”

I did my best to shake the awkward feeling before heading over to Dex and Sadie’s table. It was adorable to see them sitting together, and my mood immediately brightened. Fortunately, it was still early for dinner, and they were my only other table so I could spend a little bit of time with them.

“Well, it must be my lucky day,” I said, walking over to them. My heart jumped in my chest at the way Dex’s eyes greedily took me in, making it difficult to keep my composure. “What brings you two here tonight?”

“Well, I wanted to get pizza,” Sadie told me excitedly. “But then Uncle Dee said that if we came here, he would take me out for ice cream after!”

“Oh, yeah?” I turned to Dex, who was grinning.

“What can I say? The service here is excellent… I can’t get enough of it,” he said cheekily.

I dropped the mystery man’s check off while he was outside talking on the phone so I wouldn’t have to endure any more uncomfortable interaction with him. I noticed him watching me while I was talking to Dex and Sadie, and it gave me an eerie feeling.

“Who is that guy?” Dex asked, noticing my discomfort.

I knew how protective he was, and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of what I was feeling when it was probably nothing. “Nobody. Some customer from a while back that I can’t seem to remember. He was a little nosy, that’s all,” I reassured him.

They left when they were finished with dinner so that Dex could take Sadie to get her ice cream, as promised. He gave me a quick kiss goodbye and leaned in close.

“Can’t wait to see you tomorrow,” he whispered. His warm breath caressed my neck and a shiver ran down my spine as I watched him walk away.

When I next looked up, the creepy, mystery man was already gone. It wasn’t until later that night when I finally picked up on something he said. “
This is my first time here
,” he’d told me. So, if he had never been in here before, then why did he request me? And how did he know my name?

Since Olivia and I had already slept together—which I was
not
complaining about, by the way—it felt like we’d skipped ahead and missed a few steps. I’d never even taken her out on a proper first date, and I wanted to make up for it. I was determined to do everything right with Olivia. If that meant taking a step back from the physical stuff and keeping my dick in my pants, then I would do it. I didn’t want to do anything to mess this up, and I definitely didn’t want her to think I was only interested in sex. I mean, yeah, I couldn’t stop thinking about it because it was hands-down the best sex I’d ever had and I was dying to do it again, but it was only a part of it. I loved everything about her, and I wanted her to know it.