Caramel Kisses (4 page)

“Yes, but…?”

“Well, it worked didn’t it?” he said, tilting his head to the side in mock challenge.

She couldn’t argue with that. The man was too attractive and too charismatic by half. And when he smiled the thought of proving her point flew right out of
Sydni’s
head, replaced with the urge to kiss him.
Repeatedly.
Uninvited, her erotic fantasy in which he’d starred the night before mixed with the fact he’d sprung her from the big house.
Immediately her cheeks up in flames.
Thank god for dark skin.

“I’m
gonna
kill
Charli
,” she muttered to herself.

“It was her fault I was there to get you out of the clink that morning, so don’t be too hard on her, eh?”

Great.
Now he had two points. Relenting,
Sydni
sighed, “Fine, what’ll it be?”

They walked over to the counter together where
Syndi
ordered a simple Earl Gray tea,
then
motioned for him to place his order.

He cut the coffee maker babe a fleeting glance then turned a riveting stare on
Sydni
. The man’s voice dripped with so much sensuality,
Sydni
wondered if she could find a way to put it in a patch, women the world over could simply slap one between their legs when they needed a fix. She’d make a fortune.

“I’ll have the special dark roast.”
Then with a saucy little tilt of his head, eyes never leaving hers.
“With a shot of hot caramel and a bit of creaming…uh, I mean cream stirred in.” Then he winked.

Holy shit! Was he flirting with her?
Pwah
.
Creaming indeed.

“Oh and I’d like the half-and-half steamed. Make it good…and hot.”

One side—oh god, she really shouldn’t be looking—of his perfectly formed mouth tipped up into a grin and the belly jiggle harpies came out to play. Definitely harpies ‘cause her stomach was dancing to a tune much too hard and lively to be butterflies.

Sydni’s
tea came up first. They stood waiting for his drink as she sipped the steaming hot brew trying to get her eyeballs to behave. They wanted to roam all over the man, take him in from head to toe. She’d already let her gaze stray once and now the damn things wanted to take that particular journey over and over.

Back at their table,
Sydni
felt suddenly shy. It was such an unfamiliar emotion she lowered her eyes and kept her gaze plastered to the steam rising from her cup while she tried to figure out what to do with
herself
.

Drew chose that moment to lean in close. The natural scent of clean, healthy man wafted her way, sending a beacon blush to her cheeks. Mentally screaming at her belly to stop flip-flopping,
Sydni
squeezed her warming thighs together and sipped the scalding hot tea. God, she wished an icy gale-force wind would blow through the building to cool her off. This was
so
not good. And for the life of her,
Sydni
couldn’t think of a single reason why.

“You look awfully good today,
Sydni
,” Drew crooned. He probably hadn’t meant for it to sound so sexy, but oh well.

“I’m wearing a black sweat suit, Drew,” she huffed, determined to resist the man’s charm.

“Yes, but it’s what’s in the suit that makes it look so good. Now where should we go for lunch? As much as I love looking at you, I’m looking forward to eating. I’m so hungry I could just…feast.” That last was said with more than a little innuendo. While it should have grated on
Sydni’s
nerves, it strummed them instead.

It soon became urgent to change the subject because the current topic was heating up just a bit too quickly. And her goofy ass wanted to do the seventies disco shuffle while singing “Burn, Baby, Burn”!

With a brisk walk across the street to a little Italian deli, lunch was on. Once
Sydni
had been coaxed out of her shell a bit, the conversation flowed freely. They covered every subject from A to Z and soon a half-hour date turned into two hours.
Sydni’s
general knowledge of, well, everything, combined with a wicked sense of humor had Drew laughing so hard he practically choked on his food more than once.

As their meal progressed, he found himself wanting to prolong their time together by any means necessary. Shaking his head at himself, Drew squashed down all the baser emotions the woman brought out of him. One moment he wanted to pamper her, the next he wanted nothing more than to touch her from her scalp clear down to her knees. He could see himself enjoying everything with her—a dumb B-movie, hot sweaty sex, a walk in the park, hot sweaty sex, or sitting in silence reading a book together, followed by…hot sweaty sex. Jesus, she’d turned him into a teenager eager to get his first taste of pussy!

A waiter cleared their dishes and dropped off a couple of slices of creamy cheesecake and a carafe of coffee. Drew poured
Sydni
a steaming cup. She eyed him like a snake in the grass, as if he’d bite when she least expected it. It was the same look she pinned him with when he’d opened the restaurant door for her, and again when he pulled out her chair. So he smiled and said, “Yes, I pour coffee, pull out chairs and open doors.”

She tilted her head, but didn’t say anything.

“I like to pamper the woman I’m with.” Sliding the small container of cream her way, Drew watched
Sydni
stir her coffee while she watched him right back. She’d been having such a good time too.
Almost seemed to be comfortable with him.
Yet, something as simple as pouring her coffee put her right back on guard?
What the hell kind of idiots had
Sydni
Cannes been out with where being nice put her back up?

Time to change the subject.

“Do you like board games,
Sydni
?
Or any kind of games at all?”

“Believe it or not, I’m awesome at chess. As for other games, hmm…?” She tapped her chin, eyes focused upward while she thought. God, he could practically hear the gears grinding as she seriously considered the subject. In the seconds that followed Drew set a new target for
himself
– see to it that
Sydni
had more fun. If she had to think this hard about the kind of things she enjoyed, she obviously didn’t do them enough.

Finally she said, “Well, I like movie trivia.”

“Really?
So do
I
. And since I have a thing for movies
and
beautiful black women…” With a deliberate pause, Drew let his gaze travel over her lovely features,
then
continued. “Let’s try this on for size.” Drew almost spewed his coffee at the utter shock that sent her chin toward the table as her mouth fell open. Okay, she needed more fun
and
more brash, blunt, straight up flirting. No problem. “You ready?”

She nodded with a still somewhat dazed expression. So he pushed on.

“
Eartha
Kitt
.” The tilt of
Sydni’s
mouth and the glimmer of approval in her eyes said that she knew exactly who he was talking about.
Eartha
Kitt
was still well known for her
Catwoman
purr, her flawless cinnamon skin and saucy attitude. “I don’t think there’s any early film star as sexy as
Eartha
Kitt
. That woman used to give Batman a run for his money.”

Drew took a bite of cheesecake. It was thick, creamy,
delicious
. He wondered if
Sydni
would taste just as sweet on his tongue. Her smooth flawless skin certainly reminded him of coffee and cream. Or maybe chocolate mousse ice cream. With Hershey nipples, er, Hershey Kisses. It was just enough to send a rush of blood streaking south until he had to fight the urge to adjust
himself
underneath the table.

“Did you know that
Eartha
Kitt
played
Catwoman
in the Batman TV series between 1966 and 1968, but Lee
Meriweather
played the character in the movie of 1966?” he asked.

“Not even,”
Sydni
retorted with a dismissive wave of her fork. “Everyone knows
Eartha
Kitt
was
the
Catwoman
of the 1960s. And that includes the movie. Nobody could purr like her.”

“
Wanna
bet on it?”

The woman snorted,
then
chuckled. “I don’t do bets, Drew.”

Sydni
might not do bets, but god he sure wanted to do
her
. The more time in her presence the hornier he got. And it wasn’t just sex appeal.
Sydni
got to him on every level.

“I happen to be a total movie trivia expert, so I’ll even go easy on you,” he said smoothly, unable to hide what he knew was a shit-eating grin spread across his lips. The reaction was immediate.
Just what he wanted.
Well, almost.

All humor faded for a second before she snapped her well-known cool façade into place. He’d wanted to prick her pride, bring out her competitive edge,
not
piss her off.
Time to tread a bit more carefully…then again, to hell with tip toeing around.
Drew wanted
Sydni
to see him, the real him. Not the pretty playboy toy most women thought he was.

One perfectly manicured black brow winged upward as
Sydni’s
neck canted to the left. “Make it easy for me? I don’t need you to make anything easy on me, Drew. I’ve never done easy in my life. Besides, I’m not some simpering twenty year old just beginning to make her way in the world. I know who I am. And who I’m not,”
Sydni
snapped quietly, stabbing her cheesecake like she was mad at it.

Ah, so
that’s
her problem
, Drew thought.
Fine.
He had no problem jumping right into what was really on the woman’s mind. “What do simpering twenty year olds have to do with a bet over something fun and meaningless, like movie trivia?” Drew kept right on smiling. After all, even if she was mad, he was still enjoying her company. A soft huff and a couple of soft grumbles that sounded something like “damn man” and “off guard” told him she felt a bit on the silly side. But Drew also knew that the devil would be having blizzard weather before she admitted such a thing. Instead, she forced the frown from her brow and painted on an easy smile.

Meeting his eyes, she said, “Fine. Sorry ‘bout that. What do you want to bet?”

“I bet you that Lee
Meriweather
was
Catwoman
in the 1966 Batman movie.”

It sounded easy enough, but Drew knew his movies.
Especially ones with sexy black women in them who pioneered the way for the current generations.
Women like
Eartha
Kitt
and Lola
Falana
. And it was a common misconception about who played what during those ground-breaking times.

“And what are you willing to wager since you’re going to lose?”
Sydni
asked, all shameless confidence, showing almost every tooth in her mouth. She was all glowing confidence and feminine grace as she tilted her head again. But this time her almond shaped eyes twinkled with an expression as old as Eve. Drew laughed outright, ridiculously thrilled that she was flirting back.

Suddenly,
Sydni
went still.

Drew’s laugh cut off abruptly when his eyes tracked
Sydni’s
line of sight. He almost groaned aloud. His guffaw had caught the attention of the woman working the counter. The chick proceeded to tilt her head at a saucy angle and wink his way. What was it that urged these airheaded women to flirt shamelessly with a man, even when said man had another woman at his table? Not to mention the fact Drew wasn’t paying anyone but
Sydni
the least bit of attention.

Totally ignoring the counter floozy, Drew said, “Since I’m determined to see you again, when I win I get a date and a kiss, not necessarily in that order.”

“And if I win?” she asked. With eyes suddenly gone shy,
Sydni
looked down at the fork she was playing with. The tip of her tongue left a moist trail over her bottom lip. Drew wanted to taste her more than, than…hell, he couldn’t think of a comparison just now. She made him feel untamed, wild.
A lion.
A predator.
So high on his own testosterone he wanted to lift her onto the table and mercilessly tease her lush body until she spread her legs and yelled, “Do me now!”

“Well?” she asked.

Hell, he’d almost forgotten the question. Slowly reaching across the table, Drew took her hand in his and gently kissed the knuckles from left to right.

“I’ll wear this ugly ass neon green workout shirt for you again.”

Now it was
Sydni’s
turn to laugh outright as she took her hand back.

“You’re on, handsome.”

Handsome.
Mmm
.
The word sounded so different, more meaningful, coming from
Sydni
. She probably hadn’t meant anything by it. But in time, she sure as hell would.

They shook on the bet over the table.

Sydni
was giddy as a sixteen year old on her first date until Drew pulled out his PDA, connected to the wireless internet connection offered by the restaurant and scooted closer to her in the booth. After a few clicks, a trip to the Wiki page for Batman 1966 proved her…wrong!

All she could do was gape at the traitorous PDA. And squeeze her thighs together when Drew chuckled sexily, promising all kinds of unspoken naughtiness. And right there in front of anyone who cared to watch, Drew more than made good on his word.

“Lunch tomorrow,
Sydni
. But I’ll have that kiss now.”

He scooted over to her side of the table and laid a kiss on her that started out so gentle it took her by surprise, lulling her into a sense of ease. Then he subtly upped the ante and drew her in with practiced skill.
Sydni
didn’t realize the lip lock had already blazed out of control until she was moaning into his mouth, arms twined about his neck and holding on for dear life.