All the Waters of the Earth

Chapter 8: I Drew This Curve Today

We didn't even make it out to the Biltmore parking lot before we were joined at the lip.

Once we walked through the outdoor patio of the restaurant, holding hands, and then through the chic lobby of the hotel, we exited into a Spanish-style patio entranceway, lit with fairy lights wrapped around the palm tree trunks, making it look magical. We could hear the crash of the ocean right beside us, in the dark, and the clink and murmur of dinner guests behind us.

Leaving me by a lush, bright purple bougainvillea evident in the low light, Jake strolled to the valet booth, handed the ticket to the attendant, and then came back to me, eyes on mine, intent. He bent down and kissed me hard, his warm mouth, chocolatey from the tiramisu, invading mine, our noses smushing together. I kissed him back with fervor, loving the crush into his body, loving the way his arms wrapped around me and held me to his firm body, loving the way he smelled and the way he tasted.

He didn't kiss like a distracted, workaholic businessman; he kissed like he had never heard of a cell phone. Like this was his way of creating art and he didn't care who saw. It felt like there was nothing around us, nothing in existence except him pressing his body to me, his lips and tongue to mine. I was completely in his world and he was in mine and it was a heart-stoppingly romantic place to be. All of creation existed in that moment and there was nothing else. At least until his teeth bit my lower lip gently, and he pulled back and looked at me, heat in his eyes.

The young, pimpled valet standing next to us cleared his throat.

I stifled a giggle. Who knew how long he was standing there watching us make out? Jake looked at me conspiratorially, kissed my nose, then took my hand and walked, with me teetering in my high heels, over to his car. He opened my door and I slid in.

When he took off back home, it seemed like he was driving faster than he did on the way to the hotel. In no time at all, I was out of the car. Then fumbling with my keys. Then my door was open, and Jake was following me inside my home. Then I turned and closed my door and he boxed me in to the back of the door, arms on both sides of me. Then his mouth was on mine again, and this time, it was even more frenzied because we didn't have any chance of an audience.

Teeth knocked, tongues touched, he even growled a bit in my throat and I moaned when he started nibbling his way down my neck, sucking and caressing.

I pressed his jacket off of his shoulders, struggling with it a bit, and finally getting it off. Then I started unbuttoning his shirt, crazed to touch him, wanting to feel his athletic body. As he leaned over to kiss me, he helped, and his shirt was off and on the floor, his shoes kicked off, and I started kissing his broad, muscular chest, licking and sucking my way up to his neck.

"I want you. Now," I said against his soft skin, and he groaned, and then picked me up, and I squealed and kicked in his arms.

"Where's your room?" he asked, swinging me around, as I laughed, delighting in his arms, feeling protected, dominated, cared for. And thrilled. This man would be mine.

"No, this one, there," I said, pointing, as he almost went into Rob's room.

Then he stepped inside and looked around.

My room looked like the day after Christmas at Macy's.

His eyes widened as he took in my room.

"I kind of didn't know what to wear," I started explaining, a little chagrined.

Shaking his head, he chuckled, "Lucy. You are wonderful."

He set me down and with a swoosh of my arms, I swept all of the clothes on my bed onto the floor, and pulled Jake on top of me by pulling on his back. But as he headed down, he slipped on a silky dress on the floor, and grabbed me, twisting, and we both fell to the floor, me on top of him, laughing.