A comfortable silence stretched between Nicki and Matt and she couldn't help but smile. She probably looked completely goofy but she didn't care. Her lips still tingled from his kiss, and she got the feeling by the way he was looking at her that he felt it, too.
"So..." Matt said, eyeing her.
Nicki looked at him from under a thick blanket of black eyelashes and licked her lips. "Weren't you supposed to be making sure I get home safe?"
Matt was on his feet so fast it looked as if his chair had shocked him. Nicki grinned and stood, too, letting him take her hand and lead her out the door into the cool night air. Well, cold night air. She could see their breath and she reflexively crossed her arms over her chest. "Did you forget your coat inside? Do you want me to go get it?"
"I wasn't wearing a coat. Quick, where's your car?"
Matt shook his head and laughed, then removed his own coat and placed it on her shoulders. She was instantly warmed. And it smelled like him.
"So if I never told you my name was Nicki, how did Adam ever find out you 'knew' me from the dog park."
"It's too cold outside to stand here talking about Adam," Matt said, grabbing her and pulling her down the sidewalk. They weaved in and out of people spilling out of bars or waiting in line to get into bars.
They walked in silence for awhile, his hand on the small of her back, gently guiding her. She wished his stupid coat wasn't so bulky so she could feel the warmth of his skin. When he spoke again his voice was soft. "I described you. Every detail about this magical woman I'd met. He must have recognized something in the description. The next time I saw him he had a picture with him. It was you. I wanted to punch him in the face. This one is mine—" he pointed to a Ford Explorer. "And I guess when he got home, he called you to tell you, and I never saw you at the dog park again, you know, cause you suddenly needed to go in the mornings instead."
Nicki could help but blush, feeling silly all of a sudden to her decision that avoidance was the best way to respond to the potentially sticky situation. Matt opened the door for her and Nicki slid into the passenger seat. His car smelled of leather and man and, inexplicably, there was a football on the floor next to her feet. Once he was in the SUV she picked up the ball and held it up between them. "You play?"
Matt took the ball and tossed it in the back. She watched its progress and realized there was at least three other footballs floating about.
"No, I coach high school ball."
"I thought they only let high school teachers coach ball."
"I'm a high school teacher."
"No way!" Nicki grinned. "The girls must love your class."
It was Matt's turn to blush. "I'm not allowed to notice."
The Explorer roared to life and they pulled away from the curb and onto the street, headed away from the bar district.
Nicki gave him the cross streets and they drove in silence, except for the sound of Beck coming from the car radio. When they reached the building that housed her condo Matt parked his the SUV and turned in his seat to face her. Nicki looked back, again from under her eyelashes. Her eyes were the color of coffee. Matt shifted in his seat, repositioning to accommodate the growing tightness under the zipper of his jeans.
"So..." he said.
Nicki nodded, as if agreeing. "So."
"Any chance you'd give me your phone number so we can continue our cliché of a relationship."
Nicki grinned wildly. "Relationship, huh?" she leaned in and brushed her lips against his. "You do move fast, don't you?"
At the touch of her lips against his Matt lost control and kissed her the way he'd wanted to kiss her the first time he saw her, throwing a tennis ball (badly) at a dog who retrieved it even worse. Each time she threw it again she had to wrestle it out of the skinny dog's mouth. She crouched down and, trying not to stare, he'd watched the muscles in slender legs become defined. Long legs and olive skin and a constant bemused-looking smile as she and the dog played.
The first time he'd seen her her hair had been wrapped up in a twist and he'd had no idea how long it really was. When he saw her again, a week later, it had spiraled down her back in curls that landed halfway between her shoulders and her ass. Thick, dark brown hair that looked as if it were black until the sun hit it and suddenly it was dark chocolate moving with her as she tossed the ball.
He kissed her fiercely, plundered her mouth with his tongue and ground as nails painted lavender dug themselves into his stomach. He wanted to push her hand down into his lap and did all he could to resist until she found it herself, sliding the butt of her palm down along his erection. Matt broke from the kiss and closed his eyes, leaning his head against the headrest as she pulled away and reached down to her feet and picked up her clutch handbag. She unsnapped it, pulled out a silver business card holder and slipped him a card before snapping it shut and handing the card to him.
