I started to get out of the jaguar and open the door for her, but by the time I was halfway out, she was already sliding onto the passenger seat.
“Hi,” she said, with that trademark smile of hers that I’d come to love. I realized then and there that I would probably do anything to see that smile. So far, she had made that easy. Erin wasn’t looking for money or a family name that would take her to the top of the high society crowd. She seemed to be happy just being with me and although that was a new feeling, I was quickly becoming accustomed to it.
“Good morning. Look at you. You look like a tennis professional.”
She laughed. “I haven’t played tennis since I was in middle school.”
“Why?”
She shrugged and I knew she was going to leave it at that. Her background seemed so strange to me sometimes. It was like she had a life of privilege where she rode horses and played tennis and attended grand parties and once she was grown, she had literally done nothing except work towards her future. I respected that greatly, but as a child of privilege myself, I found it odd.
“I just haven’t had the time. I was too busy working towards my degree, and then just plain working.”
“Hmm,” I said.
“Hmm, what?”
“Have you had any fun at all over the last ten years?”
She looked at me with a look that left me smoldering and said, “I’ve had lots of it in the past two months.”
For the time being, that answer was good enough. The conversation turned to light discussions of the agenda for tomorrow morning’s executive meeting and as we turned onto the tree lined street that led up to the Country Club my family had belonged to for ages, I basked in the simple comfort that spending time with her gave me.
When we got out of the car at the club Erin’s green eyes filled with joy as she looked out across the gardens. They were filled with blood red roses and lavender lilies. The fragrance from them wafted across the parking lot and I just stood there for a few minutes watching her breathe it in. I walked around and when she saw me her attention was refocused. “This place is beautiful,” she said.
I took her hands in mine and looked into her dark jade green eyes and said, “Not as beautiful as you.”
She smiled, “You probably say that to all the girls.”
I leaned in so that I was so close to her ear that when my mouth moved, my lips brushed up against it and I said, “Not anymore. I’ve finally found the only one I want to say it to.” I felt her shiver and when I looked at her face; her eyes were wide like she didn’t believe what I had just said. I knew that she thought I was a player and when she first met me that was true. Something about knowing Erin had changed me. I didn’t want to be that man any longer. I wanted to be a better one. I wanted to be the only man that she wanted.
“So, are we going to play tennis, or what?” Erin said, in a little shaky voice.
I smiled, “Of course. We can’t have that crisp, white… and if you don’t mind me saying, incredibly sexy, tennis dress going to waste.”
“No we can’t,” she said. She flipped that long red hair that drove me mad over her shoulder and turned to walk towards the entrance of the club. I had done my best once I realized she was different from most of the women I knew to hide the pervert that dwelled at my core. But with that sexy little flip and the V-neck, starch white dress that accentuated every one of her delightful curves… It was on the verge of being unleashed.
ERIN
I could feel Seth’s eyes on me as I pranced along in front of him on the way into the club. He brought out a playful side of me that I had all but forgotten and I loved it. When we reached the door I felt him reach around me to open it. “You look so damned hot, I almost forgot my manners,” he said. I shivered for the second time that morning. The feel of his warm breath against my neck was sending signals to just about every part of my body. In a playful voice I said, “Is there any chance you’ll be distracted enough not to notice how rusty my game is when we get out on the courts?”
He laughed and said, “At the very least I’ll be polite and pretend not to notice.”
“Thanks,” I said with a grin. He took me into the pro shop where I thought he was going to rent or borrow a racquet for me since I’d told him I didn’t have one. Instead, five hundred dollars later he’d bought me a top of the line one and two cans of tennis balls.
We went out to the clay courts and took our places on opposite sides of the net. “We’ll just warm up,” he said. Then I watched as he bounced a ball in front of him and his sexy biceps flexed against the cotton material of the polo shirt he was wearing as he pulled back his tennis racquet and let it fly. I let it fly too… right past me. He laughed hard and said, “I forgot to tell you that you’re supposed to hit it back.” I stuck my tongue out at him.