Deacon laughed, then reached down to grab hold of her hand as if it was a natural occurrence, as if they were any old couple, and this was any Saturday. Sara squeezed his hand slightly, smiling.
Deacon tugged her back toward the bookstore, a relaxed smile on his face.
“To the bookstore,” he confirmed.
Walking in amiable silence, they made their way in and out of the bookstore with no incidents of sexual harassment. Deacon found what Sara considered to be an exorbitant amount of scrapbooking materials and was toting a large bag as they wandered back toward the Japanese Village Plaza. All other objectives complete, they decided that listening to some terrible karaoke was next on the agenda.
They sat for about an hour on the edge of the stone fountain, Deacon’s arm wrapped around her waist, her hand on his leg, talking and listening to what may have been the worst renditions of classic rock in the history of time.
The sun was starting to set by this time, and Sara finally said, “I’ve got some errands I need to run today. I’ve been lazy for much longer than I intended.”
Deacon agreed, “Yeah. I was gonna grocery shop and try one of those recipes you sent me. I want to make sure I can actually get it right.”
Sara felt a slight pang in her chest. God he was freaking sweet.
Smiling, Sara said, “I think you’ll be fine. If you run into any snags, call me. I can walk you through them.”
Deacon’s eyes narrowed, “Better yet. Could I bribe you to possibly supervise the process on the day of the party? I don’t want you to do the work really, but would you help me?”
“I’m open to bribery. What exactly did you have in mind?”
“A favor to be determined in the future?” Deacon smiled questioningly.
“Ooh. A blank check, basically. Nice. I’ll take it. It was…” Taking a moment, Sara thought back to the calendar. “…the fourteenth, right?”
“Yep. I thought we’d eat about 7:00 p.m., so with what recipes you sent, what time should I start working on it?”
“Probably 4:00 p.m. I’ll come over about 3:30 p.m. and we can start. I’ll just sneak ou—”
“No no no. You’d be a guest, too. I’m not gonna sneak you out the back before my guests arrive and pretend I did it all myself.”
Snorting, he said, “Nobody would believe me anyway.”Sara’s lips twitched as she nodded and said, “Okay. I’m parked that way, so I’ll see you next week?”
With a slight frown, he asked, “Parked where? The garage?”
“No, the parking lot across from Weller Court.”
“Let me walk you, then. I don’t think that lot is guarded at night and it’s getting dark.”
Falling into step, he took her hand again and they walked silently toward the lot. Upon reaching her car, Sara turned to face him and said, “This was fun. We should do it again. But, you know, on purpose.”
He placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a gentle tug to bring her body flush against his. Very much in each other’s personal space at this point, Sara was pretty sure she knew what was coming next. She looked up at him now, and saw his gaze shift from her eyes to her mouth.
He leaned down and brushed his lips lightly over hers. The kiss was gentle, even hesitant at first. As if he was asking her, “Is this okay?”
After he leaned back slightly, Sara swayed forward slightly, not ready to break the contact. She slid her arms around his neck and locked her hands.
He leaned forward to kiss her again, this time tracing the seam of her lips with his tongue. Parting her lips to allow him entrance, Sara gave a slight sigh. His hands came up to cup her face, then slid into the hair she had loosely clipped at the back of her head. The kiss was slow and sweet, with just a hint of urgency.
At one point, Deacon pulled back slightly from the kiss, and nibbled on Sara’s lower lip. He mumbled roughly, “This pouty lower lip of yours has been driving me nuts. I’ve been wanting to bite it for days.”
Sara moaned softly, completely aroused by the combination of his rough voice and his teeth on her lips. They stood outside Sara’s car kissing, wrapped up in each other for another fifteen minutes or so before they finally broke apart, both of them panting slightly.
Pulling her close, he rested his chin on top of her head and tightened his hold on her.
Returning his embrace, she finally said, “Wow.”
Laughing, he said, “Jesus. That was even better than I remembered.”