Truly (New York 1)

“Trust me,” he said.

Well, that got right to the heart of the matter, didn’t it?

Remembering the way he’d pushed her to the outside of the street, away from danger, she decided he deserved at least this small gesture of trust.

She opened her mouth. Steak juice ran over Ben’s fingers as he pushed the taco onto her tongue. She closed her lips and chewed.

The steak tasted different now—its grilled charcoal overtone perfectly balanced against the sweet caramelized mush of the onions and the creamy citrus taste of fresh guacamole. Mellow and satisfying, with the pop and crunch of chopped jalapeño making the whole thing lively and interesting, hotter than she’d been prepared for.

“Ogh muh gaad,” she said. It was the best thing she’d ever eaten. The best taco in the history of tacos.

Or maybe she was just hungrier than she’d thought.

“Good, huh?”

May nodded, eyes wide, and reached for her taco. Ben handed it over, another one of those almost-smiles flirting with the corner of his mouth.

So almost-attractive, when he almost-smiled. But it was hard for her to focus on whether that meant anything, because on the next bite she had to close her eyes to keep from moaning. It was so good.

So good that she wanted to savor it alone, without interruptions, forever. So good that it brought tears to her eyes. She kept them closed, not wanting Ben to see.

“Told you.”

May had nothing to say to that. She was too busy devouring her tacos. She kept eating until she’d plowed through all three, and then she stared wistfully at Ben’s fifth, which lay unclaimed on its plate. Beckoning to her.

The sight of that fifth taco filled her with a lust far greater than anything she’d felt for Dan in a very long time.

May lifted her glass to her lips and drank a sip of water, trying to be cool while simultaneously mourning all the steak tacos she would never get to eat.

When she raised her eyes, Ben was watching her intently.

“What?” she asked.

But of course she knew what. She’d just practically had sex with a tray full of tacos, and now the postcoital embarrassment set in. He saw me naked! With tacos!

“I was hungry,” she said sheepishly.

“You love food.”

She could hardly deny it now, not after what he’d witnessed. But she wasn’t supposed to love it this much. Not in public, not with people watching, and certainly not in front of Ben.

She had been a chubby adolescent, taller and chunkier than the other girls. Not the easiest thing to be, especially in comparison to her whippet of a little sister. But by her freshman year in college, May had figured a few things out. For starters, if she stayed competitive on the swim team or took long walks a few days a week in the off-season, she could eat pretty much what she liked and maintain the same weight. She was built like her father, so she would never be shopping in the petite section of department stores. But intellectually, May came to a place where she could understand that there was nothing really wrong with her body. It was exactly the size it was supposed to be. And while the size it was supposed to be was a good thirty percent larger than the average woman’s, well, normal was a mirage anyway.

Even so, it had been such a relief to start dating Dan.

Here was a guy who had three inches and sixty pounds on her, with biceps that bulged even beneath a sport coat. He was huge, and his friends were all giants who made her feel downright small.

In bed and out, Dan had cast a shadow over her. Covered her. And she’d liked it, because Dan’s shadow kept the constant attention off her plate. For once she could eat a second serving of mashed potatoes at a family dinner without feeling like she was bathed in red neon light, shameful and exposed.

Now that she’d left Dan, was she really going to return to the days of constantly hearing her mother in her head telling her to put that cheese back in the fridge and eat some frozen grapes?

She’d never wanted to eat the stupid grapes. Who picked grapes over cheese?

Not her. Not if she could help it.

“It’s true,” she confirmed. “I love food.”

“Have the last taco.”