The F-Word

She gets even closer to me. I feel her hands in the hair at the nape of my neck.

I’ve managed to control my body. Until now. But the feel of her breasts against me, her thighs…

The inevitable happens.

My erection rises hot and hard against her.

“Hell,” I murmur. “Bailey. Honey, I’m sorry…”

She leans back in my arms. You know that thing they say? About a woman’s eyes filling with stars? Turns out it isn’t just a line. It’s true. I can see starlight and moonlight and all the promises a man could ever want glittering in her beautiful eyes.

And she moves against me. Delicately. But deliberately. She moves, and I grit my teeth to keep from lifting her in my arms and carrying her into the waiting shadows.

“Bailey.” My voice is low. A warning growl. “Bailey,” I say again, and she silences me by rising on her toes and pressing her lips to mine.

Then she clasps my face between her hands.

“Matthew,” she whispers. “Please. Take me to bed.”

15

We slip away without saying anything to anyone.

There’s a door in that dark hallway and we use it. It leads to the parking lot and, dammit, where’s the kid who parked my car?

I am holding Bailey tight against me. My hand is splayed over her hip and I can feel the heat of her skin right through her sexy blue dress.

There he is. The kid in the white jacket who parked my car.

“Hey,” I say, and he jumps a little. I don’t think he’s accustomed to the restaurant patrons appearing at this end of the lot.

“Yessir?”

I fumble in my jacket pocket, find the little plastic card he gave me and hand it over. “The Corvette.”

“Yessir. I remember. I parked it way in the back, where it would be safe.”

Right now, nothing is safe. Bailey is burrowing against me. I need to get us away from here. Fast.

I hand the kid a fifty. “Get the car to me in less than two minutes and I’ll double that,” I say.

He looks from me to Bailey and then to me again.

“Yessir!”

He trots off. Maybe sixty seconds later, the ’Vette roars up to where we’re standing. The kid gets out; I fork over the other fifty. He looks at it and gives me a goofy grin.

“Hey, thanks, man…”

We are in the car and gone.

I reach for Bailey’s hand. It’s cool. Her fingers are shaking. I bring her hand to my mouth and kiss it. Then we clasp the gear shifter together and I step hard on the gas.

It took us twenty minutes to get here.

It takes us ten to get back.

A fast trip…but long enough for a faint glint of sanity to pierce my brain.