Playboy Pilot

“What’s that?”

“She said I’d have a family when I was ready to stop traveling all over the world searching for something and realized what I was looking for was already at home.” He continued looking straight into my eyes. Since the first time my gaze landed on Carter Clynes in that airp

ort lounge, my heart had been beating a million miles an hour. But in that moment, I felt it happen. My heart slowed, took a deep breath, and let out a giant sigh. Just like that, it gave in, unable to fight it anymore. I had no idea how long we had or how things were going to play out, but I knew without a doubt that I was in love with Carter.

THINGS LIGHTENED UP between us in the late afternoon. Carter went to check on Gordon and then when he came back, we had sex in the shower, followed by sex on the bedroom floor. I got the feeling that my ass print was going to be all over the man’s apartment by the time we left in a few days. Even though my body felt like I’d just taken a strenuous yoga class followed by running a marathon, Carter apparently was no worse for the wear.

“How about if we head over to the gym for an hour and then I take you out to a nice dinner tonight?”

I was lying on the bed with my head dangling upside down off the edge watching a rerun of That 70’s Show. “Seriously? You want to go exercise after all that sex?”

Carter chuckled, walked over to the bed, flipped me over, and swatted my ass hard. That seemed to be a thing for him. “Oww….” I rubbed at it.

“Come on, lazy. I still have a lot of energy to burn off. We don’t go to the gym, you won’t be able to walk for a month.”

We decided to walk to the fitness center, even though it was on the other side of the development. The lake from last night was on the way, and Carter wanted to see if his uniform pants turned up in the daylight.

“Where the heck could they have disappeared to?” I asked. Scouring the lake, there was no sign of his pants anywhere. It was the most bizarre thing.

“No idea.” Carter shrugged. “But I’m glad I’m due to pick up my annual replacements next month. I’ve lost half my uniforms over the last year.”

“Lost? Do you leave them behind at hotels when you’re traveling?”

“That’s the strange thing. I lose them at home. Last month, I could have sworn I had a hat at Bingo, but I couldn’t find it afterward. Think the forgetfulness of some of the residents is starting to rub off on me.”

I DECIDED TO GO ALL out for dinner. I slipped into a tight, little black dress and a pair of the tallest, sexiest high heel shoes I had with me. They were open-toed and had silk ribbons that wrapped half way up my calves. A good push-up bra gave me an abundance of faux cleavage that strained from the low V of my dress. Remembering how much Carter had liked the slutty look when I’d styled myself in Dubai, I blew my blonde hair with some extra body, lined my blue eyes with thick black and painted my lips blood red.

The extra effort paid off when I walked out of the bedroom.

“Jesus Christ.”

I circled. “You like?”

“You look like every wet dream I had growing up.”

“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or creepy.”

“It’s a compliment. Any boy or man would love to jerk off to you.” He winked, and I laughed.

Outside, Carter opened the door to his SUV and helped me inside. Before shutting the door, I said to him, “You know, I think you get away with saying anything you want just because you’re so good looking.”

“Is that so?”

“It is. I think you make people delusional with your looks and charm, and we start to think that things like ‘any boy or man would love to jerk off to you’ is normal.”

“It is normal. It’s only natural. Any man who doesn’t think of what you look like tonight as future whack off material is full of shit. I just tell it to you straight.”

I laughed. “Again. That sounded charming, but I’m pretty sure if someone else said it…totally creepy.”

Carter drove through the development slowly, although it’s not like he had much of a choice. There were a hell of a lot of speed bumps in his retirement community. As we made our way toward the front gate, we passed at least a half dozen couples power walking in tracksuits. They all waved, and Carter called a greeting out the window to each by name. I still couldn’t get over how entrenched he was in this retirement village.

The exit of the development was next to the clubhouse where Bingo had been held, and the parking lot was packed again. “What’s going on tonight?”

“Singles square dancing night.”

“Are you kidding me?”

Carter smiled and shook his head. “Nope. A lot of widows and widowers in the area so they try to mix things up a bit in activities.”