Fan Girl (19 page)

“I need to feed you some food.”

I nod. Things are going too fast… or not fast enough, I don’t know. My head and the rest of my body are in a battle right now.

I unlock my ankles from around him, and he takes a deep breath through his nose before pushing the hair back from my face. “Have I told you you’re beautiful?”

I shake my head no slowly. He leans down and rubs his nose with mine as he whispers, “You’re so beautiful, you make my heart hurt.”

I close my eyes for a second and absorb this moment.

He steps back and looks down to the noticeable bulge in his jeans and says wryly, “Among other things.”

I give a shaky laugh. “Do you want me to do anything?” I ask.

“No just sit there and be pretty while I do this.”

He grabs covered dishes out of the fridge and cuts a lemon over asparagus. Next is salt and pepper, then he holds out a hand to me. “Hop down and we’ll go out on the deck where it’s not so offensive.”

When we gets outside, I can see why he stayed here so long. You can see the city down below with twinkling lights, and beyond that the ocean. “It’s beautiful,” I say as he heads over to a grill that is made for a man’s man. It’s big and chrome, that’s all I know. There’s a table and chairs set up beside it, and I take a seat. The table is already set. He grabs a pitcher of tea beside the table and pours a glass for me.

I smile and say, “Thank you.”  I sip my tea and watch him cook in his tight black t-shirt and blue jeans.

“So what did you do today?” I ask, as he uncovers a dish and sets two steaks on the grill.

He looks over his shoulder and shrugs. Looking back at the steaks, he says, “I wrote for a little while, talked to the realtor, looked at some listings online.”

“Did you find anything?” He turns back around and sits in the chair next to me. “Some. I don’t really know what I’m looking for yet. I’ll know it when I see it.”

I nod. “Stacie was saying I need to get a designer to redo my office into a nursery. I hadn’t even thought of that.”

“And a new car. Do you know what you want?”

I shrug. “I love my car.”

He points out, “Yeah but you can’t fit a car seat in there. I’m pretty sure there’s a law saying they have to go in the back.”

This is true. “I don’t know, does Porsche make an SUV?” I’ve never had cause to look at one.

He laughs. “Yeah baby, they sure do. A nice one.”

“Sold,” I say smiling.

“What did the doctor say?” he asks quietly.

“I have an appointment at nine Monday morning. I don’t know what’s involved, except another ultrasound. I also ordered some books online.”

He rubs his thumb over my knuckles. “Good. You’ll be up to speed in no time.”

“I told everyone at work, and they were shocked, but excited I think. Stacie definitely is. Now.”

He looks over at me and studies my face. “Maybe you aren’t now, but you will be too.” I feel my own face go soft and squeeze his hand. “I know. It just seems like it’s all hypothetical right now.”

He nods again. “I get that.”

The steaks are great and the view in front of me is inspiring. The conversation flows like we’ve been having dinner together forever. Quiet moments when no words are needed, and we’re comfortable with each other.

After dinner, we do the dishes and I look around his living room with the purple lipstick couch and squiggly line chairs. “I don’t even know where to sit in here.”

He smiles self-deprecatingly. “Don’t. Let’s go back outside.”

There’s a hammock right off of the patio and he climbs in, then helps me get on without tipping us both. It’s nice to lay in his strong arms. It feels like my life isn’t spiraling out of my control if I can just hold onto him. He plays with my hair and then lifts his head to kiss my forehead. I look up at him, giving him access that he takes full advantage of. He kisses my eyes, nose, cheekbones, and finally my mouth very slowly. I turn more fully on my stomach so that we’re almost chest to chest and kiss him back.

His hands go to my ass and pull me up even more so that my face is above his. We make out for a while, tongues tangling as hands roam. Before long we’re both panting and moving against each other. He pulls his head back and slides his hands through my hair pulling it away from my face. “It’s getting late. You have to work tomorrow.”

I know he’s right, but I just want to stay here forever. I nod reluctantly and pull away.

He helps me get out of the hammock before walking in the house and out to my car. I get another smoldering kiss goodnight before he hugs me close with his nose in my neck. “Gotta get my fix to last me. Can we do dinner tomorrow?”

“Absolutely, my house this time. At least we can sit in my living room. There might even be a ball game on or something.”

He smiles. “Sounds perfect. Night.”

I drive down the hill in a dream.

Chapter 19

The next night I get home to find Deklan leaning against his white Camaro waiting for me. “Am I late?” I ask. I just texted him twenty minutes ago saying I was on my way.

He shakes his head and pulls me by the hips toward him. “No I just couldn’t wait.” He plants a long hot kiss on me before pulling away leaving me breathless.

I blink hard and get my mind in gear. “I have bags in the car I need to grab.”

He walks past me to my car, and gets the grocery bags out of the passenger seat before waving me to the front door. As we get to my doorstep there are several packages on the steps. “Looks like I got my stuff.”

“Cool, we can read with dinner.”

I lead the way in the house, turning off the alarm on the way to the kitchen. My kitchen is long with a long island that is completely open to the living room, where I have the long micro-suede sectional and big screen television.

Deklan looks around. “Oh yeah, we’re coming to your house from now on. I could live on this couch.”

I laugh and say, “You should see my bed.” He turns his molten eyes to me and looks deep in mine. “I will, one day.”

Well, I walked into that one. I turn to distract myself and unpack the groceries I bought. I set the hamburger meat to cooking and turn to Deklan who is sitting at the island. “I’m going to change. My feet are killing me in these heels.”

‘‘Yeah, no problem. I’ll watch the meat.”

I go into my bedroom and change into a black camisole and black yoga pants. Walking back into the living area my eyes land on Deklan’s ass as he stirs the meat.
So. Hot.
I walk up and take over the spatula as his eyes scan my body.

“I knew I loved yoga,” he says in a deep voice.

I look over my shoulder and smile. “Oh, like you didn’t notice all of those hot chicks in your class,” I say jokingly.

He shrugs his shoulder and leans his hips against the counter by the stove. “I just had an instructor that pushed and pulled me the whole time, and not in a good way. I never thought of her that way. I thought she was trying to kill me. Now I do it all myself.”

I look at him and try my hand at flirting. “You can be my instructor any time.”

He lifts his eyebrows, “Baby, our yoga session would last about five minutes, you can believe that.” The sexual tension has been growing between us.
Has it been that many dates yet? Counting dancing and dinners, we have to be on at least three dates, right? Does it count if there’s one every day? Too soon?
I don’t know, but I’m dying.

Deklan clears his throat. “So what are we having for dinner?”

“Shepherd’s pie,” I answer.

He gets a hungry look again, but this time I think it’s for the food. He wraps his arms around my waist from behind and says, “I knew I liked you for a reason.”

Changing the subject I suggest, “Why don’t you see what you can find on the television?”

He walks over and, just like a man, is instantly familiar with my remote. They’re two long lost friends, by the way it does exactly what he wants. A basketball game is going as he takes a knife to my boxes I got earlier.

“You don’t have to do that.”

He shrugs and pulls out the juicer, sets it up, then moves on to the other boxes. I’m cooking down onions and garlic as he takes the three books and settles in front of the television. I, of course, notice he looks good there on my couch.

I put everything together and into the oven, then grab two glasses of tea to sit with him. He’s reading and flipping through a
What to Expect
book.

He holds out the book for a second, then goes back to reading, saying, “It says here the baby is four to five inches long, can hear you, and anything goes sex wise.”

I laugh. “Just hitting the high notes, huh?”

He chuckles. “Well those are the important parts. Everything else is how it looks like an alien right now.”

I laugh. He sets the book aside and I ask, “Who’s playing?”

He replies, “Lakers, doesn’t matter who else. Have you been to a game?”

I shake my head. “Not my sport. I love football, though.”

“I could get us tickets,” he offers, then shrugs his shoulders. “But then there would be pictures of us at the game everywhere.”

I slap his arm and sit up. “Hey! I forgot to yell at you for posting that picture of me getting on the plane!”

“You could forget some more?” he suggests. Then seeing my glaring eyes, he rolls his eyes. “It’s not a big deal. How many people know what your carry-on looks like?”

“Only my whole staff! We went to Nordstrom’s on Black Friday last year!” I inform him.

He mutters, “Of course you did. Well, you weren’t going to keep me your dirty little secret forever, were you?”

“There’s nothing dirty about this secret,” I say without thinking.

He lunges, knocking me down on the couch to my back. Close to my face in a deadly serious tone he says, “I can make it dirty real fast for you.”

I stutter out a breath. “Dinner might burn.” It’s the only thing I can think of wrong with that suggestion.

He sits back up, muttering, “Later, then.” Ohhhh boy, I can’t wait ‘til later.

Deklan winds up eating three helpings in front of the television, watching the Laker’s smoke whoever they’re playing. I never found out.

We end up snuggling on the couch, my front to his side, head on his shoulder. I soak it in. This is the perfect moment. Right now he’s not Deklan Thomas the rock star, he’s Deklan the guy, holding a girl, relaxing at the end of the day.

I doze off and wake up to the television off and fingers stroking over my face. I can feel the calluses from playing guitar, and I want to butt my head against him like a cat. “Hey baby, you should go to bed. I’ll head out.”

I think he’s offering to be good, but I do have another full day tomorrow, and a glance at the clock shows it’s coming up on midnight. I know he probably should go, so I say, “Alright, what are you doing tomorrow?”

Deklan answers, “Playing golf in the morning, then I need to write. I’m getting together with the guys next week to see what we’ve got.”

“Okay, do you have plans for dinner tomorrow or do you want to spend it alone?” So I’m kind of fishing but he’s the one always suggesting we see each other, and I don’t want it to be one sided.

He looks relieved, “No plans, don’t want to be alone. Want me to meet you here, same time?”

I smile, relieved too. “Yeah sounds perfect.”

He leans his head down to mine and gives one hell of a kiss before whispering in my mouth, “Perfect.”

Chapter 20

The week passes in the same way. Deklan comes to my house for dinner after work, and I usually fall asleep sprawled over him watching television. There’s more making out, some second base action, but nothing below the belt. Sadly.

Sunday comes, and somehow Deklan talks me into going golfing with him. I do not golf. I may play some touch football every once in a while when the girls want to get together with another shop and smoke the guys, but golf isn’t my thing.

I find a white three-quarter sleeve, button-down shirt and tuck it into tangerine shorts that are pretty short with a brown skinny belt. I put my hair into a ponytail with a pouf and a pair of tan loafers with leopard print on the sides that I thought were cute, but have never worn. A pair of brown aviator sunglasses completes the look just as Deklan knocks on the door.

I open and hold my gut laughing.

He’s in a navy polo shirt, with bright red, tan, and white diamond pattern pants. He looks down with a grin. “What? This is golf fashion. Ali?”

I wipe a tear from my eye and say, “I have to have a picture, give me your phone.”

He hands it over seconds later, and I snap a picture of his badass self in those ridiculous pants.

When I hand the phone over he pulls me to him and gives me a kiss saying, “You do good things for those shorts.”

“Well, thank goodness this will pass. I don’t own golf clothes,” I say scathingly.

He laughs. “What no neon orange skort or visor?”

I gasp, jokingly offended, and he laughs more.

Turns out it’s a good thing I don’t know anything about golf, because that gave Deklan a reason to wrap his arms around to teach me. I see what he means about yoga now. I’m ready to drive our cart into the bushes and have my way with him.

After I thoroughly suck and lose too many balls into said bushes, we finish the game and have lunch on the terrace of the country club.

“So how was your first golf lesson?” he asks.

I shrug flippantly. “You can instruct me anytime, Mr. Thomas.”

His eyes go instantly hot. “I’m pretty sure I can teach you a few things you might find more enjoyable.”

Well I walked into that one, again.
What now?
“I’m already pregnant Dek, I think that speaks for itself.”

He leans into me and says quietly in the crowded lunch crowd, “That doesn’t mean dick. Give me five minutes, and I’ll prove it.”

I’m already breathing hard, and I don’t doubt him for a second. I look around for a shady spot, and he laughs.