Page 85 of Indiscretion

“I didn’t go to my prom.”

“Remember that girl I told you about who made fun of my knockoff Uggs?”

“Emily, right?”

“She was our prom queen.”

“I would’ve voted for you.”

She smiled. “Did you play sports?”

“All of them. Football, basketball, and baseball.”

“Were you the captain of them all?”

“Only of the football team, at least until I got kicked off.”

“What did you get kicked off for?”

“Fighting.”

“Who did you get into a fight with?”

“Who didn’t I? I went through a rough patch my senior year and didn’t know how to channel my anger. Ben actually got me into boxing, which helped.”

“Ben boxed? I can’t imagine him boxing.”

I smiled, thinking back. “He took one lesson. First time the kid he was sparring with landed a light punch, he quit. But he only signed up to get me to try it. He was always looking out for me like that. I’m sure he read some book on different ways to channel anger.”

A few minutes later, the waiter brought the check. After I paid the bill, we walked out of the restaurant hand in hand. I wasn’t generally a hand holder, but I’d take any opportunity to touch this woman.

Once we hit the sidewalk, it felt like we’d arrived at the moment of truth.

“Thank you for dinner,” Naomi said. “I had a really good time tonight.”

“Me too.” I caught her eye. “I don’t want it to end yet.”

She gnawed on that lip she’d been nibbling on all evening before speaking again. “The kids will be sleeping, and I wouldn’t want to wake them, but…we could go back to your place?”

I was going to ask, but her suggesting it wassomuch better. I grinned. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”

Naomi laughed. “You can work the wordfuckinto anything.”

I brushed hair from her shoulder, then kissed the skin between the thin strap of her dress and her neck. She shivered. “It’s my favorite word. Coincidentally, also my favorite sport.”

“I’m not sure fucking qualifies as a sport.”

I rubbed my nose against hers. “You won’t be saying that tomorrow morning...”

Chapter 23

DAWSON

The car was quiet on the drive to my place, and I wondered if Naomi was having second thoughts about spending the night.

Even though I’d acted confident about what was going to happen once we got to my apartment, the ball was totally in her court. Naomi was a woman worth waiting for. So if all she wanted was to talk some more, have a drink, and maybe make out a little, I was going to have to find a way to control myself. Even if I wanted her more than a starving dog in a room with a raw steak.

Maybe that wasn’t the best analogy, considering she was vegan, but that was exactly the way she made me feel. And it didn’t even have anything to do with me being in the longest dry spell of my life. No, my hunger for Naomi Heart had less to do with satisfying my own needs and everything to do with my desire to satisfy her. I wanted to make her eyes roll back in her head, make her moan in ecstasy, make herwant meas much as I wanted her.

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