Page 48 of Lush Curves

“Sure as hell is, and it’s dying to be unwrapped.”

“I like presents.”

“Do you now?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So, how drunk are you, princess?”

She blinked at herself in the mirror, suddenly feeling like a teenager being caught out by her parents. “Uhhh… a bit?”

“Mojitos?”

“Mmm-hmmmm.”

“How many?”

“Uh – three? No, no… four.”

He laughed, and she heard the car door slam. “Maybe you want to go home tonight, baby? Sleep in your own bed unmolested?”

“Are you kidding me?” she said, grinning widely. “Molest me. Please.”

“Then get your tipsy ass into a cab when you’re ready to come and get your present.”

“OK.” She put on a spritz of perfume. “I was going to leave soon anyway because I have to be at work by eleven. I’ll leave in maybe an hour?”

“An hour is perfect, honey. I’ll eat and shower and lounge around in a towel waiting for you.”

“Justa towel?” she purred.

“And a big smile.”

**

Exactly ninety-nine minutes later, Annie paid the taxi driver and climbed out, carefully avoiding a massive puddle on Sam’s driveway. Spring was around the corner, and the snow was melting rapidly, leaving puddles the size of ponds all over Denver.

She walked up to the front door, raised her hand to knock, but it flew open before she could even touch the wood. She took one look, and was pleased to see that Sam was as good as his word.

“A towel, huh?” she teased him, stepping into the warmth of his arms.

“And a smile,” he responded, his breath on her hair, her cheek, her neck. “Nothing more.”

“Nothing?”

“Well…” He kissed her throat, slowly, softly. “Idohave something for you, honey.”

“Where is it?”

“Under the towel.”

“You don’t say.”

“Idosay.” Sam took her coat, then stepped back a bit to take her all in. “Wow, Annie. You look beautiful, baby.”

She looked down, suddenly shy and feeling like she might burst into tears. After talking to Sam, she’d gone back to the VIP area, of course, chatted with Sarah and the other women, and drunk about six glasses of water to sober up… and the whole time, she’d felt old, fat, and dowdy. The bathroom bitch was nowhere to be seen – Annie had presumed that she’d mounted her broom and flown away – but her words and her looks had burrowed under Annie’s skin, taken up space there, started to itch and fester.

The whole taxi ride over to Sam’s house, she’d been self-conscious and unsure, all over again, about being a much-older woman with a hot much-younger man, and she’d battled hard against feeling fat and wrinkly. And now that she was here, and now that she saw how he was looking at her – like she was the most stunning, incredible, wonderful woman that he’d ever laid eyes on – she was reassured. She kicked the bathroom bitch out of her head, made the decision to listen to Sam, to herself. Nobody else.

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