Page 14 of Entertaining Distraction
Patting his arm, Linda gave him a sympathetic smile. “I know it’s hard, and I’ll miss having her as a neighbor, but it’s for the best. I’ll be more than happy to visit her there, though. If you need help with anything, you let me know.”
“Thanks, Linda. Jake and I really appreciate all you’ve done for Mom.”
“She’s a wonderful woman. I love spending time with her.”
Returning to the living room, Mike gave his mother another kiss on the cheek and said goodbye to both women. Ten minutes later, he pulled into his condo complex. During the drive over, he’d called Jake and filled him in on what Linda had told him. Once that was done, he was able to put his mother out of his mind for a bit and think about Charlotte and their ... date? Mike wasn’t sure if that was the word for it. It wasn’t exactly a date, and meeting was too professional sounding. Rendezvous? Tryst? Whatever it was, he was certainly looking forward to it.
After taking a shower, he dressed in a gray polo shirt and a new pair of jeans. Sitting in the recliner in front of his wide-screen TV, he reread the research he’d done for the “homework” Charlotte had given him. When his mother had asked about school earlier, the sexy Domme had flashed in his mind. She’d been wearing all black—a leather skirt, lacy bra, and thigh-high boots while cracking a whip. Not an image he wanted to be salivating over while standing in front of the woman who’d given birth to him.
Once he was pretty sure he remembered everything, he folded the piece of paper with his notes on it and stuffed it into his back pocket—just in case he forgot something. Grabbing his keys, wallet, phone, and almost completed limit list, he headed out the door. Using the GPS in his truck’s dash, it didn’t take him long to reach Charlotte’s house.
At the back of a quiet cul-de-sac, her small, one-floor ranch sat on a lot that was about three quarters of an acre. A fence enclosed the backyard, and two lines of trees created a barrier between her property and the neighbors on either side. There were no vehicles in the driveway or in the street directly in front of the house, and he assumed she parked the SUV he knew she drove in the garage. Glancing at his truck’s radio, he noted the time. He was six minutes early. Parking in the street, he turned off the ignition and took a deep breath. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been nervous about being with a woman—not since he’d been a teenager, a very long time ago. But that nervousness wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, he was semi-hard just thinking about seeing her again, not to mention finding out what she had planned for him tonight.
Climbing out of the car, he strode up the driveway. The sky to the west behind the house was filled with slashes of reds, oranges, and yellows as the sun prepared to set. It looked like a painter had used the horizon as his latest canvas.
Mike’s heart pounded in his chest as he raised his hand and rang the doorbell. In the silence around him he heard the clicking of heels on tile on the other side of the door—they were slow and methodical, and he imagined Charlotte sashaying seductively down a hallway. The door was unlocked and then opened. As he seemed to be prone to doing whenever he was in the vicinity of this woman as of late, Mike almost choked on his tongue. Charlotte was dressed in a black, skin-tight cat suit that hugged every curve of her delectable body. A zipper on her chest was lowered to give him a very enticing view of her cleavage. The black, thigh-high boots he’d imagined earlier covered her legs. Her shiny black hair hung straight down below her shoulders and subtle makeup enhanced her facial features. She really was a stunning woman, and for the first time since all this started Mike wondered what the hell she saw in him. He wasn’t anything special to look at—not that he was ugly. He’d had his fair share of women flirt with him, but with Charlotte, he couldn’t help but feel she was way out of his league.
“Hello, Michael,” she purred. “Welcome to my home. Please, come in.”
Swallowing hard, he stepped inside before she closed the door behind him. His gaze darted around the place Charlotte owned and lived in. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but the comfortable, earth-toned decor hadn’t been it. When she passed by him and walked down the hall toward the kitchen, the sway of her hips demanded all his attention as he followed. While he was still on edge, his lust for this woman was quickly taking over his body. Never in his adult life had he wanted to beg a woman for anything but, with Charlotte, begging was something he was now looking forward to.
