“Like I said, the best.” Benny winks at me as he finishes Hercules’s hot dog.
Someone calls Benny’s name from down the block and asks him not to roll away.
“You almost missed me!” Benny shouts and then starts making another hot dog. He’s a man who definitely knows his customers.
Hercules says goodbye to the jovial hot dog vendor with the extra-loud voice and personality as he guides me away with an arm around my back. I bet Hercules doesn’t realize how touchy-feely he is.
“She’s a keeper,” Benny calls.
Smiling, Hercules stops in his tracks, and so do I. “How do you know that? You said she didn’t talk.”
“She’s eating the hot dog right in front of me. Look at her go. She’s a keeper!”
I chuckle after I take another bite. It tastes so good.
“You’re not telling me something I don’t already know.” Hercules puts his hand on my back as we start walking again.
“That was interesting,” I say as we reenter the private park.
“Yeah, he’s a good guy.”
“I gathered that.”
When we smile at each other, I feel as if I’ve been looking at Hercules’s face every day since I was born. We sit down on a wooden bench. Our thighs touch, and so do our shoulders. I look up at the walls of the building surrounding the park.
“Can anyone see us?” I ask.
“No. All the windows overlooking the park have been blocked because this space is private.” His panty-melting smirk makes a return. “I can literally do what I want to you, and no one will see.”
I’m breathing heavily. “What do you want to do to me?”I can’t believe I asked that.
He extends an arm behind me. Our noses nearly touch. “What do you think?”
Hercules’s lips claim mine, and my body trembles as we engage in a molten-hot kiss. He tastes like hot dog and honey. I want to devour him, especially after he softly rakes my bottom lip between his teeth and then slides his tongue across it. My mind twirls like a ballerina until his mouth liberates mine.
“You’re such a sensual kisser, Lark,” he says.
I open my eyes, hating that he’s referring to me by that name. I sigh as I sit up straight. “Thanks. You are too.”
The crotch of my silken panties is soaked. My sex feels tickly, but instead of taking off my pants and undoing his before separating my thighs to sit on his hardness, I take another bite of hot dog. We’ve already banged on the elevator. Going from an elevator directly to a park bench in the middle of the day seems so wrong, so unromantic.
“Benny’s not lying when he says he makes the best hot dogs in the city,” I say, purposely changing the subject. “But it’s not like I have a lot of experience with hot dogs. My mom never let me eat them.”
His gaze probes my face, and then he shifts abruptly in his seat. “Withholding hot dogs? That’s pretty cruel.”
I chuckle, knowing he’s joking. “You’re telling me.”
“By the way, I’ve been wanting to ask you something.”
I stop myself from taking another bite and raise my eyebrows, signaling that I’m ready to hear whatever he has to say.
“Do you really not have a boyfriend? I find it unbelievable that a woman who looks and thinks like you doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
I can’t help but snicker. “Are you really asking me this after what we did in the elevator?” I tilt my head to the side. “Doyouhave a girlfriend?”
His penetrating gaze makes me feel floaty. “I don’t.”
Oh God.My exhalation flutters.Please kiss me again. Please, oh please.