I was fighting the urge to participate in the kiss. My tongue was too fluid to be rigid and stiff. I was lured into kissing him back. My brain was confused and my heart was beating out of my chest. My head wouldn’t lean out of it because it was so damn good, tender, sweet, filled with passion, packed with lust.
Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!
God, please make him let me go!
My shoulders were limp. I could feel heat pooling between my legs. Finally, he released me. I slowly opened my eyes and he was sitting there staring at me.
I think he wanted me to say something. I couldn’t slap him. That would’ve been a lie. I let it happen and made zero effort to stop it. My dumb ass participated in it. But I had to say something.
All I had was, “What was that?”
“One of my talents.”
“Huh?”
“I’m a really good kisser.”
“Oh.”
Silence, silence and more silence.
“You need to go to bed early because you have to open the shop alone tomorrow.”
“Yes, it's Sunday tomorrow,” I whispered.
“And you make me take at least one day off every week.”
“I do.”
He was acting normal. Just like he hadn’t kissed me into submission, heated my core and confused the hell out of me. He had crossed all the damn lines but he seemed cool.
“Do you need me to ring you to make sure you’re up?”
“No, I’ll just set my alarm.”
Jason reached behind him and grabbed my laptop off the top of the guitar. He handed it over to me.
“Don’t stay out here too long. Don’t forget to turn off the fire pit.”
Was a twenty-year-old really telling me what to do? It sure appeared that way.
“I think I can handle it.”
“I’m going to put this away.” He looked back at the guitar. “And be on my way.”
“Okay.”
I watched him stand and grab the guitar off the table. He walked inside the back door. My eyes only followed him when I knew he had his back to me. Jason’s body was a work of art. I didn’t want to think about it. I opened my laptop and pretended to look at the screen. He wasn’t inside for long. He walked out the back door and walked over to me. I looked at his giant stature. He had a real grown man’s body.
“I’m going to head out.”
“Okay.”
“See ya on Monday.”
“Okay.”
Jason bent to kiss my forehead. “Goodnight.”
I just sat there and let that kiss happen also. I didn’t know what to do because I wasn’t ready for what was happening. What was happening?
He walked to the back of the yard. He rolled his bike out of the wooden gate door. He was gone. I slammed my laptop screen down. I hopped off the couch and turned the nob on the fire pit.
This night was inexplicable, the guitar serenade and the surprise intimate kiss. I didn’t know what to make of it. I did know it could never happen again. No matter how good that one kiss felt it was wrong on so many levels. No man had kissed me in over a year and that’s probably why I let it happen.
Probably.
Chapter 7
KATRINA
I had quite a few customers come inside the store on Sunday. I handled them quite well while alone. I had to admit things felt different without Jason. I noticed the young girls didn’t come into the store at all. I guess they had figured out what day Jason didn’t come into work. I wouldn’t have noticed the lack of pre-teen groupies if I didn’t have Jason on my mind. There were no shipments on Sunday so I didn’t have to lift any heavy boxes. I let Jason pick his off day. I wondered if he picked Sunday on purpose because of that reason. I didn’t think he took Sunday off to go to church.
Last night I tossed and turned thinking about him. I felt so ashamed that I’d had a dream about a young man old enough to be my son. My daughter was older than him and that just made everything feel wrong. I wasn’t a cougar. I didn’t have any desire to be one. In due time, the dreams about this young man would stop and I could just go back to normal.
I needed to go out on a date with a man my age. What occurred yesterday was probably a sign that I should get back into the dating world. I only had a few months left in Galena so finding a single guy in this town would prove to be tough. Even still, I could try to find someone to date. I needed to do something so I can get some practice in before I went back to Naperville. It was a good idea. I wouldn’t have to run into any of these Galena guys if things went south. I was leaving town soon.
After work, I was going to drive out to my childhood home. I couldn’t wait to see my parents. I spent most of my time with Jason. I needed to be around someone other than him. Quality time with my folks would take my overloaded mind off of the wildly forbidden kiss. I’d made it up in my mind, Monday morning I was going to address the kiss and keep it moving. I was going to tell Jason to keep his damn lips to himself.
My cell phone rang. My sister’s face appeared on my screen. I swiped to answer.
“Hey.” I tried to sound upbeat.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
“Nothing. I was just closing the store. How is your vacation?”
“It’s good, great actually.”
“Where are you guys now?”
“Aruba. We’re staying here for two weeks.”
“How is it? I’ve never been.”
“Hot, beautiful and gorgeous.”
“Does Ken like it?”
“He loves it. You
