This bar is an easy place to lose yourself in. It’s all dark corners and velvet upholstery, and the jazz music, played by a live band on a stage in front of the dance floor, makes me want to twirl Nora and pull her into my arms. She surprises me with a few steps of the Charleston, then I surprise her right back by pulling her into a Lindy Hop. The dance floor clears out for us and by the end of the song, we’re laughing and completely consumed in our own little world.
I only come back to our surroundings when people start clapping for us and the color on Nora’s cheeks deepens. Then she looks to our table and says, “Look, our food is here.”
“Let’s eat,” I say, leading her back to the table, feeling drunk and wonderful although we haven’t even touched our whiskey flight yet.
Just before she sits, I pull Nora into my arms again and kiss her. Caramel. She tastes like caramel, and it reminds me of a long-ago deployment in Portugal.
I just can’t get enough of this woman.
5
Nora
We spend hours at the speakeasy, talking and dancing and yes, getting a little tipsy. I can’t remember the last time a date went this well—no awkward silences or personality mismatches. Things with Nash are just… perfect.
I tell him about how I became a children’s librarian because I always knew I wanted a job that would surround me with kids, where I could make a difference in their lives and teach them the love of reading that has always sustained me.
And he tells me how he’s gotten to see the world thanks to the Army.
“That must be wonderful,” I say after he lists off all the places he’s been—Hawaii, Japan, Kuwait, even Australia. “I’ve never been too far beyond Golden Creek.”
Nash smiles at me, flashing those hungry eyes at me in a way that wakes up my core. “Do you ever think about leaving, traveling?”
“Traveling, yes,” I say. “Leaving, never. My family’s here—my whole world is here.”
He grins, making me want to run my fingers along the scratchy stubble on his jaw, and says, “There’s a lot more out there, Nora. I wish I could show it to you.”
The way he says my name, the way he looks at me like there’s something so much deeper building between us than just a casual date, makes me squirm in my chair. I look down at my whiskey glass, trying to clear my head. “You said ‘while I’m in town’ earlier, when we first got here. Does that mean you’re getting deployed again soon?”
I just met him, and I’ve got dreams of my own to pursue, but the truth is that I hate the idea of losing him so quickly after we’ve met.
But he nods, and I’m secretly crushed.
“I’m stationed in Italy right now,” he tells me. “Just here for a couple weeks of leave. I go back next week.”
I could be pregnant by next week, I can’t help thinking. I’ve got no business feeling this way about Nash, wanting him to stick around, because if he knew about my own plans he might not want to get involved.
But this is my last hurrah, my ‘me time’ before I dedicate my life to my future child, so I push the thought out of my head and do something spontaneous. I reach across the table and slide my hand into his. I look through my lashes at him and ask, “Do you want to get out of here?”
Nash and I burst through my front door, tearing at each other’s clothes before we’re even fully inside. It feels like I’m living in one of my mother’s romance novels, where things like this actually happen. They sure don’t happen to me… at least not until Nash came into my life.
“You are so fucking sexy,” he growls at me, his hands on my hips, squeezing and making his desire known. “I haven’t been able to tear my eyes off you for a minute tonight.”
“Do you want to tear something else off?” I ask as I kick the door closed.
He grins, but shakes his head. One hand comes up to my collar bone, his finger tracing down the plunging neckline of my dress. “I wouldn’t dream of tearing this pretty dress of yours, Nora.”
God, I love to hear my name on his lips.
He bows his head, tilts my jaw in his hand, brings his mouth tenderly down to my neck. I love that too. He kisses me lower, across the chest and down between my breasts as his hands caress and explore me all over.
Little electric sparks ignite everywhere he touches me, and I moan aloud as his palms come up at last to cup my breasts. Then he looks down at me, those warm eyes the color of brown sugar locking onto me and lighting me up. “I would like to slide off your book jacket, though, Miss Nora.”
I laugh. “Oh yeah?”
“Mm hmm,” he murmurs, his lips vibrating against my skin. “I might need to keep my glasses on, though.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because you are fine print,” he says, his hands going around to my backside and giving my ass a playful squeeze.
I laugh again, then grab him by the collar and guide him back up to my mouth. Before he can envelop me in those big, strong arms, before he can intoxicate me completely with his touch, there’s one little practical matter I have to take care of.
I’m having the best night of my life, but I’m just self-aware enough to remember that I’m ovulating, so this can’t happen without protection—or else Nash might get more than he bargained for.
So I loop my finger around his tie, pulling it loose from his jacket. I take a step backward and use it to drag him after me. The look in his eyes tells me all I need to know—he’s totally into this, and on exactly the same
