‘I don’t need a lift,’ Candy said. ‘I’m only two stops away.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Very.’
‘So how will I know where you live when I come over to take you out tonight?’
‘Where are you taking me?’ Candy smiled.
‘I haven’t decided.’ Out on the street he took her wrist and turned her to face him. ‘Where would you like to go?’
Bed, she wanted to answer, when she had never felt or given that answer before. ‘I’ll leave it up to you. Though I warn you, I’m pretty wrecked. Night duty hasn’t left me at my most sparkling.’ She told him her address and he tapped it into his phone. ‘I’ll see you tonight about seven?’
‘Sounds good.’
It was the middle of the day, there were people everywhere and yet when he took her in his arms it could have been the end of the most romantic night.
‘Thanks for coming to lunch.’
‘Thanks for asking me.’
It was a very new thing to her, to be somewhere simply because she wanted to be. It should be wrong, except it felt completely right. He was older, wiser and sexier than she had ever dealt with and she was more turned on than she had ever been in her life, and he hadn’t even kissed her.
That was about to be corrected, though. Her heart was galloping even more than it had the first day they’d met. Right now it was almost leaping out of her throat in anticipation. An anticipation she had never known because when their lips met it seemed to set off a chain reaction. This is what a mouth should feel like, Candy thought, and This is what a tongue was surely designed for, she decided as his stroked hers.
Yes, there was a building anticipation because when first his body melded with hers Candy couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like if his hand moved a little higher, or how it would be if she moved in a little closer. Each question was answered—the sound of the traffic dimmed as their kiss intensified. She had never been kissed expertly before and his hand moved just a little higher than her waist to the edge of her rib cage and she ached for it to move higher still. His mouth, the pressure of his lips, the constant beckon of his tongue made her move in closer and she felt breathless.
Both rested their foreheads on the other’s for a moment. Trust time to make things complicated, because if it had been nearly two a.m. they would be racing home right about now.
It was daylight, people were talking, a lazy Sunday afternoon was going on all around as they pulled back and met each other’s eyes.
‘Tonight’ was the unspoken word between them.
Candy had never really looked forward to the night in that way before.
‘I’m going to be late for my meeting,’ Steele said as she got back to his mouth.
‘You can be two minutes late,’ she said.
She just needed one more taste.
CHAPTER FIVE
THANK GOD THAT she’d just had her period.
It had used to be Candy’s excuse not to have sex, but as she had a lovely long bath and shaved and plucked and buffed her body into suitable Steele shape, she was grateful for that fact.
Yes, her Catholic guilt was hovering there in the background but she told it to please be quiet as she took her Pill.
She still hid them in her handbag. It was a matter of habit and her mother would freak, just completely freak, if she knew that Candy was on it. She’d come off it last year but, given what had happened with Gerry, she had gone back on it. She and Gerry had used condoms but what had happened had been such a surprise that she did not want to take any risks.
She hadn’t gone home after lunch with Steele; instead, she’d dashed to the shops and bought fabulous underwear that she was now tearing the labels off. There was a silver-grey bra that gave her the best cleavage ever and silver panties that made her dimply bottom look fantastic. In fact, she was so impressed with them that Candy had bought a set in purple also.
She’d always felt fat, but she felt curvy now.
I’ll regret it later, she promised her conscience as she looked in the mirror.
Just not yet!
* * *
With no idea where they were going Candy decided on a pale shift dress that would look casual with ballet pumps or fab with heels.