Never Expected Love Page 6

  "But what's your favorite?"

  "It's probably similar to you, it depends on my mood. Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and American. What are you hungry for right now? Oh! Do you like fish and chips?"

  "I like halibut fish and chips."

  "Perfect!" I grab Nicole's hand as we start to walk toward the parking garage. "There is a restaurant nearby that serves the best halibut fish and chips, and he makes his own tartar sauce, it's amazing."

  "Where is it?" She's almost running to keep up with me, but when I thought about it, I knew I needed to take her there.

  "It's on Alberta. Have you ever been down Alberta before?"

  "No, I focus on work and home," she laughs.

  "We are going to have to get you out in the world a little more, Nicole."

  "From what I hear you do too."

  "Are you busy tomorrow?

  "I don't think so, why?"

  "Because I now have plans with you."

  She stops suddenly, and I'm almost jerked backward. I turn and look at her, she's trying to have a serious face, her eyes are squinted, but the corners of her mouth are curved up. "What? What's wrong?"

  "No asking, just demanding?" she stands there tapping her foot on the concrete sidewalk.

  I give her my best puppy dog look, which is funny for a forty-year-old to do. "I asked if you were busy, doesn't that count for something?" She rolls her eyes at me. "I'm sorry, for assuming you would want to spend the day with me. So do you want to spend the day together?"

  "Of course I do," she laughs. I grab her around the waist and spin her as she screams and laughs.

  I slowly stop and set her down as I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Gently, my thumb caresses her cheek and she licks her plump bottom lip as she leans her head into my hand. Shit, my cock is so hard. I want that lip, I want to lick it and taste her sweet mouth again. I look into her mesmerizing blue eyes, the emerald flecks shimmering as the street light hit them. I slowly bring her lips to meet mine as her scent infuses my senses and my cock starts to throb. I haven't felt like this for so many years, fuck! I've never let myself feel! I want to feel alive again, this feels so goddamn good so goddamn right. I lick her bottom lip and nibble at it as she opens to me. A soft moan trembles at the back of her throat, then her hands are in my hair clenching and pulling me closer to her. My heart is pounding. Still caressing her face, I place my other hand on the small of her back as I pull her chest to mine, I can feel her heart beating like a rabbit’s. She grips and tugs my hair so hard, fuck it hurts but damn it feels so good. A growl echoes from deep inside my chest. I'm sure she has to feel my cock because she's rolling her hips into it. Fuck, I don't know how much more I can take of this without blowing. Our tongues are dancing together to its own music.

  Then I hear it, the sound you never want to hear. It's one thing when you're a teenager, it's another when you are forty years old and you're making out on the sidewalk.

  "Ahem." It takes me a couple seconds to comprehend. "Ahem." It's someone clearing their throat. I slowly pull myself away from Nicole as I am panting and trying to catch my breath. I look up to a Portland Police Officer. Shit! The edges of his lips curled up as he fights to hide his smile.

  "Ah, hi Officer. How are you this fine evening?" I ask him. Nicole slips behind my back when she sees the officer, resting her forehead on my shoulder as she ducks behind me. I feel her shaking, so she's either laughing or crying and since my shirt isn't wet, I'm going to have to assume she is laughing. Chicken.

  "So, are you having a pleasant evening?" He asks.

  "Yes, Officer we are, we came down early this morning, rode the rides, Nicole has never been to a carnival before so I thought it would be fun to bring her down here and spend the day."

  "Shhh, keep me out of this," she whispers, as she starts to giggle again.

  "Have you two been drinking in the beer gardens tonight?"

  "Actually, we haven't drunk anything today. We were just on our way to dinner."

  "Oh! Is that what they call that?"

  Nicole's giggles get louder after that comment.

  "Really, Officer, we just got a little carried away, we were going to go get some dinner. Are we free to go?" I feel Nicole peek her head up over my shoulder to see what the officer says.

  "Yeah, get out of here," he laughs, "and next time get a hotel."

  "Thank you, Officer." I turn and face Nicole, she's still giggling as she waves at the officer. I take her hand. "Chicken," I say to her as we walk down the street.

  Nicole looks up at me with a big smile on her face. "I can't believe that just happened. I can tell this is going to be harder than I thought." She bumps playfully into my side, and I just shake my head and enjoy this moment.

  I take her to the restaurant on Alberta that has the best halibut I have ever tasted and the homemade tartar sauce is amazing.

  "So are we still on for tomorrow?" I ask.

  "Yes, what do you have planned?"

  "Oh, you leave that up to me." How much of Oregon have you seen?"

  She wipes her mouth and looks up at me with a guilty smile. "Not much, like I said before, my whole life has been work. I had nothing else to do. I ate, drank, and slept work. I am the go to person. If they need it done, they always call me because I hardly ever say no. In fact my boss, Mr. Hobart, Scott, wasn't thrilled that I didn't come in today, and I know he will be pissed that I don't go in tomorrow."

  I tilt my head to the side and try to analyze the look on her face. "Do you enjoy that? Is it something you want to continue doing?"

  She nervously plays with her napkin. "I really enjoyed it at first, and I was just starting out, but I guess I want more now. The last couple of days has shown me just what I've been missing. I've given most of my life to my work, but it's not supposed to be that way." She looks deep into my eyes as I see the longing in them, and in almost a whisper she says, "Do you feel it, are you feeling the same things I'm feeling? I want to live my life, am I reading us wrong? Tell me you feel it too."

  I take her hands in mine; she had already shredded her napkin as she looked pensively into my eyes. "Yes, Nicole, I do feel it, that's why I want to spend this weekend with you. That's why I guess I just assumed you would spend tomorrow with me. We just ... click. Our lives seem so similar. We've both lived for our work and put our personal life on hold. I don't know, maybe it's that I'm forty years old and I don't want to wait anymore for what I want, call it selfish, but you're the first woman that I have ever felt this way about. Let's get out of here." I toss three twenty's on the table knowing that our server will be very happy. I take Nicole's hand, leading her out of the restaurant and into the warm summer breeze as the aroma of the surrounding restaurants fill the night air.

  We slowly walk hand in hand back to my car, wishing it was chilly out so I could pull her in closer to my side. I don't understand what's going on with me, these feelings that I'm having, it's as if I'm more sensitive to touch. My heart is pounding against my ribs and my hands feel sweaty. Opening the door to let her in, I hold her from getting in as I turn her to face me. I rest my forehead to hers and whisper, "God, Nicole, I don't know what you're doing to me, but don't stop, because I want to feel this way forever." I close my eyes and kiss her forehead as I inhale the light floral scent that is so Nicole. I stand there, not wanting to exhale. When I open my eyes, she's looking at me as if she can see my soul. "I want to kiss you again."

  "I won't stop you."

  "I just know if I do, I'm going to get arrested, because I know I won't be able to stop." I take a step back, my cock is straining against my jeans. I shut her door and drive her home. On the drive back to Nicole's house, she receives a text.

  I take her hand as I walk her to her door. As she unlocks it and opens the door she says, "Harlow texted me, she's not going to be home tonight, do you want to come inside?" She looks up shyly through her lashes, her eyes like pools of blue water filled with hope.

  I take her face in my hands and tilt my h
ead to look deep into her eyes, attempting to decipher what she is contemplating. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

  She smiles up at me as I kiss her forehead, then I rest my forehead on hers. God, I want to stay, but I know that if I do something might happen. I feel like a teenager again, my cock is once again straining against my jeans, my heart is racing and my breath hitches in my throat as she asks, "Please, Richard, I don't want to be alone tonight."

  I look back at her. God, how do I say no to that gorgeous face? She makes the best pouty face with her beautiful lips. I lean over taking her bottom lip in between my teeth, gently sucking and nibbling on it as I pull it into my mouth. She wraps her arms around my neck pulling our bodies closer together. I lift her up and she wraps her legs around my waist as I push through the door and walk into the house with her. Shit what the hell am I thinking? Nothing can happen! I'm not prepared, shit, shit, shit.

  Not even being in her house before I push her body up against the first wall I get to, freeing my hands to thread them through her long brown waves. Angling her mouth so I have better access to her neck, I lave kisses to her ear and as I nibble her flesh and she mewls. I run my tongue down her neck to that most sensitive pulse point and she starts to writhe. "My God, Richard."

  I pull back and look at her not realizing that I groaned as I pull away from her. I look into her eyes. She licks her now kiss-swollen lips. My eyes drop to her lips and her tongue, craving her taste again. My tongue mimics hers, and I lick my lips as if I am sitting down to a feast. I then look back into her eyes, they captivate me almost as much as her lips do with deep swirls of blue that color her pupils rimmed with a sapphire blue while green flecks dance as the light hits them.

  I take a step back from the wall. She slowly lowers her legs down from my waist, setting her feet on the floor. We gaze at each other in uncomfortable silence... I break our eye contact to close the front door. I can't believe that I am even contemplating staying the night here. "Would you like something to drink?" Nicole walks further into the house and I follow her. Her home is modest but very open with a warm atmosphere. We walk into a large open space that houses the kitchen and family room. The kitchen has a breakfast bar that I sit at.

  "What do you have?"

  "Wine, beer, and soda."

  "How about a glass of wine."

  "Wine coming up." Nicole pours two glasses of wine as we move out to the deck.

  She sets the glasses then I take her hands in mine. "Why am I here?" I tilt my head to the side as I ask the question, needing to make sure neither of us is here for the wrong reason.

  She looks up at me shyly. "I ... I like you, Richard, but I’ve never had a man in my home before. I guess part of me wants to see how it feels. Never having any experience at this, I guess ... I just want to see how it feels. I like you, Richard, a lot, but I don't know that I am ready for sex. As much as I feel like it, it scares me; and if we continue this." She motions between us. "I need to tell you a story. A story that no one has ever heard before, and you need to hear it before we can go any further." She motions with her finger between her and me again. "Gets any more serious than I feel it's getting." She looks up at me through her lashes and I can see her eyes starting to glisten.

  "Okay."

  She takes my hands as she guides me to the rattan love seat that sits behind the table that our wine is sitting on, and we sit down. The moon is bright and her hair shimmers in its light, it almost looks like a halo.

  "This is a story about a very young, very naive girl that was just about ready to graduate from college. She wasn't living on campus, but in a modest little apartment near the University she was attending so she could walk to and from. One night she had stayed late to finish her last project needed to graduate. Don't get her wrong, it wasn't that she needed to get the project done to graduate, she was going to graduate with honors and was just making her project ... more. It was late when she finally finished her project, but it wasn't as if she hadn't stayed late before, she was always putting in more time to get her projects perfect.Her professor always allowed her to stay late as long as she locked up when she left. When she finished, she packed up her backpack with all of her materials and pulled the locked door to a close as she imagined what her life would be in the weeks to come after she graduated. She had several offers fromall over the world, companies that wanted her to work for them, but she had been offered a dream job from a local company that was making it big. She dreamed of working for this company ever since she found her love forcomputers, and they wanted her, they wanted her badly. She had given them a verbal that yes, she would work for them when she graduated."

  "She was just about to her apartment when she was suddenly grabbed and yanked down a dark alley. A hand clasped over her mouth and nose, suffocating the air around her, he pressed a knife to her neck. She was so scared she couldn’t even scream.

  I look up at her and tears are streaming down her face as she looks down at her knotted fingers in her lap. God, I want to just pull her into my lap and hold her letting her know that everything will be alright, but I can't. She doesn't need a man’s' touch right now.

  “He wore a nylon to conceal his features. He grabbed a clump of her hair in his fist while keeping the knife flush against her throat to control her. He pushed her against the wall and she started to whimper. With an unforgiving strength, he backhanded her. 'Shut up bitch or I will slice that pretty little neck of yours so you can't make a sound,' he threatened. She tried not to look at him, but his eyes, one was blue the other green. He smelled of alcohol and cigarettes, although his teeth were perfect. He was dressed in expensive clothes, and there wasn't anything about him that would have made her fear him if she had passed him on the street. He lifted her skirt, slicing her panties off with the flick of his knife, nicking her in the process. She jumped at the searing pain of the blade, but he just pulled her hair harder. She turned her head away as she heard the sound of his zipper. 'Please don't please.' Tears were streaming down her swollen cheek as he lifted one of her legs at the knee to give him better access to her innocence. He positioned himself and rammed his penis through her virginity as she held in her screams of pain. 'Fuck I just got your cherry, Nicole, no wonder you were such a teachers' pet.' Her eyes went wide when he said her name, he knew her, he was waiting for her, and fear tore through her that he might do it again. How did he know her? Was he in one of her classes? When he finished his assault on her, he pulled out as she winced. A whimper slipped from her lips and he backhanded her again and everything went black."

  My heart is racing and I'm panting. I want to find him and kill the son of a bitch for what he took from her. No wonder she put her life into her work. I thought that was the end of her story but she continues and I silently ask myself how much more could she endure?

  "She woke up later in the hospital. A Good Samaritan found her battered body in the alley and called 911. She begged the hospital not to call her family. After hours of police reports and a rape kit, she was released to go home. She took a cab home and missed the last two weeks of classes, showing up only for her finals. She didn't go home on the weekends as she normally did, making up an excuse about getting ready for finals and graduation. Her face was still bruised the week of graduation, mostly yellows and greens so she went to the local department store and bought a concealer that would cover it up so no one would notice. She was nervous about her graduation. Would he be there, would he seek her out, would he attack her again? She was constantly looking at all the men, looking in their eyes for that anomaly, but didn't see him."

  "She sunk into a depression and then began to get sick. She thought it was all the stress from the attack, finals, graduation. But deep down inside she knew the truth. It wasn’t the stress causing her to be ill, yet she would fight the thought of the inevitable until she couldn’t fight it any longer.

  “She purchased a test from the local drugstore and went straight home to take it. Dread seeped into her very bones at the realizat
ion of what the test would reveal. She already knew the truth, only needed affirmation of it. She huffed out a breath of air and went to the bathroom to take the test. Finishing up, she washed her hands then went back to the kitchen to set a timer. As she waited, she considered her options and realized there truly was only one option. When the timer went off, she walked into the bathroom and stared at the stick as tears began to run down her face."

  "After she had cried out all of her tears, she picked up her phone and dialed."

  'Mr. Hobart, please.'

  'May I ask who’s calling?'

  'Nicole House.'

  'One moment please.'

  'Mr. Hobart, this is Nicole House, you had inquired about me a couple months ago about joining your company.'

  'Ye, Nicole, What can I do for you? I thought you had an offer from the company in Bellevue.'

  'Yes, they did offer me a position up here, but I have decided that it would be best for me to move to Oregon if the position is still available.'

  'As a matter of fact it is. We were waiting for the answer from another candidate, but as of yet we haven't heard back and after reviewing your resume you were everything we were looking for so if you want the job it's yours.'

  'Wonderful, thank you, Mr. Hobart.'

  'Great! I'll have my secretary send the contract for you to look over and sign. What is the possibility of you starting next Monday?'

  'Next Monday, that will be fine.'

  'Just bring the papers with you then.'

  'Thank you, Mr. Hobart, I will see you then.'

  "Then she dialed another number, this one was a lot harder to call, as she saw her dreams being washed away. As the phone rang, she could feel the burning of the tears once again threatening."

  'Mr. Sinclair please.'

  'May I tell him who’s calling?'

  ‘Nicole House.'

  'One moment, Ms. House, while I see if he is available.'

  'This is Sinclair.'

  'Mr. Sinclair, this is Nicole House.'

  'Ms. House, yes, we are very excited about you starting here. How can I help you?'