by Katie Dowe
“It was pretty good. You’re really good, Heidi.”
She smiled, relieved.
Somehow, it would’ve hurt more than she would’ve liked to admit if he hadn’t thought her performance good.
Even if she knew that almost everybody else in that large room had loved it.
“Thank you,” she said, gracefully, and took a sip, wondering what she could ask next.
“So, how’s work?”
She could’ve kicked herself.
“On fire,” he quipped, startling her into a laugh.
“I didn’t think you’d joke about that.”
He shrugged, an easy movement that made her wonder what kind of muscles he had under that neat blue shirt.
“We all get through it somehow. How long have you been singing?”
It might be unfashionable, but Heidi loved talking about how she’d become a singer.
“I’ve been singing forever. I still hope for a day when I’ll be paid for it.”
Christian looked surprised.
“You have quite a following. I’d think a recording deal is right around a corner.”
Heidi chuckled.
“Oh, I wish. I’ve had a few offers, but they’ve always had… conditions. Most of them seemed to involve me taking my clothes off. But I have a reasonable following on YouTube. I keep sending tapes and links out. One day… Well, one day.”
Christian leaned towards her.
They weren’t all blue, thought Heidi, nearly driven incoherent by his proximity. His eyes had gray in them, too, like smoke rising into the evening sky.
“I believe you will be a star. You seem to have everything it takes to be one.”
Heidi smiled.
She knew she had a nice smile. If it had half the impact on him that his did on her, she’d be quite happy enough.
“That is very kind of you. So, how did you actually follow your dream?”
He raised his eyebrows.
With a chuckle, Heidi explained.
“Half the little kids seem to want to be a firefighter when they grow up. But most of them become lawyers or accountants. You must have stuck to your guns through everything.”
Christian laughed, and Heidi thought it might be one of the most attractive sounds she had ever heard.
“Actually, I wanted to be a clown.”
Heidi was delighted.
The man was nuts.
Just how she liked them.
Soon, they were engrossed in a debate that seemed to take in the finer points of clowns.
They went on to circuses, trapeze artists, gymnastics, glitter eye shadow, punk rock, and ended up talking, for some reason, about American Idol.
Heidi hardly knew how the time had flown by when it was time to declare the winner of the evening.
“They’re about to announce the winner,” said Christian.
Heidi shrugged.
“I never win. I mean, the money would be nice, but if that’s all I did this for, I’d have quit a long time ago.”
“… Heidi Richards.”
Her jaw dropped.
She had won an open mic night with actual prize money.
She never won those.
“Looks like your luck might be turning,” said Christian as she got her money and came back to the seat, after a few nonchalant waves and bows.
She thought she might even have dropped a curtsy.
“Well, five hundred is a lot. I guess I’m paying, tonight.”
Christian shook his head.
“I think this was our first date. You bought me my first drink, so it’s only fair that I pay for our first date. Don’t you think so?”
Heidi hesitated, but just for a moment.
She was drifting on sheer euphoria.
All of those times she had told herself that it didn’t matter if she won, and now that she had, she saw that it definitely did matter.
She felt like she could take over the world.
She tossed her hair back and smiled jauntily.
“All right. But the next date is on me.”
Christian quirked an eyebrow in that frankly sexy way that he had.
“Are you so sure of a next date?”
“Aren’t you?” tossed back Heidi.
He only smiled, and nodded.
Heidi knew one thing, for sure – she wanted this man, and she planned to have him.
*****
Heidi looked forward to the next date.
It wasn’t really a date. Neither was the one after that.
But for the next month, he was there at almost every single one of her gigs.
They didn’t meet during the day, but they talked.
She found him surprisingly easy to talk to. He understood, even when she tried to say as little as possible. She told him about her life, but very little about her family.
There was little to tell.
She regaled him with tales of the people who lived in the apartment building, and his response was to shake his head and mumble about firetraps.
The next night, he had a gift for her – a fire extinguisher, which she had to hail a cab to take home with her.
He told her about his large and interesting family. Those stories enthralled her. She had always wanted a family like that – one where everybody got in each other’s faces, but the undercurrent of love was so strong that it didn’t matter.
They would always have each other’s backs.
She even met Rick one evening.
Slowly and steadily, Heidi’s attraction to him deepened into something more like affection. But the attraction did not abate.
Every time their fingers touched, there was a spark there. She wanted to take it further.
But Christian never made a move.
Anybody watching them together would’ve assumed that they were dating. They were obviously flirting, and that sense of intimacy couldn’t be mistaken.
But they weren’t dating. Heidi had started to think of it as non-dating.
It was frustrating.
She had been non-dating him for about a month, and he hadn’t even kissed her.
Finally, fed up with how slowly things were going, she told Mrs. Spinelli the whole story.
To her surprise, Mrs. Spinelli’s booming laughter filled the colorful and comfortable apartment.
“Well, my girl, what are you waiting for? Don’t you have the wherewithal to take the first step?”
That was a good question.
Didn’t she?
It wasn’t like she’d never done that before. She was fully on board with the idea of a woman taking the first step.
Still…
That night, after she finished her song – she didn’t win; that one night turned out to be an aberration, after all, though her fan following online seemed to be increasing nearly exponentially – she took her seat with him, as usual.
This time, she drank her wine without counting glasses, and was soon four glasses down.
“Your keys,” said Christian, finally, holding out his hand.
She grinned.
“I don’t have a car.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to give you a ride home.”
Heidi grinned again, wider this time.
“You don’t have to sound so disgruntled about it, do you? I don’t live too far away.”
Christian shook his head, chuckling.
“You are irreverent, aren’t you?
Heidi shrugged.
“Not as a rule.”
“But you are lovely.”
Heidi inclined her head.
That was true. She was lovely.
“Arresting, in fact.”
The way he said it, as if he was supremely annoyed by it, nearly made her chuckle.
But the look in his eyes – smoky eyes that were neither blue nor gray, but were compelling – made all such instinct fade away.
“Am I?”
“You are. I find it distracting. And annoying. I can’t be distracted
.”
Heidi’s chin rose in a gesture of impudent demand.
“Why don’t you do something about it, then?”
They didn’t need words, from that moment. They knew exactly where they were heading.
They’d been heading there all along, for a month, hadn’t they? From the moment she had run to him, pleading with him to help her, frantic and distraught.
He reached for her hand. She gave it to him without hesitation.
Christian drew her to her feet, and she savored the feeling of her hand in his. His hand was large and strong, and obviously quite rough.
It would be.
She smiled at him, but nerves fluttered in her belly like butterflies.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted, to her consternation.
“Don’t worry. I won’t bite, unless you want me to,” said Christian, and the butterflies turned into something far more exciting.
It was only a short drive home.
His car had seen better times, but she saw the obvious signs of tender loving care.
He knew where she lived, of course. He didn’t need directions.
“Last chance to tell me not to come up with you, Heidi,” said Christian, and she knew it was.
Resolutely, she met his eyes, smoke meeting molten gold.
“Come up with me,” she said, and the die was cast.
He didn’t take her hand as she unlocked the door to the building and walked up the stairs.
Neither did he take her hand when she unlocked the door and walked inside.
She stopped a few steps in and turned around.
Those smoky eyes had darkened. She watched him close the door, turn the lock, and felt her heart beating faster, and faster.
“Christian,” she whispered, as he walked closer to her.
He was so close to her. She had to look up at him.
She was tall, but he was a good few inches taller than her.
Those eyes…
Now he touched her, finally. His hands took hers, just their fingertips brushing.
Bending down, he touched his lips to hers.
She felt everything inside her stop for a split second before everything seemed to sharpen and speed up.
Her breathing became sharper and shallower. Her heart beat harder and faster. Her fingertips tingled with the awareness of his closeness, and his delicate touch – just his fingertips, and those lips, brushing over hers so softly, so sweetly.
That was the calm before the storm. The storm broke, the next instant, and she found herself in his strong arms, her body on fire with desire so strong she didn’t know if she could withstand it without being torn apart.
His mouth slanted over hers. She tilted her face to give him more.
When his tongue slid between her lips and into her mouth, she welcomed that gentle invasion.
That invasion became stormy, not gentle, very quickly.
Frantic hands tugged at clothes, in a frenzy of desire. It was as if a fire, carefully banked for so long, had finally been set free, and it threatened to consume them both.
Heidi groaned in frustration as her fingers fumbled on his buttons. Impatient, she tugged hard enough to rip the last two buttons off.
With a cry of triumph, her hands spread over his chest and touched him. She felt his heated skin beneath the palm of her hand and felt that his heart was unsteady, beating hard and fast, just like hers.
She raised her arms for him to pull her dress up and off her, not fussed about undoing zips or untying straps.
She stood there, in her ivory lace bra and panties, and gloried in how his hands felt on her skin.
They were tanned, almost brown, against the rich darkness of her skin.
His lips moved over her cheek, to her ear. She felt his tongue touch her ear lobe, trace those sensitive folds, and she moaned again in sheer pleasure.
Her frantic fingers fumbled again with the snap of his jeans, but she managed to tug it open and push it down his hips.
His jeans fell to the floor in a tangled heap, and she could feel his hard manhood pressing against her.
She felt how much he wanted her, and she trembled in his arms.
“You’re so beautiful. You’re irresistible. God knows I tried,” said Christian, and the frank lust in his voice made her tremble, too.
“Touch me,” cried Heidi, and felt his hands on her back, moving up to unhook her bra. His fingers slid up, between her shoulder blades, and she wondered at how arousing that simple stroke of his hand could be.
“So much,” said Christian, and she knew what he meant.
She shrugged out of her bra, letting it fall to the floor.
She pressed her body close to his, her breasts against his muscled chest.
“You feel so good,” whispered Heidi, and she felt his teeth on her ear, making her gasp.
His hands drifted over her back. His mouth was so urgent as he kissed and licked his way down her neck, but his hands were so sensual, so gentle, so tantalizing.
She didn’t think she could stand it.
But she did.
When his hands finally moved down to cup her bottom and press her closer to him, bring her in closer contact with his hardness, she moaned.
Her fingernails, clipped short, moved lightly over his back. She felt him tremble and her heart soared at how she could make him feel just as much as she felt.
“Now. Need you now,” said Christian.
“Bed,” said Heidi, far beyond coherent sentences.
“Here,” he said, and pulled her over to the couch.
They tumbled onto it together, making it creak. She wondered if it could stand the strain.
But the thought was fleeting, as all thoughts but for those of him were.
She felt his hands on her breasts, finally, and she watched as his tanned, strong hands covered her breasts.
He moved his hands, grazing his palms over her nipples, and she moaned again.
“So lovely,” he murmured again, before bending his head to her breast.
He licked her nipple, making her back arch, before drawing away.
His gaze was nearly as tangible as his fingers and his mouth.
Her nipple hardened as he watched, and he pressed his lips to it again.
He moved to her other breast, stroking it lightly with his fingertip before pressing a soft kiss to it. But this time, he nuzzled his lips against her breast, licked her nipple again, and finally drew it into his mouth.
She cried out, clasping his head closer to her, pulling him tighter to her, her legs wrapping around him.
“Oh, don’t stop,” whimpered Heidi.
Christian had no intention of stopping.
He had never felt such need before. He had never before known what it was like to have a woman who awakened such a fire of passion in him.
Christian pressed her generous breasts together and sucked on her nipples, both of them, making her back arch off the couch as she offered him more, and more.
“Christian!” she gasped, wondering if she could take more.
But she could.
He kissed his way down her torso, his lips sliding over her rib cage, lower over the sensitive skin of her belly.
He kissed her slender waist, and she felt his teeth nip at the curve of it.
His tongue dipped into the hollow of her navel, and she shivered.
“Christian,” she said again, and his name was a plea this time.
“Tell me what you want, Heidi. I need to hear the words.”
There was no room for shyness.
Heidi had never been a shy woman.
“I want you to touch me. I’m so wet for you. I want you to touch me and see how wet I am for you.”
She took his hand, resting on her breast, and slid it down her body to the tiny lacy panties she wore.
She slipped his hand between her legs, and she knew he could feel how wet she was, even through the insubstantial fabric.
“Feel how much I need you,” she
whispered, and when his eyes met hers, she saw everything she felt reflected in them.
He hooked his fingers under the panties and drew them down and off her legs.
Her legs fell open, hiding nothing from him.
She felt his eyes on her, again.
“Beautiful,” he said again, but he didn’t touch her, not yet. He kissed her leg, kissing his way up her leg softly, licking the sensitive skin beneath her knee, nibbling on the soft skin of her thighs. He licked her inner thighs, and she knew he could taste her.
Finally, she felt his mouth so close to her hot, wet center that she could feel his breath on her.
“Please,” she begged, and his tongue slid over her there, making her moan and shudder again.
“Oh yes,” she said, encouraging him, needing more.
His lips nuzzled her, parting her lips down there and licking her. He found that little hard nub of pleasure where she was so needy for more. His tongue slid over it, again and again.
She felt his fingers against her entrance and nearly jumped in surprise. They slipped deep inside her, curving softly and stroking her, and she moaned again.
She could feel it coming. Her pleasure was building to such an intense peak that she felt as if her entire being would shatter from it.
How could she hold on? How could she feel so much?
His lips closed on that little hard button of pleasure, and she cried out, her body bowing taut as a string and shuddering as she welcomed that pleasure, the hard, fast peak of it.
It took her a moment to open her eyes again. When she did, he was completely naked. Had he been, a moment ago? She watched as he ripped the little packet open and rolled the condom onto his hard length.
She watched his hand moving over it, and she wanted it inside her.
She had never known such passion before, and Heidi was no stranger to passion.
Still, she gasped as he moved over her swiftly, pushing her legs up with his arms hooked behind her knees.
“Tell me you need me,” said Christian.
The focus on his face was complete, so intense that it took her breath away all over again.
“I need you, Christian. I need you inside me. Please, make love to me. Please.”
There were no inhibitions. She felt him, long, thick and hard, pressing inside her, entering her, and her body welcomed him.
She held him to her and kissed him, long and hard, as his hips rocked and thrust, varying his rhythm to keep her trembling on that edge.
