Oh, God. Callie’s take on breast implants might be considered dated by some, but she just couldn’t imagine having a blob of that crap implanted in her, so she’d spoofed it in her article. She didn’t deny those who wished to have them. She’d just shown the irony of wanting them. “I got a lot of feedback on that. Some people were pretty pissed. LOL.”
“Well, I had to agree with the penile foot pump assessment…”
“LOLLOL. Oh, man, can you imagine pumping that up? I mean, saying something like, ‘Hey, honey, don’t forget to step on it would ya’?”
“Well, so far so good. No foot pumps here.”
“That’s good news. I’ll remember that. No breast implants here either.” Oh, God, had she just said that? Mary mother of all things containing too much information.
“I like that you’re that real, Callie.”
Real? Hah! He should see her thighs. That was really real. “I will tell you, if I could have someone else’s thighs, I’d take ‘em.”
“I’d wager a year’s salary your thighs are just fine.”
Callie snorted through her open mouth. Yeah, bring it on, mercenary man. “They need work. Believe me when I tell you this. I do my stupid Pilates faithfully, but that’s about as much energy as I have to work out.”
“I hate to work out too, but I do it because I’m not getting any younger and I really love junk food.”
“What’s your favorite junk food in the whole world?”
“Mint chocolate chip ice cream. Yours?”
“Chocolate covered cherries. I could eat those until I bust. LOL.”
“So chocolate is a weakness for you?”
“Nah, just chocolate covered cherries. I can pass on most junk food but those.”
“I love all things junk food. LOL What’s your favorite dish?”
Callie had to think for a moment about that. It had been awhile since she’d had much else but cereal or eggs, the occasional sandwich. “Hmmm. Well, if I was forced at gunpoint to choose it would probably be lobster. I love it. You?”
“Gumbo, Love it.”
“I’ve never had it. You said last night you loved Cajun food too. Have you been to New Orleans?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s pretty great during Mardi Gras.”
“Someday I’d love to see that. I don’t want to get naked or anything, but I’d still love to experience it.”
“Well, maybe someday I’ll take you. I have pictures of me at Mardi Gras. Wanna see?”
Callie nodded. Yeah, she wanted to see. Especially if he was naked. No, only women got naked at Mardi Gras, right? Beads or something…Shame on you, Callie Winston. You’re thinking carnal thoughts. “I’d love to. Send them to my private e-mail, please.” Callie gave him her private e-mail address and asked, “What else would you like to see? Or have you seen most of the world by now?”
“I’ve seen a lot of it, but there’s still more I want to experience. I really want to see a pyramid in Egypt.”
“Oh! Me too… I have a list of places I want to go. High on my list is Italy. I want to ride in a gondola in Venice.” Callie looked at her as yet unfulfilled wish list of places she’d like to see in this lifetime and sighed.
“Italy is cool. France was nice too.”
Brian sure got around. “I’ll bet. I’d still rather see Italy than France, I think. I love Italian food.”
“Where is the most romantic place you’d like to visit?”
Callie had never given thought to romance when she’d made the list. “I’d love to go anywhere there’s a beach and no laptop, or my editor from hell, even if my editor is my best friend. LOL.”
“Really? Is it hard to work with your best friend?”
“Nah, she’s really great. She protects me from my dipwad boss Tyler, and she loves me just like I am. She was a blessing when I went through my divorce.”
“So a beach, huh?”
Callie sighed. Any beach—anywhere, baby. Callie loved the water and the idea of escaping for at least a month was her idea of bliss. “Oh, yeah. Sun and sand and I’d be happy. I could use a break, but the column doesn’t allow me much time off as of late. However, the moment I’m free I’m booking a plane, packing my thong and not looking back.”
“A thong, huh?” Brian teased her back with a smiley icon.
Sadly, thongs were a thing of the past for Callie’s ass. “I’m kidding, of course. No thongs for me, but a bathing suit and nothing else would make me very happy. I don’t need much.”
“I think that might make me happy too…”
Callie squirmed in her seat. She didn’t know if the concept of a beach or the nothing else in the concept was what Brian was talking about. “I’ll bet, Rambo. LOL.”
“Rambo????” Brian typed a bunch of question marks after his nickname.
Callie laughed. “It’s kind of my ‘mental’ pet name for you.”
“LOL. I’m no Rambo. I’m more Animal House, I’d say.”
“Are you a wild guy?”
“Nah, my wild drinking/carousing days are done.”
“Yeah, mine too…” Please, like Callie had ever sown a wild oat. Hell, she hadn’t ever sown a wild grain of anything.
“Do you drink?”
Callie snickered, only when a whiny, weepy drunk was called for. “Not much. I’m a terrible drinker. I was never much of a wild girl, I guess.”
“I bet you can be wild given the right circumstance. It’s probably just in much better taste than most.”
Yeah, she was an out ‘till all hours, streaking most nights and hunting down men as prey kinda girl, just with gazoodles of tact. “It would have to be some circumstance. I think I’m sorta sedate and boring. A real yawn.”
“I’d bet I can name at least one circumstance where wild will apply to you…”
Callie swallowed hard. What was this a challenge? Well, hell. Callie never backed down from a challenge. Cyber induced or not. “Oh, yeah? Name it.” She smiled cockily and waited for his reply, her heart slamming against her ribs and her mouth dry.
Callie took a sip of her bottled water and rinsed her mouth, then used the bottle to rub it across her forehead.
Was it hot in here, or was it just her?
Chapter 7
Brian sat on his bed and grinned at his laptop. So Callie liked a challenge? And she liked chocolate-covered cherries and Italian food and beaches. He was getting better at this typing thing, but he wouldn’t be able to woo her like this forever. He just couldn’t say everything he wanted to because his spelling sucked and Callie’s, of course, was far superior. He was starting to feel as though he’d just graduated high school by the skin of his teeth. Brian’s sentences were shorter and choppier by the minute and he was growing frustrated by the limited capacity he had to express himself. Glancing at Callie’s picture again he gritted his teeth, his jaw clamping down hard to keep from asking for her phone number just yet. Now—he wanted to hear her voice now, needed to hear it, but Callie needed to feel comfortable and right now she was comfortable with instant messaging.
Where were they at? Oh, yeah…a wild circumstance. Brian could give her plenty of wild circumstances, starting with the ones he’d created in his head last night about her, but she’d freak out this soon. There was going to come a time when he was going to act on this baser need to meet Callie, it just couldn’t happen yet. Callie was unsure about herself and her instincts on relationships, but Brian intended to show her that not everyone was like her ex Frank.
The asshole…He wanted to slap the snot out of Frank for ever having the good fortune to know Callie. Brian had no clue why this Frank made him so absurdly pissed off, but he did. Brian wanted to yank his teeth out of his head one at a time, with rusty pliers. He’d taken a warm, giving woman, beautiful and young and drained her dry. Callie was still just as beautiful, but Frank had left her raw and that beauty would only peek out from time-to time.
Inspiration struck Brian and he typed, ”I’ll bet, when Victoria’s Secret has its
semi-annual sale, you can get pretty wild.”
“Hell, yeah! It’s all about the sale, baby. No holds barred shop ‘til ya drop. I take no prisoners when I shop at Victoria’s Secret.”
Callie could take him as her prisoner any friggin’ day of the week if she wore a pair of those thigh-high nylons. Shit, he’d carry the bags for her in his teeth. “So you’re loaded for bear?”
“Oh, yeah, There’s no stopping me at the semi-annual. Next time let me know if you’re free and you can help carry the bags. I could always use the help.”
Ah. Callie was getting less skittish about an indulgence that was very intimate. She felt a bit less inhibited and that was exactly what Brian wanted. He wanted her to open up. Good deal… ”What’s your favorite Victoria’s Secret item?” Brian wanted specifics and if she said thigh-high nylons he was going to need a bat to keep his cock under control.
“I think I’m blushing. LOL… Well, truthfully I love it all, but the girliest thing I can think of is thigh-high nylons. I just love how they make me feel.”
Louisville slugger—meet Brian Benson’s out of control appendage. Whew. “I have to be honest here. I love thigh-high nylons on a woman.” Now, Brian knew Callie was turning all sorts of red, but the image of her in thigh-high nylons had his blood pumping like a gas station attendant. He was fully aware that he really had no clue what Callie’s body looked like, but Brian had instinct and his instinct told him she would leave him with his tongue hanging out of his mouth even in a chastity belt.
“Do you really? Frank always thought it was an expense that was unnecessary, so now I own far too many pairs of them out of spite. LOL.”
Hell yeah, he really did. Brian ran a hand over his face and inhaled deeply. “I don’t much like Frank. He can’t be a connoisseur of fine lingerie. He’s a bad representation of the male species.” How the hell did you spell connoisseur and what kind of man was this Frank?
“Frank was just Frank. He didn’t like a lot of things. I guess that’s why we got divorced, huh?” There it was again, the implication that Callie’s divorce was her fault. She may tell people she knew she wasn’t in the wrong, but secretly she thought it was something she’d done, something inherently wrong with her. Christ, this Frank needed a good ass kicking, but then if he hadn’t shit on Callie, Brian wouldn’t have met her. Too bad so sad, Frank…
Frank was a freak of epic proportions. “You got divorced because good fortune came your way and led you to me. LOL. So what other indulgences do you enjoy?” Sex? Do you indulge in it? Wanna indulge with me? Shit, Brian had to drag his thoughts to other places or he was going to explode.
“Candles. I love candles…especially the fruity scents like cucumber-melon and peach!”
Hoo Rah. Candles, Victoria’s Secret thigh-highs, and a slippery Callie in a bubble bath.
Hookay, stopping now.
Brian was a visual/auditory man and the visuals of Callie were screaming through his brain in fast forward pictures, leaving him on overload. He loved the scent of a woman, the sounds they made when he made love to one. The taste of a woman. Those sensorial enticements alone could keep him happy for a lifetime. Brian spent a lot of time deprived of much else but a bunch of dirty, smelly men, so when he could, he indulged in fantasies to keep his mind occupied. In all aspects of life—Brian wasn’t afraid to share and he wanted to share with Callie what she was doing to all five of his senses. “You’re driving me nuts here. I’m a pretty visual guy…auditory too. I love those scents. I don’t get to smell them much, but I think about them often when I’m away.”
“You’re the most unusual man I’ve ever met, Brian. There aren’t many men who appreciate a candle. Of course, you could just be saying all of these things to wow me and not really mean them. You Casanova, you…LOL.”
And there it was again, her skepticism. Brian didn’t blame her, men said plenty to get some, and on the Internet you could be whatever you wanted to be. Callie should be skeptical, but he was determined to prove to her that there really were men whose intent was real. So real he could taste it right now. Callie’s perception of men was colored by her marriage and Brian wanted to change the paint on her palette. “I guess if I were a woman, I’d be skeptical too, but this is really who I am…”
“I’m sorry, Brian. I know I reek of skepticism. You have to admit that you are pretty rare. Lots of men give good game, especially on the Internet. You can be whatever you want and no one has to know. It’s whether you really can back up what you say that counts. Do you know what I mean? I hope I didn’t insult you.”
“Nah, I’m not insulted, but I can guarantee that someday you’ll see that what I say, I always mean.”
There, Callie, your serve. Brian grinned.
* * * *
Callie let that statement sit for a moment. Someday? “What do you mean?”
“I mean that someday we’ll meet, Callie and you’ll know I’m not bullshitting you.”
Meet? As in see each other in a live performance? Oh, oh, oh… ”You live far away, Brian.” Lame answer, but a truism. It was all she had at this point. Brian would be so disappointed to meet her. This fun, flirty woman didn’t exist in real life. In person she was an insecure disaster with a sharp tongue, designed to protect her. In essence, she was exactly what she was accusing Brian of being…a fake. She was pretending to be something she wasn’t.
Crap.
“It’s not that far Callie, and like I’ve said from the beginning, distance is relative. Right now, how about we focus on the fact that we should take each other at face value?”
Oh, good, let’s do that Brian, my face being the two flippin’ faces of Eve and all. “Okay, so I’ll go on believing that you’re a sensitive, yet forceful man and you keep thinking I’m a Victoria’s Secret runway model, k?”
“LOL. Okay. Tell me what you’re thinking right now, Callie.”
She was thinking that this mercenary had an effect on her that was beyond palpable. It was corporeal. She could taste it and when she talked with him it was like nothing else existed. Maybe she just lacked attention and now Brian had added a little water to her dry soil and all of a sudden she was blossoming. How pathetic. “I’m wondering if you wouldn’t be disappointed meeting the real thing. I mean, if you met me in say, Wal-Mart, do you think you’d be attracted to me?” Jesus, that was the most insecure slew of words she’d ever seen in print, Callie thought as she looked at them, glaring back at her on her computer. She cringed with distaste.
“I know I would. Your eyes would have drawn me to you no matter where we met, not to mention the rest of you.”
God, she’d like to buy into that, but she was trying to maintain a good, healthy dose of reality here and men like Brian didn’t like women like Callie. She just couldn’t figure out why he’d invested so much time in this. What could a man like Brian possibly gain from wooing a woman like Callie? If physical release was what Brian was looking for, he could have that anywhere and if he was lookin’ for the goodies, he’d better keep on lookin’ cuz, the goodies were stayin’ in the jar. Callie’s goodies were stale anyway, she thought derisively and then she laughed at her analogy and wondered if it would hold water should she ever actually meet Brian. “I’m very flattered, Brian, but I think I just might disappoint you.”
“I’m sure you think that, Callie, so we’ll just wait and see, won’t we? Until then, just know that I’m nowhere close to disappointed. You make me think, you remind me that there are so many things in life I miss because I’m gone so much.”
The average, everyday stuff that would eventually bore a man like Brian to death. A man who toted guns and ate shrapnel for a midday snack. “I think what you find appealing is my tie to what most people call the nine-to-five world. Maybe a part of you just misses that sometimes, but I get the feeling that your call to duty would supersede anything I have to offer.”
“Why couldn’t I have both? A dose of what you think is so normal and my call to duty too?”
Becau
se you’re gone for months at a time and I don’t need a friggin’ boyfriend who dodges bullets, not rush hour traffic? Hold on there, Ms. I’m not on this site to find the man of my dreams… Brian has no intention of becoming your boyfriend, so chill with the overactive imagination and your projections. “Have you had a relationship that’s lasted with the distances you travel?”
“Truthfully, no I haven’t. But then, I haven’t pursued one. Like I’ve said from the start I’ve only contacted one other woman from the site and I’ve never shared this kind of experience I’m having with you. Not on the site—not with anyone before.”
“But you’ve had relationships…”
“Yes, but not on the level I’ve shared with you in just two days.”
Oh, God, Brian was wearing her down with this thing he claimed was real and honest. He was good with words too, even if they were misspelled.
“I’m nothing if not brutally honest, Callie.”
No kidding, Commando. Callie wanted so much to believe that…as crazy as that might seem to an outsider. “Honesty is something I value above all else. I’ve been lied to a lot in this lifetime, so I sorta suck at picking out the liars of the world.” There, she’d shared something really personal—one of her biggest faults. Callie just took everyone at face value and it always got her into trouble. Naïve is what Katherine said, always looking for the good in everything, yet not seeing it for herself because Callie’s skepticism got in the way.
“The proof is in the pudding, Callie. I suspect it will take you some time to believe in someone again.”
Time. Yes, time was something Callie could claim as a safety net. It kept her from doing something as stupid as marrying a man like Frank ever again. It also kept her at a distance from becoming too involved in life. “Yes, I think the old adage, ‘time heals all wounds’ comes into play here. I’m not so bitter that I hate all men or anything, but my choice in a husband was piss-poor. I don’t want to make the same mistakes again.”
“You know what, Callie?”
“What?”
“I liken this to my airborne days. You know when I’m at the door of the airplane and getting ready to leap into parts unknown? Sometimes you have to stand in the door and jump. Just take the chance that it will all be okay and you’ll land in a safe zone. You might end up bruised or scraped, but the experience was so exhilarating that it was worth it.”
Sexy Lips 66 Page 10
