by Kris Calvert
Kitty pulled the identical emblem attached to a gold chain from inside her beautiful blue silk dress. A Native American symbol, it was the one thing her mother had left behind for her – hope.
Banks climbed down the podium and hugged his sister Grace and shook the hand of her new business partner, Matt Trask. As he made his way through the crowd, glad-handing all the way, Kitty waited patiently at the end of a very long line of well-wishers and back patters for Banks to finally make it to her.
“Spectacular,” Banks said as he approached Kitty, her diaphanous cobalt blue gown gently blowing in the breeze.
“Yes,” Kitty agreed. “It is.”
“I’m talking about you,” Banks said as he leaned in and gave her a lingering kiss on the cheek.
“Oh,” Kitty gasped as she was taken off guard.
“Banks, it’s truly amazing. You should be so proud.”
Banks turned and looked over his shoulder as the piece had lost the light of the sun and was now merely a handsome sculpture minus the magic of the daylight.
“I’m not very good at these things,” Banks confessed. “How long would you like to hang out? Maybe long enough to have a drink and a dance?”
“That sounds perfect,” Kitty agreed.
“I can hear the band from here,” Banks said with a smile as he took her hand and wrapped it around his arm.
Kitty fell deeper in love with Banks Bartel with each breath she took. She made a pact with herself that tonight she would do as Seth had suggested. She would tell him how she felt about him. She would tell him that she loved him.
When they made it into the tent, the band was playing and Banks immediately wanted to dance. “Do you need a drink before we take to the floor?” he asked with a wink. “Or are you ready, willing and able?”
“I’m ready and willing,” she replied. “Whether I’m able I’m afraid you’ll have to judge for yourself.”
Banks led Kitty to the dance floor by the small of her back and Kitty loved how he guided her into place before beginning to move her around the floor in a foxtrot. She felt safe in Banks’ arms and never wanted him to let go of her.
She looked to his hand in hers and thought of how many times she’d dreamed of having a man who loved her and made her feel safe. Here he was, moving her effortlessly across the dance floor after unveiling the most beautiful and personal piece of art she’d ever seen.
Everything about Banks was perfect. Everything about Banks was perfect for Kitty.
As the song came to a close, he twirled her out of his embrace and then back in before kissing her on the cheek.
It wasn’t that Kitty didn’t adore his attention and affection. It was that she wanted more. She wanted to get him alone. She wanted to show him the necklace that hung around her neck. Meeting him was a once in a lifetime chance and she wasn’t willing to let him go. There would never be another Banks. There would never be another time.
“Do you want to get out of here?” Banks asked her as he led her off the dance floor. “I mean, we can stay if you’d like. It’s just that this isn’t really my kind of scene. You know?”
“I absolutely know. Please,” Kitty begged. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Everyone is having a great time. It seems as if it’s coming off without a hitch,” Seth remarked as he looked around inside the tent of the black tie ball.
“Are you having a nice time?” Danielle asked Seth as she brushed a speck of lint off of his lapel.
“Yes,” he agreed.
“Seriously,” Danielle begged. “Are you really having a good time?”
“Well, it would be more fun for me if I didn’t turn into a pumpkin at eleven tonight.”
“I’m sorry,” Danielle nodded. “Is there anything I can do to make it better?”
“You don’t really want me to answer that question, do you?”
“Of course I do,” she replied. “If there was anything you could do tonight, besides skip out on work, what would it be?”
“I just want to spend it with you.”
“I’m right here.”
“I want to spend it with you alone. Not with a few hundred of our closest friends,” he whispered into her neck.
“I can’t leave,” Danielle confessed.
“Neither can I.”
“What do you propose?” Danielle asked with a wicked grin.
“Follow me,” Seth commanded as he took Danielle’s hand in his and led her out of the tent and to the ER doors that were a half a block from the party.
As the automatic doors swooshed open and closed, Seth gave a nod to the staff behind the nurse’s station and walked quickly to his office next to the doctor’s lounge.
Seth fumbled with the keys to the door and quickly opened it, escorting Danielle in behind him. The room was dark as he shuffled his feet and tried to find the light switch on the wall without knocking Danielle to the ground or the piles of paper off his desk.
“It’s dark in here,” Danielle whispered sexily.
“Where are you?” Seth asked as he turned around in a circle trying to find her.
With one click, Seth turned to find Danielle sitting in his office chair, the light from his desk lamp casting a shadow across her perfect frame as she spun the chair to meet him and sexily crossed her legs.
“You’re making me crazy, Danielle,” Seth moaned as he stood at the door and watched her swing the chair back and forth.
Danielle put a finger in her mouth and bit down on it as she smiled and cocked her head to the side.
“Baby,” Seth confessed. “I want you so badly, but not here. Not in this old room where I have to sign charts.”
Danielle said nothing but continued to smile as she uncrossed her legs and switched to the other side.
“You are too good for this. You deserve candles and roses, moonlight and soft music.”
Danielle pulled the finger from her mouth and motioned for Seth to come to her. As his knees hit the floor he had no shame. He realized he would do anything for this woman. Anything except make her feel like nothing more than an object.
Seth dropped his head into her lap and Danielle ran her fingers through his hair. “Don’t do this to me,” he begged.
“What is it you think I’m doing, Seth?” Danielle asked.
“You’re making it impossible for me to say no to you.”
“Do you want to say no to me?”
“I want to worship you. I have such love and respect for you. Enough that I refuse to make love to you in my office.”
Danielle looked into his eyes and for the first time saw what she’d wanted most from a man. Respect.
“Tell me what you want,” Danielle whispered in his ear.
Seth stroked Danielle’s beautiful face with his hands and continued down her tight body, caressing her breasts and kissing her neck. “I want you. But not like this. Our first time together should be perfect – magical,” he gasped.
“Tell me,” Danielle moaned.
“Tomorrow. Noon. My house.”
“Tomorrow?” she groaned as he pushed her dress up her thighs and kissed her legs beginning with her ankles.
She stood and pushed him away, unzipping her back, moving the tiny straps of her black sequined dress off her shoulders, dropping it to the floor.
Danielle stood naked in front of Seth with the exception of her three inch black Louboutin heels.
Seth took her in, all of her. She was beautiful. She was perfect. “Jesus,” Seth sighed. “Is this a test?”
“Do you want it to be?”
“I don’t know. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and this is all going to be a dream.”
Danielle walked toward Seth in her glorious nakedness and kissed his neck as she gripped the pulse of his arousal through his tuxedo pants tightly in her hand. “This is not a dream,” she moaned.
“Oh God, Danielle,” Seth begged.
She unzipped Seth’s pants, allowing them to fall to the ground on their own and beg
an to pull him to her mouth while untying his perfectly knotted bow tie. Easily she slipped each shirt stud from its hole, opening his starched shirt and revealing his hard core.
“Oh God, Danielle,” he moaned again. “This is so hot.”
Pushing his shirt off his shoulders, Seth pulled the sleeves off and tossed the shirt to the side as he slipped off his shoes.
Finally, there was nothing between Danielle and Seth except her three-inch stilettos and his black boxer briefs.
She slid his underwear down his leg at an excruciating pace, and Seth’s driving need strained for Danielle’s loving attention. When she stood again, Danielle looked into Seth’s eyes and held her blue-eyed gaze.
“Did you know,” he whispered as he traced her collarbone with his finger, “that when two people in love stare into each other’s eyes, their heartbeats sync? Two hearts beating as one.”
Danielle nodded. “I knew that.”
“Did you know that I’m falling in love with you?” Seth asked.
Danielle nodded. “I feel the same.”
“I’ve only dreamed of you my entire life.”
“I guess dreams come true.”
Seth picked up Danielle and pushed her against the wall. “I love you, Danielle Trask. You, your mind and your body.”
“Oh God,” Danielle gasped. “Yes.”
When Banks arrived at the doors of his studio, Kitty was surprised to say the least.
“I thought we would go to your place,” Kitty said with a hint of disappointment.
“This is my place,” Banks confessed.
“What?”
“After the storm, I moved into the loft above the studio below. It needed a little work, so I added heat and air conditioning, a master bathroom and expanded the bedroom that I once used to nap in,” he laughed. “I still nap in there, but now I have Egyptian cotton sheets instead of an old quilt.”
“Sounds nice,” Kitty said.
“Good, because there’s something up there I want to show you.”
“Really?” Kitty laughed.
“Not what you’re thinking, Kit.”
“How do you know what I was thinking? I could’ve been thinking anything…anything at all,” she giggled.
“I want to take you upstairs to my little place, pour us a drink and let you take off your shoes,” Banks explained. “And anything else you find uncomfortable.”
Kitty climbed the stairs to his loft apartment and looked over the railing and into the empty pit where his masterpiece once stood. She wondered what he would do next.
“Do you miss not having it in your studio? I mean, now that it’s gone?”
“No. It was time for it to go. Art for me is like a kid that grows up and leaves the nest. You know when it’s time and you just hope you’ve done it justice before it leaves.”
“This is what I wanted to show you,” Banks said, pointing to a charcoal drawing that was Kitty in her short shorts, her hair blowing in the breeze.
“How did you?” she asked.
“I took your picture the day you saved the squirrel. I told you, when I love something I sketch it,” he smiled.
Kitty nodded. “It’s beautiful. No one has ever done anything like this for me before. Thank you.”
“No, Kitty,” Banks sighed. “Thank you.”
“You know, I have something to show you.”
“Really?” Banks smiled as he motioned for her to sit on the couch in the open room.
“Hope.”
“Yes?”
“The symbol. I knew it.”
Banks nodded as he handed her a glass of wine. “Makes sense. You’re Native American.”
“Well, my mother was. I don’t know about my father, but my mother –”
“Kat?” Banks interjected.
“That’s right. My mother, Kat, well she left me with two things. The name Kitty and this,” Kitty said as she walked to Banks and pulled the charm from around her neck.
“Wait,” Banks shook his head in confusion. “You’ve had that all along?”
Kitty nodded and then looked to the floor.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She turned and sat down taking a sip of her wine. With each movement she made, her blue dress flowed and Banks found it beautiful and erotic.
“Kitty, do you believe in signs?” Banks asked as he cozied up next to her and pulled his black tie loose.
“I don’t believe in fate,” Kitty whispered.
“No?” he asked as he took her wine away and set it on the table in front of them and moved in closer. “What do you believe in?”
“I believe in lots of things,” Kitty whispered as Banks kissed her neck, slowly making his way to her ear.
“Yes?” he asked as he slid his hand down the back of her dress and slowly unzipped the silk bodice.
“I believe in God.”
“Mmmhmm,” Banks agreed as he kissed her neck and slid the shoulders of her dress off to dangle on the sides of her muscular and lean arms.
“I believe in miracles,” Kitty moaned as Banks leaned her back on the couch and pushed her dress down to capture her breast in his mouth.
“Mmmhmmm,” Banks agreed as he sucked the tortured peak of her hard nipple, sending a charge through Kitty’s body as his manhood strained against his trousers.
Quickly Banks stood and took off his white shirt, displaying his hard and tightly strung core. As he kicked off his shoes and dropped his pants revealing his naked hardness, Kitty watched in anticipation of what was to come.
“What else do you believe in, my love?” Banks asked as he picked Kitty up off the couch and carried her into the bedroom.
Laying her down on the king bed, he stood over her, his strong, hard body and driving need glistened as he leaned into her and pulled the blue gown over Kitty’s narrow hips and to the ground.
“I love romance,” Kitty gasped as Banks worked his way up her body, stopping to remove her white silk thong and promptly kissing her delicate softness.
“Yes,” he murmured as he kissed his way to Kitty’s face.
“I believe in love,” Kitty breathed into Banks’ mouth between each kiss as he stroked her mouth with his tongue.
Banks pulled away and looked deep into Kitty’s eyes. “I believe in you.”
Kitty nodded.
“I believe I love you.”
“I don’t believe. I know. I love you.”
One year later…
Kitty Bartel chatted with the catering manager as the crew served the food and drinks. Tonight Kitty and her husband Banks were hosting an engagement party for her very best friend, Seth Newman and his wife to be, Danielle Trask.
They’d chosen the two-story art studio as the location for the party. It was large enough to accommodate all the guests, it was off the beaten path and it was empty, as Banks had recently finished a sculpture and shipped it off in just enough time to clean and decorate. Everything was perfect.
“Sweetheart,” Banks called to Kitty. “Will you join me? I’d like to make a toast.”
Kitty walked through the tables, checking them one by one as she made her way to the front of the dinner party. Seth’s wife to be was a woman who knew how to plan and host a dinner party down to a grain of salt. Kitty wanted to make sure this party was flawless.
As newlyweds Banks and Kitty Bartel stood in front of the small crowd and raised their glasses, Kitty thought back to her own wedding. She and Banks had recently returned from two weeks in Europe and a week in Alaska where they ate pasta and drank wine in Italy, toured the Louvre in Paris and visited Native American sculpture in Alaska. Still basking in the afterglow of their three week honeymoon, their friends could barely tolerate being around the two of them and most made the get a room comment after hanging out with them for an hour or more. Even Banks’ sister Grace who was pregnant with her first child commented that she was nauseous enough already and didn’t need to see Banks and Grace kissing and groping each other twenty-four seven. Wh
en Banks reminded his sister that her boyfriend and partner Matt had groped her enough to produce a new Bartel family member due at Christmas, she simply smiled and said, “Isn’t love grand?”
Banks stared at the faces in the crowd as he raised his glass to toast Seth and Danielle and found himself speechless. Turning to Kitty, he sighed and gave her a wink and she knew that was her cue to take over.
“We want to thank everyone for coming together tonight to celebrate the engagement of Seth and Danielle. I have to say I knew this day would come. A couple of days after Seth met his betrothed he told me she was different. She was different because she didn’t want anything to do with him.”
The crowd chuckled and Seth shook his head at his best friend and then blew her a kiss.
“I just want to say,” Kitty continued. “That Banks and I are thankful every day for each other, for his sister Grace, who’s expecting her first baby with her partner, Matt. And for Matt’s sister who is marrying my best friend.”
Kitty paused as she looked back to Banks and smiled. “You know, life can change on a dime and it’s a beautiful thing how mourning can turn to dancing. So I want to raise a glass and propose a toast to Seth and Danielle. Life is short. So break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anyone or anything that made you smile. To life.”
“To life!”
Kris Calvert is a former copywriter and PR mercenary who after some coaxing began writing romance novels. She loves alliteration, pearls and post-it notes. She’s married to the man of her dreams and lives in Lexington, Kentucky. She’s Momma to two kids, now in college – one at the University of Kentucky, and one at New York University-Tisch. She is also responsible for one very needy dog. When she’s not writing, she’s baking cupcakes.
If you’d like to become a part of the Moonlight and Magnolias Team where you’ll get advanced copies of books, cool swag and even have input on upcoming novels, drop me a line at kriscalvert.com.
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