Valentine's Dream: Love Changes EverythingSweet SensationMade in Heaven

by Sandra Kitt

  “What happened?”

  “The good guys won,” Eric replied.

  An officer came forward and handed Eric some ointment and a gauze pad. “Couldn’t find a Band-Aid, but this should do.”

  “Thanks,” Eric said, accepting the items.

  “Eric, what happened to you?”

  The officer grinned and perched on the edge of the desk. “Mr. Fitzgerald here showed us up. Caught a mugger right around the police station.”

  “I had parked my car and was going to walk around the building just in case you parked on the other side. I heard a woman screaming, and then this guy came tearing past me.”

  “Mr. Fitzgerald pursued him. Wrestled the guy to the ground. But he managed to squiggle away. The idiot ran into the building across the street from here, hoping to get away.”

  Eric grinned and the cops started laughing.

  Val looked from Eric to the officers. “What’s so funny?”

  “The building across the street is the city jail.”

  Val joined in the chuckles. Then she stepped forward and touched the area around the scrape on Eric’s temple. “Should I take you to the hospital?”

  Eric pulled her hand down and kissed her fingers. “No. I’m fine. I’ll put some of this ointment on it. It’s just a scrape.”

  “You’re all done here, Mr. Fitzgerald,” the desk officer told him. “You may be called as a witness when this goes to trial.”

  Eric nodded. He made a quick stop in the men’s room, then joined Val at the elevator.

  Val looked him over. He’d applied the ointment but forewent the bandage. “Looks like this used to be a nice vest,” Val observed, eyeing the rip in the fabric.

  “You know,” he said as the elevator doors closed, “you’re really rough on my clothes.”

  A few moments later the doors opened to Val’s laughter. “You can’t hold me responsible for the adventures you wander into.”

  “I seem to find these adventures only when I’m on my way to see you.”

  Val looked over her shoulder at him and smiled as Eric held the door for her. “Had we gone to a nice French-Oriental restaurant for this date, your clothes would be in one piece.”

  “True,” Eric conceded. “But I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to impress you with my heroic deed.”

  Val chuckled. “Touché. I am suitably impressed.”

  They walked the short distance to Eric’s car. As he held the door open for her, Val asked, “Do we need to go to your place so you can get changed? And you know, you really should be wearing a coat. It’s not summertime out here.”

  Eric closed her door and walked around to the driver’s side. By the time he slipped into the seat next to her, he’d come out of the vest. “No need to change. The shirt is fine.” He glanced at her, then with a devilish smile added, “You’re not getting out of that fast food that easily.”

  Val snapped a finger. “Darn. I thought I had you.”

  Eric laughed. “And my coat is right here,” he said, indicating some black leather. “It’s not that cold.”

  Eric started the ignition. “Do you mind if we eat before we play? I’m starving.”

  “Fine with me,” Val said. She patted the small handbag in her lap. “I’m armed with the antacids we’ll need following this feast.”

  Chuckling, Eric paid the lot attendant and headed toward the interstate. Less than twenty minutes later he turned into a fast-food lot. Eric pulled into a parking space.

  “No cheating, Eric. The wheel said drive-through.”

  Eric glanced at Val and grinned as he put the vehicle in reverse. “I thought you’d forgotten about that part.”

  “No such luck,” she said in good humor. “I’m holding you to this spin-the-wheel thing.”

  A few minutes later they sat in the car, digging burgers and fries out of paper bags. Val took a sip of her vanilla shake while Eric turned the radio to a cool jazz station.

  Val fed him a French fry. “The roses were a wonderful surprise. Thank you.”

  “My pleasure, beautiful Valentine.”

  “Normally I bristle when people call me that.”

  “You bristle when men call you beautiful?”

  A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I mean when people call me Valentine.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of the whole Valentine’s Day thing. Most of the time I just let people assume my name is Valerie. It saves on the explanations and the inevitable chuckles.”

  “I think it’s very special that your birthday coincides with such a romantic holiday. You seem to me to be a very romantic woman.”

  Val shook her head. “Not a romantic bone in the body,” she said. “You never did finish your definition of romance yesterday. Maybe you’ll describe something that I might construe as romantic.”

  “You didn’t think the flowers were romantic?” he quietly asked.

  Val looked at him, then, inexplicably shy, she glanced away. “Well, actually yes. But, well...”

  “You just want to give me a hard time?” he supplied.

  Val’s shoulders shook as she tried not to laugh. “Something like that.”

  “I’m glad you liked them.”

  They both seemed to run out of words. They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes while a sweet saxophone provided soothing background on the radio. Val reached a hand over to capture a bit of ketchup at the corner of Eric’s mouth. She brought her finger back to her mouth and licked it.

  Eric’s hunger growing, he intently watched her. He placed his half-finished burger on the dash as he leaned toward Val. She met him halfway, staring at him with a longing that surprised him. His answering gaze was as soft as a caress and as hard as steel. A shiver ran through Val...and then the waiting was over.

  Val gave herself up to Eric and into the kiss.

  His lips, warm and sweet, danced a gentle melody along her senses. Val sighed into his embrace and felt Eric’s large hand toy with the hair at her nape. She moaned his name and Eric deepened the kiss.

  He was simply kissing her, yet Eric was content, at peace. Even as other parts of his body registered an urgency that demanded attention, Eric took his time, savoring, nibbling, loving Val in this simple way. Yes, he wanted her. He could admit that without shame. But more than sex, he wanted forever with Val.

  She’d come into his life and in short order turned his world upside down. When he felt her hands in his hair, Eric slanted his mouth over hers, yet again deepening the kiss. His own mouth burned with a fire that he didn’t want slaked.

  An insistent and rude tone eventually brought them apart. “This has been a test of the emergency broadcast system,” a radio announcer’s voice said.

  Val gave him a trembly smile, then touched a delicate finger to her lips. She halfway expected to feel a brand. “No one has ever kissed me like that,” she said.

  “Good.”

  “You make me want things.”

  “Val, you don’t know the half of what you make me want.”

  Eric wanted forever. If he didn’t think he’d scare her away, he’d propose right on the spot. For years he’d relied on the still, quiet voice in him for advice on everything from business moves to relationships. The voice was ringing in triumph now and had been practically from the moment he set eyes on her. He wanted her as his woman, as his life partner. But Val, by her own admission, had hangups about the type of relationship they were falling into headfirst. Eric figured he needed a plan to change her mind. The problem was, he didn’t have a plan. He just had a throbbing and insistent need that was making it difficult for him to concentrate.

  Val glanced out the window and tried to catch her breath. Things were moving so fast, yet it seemed as if her life, and particularly the past five minutes, had been in slow motion.

  Eric started the engine and then ran a hand over his face. “What are we going to do, Val?”

  She turned toward him and gave a small shrug. “I don’t kn
ow,” she said honestly.

  Val finished off her milk shake and Eric ate the few remaining cold fries. Eric found a parking spot at the arcade, then went around and opened Val’s door for her.

  “You forgot your coat,” she said.

  Eric shook his head. “I need to cool down.”

  Val glanced away, but Eric captured her chin in his hand and turned her face toward him. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers.

  “Don’t be afraid of my desire, Val. We’re not going to do anything until we’re both ready.”

  Val nodded. But as they walked hand in hand into the arcade, Val wondered what more they could possibly need to be ready.

  They entered the dark cave of the arcade and were immediately assailed by the striking, pinging and ringing of the games. Val looked up at Eric and grinned. “I used to be a whiz at Pac-Man.”

  Eric nodded. “Let’s just see how you fare in Mortal Kombat.”

  They spent the next two hours feeding quarters and tokens into machines. Then the trouble started.

  It began with a few loud voices in the back of the arcade. The squabble became louder as more people went to check out the disturbance. The verbal altercation erupted into a physical one when someone threw a punch.

  Eric assessed the situation and was leading Val to the door, when security guards arrived with a police officer. Eric and Val were detained at the door by a burly guard whose countenance didn’t bode well for anyone who crossed him.

  “Sir, we were just leaving,” Eric said.

  “Not so fast, buddy. Nobody leaves out of here until we get to the bottom of this.”

  “But we aren’t involved,” Eric said.

  The guard smirked and pointedly stared at the bruise at Eric’s temple. “That’s what they all say, pal. Step aside and don’t move too fast.”

  Eric flared up, but Val put a restraining hand at his chest. “He’s just doing his job, Eric.”

  Val directed them to a place near the door but far removed from the hot spot in the arcade.

  A few minutes later two guards escorted three youths from the arcade.

  “Hey, what about this one?” the security guard called out while pointing to Eric.

  “Now, wait just one minute here. I’m a law-abiding citizen.”

  “Eric, shh. You’re going to make matters worse. Don’t antagonize the man,” Val said.

  “I’m not antagonizing him. He’s accusing me of being in a brawl.”

  “What’s the problem over here, folks?” the police officer said, approaching Val and Eric with the security guard in tow.

  The big guard nodded toward them. “They were trying to slip out when we got here.”

  “We weren’t slipping anywhere,” Eric protested. “We were leaving.”

  “Mr. Fitzgerald?” the officer asked.

  Eric took a closer look at the cop in the dark arcade. “Oh, hi,” Eric said when he recognized one of the police officers from the earlier fracas at the police station. “This seems to be our night for landing where the trouble is.”

  “We were playing right over there,” Val said, pointing to a game a few feet away, “when the commotion broke out back there. What happened?”

  The cop shook his head, then smiled at Val. “Couple of kids arguing over the high score. We’ll take ’em downtown. Pardon me if this seems rude, but are you two out on a date or something?”

  The cop’s puzzled look made Val smile.

  Eric, who hadn’t missed the man’s perusal of Val, frowned.

  “Mmm-hmm,” Val answered. “Thought we’d try something different.”

  Eric wrapped an arm about Val’s waist. “Are we free to go?” he asked the officer.

  The cop took in Eric’s possessive stance, then nodded and extended a hand to Eric. “Maybe we’ll see you again before your date ends.”

  Eric shook hands with the man and steered Val toward the arcade’s exit.

  “That’s my kind of woman,” the cop observed to the security guard. “Too bad she’s hanging out with such a cheapskate. What kind of man takes a woman to an arcade for a date?”

  Val, who overheard the comment, looked back at the cop, smiled and waved.

  They walked around the mall’s food court for a few minutes.

  “You do know how to provide an action-packed evening,” Val observed as the last security guards left the arcade.

  They stopped at a frozen yogurt stand.

  Eric cut a glance at her. “I don’t want you to dump me because you think I’m dull.”

  “Not a chance of that happening,” she said, smiling.

  They ordered frozen yogurt in waffle cones and sat down to eat the treat. Later, when they finished, they walked hand in hand back to Eric’s car.

  “Where to now?” she asked.

  “How about we pick up your car and then head to my place.”

  “To do what?” But Val took one look at Eric and knew what he had in mind.

  “Show you my etchings?” he asked with a waggle of his eyebrows.

  Delighted, Val laughed out loud. “Oh, you’ll have to come up with something better than that.”

  Chapter 7

  But a moment later Val noticed how late it had gotten. By the time they picked up her car from the police station and Eric followed her home, it was after eleven.

  They watched the end of the television news, then laughed through the monologue of a late-night talk show host.

  “Can I get you a glass of wine?” Val asked during a commercial break.

  Eric shook his head no. “I don’t drink.”

  Curious, Val turned to look at him. “Why?”

  After the question was out, she realized how rude it could be construed to be. Maybe he was an alcoholic. With that thought, Val realized she still searched for his fatal flaw. No man could be as perfect as Eric made himself seem.

  Eric slipped an arm around her shoulders. Without thinking, Val nudged her shoes off and stretched out on the comfortable sofa, her head in Eric’s lap.

  Eric’s arm surrounded her waist. He looked down at her and smiled. “Alcohol is an acquired taste. In college I did the beer thing because that’s what college students do. As for the other stuff—” Eric shrugged “—I can take it or leave it. I never really got into it.”

  “What about your escort dates? Weren’t you in social situations where you had to drink?”

  “You’re never in a situation where you have to do something that goes against your will. In each and every moment people have choices and make choices.”

  A slight grin from him had Val smiling. “What?”

  “I think being a nondrinker boosted my marketability. The company and my ‘dates’ knew they didn’t have to worry about me getting drunk and embarrassing them or wrapping their expensive cars around trees.”

  “So are you telling me you’re a man without vices?”

  Eric shook his head. “No,” he said. “I have one vice that consumes me.”

  Val raised her eyebrows.

  “You’re it. My one and only vice,” he said.

  He felt more than saw Val smile. Eric liked the way they fit each other. They looked and felt like an old married couple, comfortable in their late-night snuggling while watching television.

  Eric lowered his head to hers and kissed her. She tasted sweet and faintly of the yogurt they’d had at the mall. More than anything, he wanted to stay right where he was for the rest of his life. He marveled at the sense of grounding and rightness he felt with Val. They were meant to be together.

  When the talk show came back on, Val turned to her side. Resting an elbow over his knee, she watched the program and settled into the soothing and warm feelings emanating from Eric’s hands at her stomach and in her hair. With his palm flattened against her middle and his thumb doing an absentminded caress, Val’s insides turned to mush.

  Val purred and turned to face him. The movement caused his hand to brush over her breast. Val arched into the accidental cares
s.

  “Eric?”

  Eric took the tremor in her voice to be apprehension. He closed his eyes and held his breath for a moment to get himself under control. Val turned him on like no other woman. Yet she remained fearful.

  Eric opened his eyes and gazed into the big brown ones that were so serenely compelling. Maybe he’d been mistaken. Had he misread passion and longing for fear? Without a word he ran a hand from her waist to her breast, lingering at the fullness of her bosom. When Val didn’t object, he settled his hand over her and gently squeezed.

  The plaintive moan could have come from either of them. Eric wasn’t sure where it originated, but it echoed the need in him. Beneath his palm he felt her respond to his touch. Eric lost himself in the feel of her.

  Val gloried in the gentle touch. Eric’s slow hand didn’t rush her. If anything, he moved too maddeningly slow. This man, in just a few short days, had found the key and unlocked her heart. She wanted to give herself to him, not as a capitulation to desire, but in celebration of the oneness she felt with him and for him.

  She reached her unsteady left hand up and brought his head to her mouth. Her right hand covered his, and when he would have removed his hand from her breast, she stayed him, adding pressure that built not just there but through her body. She ached for the fulfillment she knew she’d find when they came together.

  But now, right now, she wanted more of his hot mouth, more of the caresses that made her breasts expand and fill his hand. As they greedily kissed each other, she guided his hand from her bosom to her stomach. They lingered there for a moment, and then she guided their merged hands lower, and lower still.

  The telephone rang.

  Eric and Val jumped apart, Val sitting up with a quickness that made her head spin.

  “What?” Eric asked.

  Disoriented, it took them both a minute to realize what the interruption had been. Val’s voice on her business answering machine echoed from the other room. “You have reached Sanders and Associates Court Reporting. Our office is closed now. Please leave a short message, your telephone number and the best time for us to return your call.”

  Val sat on the edge of the sofa and smoothed her hair into place.

  Eric took a couple of deep breaths and tried to dissipate the sensual fog he seemed to be surrounded in.