Chapter 14: Chapter Thirteen

Celia I tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear and looked around. Some guy over by the jukebox, busy studying the menu, a couple at the bar, some people in the games room. I looked back at the guy by the jukebox, but he wasn’t interested in anything but food. I knew because he didn’t look up, or around, at all.

I smiled at Becky as she walked into the bar and headed straight for a drink. We couldn’t buy alcohol yet, but we could order food and soda. She asked for drinks for us both, and I sat down on the bar stool. I couldn’t help but look around, over and over again. “He should have been here by now, right?”

I muttered the words to my friend, and she sighed with a frown of exasperation.

“Maybe he got caught in traffic. Give him a little time, Celia. Sheesh.” She turned to sip at the glass of tea the barman passed to her and then turned back to join me in my survey.

A shadow darkened the small glass window of the door and I held my breath. The bell dinged over the door and a man in a black sweater that was made for the muscular shoulders it hid walked in. I held my breath, my eyes wide, as I scanned over him.

Light brown hair, a clean-shaven and striking face, with lips that were meant for kissing. And his eyes. Fuck.

I breathed a little, but only little because those piercing, crystalline gray eyes found mine, and I forgot to live, much less breathe. I’d heard that term a million times but never felt it. Not until the moment this man looked at me. I felt like he saw my soul, tore the clothes from it, and then ravished it completely, and that was with only a couple of seconds of him looking into my eyes. His lips stretched over his face, a triumphant smile, and I knew it was him.

“Oh, fuck.” I heard Becky say behind me but ignored her. She didn’t exist anymore. Only he did.

“Celia, fuck! That’s him, the guy from earlier. Celia! Listen to me!” She pulled at my arm and hissed in my ear. I brushed her hand away and walked up to him.

“Hi,” I said simply. “I’m Celia.”

“I’m Keith. I think we’ve exchanged a few texts lately?” He asked, but he knew I was the one.

“I’m Celia,” I said nervously as he said nothing but stared at me.

“It’s lovely to meet you finally.” I couldn’t look away from his face as it came closer, down close to mine. He kissed my left cheek and I leaned into. Already my body yearned for him, and I couldn’t move away from the heat that radiated from him.

Lost. I was lost and I didn’t even care.

“It’s even lovelier to meet you, my dear.” His eyes ate me up again, but they came right back to the blue of my own. “You have such lovely dark blue eyes.”

“Thank you,” I whispered softly with our bodies still close together. I couldn’t make my feet move away from him.

“Entrancing.” He stepped away first and went to the bar. I watched him walk only a foot away from me and took in the view from the back.

The front was all gorgeous business, but the back? A body made for sex, for admiring glances, for my touch. Right there on that pert, round ass. My fingers clenched at my sides, ready to slide over the taut muscles I saw.

“Celia! You can’t do this. Abort the mission. Abort the mission!” Becky stepped closer to me and pulled me around to face her.

I frowned, unhappy to have that view replaced with her face. I looked back and saw his gaze was on me, a cocky smile in place. Oh, he knew I was a goner, and he wasn’t shy about admitting that he knew I would be. Cheeky fucker.

But it made me smile back.

“Celia!” Becky said a little louder and I looked at her, a little miffed with her.

“What, Becky?” It came out a little snarly, a lot more than I meant it to, and she took a step back.

“I warned you about him earlier and he’s not the guy for you. If I’d known that it was him texting you, I would have told you to stop a long time ago. We saw him at the diner earlier. Remember?” She said it softly and I knew I’d hurt her feelings.

“It’s okay. He’s different with me.”

“But Celia, it’s not just hi…,” but I cut her off with a stern look.

“Leave it, Becky. I want to find out where this goes. If it’s a one-night stand, then fucking have a look at him. Who else would you want it to be with?” I sighed as I looked back at him and laughed a little when he winked at me. “And if it’s more? Then look at him…fuck.”

“I’ll leave you to it, then,” she said, and I could tell from her voice that she felt stung. I wanted to apologize, but Keith came up off the bar he’d leaned against and came back to me. She hadn’t pulled me that far away, but it was enough to see the loose swagger of his hips as he came back to me. A swagger that bragged about how well he could use those hips.

I made a sound, something like a whimper, and tilted my head up to look at him. I wasn’t short, but he was at least six foot three. Tall enough that I was forced to look up. It would be a lot of fun to crawl all over him. To grind down onto him as he sat up and sucked on my…

“Care for something a little stronger? I can take you back to my place.” His gaze was on mine and all I could do was nod mutely. He’d interrupted my fantasy, but the heat in his gaze matched mine. He knew exactly where my thoughts were, and we agreed silently that the time for waiting was over.

I know I’d planned to find a boyfriend. That the same plan said I’d wait six months before I gave up my precious gift, but that was a plan made before I saw Keith. Before he’d taught me what real desire was, even through a fucking text message. I was done waiting.

“Okay.”

I heard a sound from Becky but didn’t turn around. I just walked out with a hunk of a man. I never envisioned he would look like this in my fantasy. He was more than I’d ever imagined and there was no way that I wasn’t leaving here without him.

Becky didn’t come from my world. She had no idea how I was feeling right now. I was enthralled and not even my only friend could break that spell. No matter how she tried as I left the bar and left my one friend that I’d had on campus behind.