“Mmm, how about I kiss the cook,” Torie said, licking deviled egg from her fingers.
“Promises, promises.”
They ate and talked some more about Torie’s new role, a topic that made Torie’s light eyes shine even more brightly than they did.
“When you were a little girl, was acting the dream you held for yourself?” Monte wanted to know.
“I was seven when I decided that I wanted to act. I remember telling my mother that I thought the most powerful people in the world were people who could make others laugh, cry, be happy or sad, just with a few words or a smile. She thought I was just being what she liked to call my usual dramatic little self, but I was serious. I never wanted any other career.”
“So you’re doing what you love. Isn’t that the best feeling in the world?”
Torie lay back on the blanket, staring up at the sky for a moment before answering. She searched for the words to describe how she felt. Monte lay beside her and held her hand.
“It is. It’s acting out a fairy tale,” she answered at last. “What about you? Did you always want to be a lawyer?”
“Nah, I wanted to be a pilot. I thought I’d go into the air force, learn how to navigate planes and eventually end up in space operations.”
“Wow, space? Don’t tell me you wanted to walk on the moon?”
“I hadn’t really thought that far, but, hey, you never know. But I quickly realized that I didn’t want to end up in a war so the air force was probably not the best way to avoid that. Besides, my mom was always dropping hints about how nice it would be to have a lawyer in the family.” Monte smiled.
He rose up on one elbow so that he could peer down into Torie’s face.
“Oh, don’t I know about that mother pressure,” Torie exclaimed, rolling her eyes.
“Yeah, but it actually turned out to be a good thing for me. I went to law school, absolutely fell in love with the field and, voilà, here I am.”
“Here you are,” Torie replied, staring into Monte’s eyes.
Monte glided two fingers down the side of Torie’s cheek, amazed at the softness of her skin.
“Tell me about your father.”
“There’s not much to tell. I guess I don’t even remember him, at least not much other than what my mother told me,” Monte mused.
“Do you know if you look like him?”
“Yeah, I look exactly like him. It’s funny because sometimes you hear that when a woman and man split up and that man leaves their child or children behind, the mother can take her anger out on the poor kid. It’s especially bad when the kid looks like the father. But not my mother. My mother always told me how handsome I was, how much she loved me. Even though my father left her to struggle on her own, she held his little boy close, looked in a face that was the spitting image of his father’s and loved him,” Monte finished wistfully.
“That’s beautiful.” Torie smiled. “I bet that’s why you’re such a great dad.”
“How do you know what kind of father I am?”
“Well, because every time you talk about one of your sons, there’s this dreamy proud-papa look that comes into your eyes. And you smile at the mere mention of their names. And you work hard, for them.” Torie paused. “And you’ve helped them go on through what has to be the worst thing that can happen to a little boy.”
Torie reached up and touched the side of Monte’s face. He turned his face to kiss the palm of her hand.
“I find your patriarchy incredibly sexy, Mr. Lewis.”
The way she looked up at him, her gaze a mixture of seduction and timidity, made his heart flutter with equal strength as in his loins. His lips found hers and an immediate electric bolt shot through him, causing his senses to sing. Their kiss was slow and probing, neither of them felt the need to rush. They wanted to savor each moment, as if by doing so they could lock the seconds of pleasure into their memories forever.
Monte’s tongue slid deliberately over Torie’s, intertwined with it in a sexy waltz without music. She sucked on his bottom lip as if trying to extract its very essence and nibbled at his top lip, making a sensual meal out of him. Monte’s breathing sped up as he grew more aroused. He could feel the blood rushing to his manhood and, try as he might to slow the tempo of his sexual longing down, he was powerless to ebb the flow of the current that was propelling him forward. Suddenly, he broke the connection of their lips, leaning back slightly to look at Torie’s angelic face.
“Are you okay…with this?” he asked.
“Better than okay,” Torie answered as she moved her hand to the back of Monte’s head and let her fingers roam through the thick curly hair. “You are quite the kisser, Mr. Lewis.”
“You’re not half-bad yourself.” Monte smiled.
He planted a small peck on Torie’s lips.
“Have I told you how absolutely breathtaking this place is?” Torie said. “You are absolutely breathtaking, Torie Turner,” Monte replied.
Torie’s smile radiated from her eyes. The perfection of the day seemed almost too good to be true. If one of her girlfriends were telling her this story, she would caution her that she was moving too fast. She would say that three weeks was nowhere near enough time to get to know a man and that her friend was being caught up in a lust that was clouding her judgment. However, she would only be looking from the outside, and from that vantage point there was no way to understand what happens when two souls connect on the basest level. The past three weeks had been free from pretention or game playing. They had not allowed anyone or anything from the outside to interfere with or influence their courtship and, as a result, they had been free to be entirely open and honest about their attraction to each other. Torie did not feel that they were moving too quickly, and while she didn’t join him at the lake with the intention of moving their relationship to the next level sexually, it was beginning to feel as though that were the next logical place for them to go.
“I want you, Torie,” Monte said, as if reading her mind.
Torie searched his eyes and it was clear that he felt the magnetic pull as strongly as she did. It was a force that was greater than both of them and far more evolved than pure lust. Torie kissed Monte firmly on the lips, hoping to convey what she didn’t trust words to express.
“Baby,” Monte said softly but firmly, “these past few weeks have been amazing. I…I didn’t expect this. I wasn’t looking for anyone, but there you appeared. I feel like you came into my life at the precise moment you did for a reason. I believed that I could make a happy life for myself, my boys and my mother and be satisfied with that. But, Torie, you’ve made me realize that there’s a part of me that’s been unsatisfied and unhappy.”
“Monte, I don’t know what to say. This feels too good to be true,” Torie whispered.
“You don’t have to say anything. I know it’s too early to think about what’s going to happen in the future, and I don’t care about that at this moment. All I know is that, right here, right now, this is all that matters.”
Monte stopped talking, as if all the words that had poured out of him had left him exhausted. He searched for an escape from the frenzy of emotions that were racing through him, but there was no such escape.
“Torie, I’ve been alone for a long time. To be honest, I think I was preparing myself to spend the rest of my life alone. I feel like a big kid, unsure and clumsy.”
“I think that’s another thing that’s so endearing about you, Monte. The fact that I’m not just another notch on a very long belt for an incredibly gorgeous man,” Torie replied.
“I’m not