Page 118 of The Thorne at My Side
He knows my deepest thoughts, he knows my body in ways no one else does. He knows my aspirations.
"I'm so glad you showed up tonight," he says again as he pulls me to his chest and holds my head against him. I can hear his racing heart beat through his jacket. Mine is pounding at a matching pace; again we meet each other in stride.
"I'm so glad it's you. All day I kept hoping it was you."
"I'm so glad you don't hate me anymore."
"I don't think I ever, really, hated you." I admit as I pull back to look up into his eyes.
"Because I'm so handsome?"
"And humble," we laugh.
He reaches up and cradles my head in his hand before slowly lowering down and kissing me gently. Reverently.
My body melts into his and the warmth of his embrace spreads through my body. My fingers thread into his hair and he inhales sharply at the contact. His hand slides down to grip my ass and visions of fucking against a cherry tree have me lifting myleg to wrap around him.
Austin breaks the kiss and smiles at me.
“Hold your horses MC, I’ve got plans.”
???
“Really?” I look at Austin as the car pulls up outside of Lapis.
“I didn’t get to eat last time,” he says over the rim of his glasses which goads me into an affectionate eye roll. “Plus,” he reaches out and interlaces our fingers, “I wanted the chance to redo our first date.”
A blush blooms up my neck and settles in my cheeks as my smile widens. Greg opens the door for us and Austin climbs out first and then reaches back for me. I look up at the restaurant and then glance through the window to see that the table I sat at all those months ago is adorned with a large bouquet of flowers and a bottle of champagne.
“I can’t believe I get to see that smile whenever I want,” Austin says as we sit down at the table.
“You better love my scowl too because I have a feeling you’ll be seeing plenty of that.” I retort as I lift my menu.
“And your O face,” he adds with a finger pointed in the air.
I can’t help myself. I laugh.
The messages with DCFox always made me smile. I think back to the first one I received. He said he researched a list of questions to ask on a first date and found a post with 150 listed. He said he read them all and then picked his favorite to ask me.
If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?
I replied that I’d need to know if it was the Mega Millions Jackpot or a lucky scratch off ticket from a Christmas stocking. If it was a scratch off I’d just stick the cash in my wallet andprobably forget it was there. If it was a big one I’d set up some automatic donations to national public media and maybe fund a journalism scholarship.
The memory makes me chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Austin asks as he picks up his menu.
“Nothing, I was thinking about the first text you sent with the 150 first date questions. I told you I’d donate to public media but I obviously had no idea who you were or who you worked for.”
“Yeah, I loved that. It made me want to talk to you more.”
“I’m glad you did,” I smile and then shake my head because I simply cannot believe I am sitting across from Austin Thorne on our first date when we’ve been talking since last summer and spent the fall together in a sex marathon.
Austin leans forward resting his forearms on the table and folding his hands together. “Alright, should we go through the 150 questions now…or…”
I laugh and he grins. “Did you really bring the list?”
“No, but now that you’ve brought it up I think we should just go through it item by item. Get it all out on the table.”
