This must be a dream. It has to be. No way is this my real kitchen, my real morning, my real life. No way would Zander, the God of Gorgeousness, be in my kitchen with his big strong hands on my hips, telling me that he wants to kiss the shit out of me.
Breathe, Kate. Breathe in. Breathe out.
“Thank you,” I croak as I turn around and grab the coffee he's poured for me.
“Anytime, Kate. I can make you breakfast too if you like,” he replies, the sly smile on his lips making sure I know that he knows what he's doing to me.
“Is it dinner for breakfast?” I ask, raising a brow and smirking at him, trying to hold back a grin.
“Very funny. I'll have you know that pancakes for dinner works every time. It worked last night, didn't it? You agreed to go on a date with me.” He walks around the island and sits down in front of a coffee mug and a bowl of cereal.
“You kind of told me I was going out on a date with you.” I lean forward, resting my elbows on the counter opposite where he's sitting, cradling my coffee.
“You still said okay,” he says with a smirk, drinking his coffee as my attention falls to his Adam's apple and then down to his chest. He's wearing a grey wife beater that gives me an unobstructed view of his toned arms. Actually, toned is too tame of a word; muscular, herculean even.
“I'll give you that one, but I don't eat till a bit later. So, our date today. Where are we going? A woman needs to have at least an idea of what to wear.” I look up and see him staring intensely at my cle**age. Oh yes, Zander. Two of us can play this game.
“They, I mean, you look gorgeous in anything.” He shakes his head, and his eyes rise to meet mine. He looks like the kid that has just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
I raise an eyebrow at him, and he grins at me. “Hey, I can't help it. I'm a guy, and it's a gorgeous rack.” He shrugs his shoulders, and I giggle.
“Boob man?”
“Anything Kate man.” Oh my god. Swoon!
“I'll let you off this time,” I say, smirking at him. “So clothes. Should I dress up, or down, or what?”
He raises his hand to his jaw and rubs his chin as if he's contemplating a chess move or something. “Okay, dress casual, comfortable, and able to walk for a little bit. Does that give you enough to work with?”
“That is perfect. I know just the thing. What time should I be ready by?” It's about now that I get lost in his eyes. I can see his mouth moving, but it's almost like a blur to me.
“Babe?” he asks, snapping me out of my blatant daydream.
“Ah, yeah. Sorry. So this afternoon?”
“Around one, babe. That work for you?”
“Of course.” I drink the last of my coffee and stand back up, putting my mug in the sink. “Well, I might go do some laundry, and maybe pop out and get groceries, but I'll make sure I'm dressed casual, comfortable and able to walk by one o'clock.”
“That reminds me. I need to give you some money for food.”
“Don't worry about it, Zan. It's fine.”
“No, it's not.” He stands up, grabs his wallet from his back pocket, and pulls out four fifty dollar bills before holding them out to me. I can't help but see that there was at a lot more where that came from. An invisible bucket of cold water drenches me as I remember how he earns that money. “Take it, Kate. I need to pay my way. You're doing me a favor by letting me stay here, so let me pay for the groceries,” he says. His voice is determined, so I just nod as he puts the money in my hand.
“Ok. Thank you. Well, I'll just see you later on then.”
“For sure. I'm looking forward to our first proper date,” he replies, smiling at me like I'm the most beautiful girl in the world. Shit, I could get used to this kind of attention.
I start to walk away, but then I stop, turn around and look at the fine specimen of a man that wants to date me.
“Zan, just so you know, I'm really looking forward to today too.” I turn and walk away with an extra swing in my hips for good measure as I feel the heat of his stare on my ass as I reach my room.
ZANDER
I have a confession.
Last night I carried out some reconnaissance and gathered some intel on Kate from Mac. I mean, who knows a girl better than her best friend? She told me to do something simple and easy going, don't try too hard to impress her straight off the bat, and to just be myself. So in short, Mac didn't really help me a lot. But since I've been thinking about what I would do and where I would go if I were to go on a date with her, I already knew where the date will start off.
Sitting in the living room waiting for Kate to come out of her room is torture. I'm actually nervous about a lot of things, the date included, of course. Will the date be what she imagined, or will it be too low key and casual for her? You can't imagine all the scenarios that are running through my head right now.
This morning, when I was messaging her as nightdancer, I felt really guilty about the whole internet dating thing. I should be honest with her. I should just come clean and tell her that I'm nightdancer and that I'm the one she's been talking to for the past five weeks. It should be as simple as that, right?
I'm worried about possible awkwardness if this dating thing doesn't go well between us. Amazingly, some of my normal dating concerns are null and void with Kate. I know she doesn't just want me for my body, but I know she likes what she sees because I've caught her checking me out a few times now, but I'm totally fine with my firebird checking me out. Every which way from Sunday, she can look and touch and…well, you get the picture. I definitely felt relieved when she said to me online this morning that she wasn't worried about awkwardness.
I hear her clear her throat, and I look up to be met by the hottest pair of legs I've seen in a long, long time.
My eyes travel up to a sunshine yellow dress, her hands clutching a silver handbag in front of her, then up to a silver drop necklace falling in the lush valley between her br**sts. I see her beautiful face, her blue eyes sparkling down at me, and I'm completely and utterly hooked. Holy crap, I totally underestimated the effect this woman has on me. I stand up and run my hands down her bare arms from her shoulders down to her wrists.
“You look beautiful, Kate.”
I see the slight pink tinge of her cheeks as she looks down at the ground. Damn she's cute.
Leaning forward, I press my lips to her warm cheek, resisting the urge to wrap my hand around her waist, pull her up against me, and crash my lips against hers. “Shall we go?”
“Yeah. Let's do this.”