candles. Thirty of those little suckers produced some impressive heat.
“Did you make a wish, baby?” My mom asked as she rubbed circles on my back. I don’t care how old I get, that shit will always be comforting. Watching her watch Luca, however, was causing a mid-grade panic rise up in my chest. That was far from comforting.
“I did, mom, but I can’t tell you what for.” Telling her that my birthday wish was standing across the room and he was just waiting for the opportunity to nail me into the floor was not an option. Somehow I doubted that would convince her to leave me alone with him any quicker.
“Who’s the hottie?” Rachel asked. She picked up a large chef’s knife and cut the cake into perfect little squares. She and I own a catering company together and I saw her signature all over the food in the room. I had no idea how she’d created this feast, especially the cake, without me finding out.
“Hottie?” I tried like hell to sound casual, but my voice went up on the end and I there was no way to pretend that I didn’t know who she was talking about. “His name is Luca. I was on my way to meet him when you intercepted me.”
Rachel stopped plating cake and stared at me open-mouthed. “Are you fucking kidding me? How is it this is the first I’m hearing about it?”
“Rachel, please don’t make a deal of it right now. I’ll tell you later.” I tried to motion subtly toward my mom. If ever there was a time for Rachel and I to develop a form of telepathic communication, this was it. No way was I interested in announcing for my mom and the rest of my family to hear that Luca was my booty call. All I knew about him could be summed up in one sentence: He was too beautiful for words, he had a smile that inspired me to do very naughty things, and he was hard for me when we arrived here an hour ago.
I took over where Rachel left off and started handing out cake to the guests. With any luck, they’d all slide quickly into a sugar coma and I’d be able to escape.
“Mari, look who I found.” Ricky stood next to our mom, his arm around Luca’s shoulders like they were buddies. I pictured Ricky with Rachel’s knife sticking out of his temple. It helped calm the flash of rage he’s stirred.
Luca stepped in and pressed a kiss to my cheek like this wasn’t our first time meeting in person. “You’re beautiful.” He whispered the words into my ear and his voice melted the part of my brain that controlled basically everything.
All I could manage in response was, “Gah . . .” I wanted to drop to my knees and find out for myself if he was still hard.
Luca pulled me into his side, protecting me from my overly curious family and friends. I snuggled into the crook of his arm and thought seriously about sticking out my tongue at Rachel, or possibly kicking Ricky in the nuts. I couldn’t decide, so I did neither. Instead I focused on regaining the power of speech. I looked up at Luca and said, “I planned to meet you later.” Amazingly, all the words came out properly and I didn’t sound like I had marshmallow fluff where my brain used to be.
“Ricky expla ined.” He shrugged and never had a dismissive gesture been so fucking sexy before. “I didn’t want to wait to see you.”
“Mari, introduce your friend.” My mom’s smile was so big there was a real possibility of it splitting her face in two. After my divorce, I didn’t date very often, and when I did, I didn’t tell her. I overheard her talking to a friend a while back and she said she was afraid I’d given up men completely to become a lesbian. She looked at Luca like the souls of her future grandchildren rested entirely on him. At least she had enough tact to refer to him as my friend even if in her mind she already had us married off and making babies.
I glared at Ricky. If we’d been standing closer to one another, I would have gone ahead with the plan to kick him in the balls and then begged forgiveness from my mom
“Did you make a wish, baby?” My mom asked as she rubbed circles on my back. I don’t care how old I get, that shit will always be comforting. Watching her watch Luca, however, was causing a mid-grade panic rise up in my chest. That was far from comforting.
“I did, mom, but I can’t tell you what for.” Telling her that my birthday wish was standing across the room and he was just waiting for the opportunity to nail me into the floor was not an option. Somehow I doubted that would convince her to leave me alone with him any quicker.
“Who’s the hottie?” Rachel asked. She picked up a large chef’s knife and cut the cake into perfect little squares. She and I own a catering company together and I saw her signature all over the food in the room. I had no idea how she’d created this feast, especially the cake, without me finding out.
“Hottie?” I tried like hell to sound casual, but my voice went up on the end and I there was no way to pretend that I didn’t know who she was talking about. “His name is Luca. I was on my way to meet him when you intercepted me.”
Rachel stopped plating cake and stared at me open-mouthed. “Are you fucking kidding me? How is it this is the first I’m hearing about it?”
“Rachel, please don’t make a deal of it right now. I’ll tell you later.” I tried to motion subtly toward my mom. If ever there was a time for Rachel and I to develop a form of telepathic communication, this was it. No way was I interested in announcing for my mom and the rest of my family to hear that Luca was my booty call. All I knew about him could be summed up in one sentence: He was too beautiful for words, he had a smile that inspired me to do very naughty things, and he was hard for me when we arrived here an hour ago.
I took over where Rachel left off and started handing out cake to the guests. With any luck, they’d all slide quickly into a sugar coma and I’d be able to escape.
“Mari, look who I found.” Ricky stood next to our mom, his arm around Luca’s shoulders like they were buddies. I pictured Ricky with Rachel’s knife sticking out of his temple. It helped calm the flash of rage he’s stirred.
Luca stepped in and pressed a kiss to my cheek like this wasn’t our first time meeting in person. “You’re beautiful.” He whispered the words into my ear and his voice melted the part of my brain that controlled basically everything.
All I could manage in response was, “Gah . . .” I wanted to drop to my knees and find out for myself if he was still hard.
Luca pulled me into his side, protecting me from my overly curious family and friends. I snuggled into the crook of his arm and thought seriously about sticking out my tongue at Rachel, or possibly kicking Ricky in the nuts. I couldn’t decide, so I did neither. Instead I focused on regaining the power of speech. I looked up at Luca and said, “I planned to meet you later.” Amazingly, all the words came out properly and I didn’t sound like I had marshmallow fluff where my brain used to be.
“Ricky expla ined.” He shrugged and never had a dismissive gesture been so fucking sexy before. “I didn’t want to wait to see you.”
“Mari, introduce your friend.” My mom’s smile was so big there was a real possibility of it splitting her face in two. After my divorce, I didn’t date very often, and when I did, I didn’t tell her. I overheard her talking to a friend a while back and she said she was afraid I’d given up men completely to become a lesbian. She looked at Luca like the souls of her future grandchildren rested entirely on him. At least she had enough tact to refer to him as my friend even if in her mind she already had us married off and making babies.
I glared at Ricky. If we’d been standing closer to one another, I would have gone ahead with the plan to kick him in the balls and then begged forgiveness from my mom
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