Three of Spades by W. Ferraro Page B

replace this door as soon as possible, for Natalie’s safety.
    Once Natalie was situated in the passenger seat of the Challenger, Dylan pulled out and off toward the start of their day. Dylan was still unhappy with Reggie’s attitude toward Natalie, but he would not let Natalie know it. This day was going to be all about her and from what Dylan gathered, those days were far between and few.
    Natalie looked at Dylan out of the corner of her eye. He seemed perfectly at ease in his light gray pullover and dark denim. Even in his position behind the wheel, his veins corded and his muscles flexed throughout his arms. He was a strong man but still could be gentle. Natalie wanted so badly to turn around and look in the back seat, almost expecting to see their bodies embraced in the intimacy of last night. Even her own thoughts made her blush. Natalie rubbed her now clammy palms on her denim-clad thighs and tried to calm down her raging erotic thoughts.
    “What would you like to do today?” Dylan asked, as he turned onto Main Street. The power of the Challenger rumbled as he accelerated down the main drag. Dylan loved feeling control of such a mighty beast, yet his mind kept moving toward Natalie. Those jeans fit her form like shrink wrap and Dylan’s hands still twitched from feeling her softness within his grasp.
    “Uh, I don’t know. Anything you would like to do would be fine. I have some errands to do, but I would not want to bore you with them,” Natalie said, as the sun broke out from behind the clouds and gave light to all the vivid colors of fall in Vermont.
    “Nothing with you could be boring,” Dylan answered, knowing he meant it.
    Blushing from his exaggerated comment, Natalie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pushed her glasses up on her nose. “Well, I’d like to go shopping for some new clothes. But I was thinking of going to Appleton.”
    “Appleton it is . . .” Dylan said, as he drove off toward their newfound destination.
    “Really, Dylan, I can do it later when I’m by myself.”
    Pulling on his dark tinted sunglasses he turned toward his passenger and huskily answered, “That’s just it; you will not be by yourself later. I’ve decided that you’ll be with me all weekend.”
    Natalie’s eyes opened wide and she gasped at his voiced intentions. Dylan smiled and inwardly cheered. As he turned back toward the road and headed off to the first of many stops today, he mentally rubbed his hands together in anticipation of fulfilling all that Natalie asked of him. TODAY!
    They drove in silence as Natalie mulled over Dylan’s last statement. This was it. Ready or not, but she was more than ready. She was ready to move on from being dull Natalie to . . . to . . . what? Even in her own head, the thought of spending the weekend alone with Dylan seemed so alien. Just as she was getting used to the feeling of the constant butterflies in her stomach, Dylan pulled into a parking spot near a number of shops and once again, Natalie felt out of place. Through the windshield, she could see confident in their own skin, women in nicer clothes. Natalie was feeling incompetent at how to go about picking out more feminine and sexy clothes. Not to mention that Dylan would be there making her hormones go crazy, as well as her nerves.
    Dylan opened her car door and with that sexy as sin grin, he asked, “Ready?”
    Was she ready to make more of a fool out of herself? Sure why not.
    As if the action occurred every day of their lives, Dylan held out his hand. Once her smaller one was nestled in his palm, he wrapped his long fingers around and squeezed twice in a wordless way of saying, no worries.
    Natalie looked at all the different shops and boutiques and didn’t know where to start. Dylan noticed her lack of definitive direction and asked what she was looking for.
    “Clothes that will make me not me anymore,” Natalie answered back sincerely, as she looked from one store to the next. Natalie was