mean over the cost?”
Courtney shook her head gently, careful not to relax the curl she’d spent a good half hour styling into her normally stick-straight hair. “They’re filled with some kind of imported liquor. Nasty stuff. I bit into one and ended up gagging and swallowing a big chunk of chocolate. Or I should say not swallowing, since it lodged in my throat.”
Gail stiffened. The color rushed from her face. “Oh my God! You could have died, Courtney!”
Oh my God, was right. What a dummy. After her roommate’s admission a few weeks back that she was concerned for Courtney’s safety, the last thing she should have done was brought up the choking incident.
Purposefully reverting to giddiness, she sent Gail a teasing smile. “There was no chance of dying. Super Blaine had just returned to the office and, as soon as he realized I was in trouble, he swooped in and saved the day. This nondate is my way of saying thank you for performing the Heimlich.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “If I’m lucky, I’ll get to add a ‘thanks for performing the hind lick’ to that before the night’s over.”
As Courtney could have predicted, Gail didn’t laugh. She did relax though, and the color returned to her face. “Don’t you find it strange Blaine returned to the office right when you got the chocolates and then he was there to save you from choking on one of them?”
“You’re getting worried about me again, aren’t you?”
“How can I not be? The last day and a half you said he wasn’t around the office. And yet there he suddenly is, right when you need him.”
“It was coincidence. Pure and simple. He’s not even close to the type to take the covert approach to gift giving. I just wish I knew who is the type.” She’d considered candidates all afternoon. The only guy to show more than a passing interest in her was Craig Dooley, the beefcake who’d let her videotape their sexcapades a few weeks back, and then asked for a copy of the tape. He’d supplied her with his name and address so she could send him that copy. Courtney had sent the tape anonymously ensuring he would have no way of knowing her name, let alone where she worked.
Ironically, she had run into Craig last week at a nightclub. Even flirted with him a bit, but she hadn’t left with him, and she also hadn’t dished on any personal information.
“Whoever my admirer is, he didn’t taint the candy in some way that would make me choke.” Or make her tongue feel like ten pounds of cotton. Thank God, that icky sensation had finally passed.
“I hope not.”
Courtney sighed at the doubt in her friend’s voice. “Seriously, Gail, I love you, but you’re starting to sound too much like my mother.” Pasting on an innocent smile, she asked the question she’d earlier avoided. “What do you say I set you up with one of the good-looking, single guys from the office?”
The doubt in Gail’s voice flowed over into her eyes. “You worked at Pinnacle for two years and never mentioned a good-looking, single guy until after your transformation. That pretty much tells me they aren’t the type who went for the natural version of you and so they won’t go for me.”
“You mean the average version of me. I’m still natural.” Courtney eyed her breasts. They weren’t huge by any means, but water bras and underwire had a way of creating remarkable illusions. So far no man had complained about the variance in what she put on display and what she really had.
Hopefully, Blaine wouldn’t be the first.
Tonight wasn’t a date and they probably wouldn’t sleep together again after sharing dessert. Still, between having the hots for him from the day they’d met and being aware of all the stunning arm candy that had traipsed through his life the last couple years, she wanted to make as positive and lasting of an impression as possible.
Courtney momentarily forgot about Blaine and the promising night that lay ahead with the realization Gail hadn’t said no to her date suggestion. With an encouraging smile, she pushed onward. “For all I know plenty of guys were attracted to me before. I was just too afraid of being rejected to find out. I know you too well to think you’d fear rejection.”
Gail considered a few seconds, and then stunned Courtney by nodding. “All right. Next weekend you can set me up. I already agreed to watch Jessica’s kids this weekend so she and Matt can have some grown-up time.”
“See, even after nine years of marriage, your sister and brother-in-law appreciate the value of a good sex life.”
Gail actually laughed at that, shocking Courtney for a second time. Then she stood from the arm of the sofa and turned serious again. “They also appreciate a good security system. I talked to Eddy today about having an electronic system installed here and he said to go ahead.”
Courtney frowned, well aware Gail had talked to the super first so that the old guy would get excited about the investment and expect it to happen. In other words, so that Courtney wouldn’t veto the idea. “Why are you suddenly so freaked out about our safety?”
“I’ve run out of comedies to watch while you’re out getting your man fix every other night of the week, so I’ve taken up watching horror movies,” Gail joked. When Courtney didn’t crack so much as a smile, she soberly added, “I don’t know, Court. Maybe it’s just how much this part of the city has grown the last few years. Whatever the reason, I’ll feel much better once the new system’s in place.”
“Okay. Go ahead and get one put in.” If the system relaxed Gail enough to make her stop jumping to unlikely conclusions that all involved Courtney’s safety, it would be a worthwhile investment. “I’ll even foot half the bill. But just remember whose idea it was when I have to wake your butt up at three in the morning because I forgot the code and can’t get in.”
“I’d much rather wake up to let you in than be woken up by someone breaking in.”
“Is this weird for you?” Courtney asked Blaine from across the restaurant table once their waiter had presented a bottle of Chianti and left to place the entrée order.
Her serious tone didn’t come close to matching the rest of her. In a clingy, scoop-necked top in his favorite shade of blue and black hot pants, her trim body was pure dynamite. Open-toed black heels revealed toenails the same shade of soft pink as her lips. Her mouth always looked extremely kissable. Something about the way she’d styled her hair into soft curls stepped up the sweet and downplayed the sinful appeal of her face, and had him more anxious than ever to taste her lips.
He should have insisted he pick her up at home so that he could have given her a mouth-to-mouth greeting. Her logic for meeting at Valerio’s was too sound to refute. Unfortunately, the restaurant was too tasteful to allow for the kind of kiss, and likely groping, that would ensue the moment their lips met. He’d just have to be a big boy and wait an hour or two.
If he were patient enough, he might be rewarded with the kind of kiss that didn’t have a thing to do with his mouth.
His pulse stirred with the thought. Not about to let his cock follow suit, Blaine teased, “Eating in a nice restaurant? Surprisingly, I do get out of my cave from time to time.”
She laughed. “No. I meant us. Being out on a…nondate.”
“It’s no different than eating together in Pinnacle’s lunchroom.”
Courtney’s
