5. Sassy

5

SASSY

What the heck is going on? Everywhere I turn, I see Emile LaCourt’s big body shadowing me, standing off to the side.

I went to the grocery store after work yesterday and there he was, tapping on a melon and staring at me. Turned the corner in the dried pasta aisle and he’s there pushing a cart and shoveling boxes of pasta into it.

Then I went home and this morning I went to a coffee shop to get a latte and a donut before work and there he was again… at an ungodly hour of the morning, three people behind me in line.

I whip around and stare in front of me and order my coffee, breathless, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth. The more I see him, the more I seem to want to see him and it’s got my insides in a mess. I can’t seem to stop thinking about him and when I do manage to stop, there he is, pushing himself to the front of my mind again.

I move over and wait impatiently for my coffee, chatting with the barista, who I see every time I stop in. She’s nice and loves books so she asks about the newest true crime books that have come in and we have a great time talking about our favorites until she hands me my coffee.

“See you tomorrow,” she nods and I hold up my coffee, smiling, even as I feel his green gaze burning into me. I turn and he’s standing there, his eyes focused on me so hard that I lean back stopping, my body frozen.

“Hello, Sassy. Nice to see you this morning.” The whole time he’s talking, his eyes are running over me like he’s mapping my body. My chest constricts and my belly flips, my nipples tightening into stiff little points.

“Emile. You’re up early.” I nod at him like my whole body isn’t firing up just from being feet from him.

He grins and reaches over me to grab his coffee. He nods his head and takes a sip, making me cringe. I have to wait because it’s so dang hot but it doesn’t seem to bother him at all. He sucks it down without even wincing.

“I am. Hockey players tend to be early risers because we’ve spent our whole lives getting up early to play before school or whatever.”

I nod my head and go to step around him. “It was good seeing you.”

He grabs my arm with his free hand, and I flinch, feeling the strange burn that goes through my skin every time he touches any part of me. He drops his hand and waves me forward towards the door, following me out. I whip around outside and he’s standing there grinning at me. I lift a brow and say, “How come all of a sudden I keep seeing you everywhere I go?”

He shrugs and takes another sip and I can’t stop staring at his mouth. I’ve just never seen another man so gorgeous. He swallows and I follow the way his throat moves. It’s so dang strong.

“I don’t know. Just lucky I guess.”

I snort. “Pfft! I doubt that very much. I feel like you’re following me, Emile LaCourt. Why would that be?”

He grins. “Sounds like you’re a little paranoid, sweetheart. But let’s say that I am following you. For the sake of argument. Maybe I like you. Maybe I like seeing you.”

“Pfft,” I snort again. “What a load of bull!”

“How about you let me worry about it. And maybe you’d do me the favor of joining me tonight.”

I eye him, my brow crinkling. “For what?”

He chuckles. “I know it’s been a while but I’m trying to ask you out. I didn’t think I was this terrible at it.”

I jerk back, surprised. “You want to go on a date with me? Why?”

He steps closer and I can smell him now. That sweet and spicy scent that shouldn’t smell like a man but it does to me. It’s him though. There is nothing about this man that is less than masculine no matter what he does or wears.

He lifts his free hand and touches my cheek and my eyes widen, stunned. “Why would you find that confusing? You’re a beautiful woman. More beautiful than I thought when I first saw you. The more I see you, the more stunning things I find about you and I want to know more.”

“You want to date me?”

His dark head cocks and he smirks at me. “I really need more practice at this. I’m apparently not explaining it very well at all. Yes, I want to go out with you. I want to go on a date with you. I want to eat dinner. Maybe go dancing and then I want to walk you home and…”. His deep voice trails off and I shiver at the heat in his darkened green gaze.

“What?” I ask breathlessly, not sure if I really want to know or not.

“I don’t intend to sleep with you tonight if that’s what you think. I just want to spend time with you. I know that you think I’m some kind of playboy because I’m sure that’s what most people think about famous people but the thing is… I’m not. I don’t really date that much. I’m usually too busy. There’s just something about you and I want to know what it is.”

I smile at him. “So one date?”

He grins wickedly. “I can’t promise that. I for sure want one date. Probably more. So I can’t promise that I’ll only want one date.”

I eye him, nodding up and down and wondering if I should even be considering this. But I haven’t dated and something about this guy really makes me want to get to know him better.

I sigh. “Fine.” I hold up a hand when he smiles and reaches out his hands to pull me in for a hug. “No! Wait! I’m only promising one date. That’s it.”

He backs away from me. “I’ll take it. Thank you, sweetheart. I’ll see you tonight.” Then he takes off like a shot, leaving me standing there and wondering if I really should have agreed or if I should have stuck to my guns and told him I wasn’t interested.

But he’s out of sight now and like an idiot, I didn’t get his phone number so even if I wanted to change my mind, I don’t have any way to contact him. No matter what, I’m stuck until I see him tonight. And I’m assuming that he’s gonna come and pick me up since I don’t know where he lives either, and since he walked me home from that bar, he knows where I live.

Honestly, it’s obvious it was a spur of the minute thing because neither one of us really made good plans.

Now I’m stuck and I can’t think that it’s a bad thing. Excitement wells inside me as I stare at the place that he disappeared to.

I’ve got a date! With the most gorgeous guy I’ve ever seen! I head to work and groan when I walk in the door to see the director there. Time to get back to work and stop daydreaming about the guy that’s captured my attention.

I run in the door and groan when I see the time. It’s so freaking late I’ve only got about half an hour to get ready for this date and I can’t call Emile to tell him that I’m running behind.

I jump into my shower and wash so quickly that it feels like I’m only in for about a minute. I jump out and dry my hair while wearing my towel wrapped around me. I won’t even have time to flat-iron my hair which is going to leave frizzy waves and bumps in my hair in weird spots. I grunt in frustration and pull on a pair of jeans and a soft green sweater that settles lightly on my curves and doesn’t make me feel like a sausage. Then I grab a pair of high-heeled boots and pull them on.

I glance at the clock and realize I only have about five minutes so I grab my makeup and just put on a little bit of peachy-pink blush, a shimmery taupe eyeshadow and chocolate brown liner and then a little black mascara. As soon as I finish, there’s a knock at my door and I sigh, running for it.

I whip it open and smile, gasping for breath. “I’m sorry. I’m just finishing up. I only got home about half an hour ago. The director had a lot of things to run through and we’re getting ready for Christmas festivities.”

He smiles. “Seems a little early for Christmas.”

I laugh. “We have to get everything ready to go so there’s no problems. We actually start the tree decorating process right after Halloween. There are clinics that we do with children to make ornaments that they can leave on our tree or take home with them. If they leave them, we take a photo of the kids with their ornaments and they put their names on the ornament backs and then we put the phone numbers and names on the photos so we can match them all up with their ornaments after Christmas and they can get them back to keep forever.”

He follows me inside and I grab my coat, which he pulls from my hands and holds out for me to slip into. “That sounds like an amazing program. You ever think about having some hockey players there to help? The guys love doing things with kids. We’ve got several hockey clinics that we do to help kids in unusual situations with home life that can’t afford to get a coach or any kind of practice routine so that they can move into a hockey team to play and possibly get a future career that will move them out of those difficult situations that they grow up in. I do two clinics a month myself and I know the other guys all try to fit them in as well. Even during the season.”

I turn around and find him so close to me that I can see the gold flecks in his bright green eyes. My breath stalls and I can’t think. I feel hot all over and I don’t move, paralyzed by the hunger in his eyes.

I’ve never had a man look at me like he does. Like he could eat me up. My breath comes soft and quick. I clear my throat. “That’s really nice of you.”

He laughs. “It’s fun. I like to talk to the kids. They’re the future of our sport.”

I nod my head and gulp a swallow. “Yeah. Sure.”

He clears his own throat. “Well, let’s get on out of here.” He eyes me up and down and tugs at my dark green parka. “At least you’re dressed warm.”

“Why?” I ask him, following as he walks out my door and I grab my keys and slim wallet, putting them in my pocket. I hate to carry a purse unless I’m at work. I also grab my phone and then I lock the door after us. He’s standing watching me patiently.

“Because we’re going to do my favorite thing.”

“Which is?” I ask again, a smile creeping up on my face at the sheer joy on his.

“You’ll see.”