When we heard footsteps coming down the stairs, she quickly said, “Look, I’m going to sneak into the bathroom down here and give you some alone time. Do you mind if I showered too? I smell like a bucketful of burnt assholes.”

“Go for it,” I told her.

She shot off down the hall and disappeared into the bathroom just as Ben appeared. He’d finished dressing, to my disappointment. While it was sad his beautiful body was locked away again, the bigger part of me was anticipating this to be his moment of departure.

Alas, all good things come to an end. If only good memories in dark times were enough to shed some light back in. Because that’s what he was going to be.

A damn good memory.

He smiled warmly at me as he approached me. He tucked his phone into his pocket, and the sight of it made me a little confused. It was one of those black, generic thirty something dollar phones. Far, far from fancy, or even of passable quality. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy that had cheap taste.

“Your friend still around?” he asked, pulling me away from my confusion.

“No, she shot off to shower,” I answered.

“Very interesting character, that one.”

I chuckled. “Emily’s… a colourful girl.”

Now what? I stood stiff and uncertain, knowing any second he was going.

His hand shot up to my face, and he lightly brushed my cheek. It was so affectionate and endearing, I could do nothing but shut my eyes and savour it.

“I looked through your room,” he told me quietly with a hint of a smile in his voice. “I came across your sketchbook. It was already wide open on your dresser. On a picture of me.”

I kept my eyes shut. Someone kill me now. Like… NOW.

“Yeah,” I simply mumbled. “I… drew you.”

“You’re extremely talented.”

I opened my eyes, timidly nodding. “Thank you.”

“Have you been drawing all your life?”

“Yes. I do it to make me feel better.”

His brows came together. “There were a lot of sketches. Are you down a lot?”

I shrugged. “I’m alright now.”

He studied me for a little bit.

“I had the best night with you,” he then said. “And an equally incredible morning. But the world’s turned back on again, and I have to leave.”

I nodded again, putting on my fake smile as I dodged looking into his eyes. “Yeah, definitely. I get that.”

Now ask for my goddamn number, Ben!

“It’s important you know I never held any expectations when I arranged to see you,” he continued solemnly. “I only wanted to talk, but you’re so beautiful I couldn’t keep my goddamn hands to myself.”

I couldn’t suppress the delicious tingles his words gave me. It was so nice to be wanted.

He ran a hand through his perfectly tousled, wet hair, looking a bit conflicted as he glanced away from me for a thoughtful beat. He took a small step forward, crowding me with his presence when he added softly, “I’d like to see you again. If you’ll have me, of course.”

YES! YES! YES!

My lips curved upwards. “I’d like that too.”

Those grey eyes roamed my face heatedly. God, he looked drunk off lust, and I knew once he walked out, I’d be spending an hour pinching myself to make sure this was truly my reality and not some desperate mind concocting the world’s hottest fantasy.

He dipped his head and softly brushed his lips against mine. “Good,” he breathed before pulling away. “I’ll keep in touch.”

“Okay.”

A few seconds passed, and he still hadn’t asked for my number. So I took the plunge instead. “Do you want to exchange numbers?”

“I already have your number,” he replied.

I blinked at him in surprise.

“It was in your wallet, remember?” he added with a smirk, like he could hear the question straight out of my head.

“Right.” Duh, Claire, you idiot. “Can I have yours then?”

He took a step back. “Like I said, I’ll keep in touch.”

Seriously? He wasn’t going to give me it?

What the fuck?

He shot me a wink and started to leave.  “See you soon, beauty.”

And just like that, he was gone.

Several moments after he left, I hurried to the front window overlooking the street. Parked in front of the house, the passenger door of a taxi shut the second I glanced out. The car took off down the street and out of view, taking with it the sexiest man I’d ever met.

When had he called a taxi? He’d been on the phone merely minutes ago. They couldn’t have gotten here so fast.

Unless the driver had been lurking about this entire time.

*****

“I can’t believe you gave him your wallet,” sighed Emily, kicking back on the couch as she flipped through the channels.

I’d just spent the last twenty minutes going over what she’d missed out on, hoping she wouldn’t pry for more details. I’d omitted a lot, particularly about Ben knowing my address. I didn’t want her to turn against him and then try and convince me to steer clear.

Besides, he’d been nothing short of caring and tender to me (if you omitted the harsh sex in the shower, of course). And he thought I was beautiful. Even with the Freddy Krueger scars, he looked at me with heat in his gaze, like he wanted to devour me.

“What if he was some murderer,” she went on, breaking me out of my thoughts. “You’re an idiot.”

“Says the girl that screwed a dude she didn’t even know last night,” I retorted, grabbing the remote harshly from out of her hands. “At least Ben and I talked. Do you even know the name of the dude you ditched me for?”

Her jaw dropped as she glared at me.  “As a matter of fact, I do. His name was Darryl. And we did talk.”

“What did you talk about?”

“A lot of shit.”

“Like?”

She didn’t respond straightaway. Then she murmured, “I didn’t know you thought I ditched you.”

I rolled my eyes and shot her a sceptical look. “You threw some pothead wanna-be musician in my face to distract me so you could bump uglies with your prince charming.”

She shuddered. “Definitely not my prince charming, and I’m sorry about the pothead. I really thought you’d be interested in him. He was cute. And I wanted you to stand on your own two feet without me holding your hand every step of the way.”