“What did you do on the dates, if you didn’t talk?”
“I f**ked them in the limo on the drive to the restaurant. I bought them dinner and drank some expensive Scotch. I f**ked them in the limo on the drive back to their place. I dropped them off.”
She looks away, a little bit stunned, I think. “Why do they let you treat them that way?”
“Because they can’t stop themselves. Because finding a man who will love and cherish them is too much trouble. Because I was offering a physical encounter only. Because I was unavailable except in this very specific way. Because they’re unable to see the benefits of nothing, and instead settle for something.”
“Do you want to treat me like that?”
“Never. And now I owe you a future favor too.”
Before she can say anything else the wait staff delivers our salads. When they leave I change the subject and we talk about ridiculous things like Japanese game shows and the character development of Odd Thomas. But the entire time I’m really dying to ask her what she thinks of me. I need to know, but not yet. She needs to see all of me first. She needs to experience me and I her. We need to experience what us together looks like.
We’ll do that tonight.
When dinner is over we take the elevator downstairs and she leans into me as we wait for the car to be brought around. “Are we going back to the hotel?”
“You didn’t get your long quiet walk yet.” The car pulls up and we get in. I take the silk scarf out of my pocket and hold it out in front of her. She looks up at me with a sly smile and I chuckle. “Ready?”
“I thought we were talking a walk?”
“Trust me.”
She rolls her eyes. “I do.” And then she takes a deep steadying breath as I tie it around her eyes and knock on the window that separates us from the driver so the car can move forward.
“Do you like being blindfolded?”
“Yes,” she breathes.
“Good, because after our long quiet walk is over and I have you back up in our bedroom, I’m going to do it again.” She smiles but I can practically feel her nervousness. The car stops and we wait for the driver to open our door.
“That was fast.”
“We didn’t go very far.” I step out and take her hand, pull her into my chest, and then put one arm around her shoulder and the other on her waist as we walk forward. An attendant opens the door to the building and we’re accosted by the smell of the ocean.
“Where are we?” she asks.
The subdued bluish light from the tanks ripples across her face, making her look like an underwater sea goddess. “Guess.”
“An aquarium?”
“Very good guess.”
I slip her blindfold off and she actually claps her hands and squeals. “The Shark Reef! Are we the only people here?”
“They closed an hour ago. You can’t have a quiet walk when there are throngs of tourists around, now can you?” I offer her my arm and she wraps her hands around it and leans her head on me. “Ready?”
She simply nods and we walk forward. Slowly. Looking and thinking about life, but not our lives. We go in the tunnel and look at the reef first. “You wanted to watch life and not participate in it, right?”
“You’re amazing. That’s exactly what this is. A glimpse at life from the outside looking in. It’s perfect.”
“Yes, I think it is.” We watch the fish for a while, a part of their world, but yet not.
“I want to cash in my favor now, if that’s OK.”
“Ask away, Ash.”
“Promise you won’t forget me.”
I get this immediate pang in my chest. Like a twisting knife. Fuck, that hurts.
“You’re not promising, Ford.”
I huff out some air. “Of course not, Ashleigh. I’m never going to forget you. But I won’t have a chance to forget you either. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” She squeezes my upper arm and I turn her around so she’s facing me. I tip her chin up with my fingers and lean down, closer, keeping eye contact the entire time. My lips hover over hers. Almost no space separates us.
“Will you kiss me?” she breathes into me.
“No, Ashleigh. I need a promise first.”
“Then what are you doing?” Her gaze never wavers from mine.
“Teasing you.”
She laughs and starts to pull away but my hand slips up to her neck and my thumb traces the line of her jaw. I lean in again and she actually sighs at my small touches. “I won’t give up. And this is my night,” I say so softly that the words almost escape even my detection. It elicits a moan and I pull back.
She draws in a long breath. “I don’t want to be teased, I want to be kissed.”
“Miss Li, we have all night for that. But this part of the date is for being slow and quiet. Just like you asked. And if I kissed you now I’d end up ripping your clothes off and bending you over so I could take you from behind. And I might still do that when we go back to the hotel, but I have so many, many other things I’d like to do first.”
She looks up at me as she absently chews on her lower lip. She notices me noticing and she smiles. “You made me tingle.”
I laugh. “Did I?”
She nods, holding back her smile. “What favor will you ask of me?”
“Are you nervous about it?”
She nods again.
“Do you think I’d ask for sex?”