For these past six months, she had been feeling unattractive and undesirable. She had felt hopeless as one after another boring, average man had failed to rock her world. Now she felt her own sexuality burning wildly. As she saw how his eyes devoured her, any doubt about the ability her body had to drive a man wild disappeared. She felt like a passionate, sexy woman in charge of her own body and experiences.
The change in mentality was a welcome surprise. It felt good to only be thinking as far ahead as a one-night stand and being satisfied in the thought. It wasn't like a date where anything could go wrong and she had to say and do the right thing, but ultimately be let down. A night with Daniel would be a night where she would reveal everything and he would take everything.
Disappointment wasn't an option. She felt her desire burning with such intensity throughout her body that she was certain that even a touch from him would set her off, so a whole night of him would undoubtedly blow her mind.
They had been silent for almost a minute. Both of them were already somewhere else in their minds, held in the moment only by that intense gaze which Laura suddenly broke, turning away and looking coyly at the ground.
“Well, I suppose if you need a statement you should probably come by at around eight?” she suggested. “In fact, as you've done such a wonderful job for a good friend of mine, I think it's the least I can do to cook you dinner for all of your hard work.”
“Eight,” he nodded. “I'll be there.”
Laura smiled devilishly and took a step closer to him, standing pointedly looking up at him until he moved his arm to let her pass. She smiled to herself at the moment of desire she had detected in him when she had stepped closer, and then she turned to walk back towards her house without looking back. Now that she was away from him she could feel the cool breeze brushing against her lower navel and the very tops of her legs below shorts that didn't leave much to the imagination. She felt a little surge of glee knowing that he was watching her walk away from the fire truck and it took everything in her not to look back herself and take a second glance at those incredible abs or those sculpted shoulders.
It was only as she was steps away from her door that the reality of what she had just done hit her. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Laura was a sensible, forward-thinking girl who had always wanted to set up home and settle down with a good man. She had always felt that sex kind of got in the way of that. Today, she was feeling like her responsible side had been holding her back from this wild side of herself that she found herself rather liking.
There was something exhilarating in being able to captivate a man, and Laura had felt that she had captivated Daniel. It made her walk taller as she became acutely aware of the feel of her own body and the attention it could command. She felt the touch of her long, dark hair against her bare shoulders as she turned to shut the door behind her and then she melted into excited laughter.
She felt like she was doing something dangerous and daring; like she had a naughty little secret that she could carry around all day. She rushed to clean the house and rearrange her clutter to make it seem like a mature, sexual woman lived here rather than an awkward just-turned-thirty girl who spent her time reading advice columns written by mature, sexual women.
Chapter3
When she picked up her magazine to clear it away she scoffed at the woman from the lipstick advert who would never get to spend a night with anyone as hot as Daniel. The thought sent a thrill shooting through her once more. Somehow she, Laura Clark, had managed to seduce a man way out of her league. Her body reacted with spasms and heat every time she brought to mind his dark eyes and that incredible, rock solid washboard stomach...
Laura had to make a special trip to the store to buy something for dinner. She wasn't sure that she would be able to impress the captain with half a bag of brown rice or the half an avocado that had been in her fridge for just a tad too long now. And what to wear? Her mind was a carnival of thoughts.
She was glad that she had been in her mini-shorts and tank top when she had called the fire department and ran out into the street. Usually a modest dresser, having that extra bit of skin on display had undoubtedly helped her to catch Daniel's attention, but a dinner date required something a bit more sophisticated than strawberry-print cotton.
A little black dress was a bit too much for a dinner in her tiny semi-detached house, but jeans and a T-shirt didn't quite present her as the elegant and experienced woman she wanted to project. In the end, she settled on a black skirt and a red spaghetti strap top. It was another number that Sophie had commented on.
Apparently it made her look like an escort, but the expensive kind. Laura had tried on everything in her wardrobe and come back to the red top at least three times over before she finally decided to wear it. After all, this was supposed to be a night of steamy, no-strings sex, so there was no sense in wearing an outfit that suggested she was looking for anything else.