"Holiday Gifts"

Chapter Four - Part One
by Dyanne Davis

"Is this seat taken?"

Erin smiled as the now familiar heat traveled along her spine. She’d have to ask Josh how he managed to do that. Raising her gaze to meet his she decided against it, he was already far too cocky where she was concerned. "The seat is taken," she said sternly trying her best not to melt from the heated glance he was bestowing on her. "Was your plane late?" she asked. "You should have been here over an hour ago."

"I missed the earlier one and was forced to take the next flight."

Erin thought about that for a moment before pulling out her Blackberry and tapping on it. "You do have my number now you could have called."

Josh grinned and took the phone from her hand, raising a brow he looked at the phone, touched a couple of buttons and handed it back to her. "If you’d had it on or bothered to check your voice mail you would have seen that I had called." He waited knowing that she wouldn’t just take his word for it but would indeed check the message. When she’d listened to it she barely glanced at him as though she were not in the wrong.

"Did you get me coffee?" he asked sliding into the seat along side her instead of the one across. As she moved away he advanced on her. "This is our first real date, Erin, the first one that we’ve planned instead of meeting accidentally."

"But still we’re in an airport."

"To be more precise we’re in a Starbucks in an airport. I kind of think of this as our connection now. Don’t you?"

In spite of her intention Erin smiled back. This had been scary. It was the first step toward something that could be more than a chance meeting. They’d both decided they wanted that the last time they were together. No storm stranding them, nothing of the sort. Christmas in Las Vegas was the same as summer in Vegas. Hot.

"Vegas is our connection?" she asked.

"No, Starbucks in airports. Why are you moving away from me? It’s not as though we’ve never kissed. And you do know I want to kiss you right?"

"That’s why I’m moving."

Before she could protest, his arms were around her and he was pulling her to him. She was sliding toward him maybe it was the slick material of the seat maybe it was because she wanted to be in him arms. Whatever it was she was moving and she was hypnotized by this bronze Adonis sitting next to her.

"I like the taste of you," he murmured placing soft kissed on her lips. "Let me see if I can tell what kind of coffee you had."

His tongue slid between her lips and his hand splayed against her spine. Erin was grateful for the heavy coat she was wearing. She knew she should stop him but she didn’t want to. His lips were doing things to her that she’d wanted since the last time they’d been together. The man was filing her with lust. She could just imagine the looks that would be on her mother and father’s faces if they could see her now. Breathing deeply, she took his scent into her lungs and sighed. He grinned at her and moved his hand downward just a little. She was trying her best to remember they were in an airport.

To her surprise another small sigh of satisfaction escaped her lips causing Josh to pull back and smile at her then leaning forward and deepening the kiss. God, he tasted good, peppermint and chocolate. Erin wanted to laugh. He’d already had coffee. She almost stopped the kiss to ask but the feel of the oral assault stopped her. She didn’t care at the moment if he’d had an entire carafe of coffee. She just hoped he would continue kissing her like that.

"Just what I wanted," he whispered into her mouth before returning to gently sucking on her tongue.

"Just what I wanted also," she admitted half breathless because of his kisses. Erin closed her eyes and gave herself over to him, needing his kiss to fill the empty crevices she had not known before needed filling.

"Are you ready to leave?" he asked at last while holding her face between his hands, caressing her jaw line with the pad of his finger. We finally have two full planned days. It could be almost two weeks if you would consent to be with me through Christmas."

"You know I can’t do that. I have to be with my family. Family is very important to me."

At the mention of family, Josh abruptly stopped touching her. He stared down at Erin. "Family’s not all it’s cracked up to be, Erin." He shrugged. "I don’t see that in my future." There it was out in the open between them. He’d punctured her core without even knowing it. How could he? It wasn’t even something that Erin allowed to surface but it had always been there, gnawing at her bit by bit. Every time she made a trip to see the children she wished the same things for them that she wished for herself. Family. She wanted to belong to someone totally and completely. She wanted family.

With just a few words Josh had wounded her. No, she hadn’t been thinking wedding bells but since meeting strange men and inviting them to share her hotel rooms wasn’t something she did as a regular habit, she’d have to admit that some infinitesimal part of her soul had whispered, ‘maybe.’ She brought her gaze up to meet his, chastising herself for having ever thought Josh Thorenson was more than what she’d thought when she’d glanced at his pictures in the magazine. More than likely the piece written in the magazine on him was a lie and his work with T.I.P.S. was all for show.

"Come on." He got up and she followed him out of the booth.

How could he work so closely with children and not want a family? If she had to give any of her dreams a life it would be that one. She’d always wanted to have her own family. Sure, she loved her mom and dad and her baby brother but there had always been something missing, some disconnect that she firmly believed was the result of blood. She didn’t have theirs. She wanted that connection someday family ties were supposed to give. She wanted to look into the face of a child and know that it mirrored her own. Erin sighed softly knowing she’d never be able to let go of that dream. She wanted children someday and she wanted to give them that complete sense of belonging that she’d never had.

 

"What do you see in your future, Josh?" Erin continued out the doors of the airport waiting for him to catch up with her, waiting for him to answer

"I’m not sure, Erin." He shrugged his shoulders. "I don’t want to start this off by lying to you. I’m not a big believer in marriage." He shrugged again. My parents were married and divorced to each other twice and in between they cheated."

His hand snaked out and he allowed his fingers to travel down her face pausing at her chin and tilting it upward. "I know that I’d like to see more of you in my future. I want this first weekend with us to lead to a second and a third. I wouldn’t be averse to meeting you in airports for a very long time."

His words carried a warning and Erin should have been listening. In fact she was, but he was staring into her eyes, his look blazing a path of want along her spine. She needed to stop being so serious. Her heart was screaming for her to take a chance. Josh Thorenson didn’t have to be ‘the one,’ but she definitely didn’t have to discard him for telling her the truth either. As he continued smiling seductively at her, she could feel much more than she wanted knowing what she now knew. With his touch, his looks and his kisses he was claiming bits and pieces of her. She had to say something to stop him from looking at her like he wanted to devour her then and there.

"Listen, I wanted to thank you for getting the ticket. That was romantic."

"That was necessary," Josh countered. "How else were you going to be allowed to go through the gates to wait for me at Starbucks if you didn’t have a ticket?"

Erin couldn’t stop the smile if she’d tried. Josh was beginning to grow on her big-time and that she didn’t need. But….he grinned. And she sighed. Her heart was leading her on this because her head had apparently taken its own vacation. Sure spending a couple of hundred bucks just so she could wait for him at the Starbucks was not a major amount of cash. But it was the thought that he’d wanted to do it that had her heart thumping. She could have paid for the ticket herself, she thought and frowned, wishing for a few years in the past. A past when it hadn’t been necessary to almost submit to a strip search for a simple visitor to go to the Starbucks at the airport to wait for a friend. No, that innocence had left with the planes that had flown straight into the twin towers and changed the lives of all Americans for good.

Erin’s hand swinging back and forth entwined with Josh’s made her stare down. He was behaving like…like a little kid caught in some mischievous act. She looked at the shy smile that played around the corners of his mouth. Hmm, she thought, that was a first. She’s seen his smiles, flirtatious, teasing, sweet, seductive, but not this, not shy.

"Josh, are you embarrassed?" she asked. "You shouldn’t be. It was romantic. You could have just come to Caesar’s Palace. I told you I have a room." It was Erin’s turn to smile. "My company paid for it for the entire week. They’re so pleased I got the job done in half the time they’re still going to pick up my room tab as well."

"I’m not embarrassed," Josh lied. "I don’t know. I’ve gotten used to seeing you at the airport."

"What about the time we spent at the hotel during the storm?" she teased remembering how much she’d wanted him to make love to her knowing she didn’t know nearly enough about him to go for it. Every meeting so far had been a chance encounter. If she was going to go to bed with the guy the least they could do was have a for-real-honest-to-God-date. This was it, this one they’d planned and one where they were not worrying about rushing off to meet family or working. Erin had double-checked three times. No emergencies with the family or the NCFA, she was good to go.

Suddenly Erin found herself spinning. Josh had taken her hand and twirled her about making her laugh, making her feel like a silly teenager. It felt good.

"This is our first date, Erin. I think we’re worth it. I think we need to see what fate has in store for us. I can’t believe our constantly running into each other at airports in different cities is an accident. I didn’t want to mess with that formula."

 

"You’re superstitious?"

"Not usually," Josh said turning her to face him. "But I don’t want to tempt fate with changing things." He stopped and stared at her beautiful mocha skin. "Can’t you feel it?" he asked and pulled her to him. "I’ve felt it. Every time I’ve kissed you. I can hardly wait for the next one." He kissed her lightly on the lips, pulling back as she glanced around.

"Are you worried about kissing me in public" he asked, "or just kissing me period?"

"I don’t do public displays of anything, Josh. I don’t put on shows for the public. You’re in the public eye and that’s old news for you, but not for me. I don’t want to have my life invaded by someone who might be following you for a story. I hope you understand."

"I understand that if you think because I model and design clothes that I’m always looking over my shoulder for the camera we need this date more than I thought. My job is a job, same as yours. I used what I had to make a living." He narrowed his gaze. "You shouldn’t believe everything that you read. I’m really a nice guy. I don’t sleep with all the models I work with, contrary to popular opinion, and I haven’t found one woman yet who’s intrigued me the way that you have. On the other hand, I’m not gong to lie. I have been with my share of women and I’ve kissed them. That’s why I know that there is something more going on here."

His voice turned soft and he stopped the half glare. "When I kiss you I feel this rush of warmth." She hit him lightly on his arm and he grinned. "Not there, although that too. But in here," Josh said using her finger to tap his chest. "I feel something stirring here. I‘ve never had this feeling before so I don’t know what it is. I just know that I want to find out more about you. I want to kiss you until you’re as dizzy as I am and then we’ll see."

Darn, but he was good. He had her right then and there. Her bronze Adonis was making her melt and she knew they needed to get to the hotel quickly and take a nice cool dip in the Garden of the Gods pool. Her Adonis would be right at home there.

Part Two