“Good night,” I whisper, and it takes everything in me not to kiss her again. To pick her up and drag her back to my house. My arm slowly loosens on her waist, and my cock is not happy I’m walking away from her. I look down at her lips, seeing that they’re plumper than before and with little spots of red from my beard. Her tongue comes out to lick the bottom lip, and I want to bite it. “Thank you for joining me,” I say and then nod and walk away from her. I turn around and start to walk backward as the sound of police sirens gets closer and closer. “You should really use my number!” I shout at her, and she just shrugs.

“I’ll think about it,” she says, and I stop walking as she turns and walks to the edge of the sidewalk and puts up her hand to flag down a cab. A yellow cab stops right in front of her, and she opens the door and turns to me. “I mean, if I’m bored, that is.” She smiles and winks at me, and just like that, she leaves me here, shaking my head as I watch the car disappear into the sea of red brake lights.

I’ve never been this nervous or this twisted over a woman. They usually come to me and don’t really make me work for it. Not that I’ve never worked for it before, but this woman has had me on a string waiting for two years.

We would see each other and stare. The pull was there, and then when you would look around, it would be over. She would be gone. I’m not saying I twiddled my thumbs waiting for her. She’s just always been a what-if. I unlock the door and walk into the dark apartment.

Making my way to the stairs and upstairs to my room, I turn on the lights and then dim them. I walk to the window and look out into the darkness at the sun slowly coming up, a couple of lights flicker in the distance. “I’m going to make that woman mine,” I say to the universe and to whoever else is willing to listen to me. “She just doesn’t know it yet.”

Chapter Five

Vivienne

I sit down in the cab, and I’m thankful my legs didn’t give out after he kissed me. I take that back. He didn’t just kiss me; he rocked my world. He had my stomach fluttering. I put my hand on my forehead to check to see if maybe I have a fever. Maybe the kids gave me something.

I pick up the phone and text Karrie.

Me: Are any of the kids sick? I think I caught something.

I put the phone down and look out of the window, my heart hammering in my chest, and the phone rings.