The Purple Heart (4 page)

“
How are you with knives?”
I asked, hoping for him to take over the task of salad duty, so I
could start preparing sauce for the spaghetti. I hated chopping
vegetables.

“
I’m an expert, Ma’am.
Trained in all forms of weaponry.”

“
I’m not sure if that makes
me feel scared or safe.” I giggled.

He smiled and reached for my knife. His
hand brushed mine, and I felt a quick flutter in my stomach. I
looked up at him from under my eyelashes.
Now I was
flirting.
I took a step back from him so he didn’t think I was
some kind of freak, inviting soldiers to stay with me so I could
flirt and then have my way with them. In this instance, I wouldn’t
have minded, though.

He smirked, began chopping carrots and
slicing the tomatoes. We cooked the entire meal together. He seemed
to be at home in the kitchen, like I was. I loved to cook, and was
excited to have, not only someone to cook
for
, but someone
to cook
with
.

We dined on our homemade Italian meal
with glasses of Merlot, and had the most amazing conversation. I
told him about my parents and my childhood. He never mentioned his
family so I didn’t press him. We talked about the war a lot. We had
both experienced it, and it brought us even closer together. We
shared something that he couldn’t with most other people. It was
one of the reasons why I was so good at my job.

When dinner was finished, he thanked me
for a home-cooked meal, offering me a bit too much praise, which
made me blush again, and then we proceeded to clear the table
together.

I grabbed our glasses and an unopened
bottle of wine, and we moved over to the couch in my family room. I
was really enjoying having company. This might actually turn out to
be beneficial for both of us.

I thought it might be a good time to
work with him, now that he seemed to be much more at ease. He was
still work, no matter how much I was enjoying spending time with
him.

“
So, can you tell me more
about what happened?”

“
You mean, why I’m not
still over there?”

I nodded. He immediately tensed up and
sat straight back against the couch. He looked like a
mannequin.

“
Not yet. I’m not ready to
talk to you about that. Is that okay?”

“
It most certainly is. This
is on your timeframe. So when you feel more comfortable.” I smiled
and placed my hand on his to let him know I meant it. We had plenty
of time to talk, so I certainly didn’t need to rush him. I didn’t
want to. I needed to take things slowly with him. I wanted him to
trust me.

Before I even realized it was
happening, we had begun gravitating toward each other on the couch.
I’m not sure if it was the wine or the company. It was probably a
little bit of both.

He became quiet, and just looked into
my eyes. I just couldn’t look away. I was lost there. The pull
towards him was unstoppable and I felt myself start to lean in his
direction. He gravitated back. My breathing became shallow as we
inched closer and closer. Soon, we were so close that I could feel
his breath on me, and smell the sweet scent of him. I took in a
deep breath with the hopes of being able to taste him. He reached
up and cupped my cheek.

“
You’re quite beautiful,
you know.” I had no words; I couldn’t speak and just waited, hoping
he would lean in and kiss me first; and he did. His soft lips
pressed against mine, and I felt the familiar humming that happened
every time we touched, along with the now fluttering stomach I had
recently acquired. I stayed perfectly still; afraid to let myself
go. He pulled back and looked at me.

“
I’m not going to break,
you know. You can kiss me back, if you want to, of course. I can’t
remember the last time I actually kissed someone. I’m sorry. I
don’t mean to be so forward and don’t even know if you’re already
spoken for. Hope I’m not overstepping any boundaries.”

That was all I needed to hear. I
reached up, twisted my fingers into his hair, and pulled his face
slowly back to mine without ever breaking eye contact. I kissed him
deeply, darting my tongue between his lips. He responded in kind
and our tongues began to swirl together. I felt light-headed, but
at the same time, I felt completely comfortable. I loved when a man
kissed the same way I did. We were completely in sync.

We became lost in our kiss, his hands
encircling the back of my neck, holding my face to his; holding us
in our kiss. I was in heaven. I moved closer to him so our bodies
were touching more. It felt like we had been together for years
instead of just having met. We spent some time locked in this
embrace, the rest of the world forgotten.

I couldn’t believe I was letting this
happen, but I had no strength to do anything about it. I wanted it.
I wanted him, all of him. I hoped I could find the restraint to
stop, since there was just something about this man that made all
my defenses and common sense dissolve. Was there truly such a thing
as love at first sight? I was teetering on the edge of
falling.

Our kisses became deeper, more
passionate, and I felt him start to lean me to a more horizontal
position. I didn’t resist and allowed him to shift me so I was flat
on my back. He crawled on top of me and we started to become more
aggressive. He began to grind his hips into mine, so my hips
responded in kind. I wanted to rip his clothing off, and let him
take me, but instead I stopped him. I couldn’t believe I did,
because I honestly did
not
want to. This entire scenario was
so unlike me. I wasn’t really a one-night-stand kind of
girl.

“
Hey, can we just slow down
a bit? I’m going to get carried away here, and I don’t want you to
get the wrong idea. I certainly didn’t invite you to stay with me
here just for this.” I motioned the space between us.

“
Sydney, there’s no way I
could think badly about you. I just know I feel something, and it’s
a
very strong
feeling. I’ve never felt anything like this
before. Never, not with anyone. I’ll do whatever you want me to; I
completely understand. But from the moment you walked down that
hallway, I just knew this was different; that you were different. I
just felt immediately connected to you, like meeting up with an old
friend. Does that even make any sense? I don’t really want to stop
what’s happening between us. But we can stop this wonderful
foreplay, or maybe just slow down a bit for now,” he said openly
yet softly into my ear, followed by a sweet kiss on my
cheek.

I kissed him while pushing him back
slightly, my lips still attached to his. All I was doing now was
changing our position back to an upright one. He moved with me,
letting me control the situation. He was being a gentleman, even
though I was not quite being a lady.

“
Would you like to maybe
watch TV for while or something? Cards?”

He laughed quietly, and then said, “I
was actually really enjoying our most recent activity. Look, I’ve
had a really long day, maybe it would be best if I went up to get
some rest.”

“
Oh my God, of course. Damn
it. I’m being so rude. I didn’t even think about the fact that you
just flew in today. You must be absolutely exhausted. I am so
sorry.”

“
You have nothing to be
sorry about. You’ve been more than wonderful and accommodating to
me. This is the most comfortable I’ve felt anywhere in a long time.
Really. Thank you for that.”

“
Well, I guess we should
head up to bed then. I mean, to get some sleep … in separate
rooms,” I smiled sheepishly at him. He laughed, ran his hand
through his messy hair and then down over his face. He was
obviously as worked up as I was, and doing his best to squelch any
desire or further action.

“
Well, all those things
sound great to me.” He stood up and offered his hand to help me up
from the couch.
Chivalry. Love it.

We moved up the stairs, and he stopped
in front of my door to
drop me off.

“
So, this is a strange
place for a good night kiss, especially since we just met today,
along with the make-out session downstairs, but here goes.” He
leaned in and kissed me deeply. I melted into my door, which of
course was not shut all the way, and I tumbled backward into my
room and away from his lips. He looked a bit shocked, and just
stood there like someone had just erased me out of his
arms.

“
Apparently, fate has a
different ending for tonight in mind, so I’ll just take that as my
cue, and wave from here before I hurt myself.” I giggled. I wasn’t
embarrassed at all; everything felt so natural with him. Normally I
would have been mortified to fall into a room during a kiss with
someone I just met. Except I never kissed men I had just met …
until Aiden. The whole day had just been so
surreal
.

I lay in bed, thinking about him lying
in bed, only a room and a half away from mine. I wondered what he
was wearing to sleep. In my mind, he was naked, with just the sheet
covering him to his waist. I wondered if he was thinking about me.
I couldn’t wait to tell Cheryl all about him in the morning. Wait,
I didn’t have to go to work, as I had no other active cases right
now. I’d call Cheryl to meet me for lunch.

* * *

When morning came, I was woken by a
soft tapping on a door. Aiden must have been checking to see if I
was in the bathroom. I looked at the clock. It was only six
o’clock. I rolled over to catch a few more minutes of sleep, but
found I had butterflies in my stomach at the thought of seeing
him.

I literally jumped out of bed to get
ready. I didn’t hear anything in the bathroom, but I gave it a few
soft raps to be sure he wasn’t still using it. After no reply, I
opened the door so I could take a quick shower and get myself in a
more presentable form.

I headed downstairs and could already
smell coffee brewing. It smelled heavenly, and I found it
completely comforting, because I knew I would have company this
morning. I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten breakfast
with someone. I found Aiden in the kitchen, reading the morning
paper, which he had retrieved from the front porch.

“
Good morning. You’re still
on military time I see.” I smiled, and grabbed two mugs from the
cabinet.

“
Good morning back. I hope
you don’t mind. I thought you might like coffee. Did I wake
you?”

“
It’s fine, really, I’m not
a late sleeper, so no worries,” I said, as I casually reached into
the fridge for cream, and bread and butter to make
toast.

“
So I guess you’ll need to
go to work today?” He sounded a bit disheartened as he said
it.

“
Actually, no. You’re my
only case right now. I’m all yours … for the day,” I cleared my
throat to cover up my faux pas. “Except maybe for a quick lunch
with friends. Do you think you can keep yourself busy while I’m
gone?”

“
I’m sure I can keep myself
amused. I would love to catch up on some TV. I saw you have a
pretty extensive library, maybe I’ll thumb through one of your
books.”

I reached into my junk drawer and
pulled out my spare key. Again, it should seem strange for me to
leave a stranger alone in my house and provide him with the key,
but I didn’t feel worried.

“
You’ll be needing this
then, in case you go out for a walk or something. Just remember if
I come home, and everything is missing, I’ll know who it was,” I
teased.

“
Yes, Ma’am, no worries
there.” He reached out, swiped the key from my hand, and placed it
in his pants pocket.

I poured us both coffee and sat down
with him at the table. He handed me a section of the paper. I
smiled, and took it. We sat in silence, reading the paper, and
sipping our coffee like it was old routine with one another. Every
once in awhile, one of us would peek over the paper and look at the
other, but we always seemed to do it at the same exact time. I
found that we both lingered in our stares.

“
So, we need to take care
of some things for your case. I thought maybe we could sit out
back, and just fill out some of the paperwork.”

“
Yes, Ma’am. Is it okay if
I rake your backyard while we do it? Your yard could use it, plus I
could use the exercise. I’m feeling a little stiff.” A smile spread
across both our faces, obviously our minds in sync with the same
dirty thought.

I just couldn’t believe this. This drop
dead gorgeous guy comes into my life, we have instant chemistry,
and
he likes to do housework. Things couldn’t get any
better.
Could they?

We headed out to the garage, I handed
him the rake, and sent him on his way to get started. I grabbed my
cell to call Cheryl to make plans for lunch with her and Gina. When
my lunch plans were firmly in place with promises of exciting news
to tell them, I headed to my backyard to join Aiden.

I had an expansive piece of property,
but part of it was gated from the woods that stretched out behind
it, forming a quaint courtyard. There was a creek back there, and
often the neighborhood kids could be found playing along the banks.
I didn’t want them to feel like they were trespassing, so I put the
fence up to let them know where their freedom ended on my property.
My terrace was constructed in cobblestone, and was adorned with an
outdoor sofa, chiminea, and my favorite chair to sit and read in, a
large papasan. I settled myself into this chair to watch him
work.