Bare Pleasures

“Why don’t you share the service with someone here?” Margot asked. “That way, it won’t go to waste.” She apologized again before pushing her way out the door. Noelle sat at the table, stunned for a few seconds, and just as she got up, probably to get the order to go, Lex stepped close to her table with his most charming smile.

Damn, she was even sexier up close. Her body one curve after delicious curve, her lips glistening with clear gloss.

“Excuse me, miss. I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation.”

“Didn’t your mother tell you not to eavesdrop?” Noelle looked up at him with suspicion and then she blinked, her eyes going wide. Lex felt a surge of satisfaction. She remembered him too. “Oh, hi...” she finished, her voice a little breathless.

“My mother told me a lot of things,” Lex said, drowning in her dark-rimmed eyes that shone with just a touch of sadness. “One of them was to always speak to a beautiful woman since you never know if she’ll be the mother to your babies.” He hoped his mother would forgive him the lie. Any advice about women she’d given him had always been about wearing raincoats and not every date being a keeper. He widened his smile.

“Your mother sounds very optimistic,” Noelle said. She bit her lip and skipped her eyes over his body, a quick and burning look he remembered well from the night at the gallery.

“She is,” he said. “Very.”

The sun arched through the glass front of the tea shop and fell into the arc of Noelle’s throat, down the sumptuous line of her chest, glinting in the fall of tiny necklaces. Gold on top of gold. “I’ve seen you before,” she said.

“And I’ve seen you.” Lex allowed a trace of what he’d felt that night at the gallery to show in his face, the instant attraction and honest lust. Noelle bit her lip again and her eyes fluttered low, an answering desire flowing like water over her face. That naked passion gave Lex the encouragement to continue. “Like I was about to say before being unfairly interrupted, do you mind if I join you?”

Noelle dipped her head and her shoulder-length hair, straightened and glossy, shifted over her shoulders. When she looked back up at Lex, the bloom of sexual interest had disappeared like she had put that part of herself behind a door and firmly locked it away. “As much as I would enjoy your company,” she said, “I have to go.” Her face was a study in conflicting emotions.

She made the motion to stand up and Lex acted quickly, spurred by desperation. It wasn’t about Margot and what she wanted anymore. This was the woman who had haunted his dreams and fed his fantasies for the past fourteen nights. He needed her to stay with him. “If you leave now, you’ll never experience the best thing you’ve ever had in your mouth.”

She leaned away from him. “Excuse me?”

“The taro smoothie they serve here. It’s really good.” He teased her with a smile. “Why? What did you think I meant?”

She blinked up at him in surprise and a hint of a smile touched her lips. Just then, one of the guys from behind the counter appeared with a tray holding the sandwiches and pot of tea.

“Here you are, ma’am.” He settled Noelle’s order on the small table and then, after making sure she had everything, took her ticket. Noelle thanked him before he disappeared back behind the counter.

She stared down at the carefully arranged tea and sandwiches like she didn’t know what to do with it all.

Lex reached across the table and offered her his hand. “I’m Lex.”

“And you’re very persistent.”

“But hopefully not a pest.” He wanted this to be the moment they connected, but he wasn’t going to force it if she really wasn’t feeling him. He knew the power of his charm, but he also knew its limits.

Noelle tipped her head to look up at him, the smooth tumble of her hair sliding over her shoulders in a way that made him long to tug it firmly until her throat was bare to him and she was gasping for his touch. “You’re not a pest yet,” she said, oblivious to his slow but steady burn.

Lex widened his thighs under the table, making room in his pants for his growing...problem. He released a silent breath and turned his attention to the tea and sandwiches in front of them. “That looks good,” Lex murmured. “I’ll share it with you if you share my taro smoothie with me.”

She still seemed undecided, like at any moment she would shove away from the table and bolt. Lex made the decision for her. He poured a cup of tea for her and one for himself. The tea, fragrant with ginger and chamomile, steamed against his face, the same tea he’d scattered all over the floor earlier. “So what happened back there? Your girlfriend bail on you?”

He smiled with relief when Noelle only looked amused as he sipped the tea. Her internal shrug, just before she reached for her own teacup, was almost comically obvious. “Margot isn’t my girlfriend, although she can be as overbearing as the worst kind of wife.” She tilted her head, her forehead wrinkling. “I’m actually a little surprised she just left me here. Half the time I swear she thinks I’m some naïf wandering through the deep, dark woods about to stumble into danger at every turn.”

Naïf. Lex smiled at the word. He had the sneaking suspicion that Margot’s opinion of her sister’s proximity to suicidal cliff jumping was very far from reality.

“I’m sure you’ll set her straight soon enough.” Lex took another sip of the tea and nodded in approval. “This is good. I’ve never tried this blend before.”

“You come here a lot?”

He grinned. “You’re asking if I come here often.”

“Oh my God. Your ego is large, isn’t it?”

She was perfect, really. Lex chuckled. “Not my ego, no.”

Her lips twitched again. She was restrained, even in her amusement. It made him want to pull out all the stops to make her laugh, even make a fool of himself if that was what it took.

“Sir, your taro smoothie.” A young girl appeared at Lex’s shoulder. He thanked her and took the tall glass, which was filled to the top with the lavender smoothie and had boba resting like dark pearls at the bottom.

Once the girl left, he slid his glass across the table toward Noelle. “Try this. Your mouth will thank you.”

She shook her head. “In a minute. I’m not sure I’m ready for a mouth-changing experience.” She held the tea under her nose, steaming her face with the fragrant blend and closed her eyes for a moment. “This is what I came here for. I’ve been trying to convince Margot to come here forever. Then the day I finally get her to come, she gets called away on a mystery errand.” She sipped her tea, and the taste of it on her tongue seemed to make her smile. “Figures.”

“Well, it’s my lucky day,” Lex said. He reached for one of the sandwiches and took a big bite. “Mmm. Definitely my lucky day.” And he made sure he conveyed with his eyes just what part of the day’s good fortune he was truly grateful for. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, after swallowing her tea. “I think. I’m not really into being considered a prize in this scenario.”

“Not a prize. Just interesting company for a guy who’d otherwise be having a lonely day.”

He suspected an admission of loneliness might resonate with her and make her open up to him in a way that bold flirtation wouldn’t. Deliberately, he did not think about just how else he wanted her to open up for him.

You’re celibate. Control yourself.

Under the table, Lex pinched his thigh until the image of her spread across his bed and open to his every desire disappeared. But, damn, it was hard. He was hard.

“I think you’re trying to play me.” Noelle blew across the surface of her hot tea, her lips pursed and her eyes perceptive. “But my sister threw me to the lions today so I might as well play with one. Right?”

Lex wondered again why Margot thought her sister needed a fake lover to heal an old wound that he sensed was on its way to being mended already. This woman was strong. And she was breaking down every one of his defenses.

“I wouldn’t call myself a lion,” Lex managed with a smile. “Just a friendly pussycat.”

Noelle made a disbelieving noise. “Have some more tea,” she said. “It’s getting cold.”

They finished her pot of tea and his glass of taro smoothie, sharing their different experiences of the tea shop—when they’d first discovered it, who brought them, their favorite thing to eat or drink there. At first, Lex asked these questions to distract himself from how breathtaking she was, how knee-weakeningly sexy. Then it was because he really wanted to know about her and was pleased that, although Margot was the one who told him about the tea shop, he liked it nearly as much as Noelle seemed to, having visited it twice before the day Margot had arranged for them to meet.

Because he was Jamaican, tea was part of his everyday life. He drank a hot cup every morning and sometimes before bed. The different varieties at the shop exposed him to new flavors he’d never tried before. He’d already bought a few ounces of different teas to drink at home.

“If you’re ever curious enough to try a few select tea blends,” he told Noelle while smiling around the last small bite of the sandwich, “you should come over to my kitchen. I have some tea from here that you might like. In case you’re ever fiending for a cup when they’re closed.”

Noelle almost grinned, Lex could tell. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.

“Please do. It’s a very sincere invitation.” Lex winked at her, feeling a bit silly. But her brief look of amusement made it worth it. Noelle made him want to say and do the most ridiculous things just to see that sparkle in her eyes.