“Gee, it must have been all that glorious pillow talk…” she said sarcastically, making a face at him. “Why did I ever think we’d get along?”
“So you admit that you think of me?” he quipped, a smile twitching on his lips as she rolled her eyes at him.
“How can I not?”
“Are they dirty thoughts?” he invited softly, wagging his eyebrows at her.
“Oh yes,” she whispered as he took her hand in his and wrapped an arm around her waist so they could try gliding across the living room floor of his house once more. “I think of you… and a shovel… on a moonlit night… in the pouring rain… with a Hefty bag.”
“Dang, baby…” he whispered playfully. “You bought the good stuff? No dollar store trash bags for my wretched carcass?”
“Oh no,” she chuckled, meeting his eyes. “Not for you. I don’t want your bony elbows to poke out of the plastic.”
“I put lotion on them. I know you like them soft and not scaly.”
“You know me so well,” she retorted dryly – but the smile they shared was everything as they both grew quiet. He was leading her slowly around the living room, moving and swirling to the soft music playing from his cell phone in the distance. “Maybe you don’t suck as a dance teacher…”
“Maybe I misspoke earlier,” he offered loftily, but his intense eyes were still watching her, waiting.
“There’s no ‘maybe’…” she taunted coolly, not backing down. He gave her a slow, spreading smile that was hard to ignore as he nodded.
“I think maybe you’ll do.”
“Oh gee – be still my beating heart.”
“People will be jealous of our relationship.”
“If they only knew how fake it was…”
“Then they’d try to take you away from me,” he said softly, his face not giving away a thing. “And we both know that I’m the only one who will put up with your sass – fake or not.”
“Because it rhymes with what you are,” she said sweetly, still doling out jabs as she realized he was indeed flirting with her. Their banter was their – dare she say it – their love language?
“And you know it because you are always eyeballing it,” he whispered, drawing to a stop. “Admit it – you eyeball mysassall the time – don’t you?”
“Admit that your uniform pants are indecently tight? Sure – I’ll admit it.”
“That you like checking me out when I’m on the field.”
“It’s not hard,” she whispered distractedly, falling into his hooded gaze. “I look for the biggest clod out there who looks lost…”
“That same clod that’s doing back flips in the grass so you’ll notice him,” he breathed softly as his finger and thumb turned her chin upward – as her lips parted. He was so close, his eyes were so warm, so soft… so everything.
“That’s the one… that’s my clod,” she managed to get out as their breaths mixed and his lips grazed hers softly once… twice… three times before he kissed her – and the world stopped turning.
The clock stopped.
The music went silent.
Everything, every heartbeat, every moment melted into that kiss between them. His taste, the scent of soap mixed with something else, was invigorating, the feeling of his lips claiming hers felt like coming home for the first time ever. Her hands pulled free of his, sliding around the back of his neck as his arms moved, circling around her in an unexpected embrace. Steffi never anticipated him ever kissing her – and now she knew that he was the only one she ever wanted to do this.
As their kiss broke, they stared at each other, both breathing heavy and obviously speechless at what just happened. It took several seconds for them to finally move apart as they each cleared their throats awkwardly.
“They sell lip scrub, you know…”
“Did you have tuna for lunch?”
And then looked at each other again.