He closed his eyes. “Did you say that just to torture me?”
“No, that wasn’t the plan, just a nice side effect.” When he growled again, she smiled. “Noah, you said yourself that I’m not like any of the women you’ve been around for the past fifteen years.” She held up a finger when he started to speak, “If this is as important to you as it is to me, we’ll wait.” She looked away from his eyes, “Besides, I haven’t been with anyone since…well, for a good seven years. There hasn’t been anyone I’ve wanted. I want to make sure we don’t make a mistake. This should be important and not something we do on a whim. I’m not looking for a fling. If you are, I’m not the right woman for you.”
“Have I told you I hate it when you make sense?”
She shook her head.
“Somehow, I think I’ll be saying it a lot.” He kissed her lightly on the nose. “I will try to be a gentleman.” He kissed her again. “For you Lexi, I will do this. I guess that means more dating?”
She nodded.
“Damn, I was afraid of that. But we can still kiss right?”
She nodded again.
“Okay, then let me know as soon as you change your mind. Even if it’s in the middle of the night, you know I can be here faster than you could hang up the phone.” They both laughed.
“Thank you, Noah. Now let me up, we’ve got to get to the senior center. Are you ready to meet the ladies or are you scared?” Smiling wickedly at Noah hoping to make him nervous.
“I should be fine. I’ve had millions of women screaming my name and trying to pull the clothes off of my body, so this should be a cakewalk.” He smiled, but as Lexi laughed it wavered. “Should I be scared?”
*
“Well, hello, what have we here?” one of the ladies said as she moved closer to Noah. “I’m Marie. Are you a friend of Lexi’s?” She didn’t try to hide the fact that she was checking him out in his sleeveless white shirt and tan cargo pants.
He smiled as he kissed her hand. “You could say that, Marie. Lexi told me all about you, ladies. I couldn’t wait to see for myself how wonderful you are.”
“Ahh, isn’t that sweet?” another of the ladies said as she gently pushed Marie out of the way. “I’m Leigh and I can tell you, the pleasure is all mine. I’ve seen all your videos. I love the way you shake that ass.” She batted her eyes at him.
“Leigh, really. Leave the poor boy alone.” The third pushed Leigh out of the way. “I’m Evelyne, and I will save you from these two.” She gave Leigh a look when she snorted. “Why don’t you come over here and sit down, tell us all about how you keep in such great shape.” She grabbed his arm and started squeezing to feel his muscles.
“Thank you for the invitation, but while I would love nothing better than to sit and talk with you ladies all afternoon, Lexi has informed me that I need to find Rodney and help him. Maybe we can have something cold to drink when I’m done.” He gave them all a huge smile, flashing his dimples and waving as he strode away. He stopped by Lexi who was trying not to laugh and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
*
The ladies stood still watching him walk away. As soon as they were sure he was out of ear shot, all three spun around and started talking at once, asking Lexi question after question. Lexi had no chance to keep up.
Marie whistled loudly to get the others to stop talking. “Alexia Anne Hanson. Why does it look like you’ve had someone rubbing their stubbled chin all over your neck?” She then looked pointedly over her shoulder to where she could see Noah was walking away.
“I have no idea what you mean.” She rubbed her neck. “Besides, the three of you never own up to anything, why should I?” Lexi raised her eyebrow at them, daring them to continue.
“What do you want to know? I’ll spill the beans if you will.” Leigh smiled and rubbed her hands together.
“Leigh!” exclaimed both Evelyne and Marie.
“Fine, never mind. Since no one is going to spill the beans, we might as well get some work done. I vote we work back here.” Leigh gestured over her shoulder to where Noah had gone.
“Shocking, since that is where all the men are,” Lexi said sarcastically.
“I have no idea what you mean.” She laughed and started walking in the direction she’d gestured to. “There are a lot of things to pick up out here and I’m not just talking about the men.”
*