What the heck was that? Surely, Declan wasn’t running from her now. Did he think that because she watched action movies, she was going to attack him? Of course, she was still holding a knife so he was probably trying to protect himself from another mauling. Later, she planned to test his resolve. She felt like she had been waiting for Declan, or at least the idea of Declan, for a long time and now that they were sort of together, she wanted it all . . . now.
He, however, seemed to be moving at the pace of a turtle. For years, her mother had been telling her that men only wanted one thing from her and that she should guard against that. Well, when exactly did they want that one thing—because other than some hot kisses where he pulled away before they became too intense, she had seen no sign of him wanting or trying to get in her pants? Maybe she needed to wear different pants.
Dinner was wonderful and Declan looked at her in approval when she ate almost every bite of the mouthwatering steak he had grilled for them. He hadn’t even cringed when she knocked over her full wine glass and drenched the table and the floor beneath it. They cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher like an old married couple. She couldn’t believe that she was so comfortable being alone with a man in his apartment. This was Declan though. They had spent so much time talking at the office that she was almost as comfortable around him as she was with Beth.
They carried their glasses of wine back into the living room and, with a knowing smirk, Declan casually dropped a towel beside her glass. “Okay, did we decide on my award-winning movie selection of Sleepless in Seattle or your action-packed movie Lethal Weapon which is filled with a lot of amusing, gratuitous violence?”
Pursing her lips, Ella said, “Hmmm, well, you make a strong case for both movies. I feel that choosing the first movie would just make me into a stereotypical girlie girl who lives and breathes for a good chick-flick. Therefore, I feel that I must choose the second movie just to break out of the restraints that society has placed upon the female sex.”
As Declan started to applaud, she was proud of herself until he said, “Oh Ellie, I bet that was a fine speech, but I completely shut down when you said restraints and sex in the same sentence!”
Ella started blushing as images of those two things flashed through her head. “Um . . . that could have been a poor choice of words, well, unless you’re into that. Are you . . . into that?” Did I really just ask him if he wants to tie me up during sex?
She was happy to see that she wasn’t the only one completely thrown by that train of thought.
Declan fumbled so much with the movie cases that he was beginning to look like he was practicing his juggling routine. Clearing his throat he said, “Well . . . I’ve tried it before, yes,” then he quickly added, “But you don’t need to worry about that Ellie. I would never ask you to do something that you didn’t want to do.”
Giving it some thought, Ella finally said, “I’ll just have to try it and see if I like it. Do you do the whole spanking thing with it or is that something else?” She was alarmed to see that he had turned white as a ghost and seemed to just be staring at her in a daze. “Are you feeling okay? You’re sweating and you look like you might pass out.” Jumping up, Ella started to the kitchen to get him a glass of water.
“No,” he managed to croak out. “I’m fine. You just . . . distracted me for a minute there with all of the spanking talk. Before you even ask, yes . . . I have tried that as well, and no, I’m not doing that to you. At least, no time soon. Ellie . . . baby, can we please not talk about anything else below the belt tonight? This would be a bad time to figure out that I have a heart condition.”
Ella looked down to find that things below his belt line had gotten a bit more noticeable than they had been. The realization dawned on her that without even trying, she had turned him on in quite a big way. Really big. She couldn’t help but feel proud of herself. She had been wondering how she could get to Declan and apparently just talking about restraints, sex, and spankings did the trick. When he settled beside her on the couch, she curled into his side and after a brief hesitation; he wrapped his arms around her and settled her head under his chin. If it felt this good to be in his arms fully clothed, Ella could only imagine how it would feel to be skin to skin with him.
***