I kissed him back like I couldn’t exist without my lips on his, his tongue in my mouth. I was out-of-control and didn’t even care.
Then he tore his mouth from mine and buried his face in my neck. For a second, we both just sat there, breathing heavily.
“You taste better than I remembered,” he said into my neck and his voice sounded deeper than normal.
I swallowed and closed my eyes tight. My heart was beating wildly. I felt safe and snug in his lap with his arms around me. I was excited in a good way. And his heat was seeping into me everywhere and I liked it.
I liked all of it.
His head came out of my neck and he looked at me. “And the way I remembered it, you tasted fuckin’ great.”
My rapidly beating heart tripped.
“It’s my lip gloss,” I said stupidly.
A slow smile spread on his face. “Mamita, trust me, it isn’t your lip gloss.”
I didn’t answer mainly because I was in his lap, I just made out with him (again) and he was smiling at me close up.
Where was my Ice Princess now, I ask you? There were moments I could still use her. What was she? On vacation?
“Time to feed you,” he told me.
Thank God.
Relief from full on Hector, his mouth, tongue and heat. I could use that quite desperately. I needed to get my head together. This was not going well mainly because it was going well.
It wasn’t supposed to go well. It was supposed to be a disaster.
“Okay,” I agreed but didn’t move.
He kept smiling as he leaned in and gave me a brief kiss then twisted me back in my seat. He started the Bronco, I put on my seatbelt, he put on his and we took off.
Considering how the first ten minutes of our date went, I was a little worried about the rest of the night.
*
Hector parked on a residential street in the Highlands.
I looked around thinking maybe there was a corner restaurant or something. He got out, I threw open my door but he was there before I could alight. He took my hand, helped me out and kept hold of my hand.
“Where are we going?” I asked as he walked me up to what looked like a house.
“Dinner,” Hector replied.
I stared at the house. It was a nice house, small, neat yard, cozy.
Then, because it was a house, I began to panic.
“Is this your house?” I breathed as we made it to the front door.
Hector pulled open the heavy security door, stepped in, turned the knob to the front door and looked down at me.
“No. Es mi mamá’s.”
Blooming heck!
His mother’s?
Someone, please tell me Hector didn’t live with his mother.
He pulled me to him, put his hand to the small of my back and guided me into the house. Once in, he shut the door, took my hand and we walked into the living room.
I came to a dead halt at what I saw.
Eddie was there with Jet. Indy was there with Lee. Big crazy guy Tex was there with some pretty, older, blonde lady. Lastly a short, round, Mexican-American woman was laughing with the pretty, older, blonde lady.
They all turned to me. I prepared to turn and run.
Hector felt it, dropped my hand, his arm went around my shoulders and he pulled me tight to his side.
Now would someone please tell me that, on our very first date, Hector didn’t bring me to a dinner party at his mother’s house?
“This is Sadie,” Hector told the room.
Yes, Hector brought me to a dinner party at his mother’s house.
Then the night, already bizarre in the extreme, got more bizarre.
The short, round, Mexican-American woman (who I was assuming was Hector’s mother), walked up to me. She stopped right in front of me, her eyes sharp on my face. I felt the Ice Princess arrive back from vacation and start to slide in place but something made me push her out and send her packing again.
“Hello,” I said softly.
Then, no kidding, I watched in fascination as tears filled the woman’s eyes.
Yes, actual tears.
Her hand came up, started toward my scarred cheek, I pulled in my breath, the hand halted then dropped.
She sucked in her lips and I saw her biting them, tears still shining in her eyes, she reached out and wrapped her little hand around my casted arm. She held it in front of her, her head tilted down, I couldn’t see but I could tell she was looking at my wrist.
I leaned a bit forward and asked softly, “Excuse me, but are you all right?”
Her head came up and she dropped my arm. “You look like a fairy princess,” she whispered in a croaky voice.
I’d heard that before and I still didn’t know what to say.
I didn’t get the chance to say anything.
“Who would hurt a fairy princess?” she asked me as one tear slid down her cheek.
My body jerked then went solid and, belatedly cluing in after being made fuzzy by the beginning of my crazy date with Hector, I realized she knew I’d been raped.
Instead of this making me panicked or embarrassed or angry at Hector (or Lee or Indy or Tex or Jet or whoever) for telling her, I leaned even closer to her.
“Mrs. Chavez,” I said gently but she wasn’t looking at me anymore, her eyes sliced to Hector and she started yelling at him in rapid-fire Spanish.