The Wildflower (Completed) (Southern Nights)

Chapter 10

"The Heart of a Wildflower"

2012 Copyright All Rights Reserved

Chapter 10

Standing at the kitchen counter Elizabeth picked up her wine glass and quickly downed its contents in two giant swallows.  She dropped the empty wine glass back on the counter with a plunk, glanced over at the clock on the microwave and grimaced.  She had fifteen minutes until Zeb was supposed to show up on her doorstep.  If her two left feet didn’t kill her tonight, then the nervous anticipation that had an iron hold grip on her surely would.

Elizabeth glanced down at her blouse.  It was the fourth one that she had put on in the last hour.  It was red silk with tiny pearl buttons down the center.  She had carefully left several of the buttons at the top undone and there was a pretty good swath of pale white skin showing at the top of her breasts.  She wasn’t used to displaying this much cleavage; and feeling more than a little uncomfortable, she hastily buttoned the blouse all the way up to the collar.  Five minutes later she glanced back down at the blouse and frowned.  She looked like a complete prude.  With jittery fingers she unbuttoned it once again and then slapped her hands on the counter before she changed her mind again.  “I’m going crazy,” she mumbled to herself and snorted.  “I’m going certifiably insane.”

The sound of the door bell ringing jarred her back to the reality of her situation.  She glanced back at the clock on the microwave and saw that it read eight o’clock.  Just her luck, Zeb Crooker was irritatingly on time.  She kind of hoped that he would have been late so she could back out of this shenanigan all together.

The doorbell rang a second time and Elizabeth realized that it was to now or never.  She took a deep breath and made her way to the door.  Standing in front of the door, she gripped the knob and took one last calming breath.  “You can do this Elizabeth,” she told herself.  “It’s not mountain climbing.  It’s just dancing. Dancing should be easy.”

Yeah, right!  She would be dancing with Zeb tonight and there was absolutely nothing easy about that.  Their bodies would be intertwined; her head nestled against his chest with his masculine scent infiltrating her senses.  She felt a slight shiver wrack her body and groaned.  She was so not going there tonight.  Gritting her teeth she yanked the door open with more force than was necessary and offered up what she hoped to be was a perfectly bright smile on her face.  

Her smile faltered though when she caught sight of the handsome man standing on her doorstep.  Zeb was virtually sex all packaged up on a stick.  And it wasn’t your plain, everyday sex.  This was that down home, virile, dirty sex that women only dreamed about while they were all alone late at night.  His broad, muscular frame was perfectly outlined in a pair of dark wranglers that fit his ass all so perfectly.  His black polo shirt stuck to the expanse of his muscled chest like a second skin, and then there were those eyes.  Those lazy, sea blue eyes that held a hunger in them threatening to swallow her whole.  

She gulped,  and despite the glass of chardonnay she downed minutes earlier, her mouth felt drier than the Sahara Desert.

His low, deep chuckle drew her attention from the in depth once over that she was giving his body.  “Well,” he drawled and leaned a shoulder against the doorway, “do I pass your inspection.”    

“Zeb,” she said and slowly pulled in her bottom lip with her teeth, bound and determined to keep her composure.  “You could pass any inspection donning a paper bag on your head. I believe the correct question under the circumstance would be do I pass your inspection?”

Before she could blink, Zeb had her wrapped up in his arms.  His strength overwhelmed her and the hitch in her breath told him that she hadn’t been expecting him to move in on her the way he did.  He caught her off guard and he liked keeping Elizabeth off guard.  That way she would be assured that a life with him would never be boring.   “Darling, you could pass my inspection even after you first wake up with sleep filling your eyes and a rat’s nest piled up in your hair.”