As Tito pulled his Mustang up the circular driveway to Sam and Camilla's house for the second day in a row, he told himself that this distraction was exactly what he needed to take his mind off the meeting tomorrow with the mystery donor.
He was probably making something out of nothing. As Jack had pointed out, there were a lot of reasons why the person behind a charitable trust might prefer to keep anonymous. But he couldn't help thinking there was some sort of agenda going on here. Since there was no point guessing, he decided to focus his attention on something much more enjoyable.
He was out of the car and around to the passenger side when he heard the sound of the gate to the side yard closing firmly. With a child Sophia's age living in the house, he knew Sam and Camilla were extra vigilant about keeping gates closed so she couldn't wander out into the street. They also had a child safety fence that rolled out whenever the pool wasn't in use.
Tito leaned against the side of the car and watched as Caylee came around the corner. She was wearing faded ripped jeans that he imagined had been constructed by a pricey designer to put the rips in all the right places. Somehow the glimpses of smooth skin seemed sexier to him than if she'd been in that enticing bikini from yesterday's cookout. She was wearing a white tank top covered by some meshy looking white shirt that he could see through, and white canvas boat shoes. She had a straw bag over her arm, and her long wavy hair was flowing loosely over her shoulders. He needed to get his hands on her more than he needed to breathe.
He imagined gripping her waist, pulling her closer, her eyes laughing up at him as she closed the gap herself and he kissed her for the first time. Dangerous waters, he reminded himself. Jumping into something with Jack's cousin – even if she was, as he understood, only related to him distantly and through marriage - and newest hire at the law firm could only end badly. So instead he made no move toward her as she approached him.
"You might want to tie your hair back," he told her somewhat curtly, when what he really wanted to do was run his fingers through it. And that's not all he wanted to do.
"Well, hello to you, too," Caylee said, and, yeah, her eyes were laughing at him, her lips curved in a slight smile. She had this way of looking at you like she knew exactly what you were thinking. Tito hoped that wasn't actually true, and yanked this thoughts back again from the direction they'd been heading.
"Caylee, meet Sally," he said, gesturing to the car, pleased when she looked it over in obvious appreciation.
Tito opened the passenger door for her and she slid into her seat, running a hand over the smooth upholstery.
"Nice to meet you, Sally." Then to Tito, "You have a problem with my hair?"
"If you leave it loose like that it will be whipping around your face," he explained.
She raised an eyebrow, turning to look up at him. "Maybe I like it whipping around my face."
"It's your party," he said.
"Actually, since I have no idea where we're heading, it's your party."
Tito walked back around the car and got into the driver's seat. "I thought we'd just see-"
"-where the road takes us," she finished for him, and he couldn't help smiling.
"So do you always like to know where you're going?" Tito asked as he pulled the car around the circular driveway and out into the street.
"Almost never," Caylee said. "Life is so much more fun that way."
* * *
It should be against the law for any man to be as hot as Tito Martinez. She already knew she wanted him. She just hadn't realized how bad she wanted him.
Jack probably still thought she was a wild party girl, which no doubt went back to the crush she'd had on him when she was 16, leading her, dizzy with champagne, to take off all her clothes and wait for him, naked in his bed, when he was home from college for some fundraising event his mother was hosting. Jack, of course, had not taken her up on her drunken offer.
So what if she had a wild side? She was a smart, responsible lawyer, who also happened to enjoy sex. She didn't throw herself at men and she wasn't 16 anymore. But the thought of being naked in Tito's bed was giving her serious tingles. She bet he had some moves, and she was contemplating finding out.
And this car? It was a beauty. She wasn't sure what year it was, but certainly a classic. And the interior was as pristine as if it had just rolled off the showroom floor. It was almost like stepping back in time.
She glanced down at his strong hand closed over the stick shift, just inches from her bare knee, exposed by the rip in her jeans. As he shifted gears when they pulled onto a highway that hugged the coastline, she could almost feel that hand gripping her leg instead, moving over her skin. She let out a little sigh.
Tito chuckled. "I told you your hair would get in the way."
She pushed it back out of her eyes, not bothering to tell him her sigh had nothing to do with the wind messing with her hair. Instead of tying her hair back in a ponytail as he'd suggested, Caylee reached into her straw bag and pulled out a colorful silk scarf, fastening it over her head.
"You look like Tippi Hedren."
She lowered her oversize sunglasses and peered at him over them. "I was thinking more Audrey Hepburn."
He shrugged. "They all wore headscarves in convertibles. All the classic Hollywood actresses. Grace Kelly. Marilyn Monroe. Any Hitchcock heroine ever."
She wrinkled her nose. "Blondes, the lot of them. Except for Audrey."
Tito glanced over. "I prefer brunettes."
"Good to know."
"One in particular, at the moment."
"Not a bad line," she said, and he laughed.
"Seriously," Caylee said, "I'm finding it hard to picture you as a fan of classic movies from the 1940's and 50's."
"Picture my mother watching them endlessly. I was a captive audience as a kid." He looked out over the horizon for a moment, over water that was impossibly blue, and then turned back to her and she saw the flash of sadness in his eyes. "She was always big on happy endings. Her own ended up not lasting nearly long enough."
"I'm sorry."
He seemed to shake off whatever was bothering him, and gave her a cocky grin.
"That's why you have to grab whatever joy you can in the moment."
"Kind of my philosophy of life," Caylee told him, and put her hand on top of his on the stick shift. She could feel the heat through her palm, and a low level thrumming that might be the engine of the car or the beating of his heart.
She also felt a sharp stab of awareness and left her hand there anyway, since it would be awkward to pull it away. She wondered if he felt it too.
Caylee curled her hand tighter over his. He had a wide hand, with strong fingers she could easily imagine moving over her body, electrifying her nerve endings everywhere he'd touch. He drove the car with deliberate care and precision. What would it be like to have that attention focused entirely on her?
Traffic thinned and Tito punched the accelerator as they sped along the coast. Caylee was starting to feel like one of those glamorous heroines from an old movie.
"I still don't know where we're going," she said to Tito, raising her voice a little to be heard over the wind created by the car's motion, "but I'm glad to be along for the ride."
Nearly an hour later they pulled into the town of Delray Beach, and Tito stopped in front of a small restaurant that advertised deli food and sandwiches to go. Caylee had imagined them stopping at a restaurant with a view of the water, or maybe a beach bar. They went up to the counter and ordered sandwiches and a few sides, then he added two bottled waters, napkins and plastic utensils to the bag before heading back out to the car.
"So . . . " Caylee said, as Tito opened the door for her, then stashed the back behind the seat, "a picnic?"
"Why not?"
"Why not indeed?" she said, settling back.
She was surprised when he pulled into what looked like a park and was definitely not the beach, although there appeared to be plenty of water.
"It's called the Wakodahatchee Wetlands," Tito told her. "It's a good place to come when you just want quiet. And time to think."
"You come here often?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of lines," he said, and she laughed.
"No, seriously. I'm curious."
Tito shrugged. "Not that often anymore. I wasn't really heading here today, but it's just where the road took us."
"Right," she said, not sure whether she believed him or not, but she couldn't think of any reason he would have actually planned to come here and not told her. So maybe it was just a spur of the moment thing."
"Come on," Tito said, raising the top on the car and then reaching out and taking her hand, the handle for the bag holding their lunch loped over his other arm.
Pull yourself together, Caylee, she told herself as she felt little tremors running through her body. He's just casually put your hand in his, and you're feeling like a kid in middle school holding hands for the first time with your crush. But the feeling of that strong hand pressing against her palm in a firm grip had her subconscious teasing her senses again with thoughts of his hands moving over her body. She ought to just sleep with him and get it over with. But another part of her was enjoying the anticipation too much to suggest that they skip lunch, get back in the Mustang, and drive to the nearest hotel.
They turned the corner on the path leading away from the parking lot, and Caylee saw a sturdy wooden boardwalk ahead of them. At the entrance a sign proclaimed that over 178 different species of birds lived and nested there, along with alligators, turtles and other wildlife, and there was a small kiosk with maps and brochures.
"It's nice to see the wetlands being preserved like this, instead of given over to developers," Caylee commented.
Tito explained that it had actually been created less than 30 years ago, with an intentional infusion of highly treated waste water that was purified in the ponds and returned to the water table. The nearly mile-long boardwalk had been constructed, and spanned open water, weaving its way across several islands.
"It's beautiful," Caylee said, and thought what an unexpected place for him to have brought her. The foliage was rich and deep green, and she watched a tall white bird land on the railing to the boardwalk ahead of them, and then take flight over one of the islands. Turtle heads popped up, breaking the calm surface of the water, and she spotted an alligator sunning itself on a bank and then slowly slipping beneath the water as they got closer. Which pretty much explained another sign warning that dogs were not permitted on the boardwalk.
There were birds with long legs wading near the edge of the water, and she wondered if the proximity of alligators was a threat to them and hoped she wouldn't see one of them become lunch.
They passed a few people, but mostly they were alone, and the air was still. The only sound was the call of different species of birds, and the gentle slap of water when a turtle surfaced then disappeared again or a fish made a soft splash.
"Here's a good place to sit," Tito said as they came to a small pavilion with several benches at a corner in the boardwalk. "Hungry?"
"Actually, yes." There was something about being out in the air that had piqued her appetite, even though she'd already had a nice Sunday brunch with Sam and Camilla's family and it wasn't nearly time for dinner. They sat down and spread out the food between then on the bench. For some reason, her throat felt dry and she twisted the top off one of the water bottles and took a long drink.
She knew how to handle herself with a man in a fancy restaurant on a first date. It was strange that this casual picnic on a boardwalk in a wetlands park had her a little nervous, a bit off her game.
When their hands brushed as they opened the sandwiches, she felt that little tug again, and told herself to get a grip.
She wondered if he was drawn to open spaces like this because of the time he'd spent in prison, so she asked him.
"That's part of it," Tito said. "When you're closed in, you think about places where walls don't exist."
"What was it like when you were in prison?" She was genuinely curious.
He took a long time responding, then finally said, "Both not as bad as you imagine, and also worse." His arm was resting on the back of the bench behind her, and he casually moved his hand to the back of her neck, his fingers curving and stroking her skin idly, like they were just there of their own volition. And she suddenly felt like she couldn't quite catch her breath.
"We'll talk about it," Tito said, shifting to face her. "But not here. Not now."
She set her water bottle down on the bench, screwing the lid back on with slightly trembling fingers that she hoped he didn't notice. Then she lifted her hand and put the palm on his chest and leaned in, tilting her head up and putting her mouth on his. She meant it just to be a quick brush of their lips, never expected the shock that shot through her entire body like a high voltage power surge.
Never expected the hand that rested so casually on the back of her neck to yank her closer while his mouth took charge, turning the light brush of lips into so much more.
Everything around them blurred and even the shrill calls of birds faded away until there was nothing in the world except Tito kissing her and her kissing him back.
Then as quickly as it had started, he released her, leaned back in the bench, and picked up a sandwich. She stared at him.
"What the hell was that?"
"You started it."
She gave him a measured look, and did her best not to reveal how shaken she was.
"No, I think you started it when you told me you'd pick me up today for a ride in your Mustang." She paused. "You want to finish it?"
He smiled slightly, which made her want to get her mouth on his all over again.
"I think right now," Tito said, "what we need to finish is our lunch."
Author's Note: What do you think will happen next? Are they heading to a beachside hotel, or will Tito slow things down?
Also, the photo I posted with this chapter isn't a Mustang, but I just really liked the mood of the picture.