Love Me Tonight - Four Erotic Romance Stories for Valentine's Day - Boxed Set by Cassia Leo, Mimi Strong, Kandi Kayne, Catou Martine Page A

sparkling engagement ring, courtesy of baby-daddy number four. “Never give up on love. Never give up on yourself.”
    “I'll go,” Tessa said, though an hour earlier, she'd decided against it.

    Because of Heaven and her diamond ring, Tessa went to the diner on Wednesday, arriving at five past one because she'd sat in her parked car for ten minutes, fussing with her hair and makeup.
    The diner was still full from the lunch rush, and she looked over the crowd for Andrew. He wasn't there. No, he wasn't there, and gravity pulled at her without mercy.
    A man's voice came from beside her, “Looking for someone?”
    It was Andrew, and he'd been reading the newspaper on a bench. His eyes twinkled, as though he'd planned this whole thing, just to disappoint and then surprise her, to see that look on her face. The wedding ring was nowhere in sight, so she forgave him for being so amused.
    A waitress came over, clicking the button of a pen like she was tallying up some number nobody else saw. “Table for one?” she asked Tessa.
    Andrew stood and leaned in to Tessa, touching shoulders with her through his leather jacket. “Table for two,” he said.
    The waitress raised her eyebrow and gave Andrew a surprised look. “About time,” she said, leading them to a four-seater booth by the window.
    They perused their menus, placed their orders, and received their first cups of coffee.
    “Divorced?” she asked.
    “Widowed.”
    “Same.”
    “Cancer,” he said.
    “Heart attack.”
    “Sugar?” he offered the container of brightly-hued packets her way.
    “Just cream.”
    “That stuff'll kill you,” he said, smiling.
    “Best to go with a smile on one's face.”
    He shook two packs of sugar, stacked them, and tore them both open at the same time.
    “Amen to that,” he said, pouring in the sugar.
    “Have you always cut hair?”
    “Started when I was in the army. When I finished with the military, I had a barber shop for a while, with the twirling barber's pole outside and everything.”
    “Did all the veterans hang out there?”
    “Yes, ma'am.”
    “But you shut it down to run a salon?”
    He chuckled into his coffee. “We had some good times, but the city is always evolving. I sold the place a number of years ago. The salon, where I met you, was my wife's, and after she passed, I came in to tidy things up before selling.” He took a slow sip, savoring the gray-hued diner coffee as if it were something more special. “Turned out I like working in a fancy salon. I upgraded a few skills, and now I get to tinker with beauty all day.”
    “ Tinker with beauty. I like that.”
    “The other day, you said you worked at the library?”
    She looked up, searching the acoustic tiles on the ceiling for her memory. The haircut and coloring was a blur now, but she must have been talking.
    “I tinker with literature. And young minds.”
    “We're very fortunate,” he said.
    She glanced to the space on the booth's bench beside her. “So we are,” she said.
    Their clubhouse sandwiches arrived, the scent bringing Tessa the reassuring sensation of hunger. She could deal with that human need, right now.
    What seemed insurmountable was the other thing she now desired: Andrew's hands, on her body. He'd touched her hair and scalp, bringing out feelings that seemed too youthful to be real, but they'd lingered. The last two days, she kept looking at herself in the mirror, only it was Andrew's eyes she imagined seeing her.
    Even now, as they ate sandwiches in comfortable silence while the diner hummed around them, she was aware of little else but his gaze. He drank her in as he savored his toasted sandwich, though when his gaze dropped to her bosom, his expression became troubled.
    Tessa wanted to see just how troubled she could make that gorgeous face of his.

    After lunch, Andrew had an idea for dinner, later in the week.
    They had dinner.
    After dinner, he suggested a drive to a nearby town, on the weekend.
    And so it went, for three