Unsuspecting Eyes

For better or worse, I went to the party that night. I had not been to a fraternity party in three years, that being the time since I had been in school.

Graduation was not the cause of my departure, but rather I took a job as a police officer. I was happily working in a major city in Texas and enjoying the reputation and prestige of my employer. Other officers would look at me with raised eyebrows and give nods of approval. I was the local boy done good, so to speak.

I heard that some of my old college buddies were going to be at this party. It was, after all, the annual big spring party. Everyone who was anyone would be there. I only worked four days a week. So I took two days off and was looking forward to my five day weekend. That would give me plenty of time to recuperate from my partying.

I arrived at the fraternity house a little early. People were milling about. Some were actually working on decorating. Others were just working on a buzz. I was just looking for my friends. What I found were a bunch of pledges and a few girls helping to decorate. There was one cute blonde who had caught my eye. 5'3", blonde hair, blue eyes. Her smile made her stand out more than her figure. But her figure was remarkable on it's own. Needless to say, I marked her face in my memory for a later encounter and went on searching for my friends.

I was told that the guys I was looking for were still at their apartment. So I got directions from a slightly intoxicated pledge and drove off in my truck.

At the appropriate partying hour, I arrived in style. I had prepared to be noticed and made sure that it happened. My truck was freshly detailed, bright red and shiny. There weren't many parking places left when I arrived at 11:30, so I just pulled into the front lawn. An alumni has some privileges that a member wouldn't dare to think possible.

I had been out of school for three years and was at least four years older than most of the party-goers. Unfortunately, I look two years younger than most of them and I have to take steps to make myself look older. I dress far better than the average guy. I am out of the league of most college guys when it comes to wardrobe. Again, I arrived in style.

I had my favorite slacks, khaki-linen, with a tight white cotton tee, under a smartly tailored black poplin shirt. My sleeves were rolled up just a little and my top two buttons were open. You could use the surface of my shoes as a mirror. I had spent two hours polishing them the night before.

I'm not a fantastic male specimen. At 5'8", I don't really intimidate too many people. I weigh about 185, but look more like 150. I carry my muscles well and don't strive to show off my true strength unless I find it really necessary. Most of the time I'm wearing the thing that sets me apart, my smile. Somehow I flash my smile and people relax. They trust me. Of course, my puppy-dog, brown eyes don't take anything away from the effect.

I was set to enjoy the evening. I stepped down from my truck and immediately pledges were trying to put a drink in my hand. They were falling over themselves, partly in reverence and partly from inebriation. They looked crushed when I told them I didn't drink. But after a few seconds, the alcohol in their systems erased the memory of this strange, sober alumni, and they moved on with their partying.

My buddy's were not at the front of the house, so I decided I would have a better chance of finding them by searching through the house first and then the back yard. There were about two hundred people in the house and possibly three hundred in the back yard. I hoped they would see my truck and start looking for me as well.

I was walking, or more precisely creeping, through the house when I saw this pair of eyes. They belonged to the cute blonde I had seen earlier and she was sitting on the counter in the kitchen. (Without intending any sexism, I think their is just something incredibly sexy about a beautiful woman in the kitchen.) She was no exception.

She had a white button down blouse that had the sleeves pegged at the elbow. She wasn't showing any cleavage and the buttons weren't bursting off of her. She just looked sexy. Her pants were black and tight. They just looked inviting. Immediately, I wanted to take her away from the party and find some quiet place for the two of us.

I am certain that I was not the only person checking someone out. Her eyes locked with mine for a brief moment. Someone next to her was talking to her and she briefly looked at him. When her eyes returned to me, she gave me a thorough examination. I am sure I passed the test as she had to bit her lips to prevent me from seeing her smile spread. After seeing it earlier that afternoon, I wish she had allowed her smile to blossom. It would have melted the world away.

I continued my creeping towards her, through the crowd. As I closed the gap to less than four feet, my buddy stepped in fromt of me, hand extended arm around my shoulders.

"Ryan, how the hell are you? Man, I haven't seen you in . . . ." The rest was lost in the wall of noise around me. I might have stood a chance of hearing what Dan was saying to me if she hadn't started walking towards me.

While Dan was going on and on about how many pretty girls were here and how I should have no problem finding some company for the night, the one girl I wanted to talk to calmly squeezed past me, brushing against me in the process.

She looked up and smiled briefly. I was amazed. She said nothing, but pressed on.

As she brushed against my side, we were the only two people in the world. I could feel her body in every pore of my skin where we touched. She put her hand on my shoulder as she went by, to brace herself as someone else bumped into her.

Her perfume hit me. I've never felt more shock. Never been stunned like that, before or since. It was like the first time some suspect had dared to take a swing at me. I was in shock, thinking, "What the hell was that?" It was intoxicating. And yet, it was as innocently erotic as the smell of fresh baked cookies. Perhaps, it was just that she was wearing the fragrance and my mind layered that fact on top of the fragrance's natural eroticism.

I tried to turn and follow, but Dan still had his arm around me. He was trying to introduce me to a tall blonde.

" . . . my girlfriend, Michelle." The rest was lost as someone turned up the music system. Thump, thump, thump. The music was pounding in my chest, as was my heart. She was getting away.

I was having the same adrenaline rush that I got every time I got into a car chase or a foot chase. She was my suspect, just rounding the corner. I wasn't going to let her get away.

I snapped back around to Dan and his girlfriend. She was extending her hand to me.

"Nice to meet you." I instinctively shook her hand, still trying to squirm away from Dan. She smiled. Michelle's eyes followed from my face to the retreating prize and back again. A little smirk spread across her face. A smirk like that found on a woman who knows your little secret.

She whispered something to Dan and then took my hand.

"Come with me."

I was about to object, until she turned in the direction of my attention. She parted the crowd and guided me through it. I wasn't sure what was going on, but Michelle had taken me in the direction of the girl with the gorgeous eyes. I didn't care if I was going to be executed at dawn, as long as I found that girl first.

As we emerged from the front door and stepped out onto the porch, I came back to my senses.

"Where are you taking me?"

"There's someone I want you to meet." She looked back at me, over her shoulder, "I think you'll like her a lot."

"Really?" I replied, "And who would that be?"

I was looking at her face as she smiled. I was still being pulled along by my hand through the crowd. Suddenly, we stopped.

I tried to see what she was doing as she turned around. The press of people around us made it impossible to see who she was talking to, but I caught the faint hint of something in the air. I couldn't be sure because of the cigarette smoke hanging thick above us.

She was talking again. She stepped aside and said, "Kelley, I'd like you to meet Ryan."

For a moment I was speechless. There in front of me was the girl with the smile, the girl with eyes so fantastic. She was reaching to shake hands. I snapped back to my senses.

"Ryan, this is Kelley." Michelle was smiling like a mother watching her son on a first date, with all the clumsiness and obviousness of a novice.

"Kelley was my roommate last semester. She's from Dallas." Michelle had all the skill of a seasoned matchmaker. "Isn't that were you work, Ryan."

I was so busy taking in Kelley with my eyes that I almost missed the last remark, clearly meant to get the ball rolling between us.

"Yeah, that's right," I stammered. "I just moved there a few months ago. But I love the city. It's so much better than Houston."

I sounded ridiculous, but I didn't care. I was talking to her and the words weren't that important. I was still waiting to hear her voice. I hadn't even looked at Michelle since Kelley came into my view.

"I agree, Houston is such a bore." Michelle piped in. I didn't look at her. Kelley hadn't said anything. I was beginning to wonder if she spoke at all.

"Damn! What does he want now?" Michelle turned abruptly and disappeared through the crowd, leaving Kelley and I alone.

"Is it just me, or are we being set up?"

I knew at last. Her voice was beautiful. She had a sexy contra-alto voice that would put any adolescent boy into a stammering fit. Here I was, a grown man, and I wasn't too far away from that myself.

"I think you may be right. What gave her away?" I flashed my patented smile and winked.

Kelley giggled and leaned in. She grabbed my hand, and whispered against my ear, "I can't put my finger on it, but Michelle's up to something."

If it were not for my being completely enthralled by her voice I would have missed every word Kelley just whispered to me. She had grabbed my hand with both of hers so she could pull me down to her level, almost like a small child. Her lips brushed my ear because someone moving through the crowd bumped her from behind. It gave me goosebumps.

I was hoping that she wouldn't notice the goosebumps. She leaned away from me and we regained our comfortable conversational distance. But she still held my hand between her own.

Her hands were soft and warm. She had a gentle touch. I didn't want her to let go, even if the world fell down around us. There was something so familiar about this. So comfortable.

We talked for hours that night. Many of my friends would come up to speak with me. They would wait patiently beside me for a break in the conversation or for me to turn and make eyecontact before talking with me. Many of them walked up. Many of them just as quickly walked away when it became obvious that I was not in a conversational mood, unless your name was Kelley.

The party was winding down. People were leaving the music was fading. I didn't want her to leave. I didn't want to be out of her presence. But I knew that bringing her back to my hotel room, or even suggesting it would be the wrong move. I was interested in more than just sweaty pleasures with Kelley. I wanted her to know that, so I didn't ask.

Since she had been there since early afternoon to help decorate, her car was parked close to the house. We both knew that she needed to go home and that I should leave soon as well. Neither one of us wanted to admit it. But eventually, we faced the truth.

"Let me walk you to your car." I smiled, again.

"Sure, it's just over there."

We stretched those twenty feet into a thirty-minute stroll. Savoring each step, and wallowing in the seconds until, at last, we stood there at her car.

"This may sound really stupid, but may I call you tomorrow? I'd love to take you to dinner sometime."

"I like that very much."

With that, I leaned over and kissed her very tenderly on the lips. Time sped on. I tried to memorize the feeling of her lips on mine, but they were there and then gone. Granted, this was not some sloppy, deep-penetration, tongue diving kiss. It was as tender as rose petals on your nose. It was as moving as a Wagnerian opera. It was sliced bread. Again, I had goosebumps.

I handed her into her car and as she sank into the seat, her hand slipped from mine for the first time since she had taken my hands into hers. I closed the door and she drove away.

I found it difficult to get to sleep that night. All I could think of was her and how she made me feel. All I could feel was the ache in my body from wanting her. Sleep finally came and I dreamed of her.

I dreamed of her soft touch, her sexy voice and of her eyes smiling at me. There wasn't any shape or form to the dream, no plot. I was simply admiring her, basking in her. Reliving each fraction of each second that she held my hand. I revisited the brush of her lips against my ear, the feel of her hand on my shoulder as she brushed my body with hers, and the sound of her voice. And our kiss.

I awoke refreshed. It was 10:00 AM. That was very early considering my late night. But the habits of months can't be overcome with one night's betrayal. I didn't feel drowsy at all, my sleep had been so restful.

Strangely, I was dressed and thinking of food when it hit me. The beautiful girl that I dreamt about last night was not just a dream. She was real. She was very real. As real as the phone number in my pants pocket from last night. My face was once again visited by the patented smile. I felt like the world was my oyster and nothing would stand in the way of me getting to know Kelley.

I called her later that afternoon. Her voice ringing bright and clear over the receiver. I asked if she had slept well, did she have any problems getting home last night. I asked what her plans were for the evening.

"Unfortunately, I can't plan anything else for tonight," was her reply.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's not so bad as that. I can't plan anything else, because you're taking me to dinner."

The smile on her face was evident to me through the phone. As if her voice smiled and winked at me.

"Well, I don't know. I'll have to check my schedule. I think I have dinner plans with a very lovely young woman," was my effort at the fun.

"Pick me up at seven, please." Kelley gave her address and we said our goodbyes. I glanced at the clock. Only five hours of torture until I could see her again.

I laid out my wardrobe. I had a sharp, smartly-tailored, black summer-weight wool suit. I chose a grayish silver stretch button-down to wear under it. No tie. But I put a maroon tee under it for contrast. The shoes I had worn the night before were in no shape for an encore performance. Luckily, I had a back-up pair. These were dressier. I often wore them with my tux to the theater.

With my hair in place and my suit free of lint, I left for her apartment.

She lived in a new apartment complex on the edge of town, near the freeway. The building had the same qualities that all apartments in Texas seem to have. They are brightly colored, fantastically modern and as warmly charming as a cardboard box. I pulled up to the gate and found her in the directory on the call box.

"Hello," came her response to the ringing phone. I was so excited just to her hear voice.

"It's Ryan," I said with a smile and confidence in my voice.

There was a pause.

"Who?"

I was beginning to doubt to powers of my patented smile.

"Er, your date? The guy from the party last night?" Surely, she couldn't be serious.

"I know, I can see you on the camera. I'm just teasing you. Come on in."

I drove around to her building and parked next to her car. She had tried to make her apartment as much like a home as possible. There was a wreath hanging beside her door and a colorful mat in front of the entryway. Puppies were frolicking on the mat. I grinned at it's cute glimpse of her personality.

Before I could knock, the door swing away, taking my breath with it. She was wearing a stunning black dress. My grin turned into a smile.

"You look simply marvelous." I stepped inside her door as she closed it behind me. I turned to give her dress one more examination.

She had on a black cocktail dress. It seemed to shimmer in the soft lighting of her entryway. The dress was sleeveless but the dress was modestly revealing. The straps were less than an inch wide. The front of the dress dropped down to reveal a little cleavage. Her dress was short but not immodestly so. I was impressed.

My mind went back to a quote from one of my professors in my college days. She had told me that a good essay should be like a skirt: long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to make it interesting. Kelley's dress was the embodiment of that definition.

My attention to her attire was not unnoticed.

"You like it?" She turned with her arms slightly raised.

"The dress is fantastic, but I think only because you make it so."

"I'm going to grab my wrap and I'll be ready. If you'd like, have a seat. I'll only be a minute."

I walked across the living room and sat on the couch. Her apartment was nothing like the exterior. She had poured her personality into everything. The kitchen was full of Coca-Cola memorabilia and the trademark polar bears. The living room was comfortably furnished with black leather furniture. I stood to admire the framed art prints hanging in the room. I was looking at Van Gough's Stary Night, when she announced she was ready.

I turned to see her standing there with a black sheer wrap hanging down from her arms. I was taking it all in when her perfume reached me.

Any thoughts about food or the evenings entertainment left me with my next breath. The fragrance was sweet and light, yet it had an undertone of something primal. I'm not sure what it was called, but I think a prescription should be necessary to wear it.

We walked out to my truck and for the first time I thought I may have blown it. Kelley is 5'3". My truck sits very high. I opened her door for her and offered my hand to assist her. She gladly accepted my offer. As she brought her legs into the truck, I caught a glimpse of her thighs. More importantly, I did not see her panties. She had no stockings, pantyhose, or even panties that I saw. Nothing but bare flesh beneath that dress.

As I walked around behind the truck I used the time to calm myself. I quickly reviewed each moment in my mind and realized that I had not seen any panty lines when she had turned around for my inspection earlier. I had not seen any indication of a bra, either.

'Careful, Ryan.' I thought, 'You keep thinking like that and you'll be struggling to hide an erection from this sweet girl.'

We made pleasant conversation on the way to the restaurant. I had chosen a little known place about twenty minutes away. I had made a reservation for a private dinner in a quiet corner of the restaurant. I was rewarded by a very nice table and a sensible waiter. He left us in privacy and yet seemed to be telepathic about sensing when we needed him. I don't care how he did it, but I left a lavish tip to encourage this practice.

We dined on fabulous food, seasoned with warm conversation. I was enjoying every minute of her company. Kelley was just pleasant to be with. We shared a bottle of wine with our meal. As the night went on, I could see it taking effect.

The natural glow that Kelley seemed to have in her cheek was supplemented by the warm glow of the wine. She was not loud or foolish. She didn't giggle meaninglessly at every word. Kelley was charming and she displayed something a little more subtle. She was so very sexy in that dress. As the night wore on, she became more so.