Steel Glances (Rocky Mountain Novella Series #1)

  Chapter 3

  Kristen looked at the clock again as she exited the highway. She was already fifteen minutes late for her date with Adam and still needed to get out of her wet clothes, and fix her hair and make-up. She wasn’t normally a very vain person, but Adam came from money and was used to things being a certain way. He never stepped foot in public without looking tidy and put together. Never was a hair even out of place. And, if Kristen was going to be with him, she had to be always be just as put together. She had to laugh as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her hair was all matted down and her mascara was running. She thought she resembled Heath Ledger as the Joker.

  As she approached her house, she was relieved to see that Adam had yet to show up. The downside to him having to always look perfect was that he very often arrived places late. In that way, he reminder Kristen a bit of her father. Still, punctuality was one of her pet peeves. This time, it worked in her favor, though.

  The rain was barely a drizzle as Kristen locked her car and then ran up the front steps of her house. Within seconds, she was inside. Since her purse was still dripping water, she tossed it into the kitchen sink rather than placing it on the table in the entryway where she usually kept it.

  She didn’t know when Adam would arrive, so she flung her shoes off as she headed to her bedroom. Along the way, she undressed, leaving a trail of wet clothes scattered across the hardwood floors from the kitchen to the master bathroom. It would only take a minute to pick them up. Kristen’s main priority was getting into the shower quickly.

  At that same time, Adam was just looking himself over in the mirror. When he was sure that he looked amazing, he grabbed a sports coat and headed out the door. Even though he wasn’t after Kristen because of her looks, she was a very beautiful woman and that was hard for him to resist. Although he knew he was running late, he wasn’t very concerned with time. Still, to be polite, he decided to call Kristen and let her know when he would be there.

  The pulsating streams of steaming, scalding hot water felt good against Kristen’s chilled skin. If she had more time, she knew she could’ve spent hours enjoying the shower. But, she was on a deadline, so she grabbed an all in one shampoo and conditioner and applied a healthy portion to her hair. As it set, she took to washing her body, making sure to scrub her face extra hard to make sure all of the make-up was removed.

  After rinsing out her hair, Kristen turned off the hot water and began drying off inside of the shower. Not that anyone would know from looking at her house at the moment, but she hated trailing water behind her when she got out of the tub or shower. So, instead, she always dried off inside the shower before exiting.

  Once her hair was wrapped tightly in the towel to dry, Kristen began re-applying her makeup, taking the time to make sure it was perfect. If it wasn’t, Adam would notice. It was then that she noticed she had a voicemail on her phone. It was from Adam. “Hey. I’m running late but I should be there by seven thirty,” he said. It was a short and concise message. That was typical of Adam. He wasn’t really a man of very many words. Kristen checked the time on her phone to see how much time that gave her. Only ten minutes!

  Luckily for her, she had short hair that she normally just blow-dried and applied a little styling gel to. It only took about five minutes to get her hair fixed, which left her five minutes to get dressed.

  Kristen looked through her closet trying to find anything that would be dressy but also comfortable, but nothing seemed to stand out. Finally, she decided on a simple blue dress with a white belt. It brought out the blue in her blue-green eyes.

  As she ran through the house, gathering her wet clothes and shoes, she saw the light from Adam’s car’s headlights move across the entryway wall. She had made it, just in time.

  “Sorry, I’m late,” Adam said as Kristen welcomed him inside with a kiss on his cheek. It was probably the reserved part of her that always kept everyone at a distance, but Kristen didn’t like PDA. Kissing, to her, was something to do when you felt romantic. It wasn’t something she did often or light-heartedly.

  The kiss on the cheek didn’t go unnoticed by Adam. He would never admit it, but he was somewhat hurt. He planned on getting a kiss and possibly more, though, before the end of the night. So, rather than let it bring him down, he just smiled and hung his jacket up.

  “That’s alright,” Kristen answered, a little confused as she watched Adam hang up his sports coat. “I just got home myself.” She planned on telling him the whole story over dinner and a glass of wine, but Adam had other plans.

  “I thought we could just stay in and have a cozy time here,” Adam suggested after Kristen asked if she should get her purse.

  “So, you don’t want to go out at all?” she asked, unsure of what to make of it. Something in her told her to be suspicious of Adam’s motives. While he had always been a nice guy, just somewhat egotistical and impatient, he always wanted to move faster in some areas of their relationship than she was comfortable with.

  “We can just stay in…get cozy on the couch, maybe enjoy some wine,” Adam explained. Kristen agreed, even though she was looking forward to a nice dinner, even if she did normally end up picking up the tab. With the visit to her father, and being stuck in traffic, she hadn’t eaten dinner yet and was starving.

  After Kristen opened and poured a nice bottle of wine into two glasses, she returned to the kitchen to see if she had anything to eat that she could serve with the wine. She didn’t need to be drinking on an empty stomach. She didn’t want to get talked into doing something that she would regret.

  Some would call her old fashioned, but Kristen didn’t want to have sex with Adam or anyone else until she was married. She had made that mistake before and it didn’t end well. She wanted to make sure that when she got married, it was for true love and not for the manufactured love two people can feel when they engage in sex. Adam didn’t really understand or agree with Kristen’s views on the subject and she could tell he was frustrated.

  While Kristen was in the kitchen, Adam removed his shoes and started the gas fireplace before he started sipping his wine. It was an abysmal year, but even bad wine was wine. He would ask Kristen if she had something a bit stronger when she returned.

  “I found some cheese and crackers,” Kristen announced as she brought the tray into the living room where Adam waited on the couch. His tie was loosened and his shoes were off and sitting by the fireplace. She saw that he had already consumed half of his glass of wine and was already refilling it as she joined him on the couch.

  Kristen thought she saw a sour look on Adam’s face as he looked at her tray of appetizers, but if he disapproved of the food, he kept it to himself. She did her best to make the cheese and crackers look classy, but for someone with money it probably resembled something from a table setup at the grocery store to give out free samples.

  “You won’t believe the day I’ve had,” Kristen began but was cut off my Adam.

  “Can that wait, babe?” he asked as he moved closer and began to kiss her neck. The wine might have been cheap, but it definitely put him in the mood. “I’ve missed you so much.” Kristen could feel his hands moving up her leg and under the hem of her dress.

  Instinctively, she stopped him by placing her hands on his. “We’ve talked about this,” she said, surprised that they would have to have the same talk once again.

  “We won’t have sex, I promise. I just want to make out a little bit.” He would say anything he had to, to seal the deal. She had heard that before from him, though, and he always tried to go farther and farther, as if he expected her to change her mind in the heat of passion. She wasn’t going to be talked into anything she wasn’t ready for.

  “I think you should go,” Kristen said, surprising both herself and Adam. She stood up and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Are you serious? You’ve got to be kidding me,?
?? Adam asked as he remained sitting on the couch with a confused smile on his face. He knew she wasn’t joking but thought that maybe if he was cute enough, she wouldn’t be able to resist him. However, when Kristen didn’t answer or change her stance, his smile quickly faded. Without a word, he stood up, slipped his shoes back on, adjusted his tie and walked out the front door. His face remained emotionless, but he was fuming on the inside.

  Kristen locked the door behind him. She didn’t know where things stood, or if she even cared at the moment. She just knew that she had a very emotionally exhausting day and wanted to be alone. If Adam really loved her, he would understand and not hold it against her. And, if he didn’t, well then, he wasn’t the right man for her anyways.

  As she lay in bed watching TV, Kristen half expected a call from Adam once he had cooled off, but her phone didn’t ring. A part of her thought that maybe she should call him and apologize for over-reacting, but she was too stubborn for that. “Maybe tomorrow,” she told herself.