It was all I could think about the past couple of days. It was a wonder I had closed out the business deal that Declan had been working on before he left. One wrong move and I could’ve screwed up that deal.
August lowered his head and pressed a discreet kiss to my temple. Shit. I thought only inexperienced teens got butterflies in their stomachs.
How was I supposed to convince us that this was all about sex and experiments? Sexperiments. Nothing more. But nothing less either.
“Are you being a snob, Charles?” August whispered into my ear. “Do you know what I do to snobby men?”
Desire curled up inside my belly at the warm drag of August’s breath on the side of my face. I sucked in a deep breath and took the bait.
“What?”
“Stick around, and you’ll find out.”
With a smirk, August tugged us forward. I glared at him for putting ideas in my head and leaving me hanging. Up ahead, three beautiful women dressed in a uniform of blue, black, and red sang at the customers, their faces radiant.
At least they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
As we moved up in the line, several train operators greeted us. August pointed out small signages with important facts about the railroad, reading them aloud for me as if I couldn’t see them. Maybe if I didn’t have in my contact lenses, but with them, my vision was almost twenty-twenty.
Because he distracted me with those signs, the photographer who appeared before us took me completely by surprise.
“Hi, welcome to the dinner train. Would you like to take a photograph?”
I didn’t, but August made me. It wasn’t so bad, standing shoulder to shoulder with him, his arm still around me. I felt like one half of a couple, and from the beaming photographer’s smile, he obviously thought that was what we were.
“Now was that so bad?” August showed me the photograph.
It really wasn’t. My cheeks were flushed, and I hadn’t even realized August had been looking at me while the photographer snapped the pic. I squirmed under his scrutinizing gaze. Why were we here in the first place? We could be back at Declan’s house, satisfying both our curiosities.
What would we be like in bed? I knew myself well enough that same sex or not, I’d never be a prude in bed with August. When it came to sex, I wanted it all. That wouldn’t change simply because of the gender of the person I now ached to have in my bed.
Since August had made reservations for us, we were ushered to our seats with our names on placement cards. The seating arrangements weren’t as cramped as I’d feared, but they still didn’t afford us much privacy. Wasn’t this date for us to discuss what we were about to do?
Yeah, I wasn’t going to do that with all these people around.
“Charles,” August said gently. I pried my eyes away from the couple who occupied the table across from us. “You’re scowling. I want you to smile. Can you do that for me?”
“We were supposed to talk…” I scanned around me again, hoping he would get the point. It was one thing to be comfortable with the idea of August sticking stuff up my butt, but it was another thing to have us talk about it at the risk of being overheard.
He reached across the table and took my hands. Both of them. “We’ll talk when it’s time to talk. Now I want you to relax and enjoy the evening.”
I nodded and plastered the biggest fake smile on my face I could muster. “Fine.”
Before the train started the first lap of our journey, a man who claimed to be the co-owner appeared and introduced himself, telling us what to expect. When he mentioned it was a three-and-a-half-hour train ride, I downed the champagne the waitress had placed on our table.
“We’ll be turning south.” The man waved his hands in that direction as he spoke. “Moving toward the river. At the end of the yard, we’ll make a turn right and go west all the way to the Boathouse. You’ll be able to see the Ohio River.”
My mood picked up, though I couldn’t say exactly when, but by the time we arrived at the graffiti tunnel art, I was caught up in the light atmosphere of the pleasant chatter around us. August’s company was great, as always, and the beautiful scenery we passed put me right at ease.