Loving David by Gina Hummer Page B

to an X rating.”
    Charlotte shot daggers in David’s direction, and he put his hand on her arm to calm her down. “Alright, alright; no more teasing.” He stared at her, a serious look on his face.
    “Friends do tease each other though, Charlotte, and I consider you a friend.”
    Charlotte’s tension slid away and she felt her breath release. She placed her hand over his, and the two gazed at each other for a moment before Charlotte cleared her throat and polished off the last of the Twinkie.
    “Well, I’m glad you think of me as a friend. Now be my best friend and make me a drink.”
    “More wine?”
    “Ugh, no. No wine for a few days. Actually, my drink of choice is a Cape Cod.”
    David crinkled his nose. “What’s that?”
    “Vodka and cranberry juice with a twist of lime and lots of ice.”
    David nodded and stood. “I think I can manage that.”
    “Thanks.”
    Charlotte stared out the window while she waited for David to finish making them drinks. He set one down in front of her and waited for her to try it.
    “Does it pass inspection?”
    Charlotte took a huge gulp and her eyes grew wide. “Whoa! Little on the strong side.” She coughed and plunked the glass down on the table. “Trying to get me drunk, huh?”
    David frowned and picked up the glass. “Let me sip.” He took a swig and nearly choked. “Wow. Sorry. I don’t make my own very often; I am obviously not good at it.”
She took both their glasses. “Or too good at it,” she said as she went to the fridge to add a
little more ice and cranberry juice.
    “You know, all the sex aside, Cabo Nights is a beautiful story. I’m rather looking forward to reading the next one. What a tragic ending though. Why do all the good love stories have to have such sad endings?”
    Charlotte smiled a little, secretly pleased he enjoyed her book. She rejoined him at the table. “Not all of them do,” she said as she took a sip of her new drink and nodded her approval.
David looked at his watch. “So we’ve got about an hour before dinner. How about a game of cards?”
Charlotte ran her fingertip along the rim of her glass. “Can I ask you a question?”
”Do you think it will take an hour?”
    Charlotte chuckled and shook her head. “No. I was just wondering. Where do you live? Do you have a house or homes? I guess, what I mean is, is there a place you call home?”
“Well, I don’t really have a home.” He leaned back and drained his drink. “I rented a beach house in L.A. for about a year while I was filming a movie. I haven’t had the time to really shop for a home, and honestly I don’t know where I would look.” David stood to make himself a fresh drink. “I split my time pretty evenly between L.A. and New York, with lots of storage units in between.” He sat back down at the table. “You mentioned L.A. earlier. Where in L.A. are you?”
Charlotte didn’t realize she was holding her breath. Did he have any idea how beautiful he was? The long graceful fingers, juicy red lips, and glossy black hair that always seemed to fall into those green eyes at the sexiest of angles. She realized, as usual, he was looking her directly in the eye, hanging, it seemed, on her every word. She straightened up.
    “Santa Monica.”
    What kind of kisser was he? With lips like those he couldn’t be bad. Was he hard and passionate or slow and sexy? Charlotte felt herself start to tingle and took a drink to cool down. She caught a chunk of ice in her mouth. “Tell me about your parents,” she garbled through the ice.
    David grew quiet; the only sound was him swirling the ice around in his glass. “Well, my dad, Hugh, died when I was ten.”
    Charlotte nodded. “I remember you mentioned that at dinner last night. What happened?”
    “Heart attack in his sleep.” David snapped his fingers. “Just like that. Dead at forty-five.”
    “That’s awful. I’m sorry.”
    “My mum, Frances, never stopped crying. She was just so sad. She tried to soldier