Martine The Beginning (Cruising to Love, The Prequel) Read Free Page A

short walk to the Gallery.  He stood outside the door as she put the key in the lock.
      “So, we have a date for Saturday?” he smiled down at her.  “Same time, same place?”
      Martine smiled up at him. “Yes, please.  I enjoyed myself so much tonight…”
      Lucas was going to ask her if he could kiss her goodnight, but looked down at her smiling face, those full, inviting lips, and he just bent his head and brushed his lips lightly against her slightly parted lips.
      The electricity startled them both.  They pulled away and stared at each other.  Then Lucas put his arms around her, and bent his head again.  She closed her eyes.  This kiss was warmer, much warmer.  Martine responded enthusiastically.
      Lucas pulled away.  “Kissing you is delightful, Martine.  Absolutely delightful.  I look forward to kissing you again on Saturday, little Tina.”
      “Oh…I didn’t know that kissing was such a…a pleasant thing to do,” she answered him.  “You’re the first man I’ve ever kissed, Lucas.  Except for my Dad and Granddad, of course…”
      Lucas was not surprised.  This young lady hadn ’t the time for teenaged dalliances.  She had been too busy working.  Saving her money
    rather than doing all the things girls her age did, shopping for clothes, wine bars, concerts, flirting, dating.
      “Well, Tina.  You’re a very good kisser. A natural talent. In fact, I’d better have one more, to hold me until Saturday, eh?”  And he kissed her again, twice in fact.
      Martine drifted off to sleep thinking about those kisses.  About how nice it felt to be in Lucas ’s arms and have him kiss her.  “I just met him, and I went to dinner with him and kissed him four times…oh, my, oh my…”
      She woke with the alarm at three and sleepily got ready to go to the bakery.  She looked at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. 
      “I think I have a new sparkle in my eye,” she thought.  “A new sparkle. And its name is Lucas.”
      Her friend Penny dropped round to the Gallery Thursday afternoon.  She often did.  Penny was a singer.  She was as committed to her singing as Martine was to the Gallery, but Penny was making a living at it without another job now.  She was with a band, and they had regular bookings, so Penny had moved into quite a nice flat, over a dress shop, and was constantly asking Martine to move in with her. 
      But Martine didn’t want to be a bother to anyone. And she knew that Penny and the band often came home after their gigs, and talked and strummed until the wee small hours.  That wouldn’t work at all with the bakery…
      Penny had stopped and picked them up two lattes.  “Here’s your mid- week treat, Martine,”
    she smiled as she handed her friend the cardboard cup.
      “Actually, Penny, it’s my second mid-week treat,” grinned Martine.
      “Oh?  You are looking like the cat that swallowed the canary, aren‘t you. What was the first treat?”
      “A very handsome young man stopped by just before closing last night.  He bought one of Belinda Boyle’s paintings.  At the new price, without haggling.”
      “That was a treat,” agreed Penny.  Martine had just doubled Belinda’s asking price to a hundred pounds.  And she usually had the buyers asking for discounts…
      “It was great!” agreed Martine.  “Belinda was thrilled when I called her this morning and told her there is sixty pounds waiting for her.  She only brought me the painting yesterday afternoon. 
      “I was hanging it in the window when Lucas walked by and he came in and bought it.  Reminds him of his uncle’s place in Scotland.”
      “Ah, so you know his name…”
      “Yes.  Lucas.  He’s so nice, Penny, and sooo handsome. Tall, sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, really, really nice.”
      “And does Lucas know your name, too? Or did you get his name off his cheque?”
      “He paid cash.  And then, Penny, he took me to