My Starry Eyed Wolf

Starry Night

**Arianna's POV**

As I stood at my full length mirror for the second time today, I was looking over my outfit for dinner with Ian. I had decided on a pair of dark washed skinny jeans that fit me perfectly. Along with some calf-high brown boots with a little higher heel than earlier today. I figured I could get away with a bit of a heel due to Ian being 6'2". For my top, I chose a teal short sleeved shirt with my black leather jacket. I decided to just leave my hair down. Ian never said where it was that we were going for food. He didn't strike me as a French cuisine kind of person, but I didn't really know him, so I could be wrong.

As I looked at my reflection in the mirror, my hands started to grow sweaty and clammy. I haven't been out on a date in a year and a half. Even when I did, they never turned out well.

I walked over to my small writing desk in the corner of my bedroom to check the time on my cell phone. As if on queue, I heard a knock on my apartment door. I quickly walked through my apartment, grabbing my purse off the couch as I went. I opened the door to find Ian taking up most of the doorframe. He was wearing another pair of jeans that were molded to his form perfectly. He also wore a white v-neck shirt underneath his own leather jacket. He took a look at my outfit and a small smile played at the corners of his mouth.

"Great minds think alike." Ian held out his arm for me to take. "Shall we?" I quickly shut off my main light in the living room, took his arm, and we headed out the front of my apartment building. When we got to the sidewalk, I let go of Ian's arm so that we could get into his vehicle. I silently thanked my practical mind for choosing jeans when I noticed that Ian had walked over to a black lifted Silverado truck.

He made quick work opening up my door and holding his hand out to me to help me jump in. I got myself situated and buckled and waiting for Ian to start us on the journey to wherever it was he chose for dinner.

"Do you like sushi?" Ian asked as he pulled out onto the main road.

"Love it." I answered, smiling in his direction. Anything is better than French cuisine, in my opinion. It only took us 8 minutes to get to the better of the two sushi restaurants in town.

"Hi Ari!" The hostess called to me. We had a few couples ahead of us to be seated. The hostess, Sarah, who I went to high school with, waved me over. "I have your table ready." She grabbed a couple of menus and showed us to a booth set in the back of the restaurant.

"Your server will be right over. Love the top!" Sarah gave me a quick smile and then headed back to her station near the front door. We did receive a few quick irritated glances from the line, but Sarah didn't seem to mind in the least.

"A friend of yours?" Ian asked as he scooted one of the menus closer to take a look it.

"We had a few classes together in high school." I shrugged one of my shoulders and grabbed for the other menu.

"I am sure that you have been here a couple of times. What do you recommend for someone who doesn't care for exotic fish?" I glanced over my menu at Ian. I could see him reading through the menu. When he got to something in particular, he scrunched his nose up. I couldn't stop myself. A laugh escaped me. I quickly caught myself and coughed once to try and get my laughter under control.

When I looked back at Ian he had a grin on his face as well. For a moment, I stopped breathing. He was the most handsome man I had ever seen. I coughed one more time and looked back at my menu.

"Well, the California roll is usually a safe bet. Or if you don't mind shrimp, there is a shrimp tempura roll. I think they also have some ramen here if you don't want to try your hand at sushi tonight."

"I'll eat whatever you order. Or at least try." Ian said with a lopsided grin. The waiter chose then to stop by our table and take our orders. I decided to get 3 different rolls that were more on the subdued side. I also got an order of pot stickers and spring rolls in case Ian wasn't a fan of sushi.

When the waiter walked off with our menus, we were back to making conversation. This was usually the part that I had a hard time on with dates. The small conversation. Any date I had previously been on, the minute I started talking about myself it always seemed like the men lost interest.

We were silent for a moment before I broke the silence with a question. "What made you come to our little town anyway? I know you said to learn from your uncle. What are you hoping to learn?"

"Well, my Uncle Nick is more of a business man than a family man. Always has been. I am hoping to learn from him about what has made him so successful so that I can take that knowledge back to my pa... town."

"Is your home town as small as ours?"

"Actually it seems smaller." That took me by surprise. I would have figured that he came from a larger city with the way that he dressed and held himself. "You seem surprised."

"I am. I would have taken you as a city boy." I smiled slightly at my joke. Hoping I didn't offend him with my jab.

"Alas, I hate to disappoint you. Just a small town boy livin' in a lonely world."

"Journey. Nice. Guessing your town doesn't have a midnight train though." Ian winked at me from across the table along with one of his side smiles.

"I was hoping you would get the reference."

"My father made sure that I had a pretty broad music selection growing up."

"A man after my own heart," Ian joked as he grabbed at his heart. I laughed along with him this time.

It wasn't long before our food came out. Ian looked thankful that I had also ordered the pot stickers and spring rolls. "I cant believe you haven't tried sushi before."

"I might have just googled restaurants and gone with the one that had to best rating. I figured it was a shot in the dark if you liked it or not."

"Here start off with a California roll and see how you like it." Ian took one of the pieces with his fork. I held the teriyaki sauce out to him to try. After he dipped his piece, he took it into his mouth. I found myself watching his mouth as he ate his bite. It was a very nice mouth. After a minute, Ian finally swallowed.

"Well?" I tried to get an answer from him.

"Not bad." Ian then reached over to try a piece of the shrimp tempura roll as well. He eyes seemed to light up a little more with that bite. "I like that one better."

"Great! We can split that one then."

From there, our conversation seemed to flow easily. I asked him about his childhood. I found out that he had a half brother. His father passed away when he was younger. It seemed that he had a good relationship with his stepfather though. When he talked about his mother, his face lit up. I could tell that they had a strong bond by the way that Ian talked about her. She sounded like an amazing woman.

"Wait, so you have maids and cooks?" I asked. Ian had finished explaining how his mother liked to step in and help with the cooking and cleaning when she could.

"Something like that." That was a vague answer. I was in my own thoughts when the waiter came back to our table.

"Ari, if you don't want anything else?" Ian looked at me and I shook my head in response. "We will just grab the check thank you."

Ian turned back to me after talking to the waiter. "So you and your father must be really close."

"Yeah. He made sure that he made it to every school event. He picked me up from school every day and made sure that he was there to help with any homework or problem in general."

"It must have been great to grow up with that. Sometimes my stepfather got a little too wrapped up in his business dealings." Ian had a far-off expression on his face. He quickly shook it off and looked back at me.

"Dont get me wrong. We have had our arguments growing up. He hasn't always agreed with who I chose to hang with. My best friend Casey is one of them. I think at this point he has just cut his losses from me, ending my friendship with her."

"From what you have told me about her she does sound a little intense."

"She is but I love her." I shrugged my shoulders. It was a given. Casey was my best friend and she wasn't going anywhere.

The waiter stopped by with our check. We paid, grabbed our jackets and then left the restaurant. It was warm out again tonight. I left my jacket off . The restaurant was located near a small park. I started to walk in that direction. Without saying anything to Ian. He fell in step with me as we made our way over to the park.

The park held an old metal swing set that was sturdy enough for adults to swing. I sat my jacket on the ground near one of the middle swings and sat down. Ian eyed the swing next to me. He was probably trying to decide if it was going to hold his weight. I chuckled and started swinging my legs underneath me.

"Are you going to swing with me?" I finally asked when Ian hadn't moved.

"I think I will just watch you." He walked over to the center poles that were coming out of the ground near where I had disposed of my jacket.

I stopped swinging my legs and just let the swing coast back and forth. "I like being somewhere where I can see the stars." I looked up at the night sky as I said this. "The night is beautiful."

"I used to think the moon was the most beautiful thing in the world," Ian said.

I looked to the side at him. "Used to?" I asked.

"Yeah. Up until I met a blonde in a book store. Now it is the second most beautiful thing."

His comment stunned me. I had been holding my legs in closely while the swing went back and forth up to this point. After Ian's comment, I forgot to hold my legs up and they got stuck underneath the swing. I started to fall forward. That was it. I was about to face plant the earth after being called beautiful.

I suddenly felt strong arms around my waist as I was lifted up. Ian helped ot put me back on my feet. My hands had come to rest on his chest. I don't think I have ever felt anything more rock solid in all my life. The tingling sensation was there again starting in my hands and slowly moving up my arms.

Before I could realize what was happening, Ian leaned his head closer to mine. His lips so close to mine. I could feel his breath on my lips for a moment. He must have been waiting for me to go the rest of the way. Without thinking, I obliged. Our lips immediately melded together. His tongue touched my lips softly asking for entrance. I opened my mouth to him and he deepened the kiss.

Thank goodness Ian's arms were still around me. My legs felt like jelly underneath me and I probably would not have been able to stand on my own. The world around us seemed to stop as we explored each other's mouths. I was the first to break away. My head was starting to spin. I have never felt that from a kiss before. My whole body cried at the loss of his lips from my own. All I wanted to do was get even closer to him.

"It is getting pretty late. We should probably get you back home." Ian said after a moment. Most likely to collect himself as I had to. I just nodded in agreement. Ian slowly let his arms fall from my side. I suddenly felt cold and instinctively wrapped my arms around me. Ian must have thought it was from the night air. He walked back over to my jacket, picked it up and held it out to me to put my arms through.

As we walked back to Ian's truck near the restaurant, I kept stealing glances at him from under my eye lashes. This man was going to be my downfall. We made it back to Ian's truck and he held the door open for me again. Ian followed behind and got into the driver's seat. It took no time at all to get back to my apartment. My whole being was screaming at me to ask him to come up. The last thing I wanted though was for Ian to think that all it took was one heated kiss after a nice compliment and I was willing to give myself up.

Ian put the truck in park in front of my apartment building. "Thank you for having dinner with me tonight." He said as he rested his arm on the large steering wheel.

"Thank you for asking me." As I put my hand on the door to pull the handle, Ian lightly put his hand on the one that had been resting on the center console.

"When can I see you again?" He asked.

"Its a small town. I don't think we would be able to go more then a few days before running into each other." I gave him a big smile. Before I lost my courage, I leaned in close and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Lingering only for a moment. If he turned and kissed me like in the park, it would be impossible to get out of the truck.

"Goodnight Ian." I scooted to the edge of my seat and pulled the handle to open the truck door. When I got to the front door of my apartment building, I made sure to give Ian a wave over my shoulder as I passed through the door.

Once inside my apartment, I closed the door tightly and made sure to lock the dead bolt. My feet gave out from under me and I let myself slide down until my butt was firmly planted on the floor. Subconsciously, my fingers started to rub my lips. I kept replaying our kiss in the park. My world literally stopped and the only thing that mattered was Ian and myself. It would be interesting to see where this went. In my years since high school, not once have I had to fight the urge to throw away my resolve so quickly, and for a man I just met a few days ago. I glanced over at the clock on the microwave in my kitchen. It read 10:35pm. I wrestled with the idea of not calling Casey. I laughed out loud at myself. As if she would let me get away with that. If I didn't call her soon, then she would be the one calling me and chewing me out about keeping secrets. I pulled my cell phone from my purse and went to my contacts. Casey was right below my father. I took a quick breath and hit the green call button.