Author´s notes: Hello again! I´m sorry to inform you that this is not the last chapter yet because they are getting longer than I expected, but I´m working to update the story quickly not to leave you hanging for too long! So here goes another part, one chapter still to come! Bye!
The restaurant was in a minor road in the middle of a forest. Natasha arrived first, obviously, and as she got out of her bike, Steve parked his next to her.
Natasha loosed her hair, which was tied in a ponytail before, and said to Steve as he killed the engine: "Next time, maybe I should give you a head start." Her signature teasing smile appeared on her face as she looked at Steve.
Steve got off of his bike and smiled back at her: "I´m just glad that there is going to be a next time." Anytime he could spend near Natasha was fine by him.
Natasha tried not to think too much about the real meaning of that comment and just started to walk toward the front door of the restaurant saying: "What can I say, I enjoy beating you!"
Steve chuckled and followed her to the restaurant and before Natasha was able to open the door, Steve stepped in front of her and opened the door for her to enter.
Natasha stopped and just looked at him, she said smiling playfully: "Always a gentleman, I don´t get it how you don´t have a girl yet."
Steve was holding the door open for her, he said gazing into Natasha´s green eyes: "I´m waiting for the right partner."
Natasha felt butterflies on her stomach and her smile faded when she noticed the intensity of Steve´s blue eyes on hers. Natasha tried to say something to break that moment but, when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. Her mind was blank.
To Natasha´s luck, the hostess came to greet them: "Hello! Welcome to our restaurant! Table for two?"
Natasha looked at the women in front of them, silently thanking her for appearing just in time to break Steve´s spell on her, and finished entering the restaurant so that Steve could let go of the door.
Steve entered as well and smiled politely to the hostess: "Yes, please!" He said
Natasha, as an instinct, started to look around her surroundings for anyone or anything suspicious. She was so used to go to this sort of establishment when she was undercover, trying to lure men to get them to do whatever she needed them to, that she had to remind herself that this wasn´t a mission: "Just relax, this is just a day out with a friend" she thought with emphasis on the friend part.
The hostess interrupted Natasha´s thought when she said: "Let me take your jackets." They handed her their jackets and after she put them away she continued: "I have the perfect table for you" and she gesture for them to follow her.
Steve, of course, let Natasha go in first. He chose this place because he thought it was extremely comfortable, the food was excellent and it had a great view.
Natasha´s impression as she walked in was that the place was a little old fashioned, just like Steve, which made her smile a little, but it seemed nice, quiet and relaxing.
The hostess took them to a table next to a window overlooking a lake. They sat across from each other and Natasha looked out the window, admiring the view for a moment. Steve just kept looking at Natasha, admiring the view of the beautiful woman in front of him.
Natasha looked at Steve and found him staring at her with those intense blue eyes again that made her head spin. But this time she was able to think, so she asked casually: "How did you find this place?"
Steve rested his hands on the table, and looked down at his intertwined fingers: "I came here with Sam on double date once. He knew this girl that had a friend that he thought I might like, so he asked me to come with them. " He looked back up at Natasha again.
"Oh that´s nice of him, trying to help you with the ladies!" Natasha said with amusement in her voice. "How did it go?" she asked.
Steve looked away from Natasha and grimaced at the memories from that date, saying: "Terrible. I guess not everybody knows I have enhanced hearing because she kept poking my biceps and giggling and then she would whisper obscene things to her friend that she didn´t know I could hear."
Natasha contained a laugh, but a small smile appeared on her face as she said: "Oh, really! That must have been awkward."
Steve looked at her again and continued: "To say the least. The only good thing about it was this place." He looked around the restaurant for a moment, then back at Natasha: "I just wish everyone would stop trying to set me up on dates." He gazed at Natasha for a moment.
Natasha said in a playful tone: "Well, then find yourself a girl already!"
Steve replied seriously, locking his blue eyes on her greens: "I´m working on it."
Natasha held his gaze, biting her lower lip nervously as she felt that her heartbeat increased. Resisting Steve´s charms was turning out to be harder than she thought.
Then, the waiter appeared and broke their moment with his greeting: "Welcome! Can I get you anything, drinks maybe?" he said as he handed them the menu.
Steve looked at Natasha: "Do you want anything, Nat?"
Natasha´s mouth was dry from all the unfamiliar emotions that Steve was making her feel. So she said looking at the waiter: "Water for now, please."
"I´ll take a look at the menu first. Thank you." Steve said also looking at the waiter.
The waiter smile politely: "Okay, I´ll be back shortly to get your order." And then he left.
Steve eyes went to Natasha again, curiosity in his voice: "What about you?"
Natasha frowned as she met Steve´s eyes, looking up from the menu in her hand: "What about me?"
"Have you had any interesting dates lately?" Steve eyes were full of expectation as he waited for her answer.
Natasha shook her head and looked down at the menu again: "No, no…I don´t do dates."
Natasha could feel Steve´s eyes still on her, so she looked up and saw Steve´s puzzled face. She took a deep breath and elaborated her answer: "I mean, I have been on several fake dates when I was undercover or with a different identity, but never as Natasha Romanoff." She gave Steve a sad smile.
The waiter appeared again: "Your water, miss." And then he poured some water from the bottle to the glass in front of her.
Steve still had the puzzled expression on his face and kept looking at Natasha. He simply asked: "Why?"
Natasha took a sip from her water, making her dry lips and throat feel a little better and then replied, looking at Steve: "Well, mostly because men are scared of me when they find out that I´m the Black Widow."
Steve let what Natasha just said process in his head for a moment. He never really thought that a beautiful and intelligent woman like Natasha would drive away men, but she had a point. Her reputation would be feared by most men, especially now that her secrets were out for the world to see. Now he understood her when she said to him once: "The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I." He felt a little sad for Natasha because, like he said to her once, it is a tough way to life.
Steve didn´t think it would be wise to press on that subject so he just tried to cheer her up: "So, I´m your first official date. I´m flattered!" He smiled at her.
Natasha smiled back at him when she realized that he was right, that this was real. But her smile faded went she thought that it wouldn´t go much further than this because, for her and his sake, Steve could never be more than a friend to her. So she turned her attention to her menu and remained silent.
Steve noticed the hesitation on her smile and knew that he had lost her there. She had put her defenses up again. He silently sighed and looked at his menu too.
Natasha only spoke again to talk about the dishes on the menu. Once they decided what to eat, Steve called the waiter back and ordered for both of them.
As they waited for their food to arrive and through their lunch, Natasha kept talking about work. She talked about their missions and the training with the team as her strategy to keep Steve for getting too personal. And it went on like that for some time, until dessert.
As Steve took his first bite from his dessert, he said in glee: "Hum, this is amazing!"
Natasha was full from eating the main dish and didn´t order dessert, so she just looked with curiosity to his dessert which consisted in a chocolate mousse with strawberries and wiped cream on the top.
Steve saw her interest in his dessert and offered: "You have to try this! Here…" He said as he took a full spoon and lifted her way.
She raised a hand to stop him, saying: "No, thanks. That has too much calories and unlike you, Super Soldier, I have to watch what I eat to stay fit!"
Steve insisted: "Oh, come on Nat! It´s just a little bite. Try it!"
"Hum…Okay." Natasha hesitantly let Steve feed her the dessert. The portion was a little too big for her so she had to put a hand over her mouth to avoid some of it to fall off. But without knowing, she failed on that.
When Natasha put her hand down, Steve noticed that some of the wiped cream was on the corner of her mouth.
Natasha finished chewing and said happily: "This is really good!" And then noticed a small smile on Steve´s lips as he stared at her, so she asked: "What?"
Steve said, amused by the scene: "You have some wiped cream on your mouth"
"Where? Here?" Natasha said as she tried to clean the wrong side of her mouth.
"Here, let me." Steve said as he stood up and leaned across the table to reach her. He put his hand on her chin for support and used his thumb to clean the wiped cream from her lips, slowly.
The feeling of Steve´s thumb on her lips made Natasha blush, something that rarely happened. Steve noticed that and took his hand away but lingered at his spot for a while; his face was very close to hers now. Natasha looked at Steve, uncertain of what to do and Steve just looked from her lips to her eyes. He started to lean down to close the gap between them and Natasha screamed in her head: "Quick, do something!"
Not being able to look away from Steve´s gaze, Natasha reached out without looking for his dessert and managed to take some of the wiped cream on her finger which she quickly rubbed against his nose.
Steve stopped abruptly and blinked a few times. Steve asked a little mad: "Hey! What was that for?" Then he leaned back to sit on his char and wiped his nose clean with his hand as Natasha had a good laugh.
The sound of Natasha´s lighthearted laugh was so unfamiliar but it made Steve feel so good that he started to laugh too and after a while, when they stopped, Steve tried to sound serious when he said: "You know what? This is war!" He quickly took some of the wiped cream and tried to go for Natasha´s nose, but she turned her face away and ended up with wiped cream on her cheek instead.
Steve sat back and laughed again.
Natasha looked at him in shock: "Steve! I can´t believe you just did that!
Steve grinned at her: "Well, you started it!"
Natasha cleaned her face with a napkin as she said: "You know what? This is mine now!" Natasha took Steve´s dessert away from him and placed it in front of her.
Steve had a small smile on his face. He just shrugged as he looked that his dessert was all out of wiped cream. He said: "Fine, I´ll just order another one for me since you´ve ruined that one!"
Natasha gave him a mischievous look because she knew exactly what to do to get back at him. She kept her eyes locked on his as she took a full spoon from Steve´s dessert and put it in her mouth, making an exaggeration on her satisfaction expression, just to tease him: "Hum! This is so good!" She said slowly.
Steve chuckled at first, but then he tensed up because he just couldn´t take his eyes off of Natasha as she slowly ate his dessert, enjoying every bit, licking her lips, making teasing faces at him and humming. The way Natasha did that was so sexy that it sent heat waves through his body. He was so turned on by her that he even forgot to order another dessert for him. Hell, he didn´t even want to eat dessert anymore, he just wanted to kick the table out of the way and grab her to kiss those full and delicious lips of her.
Natasha noticed the lust on Steve´s eyes as he watched her. She knows that she was supposed to keep it in the friendship zone, but she couldn´t resist because she just loved pushing Steve´s buttons. She licked the spoon when she finished the dessert and was done torturing Steve, for now. So she said calmly: "Excuse me, I need to go the ladies room." She stood up and made her way to the bathroom, swaying her hips a little more than usual just because she knew that Steve would be watching her as she walked away from the table.
And watching he was. Steve was hypnotized by Natasha and he only snapped out of it when she got inside the bathroom and he lost sight of her. He had to take a few deep breaths to get his heartbeat down a bit as he thought: "Shit! That woman is gonna be the death of me, I´m pretty sure. That´s what you get for dating the Black Widow. Not an easy task, definitely!" Since he lost his appetite, for dessert anyway, he called the waiter and ordered the check so that he could move on and try another approach to get Natasha to lower her defenses since nothing had worked so far.