Red Carpet Romeo

by Jenny Gardiner

  Parker mentally rolled his eyes. How the hell could he have failed to have anything with him? Crap. It had been so long since he’d even used condoms—he and Amanda had gotten past that stage long ago—and he hadn’t thought to restock his wallet. And the last thing he’d expected at Luca’s wedding was this, of all things.

  He shook his head no, but Valentina clearly had a plan B, so she wrapped her fingers around his hard cock and worked her hand up and down, first slowly but then in an increasingly fast rhythm, rolling her hand over the head and then down again, then sliding her other hand to cup his balls.

  “I’m not gonna last long,” he said, thrusting himself toward her hand as his voracious mouth searched for her breast again. He dragged his tongue across a nipple and blew on it, marveling at how it hardened so readily, and then he fastened his lips over her wet nipple and sucked as she pulled on him until he could feel it building and building until at last with a loud groan he stilled, then came in her hand as she gentled his cock and he spilled his seed on her hands and his belly.

  They lay there for a long moment, not talking, just breathing hard.

  And for a fleeting moment Parker thought that perhaps Berlin Wall had finally been torn down, that they had made some real progress tonight and maybe he could even raid one of Luca’s brothers’ apartments in search of a mega box of condoms so that they could continue this little diversion once back at the palace.

  “Knock, knock,” a voice shouted from the door.

  “Oh, shit,” Parker said, splayed out as he was with his pants undone and his come still wet on his stomach, not to mention on Valentina’s hands. He grabbed Valentina’s strap and tugged it back up over her shoulder, helped her pull her dress down over her panties, and he dove over the far edge of the bed, tossing his top coat back on top of her as he did. He lay down on the ground, trying to get the comforter to cover him in the event someone could see to that side of the bed in the dark.

  “Is anybody in here?” The person switched on a light.

  Parker didn’t recognize the voice immediately.

  Valentina feigned as if she’d been asleep and stirred. “Who’s there?”

  “It’s Emma. Val, is that you?” Emma—Prince Adrian’s wife, the hostess of the evening.

  “Oh no!” Valentina said. “I must have fallen asleep.”

  “Sure looks like you did,” Emma said. “How’d you end up here?”

  “I came upstairs to use the bathroom and then I went to find my coat and I must have mistaken this for mine,” she said. “And I guess I was just so sleepy that I slipped in here to take a little catnap.”

  Emma laughed. “Well, that is certainly a strange thing to do at a party, but to each his own. The party’s winding down, so you might want to get down there before the shuttle stops running.”

  “Right,” Valentina said. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

  Parker listened for Emma’s footsteps to retreat before he finally emerged from beneath the fall of the comforter. He reached for Valentina, trying to pull her close to him. But she was scurrying to get out of the bed, throwing his coat toward him.

  “You might want to cover up with that or people will know what we’ve been up to,” she said.

  “I don’t care if anyone knows. Do you?”

  She squinted at him in the dim light. “Are you kidding me?” She shook her head as she wrung her hands. “No one can ever know about this, Parker. This was a huge mistake on my part. I don’t know what I was thinking. You caught me at a particularly weak moment. But trust me: never again. Ever.”

  With that she reached for a tissue on the nightstand and cleaned off her fingers, grabbed her silver pumps that she’d left by the bed, and stormed out of the room without a glance back.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Valentina was plunged headlong into a psychological walk of shame.

  Sure, she might not be trotting around in broad daylight wearing sky-high stilettos and a skirt wedged up to her wazoo, last night’s mascara smeared beneath her eyes in a tattoo of guilt, but yeah, she was pretty appalled at her actions from the night before and at her inability to maintain at least a modicum of self-control. Not to mention that she’d done more with Parker in less time than she ever had with her last however-many boyfriends.

  She must’ve set some sort of land-speed record, and not in a good way. Well, maybe in a good way, only not with him. If she weren’t so damned mortified, she’d almost marvel how one could transform from mortal enemies to near-lovers in, oh, the blink of an eye. And enjoy it so much.

  And yet she was going to have to pull up her big-girl panties and show up today and feign indifference and not let on to the world that she’d had her hands on Parker’s privates and oh God, she’d had her hands on Parker’s privates!

  If she even had someone to admit this to, they’d never believe it. But she wasn’t going to breathe a word anyhow because, well, nothing good would come of it. She would be the laughingstock of her brothers for the rest of eternity, for one thing. Luca would about wet his pants guffawing over it, for another. And all of a sudden the attention of the wedding of the year would divert from royal grandeur to Little Miss Can’t Keep Your Hands to Yourself, who still didn’t quite know how she’d gone from diverting to an upstairs bathroom for a quick pee break to practically mauling Parker Hornsby—after he masterfully satisfied her with his talented mouth—on her cousin’s guest bed.

  If it was even a guest bed—she didn’t even know where she’d been—and not just some random room. One that mercifully was unoccupied and, well, crap, now came the part where she had to admit to herself that wowza, that was a seriously smokin’-hot sexual encounter of the best kind. Shame it was with the one man on the planet who was completely and totally off-limits for all eternity.

  Because if he wasn’t, she might just sign on the dotted line for at least a command performance, if not more. And she sure as hell would be running out to the nearest farmacia condom vending machine to stock up for a long winter’s rest (although on second thought, maybe not so much rest).

  Maybe she’d been on to something, pining away for old Parker Hornsby—she should’ve nicknamed him Parker Horny—all those years ago. Who knew he’d be so skillful with his tongue? And his mouth. And his hands. And his fingers. She could feel the molten heat of both embarrassment and sexual arousal spreading like a lava flow across her flesh.

  Okay. She had to pull herself together and make it down to breakfast and pretend that nothing happened. Because after all, nothing had happened as far as anyone knew. And she’d deal with Parker by not dealing with Parker. Easy peasy.

  ~*~

  If she could have slipped into the room like a spy on a mission, trying to avoid detection, she would have. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to happen as the palace was filling with more and more guests by the day. And of course this morning the dining room had none other than Parker and Gisele practically awaiting her arrival.

  “Valentina!” Gisele said, reaching over to give her the two-cheek kiss. She was adapting to the local traditions quite nicely. Shame Parker was her brother though. It was much easier when she was having nothing to do with him. Even though she was officially never having anything to do with him. But that’s hard to uphold once a man’s had his mouth where Parker’s was only hours earlier.

  Oh God. His ever so talented mouth. There. So. Freaking. Amazing.

  Okay, Valentina. Get it together. No more stray thoughts. Focus. You can do it. No need for distractions.

  “Buon giorno, Valentina,” Parker said, reaching over to press a kiss to each of her cheeks. Why was it that it felt so much more intimate coming from him, dammit?

  Get it together, Valentina.

  Valentina tipped a brisk nod to Parker and turned her attention immediately to his sister.

  “What happened to you last night? I tried to find you and you were gone,” she said to Gisele.

  Parker’s sister darted her eyes suspiciously. “I um, became engross
ed in conversation and it got late and the next thing you know, we were on our way back to the palace and I tried to find you but the shuttle bus was leaving and he convinced me you’d be fine on your own—”

  Valentina squinted at her friend. “So you came back to the palace with someone? Was it a... boy?” She gave her a pronounced wink. Yay. What better way to divert attention away from her idiocy than by shining a spotlight on someone else’s late-night behavior?

  Gisele asked a passing butler for a cappuccino.

  “No distracting me, now,” Valentina said. “’Fess up.”

  Gisele pursed her lips. “It’s sort of awkward.”

  “Trust me, honey, you don’t know awkward.” She no sooner said that than she regretted the utterance. A broad grin spread across Parker’s face. She threw him the stink-eye and continued. “I mean it’s okay, you can tell me. I won’t judge.”

  After all, she was hoping no one would judge her if word got out. Which it wouldn’t. But still...

  “No really. It wasn’t any big deal,” Gisele said as the butler handed her the drink and she took a sip of it. “I just got caught up in conversation with your brother is all.”

  “You’ll have to be more specific,” Valentina said. “There’s practically a soccer team’s worth of brothers in my family.”

  “Well, considering I’ve only met the one—”

  “Tomasso? Sweet Tomasso?” she said. “Oh, that’s wonderful. He’s one of my favorite brothers.”

  “But didn’t you admit then that all your brothers are your favorite brothers?”

  She nodded. “Yes, it’s true. But I have a soft spot in my heart for Tomasso. He and I got into all sorts of trouble when we were little. Our mamma had a special corner in the kitchen where he and I had to sit, nose to nose, each time we got caught, which was practically daily. So, uh, you and my brother then?” She held up her hand and twined her pointer and middle fingers together symbolically.

  Gisele shook her head. “It’s not like that, really. We just stayed up talking till late. That’s all.”

  If “talking” was gonna be the euphemism for making out like a couple of horny, sex-starved teenagers, well, then, Valentina must’ve been all talked-out after her encounter of the night prior.

  “Well, I think it’s awesome that you two have hit it off,” Valentina said. “You have my heartfelt approval.”

  “Thanks,” her friend said. “Though not sure if there’s anything to approve of. I did find him interesting. But what about you? Where’d you run off to last night?”

  There went that rush of red-hot heat racing up her neck and across her face.

  “I was around,” she said, avoiding eye contact with Parker. “I guess we must have just crossed paths.”

  Parker’s eyes widened. “I found it to be a bit chilly there last night. Didn’t you, Valentina?”

  She shook her head. “I was perfectly warm.” She took a sip of her cappuccino and looked away.

  “Oh really,” he said. “Because you looked like you could have used an extra jacket or maybe a coat.”

  She choked on her drink and shot daggers at him. “I was perfectly toasty.”

  Parker nodded. “Then again, at times you seemed downright hot. You might want to get that checked out.”

  Gisele’s phone dinged with a text and she got up. “Would you excuse me? I’ve got a little errand to run.”

  Parker looked at her in curiosity, his brow furrowed, but then sidled up to Valentina just as she started to slip out of the room. He followed her through the Great Hall and down a corridor that would lead to the servants’ quarters. He boxed her into a corner where the hallway took an abrupt turn, his face just inches away from hers.

  “You can play hard to get all you want, Valentina, but I know and you know that we both had an amazing time last night,” he said, his smile speaking volumes about how amazing that time was. God, it killed her to know that he was thinking back on the very things she was remembering, and he was reflecting fondly while she was cringing (while also getting a little hot and bothered—talk about mixed internal messages).

  “Don’t flatter yourself, Mr. Hornsby,” she said. “I’ve had better.”

  Parker leaned over and whispered in her ear. “You are so full of shit your eyes are brown. You know you liked it as much as I did. I don’t know who you think you’re fooling by pretending that didn’t mean anything to you. I was on the receiving end of your mouth, honey—and your hands as well—and I can tell you that wasn’t any accident. And if you’ve had better, well then, lucky you, because that was a-fucking-mazing. And you know it.”

  God, she hated that he was right. And that she would under other circumstances pay good money for a command performance.

  Parker leaned in and, without even giving her a chance to think, took a long, slow swipe along her mouth with his tongue. “And as soon as you’re ready to admit it, you know where to find me.”

  With that, he turned on his heel and walked back to the dining room, leaving Valentina with a racing heart and some suddenly damp panties. Not quite the way she’d intended to start her day.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Parker decided to keep his distance from Valentina for a while to give her time to warm up to him a bit. So far it had been twenty-four torturous hours, and he’d hated every minute of this fledgling woo-her-by-ignoring-her policy. Besides, it had killed him to watch her at the cocktail party in the more intimate Queen’s Hall last night, so close but yet so far.

  At least it was easier for him to avoid her simply because more family members had arrived and he knew them all, having spent plenty of time with them over the years. And whereas he’d felt some odd imbalance earlier in the week, now he felt like he held a slight upper hand, if only because he had that brief encounter to hold on to and he wanted to believe it actually meant something to Valentina, and once he figured out what was holding her back, maybe they could work on that a bit.

  Yet in the meantime. he could only glance at her from the corner of his eye as she threw her head back in a coquettish laugh with that prince from Moldavia or Micronesia or wherever it was he was from. And when her hand settled too comfortably on the forearm of that financier from London she was sharing drinks with, he could only cringe in silence. Or as her smile looked far too sincere when that professional footballer from France was obviously attempting to woo her with his dubious charms, Parker ground his teeth so hard his ears hurt.

  The afternoon’s schedule was a sleigh ride for family and wedding attendants in the Royal Gardens, a two-hundred-plus-acre park on the edge of the city that contained fields and forests and trails for all sorts of outdoor activities. With heavy snow in the forecast, it promised to be a cold but seasonally festive event.

  “So cool we’re going on a sleigh ride,” Gisele said to her brother. “I’ve never done this before. I don’t even know what to wear!”

  “I’d say given that they’re calling for at least eight inches of snow and the temperatures will be below twenty degrees, something warm would be a good start.”

  His sister rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the insight. But I’d like to look a little stylish. I mean, if I put a hat on. I’m going to have hat hair and that’s the worst.”

  “Actually I’d say it’s way worse if you get frostbite.”

  “Oh you’re full of brilliant observations today,” Gisele said. “But seriously, do you think we’ll be warm enough?”

  “I’m sure they wouldn’t do it if we weren’t going to be well-cared for,” he said. “Not like they’re going to leave us for dead, freezing in the woods with wild dogs chasing us.”

  “Well then, phew. That’s a relief.” Gisele gathered a pile of outerwear, including thick gloves, a cashmere hat and scarf, and her warmest down jacket. “This is so romantic, like right out of Doctor Zhivago.”

  “Doesn’t everyone end up miserable or dead in that story?”

  “Okay, grumpy grandpa,” she said. “Cheer up! It’s going to b
e a perfect afternoon.”

  Cheer up, schmeer up. The only way he could imagine it being perfect would be if Valentina gave up the charade and finally decided to play fair. Or really if she’d play at all.

  ~*~

  In the plaza at the entrance to the park were a host of two-, four-, and eight-seated sleighs manned by large, strong draft horses. The sleighs were covered in seasonal garlands, and the horses had the requisite sleigh bells attached so that with every move they made it sounded as if Santa would show up at any minute. When it came time to pair off into the sleighs, Parker tried to position himself close to Valentina, hoping Luca and Larkin would remember their promise to link the two of them together for all the wedding festivities. But instead, his darned sister wormed her way up with Valentina, and before he knew it they were both snuggled together atop the leather upholstery of a two-seated sleigh, a fur throw tucked in around their legs, with cups of hot toddies in their hands just like they were an old married couple. What the hell?

  He was going to have to have a word with Gisele about thwarting his moves.

  When Parker finally climbed into a sleigh, he found he was seated with another of Valentina’s brothers, this time Lorenzo. He and Lorenzo had gotten along like siblings back when he visited Luca frequently during college breaks.

  “Brotha from another motha,” Parker said, reaching out to fist-bump Lorenzo. “What’s going on with you?”

  Lorenzo pulled a flask from the breast pocket of his jacket. “For now, staying warm with this.” He offered a swig to Parker, who gulped it down and squinted his eyes against the strong liquid.

  “That’s good stuff,” he said. “So how’s life been treating you?”

  “Good,” Lorenzo said. “Busy. I was never happier to finish the harvest this year. Anything that could go wrong did. Believe me, if it weren’t for this wedding, I’d be heading off somewhere warm to recuperate.”

  “Yeah,” Parker said. “I don’t blame you. So, can you believe Luca was the first of us to fall?”