Sofia hesitated for a second, drew a deep breath and then finally looped her arm through his. “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
He cocked his head, hoping her answer held a double meaning. When they arrived downstairs for Limelight’s Official Pre-Award Gala, they were both thrilled to see that everything had come together perfectly. The event’s color scheme was black and gold; it was a nice blend of fun and sophistication. Only after arriving did Sofia realize that they were the same colors that she and Ramell were wearing.
As their guests entered the room, Stewart and a few interns working with the party planner directed people over to the table where hundreds of goodie bags were lined up.
Over the speakers played the music of all the Latin Grammy nominations for the evening. The infectious rhythms instantly had Sofia rocking her hips in time to the beat.
Ram turned toward her and started dancing with her. “Looks like you have some good moves. Should we take this to the dance floor?”
She laughed. “I don’t think so. This is as good as these moves get right here. A dancer I am not.”
His gaze raked over her. “I beg to differ.”
Sofia couldn’t quite get used to this constant flirting that they were now engaged in. “Well, maybe I’ll just give you a rain check.”
“All right. But I will cash that sucker in before the end of the night.” He winked. A tray of champagne floated by and Ram quickly chased it down and then offered her a flute. “Let’s make a toast.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” She accepted the glass. “What shall we drink to?”
“To us,” he said, simply.
Her brows rose.
“…and our new business merger. May we enjoy years of success together.”
She relaxed a bit and then tapped her glass to his. “To us.”
Their eyes locked over the rim of their flutes while they each downed a sip of champagne. Just a few short moments later, they separated as they networked through the crowd. At exactly five o’clock, Akil Hutton took to the small stage and introduced his newest artist to the Playascape label.
The guests applauded as Charlene Quinn made her way over to the microphone. Feeling slightly giddy, Sofia couldn’t wait until Charlene opened her mouth and shocked everyone with her powerful voice. When she did there was a collective gasp. Charlene wasn’t the barely legal teenybopper that could only carry a note with the help of Auto-Tune, which was all the rage in music nowadays. Charlene was a beautiful and welcome throwback artist who could do things with her voice that could only inspire envy. Listening to the emotional song “The Journey,” Sofia’s gaze drifted across the room and had no problems finding Ram in the crowd.
Luckily there was another tray of champagne drifting by so she quickly snatched up a glass and drank its contents just as Charlene was hitting the song’s climactic ending. The room erupted into thunderous applause. Charlene smiled humbly and thanked everyone before stepping off the stage.
The second glass of champagne must have gone straight to Sofia’s head because suddenly she was feeling…good. She looked across the room again and locked eyes with Ramell.
Damn good, in fact.
Chapter 8
The Eleventh Annual Latin Grammy Awards was a unanimous hit. The evening was filled with spectacular music and dance. All of the performers were magnificent and the cheers from the crowd just made the evening feel like a four-hour-long concert. Akil Hutton won his first Latin Grammy and gave an emotional shout-out to the new woman in his life, Charlene Quinn, and then of course reminded everyone to look for her debut CD coming out in the spring.
After the show ended, everyone started drifting out of the venue to head for some of the many sponsored after-parties. Sofia and Ramell made their way over to the Eye Candy Sound Lounge. Sofia loved its high-tech touch tables that allowed people to project images over the dance floor. Ram wrapped an arm around her waist and shouted over the music.
“I think I’ll take that dance now!”
“You got it.” Sofia quickly tossed back her chocolate martini and then slipped her hand into his. With the multicolor-lighted disco floor and the strange electronic images floating overhead, Sofia was experiencing a sensory overload—and she loved it. She threw her hands up in the air and rocked her body to the beat like she didn’t have a care in the world.
Never being more than a few inches away, Ram matched each erotic thrust of her hips with one of his own. In no time at all it was just them and the music. Sofia was saying things with her body that she never dared to say aloud. If he touched her hip, she’d touch his. A few times, she’d turned around to roll her butt up the front of his crotch, swivel her hips and then spin away.
Ram was so turned on that he couldn’t think straight. He had never seen this side of Sofia before. She was sexy, wild and making him horny as hell. After about an hour on the dance floor, they returned to their table and ordered a few more drinks.
Sofia ordered another chocolate martini and when Santana’s “Smooth” blasted through the speakers, she climbed on top of the table along with a few other girls and shook her moneymaker for all it was worth.
Ram bobbed his head along with the music and mouthed the chorus when his eyes met with Sofia’s. Give me your heart, make it real. Or else forget about it. The seductive smile she shared gave him such a strong hard-on, it was a wonder that he didn’t just sweep her off the table, toss her over his shoulder and take her back to their suite. But he made sure that she could read that thought in his mind.
Eventually, she did hop down and Ram was right there to catch and spin her around. There was a skip in his memory because the next thing he knew they were actually at a roulette table, a game Sofia claimed she had never played before, but was suddenly begging to play. Thrilled to see her smiling and having a good time, Ram removed a few Benjamins from his money clip and handed them over.
The croupier exchanged the money for chips with the pit boss watching and then asked everyone to place their bets. Sofia took all of her chips and placed them on five.
“Are you sure?” Ram asked.
“No. But that’s why they call it gambling,” she reminded him, and then planted a loud, smacking kiss on his lips.
“Then let’s let it ride.”
“No more bets,” the croupier called and then proceeded to spin the wheel.
Sofia locked her arms around Ram’s neck and proceeded to watch intently as the white ball was dropped into the spinning roulette. “Are you having a good time, Mr. Jordan?”
“Actually, I’m having a wonderful time,” he answered, sliding his hands up and down her back.
“Five! The lucky number is five!” the croupier called out.
Just as Sofia was about to plant a kiss onto Ram’s lips, she realized the number that had just been called.
“Five! That’s me! That’s me!” She started bouncing up and down. The entire table erupted into cheers while Sofia performed a minidance and then smacked Ram hard on the rear end.
Caught off guard, he jumped and then laughed at her antics. They played for a few more rounds, the crowd cheering as Sofia’s chips really started to mount. More drinks flowed and the next thing Ram knew they were at the craps table. Sofia developed her own dance and threw the dice down the stretch. Each time she would draw a seven and their entourage would grow even larger.
“You’re hot tonight,” Ram commented, shaking his head.
“Yeah? So what are you going to do about that, lover boy?” She playfully pulled on his tie so that she could draw his lips closer. When she laid another kiss on him, the table went wild with hoots and hollers.
“God, I have to bring you to Vegas more often,” Ram panted when she finally released him.
Sofia just smiled. “Let’s go find another dance floor.”
“Your wish is my command.” He handed over his V.I.P. card and told the pit boss to cash them out and that they’d pick up their winnings later before leading her and the
ir entourage out of the casino and over to another after-party at Pure nightclub.
As the hour ticked later and later, both Ram and Sofia’s dancing grew hotter and hotter. They drew many eyes and much finger pointing, but neither paid any attention to it. They were both yin and yang, grinding on the dance floor and just enjoying the night. Sofia couldn’t remember the last time she had ever felt so free, so alive. Every time Ram’s gaze roamed over her body she felt beautiful and sexy. If she had her wish, this night would never end.
Somewhere along the line, someone in their newfound entourage suggested going to a club called Jump! So they all piled into a stranger’s limousine and ended up at another high-tech club. The surprise was that it was a strip club, but not just any strip club.
“Oh, hell, no,” Ramell said and turned right back around toward the door.
“Wait. Wait.” Sofia grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back. “C’mon. This could be fun.”
Ramell groaned as he allowed her to turn him back around. His frown deepened at the sight of the muscled and oiled men all pumped up and gyrating on the stage. “I don’t want to watch this.”
Sofia ignored his complaints and pulled him along. He wasn’t the only one. A lot of the guys that had played tagalong were also trying to make their way back toward the door. However, the women were going buck wild, including Sofia, who continued to drag Ramell closer toward the stage.
He hung his head and hoped that this was just going to be a pit stop. When the dancer finally left the stage with his teeny-weeny briefs filled with dollar bills, he expelled a sigh of relief.
“You should go up there,” Sofia yelled above the crowd.
“Say what?” He tried to pull back.
“C’mon.” She smiled. “You can do it.” She kept pulling him toward the stage despite his horror.
When the women saw what she was doing they all started cheering.
“What’s this now?” the DJ blasted over the club. “Is it amateur night on the stage?”
The women screamed louder while Sofia shoved Ramell harder.
“C’mon. You know you got the body,” she teased.
“I’m not getting up on that stage.”
The DJ spoke out again over the loudspeaker. “Let me give you a little something to dance to, my man.” He began to spin a popular new song and the women in the club damn near went into hysteria.
“Fine. If I have to get up here then so do you,” Ramell said as he grabbed Sofia by the wrist and pulled her onto the stage alongside him.
Suddenly, the lights dimmed and a spotlight was directly aimed at the couple. Sofia stood in the center of the stage, giggling until she felt a feathery touch drifting down her arm. She shivered but then she was quickly spun around to see Ram rip the buttons off his shirt with one-hard jerk and then do a sexy body wave that had the women screaming so loud it made her eardrums ring.
Ram sent his shirt sailing into the air and rocked his hips as he pulled up his white T-shirt to reveal his perfectly bronze chest with his tight, mountainous muscles.
Without thinking, Sofia reached out and smiled at his dewy texture. Smiling, Ram spun her around and pressed her back against his chest while his large hands dropped to her thighs and then slowly inched their way upward. The heat that blazed up Sofia’s body was so intense that beads of sweat dotted her hairline and rolled down the side of her face.
The women that were screaming around the stage no longer mattered. Sofia was losing her mind because she alone could feel Ram’s hard-on grinding against her round bottom. It was suddenly hard for her to breathe. His hands inched higher and when he was just a flick away from exposing her Victoria’s Secrets, he whipped away from her again to perform a few more body waves and hip rotations.
Money rained down onto the stage despite the fact that Ram never took his eyes off of Sofia. He crooked his finger and beckoned her toward him. When she stood inches from him, he unsnapped the top button of his slacks and offered her, and her alone, a peek inside. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but Sofia wasn’t about to pass up a golden opportunity. So she peeked and her jaw nearly hit the floor at his impressive size.
The women went wild. They all wanted to see what she saw. But with her face heating up, she finally slapped a hand in front of his pants and prevented him from peeling those bad boys off. Suddenly, she wasn’t in the mood for sharing. “Don’t you dare.”
“Problem?” he asked, wickedly.
She grabbed hold of his wrist and tugged him off the stage.
“Boo!” The jilted women shouted, but a giggling Sofia and Ram paid them no mind as they tried to make their way to the door. They were still laughing when they piled into a cab and headed back to Mandalay Bay.
“You know I look ridiculous, right?”
She glanced at him without his shirt and T-shirt and decided, “Actually, I think I prefer you like this.”
“Really?” He dragged her over to his side of the cab and pressed her against his chest.
“We can always arrange it so that I could see you like this more often,” she said, walking her fingers up his chest.
Ram’s brows jumped. “I’m listening.”
Smiling up at him with her hand pressed over his heart she asked, “Ramell Jordan, will you marry me?”
Chapter 9
At three-thirty in the morning, Sofia and Ramell stumbled into the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel, giggling and clinging on to one another. Behind them, Akil and Charlene entered, shaking their heads. They were still dressed in their gown and tuxedo, only Akil had draped his jacket around Charlene’s exposed shoulders as they came in from the night. It was clear that they didn’t know what to make of this latest development. They were surprised when Ram called them as they were leaving yet another after-party. Both of them looked exhausted and might’ve been headed for bed had Ram not called and asked if they wanted to serve as witnesses to his wedding.
“Are you two sure that you want to do this?” Akil asked.
Charlene nodded. “Yeah. This seems kind of sudden. Maybe you guys should just…sleep on this?”
Sofia laughed and wrapped her arms around Ram’s waist. “Don’t be silly. Ram and I have been planning to get married for…” She looked up at him. “How long?”
He smiled. “A gazillion years.”
They erupted into giggles while Charlene and Akil just looked at each other and shrugged.
A black Elvis Presley impersonator emerged from a curtain of multicolored beads with a grin as wide as Texas. “Evening, folks. What can I do for you on this early morning?”
Sofia and Ramell took one look at the man in his bedazzled jumpsuit and had another fit of giggles. This time, even Akil and Charlene joined in.
“Are we looking to have a double wedding this morning?” he asked eagerly.
“No. It’s just us,” Sofia answered excitedly.
“First, do you happen to have a shirt I can buy or rent?” Ram asked.
“Sure. We can hook you right up,” Elvis bragged and then disappeared into the back.
While he was gone, Sofia and Ramell peppered each other’s faces with kisses. To casual observers they looked like young lovers who couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. When Elvis returned he held up two suits. One was a pale blue suit complete with bell bottoms and satin lapels. To add insult to injury, the accompanying white shirt had enough ruffles to do Liberace proud. The other suit was a black and silver sequin number that was equally hard on the eyes.
“Just a basic white shirt will do,” Ram said, snickering. “I may be drunk but I’m not that drunk.”
Elvis shrugged his shoulders. “As you wish.” He disappeared and returned with a brand new white dress shirt still in its package.
“Perfect.”
“Great.” Elvis clapped his hands together. “Now let’s see about getting you two married.”
For the next ten minutes Elvis showed the couples rings and different wedding packages. They settled on the Elvis B
lue Hawaii Special, mainly because it came complete with two traditionally garbed hula dancers. Sofia and Ram giggled their way through the entire ceremony. Still they managed to get their I Do’s out and were immediately showered with rice while Elvis busted out with his microphone and launched into a jacked-up rendition of Blue Hawaii. He didn’t really bother trying to sound like the King of Rock ’n’ Roll. If anything he sounded more like Isaac Hayes. But it didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered at that moment.
They were married.
Amazingly, after they left the chapel they all stopped at another club so they could share a celebratory drink. There was more dancing involved and Sofia stopped nearly everyone she saw to show off the simple silver band and declare that she was indeed a married woman now.
Cheers went up and cameras came out. Sofia and Ram made several silly poses. At long last when the hour ticked closer to five o’clock, Sofia struggled to keep her eyes open.
Ram stretched up a brow. “I don’t believe it. My little Energizer Bunny is actually wearing down?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Sofia looped her arms around Ram’s neck and nibbled on his lips. “I think it’s time we get back to our honeymoon suite.”
“Aww. Honeymoon suite, eh? I kind of like the sound of that.” He kissed her and explored her mouth like it was the eighth wonder of the world. She moaned and melted against his body.
“Get a room,” a member of their second entourage shouted, causing everyone to laugh around them. In dramatic form, Ramell swept Sofia up into his arms and received a round of applause.
Sofia smiled against his lips. “I’m so happy right now.”
He met her gaze. “That’s all I ever wanted you to be.”
“Good to know.” She snuggled closer. “But if you want to see me ecstatic then I suggest you get me to our room, lover boy.”
“I’m on it.” He turned toward the group. “Good night, everyone. Me and the missus have plans.”
Love in the Limelight Volume Two: Seduced on the Red CarpetLovers Premiere Page 22
