Cortez began attending more Bennett family functions, and quickly discovered something he’d overlooked before…he and Victoria were still fiercely attracted to each other. Whenever he saw her, he wanted her. And she seemed to be just as attracted to him.
He could recognize her guarded expressions, stolen looks, and pulse-racing desire. It all added up to sexual chemistry that couldn’t be misinterpreted. For him, it was more powerful than anything he’d ever encountered. But he could tell she was having trouble dealing with it. In fact, she’d begun avoiding family activities all together, on the off-chance she might run into him, he figured.
That’s when he’d decided to do something about it. He made the decision to take their mutual attraction to the next level and had come up with a plan to make it happen. He accepted that he’d fallen in love with her four years ago, and his feelings for her hadn’t changed. And now, he’d come to town to convince her to give them a chance.
But how?
After taking a sip of his drink, he drew in a deep breath. He didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know she wouldn’t like what he was about to suggest, but he saw it as the only viable solution.
He was about to go into the bedroom when his phone rang. The ring tone told him it was none other than triplet number two, his brother Cobra. “Yes, Cobra?”
“Is she going to do it?”
His brothers were the only ones who knew about his reasons for being in St. Paul. “I haven’t asked her yet, but she’s agreed to have dinner this evening.”
“That’s a good sign, right?”
Cortez chuckled. “You’re the womanizer in the family, what do you think? Maybe you should be telling me what to expect.”
“Victoria’s not that hard to read.”
He somewhat envied his two brothers for their close relationship with Victoria over the past two years. Although she’d avoided him, she’d befriended them. “She’s not?”
“No. Bottom line is that she doesn’t like you because she thinks you don’t like her. There’s miscommunication all around. It’s time for the two of you to clear things up.”
Cortez totally agreed, but he wondered why Victoria would assume he didn’t like her. He’d been all into her when they’d met in Paris. He still couldn’t get their time together out of his mind.
He’d discovered from his brothers that she didn’t have a steady boyfriend, and she hadn’t for years — four years, to be exact — claiming she was too busy building up her company. And he had to hand it to her, she’d done an outstanding job getting Bennett Nursery and Landscaping on the national stage.
He talked to Cobra a few more minutes, then hung up. Within minutes, as he’d expected, Colton called. And being the inquisitive one, Colton had a lot more questions. “What if she doesn’t go along with your plan?”
Cortez rubbed his hand down his face, refusing to think about that possibility. He wished his plan was simple, but it wasn’t. At dinner, he intended to invite Victoria to return to Paris with him, to give him the weekend she’d promised him. But this time, he wanted a different ending. He didn’t want to wake up the next morning to find her gone, vanished into thin air, leaving him wondering if she’d been real or just a figment of his imagination.
He intended to do whatever it took to recapture the magic of that night between them, to stir the desire, that sensual connection he could still feel whenever he was around her. He’d tried fighting it, but he’d finally realized it was a losing battle. A part of him believed she was fighting it, as well. “Let’s hope she goes along with it.”
“I hope so, for your sake.”
After ending the call with his brother, he took a moment to absorb his brother’s words.
He doubted Colton knew just how much Cortez needed this plan to work. The moment he’d met Victoria, he knew there had been something special about her. She stirred something in him, and it wasn’t just about sex. But back then, he hadn’t been ready to accept what it meant. He’d been young, had just finished law school, had passed the bar and was in Paris to have a good time. He hadn’t expected to meet the woman who would change everything for him — Victoria, or Adele as she’d called herself at the time. But he had met her, and his life hadn’t been the same since.
“I’m going out to dinner with Cortez.”
As expected, Victoria’s announcement got her cousins’ attention. For the longest time, it seemed Sebrina, Kennedy and Monica just stared at her. It was one of those rare evenings when all four of them were home together, sipping wine and enjoying each other’s company. Haddison Wolf, Kennedy’s fiancé, was out of town, so she had decided to sleep in her own bed tonight, something she rarely did these days since Kennedy preferred spending her nights with Haddison at his place. Last month Haddison had slid a gorgeous rock on Kennedy’s hand, and they were now planning a June wedding.
“Did you know he was coming to town?” Kennedy finally asked. She could understand her cousin’s surprise. They all knew about her history with Cortez. They were the only people she’d told.
“Not before yesterday. I admit, I got a little flustered when Charlotte informed me that he would be arriving today to review the contracts for Lampshade.” Charlotte was her administrative assistant.
“Which he didn’t have to do, because they’d have copies at the firm in Los Angeles,” Monica added. “That can only mean one thing…he has ulterior motives for coming here.”
“Did he give you any hints of what he’s thinking?” Sebrina asked.
She nodded. “He thinks it’s time for us to resolve the issues between us, and figures dinner would be a good start.”
“It would be good for both of you to move past this,” Kennedy said.
Victoria nodded. “The animosity between us has lasted long enough. It’s been two years since Cortez and I discovered our true identities.”
She recalled the moment she’d glanced around the crowded room at Alexia’s birthday party and seen him. She’d been shocked speechless and had been desperate to escape. She was still embarrassed when she thought about the way she’d left that morning while he’d slept. And then, when Alexia had insisted that they meet, she decided not to let her cousin know they already knew each other. Lucky for her, Cortez had played along when he’d realized that she wanted to keep their prior meeting a secret. At first, the only person who’d known about the guy she’d met in Paris was Sebrina. But she hadn’t told Sebrina that the guy was Cortez Masters.
A couple of months ago, she had leveled with her three cousins, telling them that she and Cortez had met when she’d been a student working in Paris at the botanical gardens. She’d figured it was time to come clean. They weren’t the only ones wondering why she and Cortez were deliberately avoiding each other whenever they were invited to any of Alexia and Quinn’s parties.
“It’s not just animosity, Vic, and I think that both you and Cortez know it,” Monica said, grinning.
Victoria shrugged. She knew exactly what Monica was alluding to, but she wasn’t ready to deal with it yet.
“And I think Alexia has probably already figured out it’s more than just a case of random lust between the two of you, too,” Kennedy added.
Victoria glanced over at her. “You think so?”
“Yes.”
Victoria wouldn’t have been surprised. Alexia was very observant when it came to her younger cousins. “Well, hopefully, Cortez and I will be able to resolve any and all issues between us tonight…except that one. Lust.”
Sebrina laughed. “I hate to tell you, Vic, but that’s the main one.”
Yeah, she knew. She settled back on the sofa, appreciating that the conversation had shifted, and her cousins were now discussing Idris Elba’s current movie. Her mind tuned out the chatter, and instead went back to that time with Cortez in Paris.
As she took a sip of her wine, she allowed the memories to surface, recalling the exact moment Cortez Masters had walked into her life.
Four years ago, in Par
is
“ARE YOU SURE YOU want to go through with it, Victoria?”
Victoria heard the concern in her cousin Sebrina’s voice over the phone, but she was determined. She was tired of being a twenty-three-year-old virgin. And she was going to rectify that problem before her twenty-fourth birthday. Last year, when her cousins Kennedy, Monica, and Sebrina had talked about their ‘first times’, all before their twenty-first birthdays, she realized she was way behind. And what better place than Paris, the city of love, to overcome her little obstacle?
“I’m sure, Bree. It’s time. Who’s ever heard of a twenty-three-year-old virgin these days?”
“First of all, there’s no age limit on virginity. And I think it’s something you should think hard about before doing something rash.”
“Did you?”
There was a pause, and she immediately knew she should not have asked that. It had been so insensitive, especially since she knew how much her cousin had loved Wade Simon. As a teen, Bree couldn’t wait to go visit her father every summer in New Jersey so she could spend time with Wade, the guy she’d fallen for when she was sixteen.
Sebrina’s mom, Taye, had become pregnant while in her first semester at college. Although Gary Stevens, Bree’s father, never married Taye, he did right by the child they’d made together. Every summer, Sebrina got to spend time with her father and his family in New Jersey.
“I was in love,” Bree finally said, her voice still revealing the pain she felt, even after all these years.
“I believe you. But if I wait until I fall in love with someone, I’ll be close to forty before I have sex. Men can’t be trusted.” Victoria knew that all too well — her grandfather and father had never met a woman they didn’t want to bed.
Neither Victor Bennett, Sr., nor Victor Bennett, Jr. discriminated when it came to women. Both looked good for their ages and they knew it. Her grandfather had finally slowed down when he’d married Valerie, the woman he’d had a child with forty years ago. And her father was on wife number four.
Victoria never bothered much with boys when she was in school. Why would she, if all men were like her daddy and her grandfather. Victoria would never forget the day she came home from school to find a woman named Evelyn in their home, boldly telling her mother that she was pregnant with Victor Jr.’s child.
For as long as she lived, Victoria would never forget the pain she’d seen in her mother’s eyes when she’d discovered the magnitude of her husband’s betrayal. Fayrene had filed for a divorce. And, adding salt to her wound, Victor Jr. had married Evelyn before the child was born. That was the beginning. At last count, Victoria’s father had a total of seven kids by four different women.
It had taken Victoria’s mother years to get over her ex-husband’s betrayal and finally be able to trust another man. Although Fayrene had dated on occasion, she hadn’t taken any man seriously until after Victoria had gone to college. That’s when Fayrene had met Dr. Edison Cannon. The two had married when Victoria had been in her senior year of college. Edison truly adored her mother and believed his whole purpose in life was to make Fayrene happy and give her everything she deserved in life. They were now living in Texas.
“Sounds like your mind is made up. Now all you have to do is find the guy. What kind of man are you looking for?” Sebrina asked.
Victoria smiled. That question she had an answer for. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Since I’m not looking for anything long term, and I’m in a foreign country, I thought it would be best not to divulge my real name. I figured I’d just make something up.”
“Smart.”
She nodded, glad Sebrina seemed to be on board with her decision. “And as far as the guy… Well, he has to be handsome, of course.”
Sebrina laughed. “Of course.”
“And he has to have some experience. I won’t know what I’m doing, so I’ll need a man who does. So he should probably be older than I am.”
“Not too much older, I hope.”
Victoria chuckled. “No, not too much. And he has to have a nice body.”
“Well, a man with those attributes shouldn’t be too hard to find in Paris.”
“I hope not,” Victoria said. “And then there’s the most important thing…there has to be chemistry between us. Strong sexual chemistry. The kind of chemistry you only find in romance novels.”
Sebrina laughed. “My goodness. You don’t want much, do you?”
Victoria chuckled again. “Not too much, I guess. But as long as I remain in control, I should be fine.”
Bree knew about Victoria’s family history, so she understood why an emotion-free involvement with a man was all Victoria was looking for. She refused to ever be hurt the way her mother had been.
“Well, hopefully you’ll meet someone who fits the bill soon.”
Just as Sebrina said that, Victoria glanced to her right and saw a guy crossing the street, seemingly headed toward the café. Her breath suddenly caught in her throat. He looked as if he’d walked right off the cover of a romance novel. Finally…
He had a self-assured walk and was neatly dressed in a pair of shorts and polo shirt. His facial features were too handsome for words, and he was built. Boy, was he built! And she could tell from the sighs of women around her that she wasn’t the only one who’d noticed.
He looked American, but she couldn’t be sure until he spoke. And still, that might not mean anything. She was American but had decided to pretend to be Paris-born and raised. She could pull such a thing off because she spoke fluent French. What better way to escape any awkward morning-afters? A fake history to go along with a fake name.
“I think I found a prospect, Bree.”
“How? When?”
“Just now. There’s a really good-looking guy headed toward the café. He’s hot — so very, very hot! And his walk is sexy as hell.”
“Take a picture of him and send it to me.”
“I can’t…he might see me. But take my word for it, he’s really something.”
“I believe you. What about sexual chemistry?”
“It’s oozing all over the place. But he hasn’t looked my way yet. I’m not sure if the heat will be mutual.”
“Just in case it is, Vic, are you prepared?”
She knew what Bree was asking. “Yes, I have my own condoms. Don’t worry about a thing. Girl, I got this.”
“Vic…”
Victoria recognized that tone. Her cousin was worried about what Victoria was getting herself into. But it was too late now. “I’ve got to go, Bree. If he looks this way and sees me talking on the phone, he might think I have a boyfriend.”
“Okay. Call me later.”
“I will.” Victoria clicked off her phone and then quickly slid it inside her backpack. Then she straightened in her chair and took another sip of her peach wine.
Not wanting to be caught staring, she glanced away and watched a couple sitting at a table not far away. They had a baby stroller with them. She couldn’t see the baby inside but figured, considering the pink blanket, it had to be a girl. Not for the first time, she thought about her future and what part children would play in it. She did intend to marry one day, after she’d established herself in her chosen profession.
“Where would you like to be seated, Monsieur?”
“Anywhere would be fine.”
The deep, rich masculine voice that spoke the words in perfect English recaptured Victoria’s attention. She glanced back in the man’s direction. He was at the café’s entrance, talking to Pierre, one of the waiters. He was now less than eight feet away from her and she couldn’t take her eyes off of him. The man was totally gorgeous! She’d put him in his late twenties, probably around twenty-six or twenty-seven. And he looked so friggin’ sexy in his denim walking shorts that showed strong legs. She was tempted to fan herself.
As if he felt someone checking him out, he shifted his stance and glanced over at her. The moment their gazes connected, she felt something she�
�d never felt before, something more powerful than sexual chemistry. It was animal magnetism, so potent she could actually feel blood throbbing in her veins. In all her twenty-three years, she’d never felt anything like it. And she didn’t quite know what to do now that she was experiencing it.
That had to be the reason she continued to stare at him while lust seemed to burn into her brain cells. Raw need passed between them. She was certain he felt it, too. It would explain why he was staring at her so intensely.
Suddenly, his lips spread into a sexy smile that seemed to caress every nerve in her body. And at that moment, she knew. This was the guy she wanted to share her first sexual experience with. And she had a feeling, she wouldn’t regret a single moment of it…
He said something to the waiter before moving in her direction. As he moved toward her, a flush covered her skin and she could feel certain parts of her body starting to hum. His eyes held hers in an exchange that was almost sinful. It was as if an urgent need was drawing him to her.
She had a feeling that he was a man who went for what he wanted, and with just a look he was letting her know that he wanted her.
He stopped at her table. “Hello. I’m Cort.”
She swallowed as she tilted her head back to look up at him. He was tall. Probably around six-three. And that same deep voice she’d heard when he’d spoken to the waiter captivated her. She couldn’t have moved if she’d wanted to.
She noticed that he hadn’t given her his full name, and wondered if Cort was even his real name. She had no problem playing his game, though, if that was the case. She had no intentions of giving him her real name, either. “Hello, Cort. I’m Adele.”
In a way, she wasn’t lying…Adele was her middle name. Lucky for her it was also a popular French name. “Would you like to join me, Cort?”
The smile that seized the corners of his mouth went from being sinful, to bone-melting irresistible. His eyes weren’t just studying her, they were stroking all kinds of heat within her, and filling her mind with all types of naughty thoughts. Thoughts a woman who’d never been made love to should not be having.
THE BENNETTS' WEDDING (The Bennett Family and the Masters Family Book 5) Page 15
