The Tempted Series: Collectors Edition

by Janine Infante Bosco

  “I don’t know,” Mikey said, sighing into the phone.

  “I bet you’d like sexting,” I said half serious half curious.

  “Want to try?” he said and this time I heard the obvious hint of humor in his voice.

  “I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable Mikey,” the grin on my face was starting to hurt my cheeks.

  “You’re chartering in dangerous waters Princess,” there was no humor in his voice this time. I wanted to push him further see just how far he’d go before he snapped. I don’t know why, but I liked pushing Mikey’s buttons, especially since he had me all out of whack. Yep, there was a big fat ‘Out of Order’ sign on me since Mikey came home.

  “So apparently, I need a crash course in New York’s nightlife if I’m going to be any kind of good at this job and I thought you’d make the perfect tour guide,” he added.

  I lost all train of thought unable to form a sentence. The idea of Mikey and I all dressed up taking on the city that never sleeps well it did things to me. Like, turn me into a brainless idiot.

  “Hello? Did I lose you?”

  “I’m here,” I croaked.

  “So, what do you say?” he asked with his voice sounding a little bit impatient.

  “Fine. But make sure you look good if you’re going to be my arm candy,” I said smiling. I was already trying to figure out what I was going to wear.

  “I’ll try,” he said with a chuckle. Everything in his voice told me he was going to look sexy as hell. I couldn’t wait.

  Chapter Seven

  I don’t know what I was thinking asking Nikki to go out with me. It’s not that she was a bad time or anything like that. Hell, I was having a great time with her. I don’t remember the last time I was so comfortable around a woman or a time when I actually enjoyed being with one. However, being with Nikki made me want things I had no business wanting especially with her. I could blame it on the dress she was wearing. The black material clung to her body like a second skin not revealing much in the front but when she turned around her entire back was bare. Her skin was like silk. I know this because when we arrived at the club, she suggested we go to I placed my hand on her naked back to usher her through the club. I’ve been fighting a war inside my head since we arrived trying to keep my hands to myself when all they wanted to do was travel along her skin. I wanted to feel the goosebumps along her spine that my touch created.

  It wasn’t the dress or the fact that her naked back was exposed to my hungry gaze that made me want her. It was simply her just Nikki. She owned the room actually she was the center of attention even before we walked through the door. The bouncer greeted her as if she was the queen of England kissing both of her cheeks as he let her passed the velvet rope. He stared me down until Nikki told him that I was a guest of hers with a grunt the beast opened the rope to let me into the club. We walked through a sea of people nearly all of them knew the girl on my arm and they all wanted to be near her. I couldn’t blame them. Not one bit. However, I wasn’t in the mood to share her either.

  She sat on the bar stool legs crossed and her skirt inched its way up her thighs. I lifted my gaze from her legs why torture myself? She was staring at me with an amused look on her pretty little face. Her lips painted a rich crimson color curved upward treating me with a smile I probably didn’t deserve.

  “You clean up nice Mikey,” she said her eyes quickly glancing along the length of me. I had thrown on a pair of black slacks pairing it with a gray button-down shirt. I had shaved finally, so I didn’t look like an ape and my hair was actually styled with a comb not just my fingers.

  I leaned closer partially so she could hear me over the music that vibrated through the club, but mainly just to catch a glimpse of her scent. Whatever perfume she was wearing was putting me in a trance.

  “I could say the same about you,” I paused to brush her hair over her shoulder so I could access her ear better. “You’ve turned heads since we stepped out of the car.”

  She turned her head, glancing over her shoulder so that we were nose to nose. Her lips parted slightly her smile faltering. I stared into her eyes, wondering what was going on in that pretty little mind of hers.

  “What’re you drinking?” I asked my fingertips lingered on her shoulder before trailing down her arm.

  “Vodka and cranberry,” she said. I regretfully dropped my hand from her arm and signaled to the bartender. I probably should’ve left that part to Nikki considering the bartender was a guy and was only paying attention to the girls that shook their tits in his face. Yeah, we’d get a drink tomorrow morning at this rate. I glanced at Nikki as she chewed on her lip.

  “What’s the deal? Guys don’t order drinks for girls anymore?” I asked her two seconds short of sticking my fingers in my mouth and whistling to get the bartender's attention.

  She smiled sweetly at me before leaning over the bar, making eye contact with the bartender. She winked at him and he held up one finger signaling to her that he’d make his way to her next. Well, she didn’t have to shake her tits, thank Christ.

  “Most guy bartenders gravitate towards female patrons for purely selfish reasons their dicks,” she laughed. “Close your mouth, Mikey. Yes, I really did just say dick.”

  Her eyes were full of humor as I struggled. I was sure she didn’t mean to sound so goddamn sexy, but one little word off that tongue of hers sent all the blood rushing down to my groin. I shoved my hand into my pocket and tried to reposition myself as she continued to talk. I could barely make out what she was saying because I was fixated on her mouth.

  “They are just worried about their tips and which willing drunk chick they are going to end the night with,” she said through her smile as she focused her attention to the bartender that was leaning into her.

  “What can I get you gorgeous?” he said. I wanted to punch him in the face.

  Nikki looked up at me expectantly waiting for me to answer.

  “Vodka, cranberry and a vodka straight,” I said peering at him. He stood straight, giving me a curt nod before he busied himself making our drinks.

  “Bottle service is something you should push when the club opens,” Nikki said reminding me that the whole point of this night was to get a taste of what I was going to be dealing with at Temptations.

  “Why is that?” I said, pushing some bills onto the bar and handing Nikki her drink.

  “You charge triple the price for a bottle of liquor and they get a server for the night. The club makes a nice profit, and the customer is happy because they avoided all this,” she said motioning to the crowded bar.

  She raised her glass to mine. “Welcome home Mikey.” She said sweetly clinking her glass against mine before she took a sip. I already felt drunk by just looking into her eyes.

  “You’re something else,” I said with a slight shake of my head.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  I took a hefty gulp of my drink before settling the glass on top of the bar. I placed one hand on the back of her stool and the other on the bar caging her with my body. I leaned close trying to find my words, but they failed me as I watched her nervously chew on her lip again. I give her credit though she didn’t back away. Sure, she had to have seen the animalistic hunger in my eyes as I stared at her. That was probably why she squirmed in her seat. Yet still, she held my gaze.

  “Mikey,” she said in an exasperated whisper. I lifted my finger to her lips, silencing her. In that single moment, listening to her whisper my name sounding almost breathless I wanted more than my next breath to have her underneath me naked or hell on top of me I bet she’d be something on top. I needed to hear her say my name because I was doing things to her with my hands and my tongue not just my eyes. I’d even let her call me Mikey coming out of her sweet mouth there was nothing childish about her nickname for me.

  “Rico’s a lucky son of a bitch,” I said regretfully cocking my head to the side I dropped my fingers from her lips. “Does he know how lucky he is?”
r />   She swallowed. Instead of answering my question, she countered it with one of her own. “Why is he lucky?”

  “Because he has all of you,” I said with conviction. For some reason unknown to me, I felt it was important for me to get what I was about to say out and say it right. I was probably about to make her uncomfortable, but I desperately needed to say what was on my mind. I wanted her to know that what I was about to tell her I believed to be true too. I held her weary eyes with my own as I lifted my hand to touch the side of her head. “He has your mind…,” my hand glided from her hair down the side of her face passing down her shoulder my fingertips grazing her arm. There were the goosebumps I was hoping to feel. “… body and soul,” I sighed, shaking my head. I dropped my hand abruptly and reached for my drink again throwing it back, I welcomed the harsh burn sliding down my throat before slamming the glass down on the bar.

  “Lucky son of a bitch,” I repeated.

  I watched her reach for her drink out of the corner of my eye guzzling it down as if she were stranded in the Sahara Desert.

  Good to know that I wasn’t the only one affected by my words.

  I had excused myself after I finished my drink making a beeline to the ladies’ room after Mikey’s little declaration of why in fact Rico was a lucky bastard. I don’t know what it is about him, but Mikey made me feel things I had never felt before. I can’t say that he brought out confidence in me because I always prided myself on being a confident person never relying on the words of others to boost my ego. However, something about Mikey’s words made me feel sexy and maybe even wanted.

  I should’ve stayed home tonight. I knew there was nothing wrong with me going out with an old friend, especially since the reason we were here tonight was to educate him on the nightlife that was about to play front and center in his own life. However, there was a big problem with the way being with Mikey made me feel and think. I wanted him way more than I should considering I had a boyfriend and Mikey was my friend. I think the fact that my relationship with Rico was on shaky ground didn’t help matters much either. Still, I needed to get a grip on the way my body reacted to Mikey, that’s why I was standing in the ladies’ room applying a third coat of lip gloss to my already sticky lips stalling from going back into the inferno that Mikey and I created whenever we were in one another’s company.

  I gave myself one final glance in the mirror before I found the courage to stop hiding in the bathroom. I turned around about to leave when one of the stalls opened in front of me and out stumbled a girl. She nearly knocked me over as she tried to walk in her six-inch heels. I was sure I rolled my eyes at the hot mess.

  “Excuse you,” I said disgustedly.

  “I know you,” she slurred brushing her bleach blonde hair out of her eyes.

  I looked her over. It should be illegal to wear spandex anywhere let alone to a nightclub. Her royal blue dress scrunched up causing my fingers to itch wanting desperately to pull the slinky fabric down covering the parts no one wanted to see of her. She was a mess. Her hair disheveled and in knots and her makeup smeared across her sweaty face.

  “Luckily, I don’t know you,” I said as she poured the contents of her purse onto the vanity. She was frantically searching for something. I wanted to tell her to forget about putting lipstick on or whatever it was, she was looking for in her purse. It would so not help. Nothing would.

  “You’re Rico’s girl,” she said still rummaging through her stuff. She might as well have brought a suitcase and ditched the clutch bag since she had stuffed it with so much shit. “I didn’t see him here tonight.”

  I cocked my head to the side trying to place the girl’s face how she could possibly know my boyfriend? I definitely did not remember ever seeing her before. You remember a face like that it haunts the shit out you.

  She grinned as she held up the little clear bag full of white powder. I hated this part. I hated being around drugs and these days they seemed to be everywhere. She opened a compact and with her, shaky hands pouring the contents of the baggie onto the mirror.

  In my twenty-one years, I had never touched a drug. It wasn’t my thing. I never had the urge to try them always afraid that if I did I’d be the person who tried drugs one time and died of a heart attack on the spot. I didn’t get the point of getting high anyway. If your life was so, fucking bad that you needed to escape it, change it don’t abuse it. I watched as she bent her head and snorted the line off the mirror.

  She sniffled a bit, looking up into the mirror checking her nostrils for any residue completely missing a spot of the white powder on the side of her nose. Her eyes met mine in the mirror and I tried to mask the horror my expression held as I looked at her. She smiled a half-hearted smile at me the poor soul that she was.

  “Did you want some?” she asked. I shook my head quickly, and she laughed.

  “That was a stupid question.”

  I shook my head not able to find my voice. I’m sure when I look back on this I will kick myself for not telling her that she was a fucking idiot or maybe that if she wanted to ruin her life that was fine but I planned to live mine. I turned on my heel forgetting to ask how she knew Rico and why I hadn’t ever met her, I just wanted to get the hell out of the bathroom.

  I’m a dick— plain and simple. At least I own it though, right? That shit has to count for something. Nikki ran away from me claiming she had to go to the bathroom, but I think she escaped out the back door. After five minutes of waiting by the bar doing three shots by myself like the jerk that I am, I decided to go look for her. Trying to find the bathrooms in this place was like trying to find a nun at a bachelorette party. A line of girls wrapped around the hallway leading to the ladies’ room. I scanned the line to see if Nikki was still on it, but she wasn’t which only resulted in these girls thinking I was checking them out. Normally I wouldn’t think twice about grabbing one of them off the line and taking her home with me but my dick was broken. That’s right broken. Nikki broke it and the crazy thing was that she didn’t even get a chance to encounter it. The bastard had a mind of its own though, working only when she was around. I leaned against the wall praying that Nikki would emerge from the bathroom sooner rather than later as I was ogled by the line of willing females. Sorry girls if my dick ever works again, I’ll be sure to come back for one of you maybe even two if the mood strikes.

  I tried to divert my attention onto something else deciding the floor was a safe place to keep my eyes. There was something stuck to my shoe. I tried to kick it off, but it didn’t budge. I bent down to pull off the plastic attached to my shoe before rising to my full height. Thankful that it wasn’t a condom I turned it over in my hand to examine it. It was an empty plastic bag. The kind drug dealers use to disburse their product. This drug dealer seemed proud of his product even branded the baggie with a red “R” stamped on it. I threw the bag back onto the floor, wiping my hand down the side of my pants.

  Victor’s voice rang in my head reminding me how dead set against drugs in his club he was. I wondered how I was going to be able to prevent shit like this happening in Temptations. I lifted my head just as the door to the ladies’ room opened and Nikki emerged looking like she was ready to flee. I reached for her arm, causing her to turn and look up at me.

  “Are you alright?” I asked, noticing how disturbed she looked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, stepping closer to me. She leaned into my ear. “Can we get out of here?” she asked loud enough so that I could hear her over the bass that vibrated off the walls.

  I leaned back to look at her face, assessing her to make sure she was okay. She seemed fine, just like she’d had enough. I nodded slightly taking her hand in mine I lead her down the hallway to the flashing EXIT sign at the end. I pushed the metal door open not giving a fuck if I set off the fire alarm and ushered her out of the club into the fresh air.

  We walked around the back of the club to the main street in silence, leaving the stale air of the nightclub and the vibrations of the m
usic behind us. She dropped my hand somewhere along the way, forcing me to shove my hands in my pockets so I wouldn’t reach for her again. She reached into her purse, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. I bit the inside of my cheek as she lit it and took her first drag. She released the smoke from her lips before sighing.

  “I’m sorry I asked you to leave. I know you asked me to come with you tonight so you’d get a feel for what you’re getting into,” she took another pull of her cigarette. “It just gets old every now and then.”

  “What does?” I asked as we made our way to the curb to hail a taxi.

  “This whole scene,” she motioned to the club with her free hand. “Don’t get me wrong, I love to go out. I like being social and I love to dance, but a part of me just wanted to go to a dive bar in the middle of nowhere. I want to drink beer and dance to some bullshit on a jukebox.”

  I smiled at her picturing her in the bar I used to go night after night in Pennsylvania. She’d stick out like a sore thumb.

  “The social butterfly I saw when we got here tonight would be lost like a fish out of water.”

  She turned around abruptly, almost as if I had slapped her. There was a fury in her eyes as she flicked the cigarette into the street and set her icy eyes on mine.

  “People only look at me and act the way they do towards me because of who my father is and who Rico is. These people don’t know me they don’t know anything about me. They don’t take the time to see who I am and that’s just fine. Half of them are too high on God knows what to remember me even if they did take the time to get to know me to really know me Nikki Pastore, not Vic’s daughter or Rico’s girl. Me. Just me. And for the record, I’d fit in just fine.”

  Something flashed in her eyes and she closed her mouth quickly. Her hand covered her lips instantly as if she had just blurted out a secret. She turned around, her back to me as she stuck her arm out trying to flag down a taxi. I grabbed her hand and spun her around to look at me. I didn’t know where that little outburst came from but she was bothered by something and that didn’t sit well with me.