by Natalie Wild
Blaine grimaced. “I think I’ll lose my man card walking that foo-foo doggie.”
Mia punched his arm. “You have to be really secure in yourself to walk a foo-foo dog.”
Blaine grabbed the leash. “No one has ever accused me of being insecure.” He skipped a few steps. Perdita yipped and jumped around his ankles. He tripped, almost falling on his face and squashing the dog.
Mia doubled over in laughter. “Please—please don’t step on my dog. Or skip on her.”
The sound of her laughter delighted Blaine, and it obviously delighted Perdita. She leaped against her mistress’ bare legs. “Okay—okay,” said Mia. “Go on now.” She smiled up at Blaine. “She’ll calm down in a few minutes. We might have to carry her home.”
Blaine took Mia’s hand. “You might have to carry me home if I fall on my arse.” His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, saw Candice’s name, and stuck it back in his shorts.
“Who’s Candice?” Mia asked.
Blaine took a deep breath. A pleasant breeze blew around the lake, but what he had to say made the air taste stale. “My ex-wife. My second ex-wife.”
“Oh,” said Mia. “Do you have children together?”
“No, thank goodness.”
“And you’re officially divorced? Not separated?”
Blaine nodded. He knew what was coming, so he went ahead and answered. “There’s not really any reason for her to call me anymore, but she does. I usually ignore her.”
“Usually?”
Blaine wished he could erase question marks from the English language, but that didn’t seem to be a possibility. Besides, he’d decided he was going to let this woman in, so uncomfortable as it was, he had to open the door. “When we separated, she got a good bit of money from me, obviously. Most people would have been set up for life with that money. She screwed it all up. She bought this huge house.”
“How huge?” asked Mia. “Like, Jennifer Anniston huge?”
Blaine nodded. “She was never good at managing money. The house, all the furniture. Then just her day-to-day living. Traveling and clothes and spas. Not just for her, for her parents and siblings, too. She’s blown through most of her money. She put the house on the market, but she’s not even getting any nibbles. So now she wants me to invest in some business she wants to start. She wants to buy some chain massage therapy stores…” He sighed. “I don’t know what to do. I’d like to help her, but—“
Mia put a hand on his arm. “It sounds like you already helped her. She blew it. Is it your job to keep helping her?”
“No. You’re right. I guess I feel kind of guilty.”
“Why? You said she used you for your money, right?”
“Yeah. I’m pretty certain she never had any genuine feelings for me. But still, I wanted the divorce. She didn’t. So I feel responsible for her.”
Mia took a moment to reply. Blaine could see ideas running through her head. “Okay, I get that. But if she never loved you in the first place—”
“Maybe I also feel like a failure. Divorced twice before forty? Doesn’t look too good. It just validates all kinds of stereotypes about rich playboys. It’s almost like—” He struggled to find the words, because he wanted to make sure Mia understood. “This life I live, it’s forced me to become that stereotype. I’d rather have a stable home and a wife who loved me for me. Instead I get two divorces, and I’ve learned that it’s easier to just take care of myself and my needs by bouncing around.”
“Bouncing around the world,” said Mia. She frowned. “Bouncing around with women, too.”
Blaine stopped. “If I could meet a woman and I knew, one hundred percent, that she’d still love me if we lived on the street tomorrow, I’d stop bouncing.”
“Hey—Mia!” Another male voice entered the conversation. Perdita began yapping and squealing. A jogger stopped beside Blaine and Mia on the gravel path. He looked to be in his late twenties, fit and handsome in a college boy kind of way. He wore a baseball cap.
“Hey.” Mia’s face had paled. “Hey, Jeff.”
Her ex-boyfriend, thought Blaine.
Jeff knelt to appease the yipping Perdita by rubbing her belly. He cut a glance at Blaine out of the corner of his eye but spoke to Mia as if they were alone.
“Have you gotten my messages?”
She nodded. “I’ve been busy. This is Blaine—“
The Jeff guy didn’t show one bit of interest. “Right, you’re obviously busy. I’d like to talk to you, if you can find some time.”
Mia looked between Jeff and Blaine. Blaine took hold of the conversation. “Why don’t you just say whatever needs to be said right here? And like Mia said, my name is Blaine.”
Jeff’s chin jutted. “None of your business, dude. Call me, Mia.” He gave Perdita a last pat and resumed his jog around the lake.
Blaine took Mia’s hand, and to his disappointment, hers was shaking. Obviously, the run in with Jeff had affected her. He’d hoped for a casual blow off… maybe, “Oh, I knew that guy once, he was a loser!”
Instead, Mia said, “That was sort of intense. Sorry.”
“No worries,” said Blaine, even though the statement rang hollow in his own ears. “We’re not students anymore, fresh out of secondary school. We all have a past.”
Mia watched Perdita scamper and sniff. She’d been correct; the little dog was slowing down some. She squeezed Blaine’s hand. “What were we talking about?”
“I don’t remember,” said Blaine. He changed the subject to books. He could give her personal information that wouldn’t make either of them uncomfortable.
As Mia rattled on about Jane Austen, Blaine took heart in one fact. Everything Mia had told him about Jeff led him to believe the man was a failure in bed. Blaine usually succeeded in all his endeavors, but he knew no man could beat him when it came to pleasuring a woman. He suddenly had the urge to prove that point to Mia once again.
*
Mia opened the door to her apartment and shooed Perdita inside. She just had time to see the dog slurping away at her water bowl before Blaine tugged her back into the hallway. “Come with me, back to the lake,” he said.
“Okay—what, do you want to go fishing?” She trotted beside him, trying to keep up with his long legs.
“No—I love fishing, but there’s one outdoor activity I love even more,” Blaine said. They stepped on to the dirt path beside the lake. “Where is it—oh, there.” He turned abruptly into the woods.
“What the heck?” asked Mia. Branches scratched at her arms and she had to duck to avoid losing an eye. Blaine seemed to be on a beeline for something, but she wasn’t sure what.
“Can’t you see it?” he asked. “I could just make it out from the path.”
She followed his gaze, but made out nothing but branches and leaves, until flashes of pink cut through the brown and green.
A lone flowering tree stood in the middle of the patch of woods, as if some gardener had gotten lost, left the tree, and never found his way back to claim it. The tree had low branches that reached toward the sky like the arms of a worshipper extended in prayer. Bright pink blossoms had shed petals around the tree’s base.
Mia smiled. “A crepe myrtle tree, here? So funny. My mom paid hundreds of dollars for the crepe myrtles in her yard.”
“I wonder how it got out here,” Blaine said.
“Birds and butterflies,” said Mia.
Blaine grinned at her. “I was thinking more about birds and bees.” He pulled her closer to the tree.
She reached up and removed a stray flower petal from his hair. “Silly. You dragged me out here to fool around? What was wrong with my bedroom?”
Blaine kissed her neck. The goose bumps he raised made it seem like a cool breeze had found its way in between the tree branches. “I thought we might scare Perdita,” Blaine said. “Besides, it’s more exciting to think of being watched by passing joggers than by a foo-foo dog.”
She laughed into his chest. He lifted he
r chin. “Does it excite you?” he asked. There could be someone watching us…” He ran both hands over her bottom and then lightly brushed his fingers between her legs. “Watching us right now. Maybe a guy wishing he was me.” He pushed both hands into her hair. “But he’s not. So let’s make him jealous.”
She nodded, and Blaine wasted no time. He slid the skinny straps of her workout top over her shoulders and exposed both breasts. He cupped one in his hand while he suckled the other. She watched, her panties getting wetter, as his tongue flicked over her hard nipples. He fell to his knees before her, and wrenched her yoga pants down to her ankles.
“Oh, my gosh,” Mia said. She looked wildly over her shoulder, but she saw no one. The more she gazed around the little clearing, however, the more she found herself hoping someone was watching. Someone admiring her bare ass and wishing his own hands were Blaine’s. She spread her legs a little and bent over, just to give her imaginary voyeurs a better view. She gripped the tree branch above her head.
Blaine still knelt before her. He was staring at her pussy. She’d gotten somewhat accustomed to it, but it still made her nervous. What if he found some fault in her? She didn’t really know what guys expected down there. Women all looked for size, but what do men want?
He soothed her fears by looking up into her face. “Everything, everything about you is beautiful. Perfect.” He leaned forward, and she thought he was going to go straight to stroking her passion, but instead he simply kissed her. He kissed her lower belly and her groin and the insides of her thighs. Each spot his lips touched tingled long after he’d moved on to the next sensitive private place. Finally he kissed her pussy, before spreading her open and beginning to pleasure her in earnest.
As he licked and stroked and fingered her, she marveled at how he could perfectly coordinate so many movements, like a concert pianist working every key on the scale. “Tell me when you’re going to come,” Blaine said.
She whimpered and spread her legs further. She looked down at him. Every time he stroked upward, he met her eyes. His deep blue pools of hunger. She felt her orgasm coming on. “I’m going to come, now, Blaine!”
He pushed two fingers up inside her and slid his index finger into her anus, and still his tongue was on her clit. She came hard, her hips bucking under his hands. “Good girl,” he said. “That’s it. Good girl.”
Her moans died off to whimpers as he turned her around. “Can you come again?” He asked. “I want us to come together. I want to feel you clench on me as I’m finishing.”
Every time Mia made love to Blaine she got bolder. She panted as she bit his lip. “I can, but you’re going to have to work me like that again. Can you?” She smiled. “You seem pretty coordinated, but that’s adding a whole new element.
“I like a challenge,” said Blaine, returning her smile.
He slid into her from behind as she gripped the tree. As long as she braced herself, he was so large that he didn’t have to hold onto her hips. One hand reached around and rubbed her clit, while the other rubbed circles on her bottom. He thrust into her, deep and slow, and then faster. Harder. She couldn’t imagine how his hands could be so soft and his driving cock so hard. She spread her legs to give his fingers room. “I’m close,” she said. She hoped he knew what she wanted him to do next, because there was no way she could say it.
“I’m close too, Mia,” he said. “What do you need?”
Oh, no, she thought. I cannot, cannot say it.
“I can’t hold it much longer, baby,” he said. “You feel too good. Tell me—tell me what you want.”
“I can’t—I can’t say,” she gasped.
“You can’t? Oh—I know—” He laughed a bit, and to Mia’s surprise she found room to exhale one giggle herself.
“I can’t—” She said, and then she felt it. His thumb pressing between the cheeks of her bottom, and then inside her other portal. At the same time, he thrust hard and slid his fingers over her clit.
Mia came in an explosion. She screamed, and Blaine clapped a hand over her mouth. He pulled away from her and spent his own orgasm against her back.
Mia’s legs wouldn’t support her weight. She slumped in Blaine’s arms. He spun her around and kissed her cheeks and hair. “I’m sorry, baby,” he said. “I didn’t mean to do that—my hand on your mouth—but I was afraid someone would hear and call the police.”
She laughed into his chest. “Can you imagine?”
He laughed with her. “No—I was kidding about someone watching…what just happened was definitely for our eyes alone.”
He hugged her until she had to gasp for air. “Mia, Mia,” he said. “You got me all wrapped up.”
“I do?” she looked up at his handsome, smiling face.
He kissed her forehead. “I don’t walk foo-foo dogs for just any girl.”
*
The next week passed in a haze of happiness. Mia had never imagined a man like Blaine Daniels. He slowly opened up to her, and she found that he spoke fluent French and German and was an amateur violinist. They laughed and made love and argued over international affairs and made love and cooked meals together and made love some more. She overflowed with joy, like a towel that can’t absorb any more spilled milk. Her mother kept sending texts to make sure she was feeling okay after her break up with Jeff. She wanted to reply, “Jeff who?” but that might make Mama Maria ask questions. For some reason, Mia wasn’t quite ready to talk to her mom about Blaine.
She arrived at his condo on a Tuesday night with a package of fresh salmon and the means to whip up a mean salad. She’d gotten accustomed to finding Blaine in the kitchen whenever she arrived. When she found it empty, she peeked into the bedroom. “Blaine? Babe?”
“I’m out here,” he said.
She joined him on the condo’s wide porch. The July sun was still high in the sky. It felt good on her upturned face, but she had to close her eyes against the glare. “What are you up to out here? Besides sweating?”
He was staring at his phone. “I’m making plans.”
“I brought stuff to cook. Thought we were eating in tonight,” she said.
“No—I mean big plans.”
“I don’t get it.”
“When does school begin again?” He grinned up at her, and then looked back down at his phone, and then back at her again. Something in his excitement gave her pause.
“The end of August,” she said, “but I have to be back to prep my classroom mid-month. Why?”
Blaine looked about to jump out of his skin. He held up his phone. She read the text on the Internet browser. “Twenty-seventh Annual Commonwealth Cup.” She pointed at the fish on the webpage, some kind of marlin or swordfish. “A fishing tournament?”
He nodded. “Not just any tournament. It’s one of the best in the world. Invitation only. It’s based out of St. John.”
Her heart sank. St. John, again. “Let me guess, you’ve been invited.”
“Yes! I’ve been trying to get in for three years. Someone dropped out, so I have a last minute spot.”
“Last minute?”
He took both her hands. “I leave in three days.”
Mia took a deep breath. One fishing tournament wasn’t such a big deal. “That sounds like a great opportunity. How long will you be gone?”
“About five weeks.”
Mia’s heart had started lifting, but it plunged again, like a deflating helium balloon. “Why so long?”
“Well… there are two others that follow the Commonwealth, if I place. And I have to motor down there.”
“You’re driving?”
He laughed, and before he even opened his mouth Mia felt stupid. “No, I have to motor the boat down there. And then back. It takes a couple days on each end.”
Mia bit her lip. “Oh, well. Okay. So I’ll see you in a month?” If he comes back, she thought. All her happiness flew over the edge of the balcony. How could she expect a two-week relationship to hold up against over a month of total separation? With
Blaine in the islands, surrounded by gorgeous women who all knew what he was worth?
Blaine gripped her hands harder. “Come with me,” he said.
His comment didn’t register with Mia. “To St. John?”
He nodded, an ecstatic grin on his face. “Yes.”
Mia let go of his hands and backed away. “For five weeks?”
“You don’t have to work.”
“But—what about Perdita?”
Blaine laughed. “I’m sure your mum can keep her.”
The mention of her mother raised another problem. “I can’t—Blaine, my parents would freak out. Going to the islands with a man I just met for five weeks?”
“You’re twenty-six, Mia,” Blaine said. His grin faltered. “You can do what you want to do.”
Mia refused his logic. He doesn’t really want me to go, said her frazzled mind. He’s just being nice. “It’s not that simple…I—I won’t know anyone. And I get sick on boats. I can’t live on a boat.”
“You’re sweet and friendly and smart. Everyone will love you. And we can rent a condo. Or a beach cottage. I can find us someplace amazing.”
“I thought you didn’t want a woman who needs to be spoiled.”
Now a scowl completely replaced his grin. “Okay. Do you want to stay in a shack? Fine.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t want to stay anywhere but here. At home. I’m not comfortable living with you, and hanging around with all your smoozy rich friends—“
He tried to put his arms around her, but she pulled away. His phone rang in his pocket. “Answer it,” she said.
He pulled the phone out, and as usual, pushed decline and slipped it back in his pocket. For some reason, that small gesture made Mia see red. “Who was that?”
“My ex—“
“Why don’t you ask her to go with you?” Mia felt near tears, and her own reaction made no sense to her. Blaine had asked her to participate in any girl’s dream: a month long, all expenses paid vacation in the Caribbean. To top off the luxury, she’d get to spend the vacation in the company of the man with whom she was falling in love. For some reason, something in her core rebelled at the idea.
