by Natalie Wild
“Wow,” said Blaine, and the two guys beside him looked at Mia with gaping mouths, like beached fish.
“It’s beautiful.” She motioned Blaine closer and whispered in his ear. When he leaned down he ran a hand over her ass. “I can’t afford this,” she said.
“I can.”
She shook her head. “No way. Are you kidding? After all your talk about your ex-wives using you for money?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“It’s okay, I want to buy it for you.”
“No,” said Mia, all stubbornness. “I’ll wear one of my old sorority dresses.”
Blaine laughed, and kissed her forehead. “The fact that you don’t want me to buy it makes me want to do it even more. Listen, I’m buying that dress. I hope you’ll wear it.”
She grabbed his arm and shook him. “You’re so frustrating,” she said, but she was smiling.
“If you don’t wear it, I’ll have to find some other girl who will.”
She swatted him.
“I’m just kidding. Maybe I’ll wear it myself.”
She laughed. “I’m sure that would impress all your friends.”
So Blaine bought the long dress and Mia bought the short one. They moved on to the men’s section, because Blaine needed a few new pairs of jeans. There wasn’t anyone around, not even a salesperson.
“Guess men have better things to do today than shop,” said Mia. She ran her fingers over a few silk ties.
Blaine grabbed her hand. “I need to try this stuff on.”
“Go ahead, silly,” she said. “You don’t need me.”
He grinned, and suddenly she knew what he had on his mind.
“No—Blaine. We can’t. Not in Bloomingdales!”
“Shh…” he tugged her toward the men’s dressing room.
“They have cameras! I’ll be banned from the store!”
He closed a dressing room door behind them. “It won’t take long…and if anyone is watching via camera they’ll just be jealous…”
He rubbed between her legs with his thumb. Despite her nerves, she felt herself getting wet through her yoga pants, and that familiar throbbing pressure.
“Just turn around,” he said. She obeyed and he slid her pants over her ass. He slid a finger inside her.
“Oh!” she said. He usually took his time. This was all so abrupt. Still, the very urgency of it turned her on.
“Are you ready?” he asked. He kissed her ear and pushed his finger deep inside her. “You seem ready. You’re wet already.”
“You always make me wet,” she said. “I’m in a permanent state of arousal.”
“That’s what I want to hear.” She heard him shuffling with his belt buckle, and then felt prodding heat between her legs. She braced herself with both hands against the wall. Blaine pushed into her with a low moan.
“Look…” he said. “Look in the mirror.”
Mia looked over one shoulder, and then the other. She had a different view from each of the dressing room’s mirrors. In one she could see her own profile. Her arched back and splayed legs. The second showed her Blaine’s hands on her breasts through her top. The third gave the best view. His jeans had fallen down, and his tightly muscled ass moved with his thrusts. Mia had always had a hard time coming from penetration, but as she watched Blaine pump into her, and his hands on her bottom, she felt her own orgasm coming on. She bit her lower lip, and came in a series of low whimpers. Blaine didn’t take long to follow her. He came on her back with his own suppressed sounds of ecstasy.
He rested his head between her shoulders. “That was amazing. How can it feel that good that fast?”
His curiosity made her smile. “I don’t’ know,” she said. “That might be a record for me.”
“How are we going to clean up?” He looked around the dressing room. “I can’t wipe you down with jeans I haven’t bought.”
She laughed and directed him to the tissues in her purse. He wiped her back and kissed her. She touched his sleeping cock. “Now you’ll be able to fit in those jeans. If this guy was awake, you’d never be able to button them.”
He kissed her nose. She peeked out the dressing room door. “I’d better sneak out of here.”
She slid out, and thought she’d made a clean break, until a Bloomingdales staff member stopped her. “The women’s dressing rooms are that way, miss,” the elderly gentleman in the bow-tie said.
She giggled like a schoolgirl and said, “Oh! Of course. Silly me!”
The salesman raised one eyebrow at her. “Why don’t you head that way.”
“Right,” she said.
“Oh, and miss?”
“Yes?”
“I’ve been working here for twenty years. I’ve seen it all. You might have thought you were being quiet, but you’ll have to do better than that.”
*
Mia thought she’d gotten used to the bombshells that Blaine tended to drop on her, but his proclamation in the kitchen the next day made no sense.
“What you do you mean, you have to run a charter? We’re supposed to leave the day after tomorrow.”
“I know…but I cancelled on this guy for this weekend, obviously. He asked if I could take him out tomorrow morning. I feel bad. He’d planned to take two important clients with him.”
“Blaine—there are other charters!”
“I know, but this guy has been great about bringing me clients.”
“Why do you care so much? It’s not like you need the money.”
Blaine threw up his hands. “It’s not about the money, Mia. I love taking people fishing. It makes me happy. It makes me happier than anything that ever made me tons of money.”
She sighed. “Okay, I’m sorry. That was out of line.”
“I get it. I get that it seems weird that I’d want to work… basically in manual labor… with the money I have. But it’s my passion.”
Mia walked across the kitchen and hugged him. “You haven’t even packed yet.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I can pack in an hour. Throw some stuff in a bag and sort it out when we get there. Besides, I’m taking the boat down. You’ll be there a day or two before me.”
“That makes me nervous.”
“It will be fine. I have a guy down there, Calvin, who takes care of everything for me. He’ll meet you at the airport. Take you to the rental house. Make sure you have everything.”
“I know… and it will be good for me.” She squeezed him. “An adventure.”
“I have to go to bed early. Have to be up at 4am. You want to spend the night?”
She agreed and they brushed their teeth, changed into pajamas, and completed the other mundane going to bed rituals. She slid under the down comforter beside him and snuggled into the crook of his arm. He kissed her, but didn’t make a move to take it any further. That was fine with Mia. She listened to him breath until she thought he’d fallen asleep. She shifted in his arms and he pulled her closer.
“I love you, Mia,” he said.
She waited a second before replying, to let those words sink it. Then she repeated his sentiment back to him and fell asleep against his chest.
*
Mia slept long past Blaine’s 4am wake up time. She got herself out of bed, went home and finished her packing. It was hard to believe that in two days she’d be settling in to a rented beach cottage for the rest of the summer… or what Blaine considered a cottage, anyway. For all she knew, Blaine’s idea of a cottage could be her idea of a mansion.
She met a few girlfriends for coffee and stopped by her parent’s house to drop off Perdita, her dachshund. She dumped all of Perdita’s accoutrements with her mother: dog bed, leashes, sweater (seemed pointless in the south Florida heat but you never know) dog food, treats, nail clippers chew toys and Perdita’s favorite blanket. She bid her canine daughter a tearful farewell. Perdita didn’t seem too concerned. She sat at Mama Maria’s feet as she made chicken salad and waited for dropped morsels. She gave Mia a commiserating
lick, but that was it.
It took two trips in her tiny Prius to get all Mia’s luggage to Blaine’s condo. By the time she’d settled down in front of the TV, she realized it was almost 4pm. She checked her phone, but still nothing from Blaine. She frowned, but reminded herself that he didn’t have cell service off shore. He’d said he’d be back at the marina around five in the afternoon, but maybe he was running behind.
She watched the news and then some reality television, but when seven o’clock rolled around and she still hadn’t heard anything, she began to worry in earnest. She called her mom for an outsider’s opinion.
“What should I do, Mom?” Mia asked.
Mia could almost see Maria pacing her kitchen with Perdita skittering around her heels. “Mimi, Mimi, I’m not sure what to say. Have you called him?”
“Yes. Over and over. It goes straight to voicemail.”
“Oh dear. Perhaps he’s sunk? Perhaps a wave crashed on his boat? Or maybe a shark…”
“Come on, Mom! Next you’ll be saying he was abducted by pirates.”
“In Cuba, there are pirates—“
“Okay, this isn’t helping.”
“Here is my true opinion, Mia. Go to the marina and ask the men there to radio him or whatever they do.”
“Good idea. I’m going now.”
“Tell me what happens! I will say some Hail Mary’s.”
Mia said goodbye to her mom and slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops. She drove to the marina as fast as she could without provoking the state troopers that lurked the interstate. She leaned over the steering wheel. The witch’s theme song from the Wizard of Oz, the one that plays whenever the green-faced antagonist appears on her bike or her broom, ran through Mia’s head.
She parked the car and trotted into the marina’s office. She looked out the window, in the hope of seeing the Wanderlust, but its slip was empty. She checked her watch. 8pm. It would be dark soon.
She dinged the little bell on the front desk. A fat man in a Jimmy Buffet tee shirt emerged from some back room. “Can I help you?”
“Yes. Or, I hope so. I’m a friend of Blaine Daniels. The Wanderlust.”
“Right.”
“He was supposed to be in at five, and I haven’t heard from him.”
The fat man nodded. “Another woman called in about thirty minutes ago. Wife of one of his clients. She hadn’t heard anything either.”
Mia’s heart sank. “Did you call him on the radio?”
The fat man nodded. He didn’t seem particularly concerned. “No answer. I was going to call again in thirty minutes.”
“Well?” Mia asked.
“Well what?”
“Has it been thirty minutes?” she wanted to grab the radio herself, but she wouldn’t have the first clue as to how to use it. She wasn’t even sure what it looked like.
He looked at his watch and shrugged. “Eh, you’re right. I’ll try again.” He pressed a few buttons on the blinking machine beside the desk.
“That’s the radio?” Mia asked. She’d pictured something smaller. More like the CB she’d seen in reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard. Ten-four, good buddy, she thought.
“Yeah.” The fat man looked at Mia as if she were two years old. “What did you think it was?”
“Just try him, please.”
“Wanderlust? Wanderlust, touch base. You read? This is Barlett’s. Looking out for you boys now. Wanderlust?”
The man tried a few more times before flipping some switches. “Nothing.”
“Oh, my gosh.” Mia said. Maybe her mother was right. Sharks and pirates and rogue waves ran through her mind. “What now?”
“Maybe he’s having engine trouble. If he’s that far out, he can get out of radio range.”
“How far is out of range?”
“Oh, seventy, eighty miles.”
“Eighty miles?”
“I don’t’ know that Blaine guy that well, but he seems to be a wizard with boats. I wouldn’t worry about it. Why don’t you head home? I’ll keep trying.”
Mia shook her head. “No. I’m staying here until you hear something.”
“Suit yourself,” said the fat man. He wandered back into his little office.
Mia played games on her phone and read the paper for the next four hours. Every so often, the fat man would come out and call the Wanderlust again. Her heart rose in her chest each time as she waited for Blaine’s English accent to come over the wire and tell them he was on his way. Each time, the fat man got dead silence.
Finally, around midnight, the fat man was ready to call it a night. “You going home?”
Mia shook her head again.
The fat man sighed. “Listen, I know you’re worried. Why don’t you stay here? There’s a little portable bed out back. I just live across the way, in the manager’s apartment. You get some rest, and I’ll come back around 5am to check on things, if he’s not back.”
Mia thanked the fat man. He showed her to the tiny bed, and pointed out the bathrooms and the water cooler. “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t have a toothbrush.”
“It’s okay,” said Mia. “I really appreciate you letting me stay. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep…”
The fat man left the room and came back with a bottle of pills. Mia raised her eyebrows.
The fat man laughed. “Nothing too harsh. Just Benadryl. It might make you sleepy.”
“Thanks. I’ll try it.” Mia took two of the pills and drank a glass of water. The fat man said goodnight and turned out the light.
Mia lay back on the thin pillow. She closed her eyes and tried to say the Hail Mary’s her mother had taught her. She got through five iterations before she fell asleep.
Mia awoke to the fat man shaking her foot. “Miss,” he said. “Wake up.”
Mia sat up. She felt groggy, as if she’d consumed a bottle of wine the night before. “Is he back?”
The fat man shook his head.
“What do we do in the morning?” Mia asked.
“It is morning. Well, it’s almost afternoon, really. 10:30.”
Mia was suddenly wide awake. She looked at her phone to clarify what the fat man was saying. It was indeed going on noon. Nothing from Blaine.
“And he’s still not back?”
The fat man shook his head, and to Mia’s terror she saw real worry on his face. “No, he’s not.” Even his tone of voice had changed. “It’s been over twenty-four hours since anyone heard from the Wanderlust. I’ve called in the Coast Guard. They’re sending out search helicopters.”
Mia sat in stunned silence on the bed. Blaine was in serious trouble. She wasn’t overreacting. Now, just when she’d finally given in to loving him, there was a chance she’d lose him forever.
Wild Lover Book 4
Mia Tennyson’s life had been turned on end in the past three weeks. Since she’d met Blaine Daniels, she’d reached highs she didn’t know possible. She’d sunk low, too, as they both wrestled with demons of insecurity and past failures. Now, just as she thought they’d found a middle ground and could move forward with their fledgling relationship, real trouble had found them. Or, to be more accurate, found Blaine and left Mia wondering about the future. Not just the theoretical future. Mia was hanging on minute by minute.
She sat on a bench outside Bartlett’s marina with her mother’s rosary in one hand. Nearly thirty-six hours had passed since Blaine had left on a routine fishing trip. No one had heard from Blaine or his two clients on the Wanderlust since earlier the previous day. Mia had gone home to shower and try to get some sleep, but worry had brought her back to the marina. She couldn’t stand the thought that some news might come back and she’d miss it.
As the afternoon wore on, the fat man who ran the marina, whose name Mia finally garnered as Tim, seemed more and more panicked.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “The weather hasn’t been that bad. It must be engine problems.”
“The coast guard hasn’t seen anything? Noth
ing at all?” Mia asked. She sipped at a cold can of Coke. Normally she only drank diet, but today she wanted the comfort of real sugar.
“I called Daniels’s parents. In England. His emergency contact. They’re pretty upset.”
“Oh,” Mia said. She wished she knew Blaine’s parents, so she could offer some comfort. Since they’d not even known each other a month, and Blaine’s family lived in the UK, she’d feel silly calling them to give her two cents.
Hi, I just met your son and we’re sleeping together. I’m in love with him and we’re going to St. John for a month, but you’ve probably never heard of me…
Tim brought her attention back to reality. “The parents said they’ll get in touch with friends here in the US who can keep them up to date, too.”
Tim must have been reading her mind. Mia wondered if it was that obvious that she and Blaine had just met. When she was with him, she felt like she’d known him forever. To everyone else, however, she really was just the girl he’d been sleeping with. The thought made her cringe.
A red Lexus pulled into the marina parking lot. There were plenty of expensive cars parked around the marina, but most of them were big SUVs. The kind of vehicles that men used to haul boats or just make themselves feel manlier. The red coupe was out of place, like a cherry in a bowl of apples.
A tall blonde woman got out of the car. She used the movie star method. He long tan legs came first, followed by the rest of her and a beguiling flip of her hair. She tucked an expensive looking clutch bag under one arm.
“Excuse me,” she said. She pushed her dark glasses up on her head. She had large blue eyes and pouty lips. She tugged at the short skirt of her tight sundress as she talked. “I’m looking for someone named Tim. The manager of this place?”
Tim’s chest puffed out. Between his round belly and his shaggy mustache he reminded Mia of a walrus. “That’s me. Can I help you?”
“I hope so. I’m so frazzled. My in-laws called me this morning. I was en route from LA to New York and redirected to Miami.” She held out her hand. “My name is Candice Daniels.”
