She squeezed her breasts hard, and then, keeping one hand playing with them, she dropped her other one down to her mons and trailed her fingers against herself, sliding up and down, up and down. She spread her fingers so that they rubbed on either side of his cock as he pumped in and out of her, and he muttered something unintelligible, but grateful.
His eyes had closed and his chin jutted up at her, where she saw a small white scar for the first time. Kate bent forward and kissed it. His eyes flew open. Still keeping one hand on herself, she reached in back of her with the other and lightly massaged his balls.
His reaction was instantaneous: he drove upwards in two consecutive mighty thrusts and spilled himself into her, calling her name.
Kate climaxed immediately after he did, the violence of her reaction shaking her like a rag doll. She fell forward onto his chest and listened to his heart galloping inside. Her own heart was doing much the same thing, but it wasn’t only from the sex.
She looked around in wonder that she’d actually done this outside on the balcony for any passerby to hear or see. Spinneys definitely didn’t do it outside. But…Just Kate apparently did. She wasn’t sure if she was exactly proud of her actions, but she did feel inordinately free. A woman who could make love on a balcony could surely dance on a table.
Chapter 10
It was unfortunate that Wendell didn’t ride the bellman’s cart all the way back to Boston. Instead, he showed up at Kate’s condo again the next day.
For reasons unknown to her, she let him up, put Gracious in her bedroom and opened the door purely out of misplaced guilt. He was family, and she’d let Alejandro throw him out of her building.
She wondered where her cousin had slept last night and hoped he’d had to pay a steep hotel bill. “Wendell, if you don’t behave yourself, you can’t stay here.” She blocked the doorway.
Despite her words, he tried to barge past her. “I’m a relative. You can’t kick me out.”
She stood her ground. “You were despicable last night.”
“Funny, I thought your stud was de Spic. And I’m not the one who resorted to violence. Very in character for his sort—”
Kate gasped in outrage.
“—those people are all the same.”
“Wendell! Alejandro is normally harmless, but you would incite a nun to murder.”
“Let me in, Katy, or I’ll press charges against your Latin Lover. How would you like that?”
She grabbed his arm. “You wouldn’t dare.”
He smirked and sauntered past her, making himself at home in a kitchen chair.
Kate put a hand to her suddenly throbbing temples, knowing she’d never get him to leave before he was good and ready, the blackmailing jerk. But she couldn’t let him cause trouble for Alejandro.
“Wendell, why are you really in Miami? I came down here to get away from the family. Are you just here to make my life miserable?”
“I’m here,” he said smugly, “to do due diligence on a company Spinney Industries is thinking of acquiring.”
She sank into a chair opposite him. “Why didn’t they just ask me to do it, for God’s sake? I’m already here.”
“You made it very clear that you wanted nothing to do with the company’s day-to-day operations for now. You’re on the shit list, Katy. I’m their golden boy.”
“Well, then, Golden Boy, you can move out of my spare bedroom and take advantage of your golden expense account, because if you haven’t figured it out yet, you have gotten on my last nerve!”
Wendell yawned, got up and peered into her refrigerator. “No, I’ll be staying for another couple of days—if you don’t want your stud in jail. I’d be lonely in a hotel, Katy. Here, I have the pleasure of your company.” He rubbed his plump stomach and pulled open her meat-and-cheese drawer. “I’m in the mood for a muffaletta. Want to make me a muffaletta?”
Kate didn’t bother to answer him. She just grabbed her beat-up purse, shoved her feet into her loafers and walked out, slamming the door behind her. Wendell might be blackmailing her so he could stay in her condo, but that didn’t mean she had to stay there with him.
She might as well get a start on the marketing project.
ALEJANDRO THANKED GOD that today was not tomorrow, when the Fabulous Four, a group of crazy forty-something women, would come in to have their weekly happy hour in the salon.
They scheduled their weekly manicures, pedicures, eyebrow waxes and haircuts on Thursday evenings, and enjoyed them with a considerable amount of After Hours wine. The Fab Four were wild, unpredictable and hard to handle.
The last time they’d been in, they’d gotten too drunk to drive and he’d been hornswoggled into taking them partying on South Beach, instead of to their homes.
So far, today was relatively peaceful. He was giving his sixth pedicure, to a sweet client who was not, thank God, wearing a miniskirt. Alejandro was just finishing up her foot and calf massage when Shirlie knocked and stuck her head in.
“Al-aaaay-ho,” she sing-songed, snapping her gum. “There’s some girl up front named Kate—”
“What?”
“—asking a bunch of questions about the business. Peggy said you’d want to know.”
Alejandro leaped up from the pedicure seat as if it were burning his butt. “Carajo!”
“Perdon?” said his sweet client, Dana Gomez.
“Mierda!” He stared down at her and clutched at his hair, getting lotion into it so that it stood on end. “Oh, sorry. Ah…will you excuse me for one moment?”
She nodded.
Shirlie snapped her gum again, eyeing him avidly. “Problem?”
“Yes! No! Yes!” What the hell was he going to do? Kate couldn’t see him like this. But he couldn’t walk out on his appointment…
“Shut the door,” Alejandro said to Shirlie.
But she was talking into her earpiece. “After Hours, may I help you? Yes, she’s here. Just a moment.”
“Carajo! Shut the—” He started to get up.
“Is that Alejandro I hear?” Kate’s voice traveled to his ears from the hallway, and then her crazy mop of hair came around the corner, followed by the rest of her. “Hi, Alejo! I didn’t expect to see you—”
He was still bent over Dana’s foot, caught red-handed unless he could think of some way to avoid disaster. Beauty Boy! Beauty Boy! The old taunts echoed in his ears, and he imagined Kate’s contemptuous expression if she found out he was licensed to file.
He thought wildly, then said in a loud voice, “Just keep this foot elevated, Señorita Gomez. I’ve had some medical training, so I know what I’m doing.”
“What?” Dana stared at him as if he had nine heads.
“I don’t feel any broken bones, but it’s probably best to get it X-rayed.” He aimed a benevolent smile at her and patted her knee before looking up. “Oh, hello, Kate. What are you doing here?”
“I just came by to get started on the marketing project. I figured I’d ask Peg and Marly some questions.”
Conveniently, his two partners popped into the hallway behind Kate and he sent them a death stare. They threw up their hands silently, denying any wrong-doing. “We had no idea she was going to stop by. Isn’t it a nice surprise?”
“Yes, very nice,” he said breezily. “That’s, uh, great, Kate. Very proactive of you. I do wish I could stay and help. But unfortunately, we’ve had a small accident here—Miss Gomez has twisted her ankle. I’m going to have to run her to the minor emergency center.”
“You are?” Dana asked.
Alejandro turned, met her bewildered gaze and sent her a look of desperate entreaty. “Yes, I’m afraid it’s necessary. Just to make sure that there isn’t some kind of hidden injury.”
Dana played along, to his everlasting gratitude. “Well, if you think so…”
Shirlie snapped her gum and looked at her watch. “But Alejo, you have another—”
“Shirlie, I think there’s a customer up front.”
“Oh, o
kay, but—”
“Looking very impatient.”
“Well, I was just going to tell you that—”
“And isn’t that the phone ringing again?”
“Uh-huh, but—”
Marly dragged her away, thank God.
“You never told me you’d had medical training,” Kate said, admiration in her tone, while a muffled snort came from Peggy’s direction.
Alejandro ran a hand along the back of his neck. “Um, yeah. I was pre-med for a while in college.”
“But you switched?”
He nodded. “To finance.”
“With a minor in undertaking,” Peggy added helpfully. “He really enjoyed dissecting the corpses in his medical classes.”
“Ew,” said Kate and Dana at the same time. Then Kate frowned. “I didn’t know the University of Miami offered a minor in undertaking.”
“That was a joke,” Alejandro said quickly, his eyes narrowed on Peggy, conveying promises of torture later. “Peg has a strange sense of humor. It gets her in trouble a lot.”
His partner shrugged and returned his glare blandly.
“Well, gosh, here we are standing around chatting while poor Dana is in such pain,” Alejandro said. “We really should go.”
His client produced a creditable moan and laid a limp hand on his arm. Excellent. He’d have to give her a free mani and pedi for her good sportsmanship.
“Do you need some help?” Kate asked, not looking exactly thrilled as he slipped one hand under Dana’s knees and the other around her waist to hoist her up. Was she jealous? The thought pleased him.
Dana moaned again, a little too dramatically, and clutched at his chest.
“No, no, that’s okay. But thanks.” And feeling like the king of all idiots, Alejandro strode out of After Hours with his armful of woman.
“Look at him. He’s such a white knight,” Peggy called after them. “Isn’t that just the sweetest thing?”
He gritted his teeth. He’d deal with Peg later, when he had more time to kill her in slow, imaginative ways. For now, he had to concentrate on spinning yet another lie—this one to convince Dana that he wasn’t certifiably insane.
He deposited her into the passenger seat of the Porsche, having no idea where to take her, what to do with her, or how to explain to his next appointments why he was standing them up.
Alejandro sighed. At least his day couldn’t get any worse.
IT WAS WITH a sense of total injustice and panic that he heard Shirlie’s words a few hours later.
“Al-aaaaay-ho! There’s a guy up here for you. Name’s Luis.”
The goalie from his soccer team. Mierda! Alejandro scrambled to his feet from the pedicure stool. What have I done to piss off God today? I can’t even buy a break!
“He said he saw your car out front as he was headed over to Benito’s and he wants to see you.”
“Tell him—” Alejandro thought frantically. “Tell him I’m on the computer. And I’ll be right there.” He turned to his client. “Mi corazon, will you excuse me, just for a moment? My apologies.”
She nodded, and he sidled carefully out of the room and darted into the salon’s men’s room, where he brushed nail particles off his shirt and scrubbed his hands to make sure there were no traces of nail polish anywhere. Then he took a deep breath and went to greet his visitor, a stocky man of about six feet who seemed entranced by Shirlie’s bosom. A lot of men found Shirlie’s terrain luscious, so Alejandro couldn’t blame him. He saw no reason to ruin his fantasies by telling him that she wore a water bra that sloshed audibly when she ran for the phone from across the salon.
“Luis!” he said in deep, hearty tones. “Como estas, my friend?” All Luis knew was that Alejandro had a part interest in a spa and supervised the accounting and business decisions. He intended to keep it that way.
“Bien, y tu? What are you doing, working at eight o’clock at night? Come have a coktelito with me over at Benito’s.”
“Eh, Luis, I have far too much to do.”
“Sí, and it will all still be here tomorrow. Come on, have a pisco sour or two with your teammate.”
Alejandro hesitated, but he needed to get Luis out of the spa right away, before his next client came and blew his cover. “Okay. You go on over there, and I’ll shut down the computer and join you in a moment.”
Behind the counter, Shirlie opened her mouth to remind him of his next appointment and Alejandro sent her a death stare. Shirlie didn’t always play with a full deck, but even she caught his meaning this time: shut up.
“Will you order for me, Luis? Be right there.” He waved him out. As soon as the door shut behind him, Alejandro turned to the receptionist. “Shirlie, you will have to cancel my next appointment.”
“You’ve already missed two today and it’s Heather Carlton. She’s on her way to some party and she’ll be really pissed off!”
“I can’t help that. It will look too weird to Luis if I don’t join him. And he cannot know, do you understand, Shirlie?”
“What about—”
“Can Peggy finish up with my current appointment? It’s just the polish. It’ll take her five minutes.”
Shirlie sighed. “Okay. Yeah, she can probably do that. She won’t be happy, though. She’s got her own clients.”
“She deserves it,” he growled, thinking of retribution. “Say I was called away for an emergency. I’ll see you in a bit.” And he was out the door.
Chapter 11
Benito’s was an Italian restaurant only two businesses down in the strip mall, and Alejandro, Peggy and Marly ordered food from there all the time.
The place was decorated with red-and-white-checked tablecloths, fake grapevines with clusters of rubber grapes and empty chianti bottles on the tables that served as candlesticks. Benito used to have full bottles hanging at intervals along the vines overhead, but since the Case of the Concussed Customer he’d taken those down.
Benito, a small round Italian man with thinning black hair, greeted him as soon as he walked in the door. “Alejo! You are working hard, eh? Keeping all those ladies happy?”
He nodded and smiled, pumping Benito’s hand. “We try. How are you, Benny? I’m just joining my friend Luis at the bar this evening.”
“God has smiled upon my cooking again. Don’t miss the fresh seafood cannelloni, my friend. In a white wine cream sauce that is a miracle of culinary perfection.” He kissed his fingers. “Even my wife stopped nagging when she tasted it. You believe that? For an hour straight! I said it’s a miracle, no?”
Alejandro laughed and slapped him on the back. Then he moved into the bar and settled down opposite Luis in a banquette. “So, how’s the real estate business?”
“Excellent. I cannot complain.” Luis picked up his glass and held it up. Alejandro followed suit and they did the traditional Peruvian toast. “Arriba! (Up!) Abajo! (Down!) Al Centro! (To the center!) Adentro! (Inside!)”
“And how is the spa business?” Luis asked. “Have you had your weekly mud bath and manicure?” He winked and laughed uproariously. Alejo’s teammates loved to tease him about the feminine nature of his investment, but of course they didn’t know the extent of his involvement.
Alejandro sighed inwardly, wishing that he could be done with all the pretense and sneaking around. But that was impossible. He waved a dismissive hand at Luis and shot him a friendly insult. “Huevon.”
“I am not the huevon, my friend. It’s you who are the lone testicle!”
“Sí, and I’ll be laughing all the way to the bank when we franchise After Hours all over the nation.”
“Me, I am already laughing. South Florida real estate is a very nice business to be in.” Luis grinned and admired his new gold Rolex.
Alejandro didn’t begrudge him his success. He toasted him with his pisco sour.
“So, I want to get my girlfriend a gift, Alejo. You have a good all-day package at your spa?”
Mid-swallow, Alejandro choked at the question. All he needed
was Luis’s girlfriend booking anything with Señor Manos. It didn’t bear thinking about.
But he nodded. “Sí, of course we do.” He dug a card out of his wallet and handed it to his buddy. “You call and ask for Shirlie. She’ll set it all up for you. I’ll tell her to give you a good deal.” And I’ll arrange to be gone that day.
“Gracias. So, any carne fresca at the salon? Since you ended things with the woman in the twelve-step program for shoe addiction?”
Alejo grinned and stared down at his glass. He swirled the last inch of coktelito in it. “Yes. Her name is Kate. She is very intriguing. And she owns fewer shoes than any other woman I’ve ever met.”
“To Kate.” Luis held up his glass, and they toasted.
“Arriba! Abajo! Al centro! Adentro!” Both of them drank and then ordered another round.
“So tell me about this Kate. She has tetas grandes?”
Alejandro shook his head.
“She is a former Miss Universe?”
“No. She is beautiful, but in a different way. She’s…unique. Very refreshing.”
“Where did you meet her?”
“Business school. And she’s not at all the sort of woman I usually date. She needs a manicure desperately, she has crazy hair and she wears shoes that are falling apart.”
“Okay,” said Luis. He cocked his head and looked at him for a moment. “This doesn’t bother you?”
“No. But she’s too rich.”
Luis went into peals of laughter. “Alejo, there is no such thing as too rich.”
“No, you don’t understand—her family is a dynasty that owns entire towns.”
“Excellent. When’s the wedding? You’ll be set for life.” Luis chuckled. “Get a nice, cushy job with Papa’s company and learn to play golf. Join one of the, how do they say? Ritzy country clubs.”
Alejandro didn’t laugh with him. He thought instead about spending the rest of his life with people such as Wendell the fourth. He shuddered. There wasn’t enough money in the world worth that.
“I see you’re thinking very hard about it, my friend.” Luis took a long swallow of his second whiskey, leaned back in the booth and fished a cigar out of his pocket.
Midnight Touch Page 9
