The Complete Tempest World Box Set

by Mankin, Michelle

  So intense.

  So incredible.

  So much more than I could ever have imagined.

  I couldn’t do this another night and not fall apart in his arms.

  Pressure building behind my eyes, my head down, I brushed past him mumbling something about looking out at the view. “Oh, my.” I swallowed willing the telltale huskiness within my voice to go away. “The sun’s already rising.”

  “So it is.” Lime and heat washed over me just before his body and hands did. My back against his chest, my gaze remained on the window while he massaged my shoulders applying firm but gentle pressure.

  “That feels so good.” I let out a low moan. “And the view of the strip from here is so beautiful. But it’s later than I realized. I should get going.”

  “Don’t go yet.” He pressed his body closer, and his fingers tightened for a moment before they resumed. “Tell me what you find so beautiful. To me Vegas is just concrete buildings and a lot of sand.”

  “You don’t see it the way I do.”

  “Explain it so I can,” he said softly.

  “It’s probably corny, but to me the nights here have a rhythm that I can practically feel. All that glitz, glamor and excitement. But it’s the mornings I really love…” I trailed off and sighed. “The sun rising over the buildings and the distant desert hills, that’s what gets me going again. Maybe music does that for you or maybe it’s poetry. The dawn is like an alarm inside of me. I get up and go running, and I’m reminded that each day is a new one, full of beauty and potential. In the morning, I can almost believe that anything is possible.”

  “Idealistic and romantic,” he whispered. “A little like your sister.” He gently turned me around, framing my face in his warm and compelling hands. “And maybe more things are possible than you imagined in the past.”

  “Not likely. The problem with the dawn is that it turns into the reality of another day.” I covered his hands with my own and tried to remove them. He could see everything with me like this, our faces merely a breath apart.

  “I’m holding the reality I want right now in my arms.” His eyes were more intense than the amber rays of sunlight streaming through the panes. “No more hiding feelings. No more denying what’s between us. I wanna be your lover, Miriam. Your only one.”

  “We only just slept together.” I wanted to believe his words, and yet I was afraid. I should be scared. He had picked up on more in one night with me than Frank had after months of dating. “How can you say that? How can you be so sure? You don’t even really know me.”

  “I think I know you very well. I know the little things about you like how you lick your lips when you’re nervous or turned on. I know the bigger things like that you have a great sense of humor. That you’re loyal, smart and wickedly talented. That you sell yourself way too short too often. That you are afraid to let others see your true self, so you keep your attributes mostly hidden.” He stroked his thumbs to my quivering lips. “I know you’re better than just good. You’re spectacular.”

  “If you really know all of that, really believe it then how…why…” A tear spilled. “No. I can’t accept what you’re saying. I can’t.” I pried his hands from my face. I regathered the remnants of my former heartache trying to rewrap myself in the tattered and familiar insulation. “I fell for you. I fell so hard, but you didn’t want me. So after New Orleans, I slept with any guy who did. Turned out one was an assistant professor at the university. He was a total disappointment. He was settling. He wasn’t you. He was the answer to a question that I already knew. And when I broke it off with him, he claimed that I stole the answers to my exams from him. And everyone that mattered believed him.” I took a step back snapping my spine straight as I remembered that time and how alone I had felt as all the accusations had rained down on me. “After I lost my scholarship, I picked myself back up again. I figured out a way forward. There was no knight in shining armor waiting to rescue me. No king. It was just me. I walked my own path here. I found a new dream. A smaller more realistic one. In a few more years, I’ll have enough money saved to go back to college. Not UCLA, but hopefully somewhere else with a good film department. So you see.” I swiped the regret from my cheeks. “I can’t do this again. I don’t want to do this again. I won’t survive it.”

  “I’m so sorry, Miriam. Sorry I hurt you. I thought I was doing the right thing. But I think you were mostly right about what you said the other day.” Hands open, his expression imploring, he crossed and eliminated the separation from him that I had regained. “I was scared. I was running. Deep down, I knew if I ever let you in that I would never be able to release you.” He recaptured me. Holding me gently but firmly by my upper arms, he drew me into him.

  “You don’t have me.” I shook my head.

  “I do.”

  “You can’t keep me.”

  “I will.”

  “This isn’t real.”

  “It is. As real as we can make it. As real as you will allow it to be.” Softly, oh so softly, he glided his hands down my arms. His eyes pierced holes in my crumbling resistance, and his gentleness stripped away my remaining pride. “I’m here now. I’m no knight in shining armor. I’m far from a fairy tale prince, but you have me. I’m yours. You’re not alone anymore. Everything I want. Everything I need is with you.”

  “Oh, Juaquin. I don’t know.”

  “You do know, mi reina. Vegas is a place where anything can happen. A stripper can be a queen. A Southside guy with a rap sheet and a bad temper can be her king. Accept what I am offering. Give me a try. Believe. I’ll believe with you. No more wasting time on the past and things we can’t change.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  King

  “Ok,” she agreed. “I’ll try.” She relaxed her body into mine, and I truly felt like a king. Like I had the power to do anything I wanted. Touch the rising desert sun and take from it every single one of those early morning possibilities she spoke of.

  I plunged my hands into her hair and crushed my mouth to hers.

  The words for the way she made me feel, for giving me another chance, sprang to the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t speak them. I showed her. With my kiss. With my body. With my passion.

  “Juaquin” she breathed my name as if she couldn’t resist me, as if I were the answer to her prayers, as if I had a chance to be worthy of her. “I…”

  My cell rang in my pocket. I wanted to ignore it. I had her right where I wanted her, but I had that feeling in my gut that shrink-wrapped time. A premonition. I removed my lips from the hollow of her shoulder and took the call.

  “Hermano. ¿Qué onda?” What’s up?

  “How are things between you and Miriam?”

  “She’s in my arms right now at this very moment.” Tucking her in my embrace, I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She gazed up at me, disappointment in her eyes. Ah, she didn’t appreciate my brother’s interruption. I liked that. I sent her a look that said ‘I’d make up for it soon’. “She’s a gift. One I don’t deserve.”

  “See what good things happen when you follow my advice. You owe me, hermano.”

  “Fuck you, asshole.” I laughed, and he laughed with me because we both knew he was right. I would have fucked away my chance with Miriam if I had kept playing her the way Jorge had suggested.

  “Hey. I’ll leave you to get back to whatever you two are doing, but I wanted you to know what’s going on back home. Even if our father doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it.”

  “Cómo?” What? My spine snapped straight.

  “He had chest pain again. When he tried to dismiss it like the other times, our mother put her foot down and forced him to go to the emergency room. They recommended overnight observation at the hospital and additional testing in the morning. They’re both acting like it’s no big deal, but Blue and I are heading to Seattle anyway. I just thought you should know.”

  “Bueno,” I said good but was thinking the opposite. My adopted brother knew
how badly things had deteriorated between my father and me. I was definitely not the favored son. Nothing new there. But Sager was only looking out for me as usual. I had to let the rest go for now. “I’ll settle things here and meet you there.”

  I hung up, realizing only then that I had let Miriam go. She sat on the bed, standing when I walked toward her, watching me intently.

  “It’s your father, isn’t it?”

  I gave her the one shoulder shrug.

  “Don’t act like it’s nothing.” I heard most of what Sager said, and I can see it on your face. You’re upset.” Her eyes registered more than a little hurt. “You said earlier that you know a few things about me. Well, I know more than some about you, too. How you feel things deeply and put those things behind a wall. How you bury the stuff that really bothers you even deeper. How you love and admire your father the way I once loved mine. How your relationship has become strained, more since your arrest.” I gave her a sharp look. “You’re in a band with my brother, Juaquin. You guys just got off a European tour. You were with each other twenty-four seven. There weren’t many secrets. It isn’t difficult to fit the puzzle pieces together. Not when I’ve known you for so long and cared about you so much.” She reached out and touched my arms softly lifting her eyes, her gaze beseeching me to understand but still cautious. “Don’t shut me out. You think I can’t feel it? Was everything you just said to me about us starting something real a lie?”

  “No.” My lips flattened. “Of course not.” But putting the words into action wasn’t going to be as easy as I had imagined. No grace period. We had gone straight into crisis mode. “I’m sorry. Can we dig into this another time? I can barely think straight right now. I’ve got to get things squared away here before I go to Seattle. I have to call Jorge. Reschedule the final shit for this week in the studio. And I need to get you home. “I turned, snagged my keys from the night stand and turned back to her. “Dale. C’mon. Do you have everything you need?” I frowned at her when she didn’t respond. She just stood there, her arms wrapped around her body as if she were suddenly cold and stared at me.

  “Am I just something to square away and leave behind?” Her chin lifted. “Did it not even cross your mind to ask me to come with you?”

  Fuck me. No. It hadn’t. Not really. As she had accurately pointed out, I was accustomed to dealing with heavy shit on my own. Though there had once been a time when I had let her in more than most.

  “Mi reina.” I touched her arm. She yanked it back. “Miriam.” I advanced walking her backward. Grabbing her wrists, I lifted them over her head, pressing them and her into the wall. “Listen to me.” I laid my forehead to hers, letting out a sigh when she dropped her gaze. “Don’t do this. Not now.”

  “Alright.” Her voice was whisper-soft. “You’re right of course. I know you’re worried.”

  “What I want…what I desire has nothing to do with anything right now.” What I most wanted was to hold her against me and have time stand still. “Otherwise, I would ask you to come with me. But I know you have two jobs. I know why now. I don’t want to torpedo your dreams with my shit. We’re only just starting out. I have no right to make such demands of you.”

  “It wouldn’t be a demand. It would be a request. Don’t you know by now that I would do anything for you?” Her fingers clenched into fists in my hold. “Do you not get that after all I’ve told you?”

  “Mi mujer picosa.” My spicy woman. “I’m not worthy of you.” My issues and shit hadn’t suddenly gone away, but I was choosing to ignore them for the moment.

  “Ask me.” She wiggled in my hold. I brought her arms down. I kissed her hands. I lifted my gaze. I lowered my guard. I made myself vulnerable. For her. Only for her.

  “Will you come with me?”

  “Yes.” She replied immediately without pause.

  “I don’t know how long we’ll be gone. Won’t that be a problem? I mean I know you only dance on the weekends at Sexxy but will being away interfere with your commitment to Jazz?”

  “It might.” A shadow passed over her eyes. “But she’ll understand. It’ll be ok. I’m going with you.”

  “It might be nothing. The doctors don’t even know much yet.”

  “I’m coming with you. If you’re this worried, that’s enough reason for me.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Miriam

  “MJ,” Mike called, his footfalls in the hall stopping outside the open door to my bedroom. “Why is your suitcase in the entryway?”

  I blew out the candle, swiped my cheeks and turned around to look at him.

  “What are you doing?” Frowning he moved toward me. “Why are you crying?” He stroked a strand of my hair from the tears that had gathered at my chin and tucked it out of the way behind my ear. “Talk to me. Tell me what the hell’s going on. I thought that being with Juaquin last night was what you wanted.”

  “It was.” I offered him a tremulous smile. “It was wonderful. He was wonderful. These are happy tears mostly. But his dad’s in the hospital. I’m going with him to Seattle. I lit a candle and was saying a little prayer for healing.”

  “You’re not Catholic.” His brow creased in confusion. “Or even religious.”

  “But Juaquin and his family are,” I said succinctly as if that explained everything and to me it did. I tucked the St. John healing medal I had found hidden away in my drawer into my pocket. I had gotten it after his father’s heart attack.

  “Seems a lot happened last night,” Mike stated with a little bit of incredulousness in his tone. “Are you two a couple now?”

  That was a big question. The question. I answered it as best I could. “I think we can be. He’s trying. And I’m trying…”

  “Not to get hurt.” He cut in. “I hope.”

  “Caution isn’t an option.” I shook my head. “How can I not go all in with him? He’s making this a beginning. A chance for us. A chance I have to take.” I paused to swallow. “He’s the one for me. He’s always been the one. You and I both know that.”

  “Yeah.” Mike squeezed his eyes tightly shut as if he could see the truth—but didn’t want to look at it—wavering so uncertainly within my gaze, like the flickering flame of the candle I had just blown out. “Come here. It’s going to be alright.” Eyes open he held his arms wide to me. I threw myself into his embrace. “He’s going to love you, MJ. He won’t be able to help himself. I can’t.”

  “I love you.”

  “Of course you do.”

  I lifted my head from where I’d had it buried in his shirt, and smiled. A firm knock at the door to our duplex interrupted the moment.

  “Shit. He’s already here to pick me up. I need to make sure I have my ID for the plane. Can you let him in?”

  “Sure.” Mike went toward the door while I hurriedly snagged my purse from the recliner in the living room, stopping cold when I heard a familiar voice. One I had never heard at my house.

  “Miriam,” Mike called. “Can you come here a sec?” He sounded nearly as unsettled as I felt. Vincenzo Campanella engendered that kind of effect on people. Inwardly bracing myself, I stepped into the entryway and came up short.

  “Wh…what are you doing here?” The intimidating mobster’s displeasure was palpable.

  “My secretary informed me that you wouldn’t be coming into work this week.” His frown encompassed me and my suitcase. “Were you planning on going somewhere?” Ice slithered down my spine. “I find it odd that you would have so little regard for the lucrative proposal I made to you.”

  “Um.” Shit. He thought I was cutting out. Running. As if there were anywhere I could go that his influence couldn’t reach. I was hoping he would forget about his offer. Surely he could find lots of other women who would jump at the opportunity, however distasteful it might be. His cobalt eyes fixed unwaveringly on my face. Maybe not. I gulped. “It’s not that at all. It’s just that a friend of mine has a sick relative. I’m coming back.” I glanced at Mike silently pleading for help. It h
adn’t escaped my notice that rather than distancing himself from the threat Campanella represented, he had moved in closer to defend me.

  “Do we have a problem?” Vincenzo’s gaze slid to my best friend and dropped to the hand Mike had placed on my shoulder. “I would certainly hope not.” He cast a directional nod over his shoulder. An idling limo sat at our curb. I could just make out a shadow of the driver through the darkly tinted windows. “Because Garner doesn’t like problems.”

  “No, of course not.” The ice trickling down my spine instantly froze. I took a careful measured step away from my bestie.

  “Excellent. Perhaps we can continue our discussion on the porch where it’s more private.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He led, and I fell in step behind him, giving Mike a quick cautioning shake of my head when it seemed he was determined to stick by my side.

  “Much better,” Campanella commented as the screen door closed behind me, his gaze slowly sweeping over me. “My dear, you look quite pale. Feeling a little guilty, perhaps?” He put his hands on my shoulders and squeezed firmly. “Tell me about this friend. Might he be the man who distracted you from my daughter while you were at the pool with her?”

  Shit. Fucking shit.

  I bobbed my head. He knew. No use denying it. Either he had seen us or Garner had ratted me out. I grimaced as his grip on me tightened to the point of pain.

  “Not the level of responsibility I’ve come to expect from you.”

  “Miriam,” Juaquin called. The door to his Hummer slammed closed as he jogged up the driveway.

  “Juaquin!” I drew in a sharp breath that lodged in my lungs as Campanella turned, following the direction of King’s voice. The men immediately took one another’s measure. My heart pounded so hard I registered each beat.