The Key to Love

by Callie Bardot

  “Sure. That works.” He reached around and tapped her nose.

  “Keys.” She chuckled, pushing his hand away. “I’m serious. I don’t want to miss the van.”

  “I’m serious, too.” He pulled her close to his side as they stepped onto the sand. “See how well we fit together? Side to side.” He turned, so their backs touched. “Back to back.” Then, he turned to face her. “And front to front. Definitely full frontal.” He tipped her head up and pressed his lips to hers. “Mmmm,” he said, as he widened his stance to get on her level.

  The kiss intoxicated Mia more than the wine and Mezcal. Keys seemed to have her wired to a high voltage.

  He ground his erection into her belly.

  She moaned, wanting him inside her. But not here. No public displays for me tonight. Gently, she eased away from him. “Keys,” she said again.

  “What?” he said, lowering his mouth for another kiss.

  Mia placed her palm over his mouth. “Why do you think you’ve been drinking so much the last couple of nights?” she said, emboldened by her buzz.

  “Cause I’m a rock star, baby!” he slurred. “Who’s in love with a beautiful girl.”

  “What?” Her head jerked back.

  “I. Am. In love. In love, I tell you! Ever since I met you.” He threw back his head and howled. “It’s been a secret, even from me.” He removed his arm from around her and put his finger over his lips. “Shhh. Mia can never know.”

  “I’m Mia, you idiot,” she said, playfully slapping his arm.

  “Oops!” He turned and raced toward the water.

  “Keys!” Mia gave a nervous laugh and chased after him.

  “Mia!” He turned and clasped his arms around her and twirled around and around, sending her legs flying behind her.

  She shrieked. “Put me down!” Her head began to swirl. “Keys put me down!” she insisted.

  He stumbled backward, and they both fell onto the soft, wet sand, with her on top of him. “Never. I’m never letting you go. I finally found the courage to tell you how I feel. I’m never letting go,” he said again.

  A wave crashed on the shore, sending water streaming along the sand.

  Mia shrieked again as the water lapped at their clothes.

  “What’s a little water when you’re in love?” Keys said, pushing her hair back from her face.

  The way his gaze sliced through her—if he weren’t so drunk, she might have believed him.

  She propped herself on his chest. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

  “I do.” He started laughing. “That’s what we’re going to say when we get married. I do.” His laugh turned into a tear-streaming belly laugh. “I do. I finally said, I do,” he wheezed.

  Oh, boy. She shook her head. “Who said anything about getting married?”

  “I know, too soon. But it will happen.” He pressed his warm palms into her cheeks. “Who’s going to be my bride, huh? My little Mia, that’s who.”

  Mia’s cell phone chimed. “Hold on, Romeo.” She fished her phone from her pocket and looked at the screen. “Crap. It’s Gia. The van is leaving in fifteen minutes.” She texted Gia back, then scrambled from on top of him. “Get up.”

  Somehow he managed to lurch to his feet. “Is it the love part that scares you? What if I say I heart you. Or…wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What rhymes with love? Hmmm.” He placed his bejeweled fingers underneath his chin. “Dove…glove…I glove you? That sounds dirty. I like that. Does ‘I glove you’ feel safe to you?”

  “Sure, Keys, that’s the one. I glove you, too. Now let’s go.” She tugged him along the street. Her insides churned with confusion. Does he really mean it that he loves me? And, what if he does? Do I want to be loved by him? A surge of heat told her she did want it.

  When the van came into her line of sight, Mia let out a breath of relief.

  Gia stood several yards away, waiting. She gestured toward the black van. “Hurry up!”

  Mia yanked Keys along.

  “I’m in love!” he said again. “I glove you!”

  “Quiet, Keys,” Mia said.

  “Oh. It’s our little secret.” He mimicked zipping his lips. “Gotcha.”

  Mia finally made it to the van with her very drunk whatever he was to her. Friend? Boyfriend? Fuck buddy who thinks he loves me?

  “What the fuck happened to you two?” Gia said, scanning them both. “Did you wrestle in the sand?”

  “We fell. Keys is drunk,” Mia said.

  “I see that. Nothing new there.” Gia gestured toward the open door of the van. “Let’s go. Everyone’s waiting.” She shoved Keys toward the door.

  He stumbled inside.

  “Does he remember the next day when he’s this drunk?” Mia said, before climbing onto the van.

  “I don’t know. I don’t usually question him about his activities the night before,” Gia said. “Let’s get into the van so you can pour him into bed. Then, you can see for yourself.”

  Mia nodded and stepped up the stairs. She wanted to believe he loved her. But this is all the drink talking. And tomorrow we head back to the states. With a sigh, she took the only vacant seat next to Keys.

  “Baby,” he said. He took her hand and rested his head on her shoulder, snuggling into her.

  She lay her head on his. Why shouldn’t she enjoy the moment? Tomorrow the fairy tale would come to an end.

  Keys

  A week later, Keys stood on the chilly streets of New York, his leather bomber jacket gathering a few persistent snowflakes, as he stared at nothing. Ever since he returned, his world weighed him down, dragging him into the abyss he’d thought he’d escaped with Mia. Still stuck with the band, on the outs with Trevor, Mia won’t return my calls…

  He fished his mobile phone from his pocket and stared at the screen for the thousandth time today. Still nothing. Answer me, damn it. He’d been texting and calling Mia ever since they’d returned. But, with one exception where she wrote back busy, she hadn’t answered any of his attempts to reach out.

  As he stood there, with the citizens of New York City streaming past him, he replayed the morning of his and Mia’s final morning in Cancun. He’d awakened with a massive hangover. And, she’d been all twitchy, keeping her distance.

  “You don’t remember anything about last night, do you?” she’d said.

  “I remember a lot of it. We had fun.”

  She’d given him a strange look, and nothing more had been said. And then, they’d been whisked to the airport without another word between them.

  What the heck is going on? She’s been weird with me since our last night in Cancun. I thought we had a really good time. I don’t remember the whole night, but what I do remember was positive.

  Tired of being ignored, he shook the snow from his head and whistled for a cab. Inside the vehicle, he gave the cabbie the Manhattan address where Mia worked. She can’t ignore me at her work. Once they reached the high-rise building of EXcape, Zander’s business, he emerged from the car, tipped the cabbie, and entered EXcape through the revolving door.

  Everyone who worked here looked fit and hip, in keeping with Zander’s penchant to hire expert adventurers. The people in the lobby, or scuttling into the ground floor restaurant, all seemed to scamper, hop or prance in their sleek adventure attire, “fit for any season.”

  They all looked far too perky for Keys’ tastes. He scoffed as he strode along the hallway toward the elevator. Photos of employees on their adventures around the world covered the walls.

  As people passed him, they did a double-take.

  He kept his ever-present sunglasses in place on his face, ignoring them. Ooh, look at the rock star. Being gawked at was old news.

  Inside the elevator, he kept to himself, still ignoring all the side-eyes and glances at him.

  When the doors slid open at the penthouse office floor, he paused for a minute, taking in the most beautiful woman in the world—Mia.

  She sat at her desk, a landline
headset clinging to her luscious hair, laughing into the tiny microphone poised at her lips. Unlike her outdoorsy counterparts, she dressed like a classy woman in a designer dress that clung to her perfect body. A sweeping view of the New York skyline framed her from the tinted window behind her desk.

  Coming out of his momentary stupor, he had to stick his hand out to stop the elevator doors from closing.

  She looked up, and her smile faded. “I’ve got to go, Tom. I’ll talk to you later.”

  He strode to the counter and rested his palms on whatever environmentally friendly surface Zander’s builders had used. Zander always blah-blahed about his eco-friendly offices. “Who’s Tom?” He’d better not be her boyfriend.

  “A vendor, not that it’s any of your business,” she said. “What are you doing here? Zander’s out all day.” Her fingers fidgeted with a stack of papers.

  “I came to see you, angel.” He removed his sunglasses and pocketed them. Licking his lips, he stared directly into her gorgeous caramel eyes.

  A small gasp left her lips. Quickly, she looked away.

  A wicked smile twitched his lips at her response.

  “You can’t be here,” she said, picking up the stack of paper and tapping it on her neat as a pin desk.

  “Of course I can,” he said, drumming his fingers on the counter. He stole a look at Mia’s ripe, round cleavage, which peeked out of her neckline. How I’d like to bury my face again in her succulent breasts.

  “Why are you here?” she said, glancing at him, then away. “Can’t you take the hint?”

  “What hint?” he said, resting on his forearms. He grinned.

  “Oh, the big fat hint of me not responding to any of your messages or texts. That one. As someone famous once said, ‘it doesn’t take a genius.’” Her pretty lips pressed together.

  A fantasy of running the tip of his cock along her lips until they parted flitted through his mind. Mmm. His grin broadened.

  “What?” she said with a scowl.

  “Nothing,” he said as his cock started to grow.

  “I don’t think it’s nothing. Not with you.” She straightened the already straight stack of papers again.

  “Want to know, then?”

  “I don’t think so. You’re probably thinking something dirty.” She smoothed the top paper with her palm.

  “With you? Always,” he said, enjoying the blush that crept up her cheeks.

  The elevator doors dinged, and several people emerged from behind him, all talking and laughing. Two women and a man strode to the counter, looking at Mia.

  “Where are we meeting for dinner tonight, Mia?” one of the women said. “I can’t believe we finally corralled you into going out with us.” Fit and skinny, she looked like an advertisement for an elliptical machine trainer or someone obsessed with weight training.

  “Sorry, she’s busy,” Keys said before Mia could answer.

  Fit and Skinny turned toward him, mouth parted and a scowl on her face, as if she would give him a piece of her mind. She stopped, blinking rapidly when she met his gaze. “Oh. You’re busy with him?” she said, turning back to Mia.

  The muscular-bearded guy and the hipster chick behind Fit and Skinny looked like they might faint as they turned to stare at him.

  “Not to my knowledge,” Mia said to Fit and Skinny. “What time are we supposed to meet?” She still directed the conversation at Fit and Skinny.

  “Don’t you remember, angel? We’re meeting at nine. I’ll pick you up,” Keys said.

  “I was talking to Alicia,” Mia said. She pronounced each syllable, like Ah Lis Sea Uh.

  “Nice name, Ah Lis Sea Uh,” Keys said. “I’m Keys. The keyboardist for Marked Love.” He stuck out his hand.

  “I know who you are,” Alicia gushed. “I’m one of your biggest fans.”

  “Next to me,” Bearded Guy said. “Can I have your autograph?”

  “I need to nail down the details of our date tonight first,” Keys said with a wink, turning toward Mia. “How could you forget our First Week after Cancun anniversary?” He glanced at his new fans. “We had such a magical time in Mexico, didn’t we, angel?”

  “Uh, sure,” Mia said, not meeting his eyes.

  “I totally understand you spacing out our dinner tonight,” Alicia said. “I would have drop-kicked it to the back of my mind, too.”

  “I didn’t…” Mia began but shut her mouth. She smiled sweetly at Keys. “You’re right, honeybunch. This is such a special occasion I lost my mind about plans made weeks ago with my good friends.”

  “I understand, love muffin,” Keys said, playing along. “I can’t think of anything but you.” He reached for her hand and brought it to his mouth. Kissing her knuckles, he inhaled her incredible scent. “Where am I picking you up?”

  She snorted, gently yanking her hand away. “Now, you’re the forgetful one. I told you to meet me downstairs in the lobby.” She batted her pretty lashes at him. “Sometimes, you’re so forgetful, my glove.”

  “Your glove?” His brows stitched together in puzzlement. Why does that word sound familiar?

  “Oops,” she said, covering her mouth. “I gave away our special word.”

  Special word? He strained his brain for any clues as to what she referred to. Nothing came up in his brain’s data banks. “Well, then…” he said, slapping the counter with his palms. His rings made hollow clatters as they struck the surface. “Let me scribble out the autographs and be on my way so you can get to work.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “Oh. One last thing before you leave.”

  “Yes, angel? You don’t need to tell me how insatiable you are with me in front of your friends. Let’s keep that between us,” he said with a wink.

  Her jaw jutted out, and she shook her head. Her eyes looked like they might shoot laser beam holes through his body.

  He chuckled. “Go ahead. What do you want to ask me?”

  “I need to know how to dress, my little monkey-kin. Where are you taking me?” A fake smile curved on her lips.

  He held his laughter in check. “Let’s go to Crash. Ever been there?”

  Excitement lit up her eyes. “That weird indie dive bar down in the East Village? The one where all the rockers hang?”

  “Yeah,” he said, cocking his head to the side. “You know it?”

  “Do I! It used to be my favorite hang-out place. I haven’t been there for years.”

  Her friends gawked at her.

  “You used to go to Crash?” Alicia said.

  “Sure,” Mia said, swishing her hand in front of her. “It was a long time ago and a different reality.” Her expression darkened.

  Keys wrote a couple of lines on the note cards Mia handed him, shoved them in his fan’s waiting hands, and gave Mia one last searing glance. “Until tonight, my glove,” he said, grinning. Glove. Glove. Where have I heard that word recently? “Cheers,” he said to Mia’s friends. “Better luck next time, securing a date with her. She’s so into me.”

  Mia’s eyes rolled toward the ceiling. “Toodles,” she said in a sarcastic sounding voice, giving him a finger wave.

  He responded by blowing her a kiss. Then, he pivoted and stepped toward the elevator, while still straining his brain to figure out what the word ‘glove’ had to do with anything between him and Mia.

  At 9 p.m. on the dot, Keys strode through the revolving glass doors of EXcape, his eyes scanning for Mia in the mostly empty lobby. Only a few late-night employees shuffled across the tile floor, heading for the door with bleary eyes. His attention skimmed right past a leather-clad rocker chick standing against a back wall, her gaze trained on her mobile phone. Comprehension dawned, and he did a double-take. “Mia?” he called to the rocker chick. He made haste across the tile floor toward the sexy woman.

  “You like?” She spun on the heel of one of her glossy black thigh-high boots. A skin-tight black leather skirt barely covered her curvy ass, while her torso was sheathed in a waist-high silver Moto-biker jacket with
the sleeves pushed up to her elbows. A scrap of silvery fabric, which barely covered a sheer black bra, peeked out from beneath the lapels of the jacket.

  Her long, waterfall of hair had been shaped into wild waves with as much product as Keys used until he cut his hair.

  He felt like one of those cartoon characters whose eyes pop out while the jaw drops to the floor with a sound-track of “Ah-Ooh-Ga!” or bells going off or some such. The whole look was such a turn-on his cock immediately took notice, rising to attention, eager for a chance to play. “Holy shit! Do I like it? I love it! It’s just unexpected. You’re such a classy dresser.”

  “This used to be my look,” she said, grinning. Her eyes peeked out from beneath smoky eyelids. Eyeliner lined the top of her eyelid, ending with a swoosh at the end.

  “You look so fucking hot, I could…I could…I’m speechless, that’s what,” he said.

  “You look pretty hot, too,” she said. “Your eyeliner isn’t as bold as mine is, but the subtle hint works.”

  “Thanks. I like a little eye glam. But, I toned it down for you,” he said. “And I don’t have much hair to work with at the moment. I did the best I could with short hair.”

  She reached up and patted one of the messy spikes. “We make the perfect couple.”

  Those words made his heart sing. “We do. Are you going to be warm enough?”

  “My coat’s right here.” She stooped to retrieve a charcoal wool jacket and draped it around her shoulders.

  “Good.” Keys nodded. “Ready, angel?”

  “I’m so excited, I can hardly stand it.”

  “Then, let’s go.” He proffered his arm and guided her toward the waiting Uber and the turban-wearing driver named Arjun.

  Inside the back of the car, he scooted her close to him, hooking his hand inside her warm thigh. It took every ounce of restraint to not start playing with her.

  “I wasn’t going to ever see you again,” Mia said, fingering his leg through his Levi’s.

  Her touch felt divine.

  “What made you change your mind?” he said.

  She shrugged. “I’m not sure. You still don’t remember anything about our last night in Cancun?” She squinted one eye and peered at him.