by Murphy,Misti
Then she tugs on the hem of her blouse, straightening her top as she pulls herself together. “Does that line work on anyone?”
Shrugging, I cross the room to pull on a pair of ripped jeans. “Everyone.”
“Really?”
“Eh, close enough.” I snatch up a shirt and put it on, leaving the buttons undone as I turn to her. That’s when I notice that her gaze is glued to my torso. And her voice recorder is in her hand. Crossing the room, I steal it out of her hand. “Are you taping me? I said no fucking interview.”
“I was preparing to get your quote.” She snatches it back, her eyes flashing. “But I still think you should do an interview.”
“Because you’re a journalist. If you were on this side of things you wouldn’t think it such a great idea.” I cross my arms over my chest, glaring at her. “So your quote. How about… Australia is like a second home to me. I wish I could spend more time here and can’t wait to be back. Besides…” I lean down a little closer to her face. “The women are great. They know how to kiss. Down under and dirty.”
Again her composure slips, cracks a little. Her gaze darts to my crotch. Then she smiles, chuckles throatily, and the sound is all kinds of sexy. “You have no idea.”
“No. Then why don’t you show me?” I’m close enough to smell her perfume, something light that doesn’t hide her natural scent or the raspberry smell of her shampoo. “I’m all about learning about other cultures.”
I take a step toward her when she looks up at me, biting that lower lip I want to sink my teeth into. She takes one back, and we’re dancing, right until the moment her back hits the wall. My hands press to the plaster on either side of her face.
A quick shake of her head, her voice breathy, she says, “I don’t think so. You’re not my type.”
“Sorry, sweet cheeks.” I wrap one of those tight black curls around my finger, pulling it and letting go so I can watch it spring back. “We both know I’m everyone’s type.”
“Not mine.” She shoves her hands into my chest, but it’s a half-hearted attempt to move me, since when I don’t go easily she flexes her fingers against my skin, leaving them there. “I’m not the kind of girl you can charm the panties off with a few ridiculous words. I’m not like those girls who fall over themselves to be with you.”
“What, human and female? It seems to me you’re both.” Although she might be one of those prickly porcupine like creatures they have around here; an echidna, with the flare of disdain in her gaze and the way her mouth tightens as she bites back a retort. I’d love her to keep going. Give me one more reason to play with you, little girl.
“I got my quote. That’s all I need from you.” Her shoulders tense and she ducks her head.
“Are you always this uptight?” I should let her go. It would be the smart way to avoid any unneeded trouble. There are any number of easier ways to get my rocks off than annoying her, but for some reason I’m enjoying ruffling her feathers. “You really need to loosen up. I could help you with that.”
I’m part way to kissing her already, her breath a warm flutter on my face. She cranes her neck, tilting her head, her gaze drawn to my mouth before landing on my eyes. The tip of her tongue peeks between her lips. Another inch and her mouth is under mine. I slide a hand down the wall, to her waist, ready to pull her against me and flick my tongue over her lip. This is what I’m looking for. This instant gratification, this reminder that the world is my fucking oyster.
“You really need to step off,” she murmurs, turning her face from me, the pulse in her throat thrumming so hard that I can see the way it moves to her heart beat. “I have a knee and I’m not afraid to use it.”
I’m half inclined to grasp her jaw and kiss her properly. To put my lips on hers again and dig my tongue into the sweetness of her mouth. But no girl is worth a knee to my balls. What the hell am I even trying for?
“I have no doubt.” Dropping my hands from the wall to adjust my junk, I step back. “Don’t worry. It’s not going to come to that. I get your message loud and clear.”
On the dressing table my phone starts playing The Brady Bunch theme song. My way of knowing when it’s family calling. It’s a welcome distraction, and I lunge for it, picking up the call from my brother, Mace, before it goes to voicemail. “Hey asshole, what’s going on?”
“Claire wants to know when you’re getting here. She’s turned into some demented fucking demon since I asked her to help organize…” his voice drops lower, and I smirk. Obviously his wife, Chelsea, is in the room. “This shindig.”
“A couple days. I need to stop at my pad in Vegas first if you want that favor.”
“Great. Oh, and also she wanted to know if you’re bringing anyone to her wedding.”
I pause for a minute. I wasn’t planning to. I’ve got too much respect for my family to show up with some woman who is only good for a quick fuck. But at the same time, being stuck around all that romantic stuff for three weddings, mere months apart, with all the couple shit that comes with it isn’t my idea of fun. And I sure as hell need to stay away from the bridesmaids. Any one of my brothers would kick my ass if I upset the women in their lives. Or all three of them. Of course they’d have to catch me first.
I glance over at Maxi. She’s still glued to the wall. I’m not sure why she’s still here. I expected her to leave after threatening my manhood. “I’m going to need to get back to you.”
“You better not bring some floosy to Lil Bit’s wedding,” Mace grumbles on the other end of the line.
“No. No floosy, bro.” I smirk at her, and she gapes a little, both eyebrows rising when she realizes I’m talking about her. “Look, I have to go, but I’ll let Claire know soon. Tell her not to get her panties twisted in a bunch.”
He’s laughing when he hangs up.
I turn my attention to my not so willing victim, striding across the room to get to her. She might not be interested in letting me fuck her, although I’m not convinced since she participated in our little lip press before she suggested bodily harm, but I do have one card up my sleeve.
Maxi steps away from the wall. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I was waiting to tell you that you don’t have to worry about this becoming a police matter.” She inspects her fingers, cracks her knuckles. “I mean I know you’re used to getting what you want, and I did practically kiss you. But you’re not an asshole. I’m just not interested.”
With that she twists on her heels and makes a beeline for the door.
“Hey, do you still want that interview?” I grin when she halts, her hand on the doorknob ready to make her escape. As soon as I hit on the idea I knew she wouldn’t walk away from it.
“You know I do.”
“Good.” I collapse on the couch, my goal to get in her pants tonight temporarily delayed. But only for a while if she accepts my offer. There’s no way we’ll spend over two months in each other’s company and not share more than that innocent little kiss. It’s almost too perfect.
“What’s it going to cost me?” She tucks one of her springy tresses behind her ear. “Because I have my integrity. I’m not going to sleep with you to get it.”
“No, I don’t believe you will.” I chuckle, stretching my arms behind my head, pretty certain I’ll be fucking her all the same. “So here’s the deal. My siblings, crazy lot they are, are all getting married. I have three weddings to attend in roughly two months. I want someone to go with me. But my lifestyle doesn’t really lend itself to having a date for situations like this. That’s where you come in.”
“Me? You want me to be your date to multiple weddings? Surely you could find someone closer to home, or hire an escort or something?”
“Escort? Yeah right. You know how quickly that particular gossip would spread around the world.” I chuckle again as I rub a palm over my face. Even asking her to make this deal probably comes with a hefty chance of ending up in hot water with the media, but do I really want to be around all that lovey shit without some kind o
f distraction?
“No, I want you to do it. You give me a couple months. Come home with me. Be my date for these events, and I’ll give you the one and only interview I’ll ever do. No holds barred, everything you could possibly ever want to know about the man behind the magic.” I can practically see the gears turning in her head. I’m offering her a make or break moment in her career, and she knows it. “What do you say?”
“Two months, and I get everything I could possibly ever want to know?”
She hovers, torn between marching out the door and what she really wants, and I know I’ve got her. “Everything.”
“How do I know you’ll hold up your end of the deal?” She takes a tentative step in my direction, her mouth twisted to one side. “If I’m going to put that much of my life on hold to be at your beck and call I need some kind of reassurance that you’re not going to change your mind.”
Leaning forward, I hang my hands between my knees, dead serious. “Ask me your first question. We’ll start the interview right now.”
“Okay.” She pads closer, plopping down on the sofa opposite me and setting up the recorder on the small table between us. “Tell me what made you want to be a magician.”
She’s letting me off lightly, or maybe she had a list prepared and I’ve unnerved her enough she’s doing this by rote. Still, even starting with something so simple is digging into areas of my life most people don’t know about. I jump out of my chair and pace the room to pick up my phone and check the time. We’ve still got ages before we need to be at the airport.
“Will you answer the question or should I turn off the recorder?” She asks, crossing her legs and smoothing her skirt. “If you don’t want to do this…”
“No.” I exhale. “Short story. When I was eight my mother bought me a book on magic. I still have it, though it’s pretty tattered and dog eared.”
As much as I love my siblings, it’d been a tough age for me. We’d gone from three brothers to having Razer as part of our family, and then Claire had come along. And I was the eldest, the responsible one, but I’d been struggling with school and the whole new dynamic, so that book, although it wasn’t much, had been my own special world to fall into.
“I was hooked by these men who seemed to have superpowers. They were no different from any of us and yet they could do these amazing things.” I wander the room, my chest puffed up at what I’ve managed to accomplish. “I wanted to be just like them.”
She immediately shuts the device off as I come back to sit, this time beside her. “So do we have a deal? Two months. Two weddings. All the questions you want to ask.”
“Two weddings? I thought you said there were three.”
She scoots over a little, which has me mentally smirking at the idea she’s affected by our closeness. “There are, but the first is a family only event, and it’s in a couple days’ time. You’ll still be settling into the time difference.”
“When do I have to decide by?” She packs away the recorder, her pen, and paper as she chews her lip.
“We leave for the airport in six hours.”
“Six hours?” She gives a little gasp as she jumps up. “I can’t possibly.” Backing toward the door, she tries to cover how close she must have been to saying yes. “I mean, thank you for the offer, but I can’t drop everything to fly half-way around the world because you need a date.”
And yet I can see she’s tempted as she glances over her shoulder at me. There’s no way she’ll turn this down. Resting my head on the back of the couch, I grin. “I’ll see you at the airport.”
Chapter Three
Maxi
Rush Hadley is sex personified. The man oozes charm and sex appeal the same way he flourishes magic on stage. Perhaps that’s why his rise to fame at such a young age was nothing short of meteoric. – Max O’Keeffe, Godiva
I shut the door quietly behind me and lean against the wood in the darkened living room. A splash of headlights through the window dimly lights the front room of the three-bedroom town house, sliding over twenty-year old blue and white couches, a stack of toys in the corner, and a bouncy seat.
I don’t think I stopped at all on my way home. I flew from his dressing room, speed-walking all the way to the tram that would take me to the train station and then out to Lalor Park. I didn’t look back, didn’t dare breathe the thought of taking Rush Hadley up on his offer. I couldn’t, because then I would have agreed to it. Two months, give or take a couple days, for the interview of my life.
Two months that could make my career. My stomach pitches. There’s no point in thinking about the fact I would have been able to secure my job in an economy where magazines and newspapers are downsizing. Something I desperately need.
A sudden cry from upstairs shatters the quiet and yanks me away from the door. Footsteps thud on the wooden floor above me and a door squeaks. Switching on the light, I pad to the kitchen. A row of bottles are lined up on a tea towel next to the kettle, a tin of formula behind them. It takes me a moment to scoop the required amount into a bottle, mix it with boiled water. Kicking off my heels, I warm the bottle under the hot water from the tap as Sarah’s cries become more urgent.
Two months, and I would have been able to give her a better life. Not the life she should have had if my sister were still alive, but something better than what we’ve got now. I squeeze my eyes shut and rub absently at my temples. Adelaide never did think her actions through. A two-week fling had turned into nine months of pregnancy.
But she would have made a good mother, if she’d given herself the chance. I wipe the outside of the bottle down and let it drip onto the inside of my elbow to check the temperature before taking the stairs two at a time. No, she left the mothering up to me.
I’m only twenty-one for Christ’s sake. I wasn’t supposed to find instant motherhood at this point in my life. I think mom would have agreed to become Sarah’s guardian, but she’d been in her forties when she’d had Adelaide and me. Having to start over and raise another infant at her age wasn’t fair, so I’d stepped in and insisted the Department of Family and Community Services give her to me.
Of course, we wouldn’t have needed to have that discussion, if my sister could have kept her legs closed, or dealt with the consequences of her actions.
The glow from a star shaped night light is barely enough to see by. Mom sits in the rocking chair opposite the crib in the small room, rocking back and forth with little Sarah’s head tucked under her chin.
“I think she’s almost asleep again.”
I can’t see her face, the hazel eyes so close to my own, the dark loose curls she keeps pulled back in a ponytail, but I can tell how tired she is in her voice. Sheer exhaustion is taking its toll on her.
“I brought up a bottle in case.” I gently set it on the armoire, an op-shop find when we were scavenging for the things we would need for the nursery. Eight months ago I was living on my own in an apartment closer to the city. I had plans. Just starting out in my career. It was my time to follow my dreams, and this thing with Rush Hadley; I would have jumped at it. But how can I do that now?
I never could have foretold this future, where I moved back in with my mother to raise my sister’s child. Which is why I can’t possibly leave for eight or so weeks. It was stupid to consider it even for a moment. Even if all I can think about is finding out what makes Rush Hadley tick. “How was she tonight?”
“Okay.” She runs her hand over the fuzzy back of Sarah’s pink onesie. “How was the show? Did you get your interview?”
“I got a quote.” I pad across the room and gently lift the sleeping bub from my mom’s arms. Her cherubic little face puckers under a shock of dark hair, curled at the edges, as I cradle her close. One stupid decision on my sister’s behalf and my whole world got turned upside down. It isn’t fair. It’s not fair for Sarah to be stuck with me as her guardian. I don’t know how to be a mother. I’m supposed to be having fun, a life of my own. “The show was pretty amazing.”
“But he didn’t go for the interview?” The rocking chair creaks as mom climbs out of it, and I lower Sarah into her crib, tucking her blankets tight around her.
He’d gone for the interview. But how could I leave mom in the lurch? How could I turn my back on this tiny bundle of girl? It would have been for her. To secure our future. There are cuts coming down the line at Godiva. The rumors are already floating around. It’s only a matter of time, and I don’t know how we’ll make ends meet if I lose my job. I heave in a breath and blow it out slowly. It would have been amazing. A once in a lifetime opportunity, and I’m going to regret turning him down for the rest of my life, but there is absolutely no point in considering Rush’s offer. I can’t leave mom to take care of Sarah alone. She’s my responsibility. “No.”
Sarah stirs, tossing her head side to side before finding her thumb, and I smooth my hand over her downy hair. “Goodnight kiddo.”
“Kitchen, now, kiddo.” Mom uses the same nickname in her all-knowing-you-aren’t-going-to-get-away-with-anything tone as she draws her summer dressing gown tighter, knotting the sash around her waist.
I have no choice but to follow her.
In the kitchen, she puts on the kettle and pulls two mugs from the cupboard before plunking a teabag in each one. “Sit, Maxi. Do you want something to eat? I doubt you ate before you went to the show tonight.”
“I’m too tired.” I collapse onto one of the stiff backed wooden chairs. “Honestly, I just want to go to bed.”
We probably look as worn out as each other. Her face is gaunt, etched with lines and deep purple shadows. I press my fingertips to the bags under my own eyes. Makeup can only do so much. And still Rush tried to get into my panties. That’s the kind of man he is. A gorgeous, sexy bastard with eyes that make your breath catch and a wicked way of looking at you that makes your insides scream to be touched. And his dick. I’d seen photos, but somehow photos don’t compare to the real thing. Ugh. And worse, he knows it. It’s disgusting how easily women throw themselves at men like that.