If I made it alive through all of this, maybe Max would be proven right. For now, I had a really hard time seeing that sparkly light at the end of the tunnel. Right now, it seemed life was driving down a slick road with no streetlights during a hurricane in a car with broken wipers and faulty brakes.
* * *
I arrived at Luna Rosa promptly at seven. Maddy loaned me a dress I’d given her from my time shopping in Chi-town with Hector. It was a simple number, a dark eggplant with a deep V down the back. The skirt hit mid-thigh, and the fabric stretched across my breasts nicely. If I hadn’t been so pissed about who I was wearing it for, I would have felt like a million dollars. Instead, I felt like steam-rolled garbage, although no one could tell it from the outside. Heavy concealer hid the dark circles and bags under my eyes, and blush made me rosy-cheeked. Luckily, I was one of those girls who didn’t need to wear a lot of makeup to turn an eye, and I knew exactly what Blaine liked. I wore my hair down and full and over one shoulder, something he once told me he loved.
Making my way through the patrons, I spotted him outside. The patio. Of course, he’d pick the most romantic location possible at the same table where we sat on our first date.
He stood as I approached his table. He gazed up and down my length like a predator assessing his prey, stealthy and quick, never missing a beat.
“Trying to score points by picking this table?” I asked and sat down, a scowl firmly planted on my face.
His features, on the other hand, lightened considerably. “You remembered, I see. That’s good, pretty Mia.” I cringed. God, I hated hearing him call me that old endearment. When we were together, he’d constantly tell me how pretty I was, how beautiful, and that there would never be another who could catch his eye quite like I had…until, of course, he caught the two-for-one deal with his receptionist and her hobag twin. Who fucks sisters anyway? Gross.
Before I could say another word, the waiter came over with a bottle of wine. I knew that label. I’d recognize it anywhere.
“Signore, the Cignale Colli Della Toscana Centrale Cabernet Sauvignon.” He poured the dark crimson liquid into Blaine’s glass.
He picked it up, swirled it around the bulbous glass, sniffed, and took a sip.
So fucking pretentious, I could gag.
“Two thousand and six?” he queried the waiter.
“Absolutely, signore.”
Blaine nodded, and the waiter filled our glasses a quarter of the way full. I grabbed the glass and downed the liquid in one go.
Blaine looked around and smiled before placing one hand on the railing overlooking the serene waters of Lake Las Vegas and the other on the stem of his glass. His eyes were lasered on me.
“I’d like another,” I said, and he grinned, leaned forward, and poured another serving. This one I sipped and waited for him to speak. For a long time, he didn’t. He just watched me, seemingly cataloging my appearance. Eventually, I couldn’t take the silence.
“Where’s Ginelle?”
A sharp, dark look came over his snakelike eyes. “She is being taken care of, I assure you.” His tone was sweet, belying the subject matter.
I huffed. “Really? Is that what you call kidnapping and beating the hell out of an innocent woman on her way to work? Taking care of her?” I gritted through my teeth. I was gripping the wooden table so hard my nails might have actually left little crescent-shaped indentations.
Blaine waved his hand and leaned closer. “Mia, you and I both know that if I wanted your friend dead, she would be. Now let’s relax and enjoy our date.”
Date. Did that lunatic just call this coercion a date?
I blinked rapidly to try to clear the red rage. I wanted to grab the knife, so helpfully placed within range of my hand, and drive it straight into his cold heart. Unfortunately, the fucker likely wouldn’t feel it. He was already dead inside.
“I don’t understand why you want me here. You know I’m good for the money,” I whispered and looked around. “There’s no way in this lifetime that I’d stiff you.”
He grinned. “Oh, but my pretty, pretty Mia, you have already made me stiff.” His eyebrows waggled, and I sucked down the vomit I wanted to spew out over the table. Once upon a time, I was genuinely into Blaine. He’s devastatingly handsome, ridiculously charming, and a great lay. Now, I could barely stomach the sight of him and what he stood for.
“Blaine, you’ve taken something very precious to me, and you want to talk about sex?”
His eyebrows rose. “I don’t want to talk about it, no. I’d rather being doing it with you, if that’s what you’re asking.”
I clenched my jaw tight. “That’s never going to happen, so get that out of your head right now. You fucked your way right off that train…literally. There is no going back, ever.” My own voice was low and held a warning.
He shook his head and pursed his lips as he twirled the wine goblet around in a circle. “Those two meant nothing to me. I was just blowing off a little steam since you hadn’t said yes to my proposal.”
“By having sex with two women?”
“Of course, Mia. A man had needs and pride. You wounded mine.” He gave the excuse as if what he had done was his right as a hot-blooded male.
“So you fucked two whores to make yourself feel like a man?”
His eyes got hard then, and his voice turned to steel. “You of all people cannot possibly be implying that I’m not a man.”
I shook my head. “Why are we even having this conversation?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” He blinked slowly and stared.
“Not to me.” I was there for one reason and one reason alone. Ginelle.
Blaine placed his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his palm. He was the epitome of calm, cool, and collected, whereas I was unraveling from the inside out with worry and fear.
“I want you back. In my bed. In my life. As my wife.”
Those words dropped like a nuclear bomb damaging everything in its wake. I looked around the restaurant to see if anyone else had survived the blast. It was that monumental, alas, only in the tiny little speck of a thing I called my life.
Saying I hadn’t expected this would be an understatement. I would have expected the second coming of our Lord and Savior over this announcement.
“Blaine,” I whispered, barely able to speak. “You can’t be serious.”
“Deadly so. And I’m willing to negotiate the terms. Here. Now.”
“This has to be a nightmare. Blaine, are you hearing yourself? You just told me you want to pick up where we left off when we broke up.”
“I know exactly what I want, and it’s you. I think I’ve made that clear. Now shush and listen to what I’m offering.”
I did listen, not because he told me to, but because I was so shocked that the additional thoughts it took to form words were not forthcoming. The man was officially certifiable. Undeniably. Absolutely. There really was no other explanation.
Before he got down to telling me what the offer was, the waiter delivered two steaming hot pizzas, one margherita and one supreme. The smell alone had me salivating. It had been a couple days since I’d had a full meal. The Rains and Maxwell had been trying to get me to eat, but food just didn’t have the appeal it once had, since Weston was probably starving to death and Pops was getting his meals through a tube. Tonight, though, I was going to eat for no other reason than to get this over with as fast as possible.
“Now, since you’ve been away, I’ve had time to reflect on our relationship and our life together,” he said.
Since I’ve been away? We broke up. I moved out of state, had been an escort for the past eight months, and lived in Los Angeles for six before that. Altogether, that was over a year apart, and he made it sound as if I’d left him last week. I’d been with other men, fallen in love. None of this made any sense.
“Blaine, I’ve been gone over a year—” I started, but he cut me off with a flick of the wrist.
“No matter the time o
r distance. You’re here now, and I’ve figured out that you are the woman for me.”
“Did you come to that monster conclusion before or after you fucked the twin fun-bags for the hell of it?”
“I’m trying to connect with you here, Mia,” he growled. “You would do well to mind your manners. I’m only going to make this offer once.”
“No deal. I don’t want what you’re selling.”
He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “I think you might find my offer one you won’t be able refuse, if you’d just listen. All of your problems would be solved, and everything would be back as it should. With us, together, running all of this.” He opened his arms wide, as if he were holding all of Las Vegas in the palm of his hand.
Such a smug piece of work.
“No, Blaine, I had what you offered, and I walked away from it.” I stood, my chair falling to the ground with a loud bang behind me. “And I’m walking away from it now. This was a mistake. I’m calling the cops.”
“Your friend will be dead by morning,” he grated just loud enough for me to hear.
I turned around, my entire body alight with anger. The hair on my arms and neck stood on end. That tone—I’d heard that tone before when he was barking orders into his phone, arranging plans to make people pay. Hurting anyone who dared to cross him in the most vile and violent ways possible. This was the kind of man I was dealing with. Not the ex who used to hug, kiss, and love me to oblivion. That was the man I’d fallen for. This was his alter ego. Everyone looked at this side with cold, hard fear. It was his world. The rest of us only lived in it.
“What do I have to do for you to let her go?” My voice shook, emotion controlling me. I lifted the chair and looked around the restaurant. Most of the patrons were openly staring, watching the fireworks evolve. They probably thought we were having a lover’s quarrel. In a way, we kind of were.
“Earlier, I was feeling nostalgic, being here, looking at you across from me, knowing that it’s the view I want to see for the rest of my life.” His eyes hardened, and he squinted. “Now that you’ve embarrassed yourself, and therefore me, with your antics, I’m not feeling so generous.”
“Name your price,” I stated plainly.
“The four hundred thousand you owe me, or you, for a single night in my bed.”
Chapter Six
Blaine’s eyes were a glassy, bright, yellowish green. Those were the eyes I’d looked into every time he kissed me, touched me, and made love to me. The conversation we’d just had that made every facet of my being want to curl up into a fetal position and die…turned him on. God, the man loved to have power over people and things. Got off on it, too.
“So what do you say?”
I licked my lips, took a massive gulp of my wine, and let it burn like acid down my throat. Looking out over the water, I thought about my predicament. I could end it easily by just letting him fuck me. I’d done it before. He was great in bed, always had been. Giving, loving, worried about my pleasure. I could down a couple bottles of wine and let him have his wicked way with me, and all of this would be over. Done. Finito.
“If I let you have me for the night, you’ll call our debt paid, let Ginelle go, and leave my family alone? Including my father?”
Blaine’s lips twisted into a smug grin. If I thought it would make a difference, I’d punch that look off his smarmy face so everyone in the near vicinity could see how much I despised him. He took a slow drink of his wine and hummed. A shiver ran down my spine, and my belly clenched. I used to adore that sound, worked for that hum, down on my knees while worshiping his cock. Now, the gentle hum was like the warning before an explosion. The little red light that lasered in on the criminal before the SWAT team blows his head off, like in the movies.
Finally, Blaine responded. “Yes. Your father’s debt will be cleared, your friend released unscathed, and you and your family will be off our radar.” Blaine glanced down at my chest, tilted his head, and licked his lips. “I cannot wait to taste your cunt, hear you cry out when I use my teeth and tongue on that sweet button. It will be music to my ears.” He sucked in a breath through his teeth. His eyes were blazing hot. I’d have bet all the money in the world that his dick was hard as a rock as he imagined all the things he’d do to me. Only problem was I didn’t have that same response. His filthy words used to turn me on. Used to, but not now. I’d always been a woman whose panties got wet when her man talked dirty to her, and Blaine knew that better than most. It was a trigger for me. Only he was the wrong man, the wrong voice.
I shook my head as visions of Wes and me rolling around his bed, laughing, enjoying one another in a way I’d never experienced with anyone else paraded past my subconscious. Hard, fast sex up against walls until both of us lost our minds. Spending hours using our mouths, kissing every inch of each other’s skin. Sucking him off, over and over, until my mouth hurt and Wes couldn’t get hard any more. In turn, he’d go to town on me. He’d give me so many orgasms with his mouth that my body ached, the space between my thighs felt strange without his mouth locked on it, and I’d pass out. The nights in Miami where we’d made love, whispered our commitment into one another’s mouths, promised forever—all of those things were at the forefront of my thoughts. Everything came back to him, back to the man I loved. There would be no way I could violate that trust.
Even with Ginelle’s life on the line, I couldn’t betray Wes like that. There had to be another way. Blaine waited patiently, swirling his wine glass between two long fingers as if he had all the time in the world. Overconfident, smug bastard. Why had I not noticed these traits before I got in deep with him?
“Blaine, I’m going to need a little time to think about it.” I fluttered my eyelashes, giving him a bit of my flirty nature, desperately trying to sway him.
His eyebrows narrowed. “No. You decide now, tonight.” The tone brooked no argument. Even his body visibly tightened. His hand gripped the wine stem so tight I hoped the glass would break, shatter in his palm, forcing him to need stitches.
Daydreaming of his destruction didn’t help me get any closer to figuring out how to get out of what he wanted yet still save my best friend.
“What if I added a little something to my request?” I played with my hair, twirling a lock around a finger. “An incentive for you, to give me a little time to think?”
He tilted his head and his gaze focused on mine. “And what would that incentive be, pretty Mia?”
“A kiss.” I decided on a whim.
One thing Blaine loved, told me a million times over when we together, was kissing me. Once, he went so far as to say he could survive on my kisses alone, bread and water be damned. That was the only ace I had to play. The rest of my cards were a fat bluff. And if I kissed him and made it believable enough, I think he’d enjoy the challenge. Blaine appreciated a good chase and liked to build up the anticipation of getting what he wanted.
“Hmmm, you play a hard bargain, my pretty Mia. What are your terms?”
“Two weeks, and you let Ginelle go, tonight, now, immediately.”
He scowled, and his hand turned into a fist. “And how do I know you wouldn’t just up and disappear, leave me hanging?”
I chuckled. “You’d find me.”
His eyes lit like the ball dropping in Times Square in New York City signaling a brand new year.
“Besides. It’s not like I could check Pops out of the hospital and hide Maddy and everyone else I loved. You forget, Blaine. I know exactly how you operate, and there is nowhere far enough away to escape your grasp. Am I wrong?”
He leaned back and rubbed at his chin before wiping his bottom lip with his thumb—a gesture that used to soak my panties instantly. Now I was dry as the Sahara desert. His charm, good looks, and sexy gestures did nothing for me anymore. A laid-back movie-making surfer who made horribly bad decisions to tread on unguarded land in a third world country did it for me these days and every day. The thought of Wes tore at my heart, but I breathed in and o
ut slowly, cooling my jets so I didn’t break down. Having a meeting with the devil did not allow for cracks in my armor. I could cry when I got back, but I knew better than anyone never to let your enemy see you weak. They strike when your soft spots are exposed. I’d never give him that opportunity again.
“No, you’re not. And one week.”
Excitement and relief poured through my veins. He was caving. All for a single kiss. I wanted to jump in the air and do a touchdown dance, but I settled for a mental fist pump. “Fine.”
Blaine took his cell phone out of his pocket, and I held my breath. He pressed a few buttons and lifted it to his ear. “The girl. Take her home. Set her free.” After a few beats, he listened. “No, you cannot have her. Do not touch her in any way. I find out she’s been damaged, it will be your life on the line. Have her home within the hour.” He smashed a button on his phone and tucked it into his breast pocket. “It’s done. Your friend will be home soon.”
I nodded and sucked down the remainder of my wine. Thank God. Ginelle would be safe. For now.
“I shall enjoy my kiss tonight when I drop you off. Then you will have one week to come to me. In the meantime, your friend will be let go and we will enjoy the rest of our dinner. Eat up. You’re going to need your strength for decision making this week.”
* * *
When we arrived at the hotel, Blaine walked me up to the room. “Give me the key.” He put his hand out and palm up.
I shook my head. “Maddy’s in there with her fiancé.”
“Don’t you have your own room?” He stepped closer to me, and I took two steps back until I was plastered up against the wall. Not a good position to be in. I wanted to be in control. Otherwise, he could take it further than I could stomach.
“You’re not coming in. Remember our deal—a single kiss.”
He pressed close, his hands going to the wall beside my head, caging me in. His eyes had darkened, turning a golden shade of green and yellow. I used to love watching his eye color change, especially when he was turned on. Now, I felt dead inside.
September: Calendar Girl Book 9 Page 6