“Coming,” she whispered.
Outside the window, Miami passed by them at sixty plus miles an hour. She caught a blur of palm trees and her head spun with the traffic. “Bastien,” she choked out as her entire body quivered from the crashing wave of pleasure that stunned her. She was oblivious to everything but the spasms of her body on top of his. Still trembling, she climbed off him.
Off balance, she was boneless when he turned her so she gripped the seat across from them. Entering her from behind, it was her turn to hang on while he slammed deep into her. His grip on her hips yanked her to him as his thrusts went wild and deep.
“Fuck,” she snarled as her body opened up to him, and each drive of his powerful body shook her. Her nipples dragged on the leather of the seat. Her hair was a colossal mess hanging around her face. She caught a glimpse of herself in the window and didn’t recognize the slack-jawed pleasure on her face. Glancing back, she could see Bastien was nearly feral in his desire. It sent a quickening of passion through her. She wanted him to lose it, come so hard inside her that he was as crazy and needy as she was.
“So damn good,” he groaned.
“Harder,” she begged, and he swore. When he picked up the already lightning pace, Mikelina cried out, “Yes.”
Bastien’s entire body clenched and in one final deep thrust, he shuddered against her and collapsed on her back.
“Fuck,” he groaned. “I’m blind.”
She giggled, feeling a little light-headed herself. “I needed that.”
He pulled out of her and sagged back on the seat. “Come here, baby.”
Mikelina didn’t need to be asked twice. She climbed back into his lap and he stroked her back while they kissed gently this time.
“I want to make you come again,” he whispered against her lips.
“Are you trying to kill me?” she gasped.
“Only with pleasure.”
CHAPTER TEN
BASTIEN FROWNED AT the cheap hotel Mikelina had him drop her off in front of. Kirk Diamonte had said she was local. Did she live here? No wonder she kept a stash of clothes in the rental home. He wondered if she stayed there when it wasn’t booked. The thought bothered him. She deserved to stay at a nicer place than this. Although maybe she didn’t have a permanent place because her job had her hopping around.
Still, Diamonte should be paying her enough to stay in a decent hotel. Or if he was comping her lodging, he needed to step up the accommodations.
Making a mental note to find out from Diamonte what the deal was, Bastien slid open the privacy window of the limo. “Back to Calle Ocho.”
“Yes, sir.”
He had Mikelina two more times on the drive and Bastien’s entire body felt wrung out. He could barely keep his eyes open. He was surprised Mikelina had the strength to get out of the car. But she had turned and blown him a kiss before entering the hotel. If he had anything left in him, he would have gone after her and followed her to her room.
His eyes drooped closed and he settled back against the wide bench seats and dozed off. When his phone rang, he almost didn’t answer it. But habit had him checking the number and when he saw it was Jace, it was like a jolt of caffeine went through him.
“Where are you?” he snarled.
“Where are you?” Jace came back with. “Me and the guys are standing outside of the house.” He whistled into the phone appreciatively—and right into Bastien’s ear. “This place is off the hook.”
Bastien looked out the window. They were almost back to where he’d parked his rental car. “I’m in Little Havana looking for you.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. My phone was dead and I wanted a tour of Miami.”
“Why didn’t you take your friends with you?”
Jace laughed. “They wanted to see naked women dancing. I didn’t want to tell them no. But I also didn’t want to go with them. Kitty would kill me.”
Bastien snorted. They could have been honest with him instead of letting him think that they were going into the clubs for altruistic reasons.
“So we parted ways for a few hours. But we’re here now. How soon can you get back?”
“Depends on traffic.”
“Well, no hurry. I just called the concierge to let us in. We’re going to grill up some steaks and hang out by the pool.”
For some reason Bastien felt a twinge of unease about Mikelina being there without him. Max, Shane and Zack were young, rich and loved to spend money—especially on beautiful women.
“I’ve already claimed the bedroom off the kitchen,” he said, not wanting any of them to sleep there. What was wrong with him? He usually wasn’t so possessive over a pleasurable fling. Except he wasn’t sure that was all Mikelina was. He was almost disappointed that the bachelor party was back on schedule. He wanted more time with her. He didn’t want this to be a one-night stand. He wanted to spend the entire two weeks with her. But this wasn’t about him. It was about Kitty and her future happiness. “Do you want me to pick up anything while I’m out?” Bastien said, holding in his sigh of resignation.
“Yeah, can you pick up a box of Cohiba Behikes for us? I got two, but that’s not going to last.”
“Cigars?” Bastien hazarded a guess.
“Yeah, you should be able to get them anywhere down there.”
“All right. Behave. Don’t give Mikelina a hard time.”
“Yes, Dad,” Jace said and hung up.
Bastien grimaced. He didn’t want to sound like his father. After tipping the chauffeur, he got out of the limo in front of a cigar store and found the thousand-dollar box of cigars. He got two. He wasn’t going to smoke them, but if it brought him a little street cred with Jace and his friends, it was money well spent.
When he finally got back to the house, he was both relieved and disappointed that Mikelina wasn’t there.
“Kitty says hi,” Jace said from a pool lounger. He was on his cell.
“We didn’t cook up your steak yet, but there’s a lobster for you in the pot,” Shane said.
Bastien tossed the boxes of cigars on the table. “Thanks.” He helped himself to a lobster and a set of crackers and sat at the outside table while the others swam in the pool or rested on the chairs.
“Micky said she got us tickets to a blues concert tonight,” Max said.
“Micky?” Bastien made a face at the nickname.
“Yeah, she’s the concierge. What a babe.”
Bastien glared at him but didn’t say anything. Using the cracker to crush the lobster claw, he pried the meat out and dipped it into the butter sauce. Pure decadence. Now it was a bachelor party. “Toss me a beer.”
Zack laughed and under-armed him a Corona. “Max had her show him how to work that coffee machine five times.”
“To be fair,” Max pointed out, “that thing is more complicated than my car.”
“And now we’re all high on espresso because of all the coffees he made practicing.”
“I hope you were respectful,” Bastien grumbled and then shook his head at himself. If he wanted to be treated like an equal instead of a father figure, he had to stop acting like one. Still, it didn’t feel at all right to agree that yeah, Mikelina was a babe. He concentrated on decimating the lobster in front of him while he waited for the beer to settle down from the toss before opening it.
“I asked Micky if she could switch the tickets so we could go to Flow instead. She said we’d have to talk to you because you knew the owner,” Jace said.
Irritation flashed through him. But he didn’t show it. Friends. He wanted them to be friends. So he wasn’t going to force them to go to an intimate blues show when all they really wanted to do was go clubbing. “Let me make a few calls,” he said instead of asking them if they knew what an opportunity they were missing. Christian Dibiasi’s new album would go platinum the first week it was out.
“Awesome. How do you like your steak, bro?” Zack asked.
“Medium rare.” Bro? Well, Bastien supposed it was a start.
While the steak was cooking, he went into his bedroom and closed the drapes that looked out into the pool area. Before he called his friend who owned Flow, he dialed his sister’s number now that Jace was off the phone and on a raft in the pool.
“Hey, squirt.”
“If you’re calling to rub it in, you can go drown yourself in the pool,” Kitty said.
Bastien hadn’t been, but now he felt that as an older brother he needed to. “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the gorgeous sunshine down here in Florida.”
“I hope it rains.”
“It’s Florida. It will. But then it will be sunny again. How’s New York?” he asked innocently.
“It’s a balmy go-fuck-yourself outside.”
He loved his baby sister so much. Peeking out between the curtains, he could see that Jace hadn’t moved from the raft except to light a cigar and accept a glass of whiskey. “Are you sure you want to marry this tool?”
“Bastien,” she cried, drawing his name out four syllables.
“I’m just saying, it’s not too late to call the whole thing off.”
“Look, buster, I’ve had to sit through three—count ’em—three wedding dress fittings. Mom and Jace’s mom almost had a fistfight over flowers.”
“I can’t even picture that.” Both women were scions of society and prided themselves on being unfailingly polite.
“I swear to you. They almost threw down over stargazer lilies versus dahlias.”
“Which do you want?”
Kitty gave a bitter laugh. “Why would that even matter?”
“Hey, Kit-Kat,” he said. “Hang in there. Wedding is in a month. And then you’re stuck with what’s-his-name.” Bastien looked between the drapes again.
Jace’s groomsmen were now cannonballing him, which upset the raft and sent the drink, the hundred-dollar cigar and the groom ass over teakettle into the water.
“I’ve got to go,” Kitty said. “Time to taste wedding cake. It’s the highlight of the day. I think I’m going with chocolate with cannoli filling.”
“Whatever you want, sweetheart.”
She snorted. “That’ll be the day.”
* * *
Bastien got them a VIP booth at Flow and made sure the bottle service was put on his tab. He hung out for a few hours until he was sure Jace and his friends wouldn’t miss him. The limo was outside ready to take them back to the house at last call, or when they got kicked out, whichever came first.
He couldn’t be in that club without thinking of Mikelina and he didn’t feel like dancing or drinking the night away. So he sneaked out when the groomsmen were doing shots and drove over to the intimate club where Christian Dibiasi was playing. Bastien hoped that his name was still on the list to get in so he’d at least be able to hear a few songs.
It was on the schedule after all.
The bouncer let him in and although the club was as crowded as Flow, it was more sedate with a chill vibe. An usher led him toward a curved booth with a high back. The air was hazy from the lights and it gave off a serene feel that immediately had him relaxing. This was exactly what he needed after a long day.
When he went to slide into the booth, he was surprised to see Mikelina sitting there. She was in a low-cut peach sundress that accentuated her curves. Her long black hair was held up by a shelled comb and it showed off her graceful neck. He wanted to nibble his way up it to whisper in her ear exactly what he wanted to do to her.
She blinked up at him. “I hope you don’t mind. I didn’t want the seats to go to waste.”
“Is there room for me?” He sat next to her on the red velvet cushion. He didn’t care if there was or not. His night just got one hundred percent better.
“It’s just you and me.”
“How did I get so lucky?”
He ordered a beer and had the waitress top off Mikelina’s wine. Then he put his arm around her, and they listened to Christian Dibiasi play his heart out on the saxophone before switching to piano. It was bliss to sit there with his fingers lightly brushing her bare shoulder. He expected to feel sleepy after the day he had, but he was surprisingly energized.
And of course, he wanted her again.
“He’s amazingly talented,” Mikelina said after the final set. “My friend Selena has a huge crush on him.”
“Why isn’t she here tonight?”
“She’s in Maui, the poor thing.” Mikelina rolled her eyes. “She works for Five Diamond Resorts, too. She’s a personal chef. So if you guys wanted gourmet meals, she would have come in and cooked them for you.”
“I think these guys just want to throw meat on a fire and call it a day.”
“That can be fun, too. They seemed like they were ready to have a good time.”
Bastien rolled his eyes. “I’m not that much older than them, but they make me feel ancient.”
“You have different tastes. That’s not a bad thing.”
“It is a bit.” He took a swig of his beer. “I wanted to get to know him a little better. For my sister’s sake. My father is only interested in this match because it will positively affect our business. I just want to make sure he’s good enough for my little sister, you know?”
“That’s so sweet. She’s lucky she has someone like you looking after her.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Mikelina shook her head. “I’m an only child. My mother lives down in Boca Raton and my father is...out of the picture.”
Bastien wondered at the painful pause, but figured it was probably a rough divorce that put Mikelina in the middle. He was lucky that his parents, while not adoringly in love with each other, at least never aired their differences in front of him and his sister.
“Jace will always have his best friends,” she said. “But he’ll come to appreciate having someone older, more experienced and more balanced to turn to as well.”
“Balanced? You make me sound like a scale.”
“I mean it as a compliment, trust me. I could use a little balance in my life.”
Bastien grinned. “Here I am.”
She blushed. “I meant that my life can be a little crazy.”
“Your job?”
“Sometimes,” she said. “I mostly stay in Florida. But if I’m needed, I can also manage properties all over the world. I was in Cartagena, Jamaica and Paris this year. It’s great to travel, but all my contacts are here. I’m not as effective overseas yet.”
“Contacts? What about friends?”
“I have friends all over, but if I need to book a bachelor party to a private jam session, I need contacts.”
“I’m sorry the guys threw a monkey wrench into your plans,” he said, not sorry at all that it allowed them this time together.
She waved a hand dismissively at him. “Oh, that’s not a problem. As long as they didn’t want to do something impossible like nighttime hot-air ballooning. When the clients get creative, I have to worry about disappointing them.”
“Do they complain to your boss?”
“Sometimes.” Mikelina shrugged. “For the most part, Kirk and I have seen it all, so there aren’t a lot of surprises. But every now and then, you get a whack-a-doo and all you can do is damage control. And laugh.”
“Tell me about one.”
“I shouldn’t,” she said with a grin. “Client/concierge privilege and all that.”
“I don’t think it’s a thing.”
“Well, you wouldn’t want me gossiping about your bachelor party, right?”
He liked that she didn’t talk about her clients. “That’s true. Forgive me for asking.”
Reaching out, she squeezed his hand. “No forgive
ness necessary. How about in your job? You work in retail, right?”
“At the corporate level, yes. It’s all spreadsheets and number crunching. It’s nonstop tracking trends and trying to anticipate the next big thing. Lately, though, I’ve been getting a little burned out. I feel like I’m a hamster on a wheel, scurrying fast but never getting anywhere.”
“Then why do you do it?”
Bastien blew out a sigh. “That’s a good question. It’s a living. I know what I’m doing and it provides me a lifestyle that allows me to buy expensive cigars that I don’t smoke and book a destination wedding for a bunch of strangers.”
“You should have invited some of your friends, too,” she said. “That way you’d have someone to commiserate with.”
“I’d have better luck with some of my contacts. I don’t have a lot of time or patience to make deeper relationships with anyone.”
“Why? What else are you doing?”
“That’s a good point. Lately, I’ve been wondering that myself.”
“I noticed that you’re not trying to micromanage the bachelor party as much.”
“It’s like herding cats.” He shook his head.
“I think you’re adjusting to going with the flow very well.”
“I don’t really have a choice.”
“When was the last time you took some time off?”
Pulling her in, he kissed her sweet mouth. “Today.”
She put her hand on his chest and caressed him. Even though they had just spent an incredibly carnal afternoon together, he wanted to tumble her into bed and not come up for air until morning.
“When was the last time you scheduled time off?” she amended.
He closed his eyes to better enjoy the soft stroke of her hand. “I can’t even remember.”
“How about you put me in your itinerary for the rest of the night?” she asked.
“I think I can squeeze in you. I mean, squeeze you in.”
Her smile was wicked and he grabbed her back for another kiss. “Want to get out of here?” he asked after kissing her until they were both breathless.
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