In Between Men

by Mary Castillo

  “Ladies,” he announced, “it’s time for the Shake Your Booty Showdown!”

  “You know how to pick some classy places,” Alex repeated as the dance floor crowded with hoochies in tiny skirts, little girls with ribbons in their hair, and grandmas in caftans.

  Isa pointed to the crowd. “See, I told you this was a family restaurant.”

  Alex spit his drink back into his glass and “2001” gave way to Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love.”

  He bracketed his mouth with his hands and shouted over the music, “You could do it!”

  “Excuse me?”

  “If she can get up there—” Isa followed his pointed finger to the grandma who needed four men to hoist her up to the bar.

  Isa glared at him and then challenged, “Why don’t you get up there?”

  “What?”

  She rolled her eyes and then slid off her seat and pushed him back to sit next to him.

  “I said, why don’t you go up there?”

  “They said it’s for ladies only,” he explained, smelling her warm vanilla scent.

  “Then again, you don’t have much back there so maybe it’s best.” She turned back to the bar.

  His eyes almost bounced out of their sockets. Who was this Isa? As if she had just read his mind, she glanced over one shoulder and grinned mischievously. He caught himself grinning back, enjoying the way she ribbed him.

  “Okay, abuelita,” the DJ said, barely tall enough to be seen over the writhing crowd of women. “Show us what you got!”

  The crowd roared when grandma started shaking the junk in her trunk to Beyoncé.

  “Good God,” Alex muttered, dropped his forehead into his hand, embarrassed for the woman on the bar. “I’m never going to get this vision out of my head.”

  When grandma was finished, Isa turned around. “You’d never win against competition like that.”

  “How do you know?”

  “From what I’ve been able to see—”

  “You want to go in the bathroom? I’ll show you,” he dared her.

  She laughed as the DJ and his jiggling cohort picked the next contestant. “Chicken,” she called him.

  Damn, who the hell did she think she was? He took a quick glance around the restaurant and when he didn’t see anyone he knew, he tapped her shoulder.

  “Okay. If I got out there, you have to…” What punishment would be equal to doing what he was about to do? Deliberately he tortured her as his eyes took a meandering, unhurried trip over her face, her neck, and then to the sharp V where her coat took over. “You have to take off your jacket.”

  “What?” Her hand smacked against her chest.

  He had her now. She wasn’t so smug now.

  “Take off your jacket,” he enunciated each syllable.

  He threw down his napkin and braced both hands on the table to stand up.

  “Alex, don’t!”

  He winked and then stood up on the vinyl seat, letting out the loudest shout in the room.

  “Get down!” She ripped at his coat to drag him down but the spotlight swung around and caught him.

  The bikini-clad cowgirl took the mic from the DJ. “You want to come up, cutie?”

  The women turned in unison and screamed their approval, reaching their hands out to him.

  “I’ll see you later,” Alex promised a terrified-looking Isa as he stepped over her and then leapt down to push his way to the bar.

  What have I done? Isa thought as the spotlight followed him to the bar. She covered her mouth with his napkin; her heart bounced in her throat like it was on a trampoline.

  Alex easily got up on the bar and a fresh scream ripped through Isa’s eardrums as he peeled off his leather coat and handed it to bikini girl. He motioned for her and Isa bunched the napkin in her fist, thinking he was asking for a good luck kiss. Instead she handed him the mic.

  Alex pointed straight at Isa, their eyes meeting over the frenzy. “Isa, this is for you.”

  “Shake Your Groove Thing” boomed out from the speakers. Taunting them, Alex turned his back to the crowd and every female voice in the house surged to the rafters, begging him to give them what they wanted. Even though she wanted to, Isa couldn’t look away as Alex proved her completely wrong.

  Oh my God, she thought, falling back against the seat. The group of guys in the booth next door jumped to their feet, swirling their napkins in appreciation of Alex’s taut backside. One of them caught her eye as his whistle pierced her ears. He held out his hand in a high five. “Girl, you take that man home tonight!”

  Isa nodded, a funny quivering smile pulling at the corners of her mouth as she thought, why not?

  11

  SEX AND THE SINGLE MOM: Three Rules You Should Never Break. In fact, we’re almost embarrassed to mention them!

  No sex with your ex.

  No one-night stands.

  Never on the first date.

  Alex wiped rain off his face and out of his eyes. “I can’t believe I really did that,” he finally said.

  Isa shivered on the passenger seat beside him, clamping her hands on her thighs. Rain washed down the windshield and the wind screeched around his 4-Runner, buffeting the sides like demons wanting in.

  That laugh of hers, a snorting and entirely ungraceful sort of laugh, sputtered between her chattering teeth. “Thanks for the brownie.” She held up the pizza-sized container that held his prize.

  He hitched his elbow on the tiny ledge of the door and caught himself laughing with her. His stomach hurt from all the laughing they’d done tonight.

  “All right Isa, it’s time. Take that off.”

  “No!” Isa clutched the soaking coat tighter in her fist. “I never agreed to it.”

  Alex watched silvery drops draw lines down her cheek. With a small shake of his head, he flipped on the heater, which shot cold air against them. “You’ll catch a cold wearing that thing. I insist for your health.”

  “I’m not that wet.”

  Playing with her, he tisked. “I never thought you’d welch on a deal.”

  “There was no deal if both parties didn’t agree,” she said in her snooty voice. “You took off before I could say yes.”

  “Ahh but there you said it. ‘Could say yes’ means that you intended to say yes, which means you have to uphold your end of the agreement.”

  He made a grab for her sleeve, stopping short of actually touching her to see what she’d do. Isa hit the other door so hard the car shook.

  “Come on,” he teased and then stopped. Isa was seriously spooked. He eased back, putting as much distance between them.

  “Isa, I’m just kidding,” he assured. An unpleasant thought tickled the back of his mind. Had some guy done something that—

  He felt lower than dog shit.

  “Look, it’s cool,” he insisted. “We’ll just hang out here for a second until it heats up and I’ll drive you to you car.”

  Without taking her eyes off him, Isa melted back into the seat.

  But he couldn’t help but wonder what was underneath the coat. Nothing? Alex forced himself to stare at the windshield rather than her. Maybe it was loneliness on his part, or that Isa was wearing tight jeans and black boots designed to make a guy beg—no, it was her eyes. Whatever stuff she’d put on them made her eyes so impossibly beautiful, even more so than that day he’d noticed them for the first time.

  He didn’t know when or how, but this night had started as an obligation and ended as one of the best he’d had in—damn—years.

  Thunder growled in the distance and seconds later the car lit up from lightning. “Looks like El Niño strikes back,” Isa commented in a watery voice.

  “Yeah,” was all he could manage in his state of growing arousal. “The heater’s starting to work.”

  “For God’s sake, darling, just let him have it,” Joan chided from the backseat. “God knows if you keep him waiting any longer, he’ll go impotent from the suspense.”

  Isa didn’t so much as flick
her eyes in Joan’s direction. Go away.

  But could Joan be right? Alex said she didn’t have to do it. Isa knew from experience that a man didn’t tell a woman to keep her clothes on unless he was afraid of what was underneath. He couldn’t be that great of a guy.

  Then again, her hands itched to pull the bow apart and let the coat spread open to show him that she wasn’t some dry old stick who lay there—how did Carlos put it on the radio this morning?

  “Doing his thing,” Joan offered.

  This time Isa forgot that Alex was in the car and turned to the backseat where Joan gave her a careless shrug. Isa wondered where she got her boat-neck angora sweater and then realized that wasn’t the point.

  Just do it. Not for him but herself. Sitting here and hand-wringing was Isa’s usual MO. Growing up, she’d never spun the bottle or picked dare over truth. At parties she was the one working in the kitchen or sitting in some corner watching everyone else live their lives.

  She had nothing to be ashamed of.

  “Exactly my point, darling,” Joan said.

  She had breasts that put most women to shame, even the ones who bought theirs.

  “And this is the man who will appreciate them,” Joan insisted.

  She suddenly turned to face him. “You know what? You’re right.”

  He glanced over. She seemed to glow in the dark, vibrating with laughter and this unpredictable wild streak he never would’ve guessed she had. “About what?” he asked.

  “Our agreement.”

  “Isa, seriously, I was kidding about that.”

  Isa bore down on another violent shiver, but it won and Alex pointed all the vents toward her. “Where did you say your car is parked?” he asked like he wanted to get this night over with.

  If Alex could shake his booty in front of screaming women and gay men, Isa could be just as wild, just as unpredictable, and damn it, a bet was a bet.

  “What are you—” Alex stammered when she met his eyes and gave a hard yank on her black satin bow.

  “That’s the spirit, darling,” Joan cheered.

  When his eyes glued themselves to the parting of her jacket, Isa’s heart thundered, not from fear or humiliation but from power. This was what she’d been missing out on all these years.

  Alex opened and closed his mouth, his eyes pinned to the bow she held in her hands. His gaze flicked up when she stopped.

  “A bet’s a bet,” she answered him.

  “Yeah, but I’m not that kind of—”

  “I know you’re not.” She then pushed her shoulders back to peel the coat sleeves down her arms.

  Never in real life had Alex seen a tiny, black lace bra filled to the bursting point like the one he saw now. He’d seen them in magazines and certain movies, but no ex-girlfriend of his could ever hold a candle to Isa.

  Was she possessed? She hadn’t had any alcohol that he’d seen…not that he was complaining! If Isa so much as cleared her throat, her creamy breasts could tumble loose. What would he do if that happened? With the rise and fall of her breathing, they could break out at any second. He couldn’t look away, not from the taut nipples straining against the filmy black material.

  “Now we’re even,” she concluded, pulling up her sleeves and resecuring her coat in a very businesslike manner.

  Alex still couldn’t breathe much less tell her to wait. God damn, what was he thinking? This was Isa! Single mom whose son was on his soccer team, remember?

  He planted his eyes on her chin and told them that was as far as they could go. “Sorry, but I don’t think I can drive right now,” he blurted.

  “Do you need to put your head between your knees?” she asked sweetly.

  “This isn’t funny. I’m only a guy.”

  Her arms crossed over her chest, sending an ache right through the heart of him because he knew her breasts were pushing up against themselves.

  Gripping the steering wheel, he tried changing the subject. “So what do you think of our team?”

  Keen to every movement she made, he heard her sit back against the seat. “It’s great.” And then she asked in that schoolteacher voice of hers, “What is it about girls and our breasts that turn guys on? I mean, they serve a purely maternal function.”

  “I don’t know,” he coughed.

  She made a disgusted sound. “Please.”

  He felt the hot air against his cheek and watched her flip his vents toward him. She caught him looking and grinned. “Are you hoping they’ll give you the answer?”

  Keep your eyes up. He reached over and flipped the vents back at her. “Okay, fine but I’m breaking guy code by telling you.” He cleared his throat, thinking how close he’d been to real breasts like hers. “They look like fun. They’re soft and uh, you know…”

  She laughed again and the music of it made him want to join her. “That is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard,” she said, leaning forward to stare up at the pelting rain hitting the windshield. “This doesn’t look like it’ll stop soon.” She flipped the vents back at him.

  “Isa.”

  “Alex?”

  They eyed each other, daring the other to move the vents. His hand shot out and she caught him. As quick as a snake he covered her hand with his free one, prying it off. Isa was stronger than he’d thought.

  Smiling, she tried to work his fingers off her hand. He nudged her with his shoulder but she held firm and he found himself nose to nose with her. They stopped, caught eye to eye. He moved to kiss her and she backed off.

  An explosion of lightning caught in her eyes. “What? You want to kiss me?”

  His throat was so dry, no amount of water would get rid of his thirst. “I’d be lying if I said no.”

  “But you told Susan you weren’t interested,” she challenged.

  He filled his chest with a breath. “That was last week. I changed my mind.”

  And he wished to God he’d never said the things he told June in the kitchen after that practice.

  She licked her lips and then smiled, her teeth gleaming in the half light. “Why?”

  Damn it if he didn’t prefer this Isa over the one who’d practically spit nails at him at practice. She knew he was sitting here dying for her, ready to beg for her. Was she taunting him? What would she do if he kissed her?

  “If you can’t answer the question then you need to prove it another way,” she whispered.

  Slowly he inched towards her. She didn’t flinch or run screaming out of the car. He lingered close enough to smell the sweet, almost candylike perfume of her skin. Her eyes met his, filled with dares. He paused, giving her a moment to say no, that this was crazy and stupid and they should just stay coach and team mom.

  But her hand snuck up the arm he used to brace himself against her seat. Their lips met in the gentlest of kisses.

  Most unfuckable teacher, huh? A fugly? A frigid wife? Isa didn’t think so.

  Her hands met over the expanse of his shoulders and he breathed deeply, pulling her closer to him. A new Isa emerged out of some hidden place, wanting to fully blow his mind and make him wild just for her.

  And it was working! His breathing fanned her cheek and his tongue probed more insistently until she opened her mouth and let him in.

  He broke the kiss, whispering, “Backseat?”

  She yanked the lever and her seat went flat. Using her legs, she pushed herself backwards as Alex crawled after her.

  Rather than let him get on top, Isa maneuvered to straddle his lap. Her cold hands rasped over his rough cheeks as she took his face between them and gave him the wildest kiss with tongue and heat.

  His hips pressed up against her and she moaned with approval.

  When she leaned back, he surged forward to catch her in another kiss. But when he realized she was leading his hand in between the warm folds of her coat, he went rigidly still.

  “Are you sure you—” Isa pressed her finger against his lips, running her tongue over her own. She released his hand and he cupped her, running hi
s rough thumb over her nipple.

  “You are so soft,” he groaned.

  Closing her eyes, Isa never imagined that anything could rival this rush of power that lit inside her. This was what she never had with Carlos. This was what she thought she could never do without the help of alcohol. Tonight, where they were sheltered by the white-fogged windows and the pounding of the rain, she’d be the uninhibited woman she’d been only in her most secret fantasies.

  She bit her lip as his other hand fought with her coat and then found her other breast, leaving a trail of goosebumps over her skin. He tipped her forward and closed his lips around her left nipple, teasing her through the lace.

  “When do I get my turn?” she whispered.

  Alex felt Isa’s fingers searching for the buttons on his fly. He lifted his hips, taking over the buttons. She leaned forward, brushing the side of one plump breast against his cheek.

  “Okay,” he told her. She leaned back, looking him in the eye and smiling while her hand found him poking out of his jeans. “You’re really sure about this?” he managed even when her fingers closed around him.

  “This is pretty crazy, huh?” she whispered, driving him crazy again by drawing her teeth over her bottom lip.

  “Uh-huh.” His hips jammed straight as she stroked him.

  His eyelids squeezed tight and he couldn’t bring himself to make her stop. He barely heard the rip of her zipper and let out a shocked “ah” when she let go of him.

  “What are you—” Dazed, he opened his eyes and saw her shimmying her jeans and panties down her hips. Fascinated with her smooth belly, the shadows dipping over the curves of her hips and thighs and the contrast of her dark hair against her pale skin, he could only think about sinking into her.

  She got one leg free and then straddled him, her breath warming his lips. His fingers sank into the soft skin of her thighs. Their eyes were locked tight as she lowered herself onto him.