by Zoey Parker
I stared him down. “Of course I do,” I replied. “It’s the Youth Diabetes Charity. I always go to their events.”
Dante snorted. “Yeah, because a bunch of kid diabetics definitely need an ex-beauty queen hanging around. What the hell do you do, cut a ribbon with big gold scissors?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not that kind of event,” I informed him. “It’s a silent auction, all benefiting diabetes research.” Admittedly, I had little idea about what actually lay ahead this evening. Most Wednesdays, I had an alternate agenda.
I’d been visiting the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles every week for the past five years. I didn’t want to tell Dante though. I hated the idea that he’d probably take credit for my charity. Besides, it was personal.
“Well, I’m sure it’ll be over soon, and then you can get back to shopping,” Dante said curtly. He opened the Los Angeles Times and flapped the paper, so it shook noisily. I cringed; I’d always hated that sound.
“Shut up,” I mumbled. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“Surprise me,” Dante said. He was glaring at me, his cobalt eyes blazing light fire. “Seriously, Katia. I wanna know. Do you have one good bone in that body of yours? Or is everything a fucking game to you?”
I stood up from the table, pushing back with both of my hands. “It’s none of your fucking business,” I snapped.
I closed my eyes and tried to think of Arielle telling me to relax. But even after a series of five deep breaths, I wasn’t feeling better. I flashed my eyes open at Dante and glared at him. Suddenly, this was war.
“What?” Dante joked. “You forget that you have a waxing appointment later?”
I picked up my phone and called Anya. “Anya, you’re going to have to cancel my appearance at the Diabetes event,” I said coolly. “I’m doing my usual Wednesday work this week.”
“Katia, they’ve already sent you a thank you basket for agreeing to attend!”
“Well, send it back. I don’t need another iPhone or meal delivery thing anyway. You know, they’re never really gluten-free.”
Anya sighed. “Katia, are you sure this is wise?”
I didn’t answer for a moment. Instead, I kept my eyes locked on Dante’s, staring at him until he shrank away.
“Yes,” I said confidently. “This is exactly what I want. Now, call the Children’s Hospital and please tell them they can expect me at the usual time.”
“Okay,” Anya said nervously. “But I think you should at least call them or send a note or something, Katia. They were expecting you.”
“I’ll go to the next three of their events, free of charge. You can tell them for me, can’t you, Anya?”
I hung up before she could answer and smirked triumphantly at Dante. Originally, I hadn’t wanted him to know about what I did every Wednesday; at least, I didn’t want him to know why. But somehow, I had this stupid burning urge to make him believe that I wasn’t the spoiled, rotten brat that he thought. I wanted him to know why I was always acting the way I did. I had a feeling that if he knew, maybe he’d understand.
“You don’t know anything about me,” I said to Dante, resisting the urge to gloat. “But you’re about to find out.”
“Oh, yeah?” Dante rolled his eyes. “Lemme guess, you go to the Children’s Hospital so you can flirt with all the single dads?”
“Shows how much you pay attention,” I said sweetly. “And besides, at least I’m not a criminal.” I raised my eyebrows. “Like you,” I added with unneeded clarification.
# # #
Three hours later, Dante and I walked into the lobby of the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. The secretary, Shelly, dropped her jaw when she saw that it was me.
“Oh my God, Katia!” She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug. “I had no idea you were coming today. Anya said you had an event.”
“I thought I did,” I said with a small smile. “But this is more important to me, Shell.” I grinned, and it was genuine this time. “I couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing my girls for a week.”
“They’re going to be so thrilled,” Shelly gushed. “They were all so sad when I told them that you wouldn’t be coming.”
Turning to Dante, I raised an eyebrow and gave him a look as if to say, “See.” I noticed that after that, Dante couldn’t quite meet my eyes.
Chapter Seven
Dante
When Katia dragged me to the kids’ hospital, I didn’t know what she had up her sleeve. I was expecting something ridiculous like photo-ops with dying kids. I had no idea that she’d be greeted with such enthusiasm. It was weird seeing the gorgeous blonde in such a sterile, antiseptic environment.
“So,” I said casually, leaning against the lime-green painted wall. “Why are we here?”
Katia licked her pink lips. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her; she looked even more gorgeous than usual today. Even though she was only wearing tightly-fitted black jeans with a cream silk blouse, she looked like she’d just stepped out of a magazine. Her makeup was light and accentuated her natural beauty, and her loosely curled hair fell over one shoulder like a model’s.
“You’ll see,” Katia said sweetly. She smiled at me and confidently walked down the hall with her heels clicking on the tiles; clearly, she’d traveled this route before.
I followed her down the hall and into the elevator. “We’re going to the pediatric ward?” I frowned. “What the hell is this? Some kind of photo-op?”
Katia didn’t answer. The elevator doors dinged open, and she swished out into the hallway, leaving a cloud of expensive, flowery perfume in her wake. I felt my cock twitch and stiffen in my jeans as I watched the rounded curve of her ass stroll down the hall. She stopped in front of an open door and poked her head in. Immediately, her soft voice was drowned out by the enthusiastic screams of children.
What the fuck is going on, I wondered. Has she actually been here before?
“Hi, girls!” Katia sang out. I stepped into the room and watched as dozens of girls swarmed around her. She greeted the girls by name with sincere smiles and hugs. Two of them wrapped their skinny arms around her waist and glanced into her eyes with adoration.
“Who’s he?” One of the girls stepped closer to me. She had a shaved head and big, bulging green eyes. She was sickly thin and so pale that I could see the veins in the crook of her elbow. “He doesn’t look like someone you’d be friends with!”
Katia giggled politely. She detached herself from the crowd and walked over to me, casually linking her arm through mine. “This is Dante,” she said kindly. “He’s a friend. He—he’s helping me out with some things.”
“Katia, Katia!” A pale girl cried. I watched as she bounded across the floor and leaped into Katia’s arms. Surprisingly, Katia was able to pick her up with ease.
“Hi, Bella,” Katia said musically. “How are you?” She reached out and pulled the girl into a tight hug. “How’s your mom and dad? Are they doing any better?”
The girl, Bella, looked at me nervously.
Katia laughed again. “Dante isn’t going to say anything rude,” she said. “He just looks tough. That’s part of his job.”
Bella sighed. “Mom’s doing better,” she said quietly. “Dad’s still mad at her, but I think they’re going to be okay.”
“Bella’s mom had an accident last week, and there was a little stress at home,” Katia said to me in a quiet voice. “She’s been really worried.”
I stared. I couldn’t believe it. Katia Reynolds, frigid bitch beauty queen, was like Snow White among the animals. I could tell from their wide stares of adoration that the kids loved her.
“I’m sure everything’s going to be fine,” Katia said. “Look, I have something for you.” She set Bella down on the ground and reached into her purse. As she pulled her hand out, she handed Bella a small beaded bracelet. “I have the same one,” Katia said. She tapped her wrist, and I recognized a three-hundred-dollar Pandora bracelet that sh
e’d bought the previous day when we’d been out shopping.
“Wow,” Bella breathed out. “This is really for me?”
Katia nodded. “Yup. You can always wear it. I checked with the nurses. Whenever you’re sad or lonely, just remember that I have the same one.” She held up her wrist in front of Bella’s face. “See?”
Bella’s face broke out into a wide grin. “Oh my gosh. Thank you!” I watched as she threw her arms around Katia’s neck and hugged her.
The girls couldn’t have been happier to see Katia. It was crazy. Never in a million years would I have expected someone as hot and stuck-up as Katia Reynolds to be the best friend of all these sick little girls. After she greeted all of them and caught up a little, she dragged a chair towards the center of the room and pulled out a huge case of makeup.
“Who’s ready for makeovers?”
The responding cry was so deafening that I wanted to cover my ears with my hands. Snickering to myself, I leaned against the wall and watched as Katia showed each of the girls how to put on lipstick.
“Now blot, like this,” Katia said. She rubbed her lips together and then blotted them on a tissue. “You all do the same thing.”
“Wow,” one of the girls said as she looked in a mirror. “I look so grown-up!”
Katia laughed. “Your mom would kill me if she knew about this. Desiree, how’s your baby brother doing?”
Another one of the girls, this one had a short layer of thick, grown-out hair, stood up and blushed. “He’s great,” she said. “He’s learning how to walk and everything.” She frowned. “I just wish I was there for it.”
Katia shook her head. “Trust me, it’s probably better that you’re here surrounded by your friends.” She raised her eyebrows confidentially at the girls. “Babies are a lot of work, especially after they learn how to walk.” She licked her lips. “I remember that I was jealous of my baby brother because he got so much more attention than I did.”
“You were jealous?” Desiree and one of the other little girls both looked at Katia. “But you’re so pretty, Katia! Why would you be jealous of a little boy?”
Katia blushed, then cleared her throat. “Because I was your age too, once. And he was a boy, so my dad spent more time with him than he ever did with me.” She glanced over at me. “Hey, what do you think about giving Dante a makeover?”
Desiree giggled. “Only if he can wear a wig, too!”
The other girls clapped and laughed. Even Katia’s eyes twinkled with the idea. As she turned to me, I couldn’t help but notice the flirtatious smile on her face.
“I think that can be arranged,” Katia said dryly. “Dante? What do you think?”
Ten minutes later, I was struggling not to laugh as one of the little girls smudged blue eyeshadow over my eyelids.
“This tickles,” I complained. “How the hell do you do it without laughing?”
“Don’t move,” the girl said. I think I’d heard Katia call her Anna. “I’m gonna mess up if you keep moving around!”
I bit my lip and tried to stay still as Anna traced her thumb over my eyes. When I heard Katia suggest blush, I groaned.
“I’m gonna look like a drag queen,” I moaned under my breath as Anna came towards me with a handful of blusher. “You don’t know what that is, yet, but it’s not something you want to be. Trust me.”
“Girls, don’t listen to him,” Katia said playfully. “You can be anything you want, and you know it.”
They all let out a cheer in unison. I groaned as Katia pulled out a box from the closet of the room. She opened it and pulled out wigs.
“Now, which one would look good on Dante?” Katia asked the girls. She held a blonde pageboy wig in one hand and a long, black, Morticia Addams-esque wig in the other.
“Black!”
“Okay, Anna, why don’t you help him?” Katia handed the wig to Anna. “You’ll need to pull his hair back in a wig cap first. Do you know how to do that?”
Anna giggled. “You show me.”
“All right.” Katia took the wig from her hands and walked towards me. When I smelled her floral perfume, it was enough to drive me wild. As she reached over and pushed my hair back, she leaned close to my face.
“This is hell,” I muttered. “I totally understand why you brought me here. You wanted to torture me.”
Katia grinned. It was a genuine smile, not the fake one she usually gave me when I said something snarky. “You’re being a good sport,” she said, in a voice so quiet I knew the girls wouldn’t be able to hear. “Thanks for doing this.”
I rolled my eyes. “Who knows,” I muttered. “Maybe I have a secret future as a Morticia Addams impersonator.”
When Katia pushed her hands through my hair, a bolt of lust flared in my body. I wanted to grab her and pull her close and bury my hands in that long blonde hair. I wanted to pull her head back and bite her neck until she was moaning with pleasure. I wanted to make her wet, to make her groan and scream with how much she wanted me. My cock chafed against my pants, and I bit my lip, desperately trying to hide the insane amount of lust I felt towards Katia.
“Are you okay?” Katia’s voice was low. “Does this hurt?”
“Not as much as I’d like it to,” I said quietly.
Katia’s cheeks flushed bright pink. I stared at her chest. Something about her golden skin told me that the same blush would continue all the way down her body. I shuddered; I wanted her so badly at that moment that I was afraid I’d grab her in front of all the kids.
“Stay still,” Katia said playfully. She gazed into my eyes, and I saw nothing but compassion and goodness in her blue eyes. “I can’t put this wig on if you keep squirming!”
“Katia, let me!” Bella launched herself across the room until she was standing right beside Katia and me. I noticed that she kept glancing down at her wrist and fingering the bracelet Katia had given her. Right then and there I knew how much Katia meant to these kids. I wondered how long she’d been visiting them. Maybe it had been a charity thing at first, to talk about in pageants, but then she’d found the kids too cute to resist.
I didn’t understand it. On the outside, Katia didn’t seem like much of a kid person. I would have definitely thought her to be the type to groan if a kid smacked into her in public. Then again, I’d thought a lot of things about Katia before I’d seen her in the hospital. She was like a different person.
“Okay.” Katia giggled. She handed Bella the wig. “Just be careful not to scratch his face when you slide it on.”
Chapter Eight
Katia
The look on Dante’s face was priceless when he glanced in the mirror and saw himself in the wig. All the blood drained from his cheeks, and he gasped, pressing his face with both of his hands.
“Bloody hell,” Dante muttered in a bad, fake British accent. “I’m a woman!”
The girls all exploded with laughter at the sight of Dante in a long black wig. I couldn’t even keep from laughing as he glared at me. Somehow, it was even more adorable than usual. The girls had outfitted Dante in blue eyeshadow and coral lipstick. He looked like a drag queen, albeit one who hadn’t shaved in a few weeks.
“You look perfect,” I said with satisfaction. “Doesn’t Dante look pretty, girls?”
“Yes!” they all chorused together.
“You should bring Dante back next week,” Anna said. She leaped onto Dante’s lap and threw her arms around his neck. “Is he gonna read to us?”
I smirked. “That depends,” I said softly. “Have you asked him nicely?”
Half an hour later, Dante and I were saying our goodbyes. I always hated this part of the trip, especially with some of the girls, like Bella, who were even sicker than usual. I’d been coming to the hospital every week for months, and it was long enough to know who would probably survive and who wouldn’t.
Bella had been in remission for a little over a year before her cancer had come back, and I knew from the nurses that, this time, it was the most serious
it had ever been. Saying goodbye to the girls broke my heart. It always did. I had to make peace with the fact that there might come a time when a bed or two would be empty.
Just thinking about it was enough to make me want to cry.
Dante said goodbye to all the girls. I could tell they’d really liked him. They were throwing their arms around him and hugging tightly.
“You were a hit,” I said to Dante as we checked out of the hospital at the nurses’ station. “Those girls loved you.”
Dante grinned. It was a heart-melting smile—crooked, and showing his perfect white teeth. I couldn’t believe that a biker like him would have such a great smile, but he did.