Luigi lunged forward to take advantage of Darin’s immobility. Mike pulled him back in time but lost hold of his arm. Dammit. Mike had not wanted to do this…
Darin aimed for his face and Mike had no choice. He flipped him over so that he lay prone, and then put his knee on the bigger man’s back.
“What the hell did you just do?”
A uniformed policeman frowned at the dazed and incapacitated Darin, who had at least fifty pounds on Mike. Two more officers carrying nightsticks came in behind the first cop and eyed Mike with malice.
“Was that karate?” the shorter one asked as he got out handcuffs.
“Whoa!” Mike got off Darin. “This isn’t how it looks.”
All three officers chuckled. “Gee, I never heard that one before. What about you fellows?” the first one said.
“Let me explain.” Gina stepped in between Mike and the cop with cuffs. “Please.”
“I want these deadbeats arrested.” Darin got up off the floor and tugged down his tuxedo jacket sleeves. “I’m the manager here and they tried to skip out on their tab.”
“Bull!” Mike started to get in his face, but then thought better of it. “You gouged us and you know it.”
“Everybody shut up.” The officer with the potbelly turned to Gina. “Except you, little lady. What do you have to say?”
“This is a terrible, terrible mistake. We were on our way to get the money to get my ring back when Luigi turned the car around and—”
“Are you Luigi?” the officer asked Mike.
“No, Luigi’s the cabdriver,” Mike said, and turned to Luigi—except the man wasn’t there. He’d disappeared. Mike swore.
The cop narrowed his gaze. “Watch your mouth, young man.”
Gina gasped. “Luigi left?” She spun around looking for him. Flustered, she alternated between English and Italian until the officer finally told her he’d heard enough.
“Tell you what,” he said, flipping open the cuffs. “I’m gonna let you explain it all to the judge.”
“DOES IT HURT?” Gina touched Mike’s jaw and he flinched.
Then he jerked away from her. “What do you think?”
She pressed her lips together. He had been in a bad mood ever since they’d left the police station. How many times did she have to say she was sorry? She had already explained she had not asked Luigi to go back to the club. He had surprised her, too.
“I’d better go before your uncle gets home.” He started to get up from the couch, but she clutched his arm.
“I know you are angry with me, but please do not leave yet.”
He sighed and settled back down. “I’m not angry. I just don’t want your uncle to see me with a bruised and swollen jaw. Nor do I want to explain why I’ve been sitting in jail for the past two hours.”
“We will not tell him.” She lightly trailed a finger across the bluish skin that stretched across his jawbone. And then she leaned over and kissed it.
“Hey.”
“What?” She pursed her lips in a fake pout. “I am trying to make you all better.”
“Yeah, well, I think you caused enough trouble for one night.” He tried to get up again, but she stopped him.
“I thought you did not blame me.”
“I don’t.” He shoved a hand through his hair. It was still messy from the fight. She liked the way it looked. “But from now on, we don’t go anywhere unless I’ve checked the place out first.”
She nodded and snuggled up to him. “I have never seen anything like that before. My friends will not believe it.”
“Oh, man. Don’t tell anybody about the place, or about us being there.”
She swallowed and looked down at her hands. “You are right. I am ashamed.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He forced her chin up. “The reason no charges were pressed against us was because the desk sergeant remembered that Darin had pulled the same thing on two tourists last year. Who knows how many other people he’s conned out of money? If we’d had the cash on us, we’d have paid him just to get out of there pronto.”
“Then he should be in jail.”
“You get no argument from me.”
“How did you know how to flip him in the air like that?”
Mike made a face as if he was not happy about what he had done. “I took karate and judo when I was a kid.”
“For a long time?”
He shrugged. “My mother worked two jobs and she didn’t want me hanging around the apartment after school by myself. It was karate or piano lessons.” He rolled his eyes. “I ended up getting a black belt.”
“That is good?”
He smiled. “Depends on who you ask.”
She liked him in this mood. “Tell me about when you were a child.”
“Nothing to tell. I went to school and then to karate. When I got older, I got a job after school. That’s it.”
“Did you have a girlfriend?”
“Only two, one in tenth grade, and then Stacy and I went together for half our senior year.”
“What happened?”
“I had to work to pay for college. That didn’t leave much time for a social life. Look, enough about the past. Your uncle is going to be home at any minute.”
She shook her head. “He comes home very late every night and I smell too much wine on his breath. I am worried he does not take care of himself.” Before she left, she would have a talk with him.
“I’m sure he’s okay.” Mike’s worried frown said something different. “He never gets to work late.”
“Perhaps I am like my mama.” The sudden thought terrified her. “I worry too much.”
“This is a vacation.” His lips stretched into a beautiful smile. “The only thing you need to worry about is staying out of trouble.”
She sighed. Michael did not understand. She did not look for trouble. Tonight had been a mistake. But now, she kept thinking about the blond man’s aroused body. She wondered what Michael’s nude body looked like. It frightened her to have so many obsessive thoughts about sex. The nuns had warned all the girls that such ideas would lead to trouble.
Gina touched his arm and used the tip of her finger to draw a swirly pattern in the light-brown hair. How much of him was covered with this fine hair? He had a little on his chest, she knew, and around the waistband of his shorts. Did the trail stop or go all the way down…
“I’m heading home now, and you go to bed. Tomorrow we’ll visit a nice safe museum.”
“You forgot something.”
He had a cute frown. “What?”
She cupped his face as he had done with her and kissed him on the mouth. He sank back against the couch cushions and she took advantage of his mouth opening in surprise. She forced herself to make the kiss more leisurely, using her tongue to explore inside his mouth.
She had made the mistake of being too feverish the other times she had kissed him. Slow was better. The way he kissed her. Slow. Deep. Thorough.
“Gina…” he moved his head back so that their lips barely touched “—your uncle…”
She liked the way his lids lowered to hood his eyes. “We will hear him unlock the door.”
He tried to straighten, but she sat on his lap and put her arms around his neck. His gaze touched her cleavage, but he quickly raised his eyes to meet hers. “You’re determined to get me fired, aren’t you?”
“Now look who worries for nothing.” Again she kissed the spot where his jaw was bruised. His skin was a little rough from his beard and she wanted to feel it on her breasts.
She wriggled into a more comfortable position, and he groaned. She watched his eyes drift closed, and excitement bubbled in her stomach. Her already short dress had raised an indecent amount, and she silently willed him to put his hand on her bare thigh.
He did something better. He put his arms around her and she felt her zipper give. It glided down her back, the fabric parting in its wake. His fingertips touched her bare skin and he hesitated. She did n
ot want him to stop. Please, no.
He leaned back his head and looked at her with bewilderment in his eyes. “You’re not wearing a bra.”
She shook her head, feeling shy again. Had she done something wrong? She had taped her nipples so they would not show— Oh, no! The tape. It would be horrible for him to find the two strips. Models used them all the time, but still…
“You’re so…” He reverently cupped each breast with his hands. “I couldn’t tell.”
She swallowed hard. Pride and shame went down slowly. “Would you kiss me there?”
He blinked, some unidentifiable emotion flaring in his eyes. She thought he might try to leave again and she slipped her dress off one shoulder. He hesitated and then lowered the other side.
She reached inside her neckline to grab the tape and heard his sharp intake of breath. At first she did not understand, and then she remembered how the woman on the pillows had fondled one of her own breasts.
The idea both scared and excited Gina. Could she do that in front of Michael? His glazed eyes watched her every move. The hunger she saw in his face chased away her shyness, and she pulled the neckline down to expose both breasts. Carefully she removed the narrow strip of tape from each nipple.
His obvious fascination encouraged her, and once the tape was gone, she touched one beaded nipple with the tip of her finger. His lips parted and she felt his chest expand. Sitting on his lap as she was, his mouth so close, she need only move a little for him to reach her breasts with his tongue. Could she be so bold?
Gina took a deep breath and moved at the same time she guided his head toward her. His breath was hot and ragged against her tender skin, and when his cool wet tongue touched her, she sighed with pleasure. He made a funny sound that sent little jolts of excitement down her spine as she watched her nipple disappear between his lips.
Strange sensations swept her and the more he suckled, the greedier she became. The feel of his mouth there in that private place was the most incredible sensation of all. When his gentle exploration turned to eagerness, she thought she would surely die from pleasure.
Michael brought his head up suddenly and laid it back against the couch as he caught his breath. “Ah, Gina, this was not supposed to happen.”
Startled, she nearly pulled her dress back up. But his heated gaze went to her glistening nipple and she knew it was not over. She cupped a hand beneath her neglected breast and offered it to him.
His throat worked as he swallowed, but his gaze stayed fixed on the ripe pink nipple. “I should go.”
“No, Michael, please.”
“God, Gina.” He groaned and took her in his mouth with far less gentleness this time. His hand slid up her leg and rested on her exposed thigh. Another three inches and he would find her panties, wet from the moisture pooling there.
His head came up again and just when she thought he would push her away, he found her mouth. His tongue dove between her lips and his hand inched a little higher on her thigh.
She no longer felt awkward. Michael did not care about her inexperience. He kissed her hard and made her want to do things that would have frightened her a month ago. There was so much more to sex than she had imagined. And she wanted it all. With Michael.
His kiss slowed and he nibbled at the corner of her mouth, then along her jaw. When he got to her ear, she almost jumped off his lap. Amazing how she could be so sensitive there.
When he withdrew she was going to protest, until he cupped a breast and sucked the nipple into his mouth. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. So many odd sensations were happening to her body and she wanted to feel them all. She wanted to feel Michael beneath her palms.
Slowly she rocked her bottom over his hardness and his breath caught. He stopped suckling and looked questioningly at her. She wished she knew what he wanted. She wished she dared ask.
His lips quirked slightly, making him look a little sad, and he dragged the back of his knuckle down her cheek. “What are you doing to me?” he asked in a low gravelly voice she almost did not recognize. “I swore I wouldn’t let this happen.”
Shame filled her. She was pushing him to do something he did not want to do. She tugged at her neckline to cover herself. He put his hands on hers, his fingers trailing over her nipples. His gaze lingered on her breasts, longing in his eyes, replaced with regret as he helped her pull up the neckline.
Without the tape, her nipples were well defined by the clingy dress. He touched them through the fabric, watching how they responded. Beneath her bottom she felt him stir.
He lowered his hands to her waist and guided her off his lap and onto the couch.
He confused her. Aroused her. Even with her limited social life she had met boys from time to time, at neighboring school dances or her friends’ brothers, and she knew when a man was interested. Michael was definitely interested. So why did he push her away?
Is that what made her want him so much? He was nothing like the other men she knew. None of them made her feel sexy and needy the way Michael did.
“I have to go,” he said. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “Put ice on your jaw when you get home.”
He smiled and gave her a quick kiss.
And then he was gone.
9
“IS EVERYONE at the office going crazy, or is it just me?” Mike asked Robert as he drove him to the airport the next day.
“It’s you. Oh, shit. I forgot my snorkel and fins.”
“I put them in the trunk.” Mike let the conversation lag as he pulled Antonio’s car onto the freeway and merged with the traffic.
Mike seldom drove. Normally he would’ve told Robert to take a cab, but he seriously considered confiding in his friend about his problem with Gina. A bit difficult, perhaps, because Rob and Gina were related, but they weren’t close cousins, and Robert definitely did not share his father’s attitudes about family, anyway.
Still, Mike hesitated. Something odd was going on at the office. The guys gave him funny looks. Antonio’s brother-in-law, Augie, had always stopped in Mike’s office on the way back from getting his first cup of coffee in the morning. Not anymore. He hurried past as if he was late for an appointment. Except the guy hadn’t had an appointment in three years. He knew the business, but he was lazy. Mike liked him, anyway.
“You haven’t noticed anything odd in the office?” he asked Robert again when the Mercedes behind him had finally gotten off his tail.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” He felt foolish all of a sudden. “Like some of the guys seem to be avoiding me.”
Alarm flickered in Robert’s eyes and then he looked away. “It’s your imagination.”
“Bullshit!” Mike knew that reticent tone of voice. Robert was hiding something. “What’s going on? Is it about the West Coast distributorship?”
“No.” Robert’s quick denial was almost believable, but convinced Mike he did know something. “I swear, nothing is going on about that.”
“What, then?”
Robert turned to face him. “I don’t know what to tell you, buddy. Everything is kosher as far as I know.”
Mike concentrated on his driving. He couldn’t think about Gina right now, or what he should or shouldn’t tell Robert. With all his guilt chewing at him, it was highly possible nothing was going on in the office. It really was just him.
“How’s it going with my cousin?”
“Don’t ask.”
Rob chuckled. “Where is she now?”
“At your pop’s apartment.”
“What’s she doing—refiguring the Dewey decimal system?”
“She’s got a lot more energy and curiosity than you give her credit for.”
“Yeah? So what have you guys been doing?”
Mike coughed. That part he wasn’t prepared to discuss. “Nothing much. Central Park, Coney Island, the usual tourist stuff. The thing is—”
“Ah, crap. Where’s your cell phone?”
; Mike took it out of his pocket and handed it to him.
“I was supposed to call Melanie. She wanted to get to the airport on her own, but she has a habit of oversleeping.”
Mike returned his attention to driving while Robert punched in his girlfriend’s number. His friend’s self-absorption sometimes annoyed Mike, but at the moment he was grateful. The interruption gave him time to come to his senses. It wasn’t right to discuss Gina with Robert, or anyone. She wasn’t just another woman.
The notion struck a chord of fear in him. That wasn’t to say she was anyone special to him. Sure, he liked the way she was unafraid to jump into tough situations. Or used her brains and not her femininity to make a point. And man, did he like the way she looked.
Even more, he liked the way she looked at him. He got hard in two seconds just thinking about that sexy pout of hers, the way her gaze melted into his, begging for his touch. And the sounds she made when he tasted her breasts. It was the most awesome—
“Yo, Mike!”
He blinked and glanced at Robert.
“You’re gonna miss the exit.”
“Dammit.” He changed lanes just in time and managed not to hit anybody.
“You just took three years off my life.” Robert twisted around to look out the back window.
Mike checked the rearview mirror. A guy he had cut off was giving them the finger. “Next time wave the other four at us,” he muttered.
Robert chuckled. “This isn’t like you. What’s got you so distracted?”
Nothing was like him anymore. Ever since Gina had arrived, he hadn’t had a moment’s peace. But he was having fun, too. It’d been a long time since he’d been interested in anything but work. Why the hell did she have to be the boss’s niece?
He darted a glance at Robert, who’d already moved on to checking his plane ticket. “Question.”
“Shoot.”
“Will Gina be offered a position in the company?”
Robert grunted. “You know Pop. He’s kind of old-fashioned about that stuff. My aunt Sophia is worse. She wouldn’t let Gina work.”
Educating Gina Page 9