by BWWM Club
“Marco…”
Her voice was husky with desire. He could have had her right then and there. They both knew it. They both wanted it.
Janet would forever be grateful to the snooty waiter who brought them their wine and interrupted them.
She heard him clear his throat and, blushing, snatched her hand back. Marco, that rat, didn’t even look the slightest bit ashamed of himself, fumed Janet. He had known exactly what he was doing to her and he had enjoyed every minute of it. The rodent.
Why was she the embarrassed one?
Because she was the one who was wet and needy enough to keep squirming in her chair, of course.
But still, Marco couldn’t have been unaffected by it, either. She could have her revenge.
With a mischievous grin, she slipped her shoes off and let her foot trail up his leg. In his shock, he paused with his glass halfway to his lips. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when her foot reached his crotch. The evidence of his desire was right there to be found. Carefully hiding her movements with the long table cloth, Janet rubbed his crotch with her foot, delicately, then a little firmly, until she felt him get harder. She could feel him throbbing against her foot.
The waiter came again with appetizers and she moved her foot away. She tucked her foot demurely behind her angle, just like a lady should, and looked at him demurely.
“Why, you little minx,” said Marco, but this time, his voice was husky, too. Desire and admiration were blatant on his face.
“A toast,” said Marco, suddenly.
Janet looked at him questioningly.
“To memories,” said Marco, softly.
Everything about Janet softened when he said that. That was the perfect toast for them, she realized.
“To memories,” she agreed, and they drank.
Having declared an unspoken truce, they settled back and let conversation meander naturally.
It was amazing how easily conversation came back, mused Janet as they argued good-naturedly about superheroes. That was a longstanding argument.
“Marco, Superman is a complete tightass. He is a morally superior, self-righteous tightass. Just like Captain America. Batman and Hawkeye are so much cooler,” insisted Janet.
“Having respect for rules and laws does not make you a tightass. It makes you responsible. Batman can’t do anything without Lucius and his gadgets, anyway, so he’s useless.”
“Oh, and being a freak experiment for the World War make Captain America so cool? He’s the tightest ass of them all!”
“Did you even watch the last movie, Janet?”
Marco was obviously disgruntled.
“All right, maybe Captain America has loosened up and is questioning the establishment a bit. But did you watch the last Superman movie? If I could get some Kryptonite, I would shove it right in his pants.”
“I refuse to have this conversation with you,” said Marco.
Janet grinned.
“You just did, and you lost,” she goaded him.
Saved by the waiter yet again, thought Janet as the waiter walked over and gave them the dessert menu.
“They’re really acting like they want to get rid of us,” said Janet.
“Maybe they noticed you playing footsie with… Well, not my foot.”
“Hey, that was completely discreet and hidden. Maybe they thought you crossed a line with what you were doing.”
“I was just kissing my lady’s hand.”
“That’s not all you were doing,” protested Janet.
“What was I doing, then, Janet?” asked Marco, that possessive gleam in his eyes again.
“Oh, no you don’t. We’re not going to do this now,” warned Janet.
With a grin, Marco backed off.
“So, how’s Nita? And Noelle?” asked Marco, changing the subject.
Janet laughed.
“Noelle would probably kick your ass from here to Sunday if she saw you again. Nita is getting married.”
“What? Neato-Nita is getting married?”
Marco looked shocked.
“Why do you sound so surprised? She is gorgeous, a wonderful cook, runs a successful interior design business, and is completely in love with her Johnny,” said Janet, offended for her friend.
“No no, there’s nothing wrong with her. It’s just that she would never let a boy into her room because he might mess it up.”
Janet giggled.
“Her Johnny is a complete slob.”
The comically exaggerated shock on Marco’s face made Janet giggle again.
“I know, that was kind of our reaction, too,” confessed Janet.
Janet barely noticed how time flew. When it was time to leave, Janet felt a surprising pang of regret.
Marco reached for the bill.
Janet smacked his hand away.
“You paid last time,” she told him.
Marco looked at her in exasperation.
“But I’m the one who asked you out.”
“And I’m the one who agreed to go out with you. You paid last time, so I pay this time.”
“All right. But does that mean that I get to pay next time?”
Janet let her lips curve slowly.
“Maybe I’ll let you persuade me into agreeing for a next time,” she told him, acting coy.
Marco chuckled.
“You’re going to make me work hard, aren’t you?”
Janet grinned.
“Why, don’t you think I’m worth the work?”
Marco slipped his hand into his pocket and fingered the ripped panties he had pilfered when she wasn’t looking.
“Oh, if you’ll wear the underwear I still plan to get you, you’ll definitely be worth it,” he promised.
As a compromise, Janet made no complaint when Marco insisted on tipping very extravagantly. Janet would have left the standard twenty percent, but Marco could afford to be far more generous, and she thought the waiter deserved her eternal gratitude for his interruptions earlier.
Janet wasn’t surprised when she found the limo waiting for them. Jimmy seemed to know exactly when to do what. He stepped out and opened the door for her.
She grinned at him.
“Do the two of you have a secret bird call or something? I didn’t see Marco calling you.”
Jimmy just smiled at her mysteriously.
She was too happy to wonder. Janet settled in next to Marco in the luxurious limo.
“So, what next?” she asked.
Marco smiled at her.
“I’d say that’s up to you. It’s your evening.”
Janet considered.
What she really wanted was to take him home and rip his clothes off again. But all through dinner, she’d had one question floating in and out of her mind.
So she decided to ask it.
“How is it that you’re still single, Marco? You are single, aren’t you? You don’t have a wife and a brood of kids stashed away somewhere in Florence?”
Marco grinned. Was his Janet jealous? He could but hope that she was. Wisely, he held his tongue about that. Instead, he tucked it firmly in his cheek.
“I’ve left a trail of broken hearts across the world, but I’ve been waiting to come back to you,” he declared dramatically.
Janet threw him a skeptical look and reached for a cushion with which she could swat him.
“Come on. I’m serious,” insisted Janet.
Marco sighed.
“Fine. I haven’t quite lived the life of a monk, but… I’ve only been really serious about a woman once.”
Janet couldn’t help it. She could feel her eyes turning green.
She had never been a jealous person. She had never found herself jealous of women since she’d grown up. In high school, sure. But she had grown up since then.
But Janet knew that there was one big reason why she had never felt jealous. She had never let a man get close enough for her to care if he even cheated on her. She could and would have just shrugged it off.
It looked like she would never feel about Marco the way she could feel about somebody else. She was jealous of this mysterious woman about whom Marco had got serious enough to tell her so.
“What was she like?”
Janet could’ve bit her tongue off as soon as the words were out. She might as well put up a blinking sign over her head, she fumed.
Marco’s eyes had a faraway look that only intensified her jealousy.
“She had a horrible temper, couldn’t cook worth a damn, didn’t like my goatee and kicked puppies.”
Caught off guard, Janet giggled.
“You got serious about somebody who kicked puppies and couldn’t cook?”
Janet found that hilarious.
“Of course not, but that makes you feel better than if I told you that she looks like a supermodel, has a soul like a Madonna, sang like an angel and was a slut in bed.”
Janet glared at him.
“You’re making fun of me.”
Marco wanted to tickle her under her chin like a kitten.
“I wouldn’t dare,” he said in mock horror, slipping his arm around her.
This just felt so right, thought Marco. Having her in his car, in his arms, teasing her. He could see that she was happy. He wanted to make her happy. Marco made himself stop following that train of thought. That was just too much. He wanted to enjoy Janet.
But he thought of Janet with another man and wanted to punch something. Janet must have dated other men, too.
“How about you? Have you ever date anybody seriously?”
Marco’s voice was sharp. Janet grinned. She could hear the jealousy in his voice, and she was glad for it. At least she wasn’t the only one feeling that way.
“Well, there was Jack, and then John, and then Timothy, and oh, can’t forget Ricky Ricardo…”
Janet found herself pinned to the seat. She expected Marco to swoop down and kiss her, but what happened was far worse.
He tickled her!
Janet squealed.
“Ooooh, stop, stop it, you brute, I’ll… Okay, okay, I give up, I give up!”
Janet had always been extremely ticklish and Marco had remembered. It left her with a warm glow. Marco seemed to remember everything.
Weak with laughter, she lay back, giggling.
She almost looked like the sixteen-year-old girl, he thought. He definitely still felt like that seventeen-year-old boy. His hormones were raging just like that. He covered her body with his and kissed her, long and deep, a passionate meeting and melding of lips that made Janet’s heart race.
She felt like she was untouched again when his hands moved over her, touching her. She felt branded by his touch. The thought thrilled her almost as much as his hands did.
His lips were driving her crazy. She needed to give more. She needed to take more. Her hands slipped under his jacket, grabbing his shirt, bunching it in her hands as she pulled him closer, trying to wrap her legs around him.
His hands were all over her. He needed more. He tugged her dress down, getting a glorious breast free. Greedy, his mouth closed on her nipple and sucked as Janet held him close to her. She needed him more than she had thought possible. She needed him enough to let everything else go.
“Janet… I’ve needed you for so long,” he whispered in her ear. Her hands moved down his body to cup his ass, pull him closer to her. She could feel him now. She could feel him growing hard for her. She could feel how much he wanted her. It was intoxicating.
“Marco…”
His name on Janet’s lips was a passionate plea that asked for everything.
It made him draw back.
He disentangled himself from her and moved back. He couldn’t believe he was doing it. He wanted her so badly that he was aching for her. He was in physical pain because he wanted her. She wanted him, too. Instead of taking her, he was pulling back from her and sitting as far away from her as possible.
“Marco?” her voice was uncertain.
“I… God, Janet, I want you, but not like this, not again. I want it to be more,” he said.
Janet looked at him sharply. She wanted him so much that she was trembling with it.
“I wanted it to be special. I wanted to woo you. Not take you like an animal on the floor. Or in a limo.”
He really looked like he had done something horrible, realized Janet, as she slowly pulled her dress up.
“Marco… I don’t think animals have limos,” she quipped, and watched as his eyes filled with humor and he started laughing.
But he was right. Their next time should be special, decided Janet. So as Marco dropped her home, she didn’t put her hands on him, no matter how much she wanted to. Marco kissed her good night – a hot, sizzling kiss that left her wet and needy, but she went home alone.
As Marco watched Janet walk into her apartment building, he wondered what on earth he was going to do about all of this. He hadn’t planned to get involved with Janet like this. He refused to put a name to it. They had only gone out on two dates, for crying out loud. You don’t fall in love after two dates. It just wasn’t practical.
But he could hear a part of himself laughing at him derisively. He knew that he was gone on her. He loved her.
No, he didn’t!
Of course he did. He had never stopped loving her. That was why he had come back for this deal. He could have stayed in Italy and sent somebody else. But he had looked, and found Janet. Janet was the reason for all of this.
At what he considered his moment of weakness, he could admit that he had found the supermarket because he had been looking for Janet. He had approached them with an excellent deal because it had been an easy way to meet Janet. A way to meet her when she had no choice but to spend time with him. He had manipulated her into it because he had realized that she was the only woman for him. He hadn’t admitted it, not even to himself. But he had realized it all the same.
He had told himself that he could just get her out of his system and be on his way. He had lied. He had lied to himself, such a thinly veiled subterfuge that he’d never even believed himself. From the moment he had seen her, it had been written in stone.
He had taken her like a madman, on the floor of her apartment. There had been no rose petals. There hadn’t even been a bed! He had almost taken her again, in the limo. How could he have done something like that?
She was irresistible. Now he needed her to trust him again. It would not be easy.
He had to trust that he could do it. Somehow.
Chapter 7
“Hello?”
Marco was annoyed. His private number was a carefully guarded secret. He had an assistant and an admin for a reason. Nobody was supposed to get through Lilah.
“Marco.”
The voice was soft seduction. It promised everything.
He recognized it instantly.
“Maria.”
His blood warmed as he heard her voice. He couldn’t help it.
“Marco. I’ve missed you.”
There was no mistaking that deep, husky note in her voice. It was like thick, rich syrup.
“Maria, why are you calling me?”
He could feel that something was wrong.
His world had seemed right when he woke up that day. He’d woken up wanting Janet. Now, he felt as if a dark cloud was stretching its sinister shadow over his sunny world.
“Because I miss you, Marco. Do I need another reason?”
He couldn’t help it if his body responded to her voice. She had a way of making everything she said sound blatantly sexual. He wouldn’t have been a red-blooded man if he hadn’t responded.
“I need to see you, Marco.”
He felt that sexuality punch through him. He had never had a true emotional connection with Maria, but they had definitely clicked, physically and sexually.
“Maria…”
“Marco, please. I need to talk to you about something. It’s important. I need your help, Marco. Please.”
She had
obviously heard the reluctance in his voice and appealed to his instinct to help. He knew, somewhere deep within him, that she was manipulating him into meeting her. But he had never been able to say no when Maria needed help. He had always been guilty about how he had ended things between them. If she could manipulate him, it was because he had hurt her first, he rationalized.
“Are you in trouble, Maria?”
He could hear the hesitation in the silence.
“Please don’t make me beg.”
Marco had never stood a chance.
“Where are you?”
“I’m in Boston. I landed yesterday. I tried to call you yesterday, but I couldn’t get through to you.”
He had had his calls screened. Maria didn’t count as urgent, not anymore.
“I was busy.”
Why hadn’t he said he’d been out with his girlfriend? Janet wasn’t his girlfriend. Not yet. She would be, he was sure of that. But not yet. It was too soon.
“I’ll make time whenever you’re free. But I need to see you, Marco.”
There was a beseeching note in Maria’s voice and Marco caved.
“I’ll meet you at the Legacy Lounge at seven.”
Marco’s words were clipped, but he had said yes. That was all Maria needed. He knew that.
Marco spent the rest of the day distracted and uneasy. He had a feeling that something was definitely wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Many times, he wondered if he should call Janet and let her know about this.
But that made no sense, he reasoned. Janet was not ready for the trappings of a relationship. They had been dating only a couple of weeks, and he had been careful to take it slow since that first real date that had begun… Well, he could feel his body wake up and tell him to get a move on it when he thought of it.
Telling her something like this would be part of a relationship. Besides, he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was meeting somebody who had once been very important to him because she needed his help. He would do the same for any of his friends. If he remembered how Maria could cloud a man’s mind with her sexuality, he told himself that she knew it was over between them. He was going to meet her at a public place for a conversation. A short conversation. That was all. He had no reason to be guilty or uneasy.
He couldn’t quite convince himself of any of what he was thinking. So he ignored it and buried himself in work again.