Trent shrugged. No one ever said owning a Porsche was cheap—thank God for insurance. “Sounds fine.”
Beside him, Josie looked stricken.
“Can you pick it up in five days?”
He had an old sport utility vehicle he drove on his trips to the mountains, so lack of transportation wasn’t an issue. “No problem.” Trent handed over the keys and took the estimate sheet the mechanic offered him.
He and Josie walked to her car, and he remembered as he got in that the last time he’d ridden with her had been three years ago…
A sick feeling invaded his stomach. He willed the negative memory away. Right now, it was the last thing he wanted to think about.
When Josie got into the driver’s seat, Trent asked, “So, do you want to brief me on this business issue you need to discuss?”
She grinned sheepishly as she started the car. “I’m not very good at talking and driving at the same time.”
“Oh, right.” He appreciated her honesty.
“Where do you want to go?”
“Someplace that serves food. I’m starved.”
Josie pulled out into traffic without incident and navigated her way eight or ten blocks down to an empty parking spot.
“There’s a place on this block called El Corazon Café that has great salsa. Sound okay?” she asked as they got out of the car.
“Sounds perfect.”
They walked toward the restaurant with a crisp ocean breeze at their backs, and Trent tried not to notice how it made Josie’s suit form to every tempting line of her body. He walked faster to rid himself of the view, but that only made her mad.
“Hey, wait up!” she called as she hurried behind him.
“Sorry, forgot my manners.”
“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?”
Trent laughed. “Hardly. I was just trying to avoid staring at your ass, if you want to know the truth.”
“Oh.” She stopped walking, and Trent realized they’d made it to the restaurant.
With its brightly colored walls painted with hearts and cacti and other less recognizable objects, and its wild, funky tables and chairs, the restaurant fit in quite well with this business district. Trent could have done without the polka-dot chairs, but he was hungry enough to ignore them.
They placed their orders at the counter, then found a table near the front window. Since it was nearly eight o’clock the big dinner crowd was gone and they had a bit of privacy.
Josie cut right to the point. “You’re aware of the Lovers for Life Center’s financial difficulties.”
Trent nodded, adjusting his feet under the table. He accidentally bumped her leg and the sudden contact put his nerves on alert. Damn it, how did she do that to him? The woman had an uncanny knack for turning him on.
“I’m afraid it’s even worse than a few late rent payments,” she said.
“What else are you behind on?”
Josie’s gaze dropped to her hands as she fiddled with a napkin. “I have a list of the late bills in my office, but I can’t remember off hand.”
“Are you even turning a profit right now?”
Josie shook her head. “Hardly. We’re losing money.”
Trent hadn’t realized the extent of the center’s troubles, and now he felt a tiny pang of guilt for putting Josie in such a compromising position by asking her for private sex lessons. He’d held on to the far-fetched belief, in the back of his head, that she could have afforded to pay the rent if she’d really wanted to, that she’d just accepted the offer in the spirit of their longstanding sexual rivalry.
“Why come to me?”
Josie regarded him levelly, making a great internal effort, he guessed, to separate her current needs from what happened between them five nights ago. Trent wasn’t sure he could accomplish that feat himself.
He’d spent every day since the last lesson trying to summon up the willpower to resist Josie during the next one. If he gave in to her, his revenge plan would be ruined. And spending time around Josie only made him like her more, thus weakening his defenses. With her popping back into his life today—two days early—she’d thrown off his plan.
“You run a successful business. I was hoping you might help me figure out if I have a chance of saving the center, and how to go about bringing in more money.”
“I know nothing about operating a school.”
She nodded. “True, but I need a fresh perspective on the problems I’m dealing with. Maybe I could run some ideas by you and you could give me your reactions.”
“Sure.”
The waiter delivered their dinners, and the scent of fresh cilantro reminded Trent that he was hungry. They both dove into their burritos and ate in silence for a few minutes.
Trent mulled over the possible business problems the Lovers for Life Center faced. How “in demand” could sex classes be? There must have been enough of a need for the business to keep running for more than twenty years.
“How’s enrollment at the center?” he asked between bites.
“Down since I took over. My mother was the heart of the place, and it’s not the same without her.”
“Have your customers said as much?”
“We’ve had quite a few complaints about her absence.”
Trent could imagine the hole Rafaela’s departure would leave. She had a commanding presence, and she was a tireless self-promoter, often appearing on local television shows and in newspaper interviews talking about sex.
“What other changes have occurred since she left?”
“I’ve had to stop inviting a lot of our guest speakers. They were just too expensive, but they brought in non-regular attendees of the seminars. It was a big profit-maker.”
Trent polished off the last bite of his burrito and turned his attention to the chips and salsa. “Have you tried this stuff?”
Josie nodded. “It’s the best. They make it fresh every morning.”
She took a chip and dipped it, then brought it to her lips. Trent never would have labeled eating a corn chip an erotic act, but watching her do it—yow. He stared, mesmerized, as she tasted the salsa, smiled, closed her eyes and moaned with pleasure.
When she finished the chip she licked a dab of salsa from her finger, and Trent felt beads of sweat break out on his forehead. He wanted her now just as badly as he always had. What disconcerted him was that the desire only seemed to grow more intense each time they were together. It had to be all the teasing—that was it.
“Mmm, that’s the best salsa in the city.”
Only then did she seem to notice him staring, and she averted her gaze. When she looked at him again, he’d wiped away the sweat and gathered his composure. “Spicy food always makes me hot.”
She smiled. “Yeah, me, too.”
Okay, time to focus on something nice and safe. “What are your ideas to increase business?”
She took a deep breath and began. “One of our strengths is our repeat business, but frankly, there are only so many sex workshop topics I can offer. I mean, things get repetitive after a while.”
“Which is fine for one-time or infrequent attendees.”
“Right.” Her brow creased, and Trent had to resist the urge to reach out and run his fingers along her temples to release some of her stress.
But touching her once would be a mistake. Everything about her made him want to touch her, explore the planes and valleys of her body, find her secret places. Okay, so he’d already found some of those, but damn if he didn’t want to get to know them even better.
“I need to find a way to provide new interests for repeat customers and potential repeat customers, and I have one idea.”
“Which is?”
“It has to do with you, actually.”
“Me?” Trent blinked. He absolutely was not going to teach a sex class, if that’s what she had in mind.
“I saw a sign on the door of Extreme Sports the other day, and ever since then I’ve had this idea forming.”
“Wilderness sex tours?” he joked.
“Well, not exactly, but…”
“Oh, no. Don’t even think about it.”
She winced at his reaction. “Just hear me out. Please?”
“I’m not taking a bunch of horny couples out to have sex in the wild.”
“You’re oversimplifying my idea. Let me finish.”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, but said no more.
“A lot of men, apparently, including yourself, have these outdoorsy, wilderness sex fantasies. And a lot of couples seem to love having sex in places that they might get caught.”
“By bears?”
“Well, I doubt that’s what they have in mind, but I think any location outside their own homes provides a heightened sense of excitement for them.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I think I could draw in quite a few customers by offering romantic adventure retreat weekends.”
“Retreat?”
“I would go along and offer workshops, and you could be there for the adventure and outdoors stuff.”
“So what? I’d have to take them out and show them where the prime sex spots are in the woods?”
“Not at all. It would be pretty much like one of your regular tours. Except you might have to count on people sneaking off for a little hanky panky occasionally.”
“I’m guessing these couples wouldn’t want to rough it too much.”
“Probably not.”
Trent let the idea sink in. It wasn’t a bad one, actually.
“There aren’t any luxury hotels in the wilderness. No hot tubs, no room-service food to tank up on between rounds of wild sex.”
“Do all your tours involve camping, or do you ever go to cabins?”
“We do have cabins sometimes, nothing fancy.”
“I’m thinking that would be best. Cabins would provide privacy for those who need it.”
Like us.
Whoa. Where had that thought come from? He hadn’t even agreed to lead the tours and already he was having fantasies of getting Josie alone in the woods.
“I know a place out near Tahoe that would be great for what you have in mind. Beautiful scenery, easy hiking trails, nice cabins, and there are other facilities where you could lead your sex classes.”
“We would need to work out the costs, how we’d split the expenses and profits.”
“I usually lead more advanced tours than what you have in mind.”
Josie frowned. “But couldn’t you ease up a bit? Maybe offer a sort of beginners adventure weekend?”
An idea nagged at the back of Trent’s brain. If they planned this right, it could work to his benefit, too. He’d been mulling over designing a tour for a less experienced crowd than the one he usually attracted. It would be a great way to increase business.
“Okay, let’s do it,” Trent said. “I’ll give you the trip costs tomorrow so you can make up something to advertise to your customers.”
Her face lit up. “Really? You’ll do it?”
“For you, sure. I’ll even provide all the gear. On one condition.”
“Anything—you name it.”
Trent blurted what he wanted before he had a chance to change his mind. “Go out mountain biking with me one day while we’re there, just the two of us.”
“But, why?”
Good question, and he didn’t have an answer, so he made one up. “For old times’ sake.”
Josie gave him a speculative look. “But you’ll actually expect me to ride a bike?”
“Yes. Will that be so awful?”
“Don’t you remember that time I wrecked my pink Huffy into the Cirenzas’s Volkswagen van?”
Trent smiled at the long-forgotten memory. “Oh, yeah, that was you, wasn’t it? Even back then you were a bad driver.”
“That was the last time I rode a bike.”
Oh, boy, would he ever be in for an interesting weekend. He shrugged, still too enamored with the idea of having Josie around twenty-four hours a day to back down. “You know what they say about riding a bike.”
Josie bit her lip, gave the matter some thought. “Okay, I’ll do it. But don’t expect me to survive.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“I want to get this trip off the ground as soon as possible.”
“Like when?”
“There’s a long weekend at the end of this month,” she said, her eyes full of hope that he’d okay the date.
Trent groaned. “I need more notice than that usually.”
“But you don’t have plans that weekend, do you?”
He rolled his eyes at his own lack of a spine. “No. I’ll see what I can do.”
“You’re the best! I mean, this isn’t going to save the center, but it’s one step in the right direction. I feel like it’s the first good idea I’ve had since I took over.”
Trent nodded. “Why don’t we continue our discussion of ways to improve business tomorrow, when I can give you the estimated trip costs?”
“That’s perfect—we can meet in my office after classes are over. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She stood, leaned over the tiny table, and kissed him. He could tell immediately by her chagrined expression that she’d acted on impulse.
It didn’t matter, though. One warm simple kiss erased all his reservations. A long weekend in the woods with Josie? It sounded like heaven.
RAFAELA MARCUS watched through the airplane window as the San Francisco skyline came into view over the water. Her beautiful city, still here waiting for her. Prague had been interesting, but it couldn’t compare to home.
She glanced at her watch and saw that the flight was arriving twenty minutes early. It might be the first time in her life she’d ever be early for anything. If only her darling Josephine were here to witness the event…
But no, if all had been going well here at home, Josephine should have been having herself a grand time this weekend with a certain gorgeous young landlord Rafaela knew was perfect for her daughter. She also knew Josephine was far too young and stubborn to understand her mother’s wisdom, so subtle tactics had been required.
Josephine didn’t need to know that Peter, Rafaela’s “lover,” was really just a close friend, and a gay one at that. At half her age, and as beautiful as he was, he might have made a fine playmate, but she’d outgrown such antics long ago, and she and Peter didn’t share the slightest attraction for one another.
She gripped the arm of her seat as the plane touched down with a bump-bump-bump, then settled into a smooth path on the runway.
Nor did her daughter need to know that her mother’s disappearance was more for Josephine’s sake than anything else. The poor girl just didn’t know how to have a good time, but Rafaela suspected Trent could teach her, if the two could only see their way past a few superficial differences.
She flipped through a mindless beauty magazine as other passengers filled the aisles and grabbed their bags. Once the plane had started to clear out, Rafaela stood and shrugged her carry-on over her shoulder, then exited the plane.
In the airport she headed straight for the nearest book stand to arm herself with a little reading material for the weekend ahead. Once she’d gotten her copy of the latest erotic thriller by her favorite author, she was ready to call a cab. She might be getting older, but she certainly wasn’t dead yet.
First, though, she needed to find out where Josephine was. She wasn’t quite ready to let her daughter know she was home. There was detective work to be done. She needed to know exactly how far Trent and Josephine’s relationship had progressed, and whether any further intervention would be required. Rafaela stopped at a pay phone, fed it some change, and dialed the number to the center. Knowing her workaholic daughter, she would be there now.
“Lovers for Life Center, may I help you?” Josephine answered after a few rings.
“Josephine, it’s Mom. Just calling to say hi.”
“Oh, hi, Mom. What’s up?”
“Nothing important. I was hoping to find you’d gone out for the evening with a man instead of sitting in that office alone, working late.”
A pause. “I’m not alone, actually.”
“Oh?”
“I’m just talking to someone about the business.”
“And whom would that be?”
Another pause. “Trent O’Reilly. He’s helping me develop a plan to solve our financial problems.”
Rafaela bit her tongue to avoid letting out a joyful whoop. If she overtly pushed her daughter, Josephine would dig in her heels and a month of progress would be lost.
“That’s nice, darling,” she finally said. “I hope there’s not a problem with the rent.”
Josephine made a little “ahem” sound. “Now that you mention it, there have been problems keeping up with the rent. I don’t suppose you’ve gotten any of the money back from Peter?”
Rafaela winced. If there’d been a less drastic way of getting those two together, she would have used it. At least her plan seemed to be working. “No, I’m afraid not. He’s having a terrible time selling his book,” she lied.
In truth, she hadn’t loaned a cent to Peter. The money she’d taken from the business account had simply been deposited into her savings account before she left the country. It had been the only way Rafaela could think of to ensure Josephine and Trent would have to work through a little adversity together.
“Is there anything you need, Mom? If not, I really shouldn’t keep Trent waiting.”
“Oh, no, by all means, I’ll let you go.” Rafaela paused, wishing she had the kind of relationship with her daughter in which they could truly share their secrets. Instead, Josephine always held her at arm’s length, embarrassed by her mother’s every move. She finally added, “Don’t forget to have fun.”
“Are you sure everything’s okay? It sounds really noisy there.”
“I just have the windows open, and there’s a traffic jam on the street outside.” A voice came over the airport intercom system calling for passenger so-and-so to report to gate something-or-other, and Rafaela quickly covered the phone.
“That sounded like a woman’s voice.”
“It’s the television. Peter’s watching for inspiration,” she lied. Peter didn’t even own a television.
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