“Do you know this asshole?” Frank asked, positioning himself between me and the Tempest drummer.
“Yeah. Unfortunately.” I sighed. What were the odds of running into King? The Palms was on the other side of the strip from his hotel.
“He a fan of yours from the club?”
“Not a fan. Not really.”
“Then where did he see you naked?” Frank turned his head to give me a speculative look, moving between us. I couldn’t see Juaquin over his shoulder, but the way my luck had been running I knew he had to still be there.
“He bought out the club last night.” I sidestepped around Frank. The protective routine was unnecessary, at least the kind he was offering. The protection I needed from Juaquin was for the heart not the body. Shoring up the walls of my defenses and feigning indifference that I didn’t really feel, I reluctantly introduced the two of them. “Juaquin Acenado meet Frank, my boyfriend. Frank this is King. He’s a big rock star. That gives him license to insult people, treat them like they’re his underlings, that kind of thing.” Juaquin frowned at me. “He’s known me since I was a kid. I guess he thinks that gives him the right to make judgements about how I live my life. He didn’t appreciate seeing me on stage without my clothes on.”
“Didn’t say I didn’t like what I saw.” His gold eyes flared to a burnished hue. “I think I explained myself pretty well to you in my hotel room last night. But if you wanna go over the details again in private I’d be more than happy to oblige.”
* * *
Juaquin moved away after that last weighted-with-innuendo salvo. I should have written him off. I made a good faith effort. I apologized to Frank about my deception. He graciously accepted it. We kept on dancing. I twined my arms around his neck. I didn’t protest when he brought our bodies closer together. I pressed my cheek to Frank’s whisker roughened one.
But my eyes followed Juaquin.
I watched as he expertly twirled his women around in space that seemed to miraculously appear around him. He was an incredible dancer. He moved his feet in time to the rhythm. He rocked his hips to punctuate the riffs. His prowess on the dance floor was the excuse I gave myself for not glancing away. From the silver shirt that clung to his wide shoulders and solid chest. From the expensive charcoal slacks that molded to his muscular thighs. From those unkempt appearing bangs that cast a mysterious shadow over his predatory eyes. From the barely there smile, yet another accessory to his allure. From the two women on each arm, trinkets I barely noticed. And if you believe all those lies I have plenty of others. All of them as worthless as pennies
“Babe, it’s late. You want another drink or are you ready to go?”
“More than ready.” I turned my gaze away from the view of King and his entourage. Apparently two wasn’t enough. Now he had a third. One for each hand and another to kneel and pay homage. “Just give me a couple of minutes. I need to make a quick stop at the restroom. Settle the tab and bring the car around, if you don’t mind. I’ll meet you at the door.” I stood and quickly made my way toward the women’s room, avoiding glancing at the dance floor again. Reminders of how hot King was and how little I merited in his consideration were blows to my ego that I wanted to avoid.
“Shit,” I exclaimed when I turned the corner, pulling up short. I had nearly run right into him.
“Sort of like my night has been going until I saw you in that dress.”
“Juaquin.” I put my hand to my chest where my heart was pounding as fast and hard as one of his drum solos. “What do you want?”
“A very good question.” He stepped closer. We were already nearly bare toes to wingtips close. “Direct and to the point.”
“Yeah, so?” Grabbing a hitched breath, I retreated a step, trying not to think about how good he smelled. “I thought you were dancing.”
“I was.” His eyes flickered like lanterns in the deserted hallway. A little afraid, of myself more than him, I took another step backward and encountered the wall. I cranked my chin up to hold his gaze. “But I got bored since none of my partners were you.” His arm flashed out, his fingers closing around the cross that dangled from the choker. He tugged on it.
I gasped and stumbled forward, my hands landing on his solid chest. His own moved to my hips where their heat singed my skin.
“Bonita, a dónde vas?” Where are you going? His eyes searched mine. “When all you need is right here?” His warm breath drifted across my face. I wet my suddenly parched lips with my tongue. His gaze dipped to my mouth darkening almost to black. “Miriam.” He groaned. “Mi reina, te quiero tanto.” My queen. I want you so badly. He lowered his head. I closed my eyes wanting, wanting, wanting. His mouth touched mine.
My world exploded with sensation and color.
“King,” I sighed. He took my moan as surrender. His wet tongue pierced my parted lips, stroking, teasing and tasting me. My body melted in his heat. I slid my hands along the contours of his muscular shoulders. He glided his up my spine deepening the kiss while crushing my body more firmly into him. Breasts to chest. Quivering thighs to his strong legs. I felt his cock lengthening and myself unraveling more and more with each masterful thrust of his tongue. When he pulled back to allow us both a breath, I was clutching the front of his shirt. Cracking my eyes open, I stared at him in awe. I had never been kissed like that.
“Over me, my ass.” He grinned triumphantly, and my soaring heart took a nosedive crashing hard onto the tiled floor at my feet.
He had kissed me just to make a point.
“I hate you.” I swallowed the hot ball of mortification inside my throat and shoved at him ineffectually. “Let me go.”
“Never,” he stated. Unflappable. Immovable. Intransigent. He brought me closer though I trembled within his hold. “I told you once I was a savage to fear and not a savior. You should have run from me while you still had the chance.”
Chapter Seven
King
“There you are, MJ.”
“Mike.” Miriam breathed her best friend’s name as if he were the answer to her prayers. That pissed me off. I wanted to be that answer. I turned my head and scowled at him. Now that I finally had her in my arms, I wasn’t planning to let her go anytime soon.
Why? Why had I ever refused her?
Her taste held the promise of things to come. Her surrender, her soft moan, her even softer curves, the way she had shivered as she had and then burrowed deeper into my arms. Nothing short of perfection. And that kiss, that one fucking phenomenal kiss from lips that had seemed custom made to fit my own felt like the truth. It made every single encounter with every other woman seem like the worst kind of lie, the kind you tell yourself when you know you can’t have what your heart truly desires.
“Frank’s waiting for you.” Mike stared me down, and I returned his glare. I sure as fuck didn’t need him to remind me that she had a boyfriend. Watching her with that pendejo tonight, her touching him, him holding her, had made my temper boil. He was totally wrong for her. She wasn’t going back to him. She was right where she belonged. Right here with me. I glided my hands to the curve of her hips, bunching up fistfuls of her dress and tightening my arms around her.
“Juaquin,” she whispered, her voice raw. My gaze dipped to lips red and swollen from the imprint of my mouth before rising to meet her bright, beautiful grey-green gaze. “I have to go.” She pressed her palms against my chest. I could feel the heat of her skin through my shirt. Her touch made my body burn and my already hard cock harder. I wanted her hands all over me. I wanted mine all over her. I wanted to memorize every inch of her.
“Why the hurry? I like you right here. Besides, we need to talk.”
“What more is there to say that hasn’t already been said?” She wiggled in my embrace, her movements rocking the enticement of her hips over me. I shuddered. She felt so good. Her eyes widened as she felt the effect she had on me. If we didn’t still have unresolved issues between us, and if her friend hadn’t been in the way, I doubted that
even the fact that we were in a public place would have stopped me from taking her right then and there.
I had her.
I couldn’t believe it.
But did I really?
The glassy sheen in her eyes became crystal tears pooling in them.
“Please,” she pleaded, renewing her struggles. “I don’t want…” Her voice cracked. She swallowed. “I don’t want this.” She dropped her gaze, and her hands fell to her sides. “I don’t want you,” she whispered.
A fucking knife through my heart would have hurt less than hearing those words from her.
Surrender she had, but not in the way I wanted most.
Reluctantly I released her, allowing myself one last low glide of my hands over the curve of her hips. She made a low sound in her throat that sounded like she was holding back a sob. Regret sliced into me as I watched her stumble toward her friend. He threw his arms around her, and she sagged into him.
‘You’re a dead man, Acenado,’ was the fierce look he gave me over her bowed head.
‘Already there,’ was the look I gave him in return. Everything I ever needed had been yanked away from me. I’d experienced that feeling before. But this time it was my own fucking fault.
“MJ,” Mike spoke softly but firmly to get her attention, bringing his hands to her upper arms and squeezing them. “Can you make it to the front alone?”
She lifted her head. Her back was to me. I couldn’t see her pretty face, but I saw her shoulders go back and her spine straighten. “Of course.”
“Run along then, pretty girl,” he told her while my fingers curled into my palms. “Juaquin and I need to have a little chat.”
I was pissed, but not at her. At myself. At how badly I had screwed things up this time. It twisted my gut watching her walk away from me. My eyes burned as they followed her. My throat choked on words that might have called her back.
Her heels cracked against the tile as she turned the corner. My resolve to let her go cracked right along with it. Every single cell inside of me shouted, ‘Go get her back!’
“I should kick your ass for this, Acenado.”
“You’re welcome to try.” I snapped my gaze away from the spot where I had last seen her. Quite honestly I had forgotten him. Nothing ranked in comparison to her. I arched a taunting brow. My hands forming tighter fists, my anger had a new direction beyond myself now.
“But that would be going too easy on you.” He cocked his head to the side as he studied me. “I’m afraid you might get the idea that your ass kicking let you off the hook for how you treated her.”
Regret crashed over me, washing away the anger and replacing it with self-loathing. Jorge’s advice. My actions. Mike’s words. They all merged together in my guilty mind until instead of the empty spot where I had last seen Miriam, I pictured her the way she had looked the night that asshole Zackary had cornered her.
Had what I done been any different?
Ay, Dios mio. I raked a shaky hand through my hair replaying how things had just gone between us.
“I didn’t force her to kiss me, Vox.” I’d never had a sweeter one, never tasted sweeter lips. She had been a willing participant. It had been the holding onto her afterward that had been heavy-handed. I had to apologize for that, for coming on too strong, for being too insistent, for expecting her to acknowledge my claim too soon.
Sometimes you have to give someone some space so they have the freedom to figure out the truth you already know.
“Maybe not,” he allowed. “But you sure as shit took advantage.” Mike’s accusation made my body jerk. “I won’t ask you exactly what happened. She’ll tell me everything later. But man up already. I mean seriously. Grow a pair.” His eyes bored holes into me. “Find a way to be at least a figment of the hero she thinks you are or get the hell out of her life for real. She deserves better than the crumbs you’ve been feeding her.” His voice was rough. What had she told him about us? Did she feel about me even a tenth of what I felt for her? Improbable, if not impossible. Not that intensity of feelings had ever been the problem for either of us.
“If you don’t think you’re good enough for her then make yourself better.” I froze solid. It was like he saw inside my head. “Get your shit together or get gone. Because if you ever treat her the way you did here tonight I promise you that even though I’m not from your old neighborhood, I can and will administer a Southside style beating of your ass.”
* * *
Miriam
“What the hell happened tonight, MJ?”
I dropped my chin to my chest. I’d already been through the ringer once, fielding some pretty intense questions from Frank on the drive home. I had come clean. I had told him about King and me. My crush. His rejections being the catalyst for where I found myself in life now. He had been understanding. Too understanding maybe. After all, if he really cared about me wouldn’t he be angrier about me revealing my feelings for another man?
“A lot happened, Mikey.” I touched the tip of my tongue to my lips where the taste of Juaquin still lingered. Without consciously meaning to I brought my fingers up to my mouth, keenly aware that none of the heat that kiss had generated remained.
“You know what I’m talking about.” His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t press. He patted the spot beside him on the couch. No massage oils on the coffee table today. Instead two bowls brimming with scoops of rocky road. Serious intervention.
“I do,” I admitted, dropping my clutch in the entry table basket that served as a catchall before crossing over to him. The cushions dipped as I took a seat. I twisted at the waist to unbuckle my sandals. “I’m sorry I deflected. Force of habit. I just got finished hashing things out with Frank.”
“You mean dancing around the truth.” He shot me a knowing look before leaning forward and grabbing the ice cream.
“To a degree, I guess,” I allowed. He gave me one bowl and hoarded the other for himself. I took a big spoonful from mine, savoring the rich flavor of the creamy chocolate before crunching down on a salty peanut. “Ahh,” I sighed. Ice cream. The best kind of therapy. Certainly more affordable than a shrink.
“I’d say so, unless you told Frank just how you feel about Juaquin and that you kissed him tonight.”
“How I used to feel about him,” I corrected. “And no, I didn’t tell him about the kiss. How did you know about it?” My spoon clattered against the bowl as I returned it to the coffee table.
“I didn’t need anyone to tell me. It seemed pretty obvious. Your Latino friend insisted it was consensual. Not that he needed to clarify. I saw the truth of it in your expression. It’s on your face now, how you feel about him. Present tense.”
I dropped my chin into my chilled hands and squeezed my eyes shut for a solitary moment remembering the warm glide of Juaquin’s lips on mine. His wet tongue in my mouth. The way he tasted, safe and dangerous at the same time.
I opened them again. Mike eyed me carefully. “Now you wanna tell me what’s really going on? You look like you did when you were with him earlier.”
“How’s that?”
“Like someone who feels strongly but is scared and uncertain about those feelings.” He frowned. “Did I read it wrong? He was holding you so tightly. Don’t tell me he hurt you.”
I swallowed. It had felt so good being held by him, so so good. Until the old arrogance surfaced, I had been coasting along on lofty currents, my lips buzzing and my mind hazy. That had ended abruptly when he made it quite clear that the kiss that had meant so much to me had been only a trifle to him. Then I had wanted to be anywhere other than in his arms where he could easily see how much his disinterest wounded me.
“He did,” I confessed.
“I knew it. I’ll kill him.” Mike stood. I grabbed his hand.
“Not the way you think. Not physically. And not on purpose. Not really. It’s just the same old story with us.” Only now I had that kiss to get over in addition to all the rest. “I don’t mean enough to him. I’ll never m
ean enough to him. Not ever as much as he means to me.”
Chapter Eight
King
“What?” I scowled at Jorge for interrupting my workout, putting my gloves on the speed bag to stop the motion while blinking the sting of salt from my eyes.
“I said it’s late, man. Don’t you wanna grab something to eat before we go to the studio?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Go ahead and get something without me. I’m gonna see if I can find someone to spar with me.” I needed to let out some of the frustration. I hadn’t slept worth shit wondering what she was doing, and worse who she might be doing it with.
Jorge shot me an irritated glance but took off without hassling me anymore. We had already had a tense morning. His advice regarding Miriam had been misguided to say the least. I had tried things the heavy-handed way, and it had backfired. Miriam wasn’t like other women. That shit wouldn’t work with her. I would have to figure out a better approach. To clear my mind, I jumped rope. I sparred with some badass who knocked the breath out of me twice. I didn’t track the hours. By the time I packed my bag and got ready to leave it was noon. But I still had no clue what to do about her.
“Yo, hermano.” I set my drumsticks down in the middle of a lengthy drum fill when I saw Sager’s caller ID light up my cell. “¿Qué pedo?” What’s up? “Is everything alright?”
“I was gonna ask you the same thing.”
I let out a breath. “You first.”
“Well, we’re all moved into the condo. Blue’s at Black Cat putting the finishing touches on the album she cut with the Jones twins. I thought maybe I would come out to Vegas and join you for a while, if that would be cool.”
Scandalous Beat (The Tempest Rock Star series Book 6) Page 7