Seduction: Book 4 (Strong Young Women Series)

by Joyce Jordan

  She immediately saw him. He was seated at a two person little table amidst many six, eight, twelve person tables. Kelly wasn’t sure, but she thought there might have been longer tables behind a couple of walls she passed by as she was directed towards Rafe’s table. He stood as he saw her walk towards him.

  He kissed her cheek and pulled her seat back for her, then nodded at Spark who had joined Rafe’s bodyguards seated a few tables away. A few minutes later Daniel, who had driven them, joined and they were ordering their food.

  Kelly looked around, thinking she would like to come back some day with Ana. Evelyn and Jes too, if they liked Chinese food. They still had their Vegas winnings they were struggling to spend. Eating at such a place would be well worth the use of the winnings towards lunch or dinner here. She hoped the food tasted as good as she assumed it would or should.

  “You look beautiful.”

  She smiled at him. “Thanks. You chose the dress.”

  “Hhhmmmm,” he said with a glint in his eye. “What do you want to eat?”

  Kelly looked down on the menu. “I don’t know. I’d like some real meat, but all the meat choices sound good.” She went down the list and looked at the fish and chicken choices, then shook her head and came back to her original choice options. “What do you suggest?” she finally said and looked at him.

  He smiled at her. “Would you like me to order for you?”

  Kelly nodded, and hoped she managed to eat whatever he ordered. The meat she knew she would eat. But some of the food items, she had never eaten. She sipped her glass of wine and watched him make the order, then waited for the food to arrive. They both traded stories about their day, a habit they had fallen into.

  When the food arrived, Kelly almost bit her tongue. The aromas were making her salivate big time, but this wasn’t a fast food place where she could just gobble it all up and no one would care or even look at her twice. Besides it looked hot. She cut a small piece of meat and placed it on her tongue. Hot or not, she just needed a small sample.

  She moaned and quickly cut another piece. Rafe had ordered the Mongolian lamb chops for her. Did they do take out? Next time they ordered food, she would like to suggest this place, she thought.

  Because of the name, Kelly ordered ‘crying chocolate’ for dessert. Crying chocolate? Seriously? There was such a dessert? This was not one she would forget anytime soon. The name was really catchy. The taste didn’t disappoint.

  Rafe took care of the bill, asking that the bill from the table the bodyguards were sitting at, was added to his. As their waiter brought the slips for his signature, he held a little silver tray in his other hand.

  He placed it in front of Rafe, who pushed it to his side and signed the check. As he walked away, Rafe pushed the little silver tray towards her. A little silver dome covered it and she wondered what was inside. Maybe another round of dessert.

  Kelly eagerly lifted the lid off and was surprised to see a fortune cookie. She laughed and quickly removed the plastic wrapping. It looked a little more sophisticated than the usual fortune cookie wrapping. Kelly shrugged and just assumed it was the type used for such fine establishments. Although she somehow didn’t think they offered guests fortune cookies. Maybe they did, after all she had hers in front of her.

  She cracked it open and pulled out the little paper ribbon.

  ‘Your fortune lies underneath the table’

  “Huh?” Kelly asked. What table?

  “What does it say?” Rafe asked her.

  Kelly handed it to him. What could it mean? She shrugged, not that she ever believed in them, but it was always fun to read them.

  “Aren’t you going to look?” Rafe asked her.

  “Look where?”

  He raised his eyebrow. “Underneath the table,” he told her as he waved the little strip of white paper.

  “This table?” she asked point to it.

  “Aha, what harm could it do?” he asked grinning at her skepticism.

  Kelly laughed then decided to humor him. She looked ridiculous pushing her chair back and kneeling down. She decided to pretend like she had lost an earring and was picking it up. She saw something glinting, hanging by a thread. “Oh my God!” she whispered.

  “What is it?” Rafe asked as he looked at her from the opposite side.

  Kelly slowly extended her hand and pulled the string holding the glinting item she still couldn’t believe her eyes were seeing. She brought it closer and stared at it. It was the most beautiful ring she could imagine.

  “Will you marry me?” he asked as he took it from her fingers. He was kneeling beside her chair.

  With tears streaming down her cheeks, she could only nod. Rafe wiped them off and the next time she looked down, she saw the sparkling ring on her finger. “Oh my God!” she whispered again. “When? … How? … oh Rafe,” she said and started crying again.

  He turned her chair around and pulled her into his arms. “Baby, people will think I did something to you. Please stop crying,” he asked and used his thumbs again to wipe the tears off.

  Kelly laughed. “They’d be right in that. You just took my breath away. I never expected…Oh God. This is crazy.” She shook her head and kissed him hard. “I need to tell Ana,” she said and got up.

  Rafe laughed and took her hand, leading her outside. They quickly got into the SUV waiting for them outside. Kelly stared at her ring the whole way back. She still couldn’t believe it. Rafe had proposed? Really proposed, or was this just a dream? Ana would tell her, surely.

  “Excuse me,” she said to Gabe then dragged Ana from him. “Where is everyone else?” she asked Ana.

  “They should be here any minute,” she answered. “Where’s the fire, Kelly? And hello to you too.”

  Kelly grinned and lifted her hand and held it next to her face.

  Ana screamed.

  Kelly screamed.

  “Oh my goodness. Let me see,” she said and took Kelly’s hand. “Girlfriend, Rafe has a good eye. This is absolutely gorgeous.” She pulled her into the first available room, which was an empty guest bedroom. “How did it happen and when?”

  “Just a few minutes ago. At this Chinese restaurant called Bud…something. Oh gosh, I don’t even remember anymore, but we need to go back and dine there. Oh my goodness. The food is sinful,” she said. “Anyway,” she continued and waved her hand. She grinned and finally told her everything.

  Jes and Evelyn walked in as Kelly came to the end of her story. Ana took Kelly’s hand and held it up. More screams erupted and the story was retold.

  “Please tell me that’s another wedding I get to plan?” Jes asked.

  Kelly grinned. “Definitely. It just happened. Not more than a hour ago, so I can’t give you details. But yeah, you got the job,” she told her.

  “This is going to be quite a year for London Events.”

  “If they don’t drag it into next year,” Evelyn warned her. “But that said, I guess I better be looking at two dresses now. I love weddings.”

  “Have you told your parents?” Ana asked.

  “Oops,” Kelly cried out. “I wanted to tell you guys first. I wasn’t even sure if it was real or just a dream.” She grinned and looked at her rock. “But let me call them right now.”

  She took her phone and dialed her mom’s number. Surprisingly she answered. Kelly had assumed they would be at some party and would have needed to leave a voice mail. She walked into the empty closet and closed herself off in there.

  They put the phone on speaker phone and congratulated her. Apparently Rafe had already talked to her dad, and they were aware tonight was the night. They talked for another half an hour then she hung up. Kelly went to join her friends.

  Stefano took her hand and squealed. “He has great taste, both in women and jewelry. When’s the wedding, love?”

  “Don’t know yet. But you guys will be the first to know.” She hugged Stefano. They had come a long way from the day Ana had brought him to the house they had been renting in
college. Since then, they had been fast friends. It was great celebrating with friends.

  Ana handed her a glass. She realized that while she had been talking to her parents, they had brought wine to the room. Inevitably the discussion centered on weddings before it moved to other general topics.

  They teased Ana about Gabe shuttling back and forth between DC amd New York.

  Ana told them how she had seen a picture of Rafe tied to the bed the other day. Kelly blushed. “He showed you?” she asked surprised.

  Ana giggled. “No. He was laughing and I stepped close to him wanting to see what had him grinning like a fool. He had a throw covering his privates, thank God. But he was clearly angry at Gabe as he clicked away. I could see that there were a number of them, but sadly I only saw one.”

  “Okay, okay, okay,” she said when they kept asking her to dish out the goods. “I can’t be specific, but let’s just say, there was some Devonshire icecream with a naked man tied to a bed. At my mercy,” she said with a grin. “The rest you can imagine. Or you can try with your own man and enjoy the results yourselves.”

  “Mitch would never agree to be tied,” Evelyn complained. “That man is a control freak.”

  Jes swallowed the rest of her wine and held it out for a refill. “I think he shares the same DNA as Nate. Always in control is his middle name.”

  “I think I’d be able to have Manuel agree, but only so long as he doesn’t get to hear Rafe’s predicament.”

  Ana sighed. “Gabe is tricky. And besides, since he took pictures of Rafe, there is no way he would agree. I’d have to handcuff him while he was still asleep to be successful.”

  “That, I’d love to see,” Stefano said.

  Ana laughed. “You’d be surprised at what I can do when I’m motivated,” she said then sipped her wine. “And this here,” she added waving her other hand, “is pretty motivating.”

  “Amen sister,” Jes said and took a huge gulp. “I think I may be drunk.” She smiled and looked deep into her wine glass.

  “Not surprising at the rate you have been drinking.” Evelyn looked at the girl she knew from her childhood days and wondered why they had never been friends? Maybe their worlds just hadn’t clicked then? She was a nice girl and she was really glad she and Nate were a couple.

  She had been worried there for a while that Nate might go looking for his usual brain dead women he used to relieve his sexual urges. Her mother had breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw Jes. She had claimed that finally the Sullivan’s, especially the mother was now resting in peace over her sons choices in women.

  Evelyn had tried telling her mother that it was just a start, but that didn’t mean they were both married yet, but she had brushed it aside and predicted weddings soon. How she could tell, Evelyn had no idea and didn’t want to keep fighting with her, but neither did she want her to have false hopes. She just hoped her brothers didn’t do something stupid and lose these amazing women and man for Manuel.

  Who would have known Manuel would find love from someone who had lived across the other side of the world? It had been a chance meeting really, when Stefano had been in town at the same time Ana and Kelly had been attending a charity event that same weekend.

  Unfortunately, Gabe had almost lost his true love and could have prevented Ana from attending that event. Evelyn had even been surprised that she had come after that misunderstanding. Most women would have tried to avoid going to common events, especially so soon after the ocurrence.

  Kelly stood to take another bottle. “You know there is enough room for us all here. We could just sleep overnight and go home tomorrow,” she suggested.

  “”Yeah, the bed is big enough if we wanted to just take command of this room,” Evelyn agreed. “It’s extra king size after all.”

  Jes smiled. “I’ve never slept with other females before,” she said. “Life as an only child,” she clarified.

  “Same here,’ Evelyn supplied. “Not the only child bit, but the only girl.”

  Kelly lifted her hand. “Only child too, but we did a lot of sharing beds with Ana in college. Mostly when we were drunk,” she said remembering the numerous times they had gone wild after a lot of studying and tests were over.

  “As long as none of your men try to kill me, I’m game,” Stefano agreed. He moved to one side of the bed and pulled the bedding down. He gingerly got in the middle of the sheets, balancing his wine glass carefully. “Two on this side, and the other two on this other side,” he said pointing.

  “I need to use the bathroom first,” Ana agreed and went to take care of business.

  “I should get rid of the make-up otherwise I’ll regret it in the morning,” Kelly said following Ana into the bathroom.

  Jes was already fast asleep. Evelyn and Stefano looked at her and laughed. Stefano got down and picked her up, then placed her on the bed.

  “I’m just going to finish my glass, then join you guys,” Evelyn told him as he stepped back into bed.

  ∞∞∞∞

  Gabe walked back into his living room. He wasn’t sure if the men in his living room would be amused at what he had seen. They all wanted to go home and had been wondering why neither Stefano nor the women had made an appearance for the past couple of hours.

  “Is something wrong?” Manuel was the first to see him and ask.

  “Not exactly,” he hedged. “Just don’t over react or you could all be in trouble,” he told them. “I’m speaking from experience.”

  “Just spit it out, bro.” Manuel couldn’t think of what Gabe could mean. But it couldn’t be that bad if he was not in a panic, right?

  “They are sleeping.” When no one spoke he went on. “Together, as in the same bed.”

  “Is someone going to say something here?” Mitch asked. “Are you all not concerned with four women sharing a bed with one male?”

  “He’s gay,” Rafe told him.

  “Ah….” He cleared his throat. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but is he straight gay or bi? I mean does he dabble on both sides?”

  Manuel growled at him. “Watch it man. Haven’t we been over this already?”

  “No need to fight,” Gabe said coming to stand in between them. “Mitch, Stefano isn’t interested in women in the biblical sense. At all. Trust me, I know.” He looked at his sister’s boyfriend and new friend and wondered if he was listening. “Does that answer your concerns?”

  Mitch stepped back and nodded.

  “And Manuel, you can’t blame the man for asking. At least he did, I didn’t.”

  Manuel snickered. “Yeah, I still remember the day you got drunk at the club and she ignored you like yesterday’s garbage at that charity event.”

  Nate and Rafe followed with laughter and Gabe shook his head as he took his seat back.

  “Well,” Rafe said. “I better go and carry my fiancee home.”

  Gabe laughed. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he told him with a huge grin. None of them want to go home.”

  “You said they were sleeping? Didn’t you?” Nate asked.

  “So how do you know they don’t want to go home?” Mitch asked frowning at him.

  He lifted his legs up and placed them on the coffee table. He gave them all another huge and satisfying grin. “They might have communicated in another way,” he said.

  “Which is?” Rafe asked.

  Manuel leaned against the couch. “I see Stefano’s work all over this.”

  “It wasn’t his handwriting on the notice that was on the door,” Gabe replied.

  “Whose?” All four asked.

  “It’s probably best if you saw it yourselves,” he suggested. They stood still for a few seconds, then all rushed towards the bedrooms. They didn’t have to go far. The first bedroom had a note stuck outside that was almost falling off the door.

  Only one penis allowed at a time.

  As for the rest…of the penes,

  JESAK will see you tomorrow.

  “Who the fuck is Jesa
k?” Mitch asked.

  “Well, if only one penus is allowed, we can all go in one at a time,” Nate suggested.

  “And see who Jesak is?” Rafe asked again. “You think someone by that name is in there?”

  Manuel laughed. “Initials. J. E. S. A. K. It’s the five of them in there,” he said shaking his head.

  “No wonder why Gabe was relishing this,” Rafe said wishing he could get him back.

  Nate laughed. “He sure seemed to be having a jolly good time.”

  Mitch placed his ear against the door. He couldn’t hear anything. So maybe they were really asleep. But if not, they could be in trouble for peeping in.

  Manuel looked at Mitch as he straightened up. “I doubt it’s locked, but besides, even if you wanted to, you can’t go in there. Already one penis has been accounted for.”

  “You’re not helping,” Mitch growled. “And I’m not sure I…this is so fucked up.”

  He shrugged. “Sorry, but he does have a penis. I know that for a fact.”

  Nate stepped in between them. “Okay, let’s not get carried away. We might as well peek in, and settle for the night. Either here, or you can come back in the morning,” he suggested.

  As they looked at each other and nodded in acknowledgment, Mitch who was closest to the door, opened it slowly and they all stood at the door and looked in to see five bodies huddled together, snuggled, spooning, without a care in the world. It was like seeing five little babies cuddled together.

  When they heard someone stirring, they quickly closed the door and moved away.

  “I don’t remember this being a sleepover,” Rafe grumbled as he took his seat next to Gabe. “And don’t even make a snarky comment,” he warned him.

  Gabe shrugged and brought the bottle he was holding to his lips. “What would I say?”

  “That he can’t even celebrate his own good fortune on the night of his engagement?” Manuel suggested.

  “Hindsight is 20-20, bro,” Nate told him.

  “Not that I could have stopped her from coming here,” Rafe told them. “She was intent on coming to tell Ana. Not that I begrudge her that, but …”