by Jo Leigh
“I’m here for a meeting,” she shouted back and waved the invitation for him to see.
“Then you’ll be wanting the Passion-tini.”
“No-” she shook her head “-I got invited to join a group called Martinis and Bikinis.”
“That’s right.” He nodded and flashed a white-toothed grin. “Chassys prepares a different Bikinitini every month. September is Passion-tini month. It’s a sassy mixture of passion fruit, mint, fresh lime juice and citrus vodka. Addictive stuff.”
“Hook me up.”
He made the drink and slid it across the bar. She reached in her purse for a twenty, but he held up his palm. “Drinks are on the house for Martinis and Bikinis first timers.”
“Really?” Ooh, she liked this club already. “Thanks.”
“The group is meeting right through there.” He jerked his thumb toward a curtain at the back of the room. “I think everyone’s pretty much here.”
Suddenly, she felt a little weak-kneed with nervousness. Katie took a long pull of the Passion-tini. It was delicious and powerful enough to bolster her determination to change her life.
Tentatively, she edged back the black silk curtain and stepped into a room with black upholstered banquettes on both sides and several small tables in the middle of the room.
There were about thirty women in attendance, each holding a Passion-tini and clustered in small groups, engaged in animated conversations. Apparently the official meeting had yet to begin.
Not knowing anyone, Katie felt out of place.
A tall elegant-looking blonde standing in the front of the room caught Katie’s attention. Her hair was combed back off her forehead, revealing a stunning widow’s peak. She had high, beautiful cheekbones that put her in mind of Meryl Streep. Her eyes were deep blue and she had a smile on her face, but it was easy to see she was a reserved woman who held her real emotions closely in check.
“Hiya,” said a short, breathy-voiced woman with curly auburn hair, snapping brown eyes and apple-dumpling cheeks. She stuck her hand out. “You must be new. I’m Tanya.”
One look in Tanya’s eyes and she immediately felt welcome. “Nice to meet you, Tanya. I’m Katie.”
“I just joined M &B a few months ago myself.” Tanya giggled. “I kid you not. These ladies saved my life after a lousy divorce. Are you divorced? A lot of women join M &B after a divorce.”
“Never married.”
“Good for you. That’s one way to avoid ending up with a louse.” Tanya giggled again and that’s when Katie realized the giggling was a dodge for her nervousness. Knowing Tanya was nervous, as well, soothed Katie’s own trepidation.
“Who’s that?” Katie nodded her head at the sleek blonde.
“Oh, that’s Lindsay Beckham. She’s the owner of Chassys and founder of our group. She’s quite the businesswoman and so daring. She’s an example for us all. She’s helped empower so many women. Including my best pal, Kim.”
“Which one is Kim?”
“She’s not here tonight.” Giggling, Tanya lowered her voice. “She’s recovering from getting a boob job that was part of her Martini dare.”
“Martini dare?”
“You’ll see. It’s the reason for the club. The group dares you to go beyond your comfort zone and then offers emotional support for you in the process.”
“So let me get this straight. The group dared your friend Kim to get a boob job?”
Tanya shook her head. “No, they dared her to do something she’d always wanted to do, but had been too afraid to take the leap.”
“So what have you dared?” Katie leaned down closer to whisper to Tanya and her gaze strayed to the woman’s ample bosom.
Tanya caught the look, giggled and wiggled proudly. “These are all me. I haven’t done a dare yet.”
“How come?”
“Lindsay doesn’t think I’m ready.”
“Oh, so Lindsay gets to decide who takes a dare and when?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Lindsay sounds like a bit of a control freak.”
Tanya’s eyes widened as she looked around Katie’s shoulder. “Um, Katie…”
“She’s standing right behind me, isn’t she?”
Tanya just giggled.
Oh, gosh, when was she ever going to learn to keep her big trap shut? This certainly wasn’t an auspicious start to her first Martinis and Bikinis meeting.
Cringing, Katie turned to face the woman and sheepishly wiggled her fingertips. “Hi, there.”
“Lindsay Beckham, resident control freak.” A bemused look was in the woman’s eyes, but she wasn’t smiling. Katie couldn’t tell if she was pissed off or amused.
“Katie Winfield.”
Lindsay studied her with an appraising look and she took so long in responding that Katie began to think it might be best if she just slunk out of there.
“I have an invitation.” She held it up. “See?”
Lindsay looked past Katie. “You came alone?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, it’s nice to have you. Please take a seat. The meeting is about to start.”
Tanya plopped down at an empty table and patted the seat next to her. Kate sat down beside her.
The program started with the women who’d completed their dares from the previous month regaling the rest of the audience with the details of their adventures. One woman had gone skydiving, and she rhapsodized about the experience. Another had dared to ask out her handsome new neighbor, only to discover to her disappointment that he was gay.
The group gave them a rousing round of applause and then Lindsay stepped up again. “And now, we’ve reached the part of the evening where two members of our group are chosen to pick a scroll from the sacred Box of Dares.”
A ripple of excitement ran through the crowd as Lindsay made a big production of bringing out a heavy wooden box.
“As always, we recite the rules first.” Lindsay pantomimed unrolling a parchment and held up the invisible rules in front of her. “The members chosen for the dare must be approved by a majority of the membership present. As you swore when you joined Martinis and Bikinis, once you agree to pick a dare, there’s no backing out. Period. Even quitting the group will not exempt you from your most serious obligation.” She looked out over the gathered women. “Hands up if you understand.”
Everyone except Katie raised their hands. She was only visiting.
“Then by the completely nonimportant authority vested in me by the Martinis and Bikinis Organization, I announce that Sherry will take the first dare this month. Everyone agree?”
It was a unanimous vote.
Sherry, a thin but curvaceous blonde with short spiked hair and crimson lipstick, bounced up to the front of the room. Katie noticed her hand shook slightly as she drew out a scrolled piece of parchment wrapped with a red ribbon. These women took their dares seriously.
After untying the ribbon, Sherry rolled down the scroll and read her dare aloud. “Take a ride in an expensive Italian sports car, but do it completely in the nude.”
The women hooted and catcalled and craned forward with interest. “Go, Sherry!” someone shouted.
Pfft, that sounded easy to Katie. She thought of the Babes Gone Braless video she’d appeared in during spring break her sophomore year of college. Now that was a dare.
Remember, you’ve sworn off doing rash things. Maybe this group isn’t for you if they encourage people to do rash things.
“Katie.” Lindsay held up the box and shook it. “Your turn.”
She splayed a hand to her chest. “Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“But…but I’m new.”
Lindsay looked around at the group. “Anyone opposed to Katie picking tonight?”
Katie was the only one who raised her hand.
“Majority rules.” Lindsay wagged the box. “You’re up.”
/> “I’m not even an official member,” Katie protested.
“You can join tonight.”
Katie shook her head. “I’m not sure I’m ready to make that commitment.”
“What’s the matter? Are you too afraid to empower your life?” Lindsay challenged.
Katie narrowed her eyes. She knew what this was about. Lindsay was getting even with her for that control-freak comment by making her choose a dare on her very first night.
Not one to back down from a challenge, Katie shot to her feet. For a split second, a wave of panic washed over her. Here she was again, jumping headlong into something without considering the consequences. But she wasn’t about to let Lindsay see her hesitate.
With a toss of her head, she marched to the front of the room, stuck her hand in the box and drew her first dare.
She slipped the red velvet ribbon from the crisp parchment scroll, unrolled it and read out loud to the room. “You have drawn a three-part dare. Each of your dares is to be completed within one week’s time. The second and third dares will be mailed to reach you by the Thursday of each week. For this week, your dare is to make love to the man of your dreams in a forbidden place.”
Stunned, Katie turned to gape at Lindsay. It was as if the dare had been tailor-made for her. Correction. Tailor-made for the old Katie. The one who used to do foolish things like make love to strangers in closets.
“Ball’s in your court, Katie.” Lindsay smirked. “Are you all talk? Or do you dare?”
ANTICIPATION.
A heightened sense of expectation had been nipping at his heels for three days. Liam was so stoked about seeing Katie again that he pulled into the secure parking lot three blocks down from Sharper Designs fifteen minutes ahead of their scheduled Friday meeting.
All week long, he’d kept thinking about Tony’s advice.
Seduce Katie Winfield. Have a good time. Sow a few wild oats.
His body tensed with the thought of her. His mouth filled with the remembered taste of her sweet lips as he hopped out of his Lamborghini, briefcase in tow and headed for Sharper Designs.
And then, as if he’d conjured her from thin air, Liam spied Katie standing on the sidewalk, peering into the window of a pet store.
Irresistibly, his eyes were drawn to her. Her sleek blond Boston Brahmin hair was capped off by a bright red beret. She looked incredibly jaunty as she raised a lithe hand, doffed the beret and lightly combed her fingers through her tousled tresses before putting it back on again.
She wore a soft fuzzy sweater the same color as the beret. He had no doubt it was made from the finest cashmere. The hem of her swingy black skirt molded to her slim thighs when she moved, fluid as water. Just watching her caused his muscles to tighten.
She seemed to encapsulate all the things he longed for, but feared he could never have. Good breeding, perfect manners, high-born status. A genuine sense of fun.
Did she have any idea how impossibly beautiful she was, with that silky smooth skin, long, swanlike neck and the cutest little overbite. Did she have a clue as to how many men would give their right arm to be with her?
“Fancy meeting you here,” he said as he approached, but then felt like a total idiot for saying something so stupid and clichéd. Smooth move from the guy dubbed Boston’s most eligible bachelor of the year by Young Bostonian magazine.
She turned and the minute she saw him, her face lit up, warming him from the inside out. “Liam.”
Their gazes met and he saw such a melancholic expression come into her eyes that it made him pause.
What was she so sad about?
His gaze drifted to the pet-shop window. There was a cocker-spaniel puppy in the window, paws pressed against the glass, eyeing Katie with total puppy love. A feeling he understood well.
“Friend of yours?” He smiled.
“I drop by to see him every day on my lunch hour. Sometimes I even go in to pet him. Honestly, I can’t understand why he hasn’t been adopted. Isn’t he the most adorable thing?”
“Yes, he is,” Liam said, but he was looking at her, not the puppy. “Why don’t you buy him?”
“Me? Oh, no.” She shook her head. “I can’t even keep goldfish alive.”
“Says who?”
“Everyone in my family.” She chuckled. “Just ask them.”
“I’m not asking everyone in your family,” he said. “I’m asking you.”
Katie shrugged. “My apartment doesn’t allow pets.”
“Oh, is that it?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
His gaze caught lazily on her lips. “Would you like to take him for a walk?”
“We’ve got a meeting in ten minutes.”
“I’m the client. I can delay the meeting if I want to. Would you like to take the puppy for a walk?”
“We could do that?”
He shrugged. “When you’re Boston’s most eligible bachelor…”
“You can do anything,” she finished for him, and grinned.
“You’ve got it.”
“But what’s Max going to say?”
“Let me take care of Max.” Liam pulled out his cell phone and gave Max Kruger a call to tell him he was commandeering his employee and pushing the meeting back for half an hour. “We’re all set.”
Five minutes later, Liam and Katie left the pet shop with the exuberant puppy, headed for the nearby park. The sun was warm, the breeze cool and the smell of autumn crisp and fresh. The puppy tugged hard on the leash, happy to be out of the window and exploring the world.
“Did you ever have a dog when you were growing up?” Liam asked.
“Once, but I wasn’t allowed to keep him. Brooke turned out to be allergic. You?”
He shook his head. “We couldn’t afford the food and vet bills.”
“Poor us. We’ve been so deprived.” She laughed; a soft melodic sound that lit him up inside.
You can say that again.
“Look at the way his hair flows, so soft and silky.”
“I’m looking,” he said, but his eyes weren’t on the cocker spaniel.
“He’s so proud and proper, the way he holds his head up and prances.” Katie tilted her own head. “I wonder if he has a pedigree.”
“Why do you think I had to put down a three-hundred-dollar deposit just to take him for a walk?”
She graced him with a beatific smile. “Thank you for that.”
“You could change apartments, you know?”
“What?”
“If you wanted to buy him, that is. You could always move.”
“It’d be a big commitment,” she hedged.
“Yeah,” he said.
“I’m not ready to tackle such a long-term obligation.”
“If you were ready, what would you name him?”
“Something befitting his nobility. Duke, perhaps. That’s what I named the puppy that was mine for a weekend.”
“It suits him.” He nodded.
“Oh, look,” she said, “an ice-cream vendor. Want some?”
Without waiting for an answer, she and Duke took off toward the ice-cream vendor pushing his cart through the park. Liam tagged along, enjoying her enthusiasm.
She bought an orange push-up. Liam hadn’t seen one since he was a kid. It was orange-flavored ice cream on a stick wrapped up in a cardboard container festooned with cartoon characters. You were supposed to push up the ice cream as you ate it. The theory was the cardboard kept sticky confections off messy children.
“Mmm, wanna bite?” She pushed up the orange ice cream and offered it to him.
“No, that’s okay. You go ahead.”
“Come on. It’s great.” She waggled it under his nose. “I dare you.”
He smiled, shook his head.
“What? Are you afraid I’ll give you girl cooties?”
Cooties. Something else he hadn�
��t heard since childhood.
“I’m not afraid of girl cooties.”
“Prove it,” she goaded.
She had no idea of the craving ripping and clawing through him as he looked at her lips, dotted with a spot of ice cream, or she wouldn’t tempt him so glibly. If she had the slightest idea about the appetites he kept tightly leashed, the hunger that even now, in this park, in the bright light of the noonday sun, stressed every atom of his self-control, she would run for her life.
Liam didn’t want to eat ice cream. He wanted to eat her.
“Come on,” she cajoled.
Impulsively, he bit off a bite of her push-up. She was right. It tasted delicious.
He thought he might scare her with his abrupt about-face, the slippage of his control. But, no, she wasn’t the least bit fazed. Her tongue flicked out and she licked the part he’d just bitten into.
“Mmm.” She winked seductively. “Now I have boy cooties. Guess we’ll have cooties together.”
“I guess so,” he smiled, turned on by her antics.
Duke whimpered.
“Don’t worry,” Katie said, pushing up the remainder of the ice cream for the puppy to lick, “we haven’t forgotten you.”
A few minutes later, they rounded a corner and came upon a pond where a group of picnickers were feeding bread to a flock of hungry ducks.
The minute Duke caught scent of the waterfowl, he went berserk. The cocker spaniel jerked on the leash, almost yanking Katie off her feet.
Liam grabbed for her elbow but she was already gone, pulled toward the water by the feisty Duke, who no longer looked so regal with his teeth bared, issuing a bark so commanding it sounded as if it could have come from a Doberman.
The picnickers gawked.
The ducks scattered.
Katie tried pulling on the leash, but apparently Duke held an entrenched hatred of ducks. The mild tugging on his neck wasn’t enough to stop his forward motion.
Liam sprinted after them.
Duke hit the water with a loud smack.
Katie teetered on the bank, holding tightly to the leash.
“Let go,” Liam called.
But his warning came too late. The heel of her right boot was wedged between two pathway stones. She jerked backward in an attempt to extract herself, but the dog was swimming in the opposite direction.