Learning to Tango

by Louise Hall

  “You’re still bleeding, angel,” Kian reluctantly put her down on the ground. He brushed his thumb gently over her swollen bottom lip but it continued to bleed.

  He fumbled in his pockets and found her discarded panties. “I know it’s not ideal?”

  Cate rolled her eyes, “I’ll do it.” She pressed the silk against her throbbing lip.

  “I still think you should get checked out at the hospital.”

  Cate shook her head, “the last time I went to a hospital here in L.A. I was having a miscarriage. I’d rather wait until we get back home to Seattle.”

  Kian checked his watch, “there’s no way we’re going to make that last flight, angel. I’ll book us in at a hotel at the airport and we’ll get the first flight home tomorrow morning.”

  Cate was disappointed that she wouldn’t be there when the children first woke up. “I think my lip might have stopped bleeding. How does it look?” She looked at her crumpled, blood-stained panties. “I’m guessing you don’t still want to keep them?”

  Kian wrapped an arm around her waist and led her towards the bright lights of the bar. He took the panties and stuffed them in his pocket. “Let’s get a drink.”

  The bar was packed but Cate spied two empty stools at the far end. As she hopped up on to one of the stools, it felt really strange not to be wearing any underwear. She was convinced that the other patrons could tell what she and Kian had been doing before the tyre blew out.

  “Drink this,” Kian put a tumbler of amber liquid down in front of her.

  “What is it?”

  “Brandy,” Kian said. “It’s good for shock.”

  Cate took a large gulp. “Ew!” As the foul-tasting liquid burned down the back of her throat, she started coughing. She’d never had brandy before. “That’s gross.”

  Trying to be sympathetic, Kian rubbed her back but he couldn’t stop laughing at her flushed cheeks and watery eyes – it was like he’d asked her to drink battery acid.

  As she sat back down on the stool, she realised how nice it was not to feel the butt plug, hard and foreign inside her bottom. The butt plug… Cate remembered Kian yanking it out but she’d spiralled into such a dizzy climax that she couldn’t remember what he’d done with it afterwards. She dumped her handbag on the bar and rummaged through it, praying that it was in there.

  “What have you lost?” Kian asked, taking another swig from his bottle of beer.

  It wasn’t there. “We’ve got to get back to the car.” Cate was beyond mortified. They had to find the butt plug before the poor driver did. She didn’t even want to think about a stranger touching something that had been so intimately inside her just an hour ago.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “We need to get the…” Cate looked over her shoulder. The bar was so crowded, if she said “butt plug” she could almost guarantee that she’d be overheard. “The thing.”

  “What thing?”

  Cate wanted to slap him. “You know… the thing.”

  “You’re going to have to be more specific, angel.”

  Cate narrowed her eyes at him, “fine. We need to get the present you gave me this morning.”

  Kian threw his head back and laughed. He reached into his pocket, “you mean this?” The purple jewel peeked between his fingers.

  “Put that away,” Cate yelped, quickly covering his hand with hers, “what if somebody saw it?”

  “You’re so cute,” Kian chuckled. His wife was so proper sometimes.

  After she’d forced down – at Kian’s insistence – the rest of the disgusting brandy, the replacement car still hadn’t arrived. Kian was still finishing his bottle of beer so Cate went to the restroom. As she was walking back to the bar, she heard whistles and loud cheers coming from the other side. Her curiosity piqued, Cate manoeuvred through the crowds. When she got near the front, she realised that they were all watching as a man with bleached blonde hair and bulging biceps cockily straddled a mechanical bull.

  The klaxon sounded and the bull began to jerk and spin. “Oh God, I’m going to puke.” It only took a couple of seconds before the tank of a man was tossed up in the air and landed heavily on the thick red crash mats below.

  “That’s Pedro,” the man with the klaxon yelled. “He doesn’t suffer fools.”

  “Who’s next to take him on?” There were no volunteers. Cate could feel the butterflies in her stomach; she had always, always wanted to have a go on a mechanical bull. She looked at the crowds of people surrounding the bull and almost backed out. She’d read somewhere that Beyoncé had an alter-ego when she went on stage, Sasha Fierce. Cate needed to give her own alter-ego an equally powerful name. Today she’d worn a butt plug, danced a sexy-ass Rumba on national TV and got her very first ten, had a mind-blowing orgasm in the back of a town car, drank brandy for the first time and she’d nearly been in a car accident. Why the heck not add ride a mechanical bull to that list?

  “I’ll do it,” Cate said quickly before she could change her mind.

  Klaxon Man raised an eyebrow, “a little thing like you wants to take on the mighty Pedro?”

  Cate felt giddy, “why not?”

  “Alrighty then,” Klaxon Man said. “Let’s give the lil’ lady some encouragement, shall we?”

  “Ride the Bull,” the crowd started shouting.

  Klaxon Man leaned close to Cate, “if you can stay on for more than thirty seconds, I’ll give you a hundred bucks.” The expression on his face said that he thought his money was perfectly safe. “You’re the first lil’ lady brave enough to take on my bull tonight. It’s more than time to shake things up a little.” As she picked her way across the squashy crash mats, he cheekily swatted her behind. “I won’t go any easier on you though.”

  When Cate didn’t come back straight away, Kian retraced her steps to the restrooms. “Ride the Bull.” Something told him to follow the shouts.

  “What’s your name, sweet thing?”

  “Sarah,” Cate laughed, thinking about what Liv would say if she could see her now knickerless and straddling this huge mechanical bull. Not so Serious Sarah.

  “Excuse me,” Kian pushed his way to the front. She might have said her name was Sarah but he knew his wife’s voice.

  Fuck! Cate was sat with the mechanical bull wedged between her slender thighs. Her red dress had ridden up a little, giving the other patrons a tantalising glimpse of her soft skin.

  As the bull began to move, Cate moved with it - the rocking of her hips reminded him of how she’d ridden his fingers earlier that evening.

  It jerked harder and spun faster until she was just a blur of red. She was so fucking alive. Her laughter, so genuine and free, captivated everybody watching.

  With one hand raised in the air, her breasts bounced, straining against the front of her dress. Kian licked his lips; he could still taste her nipples against his tongue.

  “What I wouldn’t give to be between those thighs” The jerk next to Kian said to his friend.

  Kian clenched his fist inside his pocket, feeling the hard jewel of the butt plug. He nudged the jerk, “that’s my wife.”

  Before the jerk could reply, Kian gave him a smug grin, “and it’s every bit as good as it looks.”

  She was thrown from the bull and landed on the red crash mats. As Klaxon Man leaned over, Cate brushed her hair out of her eyes, “how long?”

  He chuckled, “one minute twenty.”

  “Yes!” Cate raised her fist in the air. “You can keep the hundred bucks.”

  Kian didn’t like seeing Klaxon Man so close to his wife. He climbed into the pit and picked her up, careful to smooth her skirt over her legs. She might have forgotten that she wasn’t wearing any underwear but he certainly fucking hadn’t.

  “Do you know this guy, Sarah?” Klaxon Man frowned at Kian.

  “You could say that,” Cate giggled. “He’s my husband.”

  Kian carried her out of the crowded bar. “You can put me down,” Cate insisted when they were on the qu
iet sidewalk.

  “If I put you down,” Kian gritted his teeth, “there’s a good chance I’ll be arrested for public indecency.”

  Cate laughed, “you really got turned on watching me ride a mechanical bull?”

  Her naiveté still surprised him. “Every single man in that room got turned on watching you ride that bull, angel.”

  Cate shook her head, “you’re very sweet.”

  Kian kissed just below her ear, “right now, I’m anything but sweet. I’m this close to fucking you hard against the nearest flat surface.”

  The driver came up to them, “oh good you’re here. I’ve been trying to call you. The replacement car has arrived.” He looked at Cate, who was still cradled in Kian’s arms. “Oh dear, are you still feeling poorly, Mrs Warner?”

  “She’s OK,” Kian grimaced, trying to ignore his painfully hard cock. “She’s just ridden that goddamn mechanical bull.”

  The driver’s eyes widened, “Pedro?” He looked at Cate, “you rode Pedro?”

  “Um, yes?”

  “He’s a legend around here,” the driver explained, “only one person has ever stayed on him longer than a minute and he was an ex-Rodeo champion.”

  Cate leaned closer to Kian so only he could hear her, “I must have really strong thighs then.”

  “Temptress,” Kian grunted, the very last thing he needed to think about right now, when they were so far from the privacy of a hotel room was Cate’s oh-so-sexy thighs because of course, that just made him think about what was between them; her hot, damp pussy without the barrier of her panties.

  CHAPTER 27

  “It’s just a house, sweetheart,” Irene said when Cate finally plucked up the courage to call her mum back on Sunday night. “It’s four walls and a roof.”

  “It’s more than that,” Cate frowned, feeling like a petulant teenager. “It’s our home.”

  Irene sighed wearily. “I love you but you can’t keep me preserved in this big, empty house like a museum exhibit of your childhood which you visit once maybe twice a year. You aren’t the shy, bookish teenager or even the sad, broken wife that you were when you lived upstairs in that attic bedroom. I’ve got to be allowed to change too.”

  “I’m not very good with change,” Cate admitted, bringing her knees up to her chest. She looked out across Puget Sound. “I want you to be happy, Mum.”

  “I know you do,” Irene said. “I never thought I’d say this but I’m ready to retire. It’s Sierra’s first birthday soon and apart from on Skype, I’ve only seen her once…”

  Cate felt unbelievably guilty, “I know we should visit more… Kian’s thinking about retiring from football at the end of the season.”

  “Hush,” Irene said firmly. “I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. It’s not just you. I’ve never met Sofia either. Ben, Erin and Oliver might be in Manchester right now but I know that he’s been offered an exciting new job in Hong Kong. You and Liv are in Seattle and Remy’s in Rome. My children are scattered across the globe and I’ve never even been outside Europe – I’ve always been too busy to travel.”

  “You know that we’d love for you to come and stay with us,” Cate said, “but what about your company?”

  “I’m glad that all the hard work has paid off and that the company is successful but do you know what I’ve realised – the pride I feel about the company is nothing compared to how I feel when I think about you, Liv, Remy and Ben.”

  “My son grew up without a dad but he has become the most amazing husband and father.”

  “I was so bitter from my failed marriage that I was determined that none of my girls would grow up foolishly believing in magic or fairy-tales. I wanted you to see the grittiness of the real world. But Remy was so stubborn that as soon as she was old enough, she turned her back on all the dreams I had for her of being a high-powered CEO, a surgeon or a lawyer and she followed her heart to Italy. She fell in love with Vincenzo and had my grandsons, Rocco and Luca.”

  “It broke my heart watching Liv struggle so much. I used to lie awake at night, worrying that I would lose my beautiful, artistic daughter with a heart as big as the sun to a bottle of vodka. When she was little, she used to draw me pictures and I’d put them up on the walls of my office. She was so sweet and trusting and then… I hated Ryan. I would look at the pictures she’d drawn for me and I’d wonder if I could actually get away with hiring a hit-man. He reminded me so much of your biological father. With every cruel word, I watched my baby girl shrink a little bit more.”

  “When I see her now…” Irene cleared her throat. “She’s so happy in Seattle with Jax and little Sofia; I can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am.”

  Cate shared her mum’s relief, “she is.”

  “When you told me that you were married and pregnant at just eighteen, I thought it was a mistake.

  “Mum!” Cate flinched. “Lola was not a mistake.”

  “I know, it’s just that you were so very young and professional footballers don’t have the best track record for being good husbands and fathers.”

  “Kian is so much more than just his job.”

  “I know,” Irene said. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I was wrong. I thought that you couldn’t do it because you were so young but you’re a wonderful mum to Lola, Mateo and Sierra. With all the challenges of being the family of a professional footballer, the fact that your children are so happy and well-adjusted is all because of you and Kian. It’s a testament to both of you that your family has survived so many things that would have broken others apart.”

  “I watch you every week on Stepping Out. You have blossomed from that shy, bookish teenager into a sexy, confident young woman.”

  “I thought I knew what was best for my children. After your biological father left, I thought that romantic love could only lead to heartbreak. I wanted you girls to have the security of an established career before you got married and had babies – I dropped out of university when I found out that I was pregnant with Remy. As a single parent, it was such a struggle to pay the rent and make sure that you were all fed and clothed.”

  “I thought that the only successes which mattered were professional ones. But I was wrong. I’m incredibly proud of Ben’s career, Remy and Vincenzo’s successful business, Liv’s beautiful art, your first-class honours degree and charity work but what I’m the most proud of is the people you’ve become and the families you’ve created. I thought that strength was measured by getting up every morning and going out to work, by the amount of your pay cheque each month but you have all taught me that it is so much more than that.”

  “Even without a role model, Ben has become an amazing husband and father. Remy was brave enough to follow her dreams to Italy even though she was just a teenager and didn’t speak a single word of Italian. Liv has overcome her struggles with low self-esteem and alcohol dependence to build a new life with Jax and Sofia and her art. With all the odds that were stacked against you, you have a beautiful, happy family and you are using your blessings to help other families who are struggling.”

  “Strength isn’t just about money; it’s about the size of your heart. I’m so proud of how you have all accepted Ruby into the family. I know that can’t have been easy.”

  “She’s our sister,” Cate shrugged.

  “I’ve spent the last twenty five years of my life being solely defined by my company; I’m Irene Klein of Klein Consulting. I’ve got more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of my life but I’m lonely.”

  “Mum…” Cate felt tears prick the corners of her eyes.

  “I can’t live with ghosts anymore, Cate. That’s why I’m selling the house. I’ve had an offer accepted on an apartment in Manchester city centre. It’s perfect – within walking distance of great restaurants, shopping and theatres. I’m trying to persuade Jean to do the same.”

  “Although I don’t intend to be home much - there’s a big, wide world out there for me to catch up on. It’s time for
me to be brave like my children. Jackson Holdings have made a very generous offer for the company and I’m going to take it. I’ll retain a minority shareholding so I can still keep my hand in.”

  “I’m so excited for you, Mum,” Cate swiped at a lone tear trickling down her cheek.

  “There’s a but there, isn’t there?” Irene laughed.

  “I know it sounds silly but what about Christmas? You’ve always had that big party on Christmas Eve?”

  “Maybe we can have it at your house this year?” Irene suggested. “Or Liv’s? It doesn’t matter where we are in the world; we’re still family, sweetheart.”

  “Did you know that Ben had been offered a job in Hong Kong?” Cate asked Kian when she went upstairs.

  “Mm,” Kian pretended to be engrossed in something on his iPad.

  “Why am I always last to know about anything?”

  He laughed, “come here.” He lifted up his arm so she could snuggle against him. “I knew he was thinking about it. Nothing has been decided yet.”

  “So you keep saying,” Cate harrumphed, thinking about the big decision they had to make as a family about whether Kian was going to retire from football at the end of this season. “Won’t it be weird not having them living just across the courtyard?”

  “Is that what you want?” Kian asked, switching off the bedside lamp. “When I retire from football, do you want to go back to Manchester?”

  “I don’t know,” Cate said. “We both grew up in Manchester, two of our children were born there but Seattle feels like home now too. What do you think? Is it even a possibility that we could stay here?”

  “If that’s what we both want…” Kian stroked his fingers through her hair. “I miss Mum and Sinead but we’ve built a great life here. I like waking up to the sound of ferryboats on the Sound. I don’t have to be Kian Warner, ex-England international. I can take Mats to the aquarium without being pestered for autographs and I can watch Lola’s soccer matches. I can make love to my sexy-ass wife on the porch swing.”

  Cate blushed, “we did that once!”

  Kian chuckled, “if you want a repeat, just let me know?”