I set my hand on her shoulder, and she finally looks at me. “Is he?”
“Yes.” She shrugs off my hand.
“Then why are we here?” Royce questions rather dramatically.
Her nose crinkles, and she purses her lips. “I need a man in my life and my bed. Eventually I want to have a child. A legacy to carry on what I’ve built. What we’ve built.” Her eyes flash with heat, but they don’t stray from Keehan.
“And you want to do that without Keehan?” I push.
“No! He’ll always be a part of my life . . .”
“In what way?” I push harder.
“All ways,” she fires back.
I shake my head. “Not if you don’t find him attractive. That’s why all of these men are here and he’s about to score with a hot brunette.”
“This is ridiculous.” She spins on her heels and practically storms to the VIP section.
“Not what I had hoped would happen.” I sigh and massage the back of my neck.
Royce smiles away, hands in the pockets of his tailored-to-perfection suit, and rocks back on his heels.
“What do you know that I don’t? The situation feels pretty out of hand right now. I’d expected her to see him with Gloria over there and get so jealous lasers would spew from her eyes, causing her to dramatically intervene and claim her man. Only she’s now in the VIP section about to chat up her prospects.”
“Oh, she’s jealous. Look at her.” He lifts his chin in our client’s direction.
I turn around and watch Rochelle politely introduce herself to the firefighter, whose gaze slides up and down her form and then back to her face. She offers him a tight smile, not appreciating his assessment. However, as she speaks to him, her gaze keeps flitting to the bar where Keehan and his companion are carrying on. Her lips seem to tighten, and her jaw firms in what I now know, after having been around her for the past week, is pure irritation.
“I think we should turn this up a notch. What do you say?” Royce grins wickedly.
“How so?”
“I’m going to go over and invite Keehan and his lady companion to have a drink in our section.” He grins some more.
“You’re ruthless.” I cover my smirk with my hand.
“Perhaps, but you’ve got a woman to get back to, I’ve got a life back in Boston, and I’m tired of being in Cali. It’s time to turn this motha out.”
“Brother, I couldn’t agree with you more.” The desire to get the hell out of California and back to the East Coast and Skyler is burning through my veins.
Royce nods and heads over to where Keehan and his friend are at the bar. I see him order a drink from the bartender and then speak to the couple. Once he has his drink, the two of them follow him back to the VIP section, all smiles and soft touches.
“Keehan.” I offer my hand in greeting.
“Parker.” He shakes my hand. “This where all the excitement is happening?” His word choices encourage the party vibe, but they come across solemn. He is definitely affected by what we’ve set in motion for Rochelle, regardless of spending time with the beautiful woman next to him.
“Yep. And who is this lovely lady?” I pretend not to know the woman I hired from the modeling service where I found the other women.
“Gloria,” she states without missing a beat, following along.
“Pretty name for a pretty lady.” Royce lifts her hand and kisses her knuckles. It’s one of his signature moves when meeting someone he thinks is sexy.
I nudge Roy’s shoulder, and Keehan’s eyes narrow at the spectacle of Rochelle laughing at one of the men’s jokes, slapping his shoulder playfully.
“Come, Gloria,” Keehan says. “I want to introduce you to my friend Rochelle.”
I grin and watch as the two approach the crowd we’ve assembled in the private section of the club.
“Man, I wish I’d brought popcorn. This shit is about to get interesting,” Royce says, chuckling, as I watch Rochelle’s eyes turn to ice shards and her bitch face come out at the introduction of Keehan’s companion.
As the night wears on, the dance Rochelle and Keehan do around one another is comical at best, annoying at worst.
“Why the hell hasn’t he made his move?” I growl into my gin and tonic as the two couples square off on the dance floor. Rochelle has chosen the doctor, who is essentially the Keehan look-alike. Keehan has stuck to Gloria like glue, even if his eyes have followed Rochelle all over this club.
Royce shakes his head. “I will admit to this being exhausting. Why the hell did we agree to do this?”
I cock an eyebrow and point a finger at him around my drink. “You chose this client and this job because you fell for a pretty face.”
He inhales so deep his nostrils flare. “I will admit to being taken by her looks. The woman is fiiiiine.”
I nod because he is not wrong. Rochelle is an absolute knockout. Legs for days. A tight body. High cheekbones. Bright smile. Long dark hair. Intelligent. Driven. An absolute catch. She just needs the right fisherman to throw his net over her.
“True.” I watch as her body undulates suggestively around the doctor.
Keehan’s gaze is glacial as he watches her seductive dance.
Silently I root for the man. Come on, Keehan. Take charge.
It happens when the doctor puts a possessive hand on Rochelle’s hip and grinds his crotch into her backside. His other hand runs up her rib cage and over her breast. Rochelle goes still in his arms, and her face contorts into an expression of discomfort. In the doctor’s defense, she was grinding up on him, but she was the one in control. She touched what she wanted, not the other way around. This gave the impression to me, and likely to him, she’d appreciate a little more handsy behavior from her dance partner, but his bullishness has absolutely gone too far.
Royce and I stand up abruptly from where we’re sitting and head to the dance floor to intervene. When we make it to the duo, Keehan is right there. He grabs the doctor by the wrist, yanks the offending hand away from Rochelle, and twists it behind the man’s back. The doc hollers in pain.
“Watch it! I’m a doctor!” he yells pitifully and rather drunkenly.
Rochelle crosses her arms over herself defensively. “Then you shouldn’t have been grabbing my boob with it!”
Keehan twists the guy’s hand higher. “Apologize to the lady.”
“But she started with her grinding . . .”
Keehan roars into his ear and yanks his arm up higher until he cries out once more. “I said, apologize.”
“Sorry. Shit, I’m sorry. Let me go!” he pleads.
Keehan keeps the man’s arm twisted but puts his other hand around the guy’s neck and grasps his chin, forcing him to look at Rochelle while Keehan grates angrily into his ear. “I’ll let you go, but you will turn around and get the hell out of this club and never look back at my woman again. You see her . . .”
“Yeah, man, I see her. I see her!” he screeches painfully.
“No. You. Fucking. Don’t. See. Her. Ever again. You hear me?” He pinches the man’s face and hurls him toward the exit. “Now get the fuck out of here.”
The doctor catches himself before falling to the ground. He rolls his shoulders and shakes out his arms. “You’re nuts! And the two of you”—he points to Rochelle and Keehan—“can have each other. You’re both a mess!” he snarls, and cuts his way through the crowd and out of the club.
I come up around Gloria, who is standing there with wide eyes watching it all go down. I lean down near her ear and slip an extra couple of hundred dollars into her hand. “Now’s the time for you to disappear. A tip for a job well done.” I wink, and she grins, waving as she slinks through the patrons to head home. She’s already been paid handsomely by the agency, but extra cash never hurt anyone, and she did do an excellent job making Rochelle jealous and Keehan feel like the strong man he is. Though the Hercules he became when the doctor touched Rochelle inappropriately was not something I expected he had hidden ins
ide of him.
Rochelle throws her arms around Keehan, planting her face against his neck. He wraps his arms around her and runs his hands up her bare back until her rapid-fire breathing slows and his own temper gentles.
“If you weren’t here . . . Ugh, I can’t believe I was so stupid. Rubbing up on him like that,” she admits.
“Why the hell were you doing that? I’ve never seen you act so wanton.” His words are a fiery brand on her ego, and she pulls back but doesn’t take her arms from around his neck, nor does he let her go.
“I was trying to make you as jealous as you were making me!” Her voice rises with her agitation. “Although I’m not sure you could see anything with Gloria all over you like a wet freakin’ blanket.”
“She was not all over me. We were dancing. Unlike you, grindin’ all over the blubbering idiot I kicked out.”
“Are you saying it was my fault he grabbed me inappropriately?” She flings herself back again, her face losing its calm and composure.
Keehan locks his hands around her waist above her ample ass so she can’t move away. “Absolutely not. No woman is asking to be groped unless that man is her man.”
She places a hand on his chest. “And what was that about you calling me your woman?”
“You are,” he grinds out.
Her gaze narrows, the lights of the club making specks of color dance across her face. “Am not! Says who?” she demands angrily.
“Says me. I’m tired of this dance, Chelle. I’ve been your man for the last decade, and it’s high time I be your man in all the ways that count.” He runs both of his hands down to her ass and squeezes her against him.
“What are you doing?” she cries out in surprise, but holds on to his neck, bringing her body closer, instead of pushing away like she did with the doctor.
“Groping my woman,” he states honestly.
Her mouth opens and her eyes blaze, but before she can fire off a saucy retort, he slams his lips over hers.
I want to applaud as the two go at it on the dance floor, mouths fused, hands groping.
“Damn. I thought she was hot for me. Shee-it. It was nothing compared to the way she’s lightin’ up for him.”
Keehan holds Rochelle close, one of his hands firmly on her ass, lifting her up against him, the other tunneled into her hair, holding her face to his so he can devour her. And devour he does.
“Um, I’m wondering if I should stop this before they tear one another’s clothes off in the middle of the club.”
Royce chuckles and nods. “Yeah, that kiss is . . . still going.”
“Like the Energizer Bunny. Jesus Christ. I’ll break it up.” I head over to the couple sucking face, giving the entire club one helluva show, and tap Keehan on the shoulder.
He shrugs off my touch, focused solely on the woman he’s kissing.
“Keehan, man, you gotta let up. Take your girl and get out of here,” I suggest loud enough to break through their lust.
“Huh?” He pulls away, and his unfocused gaze centers on mine before he looks around the club. “Shit. Chelle, sweetheart, we gotta take this elsewhere.” He hooks a hand around her waist, and she looks dazedly around her before she starts giggling.
Rochelle, giggling. Not something I expected I’d ever witness with the fiery female.
“’K, your place or mine?”
“Mine’s closer,” he rumbles, and clears his throat.
She laughs. “You’re on the tenth floor, and I’m the penthouse.”
“Like I said, my place is closer.” He nips at her lips, and she melts against his side. “Come on. I think we’ve got some life-altering things to discuss.”
“Oh, we’re not talking.” Her statement is more of a suggestion of what they’ll be doing, which probably doesn’t include conversation.
Keehan looks down at the woman he’s gone for and smiles. “All right, making love until you fall asleep exhausted in my arms, then talking over breakfast.”
She hums against his neck and nuzzles him there. Keehan’s smile, when he looks up at me, is a moment I’ll never forget. Seeing a man with his arms full of the one thing he wanted more than anything else in life, something he never thought he’d have . . . powerful. The joy and relief at securing the love of his life is an incredible moment to witness.
Keehan leads Rochelle toward the door.
Royce calls out to them, and the couple stop and look back. Keehan, none too pleased with being interrupted in his goal of getting the woman of his dreams home and in his bed, has an angry expression plastered across his face. Rochelle is happily dazed as she tilts her head.
“Tomorrow afternoon we meet up to go over the staff findings. Then we’re off to Boston tomorrow night.”
“Royce is right. Once we’ve nailed down the issue of who’s embezzling from Renner Financial Services, I don’t think we’re needed here anymore . . . unless of course Rochelle wants us to continue finding her a mate,” I add to ensure Rochelle steps up and fights for her man the way he fought for her.
Keehan’s body stiffens next to her. She sidles up to him, gluing her body to his side. “No, I agree. I most certainly will not be needing your services after we figure out the embezzlement. I’ve finally got the man I want to be with, the right man for me.”
I smile even when Royce’s body language goes from easygoing to solid rock. He’s putting up his walls and applying his armor. I want to extend a friendly word or a gesture of some sort, one that says I know what he’s going through, that I’ve felt the sting of rejection in the past myself, but now is not the time, and he wouldn’t welcome it. He’s not that type of guy. He’ll deal with the burn of what wasn’t meant to be in his own way, and I have to let him have that. I’m not his mother—most certainly not his father. All I can do is stay back and be his friend. His brother in this disappointment.
“We’ll see you two around ten,” I state, making sure they know we’re not expecting them to come in early.
Rochelle runs her hand up Keehan’s chest. “Take me home.”
“Better make it noon, fellas. We’re going to be very, very busy.” He licks his lips and looks like he’s about to devour Rochelle right here.
Before he can dip his head, I clap my hands loudly. Both of them jerk and must realize they’re still standing in the club. I smile. “Carry on, then. Be safe.”
Rochelle offers a little wave, and I head to the VIP section to release the men and tell them Rochelle has made her decision. When I get to the section, they’ve all paired off with the models and are enjoying themselves, so I leave them be.
Royce takes the steps behind me and glances around the area. “Damn, we’re good. Matchmaking motherfuckers.” He shakes his head, and I laugh.
I clap Roy on the shoulder. “Come on. Drinks on me, brother.”
He nods and follows me to the bar silently. When we get a seat, the bartender puts a whiskey in front of him and a fresh gin and tonic in front of me, and I lift my glass to his.
“To another successful job.”
He clinks his glass against mine. “Cheers.”
We both sip our drinks, and then I stare at his big dark form, the lights making his normally kind face look a bit more sinister. “You upset she chose Keehan?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Nah. Wasn’t meant to be, like you said.”
“Still, you liked her,” I note softly, not wanting to rub it in.
“Yeah, I did, but I think I liked the idea of her more.”
I frown and set my drink on the napkin in front of me. “How so?”
“It’s time, man.” He’s dead serious.
I cock an eyebrow. “Time?”
“For me to settle down. Feel it in my bones.” He lifts his shoulders as if he’s feeling something right this very second in his body.
“Momma Sterling pressuring you?” I know his mother is one meddling woman.
He laughs and sips his drink. “Always, but not more than usual. She wants me to be happy, so of c
ourse she brings up the benefits of a good woman.” He sighs. “Want to have something to look forward to at home. Something waiting for me. A warm body to sleep next to. A woman I can love and dote on, put my babies in her and watch them grow. It’s time,” he says again matter-of-factly.
I nod.
“Do you feel that yourself with Skyler?”
I shrug. “I know I love her and can’t wait to tell her. I have a feeling she loves me and is waiting to tell me too. She’s mentioned moving to Boston, and I’m all for it. Mostly because, like a lot of the things you said, I want to come home to her. I see Sky, and I want to tell her everything that happened in my day and am genuinely interested in what happened in hers. I want to shove my fist in the face of every costar she has but glory in the fact that they may get to pretend with her, but I get the real thing. I get all of Sky’s morning smiles and sleepy hellos. I get all of her good nights. And her beautiful body is mine to worship. If that’s what you mean by feel it, then hell yeah, man, I feel it with Sky.”
Royce chuckles and claps my back. “Happy for you. I can imagine it’s not easy being in a relationship with a celebrity, but the two of you seem to be handling it A-OK.”
“I’d do anything to be with Skyler. Now that I’ve had her, all of her, I’ll never want for anything else. Her fame is an inconvenience and nothing more.”
“Good man. Now update me on the ex and his threats. What all did Wendy find?”
I sneer and suck back the rest of my gin and tonic in one go.
“Shee-it. That bad?” His eyebrows rise up on his forehead.
I raise the glass to the bartender. “Another round, please.”
He nods, and Royce finishes his whiskey.
“Yeah, it’s that bad.” I grit my teeth and hold my hands in fists until the bartender brings our refreshers.
“Lay it on me, brother.”
9
The next morning, Royce and I walk through the offices of Renner Financial Services to find Helen back from her vacation and making coffee. The woman is painfully thin, but when she turns around, I’m shocked at how much she looks like Rochelle. Similar hair, makeup application, and attire. Pencil skirt, stilettos, and a silk blouse. What she’s wearing honestly could have come direct from Rochelle’s closet.
International Guy: Milan, San Francisco, Montreal (International Guy Volumes Book 2) Page 23