Holiday Hookup

by Jamie K. Schmidt

  “The moment I saw you, I thought you were smart, gorgeous and someone I wanted to spend a lot more time with.”

  She shivered when he stroked his fingers over her arm. “I still want to spend time with you.”

  He closed his eyes in relief. “I thought I blew it.”

  “You almost did,” she said, but she was smiling to take the sting out of her words.

  “Will you come to Detroit?”

  Selena looked across the bar, not really seeing it. “I was planning on booking a flight to Paris,” she hedged.

  “What?” Blaine leaned back in his chair. “Why?”

  “I decided to start the MBA course. It’ll take five months of classes and five months of practical experience. And many more years to pay it off, but that’s beside the point.”

  “I know Chef Dickhead tried to destroy your career and you feel Cordon Bleu is a way to stick it up his ass...” he began, but she interrupted him.

  “It’s not about Anton anymore, not since I made him dinner. I really want to graduate there and get my MBA in international hospitality and culinary leadership. It’s ten months and then I’ll start my restaurant. That’s my decision. I’m sorry if you don’t like it.”

  “I think that’s a waste of time and money.”

  She leaned forward. “It’s not your time or money being wasted.”

  Rubbing his hand down his face, Blaine looked at her. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know what you meant. You have an opinion. I don’t agree with it.”

  “I won’t be able to see you until February.”

  “Probably not,” she said. “Does that change things?”

  “No. I’m going to be busy too. I wish we had more time together.”

  So did she. She wasn’t going to waste time being angry. She did the crime. She got caught and she accepted the consequences of her actions. It had been worth it. Blaine was worth it.

  “Well, let’s not waste it.” Selena held out her hand. “Let’s go up to your room.”

  Blaine slung his arm around her. “I don’t care who sees us.”

  “No one will care if they do.”

  “I miss my private elevator,” Blaine muttered as they waited for the elevator to come to the lobby.

  She rested her head on his shoulder. “I’d understand if you don’t want to start anything until after the expo.”

  “It’s already started,” he said. “And I’m not ending it.”

  “So is this an exclusive thing?” she asked.

  “Damn right it is.”

  Finally the doors opened, and they got in. Then it was another eternity before they got to his room. She was shaking by the time he opened the door to his room for her. It wasn’t the penthouse, but it had a big bed.

  “Are you sure you’re up to this?” she asked.

  “Sex is a great stress reliever.” Blaine cupped her face in his hands. “I think I love you.”

  Her breath caught, but before she could say anything, he kissed her. Selena lost track of time after that. They stood just inside the doorway kissing. Then, her back was against the door and their clothes were half off. His tongue swept hers in long, slow kisses. Then, Blaine was putting on a condom while she gasped for breath. More kissing and when he slid inside her, she came. Gripping his shoulders, Selena arched against him, needing him closer. She came again while he pounded into her. Still kissing, he dragged her to the bed. After tossing aside the rest of their clothes and the condom, Blaine joined her on the bed.

  “Let’s take this slower this time,” he panted.

  There wasn’t any time for talking. Just for this. “Please,” she said, rubbing up and down the hard length of his body. His fingers dove between them. Selena sprawled on top of him and let him play with her until that crescendo of pleasure built again. Tangling her fingers in his hair, she rode his fingers to another orgasm.

  Limp and panting, she let him flip her on her stomach. Blaine put on another condom and pulled her hips up, so she was on her hands and knees. Rubbing himself up and down her pussy, he muttered, “How am I going to go two months without you? Without this?”

  “Sexting and FaceTime,” she muttered into the pillow, loving the feel of him dragging his hot cock over her sensitive folds.

  When he thrust in, she groaned at his desperate pace. Blaine was thick and he was relentless in his deep, hard strokes. Shivering, she clamped down around him. “Yes,” she cried out, holding on to the sheets.

  Her breathing matched his as he steadily, thoroughly rocked into her with quick, satisfying pumps. The bed shook and she missed the hard rap of the bed frame against the wall as his strokes grew harder and faster.

  “Blaine,” she whispered as she tumbled over the edge.

  He held on to her hips, his fingers digging in. Deep grunts of pleasure left him as he slammed her back into him and came with a jerk and shudder. Collapsing next to her, he gathered her into his arms.

  “Looks like you’re going to appreciate the internet after all in the upcoming months.”

  She leaned over and bit his biceps.

  The next morning when she woke up, Blaine was on the computer. Selena just shook her head.

  “Come back to bed,” she drawled, letting the sheet drift down over her breasts.

  Blaine immediately left the desk and joined her back in bed. He cupped one of her breasts in his hand and rubbed his thumb over it. “I was letting you sleep.”

  “We don’t have time to sleep.” Selena ran her fingers through his hair.

  He sucked one of her nipples in his mouth and her eyes half closed in bliss.

  “Are you sure I can’t convince you to come to Detroit for a week,” he said, her nipple held gently between his teeth.

  “Convince me,” she moaned.

  He gave a deep chuckle. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Blaine played with her breasts, teasing and sucking on them. He kissed down her body and lifted her thighs on his shoulder. Then he buried his face between her legs and licked her up and down. He speared his tongue through her slick folds, causing her to shudder and moan. He circled deeper until he could tease her clit and when he started sucking on it, she would have promised him anything.

  She went to Detroit with him for the week before Christmas.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  February

  BLAINE STARED DOWN at trade show from far above it, in the corporate box Stephens-Miller rented. He leaned his head against the glass. Had it been worth it? The code was pretty. They had no more malfunctions in the test drive. The camera worked like a charm every time. It cornered like a sports car and it hadn’t run over any dogs or little old ladies. Blaine was cautiously optimistic. The Pilot Program was gaining a lot of interest, both domestic and foreign.

  And yet here he was in Paris and all he could think about was if Selena could get away and see him. They hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas and their daily phone calls had drifted to weekly. He was terrified that he was losing her, and the hell of it was he couldn’t blame her. He had been a lousy boyfriend these past months.

  “We did it,” Mitchell said, slapping him on the back.

  “Yeah, we did.” But it didn’t make him happy. Not when the cost of this was that he lost Selena. He was such an idiot.

  Paul came up alongside them. “It was almost worth getting socked in the jaw.”

  “Most people get a kick in the ass to get them moving. For you it was a punch in the mouth.” Blaine held out his hand. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I lost my temper. It won’t happen again.”

  Paul shook it. “What’s gotten into you?”

  “He took those lessons he learned in Hawaii to heart,” Mitchell said.

  “That and a good therapist did wonders.” And the love of a good woman, but he might have los
t that. He tried calling Selena one more time, but it went to voice mail. They were finally in the same city and she wasn’t answering her phone.

  “Why the long face?” his mother said. The whole family was in town for the unveiling and Blaine never felt so alone. “I thought you’d be happy. All your dreams have come true. There she is.”

  Blaine’s heart leaped and he stared where his mother pointed. But she wasn’t talking about Selena. She was talking about the car.

  “She’s a viable alternative to all the other self-driving cars out there. You’re going to be famous.”

  The blissful feeling of success that Blaine had worked so hard for felt anticlimactic. He found that even when he was working on his laptop at home or in the office, his mind drifted back to Selena.

  “I don’t know who they got to cater our corporate box,” Paul said. “But the food is off the chain.”

  “Oh yeah?” Blaine said, not really interested in it.

  “Got the card here,” his mother said. “The name of the caterer is Chanterelle.”

  Blaine’s head snapped up and he looked at his mother. He couldn’t possibly have heard that right. Chanterelle was the restaurant chain that Selena was planning to open once she got her MBA. “What did you say?”

  “Chanterelle, owned by Selena Thompson. She’s doing catering part time.”

  Blaine took the card. “Are you kidding me? Where is she?”

  “Probably getting the cake. I’ve got to find your father. I’ll be back.” She patted his cheek. “Don’t mess this up.”

  “Did you know about this?” he asked Mitchell.

  “Yeah, she contacted us. She gave us a really good deal.”

  “I still can’t get her to run the cafeteria at Stephens-Miller,” Paul said. “So this will have to do.”

  Selena had made just as big of an impression on his family as she did with him in the one short week she had been home with him.

  Paul took a big bite out of a hot dog topped with peppers, onions, pickles, and a large squirt of mustard.

  “I don’t think that’s a beef hot dog, Paul.”

  Paul took another big bite and chewed. “Pork?” He shrugged. “Who cares? It’s delicious.”

  “I say it’s probably a tofu dog, if I know the chef.”

  Paul looked over at the banquet table. “No kidding.”

  “Have you seen her?” Blaine asked.

  “Yeah, she was looking for you when she dropped off the food, but you were on the showroom floor. She said she had to go back for the dessert anyway.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?” Blaine was rethinking his stance on not punching Paul out again.

  Mitchell looked down at the hot dog on his plate. “You sure this is tofu? It tastes good. When I hired her to cook for you in Maui, I really hit it out of the park, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, you’re a friggin’ rock star.”

  “It must be love, if she got him to eat tofu.”

  “She’d better be coming back,” Blaine said. “I can’t believe you didn’t let me know she was here. I haven’t seen her in months.”

  “She hasn’t changed,” Mitchell said. “And she’ll be back.”

  Blaine helped himself to a hot dog. For the first time in a long time, he felt hungry. After he finished it, he was disappointed that Selena still hadn’t come back with the dessert. Had she changed her mind? He opened the door and was about to go downstairs.

  He almost ran into her as she was carrying a three-tiered cake. On top of the cake was a miniature version of his car. She looked gorgeous in her sexy chef jacket and with her hair pinned up under her chef’s toque.

  “Selena,” he breathed and leaned in for a kiss.

  “Don’t let me drop this,” she said.

  Blaine helped her steady the cake and together they found an empty space on the banquet table for it. Once it was settled, he grabbed her in for a big hug.

  “I’m so happy to see you. Why haven’t you returned my calls?”

  “Smooth,” Mitchell coughed into his fist.

  Selena raised her chin and stared at him defiantly. “You’re not the only one who’s busy.” She softened her expression. “I knew I’d be seeing you today.”

  “It’s a great surprise.”

  They stared at each other awkwardly. “Well, congratulations on the car,” she said. “It’s a big hit. Just from hearing the random conversations on the floor while I was bringing the food up, it’s getting a lot of buzz. And this time, for the right reasons.”

  “Do you want to get out of here?” Blaine said with his hand on her elbow.

  “Get out of here? This is what you’ve been working toward for the past five years. This is the whole reason you were blowing off surfing lessons and hanging around by the ocean in Maui. The whole reason these last few months have been so tough.”

  “Yeah, I was an idiot. Even more so because I think I hurt you.”

  “You didn’t hurt me,” she said, shaking her head. “Like I said, I’ve been busy too and the time zones don’t make it easy either.”

  Mitchell came over. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but the exposition chair wants to talk with us.”

  “You and Paul go without me. I’ve got something more important to take care of.” Blaine shooed his brother away.

  “It can wait,” Selena said. “You should be with your company and your family right now.”

  Blaine shook his head. “I did what I had to do. They can take it from here.” Blaine turned to his brother and Paul who stood in the doorway. “I mean it, guys. Go talk to the event coordinators and see what they want. Selena and I have a few things we need to discuss.”

  Mitchell tried to hide a smile, but Blaine saw it anyway. As soon as Mitchell and Paul left, Blaine locked the door behind them.

  * * *

  Selena raised her eyebrow. “I see that look in your eyes,” she said. “You can forget it, mister. I’m not having sex with you in a trade show booth.”

  “It’s an owner’s box,” he said. “No one can come because I just locked the door. And nobody can see in, unless they’ve got a huge ladder.” Blaine took her by the elbow and walked her over to the window to show her the floor below.

  “Still not having sex with you.”

  “What if I want more than sex?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I told you, I’m not going to be your personal chef in Detroit, Michigan.”

  “How about being my fiancée then?”

  Selena’s jaw dropped. “Fiancée?”

  “I don’t even have a ring or anything. I thought I had blown it for good this time.”

  “You didn’t blow it.”

  “I can have a one-track mind sometimes. I didn’t mean to neglect you and our daily calls. It just happened.”

  “I know,” Selena said. “It happened with me too. You were always in my thoughts, but sometimes there weren’t enough hours in the day and on the days there were, I just wanted to sleep.”

  “I can arrange to stay in Paris for a while,” he said. “If you think I wouldn’t be too much of a distraction?”

  “I’d like to be distracted,” she said, hugging him. “I wanted to see you so bad, that I brought you guys real hot dogs, real beef hot dogs.”

  Blaine smirked. “I have the guys convinced they’re tofu dogs.”

  She made a face. “They really don’t taste the same.”

  “Now you tell me.”

  EPILOGUE

  One year later

  SELENA WAS GLAD to be back in Maui, lying on the bow of the sparkling new boat her friend Kelli Ann had bought with her rocker boyfriend Tyger Li to do snorkeling tours around the Molokini Crater. Selena had her sunglasses on, and her towel rolled up under her neck.

  Blaine was idly drawing patterns up and down her thigh with
his fingers. He propped his head up on his hand and smiled down on her.

  “Congratulations on your MBA,” he said. “I knew you could do it.”

  “There are a few times that I wasn’t so sure.” She lifted up to press a soft kiss across his mouth. He could kiss her forever and she would still feel this giddy excitement. And that was just what it was going to be, forever.

  “I got us reservations tonight for dinner,” he said. “But we don’t have to go, if you don’t want to.”

  “As long as I don’t have to cook, I don’t care where we go.”

  “I got us the chef table at Bolete Maui.”

  Selena’s eyes went wide, and she almost choked on the laughter that bubbled up. She sat up, crossed her legs and leaned down over him. “Are you serious?”

  “I can’t believe you didn’t even mention that he had opened up a restaurant here.”

  “That’s because I didn’t know,” she said. “I stopped obsessively stalking him shortly after I met you.” She admired the flashing diamond engagement ring on her hand. “I had better things to think about. And I was a little busy this year.”

  “I made the reservation just to be a smart-ass,” he said. “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to. Or if it will bring up bad memories.”

  “No, I want to go. Hell, even if I didn’t have my master’s degree from Cordon Bleu, I’d go,” Selena said. “He can’t hurt me anymore. I no longer care what he thinks of me. The only people who have to like my cooking are you and my customers.”

  “Well, you have nothing to fear on my end,” he said. “I love your cooking, even when you make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

  “That’s cream of peanut with a grape-jelly reduction sauce on artisanal brioche bread.”

  “Do I get turnip chips with it or can I have the real stuff?”

  “That depends on how good you are going to be tonight.”

  “So, I’m not allowed to spit out my food and say that I have tasted better food from a vending machine. Or say that this chicken is so tough, I handed over my wallet, no questions asked?”