Chloe disappeared before Mike could respond, but that was probably for the best. It didn’t matter how things had ended between him and Rori, it was still not professional to have one of the employees pawing him during the event. He was on duty. He needed to keep things cool for just a few more hours. Then all bets were off.
Chapter 58
“I like this one,” Anton said, his hand lightly stroking the shape Rori had sculpted based on her own hips. “So sensual. It makes me eager to be inside you.”
Or any woman, Rori amended, her eyes drawn to the other set of hips in the piece before looking away to where Mike and Chloe had just been stealing kisses. Had he been keeping Chloe in the wings the entire time? Even with all his talk of fidelity the night before?
No, even in her anger Rori couldn’t get herself to believe that. Besides, it was obvious watching them that Chloe was the one making all the moves while Mike seemed more flustered than anything.
Anton noticed the direction of her gaze and followed it.
“I see,” he said, his voice calm, refined. “The man with the camera, yes? Are you fucking him?” He ran a finger down the curve of her hip on the sculpture. “Am I looking at a captured moment in time here?”
“Of course not,” she said, keeping her voice as civil as his.
His dark eyes locked on hers skeptically. “No?”
“No,” she said firmly.
He looked back to the sculpture. “So just a fantasy?”
Rori managed a condescending laugh. “It is art, Anton. The intent is for each viewer sees what they will in it, and turn something general into something specific to them.”
His mouth moved into a cute little smirk. “This work is too sensual to be general, my dear. And I have made it my business to become familiar with one of the shapes in this sculpture. All I know is that the other shape is not mine, but that is not something to discuss tonight.”
“No,” she agreed, sending a smile to her agent as he led a very influential-looking couple her direction.
Another time, indeed. If ever.
“Aurora,” her agent said. “Have you met Herr and Fraulein Fenster yet?”
“Yes, in Belgium,” Rori said, switching to German even as she eyed Mike over their shoulders. “It is a pleasure to see you again.”
“You, as well,” Herr Fenster replied in German as Rori kissed the cheeks of both the husband and wife. “We are enjoying your show. It has many layers.”
“Thank you,” Rori said. “I’m sure my agent has informed you that most of the pieces are for sale.”
“Indeed he has,” Fraulein Fenster said, then turned to Anton. “And I understand we have your vineyards to thank for the delicious wine tonight.”
“Oh, you flatter me,” Anton said in flawless German. “But yes. What you hold in your hands is my labor of love.”
“It is excellent,” Herr Fenster said. “And may I be so forward to say that the two of you make a handsome couple.”
Rori glanced at Mike then, noting that he had chosen to interview one of the cuter girls in attendance. Of course he had. What was he trying to do? Rub her face in all the women he could take to bed instead of her? Well, message received.
“Well, I certainly hope so,” she heard Anton say as he pulled her against him.
That earned a smile from the couple and Rori sent a glance to her agent to let him know they were done.
“I know Francesca was asking about you, and I see her right now,” her agent said. “Let me introduce you.”
“Of course,” Herr Fenster said, and the couple was swept away.
Anton watched them leave. “Your agent is worth what you pay him.”
“Yes, he is,” Rori agreed. “Will you excuse me? I need to check in with Fredrik.”
“Of course,” Anton said, dropping a kiss on the top of her head, and even though Rori couldn’t see his eyes, she sensed that he was eyeing one of the patrons across the way.
Fine. Let him look. He would be much easier to deal with that night if he was distracted. But distraction wasn’t something Rori could allow for herself that night, and that’s what Mike Cannon was. As long as he was in the room, she wasn’t going to be able to concentrate on anyone else.
And that meant he had to go.
Chapter 59
Rori knew she would find Fredrik in the kitchen, making sure every platter looked perfect before it was allowed on the floor. He spotted her the moment she walked in and frowned.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, drawing closer. “The last place I should see you tonight is back here.”
“Everything’s perfect,” she said, pulling him to the side.
“And yet here you are,” he said, folding his arms. “Speak truth, honey. What’s wrong?”
She slid her hand into Fredrik’s and urged him closer. “I need a favor.”
“Name it, honey,” he said so only she could hear.
“Could you tell Mike that we no longer need his services this evening?”
She felt Fredrik freeze momentarily before his demeanor to his usual light manner. “You’re asking me send a beautiful man who is an absolute pleasure to work with to leave, Rori? You have to know that’s against my religion.”
“You’re not religious.”
He waved that off. “Honey, we’re all religious about something, and perfect male specimens are holy in my book.” He gave her puppy eyes. “You can’t ask me to do this. It’s like asking me to erase a rainbow out of the sky. Rainbows should be allowed to shine, and encouraged to stay as long as they like. One look into his Caribbean blue eyes and I’d fold. You want him gone, that’s on you. Sorry, girl. Even I have my limits.”
Great. Just great.
“Just enjoy yourself,” he said, giving her shoulders a light squeeze. “I’ve seen some of what he’s done so far. You’re going to love it, hon. If he lived here I would hire him full time. He’s a genius with editing.”
Rori had stalked him enough on Facebook to pick up on that much. “You’re right,” she lied. “I guess I was just stressing out.”
“It happens to all of us,” Fredrik said. “Now get out there and sell some art. Daddy needs a bonus.”
“Yes, sir,” Rori said, and headed back out into the war zone.
Chapter 60
Mike had just finished moving around the perimeter of the exhibit, catching reaction shots of the patrons when he felt some arms slip around him from behind. His body tensed, somehow knowing immediately that it wasn’t Rori behind him. It was someone else—someone taller and closer to a size 2. He glanced backward and spotted Chloe.
He tried to pull away without success. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to win a bet,” Chloe said, her hands gliding around his hips toward his front pockets. “And while we’re on the subject, don’t listen to Kerrie. She bet that you and Rori go separate ways and Rori gets engaged to the asshole.”
Mike glanced over at Rori and Anton. “Whatever. He might be a nice guy.”
“He’s an asshole,” Chloe said, her tone not allowing for debate. “Trust me. People low on the service ladder see true colors. I asked around and he’s a Grade-A asshole.”
Mike felt his temper flare at the thought of Rori being with someone like that, until he realized it wasn’t any of his business and she probably didn’t even care. She wanted a father for her children. A man with money and a commitment to family. Nowhere in her qualifications was there any mention of kindness.
“This is a key,” Chloe said just before her right hand dipped into his front pocket. “It goes to the storage room in the alcove before the bathrooms. And don’t move just yet. Let her see where my hand is first.”
Mike didn’t have to ask who Chloe was talking about, although he did doubt that Rori would happen to look their way. She’d been avoiding looking at him all night, so Mike moved on to the next most obvious question.
“Why do I need a key?”
“To help me win the bet.”
“Depends on who you ask. We like to keep things lively around here, so we make bets at every event. Tonight’s bet is on whether you and Rori will get it on before you get on planes going opposite directions.”
Mike felt a wave of loss wash over him and tried to shrug it off. “Well, I could have answered that one for you. No. We won’t.”
He felt Chloe nod against his shoulder. “See, that’s what Kerrie put her money on, so do us both a favor and don’t listen to her if she comes strolling your way. Her motives aren’t pure. Neither are Fredrik’s. He bet on the two of you hooking up tomorrow night.”
Mike couldn’t help but chuckle. “And your motives are pure?”
“Hey, I’m trying to get you laid tonight. You’re welcome, by the way.”
Mike turned to face her as he pulled her hands from his pockets and held them in his own. “By simulating a hand job in my pants in the middle of her art exhibition? Your tactics could use some work.”
Chloe’s eyes were confident as she smirked at him. “I’ll find her trigger, and then she’ll be over here like a jealous gun. In the meantime, listen. Once you open the door to the storage room, if you go all the way to the back and turn to the left there is a shelf that is totally at the perfect height to set her down and go to town—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Mike said, stepping back in reflex. “Are you saying—”
“Hell yeah, I am. And, for the record, I’m speaking from experience. That shelf isn’t reinforced to take a couple hundred pounds of pressure on accident. But if you don’t want to wallbang then use the padding blankets and freshly cleaned linens are on the shelf to your immediate right. Use those for padding because the ground in there is ridiculously cold and hard—wait, don’t move away,” she said, grabbing him as he tried to close his ears to the imagery she was putting into his mind. She didn’t let him put any distance between them. If anything Chloe came closer. “The look on your face right now is priceless. You’d suck a poker.”
“I need you to stop talking,” Mike said, unable to look at her. “I know you mean well, Chloe, but it’s not going to happen. And even if Rori and I were going to get together, there’s no way I’d make our first time in a storage closet. Not a chance. The first time should be—”
“Oh, please,” Chloe interrupted, her New York accent pronounced and distinctly unimpressed. “You can make slow, sweet love to her any other day of the week. But today’s the day you can make Rori scream and sweat in a side room, while her uptight mom and the over-age asshole she supposed to marry make banal and proper conversation just a few feet away. I promise you, she’s going to fucking love it.”
Chloe’s reasoning was equal parts shocking and effective, and Mike could no longer deny that his body was reacting to it.
“I say go for standing up, based on that sculpture over there,” Chloe added, still somehow sounding bored. “She sculpted that couple doing it standing up, which means that’s where her head was at when she made it. Hot, heavy, and in too much of a hurry to make it to a bed. That’s what she wants from her man.”
“Chloe,” Mike groaned. “Seriously, stop it. You’re killing me.”
“No,” she said, splaying her fingers across his chest. “I’m getting you in the right head space to make a very smart decision by not letting the woman you love become the trophy wife of a man who had two prostitutes in his room last night. He’s just as likely to give her a venereal disease as he is to get her pregnant. It’s fucking sick, so you’ve got to man up and sleep with her first. Tonight. During the art show. In that side room.”
Mike’s mind was so busy picturing exactly that, that he almost missed how specific Chloe’s instructions were.
“Is that your bet?” he asked. “That Rori and I will do it tonight in a side room while everything is going on?”
She shrugged, sliding his hands down his arms and weaving her fingers between his playfully. “You put money on vague bets and you have to share the pot with others. Bet big or go home, I say.”
“And what’s the pot at?” he had to ask something to try to distract himself from the hand play she was currently engaging in. Even if she didn’t mean it, she was really, really good at it.
“Four hundred and climbing, last I heard. Enough to buy mama a new pair of shoes.”
Mike laughed again. He couldn’t help it. “You are a handful. Tell me you have a boyfriend.”
“Hell yeah, I do,” she said even as she gave his finger a light bite. “He’s the luckiest man alive and jealous as hell, so don’t think I’ll be finishing what I’m starting here. There’s only one man I let drill me in that side room, and he ain’t you. No offense, but ink is my turn on and you don’t have any. You hard yet?”
“Closer than I want to be,” was all Mike could say.
Chloe smiled. “Good. You’re cute when you blush, you know that?”
“I need to go,” Mike said, but as he stepped away, Chloe used his motion to make it look like he was pulling her after him.
“You need to stay,” she said like a stern teacher, her grip firming up and her expression unflinching. “I really want those shoes, Mike. Just wait until Rori comes over here and give it a try. For me. If she shuts you down and sends you on your way then you can take the kiddies to the pool without a cross look from me.” She stepped in closer. Close enough that he could feel her body heat. “But at least give Junior a shot at a trip to heaven first. It’s only fair for everyone involved.”
Only fair. Sure. Chloe was totally insane. The trouble was, Mike was listening to her.
Mike cleared his throat. “If your plan hinges on Rori coming over here, then I’m sorry to inform you—”
Mid-sentence Mike’s jacket hit him right in the face as an ice-cold voice said. “Get the fuck out.”
Mike had never heard that exact tone before, but he knew the voice. Most definitely Rori’s.
“Pack up your equipment and get the hell out of my show,” she said.
“Hmmm,” Chloe cooed softly in his ear, out of Rori’s earshot. “She brought up fucking and your equipment back-to-back. My work here is done.”
Then she was gone. Mike could have killed her.
“Rori, that wasn’t what it—”
“Do not insult my intelligence,” Rori sneered, voice shaking a bit this time. “Just pack up and get out. I will not have you turn my event into your sexual sideshow.”
“Sideshow?” he scoffed back. “Do you really think anyone’s looking at the hired help in the back corner when they can just look to the center of the room to watch you swap spit with your fiancé while he walks around with his hand on your ass?”
Mike watched her jaw set and her eyes grow cold. “I said get out. Now. That means immediately, Mike. And if you don’t, I’ll have security escort you. Understood?”
If Mike would have been in a slightly more rational state of mind, he would have agreed. He would have curtly informed her exactly what he thought of the outlook of her future before riding a wave of self righteousness all the way to the airport.
The trouble was that he wasn’t thinking rationally. Thanks to Chloe his mind was already filled with the many ways he could change Rori’s anger into something else entirely. And now here she was in front of him, her asymmetrical off-the-shoulder dress giving him a clear view of her smooth, olive skin on one side while all but inviting him to bare the other side.
Looking into her eyes, he could see the possibility all too easily. The signs of arousal were already there in her dilated pupils and the rate of her breathing. And when Rori licked her lips before spinning on her heel to march away, Mike knew he had to try.
What did he have to lose?
Not a single thing.
Chapter 61
Rori had expected Mike to argue, maybe even yell. But she hadn’t expected him to drag her to a side hall like a cave man. Certainly someone had to be noticing the fact that she was being hauled away from her own eve
nt against her will. But if anyone saw, no one was coming to her rescue.
“Let go,” she hissed, trailing after him.
“Not until I explain,” he replied. She couldn’t help but note that even though his grip was unbreakable on her, it didn’t hurt. It was a stupid thing to notice. Useless, really, and while she was processing that, she lost her last chance to send out a desperate look to anyone who might come to her aid as he pulled them into the narrow hallway and led her around the corner that would give them privacy.
Well, good. Maybe now she could tell him what she really thought of him.
“Mike, let go. Now!” Rori warned, noting there was a door in the alcove. If she couldn’t get him to leave, maybe she could just lock him in there to deal with later.
Without hesitation, Mike pushed Rori against the wall and caged her in his arms. If she moved so much as an inch she would touch him. And given how territorial she was feeling at the moment, touching would be a really bad thing.
Calm down, she told herself. Before you make a stupid decision.
The problem was, she was already making stupid decisions, like being in the alcove in the first place. How easy it would be to just kiss him until he took over? Right here, with people sipping champagne and making small talk only a few yards away. No one would miss her. Anton would take advantage of her absence to hit on that blonde he’d been eyeing since he arrived, and her mom was much better at climbing the social ladder when she didn’t have to work around Rori.
“Chloe has a boyfriend,” Mike said, breaking into her thoughts, and reminding her of the events that had led them to where they presently stood. Chloe had been fawning all over him and he hadn’t even tried to stop her.
“Really? Could have fooled me!”
“She told me if I let her get handsy with me you would get jealous, but I didn’t believe her.” He brought a hand over to caress the shape of her jaw. Rori flinched away from the touch, not that it did any good. He kept right on touching. “But here you are. Pissed off and territorial, just like she said you would be. What am I supposed to do with that, Rori?”
Mr Imperfect Page 27