45. Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, The Police
"Every Little Thing She Does is Magic," The Police
Cruz
“She went all out for your birthday, huh?” Stacy mused over her champagne from the periphery of Donnelly’s roof deck. We’d just finished playing our set, and instead of being rewarded with cheap beer after the last song like usual, the band was enjoying the open bar that Victoria had coordinated. Around us, friends, tenants and clients lounged on outdoor couches and lingered over the buffet.
Tori lifted a champagne flute at me from her perch near the open bar, before returning to her conversation with Connor. Just seeing her made my heart skitter in my chest. I drummed against my leg to release the kinetic energy of my repressed feelings.
I shoved a bacon-wrapped shrimp in my mouth to prevent my gloating.
Because I was in love with Victoria … and I didn’t think she felt the same. For weeks, I’d been biting back my feelings, remembering her drunken admission: Have you ever fallen in love, Cruz? Don’t bother, it’s awful.
And her tearful confession a few months ago: Loving him broke me.
She’d given me pieces of herself, bite-sized morsels, but it still felt like she was holding back. Would she trust me enough to gather up all those broken pieces and put her back together?
“Guess I was wrong when I said she wasn’t worth the effort,” Rodriguez said. “She told me when she booked us that she had five surprises planned today. So, which surprise is this?”
“Four,” I answered, still pumped with adrenaline from walking into Donnelly’s and hearing the entire place explode, yelling my name. Your Local Phantom had kicked off the party with The Beatles’ “Birthday,” and I’d hopped behind the drum kit for the rest of their set.
“What were the other three?” Stacy asked, and my lips curved into a naughty grin, deciding I absolutely wouldn’t tell them about the birthday kickoff surprise.
Being woken up just before midnight with her lips wrapped around my cock had been a more-than-pleasant surprise, like a dirty New Year’s Eve countdown. She dragged her tongue up my shaft while she sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in her best Marilyn Monroe voice and insisted that right at midnight, I finish in her mouth.
Or she thought we were finished. I rolled her on her back and ate her out until I was hard again, then fucked her until we were both drenched with sweat and passed out. When that 5:30am alarm went off, we groaned at the lack of sleep.
But the second surprise made up for the sleep deprivation.
“You won’t believe where she took me after morning boot camp,” I told them, waving Tori over. “Show them your surprise.”
“Yours first, it’s way more impressive.”
I reached over my head to pull off my shirt, watching her cheeks flush in appreciation, and turned around to show off the plastic wrap covering the tender skin on my back.
After bootcamp then breakfast, she’d taken me to the tattoo parlor for my first session on a full back piece. As Rafael transferred the design, she inspected the flash wall. “Does it hurt?”
“People describe it as a hot cat scratch,” Rafael said.
“I’ve had plenty of those,” she said, casually tracing Prudence’s marks. Wait, what was she …
I wiggled, squinting at the design that caught her attention. Oh. Fuck. Yes!
“Holy crap, it’s gorgeous,” Stacy murmured, her hand hovering over the skin. Drumming on it hadn’t been the most comfortable choice, but it had been worth it. “Who designed this?”
“Kate Martino,” Tori answered, pointing over to a cornhole game, where Mallory and Grace faced off against Kate and Paul. We excused ourselves from the band and meandered closer. Mallory held out a beanbag to me, I took an easy shot right into the board at Kate’s feet.
“Traitor,” Kate teased.
“Can’t help being a winner,” I retorted, flexing. “Just showing off your work.”
She tossed her beanbag, missing by a mile, then came over to inspect my back. “God, Rafael’s a genius with linework, this is going to look amazing in full color.”
“Four years on her BFA, and this is how she uses it,” Paul muttered. When a shadow flickered over Kate’s face, I pretended not to hear him.
“Honored to be your canvas,” I winked, then excitedly reached for Victoria’s hand. “Show them yours.” She lifted her arm to reveal the inside of her wrist, where the three-inch king cobra was coiled and ready to strike.
“You got a tattoo?” Alex cried from the nearby oversized Jenga tower he was playing with Ruby.
“I know, I can’t believe I did it,” she said, running her thumb over it affectionately.
“I can,” I grazed my lips over her wrist. “My badass Cobrecita .”
While Rafael worked, I FaceTimed with my mom and sisters—Tori had invited them but they couldn’t get off work—then handed over a rare special edition of The Twelve season 5 with extra director commentary. I couldn’t imagine how much she spent on eBay for it, I thought only people who worked on the show got this one. I watched on her laptop, laying on my stomach and trying not to wince while Rafael inked my back … leading to the third surprise.
When the session was over, she asked for a minute in the private room. Immediately, I pulled her close to thank her for the incredible tattoo, and her body melted into mine, our tongues sparring. Those three words tickled my throat—her tattoo design of the nickname I gave her had to mean she felt something for me, right?
I pressed her into the tattoo chair and kissed her deeply. She arched into my touch before breaking the kiss. “I’ve got a story about that DVD.”
“Don’t care about The Twelve right now, baby,” I murmured into the skin of her neck as my hands dropped to her ass. God, I loved this woman.
“But I need to explain before Alex’s brother Nick calls.”
Ugh, there goes my hard-on. I released her ass, running my hands through my hair, my shoulder and back aching.
I sighed, not sure why I’d care about this random guy. “Ok, tell me about the infamous Nick Clarke.”
“Remember how I told you our last firm offered Alex a partnership? He was going to manage their new Entertainment Division. The offer was contingent on Nick, who is—” Her phone buzzed with a FaceTime request. “Well, I’ll just let him tell you.”
She handed me the phone, which I took cautiously and swiped …
Only to see the familiar face I’d watched all day playing Apollo on The Twelve .
“Cruz, I presume?” Dominic Martin asked, his voice tinged with mischief. “Happy birthday.”
On the screen, I saw my mouth drop open. “You’re—”
“Dominic Henry Clarke. My family calls me Nick, but there was already a Nick Clarke in SAG, so I became Dominic Martin.” When I still couldn’t speak, he chuckled. “Looks like Victoria pulled off the surprise. I thought for sure my loud-mouthed sister would give it away.”
As Kate reached for the beanbag, Victoria told Mallory and Alex, “Introduced Cruz to your brother today.”
As they exchanged a playful look, I noticed the family resemblance—especially those matching sky blue eyes. But where Dominic’s radiated calm confidence, Mallory’s eyes were playful and Alex’s were arrogant.
Mallory grinned at Victoria, “Please tell me Cruz freaked out.”
“Only a little bit,” Tori said proudly. I’d been faking it, though. Inside I’d been totally freaking out and let him take the lead on the conversation while I processed.
He was infamously quiet about his private life, to protect his family from the public eye … but Victoria said Nick was Alex’s best man. During law school, he crashed at their place over the summers. He traveled for work … because the Greek mythology show was filmed on location. In Greece.
I twisted to look at Victoria, who chewed her thumbnail. She’d told me when we were trapped in the elevator …“Your Greek tutor was Apollo ?”
“I learn from the best.” She grinned, sliding into the frame.
“Hey sis,” he said, his voice warm with affection. “So Cruz, Victoria told me about her surprises. Can I see the new ink?”
She flipped the camera as I turned my back to the camera, taking a moment to gain my composure. Dominic let out a low whistle. “You weren’t kidding, he’s ripped. Huge upgrade from Alex.”
I snorted at being considered an upgrade from a rich lawyer.
“Did Kate Martino design that?” Dominic’s voice dropped in hushed reverence. “I haven’t seen her work since she was in art school.”
My ears started ringing, remembering Kate’s drunk confession that she’d slept with Dominic Martin: “Big dick, bigger ego .” I’d been hurt that she hadn’t mentioned he was her best friend’s brother. Why hadn’t she told me?
I wanted to ask, but across the cornhole game, she’d turned to talk with Paul, her shoulders slumped.
“The secret’s almost out publicly,” Alex said, wrapping an arm around Grace’s shoulders, “since he’s coming home for our engagement party in September. Victoria got the last big introduction.”
Tori pulled her phone out of her dress pocket with a frown she reserved for her dad. Her lips pressed into a tight line as she read his message before tucking her phone away. I considered trying again to convince her to reply … but she always got a little distant when I brought it up, so I decided not to push.
And maybe it was better that he wasn’t criticizing her for ‘showing too much emotion’ by looking too happy.
“Can you excuse us for a minute?” she said as her hand threaded into mine and pulled me away from the group. “Ready for number five?”
I brought a hand to her waist and murmured in her ear, “Please tell me the final surprise involves me taking this dress off of you.”
“That’s not a surprise, that’s a sure thing,” she said. “This is better.”
“Better than you naked? Not possible.”
She surveyed the still-thriving party before tugging me into the stairwell. As the door closed, Mallory gave Victoria a subtle nod and stood sentry.
Victoria glanced over her shoulder with a sexy smirk as she led me down the stairwell to the fourth floor, where we first met, tugged me into the bathroom and locked the door.