16
NICO
Me: Good morning, beautiful. My family really enjoyed their visit with you yesterday. Thank you for taking time from your day to show them around Houston.
Mi Reina: You’re welcome. I’m still trying to figure out how those nice people ended up with a nuisance like you.
Me: Oh babe. You don’t mean that.
Mi Reina: Oh, I do. With every ounce of my being. Is there anything else you need? I’m busy
Me: Just one more thing.
……….
Mi Reina: What is it?! Jesus, Nic. You really grind my gears.
Me: I can grind something else if you’d like.
Mi Reina: I’m about to grind your balls into your spleen. Get on with it.
Me: So feisty. I love it. Anywho. We leave for Milwaukee on Saturday and there’s a dinner with some of the guys and their spouses on Friday that I was invited to. With the condition that I bring you.
Mi Reina: Whose condition?
Me: Monty’s. He said you and Rinaldi’s wife hit it off and suggested you and I be there.
Mi Reina:
Me: Is that a yes?
Mi Reina: That’s a “I really don’t have a choice in the matter so see you Friday.”
Me: That’s a “We’re going to have a great time and you’ll be thanking me by the end of the night”. And that’s how you plan to thank me.
Mi Reina: Not a chance in hell.
Me: See you Friday. Wear something sexy.
Mi Reina: I’ll wear a parka.
I look across the room again and find Valentina wrapped up in a conversation with Rinaldi’s wife, a warm and genuine smile on her face.
In the short time that she’s allowed us to spend together, I’ve come to recognize that Valentina tends to keep a small and very selective circle of friends.
Mostly acquaintances, from what I can tell.
Lucy is her closest friend and what Chase has told me –from their conversations– Valentina doesn’t let many people in.
She’s calm, cool and collected, almost aloof in her approach to people.
The professional side of her almost never cracks.
I mentioned once that she had a stick up her ass and she corrected me by saying, “It’s a steel beam, so don’t ever think you can break me.
” I won’t break her, but I may see if I can get her to bend just a little.
As if she senses eyes on her, Valentina slowly turns her head in my direction and we lock gazes. They don’t immediately spit fire in my direction and almost look, dare I say, happy. It’s like she’s actually enjoying herself despite my presence.
Carina says something to her once more, and she diverts her attention back to their conversation.
I lift my soda to my lips, my eyes still glued to her, and imagine what she would taste like on my tongue.
Not overly sweet like this soda. I bet she tastes like nighttime rain.
The kind that awakens all your senses with its clean earth smell.
I imagine her body kissed by Greek gods, blessing her with their ethereal blood and how much I would love to drink it.
“Earth to Loving.” The voices that had begun to fade into white noise come alive and tear through my fantasy.
“Hmm? What did you say?” Bash, Frank and Tino stand staring at me with smartass smirks on their faces and curious eyes.
“Damn. You really are a goner,” Bash snorts.
With a sneer I ask him, “What are you talking about? What am I a goner for?”
“Your girl.” The way Frank says your girl has me feeling that buzz through my veins.
I felt it after we kissed on Sunday, and it’s been an electric current about to surge ever since. Even my visit to Lascivious after I dropped my family at the airport didn’t tame my hunger. Until I have Valentina, I think I’m damned to a famished man.
“How did you two meet, anyhow?” Tino eyes me and takes a long pull of his beer.
Everyone but me is drinking this evening.
I’ve made a promise to Valentina –and myself– that I’d stay sober.
I’m afraid that I tend to make irrational and hasty decisions when I’m under the influence, and my days of broadcasting my sex life on the internet are over. That is, if I want to keep my job.
“We, uh, met through Monty. The two of them were discussing business when I happened to be at his office.”
“For punishment over the whipped cream bikini debacle,” Bash throws out and the guys laugh.
I roll my eyes and continue with our script of how we came to be. “Yes. I was there to discuss my behavior, and we ran into each other in the lobby when she was leaving. Monty introduced us and then we saw one another at the practice field a week or so later.”
“Yeah, and why was that? You never did say why she was there at our practice in the middle of the day, dressed like a smoke show.” Tino takes another drink and not so subtly looks at Valentina from the corner of his eyes.
I smack his arm and he sputters, beer spraying out down his chin.
“Don’t look at her like that. I’m right fucking here, Tino.
” I shake my head and he lifts a brow and shrugs.
“ She…she was there because Monty asked her to come by. He invited her to the Glitz and Glam event, and said the two of us should go together. I think he was trying to play match maker from the get go.”
I tell them that on the fly, because we never discussed what to say about her visiting the practice field that day to cuss me out for sleeping with Carrigan.
Valentina’s laugh floats through the room once more and I decide to take the break from our conversation to escape.
“I’m going to see if she needs a drink refresh. You guys need anything?”
“I could use a new beer,” Tino tells me, tipping his almost empty bottle side to side.
“Cool. They’re in the kitchen. Help yourself.” I turn and walk away, leaving Frank and Bash laughing at an annoyed Tino.
I move through the dozen or so people that are mingling around the large living room until I’m standing right next to Valentina. She knows I’m there, but continues her conversation without even blinking in my direction.
“I must meet this Lucy friend of yours. She sounds fun,” Carina gushes.
“And don’t forget she works for Luster. If it wasn’t for that best friend discount she so generously gives me, I don’t know that I could be friends with her.” The two of them laugh and I slowly slide my arm around her waist.
Her body tenses then relaxes when she slips into work mode.
“Oh you don’t mean that, babe. You and Lucy are like yin and yang.
She’s cooky and a little wild with a mouth that is totally unfiltered, and you’re strategic and disciplined with your approach to life.
She adds insanity to your life, and you add balance to hers. ”
Valentina stares at me as if she’s trying to find the hole in my brain where that bullshit I pulled out was buried. A small crooked grin sits on her gorgeous face.
I lean in, my lips brushing the shell of her ear, and whisper, “I notice everything when it comes to you. Like how goosebumps rolled over your skin when I wrapped my arm around your waist just now.”
Her face pales and the pulse in her neck jumps.
I know she probably wants to sink her claws into me and rip me to shreds, and god I want that too.
I crave to feel the heat sear my back, just to let me know she’s alive under all that button-upped restraint.
I can only imagine what it would be like to hear her come undone.
My dick starts to twitch in my jeans and I roll out the tension that suddenly forms in my shoulders. My grasp on control grows weaker each day that I’m around Valentina and can’t have her. More visits to Lascivious. Darker desires. Hedonistic cravings.
“I’ll let you two be alone.” Carina’s cheeks blush and she leaves the two of us standing in our own little bubble.
Valentina’s chest rises and her nostrils flare with a deep inhale, as her head turns menacingly to look at me. Her eyes burn fire and if I look closely, I’m pretty sure I would see raging embers in them.
Her jaw clicks with tension. “I can’t believe you just did that in front of your teammate's wife. There isn’t any doubt that she heard you. I am mortified, Nic.”
My tongue peeks out and licks the corner of my mouth. “I know. It’s exactly why I did it. We gotta sell it, babe. What type of a young couple in love would we be if we never flirted inappropriately with one another? ”
“The kind that keeps their private life private . And there is no ‘love’ in this story.”
“Yet,” I add with a wink.
Her eye twitches and her top lip curls the smallest bit. I can’t help the smile that finds my face. I just love pushing her buttons and watching her body react.
“Do you wanna get out of here?” My voice is low and I see the moment she goes from cold to hot.
Though she won’t admit it, her body doesn’t lie.
“Yes, please. Let me say goodbye to people.” I don’t give her a chance to wander off by herself and take her hand in mine.
I escort her around the room, saying goodbye’s and sharing nice to meet you with everyone. As Carina shuts the door behind us, she tugs at her hand, but I tighten my hold on it.
“Nuh uh, mi Reina. People may be looking out the window. You’ll hold my hand until I help you into your seat.”
She smiles and through clenched teeth she bites, “Do not boss me around. I’ll hold your hand because of the very reason, but you better watch your mouth. Or next time I’ll be shoving my fist down it.”
“God, I love it when you talk dirty to me.” We reach my car and I open the passenger door, waiting until she’s fully seated before releasing her hand and closing her inside.
The drive back to her place is spent with the silent treatment while she stares out the window, and me singing loud and off-key to every song that comes on the radio. When I pull up to the front of her building, I park and jump out, holding my hand up to Stephan not bother with the door.
Valentina opens it, but I jump in front of her before she steps out. I block her in with my arms resting on the door and roof of my car then stick my head inside.