Marrying Mari (18 page)

He pulled out Okuni’s report and rifled through it. Just as he remembered. The detective had included almost nothing about Florida in the information, just a note that she had spent eighteen months here prior to beginning her college studies. An oversight? Perhaps.

Ethan started to dial Okuni’s office, then thought better of it. He disconnected that call and redialed. This time to his cousin Peter.

Peter picked up on the third ring. “Hey, cuz. How’s the life of the oh-so-important CEO?”

“Fine. Full of paperwork and meetings. Listen, I was wondering if you’d do a favor for me. Confidentially.”

There was a moment of silence. “Okay,” his cousin answered cautiously. “I’m intrigued. Tell me more.”

Ethan paused, undecided, then went on. “Mariella mentioned she spent some time in Miami, but the guy who brought her to our attention doesn’t have any details in his file. I’d like you to look into it.”

Again, silence. “Ethan, sure, glad to help, but why me?”

“You’ve worked in Miami yourself. It just seems wrong that he missed it. Hinky,” he said, smiling at the thought of Mari’s explanation.

“Huh?”

“Never mind. She said she was in Florida long enough to build up her savings for tuition,” he said, hearing his own frustrated tone. He gave Peter the dates Okuni had noted for Mari’s time in Miami.

Peter stepped in smoothly. “No problem. Give me her full name and birth date.” Ethan did, and Peter replied, “I’ll call my contacts and have an answer for you later this week. Is that quick enough?”

“I’ll see you Saturday anyway. Give me the information then. I doubt it’s anything serious.” Ethan paused, unable to articulate his feeling.

“Cuz. Look, you just met the girl and while she’s hot, better to be safe than sorry, right? And haven’t women made us both sorry, in the past? I’ll keep it confidential. You want it straight, right?”

“Completely straight.”

“Okay then. See you Saturday. You’re doing the right thing, no matter what.” Peter disconnected before Ethan could say anything else.

He laid the phone down. Then picked it up again, ready to call his cousin and cancel everything. Then he laid the phone back down. He looked at it. He could of course call Mari and ask her straight out what the Miami thing was.
But
.

Peter was right. That old “bad angel” was on his shoulder. Hell, he hadn’t even told Gabriel about his concerns, let alone Mari. And if it were nothing, then no harm, no foul. In either case, he’d know by Saturday night.

“I sent the car for you,” Gabriel said.

“What? Ethan and I are watching a movie.” Mari tilted the cell away from her ear to look at the man in question.

“Don’t care. Eli should be there right about now.”

The doorbell rang, and Ethan lazily headed for the door.

She frowned. “Gabriel. I’ve got my flannel pajamas and fuzzy socks on, we’re sharing a bowl of popcorn, and the TV is exploding with action. I’m settled in at home for the night.”

“I like when you say home and mean our place.” Gabriel’s voice had deepened, and the background noise clicked off, as if he had shut a door.

“Yes, well, it was a rotten day, and I don’t think—”

“Even on the new bike?”

She smiled, watching Ethan walk back into the room, carrying two red boxes. “Okay, the bike was a total thrill, but it was one thing after another all day.”

“I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“Where are we going?”

“Crave.” When she was silent, he added, “Don’t say no.”

“What’s in the boxes?”

“Oh, good, Eli’s there. Look and see what I sent, curious George. Eli will wait on you, so hop to it. I’m lonely for you.” He clicked off.

Pushy.
She stared at the clock. Nine thirty. She gasped when she lifted the top of the smaller red box Ethan handed her, pushed back sheets of tissue paper. Oh. My.
God.

A silvery scrap of fabric that turned out to be a silk dress. Black kitten-heeled slippers. A tiny black scrap that turned out to be panties—barely.

She blushed and dropped the lingerie. Ethan, of course, picked it up and examined it. She blushed harder and grabbed it back. He chuckled.

He handed her the second box, a bigger one that held a coat. In it was an envelope. When she pulled out the card, a length of black velvet ribbon slipped out of it and fell on top of the black velvet coat lined in red satin.

The note said, “Wear this and just this tonight at Crave. Tie the ribbon around your neck, like the night we met.” It was signed, “Love, Gabriel.”

She looked at the dress and the note silently.

Ethan said, “You’d better get moving,” and she came out of her trance. She had to shower, fix her makeup, get dressed. She looked at the dress again and rolled her eyes. Dressing would take a nanosecond, given the “tiny” factor.

“What about you?” she stood, holding the boxes, looking at him.

He shook his head. “I’m not invited. I’ll just have to stay here and watch things blow up.” He chuckled again, and Mari blushed. “Get going. Gabriel gets very impatient and Eli’s double parked.”

“Shit!” She raced toward her room. She had a date.

Forty minutes later, Mari sat in the backseat of the same big black SUV as Saturday, fiddling with the edges of the coat. The night was cool, which made her grateful for the coat. And so did the dress. It was a gorgeous silk jersey in silvery pewter. The dress was lined, and everything essential was covered but not by much. The halter neckline fastened at the nape of her neck with a deep, soft ruffle edging the front neckline, but the décolletage plunged to reveal the entire inner curves of her unbound breasts, while the back draped open to somewhere south of her waistline. The sheath ended at mid-thigh, but when she sat…and knowing she wore nothing but a silky black triangle and a couple of strings beneath it didn’t make her feel secure.

The coat, however, covered all sins. Long-sleeved, with a mandarin collar and princess shape, she planned to keep it on all night.

Her only other gear was the thin black ribbon, circled three times around her neck and tied in a knotted bow.

The car turned a corner, and Eli spoke over his shoulder.

“We’re almost here, Miss Amorini.”

“Thank you, Eli.” She had asked the driver to call her by her first name several times. He didn’t, but she observed he did the same with Ethan and Gabriel.

The car stopped, and Eli opened his door to help her, but her door was already open.

Gabriel.

He reached in and pulled her out. She thought he might kiss her, but he didn’t. With a terse, “Thanks, Eli. I’ll call you to come get us.” He tucked her under his arm and headed toward the noisy mob of people and bright lights and black-painted brick building blazing
Crave
across it in bold lipstick-red neon letters.

She caught sight of two muscled guys in suits and one leaner man, holding a clipboard and shaking his head at a couple, and then they were through the doors, inside.

A wall of music hit her ears and she stumbled, but Gabriel just held her tight and kept moving. “Tour later,” he said into her ear, and guided her forward.

Craning her neck she saw a soaring height of space, shaped by three levels on three sides. There was a huge bar circled with blue neon to their left, and another, with green neon on the second level. A railing in front of them led away to ramps going up and, she saw, down. Another level opened beneath them, at what must be basement level. A dance floor spread out in every direction, crowded with dancers gyrating. On the right were open spaces stacked three high and filled with people. On the left looked to be glassed-in privacy booths on each level, and a few tables out in the open where couples or triples sat and talked, drank, flirted. Servers of both genders in black shorts and muscle tees carried trays of full drinks and empty glasses.

The music was a hard, classic rock sound with a sophisticated club edge.

The crowd was young, hot, loud and out for a good time.

Gabriel hustled her to the left, behind the blue neon bar and up a short, narrow staircase. At the top was a landing, and to the right a black door. He unlocked it on a keypad and moved her inside. He shut the door behind them, and the sound dropped away.

She sighed in pleasure.

“Come here,” Gabriel growled and turned her in his arms. Pulling her tight, he kissed her mouth, and hummed. “Damn, you were long enough getting here.” He kissed her again.

She shoved at him. “Pardon me? You called me an hour ago and ordered me to get dressed and march on down here.” She shoved at him again, but he ignored her. In fact, he cradled her tighter against him.

“Closer to two hours ago, and I asked.” Gabriel kissed her quick. “Nicely, in fact.”

“Hah.” She poked him.

In response, he only lowered his head and took her mouth in a deep, searching, delicious kiss that had her pressing against him.

“Let’s get this off,” he said and started on her coat buttons.

“Uh, hey,” she said, but the coat was open, and off, and Gabriel was staring at her with those burning golden eyes. He didn’t say anything, and she stood uncertainly. “Gabriel?”

He traced the deep neckline with the tip of one thick finger, and she trembled. Her nipples tightened. Her breasts ached. She drew a deep breath as his finger slipped across her skin.

His beautiful mouth was compressed into a tight, narrow line. “Turn around.”

She did, nervously chattering. “I think I’m a little too big on top for this dress, I mean to go without a bra, and you can’t wear one with this—” She shivered as his finger traced patterns over her skin again, this time across the lower part of her back where the draped fabric fell. His finger tracked from right to left, and she realized that the dress bared her nearly to the cleft of her bottom. “I never wear anything this tiny, I mean skimpy, it just bares a lot for me, but it’s a beautiful dress.” Two fingers slid slowly up her spine, and she broke out in goose bumps.

“The dress isn’t beautiful. You are,” he said, his voice low and heated against her ear. Both his hands slid around her hips. His hands were so big that his thumbs continued to stroke against her lower back where her body started to curve out into her ass, while his fingers lay spread against her front, playing in the sensitive grooves where her thighs met her belly. She put her hands on his and leaned back against him, feeling the hard thrust of his erection against her spine. “I was going to give you a tour and introduce you, but right now that would be too embarrassing. Seeing you in that dress is just—” he stopped to breathe. When he spoke again, slow and deep, “I want you so much,” and then sucked her earlobe into his mouth, she cried out and arched, twisted against him, helpless against the spell he cast.

The fingers of his left hand twined with hers and lifted to cup her breast through the soft material. He cupped her flesh, thumbing the pointed nipple languidly.

“Do you want me, sugar?” he asked, crooning against her throat.

“Yes, please.”

Laying his right hand over hers and twining their fingers, he pushed their joined hands under her skirt, up against the juncture of her thighs. Gabe pressed her hand under his against her soft mound.

“You’re so wet. Do you feel that? How excited you are, so excited you’ve soaked your panties. Is that because you want me? Tell me,” he commanded.

She turned her face into his warm throat, bared by the open shirt collar. “Yes, I want you.”

“Now? Here? I want to make love to you right here in my office, on that couch. Do you want that too?” He pinched her nipple and stroked their fingers against her creamy slit.

“Yes, now,” she begged, twisting against him. She widened her stance and pulled his hand harder against her, rubbing the tips of his fingers against the wet silk.

“Whatever you want, Mari, whatever you want, I’ll give it to you,” he said and took her mouth in a passionate kiss. He lifted her in his arms and carried her to the big leather couch against the wall. “Here,” he said and sat, standing her between his legs. He held her upright. “Take off that dress.”

Panting, she reached up and unfastened the single button-and-loop holding the dress up. She let the fabric slip down her body, pooling on the floor and leaving her naked except for the scrap of black silk between her legs. She bent forward at the waist and kissed him, her mouth open and carnal, pushing her tongue into his.

He slipped his fingers under the narrow strings and tore the thong from her body with a grunt of satisfaction. He pulled her over him, against him, her knees straddling his hips and her breasts flush against his chest. The only thing between them was his clothing. He lifted her to stand again, then stood himself. She was panting, flushed, and the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Her eyes were pure silver, her lips swollen and glossy, her body ripe.

Gabe picked her up again and laid her on the leather. He arranged her, her head against a pillow. One leg drawn up against the back with her foot resting flat on the cushion, the other straight, spread open. One arm over her head, and the other bent, with her hand cupping her breast, thumb grazing the nipple. She was pliant, obedient, watching him, her lips parted.