Chapter Ten
KARLI
Dad had come out at exactly the wrong time to tell me he was finished and I could catch a ride home with him instead of a cab. I should have taken the cab…or even walked the twelve miles.
“I thought you swore off dating gym rats.”
“I’m not dating Nick, Dad.”
“Oh? That kiss looked awfully friendly for people not dating.”
I wasn’t about to talk to my father about the difference between “dating” and “hooking up,” which was what I’m sure Nick was interested in doing. Instead, I said, “He’s cute.” Cute was a huge understatement, but this was my dad, after all. “I’m attracted to him. But I told him in no uncertain terms that I wouldn’t go out with him.”
“And then you put your tongue in his mouth to drive the point home?”
“Dad!”
“What? Did you or did you not just have your tongue in that boy’s mouth?”
“Daddy, first of all, he’s not a boy, and I’m no little girl. Second, I really don’t want to discuss this with you. I’m a grown woman and what I decide to do and whom I decide to do it with is my business, okay?”
He rolled his eyes but kept them on the road – and he didn’t answer me. We rode in silence the rest of the way to the house and only when we were parking in the garage did he finally say, “Listen, baby girl. I realize that you’re a grown woman and too old for me to tell what to do. So let me just offer you some fatherly advice: friendly, fatherly advice.
“When Martin came to me about taking on Nick’s training, I did a lot of research on him. This kid…man, excuse me. This man has been a party boy since he was eighteen years old. Since he started fighting, he’s been photographed with probably fifty different women. He will break your heart, baby girl. If he does that, I will break him. I won’t have any choice.”
“Oh, Dad, Nick is not going to break my heart, okay? The reason he is not going to break my heart is because my heart is not involved with him. I’m not going out with him. I’m not falling for him. I made an error in judgment by kissing him and it won’t happen again. In a couple of days, I have a date with an attorney, and I’m really looking forward to it. I am done with fighters and gym rats, but everyone makes mistakes, right?”
He grumbled and got out of the car. I followed him into the house, and he began making his way down the hallway toward his bedroom. “Hey, Dad?” He turned back toward me. “Please promise me you won’t take this out on Nick while he’s training. This was as much me as it was him and that wouldn’t be fair.”
He made a face, but said, “I’ll try.”
“Dad!”
He rolled his eyes at me again. Sometimes, I felt like the parent. “I won’t take it out on him; happy?”
I smiled and blew him a kiss. “Thank you, Daddy.” He grumbled again and walked away. I was shaking my head at him when my phone rang. It was Nick. Shit.
“Hey, Nick,” I said when I picked it up.
“Hey, I just wanted to make sure that we were okay.”
“I’m okay. I’m a big girl. My father doesn’t dictate my life. I asked him not to be hard on you while you’re training because of this.”
He laughed nervously. “And what did he say to that?”
“He agreed.”
He laughed again. “We’ll see. So, what are you doing for dinner?”
“Nick, I thought we were clear that I wouldn’t go out with you.”
“No, we’re a little muddy on the issue. You sure don’t kiss me like a woman who doesn’t want to go out with me.”
“I’m sorry about that. It was poor judgment and not my intention to lead you on. I wasn’t thinking. It won’t happen again, Nick.”
He was silent for a few moments. I did feel bad, and I felt confused. It was easy to decide that Nick and I were a bad idea when he wasn’t right in front of me. But whenever he and I were close to each other, it was like my head completely quit working. I’ve had crushes before, but nothing like this. I felt like I was being driven by pure passion where he was concerned, and I knew if I didn’t put a stop to it, that it would turn out all bad.
“Don’t be sorry,” he said at last. “I’m not sorry we kissed. I’ve kissed a lot of women, Karli, and those two kisses were the best I’ve ever had. But I’m willing to start over…just as friends. Unless, of course, you’re one of those people who think men and women can’t just be friends.”
“I have male friends.”
“Okay, good. Then we can just put the attraction aside for now.”
“Um, excuse me? The attraction?”
“Oh, well, I was just assuming it was mutual.”
“Don’t assume.”
He laughed. “Okay, my mistake. Well then, if you’re not attracted to me, then it should be easy…as long as you can resist the urge to kiss me again. That is where the attraction issue gets slightly muddied.”
“So arrogant. You kissed me, both times.”
He laughed again. “Okay then, it will never happen again. Now, dinner? I’m starving over here.”
I rolled my eyes more at myself than at him. “Fine, dinner – as friends. That means you keep your lips to yourself.”
“No lips, got it.” He chuckled. I got the feeling he was convinced that there was no way I could resist him. I was just going to have to prove him wrong.
********
Nick and I arranged to meet at Treasure Island. I let him pick the place for dinner and he picked Gilley’s. It figured – hot girls in black, leather bikinis and cowboy boots serving him food. I was sure that was on the top of one of his fantasy lists. But, this wasn’t a date; it was dinner with a friend, so he could flirt with as many scantily-clad cowgirls as he wanted.
To prove to myself I wasn’t worried about trying to compete, I pulled my hair up into a simple ponytail and put on a casual, cotton, peach-colored dress that I’d had forever and a pair of brown sandals. The only make-up I wore was a tiny bit of mascara and lip gloss. On my way out the door, I grabbed my purse and let Dad know I was having dinner with a friend. He shouted out for me to say hello to Michaela. I didn’t correct him.
It took me about twenty minutes to get to Treasure Island. I used the time to go through the “rules” in my head. I couldn’t let him stand too close to me. I wasn’t going back to his place. I would meet him wherever we went and drive myself home. I wouldn’t drink too much alcohol so as not to lower my inhibitions and under no circumstances would I kiss him ever again.
Sadly, that last rule gave me a sharp pang in the center of my chest. He was an amazing kisser – the kind that all men would be compared to from this point forward. But, it was wrong to lead him on, whether that had been my intention or not.
I hadn’t lied to Nick when I told him I had a lot of male friends. Most of my friends have been male. I spent so much time with men and boys in the gym growing up that I learned to identify with them more than women at an early age. Add that to the fact that I was raised by a single father and men ruled my world.
I’d had crushes on some of the guys that came and went through the gym over the years and the last one I dated, I actually thought I was in love with. We had been talking about getting married, just before New Year’s last year. We went to a party on New Year’s Eve and I lost track of him before midnight. I went looking for him and found him in the kitchen in the walk-in pantry, getting busy with one of the fighter groupies. That was when I swore off fighters and gym rats.
That was also almost a year ago and I had to wonder if the fact that I was desperately horny had anything to do with this overwhelming attraction I felt toward Nick.
As I drove into the valet area, I saw a cluster of women near the entrance and realized that right in the center of them was Nick. I rolled my eyes as I handed the keys off to one of the valets. No wonder he was so full of himself. As I walked up toward him, I could hear feminine giggling. One of the girls closest to Nick had her arm out and he was signing it. Give me a fucking break. When he finished dotting the “I” in Storelli, he looked up at her face and gave her a thousand-watt smile.
The next girl tried to move forward and I’m sure she was lifting up her shirt. God only knows what that one wanted him to sign. Thankfully, he caught sight of me out of the corner of his eye. The next thing I knew, I was the one basking in the heat of that sexy smile.
“Sorry, ladies; that’s it for now. My dinner date is here.” There was a collective groan from the crowd and suddenly five pairs of eyes were on me. Most of them were pretty eyes and it hit me that Nick could go home with any one of them.
That was my biggest issue with dating a fighter. It was not that there was anything wrong with my self-esteem now, but I worried about how much it could take before it began to go south. I was not planning on testing it. Nick could take whomever he wanted home with him…right after we had dinner.
I smiled in the direction of the glaring women and that only made their stares grow harder as they took me in from head to toe. Suddenly, Nick’s big hand was reaching toward me. I took it, for safety’s sake, and he pulled me through the crowd while using the other hand to part them like Moses at the Red Sea. He guided me to the door of the casino and I could almost feel the heat of the stares at my back until the door closed behind us.
“Sorry about that,” he said.
“I’m sure it happens all the time,” I said, sarcastically.
“It does,” he agreed casually as he led me through the banks of noisy machines and toward Gilley’s in the back. “A hazard of the job, I guess.” More like a hazard of walking around looking like a tattooed God, I thought.
“I guess,” I said as I suddenly remembered I was still holding his hand and let go of it. His lips twitched, but he held back whatever sarcastic comment he had on the tip of his tongue. He stopped walking when we stepped inside the restaurant and smiled at the hostess. She practically gushed and hurried us back to a table in the corner that faced out to where they did the pirate shows. Once she took our drink orders and left, I asked him a question I’d had on my mind since I met him.
“So, why don’t you have a girlfriend, Nick?”
“I’ve been too busy training and fighting to worry about trying to sustain a relationship, I guess.” His answer almost sounded practiced, like he had anticipated it and prepared a reply ahead of time just in case. He didn’t mention the part where he got to fuck a different woman every night, either. I guess I should at least respect the fact that although he’s definitely a player, he’s not cheating on anyone. “What about you, Karli? Why no boyfriend?”
“I haven’t had the best of luck in that arena,” I said. “I thought it best to take a break for a while and maybe when I get back in the game, I’ll stop picking losers.”
“Fighters and gym rats?”
“Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I basically grew up inside of a gym, so those are the guys I met first.”
He grinned. “You would meet more preppies and honor students if you’d go to one of those wild, frat parties.”
I smiled back tightly. His dimples were showing and I felt lust flooding my veins once again. I had to actually take a deep breath and let it out slowly before I said, “I doubt that, but I do have a date coming up with an attorney, so maybe my luck is about to change.”
Chapter Eleven
NICK
I forced myself to keep the smile on my face. She had a date with an attorney. That wasn’t going to fit in with my plans at all. I got her to agree to go out with me as friends, and as long as neither of us were seeing anyone else, I was sure I’d be able to convince her to take it to the next level, even if it was a friends-with-benefits kind of thing. But if it worked out with this attorney and she started seeing him…I was screwed.
The waitress interrupted my thoughts. She was a cute, little redhead that filled out her black, leather bra and chaps nicely. Strangely, though, the sight of all that firm, female flesh barely fazed me. The only one I wanted lately was sitting across from me.
Over the past couple of weeks since meeting her, she’d dominated most of my thoughts. She was like the girl next door every guy fantasizes about: pure and simple beauty and grace…and she didn’t seem to have any idea. I could hardly look at her without smiling.
When the waitress was gone, I said, “So, where did you meet this lawyer guy?”
“He gave a lecture to our class a few weeks ago.”
“Oh, and then he asked you out?”
She laughed. “No, don’t make it sound all creepy. I ran into him at The Venetian a few days ago and that was when he asked me out. Well, to a masquerade party.”
I suddenly remembered Dad’s fundraiser. “Hey, that reminds me! I have to go to a fundraiser next weekend. It’s a masquerade thing, too. Maybe you could go with me?”
“Oh, I’m sorry; that’s when my date is.”
I felt like I’d been kicked in the guts. I was losing ground here fast. I wasn’t used to losing and I hated it. I didn’t want to come off sounding jealous or whiny, so I changed the subject…for now. “Okay, next time. You have any tats, Karli?”
She blushed. “No, but I have this picture in my purse that I’ve been carrying around for months…just in case I work up my nerve.”
“Aw, are you afraid of needles?”
“Not afraid…really…”
I laughed. “You’re afraid of needles.”
“Fine, I don’t like needles. But I’m going to do it, one of these days.”
“Can I see it?”
“What?”
“The picture.”
“Oh, yeah.” She took out her wallet and took a piece of paper out of it and unfolded it. She handed it to me just as the waitress sat our meals down in front of us. I thanked the waitress and when she left again, I looked at the picture. It was a big, blue flower with the words, “Find Beauty in Your Strength,” stenciled around it. It was nice and that color would look good on Karli. A tattoo was just going to add to her sex appeal, if that was even possible.
“I like it. Where’s it going?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” she said. “What do you think?”
“Well, mine were easy because they only add to my image as far as my job is concerned. But I’m guessing as an attorney to be, you’ll want to put it someplace it will be easy to cover up.” I was thinking about Ethan. He had two on his chest, but he wouldn’t put any on his arms because of work.
She took a bite of her steak and I waited for her to chew and swallow it and then I said, “Stand up.”
“Stand up?” She looked around, confused. “Why?”
“Just trust me, I want to see something.”
She cocked an eyebrow at me, but did as I asked. I reached out and put my hands on her waist. I felt her stiffen up. “Don’t worry, I’m just going to see where it might fit. Come closer.” I let go of her and let her step toward me. When she was close enough, I took the paper and pressed it to her dress where it just covered her upper thigh. I desperately wanted to lift the hem of that dress and slide it up underneath, but I resisted. “Hmm, turn around backwards.”
“I don’t think I want it…there,” she said, coloring slightly.
I laughed. “Don’t worry, as much as I’d love to put my hands on your sexy ass, I’ve promised to behave. Trust me, Karli.”
She sucked in a shaky breath and turned her back to me. Her body curved and dipped in all the right places and God, it was hard not to touch that nice, round butt. I held the paper against the small of her back and again said, “Hmm…I don’t see you as the tramp stamp type. I’d go with the thigh.”
She turned away from me so quickly that the skirt of that little dress caught on my fingers. I got just a glimpse of her satin, peach-colored panties and all the blood in my body went straight to my cock. Damn.
“Do you have any on your legs?” she asked. I tried not to smile, but I lost the battle. “Oh, stop it! I didn’t even look at you that day.” I didn’t have any tats below the waist, but it was fun to tease her.
“Sure, you didn’t,” I said.
“God, you’re so arrogant,” she said.
I laughed. “Just confident,” I countered. “But back to the tattoo; what are you doing after dinner?”
“Studying?”
“How about you just take the plunge tonight? I’ll go with you, for moral support.”
“Tonight? Oh, I don’t know about that. I think I’d need an appointment and I’m not sure I can afford it this week. I can’t very well ask my father for money for a tat, you know?”
“Yes, I do know.” The trust fund money I used before I made my own was technically mine, but as Dad enjoyed reminding me, it all came from him. He nearly had a heart attack the first time he walked out and saw me getting into the pool without my shirt on. He wanted to know what each tat cost and he tallied them up as I told him. His response to me spending a total of six thousand dollars on ink was purely livid. “But, I know a guy and I have an account there.”
“I’m not letting you pay for my tattoo.”
“Why not? I’m your friend.” I took a bite of my own steak. Talking to Karli made me forget just how hungry I was. The steak reminded me.
“I’d rather wait until I can pay for it myself,” she said.
I stopped shoveling food in my mouth and said, “Fine, but if I asked him, he’d put yours on a tab, too, and you could pay him when you get the money, or even on payments.”
She looked like she was thinking about that and while she was, I attacked my baked potato. At last she said, “You really think I should do it tonight?”
I smiled at her. “It’s up to you. Whenever you decide to do it, though, I’d like to go with you.”
“Why? To see if I cry?”
To see a little more of that sexy body. To spend another few hours with her. I had a list. “Nah, I’ll bet you handle it like a champ. I just like watching my buddy work.” On smooth, sexy thighs.
She didn’t say anything else about the tattoo as we finished our dinner. We both passed on dessert and after I paid and we started toward the front door, Karli stopped to watch the action on the mechanical bull up front near the bar. The guy on the bull’s back was thrown headfirst into the mats surrounding the bull. He had only stayed on for three seconds.
“Damn, three seconds; that’s shameless.”
She smiled. “Have you ever done it?”
“No, but it doesn’t look that hard.”
“Oh, really? I have an idea. You ride the bull for the full eight seconds, and I’ll get the tattoo tonight.”
I laughed, but she didn’t even smile. “You’re serious?”
“It’s okay…if you’re scared, you don’t have to.”
I laughed again. I was terrified, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “I’m not scared of anything.”
She folded her arms. Damn, she’s cute. I wanted to kiss her so fucking bad. “Nothing? How about Dad?”
“I’m not scared of your dad.”
“Okay, ride the bull for eight seconds or come home with me and have a beer with Dad.”
“I’m going to ride the bull…but only because you’re getting your tattoo as soon as I finish.”
She smiled sweetly and said, “Okay, but only if you go eight seconds. And if you don’t, I get to tell Dad you’re scared of him.”
That did it. If it took me all night, I was staying on that mother fucker for eight seconds. No way was I facing Charlie after she told him I was scared of him…which I was not, much, really.
I pulled my phone and wallet out of my pocket and said, “Watch this.” I winked at her, and she laughed. I didn’t think she had any faith in me. Before I went through the little gate, I turned back and said, “How many chances do I get?” She laughed again but said,
“Three.”
“I’ll only need two.”
“There’s that arrogance.”
“Confidence,” I told her.
I was already sweating as I got ready to climb up on the big bull’s back. I unbuttoned my silk shirt and pulled it off. There were two girls behind Karli that suddenly stopped in their tracks and said,
“Oh my God, it’s Nick Storelli!” I wasn’t looking at them; I was watching Karli. The look on her face was classic. She was giving them the stink eye. It gave me even more confidence to know she was jealous as I climbed up on the mechanical bull’s back.
I put my hand through the hole in the rope like the dude operating the bull told me to. When I was as ready as I was ever going to be, I nodded at him. As soon as the bull started moving, I put my other arm up to balance myself. I looked over at Karli and grinned. This was a piece of cake.
I watched as Karli approached the control guy and said something to him. He smiled and told me, “The little lady says her great-grandma could ride him at that pace. You want me to speed him up?”
I narrowed my eyes at Karli and nodded. Suddenly, the bull was rocking and rolling and I was rolling, too – off the side. I was still holding onto the ropes when the buzzer rang, but the rest of my body was on the mat. My arm felt like it was about to be pulled out of its socket. I finally let go and then I had to roll around on the mat trying to get back to my feet. When I did, Karli was cracking up.
“You think that was funny, do you?”
“It was hilarious,” she said. “I wish I would have thought to get some video.”
“That was it, right? I was still holding on at eight seconds.”
“Your ass was on the mat, not the bull.”
“You did great, Nick! We love you!” the groupies that had bellied up to the gate said. I looked at them, smiled, and winked. Karli was glaring at me when I looked back at her pretty face. I leaned in close to her ear. Damn, she smelled good.
“Flirting when you’re out with a friend is okay, right?”
“I don’t care when or who you flirt with.”
I grinned again. “Good. Now, watch this.”
I got back on the bull and put everything I had in my legs and right arm into holding on. I was inches from slipping off when the buzzer rang that time, but my ass was still in the saddle. I dismounted, trying to look cool, and then I fell into the mats on my ass. Karli laughed and kept her phone pointed at me the whole time. The groupies covered their mouths with their hands and then called out to ask if I was okay.
Karli kept laughing as I crawled off the mat and finally stood up. “That was spectacular,” she said.
“Did you get that one on video?”
“I think I missed the ride, but I got the dismount.” I grabbed for her phone and she moved back and giggled. The two girls still standing next to the fence gave her a dirty look and then looked back at me with adoration and said,
“Nick, can we get your autograph?”
I looked at Karli. She rolled her eyes. Laughing to myself, I turned on the charm and spent the next fifteen minutes flirting with my fans. Karli’s pretty, little face was practically green. I loved it.