An Offer He Can't Refuse (27 page)

"Girl Talk"

Bobby Troup

Feeling of Jazz
(1955)

Téa studied the rows of hair styling products for sale at the
front of the Kona Kai Spa's beauty salon. Tight Control, Helmet Control, Iron Control, all of them sounded like something she could use… and not just on her hair. Frowning, she combed her fingers through the heavy mass and wondered why the pricey straightening process couldn't seem to keep her waves tamed these days.

"Well, well, well," an amused voice—Eve's—said. "This isn't my sister, Téa Caruso, is it, playing hooky on a Tuesday, at eleven o'clock in the morning?"

"I had an hair emergency," Téa answered. Not to mention she was looking for any excuse to keep herself away from Johnny's house today. Forever.

"It looks fine to me." Eve was dressed in something Donna Karan probably dreamed up, her hair in an effortless fall of blonde, her makeup nearly invisible.

"It needs to be straight," Téa insisted, pulling on the ends as she looked back at the pumps and aerosols. "Perfectly straight."

"It
is
perfectly straight."

"It doesn't stay that way," Téa grumbled, then she lowered her voice and told the truth, because if anyone might have some good advice for a woman on the morning-after, it would be Eve. "It doesn't stay that way in bed."

"In bed?" Her sister sounded puzzled.

Téa whispered this time. "In bed with a man."

Eve didn't say anything more, but Téa felt her stunned stare all the same.

She turned to frown at her sister. "Is it so hard to believe that a man would want to… to… you know, with me?"

Eve blinked. "No, no, it's not that. Not that at all." She put out a hand and touched Téa's arm. "It's that I haven't thought
you
wanted to… to… you know, in quite some time."

Because Téa had decided it was safer to be like their mother—single, celibate, successful. She still did. It was how to keep her secrets locked tight and her heart locked whole inside her chest. No sense in risking falling in love and wanting to marry because no respectable man would want to wed the Mafia association that would walk down the aisle with her. "It was a mistake, obviously."

"Obviously, why?"

For starters, because she'd gone there that morning with the express purpose of doing business and nothing more. "He manages to get to me somehow. I don't like it."

"Meaning he turns you on in a way that all those great-nephews and grandsons in your dating past never managed to."

"He probably thinks I'm easy," Téa muttered, remembering how she'd looked in the mirrored ceiling. Her dress in disarray, her hair a wild mass, her underwear ringing one leg. She'd
felt
easy. He'd grabbed onto her in an obvious need for comfort and then she'd let that slide into a delirious roller-coaster ride of afternoon delight.

Eve laughed the throaty laugh of a woman who'd loved and left a thousand men… and left them wanting more. "We're not fifteen any longer. Forget all that guilt the nuns fed us. Real women experience lust."

Experiencing lust wasn't the problem. Acting on it might be. Téa distrusted the sensation that it was her body taking over and leaving her control and common sense behind. "Anyway, the sex wasn't that good." Not that sex ever was.

Eve raised an eyebrow. 'Then you weren't doing… you know, with Johnny Magee?"

Téa half-turned back toward the hair products. "What does the
who
have to do with anything?"

"He looks like he'd be good in bed, that's all. There's a certain… twinkle in his eyes."

"He
is
good in bed. It wasn't him." She didn't know about the twinkle, but she knew he was long and golden and hard. His mouth set her on fire. When his tongue pressed inside her mouth she melted, just like that, her body ready for him. It had never been like that for her, never. The excitement of the lead-up had been more than she'd ever expected or experienced.

But when it came to satisfaction, she'd always been better off on her own, without a witness.

Eve sighed. 'Téa, Téa, Téa—"

"I don't know what to do now, okay?" She swung around to face her sister. If she wasn't envious of Eve's beauty, she would give just about anything for an ounce of Eve's sexual sangfroid. "How am I supposed to look him in the eye and do my job when the last time he saw me I was—"
Flushed and wet and sprawled across the bed
. She shivered thinking about it.

Eve gave her a little smile. "I'll tell you exactly what you should do about it. Listen to Big Sister Eve and I'll clear it all up."

Téa rolled her eyes. "Big Sister Eve is younger than me by four months," she pointed out dryly.

"But decades older when it comes to men. So here's my advice—"

A speeding body whipped through the salon doors. "That's it!" Joey slid to a halt in front of them, the gauzy skirt of her pale green dress whipping around her knees. "I'm buying a gun and I'm going to learn how to use it."

"Shh!" Téa said, glancing around to make sure no one had overheard. "Do you think that's the kind of thing someone with the Caruso last name should go about screaming at the top of her lungs?"

"I don't care," Joey said, sparks snapping in her dark eyes. "If I'm going to be called a kettle, I might as well be black."

"Shh," Téa said again, though she doubted anyone could decipher her little sister's last statement. "Keep your voice down."

Joey flapped her arms, impatient, as always, with any kind of restraint. "You have no idea what just happened to me."

A man strolled past the salon doors, that silver-haired boxer type that Téa had seen the week before in the gym. He glanced at the three of them, and gave a little nod. Though he moved on, the attention made her wary.

"Let's get smoothies from the juice bar and sit out by one of the pools," she said, grabbing each sister by the arm. "We can find someplace private to finish our conversation."

Three skinny berry coolers later, they found a place in the partial shade of a large umbrella. Some spa guests were enjoying the warm sunshine as well—a European couple in matching thong bottoms and suntan oil, a recovering plastic surgery patient in face bandages and oversized sunglasses, a woman drying her wet pedicure while waiting for her next beauty treatment. Téa breathed in the air perfumed by flowers and grass and felt herself relax.

Joey was more docile too, thank God, though she was quieted by the brain freeze she'd experienced with her first hit of icy drink. The girl didn't have a cautious bone in her body, Téa thought, and she was paying for it now. Her eyes scrunched shut, Joey collapsed into a lounge chair, her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. "What were you guys talking about when I showed up?"

Eve lifted her flawless profile to the sky. "Téa's had you know with Johnny Magee."

"Eve."

One of Joey's eyes popped open. "No kidding. I thought you'd sworn off—wait a minute, why are we calling it 'you know'?"

"You know," Eve said, smiling.

Joey nodded. "Oh yeah, because Téa's a prude."

"I'm not a prude."

"Of course you are," Eve replied. "That's why my advice is that you should you know with Johnny some more. Many times."

Joey nodded in agreement again. "Oh, yeah, I think he has great prude-eradication potential. You might even be tardy a time or two after you-knowing your brains out. Would make the rest of us mortals feel a little better about our punctuality habits."

Téa stared at her sisters. "Your advice is that I go right back into the situation that made me feel awkward in the first place?" Then she crossed her arms over her chest, hoping she wasn't sounding as shrill as she was beginning to feel. "And just why, exactly, do the two of you think you know so much about Johnny and his ability to… to… you know?"

Joey had the answer to that one. "Because any person with eyes can see he's a bad boy, Téa, and a bad boy is
exactly
what you need."

"An elegant bad boy," Eve added, "which is the only kind that can possibly meet your high standards."

And get beneath her defenses.

But she couldn't let him.

"Plus," Joey added, "There's the way he looks at you. Like you're a lollipop and he's one big tongue."

"Eww—" Téa started, then broke off. "Really?"

But honest to God, that's the way Johnny made her feel-sweet, and oh-so-lickable. But her feelings weren't a good reason to get further involved. Anyway, he might not want to, considering the small fact that he hadn't been himself before waking up and finding her holding his hand in his bed. He was likely regretting what happened as much as she.

Joey slid a glance at Eve. "Let's tell her we'll put all her bras in the freezer again if she doesn't agree to you know with him."

Eve smiled. "Let's tell her we'll kidnap her and take her to Grandpa's party."

Téa clunked her smoothie onto the table beside her. She should have known her sisters wouldn't leave that issue alone forever, especially after she'd rebuffed Cosimo's "invitation" a few nights before. "No—"

"Who's that?" Joey suddenly said, shooting up straight in her chair. "That man over there with the silver hair?"

Téa glanced back. The man with the broken nose was across the pool, drying his chest with a towel. He caught Téa's gaze and gave her another little nod of recognition. "A guest. He's been here about a week, I think." Nervous tingles were running up her back again. "Why?"

Joey leaned back in her chaise. "A week? I doubt he's another Fed, then. The rumors about Nonno's impending retirement aren't that old. And with a nose like that… he doesn't have a chance of blending in like those other rat-faced bastards try to do."

"I take it those are the rats you're planning to take your target practice on?" Eve asked.

"
Shh!"
Téa said. "Geez. Can't you guys keep it down?"

Joey set her jaw. "I'm ready to tell the world what I think about the Federal Bureau of Ignoramuses. A thug, paid for by yours and mine tax dollars, tried shaking me down in Starbucks today."

"What?" Alarm stiffened Téa's spine. "What are you talking about?"

"I was picking up a latte this morning at my usual Starbucks, at my usual time. I gave my name, and when the barista called out that my drink was ready, a man picked it up before I could. Then he showed me federal ID and let me know that our friends in black have their eyes on us, now that the family leadership is in flux."