Remembrance: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series Book 4) (16 page)

“I’m so sorry.  Yes, I do remember you.  And yeah, our families grew up together,” she smiled back, trying not to pee her pants and clamping her legs together.  She pulled her hand
away.  “I don’t mean to be rude, but,” a giggle escaped, “I really do need to use the restroom,” she laughed.  “All the wine –”

He let out a huge laugh and smiled appreciatively at her.  “Please don’t let me stop you.  I completely understand.  I’ll wait right here for you.  I’d love to continue our conversation.”  His voice took on a hint of anticipation, then he stepped aside so she could walk to the bathroom.

“Thank you,” she waved and made a funny face.  “I’ll be right back.”

She practically ran into the bathroom, finally finding relief.  While finishing up using the toilet, she heard women coming in and caught the tail end of a comment just as she was exiting the stall. 

“…to take a bite out of Luke Daniels,” a husky voice said.  “He’s finally alone, so –”

Janie appeared at the sinks where the two women stood.

Lana Gastaldi.  Janie tried not to sigh and put a smile on her face.  Lana, who recognized her immediately, almost stammered but caught herself.  “It’s Janie Callahan, right?”

“Yes,” Janie smiled at her in the mirror while she washed her hands.  “Hi Lana.”

Lana’s girlfriend jumped into the conversation.

“I’m Renatta.”  She put out her hand and Janie shook it after she toweled off then threw the woman a smile and a ‘nice to meet you’.

“Did you enjoy the tasting?” Lana asked.

“Very much.  The wine is delicious.  Your family should be very proud.”

“Thanks.  You’re a family friend of Luke’s, I hear?” she asked, smiling brightly.

She was probing for information.

“Yeah, we go way back.”

“Listen,” she began, looking like a woman who was about to launch into a gossip session.  Janie could already guess where this was going.  “Is he seeing anyone seriously?”  Lana didn’t look embarrassed in the slightest for asking a complete stranger such a personal question about a friend.  In fact, she fluffed her hair with her perfectly French manicured nails as she said it.  “I know there’s that model,” she said.  Apparently Lana Gastaldi wasn’t afraid Janie might be seeing him since it didn’t stop her from asking the question.

You are not a catty bitch, Janie.  You don’t like catty bitches.  Ergo, don’t be a catty bitch. 

How should she respond?  She could say he was serious with Vanessa, but if Lana found out that wasn’t true, Lana would just be waiting in the wings to pick up where Vanessa left off. 

She could tell her it was none of her business, but that would sound rude.

She could say she didn’t know, but then the woman would make it her mission to find out.  And Janie got the distinct impression this was a woman who wouldn’t stop until she got her claws into what she wanted.  She did say she wanted to take a bite out of him, after all.

So, Janie in her slightly inebriated state said the only thing that any woman trying to waylay another woman from her man would say, and blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. 

“I’m sorry,” Janie began, then lowered her voice.  “Were you asking for yourself or for your brother?”

“My brother?” Lana asked, dumbfounded.  Then she laughed as the light bulb went off in her head.  “Miguel’s not gay.”

Janie nodded, waiting for Lana to catch up.  When she did, her eyes nearly popped out of her skull.

“Luke Daniels is
gay
?”

Janie gave her a smile and a shrug.

“He’s
gay
?”  Lana asked again.  Her face was priceless. 

Janie smiled as if to say
Sorry, Charlie.

The two girlfriends looked at each other, crestfallen.

Janie, you’re going straight to hell and if Luke ever finds out you started this rumor, he’s gonna be the one to send you there.

“But I thought he was dating that model,” she asked confused. 

Janie shrugged sympathetically.  “Sorry.  Well, it was nice to meet you two,” Janie said. 

The two of them were barely paying any attention to her, but as if remembering at the last minute that Janie was still there, Lana turned to her and said, “Yeah, take care.”

Janie practically ran out of the bathroom, holding onto the wall to keep her balance.  A giggle erupted from her mouth and she began to make her way back to the table only to be sidelined by Miguel, whom she’d completely forgotten again.

“There she is,” the good looking man said, holding out his hand to steady her.  “You feeling okay?”

“Yeah, I feel fine.  I think I may have had too much wine though,” she said, her eyes still sparkling with humor.

His eyes twinkled.  “That happens, especially at wine tastings.”

“So, tell me about yourself, Miguel Gastaldi.  I assume you’re a part of the family business.  What’s your role?”  She hiccoughed and he laughed.

“I’m VP of marketing.”

“Great.  Do you enjoy it?”

He nodded.  “Very much.  It definitely feeds my creative side.  I’m sure you know all about that as a chef.”

“I do,” she smiled.  Then as the thought popped into her head, she asked, “How about your sister?  Is she involved with the business as well?”

“Lana?”  He seemed surprised at the question.  “Well, not really.  Lana doesn’t exactly like getting her hands dirty,” he said affectionately.  “She’s on the board, but doesn’t necessarily have a role in the day to day running of the business.”

So, basically Lana just enjoyed the spoils of everyone else’s hard work.  Why did that not surprise her?

“You’re catering Luke’s event next weekend.”  He wasn’t asking but rather stating a fact.

“Yeah.  It’s going to be pretty huge,” Janie said.  “We’re really excited about it.”

“I guess that means you’ll be pretty busy this week?”  His brown eyes were lit with appreciation as they skittered down to her neckline then back up.

Oh, boy.

“Yeah.”  She cocked her head at a flirty angle.  “Why do you ask?”

He smiled and got straight to the point.  “Are you currently seeing anyone?”

“I’m –” she began.

“Because I’d really like to take you out sometime.”

Just as Miguel spoke, Janie’s spine began to tingle.  She didn’t need to turn to know that Mr. Luke Daniels, the man of the hour, was about to sidle up next to her.

Right in the middle of Miguel’s proposition, Luke approached, his hand resting on the small of Janie’s back and now moving in close.  So close that her breast was nearly smashed into his side.

“Hey you two,” he said.

“Luke,” Miguel nodded.  “Janie and I were just getting to know each other.”

Luke grinned.  “Good, good.”  He turned to Janie and looked down at her knowingly, as if to say,
Don’t even think about it. 
“I hate to stop this party before it even starts, but we should probably head out.”

She gritted her teeth while smiling at him.  How did he know she didn’t want to go out with Miguel?  She was fairly certain he’d heard what Miguel had said just as he’d been walking up.  Before Luke could even finish his statement, Miguel interrupted.
             

“I’m happy to get her home if you need to be somewhere,” Miguel said.  Then he smiled down at Janie.  She smiled back.

“We have that list we need to go over,” Luke said, pinching her back and pinning her with his gaze when she looked at him.  Then he turned apologetically to Miguel and said.  “Sorry, Miguel.  I don’t mean to cut your time with Janie short, but she’s asked me to work on a list of things that need to be done, and we haven’t quite finished that meeting, so…” He let his voice trail off.

“I understand.  I know the event next weekend is probably taking up everyone’s time.”  He looked at Janie with a resigned smile.  “Perhaps after next weekend we can continue our conversation.”

“That would be great,” Janie smiled back, her heart pumping madly as Luke’s fingers pinched at her hip again.

“Do you have a card with you?” Miguel asked.  Janie almost laughed.  The guy definitely had balls, given Luke’s glowering look.

“Yeah, actually.”  She dug into her back pocket and pulled one out, always prepared.

Miguel took it happily and looked down at the card.  “
The Local Yokel
.”  He looked back up at her.  “Great name.”

“Thanks,” she beamed.

“Well, good to see you again, Miguel.  As I said to your father, my office will be in touch on Monday,” Luke said.  His hand stroked at Janie’s back then made its way up to cup the back of her neck.  “You ready?” he asked her.  His blue wolf eyes burned into her green cat ones.  The wolf sizing up his prey.

She looked up at him and bit her lip.  She wanted to giggle, cuddle into him, and kiss him.  Instead, she simply nodded then turned to Miguel and put out her hand.  “Nice to meet you, Miguel.”

“Likewise.  I’ll be in touch,” he said with promise.

Janie smiled one last time at him as Luke led her away and muttered, “I bet you will.”

“He was cute!  What was wrong with him?  I think we should add ‘courageous’ to the list.  Don’t you think he showed some real gonads with you staring him down like that while you were pawing at me in public?”

“I wasn’t pawing at you.  And I’m happy to add ‘Has Balls’ to the list,” he said, calling over Carolyn with their coats. 

“He might be a good contender.  He fits two of the things on the list so far.  ‘Has Balls’ and ‘Creative’.”

“Yeah, but did you see his feet?”  He shook his head sadly.  “Definitely small.”

She let out a gut laugh, then stumbled a bit while walking. 

“You’re completely drunk,” he grinned.

“No, I’m not.  I’ve just had a lot to drink tonight.”

“That’s the definition of drunk, baby.”

“Gimme a break, would ya?” she grumbled good-naturedly, happy at his term of endearment.

Carolyn arrived with their coats and once they had them on, she passed Luke a box.

“The jewelry,” she said with a smile and winked at Janie. 

“Is that the jewelry for the dress?” Janie asked as they walked to the elevator.  “I still haven’t paid for it.”

Within seconds, they were in the elevator catapulting down to the first floor.  Janie’s stomach lurched a bit and she put her hand on the wall to steady herself.

“Are you go
ing to be sick?” Luke asked with concern laced with humor.

“Nope.  I’m good.”  She didn’t even sound confident to her own ears.

He didn’t seem to believe her because he put his arm around her waist and let her lean on him.

She looked up at him, unable to hide her love for him.  “Let’s add sweet to the list.”
  Oh, Luke.  Why are you such an idiot?

He smirked and leaned down, kissing her nose.  “You got it.”

She sighed contentedly, their eyes locked on each other for a few seconds.  The elevator dinged and the spell was momentarily broken.  He’d never kissed her on the nose before.  He tweaked it, or hugged her, or kissed her cheek like a brother would.  But he’d never kissed her on the nose.

Once they were in the limo, she put her head back on the seat and closed her eyes.  “I wanna pay you for the jewelry,” she slurred tiredly.

“Don’t worry about it, baby.”

Her eyes popped open at the second use of the endearment
that day, then she closed them again on a groan, the conversation with Lana now becoming a reality. “Don’t be nice to me,” she whined.

“Why?” he chuckled.

She sighed.  “Luke?” she murmured.

“Yeah.”  His voice was quiet, but she could tell he was smiling.

“I have a confession to make,” she said tentatively, feeling extremely guilty about the ladies’ room encounter.

“Okay.”

She opened one eye and rolled her head to look at him.  “Promise you won’t kill me.”

His wary gaze found her one eye that was open.  “What did you do, Janie?  Has your mouth gotten you into trouble again?”

“That’s yet to be determined,” she mumbled.

“What happened?”

“You haven’t promised not to kill me yet.”

“Fine.  I promise not to kill you.  What did you do?”

“And you need to promise not to maim me either.”  She giggled then covered her mouth.

“
Cristo, niña
.  What already?”  His tone was exasperated.

“Promise first.”

“I promise.  Talk.”

She bit her lip.  “There might be a rumor circulating about you in the coming days.”

He continued looking at her and waited.

“About maybe you being gay.”  Janie cringed then couldn’t stop the giggles.

He blinked.  “Excuse me?”

A rush of words spilled out, her giggles turning to angry huffs.  “She was gonna get her claws into you, Luke.  And she was
so
not right for you.  She may have been a redhead, but she doesn’t like getting her hands dirty.  Plus, you can tell she’s a manipulator,” she babbled.  “She’d pretend that she likes you in charge, but she’d really be playing you and I couldn’t sit around and let that happen.”