Javi needed to focus at work the next day. After all, he was on double-secret probation for being an asshole. But he couldn’t stop thinking about his plans for that night.
He loved sex, and he was fucking great at it. He knew he would have to step up his game with Maya. He needed to obliterate the walls she’d tried to put up between them. Once he got her into bed, he’d never feel okay without her there again.
This need for her was probably another prime example of why he was an idiot. He’d just gotten through a heavy, expensive divorce, and now he was trying to get with the one woman who made him so needy that it scared him. Looking at the pile of shit on his desk and the state of his inbox, he needed to be wooing a woman like he needed a sore on his dick.
He should be focused on work. Now that both of his sisters were engaged, he could count on them to have babies. His parents would leave him the fuck alone. They’d probably be relieved if he never remarried. The last time was far too expensive.
He shouldn’t even be thinking of marriage in the same breath as Maya. For one thing, he was barely divorced. For another, he hadn’t missed the disdain in Maya’s voice every time she mentioned the institution.
Limiting sex between them to one night might be the smartest thing she’d ever done. Being around her again made him see double and act like an ass. He’d have to be careful with her.
When she’d run out of the restaurant, he’d barely contained his anger at Graciela; he wanted to tell her she should mind her own business—she was hardly one to throw stones. Fortunately, he’d been far more concerned with catching up with Maya than setting Karrie’s friend straight about how things were between the two of them.
Only his family knew that Karrie was the one who caused their divorce. Not even his divorce attorney knew that she’d been the one who’d cheated on him. He’d felt guilty because he’d married a woman who he didn’t really love—not in the way a man should love his wife. He’d let Karrie have her pride. And so, he’d kept his mouth shut when rumors that he’d been the one who’d cheated surfaced. He’d leaned in to his philandering image.
Now he was sick of it. It was like Maya coming back into his life had snapped him out of the fugue state he’d been living in. And he’d come back into himself again.
As smart as it was, he wasn’t about to let her get away with pushing him out with a time limit. He’d have to make her come so hard, so many times that her only thoughts were more, please, and mine.
The numbers on the spreadsheet in front of him blurred when he thought about how he’d go about claiming Maya, which wasn’t good. He had to run these numbers and get them to Alana so that he could leave, so that he could make plans. Private plans that wouldn’t be interrupted by nosy gossips.
He honed his focus back on the job at hand. He’d almost finished the numbers for the client proposal when his baby sister Carla walked in his office and took a seat without being invited.
“Sit down, make yourself comfortable.” He took a sip of his cafecito, sure he’d need it to deal with the youngest Hernandez and whatever she had planned for him.
She smiled, sweet as pie, and said, “Oh, you’re in a good mood, so this will be easy.”
Something in the pit of his stomach said he wouldn’t be in a good mood when his sister left. “What is it, and how much will it cost me?”
“It won’t cost you anything.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Spit it out.”
“You’re going to be auctioned off.”
“So, Dad seriously wants to get rid of me? He’s going to sell me to another family now?”
That got a big laugh—the kind that escalated and had both of them clutching their sides. It wasn’t that funny, but it felt good to be able to laugh about his recent difficult times. His delayed adolescence, as it was.
When she’d composed herself, she said, “No. You wouldn’t be worth much to another family. Too much potential for embarrassment. I’m selling you in a bachelor auction for the Diana House.”
“You realize I'm barely divorced?”
“Close enough. You’re good-looking enough most of the women there won’t care. Most of them just want to be seen with you. And maybe try to grab your wang a little.”
“I’m not doing it if there’s wang grabbing.” The last Junior League bachelor auction he’d been in, before business school, before Karrie and Maya, still sent a shiver down his spine. “In fact, no. I can’t do it.”
He didn’t want to play into his image as Miami’s sluttiest bachelor. That wouldn’t get Maya to give him a chance to be more than her friend.
Unless she bought him... He shook that thought right out of his head. She’d promised him one night. Not a second date, much less a charity auction in front of his mom and sisters’ Junior League friends.
“C’mon, Javi. I never ask you for anything.”
Not true. Absolutely not true. Last week, she’d asked him to plan her loser fiancé’s bachelor party. And he hated bachelor parties. Dudes at stag parties acted like shoppers on Black Friday, but for strippers. His marriage had been the end of sex and adventure, but that’s how he knew he’d made a mistake. Karrie cheating was the cherry on top.
His sister wasn’t going to listen to him if he said anything about Geoff. She had her heart set on a fairy tale wedding. He sighed. “Fine. When is it?”
Carla squealed, and it was earsplitting. Maybe he did owe his future brother-in-law a bachelor party. He’d need to do a lot of shots if he had to hang with that kind of energy all the time.
* * * *
Maya hadn’t worn underwear the night before because she didn’t have any seductive enough for Javi. She had two options—black cotton or commando.
That’s how she found herself at the L’Agent Provacateur in Coral Gables instead of painting all afternoon.
She shouldn’t be here. She couldn’t afford it. But, if she had one night with Javi, she was going to make it count. Whatever she bought, she’d probably never wear it again, but she needed to make Javi’s dick explode. Well, not right away, but she wanted to make his eyes bug out. She wanted to make him as dizzy as he made her every time he came close.
Maya wanted Javi more than she wanted a solo gallery show, which she wanted a lot. But it wasn’t all about the fact that she’d been in love with him since they’d met. Part of tonight was about revenge. She wanted to go in and make sure that he couldn’t get enough of her tonight. And then, she’d bounce, free to never think of him with a wistful pit in her stomach ever again.
She stopped short while looking through teddies and bustiers on a rack when she saw a picture of one of the models that had been draped all over Javi. She must have pulled a mean face because the saleswoman chose that moment to step over to her.
“Can I help you find something?” The saleswoman looked sleek and expensive, like someone who belonged in the lingerie lining the walls.
Maya’s immediate reaction—which she luckily quelled—was to sneer at the woman. Between having brown skin and tattoos, she was followed in stores pretty frequently in New York. But she reminded herself that this wasn’t a department store; shit here was fancy and so the salesladies really did want to help.
Besides, she looked nice.
“Well, I have an event.” Maya wasn’t quite sure how to say that she needed special one-night stand underpants that weren’t too expensive so it wouldn’t be too painful to throw them in the trash come morning.
The saleswoman—Jane, her nametag said—pointed to the other side of the boutique. “We have supportive garments on the other side of the store—”
“Oh, no, I don’t have that much to support,” Maya said. When Jane’s eyes widened in horror, she realized that she’d grabbed her own boobs to demonstrate her lack of bust. “Sorry. No, I meant that I need something that’s meant to be seen, but not in a gross hookery way, just a ‘you’re an idiot to have passed this up that one time kind of thing.’”
Jane narrowed her gaze in concentration and a moment stretched out. Maya became sure that Jane was some sort of underwear savant who had encyclopedic knowledge of exactly what bits of lace, satin, and metal would be appropriate for any occasion.
Jane still hadn’t broken her trance when another customer walked into the store—a spritely redhead.
“Jane, I’m in need,” the redhead said.
The saleswoman held up one finger. “Carla, do you remember that set I sold you last week? The pink one?”
Carla, the redhead, glided over and looked Maya up and down. Maya wanted to cross her arms or make a sarcastic remark, but she reminded herself to breathe and remember that not everyone was a malevolent prick who needed to be pushed away with as much violence as possible.
Carla examined, took in her tattoos and her eyes lit up. Who knew that lingerie could be this exciting?
“Yes, it would be perfect for her in teal. Do it.” Carla grabbed one of the corsets off the rack in front of Maya and said, “Oh, and I’m obviously going to need this in black and white. Put it on my mom’s account pretty please. I’m tapped out.”
Jane nodded. “Good thing you got you got your honeymoon supply before your fiancé put a kibosh on your fun.”
“Whoever this fiancé dude is, he sounds like a dumbass,” Maya said.
When Carla turned pink, Maya thought she’d put her foot in it. Like usual. Shocked the shit out her when Carla nodded. “When it comes to fine underwear, he’s not very forward thinking.”
“He’d probably rather see you out of it,” Maya said.
Carla sighed. “One would think, but that’s why I’ve been on a panty-buying spree. See if I can drum up some interest. But I think he’s really tired. He’s been working really hard, and wedding planning with my mom has been a bear. She’s now got two to plan and very little lead time with my sister’s.”
Maya wasn’t used to people being so friendly and open. Not in Miami and definitely not back home in New York. But she didn’t want to seem aloof, so she said, “I never keep them around long enough to find out what they’re like when they’re stressed.”
“Whoever teal merry widow guy is, you’re going to have a hard time getting rid of him. With your complexion and tattoos, it’s going to look bananas.”
Maya smiled at the genuine compliment. She didn’t get many of those. By the time she walked out of the store, she felt uplifted. And not because of the very expensive new bra.