Chapter Seven

The knock on Nicole’s door startled her out of her slumber. She had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for Wil. Squinting at the clock she saw it was 11:20. He must be out of his mind to come here so late. She felt a flash of irritation shoot through her. Who did he think he was? She was prepared to let him have it, but when she opened the door and saw him leaning against the doorjamb, a sheepish grin on his face, her anger vanished and she knew she’d forgive him.

“Were you sleeping?” Wil asked.

“What gave it away?”

“You have some creases right here…” He brushed her cheek lightly with his fingers.

Nicole tried to inject some liveliness into her sleep-weary face. “What took you so long?”

“I apologize. Are you still up for a swim or is it too late for you?”

“Sure, I’m up for it,” she lied. “Let me grab the key to the pool.” She noticed he hadn’t answered her question.

The warm July night enveloped her. No matter how many years Nicole lived in southern California, she would never get used to the hundred degree summer days with air as dry as a martini, and balmy nights when one could still frolic in a tank dress. She was sure it was due to growing up in Michigan winters where spit froze on the sidewalk.

Nana moved to San Diego when Nicole was a teenager, after claiming she’d rather die in a California earthquake than spend another winter freezing her tuckus off. Since then, Nicole and her brother had taken every opportunity to visit Nana and her glorious weather. A sunny seventy-four degrees on Christmas day? You mean there are people who don’t have to go out and scrape the ice off their car windshield every morning in the dead of winter? Goodbye, Michigan State, hello, UCLA! Nicole had jumped at the chance to attend college out here and had never returned to Michigan except for short vacations here and there.

The pool was deserted when she and Wil arrived. He wasted no time peeling off his shirt and diving into the pale-blue water. He came up for air and swam to her. Nicole was still trying to figure out how to get into the pool without him catching a glimpse of her in a bathing suit. All rational thoughts vanished as she watched him—wet—hair slicked back—wet—tanned skin—wet.

“Am I going to have to come and get you?” he threatened. “You probably won’t appreciate my methods of persuasion.”

“No, no, I’m coming in,” she assured him, but that didn’t stop him from springing out of the water and grabbing her around the waist. “You wouldn’t!” Nicole shrieked, grabbing onto his neck. He pulled her close, leaving a big wet mark on her gauzy skirt. “Okay, I’ll go in,” she said, pushing him away.

When Wil dove in again she took the opportunity to quickly remove her skirt and ease into the deep end. The day’s heat had warmed the water until it felt like a giant bathtub. Nicole loved the sensation of weightlessness. It made her feel slim and sleek, like a seal.

They did some laps and then settled on the steps in the shallow end. Wil closed his eyes and leaned his head back, allowing Nicole a full view of his torso. He was lean and muscular, and except for a trail of dark hair that went from his bellybutton to his shorts, relatively hairless.

He opened his eyes and caught her admiring gaze. Nicole quickly looked away, blushing. She thought she heard Wil whisper what sounded like the word yes, but when she looked at him again, all he did was smile. He raised his arms above his head, stretched his back, and then leaned forward. He had more tattoos than Nicole had realized, including a large yellow-and-black phoenix encircled by flames of red across his upper back.

“Wow, that’s some piece of work,” she said, her fingers trailing across the outstretched wings of the bird.

“You like it?”

She nodded. “How did you come to use a phoenix in your earliest designs?”

“I came across a poem by Hans Christian Anderson, ‘The Phoenix Bird.’ I liked the whole concept of the phoenix setting itself on fire, then rising from its ashes to live again. Kind of a metaphor for screwing up, repenting, and starting over.”

Nicole tilted her head at him. “Personal experience speaking?”

Wil shrugged. “I guess you could say that. Everyone makes mistakes, right? The secret is to learn from them. The problem on the street is that some mistakes can ruin your life and you never get the chance to start over.”

“So that’s why you silk-screened messages on your shirts like Think First.”

“You always have to tap into the mindset of the one you’re creating for,” Wil said, thumping his temple.

She couldn’t help but smile. It blew her away how much insight he had at such a young age. “You made a small segment of the population take notice. Maybe it changed the course of a few people’s lives.” Like a young gang member before he killed someone.

“Never thought it’d take off like it did,” he said, shaking his head as if he still couldn’t believe his success.

Nicole pointed to his ribcage. “And the scorpion here?”

He glanced down. “I’m a Scorpio.”

“Really? So am I. It’s the sign of passion, you know. Whatever we decide to do, we end up throwing our whole selves into it.”

Wil turned, pinning Nicole to the steps with his arms on both sides of her. “We’re also forces to be reckoned with,” he said, locking eyes with her.

How she thought she could go for an innocent midnight swim with him was beyond her. Advertising campaign be damned. All Nicole could think about was how much she wanted him to kiss her.

She waited, expecting that at any moment she would feel his lips on hers. He moved closer, bringing his arms down under the water to her legs. He brought her legs around his waist, moving into deeper water with her while Nicole’s hands held onto his shoulders.

She knew she was leaving professional territory and entering into a danger zone, but the heat, the setting and the silence of the night had her completely seduced. Wil moved in slow circles until her back bumped against a wall. Her thighs were still tightly wrapped around his waist, and when he pushed against her only thin wet fabric lay between them.

And yet he still hadn’t kissed her.

He grew hard between her legs while he caressed her spandex-covered butt, his lips mere inches from hers, and still, he didn’t kiss her. Just kept looking into her eyes with a small smile on his lips.

Okay, so he was playing with her. Torturing her. Turning her on in a way she hadn’t experienced in years. She supposed she deserved it for the way she had been putting him off.

But he was twenty-five, for God’s sake!

Wait, what had the psychic said? Age is just a number. Well, at this moment, Wil could’ve been eighty years old and she’d still want him.

Nicole groaned in frustration and he chuckled.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, in his sexy, throaty voice as he pressed his pelvis into hers.

She leaned her head back, exhaling, trying to quell all the sensations going off inside of her.

Wil ran his lips down her neck and over her collarbone, sending shivers through her. His cell phone rang with a hip-hop tune, but he made no move to answer it. His mouth moved across her chest to the other side of her neck. He worked his way slowly up to her ear while Nicole’s fingers toyed with the waistband of his shorts. His cell went off again with the same tune as before.

“Do you need to get that?” she asked, slightly irritated that a small piece of electronics was able to dampen her arousal.

Wil’s head fell onto her shoulder. “I was supposed to be somewhere half an hour ago.”

Nicole’s entire body stiffened. He had scheduled something after their swim date. Being a typical man, it was probably a date with another woman.

“Sorry, I didn’t know the clock was ticking.” She pulled her hands out of his shorts and swam away from him.

“It’s not like that.”

“It’s late,” she said, hauling herself out of the pool, not caring anymore how much skin Wil saw. “I’ve got to get to bed anyway.” Cranky and tired, she was loathe to admit this was probably the universe’s way of saying, What the hell were you thinking?

“We’ll have a meeting in my office on Monday. I’ll call you to set something up.” She was all business now, which is what she should have been all along.

Wil got out of the pool and came toward her. “That’s it? You’re leaving?”

Nicole pulled her towel tight around her shoulders and headed for the gate. “You obviously have somewhere else to be and I don’t want to keep you.”

“Can you wait a minute?” he called.

She considered staying, because she so wanted to salvage this night, but then his cell rang again with that same hip-hop tune and she commanded herself to go.

This time Wil did answer his phone. The last words she heard him say as she left the pool area were “Yeah, I’m coming.”

“Well, at least that makes one of us,” Nicole grumbled under her breath.

****

Why, oh why did he keep screwing up when it came to Nicole? Everything he did seemed to backfire. A swim in the pool had seemed like a perfect idea to relax them both. Or so he’d thought.

God, she had felt amazing in his arms. Her curves in that bathing suit were undeniable. And when he was pressed up against her, all he could feel was the lushness of her body. He was ready to kiss her deeply, with all the passion that had been building. She had wanted him to. He’d seen it in her eyes, heard it in her moans, sensed it in her body.

Then his damn cell phone had rung.

Again. And again.

Wil found the last available parking space outside the bar and grill and parked. There, standing in front of the entrance was the source of the interruption.

“Where the hell have you been?” Sonia demanded.

Wil held up his hand. “Don’t start with me, please.”

“You were supposed to be here forty-five minutes ago.”

“We weren’t even supposed to meet tonight, Sonia. I had other plans.”

Like exploring every inch of Nicole’s body.

They glared at each other some more, and then Sonia punched him in the shoulder. Not a hard punch, but it hadn’t been a soft one either.

“Well, you’re here now,” Sonia said.

“Are you going to tell me what the big emergency is?”

Sonia followed Wil inside. “My brother showed up. He wants to know why you’re not with me.”

“Which one?” Wil asked, making his way to the bar. Sonia had four brothers.

“Manny.”

Great. The one Wil least wanted to see. The guy always rubbed him the wrong way.

Wil ordered two beers on tap and handed one to Sonia. “What’s he doing in town? He on leave?”

“He said he had a three-day pass. My guess is he came to the bar to blow off some steam before going home.”

Wil took a sip of the cold, dark beer and scanned the room for Manny. “So where did you tell him I was?”

“I didn’t. His cell rang and he went off somewhere to take the call. What am I supposed to tell him?”

“Hold on. Let me think of something.”

Wil felt a hard slap on his back.

“Wil, my man. Long time.”

At six foot two, Manny was an imposing figure. Everything about him was large—his voice, his temper, his ego. He was decked out in his green-and-khaki marine uniform, and there wasn’t a wrinkle that would dare come within a mile.

“Good to see you, Manny. How you been?”

“Can’t complain. Although when I got here I found my baby sister all by herself. What’s up with that?”

A woman standing about three feet away from Wil caught his eye. She was rubbing her belly. Maybe she was pregnant, or…

“Cramps, dude. Your sister had cramps.”

“Yeah,” Sonia chimed in. “I sent Wil out to the store to get me some ibuprofen.”

“It took you an hour to go to the store?” Manny said.

“Checkpoint,” Wil said. “Took forever to get through a checkpoint over on Grove.”

Manny nodded. “Yeah, those things are a pain in the ass. Why didn’t you go with him, Sonia?”

Jesus, this guy didn’t give up.

“Umm, I ran into Valerie. Remember Valerie from high school?”

“The carpet muncher? Is she still a lesbo freak?”

Wil and Sonia exchanged looks.

Wil put his arm around Sonia. “You still have your cramps, babe?”

“Uh-huh. I’m not feeling too good. Can you take me home?”

Wil couldn’t get out of there fast enough. “I think we’ll head out now. Take it easy, Manny.” He put out his hand for Manny to shake.

Manny grabbed it, pumping it up and down with such force Wil almost decked him. “Take care of my baby sister, or I’ll have to break your nose. Ha ha. Kidding, man. I’m kidding.”

Manny let out a loud bark of laughter that made more than a few people turn around.

Wil gritted his teeth, but let the comment slide off his back. He could barely tolerate the man, but he forced himself to be civil for Sonia’s sake.

Come to think of it, he did a lot for Sonia’s sake.

“See you at home, Manny,” Sonia said.

They made a swift exit. “Where did you park?” Wil asked.

“On the street. I’m sure Manny didn’t see my car.”

“Talk about overprotective.”

Sonia laughed. “You’re telling me. I’m twenty-five years old and I still get the third degree for everything I do. From my entire family!”

“They’re just looking out for you.”

Wil waited until Sonia was in her car, with the motor going. She put down her window, and in a rare show of affection, gently touched his arm.

“You’re my best friend, Wil. Thanks for everything you do for me.”

“You never have to thank me. What else are friends for?”

Their eyes locked in mutual acknowledgement. Then she punched him in the shoulder.

“Peace out,” Sonia said, and sped off.