VANNAH
“Hand to God, I would have that man’s baby in a heartbeat.” I shake the bitten end of my crunchy pickles at my best friend’s tablet.
“Are you serious? Him? He does look like Hercules. Get this, Lucas swears every woman he’s seen him with worships his dick.” Serenity snorts with laughter and I have to say seeing her eight-month baby bump jiggle is a whole other level of cuteness.
The sexy mamacita beside me glows with all that pregnancy juju and I’m flat-out jealous.
Not much can pull her attention away from the jar of sour pickles and the around-the-clock news but me announcing I’d spread ’em for a mafia man has her pausing momentarily. She’s probably picturing me eight months pregnant and fighting her for her pickles.
I raise a hand to my brow and pretend to faint onto my lounge chair. “No questions. Just pop it in me, daddy.”
That earns me more belly-shaking laughter. I don't know what it is but the sight of her so happy, round, and expecting makes a deeper part of me ping with a drop of… sadness, I think. Or maybe longing. Coming from a small family of two makes me wonder what being surrounded by lots and lots of kids would be like. My heart whispers “pure bliss” and I tend to agree.
“You’re kidding. I know you are.” Serenity’s wide-eyed look sweeps my way as my best friend slides her sunglasses down the bridge of her freshly sunscreened nose.
I brush off the unwanted momentary melancholy and stare back into her bright eyes. She looks at me like I’ve grown a second set of eyes on my forehead and I just bat my lashes unabashedly.
I shake my head in answer to her question, making the heavy honey-red knot of hair piled on my head to sway. I raise three fingers and tuck my pinky down with my thumb. “Girl Scout’s honor. No joke. Every time he comes on the news, I hear that low-timbred accent and I have to stop what I’m doing to just stare.”
Florida’s warm, salty air skitters across my heated skin, and I soak it all in like the Vitamin-D starved woman that I am. I plant my feet on my beach lounge and spread them butterfly-style to even my tan. The crunch of her pickle and the heavy waves on our little private section of the beach drowns out the early afternoon news playing on her tablet. She’s become obsessed ever since marrying one of the most powerful men in this region. The second contender for that spot is splashed across the screen looking every bit as forbidden as a tall, irresistible bottle of vodka to a raging alcoholic.
Maxim Novak.
A ball of white-hot heat simmers through my body. Serenity thinks I’m joking but there is something about him that makes my pulse quicken and bad ideas seem legit.
Forget the even tanning. My legs lock together and my heart skips. Which is just weird. I mean, I like a good time with a hot man, but Miami’s most sought-after bachelor is not even close to my league. Not only because of his wealthy status but also for the fact that he’s mafia blood.
Maybe the forbidden is what draws me to him. I don’t know but it’s not like my lady parts care one way or another. Truth is, I don’t know what my body thinks it’s doing getting hot and bothered over a man I’ll never stand a chance with. I mean, come on. He’s got Bratva ties generations thick. Seriously, everyone knows he’s Russian-blooded and as dirty as a mafia man can be. And the exact kind of man I have sworn to never get involved with.
And he’s filthy rich. Probably with blood money, too. I’m no fool. It’s definitely blood money lining his coffers. It’s not the wealth that draws me, though. Money doesn’t make a man good or bad.
I roll my head a little to the left and take in another drink of his gorgeous jawline and dark eyes as the newscaster continues his report on some new charity Novak most likely is trying to wash his funds through.
But damn if he isn’t pretty eye candy. Nothing wrong with fantasies, right?
I sit up from where I am sunbathing and spray on another layer of coconut-scented lotion. Two things I don’t get to do very often these days. I reach for the strings to my bikini top and secure them in place around my neck as I say, “I know you think I’m crazy, but there’s no harm in throwing my silly desires out to the Universe, right?” And since I know it’s safe to say it will never come true, I add, “Hand to God right now, Serenity, if he were to walk out of the water right this second, I would throw him on this beach chair and…”
I shimmy my hips and dry hump my chair and make sexy sounds until my friend is laughing so hard I think her large belly will bust through the seams of her one-piece bathing suit. She’s going to welcome her new bundle any day now and I swear the second she pops that one out her mobster hubby will slide another one in. With five beachfront properties spread across the globe and literally a private island to fill up, I don’t see them stopping anytime soon.
I fall back laughing just as hard as Serenity. When we finally come up for air I add, “I said what I said. Those Hercules-like muscles, those strong capable hands. The way he prowls wherever he walks. I swear to the heavens above me every time I see him on the news my ovaries ache for the massive dick I know is hanging between his legs.”
“My God, girl! You have no filter!” she squeaks around a mouthful of pickle. “You do realize he’s exactly what you said you would never do.”
“And therein lies the temptation my friend. There’s something about a dark, broody, dangerous mafia man that makes my girly parts want his manly parts doing dirty things to me. You should know.”
She purses her lips. “Touché.”
“You know, I bet he can make a woman hit an orgasm in less than five seconds.”
Serenity’s soft giggle makes me smile in return. “I could have Lucas introduce you. They are friends.”
Yep. A detail I work hard to forget.
Serenity lets the offer hang between us and I curse myself but I let it evaporate in the summer heat instead of unleashing my libido to do its worst. My partying days are behind me, but man maybe in another lifetime things could have been different.
“Thanks, babe. But I’ll just let him live in my fantasies. I can’t imagine I’ll ever get back on top if I saddle myself with bad boy bedfellows.”
Serenity boos. “No takers, huh? The party-girl Vannah I know would have jumped at that.”