Bradley's Whistle (P.ornstars of Romance #2) (25 page)

“Again, already?”

“Baby, I’ll always be ready for you, including the two orgasms you will owe me after this.”

She laughed, but I’ll give the feisty girl credit. She made me come twice more, and a third time around dawn.

Wiska

I barely recognized the woman staring back at me from the mirror. She was elegant in a way I never thought I could be. My hair was swept into an intricate knot on my head, thanks to Bahula, the sweet Indian girl who had squeezed me in for a shampoo and style. My makeup was flawless—a smoky grey look to my eyes, a line of blush to accentuate my cheekbones, and a dusty nude lipstick to finish my full lips. I was wearing a pair of silver heels, courtesy of Casey who demanded he be allowed to buy me something new. When I pointed out this wasn’t a wedding, he shushed me, like he so often does, and purchased a pair without even letting me try them on. Lucky for his sharp fashion sense and eye for sizing, they fit like Cinderella’s glass slipper.

I glanced to the sticky note stuck to the top corner of the mirror in front of me.

Damn, that man could undo me with his sticky note romance. Casey was busy snapping pictures from every angle, a request from Lionel. I could hear Bradley moving around in the kitchen, and my heart flipped. Was this good enough for his charity event? Was it too daring? Was it too revealing? Was it too formal? Gah, enough already!

I finished applying my lipstick while Casey stared over my shoulder.

“You do know that most lipsticks contain fish scales.”

“I really didn’t need to know that,” I whispered, grabbing the black clutch that I had brought all the way from New York. It wasn’t fancy, but it would do. I threw in my fish scales lipstick, some mints, my cell phone and credit card, and turned to give myself one final inspection in the mirror.

“You’re going to knock his boxer briefs off, poppet,” Casey said with a proud grin.

I lunged into his arms and hugged him tight. “Thank you, Casey. You have done so much for me, and I don’t know how I will ever repay you. You’re more than a friend. You’re the sister I never had.” I slowly released him in time to catch the glassy shimmer in his eyes.

“Now, stop it. You’re going to make me cry and ruin my mascara.”

“You’re wearing mascara?”

“Of course. Now, let’s get you to your prince. I hope he has a pretty pumpkin with a big V8 engine and privacy screen to take you to the ball.”

Casey led me out of the guestroom, and my heartrate practically tripled until I thought I might be having a heart attack. Wouldn’t that suck? At the end of the hallway, Casey stepped aside with the typical flourish that only Casey could do, and revealed a drop-dead gorgeous Bradley.

He was dressed in a black tuxedo, his hair carefully gelled into a stylish mess, clean shaven, and absolutely, one hundred percent sexy male perfection. I have no doubt his stunned expression matched mine.

“Don’t look so surprised, Bradley. She’s beautiful. Of course she’d look like a princess in a pretty dress,” Casey said almost defensively.

“Oh, she’s beautiful,” Bradley finally murmured as he approached and did a slow walk around me. “But she’s not a princess.” He stopped directly in front of me as he took my hand, turned it over, and leaned forward to press a kiss into my palm. “She’s a goddess.”

Ohhhh, no fair! Looking like he did, saying such things, made me want to jump his handsome bones!

“Don’t wait up,” he said to Casey with a wink.

“Be home before midnight,” Casey ordered, and Bradley raised a brow. “No, really, before midnight. We fly out at noon tomorrow; she needs at least a few hours’ sleep.”

The reminder that my stay was drawing to such an imminent close could have dragged me into a state of misery if it weren’t for Bradley.

He leaned in close and whispered in my ear, “When I get back to New York, I’m going to chain you to your bed, and you won’t leave there for a week. You better be ready for me, pussycat. You won’t be able to walk straight for a month.” Then he tugged me by the hand and pulled me out of the apartment.

“You look spectacular, love,” Aedan gushed when he opened the door to the Lexus parked on the street in front Bradley’s home.

“Thank you,” I murmured as Bradley helped me into the backseat.

I fiddled with the pink polish on my nails, the pretty crystals on the bodice of my dress, and the nifty button that slid the window up and down. It was a typical Wiska reaction to a nervous situation, fiddling, but it somehow kept me occupied and level. Obviously, Bradley finally got tired of my relentless fidgeting and took my hand in his, pressing his lips to the back of my knuckles.

“Are you packed for tomorrow?”

“Mostly,” I confessed.

“Do you have a ride organized when you get back?”

“Lionel.”

“Do you think I look handsome in my suit?”

Aedan tried to disguise his laughter behind a cough.

“There is no one more handsome,” I whispered with a smile.

The rest of the drive was in comfortable silence, until we pulled in front of a place that was more suited for kings and queens. It was a castle, with turrets, massive arched stained glass windows, and a wide staircase leading up to mammoth, wooden double doors. The looping driveway was busy with cars and limousines, but Aedan easily navigated around the throng and dropped us off practically at the foot of the stairs.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said with a handsome smile as Bradley took my hand and guided me from the car. “I’ll be here when you’re done.”

“Thanks, Aedan,” Bradley said, giving him a final nod before leading me up the staircase.

“I feel like I need to burst into song right now,” I confessed. When Bradley raised his brows in question, I began singing “Let It Go” from the children’s movie,
Frozen
.

“What is that?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Please don’t tell me you haven’t seen
Frozen
. That would be a definite deal breaker.”

“Maybe you can introduce me to it when I get home.”

We both simultaneously paused . . . home. He was my home, and the thought of having him in my home just seemed right. Yeah, this was all happening way too fast. I was already at E, and now I was thinking turbulent thoughts of moving Bradley into my tiny one bedroom apartment. I was clearly going to be an obsessive girlfriend.

“Home,” Bradley whispered the word again, as if testing it. He finally gave a decisive nod and tugged me through the wide open doors.

*

The interior of the castle was as dazzling and refined as any castle should be: red velvet carpets, shiny gold fixtures, and furniture that would give any antique collector a life-long hard-on. Bradley led me past a winding staircase that put Scarlett O’Hara’s to shame, and through another set of wide open doors into what I could only assume was a ballroom. All the while, I wandered through the place like a fish, quite clearly, out of water. While most the other guests seemed immune to the castle’s charm and brilliance, I was in awe. The ballroom was bustling with activity, servers carefully navigating the gathering with calm precision; hors d’oeuvres and champagne flutes sat atop trays as guests greedily reached for the treats.

“Sir,” came a voice to Bradley’s side, and he was offered a drink from the tray. He leaned into the waiter’s side and whispered something before returning his attention to me. At my curious glance, he smiled and encouraged my arm to wrap around his bicep. It was such a chivalrous, old-world thing to do, but I adored the way it brought my body closer to his.

“I asked him to bring me a whiskey and you a sparkling water.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that. I could have gotten it for us.”

Bradley stifled a laugh and kissed my cheek.

“Pretend you are a spoiled princess for tonight. These people are paid good money to serve us, and we, in return, are spending a great deal of money on this charity.”

“And what charity is it that you’re supporting.”

“It’s a charity that raises money for children in poverty stricken countries. My boss’s grandfather grew up on the streets. He actually started the charity, and Willie continues it in his honor.”

I then noted the nods and hellos Bradley received from just about everyone we walked by.

“We’re not just here as guests, are we?”

“In a manner of speaking, I’m here representing the Bianco organization. Although Willie’s right hand man from the States is here to take care of all the official things, I’m just a show of support.”

“Do they know who you are and who you work for?” I murmured as I began politely nodding to the curious gazes that passed me by.

“Nobody knows much about me or who I work for.”

“Then why are they all acknowledging you?”

“Because I come every year; this is my sixth time. They know I represent the charity on some level.”

“Oh.”

At that moment, the server brought us our drinks, and Bradley quickly caught the eye of someone passing out what looked like pieces of shriveled up, slimy, dead animal. When he offered me one, I leaned in close and sniffed it. It had a seafood smell, which I wasn’t fond of at all.

“Oysters,” Bradley said with a chuckle. He tossed it back into his mouth and deposited the rough looking shell base that had housed it into a small bucket the server held.

“Figures you’d eat something that looks like a vagina.”

He couldn’t hold back the laughter that spilled from his lips, and I thrilled at the curious stares, particularly those from the somewhat envious eyes of women. Yeah, ladies, he’s all mine, and I made him laugh with a vagina joke! Bradley leaned in to kiss me, and I pulled away.

“Oh, no you don’t, not with stinky mollusk breath.” I snapped open my purse and handed him a mint, which he accepted with humor in his eyes.

We continued to wander through the room, and Bradley was stopped repeatedly by people saying hello or asking about Willie. Bradley was an expert at non-disclosure, never giving the curious questions quite the answers they were after, but just enough information to placate them.

When we rounded a doorway that led into another room, Bradley pulled me behind a gold, gauzy curtain, and his hands were suddenly all over me as he pressed his lips to mine with a desperation that made me gasp for breath. His body pressed mine to the wall, and the rigid length of Vlad pressed against my lower stomach as my hips reached for his. When he finally pulled his mouth from mine, he rested his head in the crook of my neck.

“I’m gonna hate letting you go tomorrow,” he confessed.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him as close as I could, which still wasn’t close enough.

“Don’t say that,” I whispered. “You’re supposed to be the strong one. I’m the weepy female. If the roles change, it will completely destroy your street cred.” I reached for humor in an attempt to soothe him, and by the shaking of his body, I had succeeded.

“Ahhh, pussycat, didn’t you know? I have no street cred.”

“Oh, really? Then what the hell am I doing with you?” I tried to shove him aside, but he held me in place, his eyes dancing with laughter.

“These are going to be the longest three weeks of my life.”

My finger drew a line from his brow to his cheek, down the stubborn jaw that had been permanently fixed into a brooding line only a few weeks earlier. That scowl appeared less and less now, and knowing I made him happy made me happy.

“So, am I gonna get some nookie back here, or do we need to mingle some more.”

“Nookie?” He chuckled. “As appealing as that sounds, I guess we should mingle.”

He stood back and tried to wipe my lipstick first from his lips, then mine. I shooed his hand away.

“I’ve got backup. Don’t worry about me. I’ll just go fix myself up if you can point me in the direction of the bathrooms.”

Bradley managed to merge us back into the passing guests, who seemed oblivious to the fact we had just stepped out from behind a curtain, and pointed in the direction of the bathrooms.

“I’ll be over there getting us another drink.” He pointed out the bar and kissed me on the cheek before I made my mad, post-kiss dash across the room.

In the bathroom, I took care of a little tinkle business and fixed up my makeup. There was nothing quite as exciting as a man willing to mess up your makeup with a little make-out session in the middle of a formal charity event. Smacking my lips together, I stuffed the tube of MAC lipstick back in my clutch and escaped the throng of women who poured into the room as I left. I carefully moved through the crowd, and not noticing Bradley at the bar, I stood to one side to see if I could find him.