Miami Hot: #1 (Miami Heat Series) (12 page)

“Great. And thanks for all the food you have been bringing me.”

“No thanks necessary. You are the younger sister I never had. And besides, the sooner you get better, the sooner you can change you mind and come work for me.”

“Wow! You want to poach Moira? And she agreed?” Sam asked. He took the dishes from the center and placed some food on Moira’s plate then his own.

“Yes and no,” Lucas answered. “Not yet anyway.” Both Lucas and
Conrad served themselves as well.

“I enjoy what I am doing right now. Control, my own menu choices, no weekend hours, what more
could a girl want?”

“Is that all? I can match that too, besides the higher salary.” He named a sum that had
Moira squinting her eyes at him. “Sam why is she looking at me funny? Most people would have jumped and signed the contract by now.”

Sam laughed, “She is just trying to find the loopholes and believe me she will find them.”

“Has she always been this suspicious?” he asked.

“Born that way
,” Sam answered before an elbow hit him in the side. “Ouch sis.”

“I’m right here. Just because I was a little sick, doesn’t mean you guys get to talk about me as if I were absent. Besides, my decision stands. After a year, we can re-visit the offer and see if that’s still something we both want to consider. However, in the meantime…”
Moira took an extra long pause and all eyes were on her. She took a sip of her water and realized she hadn’t taken her afternoon meds. She smiled, “…if you will excuse me gentlemen,” she said as she stood up and went to her bedroom.

Moira
was feeling giddy. The tension at the table after her unfinished statement was making her feel alive once again. If she played this right she could be the envy of a lot of people. Just thinking of Sere’s expression once she told her was enough to make her hurry. She grabbed her meds and went back to the dining room. She took her seat and all three went quiet.

“Sorry about that. I was just getting my meds.” She let the suspension hang until finally Lucas cleared his throat.

“Great food Lucas, thanks again.” Moira reached for her glass and took another sip.

Conrad
smirked.

“
Moira, you left us all hanging. Care to explain what you were about to say?” Sam huffed, “In the meantime…” he prompted.

“Oh, sorry. I was going to say that, in the meantime, I have something that
could be mutually satisfying to both of us.”

Nobody moved.
Moira could see the expressions going through everyone. Conrads clearly seemed to be in the gutter. So tense. What a waste. Hopefully soon she would get a taste of that body. Sam seemed to be at a loss of words. Not believing I could be propositioning his boss in front of him. Lucas was the only one who seemed to have his head out of the gutter, and thinking business, although he couldn’t find the answer.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” Lucas
finally said.

“Well, how do you feel about your own dessert critic?” she asked and sat back. Now the negotiating part.

“I already have food critics.”

“I’m sure, but no one just for desserts. More than half the people never eat desserts, and let me tell you why. Because they are always the same boring desserts day in and day out. They may change slightly by the season, but otherwise everybody serves the same desserts every day. Now look at starters or entrees. Usually hotels and other chain restaurants will have something for the day, ‘soup of the day’, ‘catch of the day’, ‘chef’s choice’…”
Moira looked at all three men. “You get my drift?”

“Clever girl,” Lucas said smiling.

“I never looked at it that way,” Conrad added.

“Hey sis. I hope you are charging Lucas for this information,” Sam said and everybody laughed.

“Yes, I am interested to know what’s in it for you,” Lucas asked.

“Well, I’m glad you asked. Free dinner for two everytime I do a critic. Then I will help put together a nice summary and suggest some dessert additions you
could rotate as ‘dessert of the day’, and for that I get unlimited free dinner for two for a year. Throw in a free hotel room here and there, and I would be a happy girl. How does that sound?”

“If I were Lucas, there is no way I would say no to that,”
Conrad was the first to comment.

“Sounds like a win-win boss,” Sam added.

“Yeah, though I can’t seem to shake the feeling that there is more to this than Moira is letting on.”

“Now who is being suspicious?” she asked as she raised a brow.

“Well since it’s three to one, I guess I have no choice than to agree. Welcome aboard,” he said as he reached over to shake her hand. “You want to come by the office and we will draw a contract?”

“Not really. Gentleman’s handshake is good enough for now. But if I can escape my prison, I’ll come by and we can iron out the details.”

“A prison of your own making,” Sam interjected. “Next time don’t hide an illness.” He stood and took both their plates to the sink, where he rinsed them and placed them in the dishwasher.

Moira
rolled her eyes as Lucas stood and follwed Sam with his plate and Conrad’s too.

“Don’t be too hard on your brother. He wasn’t here and feels guilty about it,”
Conrad said.

“I know and I’m sorry. I just feel so frustrated being couped up for the next few days.”

“It’s mostly sexual frustration. And I’ll help you with that once you have that clean bill of health,” he whispered across the table to her. At her blush he chuckled.

Fortunately she was saved from answering as Lucas came back to the table with a dish of rice pudding
. “I hope you like rice pudding,” he said as he placed it in the center of the table and removed the other dishes which he took back to the kitchen.

Sam came back carrying dessert bowls and they all served themselves a couple of scoops.

“This is great. Just the right amount of sweetness I like,” Moira told Lucas. “Do all your hotels use the same ingredients for their dishes, or do the chefs choose?”

“For the most part, they use the same, but they are allowed some variations in the ‘soup of the day’, ‘catch of the day’ type of menu’s.
That’s how we usually find out what is popular and try to keep those dishes more permanent. So if we ended up having a ‘dessert of the day’ so to speak, I’m guessing the chefs could do their own little variations.”

“I see. I like that because it allows a chef to grow and challenge himself/herself,”
Moira replied. “And besides, some choices differ geographically.”

They sat eating dessert and talking for the next thirty minutes.
Moira sat thinking how she could easily get used to something like this. She shuddered when she thought about how her world would rock upside down if and when Sam caught on that she and Conrad were more than patient and caregiver. She snorted and covered that by standing up and taking everybody’s dessert bowl.

Before she
could take a step away from the table, everyone was up and trying to take the bowls from her hands. “Guys! I am just carrying four small dessert bowls to the kitchen. Something that even a four year old can do.”

“Okay just take it easy,” Sam relented and sat back down.

Lucas sat down too, “Just don’t want you to over do it,” he said.

Conrad
grabbed the empty dessert dish in the center and gathered the place mats, “I’ll help clean up,” he said and took everything back to the kitchen. He put everything away and seemed to have one eye on what she was doing because as soon as she had placed everything in the dishwasher he added the soap and closed it before he started the washer.

“You know I am not an invalid,” she said to him.

“I know, but I like taking care of you. But now I have to go. It’s almost four and I hate not being able to touch you. It’s driving me crazy.”

Moira
laughed and Conrad chuckled in front of her. She saw both Sam and Lucas turn to look at them and she just waved at them with a smile. “When was the last time you wanted someone and couldn’t touch her?”

“Never. And right now, I think I would welcome a beating from Sam if I
could only kiss you, or just feel your skin against mine.”

“Well I will miss sleeping next to you.”

“Fuck! Moira, it’s not helping. Even a blind man can see how my zipper is stretched to the limit.”

Moira
looked down and saw Conrad’s raging hard-on swell by the second. “It’s getting bigger,” she said breathlessly.

“
No need to point out the obvious. And stop looking at me down there.”

“Okay, where do you want me to look?”
Moira asked as she brought her eyes up.

As soon as
Conrad saw the desire in Moira’s eyes he regretted asking her not to look at his hard-on. It surely beat seeing the raw desire in her eyes and not being able to act on it. He stumbled and turned with a growl.

Moira
watched him as he entered the half bathroom next to the laundryroom. She turned and saw both Lucas and Sam looking at her with questions in their eyes. They seemed to have started their meeting. “I think the rice pudding may have been a little too sweet for him after all,” she told them with a straight face. She poured herself a glass of orange juice then passed them and went to sit on the sofa. The two went back to their meeting and a few minutes later she heard Conrad come back. Her back was to them all, so she didn’t see the silent messages that passed between the two friends.

“Walk me out,” he said as he came in her line of sight.

Moira stood and walked with Conrad to the door. All he was holding was his laptop bag. When she asked him about his bag, he told her he had already placed it in his car earlier that morning. He helped her into her jacket and ushered her outside. Before she could take more than a couple of steps, he had her pinned to the wall and was plundering her mouth.

“Don’t move. Don’t make a sound,” he told her. “Fuck! You make me behave like a teenager. Hiding around. Next I will be coming into your bedroom through the window,” he said harshly before he started kissing her again.
Conrad couldn’t get his fill of her but realized they were outside and didn’t want Moira to catch another cold. He let her go slightly and squeezed her waist. “You need to go back inside. I wouldn’t want you to get sick all over again.” Kissing her again he said, “And baby answer your phone this time. If I can’t see you, at least I need to talk to you.”

Before
Moira could say anything, Conrad had opened the front door and ushered her inside. Moira took off her coat ad boots and went back to her sofa. She found another lifetime movie and settled in to watch.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” This wasn’t supposed to be happening
Conrad thought to himself. He sat without moving before he started his car and zoomed away. He passed by his dad’s house before he proceeded to his penthouse. He had hoped that talking to his dad would calm him down a bit but it didn’t. He thought it funny that even his dad noticed he couldn’t settle down. He wondered what he would say if he told him it was his green eyed pastry chef who was keeping him on his toes. All he managed to say was that it was a woman but wouldn’t say who. He needed to get his control back. And maybe after he managed to finally sink himself in her, he would feel a lot better.

Chapter
Eighteen

The next morning
Conrad was in his office by five. After tossing and turning all night he finally gave up at three and when even the hour-long gym session didn’ help, he showered, dressed and went to work. He had a mountain of letters he needed typed sitting on Janet’s desk by the time he started hearing life outside his door. He kept to himself most of the day except for the ocassional meeting he held in his office. During those meetings, it didn’t help that from time to time his mind wandered back to the weekend. Talking to her on the phone was a double edged sword. He perked up but as soon as they hung up he started missing her again. He worked well into the night and just managed to drive home to sleep and start the process all over again.

He was surprised when Janet came into his office a second time that morning holding a little bottle of eyedrops.

“She is special, that’s why,” she said as she moved around like a mother hen.

“Who are you talking about?”
Conrad dared to ask. Was it that obvious?

“
Moira of course. Who else?”

“Oh God! I can’t sleep, I can’ get her out of my mind. She is driving me insane, and I haven’t even slept with her.”

“Tsk. Tsk.” Janet said clucking her tongue. “She is not your usual type. She has some class. So don’t mess it up. Just take it one day at a time.”

“And go crazy one day at a time?”

“Good things come to those who wait,” she told him. “Now clear your eyes so that you don’t scare your executives. Your meeting starts in ten minutes.”

Conrad
snorted. “You realize I am not the waiting type?”

Janet laughed whole heartedly. As much as she loved
Conrad like a second mother, she was enjoying his pain just a tad little bit. Finally someone who could put the boy in his place. This was going to be some show. A pity Conrad’s mother couldn’t be here to enjoy it too. Although she didn’t doubt she was looking down upon him from above. “And yet, here you are waiting.”

Conrad
slipped the bottle of eyedrops in his desk after checking the result in the mirror. Sure enough the redness had decreased enough not to scare anyone away. With eight minutes to go, Conrad left his office and made his way to the conference room. One by one his executives came in wondering why the boss was already waiting. Greetings were exchanged but Conrad continued to stand by the floor to ceiling window wall looking outside, but not necessarily seeing anything. He nodded to his second in command, John Stewart, to start the meeting. He heard every other second sentence and managed to interject a few questions here and there to get an idea of what it was all about.

When the meeting was over he called John to join him by the windows.

“Conrad, everything okay?” John asked as he approached. “You didn’t seem to be with us, despite the questions that made everyone else think otherwise.”

Conrad
turned and looked at John. Good thing they knew each other from way back, otherwise he may have chewed John for even asking that question. John held his hands up, as if to say don’t shoot. Conrad laughed and said, You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me,” he said.

“Female problems. Actually one green eyed witch,” he said looking outside.

John cleared his throat trying to hold his laughter, “You are right. I don’t believe you.”

He snorted. “I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Well, you have to admit. Something like that coming out of ‘One of Miami’s playboys’ mouth is hard to swallow,” John guffawed. “Care to tell uncle John what the green eyed witch has done to you?”

“Glad to see I am providing you with entertainment, John.” Conrad sighed and refused to laugh despite the smile tugging on his lips. “Fuck! Where do I start? You have been with Maria for years now, you probably don’t even remember how to date.”

“Hey! Don’t think just because I have been married for years, I still don’t go out on dates. You have to keep the romance going, so yes we still date even to this day. We bundle up the kids and leave them with her sister then come home to an empty house and have an uninterrupted night. Oh man! If I had known how hard it is to have sex with kids in the house, I would have waited. Anyway, I digress. This is about you and your green eyed witch.”

“I spent the weekend nursing her back to health after she had caught a cold she didn’t treat in time. It got pretty serious, but anyway, I have been wanting to fuck her since I met her, but she wouldn’t give me the time of day. After spending that much time with her, fucking her is not all that I want from her. I want something more, just not any kind of commitment. But more.” Conrad looked at John who was nodding in understanding. “Anyway, we finally managed to reach some kind of unspoken understanding but can’t act on anything until she is feeling better and we have talked about this thing between us. Whatever this thing is.”

“The pastry chef?”

Conrad who was looking outside, turned back again. “How do you know?”

“Well everyone was talking about how she left early the other day because she wasn’t feeling well. And apparently the desserts have not been up to par since she left,” John replied. “And after wha
t you just told me, I put two and two together.”

“Well, I’m glad nobody told her that, otherwise she would have been back at work before the doctor allowed her to.”

“Seems like someone is finally getting under your skin. The best is to surrender. That’s what I did with Maria,” John told him. Conrad looked green and John stifled a laugh.

“Nuh! This thing is not like you and Maria. We just need to get each other out of our systems and we will get back to normal.”

“Well, if you don’t want to hear what I am saying, then at least hear what Janet says. She helped me a lot when I was having problems with Maria at the beginning of our relationship, and everytime I messed up. Even to this day, I still run to her when I mess up,” John said to him. However, it didn’t seem like Conrad wanted to hear more. Clearly the guy was in denial. John almost felt sorry for him.

“Janet is even worse than you. She told me to be patient,” he said and sighed.

John laughed.  “And how is that working for you so far?”

“Fuck you John.”
Conrad turned and started for the door, with John beside him. They made their way to their offices and parted ways as each one went to his own office.

Conrad
poured himself a drink and sank into one of the sofa’s in his office. As much as he wanted Moira to rest at home, not seeing her was killing him. He had tried to stay away from her trying to respect her wishes. But this playing hide and seek as adults was not something he wished to do on a long term. If it were up to him he would tell Sam about the two of them and let the chips fall where they may. Depending on what the doc said today, she would either be back at work tomorrow or rest another day or two. He smiled thinking how he wouldn’t put it past Sam to bribe the doc to give her another two days of rest and thus shutting her at home for the next four days until Monday. God, four more days would be absolute torture.

He
stood when he heard his skype ringing on his computer. “Hi baby,” he said after he had answered the call. Usually they skyped at night so he was wondering why she was skyping now.

“Hi. The doc just left.” She was positively glowing and bouncing on her bed.

He couldn’t help but grin, “And?”

Moira
grinned, “He said I am ready to resume any sexual activities.”

Conrad
choked and was glad he hadn’t been eating otherwise the danger of food going the wrong way was far more dangerous than liquid going the wrong way. “Fuck Moira! No doc would say that after a cold.”

“Well, that’s what he said between the lines,” she pouted and
Conrad’s cock throbbed. He could almost feel her lips around him.

“And what were his actual words, the ones that came out of his mouth,” he clarified.

“Oh! That!”

“Yes, that!”
Conrad felt like rolling his eyes.

“Well, he said I can get back to work. Work half days for the next
few days then start working as regular next Monday.”

“I see. Somehow, I don’t see how you managed to read between the lines and come up with what you came up with,” he told her.

“Well it was in his body language and in his eyes,” Moira side stepped.

Conrad
growled. “Did he make a pass at you? I’ll kill that motherfucker.”

Moira
rolled her eyes at him. “Of course not. He is gay. Besides Sam was all over him. He kept saying ‘what kind of doctor doesn’t travel with a nurse?’. A gay one I told him.”

Conrad
relaxed and laughed at Moira’s imitation of Sam. “And how did you come by the knowledge that he is gay?” he asked.

“What, you
couldn’t tell when he came the couple of times he was here?”

“No, I was focused on you. And just trusted his medical advise since Lucas sent him,” he said.

They talked some more and Conrad couldn’t believe he could have a normal conversation with a female that didn’t hint at a getaway weekend on some beach resort or a shopping trip to London or Milan, or some expensive jewelry. By the time they hung up, two hours had gone by. When he was done Janet brought him his messages. It was almost five and he thought everything else could wait for tomorrow. He called Lucas and went to have some human contact. He didn’t want to spend another of his evenings tied to his desk. He almost regretted his decision when Lucas told him he looked like shit. Happy shit, Conrad thought thinking of Moira’s return to work tomorrow.

Lucas needed to finish off some work, so they ordered dinner in his office. They never made it out of the office. After Lucas brought out a bottle of scotch
, they settled in and steadily drank the bottle until it was finished. The good thing about having a friend who owned a hotel was that you could always count on a room for the night. Lucas had a suite he kept for himself and over time Conrad had taken over the second bedroom. The next morning Lucas woke him up with his concoction which he gladly accepted. Breakfast was waiting for him as soon as he was done with his shower.

“You know Tuesday is Valentine’s Day?” Lucas asked as he joined him
at the breakfast table.

“Who keeps track of that trash?”

Lucas laughed. “You for one need to start keeping track of it. Moira is the type that will want to get flowers for Valentines. And as your friend, I need to make sure you don’t mess up on the first day.”

“How would you know? I don’t see you buying flowers for Valentines?”

He stopped buttering his croissant. “I am not dating the flowers kind of girl. You and me have never dated those type of girls except maybe in college. But now, you are with Moira or thinking of being with her. She is a flowers kind of girl. For Valentines, birthday, when she is ill, when you mess up and want to say you are sorry.” He picked up his croissant and finished buttering it up before placing it back on his plate. “Don’t mistake her for the socialites you have been fucking all the years.”

Conrad
shook his head and chuckled. “Funny you should say that. Yesterday we talked for over two hours and I was relieved that never one did she hint about a vacation, shopping in London or Milan or even some expensive jewelry.”

“She really is like the sister I never had. If I didn’t know you had sexual feelings for her, I would say the sister we never had.” Lucas laughed at his joke when
Conrad grimaced. “Every florist is booked solid until after Tuesday, so I’ll have my assistant pave the way for you with the florist the hotel uses. And FYI-this is something you do personally, not send Janet to take care of for you.”

“Is all this really necessary?”
Conrad asked.

“How much do you want this thing with
Moira?” Lucas asked him. At Conrad’s expression, Lucas went on, “Okay, that’s what I thought.”

“Well, I better get going. Let me know when it’s done.”
Conrad stood and left the suite. He took the elevator going down and almost bumped into Sam who was trying to get into the one he had just vacated.

“I would have thought you would have bribed the doctor to extend
Moira’s days at home,” Conrad said to him by way of greeting.

“She told you she was coming back?”

“Yes, she did. She wanted to make sure I didn’t escort her off the premises.”

“Yeah, she mentioned you threatened
her. And actually I would have tried bribing the doctor if Moira hadn’t wrapped him around her tiny little finger,” Sam sighed. “How was I going to compete with his sweet tooth?”

They both laughed and another elevator opened again to reveal Lucas. “That seems to be her form of bribe. Since she started making sugar free desserts that taste almost like the real thing, my dad thinks she walks on water.”

“I saw that when he stopped by on Tuesday,” Sam said.

Both
Conrad and Lucas were shocked. “He did?” they asked in unison.

“Yes. Spent about half the day with her
. They were playing cards and I think I heard him offering to take her gambling so she could improve her poker face.”