Selena's Men (5 page)

When Tam didn’t answer she left her a brief explanation with Malcolm’s office address and his contact information. A flash of her best friend showing up in one of her patent miniskirts that showcased her long legs topped off with a too-tight and too-short crop top had Selena seeing red.

Jealousy wasn’t an emotion Selena associated with herself. Her first and only love Tim had been the older, more experienced guy. They’d met at Tamara’s brother’s house party, and he’d seemed so sweet and kind. At seventeen she’d been a bit naïve and too trustful. Her parents should’ve known better than to let her date a college guy for her first boyfriend. She shook her head. Looking back, if it hadn’t been Tim it would’ve been someone else. At least he knew what he was doing when they did the deed.

She snickered. Here she was, twenty-three, and still called having sex “doing the deed.” After she finally gave it up to Tim, he thought they should do it every day. Or in his own words, he’d find someone else who would.
He was a healthy twenty-one year old guy
. The last bit made her sober. It seemed she was always losing those close to her. Within months of their relationship Tim was taken from her too. Of course she had no illusions that she and Tim were meant for happily ever after. Had he not been in the wrong place at the wrong time and been killed, their relationship still would’ve had an end date.

The ringing of her phone broke into her reverie. “Hey Tam, did you get my message?”

“No, I was just calling to see how my baby girl was doing.”

“Don’t you listen to your voice mail?” Selena rolled her eyes even though she knew Tamara couldn’t see her.

“Are you rolling your eyes at me?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Because you got
that
tone. When you get
that
tone it means you’re rolling your eyes. And don’t answer my question with a question.

“You answered my question with a question and then you just made an asinine statement.”

“Girl, I will smack you for…So you want me to go by this hunkalicious guy’s office and pick up the paperwork, right?”

“So you were just messing with me? Why does that not surprise me.” She laughed. “You are such a brat. You know that right?”

“Takes one to know one. Anyhoo, I’m on my way there now. I’ve already called and made an appointment all professional-like and everything.”

And, there goes that green-eyed monster again
. Jealous over a man she’s never even laid eyes on? Maybe it was time she stopped being a born-again virgin and took one of the cowboys who frequented Redneck Paradise home for a night of hot, sweaty sex. Her stomach cramped thinking of some anonymous hookup.

“You’re the best, Tam. Let me know after you seal the deal.”
Shit on a stick.
She wanted to call those words back and tell Tamara to keep her panties on and her hands to herself.

“Will do, girlfriend. Talk to you soon.”

* * * *

Malcolm stepped off his private plane, pleased to be back in the United States. “Damn, spending other people’s money is fun.”

The pilot laughed and shook his hand while the flight attendant, a pretty brunette, offered her cheek for a kiss. The look in her eyes said she’d offer more, but he never slept with employees. Anymore.

The sound of his phone ringing saved him from any further conversation. With a jaunty wave he continued to his car, a ’66 Chevy Camaro SS. “Yo, Max. What’s up, brother?”

“I just got a call from a contractor that wants to come and begin working on the new club. When do I get to meet the new owner?”

Malcolm threw his bag in the backseat before vaulting over the side to land in the driver’s seat. “Shit, man, I haven’t even met her yet. I do have a voice mail from her partner wanting to meet tomorrow.”

Just thinking of Selena Ramos’s smoky voice made his dick stand up at attention. Not a comfortable position to be in when one was wearing a pair of tight jeans in a low-slung, antique muscle car. His brother’s knowing chuckle brought his focus back to their conversation.

“You mean to tell me you took on a client you’ve never personally vetted?” Incredulity laced his voice, and something else that Malcolm was sure he wasn’t going to like.

Yep, Max was definitely laughing at him.

“There’s something.” Malcolm cleared his throat. “I don’t know how to explain it, but…when I first heard her voice, it was like every hair on my body stood up and took notice, along with other parts of my anatomy.”

He could picture Max’s eyebrows rising to his hairline at the admission. If roles were reversed he’d be doing the same thing.

“That’s how I felt when I first spoke to her,” Max said, with a bite in his tone Malcolm didn’t hear very often.

“Seriously? What do you think it means?”

“That we are getting old,” Max sighed.

“Why do you sound so edgy? Do you need to get laid? I thought you’d been seeing that bitch Steph…” He cleared his throat. “I mean the delightful Stephanie.”

“Fuck off, Mal. Her name was Tiffany, and you know it. To answer your question though, I gave her walking papers a while back.” Max sounded more amused than angry.

Malcolm listened as Max gave him the condensed version of events with his now ex. He couldn’t help but laugh at the image of the banshee of a woman. He’d hated Tiffany on the spot, and couldn’t understand the woman’s appeal in the first place. But, “to each his own” was his motto.

He and Max were more than identical twins. They were two halves of a whole. With Max being the more serious, Malcolm made it his mission to lighten him up.

He’d flash images to Max at the most inopportune times. Like when Max had been in counsel with over a dozen of their elders, Malcolm would share with his twin what he was doing at the time, which just happened to be the daughter of one of the elders. His brother would have to stand or sit during the meeting, all while Malcolm shared the experience.

Of course Max always retaliated with a bitch slap upside Malcolm’s head, but the chuckle he received far outweighed the blow. He’d suffer a thousand hits to the head to make his brother smile. Max carried too much weight on his shoulders, always had, and probably always would.

Malcolm whistled through his teeth. “I told you before, Max. You never hear anything good when you eavesdrop.” He grunted at the unseen blow that knocked his head forward, still laughing at the curses he heard on the other end of the phone.

“If you weren’t thousands of miles away, I’d kick your ass.” Max growled.

“You could try, bro.”

“Listen, I gotta go. Let me know the details of when I get to meet Ms. Selena Ramos. The woman who gives Romeo a woody over the phone.”

Malcolm sent the image of flipping Max the bird before he agreed and hung up. He adjusted the mirrors in his car before starting the engine. The loud rumble of the big block engine was one of the things he loved best about muscle cars.

By the time he hit the highway that led to the winding road to his home he decided to call Selena’s office. A quick glance at the modified dash showed him it was just past five. He figured Selena had already left for the day. He shifted down to second gear as the winding road climbed up the hill, making the outside noise minimal. He waited for voice mail to pick up, and had planned what he was going to say, only to have his breath freeze in his throat at the husky sound of the woman’s voice on the other end.

“This is Selena.”

From the impatient way she sounded he assumed that wasn’t the first time she’d said those words. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“Good evening, Ms. Ramos. This is Malcolm King,” he finally croaked out.

“Please call me Selena, or Lena.”

The sadness he heard in her voice had an overwhelming urge rush over him to flash to her side and hold her, or fuck her, or just hold her. He wasn’t sure which would win out, not with the pole trying to bust out of his jeans. His heart constricted at the hitch in her voice. That was another first for him.

“I got your assistant’s voice mail and just wanted to let you know I’m available to meet anytime tomorrow. Or I could fly down to meet up with you tomorrow or the day after and save both of you a trip.”

The concept of finally being in the same room with the woman who made his dick twitch and his heart ache simultaneously scared the crap out of him. “Give me a day or so, and I can fly down to Texas with the papers.”

“That’s very kind of you, but Tamara, the one who left the voice mail, she’s my partner, and just so happens to be in LA this week. She can just stop by your office if that’s okay? I’m going to be tied up for the next few weeks and I’d rather get this deal taken care of.”

Malcolm heard the lingering pain in her husky tone and wanted nothing more than to hold her. The loss of loved ones was hard. He’d lost many people he’d called friends over the years.

“I’m beginning to think you’re avoiding me. Do you know what that can do to a man’s ego?”

She laughed. The sound sent a thrill through his body straight to his balls.
What the hell?
With a grimace he adjusted his legs, hoping to alleviate the tightness in his groin. He tried to remember the last time he’d ever gotten hard from just the sound of a woman’s voice or laugh, and came up blank.

“I don’t think there’s a woman alive that has ever avoided you, Malcolm King.”

“Shit,” Malcolm cursed, barely making the curve without hitting the guardrail. The way she said his name almost had him coming in his jeans. Another first for him.

She giggled as he cursed some more.

“Are you laughing at me, woman? You are completely crushing my ego now.” He’d stand on his head and make faces if it kept the sadness from her voice.

“Do you need me to stroke your ego?”

His purely selfless thoughts flew out the open top of his car at her innocent question. The image of her hand stroking him to completion nearly undid him. He chanced a look down at his denim to see the obvious bulge.

What if her words weren’t as innocent as he thought? He laughed and broke one of his brother’s cardinal rules. He tried to tune into her thoughts, slamming into a mental brick wall. His head flew back against the headrest. “What the fuck?” A painful throb pulsed at his temple.

“Excuse me? Are you okay?”

“Uh…No, I was just thinking about something,” Malcolm muttered.

Selena cleared her throat. “Listen, I need to go. Thank you for calling to let me know you’ll be available. I’ll call Tamara. What time works best? Or would you rather liaise with her yourself?”

He tried again to look into Selena’s mind, easing into the forefront. A vast blackness seemed to surround him, which was better than a brick wall, but was clearly some sort of mental shield. He slipped out, not wanting to alert her to his presence in her mind.

“Let Tamara know I’ll be around all weekend. I can meet anytime at my office.” He never invited women to his sanctuary up in the hills.

An overwhelming need to have Selena there rocked him. He wanted to welcome her into his home and be welcomed into more than her mind. He shook himself before he said something that would likely scare Selena.

Malcolm missed the husky tone of Selena’s voice as they disconnected. He came to a stop at the twelve-foot gates that surrounded his land and entered the code into the state-of-the-art security system.

An immediate sense of peace settled over him when he opened his senses to scan the area. A lone wolf howled, Smokey, his pet that had adopted him as his owner when Malcolm had bought the property.

He wondered what Selena would think of Smokey. An overwhelming urge to have her in his home, his bed, anywhere he could have her nearly undid him. And he still had no clue what she looked like. Sure he could assume she was small and petite with dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin, with the name Selena Ramos. But with every internet search he did, there was always something blocking a shot of her. A puzzle that was fast becoming an obsession of his that even being a country away didn’t make go away. He loved women of all shapes and sizes, from blondes, to brunettes, to redheads, short or tall or anywhere in between. He was first physically attracted to a woman and then came…for him, nothing really came next of his so-called relationships. He treated women well. He wined and dined them. Made love to them until they were both beyond sated. And then they parted ways until the next time they met up. No promises of happily ever after. He wasn’t thinking of forever with the mystery woman. He just needed to get her out of his system. That was all.

Thoughts of being with the same woman until she turned old and gray, and then died, made his dick, which had been at full staff since he first heard Selena’s voice, finally go soft.

A push of a button by his sun visor had one of his garage bay doors opening. He eased his Chevy inside, before another press of the button shut the door. With a jerk of his hand he opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle.

The sound of nails clicking on the cement floors was his only warning as a large silver-and-gray wolf slammed his paws against his chest.

“Hey, boy, did you miss me?”