Mr. Imperfect

chapter 60



Mike had just finished moving around the perimeter of the exhibit, catching reaction shots of the patrons when he felt some arms slip around him from behind. His body tensed, somehow knowing immediately that it wasn’t Rori behind him. It was someone else—someone taller and closer to a size 2. He glanced backward and spotted Chloe.

He tried to pull away without success. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to win a bet,” Chloe said, her hands gliding around his hips toward his front pockets. “And while we’re on the subject, don’t listen to Kerrie. She bet that you and Rori go separate ways and Rori gets engaged to the a*shole.”

Mike glanced over at Rori and Anton. “Whatever. He might be a nice guy.”

“He’s an a*shole,” Chloe said, her tone not allowing for debate. “Trust me. People low on the service ladder see true colors. I asked around and he’s a Grade-A a*shole.”

Mike felt his temper flare at the thought of Rori being with someone like that, until he realized it wasn’t any of his business and she probably didn’t even care. She wanted a father for her children. A man with money and a commitment to family. Nowhere in her qualifications was there any mention of kindness.

“This is a key,” Chloe said just before her right hand dipped into his front pocket. “It goes to the storage room in the alcove before the bathrooms. And don’t move just yet. Let her see where my hand is first.”

Mike didn’t have to ask who Chloe was talking about, although he did doubt that Rori would happen to look their way. She’d been avoiding looking at him all night, so Mike moved on to the next most obvious question.

“Why do I need a key?”

“To help me win the bet.”

“And what’s the bet?”

“Depends on who you ask. We like to keep things lively around here, so we make bets at every event. Tonight’s bet is on whether you and Rori will get it on before you get on planes going opposite directions.”

Mike felt a wave of loss wash over him and tried to shrug it off. “Well, I could have answered that one for you. No. We won’t.”

He felt Chloe nod against his shoulder. “See, that’s what Kerrie put her money on, so do us both a favor and don’t listen to her if she comes strolling your way. Her motives aren’t pure. Neither are Fredrik’s. He bet on the two of you hooking up tomorrow night.”

Mike couldn’t help but chuckle. “And your motives are pure?”

“Hey, I’m trying to get you laid tonight. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Mike turned to face her as he pulled her hands from his pockets and held them in his own. “By simulating a hand job in my pants in the middle of her art exhibition? Your tactics could use some work.”

Chloe’s eyes were confident as she smirked at him. “I’ll find her trigger, and then she’ll be over here like a jealous gun. In the meantime, listen. Once you open the door to the storage room, if you go all the way to the back and turn to the left there is a shelf that is totally at the perfect height to set her down and go to town—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Mike said, stepping back in reflex. “Are you saying—”

“Hell yeah, I am. And, for the record, I’m speaking from experience. That shelf isn’t reinforced to take a couple hundred pounds of pressure on accident. But if you don’t want to wallbang then use the padding blankets and freshly cleaned linens are on the shelf to your immediate right. Use those for padding because the ground in there is ridiculously cold and hard—wait, don’t move away,” she said, grabbing him as he tried to close his ears to the imagery she was putting into his mind. She didn’t let him put any distance between them. If anything Chloe came closer. “The look on your face right now is priceless. You’d suck a poker.”

“I need you to stop talking,” Mike said, unable to look at her. “I know you mean well, Chloe, but it’s not going to happen. And even if Rori and I were going to get together, there’s no way I’d make our first time in a storage closet. Not a chance. The first time should be—”

“Oh, please,” Chloe interrupted, her New York accent pronounced and distinctly unimpressed. “You can make slow, sweet love to her any other day of the week. But today’s the day you can make Rori scream and sweat in a side room, while her uptight mom and the over-age a*shole she supposed to marry make banal and proper conversation just a few feet away. I promise you, she’s going to f*cking love it.”

Chloe’s reasoning was equal parts shocking and effective, and Mike could no longer deny that his body was reacting to it.

“I say go for standing up, based on that sculpture over there,” Chloe added, still somehow sounding bored. “She sculpted that couple doing it standing up, which means that’s where her head was at when she made it. Hot, heavy, and in too much of a hurry to make it to a bed. That’s what she wants from her man.”

“Chloe,” Mike groaned. “Seriously, stop it. You’re killing me.”

“No,” she said, splaying her fingers across his chest. “I’m getting you in the right head space to make a very smart decision by not letting the woman you love become the trophy wife of a man who had two prostitutes in his room last night. He’s just as likely to give her a venereal disease as he is to get her pregnant. It’s f*cking sick, so you’ve got to man up and sleep with her first. Tonight. During the art show. In that side room.”

Mike’s mind was so busy picturing exactly that, that he almost missed how specific Chloe’s instructions were.

“Is that your bet?” he asked. “That Rori and I will do it tonight in a side room while everything is going on?”

She shrugged, sliding his hands down his arms and weaving her fingers between his playfully. “You put money on vague bets and you have to share the pot with others. Bet big or go home, I say.”

“And what’s the pot at?” he had to ask something to try to distract himself from the hand play she was currently engaging in. Even if she didn’t mean it, she was really, really good at it.

“Four hundred and climbing, last I heard. Enough to buy mama a new pair of shoes.”

Mike laughed again. He couldn’t help it. “You are a handful. Tell me you have a boyfriend.”

“Hell yeah, I do,” she said even as she gave his finger a light bite. “He’s the luckiest man alive and jealous as hell, so don’t think I’ll be finishing what I’m starting here. There’s only one man I let drill me in that side room, and he ain’t you. No offense, but ink is my turn on and you don’t have any. You hard yet?”

“Closer than I want to be,” was all Mike could say.

Chloe smiled. “Good. You’re cute when you blush, you know that?”

“I need to go,” Mike said, but as he stepped away, Chloe used his motion to make it look like he was pulling her after him.

“You need to stay,” she said like a stern teacher, her grip firming up and her expression unflinching. “I really want those shoes, Mike. Just wait until Rori comes over here and give it a try. For me. If she shuts you down and sends you on your way then you can take the kiddies to the pool without a cross look from me.” She stepped in closer. Close enough that he could feel her body heat. “But at least give Junior a shot at a trip to heaven first. It’s only fair for everyone involved.”

Only fair. Sure. Chloe was totally insane. The trouble was, Mike was listening to her.

Mike cleared his throat. “If your plan hinges on Rori coming over here, then I’m sorry to inform you—”

Mid-sentence Mike’s jacket hit him right in the face as an ice-cold voice said. “Get the f*ck out.”

Mike had never heard that exact tone before, but he knew the voice. Most definitely Rori’s.

“Pack up your equipment and get the hell out of my show,” she said.

“Hmmm,” Chloe cooed softly in his ear, out of Rori’s earshot. “She brought up f*cking and your equipment back-to-back. My work here is done.”

Then she was gone. Mike could have killed her.

“Rori, that wasn’t what it—”

“Do not insult my intelligence,” Rori sneered, voice shaking a bit this time. “Just pack up and get out. I will not have you turn my event into your sexual sideshow.”

“Sideshow?” he scoffed back. “Do you really think anyone’s looking at the hired help in the back corner when they can just look to the center of the room to watch you swap spit with your fiancé while he walks around with his hand on your ass?”

Mike watched her jaw set and her eyes grow cold. “I said get out. Now. That means immediately, Mike. And if you don’t, I’ll have security escort you. Understood?”

If Mike would have been in a slightly more rational state of mind, he would have agreed. He would have curtly informed her exactly what he thought of the outlook of her future before riding a wave of self righteousness all the way to the airport.

The trouble was that he wasn’t thinking rationally. Thanks to Chloe his mind was already filled with the many ways he could change Rori’s anger into something else entirely. And now here she was in front of him, her asymmetrical off-the-shoulder dress giving him a clear view of her smooth, olive skin on one side while all but inviting him to bare the other side.

Looking into her eyes, he could see the possibility all too easily. The signs of arousal were already there in her dilated pupils and the rate of her breathing. And when Rori licked her lips before spinning on her heel to march away, Mike knew he had to try.

What did he have to lose?

Not a single thing.