The only trouble with that was controlling my own mind. My own desires. If I was going to truly relax I needed to erase him completely.
I closed my eyes and focused. I could put Daniel into a locked box with all the other things I wanted to forget. I would not think about him again.
Not until I came to collect my horse.
I opened my eyes.
He was in the box.
I just hoped he would stay there.
Forty minutes later I was checked into the Starline Hotel. It was five stars of course, but newer, younger. I doubted he would find me here. Supposedly it catered to a European crowd.
I glanced around the lobby at the oversized doll heads.
A hipster hotel.
I sighed and went up to my room. I could always change hotels tomorrow...
The suite was enormous and sterile white. Bright neon colors were here and there scattered about the room. A strange shaped chair sat by the window. I frowned. Not relaxing. Or luxurious.
This would not do at all.
I picked up my phone and called the oldest and finest hotel in Nashville. Then I checked out of the Starline. As I climbed back into my limo I heard my phone ring again.
I was sure it was Daniel.
It was not. I sighed and answered it. I knew he would not stop calling if I did not.
"What do you want, Philipe?"
Chapter Eight
Daniel
I tilted my head back, letting the bourbon slip down my throat. It had been hours since Francesca ran out on me. It was clear by now that she was not coming back on her own. I'd already hired a private detective. Now all I had to do was wait.
I hated waiting.
Especially when I could still feel her body beneath my hands. Her lips. Her... everything.
I groaned.
"Still up?"
Jake stood in the doorway to the study, a crooked smile on his lips.
"Jake, come here brother. How was LA?"
I forced myself to stand and hug my younger brother. He'd been gone for years after graduating military school, always so wild and unpredictable. Now look at us. I was drunk and wallowing and he was the sober one, with a fiancé to boot.
"Whoa, man, you reek."
I slumped back into my seat.
"Want one?"
He nodded and I poured us each a glass of bourbon. A big glass. Jake said nothing, but his eyebrow went up. At least he was less judgmental than Jackson. We clinked glasses and sipped.
Well, he sipped.
I slugged.
"What's going on Daniel?"
I scowled.
"I don't want to talk about her."
Jake laughed.
"What's her name?"
"Francesca Duarte."
Even her name sounded erotic to me. I felt a familiar heaviness in my groin from the sound of it. I was starting to throb.
"Wait, the Italian chick?"
My head swiveled away from the fire at last.
"You know her?"
"No man, she's all over the papers and those gossip magazines."
"You read that trash?"
"No but it's kind of hard to avoid seeing it. I just came from the airport remember?"
I stared into the fire, not wanting to talk about it. Not wanting to talk at all. I just wanted her back here, where I could get my hands on her. Jake waited me out though. Finally I gave up.
"I spent the last 48 hours fucking her brains out."
I took another slug.
"Fucking my brains out too, apparently."
"She's that good, huh?"
"She's a nightmare. A stunning, beautiful, hot as hell pain in the ass nightmare. And now she's gone"
Jake poured us each another drink. I glared at him. Bastard was laughing at me.
"You got it bad, Daniel."
"Why the fuck are you laughing?"
He grinned at me.
"I have no doubt you will get her back. If you still want her."
"Want is the understatement of the century."
"So go get her. But wait until you are sober."
"She could have someone else in her bed right now."
"She's playing the field? After what happened to her I don't blame her."
"No. She doesn't like guys with money. She could be fucking a waiter for all I know."
Jake said nothing. He just poured me another drink.
"Maybe she doesn't know what she wants. Maybe you have to show her."
He winked at me.
"I had to chase my woman down. Trust me, it was worth it."
I stared at him. I hadn't heard this story. I loved my future sister-in-law to pieces. Elle was spunky and kept Jake on his toes.
She'd settled him somehow. He was calmer than he'd ever been, which was no small feat. He was making it work and even look easy. Out of the three brothers I would have said he would be the last to get hitched. But he'd found love and he wasn't letting go.
So if he had any tactics he wanted to share, I was eager to hear them.
"What did you do?"
"It's not for the faint of heart, brother."
I lifted my glass, clinking in with his.
"Oh, now you have to tell me."
He leaned back, his eyes closed.
"Well you are going to need something to tie her up with..."
Francesca
It was day four of my exile. So far I'd shopped and spent well over a thousand dollars at the hotel spa. I was bored. And worse than that, I was restless and unsatisfied.
And I hadn't even come close to erasing Daniel from my mind.