Any Man I Want (5 page)

Katrina—Tuesday, May 24—10:50 a.m.

 

 

I
waved to Sheryl as she headed out to see some of the island. I didn't know where Carter had found her, but she was wonderful. She did a little bit of everything. Organized the house, answered phones, ran errands, and cooked like a dream. I considered myself to be a pretty good cook, but she whipped up delicious meals effortlessly. I should have resisted this morning's cheesy shrimp and spinach omelet, but it was too savory to pass up. I turned back to the laptop in time to answer a question.

“How bad was it really?” my sister-in-law Jewellen asked me as she played with her hair. Jewel was one of my favorite people in the world. Like me, she was a sheltered suburban girl. Unlike me, she was patient and sweet and generally saw the good in everybody. She owned a staffing agency based in North Dallas and had just recently opened a second office in Frisco. A few years back, my brother Roman literally ran her over on a basketball court and after one heck of a courtship, they got married. She treated Roman's son Chase like her own and was a seamless part of the family. We called her
Bijou
, French for “jewel.” Jewel was a cute little thing at a shade under five-seven, with a bright, clear complexion and reddish-brown hair that usually fell to just under her shoulders. Recently, she had cut it into a wavy bob that stopped at her eyes. She'd been fiddling with it ever since.

We were on a video conference. Jewel was sitting with Belle, Fredrika (my agent), Danila (our PR person), and another friend of ours who worked in the New York offices of BellaRich, Yazlyn.

“
Bijou
, your hair is cute. Leave it alone. How bad was what really?” I set down my second cup of coffee of the day and tilted my head in curiosity.

“The sex, Trina, the terrible, awful sex between you and Kevin. You announced to the world that he had never thumbed through
Sex for Dummies
!” Danila clasped her hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle.

“You said you wanted to pay him to cease and desist!” Fredrika gasped out as they dissolved into laughter. She almost slid off the edge of her chair she was so tickled.

Yazlyn caught her breath. “On a scale of ‘gee, I could have had a V-8' to ‘make the lambs stop screaming'—just how bad was it?”

I giggled at her
Silence of the Lambs
reference. “It wasn't serial-killer bad, more like lazy and unfocused, but blessedly over soon.”

“Oh, all right. So you won't be appearing on an episode of
I Survived
to tell the tale. Good to know,” Belle joked.

“I don't want to be on television anytime soon,” I said with all earnestness.

“No one feels bad for you, Audelia Katrina,” Jewel piped up. “You are sitting in paradise with fine-ass Carter Parks. That is not bad living.”

“Okay?” Belle high-fived Jewel.

“What are you two doing noticing the fineness of Big Sexy when you are sleeping next to Roman and Beau Montgomery every night?” Yazlyn eyed them teasingly.

“A woman can look and appreciate a fine form when she sees one. Is the man not nicknamed Big Sexy, for goodness sake? I appreciate things that are beautifully designed.” Belle shrugged with a guiltless smile.

“It's not a hardship spending time with a man who looks like that in a place like this.” I gestured to the view behind me.

“I hate you all,” Yazlyn said. “You're supposed to be in crisis, Kat. Instead, you've landed on rose petals.”

“Sure, if you overlook the fact that fake, naked videos of me are all over the place, life is a rosy dream.” I leaned back and crossed my arms with attitude.

“Well, there is that,” Fredrika agreed.

“At least you look good, sugar,” Belle said. “Even the paparazzi pics have you looking right.”

“We can always count on Belle to see the sunny side of things,” Jewel teased before turning serious. “The guys are coming in. Is Carter there?”

“One sec.” I paused the sound and video feed and walked to the entrance of the den. “Carter? You got a minute?” I hadn't seen or spoken to him yet this morning. By the time I got up and spoke to my mom and dad, Carter had been behind closed doors in the room he was using as an office, buying and selling stuff or whatever mogul-y stuff it was that he did these days.

“For you, always,” he announced as he came around the corner and into the room. He was dressed casually in a T-shirt and knit shorts. Dammit, he looked good. He dropped a light kiss on my forehead as he brushed past me and sat down at the table. He patted the seat beside him.

“Coffee or vitamin water?” I offered as I walked toward him.

“Vitamin water sounds good. Thanks, Kitty.” He smiled as I handed him the cold beverage, a napkin, and a coaster.

I paused and frowned. Not three days ago I wanted to slap the mess out of Kevin for inferring that I should pour his beverages and here I was fetching refreshments for Big Sexy.

“Problem, diva?” He twisted the top off and took a sip.

“I just got you a drink,” I said slowly.

“And I appreciate it.” He responded and raised a brow.

I laughed at myself. “It's just irony.” When someone didn't expect things of you and was genuinely grateful for small gestures, it was a completely different thing. Carter was right; I'd been dating the wrong damn men.

“Okay. Am I missing something?”

“Just an
aha
moment. You're welcome, Carter.” I grinned at his confused expression before sitting down next to him and taking the camera off pause. “We're both here. What's the latest?”

“Do I even want to know what took you two so long to get to the computer?” Roman asked with a brow raised and a mock glowering expression on his face.

“Don't start with me,” I admonished, shooting him a look.

Beau snickered. “I for sure do not want to know. Let's just move on. We have good news and bad news.”

“Give us the bad news first,” Carter said.

Danila spoke up. “First, there are some naked pictures floating around.”

“I've never posed nude,” I affirmed.

“Doesn't look like you posed at all. The pics are more like someone hid cameras in your house and clicked when you walked around and got out of the shower,” Roman said through a clenched jaw.

“What the hell?” Carter exclaimed. “Who did it?”

“We don't know for sure. We sent our security guy over to sweep her condo. He got them all, but we couldn't trace where the feed was going.”

“This is getting nasty.” I shook my head in amazement.

Fredrika spoke up. “Sad to say, it gets worse. Looks like Kevin is up to some new tricks. He's got a swimsuit distributor saying you offered to do him regularly if he got your orders out the door first. A Harry Jamison out of New York.”

“To
do
him?” I shouted.

“Yeah. Like sexually. Must we spell it out?” Beau winced.

“Oh, for Christ's sake. I talked to him on the phone once. Once! He made a half-assed pass, I laughed it off, and we moved on. I didn't even handle his order; I sent him over to Inez in sales. I never even met this Harry guy face-to-face.” I snapped, slamming my palm down on the table.

“Isn't Jamison a notorious ass-grabber?” Yazlyn scoffed.

“And a loudmouth to boot. No worries, though,
chère
,” Beau said gently. “We already have three other designers that will attest to Harry's bullshittery.”

“I like the usage of
bullshittery
as a noun. Was that the good news?” Carter asked.

“Actually, no.” Beau continued, “The good news is that we've started digging into Kevin's past and his business dealings.”

I leaned forward. “How's it looking?”

“Not good for our friend Kevin. Seems he's a flagrant asshole.”

“I could've told you that with no special investigative skills.” I rolled my eyes.

“As could we all, sis,” Roman added. “But we found out he made some enemies on the way up by taking shortcuts and stepping on a lot of feet. We won't go into details until we have all the facts, but if he wants to sling mud, looks like we'll have plenty of our own to launch.”

“Other good news: Your video statement was well-received. The more salacious aspects of Kevin's original claims are still circling the newswires, but we haven't lost any clients yet. And sad though it may be, the nude photos have actually upped our orders,” Belle said.

“My bare ass is glad to be of service,” I huffed.

“We have to have a pretty good criminal or civil case for fabricating the video and the stalker-y pictures by now, right?” Jewel asked.

“We will when we can prove that Delancey's behind it,” Carter said.

“Something about this, though,” Beau pondered. “I can't put my finger on it, but it feels like more than just a jilted dude with a big ego getting some revenge.”

Belle nodded. “It does. But anyway, Kit-Kat; it's up to you. We can let this thing die naturally or we can go to war.”

“If it was just him calling me a ho, I could let it go.” I shrugged.

“Could you really?” Carter quirked a brow.

“Maybe. But him coming after the design house like this, trying to muddy up all of us? The Montgomery name and whatnot? I can't let that slide.” I glanced over at Carter, who nodded in agreement. He dropped his hand to my thigh and gave an encouraging squeeze. Who knew? Carter Parks was touchy-feely and I liked it.

“Then we battle,” Beau said, rubbing his hands together.

“You don't have to look so excited about it,” Roman scolded.

“Hey, he came after one of us, besmirched the family name. This I do not forgive,” Beau said with dramatic gestures.

“Is that a
Godfather
impersonation, bruh? If so, it was pitiful,” Carter drawled.

“Is that your hand on my baby sister's thigh, bruh? If so, it is disturbing,” Beau returned.

“What's that about?” Roman frowned, squinting into the monitor.

“Boys, can we focus?” Jewel intervened, sending both Beau and Roman a stern look.

“Thank you, Jewellen,” I piped up. “What's the next step?”

Danila suggested, “I think we should send something out to all our clients. Get some preventative statement in front of them, especially since it looks like Kevin is going after them one by one to see if any has a grudge. And then we need to start leaking Kevin's dirt to the media. Let's make him the story.”

“That sounds solid.” Carter tipped his head in admiration.

“We need you back stateside by Saturday,” Beau announced.

“What's on Saturday?” I asked.

Beau and Belle exchanged sappy grins. “We're eloping to Vegas.”

“What?” we all exclaimed.

“The wedding kept getting bigger and we kept shifting the dates and really—it was too much. We're just going to gather up immediate family, some of the BellaRich staff, and let the Bellagio do the work.” Belle said.

Roman smirked. “Have you told Madere and Pops yet?”

“Actually, with all the upset over Katrina's troubles . . .” Beau began.

“Oh no.” Carter shook his head. “Don't even try it, pretty boy. You are not using this to get out of telling Madere that you are depriving her of a big church wedding.”

Jewel chuckled, “Man up, Beauregard.”

Beau sat back with a sigh. “Fine. Belle and I will call them in a second. Check your e-mails for details on the wedding this afternoon.”

“Looking forward to it.” I beamed. “God knows I'm ready for another sister. Even-up the odds at the family gatherings.”

“Indeed.” Jewel nodded.

“Whatever.” Roman cut eyes at me and Jewel. “Anyway, do you all need anything down there or are you good?”

Yazlyn choked on her cup of coffee. “I doubt there is anything we can do for them to improve their current circumstances. I mean—look at her, look at him, look at where they are!”

“Hate is so unbecoming on you, Yaz,” I said, preening. “If you need us, you know how to find us.” I reached out and slammed the lid of the laptop shut.

“So . . .” Carter started in a silky voice.

“So . . .” I purred in answer.

“Do we . . . need anything?”

“I think we're good right here.” I put my hand atop his on my thigh and threaded my fingers through his.

“I do believe you're right.” He leaned in a little closer.

“We can still hear y'all!” Belle's voice boomed out from the laptop speakers.

“Yeah, if you're gonna get it on at least let us have video to go with the audio,” Yaz implored teasingly.

“And that's enough of that,” Roman's voice snapped out before the musical tone indicating that the conference had terminated sounded.

I laughed shortly. “Anyway . . . blue skies, great climate, excellent company. What more could a girl want?”

We smiled into each other's eyes.

“You still have work to do today?” I asked him.

“I could, but I don't have to. You?”

“Ditto. We should do something,” I murmured.

He took another sip of his water and I watched the muscles in his throat convulse as he swallowed. My eyes fell to his torso and I sat, mesmerized, watching his chest rise and fall slowly as he breathed. A vein at the side of his neck pulsed and I observed it all with fascination. I wanted to know how every single thing, inside and out, of Carter Evan Parks worked. I noticed his lips moving and realized he was talking to me.

“I'm sorry, what?” I asked breathlessly, licking my lips in sudden thirst.

“I asked, Katrina, if you had something specific in mind that you wanted to do. Right now.” His lips curved upward in an indulgent smile.