Open Invitation? Read online

  “Oh, puleeeze. I just call it like I see it.”

  “Then you haven’t seen nearly enough, now have you?”

  She was starting to piss him off again with that superior socialite tone of hers. He’d had enough of that from Mama over the years since her transformation. He decided to knock Lil off her ivory pedestal again. “I haven’t seen nearly enough of you nekkid.”

  Predictably she blushed. “Take the next right, Dan.”

  “I’d rather take you, darlin’.”

  “Dan, stop it!”

  “All lights were green for ‘go’ last night. What’s the matter, honey, have you replaced me already?”

  “What? No! What do you think, that I’m some kind of…of…slut?”

  “Hey, sluts have all the fun, hon. Besides, I’m teasing you. I don’t think you could pick up a man to save your life.” He grinned.

  Obviously stung, she said, “I could, too. I’m just not in the habit of doing so.”

  “You say it like you think it’s a bad habit. Spend the night with me, Lil. I got all kinds of bad habits to teach you in Uncivilization 101.”

  “Here we are,” she said in false, bright tones.

  “Come get nasty with me, nice girl.”

  She bolted out of the car without waiting for him to open her door.

  Dan smiled and went after her.

  THE SALON was draped in a lot of toilet-cleaner-blue velvet and cluttered with gold frames. This Enrique guy obviously thought he was royalty, since he even had a big vase stuffed full of peacock feathers. Dan winced and looked for a place that a self-respecting man could sit down.

  Even the receptionist wore blue eye shadow and blue nail polish and her face had gold sprinkles on it. She looked like a harem girl.

  He cast an uneasy glance at Lilia and adjusted himself.

  Her eyes widened. “Never, never, never do that in public again!” she snapped.

  “What? Damn, it was torqued wrong.”

  “I don’t care if it’s tied in a knot, you wait until you’re in private to do that.” Lilia shook her head and looked as shocked as if he had just tried to murder someone. Did the woman need to relax, or what?

  After a ten-minute wait, this Enrique clown danced out to meet them, and Dan knew immediately that he was in trouble again.

  Enrique looked like a pint-size Ricky Ricardo. He kissed Lilia and beamed at her. “Allo, beeeyoootiful!”

  “Hi, handsome.” Lil dimpled.

  The little guy clapped his hand to his chest. “She steal my heart,” he announced, to no one in particular. “It make boom-boom!” Then he looked at Dan. “Where you lasso thees one? Who butcher your hair, Cowboy? And the belt buckle? I could use for mirror!”

  What the hell? Nobody seemed to like his belt, and this was getting old. Dan folded his arms across his chest and glowered at the man. “Aren’t you guys supposed to suck up to your customers, instead of insulting them? And my dad cuts my hair, thank you very much.”

  “He use hedge-trimmer? He is blind, no?” Enrique grinned unapologetically and poked him in the belly.

  “Ow! What the hell?”

  “You seet in my chair, Cowboy. We transform you into the prince. The boots,” he said to Lilia, “the boots I like, but no the belt. You burn, eh? And the shirt, too. He got good face, good…how you say? Ah, build. He talk a leetle funny.” Enrique draped Dan in a navy-blue plastic cape and began to hum tunelessly.

  “Excuse me, but I am in the room, you little tamale.”

  Lilia cringed, but Enrique burst out laughing. “Tamale? No, no. I wear no corn husk.” He fished around in a drawer and came out with some wicked looking scissors and a comb. Clutching these in one hand, he reached for a spray bottle with the other. “You are late, so you no get hair wash.”

  Dan’s mouth dropped open. “Of all the—we were not late! Well, we were, but you were late.”

  Enrique ignored this, sprayed him with the water, set down the sprayer again and grabbed him by the hair. Snip! Snip! Snip!

  “You’re enjoying this,” Dan accused Lilia.

  She nodded and smiled serenely. Then her cell phone rang. “Excuse me.”

  She pulled it from her purse, which matched her shoes. He half expected her to pull out a pair of kid gloves in the same shade. “Hello?”

  As Dan watched she turned pink and looked pleased. “Serves you right,” she said. “Besides, rice cakes have lots of fiber in them, and you’re full of it.”

  Had Miss Manners just insulted her blond Amazon partner? Well, Dan was all for it, since the wench had taken his suitcases to the Salvation Army.

  “What do you mean, revenge? I just took revenge on you, for the carrot juice! The cycle should end there…. Oh, well, fine. I’m trembling…. Be quiet and go and get Mr. Granger a couple of new belts. He’ll also need a raincoat and some riding gear—”

  “No pansy pants!” Dan growled.

  “—yes, bring the boots, too, and we’ll hope that he doesn’t need special fitting. There’s no time for custom-made ones…but the boots are the most important, since he’ll need them for his riding lesson tomorrow. He swears he won’t wear the hat, but bring that as well.”

  Enrique continued to snip and Dan wondered if he was leaving him any hair at all. He decided it was best to close his eyes.

  “I don’t need a riding lesson,” he announced to Lilia when she got off the phone.

  “We had this talk. Just do one and then we’ll reevaluate if you still don’t think it’s necessary.”

  Dan sighed and Enrique distracted him by pulling here and there on his hair like a monkey and cutting more off with a different pair of scissors, “For texture, yes?”

  Yeah, whatever.

  Finally the little dude dusted him with a gigantic blue powder puff and sprayed a tennis-ball sized blob of white foam into his hands. Then he clapped them onto Dan’s head and worked in the nasty goo. He whipped out a hair-dryer and brandished it like a gun, pointing it, pretending to sight his target through the back, and pulling the “trigger.”

  He freeze-dried Dan’s hair into fashionable swirls and spikes and then sprayed it with some kind of aerosol glue. “Bueno!” he finally declared, whipping off the blue cape.

  Dan stared at himself and put a hand up to touch the miracle, only to have the hand smacked by Enrique.

  “No poking the masterpiss, eh? Thees is work of art. Enrique is great genius.”

  “Touch me again, Tamale, and I’ll gut you. Understand?”

  Enrique turned to Lilia, his hands on his hips. “He is rude, this one. He like his hair? You like?”

  “Yes, he like his hair,” Dan growled.

  “Enrique, you’ve outdone yourself. He looks like a movie star!”

  “Yes, yes! He is…ahm…what his name, eh? He is the Nick Lachey? But lighter hairs and eyes.”

  “And no Jessica,” Lil said dryly.

  “Yeah,” Dan waggled his brows lecherously, “but I’ve got—”

  He broke off at a bona fide glare from Miss Manners.

  “You have many womens, yes?” Enrique asked. “Eh, you will have many mores without the belt.”

  “Enough about my belt!” Dan said. “And no, I don’t have many women. I like ’em one at a time. It’d be nice to keep one around for a while, but I can’t seem to find one willing to live on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. Plus the selection at your average agricultural convention is limited.”

  “Agricultural convention?” Lilia raised her brows.

  “Yes. I’m in the ranching business. Got my MBA from Texas A & M, darlin’. You look surprised. Did you think I’d never graduated fifth grade?”

  “Of course I didn’t think that, Dan.” But she was stunned to find that he had an MBA. He was more educated than she.

  Enrique flapped the cape at them. “You go now. I have other appointment. Muchas gracias!”

  Dan exchanged a glance with Lil as he got out of the chair. “Thank you, Enrique. I’ll be sure to order you a b
elt just like mine and ship it to you C.O.D.”

  “WHERE TO NOW, Lil?” Dan asked later that evening. They had just finished dinner at an elegant restaurant in Greenwich. He’d learned a hundred more stupid social rules and he was heartily tired of being corrected on everything from his grammar to his conversation to his posture.

  She’d made him lose his normal clothing that afternoon, dressed him in khakis and a blue blazer and hauled his ass to high tea at some swank hotel, where he’d been a lot more interested in the possibility of hourly rates than teeny little sandwiches that wouldn’t satisfy a bird. At least he hadn’t smashed any china or destroyed any furniture.

  Then, to add insult to injury, she’d made him change again—this time into a friggin’ suit—and drive an hour for dinner in the snottiest part of Connecticut.

  Dinner had been fabulous, but he wasn’t about to admit that to Lil.

  She yawned delicately behind her fine-boned hand. “I’m ready for bed.”

  “Excellent. I am so glad to hear that,” Dan said with a grin. Finally! Something fun.

  She looked startled. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “You said you’d consider spending the night with me.”

  “Dan, I really shouldn’t do that.”

  “Why the hell not? I tell a real good bedtime story. I give a great back rub. And the Granger Shower Hour is without equal.”

  “Dan…”

  They’d reached the Mustang now, which looked odd in the lot of the chateaulike restaurant and inn. The place was peppered with Mercedes Benzes and Jaguars and BMWs. Dan’s bright red rental car stood out like a sore thumb—a cheap one. Which made him laugh, considering the fact that he could probably buy the place twice over and still have money to redecorate. He might have rough manners, but he did well for himself.

  “Yes, Lil?”

  “We have to work together. And I shouldn’t have been so…forward last night. I’m embarrassed.”

  Her dark eyes slid away from his and her adorable, prim, pink mouth pursed. “Lil, you got nothing to be embarrassed about. You said you were tired of living like a little old lady, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Your nana brought you up, all by herself? And you were a nice girl, never got into any trouble, huh?”

  She nodded again.

  “Well, I’d say it’s high time that you got naughty. And I think the best gift I can give you is a little embarrassment, Granger-style.”

  He took two steps and pinned her against the side of the Mustang. He took her mouth with his and made love to it thoroughly, losing himself between her lips.

  He spanned her small waist with his hands and moved upward to cup her breasts, right there in the parking area, in full view of the restaurant.

  She pulled away from his mouth, gasping, and she pushed at his chest. “Stop it, Dan! Everyone can see us.”

  “I know.” He rubbed her nipples through the simple black corset top she wore—an article of clothing that had been driving him crazy all through dinner. It was obviously expensive, made of beautiful fabric and very tasteful, in spite of the provocative lacing at the front. She wore no bra underneath, not even a strapless one.

  Lil moaned, gave in to his touch for a split second, her little nipples puckering, and then pushed at him again. He didn’t budge. Instead he moved his hands down to her ass and pulled her hard against his erection. “Feel that?” he whispered. “That’s what you do to me, honey. You are so hot…I want to spread your legs and take you right on the hood of this car.”

  “Dan!” She blushed fire.

  “That turns you on, doesn’t it?”

  “No!”

  “Yeah, it does. I can see it in your eyes, Lil. And I want what’s under that little black skirt of yours.”

  He moved one hand down to the hem of her skirt and crept under it.

  “Get out of—” She slapped at his hand. “Stop it!”

  “I want to part your sweet knees and look at you there.” He stroked her thigh, moved his fingers up under her panties and felt her wet, quivering female flesh.

  She mewled.

  “I want to eat you out until you scream.”

  “Oh my God! You can’t say things like—”

  He rubbed her clitoris and then slid a finger into her. “So sweet, so juicy. You wanna feel my mouth there, Lil?”

  She covered her ears. “Stop it!” But she didn’t close her knees, didn’t shove him seriously.

  He grinned, withdrew his hand from her skirt and pulled her hands down, putting them on his cock. Then he whispered into her naked ear again. “I want you even wetter. I want you wild. I want to make you come so hard you see stars.”

  He was so busy whispering that he didn’t hear the white-jacketed restaurant employee until he cleared his throat behind them. “Sir? Madam? I do regret this, but we have to ask you to leave.”

  Horrified, poor Lil dived under his suit jacket and refused to show her face.

  “I understand,” Dan said. “We just got a little carried away. Come on, honey.” He opened the car door and Lil slunk inside, her face hidden by her hands and her beautiful black hair. She was shaking.

  Dan got into the car himself, waved adios to the waiter and drove them out of there.

  He looked down at Lil’s bent head and chuckled.

  She bolted upright. “Are you laughing, you son of a bi—?”

  “Did you just almost cuss at me, Miss Manners?”

  “Yes! I can never, ever go back there, now! They know me. And if this gets out, my professional reputation is ruined.”

  11

  DAN LAUGHED AGAIN, to Lil’s fury. Then he asked, “Why?”

  Was the man really that thick? “Are you honestly asking me that question? Do I have to spell it out? Because an etiquette consultant does not do such things in front of an audience!”

  “Lil, be reasonable. Who really knows you there?”

  “The owner! I’ve met him socially.”

  “And was he around tonight?”

  She bit her lip. “No. He’s the chef. He was in the kitchen.”

  “And I paid the bill with my credit card. So unless you’re cozy with the waitstaff or other dinner guests, there’s really no damage done to your professional reputation.”

  “I still can’t go back there! What if someone recognizes me?”

  Dan sighed. “I think you’re being paranoid. Do you want to stop living like a little old lady? Or do you want to beat yourself up over the way you might look to a bunch of people you don’t know?”

  Lil clenched her hands in her lap and stared out the window. “No, I want to beat you up over the way I might look to those people.”

  “Oh, so it’s my fault.”

  “Yes! You touched my breasts. You put your hand up my skirt. You talked dirty to me.”

  “And you enjoyed it. You didn’t knee me in the balls. So where does that leave us, besides sexually frustrated? I don’t know about you, but I’ve got such a hard-on I can practically hit the gas pedal with it.”

  Lil choked. “Well, I’m sorry but I don’t know what to do about that.”

  “I do.” Dan pulled the car off the road and headed toward some woods.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You ever go parking back in high school, Lil? Or were you too busy wearing white stockings and perfecting your French?”

  “Dan, take me home.”

  He stopped the car. “If that’s what you really want, then of course I’ll drive you back. But you do have unfinished homework for Uncivilization 101, darlin’.”

  She swallowed, hating that she still wanted him even though she’d like to kill him.

  “See, on page forty-three of the text, the assignment is to take off those panties that were gettin’ in my way.”

  She took a deep breath and tried to fight the desire that lapped at her along with his voice.

  “You always do your homework, don’t you, Lil? And there’s nobody around to see. Y
ou afraid to shock an owl or something, sweetheart?”

  She expelled the breath and found that her thighs were trembling.

  “Still wet for me, honey?”

  His teeth gleamed white in the darkness and a shaft of moonlight bathed his strong forearm, highlighting the corded muscle. Electricity shot through her stomach at the sight. She licked her lips.

  “Take them off. Just for me.”

  She’d lost her mind before and the damage was done. She might as well lose her panties. Blocking out the censorious voices in her head, Lil met his gaze. Then she lifted her hips, slid her hand up under her skirt and hooked a finger into the elastic of her underwear.

  His breathing came faster and his lips parted.

  She tugged the panties over her hips, down her thighs until they rested at her knees. Pale blue silk, they, too, caught the moonlight.

  Dan hit the gas and the car shot forward, slowing as they reached the trees. He crept into them and killed the lights, then the engine.

  The only sounds around them were those of little night insects, the wind in the trees and their breathing.

  Dan turned to her. “There’s a lever on the side of your seat. Ease it back.”

  Lil did so, her panties still circling her knees. He leaned forward and pulled them down over her calves and ankles, then finally over her feet as she lifted one for him and then the other.

  “No stockings,” he whispered. “Just beautiful, bare skin.” He threw the panties into the back seat. “I’ve never wanted anyone as bad as I want you, Lil. You’re killing me. You tell me, ‘wear this jacket, don’t say that word. Put your napkin here, bring a hostess gift there.’ And the whole time you’re lecturing me, all I want to do is—” he pushed up her top “this.” He fastened his mouth around a nipple and she half moaned, half gasped. “And this.” He moved to the other breast, suckling it. “And this.” He moved his fingers between her thighs and stroked her with the tips.

  “Oh…”

  He fluttered them against her and rubbed his middle finger along her folds until he found her clit, which he rubbed in circles until she whimpered, raised her hips and arched her back shamelessly.

  Nothing in her life had ever felt this good. This man had an extraordinary sexual power over her that she couldn’t fight. He held all the mystery of chemistry in his magical hands and mouth, and she was desperate to feel him inside her again.