Up All Night (10 page)

“I—I don’t have anything to wear.”
The closest she came to
 
smart wear was
the number she’d worn on their first date and that would be woefully lacking
amongst all the female glitterati in their finery.

“Come on,” Marco encouraged. “We’ll
get the chance to show off our salsa moves.” When she continued to prevaricate,
he pulled her close and touched his mouth to hers. “I want to spend the evening
with you, Beth. Then I want to take you home with me and fuck you senseless for
the whole damn night.”

Hell. She wanted that too and the
thought of it dissolved the last of her resistance. “What time would I need to
be ready?”

His smile was worth the couple of
hours she’d spend deliberating over what the hell to wear. “I’ll call for you
at seven.”

“Seven? My shift doesn’t finish
until six.”

He kissed her long and hard.
“Seven.”

“Why don’t I come to your bar? It
seems ridiculous you coming all the way out here. You’ll only have to drive me
back later.”

“I won’t be driving you back later.
One whole night of fucking you senseless, remember?”

How could she forget? Her pussy was
already anticipating his invasion, her blood already heating at the prospect of
feeling his hands on her, his mouth. She wanted to return the favor, run her
hands all over him, let her mouth cover every inch of his flesh. “Okay. Seven.
I’ll be ready.”

He released her, but took her chin
between his thumb and forefinger. “Me, too.” He gave her another long kiss,
then bent down to rub Roscoe who had settled on his side for a nap.

Beth watched him stroll back to his
car and get inside.

He started the ignition and rolled
down the window as she walked up to the side of the car.

“Marco?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad you decided to take a
drive out into the country, and even gladder you found that hot woman.”

He winked at her and drove off.

Chapter Eight

Despite her fears, Beth didn’t feel
at all out of place in the wide-legged black trousers and sequined halter top
she’d borrowed from one of the girls at the Center. The Annual Charity Ball
hosted by a group of prestigious companies scattered along the south coast
attracted the local bigwigs and celebrities, and Beth was enjoying herself.

She had been from the moment she’d
opened the door to Marco. His appreciative “wow” had shot her confidence into
the stratosphere. She knew she looked good, but nerves had danced from the
moment she’d accepted his invitation.

Beth liked Ethan from the start and
delighted in the way he’d swept her into a dramatic dip and kissed her cheek
when they’d been introduced. Despite herself, she warmed to Amber, too. The
woman had done everything to make Beth feel like part of their small group of
eight at the table. The remaining couples were friends of Marco’s and Ethan’s
and were equally amiable.

While she liked Amber, during the
meal she couldn’t help watching how she interacted with Marco. She hated
herself for it, but couldn’t seem to stop. But when nothing untoward presented
itself, except for Marco’s relentless teasing of both her and Amber, Beth decided
to let it go and enjoy herself.

Marco outshone her expectations of
how he’d look in his tuxedo. His dark Mediterranean heritage seemed more
prevalent against the crisp white dress shirt, his eyes darker, sexier somehow.

He leaned across the table as coffee
was served. “A couple of dances and we can be out of here.”

“You’re not enjoying yourself?”

She fluttered her eyelashes
innocently and his mouth kicked up at one corner. “I’ll be enjoying myself more
when I get you naked and underneath me.”

“Shh.” Beth glanced around the
table, but thankfully nobody seemed to have heard. “You’re always doing that.”

“What?” Marco leaned closer and
placed one arm across the back of her chair. “Doing what?”

“Making suggestive remarks in the
hope someone will hear.”

“As long as you hear me, I don’t
give a damn if anyone else does.”

“Exactly.” Beth sat primly, enjoying
the way it made him lean even closer. “So you can lower your tone please.”

“Suitably reprimanded,” he said with
a grin, then pressed his mouth to the spot on her neck below her ear that
always made her go weak.

“Marco.”

“Beth,” he parodied as his mouth
brushed her ear. “When I get you in my bed, I’m going to strip you naked.
Slowly. So slowly that you’ll be begging. For my mouth. For my cock.”

“Marco. For heaven’s sake.” But she
was smiling now, too.

“First there’ll be licking. My
tongue needs to taste every damn inch of you. It’ll be sliding its way along
that beautiful slit of yours, delving into your sweet pussy to lick every drop
of cream.”

Beth shifted in her seat, his words
pushing fire into her blood and setting her alight. “You’re not having all your
own way tonight,” she warned him softly. “My mouth has plans, too.”

His low groan made her feel powerful
and she turned to look into his eyes. Oh, yes. She was definitely falling for
him.

“I’m heading to the ladies’ room,
Beth.” Amber’s voice came from behind her. “Want to join me?”

Beth almost jumped in her seat, so
deeply entrenched in the scenario Marco had relayed to her that she hadn’t been
aware Amber had moved. “Sure. Of course.”

She stood and felt Marco’s hand
slide covertly over her ass. She didn’t dare look at him, because she knew
she’d see mischief sparkling in his eyes and right then she wasn’t sure she’d
be able to stop herself from grabbing him and yanking him away from the damn
function so they could get naked as soon as practically possible.

Amber slipped her hand through
Beth’s arm as they walked across the dance floor toward the cloakrooms.
“Enjoying yourself?”

Beth glanced at Amber and smiled.
“Very much. You?”

“I always enjoy these things.
Especially now I’ve got Ethan into a tuxedo. He looks pretty hot. Marco scrubs
up well in his too, don’t you think?”

Beth forced a smile and pushed down
the returning resentment toward Amber. “You look lovely,” she said changing the
subject before her eyes began shooting daggers at the woman for her remarks
about Marco. “That dress is gorgeous. It really brings out the color of your
eyes.”

“Thanks.” Amber pushed open the door
to the ladies’ room, and glanced back at Beth. “I love your outfit, too. Very
elegant. Like you.”

The quiet compliment warmed Beth and
made her feel lousy for having had such negative feelings toward Amber. “It’s
borrowed, I’m afraid. I don’t actually possess anything suitable for something
as grand as this bash. If I’d had more notice, I’d have splashed out.”

Amber gave her a sideways glance as
they placed their evening bags on the counter. “Sorry. That’s probably my
fault. I should have encouraged Marco to ask you when you two first got
together. I honestly thought he’d get there before I had to prompt him.”

Beth’s hairbrush froze in her hand.
She looked at Amber who was busily applying lip gloss. “You told him to ask
me?”

In the mirror, Amber met Beth’s
gaze. “Oh, not exactly.” She screwed on the top of her lip gloss and popped it
back in her bag. “Shit. I could have phrased that better. Marco didn’t want to
come and was pulling out every stop to squirm out of it. I flatly refused to
let him do that, so I thought if he asked you he might be more agreeable to
attending.” She held Beth’s narrowed gaze. “He was.”

Beth gave her hair a light brush,
then put the brush back in her bag. “Maybe Marco prefers to make his own
decisions.” Damnation. That sounded bitchy even to her ears.

Amber placed a hand on Beth’s arm.
“I’m really sorry if I’ve upset you.”

“You haven’t upset me. It’s just
that you seem to have an awful lot of sway where Marco’s concerned. I know he
had a thing for you. It doesn’t make it easy.”

“I’m not sure I have that much sway,
but even if I have, Marco’s pretty besotted with you.” Amber glanced around the
empty ladies’ room, but lowered her voice anyway. “What happened between us was
fabulous and I’ve never regretted it for a moment. But it’s over. As soon as I realized
I loved Ethan and he loved me, we ended it.”

Beth’s blood ran cold. They’d
actually had an affair? “How did Marco feel about that?” Her throat felt so
tight it was hard to push the words through.

“He was fine. Ethan said when he
told him, he was already flipping through his contacts list. Not that he’s had
loads of women or anything,” Amber said quickly, placing her hand on Beth’s arm
again.

“Its okay. I know Marco’s not a
saint.”

“Oh damn. You’re upset. I really
have upset you. Beth, I’ve never seen Marco look at a woman the way he looks at
you.”

“Except when he looks at you.”

Amber’s startled gaze seemed almost
genuine as she stepped back. “He’s never looked at me like that. Never. Not
even…not when… Look, Marco’s a really great guy and he has a reputation, I
admit it. But he doesn’t cheat and he doesn’t lie.”

Oh really? And what about the little
fact he’d forgotten to disclose about having sex with Amber? The woman he
thought special and was now engaged to his best friend.

Her heart plummeted to her toes and
all she wanted was to go home. He’d lied to her. Deliberately kept his affair
with Amber a secret. Played it down.

Beth picked up her evening bag. God,
it was happening again. While Marco’s lack of transparency was hardly on a par
with her cheating ex husband’s, it hurt anyway.
 
What was it about her? Did she have some hidden message tattooed across
her forehead that gave men permission to treat her that way?

At least she’d found out about
Marco’s predilection before it was too late. She could end it now with no harm
done. “I’m going to get some air.”

Beth was already at the door when
Amber touched her arm. “I’ll come with you.”

“No. I just need to make a call.
I’ll be back in a minute.”

She was aware that Amber hovered in
the foyer looking after her as she hurried to the doors leading to the gardened
entrance of the glitzy ballroom, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop.

She wanted to call a cab and get
home. She wanted to lock the doors, turn of the lights, and forget this whole
damn business with Marco had ever begun.

****

He found her sitting on a bench by
the taxi rank. A light drizzly rain had fallen and she looked so forlorn
sitting there with her head bowed slightly, her shoulders slumped.

Amber had told him what happened,
and he could only imagine what she was thinking as she sat there in the dark.
He was a fucking idiot not to have told her he’d slept with Amber, but he’d
seen how she reacted to the mention of Amber and had thought it best to play
the whole thing down. He’d obviously misjudged.

“Hey.” She didn’t look up as he sat
next to her, but she stiffened as he popped her jacket around her shoulders. “I
should have told you.”

She angled her chin into the air and
looked straight ahead. “Then why didn’t you?”

Marco knew he was on shaky ground and
wasn’t sure of his next move. But he knew he had to shoot straight with Beth.
“Because she was in love with Ethan and he was in
love with her. What happened between Amber and me wasn’t going anywhere.”

“So it didn’t need mentioning? Not
even when I asked you outright if you still had a thing for her?”

Shit. “I don’t have a thing for her,
at least not in that way. What happened was one of those things that—”

“How many times?”

“What?”

“How many times did you fuck her?”

Double shit. How was he supposed to answer
that?

When he hesitated, Beth stood up. “I
don’t know why I’m making such a big deal of this anyway. You don’t have to
answer to me. Lord knows we’re not going anywhere either.”

As she started to walk away, he
grabbed her arm. “It’s not what you think.”

“Isn’t it?”

She shucked off his hold, or tried
to. But he wasn’t letting go anytime soon. “Look I know I screwed up, but
things with Amber and me were never serious so I didn’t think it needed
mentioning.”

“You were never serious?” Her eyes
were blue slits of anger as she glared at him. “Isn’t it funny how men always
say that when it actually is serious. Very serious.”

Marco had the distinct feeling she
wasn’t just referring to him. “Is that what your ex said?”

She glared at him a minute longer,
then looked straight ahead again, pulling her jacket onto her shoulders as it
fell away. “We’re not talking about my ex.”

Marco took a chance and touched her
hand as she clung to the bag on her lap. “Maybe we should. The way I see it—”