Misbehaving

“He said, ‘Más vale tarde que nunca.’”

“What does that mean?”

“Better late than never.” Beatriz smiled. She’d been so impressed that Ben, this blue-eyed all-American boy, spoke Spanish and spoke it so well. He hadn’t asked her any questions about her past, about why she’d come to America, where her parents were. People did that, even total strangers, not realizing that if a ten-year-old girl had to leave her family and her country behind, then it was probably not the sort of story you’d tell to someone you just met. No. Ben said, “Better late than never,” as if he was the reason she’d ended up in this country. And at that moment she’d believed he was.

“I know you loved him. I remember.” Claudia sat on the bed next to her. “Your freshman year was tough. It broke my heart watching him break your heart.”

“It was like I had two hearts and both of them were in love with him. I never knew you could feel that much. And he just had the one heart and it wasn’t interested in me.”

“I thought for sure he’d come around about you. I’d never seen two people more perfect together than you two. Not even me and Henry.”

“In college Henry wore his underwear on the outside of his pants.”

“Now you know why it took him five years to convince me to marry him.” Claudia winked at Beatriz who leaned against her sister and kissed her on the cheek.

“I’m very happy you’re getting married to Henry,” Beatriz said.

“I am, too. Now we just have to find you someone to be happy with.”

“I am happy, I promise. Spain was amazing, but it’s great to be back in the States again. Great to be here with you.” She smiled at her sister, a bright, genuine smile that she hoped convinced Claudia not to worry about her. She was so happy for Claudia and Henry. They belonged together. And Claudia needed to focus on her own wedding and not her foster sister’s five-year-old heartbreak.

“You’ll be okay?” Claudia asked, squeezing Beatriz’s shoulder.

“Totally okay. Promise. Or I will be as soon as I find someone to have sex with this week,” Beatriz said.

“God, it really is like being back in college.”

Chapter Four

Claudia slammed the hotel door behind her and raced to the bed. Henry groaned as she threw herself on top of him.

“Easy, babe. I had too much to drink.”

“Two beers?” she asked, planting kisses along his jawline.

“And a half.”

“You’re such a lightweight.” She threw her leg over his stomach and he caressed her thigh. “I love you anyway, even if you do have the drinking prowess of a ten-year-old girl.”

“Hey, I’ve known some hard-drinking ten-year-olds.”

“Liar. Kiss me, I’m horny.”

“Best four words ever spoken.” He kissed her on the mouth and rolled her onto her back. “Thought you’d be too tired tonight.”

“Never too tired for you inside me.” She grinned up at him. Her newly manicured hands slid through his dark blond hair. A ravenous twinkle shone in his eyes.

“Dirty talk from my angelic bride? Someone’s been talking to Bea.”

“She just puts me in the mood. I think she’s like a sex goddess. You get near her and you want to have sex with anything that moves.”

“Anything that moves?”

“Or anything stationary. I don’t want to limit my options.”

“How’s Miss Bea-havior doing?” Henry asked as he slid his hand under Claudia’s shirt. He cupped her breast lightly and caressed her hardening nipple with his thumb.

“Miss Bea-having, as usual. She brought her work with her this week.”

“Oh, damn. Did she have the bellhop cart up ten boxes of dildos and vibrators?”

“Worse. She has to review a sex position manual. She’s on the hunt for a fuck buddy.”

Henry unhooked her bra.

“Well, I’d volunteer, but I’m too busy being your fuck buddy.”

“What do you think about Ben?”

“I could be his fuck buddy.”

“I mean for Bea. I still think they’d make a great couple.”

Henry groaned and rolled onto his back.

“Hey, no. Hand back on the boob,” she said, grabbing Henry’s hand and putting it back where it belonged.

“Sorry,” he said, moving her bra out of the way and pressing his hand to her bare breast. She sighed with pleasure. “But Ben’s still got it for her, I think. At least he’s still pissed at himself for not going after her when he had the chance. It could get ugly and weird if those two get together.”

“Or sexy and awesome. Why not? What happened with them anyway? Did Ben ever tell you why he flaked out on her? Because I swear it was love and lust at first sight when we introduced them.”

Claudia remembered that night. She’d been relieved Beatriz had decided to follow her to Brooks College. Beatriz had battled some problems in high school and at least Claudia could keep an eye on her baby foster sister for her first year of college. Newly single Ben had shown up at her dorm room looking for Henry. Beatriz saw Ben. Ben saw Beatriz. Claudia had laughed out loud as her feisty, fearless sister turned the full force of her considerable charm on Ben. Poor gorgeous Ben, who owned any room he walked into, had turned tongue-tied as Beatriz interrogated him. Did he like Brooks? Yes, he loved it here but couldn’t wait to graduate. What was his major? Business administration. What did he plan to do with a business administration degree? Administrate businesses, maybe? Would his work help or hinder the progress of the human race and specifically the rights of women in underdeveloped countries? Um…yes?

Claudia had to cover her mouth with her hand to hide her smile that night. She’d wished she’d had some popcorn to watch the Beatriz and Ben Show. Beatriz had found Ben’s answers entirely acceptable and had proceeded to ask him to show her around campus. Such a simple request and yet Ben had smiled as if he’d won the lottery. As soon as they walked out the door, Claudia had told herself that those two would be engaged by graduation. She knew it in her heart. Well, her heart was wrong.

She looked at Henry across the pillows and saw he wore a guilty look on his face.

“What?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Your hand is no longer on my boob and you look like you just killed someone. I don’t really care if you killed someone just as long you get back to the boob job.”

“I didn’t kill anybody.”

“That’s good.”

“But I did sort of do something bad.”

Claudia sat up and looked down at Henry. He sat up and leaned back against the headboard.

“What did you do?”

Henry winced.

“Don’t call off the wedding, okay? I did it for us.”

“Tell me. Tell me right now.”

“I was in love with you. Crazy in love with you. And I wanted you to be in love with me, too, just as much. Then when Ben met Bea, and he told me he had fallen hard and fast for my girlfriend’s baby sister, I saw the end of the world. So I kind of asked him not to pursue her.”

“You what?” Claudia nearly yelled the words at him. She picked up the pillow ready to hit him with it the moment another stupid confession came out of his mouth.

“She was a freshman. Barely eighteen. And Ben was almost twenty-three. And he’d had ten girlfriends in the last two years. Ten, Claudia. Ten.” Henry held up two hands and wiggled all ten fingers. “My best friend dumping your baby sister? Not good. The opposite of good. Bad even. When Ben told me he’d met the girl of his dreams, I saw the apocalypse.”

“The apocalypse?”

“The SEXpocalypse. Ben already had a job offer on the West Coast. Did you really want him having sex with her all year and then dumping her the day he graduated?”

“Well…not really,” Claudia admitted.

“And Ben was an old senior. You know he was twenty-three and she was eighteen? You remember that part?”

“I sort of forgot that part.”

“You would have hated Ben for dumping Bea and then hated me because he was my best friend. I couldn’t face that. I told him you wouldn’t want him dating your sister because of the age difference. So he did what I asked and backed off.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t. Because I was with you and she was with me, they were together for the entire school year. And she was in love with him and he wouldn’t even give her the time of day. He treated her like his own baby sister.”

“Yeah, he was nice and respectful and didn’t once hit on her.”

“She hated it.”

“Do you hate me?”

“Yes.” Claudia slammed the pillow down onto his stomach. He laughed and pulled her into his arms.

“I’m sorry, babe. I didn’t really think that maybe they were actually in love with each other. Ben didn’t want anything serious. That wasn’t his style. I thought they just wanted to fuck and they could do that with anybody.”

“True,” Claudia said. Beatriz had a gift for wrapping guys around her finger and Ben had a line of young ladies waiting to be his next one-night to two-week stand.

“You were the only person in the world to me back then. I would have done anything to keep us together. Forgive me? My cock and my heart were in the right place, right?” Henry asked, putting on his puppy dog eyes.

“I forgive you. Maybe.” Claudia could never resist the puppy dog eyes. “I mean you’re probably right. He probably would have dumped her. He’s had as many girlfriends as Bea’s had boyfriends and that’s saying something,“ Claudia agreed somewhat reluctantly. She sort of liked painting Ben and Henry as the bad guys. She hated to admit that Henry had a point.

“Ben was seriously stoked about the job waiting for him after graduation. He couldn’t wait to get his ass out of Brooks. I think Ben would have crushed her if they’d gotten together back then.”

“Probably.”

“See? I knew I was right. I’m the hero here really.” Henry puffed his chest out. Claudia rolled her eyes.

“Being right doesn’t make it okay.”

“How do I make it okay?” Henry asked. “I love Ben and I love Bea, and I really want you to take all your clothes off. And I’ll do whatever it takes to get you naked. And make them happy. But mostly get you naked.”

Claudia sighed.

“We have to fix this. She’s still mad at him. He’s still mad at you. That means…they aren’t over each other.”

“Good point. So what now?”

Claudia knelt on the bed and pulled her shirt off.

“Well, Bea has this book review to write. She’s gotta find a partner to have sex with since the book’s a sex position manual for Generation Y.”

“What’s Generation Y?” Henry asked.

“Us.”

“Gotcha.”

“You see, Bea has to try out the positions in the book. What if we tell Ben that Bea wants him to be her book buddy?”

“And tell Bea what?” Henry asked.

“We’ll tell Bea that Ben volunteered to help her out with this book thing. And so he’ll go to her room expecting sex. She’ll open the door expecting sex. They’ll have sex. And either it’ll work or it won’t and it doesn’t matter either way because you and I are getting married no matter what.” Claudia pulled off her bra and started to shimmy out of her jeans.

“Worth a shot. Anything to get me out of the doghouse and into doggie style.”

“Good. Go talk to Ben.”

“Can I fuck my bride-to-be first please?”

“No. Ben first. Then me.”

“I have to fuck Ben first? Good thing he’s pretty. You know he was bisexual for one week in college?”

“Henry.”

“And you can just get lost in those blue eyes. I call that color Chris Pine blue.”

“Henry.”

“I want to be the Spock to his Kirk. You know, the J.J. Abrams reboot, not the original series.”

“Henry!” Claudia flicked his nose—hard.

“I’m going. I’m going. Don’t start without me.”

Claudia tossed her panties at Henry’s back as he headed to the door. As soon as he was gone, she picked up the phone and called Bea’s room.

“Bea’s answering machine,” came the voice over the line. “Please leave a message at the beep.”

“This is the Hotel Essex,” Claudia said, rolling her eyes. “And no one has owned an answering machine in twenty years. And you’re just trying to annoy me.”

“Beep,” Beatriz said.

“Hi Bea, it’s Claudia,” Claudia began. Bea often faked her own answering machine, especially when she knew who was calling for the sole purpose of annoying them. That’s okay. Claudia knew exactly how to get her revenge. “I just wanted you to know that Ben was into you during college, and he still is. Henry asked him not to pursue you because of me. That’s all. No need to call me back. Bye. Oh, and if you ask him to have sex with you this week so you can work on your book report thingie, he probably would go for it.”

Claudia hung up the phone. Immediately her hotel phone rang. She didn’t answer it. She heard a buzzing from her purse—Beatriz calling her cell. She ignored that call as well.

Five minutes and fifteen unanswered phone calls later, Henry walked back in the room. Claudia lay naked on the bed. She rose up on her elbows and looked at him with a cocked eyebrow.

“So?” she asked.

“He’s on his way to her room right now.”

“Good,” Claudia said. “Now we can have sex.”

Chapter Five

Ben stared at the door to Beatriz’s hotel room. She was there, behind that door. Right there. The last time he’d seen her she’d been completely naked and standing in his dorm room. That was five years ago. So much had happened since then. He’d gotten his first real job working for Google, gotten promoted and almost gotten engaged. This could have been his wedding weekend, but thankfully he realized his girlfriend wasn’t in love with him, only with the idea of being married. Neither of them cried over the breakup. A good sign that breaking up was the right thing to do. He’d moved three times since college and changed jobs twice, but during all that he’d held on to one constant—Beatriz.

She probably didn’t know he read her Miss Bea Haven column she wrote for The Daily Cocktail. He’d messaged Claudia on Facebook last year and asked, as casually as he could, what Beatriz was up to. Living in Spain, Claudia said. She had a great job working as a translator for a European publisher. Oh, Claudia added in the P.S., Beatriz also wrote a column for a big website that acted as the repository of all things sex on the internet. Beatriz reviewed sex toys and sex books. Nice work if you could get it, Claudia joked. Just a joke. Ben had likely broken some sort of internet record for fastest ever Google search. He found the column and read every single post Beatriz had written. He hadn’t read them all at once. He had to take a break—or two or three—between articles. Beatriz wrote in detail about her experiences with different types of vibrators—what worked for her, what didn’t, how she used them, how they made her feel. He could just see that beautiful woman lying naked on her bed pleasuring herself for hours on end. Who needed porn when he had these sex toy reviews? Knowing Beatriz, she’d stop every few minutes to take notes—vibrator in one hand, notepad in the other.

Ben even had whole sentences from her reviews memorized. He hadn’t tried to memorize them. He wasn’t that much of a desperate, horny stalker. But certain sentences had burned themselves into his mind.

The Lady Angel vibrator was a comfortable fit for a woman who enjoys deep penetration and a wide shaft as much as I do.

The orgasm the Black Prince produces makes your PC muscles buck like a stallion. My partner’s tongue provided the clitoral stimulation. The resulting orgasm was a top ten moment.

The G-spot massager from the Sirena series should come with a warning—don’t use on a day you actually need to get out of your bed. I had so much fun with it that I had ten orgasms in one day and had to change my sheets twice.

He’d never been so jealous of sex toys in his life. What he wouldn’t give to curl up in bed with Beatriz while she did her work, watching her come over and over again. He’d happily lend a helping hand. Or two. And once she came she would be so wet he could slide right inside her and stay there all day and all night long.

“Down, boy,” Ben said to his erection. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. He still couldn’t believe he was doing this, standing outside Bea’s door. But Henry had been annoyingly insistent.

“Dude, I told Claudia that I told you back in college not to pursue Bea because of, you know, reasons. Mainly me being a pussy. Claudia hit me with a pillow and she won’t let me have sex with her until I tell you that I was wrong about doing that. So…sorry. You should probably go talk to Bea. She still likes you or something. I can’t remember exactly what Claudia said. I had trouble hearing over my hard-on.”

Ben wanted to believe Henry. Only one way to find out. Ben didn’t let Henry finish talking before he’d stalked past him and into the hallway. When he made it halfway down the hall he turned around.

Henry stood by his room, smiling at him.

“What’s her room number?” Ben had asked.

“It’s 424. Go. Have fun. Make the love. You’re welcome.”

He couldn’t believe Beatriz still wanted him after all this time. After all, he knew he’d hurt and humiliated her the last time they saw each other. He’d wanted her so badly that day he could barely breathe when he remembered seeing her beautiful naked body for the first and last time. High, full breasts, long, toned legs, hips he wanted to dig his fingers into when he buried his face between her thighs. Telling her no had nearly killed him. Only Henry’s pleading that he leave Claudia’s little sister alone, and his preemptive guilt over having sex with someone and then moving to the West Coast the very next day, kept him from taking her up on every single little thing she offered.

Maybe now he could make up for lost time.

But should he?

He stared at the door to room 424. She still lived on the opposite coast from him. They hadn’t seen each other since he graduated college. They were here to support Claudia and Henry for their wedding, not rehash all their old drama.

But then again…they might end up naked.

Didn’t matter. He wasn’t here to have sex with her. He was here to talk. Just talk. They should talk. While talking he would tell her that while he was an idiot for letting Henry talk him out of pursuing her in college, the truth was he’d been terrified he’d end up just like Henry if he hadn’t backed away from her. Henry had been head-over-heels in love with Claudia. Even back in college Henry had been ready to give up everyone and everything to make his girlfriend happy. And Ben didn’t have the luxury of falling in love and throwing caution to the wind. He’d been the first person in his family to go to college, to get a degree and an offer of a high-paying job. He couldn’t let them down by allowing his heart to steal his ambition.

“Wait,” Ben muttered to the door. “Why am I saying this in my head and not to her?”

Ben pounded on her door.

Four agonizing seconds later, Beatriz opened the door. She wore a black silk bathrobe and looked at him in total shock as if she’d been expecting anyone but him at her door.

He looked at her. God, she’d only gotten more beautiful since college. She said nothing at all as she continued to stare at him. Rare that anything shocked Beatriz enough to silence her.

One of them had to say something, right? He was the man. It should be him. He’d say the perfect thing. Something suave, something charming, something endearing that would make up for the last time they saw each other.

Ben opened his mouth to say he was sorry, to say he should have stood up to Henry and gone after what he wanted and given love a chance instead of bowing to his ambition and leaving her behind. He was going to say he should have slept with her when she offered or at least given her a damn good reason why he hadn’t.

“Will you have sex with me?” Beatriz asked.

Ben opened his mouth, then closed it again. Then opened it again.

“Good to see you again, too, Bea.”

Beatriz laughed and gave him an apologetic smile.

“Sorry,” she said, holding the door to her hotel room open, but not quite letting him inside yet. “One-track mind. I have to write an emergency book review on a sex position manual. I need a partner.”

“A partner?”

“Well, you can’t review a sex position manual without having sex, right?”

“Good point. Very good point,” Ben said. “So you want to…with me…review your book?”

“If you want to,” she said and smiled. That smile hit him right where it counted.

“You don’t think we should talk first?”

“Talk about what?” she asked. “This is just for work, you know.”

“Oh.” Ben nodded. “Work.”

“Think about it,” she said, letting him in the room. The Hotel Essex was one of the more luxurious hotels he’d ever stayed in. Scarlet walls, black polished floors, elegant white rugs—it was an art deco dream come true. And in the middle of every room a huge king-size bed heaped in plush white linens beckoned. The headboards looked like thrones. The walls were decorated with real art, not hotel “art.” And with the black-and-red-striped curtains pulled back and the moonlight shining, one could see the rolling hills blanketed with deep soft grass and lush leafy trees for miles. It was a far cry from a cramped dorm room.

“So how have you been?” she asked.

“Good. Great. I love my job. I guess you really love your job.”

“Both jobs,” she said as she sat on the bed and tapped a few keys on her laptop. He saw her save and close a document. He must have interrupted her at work. Surreptitiously he glanced around for any sex toys. Maybe she’d put them away before opening the door. “The blog work is the most fun, though. I guess Claudia told you what I’m doing?”

“Yeah, sex education blogger? Something like that?” He tried to sound nonchalant.

“Exactly like that. My boss is in a bind. He needs a thousand words by Sunday night. I thought I was reviewing a coffee table book. Wrong.” She held up the book. It said THE MANUAL on the front in big gold letters.

“Sexy font,” he said.

“Sexy book.”

“Look…Bea,” Ben said and sat on the end of her bed. “I wanted to tell you I was sorry. You know, about not having sex with you in college.”

“That’s what you’re sorry about?”

“For starters,” he said. “Henry asked me not to go for you because he was worried I’d dump you and Claudia would kill him over it.”

“I like that my personal life was decided by you and Henry instead of me.”

Ben winced. “Yeah…add that to the list of things I’m apologizing for.”

“Well, I did sort of give you hell over it, right?” Beatriz asked, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

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