Birthday Wishes - The List: Book 1 Read online

  Birthday Wishes

  The List: Book 1

  by

  Braxton Cole

  2013

  Birthday Wishes

  The List: Book 1

  © 2013 Braxton Cole. All Rights Reserved

  Chapter 1

  The lights came on, people yelled "Happy birthday!" and streamers fell from the ceiling when I entered the banquet hall. I slipped and nearly fell on my ass when my foot landed on one of them. Party favors in my world often doubled as weapons of personal destruction. I laughed and clapped and thanked everyone for the surprise. The sooner I convinced them I was appropriately grateful for their generosity, the sooner I could move to the NC-21 rated portion of the night, my gift to myself.

  “Happy birthday, Mari.” Rachel Carelli, my best friend, had a flare for the dramatic. Her assignment for the evening--hijack my plans and bring me here under the guise of work-related emergency--had been fulfilled with gusto. She hugged me like she hadn’t seen me in years. In reality, she’d walked into the building with me a few moments ago.

  “Thanks, Rach. I’ll make sure you pay for this.” I smiled, making sure she could see all my teeth and my bad intentions. A camera flashed in our faces. Excellent. The second I smiled like a homicidal maniac, my baby brother, Ricky, immediately popped a picture. No wonder our family albums looked like a series of prison shots. He liked to tell his new girlfriends that he has a crazy sister the family had to sneak back to Mexico when the police came to question her about the mysterious death of her ex-husband. For the record, I still lived in Portland with the rest of my family and my ex is alive and currently eating chips in the corner with his new wife.

  “Ricky, you little bastard, give me that camera.” Okay, Rach wasn’t the only one who has a penchant for dramatics.

  “Ay, Mari, don’t talk to your brother like that.” My mom--Carmen to everyone else-- slapped my arm then pulled me into a hug. At five foot even, my mom was a good six inches shorter than me, and almost a foot shorter than Ricky. When she wanted to hug, which was often, Ricky and I had to compromise. My options were either bend slightly to embrace her properly, or have her hug my middle. Oddly enough, I didn’t want her face pressed into my cleavage. “Are you surprised, baby?”

  “Very.” I kissed my mom’s cheek. “Thank you.” Inconvenient or not, this party took a lot of work and planning. My mom deserved my gratitude, not impatience.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket. Probably a text message from Luca. I pulled my phone out as discreetly as possible—which for the record, wasn’t very discreet since I was the focus of everyone present—and checked my message screen.

  Where are you, sexy? I’m hard and ready for you.

  Damn it. I bit by lip and tried not to think about all the things Luca had promised to do with his hard cock. The promise of Luca made me ridiculously wet. I hoped like hell the reality lived up to the online fantasy we'd created together. Tonight was the night to find out. I texted him back.

  Slight delay. Surprise birthday party. Be there as soon as I can.

  “Everything okay?” Rach looked concerned. Maybe I should stop scowling and start working the room. The sooner I showed a sufficient amount of gratitude, the sooner I could escape.

  “Fine.” I typed out one last message to Luca.

  Stay hard.

  I was about to slip my phone in my pocket when it vibrated with another message from Luca.

  Where’s the party?

  Before I could respond, my uncle Francesco scooped me up in one of his life changing hugs. He told me once that it was his goal to hug so hard the other person saw God. He wasn’t kidding. The way he squeezed cut off oxygen flow to my head and every other part of my body. If he hadn’t let go soon, I wouldn’t have just seen God, I’d have stayed with him permanently. Somewhere in the middle of his greeting, my phone flew out of my hand.

  “Uncle Frankie!” I gasped and pounded him on the back. I hoped he’d take it as a sign of surrender and let me go. “So glad you could make it.”

  He kissed both my cheeks with exaggerated movements and said, “So beautiful, Mari. I swear, you weren’t born, you fell from the sky just like your mother.” He was my father’s brother and when my father left home in search of a pack of cigarettes never to return, Uncle Francesco made it his mission to woo my mother into his arms. Unfortunately for him, mom was done with all Zapata men at that point, not just my “no good, run-around papi.”

  “Here.” Ricky jabbed me in the arm with my phone. “You dropped this."

  “Thanks.” I slipped it in my pocket and hoped Luca would wait until I could get to him. If I’d known the patron saint of illicit affairs, I would have lit a candle to him. However, a prayer straight to the Big Guy on behalf of my neglected vagina seemed too crass, so I let it go.

  “Who’s Luca?” Ricky asked with a slick smile. He rocked back on his heels and looked all the world like a little brother about to blackmail his big sister. He knew our mom didn’t know Luca or he would have been invited along with the entire neighborhood and all of my extended family.

  “A friend,” hoping I didn’t sound nervous. Ricky was a devious little fuck and I didn’t want to explain Luca to him.

  “Oh.” He smiled even bigger. “Well, he’s on his way here. I gave him the address while you were being mauled by Uncle Frankie.”

  The blood in my face honest to God drained all the way to my feet. I felt dizzy. “No, Ricky. That’s not funny.”

  “What do you mean? He’s just a friend, right?”

  “Ricky, you puke-sucking prick. I cannot introduce him to our mother. Do you understand me?” I was dangerously close to losing my shit. Luca was a fantasy. He was not meant to ever meet the people in my workaday nine-to-five life.

  “Seriously?” Ricky had the decency to actually look scared, and maybe even a tad repentant.

  “You obviously read his messages. What were you thinking?” I needed to sit down. I put my hand over my abdomen and breathed deeply. That made the head rush worse. I pictured my mom smiling with the twinkle of little grandchildren in her eyes as she asked Luca what his intentions were with her baby girl, me. What would Luca say? Well, ma’am, first I plan to bend her over this table right here and fuck her from behind as hard and as long as I can. Then if she can still stand. . .

  No, it was not an introduction I ever wanted to make.

  I grabbed Ricky’s arm and hissed. “You have to fix this.”

  “Okay, okay.” Ricky jerked his arm away. “What do you want me to do?”

  “You meet him at the door and you keep him away from Mom.” Simple enough that even Ricky should be able to pull it off.

  We made it three-quarters of the way through the birthday song before Luca walked in. His hair was longer than shown on his online profile picture, and the ends curled around his ears. It was too long to be short, but too short to be long, stuck in that unruly middle stage. It was perfectly tuggable and I wanted nothing more than to run my hands through it, grab a fist full, and ride his face until I came.

  He had beautiful, deep brown soulful eyes and a quick flirty smile. And if he didn’t stop directing that smile at every other woman in the room, I would grab hold of that hair sooner rather than later.

  He finally found me right as the singing stopped and the cheering began. He tilted his head to the side and offered me a lopsided smile and mouthed, “Hello,” and I was dumbstruck. Instead of blowing out the candles like a normal person, I stood there smiling like a fourteen-year-old girl with her first crush. To complete my mortal embarrassment, I even finger waved.

  My uncle roared with laughter and clapped me on the back. “Ah, Mari, blow out your candles now and m
ake eyes at your boyfriend later.”

  It took a lot to make me blush hard enough for it to show, but that did the trick. I ducked my head, blew out the candles and prayed that others would think my flaming face was caused by the candles. Thirty of those little suckers produced some impressive heat.

  “Did you make a wish, baby?” My mom asked as she rubbed circles on my back. I don’t care how old I get, that shit will always be comforting. Watching her watch Luca, however, was causing a mid-grade panic rise up in my chest. That was far from comforting.

  “I did, mom, but I can’t tell you what for.” Telling her that my birthday wish was standing across the room and he was just waiting for the opportunity to nail me into the floor was not an option. Somehow I doubted that would convince her to leave me alone with him any quicker.

  “Who’s the hottie?” Rachel asked. She picked up a large chef’s knife and cut the cake into perfect little squares. She and I own a catering company together and I saw her signature all over the food in the room. I had no idea how she’d created this feast, especially the cake, without me finding out.

  “Hottie?” I tried like hell to sound casual, but my voice went up on the end and I there was no way to pretend that I didn’t know who she was talking about. “His name is Luca. I was on my way to meet him when you intercepted me.”

  Rachel stopped plating cake and stared at me open-mouthed. “Are you fucking kidding me? How is it this is the first I’m hearing about it?”

  “Rachel, please don’t make a deal of it right now. I’ll tell you later.” I tried to motion subtly toward my mom. If ever there was a time for Rachel and I to develop a form of telepathic communication, this was it. No way was I interested in announcing for my mom and the rest of my family to hear that Luca was my booty call. All I knew about him could be summed up in one sentence: He was too beautiful for words, he had a smile that inspired me to do very naughty things, and he was hard for me when we arrived here an hour ago.

  I took over where Rachel left off and started handing out cake to the guests. With any luck, they’d all slide quickly into a sugar coma and I’d be able to escape.

  “Mari, look who I found.” Ricky stood next to our mom, his arm around Luca’s shoulders like they were buddies. I pictured Ricky with Rachel’s knife sticking out of his temple. It helped calm the flash of rage he’s stirred.

  Luca stepped in and pressed a kiss to my cheek like this wasn’t our first time meeting in person. “You’re beautiful.” He whispered the words into my ear and his voice melted the part of my brain that controlled basically everything.

  All I could manage in response was, “Gah. . .” I wanted to drop to my knees and find out for myself if he was still hard.

  Luca pulled me into his side, protecting me from my overly curious family and friends. I snuggled into the crook of his arm and thought seriously about sticking out my tongue at Rachel, or possibly kicking Ricky in the nuts. I couldn’t decide, so I did neither. Instead I focused on regaining the power of speech. I looked up at Luca and said, “I planned to meet you later.” Amazingly, all the words came out properly and I didn’t sound like I had marshmallow fluff where my brain used to be.

  “Ricky explained.” He shrugged and never had a dismissive gesture been so fucking sexy before. “I didn’t want to wait to see you.”

  “Mari, introduce your friend.” My mom’s smile was so big there was a real possibility of it splitting her face in two. After my divorce, I didn’t date very often, and when I did, I didn’t tell her. I overheard her talking to a friend a while back and she said she was afraid I’d given up men completely to become a lesbian. She looked at Luca like the souls of her future grandchildren rested entirely on him. At least she had enough tact to refer to him as my friend even if in her mind she already had us married off and making babies.

  I glared at Ricky. If we’d been standing closer to one another, I would have gone ahead with the plan to kick him in the balls and then begged forgiveness from my mom for being ill mannered later. As it was, he was too far away. Causing serious injury would have involved stepping away from Luca and under his arm was my new favorite place.

  “Mom, I’d like you to meet Luca. Luca, my mother, Carmen Zapata, along with every other member of my family.” I gestured to the room at large. This was not ideal circumstance for his introduction to the family. Of course, until Ricky got involved, the only thing I’d planned to introduce Luca to was my pussy.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Zapata.” Luca released me and took my mother’s hand in his. Rather than a traditional handshake, he stepped in and kissed the back of her hand.

  My fifty-six year old mother giggled and I just about puked on my shoes. I didn’t want to watch Luca charm my mom. The only woman at that party he needed to be concerned with charming was me, and my underwear was ready to slide off without the extra effort.

  I grabbed hold of the top edge of Luca’s belt and pulled him away from my mom. I raised up on my tiptoes to growl in his ear. “Watch it, buddy.”

  He laughed and smoothly rearranged our bodies until we were joined like ballroom dancers and he spun me away from the cake table. “Dance with me.”

  He led me around the dance floor in a perfect box step waltz, navigating around other couples with ease, and I relaxed into him. Inhaling his spicy musk, I could almost forget what a cluster-fuck his showing up here really was. Almost.

  “You shouldn’t have come here.” I wasn’t looking forward to the questions I would have to answer about him later, but I wasn’t an idiot, either. A ridiculously hot man asked me to dance, and it turned out he could do it without stomping my toes to oblivion, I was going to take full advantage. “I planned to meet you later.”

  He pressed his mouth, open and hot, against the side of my head, his lips against my hair as he said, “I know, but I really, really wanted to see you sooner. God, what I wouldn’t give to get you alone right now.“

  “Jesus. You cannot say things like that when my mother is watching us dance.” I groaned in protest. I was totally up for abandoning the party, but he seemed content to circle the dance floor and torture me with his words. Frankly, I didn’t think my panties could get any wetter. A couple more laps and I’d pull him into the ladies room to help me remove them.

  “Mmm. How about we wait for her to go home, then we take care of number three?”

  Fantasy number three that we’d shared when we met online on an adult website was sex in a public place. Not something I wanted to explore with my entire family in the room.

  He dug his fingers into my side and my dress hitched up in the gather of his hand. “This qualifies as public.”

  I took a step back. I couldn’t have that conversation surrounded by people who had changed my diaper as a baby. “Not here.”

  Luca smiled that charming smile that made me wonder why I still had clothes on. “Sorry. I’ve been thinking about you all week, and--but you’re right. This isn’t the right place.”

  I looked around the large room.

  "It could be the right place, but it’s definitely not the right group of people.”

  Luca held his arms open to me. “Come on. Don’t leave me hanging on the dance floor.”

  If I had my way, he wouldn’t be hanging at all. I respected the effort Luca was making to cool things down, so I didn’t share my thoughts. Or grab his package, an impulse I’d been stifling since he pulled me into our dance.

  “It really is your birthday,” he said, a question in his tone, but not the words.

  “Yes. Thirty as of eight this morning.” I refused to be one of those women who lied about her age. I may not like getting older, but I wouldn’t let it turn me into a harpy clinging to long gone youth. I was thirty. I’d worked hard to make it through those years, and I wasn’t going to deny a single one of them.

  “When you said you wanted to work on your birthday wish list, I thought you meant it metaphorically, not literally.” He led me smoothly through a song change.
He was so comfortable on his feet I couldn’t help but wonder what it would take to unravel him just a bit.

  “Nope, no metaphors here.”

  “Had I known, I would have wrapped the package a little better.”

  I looked at his crotch reflexively and pictured his cock with a ribbon and bow tied around it. “It’s not too late, you know.”

  He placed a finger under my chin and tipped my head up. “Your mom is watching us.” He was totally laughing at me. Busted checking out my date’s goods by my mom. Unfortunately, my eyes needed to stay above the waist for the rest of the evening.

  “Fabulous. One more thing for her to ask about.”

  “I created family problems by coming here?”

  “Problem is too strong a word, but since my divorce. . .” I let the sentence hang. How could I explain my mom’s interest without making her look like a pushy nut job? In fairness, she was a little bit of a nut job, but I think that was just my biological clock ticking. I couldn’t hear it yet, but somehow it’d tapped into my mom’s system instead of mine. Children were not high on my list of concerns, but grandchildren topped hers.

  “Until your brother explained, I thought you were the one who gave me the address.”

  “I figured. Ricky likes to play. He didn’t mean any harm.” I gave my baby brother a raft of shit at any available opportunity, but just like any older sister, I’d be damned if I let someone else judge him harshly. It was my job to defend.

  “He cares about you.”

  “Mmm.” What else could I say? Admitting we liked one another is not something Ricky and I would ever do willingly. “You should tell me something about yourself,” I said, “like what you do for a living.” My mom was going to ask and I couldn’t just say I don’t know, Mom. I want to fuck him, not marry him.

  “I’m an actuary.” He smiled like I wouldn’t know what that meant. I didn’t.