The Baby: A Steamy Rock Star Romance (Cruise Control Book 3) Page 3

  Finally, he broke their gaze, and Lita was relieved as he got out. Everyone else followed, and the suited men escorted them into the restaurant. It looked fancy, but not so far upscale as everything else from their trip so far.

  They were greeted enthusiastically by an Italian man when they entered. “Gentlemen! I’m so happy to see you all again!”

  “Giovanni, it’s great to see you,” Gabriel smiled at the man as he hugged him.

  “Oh, where are the bellezze?” he asked him.

  “Heather and Ariana are having a movie night together,” Harrison told him as Giovanni hugged him as well.

  “Tell them I said hello,” he smiled.

  “I will,” Harrison replied with a laugh. “I did promise Heather I would take some arancini home for her, though, if you can arrange it?”

  “Of course! Anything for your bella!”

  He proceeded to bestow hugs upon Sebastian and Hayden as well, before turning to Lita and narrowing his eyes. “Sei Italiana?”

  “Sì, lo sono,” she replied with a laugh. “Okay, I have higher hopes for dinner now!”

  “Lita and Becky won a competition to have a night out with us, Giovanni,” Hayden smiled.

  “And you saw fit to bring them to me for dinner? I’m honored.” He turned back to face her and asked, “Lita?”

  “Lolita Serafina Ciccone,” she grinned at him. “I couldn’t be any more Italiana if I tried!”

  He led them to a large, round table near the back of the restaurant. When they reached it, Becky said, “I really need to go to the bathroom—Lita, come with me?”

  She caught her friend’s gaze and nodded. “Oh, sure.”

  They made their way to the restroom. There was no one else in there; as soon as the door was closed behind them, Becky checked all the stalls were definitely empty before she whirled around to stare at Lita. “Oh, my fucking god, are you going to sleep with Sebastian Fox?”

  “What the hell? Of course I’m not. Are you stupid?” Lita shook her head and laughed.

  “Lolita, the sexual tension between you two is so hot I almost got burned just watching you face off with him in the car,” Becky grinned at her.

  “You’re insane.” She saw Becky’s incredulous look and admitted, “Okay, he’s sexy as fuck, and, yes, I would probably fuck him in a heartbeat, but he’s Sebastian Fox. I’d be insane to do that.”

  “Well, I say you should go for it,” Becky announced. “You haven’t been with anyone since Nick; it couldn’t hurt to dust off the cobwebs for one night.”

  “Gee, thanks, bestie,” Lita said dryly.

  “I call it like I see it. I won’t even be mad if you ditch me to go fuck him.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Lita rolled her eyes. “But it’s never going to happen, so, if you don’t mind, I actually am going to pee now.”

  “Never say never!” Becky called at her.

  When Lita had finished, she washed her hands and dried them, with Becky keeping up a constant flow of encouragement and insisting the whole time that she should sleep with Sebastian tonight.

  “When are you ever going to get the chance to sleep with a rock star again?” Becky made a final attempt to convince Lita as they made their way back to the table.

  Two empty seats had been left for them—one between Hayden and Gabriel, the other between Sebastian and Harrison. Becky rushed over to sit between Hayden and Gabriel, and Lita wanted to kill her.

  Weren’t best friends meant to look out for your wellbeing? Lita would never let Sebastian Fox anywhere near Becky if the roles were reversed. She was shocked by the strange feeling the idea brought to her. The idea of Sebastian looking at Becky the way he had been looking at Lita made her feel uncomfortable. She pushed those feelings away as she took her seat at the table.

  “Welcome back, princess,” Sebastian drawled at her.

  His voice caressed her, velvety smooth and seductive. Her senses were all on high alert from being this close to him again. Lita picked up the menu, hoping the distraction of ordering would allow her to calm down.

  Nobody else was looking at the menu, though. Becky was chatting to Hayden and Harrison about the concerts she and Lita had gone to together. Lita focused on the list of dishes in front of her, trying to ignore Sebastian’s presence, which was annoyingly overwhelming.

  “I recommend the osso buco.”

  Sebastian’s voice was too close to her ear because he’d leaned over and was reaching his hand out to point to the osso buco on the menu.

  “Noted,” she said. “But I’m perfectly capable of ordering Italian food for myself, thanks.”

  “Of course, you are, Lolita.”

  She didn’t look at him, but she could hear the laughter in his voice as he used her full name. Damn, she’d given it out without thinking. Lita was used to the dirty comments people would make when they found out her name was actually Lolita. Normally, she would just laugh them off, but she didn’t want Sebastian Fox to have any more reason to make sexual innuendo at her than he apparently already did.

  “You can call me Lita,” she said coolly.

  “Well, you can call me Seb,” he replied.

  “I’ll stick with Sebastian,” she told him, still keeping her eyes on the menu. “And you should know that you can’t force intimacy on me by giving me a nickname and encouraging me to use yours.”

  “I wasn’t aware that’s what I was doing, princess.” Again, she could hear his smile.

  “Maybe not; I’m just saying.” She closed the menu and looked up at the table, announcing to no one in particular, “I’m going to have the spaghetti alla carbonara.”

  Carbonara was one of her favorite dishes, and, hopefully, Giovanni made his own pasta. She got the feeling he would and was starting to get excited about dinner.

  Gabriel was looking at her strangely, but he smiled and said, “The carbonara is delicious. I might have the same.”

  Giovanni came over and took their orders. When Lita ordered her carbonara, he said, “I’ll make you a Paolo Maldini to drink, bella. It’s a cocktail perfect with carbonara.”

  She thanked him, and the rest of the table made their orders before he walked away.

  “You really seem to have impressed, Giovanni,” Hayden smiled at her. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him make a drink suggestion before.”

  “Maybe you guys aren’t Italiano enough?” She smiled at him.

  Next to her, Sebastian laughed and said in an amused tone, “Sono più che abbastanza o, bella signora.

  Lita’s mouth dropped open, and she turned to look at him. “You speak Italian? Wait, Wikipedia doesn’t say anything about you being Italian!”

  “Which means, of course,” he said dryly, “That it can’t possibly be the case, because Wikipedia has always been one hundred percent correct.”

  “No, I just mean I would’ve remembered if I’d ever read anything which said you were Italian. I haven’t.” Lita shrugged. “It’s not like Sebastian is a traditional Italian name, and your last name is Fox.”

  “Mom’s side. I’m led to believe my nonna was horrified by the choice of the name Sebastian. ‘He looks like an Angelo, not a Sebastian.’ But here I am, Sebastian Fox,” he laughed, and Lita laughed with him.

  “Oh, I can imagine. We all have very Italian names, but my parents are Italian, and both my nonnas would much prefer the name Angelo too.”

  “Sebastian Fox, disappointing nonnas everywhere since 1991,” he grinned at her.

  “How traditional is your family?” she asked him.

  “Traditional enough to make passata together every year.” Lita could tell this tradition meant a lot to him; his smile lit up his whole face as he mentioned it.

  “We do, too,” she grinned. “Best day of the year.”

  “Better than your birthday? You really are Italian,” he said, winking at her.

  “Oh, now you’re asking the tough questions.” She stopped and thought about it. “Nope, Tomato Sauce Day is definitely
better!”

  “Geeze, Lolita, somebody needs to make your birthday better if it doesn’t beat Tomato Sauce Day.” He looked surprised at her answer.

  “You’d better tell Becky she needs to pick up her game for next weekend,” she laughed.

  “It’s your birthday next weekend?” he asked her, looking surprised again.

  “Yeah, I’m officially going to be old. Becky’s been busy organizing my thirtieth birthday party. I was so glad when Stephanie gave me two options for tonight; if it had only been on the twenty-sixth of June, I’d have been screwed.”

  “Would you have ditched your party or us?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Would you have rescheduled, if I’d wanted to?” she laughed at him.

  “Probably not,” he grinned.

  “Well, my friends and family would. Luckily, I never had to find out, though,” she winked at him.

  “Lucky indeed, princess,” he said, as Giovanni arrived with their meals.

  Suddenly, all of the sexual tension was back in the air again. It had dissipated for a while there. Lita took a long drink from her cocktail, glad when the alcohol hit her. She wondered how many drinks it would take for her to forget Sebastian had slept with half the world’s population already and that it was a terrible idea to go to bed with him.

  Whatever number it was, Lita was kind of hoping she’d hit it tonight, because she really wanted to sleep with him. He had started to eat his osso buco, and she half-watched him in her peripheral vision, turning her head to look at Gabriel as he was talking, but grateful it allowed her to see more of Sebastian as she did so.

  He slipped the fork with meat on it into his mouth, closed his lips over the fork, and slid it out again. Lita watched his mouth moving as he chewed the meat, then his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. How the fuck was watching a man eat this utterly erotic? He picked up his glass, placed it against his lips, and sipped the red wine he had ordered.

  Lita turned her attention to her food and began to eat. It tasted fantastic, and she was pleased she got to experience such wonderful Italian food. She made a mental note to compliment Giovanni before they left.

  Sebastian drew her attention to him again by asking, “How is your carbonara, princess?”

  Of course, he would ask while she had a mouth full of food, so she finished the mouthful before she replied. “Amazing, this pasta is handmade.”

  “Of course,” he laughed, and Lita felt the sound echo throughout her body. “Do you think I would take a woman to an Italian restaurant that didn’t?”

  “Well, you didn’t bring me here, so I wouldn’t know,” Lita said with a laugh.

  From what she knew of Sebastian Fox, he wasn’t the type of man to take a woman anywhere, so his next words came as a surprise.

  “Come back to Chicago next weekend, and I’ll bring you back here.”

  Damn. Lita was struck by an image of them here together on a date, just the two of them. That was insane. He didn’t really mean it—this was just him flirting to get her into bed. Besides, she had her birthday party next weekend.

  “Sorry, Sebastian Fox, I’m busy next weekend. You’ll have to find some other poor woman to torture instead,” Lita teased him.

  She looked into his eyes as she said it and could see his amusement at her words. He was beautiful, though, and fun to spar with. Lita had never expected to enjoy conversing with Sebastian Fox like this.

  “Oh, no, Lolita Ciccone, torture isn’t my thing. I am only in the business of pleasure.”

  Lita couldn’t stop the flood of heat which came to her face when he said it. She felt herself getting wet and found she wanted, more than anything, to have him in a bed with her.

  “Whose pleasure, though?” she asked him with a wicked sense of amusement. “Mine? Or yours?”

  “Perché non entrambi?” Sebastian said.

  Lita laughed at his quick wit. “I suppose they aren’t mutually exclusive, are they?” she asked him, then quickly put another forkful of carbonara in her mouth.

  She’d only eaten half of the massive plate of pasta when Lita found herself getting full. The food was delicious, but there was a lot of it. She put her fork and spoon down, picked up her cocktail, and took a sip. It was delicious, just like the food.

  Lita looked at Sebastian and found him looking back at her. She found his attention to her disconcerting. She knew she wanted to sleep with him, but she wasn’t sure she could get past just who he was and the fact she would be one in a long line of fans to do so.

  Sebastian gave her a sexy smile, and she turned back to the table, looking over at Hayden as he started saying something. She wasn’t following the conversation anymore, though, because she was completely distracted by Sebastian sitting next to her. She’d never in her life been as affected by a man the way he was affecting her tonight—but, sexy or not, he was still Sebastian Fox.

  “Are you having fun tonight, Lita?” Her focus was drawn away from Sebastian and over to Gabriel when he asked her this question.

  She had totally forgotten about the rest of the band while she’d been focusing so heavily on Sebastian.

  “Yeah, I am. Who the hell is paying for this weekend? We had carte blanche at the hotel to buy whatever we wanted.” Lita smiled at Gabriel as she asked the question.

  She could see Gabriel looked a little surprised by her query. Damn. She did this all the time, asked questions that occurred to her without realizing it was rude to ask them, but he didn’t seem offended when he replied.

  “We all put in for it. We’ve done it for the last two album releases as well. You’re luckier than the first fans. We can afford a bit more now than we could then. They didn’t seem to complain, though.”

  “I almost got myself a Kobe beef steak at the hotel last night, but I managed to resist. You’re lucky I’m nice,” Lita laughed.

  Gabriel grinned at her. “Well, that’s a relief.”

  “Is it some kind of weird trust exercise?” Lita asked, thinking it was odd. “I mean, I could have ordered it. Unless you put a limit on the amount we can spend?”

  “There’s no limit, princess,” Sebastian said as he turned from looking at Gabriel to look at Lita again, “But if you want a real Kobe beef steak, I’ll have to take you to Japan for it. The stuff you get here isn’t anywhere near as good.”

  Lita was stunned by Sebastian’s comment, just like she had been by the one about taking her on a date. It was stupid flirting, just Sebastian Fox being Sebastian Fox, of course. It was working, though—Lita had never been more attracted to anyone in her life.

  She was saved from having to respond in any way by Giovanni arriving to take their orders for dessert. Lita told him how fantastic the carbonara had been before ordering the crème brûlée, and she couldn’t help but notice Sebastian’s smirk as she ordered another cocktail for herself.

  “Feeling thirsty, Lolita?” he asked in a low tone after Giovanni walked away.

  “Sorry, not thirsty enough for you, Sebastian,” Lita told him, and then looked him directly in the eyes and added, “But this cocktail is delicious.”

  3

  LEVEL 1.6 – Pool Sharks

  Get busy doing the deed tonight; the egg will only live for 12 to 24 hours after ovulation.

  After dinner, they thanked Giovanni profusely for his excellent food as he pressed a take-away container into Harrison’s hands. He gave them a friendly, ‘ciao,’ and they headed outside to get back into the limousine. This time, Lita ended up sitting next to Sebastian. She wasn’t sure if it was her or him who had arranged it this way.

  Lita had finished the second cocktail while eating her crème brûlée for dessert and was feeling very happy right now. They’d arrived at a pool hall, and Sebastian stepped out of the car once the door was opened. She followed him and, once the rest of the group had joined them, they headed inside. It was reasonably busy because it was a Saturday night. So, Sebastian asked if there was any chance of getting a table down the back of
the room. They had to wait about ten minutes for a table to become free, so the guys got beers. Lita went with a pre-mixed vodka drink.

  “Too precious to drink beer, princess?” Sebastian raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Not at all,” she laughed. “I’m more than happy to drink beer normally, but once I’ve started a night on spirits, I know better than to switch over. I’ve never had a hangover before, and I don’t intend to start tonight!”

  “You’ve never had a hangover?” Hayden asked her, with an incredulous tone to his voice.

  “Never,” she shrugged.

  “Can confirm.” Becky grinned at the group, “I’ve been vomiting my guts up after drinking half as much as Lita, and she’s been chipper as a jaybird the next morning.”

  “Wow, must be a nice life,” Gabriel laughed.

  “It’s my super-average superpower,” she smiled at him.

  “I don’t know”—Sebastian raised his eyebrows at her—“never getting a hangover seems like a more than super-average superpower, princess.”

  “Ah, that’s because you don’t know the trade-off.” She gave him a knowing look. “Have you ever gotten drunk and done really stupid stuff you don’t remember the next day?”

  Sebastian looked over at the other guys—they all seemed to be remembering many different nights—and they laughed.

  Sebastian looked back at her. “Yes, of course.”

  “Well, I haven’t.”

  “You’ve never gotten so drunk that you’ve done dumb shit? By all means, you should definitely drink another after this one!” he grinned at her.

  “Oh, no, you’re mistaken, Sebastian Fox,” she laughed, “I’ve certainly drunk so much that I’ve done dumb shit. I just remember it all. Every. Single. Second.”

  It took a moment for what she was saying to sink it before the men all looked suitably horrified, and both she and Becky laughed at their reactions.

  “Yup, there we go. Super-average superpower. I don’t have a hangover, but I can, with perfect clarity, run through every dumbass thing I did the night before.”

  Hayden said, “I think I’d probably rather be hanging out with my head over a toilet bowl, to be honest!”