Chapter 3

A new morning meant it was the beginning of a brand new day. A new day that I had to try and seduce Rio. The only real question that remained was how I planned to go about said seduction. Getting nearly naked and running around in the mud didn't seem to work and neither did throwing myself at him, so I needed a new plan. Something that would be fool proof. Something that would make the man see the real me.

Tossing the covers off to the side, I stood up and put on my robe. Before I could even put my slippers on my stomach protested loudly its lack of sustenance. Breakfast was going to have to be a priority. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing because in all honestly, I actually thought better with a full belly.

I could already hear ESPN's Sports Center blaring from the television as I walked downstairs. That could only mean one thing. Charlie, my older and sometimes loving brother, was home.

Excited, I picked up my pace, jogging down the rest of the stairs and darting into the living room. I stand there in the doorway waiting for him to say something but he doesn't even have the decency to look up at me.

Disappointed, I just shook my head at his ignorance and traipsed my butt right on into the living room and stood so that I blocked his direct line of the television. I'd like to see him try to ignore me now.

"Hey brat, do you mind? I'm trying to see if the Bulls won last night."

"Actually, I kind of do mind," I said, moving to sit beside him on the love-seat. When he didn't budge I used my body to move him out of the way and make enough room for me to sit beside him. "Damn! You have a bubble butt," I announced sarcastically.

Charlie looked over at me and snorted. "I do not."

"Uh, yeah bro...you do," I smirked.

He stood up and looked over his shoulder, actually checking out his own ass. I couldn't help but to laugh at how ridiculous he looked. "God, you are so gullible," I chuckled.

"I'll have you know that I happen to have a fine ass," he said very matter of factly. "The women tell me all the time, especially when their holding on to it like so-"

He started to mimic the action with his hands and some vulgar thrusting. I closed my eyes and held up my hand to stop him. "Okay, I get the picture and it's a picture your sister seriously doesn't want to see again any time in the near future."

Charlie laughed. "That's what I thought," he said and then sat back down, turning his full attention back to Sports Center.

"You are such a guy," I told him.

He glanced down at his package and then did that little head nod thing that guys do when they are about to say something cocky. "That's what she said."

"Ew, that is so gross. I told you that I didn't want any images of you, your package or any of your skanky females in my head," I said, scrunching up my nose. "It just isn't right."

"Well, I am a guy as you so eloquently put it. Guys have a one track mind. What else do you expect?"

"Yeah, but I'm your sister," I pointed out, staring mindlessly at the television. "And I surely don't need any details about your exploits or what you do with your, well thing."

He laughed. "My thing? Is that what your calling it these days? Really Bailey? A thing? Can't you come up with something a little more masculine like The Hulk? Or maybe Captain Cock... yeah," he laughed to himself, "I like that one."

Listening to Charlie joke around it was like a light bulb suddenly flicked on in my head. I turned back to my brother. "Hey, you said you're a guy right?" I asked, smiling sweetly at him.

He turned to me and his brow furrowed into a deep frown. "I thought we'd already established that fact."

"Yea, we did," I said sitting up a little straighter. "I have a question for you, a serious question that I need a guy's opinion on."

Charlie stared at me with those intense blue eyes that were so much like our mothers. Those few seconds seemed like an eternity before he finally picked up the remote and turned the television off. "Okay," he said hesitantly. "Now you have my attention. Shoot."

Now I was nervous. How could I word this so he would be suspicious of what I was really up to with Rio. Turning to him, I crossed my legs. "Well," I drawled out slowly. "I need to know what it is that a guy finds most attractive in a girl. What is it that really grabs your attention?"

He grunted. "That's easy. For me it's all about the breasts."

"That much is a given Mr. Obvious," I replied sarcastically. "I need more than that. I want to know what it is about woman that draws a guy to woman other than looks. Something that a guy has a hard time resisting. I'm thinking there has to be some type of deep dark secret that us members of the female species are totally unaware of."

Before answering my question Charlie studied me for a moment. I didn't say anything because if he could me some Intel on how a guy like Rio's mind works then his scrutiny would be so worth it. "Bailey, are you interested in someone in particular."

I couldn't stop the heat from rising in my face. If I had a mirror in front of me I'm sure my cheeks would be fire engine red. "Maybe," I replied, looking down to my lap and picked at the hem of my shirt.

"That would be an affirmative. Is it someone that I know?" he demanded.

I couldn't meet his eyes. Charlie would know that I was lying. "No." I said softly, hoping that his line of questioning would end there.

Charlie was relentless though. Clearing his throat, I looked back up at him. "Are you sure about that, Bailey? You wouldn't try and lie to me now would you?"

Crap. I shook my head vehemently in denial, almost too much. "No, no Charlie. I'm not stupid enough to date someone around here. Everyone knows you and how overprotective you are with me. Hell, it's because of you that I've barely had a dating life at all."

"That's right," he replied and stroked his chin, clearly proud of himself. "And if it was up to me then you'd have no dating life at all. You're my baby sister and I'm supposed to be overprotective over you."

Men. I clearly don't understand a damn thing about them.

"Okay, so now that we've established that I'll never have a dating life as long as you are around, what else you got for me? What else turns you on to a woman?" I asked impatiently.

"You really want to know?"

"Yes, I really want to know."

"I like a woman that can cook."

"That's it!" I squealed. "You are brilliant, Charlie. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." I leaned over and gave him a big, wet smooch on his cheek.

He wiped his cheek with the back of his hand and look disgusted. "Bailey, really?"

I didn't have time to come up with any smart ass retorts. I had important things to do like planning the perfect meal to seduce Rio, grocery shopping and then cooking. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I shouted, jumping up off the love-seat.

"Glad to be of service," he called out, laughing at my hysterics. I just threw my hand up acknowledging his statement. Now that I had a plan in place, there was so much to do.

*****

Standing in front of Rio's apartment door I let out a deep breath. After the marathon cooking stint that took up most of the afternoon I could finally let myself relax. The aroma wafting from the bags in my arms were simply divine. I had decided to go with easy but elegant choosing chicken breast smothered in rich garlic and white wine sauce, wild rice and crispy green beans. For dessert I baked a double layer chocolate cake with a creamy coffee icing.

Okay, this was it. What guy in his right mind would turn down a meal like this? Certainly not any one that I know. Guys loved food. That's a proven fact and this was going to work I told myself. It just had to because if it didn't, I had no idea what I'd do next.

Confidence. I had to have confidence in myself. Confidence is the key if I was going to get my man.

"Okay," I mumbled under my breath, "it's now or never." Before I could second guess myself, I raised my free hand and rang the doorbell.

The bell chimed several times before the door suddenly swung wide open, catching me completely off guard. But only for a second because there he was. Standing in full Technicolor. The gorgeous, sexy, mouth watering, Rio Mendez. My breath hitched and my knees melted like jello at the mere sight of him. Damn, he was one fine specimen.

"Bailey, what the hell are you doing here?" he demanded, a fierce scowl on his face.

All I could do was stare at him. For a second there I almost forgot why I was standing there in the first place. I'm beginning to believe that scowl he's currently wearing is tattooed there permanently.

"Well?" he asked impatiently when I didn't immediately respond to him.

All I could do was dumbly hold up the bag I'd been holding. "I cooked you dinner".

Rio took one glance at the bag and frowned. "Bailey," he started, and then paused to look back over his shoulder. I tried to look around him to see what he was looking at but Rio pulled the door partially closed behind him, blocking my view. "Look, now isn't the best time to be stopping by," he said on a sigh.

"Rio?" I heard his name being called inside of the apartment. Of course it was a woman. It was painfully clear now why Rio had said that it wasn't a good time to stop by. Right then and there my broken heart shattered just a little bit more. "Rio, is there a problem?," the feminie voice spoke again.

I shook my head at him. This could play out one of two ways. I could always walk away like the shy meek little girl Rio thought I was. Or I could always take a stand and fight for my man.

It wasn't even a contest. What else could I do? All I had left was my pride, right?

Pasting on a fake smile, I walked right on into his apartment, abruptly brushing past his shoulder.

"There's no problem, sweetheart," I answered for him, marching into the living room like I owned the place. I suddenly skidded to a heart stopping halt when I saw that there was not only one beautiful woman sitting on his couch, but two. I wanted to scream. One evidently wasn't enough for the great Rio Mendez.

Steeling my composure, I gracefully continued with a picture perfect forced smile in place. "I was just being all neighborly like and dropping a meal off for my dear friend. No worries. I'll be out the way shortly and you three can continue doing whatever it was that you were doing before little old me arrived."

On the inside I was falling apart. Angry, frustrated, confused. I wanted nothing more than to pull out every strand of bleach blond hair from the two scantily clad whores sitting on his couch. It was easy to maintain my strained smile while imagining feeding them an exorbitant amount of ex lax.

"Aw, how sweet," the one sitting on the right said. "Rio, you are lucky to have such neighborly neighbors."

I snorted out loud. If she only knew how un-neighborly I was feeling right this minute she wouldn't be looking at me like that.

"Yeah," Rio announced, unveiled irritation coloring his voice. "Lucky me."

Time to end this god-awful conversation. "Alright then," I replied with a little too much enthusiasm. "I'll just go put this up in the kitchen." Turning on my heels, I quickly made a bee line to get out of this room.

The door to the kitchen closed and it took everything that I had in me to not drop to my knees and just lose it on his kitchen floor. I needed to get the hell out of there. Lifting my chin, I quickly removed the warmed containers one by one and thumped them down on the table, cursing my own fucked up feelings for Rio.

How could I have been so incredibly stupid? Life just wasn't fair.

The door opened and I looked up long enough to see Rio standing there, staring at me without saying a word. I continued to unload the special dinner I'd spent most of my afternoon preparing for him.

Who was I kidding? I couldn't compete with the likes of the two girls sitting pretty on his couch. It was painfully clear that I was the intruder here and I needed to go.

Taking out the last container, I sniffed and turned to face him. "Look," I said, "I'm sorry that I barged in on your company. Don't worry though. It won't happen again."

"Why did you come here today, Bailey?"

"I was being stupid, okay?" I picked up my empty bag and through my purse over my shoulder. "I've already told you that it won't happen again so don't worry about it."

I moved to leave but once again Rio was standing in front of the doorway, blocking my exit. An eerie silence stretched between us. A stupid, traitorous tear escaped and slowly made its way down my cheek. Looking down at the floor, I hastily wiped it away with the back of my hand before he could see it.

"Foods here," I told him, "Go ahead and enjoy it with your friends while it's still hot." I used my fingers to make quotation marks in the air when I said friends. Shaking my head I moved to go around him. "I'm out of here."

Rio moved fast and grabbed my arm before I could get by him. "I've already told you that I and you will never work," he whispered in my ear. "You need to get that through your head. I'm no good for you."

I scoffed at that. That was the biggest line of BS I've heard in a long while. "Yeah, you're not good enough for me, but you're just perfect for the two sluts sitting on your couch?"

"Damn it!" He cursed. Still holding on to my arm, he pulled me out the door, through the living room and the front door to his apartment where he finally release me. He turned around just long enough to close the door, leaving just the two of us in the hall. And he didn't stop there. His face contorted with fury as he invaded my personal space, backing me up against the wall. "You listen up good Bailey, and you listen well because I'm only going to say this once. Those two ladies in there are here because their brother died in my platoon under my watch. I was giving them what I had left of his personal belongings. Don't you dare accuse me of something you don't know anything about ever again? Are we clear?"

His voice was so cold that it chilled me to the bone. I was flabbergasted from what he'd just told and at a total loss for words. I had just made myself look like the biggest ass on this earth. "I, I'm sorry" I stammered. "I didn't know."

Taking a step back, Rio glared at me. "There's a lot you don't know about me Bailey, which is exactly why we would never work." He took another step back, leaving me feeling cold and bereft. His eyes look haunted. "Just get the hell out of here and forget about me. Forget everything, okay. We'll both forget that any of this foolishness ever happened."

Turning his back on me, he walked inside his apartment. The door closed and I flinched when I heard the locks latch with a finality that shattered what little pieces was left of my heart.

"Oh God," I covered my mouth with the palm of my hand and slowly slid down to the hard floor. "He hates me. He really hates me." I cried softly, letting my head fall to my knees.

The tears started slow until they started to flow in earnest. How can he tell me to forget him? Forget the sound of his deep voice? His fiery kisses? His beautiful eyes? How in the hell did he expect me to just walk away and forget about him?

It was impossible. I'd never be able to forget Rio because the fact was, I loved him. I love Rio Mendez. I'm not quite sure when my school girl crush turned into something more but I'm certain that I've loved him for a while now. And the real kicker is that deep down I know that no matter what happens in either of our futures, I will always love him.