For all that, the club was completely lacking in pretension. There were no trendy exercise gadgets, no bouncy music, and the only part of the gym with a mirrored wall was the free-weight area so that you could check your reflection to see if you were lifting properly.
What there were, in addition to the weights, were punching bags, a pool and a banked indoor track.
Best of all, the Eastside was for men only.
Women were a distraction. Besides, Nicolo thought as he inserted his key card in the front door lock, it was a relief to get away from them for a while.
He had enough women to deal with in his life. Too many, he sometimes thought, when ending a relationship led to tears. He was, he’d heard whispered, “an excellent catch.” He scoffed at that but to himself, he admitted it was probably true.
Why not be honest?
“Good evening, Mr. Barbieri. Nice to see you again, sir.”
“Jack,” Nicolo said amiably. He signed in and headed for the locker room.
He had money. A private jet. Cars. He owned a ski lodge in Aspen, an oceanfront estate on Mustique, a pied-a-terre in Paris and, of course, there was the palazzo in Rome, the one that had supposedly come to the Barbieri family through Julius Caesar.
That was what his great-grandmother had always claimed.
Nicolo thought it more likely it had come to them through a thief in Caesar’s time, but he’d never contradicted her. He’d loved the old woman as he’d never loved anyone else. He’d always been grateful he’d made his first million and restored the ancient but decrepit Palazzo di Barbieri before she’d died.
Her pleasure had brought joy to his heart.
He’d liked making her happy. In fact, he liked making most women happy.
It was only when their demands became unreasonable, when they began to talk of The Future, of The Importance of Settling Down—and he could almost actually feel the physical weight they put into the phrase when it tumbled from their lips—that Nicolo knew that Making Them Happy wasn’t as important as Not Making a Commitment.
No way. Not him. Not yet.
For an evening? Of course. A week? Yes. Even a month. Two months. Hell, he wasn’t the kind of man to jump from bed to bed….
What would the woman in the black suede coat be like in bed? A honey-maned tigress? Or an ice queen?
Not that he gave a damn. It was simply a matter of intellectual curiosity.
He liked women who enjoyed their femininity. Enjoyed being appreciated by a man.
Nicolo hung his things in his locker.
It didn’t take a psychiatrist to figure out that the tigress was not such a woman. Although, in the bed of the right man, perhaps she could be.
The mane of hair. The delicate oval face. The amazing eyes, that tender mouth. And, yes, he’d felt its tenderness even in that brush of his lips against hers…
Fantastico.
Hell. He was giving hims
elf a hard-on over a woman who’d insulted him, who he would never see again. He didn’t want to think about her or any woman. Not this weekend. No distractions. No sex. Like an athlete, he believed in abstinence before going mano a mano.
He needed to focus on Monday’s meeting.
Nicolo pulled on gray cotton running shorts, a sleeveless, ancient Yale sweatshirt and a pair of Nikes.
A hard, sweaty workout was just what he needed.
The gym was almost empty. Well, it was Saturday night. Only one other guy was in the vast room, pounding around the track with the lonely intensity of the dedicated runner.
Damian.