“I’m starting to realize I want more out of life.”
“You’ve never been in a serious relationship before?”
I sighed then took a long sip of my drink, contemplating if I wanted to tell her about Vanessa. After a few seconds, I realized that getting into a deep conversation about Vanessa wasn’t something I wanted to do on a first date even if Andi and I lived together. If we did want to give whatever this was between us a chance, then maybe I would eventually tell her that I was in love once. Everyone had been in love before.
“It’s been a long time, gorgeous. A really long time.”
Before she could ask me to elaborate on the subject, the waiter dropped off our food and the subject was changed—thank God. We ate our food for a bit and then we picked up on more of the conversation.
“How are you liking Vegas?” I asked moments later after we’d gushed about how delicious the food was.
“It’s definitely different. D.C.’s nothing like it is here.”
I smiled behind my straw. “I heard through the grapevine that you’re going to titty bars with some of the girls. You into girls, too?”
She snorted as she tried to contain her laughter. “Definitely not. The girls claim it’s a good way to pick up clients, and seeing as I’m new to the area, I guess I’m trying to pull whatever tricks are out there.”
“So you’re not out there having threesomes with your clients and the girls?” My smile hadn’t faltered as I thought about Andi with another chick.
“I’ve never slept with any of my clients. Do … Have you?” Her gaze avoided mine as she waited for my answer.
Would she not want to be with me because of something I’d done before I met her? I took another long sip of my tequila and coke, slurping the remaining content. “Honestly, gorgeous, I have. I have with a lot of them. But since you barged into my house—literally—I haven’t. I haven’t wanted to. I’ve been looking forward to this date since before I knew I wanted to take you on it, and hearing that you don’t sleep with your clients … Fuck, that makes me so happy. You have no fucking idea how much that makes me happy.”
Before we could continue, the waiter came and dropped off the check. “We can talk about this later. Let’s go check out the High Roller.”
“What if I freak out?”
“I’ll wrap you in my arms until it’s over.”
She stared up at the metal wheel. “It’s … so high.”
“Look how big the pods are. Nothing’s going to happen. We’ll stand in the middle if you’re scared.”
She tore her gaze to mine. “Promise?”
I smiled and grabbed her hand, missing the contact that was only brief from me paying for our tickets. “I promise, gorgeous.”
We waited in line to enter onto the white pod. Occasionally the wheel would change colors from pink to green to blue and so on. Earlier I thought I would be the one that needed to have the death grip on Andi’s hand, but she was the one that had one on mine.
“Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay,” I promised, pulling her closer to me. I got a whiff of her hair and I noticed that she smelled of coconuts. “You smell like paradise.”
She looked up at me. “Are you trying to distract me?”
I smirked. “Is it working?”
“Maybe a little.” She looked back up at the wheel and I shook my head. I didn’t get the heights thing. Maybe it was because I was used to helicopters in the Army and that shit didn’t even have doors on it.
The line moved and it was our turn to enter the pod. Andi glanced at me and I whispered that it was going to be okay and I gave her hand a final squeeze. I saw her chest rise and then she entered and went straight to the center of the ball while everyone else went to the glass walls. I walked up behind her, wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to my chest, not saying anything while she took in her surroundings.
“Okay,” I heard her say after a few minutes.
“Okay?” I questioned.
She nodded and started to step toward the glass, her hand in mine. Just before we got to the railing, she stopped and looked down.
“Gorgeous,” I laughed, “you’re not supposed to look down.”
She looked up at me. “I wanted to see how far up we were.”
“Well, shit. You’re lucky we aren’t all the way on top yet.”
“I know.” She stepped as close as she could to me, our shoulders pressed together, our hands still clasps and then she took the tiny step forward to the railing.
We were silent again as the wheel took the slow turn. The lights lit up the dark Vegas sky. Each casino could be seen below, and I wanted to point everything out to her, but I kept my mouth shut and let her take everything in. The closer we inched up to the top, the tighter her hand held mine.
I needed to distract her.
I tugged on her hand so she would turn her head to me, and when she did, I leaned down and captured her lips with mine. I wrapped the hand I was holding around my waist and let go so I could reach up and grab her face with both of my hands. Her other arm wrapped around my side as I finally got a taste of my girl.
Everyone in the pod disappeared. It was just her and me. I wanted her to only focus on me, so I stepped closer, pressing her back against the glass. The taste of tequila was faint when I swiped my tongue against her lower lip wanting her to open for me. When she finally granted me access and our tongues collided, there was a little grain of salt left over from her drink and the combination of the two only drove my need to really be with her.
I pushed against her a little harder, causing one of my knees to go between her legs. Our mouths worked together, tasting, sucking and not caring if others were watching. Really I couldn’t give a fuck because this was what I’d been craving for the last two weeks and getting this little taste of her was only going to drive my need for her that much more. I wanted to taste every fucking inch of her.
As I was about to whisper into her ear that I couldn’t wait to get her home to fuck her brains out, she quickly brought her hands up to cover mine that were holding her face and broke the kiss. She pulled her lips away and we kept our foreheads connected. Frustrated, I closed my eyes panting and said the only fucking thing my brain could luster up.
“Andi …”
Chapter Thirteen
Andi
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would know what it was like to date two guys at once. Theoretically, I wasn’t. I was only dating Paul. But I was also dating other men.
I was only dating Paul for real.
Holy shit, I was only dating Paul!
When I accepted the assignment to come to Vegas, I never thought that I’d start dating someone. Dating was not on my radar.
Even though I stopped our kiss the night on the High Roller, it wasn’t because I didn’t want to keep going; it was because I was in my head. That was what I did when it came to all guys I tried to date. It was my curse. My mother, Tony, and Marco had cursed me the night of my seventeenth birthday. I wanted to be normal, to forget about how they ruined me, but no matter what I did, I was reliving that night.
The situation was weird, though. Paul and I lived together so we saw each other all the time. It was as if our relationship was progressing faster than normal and I couldn’t have that. I was freaking out. Literally freaking the fuck out. I hadn’t had sex in twelve years and he’d had sex yesterday—okay not yesterday, but close enough. How was I going to dodge that bullet and still live with him while I did my investigation? Did I want to dodge that bullet? What if I told Paul the truth?