Shirley Valentine Goes to Vegas

by Michelle Betham

  I nodded, and then he was holding me tight, his mouth crashing against mine with a force that literally took my breath away as he lifted me up, my legs wrapping firmly around his hips. I should have been scared. Or at least had the decency to feel just the tiniest hint of nerves – I hadn’t had sex in so long, not since I’d left Adam. I hadn’t even wanted it. Until now. Until this very second.

  Throwing my head back slightly, my eyes closed again as his mouth moved down to my breasts, covering them in the lightest of kisses, his rough beard tickling my skin, and I couldn’t help giggling slightly, a giggle that fast turned into a long, low, drawn-out moan as his tongue circled my nipple, causing goose bumps to break out in epic proportions all over my skin.

  But then, a wave of ice-cold reality swept over me, hitting me from right out of nowhere, and I unwrapped my legs from around him, pushing him gently away. ‘I’m sorry, Eddie, but I… I don’t think I can do this,’ I whispered, retrieving my dress from the floor, hurriedly pulling it back on.

  ‘It’s okay.’ He smiled, and I felt that wave of reality start to retreat almost as quickly as it had appeared. ‘Really. Believe me, darlin’, I’m not just here for the sex.’

  Did he mean that? How the hell could I possibly know? When I didn’t know him. Which was why I really shouldn’t have even been thinking about having sex with him. But we’d been so close to it just then, and my body had almost let itself go there, because I’d wanted it, I really had. I’d wanted him. But was that not just because my head was all over the place, because of my divorce, and the fact that this man wanted me? Wanted sex with me?

  I closed my eyes for a couple of beats, turning and walking over to the bed. My skin felt warm, those tiny goose bumps that had appeared just seconds earlier still covering it, the tingling between my thighs growing stronger by the second.

  ‘Lana?’

  I turned around, my eyes meeting his, and they stayed fixed on him as he walked over to me. I didn’t want him to go. I really didn’t want him to go. There was still some crazy connection here that went way deeper than a physical need, and I was starting to find it all slightly confusing now. This was so out of my comfort zone.

  ‘I’m… I’m fine,’ I stuttered, feeling my heart start to race faster as he stood there in front of me, those dark eyes of his so intense I could feel every defence I was trying to put up weakening, crumbling down around me. There was still a part of me that was struggling for identity… Fuck it! You only live once. And whatever this was, whatever it turned out to be, I was taking it all, and I was going to enjoy it. I deserved that much, didn’t I?

  He smiled a slow smile as I once more slipped out of my dress, kicking it across the room in a manner verging on vicious, almost as if I didn’t want to give myself another excuse to grab it again.

  Moving closer, he slid a hand around the back of my neck, his fingers winding into my hair as he gently pulled my head back, his mouth lowering down onto mine in another of those incredible kisses. I could lose myself in those kisses. Completely and utterly lose myself. They semed to go on forever, both of us separating only when he pulled back to take off his t-shirt, revealing an array of tattoos that took my breath away. Covering both his arms, his shoulders, chest and back, I’d never seen ink like it. Skulls and knives, fire and flames, vibrant colour and deep, deep black; designs I’d never seen before. I could have spent a good half an hour just checking them out. And maybe I would, later.

  I felt my heart start to pound, hammering hard inside of me, the anticipation both terrifying and exciting. I’d never done anything like this before. Ever. I’d only made love to one man my entire life, never really needing to know what another body felt like until I’d pulled my safe and comfortable world down around myself. Then everything had changed!

  Once again he lifted me up, my legs briefly wrapping themselves back around him as he lay me down on the bed, my heart still trying its hardest to escape the confines of my chest with a heavy, almost painful, rhythm. I closed my eyes, pulling my legs up slightly, stretching out as I waited for him to undress, trying not to over-think this, because doing that just increased the nerves I was already feeling. Yeah, they’d suddenly hit me, those nerves. And I didn’t want to feel nervous. I just wanted to let this happen.

  I kept my eyes closed, feeling his hands on my knees gently push my legs further apart, allowing him to lie between, his body warm and hard against mine. A shockwave coursed through me, merging with an excitement I was finding hard to control and I breathed out deeply, desperately trying to push the old Lana further away. She needed to go, and take the past with her. She needed to go, now.

  Keeping my arms stretched up above my head, I arched my back as his fingers slowly intertwined with mine, and I clung onto him, my eyes finally opening, meeting his.

  ‘Okay?’ he whispered, gripping my fingers tight.

  I nodded, letting that tingling between my thighs take over, feeling it spread further up my body, causing the goose bumps to grow and my heart to continue racing at a rate I was finding hard to cope with. It really was quite difficultto breathe now, my throat was so tight.

  But then, almost as if he was injecting me with a shot of something calming, I felt him push inside me, so slowly and carefully it caused that breath I’d thought was stuck in my throat to shift, giving way to a low groan I couldn’t keep down.

  I could feel him, his thrusts slow and gentle, the grip he had on my fingers intensifying as our bodies picked up a steady rhythm, moving together, and I pulled my legs up around him, arching my back again, pushing my hips up against his. I was giving him permission to push harder, go deeper, do whatever it was he needed to do because I was going to take it all. He was setting me free, making me realise what I’d been missing all that time I’d been unhappy and unsure of the life I’d once led. It was like the floodgates were finally opening, and this time I really was emerging as the new me, instead of all those practice sessions I’d been going through these past few months. Could sex with a new man really do that? Could it really make me feel that way?

  Throwing my head back I closed my eyes again, moaning quietly as his mouth began covering my neck in the tiniest of kisses, starting at the base of my throat and working upwards, his hips grinding into mine as he continued to thrust in and out of me with that same gentle rhythm. And each time he pushed back inside me I felt a beautiful shot of something – like the sweetest of electric shocks – hit me, causing my body to buck slightly, forcing more low groans out of me. He was making me crazy, and I was loving every wrong, confused second of it.

  But then, as his fingers gripped mine so tight it verged on painful, I felt him stop, just for a second, then shudder slightly. And that was when the rush hit me. He was coming fast and hard, and I couldn’t help but cry out loud as I felt my own climax start to build, my whole body shaking with the force of an orgasm the like of which I hadn’t experienced since – I hadn’t experienced. Ever. Every inch of my skin felt like it was on fire, burning up with the heat that seemed to spread through me, diminishing only slightly as both our bodies began to slow down, that rhythm fading, his grip on my fingers loosening.

  I kept my eyes closed for a few more seconds, just listening to his breathing, heavy and ragged.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked, gently stroking my hair from my eyes, which I slowly opened, my heart still racing as I looked at him.

  ‘Hell, yes!’ I smiled, because what had just happened here… how could that not make me smile? Even though I wasn’t entirely sure what I should be feeling now. I’d had sex with this man, just hours after meeting him. What did that make me? Crazy? Cheap? Lucky? All three?

  ‘You felt incredible.’ His voice was so low, his mouth almost resting on mine as he spoke. It was the most erotic thing I’d ever experienced, but then, to be fair, anything even verging on erotic wasn’t something my I’d experienced all that much of before. Adam just hadn’t been the type to go in for all that. He’d been a very practical man, in every sense
of the word. Guarded, almost. But I’d loved him. I really had loved him. Onceuponatime.

  I didn’t know what to say now. I wasn’t even sure I could speak anymore, my throat had gone all tight again. And my body, Jesus! That was still tingling in a way I hoped would never disappear. I could live with that feeling forever.

  I felt him slowly pull out of me, rolling over onto his back. I turned onto my side, propping myself up on one elbow. ‘Thank you.’

  He did the same, leaning forward to kiss me gently. ‘For what?’

  ‘For waking me up.’ In more ways than one. But he didn’t need to know all the other stuff.

  He smiled, reaching out to run his fingers lightly over the curve of my waist. ‘Baby, it was a pleasure.’ His eyes dipped to my breasts, his hand moving up to touch them, something that brought back that wonderful tingle as his fingers grazed my nipples. ‘Has anyone ever told you you’ve got the most incredible tits?’

  ‘No,’ I laughed. ‘Actually, they haven’t.’

  ‘Well, somebody should have done,’ he whispered, his mouth resting against mine as he spoke in that deep, raspy accent of his. ‘Because they are fucking amazing.’

  I smiled, running my fingers through his even more messed-up hair, letting him pull me closer as he kissed me again, so slowly it drew another tiny moan out of me.

  ‘Stay with me, Lana. Don’t go back home. Stay here. In Vegas. With me.’

  7

  All I could do was stare at him. I certainly couldn’t get any words out, not that I’d know what to say anyway. Was he being serious? Or was he just a little bit drunk? Because I was positive I must be. None of this was making sense anymore. If it ever had made sense. What on earth had I just done? What the hell was he asking me to do?

  ‘Look, darlin’, I’m the kind of guy who likes to take a risk, and you look like the kind of girl who feels the same.’

  As a woman about to turn forty, I silently thanked him for calling me a girl. But this still wasn’t making any sense. ‘I don’t know what kind of risk you’re asking me to take here, Eddie. But I’m not sure I…’

  He shut me up with a kiss. A long, deep, sexy-as-hell kiss. And that just pushed me under, killed me dead. I was gone. Finished. Another kiss. Another deadly blow to any common sense I might have still been clinging onto.

  ‘I know you’re looking for something, darlin’. And whatever it is, maybe you can find it here.’

  ‘In Vegas?’

  ‘It’s as good a place as any.’

  ‘You have no idea what I might be leaving behind back home.’

  ‘I don’t believe you’re leaving anything important.’

  ‘You don’t know me, Eddie.’

  ‘But I want to. I want to know every, single, beautiful inch of you.’ His mouth was back on my neck, leaving a trail of tiny, soft kisses along my skin, my entire body shuddering as those kisses travelled lower. ‘Spend the day with me tomorrow, Lana. We’ll take one of the Harleys, go riding, grab some food at this great little diner I know on the edge of the desert… Let’s have some fun, darlin’.’

  ‘You make everything sound so easy,’ I groaned, unable to stop my body from shuddering again as his fingers gently stroked my hip.

  ‘It is easy,’ he whispered, his lips gently brushing my shoulder, his beard tickling my skin again. I was beginning to love that feeling. ‘I can guarantee, sweetheart, that after you’ve spent the day with me, you aren’t gonna want to go home.’

  I couldn’t help laughing, a small, slightly hysterical, laugh. It was the nerves and the shock and the total confusion this entire surreal scenario was throwing my way.

  ‘You’re actually serious?’

  ‘I’m serious.’

  I was thrown now. Completely. ‘Okay, I… I mean, that’s just… I can’t even find the words… We only met yesterday.’

  His thumb stroked my cheek again, his mouth so close to mine I could feel his breath on my skin. ‘And you still don’t believe in fate?’

  ‘I told you. I’m cynical. I don’t believe in fairytales.’

  ‘Who said anything about fairytales?’

  ‘Why, Eddie? Why do you want me to stay here? A complete stranger you don’t know from…’ I stopped talking, the sudden realisation that I was about to mention my ex-husband’s name hitting me like a smack to the face.

  ‘I’ve just been inside you, Lana.’

  Oh, Jesus, was this really happening?

  ‘And I want to go there again, and again.’ His mouth was back on my neck, moving slowly upwards, kissing that spot just below my ear, sending a shiver through me I couldn’t control.

  ‘I can’t just up and leave everything behind, Eddie.’ Why not? I’d already done it once and even though that had only involved me moving a few miles down the road, it had also involved breaking up my marriage. But this…this involved a whole new country.

  ‘Don’t you want to know what it feels like to take a chance?’

  I’d already taken one. Was it not a little too soon to be thinking of taking another?

  ‘It’s a crazy idea,’ I groaned, arching my back as I felt him start to stroke my thigh, his hand warm and soft against me.

  ‘I like crazy.’

  Oh, God, he was inside me again, his fingers pushing their way in, touching me, teasing out of me another long, loud moan. ‘This is so unfair.’

  ‘Stay with me, Lana.’ He kissed me slowly, and I could feel reality being pushed further and further away with every movement of his lips on mine. ‘Stay with me…’

  The thick white robe felt soft and comforting against my skin and I folded my arms against myself as I stared out of the window. Outside another Vegas day was dawning, the sky slowly changing colour, the darkness gradually being replaced with swirls of red and orange that cast an almost eerie shadow over a town that never really slept. It was beautiful to watch, my mind completely captivated by something I just didn’t get to see back home. Back home there was too much reality. Here I could leave all that behind. And it felt good. I felt free for the first time in so long.

  ‘Come back to bed.’

  I closed my eyes as I felt his arms slide around my waist, pulling me against him from behind. ‘I couldn’t sleep.’

  ‘I’d gathered that much, darlin’. But I didn’t say anything about sleeping.’

  I smiled, remembering the past few hours with a surprising clarity, given that we’d both drank quite a bit last night. But not enough to dim the memories of sex I never wanted to forget. My whole body felt almost re-energised this morning. In fact, everything about me felt different today.

  ‘Were you serious, Eddie?’ I opened my eyes, but continued to stare out of the window, watching as Vegas became bathed in soft, early-morning sunlight. ‘About me staying here?’

  He kissed my neck, his fingers intertwining with mine as our hands rested on my stomach. ‘Baby, I’ve never been more serious.’

  ‘I just thought, you know, because we’d been drinking…’

  He loosened my robe, pulling it open, his hands sliding over my naked skin. ‘I’m as sober as the next man now, kid. And I still meant every word I said last night.’

  I leant back against him, sighing quietly as his fingers ran over my breasts, not caring that we were in front of the window, not caring about anything except the way he was touching me. His touch was like nothing I’d ever felt before – it was new and different and I was beginning to crave it.

  ‘I meant every word,’ he murmured, his fingers running over my hips, down over my bottom. I was lost. In just a few, incredible hours he’d opened up a whole new world for me and it was a world I was becoming more and more reluctant to leave.

  I reached back to touch his face, my fingertips grazing his rough skin, burying themselves in his hair as he continued to tease me. I’d never been touched like this before. Ever. And I loved the way it made me feel: alive, beautiful – and sexy. This man made me feel so fucking sexy!

  ‘I know it sounds like some cra
zy, spur-of-the-moment thing, Lana…’ He pulled my robe back off my shoulders, and I let it drop to the floor, gasping softly as he kissed my shoulder, pulling me against him. ‘It’s what I do now, darlin’. Crazy, spur-of-the-moment things. It’s how I live my life.’

  What he was doing to me, what he was saying… Just being here was spinning me out of control yet I knew what was going to happen the second I came to a standstill. I’d already made that decision last night, as we’d had sex over and over again, until our bodies could take no more. I hadn’t been able to sleep, so I’d just lain awake, watching him, listening to his breathing, thinking everything over; the craziness of the situation. What I’d be leaving behind. What I might find if I just took a chance – the biggest chance of my life.

  ‘You said something about taking one of your Harleys and going for a ride.’ I turned around, the urge to kiss the life out of this man overwhelming. Because I knew how his kisses felt now. I knew what they could do to me. ‘So, Eddie Fletcher, we’re gonna have sex, then we’re gonna go get that bike, and you can start showing me every reason why I should stay here.’

  Leaning back against the windowsill, I turned my head to look out of Eddie’s living-room window. His house, not all that far from the Vegas Strip, was simple and somewhat sparsely furnished, but it was clean and fairly spacious, with the welcome addition of a little splash-pool out in the back yard, which was more than any house I’d owned had ever had. Not that there was all that much call for splash pools in north-east England.

  I’d felt a slight hint of trepidation walking into his home, and I didn’t even know why. Maybe there was still a tiny part of me that felt this was all going a bit too fast, which it was, in reality. Yet, the second I’d stepped inside, the nerves and the doubt disappeared, to be replaced by something verging on familiarity. It was strange, but I’d decided to stop questioning everything. To stop over-thinking it all. It wasn’t helping, it was just getting in the way.