It added some extra confidence to my stride...right up until I almost tripped over my feet when I spotted my mystery man standing next to a booth in the far-left corner of the restaurant.
“Hey, isn’t that—?”
I practically shoved my cousin into the private VIP room the hostess was leading us to. “Shh,” I hissed. “He might hear you.”
“Why is that a problem?” she asked as she made a beeline over to the bar set up on the opposite side of the room.
In a hurry to get away from the open door and windows that looked out on the main part of the restaurant, I stalked after her. “Then he’d see me.”
“Again, I don’t see the problem,” Maria said with an eye roll.
“I went up to him on the street, out of nowhere, and flung myself at him! If he sees me here, he’ll probably think I’m crazy.” I glanced over my shoulder to scan the restaurant in search of him. “Like I’m stalking him or something.”
“You’re the furthest thing from a stalker,” she snorted, shaking her head. “But he’d be lucky if you did decide to stalk him. You’re a catch, Amelia. Smart, pretty, and nice.”
Moments like this reminded me why I loved my cousin so much. Our personalities were opposites, but we were always there for each other. Even though it sometimes involved her pushing me outside my comfort zone. Like last night, when I kissed a stranger. My mystery man.
And there it was. Every thought I’d had since then had led to him. I caught myself starting to turn toward the interior windows again and bit down on my lip. No matter how badly I wanted to see him again, it was bound to go horribly wrong. He was sure to think I was crazy after the stunt I’d pulled. Although he had pulled me in for another kiss after I’d backed away…
I shook my head in an attempt to clear my thoughts. No amount of wishful thinking was going to change how we met and give me a real chance with the only man I’d ever really wanted. I just had to survive this party without him seeing me, and then I could try to forget about what happened. I was upset enough by the idea that I downed one of the shots Maria was handing out and almost choked as it burned going down.
The bartender handed me a glass of water as my cousin patted me on the back. “Damn, Amelia. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you take a shot before. If I’d known that Vegas would bring out this side of you, I would have dragged you here sooner.”
I just shook my head as I sipped at my water, refusing to give her any encouragement.
“Hello, ladies. My name is Kimberly, and I’ll be your server this evening.” We all turned to smile at the young woman who walked into the room. “If you’d like to take your seats, I’ll start with your appetizer orders. Unless you’d prefer for me to just do a variety of our best sellers since my boss is covering everything? Then you could sit down when then food is ready.”
Figuring it was going to be like herding cats to get everyone to the table, I answered, “Please go ahead and get us whatever you think we’d like best.”
“Will do,” she chirped before swiveling on one foot to head back out the door.
It wasn’t until the waitress was gone that my brow wrinkled as I realized that she had said her boss was covering our meal and drinks. I was confused because The Artemis wasn’t a Lennox property, and Drew had said he’d set this all up since they’d messed up our reservation for tonight. Maybe she’d gotten it mixed up? Or the owners of the two resorts had a reciprocal arrangement when situations like this came up?
As Maria shoved a frozen cocktail into my hand, I shrugged my shoulders. Which billionaire covered our tab wasn’t important. Avoiding my mystery man while celebrating my cousin’s upcoming wedding was what mattered.
4
Zack
As I entered the restaurant from the kitchen, I checked my watch for the millionth time. Finally seeing that it was time for the bachelorette party to arrive, I exhaled a deep breath. I’d spent all day going over the details of the party with my staff. My head chef, Deke, and I discussed their meal and snacks, and I instructed him to only give their food to Kimberly, the waitress I’d assigned to the girls. I wanted to make sure Amelia and her friends were safe and no one had the opportunity to tamper with their food. With the open bar and the wildness I’d seen the night before, they were bound to end up plastered, making them easy prey. Not that we’d had a problem with people trying to slip drugs to our customers, but I wasn’t willing to take any risks when it came to the woman I already considered mine.
I gave the same instructions to Kimberly, knowing they were in excellent hands with her. She was Deke’s granddaughter and had started as a hostess when she was eighteen. I’d been concerned with her lack of maturity and had almost fired her a few times for inappropriately flirting with male customers. However, I didn’t want to lose the best chef in Nevada, so I’d had a talk with Deke, and he’d had one with Kimberly. I didn’t know what he said to her, but within a couple of weeks, she’d done a complete one-eighty. Then, over the past several years, she’d grown into my best waitress and was on her way to being promoted to manager.
Lastly, I chose a bartender for the party… Technically, I could’ve been in trouble for taking sexual orientation into account when considering someone for a position in my hotel. But I didn’t have any female bartenders working tonight, and if a guy was going to spend the night serving my girl alcohol, he was sure as fuck going to be batting for the other team.
As the girls arrived, I headed back to the far-left corner of the room. I had a VIP to check on and figured it couldn’t hurt to give the ladies a chance to have a few drinks before I arrived.
Julian Storm, a friend and the headlining magician at the Lennox, had requested a special experience to celebrate an anniversary. He’d just helped his wife, Anna, slide into the booth as I approached. He was leaning over her, and she reached up to kiss him before saying, “You’re adorable, you know that?”
I snickered and teased, “Awww, I agree. He’s completely adorable.”
Julian glared at me as he stood back up. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be, Parker?” he groused.
My eyes darted over to a room with the bachelorette party, and I searched for a glimpse of my Amelia through the large glass windows. I spotted her after a moment, and as though she could feel me watching her, she suddenly turned and looked in my direction. Seeing my intense stare, she blushed and whipped back around.
Facing the couple once again, I grinned and nodded. “As a matter of fact, I do. But I always like to check on my VIPs personally if I can.”
Julian cracked a begrudging smile after Anna elbowed him in the side and whispered, “Don’t be a Neanderthal.”
“Everything is perfect. Thanks,” he assured me. We shook hands, and I congratulated them before stalking over to the entrance of the party room.
I pulled the door open and sauntered inside, adopting a professional smile. “Hello, ladies,” I greeted. “I’m Zack Parker. Welcome to The Crescent Moon. I trust these accommodations are satisfactory?” My eyes swept around the room, looking for my woman as I received a chorus of approvals. The corners of my lips began to drop when I didn’t immediately spot her.
When I finally found her, I didn’t know whether to laugh or be annoyed that she was hiding from me. Amelia was trying to disappear by staying behind two of the taller girls at the party. She was doing her best to pretend she wasn’t hiding even though that was clearly her goal. I narrowed my eyes and kept them trained on Amelia. There was no way in hell that she didn’t feel the pull between us, so why was she running from it?
“Aren’t you that sexy guy my cousin made out with yesterday?”
Amelia hissed and smacked the girl who asked the question on the arm. “Shut up, Maria!” Her brown eyes sparked with fire as she glared at her, and it only took me a second to realize that her attitude stemmed from jealousy. I smirked smugly, reassured that she was feeling the same emotions rolling through me.
“As a matter of fact,” I drawled, “I’m
most definitely your cousin’s man.”
Other than Amelia’s quick inhale, I was met with silence.
“Her man?” the cousin, Maria, suddenly shouted. Then she started clapping and jumping up and down as though I’d just told her she’d won the jackpot.
“Yes, and I’d like to steal her away from you ladies if that’s alright.”
Maria spun around to face Amelia with a big smile. She was frantically shaking her head and backing up until she hit a wall. “Vegas Amelia would,” Maria quipped with a wicked grin.
Amelia finally looked my way with wide, confused eyes. “Are you crazy? I could be a stalker or serial killer or something?”
I chuckled and shrugged. “I’ll risk it, beautiful.”
When she didn’t respond, I mentally sighed, wondering what it was going to take to get her to leave with me. Then an idea popped into my head. It had worked for several of my friends…
I prowled around the table and across the room until I was standing right in front of my girl. Then I bent down and put my shoulder in her stomach and one hand on her ass, before standing back up with her in a fireman’s hold. I glanced at her cousin, who was giving me a sloppy grin, and promised, “Don’t wait up. I’ll have the staff provide you with my contact information so you can check on her later.” Then I pivoted and stalked toward the door.
“Stop! Put me down, Zack!” she sputtered. Hearing my name on her lips for the first time sent shockwaves of lust straight to my dick. I was already hard from my hand on her juicy ass, and now I was sporting a big, steel cock that there was no way for me to hide in my suit pants.
“What are you doing?” she snapped.
“Kidnapping you,” I responded lightly as though I’d simply informed her that it was a beautiful day outside.
“What?” she shrieked. Luckily, we’d entered the kitchen by that point, so I didn’t have to worry about customers calling the police.
“You heard me,” I said in the same tone, but I added a gentle slap to her ass. She gasped, sounding outraged. However, I felt the shiver that wracked her body, and a grin split my face.
“Put me down. What about your job, Zack?” she asked, apparently trying another tactic.
I was curious where she was going with this, so I played along as I left the kitchen and entered a back hallway. “What about it?” I nodded to the security guard who returned the gesture, barely sparing a glance at Amelia.
“Aren’t you worried about being fired? What if the owner hears about this?”
I almost stopped in my tracks but managed to stay on course and refrain from reacting to her comment. She didn’t know who I was. I thought back over my introduction to her friends and realized I hadn’t referred to myself as the owner. This was an interesting turn of events. I knew I should tell her right away, but the little devil in my head suggested I keep quiet about it. I was sure Amelia wasn’t a gold digger, and I tried to explain that to the evil little voice. He argued that it couldn’t hurt to make sure she would want me whether I owned a hotel or not.
We paused at an elevator, and I swiped my card to open the doors. After I stepped inside, I swiped again and punched the button for the fortieth floor, where my office was located. “I think he’d approve of my strategy,” I joked playfully.
The car began to swoosh up, getting us to the top in no time at all. When the doors silently opened, I continued toward my office at a clipped pace. We reached the glass walls that spanned the front of my assistant’s area, and I used my other shoulder to push open one of the glass doors. The entrance to my office was on the other side of a wall, situated behind the lobby desk. I unlocked the thick oak door with one hand before shoving it open like I had the glass one. Stepping inside, I shifted Amelia into my arms as I kicked the door shut. After flipping the lock, I made my way over to my desk and set her on the tabletop.
Amelia’s brow rose as she looked around at the large space with the obviously expensive furniture and a view that would take anyone’s breath away. “Nice digs for a manager,” she murmured.
I almost laughed at her assumption. I was about to correct her and tell her the truth when she spoke again. “This isn’t your office, is it?” Her tone was suspicious, and again, I had to suppress a snicker.
“This is the owner’s office,” I informed her slyly. An electronic photo frame on my desk had pictures of Delia and me, but it was facing the other way. And she obviously hadn’t seen my name on the door. Other than that, there wasn’t much to make it clear that this was where I worked.
“You guys must be really good friends if he lets you use his office for your shenanigans.” She was clearly fishing for information, and I wanted to set her mind at ease.
“I’ve never been tempted into ‘shenanigans’”—I winked and used air quotes around her word—“until I met you.”
Amelia’s cheeks bloomed with pink, and she bit her lip, making me want to run my tongue over that exact spot and soothe away the sting. “Why in the world would you want to resort to kidnapping and risk your job for me?”
My head reared back, and I stared at her in bewilderment. “Are you kidding? Besides the fact that you’re drop-dead gorgeous, sweet, and genuine?” I cupped her face and locked our gazes. “There’s also this.” Closing the distance between our faces, I captured her mouth with mine.
5
Amelia
The last thing I should’ve done was give myself over to a kiss from a guy who’d just carried me out of my cousin’s bachelorette party, but my body wasn’t willing to listen to my brain. My arms twined around his neck as his lips pressed against mine. When his tongue teased my lips, they parted on a sigh. Zack took full advantage, tilting my head back to deepen the kiss further.
By the time he lifted his head, it had taken me a minute to clear the sensual haze from my brain. Dropping my arms to my sides, I leaned back and glared up at him. “You can’t just carry me out of a restaurant and kiss me senseless!”
Male satisfaction gleamed from his dark eyes, and his lips curved up in a smug grin. “My kisses make you senseless?”
“That’s not the point,” I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest to hide his view of my nipples. They were puckered and pressed against my dress, and he didn’t need to see the proof of how I’d reacted to his kiss.
“The way we make each other feel is definitely the point,” he disagreed, bending toward me. He cupped my cheek and traced his thumb over my bottom lip. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the kiss you gave me last night, and I refuse to believe you were able to walk away from me without remembering every second like I’ve been doing.”
There was no way I was going to admit to dreaming about him all night long, so I shook my head. A deep growl rumbled up his chest, and I sputtered, “I-um-you...”
“If you’re not willing to admit how much you want my kisses, I’ll just have to prove it to you.”
It was his only warning before his mouth crashed over mine again. My wits scattered when his tongue glided against mine, and the kiss quickly spiraled out of control. “Your kisses taste as sweet as I remembered,” he groaned before pressing our lips together harder.
One of his hands tangled into the back of my hair, and I whimpered into his mouth. He reached around with the other, splayed it against my back, and pulled me closer. He was cradled between my legs, and I felt the hard length of his dick pressed against my core. Feeling the proof of his desire for me made me tremble in need—and a touch of fear at his size—and he rubbed his hands up and down my arms a few times before cupping my face. I felt off-balance, perched on the edge of the desk, while my body reacted in ways it never had before, and my hands reached up to grip his biceps. “I spent all of last night and most of today wondering if your pussy tastes even better,” he growled.
“Oh, my goodness.” My thighs tried to press together at the thought of his mouth on me, but with his sexy body in the way, they just hugged him tighter.
Tilting my head to the side, h
e placed slow, wet kisses down the column of my neck. He paused at my pulse point to murmur, “I’d bet everything I own that it does.”
My hips jerked up involuntarily, and he let out a low chuckle. “You want me to find out, don’t you?”
Forming complete sentences was beyond my capability at the moment, so I just gasped, “Uh-huh.”
His hands drifted along my neck, across my shoulders, and down to cup my breasts. His thumbs brushed over my nipples, making me shiver. He didn’t linger there, his touch quickly drifting down my torso. My back arched, and a little whimper escaped from my lips. “As badly as I want to see your pretty tits, I need to make you come more.”
He inched the bottom of my dress up my thighs until my black lacy panties were visible. “So fucking pretty. Are you wet for me, Amelia?” He swiped his thumbs over the gusset of my panties. “Fuck. You’re drenched.”
My hips lifted off the desktop, and his hold on me tightened. “I can’t wait any longer to get a taste.”
“Then don’t,” I suggested as I leaned back and braced my elbows against the desktop.
He pulled my panties to the side and held my pussy lips open with his thumbs, exposing my pink center to his gaze—and touch. He bent his head low, flicking my clit with the tip of his tongue, and I let out a little scream. “Shh, beautiful. Nobody should be here at this time of night, but if I’m wrong, I don’t want anyone to hear your pleasure except me.”
He dropped to his knees and wedged his shoulders between my thighs. His hot breath hit my pussy, and I bit my lower lip in an attempt to stop my moans from spilling out. He licked up my slit, and a growl rumbled up his chest. “So damn good. I’m already addicted with just one taste.”
Vegas, Baby: Complete Series Page 50
