“Is something wrong?”
“No.” She grabbed two of the larger packages from the bed and carried them over to the armoire. “I just thought I’d better put these things away. Clear up the clutter so to speak.”
Trey scooped up the remaining two and followed her. “So what all did you buy at that store?” he asked, lifting and lowering the packages as if weighing them. “There’s more here than I saw you try on.”
“Not much more.”
“Angel, you bought enough to fill four shopping bags. I know you didn’t have that much picked out when I stepped outside to wait for you. What else did you buy?”
“I found another skirt that I really liked. Sort of a champagne color with a sheer black lace overlay.”
“Short?”
“Very.”
He muttered a curse, making her smile.
She went on, “Oh, and I found a couple more tops. Then when I was checking out I saw some silk scarves I thought would go great with some of my business suits. I grabbed them up, too.”
“Very sensible,” he replied, nodding.
Angie reached for the bags he was holding, adding as she turned away, “Oh, and did I mention I got some whipped cream, too?”
“Whipped cream?”
“Gift with purchase,” she explained with a rush of heat to her cheeks. “Flavored.”
“I take it we’re not talking about the kind you put on top of pumpkin pie.”
“Um, I don’t think so.” Angie dug in the bags until she found the can. Pulling it out, she held it up for him to see. “The fact that it’s labeled BODY WHIP kind sort of gives it away.”
He took the can, examining it with a grin. “Hell, if I’d have known this came with purchase, I’d have bought myself a leather skirt, too.”
Angie laughed. “It didn’t come with the skirt. It came with the nightie I bought.”
“The nightie you forgot to mention buying?”
“Maybe.”
“I hope it’s a little more daring than the Garfield nightshirt you usually wear to bed. You know, the I HATE MORNINGS one.”
“I think it’s a little sexier than that one.” Kathy had bought her the Garfield sleep shirt the Christmas before as a joke, but it had become one of Angie’s favorite lounge-around outfits.
Trey chuckled. “Angel, allow me to let you in on a secret. Anything would be more sexy than Garfield.”
Her lips formed a playful pout. “And here I thought you liked me in that nightshirt. You always seem to drop by when I’m either just getting out of bed or getting ready for it.”
“Purely coincidence. And here’s a tip, since you want a man’s opinion on these things, men don’t need expensive nighties to get them fired up. Hell, nothing at all does the same trick.”
“So you’d prefer me naked?”
Trey’s eyes widened. “What?”
She bit back a giggle. “Hypothetically speaking, of course.”
“Of course.” Shaking his head and grinning, he stepped around her and made his way over to the window on the other side of the Jacuzzi.
“Can I model it for you?”
“What?” He turned from the view outside.
“You know, to see what you think. It would be nice to have a man’s opinion.”
He hesitated in his reply. “Angel, I’m not so sure that’s a good—”
“I promise it covers more than the bra did,” she said, cutting off his protest. “And you are here to give me a man’s view on what’s sexy. Are you not?”
Trey gave a casual shrug. “You’ve got a point. So what are you waiting for? Go try it on.”
“Okay. Be back in a sec.”
She grabbed the bag that held her newly purchased nightgown and made a bee-line for the bathroom before Trey could change his mind. His reaction to it was very important to her. She wanted him to like it.
Butterflies swirled in frenzied flutters in her stomach as Angie pushed the bathroom door shut behind her. When had it happened? When had she begun to feel more for Trey than friendship?
This was more than teenage fantasies of her best friend’s brother. Something altogether different. It was intense. Real. Exciting.
It was also crazy. No matter what her growing feelings for Trey were, she knew where his thoughts lay in regards to long-term commitments. She had no intention of pushing him. Their friendship was too important.
That didn’t mean she couldn’t live out a fantasy week in Vegas while recreating herself. She wanted to show Trey she was more than his best friend. She was a woman, too.
*
Trey gave a hopeless chuckle, shaking his head as he paced the hotel room waiting for Angel to change. He could run a several million dollar company, but found himself chasing his tail in circles when it came to Angel and her crazy plans.
“Trey…”
He turned and his breath hitched.
The nightie had come with body whip. That should have been his first inkling that it was going to be something else to behold. But nothing had prepared him for the sight of Angel as she stepped from the bathroom in the clinging blue silk gown.
His heart thudded wildly against his chest as he stood staring at her. Angelina Rossi, his best friend, had shot right past an 8.0 on the Richter scale of sexy, giving new meaning to the term ‘perfect ten’.
“Well?” she asked almost nervously as she lingered in the open doorway. “What do you think?”
She had no reason to be nervous. Not when she looked like that. The sapphire blue nightgown she wore hung to just above her ankles, but the slit along its one side ran clear up to her very bare mid-thigh, maybe higher.
Trey swallowed hard, trying not to look close enough to confirm his observation. Not looking was impossible. The neckline was every bit as revealing, plunging down into a deep V between her ample breasts. It definitely covered more than the black lace bra had, but not in the places he needed it to. Not if he wanted to keep his sanity in place.
“Trey?” Angel started toward him, a flash of bare thigh taunting him with every step, testing his already crumbling willpower.
He stood there, incapable of moving even if he wanted to. God, she was beautiful.
She stopped in front of him and looked down at the silken gown. “Too much?”
Too much. Not enough. All of the above.
“Damn,” he hissed between tightly clenched teeth.
Angel lifted her chin, meeting his gaze. “Is that a good or bad damn?”
He looked at her in amazement. “You really have no idea how damn hot you look right now, do you?”
“I’d like to think I look nice-”
He cut her off. “Nice doesn’t even come close to describing the sight of you right now.”
“It doesn’t?”
“Not by a long shot. Try sexy, tempting, and a whole lot naughty.”
She beamed. “Oh, I like that.”
Giving in to temptation, Trey reached out to touch her, his finger gliding down the inviting dip between her breasts. “Well, I especially like this part.”
Angel’s breath caught, throwing his trailing finger slightly off course. “I’ll make a note of that. Men prefer plunging necklines.”
The warmth of her flesh beneath his fingers made it hard for him to focus, to remember why they were in Las Vegas together in the first place. Angel wanted him to teach her and making love to her wasn’t a part of the plan. His hand fell away, the heat of her still lingering in his mind.
“You should kiss me passionately.”
His gaze snapped up to hers, Angel’s unexpected request throwing him even more off-balance. “What?”
“It makes sense. We’re bound to cross paths with Rick and his flavor of the week again and I’d love to give him another eyeful.”
That’s simple. Let him see you in that.
Only then he would have to hurt Rick. Because if Rick-the-Dick so much as caught a glimpse of Angel looking this way, he’d be on his knees begging her to take
him back.
Not in this lifetime.
Smiling, Trey drew her to him. “If the dumb shit had even half a brain, he’d already be eating his heart out.”
Angel’s soft laughter filled the room. “I like the way you think.”
“I like the way you look.” He tunneled his fingers through her dark curls, securing Angel’s head as he lowered his mouth to hers.
Angel pressed up against him, her soft moan swallowed up by his passionate kiss. Her slender fingers traveled up the back of his shirt to the hair at the base of his collar, sifting through the strands.
He couldn’t get enough of her. His hands moved downward, closing over the inviting curve of her buttocks. He coaxed her up against him, his erection pressing intimately against her hip. There was no denying his desire for her.
“Make love to me, Trey.”
Her breathy plea had him scrambling for rational thought. Not an easy thing to do while standing next to a very roomy king-size bed, holding a gorgeous, half-naked woman who wanted the same thing he did. To make love.
Were she any other woman he was interested in he would have taken her up on her request, but this was Angel. His Angel. He cared about her too much to give in to his own selfish needs. She wasn’t thinking straight or she’d realize that they couldn’t…
“I want to, Angel,” he confessed with a groan. Trey hung his head and rested his brow against hers. “God, how I want to. It’s all I can do not to…”
She lifted her face to his, looking up at him with those incredibly large, dark chocolate, eyes of hers. “It’s all right. I understand.”
Despite her reassuring words, he knew she didn’t. Not really.
Trey caught her beautiful, upturned face between his hands. “Angel, you are one of the sexiest women I know and I’m not just saying that. I mean it. But you’re looking for a relationship that offers you a future. I’m not at a point where I can do that right now.” He wasn’t sure when he’d ever be.
“I’m not asking for forever, Trey. All I’m asking for is now. Only in Vegas. No more.”
“Only in Vegas?” he repeated, his words thick with desire.
She nodded.
He brushed his lips across hers in a tender kiss. “You’re my best friend,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t want to lose that.”
“You won’t.”
“I need to think.” He caressed her cheek. “I’m going for a walk. I’ll be back in a little while.”
He was out of the room before he did anything they would both regret, like make love to Angel. That wasn’t part of her plan and he knew it. And to let things move to that level would bring in complications that could ruin a friendship he wouldn’t trade for the world.
*
Angie stared at the door after Trey had gone, wondering what had just happened between them. She didn’t have to ask what hadn’t. The ache between her legs and in her heart told her that.
Trey had said that he wanted her, too. But his flying out the door the way he had wasn’t a very reassuring sign. Angie sank onto the edge of the bed with a sigh.
Whatever had she been thinking asking Trey to make love to her? Risking their friendship. It wasn’t as though she had planned it. It just came out of her mouth before she could stop it.
Truth was it couldn’t be helped. The way Trey’s hungry gaze had moved over her, the intensity of his kiss, all left her wanting. And she wanted Trey.
The phone next to the bed rang out and Angie shot to her feet. “Trey!”
Why she had thought it would be him as she scrambled madly for the ringing phone was beyond her. He’d only just left the room. It was just that she wanted so badly…
“Hello?”
“There you are. I’ve been trying to catch you all day.”
“Kathy?”
“Last time I checked.” Her friend laughed. “I know. I’m such a smart ass.”
Angie walked over to the window. “Took the words right out of my mouth.”
“Trouble in Paradise?”
“What?”
“You have that little hitch in your voice you always get when you’re upset about something. Rick proving himself a dick again? I can put ex-lax in his coffee when he gets back from this trip.”
That particular thought had a smile tugging at Angie’s lips, despite being so disconcerted over her feelings for Trey. Feelings that were so complicated it was almost impossible to know where to even begin to decipher them all.
“Angie?” Kathy prompted.
“I’m fine. Just a little tired. Your brother and I shopped all day.”
“Hold up. We are talking about Trey, aren’t we?”
“Unless you have another brother that I don’t know about.”
Angie turned away from the window. She couldn’t enjoy the view or any part of Vegas while Trey was God knows where only to avoid being propositioned by her again.
“Okay, the only kind of store I’ve ever known my brother to frequent by choice is a sporting goods store. So I guess I’ll be getting a souvenir from you guys that calls for me to get sweaty, which may I remind you I hate to do. That is, unless it’s with a man.”
Angie sighed and sank down onto the edge of the bed once more.
“Ange, what’s wrong?”
“I messed up big time.”
Her friend’s groan echoed through the receiver. “My ears are covered. I refuse to listen to you tell me you had a change of heart and slept with that slime ball ex of yours.”
“Ick. No.”
“Oh, thank God.”
“I almost slept with Trey.”
“No shit!” Suddenly, there was a loud clattering at the other end of the line. “Hang on,” Kathy called out. “I dropped the phone.”
Angie rolled her eyes. This was just great. She’d now succeeded in shocking both of her best friends.
“Back,” Kathy said, after having apparently regained control of the handset. “Now, care to run that by me one more time?”
“I said I almost slept with your brother.”
“That’s great!”
Angie closed her eyes and shook her head. “You’re not hearing me. Key word there was almost. As in it never happened. Nothing. Nada. Zip.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Join the club,” Angie muttered in frustration. “Everything was fine between us, just as it’s always been. Then he kissed me in the lobby—”
“He kissed you.”
“Don’t go getting too excited. He was supposed to do that.”
“He was?”
“Well, the where of it wasn’t actually specified. Just the when.”
“Let me get this straight. You wanted my brother to kiss you at a specific time?”
“Yes. He was supposed to do it whenever we ran into Rick, which we did right after arriving here at the hotel. Trey and I were in the lobby when Rick came strolling toward us, flaunting his new eye candy.”
“Slithering would be more like it,” Kathy promptly corrected. “But that’s beside the point. So that’s when Trey kissed you?”
“Yes.” Angie closed her eyes, remembering the incredible feel of his lips on hers, gentle yet demanding.
“I see. But for some reason I’m thinking there is more to this than you’re telling me.”
“It was supposed to be for appearance sake. But when Trey kissed me that way, it was like his mouth took possession of me, and something big happened.”
“Damn. I’m aware that my big brother has a reputation for being good, but to give you the big ‘O’ with just a kiss… And in the middle of a crowded lobby…”
“Kathy!” Heat flooded Angie’s cheeks. “I didn’t have an orgasm.”
Mentally maybe…
Her friend giggled. “Oops, sorry. It’s been so long since you’ve even had sex, I just thought—”
Angie groaned. “You don’t have to remind me of how long it’s been.” And it didn’t appear like that was going to change anytime soon.
“I was modeling the nightgown I bought today at Sinful Surrender—”
“Sinful what?”
“It’s a store Trey and I went to so I could spice up my wardrobe.”
“With a name like that, I can only imagine what the nightgown must look like you were modeling for him.”
“It’s not that bad, really.” Angie gave it another thought. “Well, maybe it is a little sexy, but that’s what I was aiming for. I really think it was working.”
“Was?” Kathy pressed.
“He looked at me like he’s never looked at me before. Then the next thing I knew we were kissing again. Only Rick wasn’t around.”
“Sounds to me like it did work.”
Angie sighed. “Only until I asked Trey to make love to me. Then he was out the door like his pants were on fire.”
“No doubt they were from the sound of things,” Kathy said, her words followed by a muffled snicker.
“I’m glad you find my situation humorous. I’d hate to depress both of us.”
“I’m sorry, Ange. I’m just trying to imagine what’s going through my brother’s head right now. Sometimes he can be so clueless to things. Like what a great couple you two would make.”
“Kathy, you know he’s not looking for anything like that.” Most of all, she knew that. “I was only asking him to have a fling with me.”
Her best friend laughed again. “Sorry, I just can’t picture you as the ‘fling’ kind of girl. The Angelina Rossi I know is more the commitment type and Trey knows that, too. We just have to work on changing him.”
“I could be the ‘fling’ type of girl if I wanted to be,” Angie argued, determined to set her friend straight on the matter.
“Yeah, and I could be a runway model. Sorry, Ange, there are just some things neither of us will ever be, and your being the ‘fling’ type is one of them.”
“If you remember right, I came here intending to change myself. Out with the old Angelina Rossi and in with the newer, sexier one. I just happened to get a little carried away and your brother had the misfortune of being right in the line of my sexual misfire.”
“Trey will get over it, I’m sure. It’s you I’m worried about. You going to be okay?”
Only in Vegas Page 8
