It Wasn't Me

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I choked at the lady’s outraged gasp.

  “Oh. My. God.” I shook my head as we made our way up the gangplank to the entrance. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

  My snicker was audible as he threw his arm around my shoulders. “I’m serious. If I can get out of here before I get anything, it’ll be a goddamn miracle.”

  “That was pretty bad,” I admitted. “But at least we weren’t next to the crying, screaming kid.”

  The flight attendant closed the curtains at some point, as if that would help, and offered us all sympathetic looks.

  It wasn’t that I was upset that the kid was crying. I wasn’t. Kids cried. It is what it is.

  What I was pissed about was the parents allowed the damn kid to throw a fit over not getting any more free peanuts.

  At one point I honestly considered buying some for the little shit just to shut him up.

  “You’re not lying,” he said. “There are some days that I want kids. Then days like today happen and I realize that maybe kids aren’t on my horizon.”

  I snorted. “You and me both. I love my sisters. Love their kids. But Jesus, I’m so happy to not have to deal with the sleepless nights, the constant crying, and the other shit they tell me is awful on a daily basis.”

  Jonah rolled his eyes to look down at me.

  I felt my heart skip a beat at the look in his eyes.

  “I’m sure it’s different when you have your own kids,” he said. “Not that I would know. I felt the same way about my brother’s kids when I was younger. And my sister’s kids. They’re all good now, but there was a time there where I honestly couldn’t stand being around them.”

  My lips twitched.

  “I’m glad it’s not just me,” I said.

  “It’s not,” he said as we finally exited into the Las Vegas airport.

  I blinked at all the light that was streaming in through the copious amount of windows.

  “I don’t remember it being this bright,” I mumbled.

  “You’ve been here before?” he asked, dropping his arm from around my shoulder to once again take up my hand.

  “Yes,” I said, swallowing hard, trying not to think about how nice it felt.

  He no longer had a reason to hold my hand, yet he was doing it anyway.

  “What for?” he asked.

  “Barrett-Jackson car shows, mostly,” I said. “I used to go with my dad every year before I went into the Army.”

  He stopped in the middle of the busy airport and stared down at me.

  “Is that why you’re here today?” he asked in surprise.

  I shrugged. “Yes?”

  Was that a bad thing?

  The smile that overtook his face was breathtaking.

  “That’s why I’m here, too,” he said. “Marry me?”

  I snorted.

  “You’re nuts.” I pushed his chest, loving the hardness that I found underneath the palm of my hand.

  “Nuts about you.”

  I rolled my eyes so hard it caused me to go off balance.

  He caught me before I could fall.

  Then pulled me tight into his chest.

  “This is going to be great.”

  I frowned. “Why do you look like you just hit the jackpot?”

  “Because,” he let me go and set me back down on my feet with a slight jolt. “I’ve never met a woman willing to go to a car auction with me before, and to think that I just found you, in Germany of all places, just makes me all giddy and shit.”

  “All giddy and shit?” I couldn’t help myself from repeating his words. “You sound like a teenage girl.”

  “I feel like one, too,” he teased. “Let’s go.”

  So we went. Out into the Las Vegas heat, and straight to a waiting taxi cab.

  It was sticky, and honestly, it grossed me out.

  “I usually get an Uber when I come,” he said. “But that seemed like it’d take too long. Where are you staying while you’re here?”

  “The Polynesian,” I answered effortlessly. “What about you?”

  He shrugged. “I haven’t booked a hotel yet. Polynesian seems as good a place as any.”

  I frowned. “You came all the way here without first having reservations somewhere?”

  He nodded, looking amused.

  “Yes,” he answered. “Is that bad?”

  “But…what if the hotel you were originally going to stay at didn’t have any openings?” I asked, flabbergasted.

  His lips tipped up at the corners as he smiled slightly.

  “You do realize…” He turned to stare me directly in the eyes, partially taking my breath away. “That Vegas literally has hotels out the ass. There’s bound to be one open room in all of Vegas.”

  I licked my lips.

  “Yeah,” I said. “But what if the one you wanted didn’t have any openings, and you had to stay at one off the strip?”

  He started laughing at that.

  I wasn’t sure whether or not I should be offended that he was laughing at me, but I couldn’t find it in me to be too upset seeing as he looked absolutely gorgeous laughing. It really suited him.

  The muscles in his throat bunched, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.

  And Jesus, that sexy, rusty, rarely used part of his voice was downright vagina-tingle inducing.

  I’d never been one to want to break my vow of waiting for marriage on anyone before…but Jonah Crew? Yeah, I’d definitely consider breaking it for him.

  “What was that look for?” he asked, sobering quickly.

  I swallowed hard and tried to come up with a plausible lie.

  “I was thinking that you could stay with me,” I said softly. “The hotel room has two beds since I was supposed to come with my dad.”

  He frowned. “That wasn’t what you were going to say.”

  “That’s all you’re getting,” I shared.

  He snorted. “Fair enough.”

  Our taxi ride to the Polynesian took less than fifteen minutes.

  “That’ll be sixty-two fifty,” the taxi driver called from the front as we arrived at the hotel drop off.

  “Umm,” I hesitated.

  That sounded high.

  I’d been here quite a few times before, and the last time I’d done this exact same trip it only cost thirty, and that was because my father had made him stop by the tattoo parlor first to make sure that he could get an appointment later with his good buddy. We hadn’t taken any detours this time, and it’d only been two years since I’d last been. There was no way in hell they’d doubled their cab fair price in all that time.

  And Jonah, apparently, was on the same page as me seeing as he started growling from his seat beside me.

  “I don’t see a meter,” Jonah argued. “Normally there’s one that the client in the back can see. I don’t even see one up front with you. How do you know what the price is?”

  “The price is the price,” the middle-aged man said. “Now pay up or I’m calling the cops.”

  Jonah snorted. “I’ll give you thirty, and you can go ahead and call the cops all you want. Do you want to take a photo of my license? That way you can tell the cops who I am, and have my picture for them to see, that way they can get in touch with me and I can tell them that you’re scamming your riders.”

  The man’s jaw tightened, and he narrowed his eyes.

  “Yeah,” he said as he turned. “I would like a picture of it.”

  Jonah pulled it out and pressed it up against the glass.

  “There,” he said. “Do you want my number, too? I have an email as well.”

  The guy’s eyes narrowed.

  “I don’t have to deal with this shit,” he hissed. “Ungrateful tourists like you. The price is sixty-two fifty. Either pay it or get out of my cab and I’ll call the cops.”

  Jonah pulled out thirty-five dollars, tossed it on the seat of the cab, then dropped a business
card on the seat.

  “Left you a card back here,” Jonah said as he quickly slid out of the cab, grabbing my hand and helping me out.

  Luckily I had the wherewithal to grab my bag as I was exiting because before both of my feet had even hit the pavement, the cab driver was peeling away from the curb with an angry ‘fuck you’ thrown Jonah’s way.

  “You really have a habit of pissing people off,” I mused as I shouldered my bag.

  Jonah grunted and gestured toward one of the bellhops that was waiting to help people with luggage.

  “We’re good, thanks, man,” Jonah said his way.

  The bellhop nodded and got the door for us, eliciting a ‘thank you’ from me and a ‘thanks again’ from Jonah.

  We were inside the large lobby when Jonah said, “Guy was scamming us. I knew as soon as I got in and didn’t see the meter what he was going to try to do. Fucker.”

  “You’ve had that happen before?” I asked curiously.

  He shook his head and said, “No. I’ve heard about it, but not actually had it happen to me. You remember anything about the guy’s name?”

  I thought back to the hastily scribbled name written on masking tape that was stuck to the dash.

  “Henry Winkle.”

  “Henry Winkle?” he repeated.

  “Yeah,” I said. “It was written in block lettering and I thought it was a cute name.”

  He grunted something and gestured to the lady smiling wide at us—or at least at Jonah.

  “Go get us checked in,” he ordered. “I’m going to call this in to a buddy that’s on LVPD.”

  I did as he asked, smiling at the lady whose smile had dimmed upon seeing that Jonah hadn’t followed me.

  “Can I help you?” she asked casually.

  I barely contained the eye roll.

  “Yes, ma’am.” I smiled. “I’m here to check my fiancé and me in.”

  I had no idea why I’d said ‘fiancé.’

  Honestly, it was likely due to the fact that she would’ve given much better service to Jonah.

  I grinned when her eyes narrowed.

  “Ohhh!” the woman that was next to the one that I was working with clapped. “You’re getting married?”

  What did I say now?

  “Uhhh, yes?”

  “We have a honeymoon suite!” she cried out. “You’ll just love it! And it’s the same price as the one that you have right now!”

  And before I could stop her or say anything differently, the bouncy, overly excited woman was pushing my sneering attendant to the side and typing away at her computer.

  Moments after that, she was doing a shimmy shake.

  “I was able to get you the executive honeymoon suite!” she cried out. “Aces!”

  I bit my lip, unable to stop myself from smiling at her excitement.

  “What’s the executive honeymoon suite?” Jonah drawled as he walked up long moments into the shit show.

  “It’s even better than the room y’all were going to get!” she promised. “It’s so awesome! I’ve always wanted to stay in it, but you really do have to have a fiancé or they won’t let you stay there.”

  “We’re really sticking with this ‘fiancé’ thing?” he teased quietly in my ear.

  I huffed.

  “That woman was staring at you like a shark. She was barely even paying attention to me as she watched you pace behind me. It slipped out,” I muttered darkly under my breath.

  Jonah chuckled as he pulled me even tighter. “That sounds great. What’s so special about it?”

  “It has a jacuzzi tub, a great overhanging view of the strip, a private balcony roof entrance, complimentary, errrmmm, stuff.”

  The complimentary ‘stuff’ was definitely intriguing seeing as she blushed a fiery red the moment that the words came out of her mouth.

  Interesting.

  “That sounds wonderful.” Jonah smiled at her.

  That smile made both women wilt, even the one that was glaring daggers at me.

  What in the hell did I ever do to her? Shit! I literally just walked in the door!

  “Okay, we have you all set up. The card that you used to book the room is already on file. Do you want to use a new one for the room charges?” she asked.

  Jonah whipped his wallet out so fast that it took me a long second to react.

  And by the time that I had, the excited woman was already handing it back to him.

  “Y’all are on the top floor!” she cheered. “Room 3001!”

  With that, she practically presented us with our room keys. “Have a magical stay! And if you have any wedding photos, I’d love to see them!”

  With that, Jonah guided me away.

  “You told them we were getting married here?” he asked.

  I shook my head and placed my hands on my face.

  “No,” I said through my hands.

  He snorted. “It was funny, don’t worry about it.”

  It wasn’t funny.

  It was awful.

  I’d just lied, and karma was going to kick me in the ass, I just knew it.

  Jonah led me to the elevator, never once letting my hand go.

  We were at the room, thirty floors up, when he finally dropped it.

  “Holy shit,” he said as he took in the room.

  “Holy shit,” I repeated. “Holy fuckin’ shit.”

  The room was…awesome.

  The best thing I’d ever been in in my entire life, and that was saying something because my parents didn’t skimp when it came to hotel rooms.

  I’d also stayed in quite a few over my life.

  This one was, by far, the best one I’d ever been inside of, flat out.

  “This is great,” he muttered, his eyes zeroing in on the bed.

  But that was only a small, minute part of the splendor that was the room.

  Three sides of the room were ceiling to floor glass, and there was one hell of a view of the Las Vegas strip. Hell, even the bathroom was encased in all glass, albeit frosted for privacy reasons.

  Then there was the bed, which was centered in the middle of the room.

  It was covered in bright, blood red sheets that looked to be silk. And the duvet cover was also bright red, though it didn’t look to be silk, but something just as soft.

  The bed was decorated with rose petals, and there was a chilling bottle of champagne, along with a ‘congratulations’ note.

  There were so many freakin’ pillows that there was no way in hell someone could sleep with that many.

  There was a fully stocked bar with chocolate-covered strawberries sitting on it with another note that said ‘Congratulations.’

  Then there was the final thing.

  A rather large, circular ottoman type thing that was covered in faux fur. The perfect height and width for extracurricular activities.

  There wasn’t even a television.

  “This place is really awesome.” I shook my head. “I have no idea how the hell she managed to get me into this for the same price as the one I booked. The one that I booked was economy.”

  He chuckled and dropped my hand, walking over to the bed.

  There he whistled.

  “What?” I asked.

  He gestured to the bed where the champagne was chilling.

  I walked up to his side and read the note, then got a better look at what was beside it.

  “Ummm,” I said. “Does that say what I think it says?”

  “This has to be what she was blushing about,” Jonah grinned.

  It had to be. There was no other way anything could’ve made her blush that bad if it wasn’t this.

  “A pleasure kit?” He picked it up and brought it to his face.

  The kit itself was about the size of a shoe box.

  When he took off the red ribbons holding it together, then removed the lid, he grinned wide.

  “This is…something,” he said as he du
mped the contents of the box onto the bed.

  “A vibrator.” He held it up, still in plastic packaging. “Finger condoms. Lubrication. Warming gel. A cock ring. Edible panties. Oh, and anal beads.”

  I choked. “Out of all of that, there aren’t any condoms?”

  He picked the box up and once again went through it. “Not a one.”

  Chuckling, he tossed what was left in his hand onto the bed, pulled his backpack off, and placed it on the bed, too.

  “Let’s go explore,” he said, beautiful eyes coming to me.

  I swallowed, but never once thought to tell him no.

  Chapter 6

  We are all someone’s asshole.

  -Jonah to Piper

  Jonah

  I woke with my head pounding, my heart hammering a mile a minute and the knowledge that I wasn’t alone in my bed.

  The first indication that everything was not right was the female moaning coming from behind me.

  The second was the way that female kept saying “oh, fuck me” over and over again.

  The third was that there was a heavy weight on my left ring finger that felt conspicuously like there was something on it. And it burned.

  Burned in a really familiar way, just not necessarily in that particular spot.

  “Jonah,” a familiar voice said from the bed beside me. “My ass burns.”

  I blinked, peeled open one eye, and stared at the ceiling.

  “I’m not sure,” I rasped, “that that particular comment needed to be shared with me.”

  “Well,” Piper said, sounding worried. “If I can’t tell my husband that, who can I tell?”

  I froze, feeling my stomach revolt, but not because I was upset at the news, but because I’d obviously done some drinking last night. I also wasn’t a young man anymore. It took me a while to recover from an entire night of drinking.

  “Husband?” I asked, sitting up in the bed and feeling the sheet slip down my completely unclothed body.

  “Mmmhmmm,” she said, sounding funny. “Husband.”

  I looked over at the woman in my bed and felt my dick come to life.

  God, she was absolutely beautiful.

  Her hair was a tangled mess of curls that went every which way but together in one direction. It was spread out all over the silky red sheets that we were both lying on. She had the sheet that was also partially covering me pulled up over her naked chest, and that was it.