by E Kay Sims
“I want to get to know you,” Gil whispered.
I yanked my hand away and leaned back in my seat. “That isn’t possible.”
“Why not?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “We’re enjoying ourselves, Gil. Let’s not spoil that.”
“But we made love last night and this morning. Over and over.”
Oh no. Gil was not going to do this, was he? He couldn’t cling to me like this. He didn’t know the real me and he never could. I had to protect my true identity at all costs. “Made love? Gil, we barely know each other, how can we be in love? We had sex, pure and simple. We don’t have to bring us into it. There is no us, got it?”
His shoulders slumped and I could see his heart breaking. I think my heart broke with his. I didn’t believe the words that poured from my mouth. They hurt me as much as they hurt him. As soon as I felt the first tears welling in my eyes, I launched myself out of the booth and raced out of the restaurant. Shoving my way through the glass door, I stood in the middle of the hot parking lot, the sun beating down on my fair skin. My breath shook as I tried to hold back the tears. Why was I crying over this guy? He was a client who I’d broken all the rules for. I wasn’t supposed to see clients outside of Elizabeth’s place. These people were dangerous; they had connections we couldn’t imagine and were told not to. They could make us disappear off the face of the Earth if we wronged them.
But Gil Barlow was an ice cream flavor inventor from Australia. Hardly a despot. He wouldn’t hurt me. But how did I tell him who I really was? Would he be able to handle the fact that I had been lying to his face from the moment we met?
I felt him behind me before he spoke. My body was already attuned to him. How had this happened so fast? I quickly wiped my face. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled.
“No worries.” His voice wasn’t cold but it was distant.
I turned to face him as he buried his hands into the pockets of his jeans. I loved how he looked in his blue- and white-checked shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Why the hell was I noticing such ridiculously small details?
“Where to next?”
My jaw dropped. “You still want to do stuff with me?”
“Sure I do. I’ve enjoyed everything we’ve done together so far. So, lead on.” Gil held the keys out to me.
I stood there like a statue and stared, wide-eyed, at the keys dangling from his finger.
“You want to drive?”
“You’re going to let me drive that sexy as fuck convertible sports car?”
He pushed the keys into my hand, but when I gripped them, he hesitated in releasing them. “Just no dents or scratches and no going too fast. Hired car or not, if we damage that thing in the slightest, Eric will kill me. Honest, the guy is trained to kill people. He could do a decent job of finishing me off without leaving a trace of evidence behind.”
“I promise I’ll treat it like my own.” Gil finally let them go, and I pecked him on the cheek before skipping across to my dream ride. The dream ride I was about to drive.
Gil followed behind like a sad puppy dog. I tried to ignore his sadness as we got into the car. I turned it on and revved the engine a few times.
I threw a wicked grin Gil’s way. “Hold tight.”
As I pushed my foot onto the accelerator, Gil did just that. “Piper! Piper, slow down! My best friend is an assassin, remember?”
I simply giggled at him as we zoomed off down the Strip.
GIL
Thankful to have arrived at our destination in one piece, I exited the vehicle and trailed behind Piper. I knew I was sulking, and I suppose I knew we couldn’t be anything more than a fling. But honestly, last night meant a lot more to me––clearly a lot more than it did to Piper. I was still her client and that was all. I knew going into this that I could get hurt, yet I’d done so anyway.
That’s what women tended to do to me. They used me for a while then dumped me in favour of something better. That’s what Casey did. I found out about her cheating with one of the mechanics in Deep Lake two months before our wedding last year. Not long after that, the Oak Street Ice Cream bloke had breezed into my ice creamery with his offer. I’d had a gutful of my hometown and that was my out.
I stared at Piper’s arse in that dress—the curve of it, the way it swayed as she walked. I took in her long blond hair and fair skin. She was strong, confident, and independent, sexually adventurous…. Everything about her made me realise that she was way out of my league.
“Are we watching a car race?” I shouted as I lifted my line of sight from her to the Las Vegas Speedway sign.
“Nope, we’re going in the car race. I pulled some strings while you were sleeping,” she answered as she spun around to face me.
“More strings?”
We stared at one another, an uncomfortable silence falling between us. Her face was guarded. With a sigh, I turned away from her. We stepped out of the heat and into an air-conditioned room.
“Joe!” Piper called.
“Hey, girlio!” A gruff middle-aged man greeted her with a hug. “You here for your big ride?”
“Sure am. This is Gil.”
“G’day.”
“Pleasure.” He shook my hand then turned back to Piper. “What are you all dolled up for?”
“Big night last night, Joe.” She had the elusive answer thing down pat, I had to give her that. It also happened to be fucking annoying.
Joe looked me up and down with a critical eye. “With this one?”
Piper shrugged nonchalantly. “He sort of came later.”
Want to know how to make a guy feel incredibly insignificant? Piper just nailed it.
“I’m showing him the best parts of Vegas.”
“Then you’ve come to the right place.” Joe grinned and turned to me. “You ever been in a race car, Aussie?”
“We kind of got here in one.” I jabbed my thumb over my shoulder to the hired car.
“That thing’s a kitten. We’ve got beasts here.” Joe pushed off from the counter he’d been leaning against and picked up two sets of keys. “I’ll go get my driving partner. I’ll meet you two in the pit.”
I scratched my chin “Where’s the pit?”
“Girlio will lead the way.” Joe indicated Piper, who nodded her agreement.
Piper and I stared at each other again as Joe headed through a door marked Staff Only, and I felt the chasm between us widen. She moved to a glass door opposite the one we’d entered through and pulled it open. “This way.”
My arm brushed against hers as I passed her, the skin-on-skin contact sent prickles of excitement through me. God, I wanted to hold her again, to make love to her, and show her what we could be together. Not for a couple of days, but for good. I wanted her to be mine.
But fuck, how did I do that? How did I chase after this woman and woo her? Piper was much more experienced than me. She wouldn’t fall for any bullshit.
“So, Joe is my uncle.”
My mouth dropped open. Piper was opening up to me. I wisely decided to keep quiet and listened intently as she continued.
“He’s been working here since he was in his twenties. He used to race, but never cracked the big time, so he and some of his buddies decided to run a little side business giving everyday folks a taste of the racing action from the inside. Now it’s one of the most popular experiences in Vegas. There are a couple of others like this in town now, but none of them are like Joe’s.”
I liked hearing the pride in her voice, the familiarity. She was allowing me a tiny glance into her life. I appreciated the sentiment. “How much time have you spent here?”
Piper shrugged. “Enough.”
We reached the pit and she held out a helmet to me. I took a hold of it and she didn’t let go. Her lips parted as her gaze flitted down to my own. I fought to control my breathing. She tugged the helmet from my grasp and stepped closer to me. My hands found her hips as she pulled the helmet down over my head.
“I might have come
later in the night, Piper, but it was at exactly the right time,” I whispered, hardly believing the words that were coming out of my mouth. “You certainly seemed to think so.”
She quirked one of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows at me. “Oh, the shy boy’s picking up his game, is he?”
“Making an observation, is all. You enjoyed every moment of last night.” I tightened my grip on her.
“I never said I didn’t.” She glanced away. “Joe’s waiting.”
I watched her walk toward the older man who was now dressed in racing overalls and hanging over the open door of a white Lamborghini.
“Jump in, Aussie!” he shouted at me. “Girlio, you’re with Ashton.”
“Got it.” Piper nodded once, pulled on her helmet, and made her way to a twin Lamborghini where a good-looking driver was waiting. “Hey, Ashton.”
“Hey, lookin’ good today, sweets.”
I gritted my teeth together, feeling jealous. Did Piper know all the sexy guys in Las Vegas?
“In you get, kid,” Joe urged me.
I slipped into the passenger seat and managed to do up the complicated, orange seatbelt. The loud engine revved to life, filling my ears. My heart raced in anticipation of the ride we were about to embark on as the two vehicles rolled out of the pit.
“So, you just met my niece last night, huh?” Joe asked.
“Yeah, mate. It’s been… a blast.”
“You don’t sound too convinced.” He rolled up to the starting line.
“I’m convinced.”
He glanced across at me, no doubt taking in the sorry state of me. “What am I missing here?”
I released a sigh. “I want to get to know her.”
“Ah, and she doesn’t want to let you in?”
“Nope.”
Ashton’s car rolled up beside us and I glanced across at the stunning woman in his passenger seat. As if she sensed me, Piper looked across at me as well. She flashed me the smallest of smiles and there was something in her gaze, something that made me feel a sense of hope.
“Oh, holy fuck.” Joe laughed as his line of sight slid between the two of us. “You two are in big trouble.”
“We’re what?” I didn’t notice the other driver count down and barely managed to brace myself as the cars flew forward at the rate of knots.
“Let me tell you a little something about my niece… that girl ain’t gonna let you in too much. She doesn’t even let us—her family—in,” Joe shouted. “She’s got some almighty secrets and she keeps them locked away tight. I sure as hell would like to know what she gets up to. Heck, so would her daddy. But if she hasn’t told us, what makes you think she’s going to tell you, a guy she’s known for less than twenty-four hours?”
I tried to consider Joe’s words, but the G-forces were ruining much chance I had of paying attention. I yelled as he rounded a corner. Gulping back on my unsettled tummy, I said, “I thought after last night that—”
“What? You had a tumble in the sheets and now you’re going to marry her?”
I didn’t want to marry her, exactly.
“Let me tell you exactly how long Vegas marriages last.”
“How long?”
“Just about as long as the wedding ceremony.”
“I don’t want to marry her!” I snapped.
A challenge flashed in Joe’s eyes. “Oh, so you want to use her then?”
“No! Why would I want to get to know her and then use her? That makes no sense.”
“That’s how a lot of guys use women. They break down their barriers, have their way with them, and then, they bail.”
“I’m not going to do that,” I mumbled.
“What’s that? Speak up, Aussie.”
“I’ll never do that! I know what it’s like to be used. I’d never do that to her. Piper’s precious.”
“Did you just say she’s precious?” It seemed like Joe couldn’t believe his ears.
“She’s more precious than the planet’s most expensive diamond.”
“Shit, you’re the real deal, aren’t ya?”
Before I could ask what he meant, Joe eased the car to the side and slowly levelled up with Piper & Ashton’s car.
“Here we go, the big show!” Joe shouted.
I gasped as the cars slid up close together, like unsure lovers. Surely, we would end up colliding? But then we were drifting, side-by-side, perfectly in sync, around the track. We swapped sides a couple of times before leveling out and making our way home. I laughed and let out a whoop of triumph as I punched the ceiling. Joe laughed at me as I clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks, mate, that was awesome.”
“Ya know, you ain’t so bad, Aussie.” Joe fell into silence for a few moments. “I’ll tell you what, let me have a word with that niece of mine, see if I can’t talk her ‘round a little.”
I looked at him in surprise. “You’d do that?”
“Yeah. Only because I don’t think you’re a douchebag, and she deserves to let some joy into her life. Joy that isn’t work, I mean, because I know how much she loves that.”
I was confused. “I don’t know whether she gets much joy out of her work.”
Joe’s face reflected my confusion. Then he sighed. “That girl is a riddle. I wish you luck, Aussie, because you’re going to need it.”
ERIC
A
few hours into the yoga workshop, I was ready for a late lunch or early dinner. I’d have thought the massive breakfast of chicken waffles and blueberry pie I’d eaten this morning would’ve kept me over till dinner.
Who knew yoga could be so taxing? I found the mental aspect of it relatively easy. The terms were different, but I already practiced a form of meditation I’d learned from my training. So I could make a few easy changes to incorporate it into my daily life whenever my anxiety and PTSD symptoms arose. The key was recognizing my triggers before it was too late. The workshop was designed to help with that. Tools for the toolbox, Aurore had said.
The physical part for me really wasn’t a big deal. However, I was using my muscles in ways I never had before and surprisingly, I found some of the poses were quite challenging when held for long periods. I was burning up calories fast!
My stomach rumbled, interrupting my thoughts and loud enough to be heard by the people who sat next to me in the dimly lit classroom.
“Sorry,” I said sheepishly as I placed my hand over my belly to quiet it as the two guys on either side of me looked in my direction.
“Excuse me, Mr. Thorsen, did you have a question?” Aurore’s questioning gaze hit me like a laser.
“No, ma’am,” I replied. “Please continue.” I pretended to highlight a passage in my workbook.
What I wouldn’t give for a ribeye steak, medium well, twice-baked potatoes, creamed spinach, and a giant, ice cold, Coors light––my all time favorite meal!
We were reviewing the workbook material as the lead teacher, Aurore, highlighted some important tips regarding triggers. EZee sat at the back of the room running the overhead projector. It took all my self-control, but I’d somehow managed not to make eye contact with her since I arrived to class that day.
She seemed to be trying her damnedest to do the same. But I felt her eyes on me when she thought I didn’t notice. And every time I felt her eyes, it was like a physical caress. Damn it! I was more affected by her than I thought or was willing to admit to myself. It didn’t help that she looked hot as fuck in her form-fitted tank top and tight, little yoga mini-skirt, and leggings. And she was wearing my favorite color––black! I knew every inch of that sexy body of hers.
I had to mentally slap myself to get the vision of her naked, spread eagle on the bed last night, all hot and sweaty in the afterglow of her orgasm––out of my head. Fuck! My dick, already half hard, pushed against the front of my loose workout pants. I had to rearrange my seated position to hide it.
Goddammit! When was Aurore going to give us a thirty-minute break?
We were already ten minute
s overdue for our scheduled break, and I needed something to eat. I got cranky and pissed off when I’m hungry, and this, I realized, could be one of my particular triggers. See, I really was learning this shit!
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath to myself when my stomach let out another obnoxious growl.
That time, I was pretty sure the entire class had heard it in the momentary lull of Aurore’s speech as she waited for everyone to absorb what she’d just said. Which, by the way, I had missed, I had been too busy trying not to think about EZee coming with my tongue buried in her tight pussy, her sweetness running all down my chin. The taste of her drove me wild, and it had taken every bit of my self-control not to come right then and there with my face buried between her sweet thighs.
Son of a bitch! I was like an oversexed teenaged boy! Get a grip, Thorsen! I mentally chastised myself.
“Okay, everybody, we’ll take forty minutes since we went over time and we are technically ahead of schedule,” Aurore announced.
Thank God!
EZee turned off the overhead projector and someone turned on the lights. Everybody stretched and stood up to leave. I grabbed my water bottle and took a long drink before I put my shoes back on, then headed for the door to leave.
Forty minutes wasn’t much time to get something to eat here at The Palazzo and still have time to get back to class. I’d brought a few snacks for the drive down to Vegas and had them stashed in the room. I decided I’d get a snack and take a short rest.
When I entered the crowded elevator, I realized EZee must have had the same idea. For a split second, we’d made eye contact and there was no mistaking the unguarded look I saw there. She wasn’t as unmoved as she’d pretended to be during class, I could see it plain as day on her beautiful face. She wanted me as much as I wanted her.
It was pure torture waiting for the elevator to finally reach our floor after stopping to let people off at every floor on the way up. Thank God we were only on the sixth floor, but still, it seemed to take forever.
Once the doors opened and most of the people cleared out, she and I were the last ones to exit.
We both stepped forward at the same time. Our arms lightly brushed as we exited the elevator. Neither of us openly acknowledged it, but I knew she felt the jolt that flashed between us from that simple touch.
