Lust (Vegas Nights #2)

by Emma Hart

  The pool rules were simple. Don’t run, don’t dive, and don’t drown.

  Of course, that meant my son, the daredevil, ran, dived, and almost drowned.

  Fuck, almost drowned was an exaggeration, but the inch-long scrape on his leg wasn’t. I’d tried telling him that our above ground pool wasn’t like his nan’s and he couldn’t dive into it, because he had to climb into ours, not just jump.

  Adult logic was too much for him, because that’s what he’d done. Given himself a running start, scraped his leg on one of the poles in the frame, and then belly-flopped into the pool. I wasn’t quite sure how he’d managed any of it, but the cut had looked worse than it was, and Perrie had patched it up pretty swiftly.

  He was now back in the pool with Lola eying him somewhat warily, given the splash his disaster had created. Perrie was inside on the phone somewhere, and I was on the porch, cleaning out the grill.

  Today had been a day full of craziness. After I’d dropped Perrie and Lola at home to get an overnight bag, I was halfway around the grocery store when my sister called and wanted to know where her car keys were.

  The answer? The bottom of Zac’s backpack. Somehow. One delivery later, Zac had spilled his mouth about Perrie last night, this morning, and tonight, and Amie had given me the third degree five times over. She’d even left with a threat that she was going to stop by.

  That was the last thing I wanted. Although I’d spent the morning teasing Perrie that we were dating, the truth was, we probably weren’t. We weren’t single people who could slowly get to know each other and do it gradually.

  We’d been thrust together by our jobs, and this wasn’t a normal situation. Not to mention the fact we both had kids. Slowly getting to know somebody wasn’t necessarily an option, because children were full-steam ahead or no-steam ahead.

  And our kids?

  They were full-steam ahead, lightyear speed.

  That made it so much harder for us. I’m sure that if it weren’t for our kids being friends, she wouldn’t be here right now. I hoped that assessment was wrong, but Perrie Fox wasn’t the kind of woman you could sweep off her feet with one night of great sex.

  It would have been easier if she was, but she was anything but easy. And I knew that her heart, her soul, who she really was beneath everything else, was something worth waiting—and fighting—for.

  And I wanted to do that.

  Wait for her.

  Fight for her.

  I had nowhere else to be, nowhere else I even wanted to be. Right now, I only wanted to be with her. Peel back those infuriating fucking layers she kept herself buried under.

  If life were a beach, she’d be a turtle’s egg, buried under millions of grains of sand. It would tease you a hundred times before you got a real glimpse of it. Once you’d uncovered those, you’d get to her.

  More than anything, I wanted her to know that she was safe. She would be safe with me. Always.

  I checked on the kids in the pool and, seeing they were okay, put down the scrubber for the grill and headed inside. My hands were covered in coal ash from where I’d cleared it out, so I made my way to the downstairs half-bath to wash my hands.

  “I’m nervous,” Perrie said from the other room. “What if he doesn’t want to see me?”

  I stilled, staring toward the door. It was ajar, allowing me to only see the tiniest slither of my office through its opening.

  “I know that,” she continued. “But that doesn’t make it easier. I haven’t seen him for years, Dahlia.”

  Dahlia.

  I knew that name. It wasn’t exactly common—there was only one Dahlia I knew of in Las Vegas, and she was at The Scarlet Letter bar, a place my team had never had to frequent.

  Perrie sighed. “Abby said she’d interview me first thing tomorrow, but I need to get a sitter for it.”

  My eyebrows shot up. An interview? Was she applying for a job there?

  “She doesn’t know you. It’s not fair on either of you. I can fix it.”

  A pause.

  “No, you don’t need to push it. I can handle it. Honestly.”

  Another pause.

  “Fine, but I reserve the right to change my mind. I just…I don’t know how to talk to him now.”

  Talk to who?

  “’Kay. Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I darted into the bathroom and scrubbed my hands.

  Perrie leaned against the doorframe. “Learn anything interesting?”

  I grabbed the towel. “Uh…More questions than answers.”

  She pursed her lips, but there was no anger in her gaze. Instead, she sighed, slumping against the frame. “I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing.”

  I stuffed the towel back onto the holder. “If you wanna talk about it…”

  She collected the towel, folded it, and hung it back up.

  I smirked, following her out of the bathroom.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it, I just don’t know if I do,” she said vaguely, stepping out onto the porch. The laughter of our kids as they splashed each other in the pool made us both stop.

  Lola, with her hair in a bun, screeched out spine-tickling giggles as she sent water in Zac’s direction. Zac half-slipped as he stepped backward, but his answering laugh as the droplets splayed all over his face warmed my heart.

  I smiled, and noticed Perrie doing the same. Despite the emotion that tightened her eyes and drew grooves in her forehead, her lips curved, and I knew she loved she sight as much as I did.

  Perrie sighed yet again, taking a seat on the swing Zac had insisted I buy. She sat back, sinking into the soft fabric coating it, and swung gently, using one foot to control it.

  “Last week, I got a call from someone I used to work with. Before Lola was born.” She flashed me a glance, but I pulled coal from the bag and started stacking it. “He wanted me to meet with him, so I did.”

  “That didn’t strike you as weird at all?”

  “Well…” She hesitated. “Fergus is a flamboyant gay, so no, not exactly.”

  I snorted. “Fair enough. What happened?”

  “He’d basically tricked me into meeting with his boss, Dahlia Lloyd.”

  “I thought I recognized that name. The Scarlet Letter, right?”

  “You know her?”

  “We’re not friends, but we’ve met. Part of setting up our task force was familiarizing ourselves to the bar owners.” I lit the coal and turned to face her. “Carry on.”

  “She’s dating my brother. She wanted to meet with me to see if there was a chance for reconciliation. I told her he was the reason we no longer had a relationship.” She chewed down on her lip, her teeth causing it to go white. “Long story short, she told me a whole bunch of stuff that made me rethink the way I feel about him.”

  I leaned against the wall, waiting for her to continue. Emotion flitted across her face, as if she were trying to put it into line to be able to explain it to me. Like she had no idea how she felt about it herself.

  “I’m so confused.” Her voice was soft. She dipped her chin, sending her gaze to the wooden boards of the porch floor. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. He’s my brother, but I hate him as much as I love him. Is that normal?”

  After another glance toward the pool to confirm the kids were okay, I sat on one of the chairs opposite her. “I think so. I’m pretty lucky. I’ve never really fallen out with Amie. We’ve fought, but not to this point.” The question lingered on my tongue, until… “What happened between you?”

  She sighed, leaning right back. The gentle swing of the seat stilled with the touch of her toe to the floor. She blinked, resting her hands on her lap, staring up at the top of the porch.

  “I remember when I took the pregnancy test. I was two weeks late. I was terrified.” Voice still small, she was perfectly still as she spoke. “I told her dad before anyone else. Dennis was equal parts scared and excited. We weren’t exactly serious. It was a total accident. He took it
pretty well, but he didn’t want to change his lifestyle there and then. I was young, dumb, and hopeful that he would change when she was born.

  “I was wrong. Two weeks to the day after I told him we were having a baby, he got so drunk and high that he drove head-on into a tree. He died pretty much on impact. That was the day I knew I was alone and had to tell my father and brother I was pregnant.” She nibbled at the skin of the side of her thumb. “My so-called father responded by telling me I was stupid. That I was the biggest idiot and that he was thankful I didn’t have his blood because no way would his real child be so stupid.”

  My fist clenched in anger.

  “Never mind his real daughter was a druggie.” She snorted, looking at me. “He was determined I’d have an abortion. Nobody with the Fox name would have a bastard baby. I thought my brother would help me, but Damien agreed with him. That I was stupid. That I needed an abortion.”

  “Fucking hell.”

  “I stayed long enough to withdraw some serious cash from my account and secure a rental. Soon after I left, I had to move into the house I live in now because Benedict blocked my accounts. My mom had left a percentage of the business to me before she committed suicide, but Benedict managed to cut me off completely.”

  That made so much fucking sense. Why she was a Fox without money. Why she’d done what she did to make it. She’d been backed into a corner by the people who should have loved and protected her before all else.

  Anger.

  I was angry.

  I was disgusted and frustrated and angry on her behalf. How dare they treat her that way? How fucking dare they tell her to kill her baby and cut her off from the only thing she’d ever known?

  I didn’t know why she was adopted. I didn’t know what had brought her into the Fox family except that Benedict wasn’t her father—and that was explanatory in itself—but it didn’t answer all the questions.

  And I didn’t fucking care. Not for a goddamn second.

  All I wanted to do was pull her into my arms and promise that she’d never be alone again. That she and Lola wouldn’t suffer for her family’s choices any longer. That they’d always be safe with me and Zac. That no matter what happened, we would be there to hold their hands and stroke their hair.

  All I wanted to do was tell her how fucking special she was to me.

  How badly I needed her in my life.

  But I couldn’t, because she wasn’t done.

  “My brother was cold and calculating. Benedict two-point-oh. He’d been my protector against our father’s cruelty for years, but that day, he dug in the knife and twisted it.” Her voice was basically a whisper. “Last week, I learned he regretted it. Ever since I estranged myself from them, he’s had me watched. Had an investigator keep tabs on me. Every six months, a check shows up at my door, and every six months, I send it back.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t want his money. I never have. I’ve only ever wanted my brother back.” She swallowed hard. “I found out last week that he’s been running a college fund for Lola since she was born. She can access it when she’s eighteen. I refused his help, but he still extended it to her. And he’s only ever seen her once.”

  My eyebrows shot up at that.

  I knew of Damien Fox.

  Of course I did. The ruthless businessman, the cold-hearted predator, the sharp, analytical guy behind Vegas’ superpower, second only to the mob.

  All above board, much to the LVPD’s frustration.

  Except the woman in front of me. She flouted the rules one hundred percent, and I was the reason she wasn’t in a six-by-six cell waiting prosecution.

  I would never regret the decision to let the stunning, sobbing blond out of my car. Because now I knew her heart, and the only thing purer than her heart was that of a child’s.

  She was broken and burned, harmed and hurt. My instinct had been right. I still didn’t have all the story, and I didn’t care if I didn’t get it all. Not right now. I was satisfied that I’d been correct in the choices I’d made—for her.

  If I had to, I’d make the same one tomorrow, and the next day, and the one after that.

  I’d make it every single day until I died.

  I would always let her go—unless it was personal.

  I didn’t think I could do it now.

  I wanted her. Wildly. Crazily. Desperately. It was an insatiable desire that would only be cooled by the heat of her body against mine.

  Perrie Fox was destined to be mine.

  There were no two ways about it.

  She was mine.

  End of.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Adrian

  Perrie sighed and tucked her hair behind her ear. “When I left the meeting with Dahlia, she told me to call her if I wanted to speak with Damien. She made it clear that he didn’t know we were speaking, and I kind of respected her for that. Damien is…was…controlling. He was all about the power and needing to know everything was just so. She wasn’t the kind of person I ever expected him to fall for.”

  “What was it?”

  “Weak.” She said it simply. “I guess he learned to respect someone who could argue with him.”

  “You never argued with him?”

  “Every day.” Her lips twitched. “He hated it. It was the bane of his existence, which is why I never thought he’d get involved with anyone strong-willed. He hated being wrong and doing things any way other than his.”

  “But you called her, right?” I moved, taking a seat next to her on the swinging seat. She froze for a second as I laid my arm along the back of it, but she soon drifted her gaze in the way of our kids and relaxed. “So, are you seeing him?”

  “Tomorrow.” She paused. “I have an interview at The Scarlet Letter for a position as a bartender. I have to call my sitter.”

  “Charity?”

  “You’d think, right? But no—Dahlia was very clear. I’m not being offered a job, merely an interview. She’s savvy and smart, I’ll give her that.”

  I smiled, looking out as Zac cannonballed into the pool.

  Perrie rolled her eyes for me. “Zac! No balls, okay?”

  I grinned.

  Zac looked back at her, wide-eyed.

  “Yeah, Zac! No balls! I don’t want your balls in this pool!” Lola shouted.

  Perrie slapped her hand against her face. “Goddamn it.”

  I did all I could do—burst out laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” Zac asked.

  “No cannonballs, Zacco!” I reiterated, forcing my laughter under control. He saluted me, and I snorted when he dived underwater. Judging by Lola’s shriek, he was going for her ankles.

  Not a smart choice after the dinosaurs last night.

  Lola screamed at the top of her lungs. “Dinosaurs!”

  Zac sputtered with laughter as he broke the surface.

  “Zac!” I said sharply. “Stop it.”

  “’Kay, Dad!” He turned to Lola, and apologized loud enough that we could hear it.

  Perrie sighed heavily. “Kids give me a headache.”

  I laughed, leaning right back. The grill was smoking and I’d probably wasted the chance to cook, but fuck it. I’d order in. The kids were having fun and we were talking. Hell, I was learning things about her I never thought I would.

  I’d buy fifty pizzas if we could carry on like this. Unraveling the mystery of Perrie Fox was priceless.

  “Are you nervous about seeing Damien?” I asked her, looking at her. My eyes skirted her profile, from her button nose to the freckles that dotted it and the lashes that fanned against her skin to the lips that pursed in the perfect pout of her indecision.

  “Yes. No. I don’t know. He’s my brother, but eight years is a long time.” She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “I didn’t think I ever would again, so maybe that’s the thing I can’t accept. That I am going to see him.”

  “I get that.”

  “Do you?”

  “No. I was trying to be sympa
thetic.”

  She laughed anyway. “I think the grill is screwed.”

  I sighed. “I know, but when you talk, I listen.”

  “That sounds like a line.”

  I side-eyed her. “If it was, would it work?”

  “For what?”

  “To get my cock inside you again.”

  She pursed her lips. “At least you’re honest.”

  I grinned, trying not to laugh at her expression which was somewhere between annoyed and amused. “I’ll just go order pizza, then.”

  “You do that.”

  ***

  I set the kids in the front room with two giant bowls of popcorn and a movie. Perrie paced the length of my kitchen, wringing her hands in front of her. She was nervous as fuck, and hell, she was making me nervous with her constant fidgeting.

  “Sit down. And no more coffee.” I swiped her half-full mug and tipped it down the sink before she could say anything.

  It was her damn third, after all.

  “I can’t help it. I’m nervous.”

  “No. Really? I couldn’t tell.”

  She shot me a death-glare with those dark eyes of hers and flattened her hands against her stomach. “I’m going to be sick.”

  “Well, you haven’t eaten and you’ve had two and a half cups of coffee that have been shaking around in your stomach. I’d be surprised if you weren’t sick.”

  “Sorry, Dad.”

  I grinned and met her eyes long enough to make her lips twitch into a smile.

  “I just—ugh.” She slumped onto a chair at the table, dejection slumping her shoulders. “What if…” She trailed off before she’d gotten started, yet again.

  I waited for her to continue.

  “What if it’s just like it was when I moved away? What if Damien hasn’t changed and he’s still the same person he was eight years ago? What if feeling like this about our meeting screws my interview because I can’t focus?”

  “It won’t.”

  “You don’t know that. Years, Adrian. I’ve been trying to find a real, permanent job now for years. One that worked with school and life and was flexible. This could be that job. I need it to be that job,” she finished quietly. “I’m tired. I’m so tired of going to work and being afraid of my safety.”