She drew a warm bath, making sure it was full of the various elixirs in the room that would make the water smell truly wonderful, and lowered herself into the tub. It was probably beyond stupid, but she felt like this was the most important bath of her life. She paid special attention to every detail of her body, wanting to look perfect. Honestly, there probably wasn’t any point to that, and she knew it.
This was a man who had not only already seen her naked, but who had also watched her vomit. On his own shoes. Any chance of making a perfect first impression had come and gone, but that didn’t mean she didn’t still want to look the best she could. After getting out of the tub (and making sure she had shaved pretty much everything), she slipped back into the dress she had worn down to her unfortunate meeting with Jen.
She wanted to look her best, and after careful consideration she decided that the little sundress was actually the sexiest thing she had brought with her. It might even be the sexiest thing she owned. It was funny, because if she had realized it was sexy in the store, she would never have picked it up in the first place, but she hadn’t bothered to try it on and had brought it home assuming it would be a standard, boring black dress.
She hadn’t realized the amount of cleavage it was going to show, or how low the back would hang. It was actually a pretty revealing dress, and Ella was super glad she had accidently bought it. If she had needed any kind of confirmation that it was the right thing to wear, she had received it by way of Jen and her friends’ stunned reactions to the outfit.
She slipped into it and tied the halter especially tight, nodding in approval at the way it made her breasts look. She decided to leave her hair down, remembering the way Reagan had let it glide through his fingers. She carefully applied makeup, cursing how difficult it was when it looked so easy. She could only apply it in the most basic way, and she hoped that Reagan wouldn’t be disappointed. The other times he had seen her she had been wearing a face carefully crafted by Jen. What if he didn’t like the way she looked when she was more natural?
“Stop it,” she whispered fiercely to herself, “he will, and you know it.”
Normally a self-directed pep talk didn’t do her much good, but this time was an exception. She felt immediately better. Maybe this new confidence she had been feeling bubbling up, the same confidence that had allowed her to stand up for herself with Jen for the very first time, was going to make a real difference in her life.
She gave herself one final once over in the mirror, stopping to look more closely at the little bite marks on her shoulder. Somewhere beneath her most immediate consciousness, she had an idea that it meant something. It was more than a hickey, just the way that her encounter with Reagan had been more than just sex. There was some kind of dark seduction here, and although she had a feeling it was something she should have been afraid of, there was no fear in her at all. There was only anticipation. That, and a burning desire that was driving her half mad.
***
“I was worried you weren’t going to come.”
“No way. You couldn’t have been.”
Ella disagreed with him with one hundred percent certainty, then clapped her hand over her mouth in embarrassment. Seriously?! She was finally with Reagan again and the first thing out of her mouth was a rather rude sounding (at least to her own ears) contradiction? Perfect, she thought, just the exact impression she didn’t want to make.
She was wishing with all of her might that she could just sink into the floor, go back in time, and try her grand entrance again, but when she looked at Reagan she saw that he didn’t look bothered in the slightest. Quite the contrary, actually. He seemed to be...kind of enjoying it. He looked at her with a glimmer in his eyes that soon developed into a chuckle, and then into a full-blown laugh. Ella felt herself flush, and wondered if he was laughing at her, or if this was a friendly thing.
“What?” she asked hesitantly. “What’s so funny?”
“You. You’re delightful. I have a good feeling about this, Ella. I think we’re going to have a grand time.”
CHAPTER SIX
“I think we’re going to have a grand time.”
Ella couldn’t get those words out of her head. It was a pretty simple thing to say, a pretty tame statement, but it sounded so completely full of possibilities to her! Maybe she was just reading too much into things. She knew there was a chance of that; from what she’d heard, that was something women had a tendency to do (although she didn’t think it was something she personally had a habit of doing).
The thing was, she didn’t feel like that was what she was doing. Something inside of her felt somehow...more when she was with Reagan. All of her senses were more alert, more alive. Her laughter was more free, her imagination wilder. It wasn’t that she felt like someone else so much as she felt more like the person who had always been inside of her but had never been allowed out; never been allowed to shine.
It was crazy! It was completely crazy to be thinking this way about a man she didn’t know, but for some reason she found that she was pretty much OK with that kind of crazy. If this was her not thinking clearly, then she wasn’t interested in thinking clearly anymore.
That was all she had done for the last twenty-five years, which had led to a life with absolutely zero adventure. She hadn’t realized she was the kind of girl who wanted adventure, but with Reagan she saw that she had always wanted that. She had just been too afraid to admit it to herself and too afraid to do anything about it.
With Reagan, she felt like she could do anything. Her only moment of hesitation had been after flat out telling him he was wrong, and that had faded immediately, as soon as she had seen the grin on his face and heard him say that he had a “good feeling.” Because she had a good feeling, too. She had a very good feeling. She turned to the fountain outside of the Bellagio, feeling the spray coming off of it and lightly grazing her face, and she laughed. She laughed with abandon. She laughed the way a child might laugh, with complete delight and complete presence.
When she felt Reagan move up behind her and snake his arms around her slight waist, she shivered. His skin was still super cold (and why exactly was that, part of her wondered, when they were in the heat of the desert?), but that wasn’t the cause of her shiver. It was him. The feel of his body pressed up against her made her want to do crazy things, things like strip off all of her clothes and jump into the fountain, have him follow her and have his way with her right then and there. She wouldn’t do it, of course, but just the fact that she was thinking it was new territory for her.
“What is it, Ella?” he whispered into her ear, the feeling of his breath against her neck making her shiver all over again. “Are you chilly? I can get you a jacket, if you like. I’ll get you anything you want. The nights can get cold, my dear. You’d be surprised how cold they could be.”
“No. it’s not that. It’s just that it’s so beautiful.”
“The fountains? Have you never seen them before?”
“In movies, but never in person.”
“Never been to Vegas, then.”
“Nope, never been to Vegas. Never been much of anywhere.”
“Something that could easily be rectified.”
Ella thought about telling him that she was afraid of flying and kind of planes in general, but she was just too embarrassed to admit it. She was really into this guy, therefore not so keen on the idea of giving him the impression that she was a total head case on their second date. Second date? That was laughable in its own right. This would be the closest thing to a first date the two of them had had.
What they had done the night before didn’t count. That had been skipping about a dozen steps. Remembering that made her feel momentarily insecure that she was getting her hopes up for nothing, but once again, it was like Reagan was reading her thoughts. It was like he knew that she was questioning herself and wanted to reassure her.
His arms around her tightened, pulling her in closer to him as he kissed her gently on the top of
the head.
“It is lovely, isn’t it? All of those fragments of water dancing their own special ballet. This is one of my favorite places in Vegas. It’s one of the reasons I asked you to meet me here. I find this place to be soothing.”
“Soothing? Were you worried that you would need to be soothed?”
“Are you so surprised that I might need a thing like that?”
She had mostly been joking with the question, but his answer intrigued her and now she genuinely wanted to know the answer. She turned to look up into his eyes, noting with satisfaction that he did not let her go as she did so. He was looking down at her with frank, open eyes, a look that told her she could ask him anything she wanted, anything in the world.
It was an awesome feeling, but it was also kind of unnerving. That wasn’t something people did. Nobody other than children were that open, especially with someone they hadn’t known for long. Never mind that it felt like they knew each other. That didn’t factor into things in the real world. Did it?
“Am I surprised? To be perfectly honest, yes. You don’t strike me as the kind of guy who needs soothing about anything.”
“And what type of guy do I seem like?”
“The kind of guy who knows what he wants and always gets it. You came after those guys who were hassling me like it was nothing, made them do exactly what you wanted them to. You charmed me without even having to try. It just seems like you’re a pretty confident guy, that’s all.”
“What makes you think I wasn’t trying?”
Oh, but he was maddening! He asked the questions like they were nothing, like he was asking her for tomorrow’s weather forecast. It was like he was oblivious to the fact that they were totally thought provoking questions that made her want to know everything there was to know about him.
She thought that to do that might take a long time. That was what she was hoping for. She had an entire life back in Texas, but when she was with Reagan, it didn’t seem like all that much to go back to. It was crazy, and luckily she was still sane enough to know it was crazy, but when she was with Reagan she kind of just wanted to stay in Vegas. She wanted to stay and have more amazing sex and get to know him better every day and be this new self she was only just now beginning to discover.
“Ella? Did I lose you?”
“Hm?”
“I asked you what made you think I wasn’t trying, and then you went somewhere else. Somewhere far away from me.”
“Oh! I was just thinking, I guess. I was thinking that it doesn’t look like you have to try for much of anything. You just give off that impression, you know? You make everything look so effortless. I know that probably sounds pretty stupid. I actually have no idea why I’m even telling you this. I don’t know why I can’t stop talking when I’m around you!”
“Please, Ella, promise me you won’t stop talking. I like to hear you talk.”
“Really?”
“Really. Now, tell me, are you up for an adventure?”
Ella’s breath caught in her chest. He couldn’t have said something more perfect to her if he had tried. Of course, she was up for an adventure! It was exactly the thing she had felt coming from him. Adventure was the thing she was longing for, and she had absolutely been hoping it would come from him.
“I think so.”
“You think so? You’ll have to be sure, for the things I want to show you. I don’t want to take you anywhere you aren’t sure you want to go, and I won’t tell you where I’m taking you. Which means you’ll have to be up for just about anything.”
“I don’t think so, I know so. Whatever it is you want to show me, I want to see it.”
“OK,” Reagan said with a smile that made his entire body radiate, “then follow me. We’re going to have to go for a drive.”
***
“Oh my god! It’s massive!”
“Another thing you’ve seen in pictures?”
“Yes, but they didn’t do it any justice. It’s so impressive! It’s massive! I can’t believe people actually built it.”
“I’ve seen many things in my lifetime that have made me think that same thing. The Eiffel tower, the great wall of China. The Taj Mahal. That one especially. Can you imagine? A man had that work of art built purely out of love for a woman. What a testament.”
“You’ve actually seen all of those things?”
“Those things and many more. I’ve been something of a world traveler.”
“Lucky! Is that just your favorite thing to do?”
“I guess you could say that. I get bored easily, if I stay in one place for too long.”
Ella’s heart clenched. So he got bored easily? What would that mean for her? Here she was, acting like a preteen with her first crush and making all kinds of plans that had zero basis in reality, and Reagan was telling her he got bored easily.
Maybe it was meant to be a not so subtle message to her. Maybe he was trying to politely tell her that there was an expiration date on this little dalliance of theirs. As if she had any excuse not to know that already. It was a weekend thing, for god’s sake! When she thought about it that way, she wasn’t even sure what she was doing here. All of a sudden, she was very aware that she could be setting herself up for disaster.
“So are you ready?”
“For what?” She was feeling distracted now, wanting to get back to that light-hearted place she had been in before she started thinking about things in terms of reality.
“For the adventure, Ella. Our first adventure.”
First. He had said their “first” adventure. Man, this outing was turning into a total emotional rollercoaster, which was something she wasn’t used to. But she didn’t really have time to think about it anymore because Reagan was taking her hand, his chilly fingers intertwining with her own, and leading her towards the edge of the dam.
There were parts of the dam that were open to tourists, but not at this hour, and not the portions of it he was walking her towards. Ella was not a rule breaker. She couldn’t remember a time she had ever broken a rule, at least not a very important one. Breaking and entering was definitely an important one. This was the kind of thing a person could get in real, serious trouble for, like the kind of thing a person could go to jail for. At least she thought it was. She wasn’t one hundred percent sure about that, but she had a feeling that getting caught sneaking around a piece of property owned by the United States government might be that kind of thing.
She started to strain against Reagan’s hand, all but digging her heels in to keep from being led along any further. He stopped, and when he turned to look at her there was a look of knowledge in his eyes she couldn’t quite understand.
“What is it, Ella? What’s the matter?”
“Where are we going?” she whispered, terrified that there would be some guard somewhere who would hear the two of them and pop out with guns blazing. “I’m pretty sure we aren’t supposed to be here right now.”
“Don’t worry about it. I know what I’m doing. Come on. Really, it’s OK. Trust me.”
Such a simple statement, but he was asking so much with those two little words. Trust him. Trust him? Should she really? Trust a man she did not know at all, with whom the most contact she’d had was a one night stand? A really, really good one night stand, but a one night stand nevertheless.
Nobody in their right mind would have said trusting him was a good idea, but in the end, she couldn’t help it. The way she put it to herself was that she had tried not to trust him and failed. So instead of staying put or marching herself back to the car like she probably should have, she allowed Reagan to lead her along further.
He led her along the very edge, where there was nothing but a railing to separate her from plummeting to her death. It was pretty much the worst nightmare for someone who wasn’t too thrilled with heights, and Ella shut her eyes as much as she possibly could without actually closing them all of the way. Any chance of not trusting him had now gone out the window.
She w
as pretty much using him as her seeing eye dog at this point! She would have been perfectly happy to keep going that way, all of the way to wherever the hell he was trying to take her, but that idea didn’t seem to fly with Reagan. He stopped and ran his thumb along the palm of her hand.
“You’re afraid.”
“N-no, I’m not afraid. That would just be stupid. What makes you think I’m afraid?”
“I can smell it.”
“My fear?”
“There’s no need for it. The fear, I mean. You won’t fall. I won’t let you fall. Not ever. You don’t ever need to be afraid while you’re with me.”
Vampires In Vegas Page 10
