Take Me Home Tonight (Wild Nights Book 1)

by Trista Jaszczak

  “It’s okay,” I smile, “this is actually warm.”

  He smiles and loops his hand to the small of my back drawing my body near his. “You know, you’re really beautiful.”

  I blush as he pushes the hair from my face. Before I can thank him his lips press to mine. I let out a soft moan and I feel my shoulders drop and my body heats up almost instantly. He deepens the kiss and lets his tongue roll slowly over mine. I moan into his mouth and wrap my arms securely around him. If we keep this up we’ll never find a cab, let alone make it back to the club before they close at four in the morning. A bright, white light hitting our faces makes us both jump back.

  “What the hell do you two think you’re doing?” A loud voice yells making us both jump.

  We both turn trying to see who’s talking to us but the harsh white light is so blinding that we can hardly look into it.

  “Hey, turn off the fucking brights.” Remy says, scolding whoever is behind it.

  The light clicks off and our eyes slowly begin to adjust. When we can finally see again we’re faced with a police officer, a little shorter and nowhere near the amount of muscle as Remy, scowling at us. Well, isn’t this just fucking peachy?

  “What the hell are you two doing?” He asks again.

  “We weren’t doing anything wrong,” I tell him, “he was just giving me his cape and we were kissing.”

  “Barbie,” he turns to me with a nasty look, “I didn’t fucking as you. I was asking the Lone Ranger.”

  Remy looks at me confused and back to the officer. “You really need to watch how you talk to my date,” he snaps. “And I’m not the fucking Lone Ranger, I’m Zorro.” Remy shakes his head and I find myself giggling. “Fucking moron,” I hear Remy mutter under his breath.

  “What was that Tonto?” The officer yells.

  “I said I’m not the Lone Ranger, I’m Zorro.” Remy says again, this time louder.

  I grab on to his arm and shake my head. “Remy, maybe we should just apologize and go.”

  He looks over at me and shakes his head. “I’m not letting him talk to you that way.” He looks back to the police officer who is now standing with his hand at his fire arm. “I’m not letting you talk to her that way. We weren’t doing a damn thing wrong. We were standing here, kissing. We’re not exposing ourselves and we’re not drunk. We went out for Halloween, went and got a bite to eat, and now we’re looking for a cab. Simple as that.” Remy looks at me, “he doesn’t need to be an asshole to you.”

  “Remy look, we don’t need to get arrested,” I glance at the officer’s hand that is still poised, ready to grab his firearm, “or shot for that matter.”

  “He’s not going to shoot us, we’re not doing anything wrong.”

  “You should really listen to your girlfriend, Tonto.”

  Remy makes another face and I reach for his arm. “We should really go, Remy. I’m cold, let’s just get a cab, and go.”

  Remy shakes his head. “Not until he apologizes.”

  “It’s fine, really,” I tell him, “let’s just get out of here and get to where we need to go.”

  “You’re not going anywhere, now,” the officer tells us, taking a few steps towards us. “You, on the curb now, Barbie,” he growls, motioning towards me.

  I look at the cop and my mouth drops. I cannot believe this. Are we being arrested? Because we were kissing in public? I look at Remy and slowly move toward the curb. He reaches for one my hands and gives his head a shake. “You are not sitting on the curb.”

  “Remy, really,” I say, giving my head a shake, “maybe we should just listen to the officer.” I look at the cop who is still advancing towards us. This is not going to end well. I can see the headlines now: Ithaca Natives Shot in NYC for PDA. Jesus, what have we gotten ourselves into? When the cop grabs me suddenly I’m stunned and find myself yanking away from him. Now, I’m getting a little frightened, more so than I was earlier. No cop should just lunge and grab me like that. Not to mention his iron grip hurts.

  Remy moves me gently behind him and shakes his head. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but I want to see your badge and I want your badge number.”

  The cop laughs and shines the flash light back in my face. “She’s cute, where did you find her?”

  “Remy,” I say softly, “I really think we need to get out of here. I don’t like this.”

  He gives me a little nod as he holds his hands up, “Look, we’re sorry. We weren’t doing anything wrong. If you just let us go, we’ll grab a cab and be gone.”

  I look behind the cop to inspect his vehicle. His car isn’t even marked. I grab onto Remy. Now I know for sure that something isn’t right. I’d give anything to have my clutch with that damn taser. Remy is still trying to talk the cop into letting us go when he reaches to his side and pulls out what has to be his gun. Jesus. We’re going to die right here in the middle of this street…all because we were kissing in public.

  I squeeze onto Remy and close my eyes. Remy uses his entire body to shield mine as he pleads with the cop. When the cop begins laughing and Remy starts cussing it finally dawns on me that it’s all been a Halloween prank. The cop isn’t a cop, it’s a costume. A very good one might I add and he’s just shot Remy with a water gun.

  The cop is still laughing when a few of his friends climb from his car. “I’m sorry man, I just couldn’t help myself.”

  He better be glad that I don’t have my clutch, I’d taze him just for being such a dick. Remy shoots a few choice words at him while he apologizes one more time and gets back into his car with his laughing friends.

  Remy turns to me and places his hands on my shoulders. “Are you okay?”

  I give him a nod. “I seriously thought we were getting shot there for a minute.”

  “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with some people.” He says, rubbing up and down my shoulders to help warm me up. “I should get you back to the club before you freeze.”

  I smile. It is chilly, but I think it’s sweet for him to be so concerned about me. I pull his cape around me tighter and give him a little nod. “Now, if only we knew where the hell we were going.”

  He laughs and nods, “apparently we are those people that should not be left in New York City by themselves.”

  I gasp and nearly jump back. “By ourselves! We didn’t come by ourselves! Remy, call your friends and ask what the name of the club is! If they’re still there they can give us the name of the place.”

  He lets out a chuckle and gives his head a little shake. “Why didn’t we think of that before?”

  “Because, we’re having such a great time with one another that we didn’t care to think about anyone else,” I wink.

  He pulls out his phone and taps away at the large touch screen. I’m really hoping that in any case that we aren’t far from the club. I mean, we couldn’t have possibly wandered that far. I wouldn’t think anyway.

  Remy begins talking to who I can assume is one of his friends, calling him Will. Makes me wonder if he’s the Lone Ranger or Tonto. From the sounds of it, the Lone Ranger and Tonto have gone to Midnight’s with Lucy and Cindy in tow, but they at least have the name of the other club. Remy explains that I left my purse and that we’re going back for it. He ends the call, begins tapping at his phone screen for a moment, and turns to me smiling. “Hooligans!”

  I let out a little laugh, “thank God.”

  “By the sound of it we’re not too far away,” he explains, still typing on his phone screen, “thank God for GPS, right?”

  I give him a relived nod. “I second that.”

  “We were on the right track, just a few blocks away, straight ahead.” He reached for my hand and we begin heading down the dark street. It’s funny how street lights seem to be of no real use here. It’s a little too creepy for my taste. If anything we’ll be back at the club in just a few minutes and we can hang out there for a bit before heading over to Midnight’s.

  Remy checks his phone frequently as we head do
wn the street, he gives his head a little shake. “How can there be night clubs around here and the front of all of them is so damn plain?” He looks down at his phone again and back up to a plain brick building that has a large man standing out in front of the door. He points and laughs, “That would be Hooligans.”

  “There is no way we would have found that on our own,” I laugh as we cross the street. “I don’t even recognize anything here and I wasn’t even drunk.”

  He nods in agreement as we approach the bouncer. Remy smiles as he slides his phone into his back pocket. “Hi, we were here earlier and my date sort of left her purse inside. We were just wondering if you could let us in just to go get it?”

  The bouncer glares at me and crosses his arms. “She can’t get in without an ID.”

  “My ID is in my purse,” I tell him, “I was kind of hoping that you could help us out and let us get my purse and we can come right back out, show you my ID, and just leave.”

  “You can’t get in without an ID.” He says again with a deadpan face.

  “But it’s in my purse and my purse is in the club,” I explain again.

  “If it’s even still in there,” the bouncer says, “someone might have taken it.”

  “That’s what I need to find out but I need to get inside to check,” I tell him again. “My life is in that purse and I need it before something bad does happen to it.”

  “And I am telling you that you are not getting in without an ID,” he scowls at me and then Remy.

  Now I have no idea what to do. I really don’t want to wait out here alone with just the bouncer but it looks as though he is leaving us no choice.

  “How many people does it take to go get a wallet, anyway?” The bouncer asks.

  “Dude, I didn’t want to leave the lady out here alone,” Remy explains. “I don’t want her to get hurt.”

  “She won’t get hurt,” the bouncer tells him, “she’s a big girl.”

  I turn to Remy and let out a sigh. It’s hopeless for us to sit here and argue with the guy. He’s not going to cave and to be honest, he’s about ten times larger than Remy and I’d hate to see him get hurt by some over grown ape because of me. “Look, he’s not going to let both of us in. Just, go inside, look where I would have left it and come back out. I promise I’ll be okay.”

  “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

  I give him a little nod, though his concern for me is both adorable and comforting. It’s more than Jonah showed in the past years. It’s refreshing and surprising. I wasn’t sure men like this still existed. Unless of course it’s all an act and in that case I’m a damn fool. “Really, I’ll be fine. What’s the worst that could happen at this point?” I laugh, “We’ve already been through enough tonight, and I seriously doubt anything else can happen.”

  He lets out a little laugh as he pulls his wallet from his back pocket and fishes out his ID for the bouncer. “Can you just do me a favor? Keep an eye on her, okay?”

  The bouncer glances at his ID, passes it back to him, and nods. Remy rushes inside and I’m left outside, alone with the bouncer, and staring at the large, black door. Some night this has turned out to be.

  My wild, one night stand has turned into an all-night date. We’ve ben pranked by a fake cop that had me convinced that I was surely about to die. I’ve left my purse in the men’s bathroom of the club. Lord knows what’s happened to Cindy and Lucy who are partying it up with the Lone Ranger and Tonto while Remy and I fight for our lives. I let out an uncontrolled giggle and the bouncer glares at me instantly.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “It’s just been a really long night,” I explain. “We were pranked by a man dressed as a cop, I left my purse in this club and can only hope it’s still there. You know, what else could happen tonight?”

  The bouncer shrugs. “It is Halloween, anything is possible.”

  “I know, that’s what I’m afraid of.”

  Remy returns holding my clutch in his hand. I let out a sigh of relief and throw my arms around his neck.

  “You might want to check that everything is still inside just in case.” He tells me, giving me a light squeeze before passing it to me.

  I give him a nod and open it to peek inside. My cash, my ID, my credit card, the extra condoms, and the taser are all in their place. Thank God. Nothing is missing. Talk about getting lucky.

  Remy looks at the bouncer who seems to be starting straight off into space. “Do you think you can tell us how to get to Midnight’s from here?”

  The bouncer ignores us and stares straight ahead. I give Remy a little shrug as he whips out his cell phone to google the address for Midnight’s to use with his GPS. “If we can’t find a cab at least we can walk there. Is that okay?”

  “Sure, I’m up for another adventure.”

  “You have to be freezing. Do you want to go inside to warm up?”

  I shake my head. “I’m fine, your cape is warm. I can warm up when we get to Midnight’s.”

  “I give you one thing, you’re one hell of a trooper.”

  I shrug. “I guess I’m not like most women. That’s probably why my ex dumped me,” I laugh.

  “No, your ex dumped you because he was a fucking moron and didn’t realize that he had something special right in front of him.”

  “You sure seem to know just what to say,” I tell him as we begin walking across the street from Hooligans.

  “Sometimes when I’m not really thinking about it I can actually be charming,” he chuckles.

  I smirk and glance over at him from the corner of my eyes. “Well, just so you know, so far tonight you have been on an absolute roll. I mean, you’ve won me over. So much in fact that I ended up in the men’s bathroom with you.” I laugh, thanking God that it’s so dark that he can’t see my bright red face.

  “So tell me this, have I been charming enough that you may actually want to see me again?”

  I bite down on my bottom lip and let out a breath. “You know, I think I might.”

  “Good, because I was kind of hoping that you would want to see me after this,” he admits.

  “I’m surprised that you don’t think I’m a whore,” I laugh.

  He shakes his head. “Come on, people do it all the time and besides, we have that whole awkward first time thing out of the way.”

  I laugh and shake my head. “You at least know what you’re doing. I give you credit there. Most men are clueless.”

  “And I know you are well coached in blow jobs,” he laughs.

  “It has been a pretty good night over all, huh?” I say. “We did almost get shot, but I’ve had a good time.”

  “Me too,” he says glancing down at his phone again. “Now if we can just get to fucking Midnight’s.”

  “How close are we?” I ask, peeking over at his phone.

  He shakes his head, “not close at all according to this. We’re still fourteen or so blocks away but I feel like this address is wrong. You’d think that a well-known club like Midnight’s would be around other businesses.”

  “And it’s not?”

  He shakes his head, “I don’t even see any restaurants near it. Unless they’re just not labeled.”

  I give a little shrug. “Well, let’s just keep walking and see what we find.”

  “Surely to God they would update their fucking address if they moved,” he glances over me with an open mouth, “right?”

  “Of course they would. Like you said, they’re a really well-known business and they would keep up with their social outlets and make sure that everything was properly updated.” I make a face, hoping that I believe the statement is true. In reality I’m only trying to delude myself, not wanting anything else to go wrong tonight.

  “You do realize that by the time we get there that our friends will probably be completely trashed.” He laughs, giving his head a shake.

  I nod in agreement. “I am actually counting on it. We had to keep Lucy from getting completely sloshed on the way here. I
can’t imagine her right now.”

  “As long as we get them home safe, that’s all that matters,” he smiles.

  “Well, I will say one thing,” I start, adjusting my head piece from slipping. “Tonight has been interesting.”

  “On the bright side, I am having a lot of fun with you, even though we have managed to get ourselves into some trouble.”

  “The fake cop has to be the best part.”

  He laughs, “Not going to lie, I was scared shitless when he pulled that gun. All I could think was all that I have is a fake sword.”

  “Well, I am planning the rest of the night to be as uneventful as possible,” I say. “We can just be two boring people getting to know one another more.”

  He smiles, gives me a nod, and reaches for my hand. Sounds like a plan if you ask me.

  1 a.m

  We’ve been walking for blocks and the farther we go, the more deserted the streets look. Remy keeps checking the GPS on his phone and shaking his head. Looking around and judging where we currently are I’d have to say I’m with him on this one.

  This cannot possibly be right. We’ve had to have taken a wrong turn somewhere, even though his GPS says we’re going the right way. He gives his phone an aggravated shake…as though that’s really going to help.

  “This has to be wrong,” he says, tapping at his screen some more, “this is the address listed everywhere that I look, but according to GPS that address is fifty feet ahead. There’s no fucking way a club is down there.”

  I look straight ahead. He’s right. It’s dark, deserted, and creepy. If there was a club in that direction there would be a bouncer, a line of people, even some tiny little neon sign to light up part of the street. Instead there is nothing but pitch, black darkness. I can see the outline of a few cars that are parked on the side of the road and the outline of the tops of a few trees and that’s it. There’s no people, no sign, nothing.

  “Did we take a wrong turn?” I ask, as we pause in the middle of the sidewalk to peer at his phone.