by Candi Heart
Of course, this only deepened my fast-growing affection for her.
Tightening my grip on the wheel, I trained my focus ahead of me, fighting the exhaustion beginning to creep up at the edges of my consciousness. Another forty minutes and we’d be in a tiny, tourist town sure to have a bed and breakfast we could stop to shower in. I stole a glance at the dash’s clock: 5:20 p.m. We were actually making good time. Good enough to allow a short detour for a meal before we hopped back on the highway.
The deepening sounds of Charlyse’s breathing drew my attention, and a grin found my lips as I saw her finally succumbing to slumber. I’d let her sleep. She deserved it. Not many girls would have stayed up to help me stay awake for a long-ass drive through deep country.
But Charlyse wasn’t just any girl. There was so much about her that set her apart from the women I’d known before her.
After lowering the volume on the radio, I lifted the last of my coffee, chugging down the cold remnants and setting it back in the cup holder. Yeah, I was falling into something. Something way bigger than me, and I was more than a little scared I might fuck it up. I was good at fucking things up. I had little to no experience in the realm of personal relationships of the romantic variation that lasted any longer than three weeks, at best.
But there wasn’t much point in thinking about that now.
This trip was meant to be a fun one, and I refused to interrupt a blessing by focusing on all the ways something could go wrong with the first good thing I’d been able to enjoy in a long, long time.
Chapter 13
Charlyse
BLINKING AWAKE AT THE sound of gravel under the tires of Tyler's Bugatti, I slowly inched up in my seat. The view of a bed and breakfast type establishment loomed into view, and beyond it, I could see a quaint little park with a stretching row of shops beyond it. We definitely weren't in Vegas yet. My gaze flicked to the dash clock, and I stifled a groan. 6:01 p.m. It was going to be a long night if Tyler expected me to stay awake the rest of the way.
“You hungry?”
I turned to look at him, amazed his expression was as bright and chipper as it was. I could see the slight edge of exhaustion around his eyes, but he’d tucked it back well, and a glance down at his coffee cup revealed he’d drunk every last drop in his efforts to get us here safely.
“Sorta?” I said, not hungry, but just wanting more sleep.
As if reading my mind, he pierced me with one of his intense stares. “There’s plenty of time for sleep when we get to Vegas.” Then he grinned wickedly. “Not that you’re going to want to.”
He was right about that. All the bright lights and fanfare were sure to give me a second wind when we finally rolled into town.
Or did he mean...?
“I guess you’re right,” was all I could think to reply with.
Stretching, I shook off as much sleep as I could manage, stepping out of the car in tandem with Tyler. Resting my hands on my hips, I took a sweeping look around, suddenly hyperaware of my T-shirt. I needed to change, and I still didn’t have any clothes.
“You all right?” he asked, sensing my sudden stress.
I looked up and met his eyes. “Could use some freshening up, but good otherwise.”
“We’ll definitely be doing that.”
Surveying the strip of shops behind the bed and breakfast, he then looked back to me with a smile. He extended his hand and I took it, meshing his fingers with mine.
“I’m gonna rent a room for a few hours. We can eat, shower, that sort of thing. There are a ton of boutiques on Sherry Street. We’ll find you some clothes and other necessities. You can sleep in Vegas.”
Yes, a shower! I thought. “Perfect.”
Starting toward the bed and breakfast, I matched Tyler’s pace, the stirrings of love and doubt already battling in my gut. Realizing you’re falling in love with someone in an age where everyone’s busy trying to pretend they don’t even have feelings is rarely a comfortable thing. And I didn’t want to rush things or mention a depth of feeling that might seem to urge him to move in a certain emotional direction with me when he wasn’t ready to.
In truth, I had no idea what he was ready for, and I was almost scared to find out. It would be either/or, and one path might end our wild ride altogether. It was much better to keep living in the moment. Better to let him reveal where his head was before I admitted to what I was feeling.
We swept into the bed and breakfast, and I lowered myself to the settee in the foyer while Tyler handled the details at the front desk. I had to fight to keep my eyes from slipping closed, and was beyond grateful when he appeared in front of me, jangling the room key. Following him upstairs with serious gratitude, I did my best to hurry up the steps.
“We can eat in the room. It says there are robes up there. After that, I’ll grab a few things for you, and you can see what you want to wear. Sound good?”
“Yes, thank you.”
He met my eyes with a smile. “My pleasure.”
He said the words like he meant them, not in that offhand way some people use to say, no problem. Every one of Tyler’s choices in the past few hours had alerted me to the fact that he was truly concerned with what pleased me, because it satisfied him to do so.
I opted to take an immediate shower when we got to the room, melting into its warm sensuality. The room’s showerhead was excellent, the water pressure perfect. By the time I emerged from the steamy bathroom in the terrycloth robe, my hair piled atop my head in a messy bun, food was already waiting for me. Tyler looked to be on his third cup of coffee.
I didn’t bother asking if he was going to try to get some sleep, even though the mother hen in me was biting at the bit to insist on it. We ate quickly instead, not coming up for air too often as we filled our bellies with the delicious country delicacies of bed and breakfast dining.
Tyler told me he was going to hit the shops next to the bed and breakfast and had the panache to seem embarrassed when he asked for my size. I had laughed, still wrapped in the impossibly comfortable towel, as I had told him, and added not to forget a toothbrush.
With a quick kiss, he flew out the door, and after putting the food tray outside the door, I curled up on the bed for a quick catnap.
BY THE TIME TYLER RETURNED with a bag containing three outfits, which had all been chosen with perfection, along with another bag he told me had a few clothing items for him, there was little left to do but get dressed and settle back on the road. Neither of us had the energy to make full use of the temporary room, but it was just as well.
We would be in Vegas before we knew it, and I was pretty sure I’d be passing out again when we got there. Despite the forty-five minute nap, I fought to keep my eyes open for most of the ride, chattering with him in bursts, and then staring out the window with glazed eyes when silence permeated the car. Tyler got a second wind halfway into the ride, but he didn’t crank up the radio for a sing-along.
It was obvious to him how tired I was. He very graciously kept the volume low on the talk radio station covering the upcoming NASCAR race. The various pre-shows aired predictions, stats, and call-ins from local fans with very specific ideas of their own about the racers they thought would make the final lineup after the preliminary race.
Try as I might to stay awake, my eyes did eventually slide closed, but the sounds of festive hustling, bustling, and artsy buskers had me blinking myself awake when we finally arrived. I yawned and sat up. The clock read 1:50 a.m.
With childlike, wide-eyed wonder, I drank in the gorgeous lit palm trees lining the beginning of the strip, the excitement of the city already giving me butterflies. Not the way Tyler did, but in a different sort of exciting way. I wanted to experience it all, see everything there was to do here. As I watched the larger-than-life casinos pass by from the passenger seat, I couldn’t believe I was twenty-six years old and had never been to Vegas.
Tyler didn’t draw out the drive when we neared the hotel, though. We pulled into the Mirage, and I
smiled. After dropping the Bugatti off to a valet, we quickly checked in. As we boarded the elevator, a man standing inside wearing a uniform asked us what floor.
“Penthouse,” Tyler murmured while looking at me, clutching both my hands.
“Very good, sir,” the bellhop replied.
Leaning down to whisper in my ear, Tyler said, “If he wasn’t in here, I’d be stripping your clothes off already.”
Another shiver racked my body as I chewed my lip and stared into the blue flame of desire dancing in his gaze.
The elevator dinged our arrival, and when the bellhop used a card to open a set of double doors, which opened right into a huge living room, I suppressed a gasp. High polished marble floors covered with plush colorful sofas, the biggest TV I had ever seen, a small, but elegant dinette, and a gourmet-looking kitchen off to the right. But that was not what took my breath away; it was the wall of picture windows overlooking the near-blinding colorful lights of the strip. Paris’s brightly lit tower gleamed front and center.
The bellhop set our bags down, Tyler tipped him, and then closed the door behind him. When we both collapsed on the bed, we were both out within a minute, sleeping so hard that we didn’t wake up until the afternoon sun was already beginning to threaten to sink.
I woke before he did, got another hot, refreshing shower, and put on one of the dresses he’d bought me from a boutique in that small town. It wasn’t exactly my style, but it was pretty enough; a fitted red maxi tank dress with tiny white flowers on it. Stylish and simple, but not in a country-bumpkin kind of way. I used what makeup I had in my purse to throw on some mascara and lip gloss, brushed my teeth, and made a mental note to visit the gift shop downstairs for some eyeliner and face powder.
I caught Tyler’s sleepy, sexy reflection in the mirror and I turned around. “Good morning.”
He looked lazily at his watch. “Is it?”
I shook my head as I closed the lip gloss. “No, it’s not, and I’m dying to get to the strip.”
He chuckled. “That’s what I thought.” He came toward me and pushed his morning wood into my backside. “I will take you, but when we get back, we’re going to take care of this.”
I turned around, pecked him on the mouth, and ran my fingers through his too-cute messy bed-head. “With pleasure.”
He smacked me on the ass as I left the bathroom so he could shower.
ONCE WE REACHED THE hotel lobby, Tyler swept me off toward the street, intertwining his fingers with mine at the first chance.
“Our adventure should begin on Fremont Street,” he said confidently, leading me by the hand out from under the hotel’s awning.
I looked up at the desert sun, which was fast fading behind the red-rocked mountain range, and realized the heat wasn’t bad. Texas was hot and humid. Nevada was just dry. That being said, I was still grateful the sun was setting and all the glittery lights of the strip were already beginning to pop on.
Fremont Street was just as crazy as its reputation, and I loved every second of it. Peppered with unforgettable characters, like a glittering cosplay convention of Elvis lookalikes, misplaced hipsters, and rhinestone cowboys, lined the streets. Vegas was an unforgettable mish-mash of warped but very adult delights.
Jumping at the feel of a thwack hitting my bottom, I startled as we swept past an overgrown, potbellied cupid shooting heart-tipped plastic arrows at passersby.
“I got you,” he said.
“Just me?” I asked the cupid with a sly smile.
He shrugged and gave me a wink, so I looked at Tyler, who grinned, but didn't answer.
Grinning back, I averted my gaze to a high-kicking troupe of gorgeously bejeweled dancers clad in teensy, decorative pasties, tasseled pantalets, and impressively stacked stilettoes. Towering headdresses spilled shining stones down from their heads.
Vegas was so alive.
“Drink?” Tyler offered, waving toward a shop that literally only served booze. It wasn’t a bar; it just had a wall full of what looked like slushy machines, where you could choose your booze-filled treat and then pay at the register, like some adults-only yogurt shop.
Taking the tall, clear, plastic cup from the front of the store, I stared at the machines, finally settling on a very delicious-smelling pina colada slush. Tyler did not get anything, but after he paid for it and once we were back on the strip, I offered him a sip.
He shook his head with a chuckle. “No thanks, too sweet for my taste.”
I laughed and then took a big pull from the straw, being careful not to slurp too fast. I didn’t need a cold headache right now. Once I’d swallowed, I said, “What? Don’t like sweet?”
Tyler stopped walking and said, “Woman, I love lots of sweet things.” Then he surprised me by leading me to a nearby alcove where a small set of shops were set off from an indoor hallway. We didn’t go inside the hall, though; he instead pushed me up against the wall of the alcove and matched my gaze as he, without breaking eye contact, lifted my hand with the drink in it. He put the straw to his lips and took a long sip. I grinned at him until he bent down to kiss me, pushing the pina colada into my mouth when I opened up for him. The icy sweetness of the drink, mixed with his warm, talented tongue, made everything inside me start to stir. I had a sudden urgent desire to see the inside of our hotel room again.
“I love sweets. Especially those sugar walls of yours,” Tyler whispered after he had broken the kiss to trail his hot mouth across my cheek to my ear.
Delicious shivers invaded my entire body at his words. “Damn.”
He laughed again and pulled away from me with a mischievous grin. “Later,” he said, grabbing my hand and leading me back onto the busy sidewalk of the strip. It was fully dark now, and the city seemed to come even more alive as we continued to walk.
I began to feel the effects of the pina colada—or maybe it had been his searing kiss—but either way, I was very relaxed and happy.
Music was a constant presence as we continued to stroll, hand-in-hand. Some of it came from buskers set at various corners of the strip, others from small, makeshift stages set up in various spots, all of them quite talented and trying to make it big.
To me, the strip was like Times Square, but with more life buzzing around me than I’d ever felt the one time I’d visited New York. The scent of delectable foods wafting out from brightly lit restaurants and food booths, and undeniable talents adorning its sidewalks, woke something in me that gave me a sort of second wind. It was the adult equivalent of a larger-than-life circus where just about anything I could think of was available to sample and ogle.
“You having fun?” Tyler asked with amusement in his eyes as he looked at me.
I nodded. “Oh yeah. Tons. Thank you for bringing me.”
He lifted our linked hands and kissed my knuckles. “Thank you coming.”
My cheeks heated and I smiled. “So what’s your favorite thing to do when you’re here?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t get to do the tourist thing very much while I’m here. I’m usually working.”
“That sucks. I hope I’m not keeping you from it,” I said shyly, which was unlike me.
He shook his head. “Nah, but we can go to the volcano if there’s time when I get back.”
I tried not to give in to the disappointment of being reminded we’d be parting ways for a while. “That’s the big volcano-slash-waterfall light and music show at the Mirage, right?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, something like that. It’s pretty cool, though.”
I hoped we had time to see it together, but I knew deep down not to hold my breath. This was a business trip, and I’d known that beforehand. The entire purpose for coming was to attend the big race.
“If you like to gamble, we’ll get some of that in, too.”
I could tell he was trying to keep my spirits up, promising me there’d be plenty to do when he could steal away with me. Smiling, I gave him a nod. I appreciated the effort. I definitely didn’t want to explore Vegas al
one.
At least he was able to spare the time to introduce me to the greasy delights of his favorite food booth before we made our way to the room we’d call home for the next few days.
A playful but fiery gaze that practically seared my clothes off took over his eyes when we exited the elevator and entered the hotel room.
“Fuck, Charylse. I am so glad we’re finally alone,” he said, stalking toward me like a hungry lion.
But I didn’t run away. I stood firm and let him come to me.
So exhilarating.
“Strip,” he ordered, his apparent hunger barely contained.
I wanted to comply, but instead I bit the side of my lip and threw him my most coy, playful gaze instead, standing defiantly still.
“Strip,” he ordered again. “Or you’ll be sorry.” He was already unbuttoning his shirt, his gaze not leaving mine.
I teased him with wide-eyed innocence, and I looked down as his pants came off to see he was straining behind his boxer briefs.
Giving in much too easily, I slowly slipped my dress off over my curves. “The underwear, take it off,” I demanded, playing his game.
“I’m giving the orders tonight,” he replied, narrowing his eyes at me, almost flashing angry.
I swallowed hard as he made his way to me, pulling me into a rough kiss that communicated the full intensity of his need. Moaning into the kiss, I was wild against him as he pulled me down to the bed. His hands roamed the flat of my belly, the heady swell of my hips, finally coming down to smack the soft flesh of my round bottom.
I hissed with pleasure as I arched my back into it, and Tyler slapped my ass again, calling heat to my cheeks. He asked huskily, “You a bad girl, Charlyse?”
“Mmm.”
“Answer me,” he insisted, slapping my ass again. “Are you my bad girl?”
