by Lauren Wood
Candy had a look on her face that told me she was not sure about what I said. I was thinking of her living here with me, had been since I heard from her yesterday and it was clear to me that she wasn't thinking about that at all. For the first time in a long time, I had to wonder if this was all for nothing. Had I really missed my chance?
I have felt the tension in the air because I didn't say much else to her when we were getting in the car. Maybe she was right, and I was delusional. It wasn't that I was crazy or anything like that, it was just strange to be turned down when I was never turned down before. I was the man who could have any one and of course, it seemed to be poetic justice that I couldn't have the one that I wanted the most. How many women had been in my bed when I woke up the next morning? There had to be a reason that I didn't remember not one of their names.
“So, what do you like about Vegas?”
“Well there's always work, I can tell you that much. I don't know what it is about this place, but everyone gets so happy and wants to start spending their money on anything and everything. Then regret sets in not too long after that.”
“Yeah, I can see that happening. How many people try to sue the casino for losing everything?”
“That actually doesn't happen. You can’t fight the house.”
The silence went over us again and part of it was my fault because I didn't know what to say. I was usually the smooth operator, but when I talked to her, everything seemed to come out with the wrong way.
We stopped at the fake Sphinx that one of the casinos had put together and while I had passed it many times in the past, I liked to see Candy’s face when she saw it. She genuinely liked what she saw and if nothing else, it was going to be an interesting day. If she was like this already, there was a lot more that she was going to like to see today and I was hopeful that I would be able to get my mind out of this rut it was in. She wasn't the only one that had changed. Apparently, I had become far more contemplative then I used to be.
The two of us went all over Las Vegas and by the third stop, we were back to talking to each other normally. I just tried to steer clear of any conversation I had to do with romantics. It was clear that she didn't want to have nothing to do with that and I was just going to put myself into a grave that I couldn't dig out of. It wasn't just her reaction that I was avoiding, but mine as well. All it did was rile me up and give me hope that something was going to happen.
“Are you ready to get something to eat?”
She told me that she was and when I asked her where, she told me that she didn't care. It was a breath of fresh air compared to when I went out with other women, because they always knew exactly where they wanted to go. It was usually a place that was way overpriced, and food wasn't even that good. I agreed of course because I just wanted to get in their panties.
“So, you really don't care?”
“No not really, why?”
“I just haven't met a woman that didn't care. Most of the ones I meet, already have our whole lives figured out in the first ten minutes that we meet.”
Candy told me that it was silly.
“What is life, if we plan it all?”
It was the first thing that she had said to finally give me a little bit of hope. I liked to think the same way, and if she thought that way, then maybe all the plans that she had laid down hadn’t worked as I first thought. This is what I wanted to tell myself anyways. I always got my way, and I wasn't going to let this be any different.
“Well, if you really don't care, I know this place that had some really good food. I don't know if you will like the entertainment, but I guess we'll find out.”
I was a little amazed. She didn’t even ask what I was talking about or where we're going. It did appear that she really didn't care either way. Candy was going to leave it all to me and I really liked that. I know that it was just a meal, but it also signified that she was putting a little bit of faith in me. It was at least more than we had before.
Maybe I was just being naive and hopeful, but I really wanted to believe that something good could come of all this. It all had to be for a reason. I had to believe that.
Chapter 12
Candy
“Are you being serious right now?”
I wasn't sure what to say, but I knew that there was no way that I was going to go in there. There was pictures of dancers out on a front panel and it didn't look like the sort of dance that I was going to be interested in. To me it just looked like strip club and I wasn't sure if that's what it was or not, but I certainly didn't want to go through the dark door.
“What's the matter? Haven't you ever been to a cabaret show before?”
“Why in the world would I go to one of these places?”
I can see why men would want to go, but I couldn't for the life of me see why a woman would want to be in a place that had half naked women posters in front. It didn't seem like a classy place, or any place that I would want to go. I really wondered if he was just messing with me or not.
“Because the show is really good. It's not what you think it is or what your face says you think it is. It's not like naked strippers or anything. They keep their clothes on, most of them.”
I just shook my head and I really didn't have a clue how I was supposed to respond to this. I was not used to being put in this sort of situation and he was acting like it was just another day. Maybe it was just another day for him, but it was a lot more than that for me. I was standing to silence and when he reached out to me, I just followed but I knew that I wasn't going to want to stay long. He wanted us to get to know each other, and I was starting to see that we were very different. That was obvious before we left, but it was even more not obvious now.
When we got inside there was already someone getting on the stage dancing and while it wasn't what I was expected, it was something different altogether. It was sort of like a car crash passed on the Interstate and even though I wanted to just keep on driving, something made you look and keep looking.
I was at that point right now and I was a little embarrassed when he had to get my attention to take me to our table. I was standing there in the middle of the floor frozen, transfixed by the woman that was dancing on the stage. She made it look so natural, the way her body contorted.
“See, I told you that it wasn't going to be so bad.”
It was hard for me to pay attention to him and what he was saying when there was a woman up on stage. She was not young or blonde, two things that I thought were going to be a given. She was actually a little older than me and she was very skilled at her dancing. It was an alluring dance, and there were some clothes coming off as I watched her, but it was something else altogether different. It was hard not to look at the moment and to see it at an art form.
“Why would you take me here?”
“I don't know. I guess I thought that you would like it. Or maybe that the old you would like it, though I don't know much about this new you.”
I smiled at him and for some reason I really liked that answer. I liked to think that he knew me well and now I told myself that I was here for divorce. Things were changing rather quickly.
“I do like it. I don't know why, but I do. I feel like I'm at our gallery right now and this is live art.”
Colt smiled at me and agreed.
“I take a lot of clients here and I have not had one ever leave disappointed. That is hard to do in my world.”
Of all the things that he had shown me today and all the places we had went, I was starting to think that this place was my favorite. The waitress was around not too long after that and I pulled my eyes from the stage. It was the first time that I had looked at the menu and he asked me if he could order for me. I wasn't that sort of girl, I did have my own opinions, but I just let him because I figured he had been here before and knew what was good.
We sat in silence. I was happy for the steak that he ordered me. He did ask me how I wanted it cooked and he ordered an identical rare steak wit
h me.
“See, I knew that we had a lot more in common.”
“Yes, apparently we both like blood and jiggly tits.”
He chuckled at me and I was trying to figure out what I was saying. I wasn't thinking very clearly, and I was just letting things roll off my tongue and that wasn't always a good thing.
My phone rang not too long after the waitress brought our drinks and I could see that it was Jax. He told me that he was going to call me after his meeting and by the looks of it, it must of ran pretty late. In his world, that was a good thing and I knew that I should take the call, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to or not.
“Why don't you go ahead and take that?”
“How do I know you're not going to say something and get Jax mad at me?”
“Do you really think I would do such a thing?”
“Yes, I do.”
He smiled at me and agreed that he probably would.
“I have to go to the bathroom. You take the call and then you won't have to worry about me ruining anything with the man of your dreams.”
The way he said it almost made me feel bad, almost. There was another part of me that was sure that he was just trying to make me feel bad. Either way, I did, and I told him that I wasn’t going to take the call. He grinned at me and didn’t go to the bathroom, so I figured that he was just messing with me. I had to be on guard when I was around Colt. He had a way of messing with my mind and it was hard to know what to say to him or even how to act when I was around him.
“Why do you keep looking at me that way?”
Just because you don't remember that night together Candy, doesn't mean that I don't. It is hard for me to sit on the other side of this table and pretend like I don't want to rip your clothes off and fuck you until you come all over me. It is literally all I can think about and I'm trying my best to hold it in. It’s not as easy as it sounds.”
I shook in the seat and I tried to ignore the electricity that went to my core. I know that I was with Jax, but there was a part of me that really wanted to remember as well. He made it seem like we had some of the best sex that I had ever had, and I wanted to know what that felt like. He was clear to me that I had squirted for him, but that didn't mean that we were meant to be together. All that meant is we were good sexually and we're compatible. I could have told him that the first moment I met him.
“Wow, I don't even know what to say to that Colt. That must have been one hell of a night for you to be thinking about that.”
“It was.”
I don't know why, but at that moment, I wished I could read his mind. I wished I could see the scene that came to mind that gave him this glittering look in his eyes. Whatever it was, I know damn well it was good and I really wanted to be privy to it.
“And what if we did?”
“Did what?”
“What if we did repeat that night? Then what?”
Colts sat back in his chair and smiled at me in the most charming way possible.
“Well, in that case, I would make sure that you were there in the morning when I woke up. Then I would do it all over again. Like I said before, we never did have a honeymoon and I think we deserve one.”
He kept bringing up the honeymoon and I wondered if it was because of what happened during the honeymoon. Was he trying to make me think of us together in bed? If that was the case, he was doing a very good job of it. The whole bit about fucking me until I came all over him was certainly very clear and vivid in my mind. How could it not be?
“So, we lay in bed for a few days and then what?”
Colt chuckled at me for a minute and then I guess he realized that I was being serious because he straightened up.
“You move in here and you live with me as my wife. There are plenty of opportunities here for everyone and we could start the life that we began seven years ago, but this time, we do it right.”
I was a little gob smacked by his answer. Did he really believe that we could just carry on like that? We didn't even know each other and even though we had talked a lot the last couple of days, that didn't mean that we were supposed to stay married. I was sure a couple of weeks ago that I was supposed to marry another man.
“We don’t even know each other, Colt.”
“Yet, here we are married. Just because we didn't go in the right order, doesn't mean that it is the wrong order for us.”
I knew that what he said was true, but it was just so far out of the realm of normal, that I didn't know how to respond to it. Jax hadn’t been on my mind in a while and I wasn't even thinking about him right now. I was thinking more about the man in front of me and the problem that his eyes and lips proposed. How could I turn it down?
Chapter 13
Colt
“Sorry, but I don’t have a thing to say to that. You are being very naughty Colt and you’re trying to get me in trouble.”
“You’re a grown ass woman Candy. You can’t get in trouble. I am merely suggesting that we have some fun. Why don’t we go back home and have a drink?”
Again, I was slipping into saying things that I shouldn’t say, but she didn’t seem to notice this time around. She looked like she was actually contemplating what I said, and I liked the idea of that more than anything else. It was hard for me to figure out what I was supposed to do at the moment. I finally just waited it all out because I wasn’t sure what was going on in her mind. There was really no telling.
“I think we could do that, but I think I’m going to skip vodka tonight. I haven’t had a headache like that in a long time. Reminded me why I stopped drinking. I would have to wake up drinking because being drunk was always better than the hangover.”
“Was that the old you?”
She smiled at me and agreed. “Yeah, you know, the one that I’m not anymore.”
I grinned at her and I knew that she wasn’t that girl anymore all of the time, but I was really hoping that she was going to be that girl tonight.
All I could think about was getting my hands on her and I was starting to have hope again that this was going to be the time. Last night was a bust, but now, we had a chance to do it all over again. That was the only thought on my mind at the moment.
The longer that Candy was here, the more my reasoning changed for her being here. It was on a fluke in the beginning, just something that came to my mind. Tit was more out of curiosity, wondering why she was different. But now, now I wanted to just be with her. There was no reasoning behind it anymore. I didn't care why I was drawn to Candy, I don't think I was ever going to figure it out.
All I was worried about now was being with her, for as long as I possibly could. The whole time that I was trying to get her into my bed though, all I could think about was the fact that she was about to marry another man. If I signed the papers that she brought with her, color coded and ready to be signed, it would be the end of us. I really would never see her again. That was something that I wasn't prepared for.
We got to the car and the driver took us home. Ernest gave me a couple looks in the rearview mirror, most likely because he had never seen me with the same chick two nights in a row. It was unheard of, but once again, Candy with my wife. She wasn't just another woman.
When we got home, I was starting to think that Candy had changed her mind. She hadn’t said much on the ride, even though it had been rather long. I was afraid that she had rethought the situation and wasn't prepared to be together. It didn't help that her phone kept ringing and as we were moving towards the porch, I told her that it would be easier if she just turned it off.
“I mean seriously, if you're not going to answer it, why don't you just turn it off?”
“You're right. I'm not going to answer it and the ringing is just driving me crazy.”
I watched her turn it off and I don't know why, but to me it signified that I had a chance. I wanted to believe that she was going to go all the way and she was going to forget about her fiancée back home. This was the chance that I had told myself I needed
.
“We went into the kitchen and instead of making the drinks there and talking at the counter like we had before, I wanted us to be a little more intimate. I brought a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses upstairs and she followed me. We went into my bedroom and I poured the wine for her, while I got some whiskey for myself from the small wet bar that was there.
Candy was looking around and she kept her hands to herself like she was afraid to touch anything. I don't know why, but she looked damn good doing it. I was still stunned that she was finally here with me, but I still had to wonder how she had popped into my life like she had and changed everything for me.
“This is not at all what I expected your bedroom to look like.”
“What did you expect?”
“I don't know, but this just doesn’t feel like you.”
“That's because I didn't design this. Somebody came in and decorated it for me. They actually decorated the whole house. I don't really have an eye for that kind of thing. If I had my way, there would be a bed and a TV in here and that’s it.”
“Yeah, it doesn’t feel like you.”
I liked that she was talking like she knew me. I wanted to believe that she felt the same way that I did. There was an undeniable pull that I felt to her and I wanted to believe that she felt the same way about it.
“What do you think it should have looked like?”
She giggled and told me that she had envisioned a man cave with a couple of stripper poles in the living room.
“Why would you think that about me?”
I was rather surprised that she saw that, even though I’d done my best to keep my real ways from her.
“Well, I mean, let’s see. Your driver was shocked when I got in the car and he asked twice if you wanted me to be taken home.”
“What does that tell you?”
She smiled and picked up an earring from the nightstand. “That tells me that you don’t have many repeat nights, and this tells me that you had someone here most likely the same day that I called you. Do you remember her name?”
