Everything fell apart after Uncle passed. The deal in Jersey, the deal Cullins had with him to bring new girls into the fold. It all died with him. Uncle still has a few men running things, but without my cousins or me at the helm, things are starting to become a little bit more legitimate. There’s still shady shit going on; my brother is still one of the best bookies to walk the chambers of the casino, and he’ll still sidle up to any girl at the bar in a tight dress. But things are different now.

They don’t do deals with small-timers. There’s fewer girls for sale. There’s still girls on a pole and selling themselves when they need the money, but there’s fewer of them, and they’re there by choice for the most part.

And I got out entirely...almost. Now, I only deal blackjack like a one of the real, legit guys. Cherry thinks I look good in the new uniforms I picked out for the casino staff. They’re black slacks and vests for the men and the women, and a white button-down shirt, and on the breast pocket of the vest is a little embroidered cherry. I think it’s fucking adorable. She doesn’t believe me when I say I picked it out for her.

I never got my cut of the Jersey deal, and no one out here brokered it. The last I heard, Vincent got someone in Jersey to assist him with that. Someone who owed him something and had to work for free. I don’t even care that I didn’t get my fingers in that pot.

I only thought of it once, when I thought about buying a ring for Cherry.

I still make some good scratch as a dealer, but I’ve taken a far less active role in the big-picture shit. Now I’m focused on the little things.

“Miss?” I flick my cigarette away and prepare to go back in for my shift. A girl with long red hair walks toward me in a white sundress. I know it’s Cherry, but I like to give her shit for coming to visit me at work.

I told her to stay out of Vegas.

I guess things don’t always end up how you expect.

She skips over to me in her white canvas sneakers and throws her arms around my neck. We aren’t pretending anymore, but it feels just as good to hold her right now as it did when I first had to, when she held on for me for dear life.

I was her lifeline. Now, we’re each other’s.

“Excuse me,” she says, her big blue eyes beaming at me, “I was lost. I don’t know where I’m supposed to go.”

“I’ll have to see some ID, then,” I say back to her. “Are you sure your daddy wants you out here on the strip?”

She laughs and tucks her hair behind her ear and gets up on her tiptoes, kissing me on the cheek.

“I was thinking.” She slips her hand into mine and we go back into the casino, the cool air a respite from the heat outside. But it doesn’t feel like home anymore. “You never really did show me how to play blackjack.”

“Baby, we can take care of that.”

We make our way over to the table where I’m dealing. There’s no one at the table; it’s only three in the afternoon, and now, at the end of summer, the only people around are grannies and regulars. Plus, we have plenty of tables open. I get behind the table and Cherry grabs a seat across from me.

I feed six decks into the shuffler. I don’t like using shufflers, but we use them because most of the other big casinos on the strip do.

“You get off early from babysitting Kay?” I ask.

“Yeah,” Cherry responds. “The Petersons are going out for an early dinner and they wanted to take her with them.”

She looks up at me and puts her elbow on the table, cradling her chin in her hand and tapping a finger on her cheek.

“You seem pensive,” I say. “Why do you seem pensive?”

“I don’t know,” she replies, shrugging. She’s been busy lately; my girl is preparing to take the exam for nursing school. She said seeing what happened to her old man pushed her to finally take the plunge. She loves being Kayla’s part-time nanny, but she knows that gig won’t last forever. Kids grow up, she’d told me plainly when she first mentioned going back to school.

She’s right. It’s not something I think a lot about these days, but she’s right. I’ve been on a path to destruction for so long, I’m just now slowing down and allowing myself to breathe for the first time. I just want it to last forever. I don’t want to think about it ever ending.

“When Kayla is in high school, maybe I can be her math tutor,” I say, dealing a card face down in front of Cherry.

“Math tutor?” She smirks and puts her hands out in front of her on the table. “Sean, you continue to surprise me.”

“Don’t be surprised, sweetheart. I’m good at it.”

“I guess you are the more analytical of the two of us, but I’d be just as good as Kayla’s math tutor.”

A warm sensation fills my chest as I look at my girl. My gorgeous, wonderful girl.

“You know what? I can teach you this later. I have something more important I want to show you.”

I come around the table and grab Cherry’s hand. This is a risk I’m willing to take.

Since I met her - hell, since before I met her - I haven’t been able to stop thinking of her. And since I met her, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how to make her mine. To save her, I had to pretend to be something I wasn’t: a man who was in love with a girl who just wanted to do right by her family. A girl who would risk everything and give up all she had for a chance - just a chance - to save her family.

She ended up doing so much more than that.

And it wasn’t just for me. It was for herself, too.

“Where are we going?” I take her by the hand and lead her across the casino floor.

It’s so different from that day when I finally met her. There aren’t throngs of people jockeying for each other’s attention, drunk frat boys and bachelorette parties that she didn’t belong to. She was all by herself that day, and I was all alone, too.

But it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. Fuck, it isn’t that way anymore.

But now, I just want to make it official.

We make our way through the lobby of the hotel and I pull her through a door and down a hallway where we won’t be seen. It’s somewhere people aren’t supposed to go. I just want to be alone with her.

Hidden, I take her face in my hands and gently caress her cheek. Her eyes light up and sparkle even in the darkness, and her gorgeous mouth perks up at the sides. She opens up for me as I trail my finger down her lips, and her breath hitches in her throat. Our mouths crash together frantically, like we can’t slow down and can’t stop.

I feel like I’m lost in her world, but I’m not. I’ve finally found myself. I feel free. Free to protect her, possess her, love her and have her be mine.

I feel her leg slide up mine and I reach down, snaking my hand over her pure skin. Her flesh is soft, supple, and yields under my fingers as I bring my body closer to mine and push her up against the wall. Not too hard, but not too soft, either. Enough that she knows who’s she is. Enough that she can feel how much I want her and need her.

“There’s something I want to ask you, Cherry,” I whisper into her ear, pulling my mouth away from hers. I look down at her, at her puffy red lips, kissed and taken and wanting more. Her eyes plead with me for more. I take her ass in my hands and pull her up until her legs wrap tight around my waist. I feel her against me in her pretty little dress, and I want to consume her, take her right here.

“What is it?” she whispers softly.

“Who do you want?” I trace my finger along the edge of her panties and push my way through, feeling her soft skin open up for me. “Who do you want?”

She sighs heavily, a short breath escaping from her parted lips.

“You,” she says. Her eyes focus on mine before trailing down, her hands roaming along my chest, desperate to feel me closer.

I find her clit behind the soft fabric of her panties.

“You are soaked, baby.”

God, she is so wet for me. So perfect.

My perfect Cherry. I want to take a bite of her. Sink my teeth in. Feel her. Make her feel me.

She moans and grinds her body against me. She can’t get close enough.

I press my finger against her clit and run it against her. I’m so hard, but I want this moment to last. I want to rip her panties off and fuck her silly, but even more than that..I want this to last. This moment is everything to me.

Cherry grinds against me and I feel every inch of her body wrapping mine up. I’m rock hard for this woman.

I put my hands on her waist and allow her to slip down the wall a little, putting her down and shoving my hand into my pocket.

“This is the real question,” I say. I pull out the ring I purchased for her - and I know it’s the one she had to give up, the one she pawned. I had to go to three different pawn shops because since she gave it up it’s been traded and passed around. But it’s still as good a fucking new.

It’s even better than that, because now I get to give it to her.

Her eyes brighten as I drop down to one knee and hold it out to her in its black box.

“But Sean...how?”

“It’s not important how,” I say. “But if you really want to know, I had to search it out. Turns out there’s a few pawn shops in this town, and they all knew the ring. It’s a hot item.”

Cherry shakes her head and laughs, putting her hands on her knees and coming down to kiss me.

“No,” she says. “How did you know that was my ring?”

I laugh as she puts her hand out and I slide it onto her finger.

“I asked your father, of course,” I say. I had to get her old man’s blessing. He never thought I was a piece of shit. Ever. He thought I was born in the wrong place.

I disagree. I think I was born in the exact fucking right place, because I got to save her. No matter what shit happened before, I’m with her now.

“I don’t know what to say.” Her hand is shaking slightly as she admires the ring on her hand. It’s hers now, though it always was.

“Say yes,” I reply, taking both of her hands in mine. “You don’t have to pretend. You don’t have to use that ring as a prop. You don’t have to run from anything ever again. This is real, and I want to keep you for my whole life. Marry me.”

“Yes,” she says softly. “I will marry you.”

I get up and sweep her up in a tight embrace again as she throws her arms around my neck.

I pick her up and push her against the wall, and she opens up for me, holding on tight to my body. Her legs wrap around me again, and this is where she belongs.

I push her panties aside and with a push, I’m inside her. I just want to make her feel good after all the shit she’s been through.

“It’s yours, Sean,” she moans softly into my ear as she brushes her lips against my shoulder. Her sweet cherry red lips kiss my neck as I grind into her, each thrust harder than the last. Harder and deeper. And each time, her moans becomes more intense. Still soft, but so hot and intense.

“I love being wrapped up in you,” I say. “I can’t wait for you to be my dirty girl forever.”

Adrenaline and want fill my veins as I feel her cum. I don’t let up. I don’t slow down. I don’t stop.

Because I will never have enough of her.

I feel myself go wild against her as our mouths crush together, her moans filling my mouth. I feel her inside me, all around me as I start to cum.

“I love you.” I grind against her, happy but wanting more. Satisfied, but still craving her. “I’ve always loved you.”

“I love you too,” she moans. “And I always will.”

I kiss her cheek, her perfect porcelain skin flushed with the glow only I can give her. And I feel time crystalize and slow and then stop. Everything is still. Everything is perfect.

But I don’t want to stay here in this moment.

For the first time in my fucking life, I want to see the future. Because I want to fill up those moments with her. With us.

Forever.

* * *