Chapter Twelve
Paul
Finally, it was Saturday night.
It felt as if I were still in high school—except in high school I’d had more confidence. Usually, I had a date on Saturdays with clients, but I’d made sure to have the day off. I wasn’t worried about the money I’d miss out on—I was going to be with the most beautiful woman in Vegas. It was worth it.
All week it was hard to see Andi. It was almost as if we were dating, but we weren’t. Every time I saw her, I wanted to just … kiss her. If we were dating, I could wrap her in my arms and kiss her whenever I wanted, but we weren’t so I couldn’t. I had to be a perfect gentleman when I saw her.
During the week I’d had to leave a few times to go on a couple of dates, which felt awkward, but I hadn’t had sex with any of the clients I went on dates with. It wasn’t as if I could get “in trouble” for not having sex with clients. We weren’t hired to sleep with them. We were hired for dates—companionship. If things led to sex, then they led to sex. I, however, had my eye on my new roommate and I didn’t want anyone else, so at the end of the date, I’d tell them I had a nice time and call it a night. I didn’t even care if they re-booked anymore. Each time I thought about forgetting the escort thing. I didn’t need it anymore. I had my new business with Gabe and Autumn and I was happy doing it. Happier. I felt alive now that Gabe and I were shooting again and teaching women how to defend themselves.
When I became an escort, it was my way to forget about Vanessa, but I no longer needed to forget about her and what she’d done. I was ready to move on. Even if Andi and I just went out for the night, it was a step in the right direction.
While Andi got ready in her room, I showered then changed into a pair of dark denim jeans and a black button-down shirt. After combing my hair back, I rolled up my long sleeves and went out to the living room where I waited for her to be ready. When she came out, I wanted to tell her how good she looked in her tight jeans and sparkly top. How good she smelled as she stepped closer to me. How fucking perfect she was.
But I had a plan.
“I’ll pick you up at seven.” I grabbed my keys, my wallet, and my cell phone and started to walk toward the garage.
“Um, it’s 6:55 now.”
“Seven o’clock, gorgeous.” I closed the door to the house from the garage before she could respond. After starting up my Jeep, I backed it out of the garage, drove around the block and stopped in front of our house so I could pick her up for a proper date.
At seven o’clock sharp I stepped out of the Jeep and walked to the front door. I knocked and waited for Andi to open the door. She smiled brightly when she answered it.
“Damn,” I said, dragging out the word. “Gorgeous, you’re stunning.”
She looked down at herself and then back up to my eyes. “Thank you.”
I reached out my hand. “Ready?”
“Is it seven?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re lucky I love your feisty mouth.” She blushed and grabbed my hand. “You’re cute when you blush.”
“Let’s go, Paul,” she groaned and I laughed. This was going to be fun and I couldn’t wait.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Andi asked, breaking the silence. We’d barely driven out of our neighborhood.
“How do you feel about heights?”
Her eyes became huge. “Seriously?” I nodded and returned my gaze to the road. “What if I say I don’t like them?”
I shrugged and glanced at her. “Too bad.”
“Paul!”
“Are you scared of them?” I chuckled.
“I’m deathly afraid of them.”
“Aw, gorgeous, you have me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You can’t save me from falling to my death.”
I grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes as we stopped at a red light. “We’re not going to fall to our death. Trust me.”
“I trust you. It’s whatever’s in the sky I don’t trust. Which is …?”
“The world’s largest observation wheel.”
“The Ferris wheel on the strip?”
“It’s not a Ferris wheel.” I laughed, shaking my head. “Each pod’s enclosed and can hold up to forty people. Worse case, you can go to the middle and not look down.”
“I don’t know about this, Paul.”
I squeezed her hand. “We’re going to dinner at The LINQ first. You have time to prepare. If you really don’t want to do it when we get there, you don’t have to. But I promise it’s not that bad. Plus it’s the best view of Vegas, especially at night.”
She groaned and turned her head to look at the window and I smiled. She was going to go up on the High Roller even if I had to carry her. I could have taken Andi to any number of nice restaurants on the strip, but we were wined and dined all the time, so I wanted to take her somewhere casual. I wanted to show her Vegas and not have to drive out of town to see the view.
After valet parking, I grabbed Andi’s hand and led her through the casino to the restaurant where we were going to eat. I was starting to get used to having her hand in mine. It felt like a natural thing for us to be doing. Maybe it was because the casino was crowded and it was easier for her to follow me. I didn’t care. I loved the feel of her skin, and if I needed to enforce a death grip, I would.
A few minutes into our walk through the casino, Andi turned her head to me. “First you told me to dress up and then you changed your mind and you told me to dress casual.” It was as if she’d just remembered I said we were going to dinner and not only to The High Roller.
I smiled. “I know.”
“Where are we going to eat then?”
“Why do you always ask so many questions?” We stepped around a group of rowdy drunks trying to decide where to go or something.
“I always know the plan before I do things.”
“Even on personal dates?” She nodded and I stared at her for a beat, trying not to run into people as we walked and then I glanced up. “We’re here.”
“Guy Fieri’s restaurant?”
“Do you watch the Food Network?”
“Sometimes.” She licked her lips and I groaned.
“Hungry?”
“Starving.”
We waited twenty minutes at Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen & Bar to be seated in the rustic bar type restaurant. I chose the place because the High Roller was only about a five minute walk outside the doors. Once we left, Andi could look at the wheel and make her final decision. It was 550 feet tall and took thirty minutes to make a full turn. I knew I could talk her into doing it for thirty minutes, even if I had to wrap her in my arms the entire time.
“Do you always order a margarita?” I asked her after the waiter left from taking our order.
“I’m not much of a drinker, but you can get a lot of different flavors with margaritas and tequila. How about you, what’s your poison? I see you ordered tequila, too.”
“That’s true. I’ve always been a tequila man myself, especially when I can lick it off of you.” I smirked.
She laughed, placing her hand over her stomach. “Wow … okay. How often do you use that line?”
The waiter came back and placed our drinks down. “I’ve never used the line on someone before. Body shots just happen.” I winked at her before I took a sip of my tequila and coke.
“You might have to show me that talent one day.” I choked a little on my drink but before I could respond she asked, “So how long have you been in the business?”
I wasn’t sure why she’d changed the subject. I liked the flirty Andi, and I wanted to lick tequila and salt off of every inch of her, but I didn’t press her on the matter. Instead, I answered her question with a sigh. “Long enough.”
“You sound like you don’t enjoy it.”
Looking into the eyes of the woman asking me the question felt like a million light bulbs going off. I wanted to tell her how I felt about her, but it was hard because I didn’t know how she felt about me. I really liked her. I wanted to see where things could go between us since we lived together. I didn’t want it to be awkward at all. I’d already gotten my heart broken once and I was ready to move on with my life, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to tell a woman I was ready to move on with her. I wanted to get to know her—in more ways than one, but was I ready to actually quit S&R?
“I’m starting to realize I want more out of life.”
“You’ve never been in a serious relationship before?”
I sighed then took a long sip of my drink, contemplating if I wanted to tell her about Vanessa. After a few seconds, I realized that getting into a deep conversation about Vanessa wasn’t something I wanted to do on a first date even if Andi and I lived together. If we did want to give whatever this was between us a chance, then maybe I would eventually tell her that I was in love once. Everyone had been in love before.
“It’s been a long time, gorgeous. A really long time.”
Before she could ask me to elaborate on the subject, the waiter dropped off our food and the subject was changed—thank God. We ate our food for a bit and then we picked up on more of the conversation.
“How are you liking Vegas?” I asked moments later after we’d gushed about how delicious the food was.
“It’s definitely different. D.C.’s nothing like it is here.”
I smiled behind my straw. “I heard through the grapevine that you’re going to titty bars with some of the girls. You into girls, too?”
She snorted as she tried to contain her laughter. “Definitely not. The girls claim it’s a good way to pick up clients, and seeing as I’m new to the area, I guess I’m trying to pull whatever tricks are out there.”
“So you’re not out there having threesomes with your clients and the girls?” My smile hadn’t faltered as I thought about Andi with another chick.
“I’ve never slept with any of my clients. Do … Have you?” Her gaze avoided mine as she waited for my answer.
Would she not want to be with me because of something I’d done before I met her? I took another long sip of my tequila and coke, slurping the remaining content. “Honestly, gorgeous, I have. I have with a lot of them. But since you barged into my house—literally—I haven’t. I haven’t wanted to. I’ve been looking forward to this date since before I knew I wanted to take you on it, and hearing that you don’t sleep with your clients … Fuck, that makes me so happy. You have no fucking idea how much that makes me happy.”
Before we could continue, the waiter came and dropped off the check. “We can talk about this later. Let’s go check out the High Roller.”
“What if I freak out?”
“I’ll wrap you in my arms until it’s over.”
She stared up at the metal wheel. “It’s … so high.”
“Look how big the pods are. Nothing’s going to happen. We’ll stand in the middle if you’re scared.”
She tore her gaze to mine. “Promise?”
I smiled and grabbed her hand, missing the contact that was only brief from me paying for our tickets. “I promise, gorgeous.”
We waited in line to enter onto the white pod. Occasionally the wheel would change colors from pink to green to blue and so on. Earlier I thought I would be the one that needed to have the death grip on Andi’s hand, but she was the one that had one on mine.
“Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay,” I promised, pulling her closer to me. I got a whiff of her hair and I noticed that she smelled of coconuts. “You smell like paradise.”
She looked up at me. “Are you trying to distract me?”
I smirked. “Is it working?”
“Maybe a little.” She looked back up at the wheel and I shook my head. I didn’t get the heights thing. Maybe it was because I was used to helicopters in the Army and that shit didn’t even have doors on it.
The line moved and it was our turn to enter the pod. Andi glanced at me and I whispered that it was going to be okay and I gave her hand a final squeeze. I saw her chest rise and then she entered and went straight to the center of the ball while everyone else went to the glass walls. I walked up behind her, wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to my chest, not saying anything while she took in her surroundings.
“Okay,” I heard her say after a few minutes.
“Okay?” I questioned.
She nodded and started to step toward the glass, her hand in mine. Just before we got to the railing, she stopped and looked down.
“Gorgeous,” I laughed, “you’re not supposed to look down.”
She looked up at me. “I wanted to see how far up we were.”
“Well, shit. You’re lucky we aren’t all the way on top yet.”
“I know.” She stepped as close as she could to me, our shoulders pressed together, our hands still clasps and then she took the tiny step forward to the railing.
We were silent again as the wheel took the slow turn. The lights lit up the dark Vegas sky. Each casino could be seen below, and I wanted to point everything out to her, but I kept my mouth shut and let her take everything in. The closer we inched up to the top, the tighter her hand held mine.
I needed to distract her.
I tugged on her hand so she would turn her head to me, and when she did, I leaned down and captured her lips with mine. I wrapped the hand I was holding around my waist and let go so I could reach up and grab her face with both of my hands. Her other arm wrapped around my side as I finally got a taste of my girl.
Everyone in the pod disappeared. It was just her and me. I wanted her to only focus on me, so I stepped closer, pressing her back against the glass. The taste of tequila was faint when I swiped my tongue against her lower lip wanting her to open for me. When she finally granted me access and our tongues collided, there was a little grain of salt left over from her drink and the combination of the two only drove my need to really be with her.
I pushed against her a little harder, causing one of my knees to go between her legs. Our mouths worked together, tasting, sucking and not caring if others were watching. Really I couldn’t give a fuck because this was what I’d been craving for the last two weeks and getting this little taste of her was only going to drive my need for her that much more. I wanted to taste every fucking inch of her.
As I was about to whisper into her ear that I couldn’t wait to get her home to fuck her brains out, she quickly brought her hands up to cover mine that were holding her face and broke the kiss. She pulled her lips away and we kept our foreheads connected. Frustrated, I closed my eyes panting and said the only fucking thing my brain could luster up.
“Andi …”