As we walk through Mandalay Bay to meet the men on Saturday morning, my traitorous thoughts go immediately to the last time I was at this hotel. Posters advertising upcoming bands adorn the walls. I stared at one of those posters not so long ago and felt the man in the center of the image staring back at me, just like I felt his eyes on me as I stood against the stage gazing up at him.
Vail isn’t in any of the advertisements now that their concert date has passed, but his image is still burned in my mind.
I keep thinking I’ll spot him sitting at one of the Blackjack tables or walking out of one of the bars. That night I spent with him brought him from this inaccessible rock god down to human level, if only for a few hours.
But now he’s back to the inaccessible rock god, the man every woman would love a night with, the man who works a stage unlike anybody else, the man who was on a reality television show and became a household name.
We spot the men near the entrance to the pool, and I force the unhealthy thoughts away.
“Why don’t you all head to the pool while I get us checked in?” Brian suggests.
“I’ll come with you,” I say. I’m back to this weird dynamic of wanting to be with him versus extreme hesitance to get into something I’m not ready for.
A week away from him made me realize something, though: I really like him.
I’m afraid to admit it, but part of me feels like he’s exactly what I need to move on from that night that’s still so fresh in my mind two weeks later. I don’t want it to be fresh. I want the memory to fade, yet I’m holding onto it like a lifeline. I’m a walking contradiction.
Brian snags my hand in his as we make our way toward the check-in desk. The clerk taps a few keys then says, “You’ve reserved a sun villa on our third floor. It has a private pool for villa users and six lounge chairs. The covered portion has a daybed, television, counter, and small refrigerator. Your total comes to nine seventy-five for the day.”
Brian hands over his beautiful, black AmEx while I try not to choke on that total.
The hostess taps a few more keys and then shows us a map of where to go. “The villa has towel service, and anything you need will be there.”
It better freaking have towel service for almost a thousand bucks. I’m in awe that this is my life for today, and as I allow my gaze to settle on Brian’s muscular calves, I’m thrilled that I get to spend the day with this sexy man who’s already starting to help me forget.
We follow the directions to our paradise for the day, an oasis in the desert.
As soon as we set down our bags, a waitress who introduces herself as Joelle appears to take our drink orders.
Brian glances at me. “You drinking?” he asks.
I shrug and smile at Joelle. “Mimosa.”
“Bloody Mary for me,” he says.
She nods and scampers off, and I start tapping a text on my phone to let Jill and Tess know we’re all checked in.
Brian is suddenly inches from me. “What are you doing?” he asks.
“Texting Jill and Tess.”
He places his palms on my biceps and leans in toward me. “Now why would you want to do that?”
Nerves rattle around in my belly at his proximity. “Because I don’t want you to waste your money.”
“Don’t worry about that. Put your phone down.”
I listen to the command in his voice. I don’t send the text, and he pulls his shirt over his head and tosses it on one of the chairs.
He wears swim trunks that are navy and have some striped design on them, but who can pay attention to all that when he’s not wearing a damn shirt? My eyes center squarely on his abdomen, the hard cuts of muscle begging for my touch. I eye each individual muscle and count. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
That’s definitely an eight-pack he’s got going there.
My mouth waters and my body roars with an intense ache for him. I know he sees me staring at him, but there’s little I can do to mask it.
“Why don’t we take advantage of the privacy?” He slides his big, strong hands along my sides and around my back before he presses his lips to mine.
I pull back. “Are you suggesting we finish what we started last weekend on the chair in the library room?”
“I’m suggesting we start over.”
“What about Joelle?”
“Surely there’s some sort of do not disturb sign around here somewhere.”
I watch him for a few beats as he looks around. My eyes are automatically drawn to the muscles in his abdomen that stretch and flex as he moves around the three hundred square feet of our villa.
This is the life. A hot guy in a villa overlooking the pool. Privacy and sunshine just for us.
I force my eyes off his body as I pull off my cover-up and set it on a table, and then I kick off my flip flops. I glance up and see Brian watching me, his eyes glazed with lust.
It’s sort of nice that I can see I’m having the same effect on him that he has on me.
Joelle returns with our drinks, sets them on a counter, and leaves. Brian stalks toward me. I’m bent over a lounge chair, spreading out a towel, when I feel his fingertips gripping my hips. He gently bumps his hips to my ass, sending a tremor of lust through my stomach and landing squarely between my legs.
I straighten and he does it again. I can feel his rock-hard length against my backside. My only primal thought is there are too many damn clothes separating our bodies.
He grunts when he does it a third time, and I turn around. His chest is warm against mine. His hands remain on my hips, and he yanks me against him. He bends to kiss my shoulder, the hairs of his stubble rubbing fire against my skin.
“I’d guess we have a few minutes of privacy,” he says, his voice soft and meaningful, his fingertips digging into my flesh. My fingers seem to have a mind of their own as they trail up the muscled planes of his arms and link around his neck. I want to touch those gorgeous abs, but our bodies are pressed together, and my hunger for the feel of him against me is stronger than my need to touch his abs.
I glance over his shoulder nervously. “What if Joelle comes back?”
“Then she’ll get a show.”
I giggle. I’ve never been an exhibitionist, but lust takes over. I want this. I want Brian.
He drags his lips from my shoulder to my neck and finally up to my mouth. He opens his mouth to mine, and he reaches down and cups my ass, squeezing and massaging. He yanks my body hard against his and thrusts toward me, eliciting a moan from me as his body roughly connects with mine. All that separates us is his swim trunks and my flimsy bikini.
I’m painfully turned on, my body aching for him, needing him. He kisses me with need, with intensity, with desire. He backs me up until my ass hits the counter inside, his lips attached to mine as we move. We’re out of sight for anyone who might be looking in our direction.
“Hook your leg around my waist,” he whispers, and I do. He easily lifts me up and sets me on the counter. My leg is still around his waist, and we’re at the perfect height for sex.
His hand trails up to my breast, and he slips his fingertips into the cup of my bikini top. My nipple hardens into a tight bud under his touch, and he backs up and looks at me with eyes so full of lust that I know I’ll let him do whatever he wants to me in this moment.
He pinches my nipple between his fingers and grunts. “God, I want to taste it,” he murmurs.
“Taste it,” I say.
He trails kisses down my neck, down my chest, and stretches the cup of my top around the globe of my breast. He laps once with his tongue then drops his hand and touches me on the outside of my bikini bottoms. My hips jerk, but he uses his other hand to brace my hip and hold me still.
With my nipple still in his mouth and my leg still wrapped around his waist, he tugs my bikini bottoms aside. He runs a finger through me, gliding easily in its slick path, and then he pushes his finger inside. I groan at the entry as he tugs on my nipple with his teeth, and I’m already about to fall apart beneath his touch. I need to feel him, need to touch him, and as he starts pumping his finger in and out of my body, I reach down between us. I massage him on the outside of his swim trunks, and he grunts against my breast. My thoughts are jumbled, focused solely on his body, so big, so hard, and his touch, so good, so perfect.
I move to reach into his shorts, but he bucks his hips away from me. He wants this to be just about me, so I grip onto his shoulders. The pleasure mounts as he sucks my nipple back into his mouth, and then he adds a second finger down below as he works my clit with his thumb.
It’s too much pleasure all at once. I fall apart on the counter, my body quaking as it uncoils, my fingers digging into his flesh, my nails scratching his skin. He lets go of my nipple as I come, his finger still working me until at last my body stops shuddering.
“Gorgeous,” he whispers, and then he presses a soft kiss to my lips. He pulls his fingers out of me and readjusts my bikini bottoms. He fixes my top while I hunch back breathlessly on the counter.
He backs away and I clear my throat.
“Your turn,” I say softly, my eyes on the obvious erection tenting his swim trunks.
He grins and reaches for our drinks, handing me the mimosa. He touches his glass to mine. “I’ll get mine. Later.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “So I get to be the exhibitionist?”
He chuckles. “Something like that. You didn’t seem to mind.”
“And you seemed like you knew what you were doing.”
He shrugs and shoots me a wicked grin. “I have many talents.”
“There you are!” Jill’s familiar voice calls from the entrance to our villa. Tess, Becker, and Jason trail behind her.
I let out a breath of disappointment and take a sip of my mimosa. I was hoping for more one-on-one time with Brian.
“Wow! This is awesome,” she says.
We get to work arranging our chairs and ordering more drinks while we enjoy the heat of the sun and our private pool. And even though Brian just took care of my needs, I can’t help the burning desire flaming in my veins every time I look at him in those gorgeous, unneeded swim trunks.
* * *
The day is filled with longing glances and mimosas. We decide to head right over to the Hard Rock Hotel for the Noteworthy show in our swimsuits since it’s a poolside concert.
I’m hot and tired after sitting in the sun, reapplying sunscreen, and day drinking. I’m starting to think it was a bad idea to schedule a concert at night after a day of drinking. I’m only twenty-seven, but I’m feeling my age as people bump and sway all around me. It’s too crowded in here, it’s nearly impossible to make our way to the bar to get a drink without losing our places next to each other, I’m sweating—and the band is only on their fifth song. I glance over at Jill, and she looks as miserable as me. I finally lean over and ask, “You want to go?”
She nods and gives me a look like she’s grateful I even suggested it. I ask Tess, too, but she’s into the show. This is one of her favorite bands. Jason volunteers to stay with her, and Brian and Becker follow Jill and me out toward the front of the hotel. Brian volunteers to drive us home, but I have a feeling that means a lot more than just driving me home. We politely decline and head home. Not only am I exhausted after spending the day outside, but I’m just not ready for whatever comes with Brian driving me home.
* * *
Jill wakes me up on Sunday morning when she comes bounding into my room. “Holy shit!” she yells.
“What?” I grumble, pulling the covers up and tucking them under my chin.
She bounces onto my bed then turns her phone in my direction. I catch the headline of the article that’s got her all excited.
Bad Boy Mark Ashton Steals Noteworthy Show.
I grab her phone out of her hands and read the short article.
It was a night filled with surprises. Noteworthy unleashed a powerful set filled with their classics, but they also debuted two songs from their upcoming album, set to drop July 1. The biggest surprise of the night came when Vail’s Mark Ashton took the stage during the final song of the set. He sang along to the tune of Noteworthy’s “Unabashed” with lead singer Sebastian Cresswell, and then he treated fans to a few bars from a song he said he just wrote a few days ago, a powerful ballad that’s sure to appear on Vail’s next album.
“Oh my God,” I whisper. All the feelings I had for Mark come right back to the surface—the feelings I thought I’d managed to push away in favor of something real with Brian.
How would I have felt if I’d seen Mark on that stage while Brian was by my side?
What if our eyes connected, him up on that stage and me down in the crowd as they had just a couple weeks ago?
I wonder if I’d have felt some degree of satisfaction. He didn’t want me for more than one night, but the man I attended the Noteworthy show with seems to.
How would Mark have felt if he’d seen me with another man?
He wouldn’t have cared. He wouldn’t have even remembered me. I’m just another nameless body he spent the night with, one of hundreds.
Jill peeks at the article beside me even though she’s clearly already read it. “Why the hell did we leave early?”
“I’m glad we left. If I’d have seen him up there…”
“What?” she asks.
“I don’t know. I’m glad I didn’t.”
“But we were in the same place as him.”
I hand her phone back to her. “And we didn’t talk to him, didn’t see him. It doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“He didn’t say he wanted more than one night. He didn’t bother to track me down.”
“That’s a ridiculous expectation. You didn’t leave your number.”
“He didn’t ask for it,” I counter.
“So that’s it? What if I get a press pass to their next event? I could figure out a way for you to see him again.”
I blow out a breath. “I thought you wanted me to move on.”
“I do. But I also want you to be happy.”
“I’m fine.” I whisper the words, sure I don’t believe them.