Six years ago . . .

The sound of chatter pulled me from my drunken sun-filled haze, and I looked over to see a group of women in bikinis gathered at the other end of the bar. 

Lowering my aviator glasses, I evaluated the group. Two ladies wore solitaire diamonds, which probably meant that they were engaged. One wore a wedding band, and one had no ring at all. Some things you couldn’t take out of the guy, even on vacation and one of those was my natural sheriff instincts to notice the little things like ringless fingers. 

Picking up my bottle, I took another swig before motioning to my server. I’d been in Vegas for just over twenty-four hours, and I hadn’t been without a beer since. I wasn’t going to start now. As long as I didn’t switch to hard liquor, I would be fine. Liquor made me stupid, and I intended to spend my vacation shitfaced not smashed in the face by an angry husband for making some dumbass move on his wife. That didn't mean I wasn't going to spend a good bit of my time finding a few one-night stands. Provided they didn’t expect anything. And they had no problem keeping their last name to themselves. I didn’t do last names. Last names were for girls you planned to keep around. I had a motto: girls were like dessert. You savored dessert, you made room for dessert, but you did not eat the same dessert every night for the rest of your fucking life.

A shadow fell over me, and I looked up to see a server had finally made her way over.

“It’s almost lunch, can I get you something?” She looked like she had been at this job for way too many years and probably had the stories to go with it. 

“Sure, yeah. I’ll take a burger.”

“You got it, love. I’ll be right back.”

She had just left when another shadow fell over me, but this one was accompanied by the smell of coconut. I turned to see the woman that I spied earlier, the one without a ring, spreading out her towel on the chaise lounge next to mine. As she bent over, her artfully sculpted ass wiggled in my face. I mentally counted the seconds, any moment it would happen, it was a guaranteed pick-up line . . . 

“Would you rub some lotion on my back? I can’t reach.”

BAM there it was. 

Did women realize the thoughts that went through a man’s mind when they asked that question? Sure, we didn’t have a problem putting lotion on a woman’s back, but it wasn’t suntan lotion that we were thinking of. No, we were thinking that we’d like to put a white, man-made kind all over her instead. 

Shrugging, I grabbed the bottle of Banana Boat and squirted some in my hands as she scooched closer, settling between my legs. My cock, which was always up for a good time, made sure his presence was noted.

“I think you were on my flight yesterday. Are you from Orlando?” Her smooth voice held no hint of an accent.

“Yep.” I rubbed the lotion down her arms.

“I’m here for a bachelorette party, but after tonight, I’m free. I’m staying here for another two weeks. Need to use up my vacation time. How about you?”

“Something like that. I’ll be here for a while as well, just hanging out by the pool.”

“If you’re not meeting anyone here, maybe we can get together. Two Floridians living it up in Vegas.”

“You know where to find me,” I said, giving her no promises as I finished her back.

The waitress interrupted us with my order and cleared away my empty bottle. I wiped my hands off on my towel before reaching up and signing the slip to charge the food order to my room. When I turned to offer the woman sitting next to me a French fry, she was gone. I couldn’t help but smile, her game of seduction was nicely executed.

It didn’t take long for the effects of jet lag, sunshine, and alcohol to wear on me, and in no time, I was practically comatose. Around four o’clock, like the party animal I was, I decided it was time for a nap, so I headed up to my room. 

I didn’t wake up until the next morning.

Prior to this trip, I hadn’t been to Vegas, and since the Orange County Sheriff’s Department was forcing me to take two weeks of vacation before I transitioned into my new position on motors, I figured this was the best place for a single guy to find women, alcohol, women, gambling, women, so on and so forth.

So, since I at least had a clear mission, I took a quick shower, got dressed, and headed downstairs. Exiting the elevator, I turned to the left and then headed through the casino to the other side for the restaurants. The pyramid shape of the Luxor was intriguing but much larger than it appeared from the outside. The place was a fucking maze to top all mazes, and I was damn tempted to leave breadcrumbs so I could find my way back. Maybe they should consider putting colored lines on the floor, blue takes you to the pool, green to the casino where you will lose all of your green, and red for food . . .

Finally finding a small bistro, I ordered steak and eggs and sat in silence and ate. I was just finishing when the sound of moans pulled me from my sleepy state.

“Hey. . .” The girl from yesterday groaned as she lowered her sunglasses and tried to take me in. She looked like the rest of her friends—well, to be honest, she looked like several women I’d already seen on this bright Sunday morning. Her hair was messy and piled atop her head, black makeup smudged under her eyes, and she was trying to shake off the effects of last night’s alcohol. 

“Shhh,” her friend chided her for groaning too loud.

“Last night was the bachelorette party?”

“Yeah.”

“Looks like you all had fun.”

“I think so, can’t remember.” She held her head as if trying to balance herself.

“Well, I’m headed out to the pool, and hopefully, I will be in a can’t-remember-shit state of mind very soon as well. Have fun.” I stood and waved goodbye but before I was through the doorway leading back toward the slot machines, I turned back. Yup, she and her friends were watching me. I smiled and gave them a slight salute before continuing on my way, snagging a towel from the cabana, and grabbing the same seat as yesterday. 

Just after lunch, the ringless woman joined me, and that night, I didn’t sleep alone. 

For the next ten days, we drank, caught a few shows, drank, gambled, drank some more, and fucked like rabbits. 

I was leaving in the morning, and she still had two more days there, but honestly, I didn’t care if she stayed in this city forever. We had kept it casual as promised, and I wouldn’t see her again. That night we headed out with a Club Crawl map and cash in our pockets. We started at the Light Bar and then hit the Foundation Room before spending some time at Coyote Ugly. The louder the music, the busier the crowds, the more we drank. Laughing, we recounted all of the crazy things we had done in Vegas, thank God that what happened there stayed there. Trying to get in any last-minute things that we could think of, we ran up to the registration desk at Caesars Palace and asked if Caesar had actually stayed there in an imitation of Zach Galifianakis from the Hangover.

“Is this hotel pager friendly?” she asked, and I cracked up laughing for some stupid reason. Knowing that we weren’t going to get “roofied” or “flooried” as they referred to them in the movie since we were more likely to end up on the floor rather than the roof. We set out to relive the movie. 

In the city that never shuts down, we drank our way up and down the strip. With the exception of the tiger we couldn’t think of anything else to do from the movie, so we finally called it a night, well morning since the sun was breaking the horizon.

We found our way back to the Luxor—how I had no fucking clue. Once inside the elevator, I tried to press the button while trying to hold myself up. I fucking couldn’t find the button to my hotel floor. Fuck. Where was it? I leaned down to look at the teeny tiny illuminated circles. 

One of those bastards had to have had a fourteen on it. 

Eventually, all the lights were fucking lit up, so it didn’t matter. It wasn’t my fault they made the damn things too small for anyone to read.

Finally making my way to the hallway and eventually my room, I pulled out my key card, sliding the damn thing in and out of the lock until the green light finally came on. I let go of Ivey’s hand for just a second to help her inside before the door clicked behind us.