I need to see Red. I can’t figure out what keeps luring me in, but I just need to be near her, it’s been too long. I allowed her to keep me away longer than I wanted. So, I’m here, ready to kick those walls she has between us down. Walking towards the back of the casino, I see a figure, then notice that a man is attacking a woman. I start speeding up, and that’s when I notice it’s Murphy. That’s where I make my mistake; instead of keeping my wits about me, like I should, I fuck up and run, yelling for him to get his fucking hands off her. When he sees me coming, he throws her to the ground. I want to run after the guy and kill him, but I saw her hit the ground hard. All thoughts of the man leave me, and all I see is her. I kneel down, reaching out, but she backs away like I’m the perpetrator.

“Red, it’s me, Zander. Are you okay?”

She attempts to stand, but she’s too shaky. I grab her and lift as gently as I can in case something is broken, but when I try to look at where she’s bleeding from, she pushes me away. Then she cuts me like a knife. She knows I didn’t do this, she must know. But then she starts telling me about my mom threatening her and something about how she won’t marry me. What the hell is going on? I’m so stunned that it gives her enough time to get in her car and drive off, leaving me begging her to stop.

She’s going to talk to me whether she likes it or not. I make it to my car and drive after her. I follow her to her hotel and catch her right as she’s about to get in the elevator. I grab her arm, startling her. I push her into the elevator, leaving my hand on her.

“Zander, don’t do this, please just let me go.”

I don’t say anything. I am not having it out in a damn elevator.

Once the doors open to her floor, I pull her out with me and head straight for her room. “Key.” That’s all I can say with how frustrated she has me. When she doesn’t respond, I growl and shake my palm at her. She finally digs the key card out and hands it to me.

I open the door and push her in. When the door shuts behind me, I grab her by both arms, pulling her to me. I kiss her hard, knocking the wind out of her. She tries to push me away, but it’s not going to stop me. I kiss her until her mouth opens and I feel her warm tongue mixing with mine. My heaven, damn this girl. When I release her, she yells at me, “Stop, Zander!”

I go in for another kiss, but then I see Kyle standing in the doorway with his pajama bottoms on, eating a bag of chips. When he sees Murphy’s bleeding, he runs toward her, coming between us. “My God, what happened?” He turns to me, yelling, “Did you do this?”

I take my suit jacket off and throw it on the couch. “No I didn’t.”

He stares at me, trying to look mean but failing miserably, then he asks, “Then who did?”

“I don’t know, but I plan on finding out. Come on, Red.”

I grab her arm, look at both doors across from each other, and ask Kyle, “Which one’s hers?” He points to the door he just came from.

I start to pull Murphy as she says, “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to get a look at that cut whether you like it or not.”

I continue to pull her through the bedroom, straight into the bathroom. Slamming the door, she gasps. Then picking her up, I sit her on top of the counter.

“I’m fine, leave me alone, Zander.”

“I want to see your injuries, now raise up your chin.” She’s fuming, and I’m loving the way it makes her look like a petulant child. “Raise!” She finally listens, and I start looking to see how deep the wound is. It’s not bad at all, so I grab a towel off the shelf and run the water.

“What are you doing now?”

“It’s not too deep, so I’m going to clean it properly. It might not need stitches, but it could still get infected.” I wring out the wet towel and look at her, letting her know to raise her damn chin again. She lifts, and I start wiping the blood off.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you have a terrible temper?”

She goes to holler at me, but I stop her by putting my finger over her lips. “I said it was terrible, but I find it adorable. Like a spoiled little girl.”

“I am not a spoiled little girl.”

That makes me smile. “Right there, that’s what I’m talking about, you have something to say about everything. Like a child. Maybe I should spank you like one?”

Her eyes go wide, and I kiss her again, shutting her up before she could start. I end the kiss with telling her, “You’re so damn cute.”

Knowing better, she says nothing, but I can see in her eyes that she wants to stab me. Normally that’s a look I would avoid, but with her, I would probably let her dig the knife in. I whisper out, “I’m so stupid when it comes to you.” I go back to washing her neck. She asks, “Why?”

I shrug and answer honestly. “I really don’t know. Give me your knee.” I rinse the towel and bend down to inspect her knee. It’s scrapped, but not too bad. Her injuries are so minor that I find myself being thankful to God that they weren’t any worse. I look up and see her watching me clean her off. When I’m done, I kiss her boo-boo away like you would a child, which she does not find amusing. I straighten back up and throw the towel in the lavatory.

We both don’t make any other moves, and we remain silent until she asks, “Why are you here, Zander?”

I chuckle and say, “Damn if I know.”

“You know I can’t marry you?”

I look at her and say, “I didn’t ask you to.”

“Well, no, but your mother did. She said she was willing to let me stay and keep a percentage of the casino if I married you.” I start to laugh, and she asks, “What’s so funny?”

“My mom, she did this already.” She looks at me with confusion written all over her. “With my older brother Gabriel, she found a woman and trained her to become his bride. It’s a long story. I always wondered if she was going to find me one, too. You should be honored.”

“Honored that she wants an arranged marriage? I’m starting to believe you’re as crazy as she is.”

“Red, don’t you see? If my mother made you that proposition, she thinks you’re worthy of her son. That you can contribute to our family. That means she thinks you are the one. You’re special.”

“Well, it’s not going to work, buddy.”

“And why not? It sounds like a great deal, you get me and your casino.”

“Who says I want you?”

I get right in her space, between her legs. “I say you do. You can’t tell me that you don’t feel it every time we kiss. There’s something that draws us together.”

Her eyes are burning with desire, as she stares up at me. But it shifts, I can tell the second clarity hits her, she starts shaking her head. “Nope, no way, you big oaf. Let me down.”

She pushes me back and jumps down, wincing in pain from her knee. Then she swings the door open, and Kyle practically falls in.

Murphy waves her arm. “You see him? That’s your spoiled child. Move.”

She pushes past Kyle, too, then he comes back with, “I had to make sure he wasn’t hurting you, but look how sweet he is. He cleaned all your boo-boos.” He then jumps on the bed and continues to eat his chips. Kyle says, “Oh, and by the way, I think you should consider marrying him. You two were made for each other. I give my permission.”

She shoots daggers at him, trying to shut him up. Then she kicks her heels off. I finally notice the height difference. “Wow, you are short. I’ve never seen you without your heels.”

“Get out, Zander.” I stand my ground. She then sits on the side of the bed by Kyle and says, “Undo me.”

He reaches up and unzips her dress. Ignoring it, I say, “We need to discuss this.”

“No, we don’t, Zander. All I need, is for you to leave.”

She stands and starts removing her dress in front of Kyle.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting out of this dirty fucking dress, what does it look like?”

“It looks like you’re getting undressed.”

“Precisely. Oh, come on, Zander, really? You’ve been inside me, for goodness sake, now you want me to act all bashful in front of you?”

“I wasn’t worried about me.” I look over to Kyle, who is still eating his fucking chips.

They both start giggling, and then Red says, “Him? He doesn’t care.”

“What if I care who sees you?”

She continues to undress until she has nothing on but her beautiful sexy black lace bra and panties. Shit!

“Well, first of all, you have no rights to me, and secondly, he thinks I have cooties or something. He also thinks my vagina is gross.”

I look over to Kyle, and he’s nodding his head, holding onto a fucking chip as he says, “It’s true, so true.”

I look back at her, and she looks down at her beautiful, heavy breasts and says, “But he does have a strange fascination with my breasts.”

Kyle jumps in, saying, “I think a lot of gay men do. Maybe it’s something to do with our moms. Hmm, I don’t know.”

“Then cover them,” I tell her.

“Why? He won’t touch them. I’ve tried, he still thinks I’m gross.”

I’m pissed now. “What do you mean, you’ve tried?”

Kyle giggles and eats another chip. “I thought I was in love with him when we were younger. I thought I could change him, make him straight. But all it did was make him run screaming to our moms that I was trying to molest him.”

Kyle hollers out, “She was, it was horrible. I don’t know how you straight guys do it.”

She shrugs, then says, “So, I beat him up, and we’ve been besties our whole lives.”

She walks past me, and I can’t help it. I watch her glorious ass shake the whole way till she puts on her robe. I have no idea what Kyle’s talking about. I would love to get her cooties. She comes back, with her robe tied tight, and says, “Now I’m tired, so I need you to leave. Kyle needs his beauty rest, and I have work tomorrow.”

“I don’t want you going back over there unescorted. How about you lay low until I find out who did this and why?”

She starts pushing me towards the door. “Nope, you have no rights here. Besides, what does it matter? Today it’s them, tomorrow it’ll be you or someone from your family.”

I give her my best smile, the one that I know puts my dimples on full display. “Not if you marry me. That would make you untouchable to everyone.”

“Nope, not happening. You need to leave, Zander, and don’t come back, do you hear me? I’d hate to call security.”

That’s when I had enough. I stop and get in her face. “Call them, sweetheart.”

With a tired voice, she says, “Please, Zander, just go. I don’t want to be mean, but I will. I’m going to say this one more time. I am not interested in you. I have a casino to try to save, and I will not be marrying you or anyone else to do it. I do not want to see you again until it’s time for you to collect, which I already know my options. So, thank you, but no thank you.”

She grabs my jacket and throws it at me, then opens the door. We stare at each other, then I decide fine, if she wants it this way, then I’ll give it to her. I leave, and she slams the door. Stupid, stupid. How could I be so fucking stupid for this girl?