13
ELLIS
“Vegas, baby!” Sam and Brayden waved their arms and shouted through the windows of the first-class Lexus I rented for this weekend getaway “Come on, Ellis!” Brayden shouted. “We’ll be late.”
I slammed the trunk. Half a dozen groomsmen crowded the seats as I slid into the driver’s seat. “Late! Are you crazy? We’re leaving three hours early. If we leave right now, we’ll have all that time to wait before the bachelor party.”
“Well, we don’t want to miss anything.” Sam did a little dance in his seat. “Vegas, here we come!”
I threw the Lexus into drive and checked the traffic on all sides. I pulled out into traffic. “Where are the girls?”
A little Toyota Celica skidded around the corner. One glance showed me Helena behind the wheel. Julia sat at her side, and Mckenna and another bridesmaid crowded into the back seat. Loud music thumped through the open driver’s window.
Mckenna glanced back at me, and I lifted my fingers off the steering wheel to give he a subtle wave. She turned around fast so I couldn’t see her face, but I didn’t have to see to know her cheeks burned when she saw me. They always did. Why did I make her so nervous? I just might get a chance to sneak off with her again this weekend. My bear roared at the thought.
Another car rolled around the corner, and about a dozen bridesmaids flopped from windows. All three cars headed out of town. The Lexus glided down the freeway. I used the guys’ excited chatter to cover me while I planned out how I would spirit Mckenna away from her friends. It shouldn’t be too difficult. Once the alcohol started flowing, no one would notice if somebody disappeared.
The guys fired questions and jokes back and forth, but I drifted a thousand miles away. I floated in her arms. How long did I have to keep up this game of cloak and dagger? Why couldn’t I just come right out and have her without worrying about somebody finding out?
Of course, I couldn’t come right out and have her at Brayden and Julia’s wedding, but my thoughts ranged a lot farther than the Las Vegas casino. I could get her, no problem. The real question was getting her and keeping her.
She presented as much of a conundrum as anything else. Did she want me or not? One minute, she threw herself at me in all her desperate erotic passion. The next minute, she avoided me. I wasn’t such an emotional cripple that I couldn’t recognize the signs.
Ever since the night she refused to let me inside her house, she found reasons to keep away from me. No more helping out with the wedding plans. No more rides in the Porsche. I was going out of my mind.
The cars trundled up to Las Vegas, and everybody unloaded. Julia tried to say something to Brayden, but Sam cut her off. He pointed back toward the girls’ car. “You go over there. You’re not supposed to see the groom until you meet him at the altar.”
All the girls hooted. “Listen to him! We’re staying at the same hotel thanks to Ellis. We can’t exactly pretend you don’t exist.”
Sam herded Brayden and me away. “Come on. Let’s get our rooms. We can have some fun while we wait for the party to get started.”
Brayden looked around. “Where are all the naked hookers?”
I had to laugh, but I stopped myself when I spotted Mckenna watching me. I stood at the reception desk inside the lobby and flashed them my card. Owning a chain of hotels was nice. The perks were great, our place would be amazing inside the Shyft Vegas. I caught Mckenna looking at me, and I turned away. I took out my phone and tapped the screen with my thumb. Nothing to see. Just checking my phone.
Meet me later?
My heart pounded in my chest. Would she do it? Her every instinct would tell her not to, but her burning need would drive her to it. I didn’t have to look around to see her punching her phone.
Where?
I knew it. Go for a swim in the pool?
Sure.
Was she watching me from the front door right now? Was she getting wet thinking about it? I headed up the elevator to the eleventh floor with the other guys. They laughed and joked about the strippers they would get up to Brayden’s bachelor party.
The guys crowded out of the elevator and the bellhops took their luggage into the rooms. Sam called from his door before he went inside. “Meet in Brayden’s room in five minutes. I’ve got a bottle of tequila so we can get this party started!”
Perfect. I couldn’t have planned this better. I closed my room door and unzipped my suitcase on the bed. I slipped off my pants, pulled on my swimming shorts, and put my pants back on. I sent another text.
On my way down now.
My guts burned from adrenaline coursing through me. I stole a peek out the door. If I met anyone I knew, they would never know what I was up to.
Another text came back. Getting in the elevator.
I raced downstairs and out to the pool. I had to get there before her. I shucked off my clothes. My thumb flashed over my phone screen. Sliding into the hot tub. Wish you were here.
That should make her giggle. Getting out of the elevator. Which way is the pool?
I need you in these bubbles right now.
Found it. Taking off my clothes.
My heart stopped. Taking off her clothes—where? I leaned over the hot tub’s concrete side and poked my phone with a dry finger. Where are you?
Behind you.
I whipped around, and my eyes widened when I saw her in a bikini. She stepped down into the hot tub, and the foamy bubbles surrounded her in delectable steam. A ferocious grin spread across my face, and I moved in on her. My naked muscles enclosed her in all my power, and she gave herself over to me.
What did we come to Vegas for, if not for this? What happened in Vegas, stayed in Vegas. Right? Why not? All my excitement flared to life, and her legs slithered around my chiseled bulk. The water closed us in a slippery envelope. She slid across my skin, and I stroked the bubbly water all over her. Our lips closed in a passionate kiss that would never end.
Her body responded to me hotter and faster than I could ever believe. I had to have her. She carried a part of me inside her I could only get by coming together with her. Getting together with her in the hot tub only consummated something that happened a long time ago.
She didn’t want to let herself go, but once she did, she embraced it in all her glory. That inner mystery shone from inside her like some mystical star. It made my life worth living. She would share it with me, just as soon as she stopped kissing me and throwing herself on the hard cock inside my shorts.
I burrowed one hand under her top and tugged the knot free. I released her breasts into my grasp, and they floated on the roiling surface straight into my mouth. My other hand discovered the seam where her bikini bottoms draped around her hips. I inched inside to pinch her ass and ease her tighter onto my lap.
I never wanted to be anywhere else but locked with her in this eternal embrace. I never wanted any woman’s hands on my skin but hers. She hitched her pelvis forward to jab into me. Her bikini scrunched out of the way, so she sat down bare on my lap.
I flexed my biceps against her ribs to haul her in close. My tongue lapped hotter around her mouth and brought all the steaming juices gushing from her insides. I clamped one hand over her breast and chewed her nipple between my teeth.
She wet my hair with her damp fingers raking through it. Every inch of her skin showing above the water glistened and flashed bright and wet. I hungered for that skin in my mouth. I had to get near her. I had to get nearer than the water all around us.