Chapter Eleven

Almost an hour later, close to 10 p.m., Annie went over to the dresser to put her earrings on. She took one last look at herself in the mirror. Her black dress had a plunging neckline, and each shoulder held two thin straps that crisscrossed down her back and attached to the short skirt at the small of her back. The skirt ended just below the tops of her thighs. She wore a new pair of four-inch black heels and a solitary diamond necklace on a silver chain, which Ryan had given her last Christmas, as well as a pair of matching earrings.

Her hair had actually cooperated tonight and lay in soft curls across her shoulders and down her back. She looked good. She looked ready to meet a man and flirt and be as naughty as the next girl.

But her heart wasn’t in it.

For a half-second, she thought about calling Ryan and telling him she was sick. But then someone knocked on her door.

“Annie, you ready?” he called through the door.

She wasn’t. But she had to be. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door.

Her eyes widened when she saw him. He looked pale. Almost queasy.

“Wow, do I look that bad?” she asked him.

He rolled his eyes. “You look…insanely gorgeous,” he told her.

Annie felt her heart speed up in her chest. “Really?”

“Yeah, really,” he said, moving inside and closing the door behind him.

“Then why do you look like you’re about to throw up?”

He shoved his hands through his hair. “Jeez, Annie. You don’t get it, do you? My stomach is in knots thinking about you going through with this.”

“Because you’re worried about me?”

He frowned. Pressed his lips together. He looked conflicted. Torn.

“Ryan?”

He raised a hand to cup the back of his neck, heaved out a sigh and looked at a spot over her shoulder. “It’s hard sometimes. Imagining you with another man.”

Shock strummed through her. She took a step closer, hand outstretched, but dropped it when he took a step back.

His gaze met hers. “I guess I like being the most important man in your life a little too much. But if this is what you really want, I’ll support you the way a friend should.”

She felt a tinge of hope at his words and her body trembled. Hesitantly, she took a step toward him again. This time, he didn’t move away. “Have you ever imagined us together, Ryan? As more than friends?”

Lifting a hand, he cupped her cheek. “In the past, sure. After we had phone sex, definitely. While we’ve been here in Vegas? I’ve been able to think of little else. But what we have… It’s a good thing, Annie. I don’t want to mess it up. I can’t mess it up.”

Dropping his hand, he stepped away from her. Then he did it again. In that moment, with the feel of his touch still burning her flesh but her heart turning to ice, that small distance seemed insurmountable. “And you think it would?”

“Wouldn’t it?” he asked, his eyes searching. Intense.

She opened her mouth. Closed it.

“Tell me the truth. Is this—your naughty list—what you really want, Annie?”

“I want—I want—” She licked her lips. Shook her head. Too much. She wanted too much. He’d said it himself. He didn’t think they could have sex without messing things up between them. And the truth was, even though she was thrilled to hear him admit he’d thought of having sex with her, she wanted more. She wanted him to be madly and passionately in love with her. He wasn’t. End of story.

“I want to have sex tonight, Ryan. And I don’t want to risk losing you in the process.” She forced herself to smile. “So yes, fulfilling my naughty list is what I want. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a hookup yourself.”

He continued to stare at her for a minute before shaking his head, not in censure or disappointment, but as if clearing it. Suddenly, he clapped his hands together, the sound making her jump.

“You’re right. We’re in Vegas, baby! Why should you have all the fun? Let’s go pick us up some one-night stands.” Ryan threw his arm across her shoulders and led her toward the door.

It took everything she had to keep herself from crying.

* * *

Once in the elevator, Ryan asked her, “So where did you decide to go?”

Annie shrugged. “I thought since Gilley’s is right downstairs, we’d try that one first. It’s Vegas. We have all night if that one doesn’t pan out.”

“I’m not arguing with any plan that involves hot waitresses in leather bras and chaps.”

That comment only served to anger Annie. If he had stayed at home, where he was supposed to be, then maybe her head would be on her plan instead of those nice, tight jeans he was wearing.

When they got downstairs, Ryan took her hand and led her through the crowded casino and into the bar. The décor was distinctly western, with a giant Texas long-horn mechanical bull with padding on its horns in the middle of a padded pit. Loud country music was playing and the dance floor was full. Some of the people in the bar were dressed in boots and jeans, but most of them were dressed in club wear. As Ryan predicted, the cocktail waitresses wore black leather bikinis and chaps, as well as black cowboy hats.

To Ryan’s credit, he kept his eyes locked on her. He let go of her hand and said, “Okay, I’m in brother mode now. Happy hunting.”

The hand he’d been holding felt cold, and all Annie wanted at that moment was for him to touch her again. She started to walk away but stopped.

“I’ve got an idea,” she told him. “Why don’t you dance with me when we get in there? Dance sexy with me, flirty… I don’t really know why, but people always seem to want women who look like they’re already taken, right?”

Ryan had a look on his face that Annie couldn’t quite decipher, but he said, “Yeah, you’re right.” Then he retook her hand and led her inside.

She relaxed when he touched her again.

Ryan led her out to the dance floor and slid his strong, sexy arms around her waist. Annie put her arms around his neck, and with a simple tug, he pulled her body in so that it molded against his. Annie wondered if Ryan could feel her body shaking as they began to move to the soft, slow music coming out of the jukebox. As they danced, Annie felt Ryan slide his mouth up next to her ear. He used it to move her hair, causing a shiver of desire to run down her spine. Next, she felt his hot breath and the vibrations of his sexy voice as he whispered into her ear, “I saw three guys nearly fall off their stools when we walked in. I can hardly blame them.”

Annie had to really concentrate to be able to get enough air into her lungs to be able to speak. Finally, she was able to say, “Are they hot guys?”

His body tightened. “Hell if I know,” he said. “But just in case they’re to your liking, I’ll put on a good show for them.” He swung her around so that her back was facing the bar and she brushed up against his chest. His fingers lightly grazed her left hip, causing her to shiver.

She couldn’t tell if he noticed her reaction or not, but before she could even consider it, she felt his hands travel slowly around to the small of her back and then down across the curves of her ass. He squeezed gently, and her body practically convulsed against his.

His hands moved back up to her hips, and he pulled her closer to him. His body was hard and hot against hers, and for the first time she felt the iron-hard length of his erection against her thigh.

The rest of the world fell away.

He was aroused, proof-positive that he hadn’t been lying when he’d told her he was attracted to her. She couldn’t stop herself from pressing deeper, tightening her grip, and breathing him in. He felt so good. Big and hard and warm.

He moved his hands back up to her waist and rested the side of his face against hers. She closed her eyes, savoring that additional intimacy.

When she felt the heat of tears behind her eyelids, she blinked them away. She cleared her throat. “Should I grope you, too?”

“That’s an offer I’d never turn down,” he whispered.

To the curious onlooker it would appear that they were whispering sexy things back and forth while they danced. To Annie, whose panties were already moist and whose insides had turned to jelly, it even felt that way. Feeling emboldened, she slid her arms up along his back, massaging the hard muscles as she went, feeling him in a way she never had. Once she reached the tops of his shoulders, she slid her hands back down, all the way to the back of his tight, sexy jeans. She slipped her hands into his back pockets and then spread her thighs, cradling his erection and pressing their bodies even closer together.

He groaned and held her tighter as they slowly swayed to the music.

He kissed her ear. “They’re all watching and imagining it’s them holding you. They’re thinking about cupping your breasts and feeling your hard nipples against their palms. They’re imagining lifting up this tiny dress and putting their hands down your wet little panties. They’re thinking about rubbing their fingers against your swollen clit…”

Annie bit her lip to stop herself from screaming. He was talking dirty to her—him, Ryan, not someone pretending to be the fictional Kyle—and she swore she could come from just the sound of his voice alone.

Ryan’s big hands slid up her arms and across her shoulders before moving back down her arms so he could grasp her hands. “Now they’re imagining taking you back to their room and dancing with you naked. Just like I’m imagining it.”

Annie pulled back to stare at him just as the music stopped.

Did he just say that he’s imagining dancing with her naked?

She waited for him to say something else. Anything else, so she’d be brave enough to take the next step, to pull them past friendship and toward something far more intimate. He didn’t. Slowly, he let go of her hands and she felt any hope of being with him slipping away.

Swallowing hard, trying to clear the baseball-sized lump from her throat, Annie finally said, “That was—I mean, it was— Thanks, Ryan.”

“Any time,” he told her. He reached up and pushed a loose strand of hair off her face. He tucked it behind her ear, and that simple move felt to Annie like the ultimate act of seduction.

“I guess we should split up,” she said in a shaky voice that begged for him to tell her she was wrong.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said. It wasn’t what she’d been hoping for. “Be safe, Annie. Don’t do anything that you’re not a hundred percent sure about, okay?”

She only nodded. She was still carrying around that lump, and it threatened to push up and destroy the frail dam holding back her tears. She watched him take a seat at the bar. Following his lead, she did the same, seating herself at the opposite end.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked.

“A cosmopolitan,” she said, having already anticipated she was going to need some alcoholic courage to get through this evening. She glancing down toward Ryan. He already had an admirer sitting next to him. A petite blonde on his right. Ryan had spun his seat so that he was facing the mechanical bull in the center of the bar. The woman was facing Ryan and leaning in way too close.

“Hey there.” Annie heard the male voice next to her, but she was so focused on Ryan that she didn’t process it at first. She watched as the blonde said something to Ryan, and then she slapped his thigh with her perfectly manicured hand as they laughed.

The bartender set her drink on the counter, and that was when she realized there was a man sitting next to her.

Startled, she said, “Hi.”

“Hey,” he said with a grin. “I thought that was going to be my quickest shutdown ever.”

“What?” Annie said, genuinely confused.

The man laughed and said, “I said hello, but you were preoccupied. Bruised my ego, but didn’t completely demolish it—yet. I’m Clint.”

Clint was a good-looking guy. He was lanky and tall, probably six-three or six-four, and he had dark hair and big brown eyes with long lashes. He was wearing typical cowboy garb: blue jeans and a black cowboy shirt with black boots and a black felt Stetson.

“I’m Annie,” she said, forcing a smile. Realizing this might be her chance at a one-night stand, she drew strength from one last glance in Ryan’s direction. The blonde was practically in his lap now, and there was a brunette on his other side. Ryan seemed to be flirting with them both. He was clearly moving forward with his plan. She had to move forward with hers. She turned back toward Clint. “You’re wearing all black. Does that make you a bad guy?”

His smile indicated he was genuinely amused. It softened his features and made him even better looking.

He tipped his hat. “I can be as good or as bad as you want,” he said.

* * *

Ryan watched Annie talking to the cowboy. Every muscle in his body was taut, his fists clenching, his legs barely able to stay still, given the urge he felt to go to her. Now.

No, ever since they’d danced.

Ever since they’d walked into the damn bar.

Hell, it had taken everything he had to leave their hotel rooms and come down here with her.

He didn’t want her to be with another man. He wanted her all to himself. Being with her here in Vegas, whether it was eating a damn meal, acting goofy doing tourist stuff, or getting hot and heavy in a gondola, meant more to him than any time he’d ever spent with a woman. And it wasn’t just his heart involved. He physically ached with desire for her.

Even from across the bar he could see the lacy outline of her bra beneath her dress. It tempted him. Made him want to strip her right then and there so he could see her breasts cupped by lace, and then see her with the lace stripped off her. He’d want to touch her, but he wouldn’t. He’d look at her first. Memorize every curve and hue until her image was imprinted on his brain. And only when he was shaking with need, when his mouth was dry and starving for the taste of her, would he give in.

He felt a tug in his belly that was all her. Her body. Her scent. Her taste and look.

He wanted it all.

He wanted Annie.

And he knew without a shadow of a doubt, once she was his, he’d never want to give her up. Why settle for any other woman in the world when he could have his best friend, in his life and in his bed?

But that wasn’t what Annie wanted. She was across the bar. Flirting with another man. On the prowl for someone to put between her legs. Someone other than him. And what the hell was he going to do about it?

Nothing. If she could actually pick up a man with the intention of sleeping with him, she couldn’t feel the same way he felt about her.

With a sigh of defeat, he turned to the blonde beside him. He’d realized too late—if he’d had a chance with her to begin with—that he could commit himself to Annie for an eternity and beyond. And now he had to forget her.