ACE:Las Vegas Bad Boys(94)

“No, I should get home.” I shrug, knowing the only reason I’d stay out all night was if Landon and I had a chance to reconnect. “Thanks though.”

“Why? You don’t even work tomorrow.”

“Sorry, girls, I’d rather sleep in my bed.”

“Is it nice? Your bed?” Tess asks. “You know, I’ve never even been to your place. Isn’t that weird?” She scrunches her nose up and laughs. For a moment, fear fills my stomach. Are they going to ask to come over? I’ve dodged that bullet for months.

I am being such a shitty friend and, in a moment of vulnerability, I realize something: if they asked right now, I’d let them inside.

I need to be real with the people who have let me into their lives—and maybe showing them my apartment, where the My Little Ponies and the Barbie dolls are strewn about, would be the perfect way to reveal who I really am.

But Tess and Emmy don’t press me. Mostly because we all know this penthouse is a hell of a lot more fun to hang out in than any apartment off the strip.

Ace and the guys walk into the room as I am standing to leave.

“Let me call a car for you,” Ace offers thoughtfully.

“Actually, I’ll help you get home,” Landon offers. “I need to run, too.”

“You sure?” I ask. “I mean, if you have somewhere you need to be?” I squint my eyes, not believing him. Where does anyone need to be at eleven o’clock at night?

“No, it’s fine, I need to stop at the, uh, the....”

“Where you headed, bro?” Jack snorts. “The strip club?”

“I got her,” Landon says to Emmy, ending the discussion.

I don’t argue. This is what I wanted the moment I walked into this penthouse tonight.

Him and me. Alone.

Looking at Landon, warmth spreads through me, remembering his hands on my skin and my mouth on his. It doesn’t take much imagination for my panties to get wet.

Leaning over to give Emmy and Tess hugs good-bye, I can’t help but feel like I could have been a better person a million times over tonight. Truthful and real and an actual friend.

Instead, I’m sorta drunk and leaving with a man I let go down on me two weeks ago.





6





LANDON


Claire steps into the elevator with me, biting her lip in a way she doesn’t seem to realize gets me hard just by watching.

“Did you have a good night with Tess and Emmy?” I ask as the elevator falls to the ground floor.

“Yeah, it was nice to get out.” She looks down at the floor and I notice her scuffed boots in contrast with my leather ones, polished and shiny.

The moment Claire walked into Ace’s penthouse, I wanted her. I want to finish what we started.

“Do you really want to go home?” I ask, stepping toward her.

She smiles, licking her lips and looking back up at me. “Considering last time we were alone together we were naked … no. I don’t want to go home.”

“Well, that was a terrific night.” I wrap my arms around her, pulling her close to me. My cock twitches in my trousers, and the need to take her to my room overwhelms me.

“Terrific?” She smirks. “That’s all it was?” She presses her fingers to her temple. “I should never have drank so much champagne.”

“The night of the wedding?” I ask, remembering her constant glass of bubbly that evening. Perhaps she regretted parting her legs for me. I sure as hell don’t regret it. I just want more, something I probably don’t deserve.

But then I remember her insecurity back in my suite, how she hadn’t slept with anyone in a long while. Maybe those feelings are rising up in her again.

Claire sighs, and in doing so it’s as if she lets down her guard. “No, I mean tonight, I had almost a bottle with dinner, because I’m an idiot.” I want to press her against the elevator wall, and take her right here, right now.

But Claire doesn’t lean into my body; she keeps talking, nervously.

Her words mesmerize me with their honesty.

“I liked everything about the night of the wedding,” she says. “I only wish it hadn’t ended so soon.”

“You wanted more?” I ask, still holding her close. Not letting her go, ready to press my mouth on hers. “More of me?”

Her red lips open as if she’s about to admit something, but the elevator doors slide open and we’re deposited in the lobby of Spades.

“Your room then?” she asks.

I press the elevator button again and we fly back up to my floor.

Grabbing her hand as the doors open, I lead us down the hall. I swipe my key to let us into my suite, not able to move fast enough. I want to push her inside and pull down her panties and finish what we’d started weeks ago.