Thinking about Kayden’s big surprise tomorrow, I tell Savannah as I gently tap my fingernails on the bar to the beat of Thrift Shop, “Girl, we so gotta stick to a one drink rule for tonight. We don’t want you all hung over for your birthday party tomorrow.”
Nodding, Savannah reaches for her drink as the bartender slides them in front of us. Reaching for her glass, she grabs her cherry that’s stuck to her cute little umbrella and plucks it into her mouth. She chews it quickly and laughing says, “Good idea! I’ll savor this one drink as long as possible, and then drink water for the rest of the night.”
Finishing our drinks, we slide off of the barstools and head out to the outdoor bar and pool area.
“Come dance with me!” Savannah shouts over the loud music as she takes my hand and drags me towards the dance floor. It’s a gorgeous night with the sky covered in a million tiny sparkling stars. As I gaze up at the night sky, images flash through my mind of my first time with Dixon. I’ll never see a starry night sky ever again without remembering us lying in the bed of his truck naked and wrapped in one another’s arms as we had the best sex of my entire life.
I shake the thoughts from my head as I raise mine and Savannah’s entwined hands in the air and start bouncing around in my leather ankle boot heels under the strobe lights dancing across our skin. I’m wearing short leather booty shorts and a red top while Savannah went with a more tropical themed in a hot pink halter dress and white Louboutin peep toe pumps. Her hair has a cute pink hibiscus flower clip, pulled into a curly side ponytail. While I, on the other hand, went with a high smooth, sleek, ponytail. Even though, to most, we’d appear to be wearing very little out here, we’re suddenly feeling a tad overdressed!
Everyone...I mean everyone...seems to be in nothing but bathing suits even this late in the evening. The pool is still packed with people swimming, lounging and drinking. The dance floor is jammed packed with girls in bikinis and guys in board shorts.
We ignore the fact that we missed the swimsuit memo and continue to dance and sway to the music, getting lost in the pure bliss of dancing without a care in the world. We’ve had a rough couple of weeks, but things are finally looking up.
After a little while, Savannah grabs my arm and yells at me, “I’m going to get a drink. I’ll come find you in a bit, okay?”
“Okay,” I shout back and continue to dance around with a group of girls in barely-there bikinis.
Not even five minutes later, I feel someone smack me in the shoulder startling me. Whipping around I’m ready to knock a bitch out when I see it’s Savannah grinning at me with Kayden standing behind her. “Oww, bitch What was that for?” I ask resting my hands on my hips. I give him a knowing smile as Savannah shoves a room key at me.
“We’re heading up to the suite. I wanted to make sure you weren’t locked out. Goodnight, girly.”
Shoving the keycard into my bra, I pull her in for a quick hug, “‘Night you guys! Now go have fun you two crazy kids—and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” I wink at Savannah and Kayden and burst out giggling with laughter as Savannah blushes and grabs Kayden’s arm tugging him through the crowd.
“Well, then that leaves pretty much anything and everything you can possibly think of doing that is downright sinful, fair game,” Kayden says with an amused tone before disappearing with Savannah through the crowd of bodies.
I dance for a little while longer before deciding to call it a night and head inside to crash. I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. I head towards the outdoor bar, which is packed with people waiting for drinks. As I’m standing in line, I hear Trouble by Taylor Swift come on, but it’s a techno remix that the DJ is spinning right now. My body immediately flushes as the song plays. All I can think about is Dixon and the things he did to me in the elevator while I had this song playing in my head.
My phone, blasting Clarity by Zedd, gives me a heart attack, making me jump slightly. I reach into my top, pulling out my iPhone, and see it’s a text from Dixon. The ringtone I set for him is going off and lets me know it was from him without having to look at it. I haven’t heard it go off in two weeks, so the thought of Dixon sends a sea of emotions crashing into me.
Swiping my thumb across the screen, I open the text and immediately can’t help but roll my eyes then glance around seeing if I can spot him. He has to be here.
Dixon:
I suddenly can’t stop thinking about elevator rides & orgasms ;)
#iknewyouweretrouble
What the fuck?
Dixon is here?
I look all around me, but he’s nowhere to be found. I glance at the time on my watch and see it’s almost ten p.m. They should be landing any time. But I don’t see any missed calls or messages from Jax so I’m not sure what’s going on.
“Brooklyn.” Dixon’s deep raspy drawl sends a shiver down my spine and causes my skin to prickle with goosebumps as I feel him standing behind me. Gasping, I spin around and throw my hand against my chest.
“Jesus Christ! You practically gave me a freaking heart attack.” I shriek as I feel my eyes practically bulging out of my head.
He lets out a deep chuckle as he slides his fingers through his auburn hair that’s slightly disheveled on top of his head. His laugh does crazy things to my body. One being that it turns me on way too much. I squeeze my thighs together, trying to ignore the throbbing between my legs, as I continue to hear Taylor Swift singing around us and feel Dixon so close to me.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize you’d startle so easily. Thanks for not knocking me out or anything, by the way. You looked all ready to whoop some ass for a second there.”
I give him my back as I turn towards the bar, “Well, almost getting killed will do that to a girl,” I mumble under my breath, not thinking he’d even hear me. The feeling of his hand on my arm, sends magnetic charge that zaps my skin the second his hand touches me, and the firmness of his grip lets me know he’s determined to speak to me and that he more than likely just heard what I said.
“Brooklyn—I’m sorry. I can’t say it enough, for a lot of things.” The desperation in his voice is apparent. “I wish more than anything I would’ve pulled my head outta my fuckin’ ass and gone to Savannah’s celebratory party for the magazine cover. If I were there, maybe you wouldn’t have gone through what you had.”
I look back at him as I try to ignore the flutter of butterflies swarming my stomach as I hear the words I’ve dreamt of hearing him say to me for weeks. Dixon doesn’t say sorry very often. So to hear him tell me he’s sorry—not once, but twice, in a span of a few seconds—is pretty freaking crazy.
He releases my arm and stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jeans all the while keeping his piercing blue eyes locked onto mine, making my body tingle from my head to my toes.
“Can I get two shots of Jack, please?” I ask the bartender as he finally makes his way down to me. Fuck my one drink rule. After seeing Dixon, I need something stronger than water. “Thanks,” I say taking the two shots and turning back towards Dixon. “Here, drink up. By the look of things we both need help from our good friend, Jack because we’re all kinds of fucked up right now.”
A ghost of a smile curls up at the corners of his lips as he dangles the shot between his fingers. He raises an eyebrow at me before saying, “I couldn’t agree more.” Before downing the shot in one gulp. I mirror his actions tipping the glass back and welcoming the slow burn it makes as the amber liquid slides down my throat then seeps into every inch of my body warming me from the inside out.
“Can we go somewhere....?” His question tapers off as his eyes move to look behind my head.
Just then, I hear my name again but this time it’s in a husky Australian accent followed by two strong arms wrapping around my waist as lips brush against my neck. The pain and anger that flash through Dixon’s eyes makes my stomach twist in knots, and my head suddenly starts pounding as a million thoughts begin buzzing inside my head.
Jax is here.
Dixon is here.
Suddenly my heart and my head are charging into a deadly battle with one another.
How the hell did I get myself into such a fucked up situation?
I’m in love with a douchebag who seems to have finally, after two months of me waiting, decided to pull his head out of his fucking ass. Of course, after I give up on the thought of us ever having something more together than a few flings. Now I’m somewhat with Jax. It’s all way too confusing and making my damn head hurt.
Chapter Seventeen
As soon as Jax showed up last night, I told him I was tired and wanted to head up to the suite. I let him know Kayden needs me up bright and early to help with the birthday surprise he has planned for Savannah. We said goodnight to Dixon. Even though everything in me was screaming it was wrong, I left him standing there all alone while I headed up to the top floor with Jax.
Now I’m standing here, in almost the same spot I was last night, getting everything set up for Savannah’s birthday. I had to spend all afternoon with Savannah and Rebecca lounging by the pool as we sipped on fruity drinks, keeping her distracted so that Kayden could get her scavenger hunt all set up. He’s been texting me nonstop after he left each location telling me over and over again how grateful he is for the idea, for helping, and for being such an amazing friend to Savannah.