JACK: Las Vegas Bad Boys(9)

“Tess,” I tell Ashley. Then, reaching for Tess’s knee, I squeeze it. “Tess and I have plans tonight.”

Ashley’s jaw almost falls to floor. I may not have known if she wanted to fight or flee tonight, but I sure as hell know she didn’t expect me to be going out with a cocktail waitress after dating her.

Good. It’s about fucking time I left her speechless.

“Tess,” I say, standing, reaching out a hand to help her up. “You ready?”

Tess looks up at me. Please play along, I silently beg.

She smiles. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”



A few minutes later, we’ve crossed the casino floor of Spades Royalle and slid ourselves into a sleek, black limousine. She sits across from me.

The driver speaks through the lowered partition. “Where to?”

I look at Tess, whose clear eyes are as wide as an owl’s. We haven’t spoken a word since I took her hand in mine and practically ran away from the crowd at the whiskey bar. I hadn’t realized paparazzi had already spotted Ashely and me, and a group of people had stopped to watch us fight.

“Are you okay?” I run my hands through my hair. “I feel like shit for dragging you into this.”

Tess bites her bottom lip, then shrugs, a smile spreading across her lips. “I’m good. I just hate it when the paparazzi show up.”

“Let me make this up to you,” I tell her. “Then you won’t think I’m such a dick.”

“I don’t think you’re a dick,” she says vehemently. “I think ... never mind.”

I cock my head toward her. Our knees touch. “Tell me, what do you think?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she says, waving her hands in front of her face. “But you can make it up to me. I just got off work and am literally starving.”

I grin; I like a girl who admits to having an appetite. “You like tacos?”

“I love tacos.”

“Perfect.” I lean toward the driver. “244 West Cascade.”

“You got it,” he says, raising the partition.

I roll my head from side to side, exhausted by this city only five hours into my return.

“You okay?” Tess asks.

I run my hand over my jaw, taking her in. I kind of feel like shit that I’ve never paid her much attention. There have been a handful of times she and I have been at dinner with the crew and sat side-by-side—and, hell, we spent a week walking the fucking English countryside for Landon and Claire. But I’ve never really looked at her as anything besides Emmy and Claire’s friend.

I’m not a player like the other guys. I like plenty of adventure in the bedroom, but I’ve always been a one-woman man.

No matter how much Ashley wants to complain about me, one thing she can never say is that I was unfaithful.

Which means I’ve never given Tess my full attention.

But now? Damn. I can’t seem to look away.

She isn’t classically beautiful, with long limbs and blonde hair. Tess is average by all standards measured in the Vegas celebrity world. A thin girl, who doesn’t come off as a seductress with moves and experience.

No, Tess looks wholesome, pure. Refreshing in a way that feels free and fucking alive. Her eyes are bright, the clearest blue I’ve ever seen. Her lips are covered in subtle pink lip gloss that makes her mouth look full and unkissed … and, damn, my cock is twitching in my pants just thinking about those lips and where they might go.

It’s been too damn long since I’ve had a fling, a single night to remember, a single night letting me forget.

And every damn time she leans forward to speak, in that flowy top she’s in, I can see straight down the front of it, past her tits, all the way to her tummy. The fact that she isn’t wearing a bra gets me hard every time I glimpse those C-cups. They’re fucking taunting me with their perfectly-sized tight nipples.

The thing is, she doesn’t seem to have a clue how attractive a woman who is willing to go with the flow, without agenda, is in a town like this. Across from me in the limo, she looks at me with sincerity.

I decide then and there that tonight I’m giving myself a fucking break. I’m gonna take this girl to dinner, and then she and I can have the one night stand I deserve.

And, damn, she deserves it too. She’s a nice girl who works hard and needs a night with me to remember that we’re young and alive and can fucking do whatever the hell we want.

She’s fucking gorgeous, and tonight I’m giving her a night she’ll never forget.





TESS


It isn’t a secret that I’ve wanted to jump Jack’s bones for the past four months. Pretty much starting the moment I met him.