Beautiful Bombshell (7 page)

Every part of me seemed to give out at once as I collapsed,
panting and exhausted, gripping the bench for support.

“Holy shit.” The room was spinning and so quiet that my voice and even our breathing seemed to echo off the marble. I wondered how loud we’d been.

She stood, wobbling the slightest bit as she straightened her clothes and moved to a stall to clean herself up. “You know I have to walk around after this?”

I grinned. “Of course.”

“You did that on purpose.”

I rolled to my back and blinked up to the sparkling chandelier. “At least I let you come, too.”

I knew I should straighten my clothes and find the boys, but right now all I wanted to do was sleep.

She moved to stand over me, leaning down to press a soft, lingering kiss to my mouth. “You need to go get some dinner or you’ll be drunk by midnight.”

I groaned, trying to pull her down to me, but she escaped by shoving her finger between my ribs. “Ow! Isn’t that the point?”

“I’m sure they’re wondering where you are.”

“I told them I had an ulcer to get them to go on without me.”

“And they believed you?”

I shrugged. “Who the fuck knows.”

“Well, go convince them that you’ve recovered from your completely unbelievable illness and I’m going to meet Sara.”

“Fine,” I said, standing to pull up my pants. I watched as she leaned forward, smoothing out her hair in the mirror. “Where
is
Sara?”

“She’s meeting up with a friend who lives here. A dancer, I think? Some sort of cabaret or stripper thing at Planet Hollywood.”

“Now that sounds interesting,” I said.

She met my reflection with raised brows before continuing. “Anyway, I had a feeling I was being stalked and told her to go on without me.”

“A feeling?”

She shrugged, applying her lipstick. “A hope.”

Snapping the cap back on her makeup, she closed it up in her purse and I followed her to the door, lifting a hand to her face. “I love you anyway,” I said.

“I love you anyway, too,” she said, leaning in to kiss me before slapping my ass,
hard
.

I could still hear her laughter long after she disappeared through the door.

I watched out the rear window as Bennett’s long, purposeful strides carried him down the sidewalk. He looked back over his shoulder and hailed a taxi as soon as he thought we were out of sight.

Bloody hell. For someone known for being so absolutely unflappable, he was a mess. He hadn’t even kept up that flimsy charade of an illness long enough to see us down the end of the street and ’round the corner.

I turned back in my seat, watching as the lights and tourists roaming the sidewalks passed by in a blur, and let my thoughts move to Sara. She’d said she felt hollow with how much she wanted me, and
Christ,
just the memory of those words was enough to wreck me all over again. She was so rarely demanding, and even during our busiest weeks when we hardly saw each other, she was the patient one out of the two of us, always insisting we’d make up for lost time on the weekend, or on a Wednesday. For her to tell me she needed
more tonight made it almost impossible to deny her. But I could see, in her eyes, the way she’d immediately regretted it, as if by telling me that she knew I’d be torn.

With her eerie sense of timing, my phone buzzed with a text from her:
I’m fine, honestly. I’m sorry I distracted you.

I smiled as I typed my reply:
Alas, you’re my favorite distraction.

Have fun with the boys tonight
, she wrote back.

A loud pop drew my attention and I blinked over to where Henry and Will had uncorked a bottle of champagne. “Show of hands for those of us who think Bennett just needed to rub one out in the bathroom,” Will said, offering me a glass of champagne. I waved it off, waiting instead for a real drink at the restaurant.

“We did just leave a strip club,” Henry said, protective-brother mode in full force. “Cut the man some slack.”

I worked to keep my expression neutral. Will and Henry didn’t know the girls were here, but they were eerily close to the mark.

“Henry’s right,” I cut in, surprised to find myself defending Bennett for deserting us to go shag his fiancée during the first night of his
stag
weekend. “Maybe he just needed a moment. The man is notoriously ruled by his dick.”

“Ha!” Will barked. “I love the implication that you’re any different.”

It didn’t matter that he was right, and since meeting Sara I’d thought of practically nothing else beyond what she was doing, what she was wearing, and of course, where I could fuck her. The side of me that loved to argue with Will couldn’t resist responding. “I’ll admit that Sara takes up a great deal of my thoughts—” I began.

“Understandable,” Will interrupted, giving me a knowing glance.

“
But,
” I continued, ignoring him, “I’m perfectly capable of keeping my head in the game when necessary.”

Unfazed, he hummed and topped off his drink, settling back into the supple leather seat. “Yes. Clearheaded businessman like yourself, never dream of shirking responsibility or, let’s say . . . friendship, for a woman.”

I nodded warily, sensing a trap.

“And when you missed picking me up after my flight back from China because you had an ‘emergency,’” he said, using air quotes, “which of course means getting sucked off by Sara in the back of your car in the airport parking lot, that was keeping your head in the game.”

I felt the weight of Henry’s congratulatory slap across my back. “You sly son of a bitch,” he said.

I winked at Henry, knowing Will was far from done.

“And when you ditched me with three of the most boring clients on the planet for two hours because you were fucking Sara in the library at James’s house—that
also
was keeping your head in the game. Yeah, Ryan could really take a lesson and stop thinking with his cock.”

“I think you’ve got it about squared,” I said, laughing.

“Just making sure,” he said with a charming smile, lifting his champagne flute to his forehead in salute.

We stopped at a light just beyond the Palazzo and although I was looking forward to the meal, I wished I’d had the idea to run to the “pharmacy” before Bennett did.

“See, if you kept a better schedule,” Will continued, “you wouldn’t be so desperate to
shag
whenever you get a free second.”

“Schedule?” Henry asked.

I sat forward, smiling. “He means his calendar of women. Our Will here might not be attached or fucking everything in a skirt, but he’s certainly never at a loss for company. He keeps his ‘relationships’ neat and tidy and in regular rotation on his calendar.”

Will frowned while Henry looked between us, obviously confused, and asked, “Wait. Are you telling me you schedule your booty calls?”

“No,” Will answered, glaring in my direction. “It means the women I’m involved with each know about
the other. They also know I’m not interested in anything more for the time being, which works perfectly because neither are they. Everyone gets what they want.” He threw his hands up and shrugged. “You won’t find me running to the pharmacy, or banging a girl in the middle of a work meeting because I can’t find any other time in my schedule.”

“Right . . .” Henry and I said in unison.

The car jolted to a stop and we each moved to a window. “Looks like we’re finally here,” Will said. “Jesus, what took so long?”

The door opened and we climbed out in front of the Wynn, taking in the scene around us. It was chaos. Rows of cars lined the curb, many of them still running and with the doors left open. Handfuls of bewildered attendants stood around in small groups, obviously at a loss for what to do.

“Looks like there’s a broken hydrant on the property,” our driver said, motioning over his shoulder. “I can drop you off but it’ll be at least an hour before I’d be able to get back in to pick you up.”

The other two rounded the car to join us and I sighed, looking down to my watch. “Shouldn’t be a problem,” I said. “We’re having dinner and something tells me it’s not going to be quick.” I was torn between wanting a night out with my best mates, and wanting to make sure Sara was sorted. I was growing more
wound up, feeling restless and edgy despite the time I’d spent with her just an hour ago.

The driver nodded and we left him at the curb, moving inside and deeper into the casino, following the signs until we’d reached the restaurant. There was a club nearby and the persistent thump of music could be felt through the walls, through the floor, as we crossed the sleek restaurant and each took a seat at our table. The pulsing music mirrored the tension building in my limbs, the rhythmic beat of
Sara Sara Sara
humming beneath my skin.

I checked my mobile for the hundredth time and frowned when I saw there were no further messages. Where was she? Had Bennett found Chloe and if so, why hadn’t Sara texted yet?

I thumbed through a few of the more recent photos on my phone: the two of us curled up in my bed; a photo of her spread below me, limbs heavy with satisfaction after a good, hard fuck; a close-up of her naked breasts; my hand on her ass as I took her from behind late at night in my office.

I realized I’d lost the thread of the conversation when Will’s voice broke into my haze, from studying a photo of Sara’s red, red lips around my cock.

“Max.”
Will rapped his knuckles on the table.

I looked up, surprised to find our waiter standing at the table, and quickly turned off my screen.

“Something to drink, sir?”

“Sorry,” I murmured. “Macallan, neat.”

“Twelve, eighteen, or twenty-one years, sir?”

My eyes went wide. “Twenty-one.
Brilliant
.”

After jotting it down he stepped away, and I attempted to go back to my phone, only to be interrupted by Will again. “Share with the class or put that thing away. I know what you have on there, you sick bastard. No girls, remember?”

Henry nodded as he tossed a piece of bread at me from across the table. “Dudes only,” he agreed.

Will leaned forward, reminding me, “The promise of not being a third wheel with you was the only reason I let you talk me into this in the first place.”

I sighed and tucked my phone away, knowing he was right. When I looked up my eyes widened, catching the path of Bennett as he walked through the restaurant to join us.

“Well, well. Look who it is,” I said.

Henry pulled the chair out for his brother. “Feeling better?”

Bennett unbuttoned his suit jacket and took a seat. “Much,” he said, grinning.

Bennett Ryan was fucking
grinning
.

Our drinks arrived and I reached for mine, looking at him over the rim of my glass. “Didn’t take too long, either, did it?” I asked, feeling a satisfied thrill when his
expression fell just long enough to glare at me. “Some things are better when they’re fast. Like a
pharmacy
.”

“Nothing like efficiency to make a man happy,” he agreed with a self-satisfied grin.

“And you’re a king among men,” I said, laughing and holding my glass up for him to toast with his water. “Get yourself a cocktail in celebration of efficient pharmacies everywhere.”

“Why do I feel like I’m only getting half this conversation?” Will asked, looking dumbly between us. His eyes narrowed. “Is something going on we don’t know about?”

I barked out a laugh. “Don’t know what you’re on about, mate. Just taking the piss.”

Henry began studying the menu but Will seemed less convinced, looking away only when Henry called his attention to a cart of flaming meat being rolled by our table.

Satisfied they were sufficiently distracted, I leaned toward Bennett. “Where’s Sara?”

“Wouldn’t you love to know?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, scowling. “Arsehole.”

“Hey, you started this,” Bennett said, reaching for my drink.

I smacked his hand away. “Me? What are you on about?”

“You know: Chloe? Here? As grateful as I am, don’t
try and pretend it wasn’t you who suggested the whole lap dance thing.”

“For
you
.”

“For me,” he said, smirking. “Right. So I’d be distracted and you could be with Sara in that club.”

Maybe he had a point.

“You can’t tell me if Sara teased you for forty-five minutes in a strip club you wouldn’t immediately go find her and . . . fix things. Even if you were meant to be hanging out with the guys.”

I laughed. “Too right.” I leaned closer, voice low. The idea of being able to slip out of here and have Sara one more time was too delicious to pass up. “This dinner is going to take at least two hours. I could be back in twenty.”

This time when he reached for my drink, I let him take it. “She’s visiting a friend,” he whispered.

I paused. “Visiting . . . what?”

“Oh, that bothers you? Leaves you feeling unresolved? I’m not so sure I should tell you,” he said, studying me. “It’s pretty clear the start of this night has gone far better for you than for me. Maybe your focus should be on my bachelor party instead of what’s in your pants.”

“Or,” I began, “I could tell Henry about that time you shagged two girls in his bed when he was stuck working at school over the uni holidays.”

That sobered him up. “She has a friend that dances in some show at Planet Hollywood. Chloe mentioned something about Sara going over
there for sound check or something between performances.”

Sara, sitting in a dark theater all alone? That was all I needed to hear. Pushing away from the table, I stood. Will and Henry looked up at me from their menus. “Where are you going?” Henry asked. “They have a forty-ounce rib eye!”

“Toilet,” I said, placing a hand over my stomach. “I’m, ah . . . not feeling well.”

“You, too?” Will asked.

I nodded, hesitating for only a moment before saying, “Back in a bit.”

And I was off, sprinting from the restaurant, blood pumping hot in my legs and that untethered need to be with her buzzing steadily under my skin.