Exquisite Betrayal (2 page)

“
Aiyee,” I scream as I try to stand
back up. By this time my ass is in the air as I roll to my hands
and knees. Now my palms and knees are on fire. “Dammit! Shit,
that’s hot!” I say as I jolt to my feet, arms flailing while I try
to straighten my skirt.

I finally glance up to find two, deep,
emerald green eyes gazing at me. Well, that’s not exactly true.
They’re slowly scanning me from top to bottom until they then stop
and lock onto my cleavage. The reason for this is that my left
nipple is more than half exposed. Okay, it’s completely
exposed.

“
Oh fuck!” I squeal as I tug my bra up
and adjust my top. Why does this crap always happen to
me?

I look back to see that Amanda and Kat are
just awestruck. Not at me, but at green eyes because,
glory-freakin-hallelujah, he’s one beautiful man. And why wouldn’t
he be? Only I would fall down, ass in the air, boob hanging out in
front of a gorgeous man. It wouldn’t happen in front of a wrinkled
up, old, toothless man. Nope, never. I go for full on nipple
exposure with the well-built, rugged, green-eyed blond that looks
like a sex god, orgasmic-producing Eden.

“
I’m sorry,” I say. “Forgive me. I
should watch where I’m going.”

“
Are you all right?” he asks and then
scrapes his teeth across his lower lip right before he bites down
on one corner.

Holy-put-my-panties-in-a-wet-wad! That voice
and mouth. Green eyes has a sexy British accent to match the rest
of his perfect self. Heart meet pink sparkly toe nails.

My head tilts a bit, as if I’m trying to
figure out what he just asked me. “Huh?”

“
I asked if you were okay. You took a
good fall there on your bum. Just wanted to know if all was okay
there?”

Somehow my hand starts unconsciously rubbing
my butt. “Oh. Yeah, I guess so. All’s good on the bum here.” My
voice has gotten all throaty on me.

Tall with unruly dark blond waves
falling over his forehead, he stands there and stares at me. Then
those magnificent orbs slowly rake me from head to toe again. Even
though it feels like it’s a hundred and fifty degrees in the Las
Vegas August heat, chills break out over my entire body. Every
single hair
—
even the
microscopic ones that I so diligently try to keep
waxed
—
stand at attention,
reminding me of their existence. An overwhelming urge to grab and
kiss this hunk of sexiness charges into me, and I have no idea who
he is. I can’t stop ogling his face… his bottom lip is full, and
when he runs his tongue along it, I have to clamp my lips together
to keep myself from moaning.

“
So it looks like you’re here for a
visit then?”

“
Yes, a long weekend.” My voice still
sounds funny to me, all husky and throaty.

“
Well, perhaps I’ll see you around the
strip then.” And again, those magnetic greens of his inspect me
from head to toe. “Have a nice day then,” I hear him
say.

I can’t move. I’m as still as a marble
statue until the girls each grab one of my arms.

“
If Vegas is full of those, I’m never
going home,” the giant wiener claims.

We walk back inside to meet the other two of
our gang, while I’m still addled by my encounter with green
eyes.

***

We collect Andrea and Mandy and then seek
out our transportation to the hotel. As we wait in line for the bus
to take us there, the chills I had earlier have morphed into
rivulets of sweat as they stream down my body. Not a single thread
of my clothing is dry. This place is a freaking oven. When they
talk about desert heat, they aren’t kidding. The only good thing to
come out of it is Amanda had to ditch the giant wiener outfit. I
think she would’ve died if she hadn’t.

“
Did you all realize it was gonna be
this damn hot? I feel like I’m in Hell,” Andrea says.

“
Hell can’t be this hot, and if it is,
well then, I’m gonna start really doing some serious prayin’ cuz
you all, this is crazy!” I say. “I think I just sweated off my
right butt cheek.”

Our bus finally shows up and we about knock
the other people over to get on board. I’m ashamed to admit I’m not
sorry in the least for that ghastly behavior of mine. It’s either
that, or walk around with only one butt cheek, and the way I am
thinking, it will be really hard to lose my virginity with only one
butt cheek.

At least the ride to the hotel doesn’t take
very long. When we pull up to it, though, we’re kind of
disappointed. “Well, they sure made it look a lot nicer online,”
Andrea harrumphs.

We all agree with her, but there isn’t
anything to do except go inside and check in. So that’s what we
do.

The lobby is a bit outdated and has a space
odyssey look to it, but it’s clean with a casino and bar. What more
can we ask for, right? The other nice thing is it is only a couple
of blocks from the conference and all the cool hotels. The Space
Nugget will do just fine for the next five days.

We had booked two adjoining rooms so we
could share two bathrooms. The rooms are tidy, but they’re
seriously lacking in decor.

“
Well, it’s clean and cool and what do
we care about anything else, right?” Mandy asks.

“
Yeah, it’s not like we’re gonna be in
here a lot anyway,” Kat replies. “I’m happy if the air conditioning
works.”

So we all unpack and decide what to do that
night. The convention kicks off in the morning, so that leaves
tonight open. Tomorrow night is our big party with R. T.
Sinclair.

Everyone starts tossing around ideas of what
to do and our excitement mounts. We’re in the world’s largest adult
playground and we have a plethora of places to choose from.

Amanda has a look in her eye that I’m
beginning to understand. She once talked about hitting the male
strip clubs and I’m all for that, but right now my stomach is
telling me it wants some food. I’m relieved to hear her say, “Hey,
what do y’all say we hit the town? Grab a little food, hit a casino
and then do some shooters!” she shouts.

Everyone is on board with her suggestion, so
we all get ready for our first night out on the town.

Whoever that gorgeous girl is that
rammed into me, I’d like to get to know her. No, scratch that.
There’s no liking about it. It’s more like a
need
. I wish I didn’t get so bloody freaked out
around members of the opposite sex because that one is fucking hot.
I’m not talking about this bloody desert heat here, either. My body
immediately got fired up when I’d gotten a good look at her. It was
nearly impossible to pull my eyes away.

I felt bad when she landed flat on her arse,
but damn what a pretty sight it was when she rolled over. Then the
poor thing burned her palms on the walkway. When she treated me to
that show of her lovely nipple, however, it was all I could do not
to put my mouth on her. Too bad both of her lovely buds didn’t poke
out. Guess I’ll have to be happy with just the one. Now she’s
triggered an urge in me… one that I haven’t felt in a long
time.

Shaking my head to clear the encounter, I
enter the airport to collect my sister, Tilly. She’s already texted
me, so I head on over to the baggage carousel and hunt for her. I
finally spy her over a sea of heads and piles of black, rolling
bags. Why does everyone insist on buying that silly luggage that
looks the same? Don’t they realize how difficult it makes it to
find your bag when it plops down on that conveyor belt? I guess not
because everyone keeps on buying it.

“
Tills,” I yell over the din of the
crowd.

Her head bobs around, trying to seek me
out.

“
Tills, over here!” I yell as I wave
my arm above my head.

She glances my way and waves. It’s so good
to see her. I squeeze through an opening and finally make it to her
side.

“
Ryland Thomas,” she squeaks as I
crush her in a hug. After she releases me, she gives me one of her
thorough inspections. “Bloody hell, look at you. You’re a damn
twitchy mess. You need a woman, Ryland Thomas. When was the last
time you got laid?”

“
Lay off, Tilly. Besides, that’s not
an appropriate thing to ask your brother, for Christ’s
sake.”

“
It is, too. It’s been far too long
and you know it. You’re entirely too tense. You won’t even talk to
women, much less hook up with them.”

I fold my lips into my mouth and bite down
simply so I don’t explode on her. I know she means well, however
this isn’t doing me a bloody bit of good. “Where’s your satchel?” I
ask.

“
I brought more than a satchel and I’m
still waiting for it,” she huffs. Then she adds, “There it
is.”

I look in the direction she’s indicating and
see a gigantic purple and pink polka dotted trunk. “Bloody hell,
Tills, how long are you planning on staying here?”

“
A week or so.”

I eye her suspiciously. “What’s going
on?”

“
For your information, Mr. Nosy,
someone is meeting me here after the conference. We’re going to
take a mini vacation.”

“
Ah, I see.”

“
Is that it? Don’t you want to know
anything else?”

“
Not really.”

“
But I’m your sister… your twin at
that.”

“
I know, but Tilly, your sex life is
your own business.”

“
What if I were to tell you it’s more
than just sex? What if I were to tell you that I’m in
love?”

“
Then I’d say good for you. Let’s get
out of here.” I look around for a Sky Cap because there’s no way
I’m going to lug that gigantic piece of luggage around. It’s a
huge, rectangular trunk on tiny wheels. I could fit my bedroom
furniture in that thing.

One finally sees us and I tell them I’m
going to get the car.

After getting Tilly and giganticus loaded
into my car, we head for the Bellagio.

“
So, you’re prepared for this, right?”
I ask. I always get a bit antsy before these things.

“
As usual. When are you going to stop
worrying about all of this? I pull it off like a charm and you know
it.”

“
You do make it work quite nicely, I
will say. But, Tills, I simply get a bit nervous. Can’t help it. My
sales would go to shit if my readers ever found out.”

Out of the corner of my eye I see Tilly look
at me. Here it comes. Her sympathy speech. “Look Ryland Thomas,
you’re a fabulous writer. Your fans would love you anyway. Besides
all of that, don’t you think it’s time to let the past go? Release
all that anger and start living again?”

My hands clench the steering wheel as I
stare straight ahead. Tilly can’t understand and never will. We
were only eighteen when our parents died in the train crash. It was
an unfortunate thing, everyone said. They were traveling in France
and the train derailed, leaving most of the passengers critically
injured or dead. Our parents were killed instantly, leaving the two
of us behind. Luckily, we were extremely well padded financially,
but the emotional scars left us both a mess for a while.

Tilly stumbled around a bit and I did my
best to shield her from everything, like a good brother should, but
she had great friends who were always there for her. I, on the
other hand, wasn’t so lucky. At the time, I thought differently. It
was the usual story, the one where the beautiful blond comes to the
rescue, saving the poor guy from the pain he’s in.

Yeah, right. Turns out, the only thing she
was interested in was my best mate. For a while I tried to lie to
myself by covering up all the obvious things; her staying out late
by herself, not showing up at restaurants when she said she’d be
there. The final blow hurt worse than I ever thought possible,
though.

I came home early from class one day,
as I was still in university, having forgotten my creative writing
notes, so I jogged back to my flat to grab them. When I walked in,
I heard voices, one female and the other male. As I stopped to
listen, the sounds turned into things I shouldn’t be hearing,
things that I knew shouldn’t be coming from my bedroom, especially
since
I
wasn’t in
there.

Walking on silent feet, I stood in the
doorway and watched him going down on her as she sucked him off.
Since she was on top, I couldn’t get a good look at the bloke’s
face, and I didn’t care much about that either. Or so I
thought.

“
Well, isn’t this interesting?” At
least they paused for a moment.

The look on her face wasn’t what I expected.
I thought I’d see remorse, or even shock. She smiled instead and
asked me to join them. Then the bloke lifted his head and said,
“Didn’t know this was your type of thing, mate.”

It was my best friend. He knew bloody good
and well it wasn’t my thing. He didn’t stay my best friend after
that, of course. I may have been blind and naive, but I wasn’t
stupid.

“
Yeah, and how many years have we
known each other?”

“
About ten now, I guess,” he groaned.
She’d resumed giving him head by then.

“
Then you should know I’m pretty damn
disgusted by this. Now get your fucking piece of shit arses out of
my flat.” I didn’t yell or scream; however both of them knew I
wasn’t joking.

They just looked at me and I finally had to
say, “Now!”

Feet hit the floor as they scrambled to get
dressed. They left in such a hurry that she had left her handbag
behind. I tossed it out on the street and really didn’t give a shit
about it. I never went to class that day or the next. The fact is,
I stayed in that flat for two and a half weeks until Tilly came to
get me.