Only in Vegas (7 page)

“Just checking out the sitting room,” he said, looking around.

“Oh, I thought...  Well, I was afraid that maybe I had done something...”

She had, but not in the way she thought.  She made him think of her in a way other than friendship and that scared the hell out of him. 

Trey flashed his best smile, determined to put one back on her face.  “You’ve done something all right.”

Pearly white teeth dug into her bottom lip.  “I knew it.  I—”

“You’ve gotten me to take a much needed vacation,” he said, cutting her off.

“Oh.”

He walked over, cupped her face and kissed the tip of her pert little nose.  “And I thank you for it.”  

He had succeeded in coaxing the smile back to Angel’s face.  “I’m so glad you feel that way,” she said, looking up at him.  “Now come on,” she said, grabbing his hand. 

“Where are we going?” he asked as she led him from the sitting area.

“There’s something I want to show you.”

She was leading him right toward the bed.  He could only imagine what it was she planned to show him.  “Don’t you think we should wait until we get unpacked before we...?”  His words trailed off as they passed the bed.  Where was she taking him?

“Relax, Trey.  You’re on vacation, remember?”  Angel drew back the curtains and turned to him.  “I just wanted you to see the view we have from our Jacuzzi.” 

He’d been so focused on the bed when they first came into the room that he hadn’t even noticed the raised Jacuzzi tub that sat in front of the picture window.

Slipping an arm around Angel’s narrow waist, Trey stepped up alongside her and looked out over the incredible Las Vegas skyline with its backdrop of mountains. 

“Casinos and lights for as far as the eye can see,” he muttered in amazement.  “This place is really something.”

She looked up at him, excitement in those big, dark eyes.  “And that’s only a piece of it.  The things to see here are endless.  Themed casinos, every kind of restaurant you could imagine, shows, the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.”

Despite having been sent there with Rick-the-Dick, Angel seemed very excited to be back in Vegas.  Trey found himself anxious to share the experience with her. 

Angel slipped away and walked over to the bureau where she began rifling through the drawers.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for this.”  She held up what appeared to be a phone book.  “I have some shopping I need to do while we’re out seeing the strip.”

Since when did people come to Vegas to shop?  Well, he wasn’t about to make mention of that to Angel.  If she wanted to shop, that was fine by him.  Anything to keep his thoughts on something other than his best friend and his awakening desire to make love to her.

Trey checked his jean pocket for his room key.  “Ready when you are.”

“Just a sec.”  She scribbled an address on the complimentary note pad, and then shoved it into her purse.  Draping the leather strap over her shoulder, she turned to him.  “All set.”

The sooner they got out of there the better.  Trey followed Angel from the room where they made their way along the balcony style hallway that overlooked the impressive Egyptian lobby below.

Thankfully, by the time they reached the elevators, he was in control of his senses once again.  Mind clear.  Heart rate slowed to an easy pace.  He was back to his normally calm, cool, collected self.  The Trey Landers who took on the corporate world without even so much as a hesitation.  Now, if he could just had to keep it that way.

He leaned casually against the wall beside the elevator doors, a confident smile on his face.  “So what are we shopping for?”  His guess would be souvenirs.  Angel always brought things back for him and Kathy, and once in a while for his dad when she went away on her agent familiarization trips.

The elevator chimed beside him, signaling its arrival at their floor.  The doors opened and Angel stepped inside.  Turning to face him, she replied with a grin, “Leather and a maybe a few sexy nighties.”

The look on Trey’s face was priceless.  Eyes seemingly glazed over.  Jaw open.  So was the fact that he was speechless.  He always had something to say.  She reached out to poke the ‘door open’ button on the elevator control panel.

“Are you planning to take the next elevator?” Angie asked with a grin.

Trey came out of his mental paralysis and stepped into the elevator.  “As in boots?”

She looked up at him.  “What?”

“The leather we’re shopping for,” he prompted.

“Oh, those, too.  But I was referring to clothes.  I’ve been thinking—”

“Uh-oh.  Take cover.”

Angie smacked him on the arm and giggled softly.  “Don’t be a smart ass.  What I was going to say was that I think I really need to change my fashion style if I’m going to convince Rick that I really am a wild woman.  And leather seems to be the in thing.”  She pressed the lobby button and smiled.  “Going down.”

There it was again - that look on his unarguably handsome face.  “Trey, are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

“Me?  Yeah.  Why do you ask?”

“You just don’t seem like yourself.”

“Maybe I should be saying the same thing to you, Miss Leather and Heat,” he snapped, shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans.  He averted his gaze to stare at the closed doors in front of him.

Angie opened her mouth to respond, but the elevator eased to a stop at the second floor.  The doors opened and Trey stepped aside as another passenger joined them in an exchange of smiles.  They rode the rest of the way down in silence.

Miss Leather and Heat?  Where had that come from?  Angie snuck a glance at Trey whose thumbs were tapping rhythmically against the outside of his jeans’ pockets.  She knew that gesture well.  He was irritated.  With who?  Her? 

The elevator chimed their arrival in the lobby and the doors slid open.  They waited for the other passenger to step out before exiting.  Angie moved closer to Trey, her voice low, “Having second thoughts about helping me?”

“No.”

“Then what was that all about back there?” she asked as they moved across the lobby.

He dragged a hand through his hair with a deep sigh.  “I’m sorry I snapped at you that way.”

She smiled.  “Don’t sweat it, Trey.  It was kind of nice being referred to as something other than an ice princess.  Miss Leather and Heat.  I kind of like it.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with Angelina Rossi, though I’m sort of fond of Angel myself,” he confessed as they moved toward the main entrance. 

Trey was the only person who ever called her Angel.  Everyone else she knew called her Angie.  “You never did answer my question?  What’s with Miss Leather and Heat?”  They had always been able to talk about anything without hesitation, but she was having to drag an explanation out of him this time.

“This is hard for me, Angel.  I’ve known you for so long it’s hard to deal with these changes you’re wanting to make to yourself, temporary or not.  And I’ll tell you right now I don’t like the thought of Rick-the-Dick drooling over you in some sexy leather get up.”

Angie laughed softly.  “Watch it, Trey.  Someone might mistake you for a jealous boyfriend talking that way.”

Then it struck her.  He was only doing what she had asked him to do - playing his part.  She hadn’t meant for him to continue the charade when Rick wasn’t around.  But she had to admit it was kind of nice having a guy be jealous where she was concerned, playacting or not.

*
              *              *

The store Angel dragged him out to wasn’t nearly as bad as Trey imagined it would be when he first saw the name scribbled on the piece of hotel stationary.  SINFUL SURRENDER. 

Angel was looking for leather.  Well, there was plenty of that in this store, but most of it wasn’t anything he wanted her parading around in.  And he’d never heard of half the products lining the shelves in the main showroom.

SINFUL SURRENDER appeared to be an adult needs store that catered to the wealthy judging by the prices he’d seen while Angel was shopping.  When he’d suggested they go somewhere less expensive, she informed him it would be worth the money if it helped her get out of the sexless rut she had fallen into. 

Trey sank back into the plush chair just outside of the dressing room Angel had gone into.  Leafy plants and naked statues surrounded him, while some kind of new age music played out overhead.  The subtle scent of new leather mingled with other exotic scents and lingered in the air around him.  Not a bad combination he had to admit.

He cast a glance at his watch.  How long did it take to try on a leather skirt?  From where he sat in the empty waiting area of the dressing room, it felt like forever.  Especially surrounded by life-size replicas of the male anatomy. 

He drummed his fingers on the thick arms of the chair, making no sound as they sank into the velvet material that covered it. 

“What do you think of this one?”

He looked up as Angel stepped from the dressing room wearing a skimpy black leather skirt and breast hugging top.  Trey pushed out of the oversized chair and stood, his assessing gaze moving over her.

“It’s short.”

He’d seen paper clips that covered more.  Not that she didn’t look great in it.  He just didn’t like the idea of Angel wearing it for some other guy who wouldn’t take time to get to know the real woman beneath the sexy clothes. 

She flashed him that beautiful smile of hers, perfectly aligned teeth framed by plump pink lips.  “It’s supposed to be short.  That’s why they call it a mini-skirt.”

“I suppose you have a point there,” he admitted grudgingly.  “But I think calling it a just-below-the-ass skirt would be more fitting.”

She laughed, and then pivoted from side to side in front of the three-way mirror.  “Speaking of which...do you think it makes my butt look big?”

Her butt looked perfect to him.  In fact, everything from the painted nails on her bare toes to her dark, spiraling curls looked pretty damn good to him.  Tempting enough to touch.

Whoa, rein in the thought, buddy.  You’re here to advise her, not fantasize about her. 

“Take my word on it, Angel,” he said as he lowered himself back into the chair.   “If you’re going for what’s going to turn a guy’s head, that skirt has definite head-snapping possibilities.”

She bit into her bottom lip as she eyed her reflection.  A gesture Trey found incredibly sexy.  “You really think so?” 

“I’m a man, aren’t I?” he teased.

“You certainly had the right parts the last time I looked,” she called back as she disappeared through the dressing room curtains.

The last time she looked?

Angel had never seen him naked.  Had she?  She’d practically lived at his and Kathy’s house while they were growing up, so he supposed it was possible...

The floral curtains Angel had just slipped between settled back into place and Trey found himself unexpectedly aroused.  So much so he was tempted to follow her into the dressing room and ask her what she’d meant by that last comment.

But his self-control was already wavering despite his best intentions, so he turned away, determined to distract himself from all thoughts of Angel and sex.     

“Black or red?”

Trey swiveled around in the chair, his jaw dropping.  Angel stood between the parted curtains dressed in the same black leather skirt, but the look-at-me-I-have-breasts top she had just tried on had been replaced by a skimpy black lace bra that showed him she had all the right parts, too.

“I think you forgot something,” he pointed out, his Adam’s apple bobbing uncontrollably as he rose to his feet once again.  “Like a shirt.”

Angel laughed and stepped toward him, releasing her hold on the heavy floral curtains.  “If I had my shirt on, how could I get your opinion on this?”

“Maybe by dangling it from a hanger,” he muttered under his breath while trying not to take in the sight of her standing there like that.

She propped a hand on her hip and did a pose for him.  “What do you think?  Too much lace?  Not see through enough?  Maybe a different color?”

So much for not looking.
  “Perfect.”  Not so much the bra, but her.

“What about the shade?  What color do most men find the sexiest?”

Any color you’re wearing. 

He wasn’t about to stand there discussing bra colors while every man in the store was ogling her.  Or could be if he and Angel weren’t alone in the back dressing room area.  There were several men out in the main part of the store and that was too damn close to Angel’s impromptu fashion show for him.

“Let’s discuss this in here.”  Taking her by the arm, Trey guided Angel back into the spacious dressing room. 

“What are you doing?” she asked as her bare feet padded across the carpet beside him.

He released her, and then turned, pointing at the curtains.  “I know you’re trying to find the sexy side of you, but you don’t have to show it to every man in the place.”             

Angel crossed her arms and shot him one of those exasperated female looks.  The kind men received when they gave the wrong answer to a question that only women knew the correct response to.