Saturday Night Special

Saturday Night Special

Mari Carr

Wild Irish, Book Six

Saturday’s child works hard for a living…

What do you get when you cross a gold-digging stripper, a down-on-her-luck hooker, an estranged husband,
his
knocked-up wife, a Wayne Newton lookalike taxi driver and one beleaguered Baltimore cop?

A typical night in the life of Riley Collins—Vegas style.

Riley’s always been the wildest of the Collins clan, but even
she
bites off more than she can chew during an impromptu trip to Sin City. Once again, it’s Aaron Young to the rescue. No surprise; Aaron’s been watching Riley’s ass forever—and he’s wanted to spank it for even longer. Tracking her down, Aaron finally gets his wish—after he drags a drunken Riley to a chapel and makes it legit, of course.

To say she’s shocked is putting it mildly. But Riley warms to Aaron’s seduction quicker than you can say “all-you-can-eat buffet!” Who knew her mild-mannered best friend was so hot in the sack? Of course, thanks to Riley’s penchant for picking up strays, the newlyweds will have to sneak in some honeymoon boom-boom whenever they can. But they’ll manage…

An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication

www.ellorascave.com

Saturday Night Special

ISBN 9781419930546

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Saturday Night Special Copyright © 2010 Mari Carr

Edited by Kelli Collins

Cover art by Syneca

Electronic book publication September 2010

The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL

Mari Carr

This story is dedicated to my cougar club. You know who you are.

Trademarks Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

CSI
: CBS Broadcasting Inc.

Dancing with the Stars
: The British Broadcasting Corporation Diet Coke: The Coca-Cola Company

Fin: MGM Resorts International

HBO: Home Box Office, Inc.

Ice Age
: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

iPod: Apple Inc.

Lex Luthor: DC Comics

Lucky Seven Bars: IGT Corporation Nevada

McDonald’s: McDonald’s Corporation

Mirage: MGM Mirage

Money Madness: IGT Corporation Nevada

Monopoly: Hasbro, Inc.

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz: Miles Laboratories, Inc.

Pretty Woman
: Touchstone Pictures

Purell: Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc.

Salvation Army: Salvation Army

Sex in the City
: Home Box Office, Inc.

Superman: DC Comics

TBS: Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

Viagra: Pfizer, Inc.

Monday’s Child

Monday’s child is fair of face,

Tuesday’s child is full of grace,

Wednesday’s child is full of woe,

Thursday’s child has far to go,

Friday’s child is loving and giving,

Saturday’s child works hard for a living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath day,

Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

~Traditional nursery rhyme

Mari Carr

Aaron Young walked into the Mirage and took a deep breath, trying to calm his ragged nerves. After all, Riley had called her sister Keira and told her where she was, and that she was fine. Unfortunately, that wasn’t registering in his incensed mind.

She’d run off to Las Vegas with Trevor Blankenship, the biggest moron in their graduating class, on a drunken whim. The fact that Trevor was newly separated from his wife wasn’t helping to calm Aaron. The asshole wasn’t even pursuing a divorce, if the local gossip was accurate.

What the hell was she thinking?

Aaron walked through the miles and miles of gambling tables and slot machines, well aware that finding Riley in the massive casino was a bit like trying to find an honest politician in D.C. For a second, he wondered if he should have left a trail of breadcrumbs or something. He was afraid he’d get lost forever in this maze of mind-numbing noise and flashing lights.

A loud cheer captured his attention and he spotted a large crowd. Bingo. He headed toward the gathering, unsurprised when he saw Riley’s bouncing brunette curls at the center of the group. The lively woman always managed to attract the loudest, rowdiest sort of people, regardless of the setting.

She laughed and did some sort of victory dance with the woman next to her that reminded him of Beyonce’s
Single Ladies
video. He grinned despite his anger. Damn, she knew how to have fun. It had always been this way.

He’d met Riley Collins when they were both three years old and their mothers struck up a conversation at the playground. From that day ’til now, he and Riley had been best friends, in an “opposites attract” sort of way. While Riley was the life of every 8

Saturday Night Special

party, Aaron was more content to hover in the background. Happy to watch her shine.

She was beautiful and dynamic, perfect in every way.

Except when she pulled stunts like this little impromptu excursion to Vegas. Then she frustrated the hell out of him, drove him insane. Sadly, her wild escapades had become more frequent and more dangerous since the wedding of her older sister Teagan. She was headed for disaster, and for some reason, her brothers and pop were looking to Aaron to rein her in. He snorted. None of the males in the Collins family had managed to control Riley the past twenty-five years, so he wasn’t sure what magic they expected
him
to work.

Keira had called him, frantic, when she’d learned Riley—after a long night of partying—had hopped on a red-eye flight to Vegas. Now here he stood, early Saturday evening, watching the source of his annoyance putting another twenty dollar bet on the blackjack table. Standing behind her, a totally wasted Trevor had his hand down the front of a bleached-blonde woman’s sequin dress.

This day kept getting better and better.

The dealer placed more winnings in front of Riley and Aaron decided now might be a good time to break up the party. Find a way to convince her to quit while she was ahead.

He shoved his way through the rambunctious crowd, his police training and large build coming in handy. A few people looked as if they wanted to protest the fact he was pushing them aside, but backed off when they saw his determined face. He intended to get Riley Collins’ perky little ass out of this casino and on the next plane back to Baltimore—and he didn’t care who he had hurt to make that happen.

He squeezed in between Riley and the woman next to her. The dealer looked up, perhaps ready to tell him the table was full, but he closed his mouth when Aaron flashed him an angry look.

Riley grinned when she spotted him, the only person he’d encountered thus far who didn’t seem confused or annoyed by his pushy arrival.

9

Mari Carr

“Hey, sugar,” she slurred. Great, she was drunk. That helped him ignore the pleasure that suffused his body when she called him by her nickname for him.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Riley?” His voice was deep and clearly furious.

She shrugged, oblivious to his feelings. “Playing blackjack.” Then she really looked at him and started to giggle. “Oh my God, Aaron. Did you know you’re in Vegas?”

“Yeah, I had a few clues, but I think it was the seven-hour flight and hour layover in Chicago that sort of solidified it for me.”

Riley laughed, dismissing his angry sarcasm as humor. “Hey, Trev.” She turned to get the attention of the man Aaron was three seconds away from laying out on the floor with his fist. “Look who’s here. My BFF Aaron.”

Trevor looked up, his surprise muted by his downright drunkenness. “Hey, Aaron.” Trevor’s arm was still slung around a woman Aaron would bet his entire retirement fund was a prostitute.

“Trevor,” he forced out in as calm a fashion as he could manage.

Trevor stepped over to him and slapped him on the shoulder, staggering a bit as he walked. “I’m glad you’re here, man. Me and Bella were just going up to my room.

Maybe you wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on ol’ Riley for me.” The drunken ass followed up his comment with a lecherous wink, as if Aaron couldn’t figure out what he intended to do with the woman in the hotel room.

Aaron narrowed his eyes furiously, perfectly aware Trevor would have left Riley alone regardless of his arrival. He consciously took a deep breath and nodded.

“You have money, Trev?” He hated that for some reason he felt the need to protect the dumbass. Unfortunately, the last thing he needed to deal with was Trevor stiffing a hooker—literally and figuratively. He was pretty sure the high-school quarterback, who also had the distinct honor of having the lowest GPA in their graduating class, had no idea his “date” for the evening would expect to be paid for her efforts.

10

Saturday Night Special

Sure enough, Trevor’s forehead creased in confusion. “Um, yeah. Why? You need a few bucks for the slots?”

“No,” he said, “just making sure you didn’t need any.”

Trevor smiled at what he no doubt thought was a generous offer. “Ah no, man. I’m good. Thanks, though. I’ll catch you later, Riley.”

“Okie-dokie, Trev. See you later.” Riley grabbed her poker chips and headed toward the slot machines. Trevor pinched the blonde woman’s ass and she laughed, taking his hand and leading him to a bank of elevators.

“Nice of you to keep me company. Trevor was starting to get on my nerves. Jesus, he’s thick,” Riley said as he followed her to a Lucky Seven Bars machine. She almost fell in her attempt to sit down and he steadied her with a firm hand on her back. Shit, how much had she had to drink?

“You’ve known Trevor for years, Riley. What made you think he’d be an entertaining traveling companion?” He claimed the stool next to hers.

“I don’t know. I just wanted to do something fun and he was sulking over Johanna kicking him out, so we decided to get out of town for a while.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” He was hurt she’d chosen to take off with Trevor rather than him.

“Yeah right,” she said with a laugh. “I’m
so
sure you would have hopped on a plane to Vegas with me. You would have had seven hundred and ninety-eight reasons why we couldn’t come here. Trevor just said sure.”

He considered her words. She was right. He would have tried to talk her out of it.

Hell, he probably would have succeeded. “But Trevor?”

“He’s harmless as a puppy and you know it. You didn’t think I’d run away with him romantically, did you?” She laughed hysterically when his face betrayed that thought had briefly crossed his mind.

11

Mari Carr

“Holy shit,” she said once she’d regained control. She waved a waitress over and helped herself to one of the free drinks on the woman’s tray. “That is just freaking twisted, sugar.”