Almost Paradise (Sinners on Tour Book 8) (7 page)

“Out? I thought you wanted to stay in. I could use a nap now.”

“Nap? Who takes naps in Vegas? The sun will be setting soon, and I want you to show me all the fun you had in mind before you indulged me with the fun
I
had in mind.”

“That guy out on the roof of the parking garage definitely had some fun of his own,” Eric said, waving at the window.

Rebekah turned to glance out the window behind her just as a car backed out of the space directly across from their room.

“Did he really watch us?” Rebekah asked, and why did that thought make what she’d just experienced with Eric that much hotter?

“You didn’t see him jacking off in his car?”

She shook her head.

“You gave him quite a thrill, sweetheart.”

“All I care about is giving
you
a thrill.”

“Don’t you know you never disappoint?”

Feeling much more confident in her sexuality, she trotted off toward the bathroom for a quick shower. When she returned, Eric was dressed, but lying face down on the bed and snoring softly. She let him catch a few zzzs while she searched her wardrobe for something flirty to wear that would catch her husband’s attention and maybe turn a few heads, but not make tourists ask for photo opportunities.

Dressed in a knee-length, shimmery black cocktail dress and strappy sandals—she knew they’d be doing a lot of walking so heels were out—she stood in front of the mirror and peeled the wrapping off her tattoo. It was healing already. She decided she could do without the wrap for a few hours. It detracted from her outfit and she so wanted to show off her ink. Even though it wasn’t complete, it looked fucking awesome and more than a little sexy.

She woke Eric with a bite on the butt. “Are you going to waste our entire stay sleeping?”

“I’m up!” He shot out of bed and reached for his Vans, but paused as he noticed what Rebekah was wearing. “Now I’m really up,” he said, taking a moment to adjust his fly. “You look amazing.”

She grinned and stroked the hair at her nape self-consciously. He made her feel like a modern-day princess and she loved him for it. “Thanks.”

“Girls with tattoos…” He muttered under his breath. “Bonerific.”

“I figured it could use a little air,” she said, but really she just wanted to show off her new ink. She’d endured too much pain—and that undeniable aching, sexual hunger—to keep the work of art covered for long.

Once Eric had his shoes on—as well as the long leather coat he’d decided to bring for reasons not yet clear to her—they headed out of their suite hand in hand. There was something about the excitement of Vegas that made Rebekah’s heart race. Or maybe it raced because she was there with Eric and his nearness always did that to her.

“I need to make a quick stop,” he told her as they meandered through the casino floor. “I always play one hand of blackjack when I’m in Vegas.”

“Just one?”

“Yep. That way if someone asks if I won big, I can answer honestly. I get strange looks if I say I was in Vegas and didn’t gamble at all.”

He sat down at a nearly empty blackjack table and bought a hundred dollars’ worth of chips.

“I figured you for a high roller,” Rebekah teased.

“I usually play with ten,” he said as he examined his down card.

She didn’t see what the card was because her eyes were too busy bugging out of her head. “
Thousand
?”

He laughed. “Ten dollars. I was trying to impress you by gambling ten times my usual bet.”

She fanned her throat with one hand, fluttered her lashes, and adopted a Southern accent. “Oh, my. You big spenders make me swoon.”

The dealer’s up card was an ace and Eric’s was a seven, so Rebekah was surprised when he bet his entire one-hundred-dollar fortune and took a third card. He was dealt a five. Rebekah wasn’t a blackjack master, but it wasn’t looking good for him. If he had a face card, he’d busted. Eric held and the dealer flipped over her down card. She had an eight, which meant she held at nineteen. The guy next to Eric grumbled and revealed his seventeen. Rebekah watched Eric, waiting for him to reveal his yet unseen card. He flipped over a nine.

“Blackjack!” Rebekah cried excitedly. Eric had won.

“Actually,” the dealer said, “blackjack is an ace and any face card.”

“Fine,” Rebekah said, leaning into Eric’s arm and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “Twenty-one, then. He still won.”

“I’d like to cash out,” Eric said, which surprised Rebekah even after what he’d told her. He was obviously rolling in luck. “Shouldn’t you keep playing when you’re lucky?”

“There’s no such thing as luck,” he said.

“You lucked into marrying me,” she said, and offered him a flirty wink.

“That wasn’t luck. It was my irresistible sex appeal,” he claimed. He patted her on the butt before collecting his winnings.

He was right about that. She did find his sex appeal irresistible. But they had much more in common than the horizontal mambo.

They gawked at faux castle architecture and enjoyed dinner while watching a staged jousting match.

About halfway through their meal, Rebekah leaned close to Eric and whispered, “Imagining you in shining armor has me feeling all sorts of damsel in distress.”

“Do you want me to take you back to the room and show you my lance?”

She laughed and slid a hand between his thighs. “Aye, my lord. But later. I’m having fun.”

He smiled at her and kissed her lips. “Me too.”

After dinner they left their hotel and wandered the Vegas Strip hand in hand.

“Why are you carrying that coat around?” Rebekah asked. “It’s not even chilly.”

“It’s for the Eiffel Tower,” he said, nodding at the brightly lit structure across the wide avenue from where they stood. “When we get there. No rush.”

“That explains nothing,” she said, but he wouldn’t reveal his plans to her no matter how much she pouted.

Distant cannon fire sent Eric racing up the sidewalk, dragging Rebekah behind him as he dogged other pedestrians like a slalom skier.

“Wait, I want to see the fountain,” Rebekah said as they dashed past the beautiful dancing sprays of water at the Bellagio.

“Later,” Eric promised as he continued to pull her forward. “If we don’t hurry, we’ll miss my favorite attraction.”

Still breathing hard from their sprint, they caught the last half of the pirate show at Treasure Island.

“All these pirates make me want to search beneath your clothes for buried treasure,” Eric whispered into her ear.

“Do you want me to take you back to the room and show you my treasure chest?” She twisted her shoulders from side to side to draw attention to her breasts.

He laughed and stared down at her cleavage. “Aye, matey. I’ll take a gander at your fine booty as well, love. But later. I’m having fun.”

As promised, they backtracked to watch the dancing, colorfully lit water fountain at the Bellagio.

“All this water makes me have to pee,” Rebekah said.

“Was that a come-on?” Eric asked, scratching his head as if perplexed.

“Not unless you want a golden shower.”

“Let’s cross at the end of the block,” he said. “You can stop in the restroom before we go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower.”

“And then you’ll tell me why you brought that leather trench coat?”

“I’ll do you one better. I’ll show you.”

She left Eric in a shop in the lobby of the Paris hotel while she went to the restroom. When she returned, he’d bought her a keychain with a charm of the Eiffel Tower.

“When we head to Europe with the band next summer, we’ll have to visit the real Eiffel Tower in Paris,” he said. “After we visit a real castle, of course.”

“I’ve never been to Europe,” she said, thinking how much this man enriched her life. “I can’t wait to share the experience with you.”

He purchased two tickets for the elevator that would take them to the observation deck high above. “Put this on,” he said, holding up the trench coat so she could slip her arms into the stiff sleeves.

“Why? Is it cold up there?”

“No. I just want to give Sed a hard time.” Eric grinned.

“Sed? Is he here?”

“You’ve seen his sex tape with Jessica, right?”

Of course she’d seen it. Most of the free world had seen it.

Rebekah’s eyes widened, and her heart skipped a beat. “We are
not
doing that, Eric.” First of all, there were people everywhere and second, she doubted she had Jessica’s bendiness or that Eric had Sed’s impressive upper body strength.

“Just pretend. I want to record it and send it to him for a laugh.”

“I doubt he’ll think it’s funny.”

“Well, I’ll think it’s funny. Whose side are you on?”

She considered Sed her boss. Yeah, he was merely the vocalist of the band, not the
entire
band, but he always called the shots and the rest of the band followed his lead. So if she got on his bad side, he might find an excuse to find a new soundboard operator.

“Please, Rebekah,” Eric said, making begging motions with his clasped hands.

“Fine, but if I get fired over this…”

“You won’t get fired.”

“Or arrested,” she added.

“Now that, I can’t guarantee.”

The view from the observation deck was breathtaking. The strip was lit up in all its neon glory, and the unusual shapes of the casinos—castles, pyramids, cityscapes, and even the tall spire at the far end of the strip—gave Rebekah plenty to gawk at. Eric sighted a likely victim to record their antics and went to pester him.

“Are you sure Lionheart won’t be pissed?” asked the guy wearing a Sinners T-shirt.

“He’ll think it’s hilarious,” Eric assured him as he set up his phone to record.

Rebekah wasn’t so sure, but she played along, calling out, “Jessica, oh Jessica,” in a deep voice while she thrust her hips against Eric, who was doing his best to lean backwards to hold onto the fence behind him and answer her in a falsetto. “Oh yes, Sed. Do me, baby. I don’t care who’s recording this. I’m oblivious to my surroundings when you’re giving me dick.”

Even though their little show lasted only a minute or two, they accumulated quite a few gawkers who thought they were hilarious even while a few conservative types shook their heads in disapproval and gave them a wide berth. When Eric was satisfied with their mock sex scene, he signaled his cameraman to stop recording and then went to watch the video, laughing with the congregated crowd.

“Perfect,” he complimented his assistant.

Rebekah shook her head and took off the coat. She hoped Jessica didn’t hate her for life for participating in Eric’s little prank. Even though the scandal had happened before Rebekah had met any of them, she knew Jessica had been devastated when the original video had gone public.

Rebekah folded the leather trench over one arm and gazed out at the fountain across the street. She watched the sprays of water dance and sway to the song blaring over the background road noise. After the crowd dissipated, Eric joined her.

“Are you mad?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. I just figured we came up here for some romance of our own, not to make fun of Sed and Jessica.”

“If you want, I can put on the coat and wrap my arms around you so I can feel you up with no one being the wiser.”

“The only part of that I really want is the wrap your arms around me portion,” she said.

He didn’t comment further, just stood close behind her, hugged her back against his chest, and rested his chin on the top of her head.

“The fountain looks cool from up here,” he said.

“It all looks surreal from a distance.”

Eric’s phone started ringing. “Sorry,” he said. “I forgot to shut it off after I sent that video to Sed.” He pulled his phone from his pocket. “Speak of the devil,” he said with a laugh. “Do you care if I take this?”

She kind of did. Their honeymoon was supposed to be about the two of them, not about anyone back home. But she shrugged and Eric answered the call.

She could hear the angry tone of Sed’s voice, but not his actual words as he growled at Eric.

“Learn to take a joke, dude,” Eric said into his phone. “It’s funny. Did you show it to Jessica?”

More cross words came from Sed’s end of the line.

“She’d think it was funny.”

Rebekah took the phone out of Eric’s hand and held it to her ear, catching the tail end of what Sed was saying.

“…still very sensitive about it.”

“Sed, this is Rebekah. I want to apologize for my part in that video. I shouldn’t have let Eric talk me into it.”

“Oh, hey, Rebekah. You did a good job on my voice.”

Stunned, her gaze darted up to meet Eric’s. “I did?”

“No.” Sed laughed. “You sound like you swallowed a frog. I get that he was just making a joke, but it’s still too soon. Just make sure he doesn’t send it to Jessica. It would upset her.”