Exquisite Betrayal (3 page)

She cried when she saw me. I know I scared
the crap out of her. I hadn’t bathed in all that time and I’m
pretty sure I had suffered some kind of a breakdown. I had fooled
myself into believing that Iris loved me and I’d lied to myself all
along, telling myself she truly cared. It was all smoke and
mirrors, though. It was too much to bear after losing my parents,
and now Iris and Will.

My best friend’s betrayal was even more
difficult to take over the long run because he understood me and
had known me for my whole adolescent and adult life. Talk about
getting buggered. Never thought it would happen to me by my best
mate.

Tilly picked up the pieces of me and glued
me back together. It took her awhile, but she didn’t give up. I
dropped out of university for a term, yet did go back and finish,
thanks to my sister.

She tries; I’ll give her that. She never
gives up, either. Despite that, how can I tell her that I’m wary of
opening up to another woman again? When you’ve been dealt a double
whammy like that, you just don’t let it go and move on. The only
person I’ll ever trust is Tilly.

“
So how do you want to handle it?” she
asks.

“
What?”

“
Have you even been listening to me at
all?”

Guilty as charged, but I don’t dare tell her
that. “Well, sure.”

“
Then tell me, dear brother, what did
I just say?”

“
Oh look, we’re here!” I exclaim as I
pull into the Bellagio.

“
You’re not getting out of this,
Ryland Thomas,” she promises. Whatever ‘this’ is.

I hand my keys to the valet and a bellman
follows us inside with my bag and giganticus as we go to check in.
I’ve booked two suites for us, next to each other, as requested.
Tilly needs her space and so do I. The clerk gives us all our
information and off we go.

“
Ryland Thomas, we need to talk about
tomorrow night. I’m going to unpack and then I’ll be over in thirty
minutes.”

“
Fine,” I say in my grumpy voice. I
hate playing this duplicitous role, but it is a necessity for my
sales.

As promised, thirty minutes later, Tilly
knocks on my door.

“
Have you chatted with
Sam?”

Sam is my agent and a good friend as well.
“Yes and he thinks this will be great publicity for me. Thanks
again, Tills, for doing this.”

She narrows her eyes. “You’d make me a lot
happier if you’d get off your bum and get a social life. I worry
about you, you know.”

“
I’m fine,” I insist, wondering if
it’s true as the words leave my lips.

“
It’s been years already. Are you
going to mope around forever?”

“
Tilly, if you don’t stop bringing
this up, I’m going to get really pissed. And I don’t want to do
that.”

“
Maybe I want you to get
pissed.”

She’s confusing me now. Why would she want
me to get angry? I give her one of my looks, the one that tells her
she’s exasperating me.

She laughs. “Go ahead and get mad because I
don’t give a shit. I’ve had it with your surliness over Iris and
the nasty crap she pulled on you. Get over it! Hear me, Ryland
Thomas? I’m done with your silly moods already. And if you don’t
start behaving like a man your age should act, I’m gonna quit doing
these appearances for you.”

“
You’re joking.”

“
No, I’m promising. I’m done.
Understand?”

“
Tilly! You can’t mean
that!”

“
Oh, but I do. Now, pull yourself
together and get out in the world. Get laid, or whatever. Bloody
hell, I’ll hire you an escort if that’s what you want. But you need
some female company for Christ’s sake.”

She sees my wallet on the table and hands it
to me along with my phone. “Here,” she says before she puts her
palms on my back and pushes me out the door. “Have fun
tonight.”

I’m left standing in the hall of my hotel,
staring at the door to my suite.

“
I’m not so sure about that tequila,
but these lemon drop shooters are really good,” I yell over the
thumping of the music. We’re in a club called
Dance NOW
. Men are swarming everywhere, and I
have my eye out for
the
one
except I’m terribly dissatisfied.

“
Yeah, I agree,” Kat yells back. “I
like these a lot better than tequila.”

Amanda and Andrea are out on the dance floor
perfecting their moves. I’m not sure exactly what kind of moves
they are, but I have to say, Amanda is all kinds of flexible. That
girl can flat swing her legs around and then drop it down low.

Kat and I are taking in the scenery when I
glance up at the bar and notice the sex god from the airport. I
give my head a hard shake, ensuring it’s not the lemon drops making
me see things. When I open my eyes, there he stands, tipping a
glass of amber liquid into his mouth. Would I ever love to be that
glass right now, tucked tightly against those luscious lips of
his.

I hear Kat saying something to me, however
I’m not paying her the least bit of attention. “Fallon?” she
hollers. Then she must’ve followed my gaze because I suddenly hear
her say, “Mother fucker, it’s him.” Now this is coming from a girl
who never swears.

We both must look like two hoot owls in the
night sitting on a tree limb, unblinking, as we ogle Mr. Pretty,
yet neither of us can do a damn thing about it. He really is that
freakin’ gorgeous.

That glass that I envy so much is taking
another trip to his lips and the iceless fluid tumbles gently into
his mouth. I moan. Hearing myself, I clap a hand over my mouth. My
movement must have distracted him somewhat because my eyes are
suddenly in the direct line of fire of his.

“
Oh shit,” I mumble under my hand.
“What do I do now?” I ask to no one in particular.

He simply stares at me. Those green eyes are
so intense I briefly wonder if he’s a vampire. Then I chastise
myself. Everyone knows there are no such things as vampires.

So now what
?
I wonder as his eyes continue to bore holes into mine. It’s as
though he’s running an assessment of me, like I’m a car he’s
thinking of test-driving. If that’s the case, then I’m more than
troubled when he pulls his long, sinewy frame away from the bar and
saunters towards me. His clothes are molded to him; he’s wearing
jeans that ride low on his hips and a black shirt that clings to
him.

“
Oh crap,” I say.

“
He’s coming for you, girl,” Kat says
as she moves away.

No, no, no! What is she doing, abandoning me
like that? She knows not to do that.

“
Aren’t you the girl I knocked over at
the airport earlier today?” he asks, his voice dripping over me
like cream.

My head tilts back, six inches or so because
Green Eyes is at least six-foot-three. I should know because I’m
five-nine. “Ah, er, well, I think I actually ran into you. But
yeah, it’s me.” I stick out my hand to shake his. “My name is
Fallon McKinley, and I’m sorry about that.” I am mortified because
he did, after all, see my ass and nipple. Oh shit, the gorgeous
piece of humanity has seen my nipple! My face suddenly feels like a
blast furnace.

“
Yes, well, Fallon, I thought it was
you. Name’s Ryland. Nice to meet you then. May I buy you a
drink?”

“
Oh no. I’m good here. But
thanks.”

What the hell is wrong with me? I force
myself to calm down and talk to the man like a mature young woman.
“So Ryland, what brings you to Vegas?”

He stiffens a bit before answering, “Yeah,
well, I just thought I’d pop over for a few days of gambling. You
know, try my hand at the tables. And you?”

Unable to hide my excitement, I grin and
say, “Oh, we’re here for the Wicked Wench’s Convention.”

His eyes widen at that. I laugh, telling
him, “Don’t worry, I’m not a stripper or anything. It’s a
convention and book signing for romance novelists and book
bloggers. I’m a blogger so I’m here with my blog team. We’re also
here to meet one of the authors we sort of help promote. She’s
giving a private party tomorrow night, so we finally get to meet
her face-to-face.”

While I’m talking, he starts acting like I
have the plague, and with my last announcement, he nods and then
says, “Well, have fun then.” And just like that, he’s gone.

I have no idea what I’ve said to discourage
him so, but he disappears like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I cup
my hand over my mouth just to make sure I don’t have skunk breath.
I think that maybe he’s gotten a whiff of something bad and has
decided to get the hell outta Dodge. However, my breath smells like
nothing more than lemon drop shooters. Not bad considering I’ve
eaten spaghetti, too.

Kat pushes her way back over and wants to
know the scoop. And well, dammit, there really isn’t any. I can’t
help feeling more than a little disappointed. I’ve never run off a
man so fast in my life!

“
What do you think I did?” I ask,
confused over his odd departure.

“
Maybe it’s not you. Maybe his bowels
started acting up.”

“
Kat! Be serious!”

“
I am. Why would he run off so fast if
it weren’t something embarrassing like that?”

Well, she did make a good point. Maybe he’s
eaten some beans for dinner and he needed to save us all.

In any event, I am extremely disappointed,
and even though I’m not short on dance partners for the rest of the
night, my mind stays occupied with green eyes and a mouth that
promises sinful treats.

***

In the morning, it’s a mad rush for the
shower because we all want to sleep in as late as we can. The
conference begins at seven-thirty with breakfast and an opening
session with none other than our favorite author, R.T. Sinclair. We
are all about to fall over ourselves in anticipation over tonight’s
Meet and Greet party with her. I’m not sure any of us believe we’re
actually going to get face time with her, but that’s what the
invitation said, so we’re going with it.

It’s now seven-fifteen and we’re beating a
path to the conference as the August heat of Las Vegas has us all
looking like we just climbed out of a swimming pool.

“
Why the fuck did I take a shower?
Somebody tell me why I bothered to take a fucking shower. Look at
my shirt. There ain’t a dry spot on it,” Amanda spouts
out.

Poor Andrea is red-faced and looks like
she’s about to have heat stroke. She’s from London where it never
gets this hot. At least the rest of us come from the south where
the summers are steamy. Granted, this takes it to an unprecedented
level, but still, my sympathy is with Andrea.

“
Andrea, are you okay?”

“
I will be once we get in the air
conditioning again.” Her voice is so breathy and weak that I
worry.

“
Almost there,” Mandy
promises.

I look at my thin cotton t-shirt in dismay.
It’s completely see through. “Oh no!” I exclaim. “I look like I’m
entering a wet t-shirt contest.”

“
Oh crap!” Mandy yells. “Me,
too.”

I look at her and sure enough, she’s in the
same boat as I am.

“
We all do, dammit. Fuck Vegas,”
Amanda curses the town as she walks more determinedly.

“
I don’t give a bloody damn right now.
I just need some ice,” Andrea cries.

Who knew that five minutes of walking at
seven-fifteen in the morning could turn five perky women into five
dripping, angry, whining bitches?

We walk inside the convention center and the
AC smacks us like a freezer. In minutes, we’re all shivering
because our clothing and hair are soaked. We look at each other and
shake our heads.

Kat looks down at her chest. “Don’t say it.
Just don’t.” She’s referring to our chests. We all have our brights
on.

“
Aw fuck,” Amanda and I say
simultaneously. As a team, we all enter the large room with our
arms crossed over our chests.

“
How are we going to carry our coffee
and croissants?” Mandy asks as she shakes from the cold.

“
I’m not eating,” Andrea
replies.

“
Neither am I,” I agree. “Let’s just
grab a seat. Maybe when we dry off, things will flatten back
out.”

We find seats as close to the front as
possible, which is about a third of the way back, and plop our wet
and now frosty butts down. I want to huddle close to both my
neighbors as I shiver, but of course, I don’t.

“
Bloody hell, I’m freezing,” Andrea
mutters.

“
I know, right?” Kat answers as she
scans the room, taking in the faces of the other guests.

Hopping to my feet, I announce, “Headlights
be damned. I’m going for some coffee. Can I get y’all some?” Four
sets of greedy eyes look at me, begging for some java. “Okay, I’ll
do my best.”

I hurry to the coffee stand and quickly make
five cups. Making sure to put the lids on tightly, I stack them up
and slowly head back to the room. Not paying attention to where I’m
going because I’m juggling five towers of java, I do the
unthinkable and bash into someone.

As I stumble, the cups tip against me and
coffee starts to dribble out of the openings and then they go all
topsy-turvy on me. I watch in horror as the catastrophe unfolds
before my eyes.

The lids fly off and then I’m screeching as
the scorching fluid hits my skin. My hands let the rest of the cups
loose and fly to my chest as I attempt to stop the burning.