Final Score (21 page)

‘Amber…’

‘No, Max.’ She started to walk away from him, then stopped, turning back around to face him. ‘Just make sure he doesn’t say anything. About Jim and I going to Vegas. Please.’

She began pushing her way through the crowded Players’ Lounge, suddenly needing some fresh air. All she’d wanted to do was escape from this place and go somewhere far away, just for a few days, somewhere where all the complications and the problems that just wouldn’t seem to disappear couldn’t touch them. But they still kept piling up, filling her head with crap she didn’t want to have to deal with yet.

Stepping outside into the bright winter sunshine, she leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes and wishing, just briefly, that she hadn’t stopped smoking. Because she could certainly do with a cigarette right now.

‘Want some company?’

‘No, Ryan, I don’t.’ She opened her eyes, but she didn’t look at him. ‘And before you start pretending you don’t know, Max told me. He told me that he told you about Jim and me getting married.’

‘Why are you doing it so soon?’ Ryan didn’t miss a beat.

‘Because I love him.’

‘As simple as that, huh?’

She turned her head to look at him. ‘As simple as that.’

‘You’re making a mistake.’

‘I didn’t ask for your opinion.’

‘I’m giving it to you anyway.’

‘You have no right…’

‘No, Amber, I have every right. That man is going to be bringing up my child…’

‘Oh, for Christ’s sake. He is a good man, Ryan. He’s made mistakes, but he’s changed and he isn’t that person any more.’

Ryan laughed, he couldn’t help it.

Amber stared at him. ‘Excuse me…?’

‘Have you heard yourself, Amber? You’re making him sound like a fucking saint. Jesus, the man almost destroyed you! Have you forgotten what he put you through last year? Have you? I saw the state you were in, I was there; I watched you break down. I held you when you cried and I wanted to kill him for doing that to you. For making you so unhappy. Do you remember that, huh? Do you remember the things you told me, the way you just fell apart, because he ripped you in fucking two, Amber. He did that to you, and you stand here and you tell me he’s a good man?’

‘Don’t do this, Ryan. Don’t.’

‘He’ll hurt you again, and I don’t know when and I don’t know how but he
will
hurt you, again, and even though I want to tell you… even though I really want to say don’t come running to me when he does, it’s the only place I want
you to come running. I
want
you to run to me. Because I love you, and I care about you…’

She held up her hands, her head down as she willed him to stop talking. To just stop.

‘Please don’t do this, Ryan. Please.’

‘What happened to you?’ he whispered, shaking his head as she raised hers, their eyes locking together. ‘That beautiful, strong, independent woman. What happened to her, Amber?’

‘Please, Ryan…’

‘I’m taking Rico home with me, like we arranged. I take it that’s still okay with you?’

She held his gaze, willing herself not to cry. She was so sick of crying. ‘You’re his dad.’

He looked at her, right at her, his eyes never wavering for even the briefest of seconds. ‘And let’s not ever forget that.’ He finally broke the stare, turning away from her, but he’d only taken a couple of steps before he turned back around. ‘Oh, and I almost forgot. Good luck, okay? Because I really think you’re gonna need it.’

Chapter Thirteen

Clinging tightly onto Jim’s waist, Amber stared down at the white-gold band that now nestled perfectly below the yellow diamond engagement ring on the third finger of her left hand. She’d been Mrs. Amber Allen for all of five minutes, and it was still sinking in.

‘Did we just do that?’ she laughed, looking up at the huge clock in the foyer of the hotel. It told her it was twenty-nine minutes past midnight on a cool, January night in Las Vegas. And she’d just married the man she was hopelessly in love with. For the second time.

‘I think we really just did that.’ Jim smiled, pulling her around to face him, kissing her quickly. ‘We just did that!’

Amber couldn’t stop smiling as she looked at her heartbreakingly handsome husband, so sexy and hot in his black suit, his tie now loose as it hung around the collar of his open-necked white shirt. He looked gorgeously bedraggled, his hair slightly mussed up, his face carrying that light, rough stubble she loved so much. He looked like the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.

From the second she’d said
“I do”
she hadn’t been able to stop smiling. For a ceremony that had been so quick and hurriedly organised, it had been surprisingly romantic, with dozens of candles and a wonderfully calm and friendly official who’d made them feel like they were the only two people in the world at that moment in time, despite the fact they were just one in heaven knows how many couples who’d done exactly the same before them.

‘So, Mrs. Allen. What do you want to do now?’

She reached out to touch his cheek, running her fingers over that light stubble as she stood up on tiptoes to kiss his mouth, sighing inwardly as his lips moved against hers. This was the first day of the rest of their new lives, and she didn’t think she’d ever felt happier or more alive.

‘I want to celebrate.’ She smiled, pulling away from him only slightly. ‘I want to do something me and you have never actually done before. Not together, anyway.’

Jim frowned, keeping his hand firmly in the small of her back. ‘Oh? And what’s that? Because, beautiful, I’m sure there aren’t all that many things we haven’t done together. And if there are, maybe we can try some of them out once we get back to our room.’

She laughed quietly, her mouth almost touching his. ‘I want to party, Jim. I want to go to a club and I want to drink and dance and then scream out loud because you’re fucking me so hard in the ladies’ rest room, and I’ve got my dress up high around my waist and my legs wrapped tight around your hips, and you’re so deep inside of me…and then I want you to do it again, from behind, whilst everyone outside wonders just what the hell you’re doing to me on the other side of that closed cubicle door.’

‘Jesus Christ, Amber… what books are you reading these days? You’re killing me here, baby.’

‘I want to party,’ she whispered, her fingers playing with the hair at the back of his neck as she moved closer, pressing her body lightly against his. ‘All night long.’

‘Who am I to disappoint my crazy, beautiful new wife?’

‘You’ll get so many brownie points if you give me exactly what I want tonight.’

‘Do I have any choice?’

‘None,’ she whispered, her mouth now touching his.

‘Then let’s get out of here.’

Within minutes they were inside the hotel’s huge and ultra-modern nightclub as everything from nineties club tracks to classic seventies disco pounded out through concealed speakers, and all around them people danced and partied and drank like tomorrow was never going to come. Amber had only ever been to Las Vegas once before, and that had been a long time ago, when she’d worked for News North East. She’d been over there covering a Wearside Spartans pre-season tour of the US, spending most of that trip, when she hadn’t been working, in her room, talking to Ronnie on the phone or watching TV, feeling slightly intimidated by the whole feel of the place. But not now. Now she felt different. Now she wanted to embrace the excess and the fact you never really knew what time of day it was; she wanted to throw herself into everything and live the next couple of days to the limit before they had to go back home to another media circus and a never-ending round of questions about their private life.

‘I’m not sure I’m cut out for this,’ Jim breathed, throwing himself down into an empty booth by the side of the dance floor. ‘Baby, you are wearing me out!’

‘You’re doing just fine, handsome. And anyway, you’d better find some energy from somewhere because we aren’t even near done yet.’

He looked at her as she lifted herself up off the banquette just a touch, sliding a hand up under her dress. ‘What are you doing?’ He felt his heart start to beat a little bit faster as he watched her slip off her knickers, stuffing them into his jacket pocket, then felt his breathing speeding up even more as she straddled him, her fingers quickly unzipping him.

‘Fuck me,’ she whispered, her mouth close to his ear, her hand now grasping him gently, guiding him inside her before he’d even realised what was happening, leaving him no choice but to do what she said. Jesus Christ! He was fucking his wife in a crowded Las Vegas nightclub and nobody was batting an eyelid!

‘Amber, honey, you really are freaking killing me here,’ he groaned, his hands resting on her thighs as she ground against him, as discreetly as she could.

‘It’s my job.’ She took a swig of beer straight from the bottle, and the sight of her doing that, along with the feeling of him deep inside her, in a place about as public as you could get, he’d never felt so turned on despite himself. ‘Nobody cares, Jim. Not here. Nobody cares who we are or what we’re doing.’

‘Since when did you become such a bad influence, Amber Allen?’

She smiled, taking another swig of beer. ‘Since we landed here.’

‘So, I don’t get anything like this once we’re back home?’

She leaned over to kiss him, running her thumb over his slightly open mouth first before touching it with her own, lightly to begin with before allowing the kiss to go deeper, pushing down onto him, gripping him tight. ‘Oh, you’ll get plenty, mister. I can promise you that.’

‘You really are gonna kill me.’ He groaned again as she once more rotated her hips just a little, pushing down and leaning back slightly, and he watched as she bit down on her lip, her body trying its hardest not to show any signs of the fact he was coming inside her so fast it was making his head spin. And it was the biggest turn-on. The most incredible rush. ‘Shit, Amber, baby, you are one bad girl.’

‘So punish me,’ she whispered, bringing her hand down to discreetly touch herself underneath her dress, her fingers gently bringing her to her own quiet but glorious climax. ‘Teach me a lesson.’

Jim couldn’t help smiling, biting down on his own lip as he slowly withdrew, holding in a moan as she ran her hand over him before zipping him back up and climbing off him, shaking out her hair as she settled herself back against the banquette, taking a long swig of beer.

‘You’re crazy, do you know that?’ He grinned at her, feeling as though she’d just knocked twenty years off him and he was now ready to go all night, to live the next few hours exactly how she wanted to live them. To do all the things she wanted to do before they had to go back to a reality that was going to leave them precious little time for anything like this.

‘I’ve never really been all that crazy,’ she said, tucking her legs up underneath her as she took another swig of beer. ‘I’ve always been in control – cold, almost. My world was always so ordered, so compartmentalised, to the point where any change used to terrify me. Which is why you walking back into my life… you fucked it all up, Jim. All that control, all that order; you fucked all that up. And I can’t ever go back there now, so, I’m doing crazy. I’m seeing what it feels like, and so far I’m liking it.’

He leaned over to give her a long and slow kiss, tasting the beer on her lips, the intense sexual chemistry hanging in the air so heavily he could physically feel it.

‘I think you need to come with me.’

‘You don’t want to punish me in public?’ she breathed, feeling that tingle between her thighs return with a vengeance. Although, maybe it just hadn’t had time to go away just yet.

He smiled, shaking his head, trying his hardest to hide an erection that was desperate to show itself as he took her hand and pulled her up, almost dragging her out of the booth. ‘Come on. We’re out of here.’

As the thumping beat of Donna Summer’s
I Feel Love
filled the club, they headed along the wide, dimly lit corridor that led to the various restrooms, almost falling through the door of a fairly empty ladies’ room, not even stopping to check out the curious faces of the few women who were in there.

Kicking open an empty cubicle door Jim pulled her inside, slamming the door shut with his back as Amber leaned forwards, her hands out in front of her against the wall to keep her steady, her legs stood apart, her bottom sticking out. Jim didn’t hesitate, didn’t even miss a beat as he pulled up her dress, exposing her naked behind, unzipping himself so quickly he couldn’t even remember doing it, all he could remember was that feeling of calm as he sunk into her. She was warm and she was wet and she was enveloping him in a beautiful fantasy so unreal he could barely breathe for fear that if he did, he would wake up and find her gone. He might find that the past few months had been nothing but a dream. So he held his breath and pushed deeper into her, letting her cries and her moans bring him to a quick and crashing climax, the likes of which he’d never experienced before, and it scared him and it terrified him, but he never wanted to let it go. And as he gave in to the rush he slid his hand around to touch her, his fingers sinking into that warm, wet heaven as she shuddered to her own endgame, pushing back against him so hard she almost knocked him backwards.

‘Oh, Jesus, that was fucking incredible,’ Jim gasped, pulling out of her, watching as she stayed where she was for a second, her breathing heavy and ragged as she tried to get back to normal. Whatever that was. He wasn’t altogether sure any more.

She stood up straight, turning around to face him and he reached out for her, pulling her against him, their bodies crashing together as their mouths met in an almost violent kiss it was so hard, so desperate. His hands were up and under her dress, diving back into that heaven she’d opened up for him, his fingers pushing into her, and she buried her face in his shoulder as he touched her deep, moving around inside her.

‘Crazy is so good,’ he whispered, smiling as he pulled out of her just a touch before delving back in there, causing her to cry out but stop herself by once more burying her face in his chest, her fingers gripping his shirt tightly as her legs almost buckled underneath her. ‘It’s so–fucking–good.’