Hot in the City 2: Sin City (28 page)

Even so, she’d firmly decided she had no intentions of living a lie with them, so she made it clear over dinner that she’d parted ways with Bradley not because of the relocation, but because they had so little in common and, “Face it, Mom, Bradley is just too straight of an arrow for me. I need fun, excitement. And if I
ever
get married, I need a man who appreciates that about me.”

She’d been surprised at how well they took it, and she supposed her older sister Liz, had sort of paved the way for her with her recent “break from ranks” down in New Orleans.

“Besides,” Diana added with a wink, “you guys have always got Carrie to fall back on.” The most conservative sister of the three, Carrie would definitely always serve as the good girl her parents needed at least
one
of their daughters to be.

“Maybe now would be a good time to tell you,” Carrie had chimed in. “Jon and I have finally set a date.” A wedding date, she meant.

And given how long it had been in coming, their mother’s face had instantly lit up as she said, “Oh my, we’ll have so much work to do! What’s the date? Tell me everything.”

Carrie looked sheepish. “Uh, don’t have a total cow, but we’ve only got a couple of months to plan the wedding.”

“A couple of months! What’s the hurry? The boy takes years getting around to this and suddenly we’re in a mad rush?”

“Well, I guess we’re both feeling like we’ve waited long enough, so why wait any longer?”

It had taken the emphasis
off
Diana—thank goodness—and when she’d been congratulating her little sister privately after the meal, she’d also thanked her for her impeccable timing.

Carrie had shrugged and smiled. “What are little sisters for?”

Now, Diana was stepping into a lavish suite in The Four Seasons, a complex connected to Mandalay Bay at one end of the Las Vegas Strip. Although she hadn’t spoken to Marc again by phone or e-mail, she’d decided to go out on a limb and book a luxury room for the weekend, in case she was fortunate enough to find him still in town and wanting to get together.

The amazing suite was the most incredible hotel room she’d ever seen, offering a spacious living room and bedroom, each featuring a wall of windows overlooking the strip, and the
piece de resistance
, an enormous Jacuzzi on an elevated platform that jutted outward, surrounded on three sides by a stunning view of the strip and the mountains far beyond. Night was falling and soon the view would be filled with dazzling neon of all colors, the street of sinful dreams stretching out before her like a magical, modern-day Yellow Brick Road. This, she thought, was a place for a truly fitting goodbye to her lover.

Now she only had to pray he was still here, in Vegas, to share the extravagant bathtub with her.

Her heart pounded against her chest as she picked up the phone and dialed his number.

After the first ring, she was nervous. By the second, she was catching her breath, anticipating the sound of his deep, masculine voice. After the third, she became worried that she was too late and he was already gone. Her chest tightened and her hopes for a wonderful weekend of sex and companionship plummeted.

By ring number six, she was ready to hang up the phone, cut her losses, and try to at least enjoy her lavish surroundings, even if she was alone.

“Hello?” said an out-of-breath voice.

She gasped lightly. “Marc? It’s me. Diana.”

“Thank God I got to the phone—I was out on the balcony, hanging with Carter. Are you here?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I come see you?”

“Definitely.”

“Where are you?”

“The Four Seasons.” She gave him the room number.

“Give me an hour,” he said. “And put on something way too skimpy to go out in, because once I get there, we’re not leaving the room.”

Her thoughts exactly.

Chapter Eleven

“She’s here, I have to go,” Marc said, sticking his head out the French door to where Carter sat, drinking a beer.

His friend raised his eyebrows and cast a smile. “Good luck, buddy. And hey, enjoy!”

As Marc left the condo, he thought that enjoying her wouldn’t be a problem, but he
might
need some luck when she heard what he had to say. Had he gone too far? Taken things between them too seriously? He’d only find out once he got there and told her what he’d done.

It was all he could do to drive the car—he wanted to see her so badly his chest burned. He couldn’t wait to look into her beautiful hazel eyes, kiss her luscious lips, take her sumptuous body in his arms.

When he turned on to Las Vegas Boulevard as night began to fall, the lights and energy of the place seemed to beckon to him in a whole new way. He wanted to speed to the Four Seasons as fast as his four wheels would carry him, but he had a stop to make first. At the Paris Hotel.

After that, his night, his world, was all about Diana.

* * * * *

Diana’s chest ached with anticipation as she dressed for her reunion with Marc. She put on her most extravagant piece of Adrianna, Inc. lingerie, from the Champagne and Diamonds collection, and stepped in front of the mirror.

The champagne-colored lace teddy hugged her from crotch to breasts. It featured a thong back, and a satin lace-up front that fit so tight it barely concealed her nipples. Her thigh-high stockings were nude and their lace tops had tiny bits of gold thread spun through for a shimmer effect. To finish the outfit, she added diamond earrings and a matching rhinestone choker, as well as champagne-colored strappy heels. She wanted him to remember this night, wanted him to have to compare every lover he took in Paris to her
and
decide they didn’t measure up.

She’d ordered a bottle of champagne from room service as soon as she’d hung up with him—along with a few other choice items to make their evening deliciously memorable—and now she poured herself a glass of the bubbly to calm her nerves.

Before she even took a sip, though, a knock came on her door. And, like magic, when she looked through the peephole and saw Marc on the other side, any nervousness fled. It was her sweet, exciting lover, the man who fulfilled all her desires and put her at ease in every way. Why had she been nervous at all?

When she opened the door, she found him wearing black jeans and a silky, short-sleeved, button-up shirt that hugged his broad shoulders and lay pleasantly over his muscular chest. He looked even more handsome than she remembered as his eyes took in her sexy ensemble.

“Sweetheart, you did it again,” he told her as easily as if they’d seen each other yesterday.

“Did what?”

“Made me hard with just one glimpse of you.”

She smiled and drew him in the door with her free hand, then passed him a glass of champagne. “Let’s toast.”

He grinned, lifting his glass. “All right. To this night, and whatever it may hold.”

The warm words he’d echoed on their very first night together seemed to burst apart into tiny shimmery lights that wafted down through Diana’s body. Clinking her glass with his, she took a drink.

He did, too. “Mmm, you got the good stuff.”

“I wanted to make this night special. A little expense and room service seemed in order.”

“Well, I have something for you, too.” With that, he opened a small bakery bag she hadn’t even noticed him holding, and drew out a fancy scallop-edged paper cup containing two mini-éclairs like the ones they’d shared at the Paris Hotel.

Holding one of them up, he fed it to her. The sweet confection filled her mouth with cream and chocolate. Swallowing, she said, “Yum. Thank you.”

Finishing his own éclair, he licked his lips and looked long and deep into her eyes. “I’m glad you liked it, sweetheart, because that’s as close as I’m going to get to a real Parisian éclair.”

Diana blinked, confused. “What do you mean?”

Taking her hands, he pulled her over to sit down on a plush divan. “It means that…well, after I heard you were coming back here, to stay, I decided to stay, too. I decided I want to soak up all the sin in Sin City with you.

“You’re so wild and fun and unapologetic about your sensuality…getting to know your beautiful free spirit has made me realize you’re exactly the kind of woman I need in my life, and that…well,
you’re
the thing I’ve been looking for, Diana, the one thing I truly feel passionate about. I figured out I couldn’t find that in Paris—I can only find it here, at your side.”

Diana’s heart filled nearly to bursting with emotion. He was staying? To be with her? Somehow this whole crazy mess had worked out so that she could have her dream job in a dream city with her dream
man
? It seemed impossible, but he was telling her it was so, and Marc was always honest with her, so it must be true.

“I…love the way you accept me for me,” she told him. “I’ve never been so happy in my life as I was with you those few days I was here. And I’ve never been so miserable as I was at home, without you.”

“You’re beautiful and exciting and I could never want to change you, baby.”

“And your job?”

He grinned. “Adrianna was happy to give it back to me. Hope you don’t mind being my boss.”

She finally kissed him then. It wasn’t a choice, but a thing her body was simply driven to do. She took his beautifully handsome face in her hands and lifted her mouth to his, just basking in the joy of being back in his presence.

His arms closed around her and he held her tight for a few long moments, until finally he resumed kissing her—her mouth, her neck, her breasts. He let his palms slide over the champagne lace that hugged her curves, molding warmly to her hips, ass, breasts, before finally untying the satin string that held the fabric closed over her chest.

Pushing it aside to free her breasts, he laid her back on the bed to caress them with both hands and mouth. “Mmm, I’ve missed these, sweetheart. So damn much.”

“They’ve missed you, too,” she promised, adding, “
only
you.”

He lowered another kiss to her puckered nipple, which hummed its way through her body, then looked up. “Hmm?”

“They’ve…I’ve…” She shook her head lightly against the bed. “I just haven’t wanted anyone since you.”

He flashed his sexy grin. “No Bradley?”

“Bradley’s out of the picture—completely. I told him I didn’t want to get back together, that we both needed to move on.”

“What about your big plan?”

She smiled. “Sometimes plans change.”

Marc leaned his head back slightly. “Thank God.” Then he looked back at her. “And no one else, either?”

She shook her head. “As much as I loved the experiences I had with you and your friends, I’ve figured out that I loved fucking you alone the very best. And since we haven’t had much practice at that, well…how would you feel about getting a little more? Or maybe a
lot
more?”

“Sweetheart, that would be my deepest pleasure—for now, and for always.”

She arched one eyebrow. “You won’t miss watching me with someone else?”

He hesitated, then grinned. “I was going to let this be a surprise, but I just had a big mirror installed above my bed. And on my closet doors. And on the opposite wall. So I can watch and
do
at the same time.”

She grinned. “Naughty boy.”

“Inspired by my naughty girl.”

Diana’s body tingled with the pure joy of having him back, just the way she wanted, knowing this was real, lasting, between them. It was a dream come true. And now that they’d said everything important to one another, she began to feel like the more aggressive woman he’d come to know.

Pushing past him to rise off the bed, she reached down for his hand, pulling him up to his feet. Leading him across the lavish suite with her breasts exposed somehow added to her feeling of sensual power.

Once they reached the Jacuzzi, where she’d drawn a hot bubble bath before he’d arrived, she instructed him to get undressed.

He grinned. “Am I the slave tonight?”

She laughed. “Nothing quite so serious as that, but…I have plans for you, so just be a good boy and do what I say.”

Keeping his sexy gaze on her, he stripped out of his shoes, shirt, and jeans, then pushed down his underwear, stepping free while she watched. His cock was just as magnificently large as she recalled, and it stood at complete attention for her. She couldn’t wait for a taste of it.

“Now,” she said, “step into the tub, but not
all the way
in—just sit on the edge.”

Following her order, he descended carefully into the Jacuzzi, resting on the upper rim, awaiting her. Behind his lovely naked body, the Las Vegas strip was coming alive, the neon glow providing the perfect, exciting backdrop for her perfect, exciting man.

Slowly, she too undressed as he took in every move with hungry eyes. After easing free of the shoulder straps, she ran her hands over her plump breasts, then toyed lightly with her nipples.

“I want to taste them again,” he said from his place at the edge of the tub.

“Soon,” she promised, “and the next time they’re in your mouth, I promise they’ll taste extra good.”

Next, she wiggled her hips a little as she slowly pushed the champagne teddy over them and down. It dropped to the carpet in a rush of lace, and she stepped free of it, naked but for her shoes, stockings, and jewelry.