Las Vegas Honeymoon (10 page)

“Don’t do anything,” he strangled out. “I can’t take much.”

“I won’t move, Dan.” Mary surprised even herself with the husky tenor of her voice. His eyes flew open. With all the grace she could muster, she reached under her hair and slid it up and out, letting it drift at will across her shoulders. Dan’s gaze widened and fastened on her breasts, where Mary tweaked her nipples, licking her fingers and then rubbing them.

Then she sucked several fingers and stroked the skin where their bodies met. Dan licked his lips and watched her in fascination. She rose an inch, and fell an inch. Her fingers stroked the base of his cock.

“Keep on and I won’t have a choice but to come inside you,” he whispered.

“I want you to. I want your cum coating my lining, running down my legs, flowing inside me.”

“God!”

He drove up, lifting her hips, pulling her back in a rhythm she’d already become used to. She leaned back, letting her hair brush the tops of his thighs, and giving him full access. He touched her clit and set off waves of yet another orgasm.

“Yes!” he cried, clutching her hips and holding her in place.

He seemed not to be breathing, but she felt the strength of his release deep inside. Warmth flooded her. A deep peace filled her soul. Even if for some reason she and Dan never met again, she’d know she’d grabbed every bit of happiness from their time here.

His breathing still deep and uneven, he pulled her down on top of him, his hands worshipping her body, his heart pounding beneath hers.

But,
she thought,
nothing is going to keep me from being with him tomorrow, or the next day, or for as long as he will let me be with him.

Just then, two things happened. The phone rang, and someone hammered at the door.

Chapter 8

“What the fuck?” Dan didn’t want to get out of this bed for a year. He was certain Mary had no idea what a gift she’d given him. His feelings had crystallized about the time he shot off and filled her with his semen, and for the life of him, he didn’t know now why it had taken him so long to admit his feelings.

He loved Mary, damn it. He loved her and wanted to make her love him, too. He wondered it that was possible, but thought her offer to let him spill himself in her was a positive sign. He could feel his cum slowly running out of her and pooling between them, but the laws of nature dictated that some on him was right now swimming upwards in her body, seeking a start to life. In a flash he could picture Mary big with his child, and he knew she was what he wanted.

And now two
someones
were invading the cocoon they’d spun around them. The trouble cased them had better be damned worth it.

“You answer the phone, and I’ll get the door.” He didn’t want Mary putting on clothes. Not yet. He’d make quick work out of whoever was out there, and think of her waiting for him here, naked and warm.

“Hmmm.” Mary rolled off him and reached for the phone.

Dan got up and slipped into his dress slacks, zipping them as he walked into the main part of the suite. The pounding continued.

“Shut the fuck up,” he growled. He swung the door wide and faced an angry-looking man.

“Where the hell is she?” The man glared. “And who the hell are you?”

Dan narrowed his eyes. Automatically, he braced his feet and prepared for trouble. “I think you have the wrong room, buddy.”

The man looked Dan up and down, and awareness flared in his eyes. “Don’t fucking tell me I have the wrong room. I fucking paid for this room. Now where the hell is Mary?”

A sinking feeling filled Dan. This had to be the absent bridegroom. The man whose bride-to-be he’d just screwed half-way to Sunday. The guy who’d almost married the woman he, Dan, had decided he loved and had even fantasized having children with.

This had to be Ralph. Dan hated him on sight.

* * * *

“Hello?” The only person Mary wanted to talk to right now was Dan, and she didn’t even want to talk to him until after a few hours of sleep. Her only goal was to get whoever this was off the phone and hope Dan would be back soon to cuddle up with.

“Hey, Mary, Pete.” His chuckle grew into a laugh. “I mean, me Pete.”

Great. He sounded drunk. She wondered how he’d gotten her phone number, and then decided it didn’t matter. “Pete, Dan’s not here right now. You’ll have to try him later.” Not quite a lie, since he wasn’t there in bed “right now.”

“You’re there, he
ain’t
far. Listen, you two come on over. A real good friend of Dan’s here. She likes
san’wiches
, know what I mean?” He giggled. Mary didn’t think she’d ever heard a grown man giggle before. “And she ‘specially likes the spread Dan uses. Know what I
mean
? I bet you like Dan’s spread, too.” She could hear the leer in his voice.

God, he was laughing again. How could she get rid of him without being rude? He was Dan’s friend, after all. “I told you, Dan’s not here, Pete.”

“Well,
thas
okay, you come alone.
Ol
’ Pete can handle two of you all by
hisshelf
. I’ll screw you
cuz
I
wanna
, not because I was
tryin
’ to stay out a trouble with the two other babes he was
bangin
’. And I wouldn’t think you was a pity date either, Mary. Don’t matter to me if you was married or dumped or
nuthin
’. I
ain’t
like Dan.”

Mary sat up, covering herself with the sheet in a tardy sense of propriety. She felt the blood drain from her face. “What did you say, Pete? What about Dan?”

“Dan
ain’t
treatin
’ you no good, you little beauty. Didn’t he tell
ya
? He took you to the prom even though you was fat and ugly—which you aren’t now, hell no.” Here his voice dropped. “Come on over and see
Petey
. I’ll poke you good, and it won’t be out of pity, neither.”

A woman argued in the background, then came on the line. “Hello? Listen, send Dan over, would
ya
? He bought me a real nice present a while ago and I haven’t paid him yet.” Her laugh was low and steamy. “Tonight’s on the house and all night long. Tell him, okay?” She hung up.

Mary sat holding the receiver long after the dial tone sounded. She’d asked Dan straight up why he’d taken her to the prom and he’d said because of her inner beauty. She’s stayed awake the first night here thinking about what he’d said. She’d lived for
years
on the memories of how he’d made her feel that night. Like a princess.

Princess, my ass.

Or was the pity date for tonight’s dance, which he’d insisted on calling a prom? Had he and Pete laughed at her the past two nights before he’d come back here—to her honeymoon suite—and fucked her mindless?

Tears stung her eyes. Had he only made love to her because she had come on her honeymoon without the groom? The first night he’d backed off. Was that to soften her up? He knew his way around women, that was no secret. Had he played her from the start? By keeping her on a line, he avoided other problems, social attachments and had someone willing to screw all week. Willing, she’d practically begged him to fuck her.

God, she was such an idiot. A weak, pathetic, romantic idiot!

Mary sprang from bed. She yanked on jeans and a top, and threw the rest of her clothes in her suitcase. She left the bracelet and everything Dan had bought her on the dresser. Was that another reason why he’d slept with her, to collect for the dresses and jewelry? He could take his gifts and stick them up his—

Three knocks sounded at the bedroom door. “Mary, can you come out here, please?” There was the
sonovabitch
now.

She threw open the door and strode into the living room ready to blast Dan. Then she saw a familiar figure leaning against the wall. “Ralph.” Great, more trouble. “What are you doing here?”

“Where are you going?” Dan appeared at her side and attempted to wrestle the suitcase from her.

“Home. That was Pete on the phone with some woman who likes sandwiches.” His expression changed from confusion to horror in seconds. “She says to hurry on over because she still owes you for some gifts and tonight she’s ready to pay up. All night long.”

“It’s not what you think.”

“The hell it isn’t. And Pete enlightened me on what a pity date is. He doesn’t mind screwing me if my groom dumped me, or even if I’m married.”

Ralph pushed away from the wall. “Wait a minute, you’ve been with
two
guys?”

At the same time, Dan pleaded, “Mary, give me a chance to explain.”

“Isn’t there an honest, faithful man in the world, or is it me who’s such bad luck?”

Dan stared, his face crumpled in a look of helplessness. “You won’t listen to me, will you?”

“I think I’ve listened to you too much already.” She faced her former fiancé, who suddenly looked at her with interest. Nothing makes a woman attractive to a man like another man wanting her.

The lack of sleep the past few nights caught up with her. Her shoulders slumped in fatigue. “Why are you here, Ralph?”

“I came to beg you to give me another chance. I’ve left five or six messages on the phone today, and I finally decided I wouldn’t wait for you to call back. I’d fly out instead.” He pointed to Dan. “And what do I find but this bastard looking like he’d just gotten out of bed with you.”

Mary hefted her suitcase and started for the door. “I was here alone to be sweet-talked by him, you loser.”

He blocked her exit. “I know. I deserve all the bad things you can say about me. But, honey, I love you, and I want you back. I’ll do anything you say to earn your trust, Mary, and I swear to God, I will never cheat on you again.”

“Don’t believe him, Mary. Guys like him never change. I love you. Give me a chance.” Dan spoke quietly to her back.

“No, Mary,
I
love you.”

“I’m going home,” she said. “Ralph, I guess I owe you a second chance. We had made plans for the future, after all. But things have to change. You aren’t a dictator. I have thoughts and wishes, too.”

“You’re right, honey. I was an idiot. Whatever you want, we’ll do.” She glanced at him in time to see him shoot a victory smirk at Dan. God preserve her! “Dan, I think I’ve paid in full for anything you might have bought me. Goodbye.” She pushed past Ralph and walked out the door.

* * * *

She wasn’t able to get on a flight until
four o’clock
that afternoon. Sitting in the airport surrounded by hoards of people had kept her emotions in check, but when the hour hand of the clock above the boarding gate ticket counter passed two and she received her twelfth cell phone message from Dan, she was ready to burst into tears regardless of who saw.

Ralph sauntered back from a slot machine and dropped into the seat to the left of her. She tucked her unanswered phone back into her purse.

“Did you win anything?”

“Nope, lost again.”

“Maybe you should change machines.”

“That’s not how it’s supposed to work. Not with machines, not with men.” His voice held a distinct edge.

“Look, if we’re going to give this a chance, I’ll have to forgive you and you’ll have to forgive me. Part of that is forgetting, too.”

“I know, I know, and I’ll try, I promise.” He flicked a piece of lint off his jeans. “But I have to know, Mary, would you have come back to me when you left here? Or would you really have called it quits forever?”

“I don’t know, Ralph.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.”

God, she was so weary. She needed sleep and time and space. Deep inside, she felt she was making a mistake going home with Ralph. She needed to sort it out by spending some time alone.

If she’d married Ralph, she’d have gone through life in regular television mode instead of high definition. Of course, she wouldn’t have known what she was missing. Not like now. Or would she?

She had to believe that eventually she’d realize an empty place inside. She might not know the cause or what to do about it, but it had to happen, didn’t it? She loved Ralph, but not the way she loved Dan, with every fiber of her being. The way she’d loved him for years. Shit! Tears prickled her eyes again.

“Mary?” A deep voice rumbled through her, stirring up embers, setting emotions rocketing out of control.

Oh, no.
She looked up into the gravest, deepest blue eyes she’d ever seen. Why did he have to turn up now? She was already afraid she wouldn’t make through the afternoon without breaking down.

“How did you get back to the loading gate area?” Ralph jumped up, hands curled into fists. Mary could envision a punching match breaking out right here in the Las Vegas airport. She hoped not, for Ralph’s sake. Dan had three inches and twenty pounds on him.

Dan held up a ticket folder. “I’m going back with Mary.” His penetrating gaze rested on her. “We need to talk, and since you won’t take calls from me or Pete—who was calling from the emergency room with the broken nose I gave him—or even my mother, I decided the only way to get you to listen was to follow you. If you should change flights I’ll follow you there, too, so you might as well get used to having me around.”

Part of her thrilled to hear that he was determined to be with her. The loser, pitiful part. She shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“I will, thanks.” He dropped into the seat on her right. For long minutes the three sat there saying nothing.

“Pete wanted to apologize to you. Even if you don’t listen to his explanation, he wanted me to tell you how sorry he is, and how when he gets drunk he gets things mixed up.”

“Pete should stop drinking.”

“If he’s your friend I can see why he drinks,” Ralph offered.

“Why don’t you go play some slots? Here’s ten dollars. Leave us alone for just a few minutes.”

“Hey, it’s your money.” Ralph jumped up and grabbed the ten, then cast a sheepish look at Mary. “Okay with you, babe? If you want me to stay, I will.”