Between the Sheets (3 page)

“
You’ve never been here
before?” I ask him.

“
No, that’s why I suggested
it. I thought you said you hadn’t either?” He looks down at me. He
looks like a college frat boy, hat turned backward, rolling my
luggage behind him with a backpack slung over his
shoulder

“
Yeah, I’ve never stayed
here. But I’ve been here to shop and eat.” His eyes look
disappointed. “Ty, it’s not a big deal. The
room
will be new to both of us.” I
reach over and squeeze his bicep, then run my hand down his arm
till I weave my fingers into his.

“
I guess that’s the part
that matters.” He pulls me closer to him as we walk through the
casino to the hotel guest elevators. He unhooks his fingers from
mine and slides his hand down my back till it comes to rest on my
behind. He gives my ass a little pat, and I have to stop myself
from breaking out into a sprint to our room.

Later on, when we’re showering
together, Ty says, “You know, we didn’t come all this way to make
love in a fancy hotel the whole time. We should probably go
out.”

“
Okay. No more sex for the
rest of the trip then,” I tell him, grinning as I lather his chest
and belly.

“
You keep doing that and
we’re going to have to cut this trip short,” he teases. “I’m just
saying. I want to take you out. I saw a club when we were walking
through earlier. Let’s get some dinner and then go
dancing.”

“
Dancing, Ty?
Really?”

He runs his hands through the
conditioner in my hair and tilts my head back into the stream of
the shower. He continues to rinse my hair free of the moisturizer,
massaging my scalp, and making me squirm. My legs go weak every
time his fingers comb through my locks and tingles spread
throughout my body like rapid fire.

“
So dancing, Melly?” he
asks, before pressing his lips to mine softly.

“
Anything for you, babe.
Anything.”

“
I’ll have to remember
that.” He winks at me with his sly grin.

When I walk out of the bathroom, Tyler
lets out a whistle.

“
You look stunning, Mel.”
His eyes take me in from head to toe. “You are so fucking sexy.” He
struts over to me and takes my hands in his. He stretches my arms
wide open, soaking me in again with his eyes.

“
I’m glad you like it,” I
say of my little black silk spaghetti strap dress. It’s short and
about mid-thigh. The top reminds me of a triangle bikini, showing
so much cleavage I can’t wear a bra. Thankfully, my girls are still
perky and I don’t need one. The rest of the dress is loose fitting,
giving me enough room to move when we go dancing. Sure, tight is
hot, but it’s not practical when you’re going to bust a
move.

“
You sure you want to wear
those shoes again?” he asks of my Louboutins.

“
Hell yes, this is Vegas
baby,” I say with a screech.

“
I’m going to have to
massage them later when they’re protesting.”

“
Darn.” I grin. My feet
being massaged by his strong hands? What a terrible thing to have
to endure. Not.

Ty takes my hands and wraps them
around his back, pulling me in close to him and leaning in till his
lips graze my neck. “You smell delicious. I love your scent. This
perfume drives me mad.”

“
You know, you’re not so
bad yourself. I almost fainted when I saw you all dressed up.” His
charcoal gray dress pants, and black pinstripe collared shirt make
him look like a model. He looks like he should be on the cover of a
magazine at a newsstand. His sleeves are rolled halfway up his
forearms, and he left the top two buttons of his shirt undone,
along with the bottom one. He looks sexy as all hell. If you looked
up
Sex God
in the
dictionary, it would say “See Tyler Gelson” right next to
it.

Oh my. This man was put on earth to
torture me.

Ty continues to hold me in his arms,
tracing kisses on my shoulders and brushing his lips across my
neck. The warmth of his breath on my skin is making every part of
my body hum with desire, some parts a lot more than
others.

“
We better go before we
never make it out of the room,” he finally says. I sure as heck
wasn’t going to say anything. I could stand in this position for
eternity so long as he is nibbling on my collarbone and sucking on
my ultra-sensitive neck.

Melissa

We have dinner at one of the trillion
hotel cafes, only ordering a club sandwich and fries to share. We
ate practically an entire tub of Red Vines and a bag of Doritos on
the way here. Not to mention the Super Big Gulp filled with Diet
Coke and extra ice. While we have had plenty of activity to work up
a healthy appetite, the small dinner hits the spot and I’m itching
to boogie.

Hand in hand, fingers laced together,
we head from the café to the nightclub. It’s been years since I’ve
had an excuse to dress up and it feels good. Glamorous. Sexy. For
so long, Shel and I have been in a routine of relaxing in our yoga
gear—although we only tried yoga once and failed miserably—and
drinking wine and beer while watching boxed DVD sets of our
favorite TV shows. Formal wear is hardly required for that. Yet,
here I am walking through a casino in Las Vegas on the arm of a man
over a foot taller than me, with sparkling green eyes, a beauty
mark that makes me melt, and the strongest hands that heat my body
to the innermost part of my core.

And I love it. I’d trade in every pair
of my yoga pants to imprint this moment in my mind
forever.

“
Wow, the line is pretty
long,” I tell Ty as the entrance to the club comes into view. And
double wow to what some of these women are wearing. I thought I was
showing cleavage and too much thigh. If some of these girls’ skirts
were even a millimeter shorter, I’d be able to see their whispering
eyes. “Damn, it takes some guts to wear that,” I say, gesturing in
the direction of a chick wearing a skirt that’s about as wide as a
belt, and a halter top the looks more like suspenders.

“
Yeah, and the lack of a
mirror,” he says, shaking his head.

“
Like you wouldn’t be
gawking at little miss sexy if I wasn’t here.”

“
No thank you. There’s a
difference between sexy and slutty. And she’s definitely not sexy.
We would have never left the room if you were dressed like that.”
His distaste for the more than half naked woman shows on his
face.

“
No need to worry about
that.” I cross my hand over my breasts, “This is about as revealing
as I’ll ever get.”

“
Perfect.” He smiles down
at me, and bends down to press his lips to my temple. “All the men
are staring at you wishing they were as lucky as I am.”

I elbow him in the side. “Oh stop.” Or
don’t. What woman wouldn’t love hearing this from her
man?

Another hoochie dressed in a silver
shimmering sheath dress, looking like a disco ball, approaches us
with a clipboard. “Can I see your invitation?”

I look over at Ty who shrugs. I notice
other people have started to move away from the line, as I suspect
we will be in just a moment.

“
Is this an invitation only
club? I thought there was just a cover charge,” he tells
her.

“
Yes, but you have to
purchase your reservations about four to six months in advance to
obtain your invitation.” I like how a “ticket” you pay for is
called an
invitation
. I’ve never had to pay for an
invitation
in my life.

“
Don’t worry, Ty. Let’s go.
We’re too overdressed for this place anyway,” I say, turning my
back to the clipboard-holding gate keeper.

Tyler snorts as he throws his arm
around me and we walk away. “You’re funny, Melly belly.”

“
Thank you, thank you very
much,” I use my Elvis impersonation. “Where to?
Let It Ride
tables?
Bingo?”

“
Nah, I think I have a
better idea.” He brings my right hand up to his mouth and brushes
his lips across the back of my knuckles. He is so sweet, my heart
aches and tingles at the same time.

When we reach the elevators, I’m not
surprised. “Ahhh, ready for round three so soon?” I tease
him.

He grins at me. Uh oh. He’s up to
something.

As soon as we get into the room, I
head to the lips-shaped sofa and brace myself up against the side
of it to rid myself of my heels of death.

“
What are you doing? Don’t
get undressed yet,” he says, holding up his hands.

“
Huh. Are we going back
out? It’s almost midnight.”

“
That’s like eight in
Vegas. But no, we’re not going back out.” He goes over to the
mini-fridge and I watch as he pulls out a bottle of Patron. And not
a little bottle either. “We’re gonna have our own little party here
and pretend like it’s a club.” He takes a swig from the bottle and
blots his mouth with the back of his hand. “Only here, we don’t
have to pay twenty bucks a shot.”

I take the tequila from his hand. “And
we don’t need an invitation.” I bring the bottle to my lips and
tilt my head back letting a stream of cold liquid flow.

Tyler dims the lights and
turns on some music. His iPod is docked and he flips through a few
songs, chuckling as he changes from one to another. Finally, he
settles on…
The Right Stuff
by New Kids on the Block.

“
Are you kidding me?” I
laugh. “New Kids?”

“
Anything for my girl,” he
says.

“
This reminds me of the
homecoming dance.”

He does the signature move, swaying
his legs back and forth.

“
You’re killing me.” I
begin snorting and then calm myself long enough to take another
pull from the bottle of tequila. This time it hits me and I feel a
little woozy.

“
Like I said, anything for
you.”

He takes another drink and we dance
like teenagers to the rest of the song in the dim light of one of
the bedside lamps.

By the time the song finishes, we’re
out of breath and laughing hysterically after doing the New Kids
dance over and over again. I surprise myself with how much of the
choreography from the video I still know. I wonder if Shel could
still do it.

Ty fumbles with his iPod again,
changing the music to some more jams we listened to back in the
day.

“
Freak me baby,” I tell
him. “Grind all up on me like you did in high school.”

He places his hands on my hips and
pulls me into him as he dances. “I didn’t grind on you. You were my
little sister’s best friend. There was no grinding.”

“
Bullshit, yours was the
first hard on I ever felt. Right here against my ribs.” I tap on
the side of my stomach.

“
Nice. I didn’t think you
noticed. Well, I was hoping you wouldn’t. I guess my secret is out.
You’ve been getting me hard for almost twenty years,
baby.”

He turns me around and my ass backs up
into his lap as the music pulses through our bodies. He slides his
hands down my sides and squeezes my hips. I’m glad I put my heels
back on so we can spoon more easily standing up.

Reaching behind me, I grasp his firm
thighs and inch back pressing myself closer to him. Aww. Nothing’s
changed at all. I can still make this man swell for me.

I turn myself around, wrapping my arms
around his waist. We sway from side to side, as his thigh presses
between mine. Oh, he makes me hot.

“
You having fun, babe?” he
asks, as the song switches to a slow one. Lady Antebellum’s
All We’d Ever Need
.

“
Couldn’t be better,” I
say, gazing up into his emerald eyes. He grins at me before bending
down to kiss my forehead, an act so sweet my belly
flutters.

Ty sweeps me into his strong arms,
leaning in to nuzzle my neck as I bury my face in his chest. I tilt
my head up to plant a single kiss to the tan skin peeking out of
the top of his shirt. Calling him sexy would be an
understatement.

We dance in slow circles with the
music, exploring each other with the gentleness of only our hands.
My hands travel up and down his back and I can feel his muscles
flex in my palms as his fingertips make small figure eights on my
bare back.

I love this man. I love Tyler. I want
to tell him, right now. This love is overflowing in my heart and in
my mind and I want him to know how I feel, how much I feel. But I
can’t. And although the feelings I have right now are so
overwhelmingly joyful, a hint of sadness weighs on my heart. I wish
things were different for us. I wish we would have taken the time
to make this happen so long ago, and maybe we wouldn’t be living
nine hours away from each other.

Tyler combs his fingers through my
wavy locks and it feels so good. He tilts my head back and traces
kisses along my jaw and down my throat. My breath hitches and a
moan escapes me. He brings his mouth back up and devours me. Our
lips entangle and I pull back sucking on his bottom lip before
going back in for more. This time our tongues seek each other out,
and dance together so tenderly, my eyes well up with
happiness.