Colorado 03 Lady Luck (15 page)

Then he moved straight into rocking my
world yet again and I minded that because you
never
got used to that.

“It’s good you’re not pissed but I am. I
fucked up. I used you last night to help me get somethin’ I needed
and doin’ it made you visible which put you where you were this
morning. And I don’t like where I put you this morning. That’s on
me and I also don’t like that that’s on me. But it happened and
right now all I can do is promise you that won’t happen again.”

It was my turn to stare at him.

Then I pointed out, “But, isn’t this whole
gig for me to be available to –?”

He shook his head, his arm swung out to the
side; he set his coffee down by the TV then crossed his arms on his
chest. “I told you when I laid it out for you, none of my shit
would blow back on you. This morning, my shit blew back on
you.”

“Ty,” I said gently, “it wasn’t that big of
a deal.”

“It’s good you think that, Lexie, but I
don’t agree.”

I tried to assure him, “He was relatively
gentlemanly about it.”

“
I don’t give a shit how he was about it. I
don’t like the idea of you bein’ out there alone and a man like
Navarro thinkin’ he can get in your space. Your space is your space
and you get to decide who’s in it. At the very least, Navarro
should think your space is
my
space and
I
get to decide
who’s in it. Either way, he got in your space, that does not make
me happy because him doin’ it means I gave you my word and then I
broke it.”

“You didn’t break it, Ty. You can’t be
responsible for his actions.”

“I tell you to cross your legs often?” he
shot back.

I pressed my lips together.

“Right,” he clipped.

I walked the short distance between us and
put my hand on his bicep.

“Honey, you aren’t responsible for his
actions.”

His chin was in his throat as he stared down
at me but he didn’t reply.

“I shouldn’t have said anything,” I
muttered, looking away.

But I looked back and that was because I had
no choice but to do so when Ty’s big hand cupped my jaw and forced
my face to his.

“Don’t keep shit from me,” he ordered
quietly.

I nodded and whispered, “Okay.”

“For however long this lasts, you play wife.
That’s all you do. You don’t put up with shit from anyone and
especially not because of me.”

“Ty, guys hit on women they’re wearing
wedding rings or not. What he did was the same thing. Who’s to say
that, he didn’t see me last night but saw me at the pool, he
wouldn’t have done that anyway?”

“I’m to say it because last night he saw you
watchin’ me lose, your face givin’ it away that you didn’t know
that was the way I was playin’ it but you still laid your jewelry
at my side without hesitation and kissed my jaw before you walked
away. He saw a woman take her man’s back. He’s a guy who’s got no
shot at findin’ a woman like that because the women that gravitate
toward men like him are not your kind of woman. And he wants what I
got. And I showed him that. So, he might like what he sees by the
pool but he took a shot at it because I showed him what’s behind
the tits, ass and legs. He can get tits, ass and legs anytime he
wants. What he can’t get is what’s behind yours.”

There it was again. A Ty-style compliment
that couldn’t be beat.

“Ty,” I whispered.

“It won’t happen again.”

“
Okay but you need to know, I’m not mad at
you for that. I don’t even
care
about that. I’m not actually mad at you about anything. I
really am hungry and wanted to have breakfast with you.”

“Okay, I know what you need me to know but I
need to know you get it that it won’t happen again.”

Good. Clean. Right.

Right there. In front of me.

Shit.

“I get it,” I said softly.

His hand dropped.

I instantly missed it.

“Okay,” he said and took a step back so my
hand had to drop. “Get in the shower. I’ll order room service and
get you fed. While you eat, we’ll decide what we’re gonna do on
your vacation day.”

I nodded but asked, “Are you going to let me
pick what I want for breakfast?”

And again, he gave me a gift. His lips
tipped up a half a centimeter.

Then he replied, “You didn’t let me pick my
coffee.”

So maybe he also had a sense of humor.

Good.

One step closer to knowing what I thought he
was was real. An important one.

“Fair enough,” I muttered, smiling at my
feet and turning to my bag.

He got on the phone and I gathered my stuff
as I listened to him ordering me blueberry pancakes which sounded
really good. Then again, I was super hungry so pretty much anything
would sound really good.

Then I went into the bathroom, shut the door
and turned on the shower.

In the shower, I listened and heard the TV
even over the water.

So I knew a door, a wall, a shower and the
TV would drown out me doing what I needed to do.

So I did it.

After, I felt much better.

Even so, I knew what would make me feel even
better.

But I wasn’t going to go there.

Not yet.

* * * * *

Ty

Ty lounged on the bed, eyes on the TV and
mind in the shower.

That was how he heard it when Lexie made
herself come. It surprised him, he wasn’t expecting it; the noise
was slight but also unmistakable and unbelievably hot.

He closed his eyes and muttered, “Fuck.”

Then a knock came at the door.

His wife’s breakfast.

Amos Moses

Ty

“
Amie, what you wanna
do…
”

The Charger was growling down the highway,
the sun shining bright, Lexie sitting beside him, hair flying all
around her face, feet to the dash, knees bent near to her chest,
heels popping up, legs swaying, hands on her thighs slapping, mouth
open singing some hick-ass, country rock song at the top of her
lungs which was the only way he could hear her considering that
shit coming from her iPod connected to the car stereo was blasting
out the speakers.

It was day two of their road trip and they
were two hours out of Carnal. The drive from Vegas was a one day
haul but she’d wanted to take a detour and spend the night in
Moab.

And, seeing as he was currently thinking
with his dick, he’d given her what she wanted.

Thinking on it, after she told him she
wanted to have breakfast with her husband, he would have given it
to her. But after spending her vacation day in Vegas with her, he
would have walked to Moab at her side if she’d asked.

It was official. He was fucked.

As they talked about what to do while she
stuffed her face with blueberry pancakes after her shower, all the
shit she wanted to do in Vegas he did not want to do but then she
dropped the bomb that she’d never been to Vegas. Then she’d dropped
the bomb that, the day before she picked him up from prison, she’d
taken her first trip to a beach. Then she’d dropped the bomb that,
although her job took her to LA and NYC for buying trips, she’d had
her promotion to head buyer for only a year which was when she
started travelling for work, these trips were manic and she had
zero time to sightsee. Further, considering she was hooked up with
Ronnie, they didn’t enjoy romantic couple’s retreats at exotic
locales. Pimps, apparently, didn’t get vacation time. The only
other places she’d been were Austin, Texas when she went on a very
long joyride in her twenties with Bessie and Atlanta, Georgia where
Ronnie’s people were from and where they’d sometimes spend
Thanksgiving or Christmas.

So he’d followed her ass to fucking
M&M World and dealt with her crushing disappointment that the
Star Trek Experience had closed down. They’d stood in the heat
three times to watch the Bellagio fountains spraying to music.
They’d toured casino after casino, she’d played kids video games
(
not
adult gambling video
games)
while he watched,
she’d scoured gift shops giggling herself stupid half the time and
pretend begging him to buy her tacky crap (and, when she wasn’t
looking, he did, buying her a T-shirt at Paris Las Vegas and a snow
globe at Treasure Island both of which, he made certain to note for
future reference, when he gave them to her, she was more excited
about than the diamonds) and they’d walked up one side and down the
other of practically the whole fucking Strip after the sun set so
she could take in the lights and the sights.

And as they did this, she opened up and let
it all hang out.

Lexie forgot all about give and take and
just gave.

She did this by telling him about Ella,
Bessie and Honey. About her friend Margot. About her other friend
Nyssa. Yammering through lunch, through dinner, as they walked only
to interrupt herself, point at something and shout,
“Ohmigod,
look at that!
”

She also did this by holding his hand and
when she wasn’t doing that, her fingers would curve around his
elbow and hold on. As she walked, she got so close to him, he could
feel her skin brushing his. If they were standing, she stood leaned
into his side. If they were seated, she sat close. When she talked,
she’d touch him, shove his shoulder, grasp his hand, shake his arm,
bump her body into his depending on what she wanted, to get his
attention, because she was laughing and wanted to share her humor,
because she was fake annoyed at him for teasing her or to point
something out.

Walker had never met another woman like her,
her casual affection, ready sense of humor, openness, her clashing
ability to seem confident in her surroundings at the same excited
by them. Day three of knowing her and there she was, no bullshit.
And he realized that was what he had since the beginning from
Lexie. No bullshit.

And all day, Bag of Bones was nowhere to be
seen. This was her. This was what she gave free and without
expecting anything in return. All give, no take.

That night, she’d been out within seconds of
her head hitting the pillow.

Walker didn’t get to sleep for hours.

The next morning he learned more about Lexie
and this was she could be a pain in the ass. She took forever to
get ready, freaked out about leaving something in the room so she
checked under the bed twelve times and opened all the drawers even
though neither of them had put shit in them and making him check
the safe twice even though nothing he put in there he’d fucking
forget.

And, fuck him, after they checked out and
were waiting for the Charger to be brought around, he thought of it
and he couldn’t stop himself from thinking it was cute.

They got in the car and the battle instantly
began. She didn’t like “fake cold”, what she called air
conditioning. He didn’t like the windows down. Compromise, she got
the windows down first, he got AC after the clock struck one
thirty. Then she hooked up her iPod and tortured him with her
music. He told her he thought it was shit. Compromise, when the
windows were opened, they played her music, they listened to what
he wanted to listen to when he jacked the AC up.

They hit Moab and the bitch flipped for it,
making him find a store so she could buy a camera, something he
didn’t allow her to do, the buying it part. He bought one for her,
an expensive digital camera and when he did, she gave him something
else, something new. Her face got soft, her eyes went warm and she
leaned her tits into his arm, tipping her head back and smiling at
him huge, shining the full force of her light on him and, swear to
Christ, he’d been blinded.

At that, he wished he’d watched her open her
diamonds.

Then she made him drive her all over the
fucking place. At her shout, he’d stopped a dozen times so she
could take pictures and anytime another breathing being was close,
she asked them to take a picture of him and Lexie together. She’d
drag him in front of something, curl into him and smile bright into
the camera like she’d hit Heaven not Utah.

They’d checked into a hotel, went out and
had dinner, came back and ordered up a movie. It was an action film
and she sat sprawled at the end of the bed shouting at the screen
the whole time and when the hero finally kicked the bad guy’s ass,
she’d actually shouted, “Take that, sucka!”

Sucka.

Proof positive she was a total fucking
goof.

That night, too, lying at her side in bed,
Walker had trouble finding sleep.

Now they were in the car, two hours into day
two on the road, two hours away from home. She’d done the whole
freak out at not leaving anything behind but she’d also taken twice
as much time getting ready. Yesterday, she’d worn her Paris Las
Vegas tee, some shorts and some flip-flops. Today, her hair was
done wild and sexy, she had on a pair of nice, army green
short-shorts and a sexy-as-hell, loose-fitting, apricot tee that
caught on her tits just right and left her back exposed, a drape at
the bottom, one string tied in the middle to hold the fabric
together and you could see her cream-colored bra strap. She’d added
the sandals she’d been wearing the day he met her, the first time
he’d seen her wear the same pair of shoes twice, as well as big,
gold hoops at her ears and a bunch of thin, gold bracelets at both
wrists.

What she was tricked out for, he had no
idea. He didn’t ask. He didn’t have a chance. She was busy checking
under the bed and opening and closing drawers.

He left her to it and dragged their shit
down to the reception desk and out to the Charger after he checked
out. She met him there, throwing sass about him being impatient and
how, “We can’t just swing by if we left something. FYI, Utah is a
whole different
state
than the
one you live in, Ty.”