The Risk: A Billionaire Romance (Wagered Hearts Series, Book 2) (11 page)

Soon the food arrived and Ryan turned to Candace and engaged her in conversation, almost as if he were trying to ignore me. I swallowed the little pang of disappointment and instead focused my attention on the man sitting next to me. It was stupid to put so much meaning and importance on Ryan’s every little gesture or word. I was acting like a fool again when it was obvious he was just trying to remain friendly. Nothing more.

I learned the new guy sitting next to me was Nick, another one of Roman’s cousins from his father’s side. He was a droll companion who had the most entertaining stories about his travels throughout the world. It surprised me that he and Roman were even related. They seemed to come from opposite ends of the spectrum. While Roman was always smooth, polished and every bit the captain of industry, Nick was ruggedly handsome with a down to earth quality about him. He gave off the impression of a young Jack London or Ernest Hemingway, ready to jet off to the remotest corners of the world at the drop of a hat.

“How is it that you and Roman are so different?” I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders carelessly, lifting his lip in a lazy grin. “We’re not that different. Well…maybe on the outside, but deep down Roman is an adventurer at heart,” he said, leaning and whispering the last part.

I looked at him skeptically. “Oh, I can just picture Roman camping out in some dingy little tent out in the middle of nowhere,” I said sarcastically.

“I have stories you’d never believe. He and Ryan used to be quite wild,” he said.

I glanced over at Ryan, who was still in conversation with Candace and seemed not to have heard what Nick said. I tried to imagine what he was like when he was in his twenties and shook my head.

“I can’t believe it,” I said. “I don’t think Ryan has ever been anything other than he is now. You’re making this up.”

Nick grinned impishly at me and leaned in close to whisper in my ear. “Two words: hippie trail.”

I looked at him with a furrow on my brow. “What’s that?” I asked.

“Ask him about it,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I’m sure he’d love the chance to revisit old memories.”

“You make it sound so mysterious. What did he do? Get high and go on a bender?” I asked tilting my head in Ryan’s direction.

“I did no such thing,” I heard Ryan’s silky voice pronounce.

I turned to look at him in surprise, since he had seemed to be in deep conversation with Candace the last time I looked at him. I didn’t realize he had been following our conversation.

“No, it was much worse,” Nick laughed.

Everyone’s attention was now focused on our end of the table and they looked at us expectantly, wondering what all the noise and laughter was about.

“Why are you cackling like a hyena over there, Nicky?” Roman asked.

“Number one, I was not cackling. Number two, we were just discussing the hippie trail. You remember that don’t you?” Nick said, shooting Roman a wicked grin.

Roman turned a bright shade of red and I couldn’t hide my surprise at the sudden change in him. I’d never seen him look so embarrassed before. He shot Nick a warning glare before turning back to Lily and ignoring us.

“Now I really need to find out what went down. It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun,” I said.

“Hmm…I certainly had fun, but I don’t think Roman or Ryan would recall it as fun, exactly,” he said.

“I wished I would have traveled a lot more when I was younger. That’s one thing I regret,” I said wistfully.

“You’re not on your deathbed yet,” he laughed. “You can still go.”

“Well, thanks for saying that,” I smiled, “but I think I’m past the point in my life where I find trekking deep into the Amazonian rain forest an exciting vacation.”

“Don’t let him bamboozle you with tales of adventure and daring. It’s really not all it’s cracked up to be,” Ryan said, interrupting our conversation.

He shot a look at Nick and it seemed like the two of them were having a silent conversation among themselves. If I didn’t know they were such close friends, I’d have been worried about the stubborn look on Ryan’s face and the hostility radiating off of him. Finally Nick broke eye contact and lounged back in his chair while looking at Ryan with a glint of amusement in his eye.

“Ok Ryan, you win,” was all he said. He gave me a wink before turning and engaging Stella in conversation.

“What was that about?” I asked Ryan.

“That’s just Nick being Nick,” he said dismissively. “So, what are your plans tonight?”

“Oh you know, the usual. I’m sure there’ll be drinking, dancing and who knows what else,” I smiled.

The dinner was soon over and we went our separate ways.

“You ladies behave yourselves,” Roman said, as he looked at us pointedly.

“Not on your life,” I heard Stella say. “Now, let go of your fiancé and be on your way.”

Stella reached over and moved Roman’s arm from Lily’s shoulders and dragged her away towards the exit. I had to laugh seeing the look of consternation on Roman’s face. We headed over to Scratch where Natasha had reserved a VIP table for us. When we got there, it was already packed. There wasn’t even a question of waiting in line and we were immediately led to our table, which had been set up with bottles of champagne, vodka, and tequila, as well as fresh squeezed juices, glasses, ice and fresh lemons. I poured out a glass of champagne for all of us and lifted my glass in a toast.

“To Lily!” I shouted, trying to be heard above the loud thumping music.

“To Lily,” they all said.

Candace poured out round of tequila shots and then Stella poured another after that. By the time we had finished our third shot, I was already feeling a little bit buzzed.

“Whoa, we need to slow down or I’m gonna be passed out before midnight,” I said.

“I’m gonna go dance,” Candace announced.

She was already tipsy, judging by the flush on her face and that excited fervent look in her eyes. Candace and Stella left hand in hand towards the dance floor. Lily and I watched their weaving through the crowd until they staked out a position in front of the DJ booth. Candace, who never had much inhibition in the first place, started popping her booty and twerking while Stella looked on a little uncomfortably. Lily and I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.

“Oh God, it’s going to be a long night,” she said, when she calmed down.

“It’s going to be a fun night!” I said, correcting her. “When was the last time we went out like this? College?”

“Probably,” she said. “Do you remember Hatchards?”

I smiled, remembering our old college hangout. I hesitate to even call it a bar; it was more of a dank basement with live music and cheap beer, but it was the first time either of us had been out. It helped that they never carded us. We thought we were so mature and sophisticated as if we were in
Sex and the City
.

“Do you remember that first night trying to order apple martinis? And the bartender looked at us like we had two heads,” I burst out laughing.

“Oh God, how embarrassing,” she smiled, covering her face with her hands. “We must have stuck out like sore thumbs.”

“I think we’ve definitely upgraded though,” I said, waving my hand around the luxurious VIP section we were currently sitting in.

“You can say that again.”

I poured out another shot for us and gulped it down. “Come on, let’s go dance,” I said, standing up and grabbing Lily’s hands. “We can’t sit here all night.”

Lily got up without much protest which half surprised me since I’d been expecting her to put up a fight. I guessed I wasn’t the only one a little bit tipsy. We wove our way towards the dance floor where I spotted Candace and Stella immediately. They were both grinding against some random guy.

I turned to Lily who turned to me at the exact same time and we burst out giggling again. It was the last thing we expected to see—this prim and proper looking English lady getting wild on the dance floor like that. It was a good thing the boys weren’t here to see it. I’m sure Rob would have had a difficult time watching his baby sister dancing like that. He’d probably have a hard time not strangling the guy.

Lily and I worked up a sweat on the dance floor. It was good to see her let loose and finally have fun. She’d been so reluctant to even have a party, that I’d seriously questioned scrapping it all together. But to see her like this, throwing her arms up in the air, with her eyes closed and moving to the music, made it well worth it.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” I said to the girls after heading back to our table for a breather. We still had several more places to go, and I didn’t want to spend the whole night in one spot. Natasha had reserved a VIP section for us at several more clubs and I wanted to hit them all before the night was over. After all, it was the first time in Vegas for all of us, and I wanted to see what they had to offer.

As the night wore on, I got more and more drunk and remembered less and less of what was going on. The clubs and music all started to blend in until I didn’t even know where we were. I did remember going to one of the male strip shows and acting loud and obnoxious. I might have even been invited on stage at one point. The girls were hooting and cat calling from the audience. I didn’t remember what any of the guys looked like—they all blended in as well, a mass of hard muscles, corded abs and shiny slick skin.

We ended the night at a karaoke place after Lily made it clear she wanted to sing. It was funny how demanding she could be when she was drunk. It was like Bruce Banner turning into the Incredible Hulk. There wasn’t any sign of her shyness when she headed straight for the stage and proceeded to belt out Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” completely off key.

“Someone get a video of this,” Candace howled as she watched Lily writhing on stage.

When she was done, we all stood up and gave her a standing ovation. I think we might have been the only one’s clapping.

“Now it’s your turn,” Lily said to me once she had taken her seat again.

“What?”

“Your turn to sing. Everyone has to,” she said.

“Oh, I don’t know about that—” Stella began.

“Yes, you are,” Lily said cutting her off. “If you can grind up on some dude at a club, then you can sing karaoke. I’m not going to be the only one making a fool of myself.”

So that’s how I ended up on that stage at 3am, half drunk out of my mind and belting out Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary”, complete with head dips and arm rolls. In my mind I was brilliant; nobody had ever performed this song as well as I had. I was a genius. The applause from the girls after my performance just reinforced it in my mind. I took several bows, milking my time on stage until the announcer had to physically pull me off.

Once I got back to the table, I saw that the boys were already there also giving me a standing ovation. I took a mock bow with a full flourish and grinned when I stood back up.

“Encore! Encore!” they shouted.

The other patrons in the bar were getting tired of our antics by this time and began to boo us. It startled me because I had been in such a haze of drunken obliviousness, that I thought everyone had been enjoying the show. Lily on the other hand got pissed off. She turned to the crowd made an obscene gesture. Roman threw her over his shoulder and carted her out to loud applause before the situation could escalate.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the scene. My sweet and kind Lily had just flipped off a whole room of people. Soon, my chuckles turned to full blown laughter and I found myself doubled over in a fit. Suddenly, I felt myself get lifted off the ground and grunted as my stomach was pressed against a hard shoulder.

“Hey, let me go!” I protested, pounding on his back.

“You’re drunk.” It was Ryan.

“Well duh!” I said. “And I’m going to be sick soon if you don’t let me down.”

That got his attention. He stopped abruptly and placed me back on my feet.

“Better?” he asked, staring at me in concern.

“Yeah, much.”

“You’re not going to be sick now are you?”

“Not unless you’re planning on carrying me out again,” I said.

I looked around us and noticed that the rest of the group was nowhere in sight.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.

“They’ve probably left. You were cackling to yourself for a while in there.”

“I did no such thing!” I said, affronted.

“Come on,” he said, taking pity on me. “I told them we’d meet them at the club.”

I walked beside him, trying to concentrate on the steps before me so wouldn’t stumble. I didn’t want to look like a drunken idiot in front of him, but it was harder than it seemed. I nearly lost my footing when I heard him chuckling beside me.

“What are you laughing at?” I asked, glaring at Ryan.

“You. You look really adorable like that, with your face screwed up in concentration. It’s ok; I’ll catch you if you fall.”

“I’m not going to fall, thank you very much,” I said.

“You look like you had a good time tonight,” he said.

“The night’s not over yet.”

We arrived at the club and were let in immediately. The bouncer must have recognized Ryan, as he addressed him by name.

“Have a good evening, Mr. Marsden,” he said before stepping aside for us to enter.

I noticed a group of girls who were waiting in line give me dirty looks. I held my head higher and tried not to smirk at them. It was petty of me, but something about being on Ryan’s arm boosted my ego on top of the alcohol I’d consumed. He was a handsome, successful man and I was sure any one of those girls would have traded their right arm to be in my position. Once inside, we didn’t head to the VIP section to meet up with the rest of the group like I expected, but instead, Ryan led me out to the dance floor.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“What does it look like? I’m dancing,” he said before he pulled me in close. The throbbing techno beat was in stark contrast to the slow sway of Ryan’s dance.

I laughed up at him and shook my head. “I don’t think this is the right music for this,” I said.

He just pulled me in closer and I could feel every inch of his hard body against mine. I could smell his aftershave and the alcohol on his breath. I couldn’t tell if he was drunk; he always seemed so in control, and tonight was no different. The only inkling I got that he wasn’t quite sober was a look in his eye that I would sometimes catch when I looked up at him. I couldn’t quite explain it or put my finger on it, but it was the kind of look that sent shivers up and down my spine.