by Anthology
I writhe up against him. He’s too far down for me to touch anymore, so I have to make do with the waves of his hair, his round ears, and hisstrong shoulders.
His fingers slip inside the lacy edge, his thumb pressing inside me. It finds that swollen nub and I lurch against him, his breath hot and burning through the thin fabric.
I can’t keep quiet, and low, panting moans come from my throat as his finger circles me, making my body tense with the need for release. He releases me and pulls the panties down, exposing me to his mouth and tongue.
He spears me and I cry out. He knows me, what takes me over, and I can barely register each move as I spiral up fast. One hand reaches beneath me to squeeze and lift me into him, and I rock my hips to the pace that he sets, my muscles clenching. I’m so ready. So high. So full of need.
He sucks on the nub, hard, and that does it. Everything splinters out and the waves of the orgasm crash over me. I’m lost, everything flying outward, the stress and the doubt and the desire for Colt to help me through this. It all mixes together in this moment, pain and pleasure, uncertainty and security.
I settle into the leather as he gentles his movements, bringing me down slowly. I realize I have my fists in his hair and relax my fingers. He kisses his way up my belly and nibbles along my ribs.
“That was exquisite,” he says. “I think the more stressed you are, the harder you come.”
I let my arm fall across my eyes. He’s probably right about that.
I hear the jingle of metal as he eases his jeans farther down. “You up for more?” he asks.
“I’m always up for more,” I tell him.
He laughs a little, and with a growl, neatly flips me over on my belly.
I brace myself on my elbows as he thrusts himself inside me from behind.
God, I’m already tensing up again as he holds my hips and works a steady, forceful rhythm. I notice the movements of the car now, rumbling over the highway. I brace my forehead on the seat and work with him, rocking into him, meeting him thrust for thrust.
His hand comes down and find that nub again and he’s got me, I’m spiraling back into it. I forget everything but the motion of his fingers and the feel of his body moving against mine.
Colt stills and as he flows into me, I let go again, shuddering into another flash of orgasm, drawing him in. He groans and holds me tight, his chest against my back.
We stay that way a little while, moving only with the shifting of the car, until we feel the driver slow down and turn, heading back toward Vegas.
I look up and out the deeply tinted windows. The empty desert surrounds us on the lonely highway. There is no one anywhere. I turn my head and Colt leans down to kiss me.
What a crazy, crazy man I’ve found.
Six: The Match and the Real Fight
We arrive back at the MGM Grand just in time for the second match to start. Colt hopes we can sneak in unnoticed, but when we make our way down the steps to sit in the pair of seats reserved for him, the crowd goes wild.
Power Play is in the ring, waiting for the ref to start the round. His head pops up, and he checks the JumboTron. We’re on the screen. He turns and waves at Colt.
I fake a smile since we’re live on pay-per-view. Colt punches at the camera and the crowd goes crazy again.
He loves this stuff.
I have such a hard time with it.
The round begins and Power Play is pretty evenly matched with his opponent, and older fighter who goes by Greyhound. I forget all about the screen and the crowd as I watch their moves, thinking about the skills of my fighter girls and what new combinations they can try in their own matches.
The round ends and both guys look pretty bashed up. “Tough one,” I say to Colt and he nods.
The announcer comes out to stir up the crowd. Everyone starts laughing as he points to the screen. Colt and I are on it again, this time with a cartoon wedding dress and tiara superimposed on me. Colt has a bow tie under his chin.
“Silly cut ups,” Colt says and waves.
“It’s fine,” I say. Really, that is no big deal, although I wish the cameras would focus on someone else.
But then the image cuts away to the picture of me at the bridal salon in the sausage dress. It’s animated so that the dress gets fatter and fatter, bloating out.
And I snap.
“I can’t do this,” I say and jump from my seat.
“Jo, sit the hell down.” He grabs my hand. “This is what you signed up for.”
I can’t believe he just said that to me. I jerk my arm away. “I did not.”
“We have to play the part,” he insists. His voice low. “Now sit down.”
My head wants to explode. Where is this coming from?
“You sound just like your father!” I yell. I jerk the engagement ring off my finger and throw it at him. “Go marry someone he approves of!”
The crowd is a blur as I run up the stairs, grateful for how in shape I am. Before anyone can follow me, I’m through the lobby and back out into the Vegas night.
Only when the MGM Grand is far behind me do I slow down. I’m wrong for Colt. Wrong for this scene. I have a good life on my own. I have girls to train, their careers to build. I don’t have to be this publicity puppet.
I stumble along the Strip, bumping into drunk tourists and people hurrying to get into the shows. The neon flashes from every direction. The city is lit from within as the sun sets to the west.
I pass the same stupid wedding chapel I saw earlier that day. Elvis is just walking out with some happy couple, singing, “Love Me Tender.” An elderly man holding a Bible is throwing rice on them.
This makes me feel worse.
A cab pulls up the curb and lets several women out in front of a casino. I jump in and tell him to head toward the helipad. I’m going back to LA.
I text Jake, the helicopter driver, and tell him I want to go home. He says to give him twenty minutes to submit the flight plan and he’ll meet me on the tarmac.
I sit back and for the first time since I took off running, I think of Colt.
Pain sears through my belly. How can I give him up?
Despite the fact that I almost never wear my engagement ring, my hand now feels naked, as if it knows it won’t be getting it back. I look at my roughened hands, calloused and strong from kettlebell lifts and punching the speed bags. They don’t seem the right sort of hands for such a fancy diamond.
Colt should have stuck with Britney, his fake fiancé for publicity. The cameras loved them, and nobody would have ever made fun of her in a mermaid dress.
We arrive at the helipad. I pay the driver and start the long walk out on the tarmac to our designated take off area.
Which is fine. The walk will do me good. I pass other quiet helicopters, waiting for their wealthy owners to tire of gambling and head home. A couple pilots, their headsets slung around their necks, talk and laugh by the lit up door of one of the offices. It’s almost full dark now, the ball of orange from the sunset disappearing in the distance.
I see a familiar shape ahead and try to figure out who it is from the shadows.
As we get closer to Colt’s take off area, I recognize him.
Zero.
He’s dressed differently, out of the gold dress and into a silky emerald green pantsuit. He looks like a gem. When he gets closer to the light of the office, I see he’s switched out his long red wig for a short coiffed blond one.
I stop. I love Zero, but I don’t need him right now. He’s one of the reasons I’m in this mess. I duck behind one of the silent helicopters nearby.
Jake comes out of the office. I watch as Zero approaches. “Is it time for our night cruise?” he asks.
Jake stops. “I didn’t get the okay from Jo.”
“She hasn’t responded to any of my texts,” Zero says.
I pull out my phone. Sure enough, there are several stacked up asking if we’re still doing the helicopter ride at sunset.
“You want me
to call her?” Jake asks.
Zero seems reluctant to ask. “Let me see if I can get her.” He starts strolling across the helipad area, admiring the other helicopters with the phone pressed to his ear.
My phone doesn’t respond. I glance down and realize it’s still in silent mode from the match. Zero’s face comes up on the screen, a picture with his short buzzed hair and boy clothes from the old days. My heart squeezes for how simple life was then.
And how hard. Crap jobs. Barely making rent. Eating leftovers from the cafe where he worked.
When he’s far enough away, I race over to Jake. “Ready?” I ask.
He glances over to where Zero has walked.
“I’ll text him,” I say quickly. “Say I had to go. He’ll understand.”
Jake nods. “We’re all set.”
I climb into the helicopter, feeling sorrowful and ashamed that I’m slinking away. But I can’t help it. Zero would just convince me that I should stay. And I’m seeing that this life is wrong for me.
The rotors start to whir overhead, filling the cabin with sound.
It’s too late. I’m gone.
Seven: Flying Elvises
The helicopter lifts from the helipad. I stare out at the Vegas lights and wonder if I’ll ever see this view again. I doubt I’ll have many opportunities to ride in a luxury helicopter. The last small strip of sunset is fading away over the desert.
I pick up my phone and take a picture to remember it by. I’m not sure what I’ll say to Colt when he writes me. I stick my phone in airplane mode so I won’t get any messages. No doubt Colt got waylaid by the press and had trouble escaping the MGM Grand. Or maybe he didn’t even follow. Sometimes he knows it’s best to let me be.
The pilot turns and taps his headset then points to the one hanging in the main compartment. I pick it up and slide it on my ears.
“We’ve been asked to alter our path,” he says. “Some emergency flight.”
I nod. “That’s fine,” I say into the microphone.
More time to look out on the city. We fly along until below us is mainly desert sand. I can barely see the roll of the hills as we approach full dark.
Then suddenly another helicopter rises up beside us. I glance at it, wondering how close they are allowed to get, when the pilot makes a laughing sound in the headset.
I look up at him. What’s going on?
“Let me patch you through,” he says, obviously not to me.
Suddenly my ears are filled with the sound of a dozen Elvis voices sining, “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You.”
The pilot points to the helicopter hovering next to us. Their door opens, and an Elvis with a backpack parachute leans out and waves, light spilling on him from inside the cabin.
Oh my God. It’s the flying Elvises.
The pilot nods at something I can’t hear. He can obviously get other channels. “We’re going to set down,” he says.
The helicopter churns up a crazy amount of dust. It’s like we’re inside a sandstorm. When it settles enough to see, both helicopters blasting their lights, I spot a Elvis after Elvis unloading from the other, bigger chopper.
“What in the world?” I say as I pull off the headset. Are we being hijacked by The King?
I open the door and I can hear them again. They haven’t stopped singing and are on the second verse.
They form two lines from my helicopter to the other. That’s when I see Zero, playing it up to the nines, arms in the air, belting out the words and heading for me.
What is he doing?
But he steps into the line as well, and my heart speeds up when I see Colt. He steps down from the other helicopter.
He’s followed me? By helicopter?
My chest tightens. What a crazy thing to do!
He holds out his hands. I hesitate, but meet him halfway. The Elvises finish out their chorus and the desert falls quiet as an empty arena.
“I found a ride for us,” Zero says. “We weren’t going to let you get away.” He points to Colt. “I found him wandering like a lost soul by the helicopters.” She nods at him. “You’re on.”
Colt takes my hands and pulls me into him. “I said the wrong thing,” he says.
I nod against his chest. “You did. But I am the wrong thing.”
He pulls back to look at me, his brown-green eyes searching mine. “Are you kidding? Did we really go through everything just to break up at the end?”
I shake my head. “But your father.”
“Is an idiot,” he says. “Look at us. You can go viral on Twitter just by trying on a dress. He can shut up about it.”
He pulls me in. “You looked beautiful in it by the way.”
“The sausage dress? With its guts exploding to the floor?”
He laughs. “Well, when you put it that way… ”
“I bought a different one,” I say.
“Really? Do I get to see it?” His voice is calmer now. He knows he’s won.
“Not until the big day,” I say. “Maybe something smaller? Maybe in my mother’s house in Hawaii?”
“Sounds perfect,” he says. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
When he kisses me, Zero lets out a little squeal. “Come on Elvises,” he says. “You’ve got to have a song for this.”
They must have had some hand signal, or else this was straight from the Elvis handbook, because without anybody saying anything, they all start in on the opening lines to “Hawaiian Wedding Song.”
Author’s Note - JJ Knight
You’ve just finished reading Vegas Holiday, a short story by JJ Knight. If you’d like to spend more time with Colt and Jo, you can go back to where their relationship began in Uncaged Love #1, which is FREE.
Download Uncaged Love #1 for FREE on Amazon
Other titles by JJ Knight
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JJ Knight
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When Things go Wrong
A Cheaters Anonymous Short Prequel
Lacey Silks
High school friends who don’t believe in lasting relationships reconnect when they’re forced to spend the night together, trapped in a cave.
DESCRIPTION: Lazy eyes, scarred lip and brow, muscled and tattooed, Julia’s high school best friend, the one who made her heart go pitter-patter, had definitely changed in the past five years she hadn’t seen him.
Being stuck with her mom plus her mom’s boyfriend number one hundred at an exclusive ski resort doesn’t seem as daunting when Julia runs into the gorgeous and enticing Scar Wagner. And when fate forces the couple much closer than Julia would ever allow a man to be, she can’t help but wonder whether it’s time to give relationships another try.
After all, when things go wrong, they turn out right.
GENRE: New Adult Contemporary Erotic Romance, 10,200 words or approximately 41 pages.
HEAT LEVEL: Erotic
Turn the page to begin reading When Things go Wrong by Lacey Silks, or click here to return to this anthology’s Table of Contents.
When Things go Wrong
A Cheaters Anonymous Prequel Short Lacey Silks
Chapter 1
When it rains, it pours, right? Looking across the room at the couple who had forced me to come to the ski chalet, I wished for an avalanche.
Mom and her new boy-toy had been going at each other for hours, and I was already counting down the hours until we could leave. Watching the lovebirds cuddling in front of the stone fireplace, I knew I would rather be stuck in a nursing home, changing diapers. I’d expected someone her age to act more appropriately at a romantic lodge for rich families, but I should have known better.
I buried my face in my hands. This isn’t happening to me!
“Jules, stop it,” my older sister, Zoey, hissed. She shot off her chair, and then pulled my arm. “Sit with me.”
I was more than
happy to oblige. I hadn’t believed in romance, bubbling champagne, candlelight or chocolate covered strawberries—which my mom seemed to have stuck into Sid the boy toy’s mouth—in years. My hope for a sustainable relationship had been crushed long ago.
I sat down on the swiveling barstool next to Zoey, and looked away as Sid’s hand slid up Mom’s sweater. At least Sid was loaded—or that’s the impression he’d given us for the past eight months while dating my mom. My worries that he was after her money had eased somewhat as time passed, but Sid had to be at least fifteen years younger than her. He had to have an ulterior motive, didn’t he? I mean, mom was a gorgeous woman, but I’d never pictured her dating someone who could pass for her child. Looking at Sid from a distance, I couldn’t really blame her for wanting that piece of art over dad. He was gorgeous, and they’d seemed to hit it off from day one. I couldn’t help but feel a little happy for her. After the shit my dad pulled when I was still in high school, it amazed me that mom had found a way to trust a man again. Me—not so much.
“What are we drinking?” Zoey asked as she drummed her fingers on the bar.
“Hot chocolate.”
She rolled her eyes before ordering a gin and tonic with a twist of lime.
What’s wrong with hot chocolate? “With Frangelico liquor, please,” I added.
She rolled her eyes again. “Don’t go overboard, Jules.”
Staying at the exclusive resort hadn’t been bad. If it weren’t for the dweeb who’d had too much beer and relieved himself outside my window last night, or the party family down the hall who had played music until two in the morning, maybe I wouldn’t be in such a rush to leave. I’d gone skiing with Zoey the first two days, and while it was fun, my sister preferred to spend her time in the pool, which only left me the option of secretly hitting the books I had stashed in my suitcase. Studying medicine didn’t leave me much time for breaks. Two more years in medical school and I could begin my residency and be on the way to becoming an ER doctor
Across the room, the lovebirds—Mom the Cougar and Sid the Man-Candy—were at it like a couple of horny teenagers again. I turned away as the bartender passed me a steamy mug of hot chocolate. The glow of the stone fireplace had been flickering since this morning, but no matter how close I sat to it, I was still cold. With the fresh cocoa in my hands, maybe I’d finally warm up.