“Here you are,” the waiter suddenly interrupted, making the couple jump in surprise.
A busboy removed their red and white wineglasses and replaced them with champagne flutes.
The waiter grinned. “Your bottle of Moët, sir.” He held the chilled bottle toward Korey for inspection.
Korey absently nodded while he felt Shino sliding her hand up and down his inner thigh underneath the table. She was making it hard to concentrate on the bottle label—let alone anything else in the room.
“So,” she whispered as the waiter poured champagne into their glasses, “you own your own business, huh?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat as her hand wandered an inch higher, sending his pulse into overdrive. “A couple of auto body and repair shops back home.”
“So you’re a gearhead and industrious? You know, that’s pretty sexy. In fact, everything about you I find sexy, Korey.”
She then leaned forward and kissed him, lightly kneading her warm, plump lips over his before playfully darting that pink tongue inside his mouth. Korey was caught off guard at first, but he only hesitated a few seconds before kissing her back. She moaned softly and pressed against his chest. The kiss deepened as she linked her arms around his neck.
“I’ll, uh . . . I’ll be back with your entrées,” the waiter mumbled before backing away from their table. He bumped into the busboy, who was gaping behind him with a pitcher of water in his hands. The two men openly ogled the kissing couple. The busboy was so engrossed that he was almost spilling water onto the floor. The waiter grabbed the pitcher, muttered something in Spanish, and shooed the busboy away from the table.
A few seconds later, Korey tore his mouth away from Shino’s, coming up for a gasp of badly needed air.
“Damn,” he murmured between breaths, making her grin again.
“Mmm-hmm.” She bit down on her bottom lip. “My sentiments exactly!”
She then leaned forward and kissed him again.
Korey had assured Cynthia that he wasn’t on a date with Shino tonight to get some out-of-town booty, but that pretty much seemed to be where Shino was heading. She was definitely sending out “Anyway you want it, honey” vibes.
“To hell with Cindy,” the voice in his head argued. “If this woman is offering you some ass, then you get some ass, brothah!”
And how long had it been since he had had sex anyway?
Months, he thought. Hell, almost a year! He hadn’t done it since he went out with the recently divorced hairdresser who wanted a revenge fuck against her cheating ex-husband. A man like Korey didn’t have the luxury of turning down a woman like Shino. He didn’t know when an opportunity like this would come around again.
But despite the fact that he had this gorgeous woman’s tongue in his mouth and her breast against his chest, Korey could not get Cynthia out of his damn mind. And it wasn’t just Cindy, whom he could practically hear psychically nagging him to get up from the table and get his ass to the Venetian Hotel. No, he was thinking about Jared too.
Jared.
Though his son may be nineteen years old and put on a bravado like he was ten years older, in some ways Korey knew Jared was still the little boy who proudly showed off a slam dunk on his Playskool basketball hoop in their driveway, who stumbled around the stage in his tap-dancing shoes and Christmas tree costume during his second-grade play. That Jared could be easily saddened and hurt.
Even after all these years, Korey’s urge to protect his son hadn’t waned. It wasn’t that Korey was a “helicopter parent.” He knew that messing up and disappointments were part of growing up, but Jared was millimeters close to making one of the biggest mistakes of his life by marrying Clarissa Simpson. And despite all his best efforts, Korey probably couldn’t stop it from happening.
He had once thought the couple might have a chance at happiness, but now he knew Jared was only in for pain and suffering if Jared entangled himself in the ongoing soap opera known as the Gibbons family. Clarissa wasn’t a bad girl; she was rather sweet, to be honest. She couldn’t help the family that she had been born into, but Clarissa had the unfortunate luck to be born to a Gibbons girl. Now that Korey had spent the day with Cynthia and was reminded of their family’s bizarre rules, rituals, and mercenary ways, he didn’t want his son to have anything to do with Clarissa. It would only lead to heartbreak.
“If he’s in love with her, Jared is not going to avoid heartbreak,” the voice in his head insisted. “He won’t be able to avoid it any more than you did.”
And knowing that fact broke Korey’s heart all over again.
“Are you not into this?” Shino whispered against his lips.
Korey opened his eyes and blinked. “Huh?”
“I asked if you weren’t into this,” Shino repeated, shifting back slightly. “This doesn’t seem to be working for you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, considering where my hand is, I thought I’d have your undivided attention by now—and I don’t seem to.”
Korey looked down and saw that underneath the tablecloth, Shino’s hand had wandered from his thigh to his crotch. She was almost cupping his balls. How the hell had he missed that?
“Sorry. Guess I . . . I guess I was focused somewhere else.”
“Obviously.” She removed her hand and sat back in her seat.
Korey reached for her champagne. They fell into an uncomfortable silence, and Korey frantically grappled for a way to salvage their date. He’d be damned if he let Cynthia ruin this from afar.
“I’m . . . I’m just worried about my son,” he mumbled, deciding to be honest with her. “That’s all.”
“You have a son?”
“Yeah, his name is Jared. He’s nineteen years old.”
“Nineteen, huh?” Shino lowered her glass. “So I guess you’re worried he’s raising holy hell back home? I wouldn’t be too concerned, Korey. I used to do the same thing when I was a teenager and I could—”
“Jared’s not back at home. He’s here in Vegas.”
“Well, if he’s here, then that’s even less of a reason to be worried about him.” She placed a warm hand on his again. She gave it a squeeze. “Do you need to step away and make a quick phone call to see what he’s up to? I don’t mind. Go ahead.”
“It’s not that. Look, it’s . . .” He took a deep breath. “Jared is here in Vegas to get married, all right?”
Shino looked as if she was about to spit out her champagne. She squinted at Korey. “Come again?”
“My son ran away to Las Vegas to elope with his girlfriend. That’s why I’m here to . . . to stop them. I hopped on a plane as soon as I found out what he was up to. I came here so that I could talk some sense into him. We both came.”
“Who’s we?”
Korey hesitated again, wondering if introducing the topic of Cynthia right now was a bad idea. “‘We’ is Cindy and me. We made the trip together.”
“Cindy?” Confusion marred Shino’s pretty face. “Who the hell is Cindy?”
“You met her earlier today. Remember? At the hotel buffet?”
She squinted, then suddenly realized who he was talking about. “Whoa! That woman from this morning? That’s who you came with?”
Korey nodded. “The girl my son is marrying is her daughter.”
“So that’s why she was so bitchy.” Shino slumped back into the plush leather booth. “It was like she was trying to melt me with her eyes! Now I know why! For a second there, I thought you two had something romantic going on.”
He looked at her as if that was the most absurd thing he had ever heard. “Me and Cindy? Oh, hell no! We haven’t been together in years. I’m just with her now because I’m trying to find Jared. That’s it! The woman is insane . . . unstable! I would never get with her.”
“Never get with her now, you mean. But you were together before?”
“Yeah . . . about twenty years ago! We were together back when we were teenagers. We were . . . I guess you cou
ld say we were first loves.”
“First loves?” With that, Shino scrutinized him more carefully. “Did you guys run away to get married too?”
“No. Cindy would never do that. She was terrified of defying her mom, and her mother would never, ever have approved of her being with a guy like me. It’s all about money with them, and I certainly didn’t have any of it back then.”
“But you wanted to marry her. I mean you would have?”
How had the topic shifted from his search to find Jared to whether he wanted to marry Cindy?
“Really, that’s all in the past. Why are we talking about this?”
“If it’s in the past, then you shouldn’t mind answering the question.” She searched his eyes. “Did you want to marry her . . . back then, I mean?”
Korey sat and thought for a minute, going back to the mind-set of the young man he was in 1994. “Yes,” he finally answered. “I would have married her. But all that’s so long ago that it’s not even worth talking about. Trust me. There’s nothing going on between us now.”
Shino cocked an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that, Korey? You know what they say about first loves.”
“I told you. She’s crazy, and I’m not a boy anymore with his head in the clouds . . . who doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. That was then, this is now. I know better. I would never get mixed up with her again. We’re done.”
But even as he said it, he knew that wasn’t totally true. If he was really completely over Cynthia, he wouldn’t keep obsessing over the “who, what, when, and why” of their breakup all those years ago. He wouldn’t still be holding out for an apology.
Shino assessed Korey again with her dark eyes. She didn’t look like she believed him. He could see the incredulity plainly on her face—the way the corner of her lips tightened, the furrow between her brows—but at least she was polite enough to pretend she believed him.
“Well,” she said holding her half-filled champagne glass aloft, “here’s to leaving behind crazy exes.”
He forced a smile and held his glass toward her. They clinked the rims of their glasses together. “Here’s to leaving behind crazy exes.”
They drank and fell into another awkward silence. The waiter brought their entrées, placing the dishes on their table. As they began to eat, Shino gazed at him again.
“So . . .” She grinned. “Back to what we were discussing before.”
“Which was?” he asked between bites.
He honestly didn’t remember since he had become so preoccupied with Cynthia and Jared.
Focus, Korey, he told himself. Focus. Remember? Prime piece o f ass right next to you!
“Which was what plans you have for us tonight.” The pink tongue darted out again. “What exactly did you have in mind?”
“Well, I—”
Korey paused when he heard his phone ring in his suit jacket pocket. He knew instinctively who was calling him at that moment. It could only be Cynthia, and she was probably wondering where he was.
“To hell with Cynthia!” the voice in his head argued.
“I . . . well, I—”
His phone rang again.
He could envision her waiting for him at the dock, gritting her teeth and tapping her foot impatiently, despite him urging her to go on without him. It was so typical of her. If Cynthia wanted something, she expected him to drop everything and come running. She hadn’t changed in all these years. But he wasn’t doing it this time! If Cynthia thought he was about to end this date and give up the chance to sample a piece of Shino pie in his hotel room later that night, she had another thing coming!
“You what, Korey?” Shino asked expectantly. “Are you going to answer that, by the way?”
His phone was ringing a third time, and instead of thinking about Cynthia, he remembered Jared in his Christmas Tree costume . . . Jared, who was probably boarding a gondola to sail away with his future teenaged wife, only to collide with disaster.
Korey’s shoulders slumped as his phone rang yet again. “I’m sorry, Shino, but I think I’m going to have to cut our dinner short.”
Chapter 18
I’m going to kill him, Cynthia thought as she listened to the line ring. She finally pressed the button on her phone screen to end the call. I swear to God that I am going to kill him!
She didn’t think it was possible, but her anxiety went up another notch as she looked at the people who streamed past her on the vaulted bridge overlooking the hotel’s manmade canal. Clarissa and Jared could appear at any second, and here she was scoping out the crowd, searching for Korey. It was now more than fifteen minutes after the time she told him to meet her here. She had called him three times already, but each time the call went to his voicemail.
“Asshole,” she muttered under her breath.
She glared down at her wristwatch, squinting under the street lamp at the watch’s glass face as dusk descended into night. The orange, reds, and purples from the sky above that had reflected off the canal water were now blending into a deep navy that was quickly becoming ink black. More lights started to turn on along the bridge, the dock, and the front of the restaurants lining the canal.
Korey had said that if he didn’t make it back from his date in enough time to go ahead with the search without him. But she didn’t think he would actually do it. He had to realize how important this was! But now they were probably going to miss the kids because Korey was more interested in having a candlelit dinner with some chick he met at the hotel gym than he was in finding their children.
And he thinks my priorities are out of whack, she though flippantly as she impatiently tapped her Tory Burch leather slipper. Cynthia scanned the crowd one last time and shook her head, finally giving up on him. She stomped across the bridge and along the sidewalk to the spot on the canal where a row of gondolas were docked. A short line of people waited there on the cobblestone. She fell in line behind them, standing on the balls of her feet to see if Clarissa and Jared were in line in front of her or in one of the boats drifting away from the dock. But they were nowhere to be found.
“So I guess you didn’t run into them?” Korey asked from behind her seconds later, making her jump in surprise at the sound of his voice.
Cynthia whipped around to face him. At the sight of Korey, the tirade she was prepared to unleash died on her lips. She blinked in amazement.
It was like someone had waved a magic wand and transformed the gruff mechanic with grease under his nails into a debonair businessman. Korey had suddenly morphed into the black Adonis she had spotted in the shopping center parking lot almost a week ago, except Korey was three times as sexy.
He had finally gotten rid of his five o’clock shadow and was clean-shaven. He was wearing an expensive-looking, European-cut, charcoal-gray suit and a simple, silk black tie, something she presumed he hadn’t packed when they decided to take their impromptu trip to Vegas. Instead of Korey’s usual understated aftershave, the scent of a very familiar and expensive cologne wafted toward her. She knew the scent because one of her boyfriends had worn the same cologne on several occasions.
Korey better be wearing a knockoff, Cynthia thought angrily. She knew the real version cost about sixty bucks an ounce. That meant between the cologne and the suit, he had probably spent almost a grand for his date with Shamu, and that didn’t even count the dinner itself!
“It’s Shino,” a voice in her head corrected.
Whatever!
This is the same man who once balked in high school at paying an extra twenty-five cents when she asked for the medium instead of the small popcorn at the movies. And judging from where he lived and what he drove, Korey was still as much of a penny-pincher as she remembered. Now he was tossing around money in Vegas like he had a bottomless wallet. What the hell had gotten into him?
“Why didn’t you answer my calls?” she asked through clenched teeth, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I didn’t need to. I already knew what you were going
to say.”
“That your ass should be here! That I can’t believe you’d—”
“Look, I don’t need a lecture from you, all right? I told you to—”
“Go ahead without you. Yeah, I remembered!”
“And you didn’t, which was your choice. I just don’t understand why the hell you’re pissed at me.”
Oh, where do I begin, Korey?
She was pissed at him for blowing off the search for the kids like it wasn’t of the upmost importance and the sole reason they had traveled all these miles. She was pissed at him because he had acted as if he wasn’t remotely interested in her romantically despite their steamy history, yet he had just wined and dined a woman whom he had only met hours ago. She was pissed at him for marrying Vivian and making Cynthia believe that her best chance at happiness was to stick with Bill and hope that he was Clarissa’s father. In short, Cynthia was pissed at Korey because everything about him at that moment made her absolutely furious.
She opened her mouth to say as much when a voice suddenly called out behind them, “We’ve just had a last-minute cancellation, folks! If anyone is interested in a ride, we’d be happy to grant you one. One hundred bucks!”
Cynthia and Korey looked at the young man with freckles and slicked-back red hair who stood near the dock.
“A cancellation?” Cynthia asked.
The young man nodded. “Yeah, you guys interested?”
“If Jared and Clarissa aren’t the ones who canceled, then maybe they’re already out there on the canal,” Korey said, leaning toward her. The warmth of his breath along her ear combined with the tantalizing smell of his cologne sent chills up her spine. “We’d have a better chance of finding them out there.”
“I know that,” she snapped, not liking how her body was reacting to him. She was supposed to be angry. She preferred anger to the other emotion that was roiling inside her: desire. She turned to the guy in the polo shirt near the dock, who waited for their answer. “We’ll take it.”
Minutes later, Cynthia and Korey were climbing onto one of the gondolas. Korey offered his hand to her as she boarded, but she shoved it away and instead decided to wobble along on her own before finally falling onto the velvet-cushioned seat. Korey took the spot beside her.
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