Best She Ever Had (9781617733963)

by Ellis, Shelly

  Seriously? Again? It was like every time she turned away there was some slut smiling in his face.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she muttered as she stormed across the room. She zigzagged through tables and patrons, mumbling to herself. She stopped when she felt someone grab her wrist.

  Cynthia turned and stared into the glazed eyes of a big-muscled type. The seams of his white T-shirt sleeves seemed to strain across his tattooed biceps. His short dark hair was spiked with gel. He grinned at her drunkenly.

  “Hey, baby,” he slurred. “You are hot as hell! Give you a hundred bucks if you show your tits!”

  She yanked her wrist out of his grasp. “For a hundred bucks, I wouldn’t let you see my damn ankle,” she sneered before walking away.

  “Two hundred?” he shouted after her, making her roll her eyes.

  She finally drew near Korey, who had just raised his glass back to his lips. The glitter-covered nipples of the stripper’s saline-filled double Ds hovered dangerously close to his face, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he was so firmly focused on them that he didn’t notice Cynthia walking toward him.

  “So I guess it wasn’t Jared then!” she shouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

  She had yelled at him both because she was royally pissed off, and because she had to shout to be heard over the heavy thud of the rock music playing on the overhead speakers. The sound was almost deafening.

  Korey lowered his drink to the tabletop and turned toward her, looking like a guilty kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

  “Oh, hey, Cindy!” A goofy grin crossed his handsome face. “Sorry. The time got away from me.”

  God damn it, he’s drunk, she thought.

  “I was looking for Jared and ran into Tiffany here.” He gestured toward the blonde, who rose from his lap and took a step away from him on her clear platform high heels. She turned toward Cynthia and waved.

  “Hey! Pleased to meet you!” Tiffany drawled.

  “Uh-huh,” Cynthia answered flatly, not returning the greeting.

  “I asked Tiffany if she had seen anyone who looked like Jared come through here. She said no.”

  “Is that right? And I suppose asking her that question and getting the answer took a whole hour?”

  “Well, no,” he demurred. “But I had to pay the lady for her time.”

  Tiffany playfully tapped his button nose. “Oh, don’t be hard on him! He’s been down in the dumps. He said he’s had a rough couple of days.”

  “I sure have,” he replied, taking a drink and smiling up at her.

  Tiffany wrapped her arms around Korey’s neck and straddled his lap again. She pressed her bare breasts against his chest. “But like I told you, honey, it’s gonna get better. Things always do. Don’t worry!”

  “Yeah, well, thanks for the pep talk,” Cynthia interrupted, resisting the urge to punch both Korey and Tiffany in their throats. “We have to go.” She turned to Korey and stared at him menacingly. “We have to find our kids . . . Remember?”

  Tiffany’s smile widened as she dropped a hand to her hip. “Kids? Are you guys here in Vegas on a family vacation?”

  “No,” Korey explained quickly, shaking his head, “we are not together.”

  Cynthia’s face settled into a scowl again. Why did he always have to clarify that so quickly? What objection did he have to people thinking they were together?

  “My son and her daughter are a couple, though,” he continued. “They ran away to Las Vegas to get married.” He glanced at Cynthia. “I think her daughter was just desperate to get away from her, if you wanna know the truth.”

  He then laughed, long and loud, and the glare Cynthia gave him spoke volumes.

  “Awww! Your kids are getting married?” Tiffany brought a hand to her ample chest. Her false eyelashes fluttered as she grew misty-eyed. “That’s so romantic!”

  I really am going to punch her in the throat, Cynthia thought.

  “Korey, let’s go! Now!” Cynthia ordered through clenched teeth.

  “Ooooo, the bitch is back,” Korey sang, then chuckled. He gently eased Tiffany off his lap and stood. “But she’s right. We should head out and try to find them. It was nice meeting you, Tiffany.”

  “You too, cutie. Good luck finding your kids.” She then turned to Cynthia. “Hey, have you ever thought of dancing professionally?”

  Cynthia cocked an eyebrow. “You better mean dancing for the Rockettes.”

  “No, silly!” Tiffany gushed with a giggle. “I mean . . . you know . . . exotic dancing. You’ve got a nice little body on you.” She looked Cynthia up and down. “You could make some good money, honey! You should check with Ricky if you’re interested.” She pointed in some far-off distance. “He’s the club owner. He’s looking for a bitchy dominatrix type, and you definitely fit the bill.”

  “Bitchy dominatrix type,” Korey murmured as their taxi drove them back to their hotel. He laughed and slapped his knee. “Damn, Tiffany had your number!”

  “Shut up!” Cynthia barked, making the cabdriver cringe in the front seat. “I seriously don’t want to hear anything from you right now!”

  “If I disobey you and keep talking, will you break out the whips and chains?” he asked with a smirk.

  She ignored his joke. “I am so . . . so furious at you! You said you were going in there to find Jared, and instead you’re in there getting drunk!”

  “I’m not drunk! I had one . . . okay, maybe two drinks. That’s all! I needed to let off some steam. I had a—”

  “Rough day,” she finished for him. “Yeah, I heard. So was the lap dance supposed to be some kind of morale booster?”

  “Why do you care? Are you jealous again?”

  “For the last time, I am not jealous!”

  “Come on! Admit it! You were a little jealous,” the voice in her head mocked.

  “Look, I’m a grown-ass man, and the last I checked, I wasn’t married to anybody,” Korey argued. “If I want to get a lap dance, I’ll damn well get a lap dance!”

  “Not while you’re wasting time that could have been spent looking for the kids! You keep acting like time isn’t of the essence here! We’re trying to stop them before they get married. So man up, pull your shit together, and help me out for once, or is that too much for you?”

  Korey fell silent. He then shook his head. “Fuck this,” he muttered. He reached into his back pocket and tossed another fifty dollars to the driver through the glass partition. “Take her back to the hotel. I’ll find another ride.”

  “What?” Cynthia watched, utterly shocked, as Korey threw open the cab door when they reached a stoplight. He saluted her before shutting the door and walking away, falling into the maze of people along the Strip.

  She jumped out of the cab and ran to catch up with him, almost getting hit by a stretch limo as she darted along the crosswalk. She tripped on the storm drain, losing one of her shoes in its murky depths.

  “Damn it,” Cynthia grumbled. That had been one of her favorite, not to mention most comfortable, slippers.

  She hopped on one foot as she trailed Korey and dodged between pedestrians simultaneously.

  “Korey!” she shouted after him, waving away an old man who shoved a flyer into her face. “Korey!”

  “Would you stop shouting my damn name? I’m tired of it!” he bellowed back at her. “I’m tired of your nitpicking and lecturing me like I’m some child! You want to pull that Ice Queen stuff, do it with someone else! I’m out!”

  “Out? Out where? Where do you think you’re going? What about the kids?”

  “Kids?” He stopped and turned to look at her. His shoulders slumped. He seemed worn down and tired. “For all we know, the kids are already married.”

  “No, they aren’t! Don’t say that! They only had a few hours’ lead on us. We got here in enough time. You heard what the lady at the wedding chapel said! Clarissa ran out! She didn’t go through with it. They—”

  “None of which mea
ns they couldn’t have made up and gone to another quickie chapel to get married.”

  “But it’s only been two days! Why are you giving up so easily?” she shouted, stomping her foot and wincing at the pain. She had forgotten she was barefoot.

  “Why are you pushing so hard?” he yelled back.

  “What do you mean, ‘Why am I pushing so hard?’ I’m trying to protect my daughter, just like I thought you were trying to protect your son! I don’t want Clarissa to make a huge mistake!”

  “You mean making a huge mistake by following her heart . . . something you weren’t brave enough to do?”

  “Are you serious? Are you sure all you had in that strip club was two drinks?”

  “Yes, I’m serious, and for the last time, I’m not drunk! You’re just mad that your daughter has more balls than you did!” He jabbed his finger at her. “She’s willing to tell her mother to go to hell! She’s willing to take a risk that you wouldn’t take!”

  Cynthia looked at Korey as if he had just lost his mind, but she could tell, even in the flickering, kaleidoscope of lights, that he had his full capabilities about him.

  “I cannot believe you would bring up what went on between us twenty years ago right now! That has no relevance to this!”

  “It has every relevance to this! You dumped me because you were brainwashed by your mother and all that crazy shit about the Gibbons family rules!”

  She closed her eyes and dropped her face into her hands. Why did they keep coming back to this?

  “You’re trying to brainwash Clarissa just like your mother brainwashed you! You’re trying to break them up just like your mother broke us up!”

  “Korey!” She opened her eyes and threw back her head. “We’ve already talked about this. It happened so long—”

  “I don’t care how long ago it happened! I know when it happened because I’ve been lugging around the memory of it ever since! You . . . ripped . . . my heart out!” he yelled, making several people passing by stare at him and do double takes. “Do you realize that? You keep acting like it never happened, like what you did wasn’t that big of a deal!”

  She stared at him.

  He looked absolutely ridiculous, raving at her in his wrinkled and sweat-stained suit while an Asian family standing beside him snapped pictures of themselves in front of the MGM Grand. She was sure she had to look equally absurd standing there in her disheveled clothes with one missing shoe. Is this what they had come to after all of this chasing and searching for two days, after all of these years of misunderstandings, heartbreak, anger, and recriminations—their final confrontation was culminating to this?

  She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t help but laugh. She started to giggle, and then her laughter grew louder to the point that she had to cover her mouth to stop people from looking at her uneasily, like they were brushing shoulders with someone who had just escaped the psych ward.

  Korey glared at her in disbelief. “You think . . . you think this is funny?”

  She tried to answer him, but the only thing that came out was more giggles. She was laughing so hard that her stomach hurt.

  As she continued to hoot and snort, the expression on his face suddenly hardened. “You are one cold, heartless bitch, you know that?”

  Cynthia’s laughter tapered off. She watched him turn and walk away again.

  “Oh, come on, Korey! I wasn’t laughing at . . .”

  He ignored her and kept walking, making her grumble in frustration.

  Okay, maybe when a man tells you that you crushed him and ripped out his heart, laughter wasn’t the best response. But how did he expect her to react with him being so melodramatic?

  Fine, I broke his heart! So what the hell does he want me to do? Drop to my knees and grovel for his forgiveness? I was just a kid back then! He can’t forever hold me to what I did as a confused eighteen-year-old!

  “No,” the nagging voice in her head answered. “But you could apologize. It might make him feel better.”

  Well, to hell with that! Cynthia Gibbons didn’t apologize, especially to a man. Hell would freeze over first.

  She turned to walk back toward their hotel but stopped.

  What am I thinking?

  She didn’t stand a chance of finding the kids alone. Korey was the one who had tracked down Jared’s phone. Korey was the one who had suggested pretending to be Clarissa so that they could find out more details about the gondola ride. If it wasn’t for him, she’d be wandering around the Strip, showing a picture of Clarissa to every passerby and hoping they could point her in the right direction. She’d be at a total loss.

  God damn it, she thought. She was going to have to do some groveling, after all.

  “Korey!” she yelled as she walked swiftly after him. “Korey, wait up! Korey!”

  “I told you to stop calling my damn name,” he said between clenched teeth.

  “At least tell me where you’re going!”

  “Back to The Saddled Pony!”

  At that, she flinched. “Why? So some dumb blonde can shake her fake titties in your face?”

  “Why not? She had nice titties!”

  She picked up the pace and had to run to catch up with him. It wasn’t easy. The sidewalk was teeming with people, and he was taking long, angry strides. Plus, she still had just one shoe. “Korey, come on! Look, I can’t do this on my own! Please, I need your help!”

  “No, you don’t! Cynthia Gibbons has been and will always be a one-woman show! She doesn’t need anyone—definitely not me!”

  “But I do need you!” She grabbed his arm, stopping him in his tracks. She took a deep breath. She couldn’t believe she was about to say this. “Look, Korey, I’m . . . I’m sorry. Okay?”

  He pulled his arm out of her grasp. “Sorry for what?”

  Her lips tightened. “You know what I’m sorry for.”

  “No, I don’t. Say it,” he ordered, still glaring at her.

  She swallowed and could feel saliva clog her throat. She had never done this before in her life: humbled herself before a man. It was the hardest thing she had ever done.

  “I’m sorry . . . I’m sorry for breaking your heart. I’m sorry for what I did to you, okay? It was a mistake. I know that—now. But I was eighteen years old back then and confused. It’s not an excuse,” she rushed, holding up her hands when it looked like he was about to argue with her. “It’s just an . . . an explanation. I’m explaining where my mind was back then.”

  “I was confused too. My mom wasn’t fond of your ass either, but I went to the wall for you. And then I found out later it was all just a joke . . . just a waste of my time!”

  “It wasn’t a joke! It meant something to me too! We meant something! It’s not like I set out to hurt you, like our relationship was some big setup! Breaking up with you hurt me too! But I thought . . .” She shrugged helplessly and looked away from him. No longer able to meet his gaze, she stared at the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower replica in the distance. “I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  Korey pursed his lips and nodded. “I know,” he said coolly, making her stare at him again. Her face morphed from surprise to exasperation.

  “If you knew, then why’d the hell you make me go through all this?”

  “Because I wanted to hear you say it. I wanted you to finally acknowledge what you did.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, I said it.” Her expression softened. “So can we move on now? Can we finally put this behind us?”

  Korey continued to gaze at her, not uttering a word. She held her breath until he nodded.

  “Yeah, okay, fine,” he said, but he didn’t sound very convincing.

  “You mean it? You’re really going to let this go?”

  “Yes, I mean it.” He nodded again and ran a hand over his face. “Look, I’m exhausted. I think these past few days are finally catching up with me. I want to go to my room, take a shower, climb into the bed, and go the hell to sleep. So let’s just ca
ll it a night. All right?”

  Cynthia was half tempted to argue that it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet and they had a few more hours available to brainstorm and continue their search, but she could see from the weary look on Korey’s face, his reddened eyes, and the slump in his shoulders that he wasn’t lying when he said he was exhausted. She was tired herself. Maybe they should just wait until tomorrow.

  “Sure, let’s . . . let’s go back,” she said quietly.

  Chapter 20

  Cynthia and Korey drew a few curious stares as they tiredly walked through the Pompeii Hotel and Casino lobby to the elevators. Cynthia hobbled in one Tory Burch slipper, dragging her crocodile-skinned hobo bag behind her. Korey had long ago removed his suit jacket and tie, slinging both over his arm, revealing his T-shirt and the sweat stains under his arms and along his chest.

  Cynthia sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes at the few hotel staff and patrons that openly stared at them. She knew she and Korey looked like a hot mess, like they had just come off a weekend bender. They didn’t need to be reminded of it!

  She sneaked a glance at Korey again as they passed the giant seashell statue near the elevators. She was definitely worse for the wear, more so than he was. Even exhausted and disheveled, he was still handsome and unbelievably sexy.

  She wondered if maybe, just maybe, the fact that he had forgiven her meant they could finally start anew. She certainly had been fighting the attraction she felt toward him because of the resentment he had radiated. Now that his resentment was gone, would he be willing to give her a second chance?

  Not romantically, of course, she thought quickly.

  She had no interest in falling in love again with Korey or starting a relationship, she told herself. She still wanted her big fish with enough wealth to buy a small island, but reigniting the passion she and Korey had once shared was something she was more than willing to consider too.

  It didn’t sound like Korey was in a serious relationship now. Neither was she. Maybe they could come to a mutual agreement. Sex could be something they could both enjoy on the side whenever they got an itch.