Deepest Desire

by Weston Parker

  I slid to a stop behind her just as the elevators doors opened and fifteen guests spilled out. Skylar stepped aside to let them by, and I ducked in beside her.

  “Hey,” I said, shooting her a crooked grin.

  She looked up at me, her brows drawn together in a scowl, and then smiled when she saw me. The creases in her forehead vanished. “Hi,” she said, stepping back to give the people leaving the elevator more space.

  “Sorry, I bailed back there,” I said, referring to my dodge of her blonde friend coming on to me. “I had to escape the girl in the heels.”

  Skylar rewarded me with a giggle. “I may or may not be doing the same thing.”

  “So, she’s the terrible one you were talking about? Your sister’s friend?”

  “Yep, she’s the one. I don’t think I lasted four more minutes out there once they came down. You know how some people somehow manage to say all the right things to get under your skin?”

  “Yeah, I do,” I said, wondering what it was Nikki had said that made someone as sweet as Skylar so upset. “I also know how annoying it is to be cut off when you’re trying to ask someone out to dinner.”

  Skylar’s green eyes widened, and she blinked at me. “Sorry?”

  I scratched the back of my neck. Why was I so damn nervous around this girl?

  “Yeah,” I said, shrugging slightly. “I was trying to ask you out to dinner when your friends showed up, and I lost my chance. So, I’m trying again. Skylar, do you want to go to dinner with me tonight? I know some great places that I think you would really like.”

  She searched my eyes with her own, her green irises flicking back and forth. “I really appreciate the offer,” she said. “But I think I should spend the night with Renee and Nikki. I came here with them and have yet to spend any time with them.”

  “Because you can’t stand one of them. That’s not your fault. Come on, I just want you to have a good time.”

  “I don’t know,” she said, stepping on to the elevator.

  I stared at her for a moment. How hard was I willing to fight for this? Would she be uncomfortable if I kept pushing? I didn’t get that impression at all. If anything, I was sure she was enjoying my company. I had to be more fun to be around than Nikki.

  I stepped through the elevator doors as they started to close. I caught Skylar smiling as she looked at her feet.

  I glanced at the illuminated buttons on the panel. I had until the thirtieth floor to convince her to go to dinner with me.

  “Listen,” I said. “What’s the point of going on vacation if you’re not going to have a good time? Now is the time to be selfish. Don’t spend your first real night here with a girl who knows all the nail polish colors in the salon, but not our previous presidents. Come on. Live a little.”

  “She does know all the nail polish colors.” Skylar chuckled, “You should be an FBI profiler.”

  I stroked my chin playfully. “Maybe I missed my calling.”

  Skylar glanced at the counter above the door. We were passing the tenth floor. I was running out of time.

  “I’ll have you back in your room by nine so you can go out with your girls after. Best of both worlds so they won’t be upset with you. You can tell them I was a creep and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  Skylar laughed, and we passed the fifteenth floor. “Well, part of that is true.”

  “Hopefully not the creep part,” I said.

  “No, not the creep part,” Skylar said. She was looking at me in a way that made me think she was considering my offer.

  “I’m not going to stop until you agree to just sit down and have a meal with me. That’s all I’m asking. Nothing more. A nice meal and a glass of wine and good conversation. You won’t regret it. Come on, Skylar. Don’t leave me hanging here.”

  She regarded me with glittering eyes and pursed lips. She was thinking. I wanted her to think faster.

  By the time we reached her floor and the elevator opened, she still hadn’t answered me. She stepped off the elevator and turned back to me, clasping her hands in front of herself. The smile she gave me had a flirty edge. It made my knees ache.

  “Okay, fine,” she said. “Dinner tonight.”

  “I’ll come to your room,” I said, unable to stop myself from grinning.

  “Three thousand seventy-three,” she said before turning on her heel and walking away from me.

  I watched her leave as the doors closed and she was only visible through the thin sliver. I saw her look back over her shoulder and smile just before she was gone from sight, and I was staring at my own reflection in the mirrored elevator doors.

  She had finally said yes.

  Later that day, I bumped into Meek in one of the staff rooms. He was on his break and was snacking on an apple and cheese while sipping a cup of piping hot black coffee. When I entered, he nodded to a free table, and the two of us sat down together.

  “We working tonight?” Meek asked through a mouthful of apple. He washed it down with coffee and sloshed it around in his cheeks before swallowing.

  “No, impromptu dinner plans this evening. Take the night off. You’ve been working too much lately, anyway.”

  “What, can’t afford to pay me?” Meek joked.

  “No,” I said. “I’m just sick of always running into you. You’re always scowling in the corner somewhere. You need to lighten up. Enjoy the night.”

  Meek chuckled. “Well, working is a way I enjoy my night. I could accompany you to this dinner in case something goes wrong.”

  “No, it’s all right,” I said, knowing that having a giant man watching from the corner wasn’t the right foot to start a date on.

  “At least bring one of the other boys with you,” Meek said.

  “Stop worrying so much. I’m going to a restaurant, not an underground poker game, for crying out loud. The worst that could happen is a waiter spills hot coffee on me.” I was growing a little annoyed with Meek’s endless helicopter parenting.

  Meek shrugged and finished his apple. “Just saying. You have to be smart now that you’re worth millions.”

  I didn’t need to be reminded.

  Everything had changed in my life since opening the casino. After inheriting it, I completely rebuilt it with the money my uncle left me in his will. I hadn’t been expecting any of it. When he was alive, my uncle had never mentioned any of it to me, and I always thought he had other family he would have left it to. Perhaps he thought I was the best choice for running such a massive, dangerous operation.

  Meek had saved my neck on more than one occasion. Drunk patrons sometimes got into fights on the casino floor, and one night, I had tried to intervene, thinking my smooth talk would diffuse the tension, and everyone would be able to go home to their families without having to involve the police.

  I had been terribly mistaken.

  One of the men, a massive, brooding, angry guy, had pulled a knife out of his pocket and gone after me. As foolish and naive as I had been, I never saw it coming. I narrowly missed getting stabbed in the gut, and instead, took it in the side, right below my ribs.

  Meek came barreling in as the guy pulled the knife out and tried to go for me again. Meek had him pinned face first on the black obsidian floors faster than I could blink. Other guests called emergency services, and the whole thing became a much bigger issue, all because I thought I would be able to talk my way out of it.

  An article was published in the paper about it, naturally, and my face became even more recognizable to Las Vegas residents. I felt like a fool for taking such a stupid risk, but the whole damn town thought I was pretty dashing. My face had been plastered all over the place, and I had been followed around by dozens of women for weeks after returning to the casino when my wound had healed.

  I now had a nice little scar below my ribs to remind me of my idiocy.

  Meek had never said a critical thing about it. He had just become even more protective over me, always insisting that I watch my back, keep my eyes peeled,
and bring security with me everywhere.

  I wasn’t willing to let go of my independence. It was unnecessary. I could take care of myself. At least, I could for the most part when the other guy wasn’t going to fight dirty and pull a knife on me.

  I had taken some fighting classes after the event so that I could properly defend myself. Meek didn’t know about those, either. He didn’t need to. They were for my peace of mind more than anything else. I didn’t ever want to use them on someone. I preferred the nonviolent approach. I preferred a conversation, a compromise, and the chance for everyone to leave safe and sound.

  But the scar on my side reminded me that sometimes we can’t always get what we want.

  “I’m going to head home to get ready,” I said, getting to my feet.

  Meek nodded and sipped his coffee. “Have a good night. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “You too. Try to do something fun, will you?”

  “What is fun?” Meek joked as I left.

  I made my way out the front doors of the casino. The day was hot, but not intolerably so. The sun was low in the sky, and I would be returning in a couple hours to pick up Skylar.

  As I hurried down the front steps, a black SUV drove up the ramp and passed the valet at a snail’s pace. I stopped halfway down the stairs and watched it pass.

  I was sure it was the same one I had seen the day I rode my bike to work. The windows were tinted, and the rims were black. The SUV stopped, and I was sure that whoever was driving was looking right at me.

  I didn’t move. I stayed where I was, staring calmly back until the vehicle pulled away and left.

  I knew I should have gone back inside to tell Meek about the suspicious car, but I had things to do and places to be. I hurried down the rest of the stairs, and the valet went to get my car. As I waited, my belly swirled with excitement.

  I thought of Skylar and the way she had looked back at me when I was still on the elevator. There was something about her that I couldn’t put my finger on. There was also so much more to her than met the eye, and I couldn’t wait to discover what lay beneath the surface.

  But it was still just a date. I went on dates often enough. Why was I so bloody nervous for this one?

  Chapter 10

  Skylar

  It was five to seven. I was wearing old leggings and an oversized sweatshirt. Over the course of the afternoon, I had somehow talked myself out of going on the date with Greyson, but had no way of contacting him to tell him I was going to stay in for the night.

  When there was a knock at my door, my heart leapt into my throat.

  I got off the bed and went to the door. I peered through the peephole, already knowing Greyson was on the other side. He was standing back from the door and was dressed in dark jeans, a black shirt, and a black jacket. He looked better every time I saw him.

  I opened the door and held it open with my hip. His eyes lit up when he saw me, and he gave me a wide, white smile. “For a minute there, I didn’t think you would answer,” he said.

  “I was considering it,” I said honestly. “But that seemed rude. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can go out with you tonight. I feel too guilty about abandoning the girls. My sister paid for me to come out here with them, and going on a date with a stranger seems a poor way to repay her.”

  I was hoping he would swallow the rejection and leave. I was hoping he would deliver the final blow, and we could both walk away from this with our heads.

  He surprised me by laughing. “I didn’t come all the way back here for you to send me home because you want to spend more time with your sister and her dim-witted friend. We’re going.”

  His forwardness startled me. “Um, well, I’m not ready.” I gestured down at myself. An oversized sweatshirt and old leggings hardly seemed fitting to go out on the town in. Especially with a man like Greyson.

  “I can wait. I’m in no rush to end the evening.”

  I wasn’t expecting to feel relieved by his determination to still go on the date, so when the feeling washed over me, I invited him in. “Okay, come inside. I only need a few minutes to change.”

  I wasn’t lying. I didn’t spend any time slapping on a face of makeup. Instead, I just ran a powder brush over my face and applied a layer of mascara and lip gloss. I put on a pair of white jeans with gold sandals and a colorful floral top. A light gray cardigan went over my shoulders to keep me warm when the night cooled down. All in all, I was ready in less than seven minutes.

  When I emerged from the bathroom, Greyson had his back to me. His hands were in his pockets, and he was looking out the window at the strip. “I never get tired of this view,” he said as he turned to face me. “It’s always different, somehow, and—” He stopped talking when his eyes fell on me. His mouth hung open for a second before he clamped it shut. “You look beautiful.”

  I blushed. “Thank you. Is it appropriate for where we’re going?”

  “Yes, you’re perfect. I mean, it’s perfect.”

  The restaurant Greyson brought me to wasn’t on the Strip. It was a ten or fifteen minute drive off the Strip, which I enjoyed in the back seat of the luxury sedan Greyson had hired for us for the evening.

  We were dropped off at the curb in front of a small Greek restaurant. When we went in, the place was nearly empty, save for a few tables. The hostess, a bright, cheerful young Greek woman, walked us to a corner table, lit the candle in the center, and gave us our menus.

  “This place is nice,” I said, peering up at the vines crawling on the ceilings. “Are those real?”

  “Yes,” Greyson said, following my gaze upward to the ceiling of foliage. “Quite real. It’s why I like this place. Authentic. Quiet. I thought it was a good choice. We could talk without having to yell over the voices or music.”

  I appreciated his choice. I wasn’t a fan of loud restaurants for those exact reasons.

  Greyson ordered a bottle of red wine after checking with me that I liked it. The bottle he ordered wasn’t listed on the menu.

  “So, you kind of know the ins and outs of this crazy town, don’t you?” I asked as I sipped on our newly poured wine.

  Greyson arched an eyebrow. “Is it that obvious?”

  “It’s only obvious that you grew up here,” I said. “What do you do for work?”

  Greyson took a sip of his wine before answering. “I work for some of the casinos. Marketing, mostly. What about you? What do you do?”

  “I’m a nurse back in Houston. I work in the cardiac recovery ward. It’s basically my home. I think I spend more time there than I do at my own apartment.”

  “A nurse? Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

  I raised my eyebrows, encouraging him to elaborate.

  “Well,” he began. “When I first met you, I could tell you didn’t want to talk to me. Not really. You were busy and preoccupied. Yet you were kind and attentive. A friendly bedside manner, now that I look back at it. And with Nikki. Even though she annoys the holy hell out of you, you somehow manage to put up with her. I imagine you have many patients who give Nikki a run for her money on the aggravation scale?”

  “Yes, I most certainly do.” I smiled, thinking of some of my most high maintenance patients.

  “Kindness is in your blood, then,” Greyson said as if he was stating a simple fact. “And I knew it the second I met you. You’re a different woman than any I’ve ever met, Skylar, and I’ve only known you for a day.”

  Again, I was blushing. This man was going to render me useless. My tongue felt thick in my mouth, and my stomach was swirling with butterflies like I hadn’t felt since my nursing exams seven years ago.

  I wanted to say something to him that might make me feel a little more at ease, but no words came to mind.

  Greyson saved me by carrying the conversation forward. “So, your sister paid for your trip you said. How come? Birthday or something?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “She thought it would be good for me.”

  “Good
for you?”

  “Yes, I’m sort of married to my work. I don’t get out much. I don’t get out at all, really. This is the first vacation I’ve taken in over seven years.”

  Greyson was staring at me like I had four heads. “You’re a nurse. You work twelve hours days. And you haven’t had a vacation in all that time? How are you still sane? How do you still have the energy to smile?”

  I laughed and shrugged. “I love my job. I always have. I’ve never felt like I needed a vacation.”

  “Just because you don’t think you need it doesn’t mean it won’t be good for you,” he said. “Travel is good for the soul.”

  “You sound like a poet. Marketing makes sense.”

  Greyson chuckled and leaned back as our plates of food arrived. We both dug in, and as soon as I had taken a few bites, Greyson was asking if I liked it.

  In all honesty, it was the best Greek food I had ever eaten. I nodded excitedly as I swallowed a piece of chicken. “It’s wonderful,” I said.

  “Good, this place has never let me down. Usually, I come here on my own. I like to get away from the hectic energy of the Strip whenever I can. It can wear a man down.”

  “I bet,” I said. “I’ve only been here a day, and I’m already overwhelmed by this place. I don’t think I could live somewhere so busy. There’s always something happening. Always so many people everywhere you go.”

  “That’s part of her charm.”

  “Her?”

  “Vegas,” Greyson said, spreading and wiggling his fingers in a startling display of jazz hands. I burst out laughing, which seemed to be what he was hoping would happen, because he put his hands in his lap and laughed right along with me, his cheeks turning a bright shade of pink that looked charming on his handsome face. “If you had more time tonight, I could take you around the world in this city,” Greyson continued, stabbing a piece of steak with his fork. “You could visit Paris and ancient Egypt. Greece, Venice, and Rome. We could go to the circus or to an Elvis or Michael Jackson show.”