“Okay,” I said, forcing a smile that I hoped looked genuine. “I’m in.”
Renee clapped her hands together. “Okay, awesome. I know exactly where I want to go. Head out at six?”
“Sure,” I said.
“Okay. I’m spending the afternoon at the pool with Nikki. Did you want to come and join us? You can bring a book, and I’ll make sure Nikki doesn’t yap your ear off the whole time.”
“You go down,” I said. “Maybe I’ll come meet you guys. I’m going to have a quick bite to eat first.”
“Okay,” Renee said cheerfully before letting herself back into her room.
I was smiling when I closed my door for several reasons. My sister was excited and happy, and so was I. But I knew it wasn’t because of dinner or the chance to bask in the sun with a good book. It was because of him.
***
Renee and I only had to stand in line to wait for a table at the top-rated restaurant she had brought me to for about fifteen minutes. When we were delivered to our table by a stunning redheaded hostess wearing heels higher than any I had ever seen, my stomach was growling impatiently.
“I’m starving,” I groaned, clutching my gut and plucking the menu from the table.
“Me too,” Renee said. Instead of looking at the food, she reached for the drinks menu tucked aside with the salt and pepper. “But first thing’s first. Drinks. What do you want?”
Normally, I would have declined the offer of alcohol, but I was feeling good tonight, and a little drink wasn’t going to hurt anyone. “Something bubbly,” I said.
Renee tried to hide her surprise by holding the menu in front of her face. She peered at me over the top of it, suspicion clear in her eyes.
I laughed. “What?”
She shrugged and continued reading the drink menu. “Nothing. Just surprised that little old you is going to be so adventurous as to order a drink.”
“I do have alcohol every now and then,” I said.
“Yeah, at Christmas dinner and sometimes Thanksgiving. Besides that, it’s just green tea and water for you.”
“If you worked in a hospital and saw the things I saw, that’s all you would drink, too,” I said.
Renee shook her head. “I doubt it. You know me. I’m not the kind of girl to turn down a good merlot. Or shiraz. Or—”
“I get it,” I said, swiping the menu out of her hands. “Let me look.”
I picked a concoction of soda water, pineapple juice, rum, and coconut. When it arrived, I sipped it through a straw and nibbled on the orange slice that had been wedged on the rim of the glass. We ordered our food and sat back to enjoy our drinks while people-watching the tourists on the street.
“So,” Renee said. I knew just by the way she said it that she had been holding back from asking whatever it was she was about to ask.
I put my drink down. “Yes?”
“I came to your room this morning to see if you wanted to go get breakfast, but you were already gone. Where did you go off to so early?”
I considered lying. The temptation was definitely there. But Renee was my sister, and she meant no harm by asking the question. If I was being honest with myself, I wanted to share the excitement of spending time with Greyson with someone, and there was no better someone in my life than Renee.
“Well,” I started, picking my cocktail up again and taking a drink. “I went out with Greyson. The guy you met at the pool.”
“The smoking hot one with the eyes?”
I laughed. “The eyes?”
She nodded vigorously. “They were mesmerizing. Not something a girl easily forgets.”
That was fair. His eyes were a paralyzing shade of blue that had held my attention for longer than they should have on several occasions that morning. “He is quite something,” I said.
“To look at or in general?” Renee pried with a cheeky smile.
“Just all around,” I confessed.
“Oh?” I heard the excited edge to her voice.
That same giddiness was racing through my veins just thinking about Greyson. “He took me out for a nice dinner last night. Then he asked if he could see me today. I knew we would be spending the afternoon together, so I told him no, but he was persistent. I agreed to go out with him again this morning.”
“What did you guys do?” Renee asked, leaning forward and resting her chin in her hand.
“Well, he wouldn’t tell me where he was taking me.”
“Which must have driven the little control freak in you crazy,” she said.
“It did, but only a little bit. Once we hit the road, I felt completely comfortable. I wasn’t worried. He took me to his house. Renee, the guy is a millionaire. No joke. He owns a massive piece of property in Boulder City that overlooks the town and Lake Mead by Hoover Dam.”
“Oh, shit,” she breathed.
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t expect it either. But we had a really nice time, and he’s so sweet and kind and attentive.”
“Is he now?” Renee teased.
I blushed for the hundredth time that day. “I really didn’t see it coming, Renee, but I think I really like him. Like, really like him.”
The server returned with our food. We dug in and conversation died as we shoveled food into our mouths. I had ordered a spicy chicken bowl, and the flavors were unreal. By the time I was halfway through, I had to take a breather. My mouth was on fire, and I pounded back both my glass and Renee’s glass of untouched water.
“Sky,” Renee said slowly. I knew this tone. This meant she had something to say, and she was afraid of the way I was going to react. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, okay? I’m really happy that you’ve met someone. And I think you should spend as much time with him here as you want to because he seems really great. But please, just be careful. Men in Vegas aren’t like they are back home.”
I snickered. “Because I have tons of experience with the men we have back in Houston?”
Renee stabbed a piece of chicken with her fork and acknowledged my jab at myself with a smirk. “Fair,” she said, then continued with a mouth full of food. “But seriously. Men here can be dangerous. This is a whole different scene.”
What she was saying was true, and it was something I hadn’t even considered. I trusted Greyson. I had since the first time I spoke to him in the line at the sushi place. I was positive he didn’t have a dangerous bone in his body.
“I appreciate you being worried for me,” I said. “But Greyson is a good guy. And you know me. Careful is my middle name. I wouldn’t let myself get caught up in something risky.”
“That’s true,” Renee said, reaching for her now-empty water glass. Her eyebrows furrowed. “Thanks for saving me some.”
“My mouth was on fire,” I said apologetically.
She shook her head at me and flagged down the server to order us another round of drinks and waters. We sat for a while longer, sipping our drinks until those were empty, too. Then we ordered a third round, which was something new for me. I hadn’t sat and enjoyed myself like this since I started nursing school.
“How are you feeling about being away from work for so long?” Renee asked.
“At first, I really didn’t like it,” I said. Which was true. Monday had been rough, and on more than one occasion, I was sure I wouldn’t last the week and would be booking an early flight back to Houston. “But now, it’s starting to feel like I can breathe again. I didn’t notice how much time I was really investing at the hospital and how little I was giving myself. It’s kind of surreal being here, to be honest.” I paused and stared at the table. “Thanks for bringing me here, Renee. I think I needed this. I just didn’t know it.”
“Well, I knew it, and you’re welcome.” She tapped the rim of her glass of wine to my summery drink. “Cheers, sister. To our first vacation together and to good memories.”
“To good memories,” I said.
As I took a drink, my thoughts were of Greyson, but I also knew I wanted to spend
more time with my sister on this trip. I knew I would regret it if I spent all my time selfishly indulging in my first crush since school. Renee deserved my time, too. If anything, she deserved it more than I did. She was the reason I was here, and the reason I had met Greyson in the first place.
“I love you, sis,” Renee said. “Can we spend more time together while we’re here?”
“Of course,” I said. “I’m going to try my best to stop being a hermit. Just be patient with me, okay? Everything feels like a big step. Vegas makes it all a little more daunting.”
“I’ve got you.” Renee grinned.
And I believed her. I felt ready for the rest of my time in Vegas. Time with Renee, on my own, and with the man who had been racing through my thoughts for the last two days. He had even managed to creep into my dreams.
And I wasn’t upset about it.
Chapter 13
Greyson
Meek was going to have my head. I was sure of it. As I made my way to the security room, I considered the best way to tell him to take another day off. It was uncharacteristic of me to send him home so many times in a week, let alone in a month, and I knew I was probably going to have to tell him about Skylar. Otherwise, he was going to think something was wrong, and I’d never be able to get rid of him.
I let myself in, and he had been watching me come down the hall on one of the monitors. “Hey, boss,” Meek said, not looking back at me as I closed the door behind me. He was alone and shot me a glance as I sat down beside him. “How was your day yesterday?”
“Quite good,” I said. “Good enough that I’m going to do the same thing today.”
Meek frowned.
“Don’t hate me,” I said. “But you can have today off, too.”
Meek rolled his eyes.
“Hey,” I said, catching him before he spiraled, and we were locked in another one of our endless arguments about my safety and how it was his job to watch my back. “I’m the boss, remember? That was the agreement when I hired you. I call the shots.”
“Fine,” Meek said. “But I don’t have to like it. What are you spending so much time doing, anyway? You realize you have a casino to run, right?”
“Yes, I do realize that, but I met someone. Someone I really like, and she’s not going to be here long, and I want to make sure I take advantage of the little amount of time I have with her.”
“The girl in the sushi line? With the hair?”
“Yeah, with the hair,” I said, smiling to myself.
Meek made an unimpressed sound in the back of his throat but dropped the subject. He stood and grabbed his jacket that was draped over the back of his chair. “How about the next time you want to send me home, you call me while, you know, I’m still at home?”
“You’re a ten-minute drive from here,” I said.
“Yeah, but that’s not the point.”
“Alright, I’ll do my best to do better next time. Now get lost, enjoy another day to yourself, doing whatever it is you do for fun.”
Meek left the security office with an air of annoyance. I couldn’t blame him. He had a point, and I knew he was just concerned about me the way any good friend would be. I just couldn’t get him to see that his concern was misplaced and not necessary.
Fifteen minutes later placed me at Skylar’s room door. I knocked and waited, but she answered it within seconds. She was wearing a floor-length floral print skirt and a white tank top. “You look beautiful,” I said, the words tumbling out of me before I realized I had even thought them.
She smiled as she joined me in the hallway and closed the door. “Thank you. You look nice, too. Did you have plans for this afternoon?”
“No,” I said, realizing she might have expected me to have planned something for us to do. “But I can easily throw something together. What are you in the mood for? Adventure? Relaxation? None of the above?”
She giggled. “No, no, it’s okay. I was actually hoping we could go back to your place.”
“Oh,” I said. “Yeah. My place sounds good to me.”
“Good.” She grinned, reaching down to entwine her fingers with mine. “Can we stop and pick up some groceries first? I want to cook you dinner to thank you for showing me such a good time since I’ve been here.”
“I’m not going to turn down a home-cooked meal,” I said.
I took Skylar to a grocery store in Boulder City. They were never busy, and it was easier to find everything we needed. She scoured the place, selecting all of her ingredients with care, and I just stood back to enjoy watching her process. She was oblivious to the eyes of other men in the place, who couldn’t help but look over at her to admire her beauty. In fact, she seemed completely unaware of how beautiful she was at all times. I had noticed it when I took her out to dinner at the restaurant the other night, as well.
She was a goddess amongst a sea of mortals, and she was blind to their admiration.
When she was done shopping, I carried the bags out to the car, and we made for my place. By the time we were settled in and the groceries were packed away, it was late afternoon and the hottest point of the day.
“I should have told you to bring a swimsuit,” I said, nodding toward the pool. “It would have been a nice way to cool down before we start cooking.”
“We?” she asked teasingly. “You get to sit back and relax while I cook. And there are plenty of other things we can do to pass the time. I want to know more about you, Greyson.”
“Then let me pour us some wine, and we will sit and chat the afternoon away.” And in that moment, there was nothing I wanted to do more than sit and talk with her because I wanted to know more about her, too. I wanted to know everything.
***
When the sun went down, Skylar unfolded herself from my sofa and went to my kitchen, where she began gathering all the ingredients to prepare whatever it was she was planning on cooking. I took a seat at one of the barstools at my counter and watched her as she began peeling yams. I watched the way the muscles in her back shifted under her tank top, and the way a thin strip of bare skin showed at the hem of her shirt and above the waistband of her skirt. It was hard to look away, and I found myself feeling extremely lucky to be enjoying the company of a woman like her.
“So, tell me,” Skylar said, not turning to look at me as she began cutting the yams into small pieces. “What is one of your biggest pet peeves?”
We had covered a variety of topics over the afternoon, and now, conversation had become much more comfortable and playful. We were getting to know the smaller intricacies of one another.
“Biggest pet peeve?” I pondered, scratching my chin. I realized I needed to shave. Stubble tickled my fingertips. “Honestly, people who chew with their mouths open. I can’t stand it. I can’t even eat if someone at the table is flapping their mouth and showing me their steak and lobster.”
Skylar laughed, and the sound was bubbly and impulsive. I loved it. She slid the pan of yams, sprinkled with something I couldn’t decipher, into my oven and turned to me, her lower back resting against the kitchen counter. “That is gross,” she agreed.
“What about you?”
“People who are rude to customer service employees. It has ruined many of my friendships. I can’t socialize with someone who loses their temper because the kitchen accidentally put ketchup on their burger, you know?”
I laughed and nodded. “I do know. High maintenance, entitled people are the worst.”
“Especially if they also happen to chew with their mouth open,” Skylar added before picking up her empty wine glass and wiggling it at me.
I hopped off my stool and grabbed the open white wine from the fridge to fill her glass for her.
“Thank you,” she said as I topped off my own.
“You are welcome,” I said, peering around at all the food she had prepared.
Yams were baking in the oven. A tossed salad was already prepared in one of my mixing bowls on the counter. Colorful vegetables were in a pan on the sto
ve, ready to be fried, and prawns were in another pan, sprinkled in some sort of seasoning and butter.
“You didn’t need to do all this,” I said. “I was already totally impressed with you without knowing you were such a chef.”
“A chef?” She giggled and shook her head. “No, I just like cooking. It’s fun. Playing with flavors and stuff. Do you ever cook?”
“Sometimes, but not like this. This is a production.”
“No, it’s not,” she said. “Maybe one day I can show you what a real production looks like.”
My head spun at the idea of her being able to prepare something more elaborate than this. “You surprise me at every turn, Skylar,” I said.
We sat down to dinner roughly a half hour later. My plate was more colorful than any meal I had ever had, and it smelled heavenly. We dug in together, and I expressed nearly a dozen times how good it was, and went back to the kitchen for seconds. We chatted about anything and everything, and before I knew it, the time was well past eleven.
We had indulged in two bottles of wine over the course of the evening, and I knew I would have to call a car to take her back to the hotel.
“It’s getting late,” I said. “Your sister is probably going to be wondering where you are. I can have a driver here in about fifteen minutes, and I’ll go with you back to The Citrine. I want to make sure you get back to your room.”
Skylar had her hand on the stem of her wine glass, and as she turned it in a slow circle, she looked up at me. “I don’t…” She paused, licked her lips, and nodded curtly to herself as if she had just come to a decision. “I don’t think I want to go back to the hotel tonight.”
I froze with my wine halfway to my lips.
She blushed and looked at her lap. “I want to stay here with you, Greyson.”
I wanted the same thing. Holy hell, did I want the same thing. “You’re more than welcome to stay,” I said, putting my wine down without taking a drink. “Seriously, Skylar. I would love for you to stay.”
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