Saturday Night Special

by Mari Carr

  “You’re worth it.”

  She took the drink from him and looked away quickly, afraid to let him see how much his words were affecting her. He said nice things to her all the time. Aaron always did sweet, thoughtful things. Now, however, his actions seemed more apparent, more important. She had no doubt he meant for them to stay married. The thought he wanted such a thing blew her away. He’d never come on to her, never flirted with her, never made her believe they’d ever be anything more than friends. Overnight, somehow, all that had changed and she couldn’t figure out how to feel about it.

  “Are you going to eat that or try to stare it into your stomach?”

  “Why do you want to be married to me?” she asked.

  If Aaron was taken aback by her question, it didn’t show. He sat beside her on the bed and shrugged. “There are a lot of reasons why, Riley.”

  “Name a few.”

  “We’re compatible. We have fun together. You’re damn easy on the eyes.”

  She snorted. “You think I’m pretty?”

  “Hell yeah. I think you’re gorgeous.”

  “Since when?” she asked with a laugh. “In middle school, you called me Metal Mouth.”

  “You had braces. Besides, that was years ago. You can’t hold me accountable for mean nicknames I used when I was eleven. If I recall correctly, you called me Aaron Dung.”

  “Oh my God. I forgot about that. You gotta admit that was a pretty good one, Young.”

  “Yeah well, we’ll call that argument a draw.” He reached over and ran his finger down her cheek and she could see in his eyes he meant what he said about finding her attractive.

  “Liking someone’s looks isn’t a real solid basis for a marriage, sugar.”

  “I wasn’t finished giving you my reasons. You can cook. You’re smart. You’ll make one helluva good mother and I want to fuck you so bad it hurts.”

  Riley opened her mouth to respond, but no words would come.

  “Left you speechless, eh?” he asked. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

  “You can’t be serious,” she said when she finally found her voice.

  “My cock’s been knocking on those lace panties all morning, Riley.” As he spoke he pointed at his erection, clearly visible through the denim of his jeans. “What did you interpret that as? Mild interest?”

  “Guys always wake up with hard-ons. I just thought it was testosterone.”

  Aaron rolled his eyes. “If that were the case it would have deflated after a few minutes. I’m feeling lightheaded from the fact all the blood in my body has been hanging out south of the border for nearly an hour.”

  “Sounds painful.”

  He wiggled his eyebrows. “Wanna kiss it better?”

  She was saved from answering when someone else knocked on the door. “More hash browns?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. Probably the maid.” He rose and opened the door. Riley only had a moment to pull the covers up before Johanna Blankenship, Trev’s estranged wife, came running into the room with a baseball bat.

  “Son of a bitch!” she yelled as she stormed straight toward the bed. “Where is he? The cheating bastard! Fucking man whore! I’m gonna bash his brains in!”

  “Whoa, Jo. Take it easy,” Aaron said, and she turned, swinging the bat. He dodged out of the way, escaping a nasty hit by inches.

  “Oh. Sorry, Aaron. I thought you were Trev.”

  “Jesus, Johanna. Put the bat down,” Riley said. “You’re gonna hurt somebody with that thing.”

  Johanna spun, her fury finding a new victim as she approached the bed. “Don’t you lecture me, you filthy home wrecker.” Jo raised the bat but before she could bring it down, Aaron grabbed the weapon and the woman from behind.

  Riley felt her temper snap at the woman’s near assault and dropped the sheet, rising up on her knees, despite the fact she was only in her bra and panties. “Home wrecker? Are you kidding me? You seriously think I’d want that dumbass husband of yours?”

  “Riley.” Aaron struggled to hold on to Johanna, who was screeching obscenities and struggling to get free. “Maybe now’s not a good time to throw around insults.”

  “Dumbass? How dare you call my husband stupid!”

  “Well, you just called him a man whore,” Riley retorted.

  “I can call him anything I want. He’s my husband—and you ran off to Vegas with him, knowing full well he has a wife at home! Bet you didn’t count on your sister telling me where to find you!”

  Riley made a mental note to kill Keira later. “Oh for pity’s sake, I did not run off with Trev.”

  “Then why are you nearly naked in that bed?” Johanna asked, while Aaron retained his death grip on her arm and the bat.

  “Because I was asleep. Besides, if you look around, I think you’ll notice your husband isn’t in this room.”

  Riley’s comment seemed to penetrate and the wind left Johanna’s sails. Jo turned around and Riley fought back a groan as Trev’s gossip-loving wife took in Aaron’s state of undress before turning back to study her again with a smirk.

  “Don’t look at me like that, Johanna,” she warned. “It’s not what you think.”

  “Of course it is,” Aaron interjected. “Riley and I eloped last night. You actually caught us in the middle of our honeymoon, so if you don’t mind—”

  Aaron’s comments, rather than sparking Johanna’s nosy interest, released an onslaught of loud sobs. For several moments, he stood speechless as Johanna bawled inconsolably.

  “What did I say?” he asked Riley.

  “This is not helping my headache,” Riley replied.

  “Could you try to have a little compassion?” Aaron wrapped an arm around Johanna’s shoulder.

  Riley rolled her eyes in response but the gesture sent another stab of pain through her temple. Johanna had tried to take her head off with a baseball bat and insulted her intelligence. Aaron could be compassionate if he wanted, but Riley was feeling a bit low on that emotion.

  “Me and Trev eloped t-too,” Johanna stammered, the words hard to understand through her crying. “We drove over to Paw Paw, West Virginia, where his uncle was the justice of the peace, and then we went to his family’s hunting cabin for our honeymoon. It was deer season and he gave me a new rifle as a wedding gift.”

  “Romantic,” Riley muttered, but she shut up when Aaron sent her a dirty look. He led Jo to the single chair in the room.

  If there was one thing Aaron was a sucker for, it was tears. Riley had teased him mercilessly over the years for what she called his Achilles heel. If a woman wanted to get his attention, she merely had to pour on the waterworks. He had dated crazy Louise Perkins for six months longer than he’d wanted to during his junior year in high school, simply because she cried every time he suggested they break up. Riley had finally intervened, convincing Louise she’d be much happier dating Chuckie Haines.

  “Please don’t get so upset, Johanna. I’m sure Trevor’s just blowing off some steam. He knows he’s got a good thing at home with you. He’s not going to mess that up,” Aaron said.

  “I’m sorry,” she said between sniffles. “It’s all these damn hormones. I c-cry at the drop of a hat nowadays.”

  “Hormones?” Riley asked.

  “I found out I’m pregnant a couple days ago. I went to find Trev to tell him he was gonna be a daddy, but then I heard the two of you had run off to Vegas.”

  “Pregnant. Wow. Congratulations, Jo,” Riley said. Jesus, Trevor has reproduced.

  “So if you and Trev didn’t run off together, where is he?” Johanna asked. “I want to tell him the good news.”

  Riley glanced at Aaron, who shrugged. She recalled him telling her about Trev hooking up with a prostitute. “He, um, he just stepped out for some breakfast,” she lied, rising from the bed and edging her way toward the bathroom. If things turned nasty again, Riley was fully prepared to hunker down behind a locked door. Besides, she had to pee.

  “Where?” Jo asked.


  “I’m not sure where he was headed. Just called a few minutes ago and said he was going to get something to eat.” While Riley was disgusted with Trev for cheating on his wife, she couldn’t completely hang the man out to dry. She’d spent at least an hour of Friday night listening to him cry in his beer over missing Jo. Regardless of his infidelity, he loved his wife and she figured he deserved a chance to make amends if he wanted to. After all, he was going to be a father.

  “Tell you what, Johanna. Why don’t you see if you can get a room here at the hotel and Riley and I will go find him?” Aaron suggested.

  “We will?” Riley asked.

  “Yes, we will. You’re probably tired after the flight and that’s not good for you or the baby. Call us with your room number, take a nice long bath and we’ll send Trevor to your room when we find him. In fact, you can surprise him. The two of you can have a romantic night together and celebrate. How does that sound?”

  Johanna smiled at him as she stood. “That’s a great idea. My feet are killing me. Thank you, Aaron. And congratulations on your marriage.” She started to walk out of the room but turned at the last minute to look at Riley. “Bye, Riley. No hard feelings?”

  “We’re good, Jo.” Riley waved and watched the woman retrieve her luggage from where she’d left it in the hall. Aaron closed the door and leaned on it wearily.

  “You forgot to give her back her bat. She may want that when she finds out what Trev’s been up to,” she said.

  “That’s exactly why I kept it.”

  “So, Mr. Wonderful, any ideas on where we’re supposed to find Trevor and the hooker? Vegas is kind of a big place, you know.”

  “I’ll call the front desk and see if he’s still here.”

  “Don’t you think Johanna asked about Trev first? He’s probably checked out.”

  “I’m still calling the clerk. Who knows what Johanna asked and it’s worth a try.”

  Riley dressed while Aaron placed the call. She listened as he questioned the clerk and she could tell from the conversation he wasn’t having much luck getting any answers. She didn’t expect he would, but her cop was clearly on the case.

  “Well?” she asked when he hung up.

  “All he would tell me is that Trev checked out last night. Probably broke a rule telling me that much, but I mentioned the worried, pregnant wife.”

  “Wonder if he was still with Bella when he left.”

  “I suppose we could try to track down the clerk on duty last night, see if he remembers anything Trev said when he checked out. If Bella was still with him, I sort of think the clerk would remember.”

  “Why’s that?” she asked.

  “Bella makes quite an impression. She’s sort of…” Aaron gestured with his hands in front of his chest.

  “Stacked?” Riley asked and he nodded.

  “Oh hell yeah,” he said, so reverently she rolled her eyes.

  “What is it with guys and big boobs? They’re just fat and skin.”

  Aaron shrugged. “They’re fun to play with.”

  “Let’s roll. The sooner we find Trev, the sooner we can straighten out this marriage mess we’re in. And for the record, I don’t appreciate you telling Jo we’re married. You know what a gossip she is. She’s probably already called half of Baltimore with the news. My family will freak.”

  “We are married, Riley, and the only problem we need to correct is the lack of honeymoon boom-boom.”

  “Oh, that’s very funny. What are you, three years old?”

  As she reached to open the door, she was surprised when Aaron turned her and pushed her against it forcefully. He pressed his body against hers and in an instant she felt the arousal she’d only just managed to beat down come surging to the surface again. It seemed that with one firm touch or heated look, he could drive her to the brink of an orgasm. Jesus, she felt as if she were with two different men. One was her familiar best friend, while the other was a hot, dominant stranger who made her want to do all sorts of nasty, naughty things.

  “We are going to have a honeymoon, Riley. Make no mistake about it. When we come back to this room, I’m going to lay you across that bed and come inside that sweet body of yours until we both pass out from exhaustion. Got it?” He punctuated his question with a hard, quick kiss that took her breath away.

  When he stepped away, he’d turned back into her affable, easygoing friend once more. “Come on. Let’s go find Trev.”

  Chapter Three

  Riley and Aaron took a quick cruise through the slot machines in the hotel, hoping they’d get lucky and run in to Trevor.

  “You realize finding Trev in Vegas is going to be harder than finding an all-you-can-eat buffet for under twenty bucks,” Riley grumbled.

  “I know. Hey, there’s the dealer from your blackjack table last night. Let’s talk to him.”

  “I played blackjack?”

  Aaron chuckled. “You were winning too.”

  “Oh yeah? Awesome.”

  They approached the dealer and Aaron noticed the man recognized Riley right away. “Welcome back, Riley. Did you come to try your luck again?”

  Riley shook her head, undaunted that the man knew her name. Riley was infamous for making friends everywhere she went, but Aaron was going to have a serious talk with her about her partying habits of late. Typically she knew how to have a good time and what her limits were. This weekend binge of hers drove home to him how depressed she must have been lately. She wasn’t usually quite so reckless.

  “No. Actually I’m looking for Trevor, the guy I was with yesterday.”

  “Ah, Bella’s date,” the dealer said.

  She nodded. “Have you seen them lately?”

  The man shook his head. “Not since last night. Your friend hit the jackpot on the Money Madness machine. After that, he and Bella took off.”

  “He hit the jackpot?” Riley asked.

  “One hundred grand.”

  “Shut. Up. Trevor won a hundred thousand dollars? That lucky bastard.” Riley shook her head in disbelief.

  Aaron shrugged, unsurprised. Money always seemed to fall into Trev’s lap. He’d matched four numbers in the lottery once, found five hundred dollars in a coffee can on the street, and inherited a few thousand from an uncle he didn’t even know he had. Problem was, the money never stayed in Trev’s pocket for long. “He does seem to be doing pretty well for himself in Vegas.”

  The dealer obviously agreed. “I’ll say. Winning all that money and spending the evening with Bella.” The man’s look let them know exactly which part of Trev’s good fortune he preferred.

  Aaron chuckled as Riley rolled her eyes. “It’s a big-tit epidemic,” she muttered.

  “Thanks for your help.” Aaron led Riley back toward the front desk of the hotel, where they introduced themselves and asked about the staff working the previous night’s shift. The reservation clerk said the same crew would be working that night. Riley and Aaron decided if they still hadn’t found Trev by then, they would come back to question them all later.

  Aaron took her hand and led her away from the desk. “So it sounds like Trevor and Bella won a bunch of money and split.”

  “Knowing Trev, he decided this hotel was beneath him once he got a few bucks in his pocket.”

  “Probably,” Aaron agreed. “Bella certainly looked like the type who wouldn’t mind helping a fella blow all his hard-earned money.”

  “So the only words I heard in that comment were Bella, blow and hard,” Riley joked.

  “Touché.”

  Riley’s cell phone went off, the sounds of Brick House surrounding them. He chuckled at her ring tone as she pulled the phone out of her purse and looked at the caller ID.

  She sighed. “Shit.”

  “Who is it?”

  “Tris.” She continued to let the phone ring.

  “Aren’t you going to answer it?”

  She shook her head. The phone stopped ringing and she began to count backward. “Five, four, three, two, on
e.” As she hit one, the phone started ringing again. “Jeez, he’s relentless.”

  “Give me the phone.” Aaron snatched the cell out of her hands.

  “Hey,” she protested, but he was quicker. He flipped the phone open with one hand while fending her off with the other.

  “Hello,” he said.

  “Aaron?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  “I assume, since you’re on Riley’s phone, you found her.” Tristan’s voice betrayed his irritation toward his baby sister.

  Aaron looked at Riley, who was glaring at him with her arms crossed against her chest. He let his gaze drift to her breasts, nicely accentuated by her pose. He wiggled his eyebrows.

  “Pervert,” she muttered, taking her arms down and turning her back on him.

  “I found her,” he said into the phone.

  “When are you coming home?” Tris asked.

  “We’re going to hang out in Vegas for a few days.”

  Tris went quiet on the other end for a few moments. “There’s a funny rumor flying around here today.”

  “It’s true,” Aaron said.

  He could hear Tristan’s sharp intake of breath. “You and Riley are married?”

  “Yep. Soon as we track down Trevor, we’re going to start our honeymoon.”

  Riley spun around at his words, fury evident on her face. “What are you doing?”

  “Telling your family our good news.” He knew his response would send her into orbit, but he refused to back down on this subject. If he gave Riley an inch she’d take a mile and he wasn’t budging on their marriage. She was his wife and she was damn well going to stay his wife. It was time she accepted that.

  “Listen, Tris. Do you mind letting everyone know? I’m sorry about springing it on you this way, but it was sort of a surprise to us too.”

  “Didn’t expect you to go to such lengths when I asked you to take care of her.” Aaron recalled Tris and Ewan pulling him aside after Teagan’s wedding and asking him to keep an eye on her. He knew of all her siblings, Tris worried about Riley the most.

  “Listen, we’ll have a big party when we get back. Celebrate in style.”

  Tris laughed. “Sounds like a plan. Welcome to the family, bro, and, um…good luck. You’ll need it.”