I fought the urge to roll my eyes at her. I took a deep breath. I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt and go with the flow, done deal. Erin came over with a pair of stiletto heels. They were bright pink with black polka dots.
“These would look perfect with that skirt. Now we just have to find you a top.” Ten minutes later, I was stuffed into a dressing room with a new outfit. A plain white shirt that dipped low enough to show my impressive breasts, the black mini that was a bit too short for my taste and the pair of kitten heals. I looked at myself in the mirror and my jaw dropped. I had a flattering figure, I knew but what I was looking at was one sexy chick. I never wore risky clothing like this. Jeans and a tee shirt was more my style but I had to admit, I looked hot. I stepped out of the dressing room.
“Holy shit, look at that rack!” Cassie said, giving me a whistle.
“I would kill for those legs!” Erin chimed in.
“You look H.O.T hot!” Anna said as she blew on her nails and polished them on her shirt. I could tell she was awful proud of herself.
“You look OK.” Angie said, sitting in a chair looking bored.
After we all found our outfits for the night, we made our way back to the hotel. The club was opening at eight so it gave us plenty of time to get ready.
Anna hired a hairdresser and makeup artist to come do our makeup and by the time we were ready, my long dark hair was flat straight and hanging to my waist, my eyes were dark charcoal, making my green eyes sparkle and every single piece of body hair had been waxed to smoothness.
“Are you ready for your birthday surprise?” Anna asked through the bathroom door. It was past eight at this time. We would have to get a move on if we were going to make it in time to see the famous DJ Muse. I walked out of the bathroom to see all three girls in the living area of their suite. A single chair was placed in the middle of the room. What the hell?
“Ok Thea. Sit in the chair and Cassie is going to blindfold you. No peeking, OK?” Anna said as she guided me towards the chair. I knew I shouldn’t be nervous but I was. I was scared to death. I knew what Anna was capable of and half the time her little schemes turned into disaster.
I took a deep breath. Benefit of the doubt, benefit of the doubt, I kept repeating to myself. Cassie blindfolded me, just like I was told she would. I waited and waited. Finally, I heard music playing in the background.
Usher’s ‘Nice and Slow’ began to beat through the room’s speaker system. What the hell is going on? I thought to myself just as Erin said, “Oh my fucking god!” I hate being blindfolded. For all I knew they had hired a hit man to off me. Fuck.
“Holy hotness!” Anna said as she pulled off my blind fold. I looked up to see the silhouette of a sexy man dancing towards me. His shirt was off, showing his perfectly sculpted six-pack. He had a pair of faded low rising jeans on that showed the perfect shape of his V. He wore a mask that looked like something from the phantom of the opera. Holy Fuck! Anna had hired me a stripper.
He was now several feet away from me. His eyes were locked on mine as he danced up to me. His body glistened with moisture. I could practically see the beads of sweat rolling off his chest. Christ, I was completely turned on.
He put his finger to my mouth and sang, “I just want to take this nice and slow”. I watched as he moved my legs apart, settled himself between them and pulled my hand to his chest. I felt the hot, hard steel of his chest as he moved my hand down to his abs. Oh my god. This man felt good. It had been years since I felt the skin of a man and I had missed it desperately. He moved his body to the music and mouthed the words to me, never taking his eyes off me.
He moved my hair away from my shoulder and placed his lips tenderly to the sensitive place below my ear, still whispering the words to me. “My my my, wish that I could pull over and get this thing started right now”.
I have never felt something this erotic in my whole life. I was still mesmerized by the movement of his body when the song ended. I stared up into his eyes and something about them looked familiar. I’m not sure what it was. Did I know him? Then it clicked. Miles? I looked around the room to see that the girls had left me alone. What bitches. What if this guy was here to murder me? They didn’t know that I possibly met him last night at the bar. That’s if it was Miles.
“Miles?” I asked with confusion in my tone.
“Cattle rancher?” He answered.
It was Miles. He pulled off his mask to reveal himself. I knew I would never forget those eyes.
“Holy shit it is you” He said in surprise.
“It’s me Thea the cattle ranch farmer and Jack addict.” A small smile played on his lips as he looked down at me.
“I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you.” He gestured to my outfit. I blushed then stood, pulling my short skirt back in place.
“Well I think it’s safe to say we are officially friends now that you practically molested me.” I walked up to him and grabbed his mask from his hand. I put it up to my face. “How can you see in this thing?” I asked and handed it back to him.
“Not good enough apparently, I didn’t realize how beautiful you look tonight.” Miles said as he took the mask back from me, brushing his fingers against mine. I felt the jolt of electricity course through my hand from his touch.
“Thank you” Was all I could say. I was dumb struck.
“Your friend came to the club where I danced this afternoon and hired me to come up here and give you a private dance. She said you were crabby and needed a little pick me up.” I laughed. Anna and her dirty little tricks but this one, I appreciated her for. I never thought I would see Miles again.
“Well, I’ve had a shitty couple of years, so she dragged me here to Vegas for my birthday and here I am.” There was an awkward silence between us. Miles looked uncomfortable for the first time, even though he all but humped me just a few minutes ago.
“Umm…so you’re a dancer?” I broke the silence.
Miles chuckled “Well if that’s what you call it than yeah, I’m a dancer, but only in my spare time. I’m studying architecture actually. Dancing just pays the bills.” I smiled up at him. Shit. Did I need to tip him? He was paying for college after all. I held up one finger and walked over to my clutch that was on the couch. I pulled out a hundred dollar bill and handed it to him. Miles cocked his head to the side in curiosity.
“Here take it. You did a good job. I’m no longer in a crabby mood.” I shoved the bill into his hand.
“Nope, not taking it Thea. Nice try though.” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Take the damn money Miles. You bought me a bottle last night and this is my way of paying you back. I just owe you one fifty more.” I stuck the bill into his waistband this time. Miles looked down at the hundred-dollar bill hanging out of his jeans and back up at me.
“Have dinner with me tonight and I will call it even.” He said in a sexy tone. How could I say no to that?
“Ok, but I’m buying. No arguing. Understood?” He nodded his head and held his hand out to me. Miles retrieved his shirt from the back of the couch, letting my hand go long just enough to shrug it on and then held my hand again as we left the suite.
Miles and I chose the Venetian buffet for dinner. I had never eaten Vegas buffet and Miles said it was the best, so I gave in. We walked hand and hand up to the pay booth, where a couple of waitresses were giggling to themselves about something.
“Two please” was all that Miles said. Instantly the girls stopped their gossip and starting drooling all over themselves. I couldn’t blame them, Miles was delicious.
“Are you….are you Officer Entice from Men on Fire?” our waitress asked, never taking her eyes off Miles. I turned my head to look at him and mouthed ‘Officer Entice?’ He gave me a half smile and winked before answering the swooning waitress.
“That would be me.” Miles answered as if he were recognized all the time.
“Oh my god, I saw your show earlier tonight and you were great!” The waitress squealed.
“Thank you” He replied. Miles then did something that made me blush the deepest red. He reached his hand into his jeans and pulled out the hundred-dollar bill I had given him earlier and handed it to the waitress. She looked like she was about to pass out. I just rolled my eyes. I knew I was probably close to the same age as this girl but my maturity level was far more superior.
“Two please, and my date and I would love a bottle of red wine.” For the first time, the waitress acknowledged me. She looked at me up and down as if to size up her competition, fat chance little girl.
“Absolutely, right this way” The waitress gestured to the dining room. Eight buffet tables were set up all around us and a chef was behind one of them, cooking something on the grill.
“There’s Mexican, Chinese, American, Italian, Greek and some other shit. After we get our table we will dig in. Sound good?” I looked around the room as he led me to a secluded table against the wall. I already knew that I wanted to try the Greek food. My mother would cook a Greek dish once a week and I missed her cooking so much. Lancey would cook for me on occasion, but it wasn’t the same.
I sat down at the table and to my surprise; Miles sat next to me, not across. I couldn’t tear my gaze from his large, muscled frame. How his black shirt hugged his chest to perfection, how the veins popped out of his arms when he reached across the table and retrieved the place settings to put them in front of him.
“See something you like, cattle rancher?” Miles turned to look at me. He had caught me staring. How embarrassing. I decided to play it safe and act as if he didn’t affect me the way we both knew he did.
“Not really, just admiring the cutlery.” He laughed then, a deep, sexy sound that came from deep within his body. I loved the sound. He wasn’t pretending to be amused. Miles was genuine and down to earth. He didn’t look at me as if I was going to break as I was used to people doing. That’s why I wasn’t going to tell him about my tragic past. I was leaving in three days and I wanted to be Thea, the young, carefree women, not Thea, the wounded soul.
“Shall we?” Miles said and took my hand.
“What is that?” Miles said after we piled out plates high and sat back down at the table. I looked down at my plate. I had picked some of my Greek favorites. It looked good, not as good at my mother’s but decent enough. I pointed to my entrée.
“This is Bifteki, the Greek version of the American burger and this,” I pointed to the soup, “Is Bourou-Bourou, a vegetable and pasta soup.” Miles blinked slowly and nodded his head.
“So I take it you are Greek?” He shoved a bite of noodles in his mouth and chewed slowly. His jaw moved up and down in an erotic motion. Jesus he was beautiful.
“Umm…yeah, my mother was born in Athens. She moved to the states when she was sixteen.” I expected him to try to dig into my life a little more but he didn’t.
“A half Greek cattle rancher, interesting.” I got to work on my Bifteki and by some miracle, it wasn’t half-bad.
“What nationality are you?” I asked after I chewed.
“Ah…my mother calls me a mutt. My mom is half-French, half Italian, my dad is German, and Irish I think. So I’m the best of all worlds.” Miles gave me a wink as he shoved another bite in.
After we finished our meal, Miles picked up the questions again. “So how is it that a young woman like you owns a cattle ranch? Do you share it with a sibling and parents?” I sipped the delicious red wine he had ordered for us and pondered the question. I was going to keep it simple and sweet.
“No it’s just me and my crew. They pretty much run everything, except for the business aspects.” Hoping that he would accept my explanation, I moved the conversation to him. “So why architecture?”
He turned his chair to face me and put his finger to the corner of my mouth. “You had something on your lip,” He put the finger to his mouth and sucked on it. Oh god, I was going to turn into a puddle in the middle of the room. “My dad’s an architect and I love all types of buildings so it was just natural to do something that I loved.”
‘All the Single Ladies’ began to play through my clutch. It was Anna. I looked at the time. Shit it was already after ten.
“Sorry I need to get this. Hey Anna. Yes, I’m fine. I’m…” suddenly the phone was taken away from my ear. I looked up at Miles giving me a dubious smile. “Is this Anna? Yes, This Is Miles Taylor. Thea and I decided to have dinner tonight.” A long pause. “Yes she is fine. No she’s not under duress.” Miles cocked his head to the side in curiosity. My eyes bulged out of my head. God knows what she was saying to him. “You want proof of life?” Miles said, cocking both his eyebrows.
I smacked my forehead, hard. Not the proof of life shit again. Anna made it a habit to have cold hard proof that I wasn’t under stress or being kidnapped. Little did she know she was the one always stressing and kidnapping me.
“Ok, ok give me a minute.” Miles said and hung up the phone. He called a waitress over. “Can you take a picture with me and my date?” He asked giving her my phone. The waitress looked at him.
“Only if I can have your autograph Officer Entice.” She replied. I could see Miles roll his eyes and take her pen from her pouch. He scribbled his stage name on her order pad and handed it back to her. He got up from his chair and came to stand behind me. He wrapped his thick arms around my neck and rested them on my chest. I was sure I was going to hyperventilate.
“Smile pretty for the camera cattle rancher.” He whispered in my ear. I looked up at him and smiled the widest one I could manage. The waitress took the picture and gently sat my phone back on the table.
“You and your girlfriend have a lovely evening.” The waitress clipped, giving me the evil eye. I wanted to argue with her but my eyes were still locked on Miles. He still had his arms around me and it was the most delicious thing I have ever felt.
“Spend the day with me tomorrow.” He whispered. I wanted to say yes, with every part of me but I knew I couldn’t let myself be too attached to this beautiful man. I would be leaving to go back to my normal life in a few days.
“No I’m sorry. I can’t” I replied. I didn’t want to feel this way. So enthralled by Miles, so interested. Miles let me go and sat back into his chair. He grabbed my phone and sent Anna the picture. He looked at me as he sat the phone down.
“Why can’t you Thea? I want to show you all the beautiful things Las Vegas has to offer a gorgeous woman. Besides, I want to show you a good birthday. Please say you will come with me.” His look was pleading almost desperate. I knew Miles could have any women he wanted at any time, so why me? What made me so different from all the other women he had met? Maybe this was his idea of seduction, of temping me with his great personality and good looks.
Oh, god I wanted to say no. but my libido got the best of me so I whispered. “OK”
Miles was a perfect gentleman as we walked back to my hotel, his hand guiding me by the small of my back. The heat from his hand coursed through my body.
We talked about sports and places he’s been during our walk. For being so young, he has seen so much. France, Canada, the UK. His father traveled a lot for his job and Miles was lucky enough to be able to go with him the summer after he graduated high school. I was in awe of him.
We entered the elevator at my hotel and I pressed my floor button. I could feel his body standing close behind me. I slowly turned around. His body was so close; I could smell the soap on his skin. I looked into his eyes to see not only admiration but also lust in them.
“Can I kiss you Thea?” He asked in a soft tone. I couldn’t control my body anymore and I didn’t want to. My hand came up and brushed his smooth cheek. Miles closed his eyes and leaned down so that his lips were inch from mine. I moved my hand to his shoulder and held on as I moved my lips closer to his. The sexual tension between us was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I wanted to taste his plump, juicy lips like I never wanted anything in my life. His lips brushed mine, tenderly at first but the anticipati
on seemed to consume us both.
We both opened our mouths at the same time and our tongues collided. I wanted to crawl deep inside of him. He tasted of mint and red wine. I moved my body closer to his and cupped the back of his neck. His hand snaked around my waist and held me to him. Our lips and tongues moved in perfect synchronization, almost as if we were reading what the other one wanted. I moaned into his mouth as he took the kiss deeper. My hormones were racing.
Lust had me under its spell as I pushed the stop button on the elevator, as I hiked up my skirt and wrapped my legs around his waist. I was now up against the mirrored wall in the elevator, my soaking core rubbing against the large bulge in Miles’ jeans. I wanted him. I wanted him touching me, inside of me.
As I fisted my hands in his shirt and tried to pull it over his head, his hands stopped me. I knew he wanted this as much as I did. So why was he stopping me? Miles reluctantly pulled away from me to look into my eyes.
“I want you Thea. Oh god I do but not like this. Not here. Not tonight. I’m old fashioned. I want to know more about you before we take it to the next level. God I sound like an idiot. I’m sorry. Do you feel how much I want you?” Miles grinded his erection into my core and I whimpered. “I want to respect you. I want to make love to you slowly and sensually. I have never met a woman like you Thea. I don’t want to ruin it by just fucking you. Does that make sense?”
I looked into his serious but yet tender eyes and nodded my head and whispered, “Yes, I understand Miles, more than you know.” I lowered my feet onto the floor and pushed the start button on the control panel. I wanted the same things he did. I was old fashioned too. I could tell Miles wasn’t after my money or a one-night stand, like most guys I had met were. He wanted something deeper, even if it was just for a little while.
Miles walked me to my door and I unlocked it. I turned around to see him leaning against the door jam. I held open the door, wanting him to join me but I knew he wouldn’t. He leaned in and lightly kissed me on the corner of my mouth.
Within Miles Page 3