“I’m usually a fumbling mess around women,” he admits. “But with you, it’s different. And despite the fact that tonight has been a new level of crazy, I am having a really good time.”
I laugh softly and nod. “I am too. Except the cab driver. He creeped me out. Won’t lie, I was ready to taze him.”
“You really have a taser?” He laughs.
“I do! Lucy gave them to us and made us take them as a precaution. I’m glad I did, look at what we’ve been through,” I laugh.
“If we ever get to another club I promise you another whiskey sour and a dance.” He grins, reaching for my hand.
I laugh as Chance places a few cups of coffee in front of us. “I will hold you to that. After the night I’ve had, I need it.”
“It’s just a little reminder that next time I come here I definitely need to be more prepared,” he says having a drink of the coffee.
“Prepared? I planned this for months and I still got us into this huge mess.”
“But the pizza was fantastic,” he tells me, “not to mention the men’s bathroom.”
“So, new plan,” I tell him, “we will pick one of the random clubs off the list that Chance gives us and we will go there. We’ll stay there until close.”
He gives me a little nod as he has another drink of coffee. “Then I can get you back to your hotel and hopefully, after all of this, you’ll still give me your number.”
I take a brief sip of coffee and smile. We’ve had a hell of a night and though he was supposed to be my wild and crazy one night stand he is growing on me. “Give me your phone.”
He gives me a confused look but passes me his smart phone. I tap at the screen until I get my bearings straight and I type in my phone number for him. I save it under my name Ember Ross and slide it over to him. “There, now you already have my number.”
He grins and begins sliding his finger over the screen of his phone. A few seconds later my phone begins making noise from my purse. I open it and pull out my phone. Lighting up the screen is a text from Remy’s number, “Hello, beautiful.”
I smile and save his number immediately. “Now we just have to hope we don’t get so drunk that we forget each other.”
“You mean like our friends will be?”
I have another swallow of my coffee and sigh. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I really hope that Lucy and Cindy are okay.”
“My friends are good guys, I promise they’re safe. Drunk or not, they wouldn’t let anything happen to them.” Remy has another drink of coffee and glances over his shoulder. “How in the hell did I not see that when we walked in?”
I laugh and shake my head. “Don’t stare!” I give him a playful swat. “It’s rude.”
He shakes his head, “If they’re doing it out in the open then they want to be seen!”
I can’t hold in my laughter. I begin laughing loudly, trying to hide myself from the others in the club.
“At least we had the decency to go in the men’s bathroom,” Remy says in my ear making me laugh harder. “I’m pretty sure people are sharing other people over there too. Which explains why the cab driver asked if I shared you.”
“Oh come on, spanking can be fun,” I wink.
“I never said spanking wasn’t fun, but I’m not spanking you in a room full of people who are watching,” he tells me, “I don’t share.”
“Aw, Remy doesn’t share?”
He shakes his head. “Hell no, I’m greedy.”
I giggle as I glance behind us to see what’s going on. My eyes grow large and I look away. Something tells me I don’t want to know what they’re about to do with that double ended dildo. Remy glances but immediately looks away.
“Well, I bet you could take me in the bathroom here and no one would bat and eye,” I laugh.
“No, they would just follow us to watch.”
I shake my head, “I don’t do audiences.”
“Is that an invite?”
“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but you, sir, owe me a whiskey sour.”
“And a dance or two,” he reminds me. “I should warn you though, I have two left feet. I’m a horrible dancer. I don’t even know why I told you that. I know I’ll make a damn fool out of myself.”
“No worries, that makes two of us.”
“Well, now that makes me feel better.”
Chance interrupts us politely passing us a little piece of paper. “There’s a list of four clubs that are really nice around town,” he smiles. “The one listed first, Toppers, is a really nice lounge. They have dancing and private booths that I bet you two would enjoy. It’s only a few blocks from here. I made sure to give you all of the correct addresses as well.”
“You are a date saver,” Remy smiles, “thank you. What do we owe you for the coffees?”
Chance holds up his hand and shakes his head. “On the house. I hope you two enjoy the rest of your date. Be more careful of what clubs that you walk into from now on.” He winks, stepping away to help another customer.
Remy focuses on me and smiles. He’s trying to avoid looking at the customer as much as I am because the man standing next to us at the bar is all but naked. He is definitely not into leaving things to the imagination, that’s for sure. I let out a little giggle as he pops on his hat, reaches for my hand and helps me from the stool. We thank Chance again for being so kind to us as we head for the door.
“Thanks a lot asshat,” Remy breathes as we bustle past the bouncer. “You could have at least warned us.”
The bouncer laughs and shakes his head. “You two enjoy the rest of your date.”
Remy nods and glances at the little piece of paper that Chance gave us. “Toppers is the one he said we would like. Hopefully he’s not pulling some sick fucking joke on us.”
“I think he was too nice for that, I think we can trust him.”
He gives me a nod as he begins typing in the address to Toppers into his GPS. “Well, the good news is that it’s only six blocks from here and we are already going the right direction.”
I let out a little enthusiastic cheer. “Now we’re on a roll.”
He slides his phone into his pocket. “Are you still warm?”
I give him a little nod. “I’m great, I’m surprised at just how warm this thing is.”
“Well, it does look great on you. A lot better than on me I’m sure.”
I blush. “Well, I will admit that you caught my eye when we were standing in line at the first club.”
“I remember, I saw you staring.”
I feel my cheeks blaze with heat. “I couldn’t help it. Your eyes…your eyes got me.”
He gives me a bright smile and reached for my hand. I’d definitely say that I am ready to face whatever adventure awaits us, as long as it’s with him.
We continue making our way to Toppers when we come to an older gentleman who is wrapping a coat and blanket around him as he sits on the sidewalk. He smiles at us both and say “hi” very softly. His beautiful gray eyes seem sad and broken as he tries to seem chipper in his greeting and I can’t help but feel sorry for him.
Remy and I both say hello and right away Remy asks him if he needs anything. I look at Remy and smile. I’m taken aback by the action and it melts my heart. The old man says that he’s just hungry and Remy begins looking around. He sees something that I don’t and asks if the man can wait there. He tells him that we’ll be right back as he grabs my hand and we rush to a little diner across the way.
Remy’s act of kindness makes me a little teary eyed as he orders the man a ton of warm food, coffee, and some bottles of water. He has them put it all in to go bags as soon as it’s ready and we both rush to give him his food. The old man is so happy that he becomes weepy himself and I find myself fighting off tears. I wipe underneath my eyes as Remy pulls a wad of cash from his wallet and places it in the man’s palm.
We’ve spent most of our night thinking our night has been awful, but this man has had it much worse. Being able
to do something like this has made all of issues tonight seem worth it. The man thanks us profusely and stands to hug both Remy and I.
As we walk away I have to wipe the tears away from my eyes again as I glance over at Remy. “That was the sweetest thing that I have ever seen.”
“I was just doing what anyone else would have done.”
I shake my head. “Not everyone else would have done that, Remy. That was really generous of you.”
“Every little bit helps, right?”
I give him a little nod. “I think you made his night, his entire week in fact. Remy that was beautiful.”
He gives me a little shrug. “I was taught to never look down on any one. That we as humans have opportunities to lift others up, so when I see the chance that’s what I try to do.”
“And you did just that,” I say getting a little weepy again.
“What’s wrong?” He asks, stopping me to wipe a tear from under my eye.
“That was just really sweet. I’ve never seen anyone so happy. That man was just overjoyed by what you did. He appreciated it so much. It was really beautiful.”
Remy smiles and looks at me thoughtfully as he wipes another tear from underneath my eye.
I let out a little laugh and sigh. “Well, now you know one of my secrets. I’m a sap. A gigantic, bawl like a little baby, sap.”
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” he tells me.
“Yeah but you’ve never been to a theater and gotten kicked out for ugly crying during a chick flick either.”
He purses his lips and I can tell that he’s being a gentleman and trying to hold in his laughter.
“Yeah, that happened. I was kicked out of a theater because I was ugly crying too loud and disrupting the other people.”
“So, when I bring you to a chick flick I should always have extra tissues on hand?”
I laugh again and nod. “More like the whole box.”
“I will definitely keep that in mind.”
“Well, now you know of my dirty little secrets, your turn.”
“That hardly counts as a dirty little secret,” he laughs. “Besides, it’s not even that horrible and I didn’t see anything wrong with it.”
“My ex thought it was. Matter a fact I can’t remember the last movie he took me to. If I wanted to see a new movie I just went alone.”
“I’m really starting to hate your ex,” he tells me, “on the same hand you’re my gain.”
“Your gain, huh?”
He gives me a nod and a bright smile that’s swoon worthy. “His loss, my gain. You know how this works.”
“After the night we’ve had I have to wonder how a future date would go between the two of us,” I giggle. “How much trouble can we get into in just one night?”
“Well,” he starts, “let’s see. First we tried for drinks and ended up in the bathroom. Then we decided to leave and you left your purse. I can’t leave out nearly getting shot by the fake cop because we were kissing or the creepy cab driver. Not to mention going to a vacant building that we were told was a club and going into a BDSM bar.”
I begin laughing harder. We have had one hell of a fucking night. The BDSM bar probably tops the list, though. And while we’ve hit some iffy patches we’ve at least come out unharmed. Though that fake cop did scare the shit out of me. I thought for sure we were getting shot. I give my head a little shake. “The BDSM bar has got to be the best part. Did you see the double ended dildo thing?”
“I tried to unsee that as soon as I seen it,” he laughs.
“I can’t even think of what they would really do with that thing,” I tell him, “it had to have been this big.” I hold up my hands about two feet away from each other.
“So tell me, does the gypsy like to play with toys?”
I immediately give him a little nod. Why would I lie? I’ve already had sex with the man at this point. “I have a few that I like to use.”
He smiles at me and I feel something burning deep inside of me. It’s that smirk. It has to be his smirk. There’s something about it that makes me feel all loopy, like I’ve just has a few shots of tequila and it’s burning all the way down my throat as that warm, fuzzy feeling creeps into my brain.
I smile feeling a little weak in the knees. How did I get here? I know how…I just…how did I get here with him? How did I fall into this so easily? How did I rush off to the fucking bathroom, the one thing I said that I would never do, with him?
It’s all been such a whirl, a rush if you will. Someone new. Something wild. A weekend in New York City to rejoice in my newfound singlehood. But it was supposed to be just that. One wild and crazy weekend here in NYC. I wasn’t supposed to fall for the charms of some man, let alone fucking Zorro, so easily. I’ve been scorned and had my heart crushed by a man that I spent the last four years of my life with. So…why Remy? Why did I trust him immediately? I let out a sigh and I feel my heart pound deep within my chest. Honestly…I have no fucking clue.
His little smirk is damn near killing me. His deep, smooth voice makes my stomach jump. And while I’m at it, I’ll tell you that he’s a fucking God when it comes to sex and knows that it’s okay to let a woman come first for a fucking change. Seems like everything I plan in my life never goes the way I plan it. But you know what? I finally feel like for once I’m where I should be. I know my life will go every which direction but the one I want it to and hell, I don’t even know if we’ll make it to Toppers but I at least know that somehow I’m supposed to be with Remy. I give him a little smile and feel my cheeks becoming warm.
“So, that whiskey sour you owe me…”
“Yeah, yeah,” he says softly, “don’t worry your gorgeous little head, we’ll get there.”
I let out a soft little laugh. “Are you sure about that?”
He chuckles. “Not really, I mean we could end up at the other end of town for who knows what fucking reason in the back of some creepy person’s cab.”
“Didn’t we already do that once tonight?” I say with deadpan face. “I mean, come on Remy, you have to spice it up. You have to keep things interesting for me.”
He lets out a loud laugh and nods. “Is there anything that can really top what we’ve been through so far?”
I shrug and release a huff of air. “Why don’t we go find out?”
He gives me a smile and my hand a light squeeze. “Yeah…let’s go find out.”
2 a.m
Two in the morning has rolled around and my feet are half killing me, but Toppers has been so amazing that we haven’t stopped dancing and the drinks have been coming since we walked through the door. Actually, I’m probably a little too tipsy for my own fucking good. Which is why Remy and I have slinked away to one of the private corner booths.
“Would you like another whiskey sour?” He asks, as he slides into the seat next to me.
I give my head a shake. “If you’re going to get me back to my hotel I would advise against another.”
He lets out another laugh as we settle into the booth. Honestly, getting to Toppers and finally getting our drinks and dancing some has made up for our choppy beginning to the night. While Remy and I are fucking horrible at dancing, he is a great slow dancer and I don’t mind getting so close with him.
“I wonder how our friends are doing?”
I give him a little shrug and pull my phone from my clutch to check for any missed calls or messages. “Probably having so much fun that they completely forgot we were supposed to meet them.”
He leans back in the seat taking off his hat and runs his hand through his hair. “Well, I am glad that tonight has gotten better.”
“You and me both,” I smile, “but we’re here and we’re having a hell of a good time.”
“Did you catch what time this place closes?” He asks, glancing over at the time on my phone.
“I think four a.m.,” I tell him. “They’ll probably give us a last call.”
“You up for another dance with Zorr
o?”
I lean my head on his shoulder. I’m honestly wearing down quick. My feet are aching and I kind of want to sit here and be comfortable with him, but, for some reason I can’t resist another dance. I reach for his hand and begin gently pushing him from the booth. “By the end of this you’ll be carrying me back to the hotel,” I laugh.
He grabs his hat and pops it onto his head and I tug tenderly on his hand. He shoots me that smirk that makes me weak in the knees and I immediately blush. It’s strange how that very little smirk is beginning to grow on me.
“Ember, what the fuck are you doing?”
The loud voice behind me makes me jump and push myself into Remy who throws an arm around me. The voice is much too deep to be Lucy or Cindy and they would never talk to me like that. The voice is angry…no, the voice is fucking infuriated as though I have done something so horrible wrong that they can’t believe their eyes. I swallow hard and force myself to look towards the voice to see who seems to be scolding me. Standing there in an old tee shirt and faded jeans is Jonah, scowling at me. My mouth drops and I can hardly believe my eyes. I look back at Remy who, if looks could kill, Jonah would fall dead where he stands.
“Jonah, what in the hell are you doing here?” I snap.
Remy looks at me, “You know this guy?”
I give him a sad nod. “Unfortunately, I do.”
“I’m her boyfriend.”
I intervene quickly. “Like fucking hell you are, you fucking cheating dick. I kicked your ass out and made it quite fucking clear that we’re done.”
“You didn’t mean that,” he tells me, “you were just upset.”
“I’m pretty fucking sure I meant it,” I tell him, “I am done. You cheated on me with that fucking cow.”
I feel Remy reach for my waist, “Why don’t we get out of here? We can always go somewhere else.”
I give Remy a little nod as he squeezes me just a little closer to his body.
“Like fucking hell you’re going with this guy,” Jonah shoots, grabbing for my free arm.
Remy’s attitude changes as he steps between Jonah and I. “You lay one fucking hand on her and I will -”
Take Me Home Tonight (Wild Nights Book 1) Page 7