Cassidy laughed and squeezed her hand. “It’s not about being perceptive. It’s just about paying attention. And like it or not, you’re an open book, Seth Hamilton. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that?”
“I don’t think anyone has bothered to read me before,” I admitted.
“Well, you’d better get used to it—and fast. You’re becoming my new favorite book.”
Not bothering to suppress the cat-that-ate-the-canary grin, I shook my hand free from Cassidy’s to sling around her shoulder and pull her closer to my body. “What can I say, I’m a page-turner.”
She huffed and swatted my chest. “I’m going to have to send you daily insults just to keep your ego in check.”
“You love my ego. Stop pretending you don’t.”
Cassidy stopped suddenly in her tracks and exclaimed, “Son of a bitch!”
“Hey, I was only joking—”
“No, not you.” Cassidy pointed to the closed-down building we were in front of. It looked as if it had seen better days, with boarded up windows that hosted some unoriginal graffiti, and a trash-strewn parking lot. “Cocktail’s has closed.”
“What has closed?” I asked, frowning, and turned to face the building to get a better look. The bulbs of the sign above the door had been broken, but the cocktail glass poked at something at the back of my head. “Wait, this was a cocktail lounge, right? I think I remember coming here a few times.”
From what I could remember, it had had rock-bottom prices and let anyone in. Not surprisingly, it had been a favorite for high school kids trying to get loaded underage. There were plenty of other shady places off the beaten track, but this one, I guessed, had been too close to the big boys of the Strip and Fremont Street to get away unnoticed forever. And it was a crying shame. The place was a good size, could even be expanded if someone took the notion. And it was in a prime spot of real estate, too.
“Yeah, I loved this place. Me and my friends had the best time after our high school graduation here.”
Oh yeah, it had totally been shut down.
“I’m so bummed now,” Cassidy said, looking down at what was left of her ice cream as though it held the answers to get out of her nostalgia slump.
“Maybe someone will reopen it. It’s Vegas. There’s always something new somewhere.”
“It wouldn’t be the same,” Cassidy mumbled. She finished the last of her dessert and folded her arms across her chest. She looked like a pissed off toddler and it made me grin. She was so fucking cute.
“Maybe it’ll be better.”
She stuck out her bottom lip in a pout that would have looked ridiculous on anyone else. “Promise?”
I rolled my eyes and tucked her under my arm again. “Sure, Cass. I promise.”
Chapter Twenty
The night had been a killer. Marley’s firm was hosting a promotional night for a new vodka client and it felt like everyone in Vegas got an invite. We were at capacity with a mile-long line waiting to get in the entire night. It had been madness, but we’d pulled it off. Marley had flowered under the pressure, first manning the door with her colleagues as she saw in important guests then making sure everything ran smoothly inside.
But the second we closed and the place emptied, she wilted before my very eyes and withdrew into herself. I sent most of the staff home early once the bars had been cleaned up enough and the heavier stock had been pulled from the stockroom.
Marley sat cross-legged on the floor as she filled a fridge with bottles of beer, a glazed look in her eyes as though she may have been there in body, but she sure as shit was somewhere else entirely in mind.
“You’re really starting to depress me, Marley,” I said, lining up replacement liquors for the empty ones we’d already blown through.
She jumped, like she’d forgotten I was even there. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Are you ready to do something about it yet?”
Marley didn’t answer me. She paused in her chore for a heartbeat before carrying on.
It was the first time I’d asked that sort of question and she hadn’t looked like she wanted to rip my throat out. She didn’t scream all the injustices life had served her, and all the ways she was pissed at Blake.
Was this progress? Was she almost ready to talk to him? Christ, I hoped so.
“Cassidy is great,” I said. “Why did no one tell me how hot the sex could be with someone you’re seriously into?”
Marley snapped her head around to look at me with an open-mouthed expression, her eyebrows almost hitting her hairline. “You’re a piece of work, Seth.”
I grinned at her. “I know. Cass thinks so too.”
She let out a breath and turned back to the fridge. “It sounds like she’s making you really happy. Is it just the good sex?”
“Nah. I’m so into her it’s pathetic. She’s disgustingly cute and calls me on all my bullshit. She gives me a hard time and it keeps me on my toes. I really fucking like her, Marley. And I think that’s what makes the sex so good—because of how good we are when we aren’t having sex.”
“Have you told her that?” Marley asked, her voice quiet.
“No, she’d laugh and make earrings out of my balls. I’m actually quite stunned she hasn’t tried already.”
“You’re in love with her, Seth. You should always tell the people you love how important they are.”
I crouched down beside her and reached for a beer to help her finish filling the fridge. “I will when you will.”
Marley huffed and shoved my shoulder, sending me sprawling flat on my ass. “God, you’re like the idiot brother I never had.”
“Well now you have me. Deal with it. Everyone else in the family has to.”
She shook her head and took the beer bottle from my grasp. “How are you finding it with both of you working crazy hours?”
I shrugged. “We’re making it work. She’s on nights again this week so I don’t get to see her too much. More when she works the late shift, so there’s that at least.”
“Don’t you ever meet her after work?”
“What? At six in the morning?”
Marley cut me a look. “Why not? You’d get to spend an hour or two together. Go to bed together. Wake up together.”
My sister-in-law was a fucking genius.
* * * *
I thought about calling Cass, or at least sending her a message, to let her know I was planning on dropping by. But I figured surprises are always good things, and if I turned up with takeout for breakfast from the diner close to her apartment, I would be more than well received.
She came out of the hospital just before six-twenty and I knew the second I set eyes on her that something was wrong. Cassidy didn’t see me right away. She had her head down and her hands shoved in her jacket pocket.
“Cass,” I called softly.
Her head jerked up and her eyes were red-rimmed. She looked exhausted. “What are you doing here?”
I took a cautious step toward her. I should have fucking called. “I wanted to see you and thought I’d pick you up with some breakfast. What’s wrong?”
She shrugged and I knew it was everything she could do to keep herself together. “Bad night.”
“How bad?”
“Car wreck on the freeway…drunk driver against a family with three kids. All but the eldest daughter didn’t make it. She’s going to wake up and find out her entire family is dead.” Cassidy’s voice broke and I surged toward her, pulling her into my arms and holding her as tightly as I dared.
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Cass hiccupped and burrowed her face into my chest. “I know it’s the job. I know. But tonight was really fucking hard.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I admitted.
“You’re here. That’s all that matters.”
And there was that throb in my chest again.
As it turned out, Cass’ car wouldn’t start the night before and she’d had to catch the bus to work. I drove
us to her apartment. She was silent for the most part, seeming to disappear inside herself as she gazed out of the window. She gave me a weak smile when I parked and I was full of self-doubt. Did she want me there? What if I was making it worse and she thought I was crowding her?
“Are…are you staying?” Cassidy asked, her voice crackly with emotion.
“Do you want me to?” I asked, hoping she’d give me a straight answer.
She nodded. “I’d have told you at the hospital if I didn’t.”
There was my girl. I kept her tucked in close to me as we made our way up to her apartment. We didn’t bother with plates as we dug into breakfast, just grabbed forks and ate straight out of the takeout containers.
“How did tonight go? It was the big promo event, right?” Cassidy asked, tucking into her waffles as we sat at the table in the small kitchen.
I nodded, chewing my food. “It went great. We were at capacity all night. And I think Marley and the other PR guys blew it up. They should have a great client relationship now.”
“How is Marley?” Cassidy asked, her forehead knitted with concern. I loved that Cass cared about a girl she’d only met once, briefly. She had a fucking amazing heart.
“I wish I knew. She’s not mad anymore. I think she’s hurt, still. I want to help them, but they won’t help themselves,” I said, clenching my hand around the fork a little stronger than was necessary. Man, those two pissed me off.
“You can’t do anything, Seth. It must be hard to sit back and see two people you love in so much pain, but they need to fix things themselves.”
“What are you, the voice of reason?” I asked with a smile.
“You need someone to be,” she said, rolling her eyes.
We finished up breakfast and Cassidy threw our stuff in the trash. She then answered my question if she still wanted me around by taking my hand and leading me to her bedroom. Cassidy pulled down the blinds and closed the drapes, drenching the room in darkness. Blackout blinds and curtains really were a godsend to those of us who lived like vampires.
“I’m so goddamn tired,” Cassidy said. She did sound exhausted—mentally and physically. I wondered if she would even be able to sleep with so much on her mind, and having seen so much that night. I had no idea how she even dealt with things like that, though it must be something she was forced to contend with often.
The girl was like a superhero. So fucking strong.
She stripped out of her clothes and flung herself into bed. I shed my own clothes quickly and got in after her. The second I was in, she rolled into me, tucking one leg between mine and getting herself into the crook under my arm.
I held her tight and stroked her shoulder. I wanted to pull her into my body, under my skin, so that I could keep her safe and with me always.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Cassidy whispered in the darkness.
Shifting down so I could reach her head, I kissed the top of it. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” She surprised me then by falling asleep, her breathing evening out until it was a soft rhythm. And because she had managed it, I did, too.
I don’t think I let go of her all night. When I woke that afternoon, later than I would usually have, Cassidy was still curled into my side, her long caramel hair spilling across my shoulder and pillow. Her mouth was parted slightly, her soft breaths tickling my chest. To look at her, you’d think she didn’t have a care in the world.
I was beginning to know better.
Lord help me, I wanted to be the one she turned to, the one she called when she felt like crap and the one she wanted with her at the end of a bad day. With this girl…I was beginning to want everything.
Chapter Twenty-One
There was a shift in my relationship with Cass after that morning. A tenderness that wasn’t there before. When she’d eventually woken, she’d stayed wrapped up in my arms, the tension from her body that had made her flesh tremble hours before was gone. We’d made love—slowly, softly, like a sensual dance with our bodies.
I hadn’t wanted to leave her. If I’d had my way, I’d have stayed there until she kicked me out once she was sick of me. But there was that whole being a responsible grown-up thing I was doing, so I forced myself out of her apartment before I did something stupid, like begged her to let me move in—which would only ensure the door to her life would slam shut, never to reopen ever again. No way was I ruining this thing now by scaring her off.
Work beckoned like the insufferable bitch it was, and to put it off was only adding to the list of tasks to be done later. And I had a feeling after the busy night we’d had, something had to be screwed up somewhere.
And Christ, it doesn’t happen often, but I hate it when I’m right.
A few days after I surprised Cass at the hospital, I found it.
We’d been plowing through stock as if it were the apocalypse and no one wanted to see it sober. I’d put it down to how well the club had been doing, but after running the numbers and checking the computer-logged inventory for the units that had been actually sold, I finally got it.
It wasn’t just because of how busy we’d been. Some of the shit was missing. Either my staff was incompetent, or someone was stealing from me. I couldn’t determine the true root of the problem by looking at the figures alone. If someone was in fact handing out free drinks to their friends, they were being smart about it. It couldn’t be pinpointed to one ID on the system, or even which bar.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
I was knee deep in spreadsheets, trying to figure out how far back it went, when my cell rang in my pocket. Pulling it out, I grinned at Cass’ picture blowing me a kiss, and I slid my finger across the screen to answer her call. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Hey, how’s it going?” she asked.
“Good. Could be better.”
“Like if I was there?”
A smile pulled at my lips. My cockiness was rubbing off on her. “Exactly. Everything would be better if you were here.”
“Then let me in, security won’t let me past.”
Wait, what? I laughed. “What the fuck? Cass—are you here? Now?”
She laughed at my incredulity. “Yes! Now hurry up!”
Sure enough, when I let myself out of the main entrance and made my way out into the hotel, Cassidy stood chatting with a security guard. She spotted me and gave me a saucy wave, cocking her hip and lifting her eyebrows in question.
I nodded to the guard and he let her past, his eyes following her ass as she sashayed over to me. It made me stand up straighter. That had never happened before. I’d never been with a girl long enough to have some other dude covet what was mine.
Mine…
My lips twitched and Cassidy’s smile spread across her face as she reached my side.
“What’s so funny?”
I jerked my head in the direction of the security guard. “Rent-a-cop over there likes your ass.”
Cassidy glanced over her shoulder and saw, indeed, that he was taking no shame in drinking in her body with his eyes. “Think he’s saving the picture for the spank bank?”
I choked on a laugh and threw my arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer to me so I could kiss her. “You’re grade-A material, Cass. What can I say?”
“Aren’t you pissed?” she asked as we started for the club.
“Why would I be pissed?” I asked with a frown. “Because some other dude was checking you out?”
Cassidy shrugged. “A lot of guys get territorial about that kind of thing and turn it into a pissing contest.”
“Wait a minute—are you pissed that I’m not pissed?” Christ, women really were complicated.
She blew out a breath. “I’m trying not to be, if I’m being totally honest. I mean, yeah, I’ve had jealous boyfriends in the past and they’ve been nothing but insecure assholes. But…nothing? It really doesn’t bother you that a random guy was eye-fucking me?”
I held the main door open for her and she brushed past me. All women should come with a
manual—and a YouTube tutorial. Yet I bet us dudes would still find a way to fuck it up. “You didn’t eye-fuck him back, so, no, it really doesn’t bother me.”
“But—”
Catching her hand, I tugged her toward me. I cupped her face between my hands and tilted her head up so I could get easier access to that smart mouth. I pressed a soft kiss against her lips and she quivered beneath my touch. “You are, hands down, the sexiest thing I have ever had my hands on.” I kissed her again and trailed my fingers over her throat, her collarbone and down to cup her full breasts, rubbing my thumb over her nipple. She moaned and arched into my hands. “You think I should be pissed because he looked? He should be pissed because I can touch. Everything he wishes he could do to this body, I can do it. He has the dream. I have the reality. If you’d flirted with him, given some stranger the idea that it could happen with the two of you, then I’d be pissed. If you’d chosen to stay and give him hope rather than be here with me, I’d be pissed. Where are you, Cass?”
She clutched my wrists, her nails digging into my flesh. “I’m with you.”
I smiled and brushed my mouth across hers. “Exactly. You’re with me. Not him. And that was your choice. You chose me, Cass. You chose me. That means it doesn’t piss me off or make me jealous when another dude checks you out. It makes me fucking proud.”
Cassidy laughed, soft and breathy, and a faint pink tint spread across her cheeks. “I really love the things you say.”
I really fucking love you.
My heart jumped at the sudden thought, the realization. The words pooled on my tongue, ready to be spoken. I didn’t know if I was ready to say them or not, whether it would scare her off or not. How can a unit of time be measured in relation to falling in love? Was there a limit to be reached? I didn’t have a fucking clue. But I did know that whatever the case was with Cass and me, it was long enough to know I was truly in love with her.
“Good,” I said, my voice rough. “Because I like talking.”
She laughed again and pushed up on her tiptoes to kiss me. “This whole surprise thing seems to work out well for us. I might have to do it again.”
Secrets, Lies & Imperfections Page 21