by Sage Nyx
“Umai,” I say. “Remember? We have reservations there in thirty minutes.”
“You got it,” he replies. “Be forewarned, it might take us a while to get there with this traffic jam.”
The window slowly closes back again. He pulls the limo away from the casino and into the long line of bumper-to-bumper traffic traveling along the famous Vegas strip.
“Are you cold?” I ask Jade when I notice chill bumps on her arms. “You must be. Here, take my jacket to put around your shoulders.”
I remove my suit jacket and drape it over her shoulders. She’s smaller than I remembered. My jacket swallows her up.
“Better?” I ask.
“Much better,” she replies. “Thanks. I didn’t bring a dressy jacket or sweater with me to Vegas. I wasn’t planning on going out.”
She gives me a genuine smile and I relax.
Only a little.
I’m still pissed as hell that my personal assistant didn’t sign my damn name to the card. How could she be so careless to leave that off? It made me out to be a complete asshole when I showed up unexpectedly.
Not a promising start to our evening.
Why am I always making mistakes with this girl? Or trying to make amends for something bad?
For some inexplicable reason that I don’t quite understand, I want her to like me. Usually I don’t give a shit what the ladies think because I’ll never see them again.
“What were you planning on doing in Vegas if not going out on the town?” I ask. “Isn’t that the whole point of coming here? To celebrate your graduation?”
She shrugs, causing my jacket to slide off one shoulder. I reach over and tug it up, letting my hand linger at the back of her neck under her thick hair. Surprisingly, she doesn’t swat it away, so I leave it there. Her skin is soft and warm.
I want to bury my mouth there now too, to taste with my tongue. The fact that she has no clue how sexy she is makes me want her even more.
There’s a fresh, untouched innocence about her I’m beginning to crave.
“I’m not much of a party girl,” she says. “This is my first time in Vegas and I’m here to do the regular, touristy Vegas things. Walk around and see all the big hotels and casinos. Maybe even check out Fremont Street one night too.”
“I know this town better than anyone,” I tell her. “I can take you anywhere you want and show you the sights. Your wish is my command.”
I reach for the bottle of opened champagne chilling in an ice bucket. Carefully, I pop the cork and pour a glass for her. After pouring a glass for myself, I hold up my flute.
“Shall we make a toast?” I ask, leaning closer.
“To what?” she asks, lifting her flute towards mine.
“To a magical evening, of course.”
Jade
I’m way out of my comfort zone with Sugar.
Though he’s trying hard to put me at ease, I’ve never felt so inadequate and out of place in my life.
Not only is Sugar the most irresistible man I’ve ever met, he’s also cultured and filthy rich. His celebrity life is all about fancy restaurants, stretched limousines and expensive champagne.
Whereas, my life is a never-ending struggle to pay off student loans.
Our two worlds would never cross streams in real life.
This date with Sugar is nothing except one big fantasy. A dream that will come to a screeching halt at midnight.
I can’t help wondering if Sugar might be playing a cruel mind game with me. Maybe he’s trying to win a bet. One of those ‘see if you can fuck the geeky girl’ type bets made with a friend. Leroy might be in on it, too.
A bet or challenge is the only explanation I can come up with for his sudden interest. It wouldn’t be the first time this kind of thing has happened to me. Trying to screw the smart girl was an annual competition with the football players in high school.
Thankfully, I caught on to their tricks a long time before they turned their attention toward me. A few of my friends in high school weren’t so lucky.
If Sugar made a bet, he won’t win. I’ll make sure of that.
In the meantime, there’s no harm in playing along. Watching Sugar trying to seduce me will be a task I’ll enjoy.
Even if I know deep down inside, it’s not for real.
I’ll let him stay confident and think he’s winning me over right down until the very last second. Then I’ll give him a very firm ‘no thank you’ and walk away.
Being another one of his sexual conquests isn’t in the cards.
“Would you care for more champagne?” he asks, inching slightly closer to me on the leather seat. “It would be a crime to let a bottle of expensive French champagne go to waste. Once a bottle is opened, the quality goes straight downhill fast. It won’t keep, so let’s finish it.”
He flashes me a cocky grin, picks up the bottle and holds it hesitantly over my crystal flute.
“Only a little,” I reply in a flirty tone. “Not a full glass. I wouldn’t want to get light-headed. There’s no telling what I might do if I’m tipsy.”
“We can’t have that now,” he says, pleased with my answer. “Can we?”
He leans closer to refill my glass. A lock of his blonde hair falls across his forehead. It’s hard to resist the urge to reach up and smooth it back into place.
While we sit stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, he keeps the conversation moving with witty stories. To my surprise, he’s both genuinely entertaining and hilariously funny. I can’t help laughing as he tells me about the crazy things that happen during his shows.
Before I realize it, I’m relaxing and genuinely enjoying myself. He’s working hard to make me comfortable while the limousine crawls at a sloth’s pace down the street.
When my crystal flute is half-empty, Sugar turns to me. “Are you ready for me to top off your glass? I swear I’m not trying to get you wasted. Vegas traffic is a bitch and we’ve been stuck in this same spot for twenty minutes.” He leans over to pick up the bottle out of the bucket.
Suddenly the limo swerves crazily, making a sharp left turn off the street. We hit a pothole hard causing us to almost slide off the slippery leather seats.
“Dammit!” Sugar yells.
He grabs onto me with one hand and holds me tight, so I don’t end up on the floor of the limo while he steadies the champagne bucket with the other.
“Leroy!” Sugar calls out. “What the hell are you doing up there? What’s going on?”
Leroy doesn’t answer. A few seconds later, the limousine slows to a stop. The jarring sound of a fast food restaurant speaker crackles near the driver’s window.
“Welcome to Burger Crown,” the woman says through the speaker. “May I take your order, please?”
“Hmmm…” Leroy says. “What’s your special today?”
“Number nine. A triple-decker Barnhouse Busterburger with fries and a large soft drink.”
“Give me a second to read the menu,” Leroy yells out the driver’s window. “Okay, I’m ready to order. I’ll have some large fries, a Barnyard Buster, some zesty nuggets, two sloppers, one with cheese, one without, and a large orange drink.”
“Will that be it?” she asks.
“Y’all got any onion rings?” Leroy asks. “Because I’ve got a craving for onion rings.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Add two orders of onion rings to go with it.”
“Is that all?”
“No, add a chocolate shake to that too. That’ll do it.”
I peek over at Sugar and bite my lip to keep from giggling. The shocked, horrified expression on his face is priceless. He’s not happy about Leroy taking an unplanned detour through a fast food drive-thru on our date.
Sugar sits there fuming mad for a split-second before jumping up and punching the button to open the glass window separating us from the front seat.
The button isn’t working.
He jabs it furiously several more times.
“Damn!” He
raps three times hard on the glass. “Leroy!” he yells. “Open the window.” As soon as the glass slowly slides open with a squeak, he sticks his face through the opening.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he whispers. “Why in the living hell are we sitting in a goddamn drive-thru of Burger Crown when you’re supposed to be driving us to a sushi bar?”
“I’m hungry,” Leroy answers in a matter-of-fact voice. “I need a bite to eat. Diabetes runs in my family. The doctor said I should keep food in my bloodstream. And I’ve already told you I don’t eat raw fish. I’m not eating that shit.”
“Couldn’t you have dropped us off at the restaurant first and then gone to get yourself something to eat?” Sugar asks. “And why does it matter if you don’t want sushi? You’re not the one with dinner reservations!”
“What do you mean?” Leroy asks in a shocked voice. “I always go with you. What the fuck is a bodyguard for if not to guard you? Women these days are crazy. You need protection, Sugar. I can’t leave you alone by yourself.”
“I’m on a date,” Sugar replies. “Privacy might be nice for a change. I can take care of myself for one night.”
“A date?” Leroy’s deep, booming voice echoes in the limo. “Well, fuck a duck. Since when do you date? I thought this was another one of your hook-ups. You need to tell me important shit. Give me a warning first, or maybe we can work out a special code word. I’m not a mind reader or I’d have my own show. Don’t get all huffy at me.”
“I thought it was obvious,” Sugar mutters. “One girl instead of five. Picking her up in a limo. Jesus! Do I have to spell everything out? We might sit in this drive-thru line half an hour waiting on your order.”
“Check out the traffic, Sugar,” Leroy says calmly. “We’ve moved all of two blocks in forty-five minutes. Does it seem like you’ll be eating soon? No, it does not. You should be a gentleman and ask the nice lady if she wants something to eat from this fine dining establishment. To tide her over until you get to the raw fish place. Sushi isn’t real food, anyway. Thin little slivers of fish scales is not food.”
“Now you’re giving me dating advice? Jade doesn’t want French fries and a greasy hamburger. She’s all dressed up, and I wanted to take her someplace nice.” His voice drops even lower where he thinks I can’t hear him. “This is important.”
“If I’d known you would be so damn picky about everything tonight, I would’ve packed a cooler with food,” Leroy argues back. “I get hungry on the job. You should buy me one of those little refrigerators that you’ve promised me for the last six months. I want one that can go up front with me, not back there with you. Then we wouldn’t be having these arguments.”
Sugar lets out a long, exasperated breath and pulls his head back through the window. He shoots me an apologetic smile.
“Sorry,” he says, tilting his head toward Leroy. “My driver has blood sugar issues and apparently can’t miss a meal or he might go into a coma. Would you like something to eat? According to him, we’ll be stuck in traffic a little longer before we can get to the restaurant. We’re in the drive-thru lane of the famous Vegas Burger Crown.”
“I didn’t realize the Burger Crown here was famous,” I say, leaning over to peer out the window. “It looks the same as any other. What’s special about this one?”
“Not a damn thing,” he admits. He grins at me and for a rare moment I see a glimpse of the true man inside. The man I want to know more about. “Maybe we can make it into something special now that we’re here. I have to warn you,” he continues. “Always expect the unexpected with me. This detour is all part of my big master plan.”
“To do what?”
He waves a tattooed hand at the dingy burger shack outside the limo windows. “To seduce you first with onion rings and a big, juicy, dripping hamburger.”
His voice drops to a low, sexy whisper and I’m mesmerized. By the time he says the word ‘dripping’ I’m soaking wet between my legs.
Damn, he’s good.
Is he trying to hypnotize me with his deep voice? If so, it might be working. I always believed the volunteers magicians hypnotize were plants in the audience. Now I’m not so sure because I’m quickly falling under his spell, captivated by his voice.
I blink and shake my head to snap out of it.
“You don’t want anything to eat then?” he asks, thinking I’m shaking my head ‘no.’ “I didn’t think so. Leroy thought I should ask.”
The aroma of greasy fast food wafts in through Leroy’s open window. It smells absolutely delicious. I’m starving and am getting a little shaky myself.
I impulsively slide up beside Sugar and nudge him out of the way so I can stick my head through the window to talk to Leroy.
“Please order me one of whatever you’re having,” I say to him. “I’m starving.”
Leroy turns around and a big, wide grin splits his face before he bursts out laughing.
“See? I knew you were hungry back there,” he says. “I love a girl that’s not afraid to eat. What do you want? You like onion rings? The onion rings here are so good they’ll make you want to slap your momma.” He moves his head from side-to-side. “Hmm…hmm...hmm.”
“Love them,” I reply. “Order an extra-large for me too.”
“Hey guys!” Sugar says in a slightly pitiful voice from the back of the limo. “Have you two forgotten all about me? Am I about to lose my date to my bodyguard?”
Leroy lets out another loud belly laugh.
“You’re slow, Sugar,” Leroy says. “You snooze, you lose. Here is what’s happening. Me and your girl will get our food, pull over into a parking spot, and eat. We don’t give a shit what you’re doing back there with your expensive suit and crystal champagne flutes acting all fancy.” He winks at me. “Do we?”
He’s getting a big kick out of teasing Sugar. I would love to hear how Leroy, a man who is clearly not a trained bodyguard, or a licensed limo driver hooked up with Sugar in the first place.
The drive-thru speaker crackles again. “Sir? Are you still there? Is there anything else?” the woman asks in an irritated voice.
Leroy sticks his head back out the window and leans closer to the box. “Let me give it all to you again,” he says. “I got distracted for a minute there. We want four, no make that five specials, three orders of onion rings and three chocolate shakes.”
“No shakes!” Sugar and I both yell out at the same time.
A thick, creamy shake on top of champagne can’t be a good idea.
“Make that one chocolate shake,” Leroy adds. “And a bunch of napkins.” He leans further out the window. “Hey, you got any of those little apple pies?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Add three of those. That’ll do it.”
He pulls the limo around to the second window to pay. Turning around in his seat, he sticks a long arm back toward Sugar.
“Give me your credit card,” he says. “I’m running low on cash.”
Sugar rolls his eyes and after pulling his wallet out of his pocket hands Leroy his card.
“No big surprise there,” Sugar says. “Why are you out of money already? I paid you two days ago.”
“Baby needs shoes,” Leroy says, pointing to his new, freshly shined shoes. “And I’m baby.”
I feel a bit sorry for Sugar. Whatever date he had planned for us is quickly being turned upside down. He strikes me as a man who doesn’t enjoy relinquishing control of anything in his life over to someone else. The crazy turn of events must be making his blood pressure rise.
A thorough shakeup might be exactly what Sugar needs in his life. Maybe he needs to see that he can’t always get what he wants. As for me, I’m having a blast watching him squirm.
Leroy pays for the order and acts like its Christmas morning when the woman starts handing him the bags of food through the window. He piles them on the seat beside him, then pulls the limo crossways into two parking spots facing the traffic.
“Okay, now where do I start,”
he says, rubbing his hands together. He digs through the white bags and divides the food between us.
“Hmm…these onion rings smell scrumptious,” he says, holding a huge onion ring up for me to see. “This right here is the Circle of Life.” He devours the onion ring in two bites and grabs a hamburger out of the bag. “And this burger right here,” he says, peeling back the paper wrapping. “Is like that teacher in middle school that you always wanted and couldn’t have. Sweet and thick. Mrs. Maynard was her name. I’ll never forget her.”
Sugar shakes his head at Leroy and with a loud sigh slumps down in his seat.
Leroy scowls at him in his rearview mirror. “What are you pissing and moaning about now?” he asks. “Help me feed your lady. What the fuck is wrong with you? Don’t you have any manners? Here you go, miss,” he says, handing me two paper bags of food.
“I’m Jade,” I say.
“Nice to meet you again, Jade,” he says. “I’m sorry about being an asshole the other night at the show. I was only doing my job. Why don’t you come up here to the front seat and sit with me? If Sugar wants to throw a hissy fit about missing his fancy restaurant opening, he can do it by himself. We’ll sit up here, listen to music and eat until the traffic clears out.”
Sugar shoves his head through the window beside mine. “It’s not enough that you’ve ruined the evening,” he says. “Now you’re trying to steal my date too? I should fire your ass.”
Leroy lets out an amused snort. “Fire me? You can’t fire me. Nobody else would put up with your crazy shit.” Leroy glances at me. “How much do you know about this guy? Did he tell you he’s a fucking freak? Because he is. He sticks knives through his hand and shit. And swallows razor blades. I’ve seen it plenty of times and it’s one hundred percent real. No tricks. He’s creepy as fuck. That’s what his billboards around Vegas should say, ‘Call Me Creepy As Fuck’. I’ll give you that tagline for free, Sugar. You don’t even have to pay me for it.”
“What I do is called magic,” Sugar says in a warning tone. “And I’m not a freak.”
“If you’re not a freak, then who is?”