Dirty Sex (23 page)

you’ll blow all our cash.”

“Nuh-uh. Pot’s not that expensive.” He smiled at her some more.

“And we agreed not to leave the room. Coop’s going alone. She’s

the least recognizable.”

“Heather’s a babe.”

Reese rolled her eyes. “Let’s go, Justin.” She made a point of

drawing the name out. I guess that meant I was going in drag. “I’ll help

you if you need it.”

A chance to be alone with Reese? In a room with a bed? Fuck

yeah. “I think I’ll need it.” With a last slap against Ryan’s stomach, I

got up from the floor. Reese grabbed an Ace off the table and followed

me into my room.

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“Take off your shirt,” she said the second the door was shut.

I pushed her back against the door and kissed her hard. “You take

off your shirt.” I grinned and started lifting away her clothing.

“Come on.” Annoyed, she brushed my hands away.

“I know.” I tried not to take it personally. “I just missed you.”

“We can’t do this with him out there.”

“Why not?” I backed away and started taking off my shirt, careful

to turn away from her. If she didn’t want me, that was fine.

“Don’t do that. I’m sorry.” Reese slid her hands up my back.

“It’s fine.” I shrugged her hands away. Okay, I was pouting like

a child.

“Coop. Turn around.” Reluctantly, I complied. “I’m sorry, that

wasn’t cool.”

“Maybe I should be sorry. I just assumed…” I turned away again

and pulled out some clothes to change into.

“Don’t pout. It’s unbecoming.” She was so fuckin’ high and

mighty.

That was all I needed to snap. “I’ll do whatever I damn well

please.”

“You always have.”

“What is your problem?” The girl had issues.

“You want to know?” I nodded in response. I wouldn’t have asked

if I didn’t want to know. “I’m jealous, okay?”

“Of what?” I returned my attention to her, shocked into forgetting

my anger.

Reese was studying her feet. “Ryan.” It had to take a lot for her

to admit that.

“Why?”

“I don’t know.” A fact that seemed to frustrate her. “You guys are

just different together. That’s a part of you he’ll always have.”

My eyebrows must have been floating above my head like a

cartoon. “You want to wrestle with me and make stupid jokes about

getting stoned?”

“Not really.”

“How about wild, crazy sex?”

“Are we still talking about things you do with my brother?” She

knew we weren’t, but the glare was still convincing.

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AShley BArtlett

“Nope, that’s all you.” It only took me a second to walk back to

her and press her against the wall with the length of my body. “Now,”

I said in between licking and biting her neck, “will you help me get

dressed?”

She started taking off my shirt for real this time, though I wasn’t

sure that putting clothes on me was one of her priorities. Not that I

was doing so well with holding back. For the last five days, I’d been

watching her, wanting her, and unable to do more than yell at her. So I

didn’t care when her hands tightened on my ribs where they were sore.

I didn’t even care when she brushed her hands over the raw nail marks

she’d left. It wasn’t until her forearms tightened around my shoulders

that I winced.

“Babe?”

“Sorry. I’m just a little sore. It’s fine though.” I went to kiss her

again, but she stopped me.

“I want to see.” Reese forced me to spin around. When she saw

my back, she gasped.

“It looks gross, but it’s not bad.” I’d been checking it when I got

dressed and showered. The original bruises from getting tackled in

Christopher’s office had faded to a really sexy, faint yellow. Those she

had seen. The new bruises from Vic and Gino ranged from an awesome

puke green to a purple that usually only existed in Crayola boxes.

“Babe,” she sort of moaned. “These have to be killing you.”

A fist pounded on the door. “Whatcha guys doing?”

“Screwing like rabbits,” I answered immediately. Reese smacked

my arm leaving a little red mark.

“Put this on.” Reese handed me a ribbed tank top. “Come in.”

“It’s locked. I tried.”

“That’s why we lock it,” I whispered to Reese as I pulled on the

tank top.

Reese let Ryan in. “Go check out her back.”

“What’s wrong with it?” He bounded in. “Oh, shit. Cooper’s got

leprosy.”

“It’s from you, Ryan.” I mustered my most pathetic voice. “I told

you we shouldn’t roughhouse.”

“Doesn’t it look bad?” Reese pushed my tank top up so it was

stretched above my shoulders.

“I kind of like it. It’s like
Fight Club
Chic.”

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Dirty Sex

“You guys are impossible.” Reese let the shirt drop.

“What do you want me to say?” he asked her. “It’s a bruise. If I

push it, then it’ll hurt.” Ryan poked his finger into my back.

“Oww.” Jerk.

“So we won’t do that.” His hand dropped. “It’ll heal.”

“You’re no help.”

Ryan looked at me all confused. I shrugged. Neither of us knew

how to heal a bruise faster.

“Get out so Coop can get dressed.” Reese directed him toward the

door. He dragged his feet. “The faster you move, the faster your weed

arrives.” That got him going. Reese closed and locked the door behind

him.

“I told you not to worry.”

“No, you didn’t.” So literal.

“Well, it was implied.”

The heat from before had left the room sometime between her

seeing my back and her brother joining us. Getting dressed wasn’t

nearly as fun as it could have been.

❖

Twists of metal rail of New York-New York’s roller coaster

loomed behind the gaudy flame-covered façade of the bar Reese had

sent me to. The fading sunlight in the background was hardly a match

for the wattage emanating from the overdone sports bar. Vegas sure as

hell had the whole excess thing down.

There was a game playing on the screens covering every wall in

the place. I made my way through the masses of people, mostly male.

Half walls of glass separated the various rooms into semblances of bars

and restaurants. It was all the same though.

I chose a stool at one of the bars facing a glass wall. From there

I could see in front of me and behind because of the reflections in the

glass. A few minutes later, a guy with a cropped Mohawk sat next to me.

His dark, unkempt goatee stood out against the pale tone of his skin.

“You Justin?”

I nodded. “Chad?” We proceeded to act like we knew each other.

In a bar this packed, it didn’t really matter, but it was still a good idea

to be cool.

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AShley BArtlett

“How much you want?” There was a trace of a Southern twang in

his voice.

“Half a zip.” I was trying to make my voice sound a bit deeper.

I was also trying to say as little as possible. It wouldn’t be good to let

him know I was a chick.

“Cool. Two thirty.” Damn, markup in Vegas was high.

I pulled out a wad of cash and counted it in my lap where he could

see, but no one else could. “You got the shit?” There was no way I’d

hand it over without making sure he had something to give me.

“Right here.” Chad reached into his jacket pocket and flashed me

a bag of weed.

“Awesome.” With the bills rolled into my palm, I smacked his

hand, twisted my palm up, and pulled close so our shoulders touched.

Traditional bro hug. In the process, he took the cash and handed me

the bag of green with his free hand. I shoved it into the pocket of my

baggy jeans.

“Give me a call if you need anything else,” Chad said.

“For sure.” It was doubtful that we would need more. We only had

another week or so left until the passports came in. Chad and I went

our separate ways. He walked back into the casino and I went out the

front entrance. I was about to open the door and leave when I turned

and saw someone who made my hands shake and breathing pick up

considerably. Gino. He made eye contact, looked me up and down, and,

just as easily, looked away.

It wasn’t possible. The fucker didn’t recognize me. The second

I was outside, I started walking toward the Wynn. It required all my

effort not to run. Instead, I called Reese.

“You get it?” she asked.

“Yeah. But Gino was in the bar.”

“What? Get your ass back here. We’re leaving.”

“No, no. It’s cool. He didn’t recognize me. We made eye contact

and he kind of checked me out, but he totally didn’t recognize me.”

“Shut up. What a dumbass.” She sounded as incredulous as I felt.

“Weird that he was in there.” I wouldn’t have chosen a cheesy

sports bar for a meal if I lived in Vegas. If you lived there, you’d know

the actual cool places. “You know what that probably means?”

“What?”

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Dirty Sex

“He’s probably here just to find you guys. That’s a total vacation

place.”

“I think you’re right.”

By the time I got back to the room, I was completely full of myself

for avoiding Gino. The room smelled like pizza.

“I hear you’re pretty happy with yourself.” Ryan looked away

from the window to tell me. Then he twisted back and pressed his face

against the window again.

“I saw Gino,” I said. “He didn’t recognize me.”

“Reese told me. But, like, did he even see you?” Ryan sounded a

little dubious.

“Yes, he saw me.” I joined him at the window. “He looked me up

and down.”

“We ordered a couple pizzas.” Ryan wasn’t as excited about Gino

as I had been. “And beer. You guys wanna watch a movie?”

“Sure.” I dug into my pocket and handed him the snack size Ziploc

filled with pot. “Got this for you.”

“I love you.” He grinned and took the bag to the couch where he

proceeded to crack it open and smell inside. Judging by his faraway

smile, it was acceptable. He rolled ten slim joints and filled his case

with them. Reese and I joined him on the couch.

With Reese’s blessing, I chose the most horrific movie the hotel

offered and we settled in with our pizza, beer, and pot. Not a bad way

to spend a night really. The first scene made Reese jump. She moved

closer to hold my hand. I ate my pizza and drank my beer one-handed.

Half an hour later, Ryan jumped too. After that, I didn’t have any free

hands.

About halfway through, I reclined across the couch with my head

in Reese’s lap and my feet in Ryan’s. They passed a joint back and forth

between them. Whenever Reese had it, she would hold it to my lips.

She had a way of doing it. Her fingers would trace over my mouth, let

me inhale some pot, and I would blow it out. Through the haze I would

sometimes suck her thumb into my mouth. Just enough to make her

rock her hips forward. Reese’s breathing slowly increased.

Ryan didn’t notice anything.

The movie was a dark one. Literally. At one point, the screen went

black for over a minute. I quietly lifted Reese’s shirt and kissed the

warm skin of her stomach. My tongue traced around her bellybutton.

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AShley BArtlett

Just as silently, I dropped the material back in place. When light from

the screen filled the room again, Reese wasn’t watching it. She was

looking down at me with murky eyes somewhere between horny and

angry. A desperate smile twitched at the corner of her lips.

The movie ended soon after. Ryan went to change out of his

jeans. Reese and I stayed on the couch. The second his door closed, she

leaned over and kissed me. We couldn’t get enough of each other. Her

hands moved under my T-shirt, pushing it up to scratch down my ribs.

I twisted my hands into her hair, pulling her closer.

“I want you so bad right now,” Reese whispered against my mouth.

“I know. It’s killing me. We have to find a way to get rid of him for

a couple hours tomorrow.” I bit her lip and sucked on it lightly.

Ryan’s door opened and we broke apart looking guilty. I got up off

the couch and stretched. Damn, I was a little fucked up. The room spun

and Ryan laughed.

“Good shit,” he said.

“Yeah, I guess we’re not going out tonight.”

“We’re not going out any night,” Reese said.

“Whatever. You know what I mean.”

“Not really. What do you mean?” Reese asked. It hadn’t really hit

her yet. She was probably just dreamy and happy.

“Stand up. You’ll feel it.” I told her.

She did and swayed a little like I had. I reached out to steady her.

“I’m going to bed,” she said.

“Why?” I still had my hand cupped under her elbow holding her

close to me.

“Because I don’t like being high as much as you guys do.” Reese

moved past me brushing her body against the length of mine. That

smile was back on her lips.

“So boring.” Ryan was totally oblivious. I felt sort of bad for lying

to him. Not bad enough to tell him though.

“I know.” Reese disappeared into her room.

“So whatcha wanna do?” Ryan fell less than gracefully onto the

couch.

“I dunno.” I flopped down next to him.

We spent the next hour playing video games. I couldn’t pay