Lightning Strikes (The Almeida Brothers Trilogy #3) (23 page)

***

After following her out of Mr. Flynn’s office, Jack had to jog to keep up with Nina.  As they made their way into the elevator and down to the casino floor, Nina was doing everything she could not to return his steady gaze.  He
knew
she could feel his eyes on her—women always could—but like a true woman, she’d mastered the art of pretending she didn’t.

The casino was busy that day, the music of slot machines and table games swirling in the air.  In true casino fashion, there were no windows.  God forbid the patrons who’d been there all night realize the sun was coming up.

Even Jack was taken off guard as he followed Nina out of the exit doors, and found himself blasted with the blinding sun.

Along with the blazing sun, a shrill scream rang in from a few feet away, making his skull feel like it was cracking in two.

“Holy shit, Amy, it’s Olitz!”

Jack and Nina turned toward the shrill voice and caught sight of the young girls they’d met at the club the night before, waving at them from in front of a bright green tour bus parked on the curb.

Jack was already shaking his head no as Nina approached the girls, embracing the blonde and the redhead—Amy and Sarah.  The smile that had been plastered on the girl’s faces all night were still there, nearly as bright as the unbearable sun assaulting him.

When he felt a pair of arms lock around him from behind, he didn’t even have to look to know it was the brunette who’d been pawing him all night.  He turned to her and gave the best smile he could muster, which he was sure seemed more pained than anything.

The brunette pressed her chin into his arm.  “So I guess you and Liv changed your minds?”

“Who is Liv?”  Jack frowned.  “Changed our minds about what?”

The brunette released him, stepping back with her hands on her hips.  “About the two open seats on the bus.  Your mistress just told Sarah and Amy that you changed your minds.”

“Uh, no—” Jack relented, even as the brunette locked their arms together and led him toward the bus.  “No.  Nina?”

His eyes flew to the bus, and he caught the last wisp of Nina’s curls, right before she stepped inside it.

***

The tour bus smelled of Victoria’s Secret body lotion, with a hint of Garnier conditioner, and there was body glitter molded to most of the seats.

Crouched down in the very last row, hoping they’d be forgotten about, Jack and Nina were primed for attack; their eyes laced with fear.

The screaming laughter from their barely-legal tour mates was deafening as colorful water balloons soared through the air.

Jack jolted when a balloon collided with the couple in the row ahead.  Seconds later, the couple retaliated; launching a red balloon— bursting at the seams—flying toward the front.

Every time a new balloon flew, Jack winced and shielded his face.  Half an hour into the ride, he glared at Nina.  “We couldn’t have discussed this, Nina?”

“What was there to discuss, Jack?  I need to get back to New York for my trial.  You need to get back so you can rot away and be miserable in your Greenwich brownstone.  We just lost every dime that was going to get us there.  Including the money I needed to pay for my lawyer.”

“I must say; you’ve been remarkably calm about losing every dime to your name.”

“I’m sure the breakdown will be here within the hour, and it’ll be one for the books.  Britney-status.”  She took a deep breath.  “I’ll figure out some way to get the money.  I always do.”

“I’ll give you the money.”

She ignored those words and his probing eyes.

Jack shifted.  “Your executive decision has left us barricaded on a tour bus with a bunch of co-eds for seven days.  Seven.  Days.”

“What choice did we have, Jack?  We have no money, and you refuse to call your family. It’s a free ride.”

“With a group of kids who think screaming at the top of their lungs is an acceptable form of conversation.  And who refuse to stop calling us
Olitz
…”

“A pop culture reference that we still haven’t gotten an explanation on, by the way.”

“It’s a combination of the names Olivia and Fitz,” Jack said, catching her amused look.  “Sarah told me.”

“Who are Olivia and Fitz?”

“I have no idea.”

She chortled.  “Are we that old?”

“Yet another reason why getting on this bus was a mistake.  Just another painful reminder of years lost, and years that remain to be lost.”

She peeked over the edge of their seat, just in time to dodge a water balloon that came careening at her head.  Thankfully, it hit the kids in front of them.

Nina resumed crouching and met eyes with Jack, who was ducking so low that his torso was bent into a perfect C.

Holding his irritated brown eyes, she pulled a pamphlet from her back pocket, fanning it open.  “A cross-country tour won’t be so bad, Aries.  Look at all of this goodness here.”  She pointed to the various photos.  “When’s the last time you’ve gotten back to nature?  Just stopped and smelled the fresh air?  Let the pine tickle your nostrils?  Let the spring water soothe your skin?”

“You sound like a bad infomercial.”

“Roaming the mountain ranges with the coyotes in Utah.  White water rafting on Wyoming’s Snake River.  A little leisurely floating in the local watering hole…”

Jack shot her a look.  “You do realize we’re going to die, right?  We are, literally, going to die.”

“Don’t be so
negative.”

“We’re New Yorkers, Nina.  We’re not built for nonsense like this…” Jack snatched the pamphlet, reading with a cynical hitch to his voice.  “Roaming with herds of buffalo?” He scoffed.  “Camping in lush forests?”  He blew a raspberry, and then his eyebrows jumped.  “Wow, the Grand Canyon.  I’ve never been there.  That might be fun.”

She reclaimed the pamphlet.  “See?  I told you it’d be fun.  If you weren’t so determined to be such a buzz kill all the time, you’d have seen it from the start.”

The small smile he’d been trying to fight bloomed.  “Well, if I must die, I can’t think of a better person to do it with.”

“Wow.  I’m flattered?” She flipped through the pamphlet. “I think?”  When the silence went on for too long, she threw him a look.

His smile grew.  “I like you.”

She chortled.  “I wish I could say the same.”

“I’m serious. I have fun with you.”  He shrugged.  “I like being around you.  You make everything… easy.”

“I’m
easy
?  You always know just what to say to a girl, Jack.”

“You know what I’m saying.  Things are never easy for me.”  He took her hand, entwining her fingers.  “Not like this.”

She held his eyes, matched his smile, and then, holding her bottom lip under her teeth, she reached down and undid his pants.

Jack’s eyes fell and watched her work.  When he reclaimed her gaze, his had darkened.

She pushed her hand into his boxers and claimed his heat in a fist, drawing a slow tug.  He was hard in seconds; his deep moan drowned out by the screams of their bus mates as he filled her small hand.

Jack thrust softly, licking his lips and looking for more.

Never breaking her pace, Nina watched his eyes flutter shut, and she stroked, leaning in and catching his breathy moans in a kiss.

“I like you too, Jack.”  She tightened her grip as his groans escalated, sped up her tugs when his mouth fell open and used the arousal sneaking out of the tip to wet his shaft until her hand was sliding over him at lightning speed.  “I love watching you cum,” she whispered in his ear, giggling as he clapped a hand down on her upper thigh, squeezing hard.  “When you cum, I know it’s the realest you’ll ever be.”

His spine curled, eyes still shut tight.

“You’re gorgeous,” Nina watched him finish, hardly able to swallow back a scream as he bucked against her hand.

Only when he’d thrust every last shot into her fist did he open his eyes.

Their gazes locked just as a yellow water balloon came flying over the seats and caught him right in the face.

Nina screamed out in shock, her hand flying from his pants as she reared away from the spraying water, hitting the window with a thud.

Then, she doubled over with laughter, falling back onto the window behind her as water dripped down Jack’s stunned face, soaking his pants and his shirt.

Amy and Sarah raced to the back row and peaked over, surveying the damage.  Then, they gave each other a high five.

“Got ‘em!”  Amy laughed, pointing at Jack.  “Look, Sarah, we nailed him right in the dick!  His pants are all wet!”

Jack and Nina met eyes, and this time, they both burst into laughter.

***

The blue-green swimming hole at the Grand Canyon had been beautiful when the sun was high, but at night, it was downright breathtaking.  Jack and Nina were the only ones left floating in their inflatable tubes as midnight came and went. The rest of the group had retired to the campsite a few hundred feet away, leaving them with nothing but their echoed laughter and the crash of the waterfall to keep them. As they floated in languid circles around each other, they reached over their heads and clasped hands, staring up at the stars.

“Three whole days, six state lines, and we haven’t died yet.  I think you’ve severely underestimated the survivalist nature of the New Yorker,” Nina whispered, counting the stars.  The palm of her hand fluttered with tickles as Jack trailed the beds of his fingers softly up and down, his soft chuckle wafting into the air and soothing her even more than the calm trickle of the water.

“
Yet
being the operative word.”

“I’m actually having a lot of fun with these crazy ass sorority girls, Aries.”

“You want to hear something crazy?  Me too.”

“There’s really a surprising amount of depth to them if you can make it past all the
totallys, likes, baes
and
yolos
.”

“They do say
like
a lot.”  Jack groaned.  “I thought it was just me.  I’ve never heard a person say that word so many times while discussing the diversification of her stock portfolio.”

Nina chuckled.

“I almost made a drinking game out of it at the bar last night,” he said. “She couldn’t finish a sentence without throwing it in there at least once.”

“Or maybe we’re just, like, totally too old and, like, boring to, like, understand that, like,
yolo.
”

They laughed softly.

“What’s yolo again?” Jack whispered.

“You only live once.”

“Ah, yes.  Of course. 
Yolo.
”  His eyebrows jumped, and his smile slowly fell.  “I think I needed this.  To just sink into a vat of insanity, get lost in the trees and the water.  Just disappear.”

She took a deep breath.  “I needed it too.”

“I can’t believe we’re going to be home in a few days.  We’re actually going to make it.”

Nina gasped and slapped the back of his hand with all her might.  This time, when he exploded into laughter, she didn’t join him.  “I cannot believe you just said that.  You know better than anyone, Aries, how much fun the gods have had fucking with us for the past eight days.  You’ve just invited them to throw another wrench into our perfectly laid plans.  You’ve, literally, left them no choice.  Nice job.”

“All I said was that I think we’re really going to make it this time.”

“I can’t believe you just said it
again.”

His laughter grew.  “Okay, forgive me.  Not another second of optimism for the rest of this trip. I promise.”

“Good,” she sighed, throwing him a sour look that she knew he couldn’t see.

“I could do this again,” he said.  “With a more age appropriate group next time.”

“Are you serious?” she tried to look at him, but couldn’t.  Turning her head, she was able to catch a glimpse of the top of his head.  “You want to do
this
again?”

“Yeah.”  He shrugged with a squint.  “Why not?”

Nina waited for him to look at her, just so he could see the look of disbelief in her eyes, but he didn’t.  He kept his eyes on the moon and the stars, his breathing calmer and more even, than she ever remembered it being; the smile on his face more everlasting than she even knew it was capable of.

Unable to break his genuine revere, she returned to her back, letting their finger’s find each other’s again.

“Maybe you could come, too,” Jack whispered.  “You could even bring the kid in that photo you’re obsessed with.  Your cousin.  Seems like something someone his age would like.”

Nina breathed in deep.  “I don’t think you have any clue how transparent you are.”

“Where does he live?” Jack asked, dropping the act.

A long silence fell in.

“New York.”  She barely heard herself whisper the words, and hoped he hadn’t heard her.  Hoped he would drop it.