Sin (Vegas Nights 1)

Damien was staring at me.

Was he thinking the same thing I was?

Was he remembering, too?

Did I want to know what he was thinking?

Why did any of it matter?

He turned away without speaking, but a smile played on his lips. Silence descended between us, but it was less awkward, more…comfortable.

I didn’t know what to think about that. Just this morning, it’d been strange to be silent together. Yet now…the only thing that had changed was my willingness to accept my attraction to him.

I refused to believe that was the reason for this newfound comfort. It couldn’t be that simple. Deciding to fuck someone didn’t equal this strange kind of peace that hovered between us.

Or did it?

I’d stopped fighting him. Was that it? Was that the key to this? The fact I’d decided to go with this? Maybe it was. I’d stopped fighting and because of that, I’d all but stopped caring about the things I couldn’t control. My attraction to him being one of them.

Or maybe it just was. Maybe I was overthinking it. I did tend to do that, after all.

Over-thinking was exactly why I was in this situation.

I should have been born with an ‘off’ switch.

“You get this little twitch in your eyebrow when you’re thinking really hard about stuff. Did anyone ever tell you that?”

I turned to face Damien. “How do you know I’m thinking really hard?”

“You have a little twitch in your eyebrow.” Laughter twinkled in his eyes.

My eyebrow twitched when I thought hard? I didn’t know that. Why had nobody else ever told me that?

“It’s twitching again. Are you thinking about thinking?”

I blinked at him. “I didn’t know that. Nobody’s ever mentioned it before.”

“Then it’s likely nobody has ever paid as much attention to you as I do. Which is a damn shame.”

Self-consciousness washed over me. I covered my eyebrows with my fingers, just in case they decided to twitch again, because what did he mean by that?

“Dahlia.” He leaned over the seat and gently wrapping his fingers around my wrists, lowered my hands. “Don’t. It’s cute.”

“Great,” I said, letting my hands fall. “That’s what every self-respecting businesswoman wants to be called. Cute.”

“What’s wrong with cute?”

“Is anything right with it?”

“Kittens are fine with it.”

“You’ve probably only talked to male kittens, then.”

He laughed, resting his elbow on the back of the seat and leaning his head against his hand. “You’re probably right. Although past you, I can’t say I talk to many women, either.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“I don’t talk to many people in general,” he clarified. “And the women who are worthy of conversation make it known relatively quickly.”

“That’s the most chauvinistic—”

“Ah, good. We’re here.”

“—sexist, bullshit thing I’ve ever heard you utter, and that’s saying something,” I finished. Annoyance prickled at my skin, making me sit bolt upright.

Damien unclipped his seatbelt, apparently unfazed by my miniature rant. “Are you coming or not?”

“Certainly not now.”

“I didn’t mean it like that and you know it,” he replied, opening the door and getting out. He bent down, one hand on the top of the door and the other on the car. “Are you coming to continue this conversation, or are you going to go home and stew, only to ultimately realize we should have carried on, if only for you to get justification for what you’re pissed off about?”

Goddamn it, I really hated him sometimes.

“Motherfucker,” I muttered, unclipping my own belt and shoving it off me. I scooted over the seat to the tune of his laughter. My dress rode up my thighs as I did, getting caught under my ass, and as I stood, Damien reached for my leg.

“I like these,” he murmured in my ear, fingering the lace top of one of the stockings. “Bet it’ll feel even better when your legs are around my neck.”

“Right now, it’ll be the stocking sans leg around your neck,” I shot back, pushing at his chest so he moved. “Until you justify that ridiculous comment, they’re my potential murder weapon.”

“You watch a lot of TV, don’t you?” He smiled, closing the car door.

I glanced at the car as it rolled away. “Where does he go? Don’t you ever invite him in?”

“Would you like me to invite him in? It’s not usually my thing, but if you’d like someone to watch you come on my cock…”

“I shouldn’t have gotten out of the car.”

He laughed. “Maybe not, but you did, and you’re here, so come inside.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me up the wide driveway to the front door.

His house wasn’t huge, but it was well secluded, and I recognized it as one of the houses in a gated community not far from my home. Damien fumbled with the key for a second and moved to an alarm box as soon as the door was open. It beeped a few times, and he flicked on the hallway light.