Vegas, Baby - Volume 3

His declaration didn’t make me feel better. It actually had the opposite effect since I was reminded about how little time I’d have with Zack. I’d come to Vegas for a long weekend to celebrate Marie’s bachelorette party, and we were due to leave on a red-eye flight in about forty-eight hours. Starting something up with him when we had such little time together wasn’t a smart move. It was bound to end in heartbreak for me, regardless of how he was talking about me having his babies. “I’m sorry. I need to get back to the party and check on Maria. I’m her maid of honor. I can’t just bail on her bachelorette party.”

“It’s not as though she can blame you for being gone when I carried you out of there,” he pointed out with a cocky grin. “And I don’t think she’s going to be too pissed at you, not with how she cheered me on.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, crossing my arms in front of my chest in an attempt to protect myself from reacting to his overwhelming sexiness. “Probably not, but I still need to go back.”

His dark eyes scanned my face, and he must’ve found whatever he was looking for because he nodded. “I’ll walk you down. It’s probably best that I check in with my staff anyway. I need to make sure they’re not spending more time gossiping about us than taking care of our customers.”

My cheeks heated as he took my arm and led me to the elevator, but my embarrassment didn’t last long. Zack gave me something else to focus on when the elevator doors slid closed behind us. He pressed me against the back wall, bending his head to capture my mouth in a deep kiss. By the time the doors opened again, and we walked down a hallway and through the restaurant’s kitchen, I wasn’t thinking about anything except Zack’s kisses.

He brushed his lips over mine one last time at the door to the private room where my cousin and her friends were partying. Then he patted my ass and said, “Have fun with your girls, beautiful. Come find me when you’re done.”

I watched him walk away, enjoying the flex of his butt cheeks in his expertly tailored suit pants. The man had a world-class ass, and I glared at a couple of women in the restaurant who stared at it as he passed their tables. When he was out of sight, I turned and found my cousin staring at me with wide eyes. “Damn, that was fast! I wasn’t expecting to see you again until tomorrow morning.”

“I-you…” I sputtered, dropping my head to look at the floor. “Shut up and get me a drink, Maria.”

She tugged on my arm to lead me over to the bar. “Two lemon drop shots, please.”

The bartender nodded and reached for a bottle of vodka, the lemon wedges, and the sugar. Maria leaned her hip against the bar and quirked a brow at me as he dumped some ice into a shaker and poured a generous amount of vodka on top. I tried my best to ignore her look, but my cousin wasn’t having it. “You can try as hard as you want to look innocent, but it isn’t going to work. Not when your lips are swollen and you’ve got a glow to your cheeks and eyes that I’ve never seen on you before.”

I glanced at the bartender, but he was focused on pouring the chilled vodka concoction into two shot glasses. Even though he wasn’t paying attention to our conversation, I lowered my voice to the barest of whispers as I admitted, “I guess it makes sense that I’m not able to pull it off since I’m not quite as innocent as I used to be.”

“Holy hell!” she shrieked. The room fell silent as everyone turned to look at us as she added, “Did you let him pop your cherry?”

“Are you kidding me right now?” I dropped my forehead against the top of the bar and squeezed my eyes shut.

When I lifted my head again, the bartender slid both of the shots in front of me. “Here, I think you could use the extra one more than the bachelorette needs another drink.”

“No fair,” Maria cried as everyone gathered around us.

“Trust me, she needs it if she landed the big boss. Especially if she’s a virgin.” He wagged his brows at me. “There haven’t been any women linked to him in all the time I’ve worked here. He’s bound to have a lot of sexual frustration to work through.”

I gulped down the first shot in one go before muttering, “I can't believe this is happening.” I wagged my finger at Maria. “And it’s all your fault. If you hadn’t given me that stupid dare, I never would’ve found myself in this position.”