What Happens in Vegas

It was a risk, of course — and a huge one at that. Floyd for example, hadn’t been able to make the place work in years. Then again, Floyd was old and tired. The place was hopelessly outdated and in need of a complete overhaul, not to mention an infusion of fresh young blood in the form of Brody and I.

Our advantage was youth. Energy. A willingness to work hard, to put in the time — and of course every last dollar — necessary to bring the place back from the dead. And since there were two of us, we could double the effort. Work together, like always, as a team.

I thought about all of it the entire ride back, with Mason’s eyes locked on the road and Lauren stretched out tiredly in the climate-controlled back seat. She was a trooper, I had to say. A real champion. She’d taken everything we’d given her and then some, and in instances had given it back better and harder. Her optimism was refreshing. Her enthusiasm, contagious. In fact..

In fact, I’d wanted to speak to her before she left. Maybe pick her brain on a few of our better ideas, before we lost her.

Lost her…

It wasn’t something we’d ever worried about, to be honest. Every time we’d done this, we’d said nothing but happy goodbyes. In Lauren’s case though, we hated to see her go. She was more than a conquest, or fun a distraction. She’d become… well…

She’s become a friend. Or to be more accurate, a girlfriend to each of us, in every sense of the word.

Promoter, producer, publicist… whatever she was, she was damned good at her job. Somehow she’d hooked Mason up in unexpected new ways, and she’d delivered on every last promise she’d made before we even left for Hollywood.

And now…

Now she was leaving, just when we could really use her expertise. It was selfish, I knew. But it wasn’t exactly like we’d asked her to stay for that reason, but rather, one that was much more fun. One that had blossomed from a single night of fantasy-filling debauchery to a full-blown week-long affair, complete with mind-blowing sex whenever we wanted it and a woman so insatiable, so perfect, she outlasted us on most nights rather than the other way around.

I wanted her to stay. No, I needed her to stay. I’d been missing the closeness and companionship that came with a relationship like this, made even better by the fact I could share every part of her with Brody. It was like the best of both worlds, really. Enjoying the camaraderie of our long-term friendship, without the jealousy that was sure to develop when one or both of us began spending time with other people.

Sharing a woman took care of that problem for a single night. Sharing a girlfriend, even more so. It was the one thing we’d always feared most; one of us getting so involved with a significant other, he might no longer be as committed to our dream. And here we had a woman who could not only help us with our dream… but who happily shared our beds as well.

Even more was the interpersonal connection I felt developing, between myself and Lauren. I cared about her, for sure. But now I was developing feelings for her. It was something crazy and foreign and totally out of left field, that I could fall for someone we’d met this way. Someone I’d shared with Brody. Someone from one of the flyers…

Still, there was a part of me that knew none of that stuff mattered. She was smart, hilarious and utterly amazing — beautiful and sexy and fun. A perfect girl, in the perfect circumstance. The feelings I had for her were all still there, no matter how they came about. I knew this, with all my heart.

“So what about… her?” I’d asked Brody, at the end of our conversation. He didn’t even ask what I meant by the words. H

e knew already.

“We’ll cross that bridge…” he said, echoing my own words. Serving them straight back to me, in a way that had my mind reeling.

I let my thoughts continue spinning out, all the way back toward Vegas. Not really listening to Mason droning on and on, but rather replaying every moment we’d spent with Lauren. I replayed every time she laughed, every time she smiled. Her adorable nervousness upon first meeting us in the bar of her hotel, and how sensual that first night had been, exploring her…

I spent time thinking about the sex, too; burning every sizzling encounter into my brain. I could see every curve of her body, every strand of her golden hair. Those little back dimples I loved so much, that deepened every time she arched her ass… right before I sank into her.

The whole thing was unorthodox for us. It went against every rule we’d made. Still, by this point I was ready to throw the rules over my shoulder. And if I knew Brody at all, I was pretty sure he felt the same.

Whatever happened next, I knew one thing for sure. That no matter what, after Lauren flew home?

I wanted to see her again.

Forty-Five

LAUREN

“Well it’s about time, bitch!” Bella practically screamed into the phone. “I was about to send the Marines out looking for you!”

I laughed, albeit a little nervously. In the back of my mind, I realized she was only half-kidding.

“You got my text, right?”

“The one saying you were going out into the desert with this mystery man?” Bella cried. “Yeah, I got it! It didn’t make things any better for us, though. We still haven’t heard from you in days! Shit, Heather was ready to—”

“The text said I wouldn’t have any reception,” I jumped in. “That in all likelihood I probably wouldn’t be able to answer my phone, or respond to any—”

“You could’ve been killed!” Bella cried. “This weirdo could’ve buried you out there in the desert! We could’ve been reading about you in the news by now. Or we could’ve been…” her voice trailed off for a moment, then went surreptitiously low. “Was it good?”