Between the Pack

3

Chapter 3

Paisley’s POV

Holy shit.

I didn't know what to do. When I snuck out of his hotel room in the early hours of this morning so I wasn't late to work, I never thought I'd see this man again. I knew I would always think about him because he gave me the best night of my life. One hell of an orgasm that would stick with me forever because I'd never had an experience quite like that before.

Heat rushed through my body as our eyes locked. The memories of my bold behavior last night rushed through me as the blush undoubtedly hit my cheeks. My God, I wasn't like myself at all when I gave him my underwear. Nor was I me when we were in the elevator and I whipped off my bra, refusing to let him touch me until I gave him permission to do so.

Oh God, and then there was the whole night. I was so confident with my body, I loved the way that he looked at me, I adored him touching me and tasting me all over. I allowed myself to behave in that manner because I didn't think I would ever see this random guy again. I assumed we were just ships passing in the night, never to cross paths during our time in Las Vegas.

I sure as shit didn't think I would ever have to work with the guy. And did Daisy say that I would have to closely work with him? Holy shit, that was insane.

I wasn't sure if I was going to faint. I knew I needed to act professionally and not acknowledge that we already knew one another. There was no way Daisy wouldn't lose her shit if she knew the truth.

"S-Sly?" I stammered awkwardly as I extended my hand. Fucking hell, I was not pulling this off well, was I? "Nice to meet you. I'm Paisley."

"Paisley." His tongue was thick with amusement. I couldn't stand it. And did there have to be so much chemistry surging between us? Jesus Christ, how was I supposed to remain standing up right? My legs were freaking jelly. "Nice to meet you. Daisy has told me a lot about you."

He cocked a knowing eyebrow. The sexy, desire fueled gaze sent a painful shudder down my spine. Oh God, I could hardly breathe. There was no way in hell that Daisy couldn't sense exactly what was happening here. Why she hadn't screamed at me yet, I had no idea. Daisy did not seem like the sort of manager who would be okay with fraternization between the staff.

But she was too busy staring at her phone screen, texting furiously. She wasn't even listening to either of us anymore. Probably for the best. It took a lot of will power to slide my fingers away from his. I pulled my jacket tighter around me because I felt so damn exposed.

This man knew too much of my body. He had seen way too much of me. And now he was looking at me with far too much intensity. I might as well have been nude all over again. I really needed to focus on the mental check list I had for the day. I needed to get things right for Claire because she was tense enough at the moment. I didn't want to get on her bad side.

But I couldn't think of anything. I was dumbstruck, barely able to string two words together, because there was so much passion dancing in his bright green eyes. Everything that happened last night completely consumed me in crazy flashbacks. I was not going to be able to focus today.

Or maybe not ever again because we were going to be working closely together, as Daisy had stated. I knew my time in Las Vegas was going to be hard, but I didn't think that I would have to be facing this.

"Okay, so you guys know one another now." Daisy darted her eyes between us, not that she really saw us. She immediately seemed satisfied that we were just fine and able to look after ourselves. Unfortunately, I didn't have the strength to tell her otherwise. " I am in over my head here. I have so much to do. You don't need me anymore, do you? You have it under control?"

"Oh, we have it all under control," Sly—that name was so freaking sexy, I couldn't handle it—replied with a self-satisfied smirk. "You go do whatever you need to do. Paisley can show me around here."

This was too much. An intense shyness came over me the moment Daisy vanished. Sly and I might not have had the whole room to ourselves, but it really did feel like there was no one else here but us. I couldn't even meet his eyes anymore, just staring at my feet like a crazy person.

This wasn't fair, that was the problem. When someone like me, who was normally so straight laced, threw caution to the win and acted wild, they weren't supposed to see the person again.

"So, I don't think I have to see anything else here," Sly declared, breaking the ice in that gorgeously smooth way he had of talking. "Daisy has shown me everything. Plus, Claire doesn't seem to want me around right now. She actually said she didn't want to see me, or we’ll end up having problems."

"She’s not normally like this, but my sister can be a bit much when she's tense."

"Wait." Sly held up his hands. "Claire is your sister?"

"Oh, Daisy didn't tell you that?" I cringed. "Yeah, she is."

"Well, since she doesn't want me around, would you like to go for a walk? If you have a lot work going on, I can assist you, if you’d like."

If someone had told me last night that the sexy man who took my body to another freaking plane of existence would be asking me if I needed his help with my work, I would have never believed them. This was such a bizarre situation. I wasn't entirely sure that I wasn’t still sleeping and this was all a crazy dream.

“Well, I do need to get some copies of these flyers..."

"Let's go do that," he replied way too enthusiastically. "There is a copy shop right across the street, right? So, I won't be too far away from Claire."

Oh God, that was a stark reminder that he was Claire's bodyguard. One of them anyway. There were four, from what I recalled. Although I didn't have much time to look at the information because I got distracted by this man. I guess I was going to learn more about them as time went on and we all worked together.

"Okay, sure, that sounds good. "

A few people shot me strange looks as we walked together through the building. I was pretty sure that wasn't just my paranoia speaking either. They all might have been busy putting together Claire's glitzy show for the night, but they wanted to know what I was doing with this strikingly gorgeous man.

There was no way people hadn't noticed how hot he was. Sly was the sort of man whose presence demanded attention. If he wanted it. I could imagine if he didn't want to be seen, he could just turn whatever it was off.

Although not for me. I was pretty sure I would always be way too acutely aware of this man, no matter where he was or what he was doing, which was definitely going to be a problem for the next four weeks.

As soon as we were outside, I sucked in some deep, calming breaths. Unfortunately, there was too much heat in the humid air for it to make me feel any good. I tried to dart my gaze over toward Sly, but he was still damn near impossible to look at. Damn it, he was way too handsome.

"So, do you need a lot of copies?" he asked with a soft playful smile. Was he not as bothered by my presence as I was his? What did that mean? I might have gotten sucked in to that fear if it wasn't for the desire dancing in his eyes when he stared at me. "Are we going to be here for a while?"

"It shouldn't take us too long," I reassured him. " I don’t need them to run too many."

"Aww, what a shame." He wiggled his eyebrows playfully. "I was hoping for some more alone time with you. But I'll take whatever I can get."

I parted my lips, about to shoot something back, but my mouth had run far too dry for me to really say anything. No words came out at all. Did that mean he wanted to spend time with me naked? He seemed to be suggesting that, but I was way too scared to ask for sure. I didn't know if I wanted the answer.

If he asked me to his room right now, I would find it so hard to resist. I truly wasn't sure that I would be able to, Daisy or not. The wrath of my sister might be too hard for me to care about as well. There was just something about this man that had my head absolutely spinning. I honestly wasn't myself.

What was going to happen between us next?

Should anything happen between us? There was a massive chance that any kind of fling would get in the way of our working relationship. Even our one-night stand might be a little too much. The heat surging between us now was incredibly intense, making it so hard to focus.

It was almost a relief to go inside the print shop because we didn't need to focus on one another anymore. We had a job to do and needed to concentrate on that. Although I couldn't help but notice he seemed to find any excuse to touch me. Moving past me to the copy machine, he made sure to hold my hips. Walking together, he had his hand, almost possessively, on the small of my back. When he explained something to me, his fingers grazed over my arm.

Sly knew exactly what he was doing to me, and I was a mess. I was pretty sure he was able to hear the intense hammering of my heart, the raggedness of each and every breath, my knees knocking together with desire.

Yeah, things were already strained. The next month was going to be wild.

"So, is Claire going to keep us super busy?" he asked me, almost knowingly. If Sly was trying to suggest we repeat last night, which was, well, exactly what I wanted, could I be so bold knowing I was going to see him every day? Having wild, animalistic fun with a stranger was one thing, but working with said stranger…

Holy shit, if I made it through this day without losing my mind, it would be a miracle. "Uh, yeah, I think so. This is definitely going to be an intense few weeks. This residency is super important to her career, so we need to be all in."

"Makes sense." He nodded slowly. "And I guess if Claire isn't keeping us running around at all times, then Daisy will be on top of it."

I let out a little chuckle. It was nice to know that I wasn't alone in my feelings about Daisy. She was an awesome manager, but definitely a little intense.

"At least we have one another though." His eyes freaking burned through me. "We can support each other through this very challenging time."

Oh God, I was going to lose my mind in Vegas, wasn't I? I was going to leave a very different person to the woman who arrived, and Sly was so hot I really didn't think I minded one bit. My body just wanted to cave to temptation.

Eventually, the copying was all done and it was time to head back to help with the residency setup. What did it mean that I was more than a little disappointed? In the copy shop, Sly and I could flirt more openly, which was an opportunity he had taken on far more than me, where as in there, we would have to behave. At least a little bit.

But we crossed the street anyway, carrying the bundles of paper, and headed back inside in silence. Although I could definitely hear all the unsaid things burning between us. This time, as we walked through the building, no one seemed to notice us. Perhaps I was being paranoid before and no one really cared.

"We should take these through to the stage area," I said to Sly. "Get confirmation from either Daisy or Claire. I'm sure both of them are in there."

He nodded, agreeing with whatever I said. "Sure thing, Paisley."

I shivered. The sound of my name on his lips was too much. It was probably for the best that we didn't exchange names last night. I could hardly handle it. It was insane enough, I enjoyed myself way too much as it was, names might have tipped me over the edge and ensured that I couldn't walk in to work today.

Claire was on stage, rehearsing and giving it her all. I couldn't help pausing for a second to watch her. I'd spent half my life watching her sing and witnessing her career grow, especially over the last year, but there was still something incredibly breathtaking about watching her on the Vegas stage. And it wasn’t all the glitz and glam of this city in the desert because none of that was set up properly yet. It was just Claire becoming C'Dion, and she was epic.

"Wow," Sly whispered beside me as he finally got it. "She's good."

I smiled and hugged the papers tight to my chest. Pride surged through my body. It was so awesome to see how far she had come, from her bedroom to here. To me, Claire was proof that anyone could do anything they put their mind to. If only I could jump up on stage and hug her right now, to let her know how proud I was.

But I wasn't brave enough to interrupt her when she was in the zone.

I spotted Daisy out the corner of my eye and remembered what I was actually here for. I took a step closer to her, but somehow before I actually managed to move, a thick, strong pair of arms circled around me and yanked me backward so hard they left me with barely any air in my lungs.

Of course, I immediately knew who the arms belonged to, the electrical sensation cascading through my body was more than enough, but I didn't get why. Why the hell would Sly prevent me from working, and do something so blatant in front of everyone else? I knew we hadn't exactly discussed it, but surely it was obvious that we were going to try to keep us on the down low.

But now he had his arms tightly wrapped around me and everything had fallen apart. I honestly wasn't sure what to do now.

Sly whipped me around until I was facing him. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, even more so when our eyes locked on one another. He must have been able to sense the question in my eyes, but that snatched away the moment a beam crashed hard to the floor and made everyone jump.

That would have hit me, no doubt about it. Sly saved me from getting smacked over the head and probably knocked out. If I thought my legs were jelly before, that was nothing compared to now. Sly had to keep hold of me so I didn't hit the floor myself…or maybe I just wanted to stay right where I was.

The connection was powerful, even more overwhelming than in the copy shop. The air had well and truly been knocked out of my lungs now. No way of getting it back. Even if both Claire and Daisy came screaming at me, and even fired me, I wouldn't want this moment to end. His strong arms, his thick muscles, the heat of his body up against mine. I couldn't get enough of him. Wrong or not, I wanted more.

"You be careful there," Sly said with a playful wink. "We don't want a scar anywhere on you, do we? You're far too beautiful for that."

Beautiful? Wow, he thought that I was beautiful. That was even more intense than him looking at me like I was the sexiest woman alive and him wanting to eat me up whole. There might have been a lot of things that I wanted to say, but nothing came out. Just a little gasp of intense desire because I still wanted him. It was almost as if last night was not enough to sate me.

Then Sly leaned in a little closer, looking like he wanted to check in on me, but all I was aware of was the intensity of his breath tickling my lips. Was he going to kiss me? I could have actually kissed him if I leaned up a little bit and closed the gap between us. If we were anywhere else in the world, I would have done so.

But then, just as quickly as it all happened, Sly pulled away from me and continued on as if nothing had happened. He’d turned me to mush, there was no way my brain would ever work again, and he was just…fine. Acting like a professional body guard doing exactly what he had been hired to do.

Yeah, Sly was a dangerous man for me. He was going to cause me a lot of trouble. There was no way I was going to leave Las Vegas sane.