CHAPTER 44

I walk around the 3D mockup of the new shopping center we want to build in Reno, admiring the architect’s rendition. He points at the various features, noting areas where we have multiple options that could be changed up to draw in a variety of retailers.

My partners, Gabriel Mott and Audrey Lopez, also study the model in quiet contemplation as the architect drones on and on.

I don’t need to hear it. It’s a clever design and we’ll get a very good return on our investment. Audrey asks a question about the interior greenspace, asking if it can be enlarged to double as a live entertainment venue.

I listen with half an ear and am all too glad when my phone dings in my pocket, indicating a text. I pull it out and smile when I see it is from Jas.

It merely says, Pink or Black?

I look up to see Audrey and the architect involved in deep conversation, August listening in, and I send a quick text back to her. Pink or black what?

She responds back almost immediately with a picture of two pairs of panties laid out on my bed. One pink, the other black.

Definitely pink.

She writes back. You know, I only used to wear pink panties when I was fifteen.

That just gave me a hard-on. I snicker when I hit send.

Perv, she retorts, and then gives me a smiling emoji.

My fingers fly over the screen, typing back to her. You in the pink panties, nothing else on, spread and waiting for me on my dining room table. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.

I smile in satisfaction as I wait for her response. It’s been a damn good week with Jas. She’s stayed at my apartment every night, and we’ve gone to The Sinful Night Club twice. What we do in the privacy of my bedroom is far more intimate than what we do at the club, but I love having her in both places. In my bedroom, she’s all soft and pliant with breathy moans and worshipful eyes.

At the club, she’s a writhing, screaming mess. She’s fucking glorious in her abandonment, and I wonder if she always had that in her, or if I bring it out.

My ego wants to pin the blame squarely on my shoulders.

Can’t tonight, she texts back. Having dinner with Alma.

I stare at her words and take note of the keen disappointment I can feel in my bones. While we’ve been together every night this week, we’ve done nothing more than grab dinner where we tend to find ourselves reminiscing about old times growing up, and then fuck all night. It’s what I wanted… that no-strings, casual sex.

And now that I might not see Jas tonight, the fact I’m feeling bent out of shape about it gives me the Wiggins. It scares the fuck out of me that I might have become dependent on Jas.

Or possibly even addicted.

This scares me because this is how it started with Rachel. Off the charts, kinky, dirty, filthy fucking that neither of us could get enough of it. Yes, we were possibly even addicted to each other and for some stupid reason we were never able to figure out, it led us to the altar.

My inner sense of self-preservation tells me to let it go.

Wish her an enjoyable time tonight.

Play it casually.

Instead, I write, Why don’t I take both you ladies out for dinner? Then we’ll take in a show or something.

I hit send, and then curse, “Fuck.”

“Something wrong?” Gabriel asks me from across the table.

I shake my head. “Just something I need to take care of,” I tell him with a casual smile. Then I nod to the model. “But you have my approval to go forward.”

Gabriel nods at me, then turns back to Audrey, who is still talking to the architect with animated hands. She’s the detail person in our three-way partnership. She’ll hone in on and iron out the nitty-gritty shit that Gabriel and I overlook.

My phone dings, and I look down. That’s awesome. What time and how should we dress? I mean… you know… where are we going to dinner? Fancy? Casual? So excited.

And then she put a little heart emoji on the end.

I grit my teeth and write back without any sense of self-preservation anymore. Fancy, expensive restaurant. High-dollar cocktails. Put your dancing shoes on.

God, what am I turning into?

***

“I got to say, Alexander,” Alma yells as she puts her arm around my shoulder and kisses my cheek. “You sure know how to treat the women in your life well.”

I smirk down at her as we wait for Jas to come back from the restroom. We had a three-hour dinner at the best restaurant in Las Vegas, and then I suggested a nightclub where we could drink and dance. Except, dancing’s not really my thing, but I sure didn’t mind watching Jas shake her ass out there with Alma.

“Women?” I yell back at her because the music’s shaking the building.

She gives it right back to me just as loud. “You know… as her best friend, I’m your woman, too.”

“In the platonic sense, right?”

“God, yes,” she says back in horror. “I mean, I’m the bestie. You get me along for the ride. You hurt her, I destroy you. You buy her Tiffany’s, you buy me Tiffany’s. See?”

“Got it,” I tell her with an amused shake of my head.

The music turns slow, and Alma wags her finger in my face. “No, no, no. I may be the other woman in your life, but you can’t slow dance with me. There are some lines I won’t cross.”

I roll my eyes at her, and then sweep my gaze across the club looking for Jas. Suddenly, I feel her hands on my hips as she presses into me from behind. I look over my shoulder at her, and she slides around to stand in front of me.

“You about ready to go?” she asks. “It’s getting late.”

I respond by taking her hand and leading her out onto the dance floor. It’s practically empty because no one comes to a Las Vegas nightclub to slow dance, but I don’t give a fuck. I feel like swaying to cheesy music with the hottest woman I’ve ever been with.

The girl in my life I’ve known longer than any other.

Jasmine’s smile is soft and her eyes are sparkling with the champagne she drank earlier as I pull her to me. I bring her hand in close to my chest and wrap the other around her back. She presses her face into my neck, and I fucking love the feel of her breath on my skin.

“This is weird,” she murmurs.

“Why’s that?” I ask with a smile playing on my lips.

“You being all romantic.”

I snicker. “I can be romantic.”

“Yes,” she deadpans and then mimics me. “That’s it, baby, come for me harder. Or, take my cock down your throat, baby, and I’ll give you multiples after.”

I reach down and pinch her ass hard. Her pelvis flies into mine as she yelps.

“I do not talk like that all the time,” I admonish her. “And besides, you like my dirty talk.”

I can feel her sigh into my body, and she admits softly. “I really do. I love dirty Alex.”

My step falters slightly at her casual drop of the “L” word, but her tone was teasing enough that I don’t take it for anything more than her profession that she’s got a kinky side like me.

“You had enough dancing tonight?” I ask.

“Yes, and I’m horny,” she says petulantly. My hand goes down to palm her ass, pressing her in tighter so she can feel I’m horny, too. “Want to go fuck in the bathroom?”

This time, I do stumble. When I regain our rhythm, I pull my head back to look down at her. “I’ve created a monster.”

“You didn’t create it,” she says with a wink. “You just released it.”

“Well, as fun as fucking you in the bathroom sounds, I’m thinking tonight I just want you on my mattress, on your back with your feet pressed into my shoulders and my hand over your mouth,” I tell her.

“Why a hand over my mouth?” she asks, her head tilted to the side and her green eyes dancing.

“Because Alma is going to be in the guest bedroom as she’s had too much to drink tonight, and I don’t want her hearing you scream every time I make you come.”

Jas bats her eyelashes at me and simpers, “Oh, Alex… see… you are a romantic.”

“Make fun if you will, but you’ll be owing me an apology soon,” I warn.

She merely cocks a thin beautiful eyebrow at me in question.

“Reach into my pocket,” I tell her.

“I’m not giving you a hand job out here on the dance floor.”

“Smartass,” I tell her. “My jacket pocket, on the inside.”

She shoots me a huge, beautiful grin and her hand dives into the left pocket. She finds it empty, then it dives into the right. When it comes out, she’s holding a square Tiffany’s box.

“Oh, wow,” she says as she looks at it with wide eyes. “You are romantic.”

“Open it,” I tell her as I release my hold and we stand in the middle of the dance floor.

She doesn’t waste any time, and then she’s gasping at the white-gold chain bracelet with the Tiffany charm attached.

Jas looks up at me, and it kills me to see a little bit of confusion in her eyes. I know I’m crossing a line, but I fucking couldn’t help myself when I walked by the store, which is in my hotel lobby, after work.

I try to make light of it. “Will I get laid tonight?”

She gives me a glare and then looks back to the bracelet. “It’s beautiful.”

“Here,” I say as I take the jewelry from the box. “Hold up your wrist.”

Jas watches as I put it on her, and then she looks up to me. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I say, but then I shoot a look over at Alma watching us from the edge of the dance floor. “But tell her I’m not buying her one.”

“Huh?” Jas asks with confusion.

“Inside joke,” I tell her as I bring a hand around her neck. I pull her to me and lay a soft kiss on her cheek. “I’ll explain it to you later after we fuck.”

Jas laughs and steps into me for an impromptu hug that surprises me as much as it warms me. My heart skips a beat when she says, “There’s my Alexander.”