Page 24 of Vegas Heat

And so we have to say goodbye.

I kiss her in my hotel room once more. I’m already running late for dinner, so we didn’t have time for sex, but at least we fit in all the touristy things we’d planned for the day.

“You’ll be back at ten?” she asks.

I nod. “I’m anxious to find out what sort of inside look at Vegas you have planned. Give me your phone,” I say. She pulls it out of her purse and hands it over, and I send a text to myself with one word.

Sunshine.

“You’ve got my number now, and I have yours.” I hand her phone back to her. “I’ll text you if I’m done early."

She drops it back into her purse then links her arms around my waist. Her head tips back and her green eyes gaze up into mine in that way where she has the ability to completely strip me raw. I want to give her every single part of myself when she looks up at me like that. I want the world to stand still so we can be with each other in it in this way just a little longer.

But time marches on no matter how much we want to freeze the perfect moments.

“Tell me this was real,” she murmurs.

I drop a kiss to her lips, and then I pinch her ass. “It was real.”

She yelps and giggles as she swats at my hand, and it’s that giggle that I could spend the rest of my life listening to.

She leaves, and the second the door closes behind her, I feel the loss. It’s a strange sense where I feel like she walked out with a piece of myself I’ve never been without before.

The only time I’ve ever felt that way before was when she left earlier to grab her suitcase from her suite.

A strange feeling of restlessness pervades even though I have things to do.

I change my clothes ahead of meeting my friends. Dinner is at a restaurant inside my hotel, so I don’t have far to travel to get to them, and when I walk into the private room in the back Kaylee booked for us, I spot Ben Olson, the tight end for the Vegas Aces—Kaylee’s husband—first. Of course I do. He’s a big dude, and he’s just apresence. No matter what room he’s in, he fills it with loud and gregarious laughter. He glances up and nudges Kaylee, who’s staring down at her menu.

She grins and leaps up to tackle hug me before she sits back down, and Ben stands and gives me a bro-hug, too. “Good to see you, man,” he says.

He hated me when we first met since he thought I was stealing his girl from him when they were on a break, but eventually he came around when he realized Kaylee and I were nothing more than good friends.

“You too,” I say. I slide into the chair across from the two of them, not bothering with the menu. “How’s everything?”

They both stare at me with tilted heads for a beat, and then Ben speaks up first. “Why do you look different?”

“Ilookdifferent?” I ask.

Kaylee nods, the crease between her brows deepening as she studies me. “You’re right,” she says to Ben. “Hedoeslook different.”

“Different how?” I ask, my brows knitting together.

Kaylee studies me with narrowed eyes. “Your smile is wider.” She squints at me a little. “You’re…I don’t know. Lighter, maybe, like your shoulders aren’t pressed down by a weight.”

“Dopamine,” Ben says to her, and then he turns toward me. “Did you…did you get laid?”

Jesus. One fucking night with the girl and even my closest friends can see the difference.

“In fact, I did,” I admit.

“Are you dating somebody and you didn’t tell me?” Kaylee asks, her voice full of both accusation and bewilderment.

I chuckle. “I’m telling you now, aren’t I?”

“How long has this been going on?” Kaylee demands.

I clear my throat. “I just met the girl last night.”

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