7. Olivia
OLIVIA
Olivia moaned as she managed to open her eyes a tiny crack. The sunlight was way, way too bright, and her head ached. Maybe she hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night.
“Five more minutes,” she muttered, feeling blindly for the alarm on her phone that must have woken her. She needed to be at work soon…
No — wait. She didn’t. Memories of the day before began flooding back.
She remembered quitting her job on impulse, after her boss had told her she couldn’t come to the client dinner she’d booked.
She remembered changing and heading into the casino to forget everything.
She remembered meeting the handsome, bold, wealthy man — Leo.
He’d called her his good-luck charm. They’d flirted, shared champagne, kissed…
And she didn’t remember anything after that.
Through the slit in her eyelids, Olivia saw the beige curtains, mostly open, and off-white wallpaper of her hotel room.
She must have said goodbye to Leo a little while after the kiss and come back to sleep off what was definitely going to be an intense hangover.
That would teach her to mix pain medication and alcohol.
Olivia was disappointed she didn’t remember anything else from the night before. Maybe the kiss had been the end of the evening, but if they’d spent any more time together, she wished she remembered it. Leo had been so handsome, so confident, so engaging.
Olivia managed to open her eyes a little wider and saw the red numbers of the alarm clock beside the bed.
Panic shot through her. It was eight thirty, and her flight had left from the Las Vegas airport twenty minutes earlier.
She’d missed it. Now, she’d have to fly back to Seattle on her own dime at the last minute, which would probably wipe out the last dregs of her savings. Dread filled her stomach.
Instantly, her magical and somewhat blurry evening with the mysterious Leo took a back seat.
Olivia needed to get up and to the airport as quickly as she could — maybe she could argue her case to a sympathetic ticket agent and get some kind of discount on her flight.
At least the realization that she’d missed her flight served as a strong enough wake-up call to banish most of her tiredness.
She made to roll out of bed — then froze as something tugged at her arm.
Had she gotten wound up in the sheets while sleeping?
She rolled back to free herself and pulled her arm.
It tugged against something again, and her eyes flew fully open.
She wasn’t wrapped up in the sheets. Her left wrist was held prisoner in one link of a set of padded handcuffs. With cheetah print on them.
Her heart racing, Olivia’s eyes followed the chain of the handcuffs to the other link, which was locked around a broad male hand.
She pulled the sheet away to see none other than Leo, fully clothed, handcuffed to her, still dozing.
Another wave of adrenaline washed through her as she realized that there must be a lot she didn’t remember about last night.
Olivia looked down to see that she was still in the red dress she’d worn the night before, and Leo was still in his slacks and shirt — though their clothes were quite rumpled.
Still, that calmed her down a little. No matter what forgotten decisions had led to them getting handcuffed together, they hadn’t had sex last night.
That was good. She would have wanted to remember that.
Still, she needed to know what had happened, and the best person to tell her was the sleeping man beside her. She tugged at her arm again, moving his a little. Leo groaned and rolled over, shielding his eyes from the sun with his free hand. He must be nursing quite a hangover, too.
“Good morning,” Olivia said loudly. Still nothing.
She reached out and gave his shoulder one quick, firm shake.
Leo’s eyes flew open, and he made an aborted flailing gesture as though trying to leap from the bed.
Doing so pulled the handcuffs taut, and he spun towards her, his eyes wild.
His blue eyes were still blurry from sleep, and his blond hair was sticking up on one side.
He didn’t look quite like the sophisticated businessman he’d been the night before, which was somehow endearing.
But Olivia was too confused and worried to be endeared.
“Olivia?” He blinked at her several times.
“Leo,” she repeated. He tugged on the handcuffs again, and she held up her own hand to show that they were tied together. “So…” She gestured to the two of them, the bed, and the handcuffs, “what’s going on?”
Leo blinked several times, then ran his free hand through his blond hair. It only made it stick up more. Then, very slowly, he shook his head. “What do you mean?”
“What are we doing here?” Olivia asked. “Why are we handcuffed together? What happened last night?”
“You mean you don’t remember?” Leo asked. Olivia’s heart raced in her chest, and her head pounded.
“No,” she said. “So, please tell me. What happened last night?”