CHAPTER 9 Penny Calloway
Booty Call
Dinner has been an extravagant affair of courses and champagne and more champagne. I can't help but wonder what Liam's up to and where he is right now.
I should be focusing on my best friend, and as the maid of honor, I have my own share of duties and expectations, but she planned and is paying for this shindig herself because she has means that I don’t.
Plus, she lives here in Vegas, anyway. She knows the spots she wants to go, and I have next to no knowledge of this town other than what I’ve learned from visiting Everleigh.
It's a small group of us made up of family and friends. Her sister Ivy, her sister-in-law Ainsley, her brother's fiancée Kennedy, and a couple of friends she's made out here, either wives of Maverick's teammates or wives of former players for the Vegas Aces.
Everyone's lovely, and we’re all dressed up and having a great time. I’m wearing a sparkly metallic halter minidress with a deep plunging V that nearly goes down to my belly button, and I have the straps tied tight so my boobs don’t have a mishap.
I can't seem to focus on much of anything except how much longer we're going to be here when all I want to do is get back to my hotel room and see if Liam has texted me so he can slip my boobs out of this thing and bury his face in them again.
It's ridiculous. I'm waiting for a text from a boy like I'm twelve years old again. Only it's not a boy I'm waiting for at all. It's a man.
And let's call a spade a spade. It's a booty call.
Even just a little flirting over text message had my panties soaked as I was on an airplane and unable to do anything about it.
There's an ache pressing between my thighs I fear only one person has the capability of relieving.
And unfortunately, I need to keep that a secret from everyone here.
They can't know that my boy toy is the younger brother of the bride.
I do my best to focus and be in the moment with my friend, to celebrate her, to smile as we toast, to laugh along as everyone tells stories, and to just live in the moment the way everyone else here seems to so easily be able to do.
Once dinner is over, which feels interminable given the number of courses and extra glasses of champagne that Everleigh continues to order, we head toward a nightclub. As we walk in our heels toward the club, she catches up with me to fall into step beside me.
“Are you doing okay, Pen?” she asks.
“Of course. Why?”
“You just seem quiet. I was worried it's because of everything you're going through. I was hoping, despite all that, that this would be a fun weekend where you could just let loose and have a good time.” She wrinkles her nose as if it's a big request, when the truth is I needed this weekend away more than she could possibly realize.
I shake my head. “Brent has been an absolute sack of shit lately,” I say, using Liam's term for him. “So honestly, getting away for the weekend was one of the best possible scenarios for me.”
“Let's get this girl a hookup!” Everleigh says to the group, and they all cheer.
I probably turn bright red, but nobody is sober enough to notice. I am planning to have a hookup, not that anyone here knows that.
“I don't need all that,” I say with a laugh. “Just a fun night out with friends.”
“Then let's get this girl a fun night out with friends!” Everleigh yells, and the group with us cheers again.
We arrive at the club and beeline for the bar, and we hit the dance floor once we have drinks in hand.
We shake it to the latest pop remixes, and I realize how incredibly out of the loop I am since my current soundtrack tends to be either Danny Go!
or Koo Koo Kanga Roo on YouTube—whatever the kids put on.
I shake my ass anyway like I know these songs.
My drink is soon empty again. I'm sweating from all the dancing, and I need another drink to cool me down.
I head toward the bar with Ellie, one of Everleigh's Vegas friends who I bonded with over dinner since we both have kids around the same age. With drinks in hand, we return to our group of friends, who are no longer on the dance floor but have found a high-top table that they’re all standing around.
I watch as a handsome man walks up behind her and puts his arms around her.
She glances back, then leans into him, and I presume this is her husband, Luke.
She told me all about him at dinner, as well as their two girls, and we laughed about what an adventure parenthood is.
It was nice bonding with another mom who has the same soundtrack in her house that I have in mine.
“Luke, this is Everleigh's bestie Penny from Chicago,” Ellie says.
“Hi, Penny from Chicago,” Luke says with a smile. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too. I heard your favorite Koo Koo Kanga Roo song is ‘Superheroes Unite.’”
He grins. “Better than this shit that they're playing in here. I'll take ‘Monster Moves’ any day over this.”
I start to mimic the “Monster Moves” dance from the YouTube video, proving I know exactly what he's talking about, when I hear a voice close to my ear.
“Care to do that dance for me naked a little later?”
I nearly jump out of my skin, but the soft, woodsy scent sends an immediate signal to my nervous system that this is good. This is safe. This is exactly what we wanted.
Just…not in front of the bride and most of the Bradley siblings minus Archer and Ford.
My thighs clench together at the sound of his voice. The music in this club is loud enough that nobody possibly could have heard his words, especially his sister, whose soon-to-be husband is currently wrapping his arms around her. She’s lost in his world now.
Apparently, the boys finished whatever activity they had planned, and now we’re all together at this club. How interestingly convenient.
Most everyone else who's here is with some sort of partner or date. Some have husbands, others have boyfriends. Liam and I seem to be the lone single two, which naturally draws us together. We can dance and we can have fun without anyone suspecting anything going on between us.
And then we can take it behind closed doors for whatever activities we want to do.
Naked.
Like dancing to “Monster Moves.”
He sways behind me, and I feel his cock near my ass. The ache deepens.
God, do I want him.
I spin around to face him before we get indecent here, but even so, I can see everyone around us has found their significant other, and nobody’s paying a bit of attention to the two of us.
“Did you have fun at dinner?” I ask close to his ear so he can hear me over the music.
He shakes his head, his eyes warm and crinkled at the corners.
I raise my brows in surprise. “You didn’t?”
He shakes his head again. “I just wanted to see you,” he admits close to my ear.
He smells like wood and whiskey, and I’m so tempted to kiss him. So. Tempted.
I glance over and see Everleigh kissing Maverick.
Madden’s here, too, occupying Kennedy now. I spot Dex and Ainsley.
My eyes meet his. Everyone else is kissing somebody. Would it really be so bad?
My eyes flick to his lips.
Nobody would even see if I did it quickly.
And that’s when Ivy walks over, cutting in between us to give her brother a hug.
“Liam, thank God you’re here. Everyone here has a date, and then there’s me.” She rolls her eyes dramatically, and shit. I forgot about Ivy, the youngest of the Bradley siblings. “Well, and the two of you. Let’s go do something fun.”
He tears his eyes from mine to look at his sister.
“I need to talk to you when you have time,” Liam says.
“Shoot. I’m free as a bird right now.”
He chuckles. “Okay, well, Penny and her kids need a place to crash, and I offered up mine.”
Ivy glances over at me. “That’s so sweet of you, Liam. But…oh! Oh.” She nods as she gets that there won’t also be room for her at his place. “It’s cool. I, uh…I’m actually thinking I might need a change anyway. I was thinking about maybe moving to San Diego. I heard you were there today.”
“I was there today,” he confirms.
“How’d it go?”
It’s only then that I realize I never asked him how it went. I guess I mentioned it, but he sidestepped it.
And it’s also then that I realize…I hope it went well, but I don’t want him to move to San Diego.
I want more time with him.
I mean, I know this isn’t going to turn into anything. It’s just sex.
But, God, the sex.
I blow out a breath as my thighs start to ache from clenching together so much around this man.
“It went well. Why are you thinking San Diego?”
“Kennedy said they could find me a position at VanBrad,” she says. She lifts a shoulder. “I think I want to give that a try.”
“What about fashion?” Liam asks gently, referring to her major.
“The more classes I take, the less I want to work in it.” She presses her lips together, and I can’t help but think about all this poor girl has been through. Her dad was arrested, her mom died, and she’s graduating college—major life events all occurring within a few months of each other.
Maybe starting over in San Diego isn’t the worst idea for her. Liam might end up there, too, for a while, anyway.
“So can we go do something fun now?” she asks.
Liam glances at me, and I’m sure I’m giving him the kind of look that tells him that I don’t want to go out with Ivy. He correctly reads the room.
“Go out with Ainsley,” he says, referring to her best friend. “I’m going to bed.” He doesn’t give a further excuse.
She doesn’t ask me if I want to go out, which is fine. She’s twelve years younger than me, and I’m a single mom, nearly divorced. It’s not like we have a lot in common to paint the town red together.
She rolls her eyes and huffs. “Fine, I’ll try to tear Ains away from Dex.”
“How long before we can both duck out without raising suspicion?” Liam asks close to my ear.
I shiver at his warm breath on my skin. I want his hands on my hips. I want his mouth on mine.
This isn’t me—this lusty, horny woman itching to get the hell out of here with him—but it’s the thrill of being with a hot stud of a younger man, the absolute intoxication of the way he looks at me like he needs me to breathe paired with the champagne I’ve been drinking all night.
The memory of his mouth on my body, kissing my most intimate parts, letting me be wild and free for maybe the first time in my life.
Before I get the chance to answer, Everleigh cuts in between us.
Of course she does. She has no reason not to.
“Maverick’s here and he’s a little drunk, and drunk Mav is my favorite because he’s not so damn serious.
So we’re heading out. The first event tomorrow is brunch at eleven in my suite. See you there?”
I nod. “Of course.”
“Liam can walk you back if you want to stay and dance a little longer.” She slaps her brother on the back. “Right, Liam?”
He clenches his jaw like it’s some big imposition on him, but he relents. Damn, he’s a good actor. Probably something I should keep in mind.
“Don’t worry about me,” I say. “You go have fun with your soon-to-be husband.”
She winks at me. “I plan to.”
“Ugh, Everleigh!” Liam says, pulling an exaggeratedly annoyed face that he has to hear about his sister’s sex life.
God, if she only knew about ours…