Chapter 3
Three
Carter
River Hendrix. Man, I’ve had it bad for that woman since the day I laid eyes on her.
She was moving in across the street from my best friend, Cal, about a year ago, fumbling with a box against the trunk of a car, when a brief gust of wind whipped her long, golden locks around her face . . . and time slowed down.
But when I finally met her in person a month later . . .
Time. Fucking. Stopped.
She took my breath away. Short, toned legs.
Long, thick lashes framed her amber, almond shaped eyes.
Thick blonde hair surrounded her heart shaped face and tumbled almost to her waist, and I swear, it took everything in me to force myself not to thread my fingers through those locks to see if they felt as soft as they looked.
But it wasn’t only her beauty that shook me, it was how she looked at me like I was a fucking idiot when I held out my hand to shake hers.
Check-fucking-mate.
When she finally placed her hand in mine, my stomach flipped, my heart galloped, sparks ignited, and nerve endings tingled throughout my body.
Since then, that girl has lit me up and torn me down in the same breath.
Chasing her is a fucking high that makes me feel more alive than I’ve ever felt in my life.
Every glance, every time she brushes me off or pops off with one of her smart-ass remarks, only makes me crave her more.
The more she turns me down; the more determined I become.
I’m not one to give up easily. I don’t quit .
. . ever. Mark my words. One day, she will be mine.
I know some of my friends think I’m crazy for focusing on the one girl who acts like she doesn’t want me, but I’ll let you in on a little secret… she does in fact want me.
I know it, she knows it. Hell, Nate knows it too. His instigating ass is only toying with me for personal entertainment value. What she doesn’t know is that he and I have a plan.
“Oooh. There’s some good stuff on here,” she says, handing me the bingo card.
Glancing at the list, I flick the card, then hand it back to her. “Let’s hit up the zipline first. I can tell you’re already a bit tipsy, and I don’t want you puking all over everyone below us.”
“Eww,” she says, peering up at the people zooming by, screaming and laughing. A shiver visibly racks her body. “Remind me not to walk underneath that thing.”
“Did you see this one?” I wiggle my brows.
“Take a blowjob shot from a partner’s mouth,” she reads, then peeks around me. “Hey, Nate? Wanna do that one with me?”
One side of my mouth lifts into a smirk. She’s provoking me, and I like it. She’s also going out of her way to flirt with Nate and act like she’s not attracted to me.
She is.
Like I can’t tell what she’s up to.
I can.
Little does she know the joke’s on her . . . or rather, it will be soon.
As we walk down Fremont toward the zipline entrance, Nate’s phone rings. Right on time. Glancing between us, he places the phone to his ear.
“Nate,” he clips out.
The street is wrapped in flashing lights. Music surrounds us, and 3-D images dance across the canopy overhead. The crowd is thick with people double fisting alcohol—no doubt on their way to making some very questionable choices, but you know what they say: What happens in Vegas . . . and all that.
Waiting for Nate to finish his call, I stand next to River and glance at the people around us.
My attention catches on a person in a gorilla costume, grinding against a woman’s ass—wait—nope, now his face is buried in her ass.
Not that I’m judging. Maybe a gorilla motorboating her ass cheeks was on her bingo card tonight.
Her friends cheer them on as they drop money into the cardboard box labeled “tips” scrolled in sloppy handwriting with a black marker.
I force my attention from the gorilla back to Nate. He gives me a subtle nod as three showgirls walk past him, the smell of their fruity body spray wafting in the air.
“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” he says, then pockets his phone. An apologetic expression slides onto his face. “Sorry. I’ve gotta take care of something at the club.”
“What happened? Don’t tell me someone was practicing Shabari and now they need your help untying the knots.” River giggles and my brows pull together.
Nate breathes a chuckle and tilts his head to study her, scratching his jaw. I know he’s on my side, but he’s looking at her with interest, and I don’t like it. My molars grind, and I shoot him a glare.
“You really are something else, River,” he says, shaking his head in disbelief. “Didn’t take you for a rope bunny . . . or . . . maybe you prefer to be the rope top. Now, that’s interesting.”
“Bowline, rolling hitch, double cross. Nate, I can tie a knot better than a Navy SEAL. I can untie them on my own too,” she says, twisting a lock of her hair, then she turns to me. “Now that I’m thinking about it, Carter, would you like to volunteer for a demonstration?”
Instant. Fucking. Hard-on.
I clear my throat and shift my weight. Like that’ll help.
She jerks her head my way, and her giggles bounce around us. “Oh, look ‘Kitten’s’ got his tongue. I think he’s broken.”
I don’t have a witty comeback. For the life of me, I can’t form words or force the images of her tying me up out of my head.
Without a care in the world, I blatantly adjust myself again, right there in front of God and everybody.
If that gorilla can motorboat a stranger’s ass in public, I can damn well adjust my dick.
River glances down at my crotch, then her eyes travel up to meet mine. The little vixen smirks.
“You look excited. If I ever get the chance to tie your ass up, no one will ever be able to save you . . . and I can promise you, Carter Graham, it won’t be a good time. Not for you, anyway.”
“Anything you do to me, Kitten, would most definitely be a good time.” I shove a hand in my pocket, and rock back on my heels as I ask, “So . . . are we talking beginner-level rope work or advanced level with suspension?”
“God help you if you ever find out,” she teases back.
I laugh, but the laughter dies on my lips the second my mind begins to wonder how she knows what Shabari is. Is it from personal experience? The image of her with someone else in that way makes my stomach drop.
“Alright, you two. I’ll see you both tomorrow,” Nate says, before turning to me. Leaning close, he clamps a hand on my shoulder and speaks low into my ear. “Don’t fuck this up.”
The palm of his hand gives my face a couple of soft taps before he turns his back.
I chuckle under my breath and watch him disappear into the crowd. And just like that, it’s the two of us, just as Nate and I had planned.
Do I feel like an asshole for orchestrating this?
Eh . . . kinda . . . This isn’t how I’d normally behave, but I’ve had enough drinks in me to take advice from Eminem.
I’m seizing everything I’ve ever wanted.
You only get one shot, right? Fuck. We haven’t even started and I’m already feeling a buzz.
River watches him walk away, then tilts her head back and groans.
With the bingo card still clutched tight in her grasp, she glances down, scanning the list as I ask, “You ready for our date?”
“This isn’t a date.”
“Eh. It kind of is.”
Her eyes lift to find mine, and I grin, flashing my dimples. She opens her mouth, then closes it.
The dimples never fail me.
“What’s wrong, Kitten? You okay? Did you run out of snark?”
“Nope. My brain is trying to comprehend how it’s possible for such a big ego to fit inside this city.”
“Vegas was built to handle big things.” I wink.
Her eyes take a turn around her head, then she grabs my hand and pulls.
My breath catches. My brain misfires. I’m frozen.
Unable to move or even think. Every cell in my body comes to life.
Every nerve ending lights up, sending tingles all the way down my spine.
I stare down at our hands—her small one wrapped around mine—then, let my eyes slowly drift up to the back of her head as she gives me another tug.
She whips around to face me with her brows furrowed, her long lashes casting a shadow on her high cheekbones. “What? Carter, come on!” She struggles, jerking on my arm and trying to make me budge from the spot. “Ugh. Why aren’t you moving?”
I glance down at our hands again, then my gaze flicks up to meet her eyes.
You have to know River to understand why her holding my hand right now is monumental.
Aside from that one time she almost kissed me last season, she’s barely even breathed in my direction.
That hasn’t kept me from making excuses to touch her—small accidental brushes here and there.
I may have allowed my hands to linger on her a little longer than necessary from time to time.
But River touching me? That hasn’t happened in months.
“For fuck’s sake. Don’t read too much into it. I’m not taking a chance of losing you in this crowd. Move. Your. Ass.” She turns, and when she pulls again, I trail behind her.
As we pass Four Queens, I hear someone yell my name and look over my shoulder. Aiden, Hannah, and Sean Mac approach us. Sean slaps my back as he passes, then turns around to face us while walking backwards and calls out, “We’ve already checked off two things. You’re going down, Doc.”
Aiden and Hannah’s laughter trails behind them over the music as they look back over their shoulders.
Dragging a hand down her face, River groans, then starts leading the way again. “I can only imagine what you’re about to say, and I swear to God, if you say it . . . I’ll unclip your safety line.”
“That wasn’t even a thought in my mind . . . though, it’s nice to see where your head is. I’ll be honest; I don’t know which is hotter, you threatening to kill me, you tying me up, or the fact that you’re thinking about going down.”
Stopping dead in her tracks, she turns her head to glare at me over her shoulder. A beautiful flush of soft pink blooms across her cheeks. Fuck. She’s stunning.
“I swear to God. One more word, Carter, one more, and I’ll find something to shove into your mouth and gag you with it.”
“Fucking yes, please. This is sounding more and more like a good time.”
“Why do the hot ones always have to be so mouthy?”
“You think I’m hot?” I wiggle my brows.
She doesn’t respond, just keeps walking like she didn’t hear me. See? Like I said, she’s attracted to me. As we draw closer, I look up at the twelve-story slot machine with two different zipline platforms, and my heart pounds a little faster, thinking about what we’re about to do.
River stiffens, and her footsteps come to a screeching halt, nearly causing me bump into her.
My brows furrow into a frown. I round her body to make sure she’s okay and let her know we don’t have to do the zipline, but as I lean down to capture her gaze, she stares right through me with a blank expression.
“River?”
No answer. She’s here but not, too quiet and still, except for the rapid movement of her chest. People move around us, their shoulders brushing against ours as we stand in the middle of the street.
Fuck.
I’ve seen this too many times to count.
One of the things I’ve noticed about River is that she hides behind her wit and smart-ass remarks. She acts like nothing in the world phases her, but I see the real person beneath her mask.
I give her a few seconds to see if she’ll come out of what I assume is a flashback on her own, but she’s still not moving or blinking.
I don’t know what threw her into this, but I need to do something to bring her back to me.
Normally I would use a grounding technique, but with her, I settle on trying a distraction first, giving her hand a few tight squeezes. It doesn’t work.
Shit!
If she realizes that I’ve noticed this about her, I’m scared she’ll run away from me. . . like she always does. But more than that, I don’t want to embarrass her, so I need to be creative in bringing her back to the present.
Keeping her hand in mine, I move to stand beside her so when she comes out of this episode, I’m not right in her face.
“River,” I choke out. Seeing this beautiful woman with such a loving heart in this state and knowing someone did something awful to her that broke her spirit and caused these flashbacks shreds my fucking heart.
I clear my throat and try again, rubbing my thumb over the top of her hand.
“River. Can you feel the desert heat on your skin? It’s so hot here in Las Vegas, isn’t it?
And you see those people on the zipline above us?
Hear them laughing and screaming as they zoom by?
I can’t believe we’re about to do that, but it’s gonna be so much fun.
The smell of street food here on Fremont Street is really making me hungry.
I can practically taste the funnel cakes and corndogs.
Are you still hungry, baby? I forgot about getting you a snack, but we can do that once we’re done with the zipline.
Being in Vegas with all our friends for Aspen’s wedding is crazy. Isn’t it?”
It takes a couple of tries of going through where we are, what’s going on around her, and what we hear and smell before she comes out of it, blinking rapidly.
Her hand flies up to her throat as she looks around.
I want to pull her into my arms, hold her, and tell her everything’s okay, but she would only push me away.
So, as hard as it is for me to do, I move past her, ducking us through the crowd and leading us closer to the zipline, pretending as if nothing happened.
When we reach the stairs to the platform, I turn to her and say, “Here we are. If you’re scared of heights, you should probably back out now. There’s no tandem ride, and we’ll be too far apart for me to hold your hand if you get scared.”
“I’m not scared, and the last thing I’ll ever want to do is hold your hand. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t want to do anything with you.”
There she is. That’s my girl.
“Yet here we are,” I say, holding up our linked hands.
She scoffs as her eyes roll. “Whatever.”
“I don’t know, it’s almost like we’re meant to be.”
“You and I will never happen,” she quips with pursed lips as her eyes narrow in my direction.
Keep lying to yourself, Kitten.