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“Shit,” I swore under my breath before shooting a dark look at Bennett. He knew I’d never agree if he asked me, so he’d made his new fuck-buddy do the asking. Stay classy, Marshon. I rubbed the back of my neck and kept my glare focused on Bennett, who was smiling like the idiot that he was, not caring how pissed I got, because he knew—and frequently exploited the fact—I couldn’t stay mad at him for long.
Before I could sidestep the invitation, Tori whipped a phone out of God-only-knows where, her outfit was so short and tight, I had no idea where she’d been keeping her cell. “Here!” She spun the phone around to show me a picture. “She’d kill me if she knew I showed this to you, but I swear—she’s a total fuckin’ hottie!”
The girl on the screen was gorgeous, and I’d be lying if I tried to deny that my cock wasn’t pumping to life just from the grainy pic. She was blonde, curved in all the right places, her tits nice and high, bright blue eyes, and in the pic, she was wearing a skin tight black dress that showed off her long, shapely legs and perfect tan.
“Damn!” Bennett said, sneaking a peek at the phone. Tori just laughed, seeming to not care that her man for the night was ogling her best friend. “Come on, Ryk. Even you couldn’t turn that down.”
“She’s normal, I swear,” Tori added. “She’s just anti-social sometimes, but I can guarantee she’ll wanna meet you. You’re totally her type.”
“I’m not really into blind dates,” I said, handing the phone back. “You two have fun. I’ll catch up with you later, man.”
I started to walk away, but Bennett only let me get five feet away before running up to me and grabbing me around the arm. “Come on, man. Don’t be an asshole.”
I shook off his arm and spun to look at him. “I’m not. Why do you even care? You’re tapping that tonight aren’t ya?” He looked over at Tori, who was still standing where we’d all just been talking. She was typing on her phone, and I wondered if she was texting her friend from the picture. “She said she’ll only go with me tonight if we can make tomorrow happen. It’s one night!”
I laughed. “Seriously? Wow. I think this is a new record for you in the pussy whipping category.”
Bennett scowled at me. “Fine, be a prick.”
He started to walk off, when I called him back. “All right, all right. We can go tomorrow.”
He punched me on the shoulder, his broad smile firmly back in place. “See? That wasn’t so hard!” He strut off to collect Tori, and the two of them left me in the club, with the feeling that I’d just been played.
All I knew for sure was that there’d be hell to pay if the girl on the date wasn’t as hot as the one in the picture.
Chapter Two
Everlie
I knew I shouldn’t worry. My roommate, Tori was known to be a bit of a wildcat, and frequently didn’t make it home until well past midnight. But as her best friend…it was hard not to let my imagination get carried away wondering where she was. It didn’t help that I had the late night news on the TV in the background, replaying the worst stories of the evening—which in Vegas, equated to a continual loop of reports of everything from pickpockets, kidnappings, wild parties and bar fights—to on especially bad occasions, the discovery of a ring of human traffickers or drug busts. Tonight had been a relatively calm broadcast, but as I paced around the living room of our shared apartment, I couldn’t help but picture Tori’s face popping up on the screen with some horrendous headline about a missing girl.
When the stories started to repeat, I sighed and flopped down on the couch, silently cursing my mom for my streak of paranoia—she’d always been a bit of a worry wart—while reaching for the remote control to click off the TV. The screen went blank and my eyes darted back to the clock on the wall. It was almost 2 o’clock in the morning, which was late, even for Tori. I was halfway through typing out a text message to her, when I heard the locks on the front door starting to click open one by one.
Tori and I lived in a relatively safe neighborhood on the outskirts of town, but as two single women in a city known for sin, we aired on the side of being cautious, and had three deadbolts installed on our door, in addition to the regular lock. I heaved off the couch and went to assist Tori, who was fumbling with the last lock. As soon as I opened the door, she burst inside, her bright auburn curls bouncing and a sparkle in her blue eyes, making them even brighter than normal. She was grinning ear to ear, and while I was happy to see her, I couldn’t help feeling a little irritated that while I’ve been home, worried sick, she’d apparently been having the time of her life—without so much as a text to let me know she was still alive and kicking. In the three years we’d lived together, we’d had this conversation more times than I could count. All I asked was that she let me know she was safe so I didn’t have to worry. She thought I was paranoid and old fashioned, but each time, she agreed to be more contentious. It usually worked for a few months, before she’d randomly go off the radar again.
“Ev!” She exclaimed, swishing past me to drop her purse off on the couch. “Thank God, you’re awake. You’re not gonna believe what happened tonight!” She shouted, spinning back to face me. “I met the man of my absolute fucking dreams!”
I shut the front door and bolted it closed again. “Oh, Lord.” She shot me a playful scowl, but continued on, unfazed by my lack of enthusiasm. “His name is Bennett Marshon. Basic specs, he’s twenty-nine, crazy tall, smells like Heaven, with a wicked grin straight from the devil himself!”
I laughed at her colorful description, unable to stay upset with her. I’d heard the same story about a million times since we moved in together, but her sheer excitement was contagious and even though I’d never understand how she could fall so head over heels in one night, I always appreciated her way with words. Tori lived in a continual cycle of relationships—she was constantly falling in and out of love—sometimes all in the course of twenty-four hours. She was a fickle creature with ever-changing taste, I had a feeling she had no idea of what she was really looking for, and she didn’t really care enough to sit down and figure it out. She was quite content living in the whirlwind raging around her.
When last I checked, she didn’t even know what gender she wanted.
We’d known each other for over three years, after originally meeting at the dance studio I worked at. Back then, she’d been dating a woman for several months. Once they broke up she switched back over to dating men, but that only lasted for a six-month period, before she switched back again, swearing off men altogether. However, she ricocheted back three months later when she found her new girlfriend was just using her to get an audition at the burlesque club where Tori was a full-time dancer.
It was basically a giant, bi-sexual soap opera.
“—I’m telling you, Everlie, he’s the hottest man I’ve ever seen in my life,” Tori chattered away, and I didn’t stop her to back up to what she’d been saying.
From what little I’d heard, I gave the relationship three weeks to go belly up.
“Where did you meet him?” I asked, joining Tori in the kitchen where she was pouring a large glass of iced tea from the pitcher I always kept stocked in the fridge.
Tori smiled, knowingly. “At a club.”
I groaned. “Always. Tori it’s always at a club. Does he even live here? Or he’s just here for a few nights with his bros?”
“Lighten up, Ev,” Tori chided, closing the fridge. She took a long drink of her iced tea before continuing, “I’m not expecting some fairytale ending with a guy I met at a club, so don’t worry about me. We’re just gonna have some fun. Well, I should say more fun.” She waggled her eyebrows at me over the rim of her glass.
