Hot Finish (16 page)

Trust Suzanne to just say it like it was.

“You’re still on Eastern time, that’s all,” Ryder told her, avoiding her first comment. “It’s like we had dinner last night at midnight and breakfast at noon. Your stomach is rebelling.”

“Why should that matter?” she asked him, reaching out to brush a crumb off the corner of his lip. “It’s not like my stomach has a watch down there.”

As they talked, they cut everyone else out, not intentionally, but they were clearly just enjoying talking to each other, and Ty watched them closely. He’d seen a lot of ugly go down between those two, but damn if they didn’t look happy together at the moment. Maybe things had changed. Maybe they had changed.

What the hell did he know anyways? He’d nearly lost Imogen from his own stupid stubbornness.

Imogen squeezed his knee. When he looked at her, she was popping a chocolate covered grape in her mouth. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “They’ll figure it out.”

That remained to be seen, but Ty sure wished them all the best.

SUZANNE
had managed to avoid Nikki for two whole days, but her luck ran out as she was crossing the lobby, trying to find something to occupy her time that didn’t cost money. So far, her options were window-shopping on the Strip or watching TV in her room. Not exactly how she had wanted to spend her time while Ryder was out doing interviews, but then again, she didn’t want to spend it with Nikki either.

Nikki spotted her and waved enthusiastically, running over on her stiletto heels, her black sequin leggings sparkling in the afternoon sunlight coming from the huge windows, her giant fur enveloping her. Sometimes Nikki dressed like a sixteen-year-old cheerleader, other days like a cougar on the prowl, with no apparent rhyme or reason as to why she chose either one. Today was clearly the latter.

“Hey, how is your trip going?” Suzanne asked her, giving in to the inevitable hug and cheek kiss.

“It’s great. It’s awesome, fantastic!” Nikki gripped her hands and giggled. “I have the most exciting news. Jonas and I are eloping tonight!”

The entire lobby of the Wynn spun wildly, and for a split second Suzanne thought she might actually pass out. By sheer willpower, she fought down the bile and righted the room. “What? Why would you do that? I thought you wanted a big wedding!”

A big wedding that Suzanne had spent the last month planning. They had a ballroom. They had a dress. A cake. Tuxes. A freaking white carriage and glass slippers, for God’s sake.

“Oh, I do. But all this is stressing out Jonas. He told me how romantic it would be to get married while we’re here, just go in, be done, then we’re on our honeymoon.”

“But you won’t be able to be Cinderella then.” Suzanne fought the desperation that was creeping into her voice. She needed that second half of the fee. She needed it to pay her bills for the next two or three months, and if Nikki eloped, she wasn’t entitled to that.

Nikki’s face fell a little. “I know. I thought about that. But this way we’re married like immediately, and I haven’t signed the prenup yet.”

Suzanne felt her eyebrow shoot up. Nikki wasn’t as dumb as she looked. Or sounded most of the time.

But neither was Suzanne.

She lowered her voice to one of confidant; a gentle, coaxing tone. “Have you really thought this through? You only have a chance to be a bride once and I think you might look back and regret not having a fairy-tale wedding. Think of the little cakes of you. The glass slipper party favors. The horse-drawn carriage and the diamond tiara. Do you really want to give all that up for some five-minute ceremony with strangers in Vegas?”

Nikki looked thoughtful. “I do really want the little cakes.”

“No one else can pull off Cinderella mini-cakes the way you can. Same with the gown. We have white gloves for you, and a cape, and a muff. Never again will you have the chance to wear a muff.”

Lips pursed together, Nikki nodded slowly. “Maybe I should think about this. Maybe I should tell Jonas no.”

“I think you’ll be happier if you do,” Suzanne told her, squeezing her hands. “Look, I have a picture of your invitations.” She pulled out her phone and showed the ivory and blue vellum invitations to Nikki.

“Those are beautiful.”

“Only the best for you. They’re going out in the mail on Monday.”

“Yeah.” Nikki chewed her lip. “I’ll talk to you later, Suzanne. I’d better catch Jonas before he buys the Elvis wedding package.”

“Okay. I’ll see you at the awards ceremony.”

As Nikki wandered off, her fur slipping off her shoulders, Suzanne felt both relief and disgust. Part of her sighed in total relief that she had just secured her paycheck, yet she also felt kind of sick to her stomach for manipulating Nikki. The thing was, she knew in the end Nikki did want the big wedding and would be happier having had it, but Nikki’s feelings weren’t what had motivated her.

Saving her own ass was what had driven her to talk Nikki down off the elopement ledge.

That was something she wasn’t exactly proud of, and she stood there in the lobby wondering what the hell she was actually doing with her life.

RYDER
only had a couple of free hours, but he intended to take full advantage of them. Not to mention he felt bad for abandoning Suzanne for work stuff, and from the look on her face, she’d been bored while he was gone.

But she seemed to have the same plan as he did, because he’d barely gotten the door closed before she was on him and they were tugging at each other’s clothes. He wanted to ask her if she had missed him, but he didn’t want to spoil the moment, or have her stop and think, or do anything other than exactly what she was doing.

Ryder plunged his tongue into her mouth, his hands already sliding down to cup her breast. Of course, his hands had nothing on the eagerness of hers. Suzanne already had his pants unbuttoned and unzipped and she went on in, stroking up and down on him.

Desire hit him like going into the wall at the track. “Damn, Suz, were you watching porn while I was gone? If you were, you should do that more often.”

Suzanne was already dropping to her knees, and Ryder fell back against the door of the hotel suite. “I just thought it sucked that we haven’t had sex yet today.”

“It did suck.” Ryder closed his eyes as she closed over his cock. Suzanne was one of the few women he’d encountered who really seemed to dig giving head. One of the many qualities she possessed that he fully appreciated. “And now you’re sucking, and shit, that feels good.”

Suzanne knew she was being reckless and crazy, but she wanted Ryder. She wanted him in her, on her, taking her. She didn’t know what she was doing next year, next week, hell, even tomorrow, and there were a lot of things dancing around her head that scared the shit out of her, but right now, right here, none of that mattered. All that mattered was driving Ryder crazy and letting him do the same to her.

She loved doing this to him, taking him into her mouth while he made those sounds, those grunts and moans that told her he was totally losing control. Right when she thought he might go over the edge, she stood up, shoving her jeans and panties down together as quickly as she could.

Ryder took her shoulders and threw her against the wall, grabbing onto one of her legs and hitching it over his. Her pants were somewhere around her calves, but it didn’t matter. He had clearance and he pushed up into her, the angle creating a delicious fullness and pressure.

“Ryder,” she managed, then felt all the breath whoosh out of her lungs as he thrust again, and she grabbed on to his shoulders so she didn’t fall.

After he licked his finger, his free hand snaked down between them and tweaked her clitoris, and Suzanne embarrassed herself by coming, a sharp unexpected burst of ecstasy.

Ryder’s eyes widened, then he pumped harder, hand slapping on the wall behind her for leverage. A minute later, he joined her, and they clung to each other, to the wall, clothes cockeyed and damp, breathing jagged and heavy.

“Now that’s what I call a hello,” Ryder said.

Suzanne swallowed hard and enjoyed the aftershocks of his penis pulsing in her. “I’m very friendly.”

“And I’m very lucky.”

Not wanting to analyze that statement, Suzanne still couldn’t help but stare into his eyes a little, seeking an answer to a question she didn’t even understand.

Just enjoy the moment. That’s what she had to do.

Now was not the time to worry about the future. That would slap her in the face on Monday, so there was no point in ruining Saturday worrying about it.

It was what it was and nothing more, even if she had to have billboards made to remind her of that fact.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

SUZANNE
gave Ryder that look he knew so well. “Since when are you superstitious?” she asked, assessing him.

“Since forever,” he told her with excessive embellishment as he helped her out of the cab, feeling reckless and damn pleased with the weekend, his life, and his ex-wife.

“I don’t think playing the same slot machine we did six years ago makes one wit of difference. It’s just dumb luck.”

“Indulge me,” he told her, reaching out and kissing the tip of her nose.

Suzanne made a face and swatted at his hand, but she laughed. “I think all this sex is going to your head.”

“Speaking of head, that was—”

She cut him off with a shushing sound as they walked through the door of the Bellagio. “We’re in public! Knock it off.” Then she paused as they entered the lobby. “Wow. Déjà vu. It’s kind of weird to be back here for the first time since . . . that night.”

Ryder had been to Vegas many times since their wedding and honeymoon, but it had never been the same. That had been a wonderful weekend, rivaled only by this one, and he couldn’t help but want to repeat some of it. “How much did we win that night? A thousand bucks?”

“No. It was five hundred. We got massages with it the next day and still had enough for a swanky dinner.”

“I could go for a massage.” Ryder went up to the window and registered his card. “Blow on this for good luck,” he told Suz.

“I’m supposed to blow on a swipe card?” She looked bemused. “Alright.” She leaned over and blew on the card in Ryder’s hand. “Mama needs a new pair of shoes.”

Ryder knew exactly where the slot was they’d won on before. He had passed it several times over the years but had never played it, not without Suz. It was their machine.

“How can you be sure this is the right one?” she asked, sitting on the seat as he stuck his card in.

“I know everything.”

“And I know you’re full of bull.”

“Not about stuff that matters.” Well, not most of the time anyway. He had to admit he hadn’t known a whole lot when it had come to his marriage. Ryder put his hands on her shoulders because he had developed an obsession with touching her now that he was allowed to again. “Push the button.”

She pushed it. “I don’t even get these games. I can’t even tell if we’ve won or not.”

“We didn’t. Push it again.” When she hesitated, clearly trying to interpret the screen, Ryder reached over her and pushed it.

“Hey. Am I doing this or are you?”

“Then move quicker. The slots are about speed. Just keep pushing.”

Suzanne glanced up at him and said, “I’m going to push you.”

But she was all talk and he knew it. Suzanne started pushing the button faster and they won fifty bucks. “Oh! Did we just win?”

“Yep. You’ve got the touch.”

Ryder watched Suzanne get into gambling, betting higher and double, and whooping when they won something. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and an hour later they were high-fiving.

“Holy shit! We just won five grand!” He eyed the machine and felt a surge of gambling victory. This was definitely their slot.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” Suzanne jumped up and did an impromptu butt-shaking dance that Ryder really appreciated. “How much did we spend?”

“I think we spent about two grand, so we’re up three.”

She stopped dancing and gaped at him. “We just dumped two thousand dollars into this blinking machine?”

“Yeah. Gotta spend to win.”

Suzanne grabbed her heart for a second, then yanked his card out of the machine. “Good Lord in heaven. That’s insane. That’s a huge amount of money.”

It was entertainment was what it was, and Ryder considered himself very fortunate that he could indulge himself now and again. He wasn’t a big spender for the most part, and he had a career that paid him well. There was no reason to feel guilty for spending a few thousand dollars on a special weekend. “It’s not a big deal.”

“I’m having a heart attack, I swear.” She handed him the card. “Take that.” Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were a little glassy.

Suddenly unnerved by her reaction, Ryder said, “Maybe we should move on to something else. How about blackjack?”

“How about no. You shouldn’t spend any more money. We should be glad we won money and just walk away. Good Lord, two grand . . .”

“Well, what do you want to do then? We can get massages with our winnings.”

“Maybe you should just keep the money and not spend it.”

“What’s the fun in that? It’s like free money. It’s money that I never had, so we should feel completely justified in spending it.” Ryder pulled Suzanne closer to him and kissed her.

After a moment of hesitation, she relaxed in his arms and kissed him back.

“We’re here to have fun,” he murmured, suddenly knowing he was going to tell her the truth, right there on the casino floor. He couldn’t hold it in any longer, couldn’t pretend he was feeling less than he was. “Just two crazy kids in love cutting loose in Vegas. What we should do is take our three grand and get rehitched with an Elvis wedding package.”

Suzanne stiffened. Pulling back, she stared up at him. “That’s not funny.”

“It wasn’t meant to be funny.” He was as serious as the heart attack she’d been claiming to have earlier.

“Why would you say something like that?”

Uh-oh. Suzanne was getting mad and he wasn’t even exactly sure why. Trying to tread lightly, he just said, “Because I was trying to get you to relax, to not worry about spending the money, to just enjoy this weekend where we’re together. I want to be with you, isn’t that obvious? For real be with you.”

Oh, my God, there were suddenly tears in her eyes.

Ryder panicked and said, “What? Baby, what’s wrong?”

Her lip trembled and she waved her hand wildly to indicate nothing was wrong, yet it clearly was, because now a tear had actually escaped her eye and was trickling down her cheek. Suzanne never cried and it was scaring the hell out of him.

“Let’s go . . .” Ryder looked around wildly. They were in a fucking casino, there wasn’t a single inch that wasn’t blinking and beeping and crawling with gamblers. “Back to our room.”

But Suzanne didn’t move. She just swiped at her eyes and said, “That was a cruel and stupid thing to say. We’ve never been two crazy kids in love cutting loose in Vegas. Not even on our honeymoon. And you can’t possibly really and truly want to be married to me again.”

There was one thing that boiled his blood, raised his blood pressure, had him seeing red, and that was when she told him what his feelings were. Nobody knew his feelings but him, damn it, and he thought for the most part, he was pretty honest when he shared them. She had no idea how much he wanted to be married to her, and that she could dismiss it, just like that, infuriated him.

“That’s two different issues. One, if I say I want to be married to you that means I do, and don’t tell me otherwise. Two, I was feeling pretty crazy in love on our honeymoon. I don’t know what you were feeling. I kind of thought you were happy, too.”

“I was happy. But I was scared. Terrified that you had married me because I was pregnant, plain and simple, and that I wouldn’t be able to hold on to you. I was terrified that we would drift apart and that we would end up divorced, my heart broken. And we did, and it was.”

“You left,” Ryder exploded, despite the fact that an older woman with orange hair shot him a glare from her slot stool a few feet away. “I never wanted this damn divorce. And I didn’t marry you because you were pregnant. I married you sooner than I intended because you were pregnant, but I always knew, from the first night we met and made love, that I would marry you.”

And that was the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Suzanne’s expression was stricken and she just shook her head. “I need a minute. I’m going back to the room.”

“By yourself?”

“Yes.” She was already backing away from him.

Ryder’s heart sank. They always did this . . . got almost to where they were talking about issues in their relationship and then one or both of them retreated.

“Come on, babe, let’s talk about this.”

“Just give me half an hour,” she said, her voice cracking.

Ryder knew she wanted to cry alone, where he wouldn’t see her, and while he didn’t understand the why, he understood that it was never wise to push Suzanne. Resigned, he just nodded. “Do you need anything?”

“No. I don’t need anything.”

Maybe that was the heart of their problem. Suzanne never had needed anything from him.

SUZANNE
fought the tears in the cab as she headed back to the Wynn, disgusted with herself, sick to realize that nothing had changed. Six years and she hadn’t learned a goddamn thing. She still wanted to be with Ryder, she still wanted him to sweep her away and make everything alright. She had wanted to believe every word he’d said about how he would have married her, pregnant or not, and for a split second had even thought of taking him up on his wedding-package offer today.

Which said things about her she didn’t like because that had been a suck-ass offer. It hadn’t been even remotely romantic or sensual or even all that sincere. It had been casual and offhand and impulsive, and yet she had hesitated. Ryder did love her, in some way, she believed that. But Ryder didn’t want to have to work too hard at it either. Granted, he had tried this weekend, and he’d done good, but she needed a man who put forth the effort all the time, not just once a year.

But she thought maybe that was something they could work out, or at least talk about.

Yet none of that changed the fact that she still felt insecure, unsuccessful, the weaker link in their partnership, and that she couldn’t tolerate. That wasn’t his fault, it was just the circumstance of his money, her lack thereof, and it was her problem. She realized that.

What she had done to Nikki had shocked her. If the need to make a buck had caused her to that easily manipulate another person, poor wasn’t a street she wanted to live on anymore. That wasn’t how her granny and granddad had raised her. They had lacked for cash, but had never compromised their values, and she felt a little sick.

As the cab pulled up in front of the Wynn, Suzanne debated texting Ryder. Maybe it was time to be honest with him, to really lay it all out on the table, all her fears, all her insecurities. Climbing out of the cab, she winced as a blast of cold air hit her. Vegas in December wasn’t exactly Palm Beach.

Unfortunately, there was also a group of media personnel she recognized standing right outside the entrance, doing some filming. Most of them had been covering stock car racing for years, and a couple she would even count as casual friends, but none of them were anyone she wanted to talk to at the moment. Except that Joe Blass had spotted her and was waving.

“Hey, Joe,” she said as he walked toward her. “How are you?” Not that she really cared at the moment, but she’d do the nice thing and then retreat to her room. Ryder’s room. His swanky hotel room.

“I’m great, Suzanne. How about you?”

Suzanne knew Joe fairly well, given that he had covered a lot of the charity events Suzanne had been a part of planning and hostessing in years past, and something about the expression he was wearing right now alarmed her. “Good,” she said cautiously. “There’s something you want to tell me, isn’t there?”

She had no idea what it could be, but it was definitely not that Elton John tickets were up for grabs in the lobby.

Joe sighed, flipping his cigarette into the ashtray by the front door. “You know how the game works, Suzanne, so you remember you have to take it with a grain of salt and just ignore it.”

“Ignore what?” This was not reassuring, and her mouth felt hot. There must be buzz about her being in Vegas with Ryder.

“That racing gossip blogger, the one who goes by that stupid name Tuesday Talladega, has a post up about Ryder.” Joe shoved his hands in his pockets. “Normally, I wouldn’t say anything, it’s just a bunch of bullshit gossip, but with everyone in town for the awards ceremony . . . well, I figured you’d want to know what people are saying.”

“Thanks, Joe, I appreciate it.” Though he hadn’t told her what people were saying. Not a good sign at all. “Have a good night.”

“Yeah, you, too.” Joe waved and moved off.

Suzanne walked into the hotel, glancing around for the business center. Spotting the concierge instead, she asked him to direct her, and five minutes and an impatient elevator ride later, she was in front of a computer looking up Tuesday Talladega’s blog.

What she saw there had the words on the screen blurring in front of her angry eyes.

The subject header for the blog entry was
Manwhore Alert: Ryder Jefferson Back in Action
.

Suzanne gripped the mouse tightly and forced herself to keep reading.

Below that was not one, but three pictures of Ryder at various locations around the Wynn hotel, clearly at different times, most definitely with different women.

Number two driver Ryder Jefferson takes girl number four to his favorite hot spot in Las Vegas, the Wynn Hotel, which, of course, is all on the corporate sponsor’s dime. Must be nice to have your bimbo du jour at your side at no cost to you, though you’d think even he would try a little harder to at least pretend these are something more than meaningless hook ups with women who make drift-wood look intelligent. Our advice to you, Mr. Jefferson, is to mix it up. With all the hotels in Vegas, surely you can choose a different one for each of your extremely romantic trysts in Sin City.