care of our baby isn’t cool and exciting like hanging out with fighters and playboy bunnies. But I love Riley and I miss her so much right now. I wish I’d never come here with you.” Nicole stormed out of the room and went into the master bedroom, slamming the door and standing against it.
When Red tried to open it, she refused to let him in.
“Nicole— ” he pleaded. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want to talk to you or see you right now,” she replied. “Please just leave me alone.”
“You told me to finish the sentence—I didn’t want to.”
“I don’t care. I hate that you think something so awful about me. About our life together.”
“You’re misunderstanding me,” he told her. “I love our life, I just got angry for a second and I didn’t choose my words carefully.”
“I don’t want to talk about this,” she said, her cheek pressed to the door. “Leave me alone for a while, will you?”
There was a long pause. “Fine. Have it your way.” His voice sounded resigned and cold, angry.
She heard his footsteps receding and then, a moment later, the door to the hotel suite opened and closed, and she knew he’d left.
***
Over an hour had passed by, and Nicole was starting to feel like maybe she’d overreacted.
Talking with Danielle for a few minutes had helped take the edge off things.
Riley was apparently playing and happy, and Danielle was ecstatic that Kane seemed to love babysitting even more than she did.
Nicole hadn’t bothered complaining about the argument with Red, it had simply been enough to talk to her friend for a few minutes and hear Riley’s little voice. After getting off the phone, she felt a little better.
What Red had said to her about having fun for a change—it hurt. But she also knew that so far this trip, she’d been a wet blanket. She’d missed Riley so much, and been annoyed by Patrick Keating and the attitude he displayed, that she’d been a drag to be around.
So maybe she didn’t want to live in Las Vegas. She could still try and have fun in Las Vegas. After all, they would be flying home tomorrow regardless.
Red texted her not long after that.
I’m sorry. I love you more than anything in this world. Forgive me.
She texted him back: I’m the one who owes you an apology.
Not long after that, he came back to the room, wearing an apologetic smile and carrying a dozen red roses.
“Where did you get those?” she asked. “They’re beautiful!”
“I walked to the nearest florist and got them myself, brought them back for you.
And it’s about a hundred degrees out there right now.” Red’s shirt was soaked through with sweat, she realized.
He kissed her on the lips as he gave her the flowers. Their scent was fragrant as she took them from him.
His body was hot, practically on fire.
Nicole turned and put the flowers on the tabletop, and then as she went to say something else, Red was pulling her toward him and kissing her again. His lips were greedy for her, and she felt overwhelmed—in the best possible way—by his attentions.
He pushed her up against the wall, and looked at her. “I need you,” he told her.
“I need you too,” she said, and meant it. The need was truly physical. Red satisfied something inside of Nicole that nobody else could ever satisfy, and knowing he felt the same way calmed her. “I don’t want to lose you, Red.”
“You couldn’t lose me if you tried—don’t you get that by now?”
His lips were on her lips once more, and his tongue pushed against her tongue.
He pulled her pants down and unzipped his pants. A moment later, she’d climbed onto him, wrapping her bare legs around his torso. She slid onto his shaft, and he fucked her against the wall like that.
They kissed, as he slid in and out, grinding his pelvis against hers.
“I love it when you fuck me hard,” she told him, and it was true. He was fucking her hard. But he was also making love to her at the very same time. His intensity was
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