Cocky Bastard
Page 17

“I suppose I could. Might keep me busy for the next two or so years.”
I walked to the suitcase and got out my little workout top and matching spandex leggings. “I’ll just be a minute. I need to change.”
Inside the bathroom, I pulled my hair back and dressed in my workout gear. I yelled to Chance through the bathroom door as I brushed my teeth. “What are we doing? I like yoga.”
“Yoga isn’t a real workout. I usually weight train and run on the treadmill for forty-five minutes for my cardio.”
“Okay. Maybe the gym will have both¸ and we can do our own thing.” I opened the bathroom door and walked out, ready to go.
“That’s what you’re wearing to the gym?”
I looked down. My tummy was bare, but I didn’t think it looked too suggestive or odd. “What’s wrong with this?”
“Nothing.” He turned off the TV and grabbed my hand on the way to the door. “Guess I’m doing yoga today, too.”
We actually compromised in the gym. He took a yoga class with me, and then we ran on side-by-side treadmills for a half an hour. After, we were both starving. Last night, we’d talked about staying another night, so I broached the subject on the way to breakfast. “Were you serious about wanting to stay again tonight?”
“I’d stay forever if we could.” Those little things he said gave me hope, even though he’d all but written the words never gonna happen on my forehead.
“Well, then tonight is my night. You got to pick what we did last night. Now, it’s my turn.”
Chance squinted and held my gaze for a heartbeat too long. “I’m game.”
“Great.” I smiled. “I want to go visit Esmerelda Snowflake this morning. She’s probably scared.”
“We’re paying a pampered pet place eighty dollars a day to babysit that thing. They give him three squares, and it sleeps in air conditioning, when it normally lives outside and walks in front of speeding BMWs. And you’re worried it’s scared this morning?”
“It’s my day. Did I complain when you got to pick whatever we did?”
“I only got a night. Why is it that you’re getting a whole day and night?”
“Because.”
He chuckled. “Good answer, Counselor. Do you argue that well in court?”
“Shut up.” I grasped for something. “I get a whole day and night because you made me go to a strip club and get a lap dance.”
“Table for two,” Chance said as we arrived at the hostess station of the buffet. Then he turned his attention back to me. “You liked it. I think you even got a little turned on.”
“I did not.” My face reddened.
Chance spoke to the hostess as she seated us. The woman was probably in her late sixties, not that he cared. “She got a lap dance from a stripper last night and won’t admit to liking it.”
The woman smiled and shook her head. Her Jamaican accent was thick when she spoke. “No shame here, sweetheart. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. You enjoy a little shakity-shake if you want to. Can go back to being your conservative self on Monday. I’ll grab you some coffee, and you can help yourselves to the buffet whenever you’re ready.” She walked away.
“Come on. Admit it. You liked it. That woman’s ass grinding down on you.” Chance shrugged. “I know I liked it.”
“Why do you enjoy making me admit things that are embarrassing?” I’d already confessed one embarrassing thing; I had no intention of offering anything else.
“You mean like when you admitted you pleasured yourself?”
I felt the temperature on my face heat. I stood to head to the buffet line, even though I’d just sat down. But Chance grabbed my wrist and stopped me. “Don’t ever be embarrassed by pleasuring yourself or enjoying a lap dance. It’s beautiful, and so are you.”
Taking an early afternoon stroll, we’d just returned back from visiting the goat. Sweet boy got really excited and jumped all over Chance, licking his face when we arrived. Poor thing probably thought we were never coming back.
“Esmerelda Snowflake was so cute when he saw you.”
“My face is still sticky from that attack.”
“You know you missed him.” I chuckled.
“What are we gonna do with that thing anyway?”
“That thing? Don’t refer to him like that. He’s like our adopted child.”
Chance came to a halt and looked up at the sky, cracking up. “Our child?”
“Yes! He has no one but us in this entire world.”
“Seriously, though, Aubrey. After we part ways, what are you going to do with him? You can’t keep him.”
My heart suddenly dropped.
After we part ways.
My mind was trying to grapple with the fact that he’d implied that this trip was definitely it for us. In typical Chance fashion, just when he’d given me a little bit of hope that something was developing between us, he’d go and ruin it.
I was silent for a while before I forced myself to speak. “I’m gonna try to find a farm that I trust. I’ll keep him with me somehow until I’m certain it’s the right fit.”
“Fair enough. He’s lucky to have you.” He was searching my face, trying to read my sullen expression. “Have you thought about what you want to do for the rest of the afternoon?”
“You know what? I really don’t care. You decide.”
Chance stopped walking again and turned to me. “Wait. You want to forfeit your ability to choose whatever we do today? Why on Earth would you do that?”
Because you just basically admitted that I mean nothing to you, and I don’t really want to be around you at all right now.
“I’m just not in a decisive mood.”
“There’s a dark cloud in the air, Princess. I don’t know what I did or said this time, but I feel like I know you well enough now to know that something suddenly pissed you off.”
“Drop it, Chance, okay? We don’t have much time left here. Don’t waste it trying to read me. Sometimes people get into bad moods. End of story. Just pick something.”
His face turned serious. “Are you alright?”
“Yes. I promise.”
“I know I was joking about it earlier…but is it your time of the month?”
“No!”
He scratched his chin as we stood facing each other in the crowded promenade. “I think I have just the idea of what you need, something that’s going to relieve all of the tension that has been building up inside of you over the past few days.”
“Oh really?”
He wiggled his brows. “Oh yeah. Wait here.” He walked away to make a phone call out of earshot.
As I stood there in the middle of the dry heat, I vowed to try to keep my mood in check moving forward. I had to accept this situation for what it really was—a road trip, nothing more, nothing less. I needed to enjoy these last hours with him and stop overreacting.
Upon his return, his mouth spread into a wide smile. Those dimples. A reminder that my new stance wasn’t going to be easy.
Grabbing my hand, he said, “Come on.”
I had no idea where he was taking me. I couldn’t have told you if it was out to ice cream or up to his bedroom. After a five minute walk, we ended up back at the hotel. Following him into the elevator, I noticed that he pushed the button for a different floor than where our rooms were located.