Tough Luck Hero

Let the sound of the reception fade into the background.

“You want to get out of here?”

He turned his head, his brows lifting in surprise. “With you?”

“Why not? The alternative is hanging out and waiting for Natalie to decide to come back.” For some reason, she hadn’t been able to stand the idea of him doing that. “Do you want to be here if she does?”

“Hell no.”

“Well...almost everyone is here. So no one will know if we make an escape.”

And they had. They’d gone to Ace’s bar—where Ace was not since he was still at the non-wedding—and started ordering shots.

From there, Colton had called the airport. And after that, things were a little blurry.

She knew they’d had a discussion about where they could get to quickly, and she knew they’d had more to drink on the plane and landed and...and...

She couldn’t remember much more after that. But hey, they were naked in a hotel suite. The blanks sort of filled themselves in.

She heard the covers rustle behind her and she realized that her chance to process this alone was coming to an end. She had to face the music. And the naked guy that was in her bed.

She swallowed hard, turning away from the window and looking very determinedly past the bed at the back wall. Whatever had happened last night, she didn’t remember it. She was not about to refresh her memory.

No. Some things were better left buried.

“Good morning,” she said, doing her best to keep her voice crisp and even. A sharp stab of pain answered immediately. Her hangover obviously didn’t appreciate her tone.

“What?” His voice was very male, very husky. Unfamiliar. She did not often wake up with men, so she didn’t usually hear their rusty morning voices. And she had never, ever, heard Colton West’s rusty morning voice.

First time for everything.

“We’re in Las Vegas, Colton,” she said, sounding a little harsh even to her own ears.

He sat up, the motion drawing her eye to him and she gave thanks that the sheet was firmly over his lap. “I...” He studied her. “I’m not supposed to be in...Vegas. What the hell?”

“Well,” she said, “I’m not supposed to be in Las Vegas, either. I don’t gamble. I don’t really drink, for that matter.”

He laughed, then winced. “If you have a headache like mine I’m pretty sure we both had something to drink last night.”

“I have a feeling last night contained more than one aberration.”

“Right.” He looked around the room. “How did you get into my room?”

She snapped her mouth shut. She was wearing the dress from last night, and, ever since he had been conscious, she had been standing. Which meant he didn’t realize... She considered, for a couple of seconds, allowing him to maintain the illusion. But, ultimately, she kind of wanted him to be horrified by his behavior right along with her.

Assuming they had behaved as badly as it had appeared when she had first woken up.

“I slept here.”

He didn’t say anything. In the dim light, she could make out a slow shift in his facial expression. “We left the wedding together.”

“Yes,” she said, speaking slowly and softly for both of their benefits. “Natalie didn’t show up, Colton.”

He nodded slowly. “Right.”

“And then we...” She scrunched her face. “Obviously we ended up here.”

She heard a loud, low vibration coming from the nightstand by the bed. “Text,” he said, picking up the phone.

Her phone. She needed to find her phone.

“I have to turn on the light. I’m sorry. I’m sorry to both of us.” She moved to the lamp next to the window and flicked it on, then she scanned the expanse of the room. “I had to have a purse, because it has my ID. And I couldn’t get on a plane without my ID.”

“Do you have to think out loud?” he asked, wincing.

“Right now, yes,” she said.

She was starting to remember why she and Colton didn’t often have conversations. He was so bossy and obnoxious. High-handed, irritating as hell.

Which was why she felt a little bit like her skin was too tight for her body when she was near him. And nothing else and no other reason at all.

She spotted her purse finally, shoved into a dark corner of the room. She never did things like that. She did not shove her possessions.

Everything had a place. Everything.

Just not in this room.

She growled and took a small amount of satisfaction when the sound made Colton flinch. Then she walked across the room and sank to her knees, grabbing her purse and frantically digging for her phone. Thankfully, it was there.

She picked it up and clicked the home button, her heart hammering hard when she saw the screen filled with texts.

So, some people knew she was gone. Great.

She entered in her passcode and for the first time noticed that something on her hand felt weird. She hadn’t noticed before because her whole body felt messed up. Her head, her balance, her mouth. And she was tingling. With some kind of strange, euphoric feeling leftover from the night before. One she’d certainly never associated with sex, but these were strange and interesting times, so really, how could she tell what it was from?

She looked down at her left hand and froze. There was a band there. White gold with diamonds. Or some cheap metal with cubic zirconia, for all she knew.

“No,” she muttered, unable to tear her gaze away. “No, no no no.”

“I think yes.”

She turned to face Colton. “What?”

He held his phone out, the bright screen facing her. “Apparently I spent some time texting Natalie last night about her failure to appear.”

She squinted from her position on the floor. “I can’t... Is that a picture?”

“Yes. Of us.”