She turned and looked up into his face. ‘I love that you want me to be happy.’
‘Come on, let’s both be happy out where the food was. It’s too loud in here and I want to be with you, to talk to you without shouting.’
She swayed ahead of him as the crowd parted. He kept a hand at the small of her back, feeling like a fucking king.
Once they were away from the din, she hugged him again, raining kisses over his face.
‘If I’d known fucking you in public would make you this affectionate and grateful, I’d have boned you months ago when we went out to get pizza.’
Her mouth, that luscious mouth, curved up into a smile. ‘Anything but be serious, Charles? I thought you wanted to be serious,’ she teased.
‘I am serious, darling Kate. Serious as a heart attack. Now, I need a cigar and I want to sit, drink some good Scotch and look at you before we hook up again with Bingo and his missus.’
‘He’s probably still eating.’
‘I doubt it. I’m wagering they found a dark corner to engage in sexual relations in as well.’
He guided her to a table near the large wrap-around balcony lining the entire length of the ballroom. A warm breeze floated in as she settled in next to him and put her head on his shoulder.
‘Happy New Year, Charles Dixon,’ she said softly.
He loved her most when she was like this. The Kate she rarely showed anyone else. Soft and sweet, vulnerable and wholly feminine. This was his woman stripped to the core and it was more titillating than if she’d been wearing lingerie.
‘Happy New Year to you too, Katherine. You know, you were all of my resolutions last year.’
‘I was?’
‘I wanted to pursue something more with you than a long-distance relationship. I wanted to see you regularly. I wanted for us to be openly together. Looks like all those things happened. This time next year you’ll be my wife. I’m a lucky man.’
‘You totally are.’ She winked. ‘Sweet, handsome, lucky, smart, sexy, awesome in bed, funny even. Oh you have a good job and two really great kids. One major drawback, but I’m over it. OK, I lie, I’m not over it, but I can afford to be magnanimous because your cock is in my cunt at night. Not hers.’
He wrinkled his nose. ‘Thank you for everything but that image of my ex.’
She grabbed two glasses of champagne and handed one to him. ‘To us. To a year filled with all the things we need and want most.’
He clinked his glass against hers and sipped. He couldn’t agree more.
‘Let’s see if we can find Bingo and Leah. I feel like we should all be together when we hit midnight. Oh, but wait.’ He handed her the fabric bundle he’d been carrying in his pocket. ‘That dress is short enough that any man in here can get a glimpse of that succulent pussy if you cross your legs or raise your arms over your head.’
She rolled her eyes but got them back on, even as a couple sitting nearby watched her do it with surprised gazes.
Kate, his love, just winked at them and stood. ‘Shall we go look then?’ She pulled out her phone and texted. Moments later she received a text back. ‘They’re in the eighties room. They’ll meet us near the bar. Come on, it’s ten minutes to twelve.’
‘Um yeah, totally engaged in sexual relations,’ she said quietly to Dix, who chuckled.
Leah had the FFG, freshly fucked glow, and Brandon looked like the boy from Iowa who just got his crank yanked in the middle of Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve. The world was a beautiful place.
‘Nice FFG,’ Leah said first and Kate laughed.
‘You too. Floozy.’
‘You know it.’
‘Damn, I was gonna say cradle robber and I shot my wad on floozies.’
Leah tipped her glass, touching it to Kate’s. ‘Next time. For now, Happy New Year.’
‘It totally is. Congratulations, you know. You two are good together. He loves you. Not who he can make you into, not who you should be according to a book or magazine. He loves you for who you are. That’s pretty awesome.’
Leah smiled and Kate saw love written all over her friend’s face. ‘It is. For both of us. All those lemons and in the span of less than a year, we find the right stuff.’
‘If you’re going to make out with her, can we watch?’ Dix asked.
Brandon nodded enthusiastically. Kate and Leah just looked at each other and continued talking.
The room got very noisy and then hushed as the clock hit the thirty-second mark. Kate turned to Dix and gulped the last of her champagne before reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck.
By the time the room had counted back to one, his lips were on hers, his tongue sliding in like it was meant to. Her own caressing it, welcoming it as his heart beat against where she pressed herself to him. Her heart in time with his.
‘Happy New Year, darling Kate. Now let’s go back to the room. I want to fuck you, bathe you, order room service, blow you and sleep until noon.’
‘We have a flight out at ten. So none of that sleeping until noon business. But I can sleep on the plane. I’m not giving up all the other stuff you just mentioned.’
‘You’re like my Santa list all rolled into one person. You know that?’ He briefly looked up towards Brandon and Leah. ‘We’re out of here. Heading back to the room. We’ll try not to be so loud people call the cops. See you two in a few hours.’
She waved over her shoulder as he pulled her from the room, even as she laughed and tried not to trip over her shoes.
20
NEW YEAR’S EVE in Vegas. There was nothing like it. Well, maybe a Roman orgy might’ve been something like it. There
