Good Time(11)

Nothing behind the scenes at Double Diamonds has been what I expected.

I drop my handbag onto one of the chairs and walk over to where Lydia is sitting in front of a makeup mirror at the vanity. The locker room is surprisingly empty too. Or maybe it’s not surprising, it just wasn’t what I was picturing. I can hear a shower running and I passed a girl exiting the locker room as I entered, but I’d imagined a room filled with half-naked girls rushing around and maybe some bickering about who got the good pole tonight.

I really need to get my imagination in check.

“You look gorgeous, babe,” I tell Lydia as I approach. She does too. Rhys is done for.

“You look nice too,” Lydia comments, eyeing me in the mirror.

“Do I?” I glance down at myself in fake surprise, as if it’s some kind of fluke that I look good tonight. It’s not. I took a shower and washed my hair for the second time today just so I could properly blow it out until it was silky straight. I’ve got really thick blonde hair, so the whole blow-dry-to-perfection thing doesn’t happen every day. Nor does moisturizing from head to toe and painting my lips the perfect shade of fuck-me pink. Or pairing a body-hugging low-cut top with low-rise jeans that fit my ass perfectly. And fine. Fine. I might have added a a bit of body shimmer to highlight my cleavage.

“Are you going to Hennigan’s later?” Lydia questions, referring to a bar near our apartment, clearly still trying to figure out why I’ve taken so much effort to get ready tonight when she’s the one going up for auction.

“Um, I don’t know, maybe?” I hope not. “So, what’s the plan? Is Rhys here yet? Are you positive you want to do this, Lydia?”

“Yeah, I’m doing this. Assuming Rhys shows up, I’m doing this. He just does it for me, Payton. I think he might be my swan.” I swear to God little hearts float over her head as she tells me about how swans mate for life because they choose carefully.

I think I might be a porcupine. I read something once about how the female porcupine lures the male porcupines to her, selects one but then makes him wait until she’s good and ready before presenting herself for sex. Once she’s had enough she tells the male porcupine to fuck off because she’d rather be alone. I’m paraphrasing obviously, but you get the gist.

Lydia’s a monogamous swan.

I’m a persnickety porcupine.

“In case we don’t get to talk later, I’m really proud of you, Lydia.” I pull her to me for a hug, careful not to mess with her hair and makeup. “It’s total insanity, but I’m proud of you for going after what you want.”

“Don’t be proud yet. We don’t even know if this worked. This might end with Vince selling me to a seedy businessman from Iowa. We don’t really know yet, do we?”

“Speaking of, have you seen Vince yet tonight? He will be here, won’t he?”

Please be here, please be here, please be here. It’d be just my luck that he has a business partner who handles the club in the evenings so he can spend his Saturday nights with some ho who isn’t me.

A cough alerts us that we’re not alone. It’s Vince. Hands in pockets and a smirk on his face. I don’t know what he’s amused about because I kept all those thoughts inside my head. My heart is another story. It’s about to jump out of my chest at the sight of him. My pulse has most definitely increased with his arrival. Crushes are weird.

He’s in a different shirt than before. The one earlier had barely discernible stripes while this one is a crisp, solid white. He’s wearing a suit coat now too, black. It makes him look sexier than any man has a right to look. Sophisticated. Powerful. Sensual. I should get a hobby that is not cataloging every detail about Vince, but not right now. Maybe next week. Something like calligraphy or adult coloring books.

“Iowa’s a very nice place,” he says. “It’s the ones from Maryland you want to watch out for.”

Oh. He heard Lydia’s comment about selling her to a seedy businessman who is not Rhys. Not that Rhys is seedy. He’s not, not really. A little stupid in my opinion, but not seedy. Wait, that’s unkind. I know he’s book-smart, just love-stupid. But it’s fine because Lydia is gonna fix him right up.

“Haha, you kidder, you.” Lydia deflects, clearly uncomfortable that he overheard her and still a bit unsure about this entire setup.

“I’m serious,” he responds, his gaze landing on mine. “As a skydiver.”

Oh, my God. He remembered our conversation from earlier. I wonder if he thought about me today while I was thinking about him? Swoon. I’ve got the swoons. There is definitely chemistry happening here between us. A pull. A delicious gravitational force at work.

I wet my lips while I steady myself, then I smile. “Yeah, that was a good one. Skydiving safety is no joke.”

Vince dips his head towards me in acknowledgment, the hint of a smirk on his face before he turns back to Lydia. “It worked,” he tells her. “Rhys is here.”

Lydia leaves with Vince, off to scam the love of her life into purchasing her and taking her home for sex. Scam might be too harsh a word, it’s for his own good. It’s an awful lot of work to go through to get laid, that’s all I know.

I plop into a chair and toss my legs over the side to get comfortable, then bite my bottom lip to keep from smiling like a lunatic. Because Vince. Is. Here. I drop my head over the other arm of the chair on a groan as I think about everything I want to do to him. Or him to me. Either, both, whatever. I have got to find out if he’s available before I fall any harder.