Chapter 20

His eyes were huge as he peered out the windows of the limo at the brightly lit strip with all its weird, wonderful and wacky sights. He looked half his age and that didn’t bother her one bit. What did bother her was standing on the seat between them with his head and shoulders out the sunroof calling out to the girls walking down the sidewalk.

“Why didn’t he get his own car?” she asked for the second time, wondering how hard it would be to either pull Patrick in or push him out altogether and if she could do it on her own.

“It’s supposed to take like five minutes to get to our hotel, you can handle it that long,” Jon answered without taking his eyes or attention off of the passing scenery.

“You’ve been here before, for the awards and stuff…right?” she asked, giving his ankle a kick. It’s not that she was particularly perturbed about his enthusiasm for Sin City, it was that he’d been acting particularly odd since they had debarked the plane.

“Yeah but it’s different every time,” he enthused. Edie raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue the point because she couldn’t. It was true. She’d only been a couple of times herself and there always seemed to be a new hotel, a new shopping destination, a new pool. “So where are we staying?” she asked him but it wasn’t Jon who answered.

“D’uh, the Palms,” Kane replied, popping his head down to aim a look of disgusted disbelief at her. “What other hotel has stripper poles in the room and Ditch Friday?” Edie coughed and shook her head. Of course that would be his reasoning.

“Is everyone staying at the Palms?” she asked, hoping for a different answer from Jon.

“Don’t get jealous but I totally booked the G-Suite,” Kaner called down and Edie stared up at him as if he was speaking in tongues. “Tayzer probably booked the Barbie suite,” Kane added with an evil laugh.

“The…Barbie suite?” she asked, blinking like a marsupial and hoping like hell Jon’s mullet wearing teammate was kidding.

“I just got a sky villa,” Jon replied, finally tearing his eyes off of the passing strip and sliding back towards Edie, reaching for her hand.

“Not even the Playboy one?” Kaner asked, looking down at them both like he was actually disappointed in Jon’s choice.

“No, not even…I feel kinda funny booking the one I got but I thought it was kind of nice…for our first time here together,” Jon added in a quiet tone as he turned his full attention, finally, to Edie. She smiled and offered her lips, which he took gently.

“God, wait for the room please I’m begging you,” Kane grumbled and then the annoyance left his tone entirely as he slammed his hands down on the roof of the limo. “Hellloooo ladies!” he called and Jon shook his head as Edie rolled her eyes at him.

“We don’t have to spend any time with him, I swear. Except maybe just tomorrow morning,” Jon promised her and she just about missed the second part of his statement, but not quite.

“Why? What’s tomorrow morning? Some kind of team breakfast?” she asked and he smiled and pressed his lips to the tip of her nose.

“Yeah, something like that,” he told her and then put his arm around her and pulled her close.

“This is like…it’s like the Hangover but better.” Jon watched Edie walk around the luxurious suite and smiled to himself. It might not have been the Bridal Suite but then he couldn’t see either of them in the round red leather bed in the Erotic Suite. It was a bit too Pamela Anderson for his tastes and he’d felt confident she would feel the same. This suite also had a round bed next to a gas fireplace but it’s understated gold and brown tones suited both of them more he thought. “This must have cost…shit, I’m not sure I want to guess how much,” she added as she stood at the edge of the private spa pool overlooking the strip. “Damn.”

“Well, it is only for a couple days and…I could have gone for just a normal room like a lot of the other guys did but…unlike them, I’m actually planning to spend some time up here,” he added slipping his arms around her waist and nuzzling her cheek. This was going to be the best twenty grand he’d ever spent. She leaned back against him and let out another sigh. “You do like it, right?” he asked, still unsure of whether it was too much, after all, he knew what his plans were. She didn’t.

“Of course I do, but then it’s just like everything else with you,” she arched her neck to look back and up at him, “a little overwhelming, you know?” He smiled and kissed the corner of her eye and then turned his attention back to the view. It was pretty spectacular, just as the pictures on the internet had promised it would be but it was still nothing compared to the woman he held in his arms.

“I didn’t even think of bringing a bathing suit,” she muttered and Jon laughed, hugging her tighter.

“I think if it’s just us that’s not really a problem,” he told her, withdrawing his hand enough to slip them into the slinky halter top so that he could cup her breasts in his hands. “In fact, I think the sooner you get out of this the better.”

“Oh so that’s how it is,” she giggled and he felt her slide her hand back and between them, cupping his growing erection. “You want to get me in that big round bed and not let me out until we have to go to that breakfast.”

“I wasn’t thinking about the bed, yet,” he told her, turning to aim her directly at the stairs into the pool. “I was kinda thinking about you and me in there,” he added, hearing his own voice grow hoarse as he thought about how her curves would look and feel in the dimly lit water.

Edie’s hands guided his in taking off her top and then, it seemed to him, that she simply stepped out of her pants, kicked off her shoes, and walked into the water. He stood there, silently dumbfounded, as he watched her disappear beneath the water, her dark hair streaming behind her as her body moved through the liquid like a seal. When she came up for air, at the end of the pool that looked out over the strip, she beckoned for him to join her.

He didn’t need to be asked twice.

He wasn’t as graceful as she’d been in taking off her clothes, but then she didn’t seem to mind him hopping from one foot to the other or getting his head caught in his shirt. She laughed when he dove into the shallow pool, but the next noise she made was a gasp as he came out of the water with his body pressed to hers’, his cock already sliding home as he lifted her buoyant body and pressed it against the side of the pool.

“You were right about one thing,” he promised as he watched the expression in her eyes take on that dreamy quality that they always did when he made her feel good, which was quickly becoming his aim at all times. “I don’t plan on letting you out of my arms until we have to get up in the morning.”

“No objection here, Captain,” she sighed and offered her soft, succulent lips up for his kiss. He pressed his mouth over hers and, with his hands on her hips, began to move inside of her. She was warm, the water was warm and she was his, at least for the next three days.

Jon reached across the pillow and carefully, gently, pushed her hair back from her cheek. She was sleeping so soundly that she didn’t stir at his touch, but the corner of her full, red mouth lifted, just a little. She was so beautiful it made his heart ache.

“I gotta go, just for a bit, then I’ll be back,” he told her and then leaned in to press his lips to her cheek. She mumbled something under her breath and then buried her face further into the pillow. With a smile, he got up and walked across the suite and out into the private elevator. “I’m on my way down,” he said into his phone and then stuck it in his pocket.

Vegas time, why else was a jeweler open at eight in the morning?

Sharpie and Keith were waiting outside of Leor’s decked out in board shorts, loud Hawaiian shirts and flip flops. Jon felt positively conservative in a t-shirt and jeans.

“You sure you want to do this kiddo?” Sharpie asked as Jon moved to push open the doors to the store. Jon turned to his teammate and studied his face. Of all of the guys, he had not expected Sharpie to be the one to try and talk him out of this.

“Very,” he replied firmly.

“Look, I know you like the girl.” Patrick held up his hands in a defensive manner as Jon gave him a sharp look. “Okay, so you love her but still, you have to admit, it’s all a little sudden. Just tell me you’ve thought about what happens when your parents find out you’ve asked some girl to marry you they’ve never even met.” Jon smiled. He’d already taken care of that.

“I’m flying them into L.A. They’ll meet her in a couple days.” The two older men shared a look and some of the air came out of Jon’s sails. “What?”

“And have you told your intended that she’s about to meet the parents?” Duncs asked and Jon could only shrug. His parents were cool. He couldn’t imagine it being a problem. “It’s just…in our experience women like to be warned about that kind of thing. It’s not something you spring on them and that includes your mom.” Jon felt his enthusiasm for this morning’s shopping adventure flagging as he found himself thinking about how his mother might take his surprise.

“We’re not saying we don’t like the girl, or even that you shouldn’t show her how you feel but just maybe it doesn’t have to be such a big gesture you know?” Sharpie reached out to put his hand on his shoulder but Jon shrugged it off.

“I know what I want and my parents will love her,” he grumbled. This is how it always seemed to be. Everyone was either telling him to live a little or they were telling him he was too young for something.

“Well okay then,” Dunc made that face that said he was done arguing but he didn’t agree, which Jon decided was fine, as long as everyone stopped second guessing him. Nodding, he turned away from them and led the way into the store.    

“Good thing I asked the guy to bring every ring he had over a carat,” Sharpie whispered to him, patting his back firmly. Jon smiled. They’d get used to the idea, just like he had.

“Where are we going?” Edie yawned as she slid into the back seat of a taxi.

“The Stratosphere,” Jon slid in beside her and slipped his arm around her shoulders.

“I told you I hate heights,” she moaned and pressed her forehead to his chest.

“And I told you that I’d hold your hand,” he promised, reaching across his lap for her hand and lacing his fingers in hers’. “Some of the guys are gonna be there. That’s okay, right?” She nodded and turned her face up to meet his.

“Great, more people to laugh at me when I throw up,” she sighed and then stifled another yawn. “Maybe I shouldn’t have had that second bagel.” She put her head back on his chest and closed her eyes. She felt his fingers stroke through her hair. It was the same comforting sensation that had sent her into dreamland the night before. Or was that this morning? Yeah…yeah probably sometime this morning she thought, sliding her hand up under his t-shirt and over the ridges of his abdominal muscles. When she looked back up at him his eyes were closed and he was wearing a peaceful looking smile. “What are we doing after this?”

“That sort of depends,” he grinned without opening his eyes. That made Edie frown but she didn’t have time to ask what he meant by it. The cab was coming to a slow stop in front of the Stratosphere. “Coming?” he asked as he handed a twenty to the driver and then reached for the door. Rolling her eyes, Edie accepted his hand out of the car.

“I’ve got the tickets already,” Kane, Keith, Seabrook and Sharp were all waiting just outside the front doors in various states of ultra casual ware, looking very different from the way they had on the plane last night in their designer suits.

“For all the rides?” she asks to which Kane grins menacingly.

“Not gonna puke are ya?” he asked, leering at her.

“If I do, I’m aiming for you and your mullet,” she replied and then stuck her tongue out at him. Jon squeezed her hand and she swallowed the other, more descriptive adjectives she had intended to aim at him.

“I’m doing the sky jump,” Kane informed everyone as they walked in the front doors. “They’re too pussy, what about you?” Pat asked her, raising an eyebrow and looking very smug.

“Oh I’m way too pussy for that but I’m just fine with not spilling my guts all over the pavement,” Edie replied with a shrug as they stood, waiting, in front of the elevators that would take them all the way to the top of the thousand foot tower. She heard one of the guys snigger behind her and hoped it was at Kane’s expense and not hers’.

She bit her tongue as the guys talked around and over her, goading each other into joining Kane on the controlled free fall. She noticed that Jon hadn’t joined in the good natured ribbing and cajoling amongst his friends. Instead, he was staring at the numbers as they lit up, showing how close they were to the top floor.

She looked up at him, at the intensity in his expression and the way his dark eyes were so focused. It made her heart flutter. It reminded her of the way he looked at her when he was trying to push her over the edge, waiting for her to cum so they could go together or when he was watching the action from the bench.  He was waiting for something, wanting something.

“Look, if this is something you want to do with the guys, I think I saw some shops downstairs. I could grab a coffee and wait for you,” she offered but he just shook his head, once, and continued to stare up at the numbers in the panel above their heads. He did, however, grip her hand just a little tighter, as if he would have said ‘no, I want you here’ if he had been prepared to speak. When the doors opened, a few feet away from the observation platform, all of the guys rushed to the windows. Kane even stood on the few inches of glass that curved under to meet the floor. Edie felt her head swim. “I hate heights,” she hissed, refusing to even go as close as the hip high bar that wound around the deck.

“I’m here,” Jon whispered, letting go of her hand and easing his arm around her waist. She let herself lean into the solid width of his chest as she peered out the Vegas Strip.

“It’s a looong way down,” she gulped. His arm tightened around her and she felt his lips press to the top of her head.

“It’ll be worth it, promise.”

“Did you know five people have jumped from up here?” Kane turned to grin at both of them and mimed a body in free fall, his arms wind milling wildly. “Imagine…splaaatt!” he added, smacking his hands together gleefully. Edie felt her stomach heave and she closed her eyes.

“Maybe I should go back down,” she sighed. She felt Jon’s chest move as he laughed soundlessly. That didn’t bother her. He wasn’t laughing at her.

“C’mon let’s just do the Big Shot and then we’ll all go down and watch Kane doing a Super Dave.” Jon’s other hand rubbed at her arm until she nodded and then he reached for her hand again and they turned to follow the rest of the guys towards the doors that led outside.

Jon’s hands felt clammy as he watched Brooksy and Sharpie sit down and pull the safety harnesses down. It was Edie’s turn next and then it would be his big moment. The little red heart shaped box in the pocket of his jeans felt like it weighed about a hundred pounds and his heart felt like it was trying to claw its way out of his chest. The air was thin this high up and harder to breathe, or was that just his nerves?

“Go on babe,” he whispered into her ear, giving her a small guiding push at the small of her back, She turned to look at him over her shoulder, her eyes wide. “I’ll be right behind you,” he lied with a smile on his face that he didn’t feel. All of the warning words that his teammates had had for him earlier that morning were all playing back in his head as he watched her slowly, gingerly make her way up the few stairs to the ride. He grinned encouragingly at her as she turned to sit down beside Sharpie. She stared back at him with a look of sheer terror. This will help, he told himself as he mounted the stairs, digging his hand into his pocket to retrieve the ring. She won’t be thinking about heights when she realizes why she’s really here.

“Fuckin’ hurry up Tayzer,” Kane called, his feet swaying excitedly in the air beneath him. He looked like an over excited five year old, Jon thought as he shook his head at him. Kane didn’t know. He was the only one who didn’t know that this was the moment.

“Just one thing, before I do,” he nodded at his friend and then coughed. Suddenly his throat was constricted and he was afraid he was going to drop the ring his hands were shaking so badly. Taking a deep breath, he looked up at her and found Edie staring back at him, her fear momentarily replaced by curiosity. With legs that had begun to feel more like wet cardboard, Jon went down on one knee in front of her and held up the ring. Edie’s eyes got very wide and her mouth opened and then she shook her head.

“D…don’t Jon…don’t,” she stammered. She was obviously surprised, maybe even a little bit embarrassed. It was cute, he thought, as he used his other hand to open the box. The bright desert sun caught the emerald cut stone and made it blaze.

“Ever since I met you I haven’t been able to think of anything but you and I don’t care what the guys say, I know exactly what I want and that’s you babe. I want to get married, now, here in Vegas.” She was still shaking her head. She was just in shock. “Well?” he asked, sure of her answer. Any minute now she was going to push that safety restraint up and come running down the steps and throw her arms around him.

So why was she still sitting there, holding onto the restraining bar, staring blankly back at him?

“Man…I told you,” Brooksy hissed. Jon didn’t want to hear it. She was going to say yes. Any minute now, she was going to say yes.

“Sir…the other guests,” a voice behind him sounded apologetic but firm. “I have to start the ride.” He held his hand up in the universal ‘give me a minute’ signal. It was just going to be a minute. Any minute now.

“Just come get on the ride,” she begged. She didn’t want to give her answer in front of everyone. She was modest, he liked that about her.

“Say yes Edie,” he called back to her, because she was going to say yes. She just needed a minute.

“Sir…the ride.” There it was again, that annoying voice behind him. Couldn’t he see that they both just needed a minute? It was just going to be a fucking minute.

“Edie.” Just one more minute, that was all she was going to need.

“Jon….” She looked around at the other guys. That was definitely it. She didn’t want to do this in front of them. He started to get up, to join her on the ride. Maybe she could whisper her answer to him when he sat down beside her.

“Sir!” A hand on his shoulder restrained him and then pulled him back from the platform just as the ridge shot up into the air.

The last thing he heard was Edie shouting ‘no’.