Chapter 48

Ihadn't been to Vegas for a while, but as soon as the pilot announced that was where we were, I let out a shout of excitement—then I clapped my hand over my mouth and laughed. "This was a genius plan! It's exactly what we needed."

Dash pried my hand away from my mouth, wrapping his fingers around my own and bringing them to his lips to brush a kiss to the back of my hand. "I had a feeling you'd like it. Best of all is that we can get right to it. A car service will take care of our bags and get the hotel keys for us to have when we're ready to go there."

"What's first?" I asked once we'd unbuckled. "I kind of figured we'd go get settled in wherever we were going before we went out."

After all that kissing, I sure wouldn't have minded an hour or so alone with him before we had to go out in public, but he shook his head. "If we go to our suite, we're only going to leave it when we have to check out tomorrow."

"I don't have a problem with that," I joked, but also, I wasn't really joking. I'd had a great time in Seattle even if I hadn't seen much of the city.

Dash slung an arm around my shoulders as we disembarked. He smirked at me, leaning closer to speak into my ear. "Trust me, I don't have a problem with it either but we've got tickets."

"Tickets?"

"Tickets," he confirmed. "We're going out for dinner and then we're going to see a show."

"Dinner and a show?" I asked, not meaning to sound whiny about it. "Why were you kissing me like that if you knew how many things you had planned for us? Why start the engine if you don't want to go for a drive?"

He laughed and opened the back door of the car he had waiting. "That's just how I kiss. If it helps, I'm torturing myself too."

I sighed. "That only kind of makes it worse. What show are we going to?"

"One that'll be worth it." He helped me into the car before climbing in after me. "Dinner is up first, though. Have you heard of a place called Tentacles?"

"No." I frowned, arching an eyebrow at him. "Is it a restaurant or a strip club?"

He chuckled. "A restaurant, smarty pants. There's only one person I want stripping for me right now and that's going to have to wait."

A thrill shot through me when he said it. I found that I needed that kind of validation from him and it was amazing that he kept giving it freely, without having to be prompted or asked. It made me feel wanted and secure in what we had now, and I'd needed it way more than I'd have thought.

Despite its outrageous name, the restaurant we went to was nice. On the top floor of a fancy hotel, we had views of the entire strip and my mouth started watering as soon as we walked in. The scent of garlic and lemon hung in the air, combined with that of grilling meat and something sweeter.

"Wow, that smells amazing," I said as we were shown to a table in a private alcove next to a window. "I didn't realize how hungry I was until now."

"That's because you were thinking about other things." He grinned at me, clearly enjoying himself. "To be fair, I still feel the same way. What do you feel like having, other than an orgasm?"

I rolled my eyes at him as I laughed, heat flushing my cheeks. "Keep your voice down if you're going to be saying stuff like that."

"Why?" he asked playfully, taking a pointed look around. "We're surrounded by couples. I can guarantee that most of them are going to be ending the night the same way we are. They know what I'm talking about."

I laughed some more, shaking my head at him, and immediately reached for a glass of ice-cold water the waiter had just poured. Thankfully, Dash had stopped talking about it to chat to the guy, and once he left us with our menus to grab our drinks, Dash changed the topic.

"What did you still have to do for Mom's wedding? I promised I'd help you while we were here, so do you want to do it now? Get it out of the way?"

"Sure. Let's do it." It took me a minute to remember what we still had to decide, but Dash and I handled it easily over dinner before we started talking about other things. I told him more about my childhood and my parents, as well as my hopes for the company for the future.

Our food was delicious, my seafood pasta the best I'd ever had while Dash's steak was as soft as butter. After dinner, he promised me dessert once we got to our hotel. Then we headed off to the show we had tickets for.

To my total surprise, it turned out the show was a musical on ice and it was absolutely riveting. I knew some of the songs and I sang along to them, nudging him to join in on the ones I knew he had to know the lyrics of.

It was fun, but every time we touched, I cursed the producers for making it so long. When it was eventually over, he kissed me deeply before we'd even left our seats. "I had more planned, but I want you. Do you want to skip ahead?"

I nodded enthusiastically, took his hand without saying a word, and dragged him through the crowd to the parking lot. He followed willingly and kissed me again once we were in the privacy of the car.

When we got back to our hotel, I didn't even bother taking a look around the suite as I remembered what he'd said about only wanting one person to strip for him. Pushing him down on the bed, I took a few steps back and told him to stay put.

Reaching for the hem of my shirt, I teased it up a few inches, swaying my hips and holding his gaze with my own. He leaned forward, watching me intently, but before I could even take my shirt off, I felt like a fish hook had caught the back of my belly button.

I felt the blood draining from my cheeks as nausea swirled through me in the wake of the yank. Then I spun around, ran to the adjoining bathroom, and slammed the door behind me. Dropping to my knees when I reached the toilet, I barely made it in time before my dinner made a reappearance.

"Serenity," he called softly through the door. "Are you okay? What's going on?"

"I think I have food poisoning," I responded weakly just before another jerk of my stomach left me feeling ice cold.

We hadn't really had much to drink, so something I'd eaten had to be the culprit. As I heaved again, it dawned on me what this meant. I'd be sick for hours and we only had one night here. I'd been so ready to spend the whole night crawling all over him, and instead, I'd ruined the darn trip.

So mad that it brought tears to my eyes, I settled in for the long haul, sitting down on my butt on the cool tiles and staying within spitting distance of the toilet. Dash came in a few minutes later, carrying a glass of water and some tablets that he said would help. Then he held my hair back all night while I wished I could just die and get it over with.

"I'm so sorry," I moaned eventually when there was a bit of a break. Resting my head against his shoulder where he sat next to me on the floor, I was mortified that he was seeing me like this. "I know this isn't exactly the night we had planned."

He smiled. "I still get to spend the night with you."

"I feel bad though."

"It's not your fault, baby," he murmured against my temple, his eyes dark with concern when he pulled back to look into mine. "Do you think it was the seafood?"

I shrugged one shoulder. It was the most I could do with the last of the energy I had. "I have no idea, but you must be seriously disappointed."

"I'm not," he said firmly. "I'm not mad either, in case you were going to ask that next. In fact, I feel terrible. I took you to that restaurant. The reviews were amazing, but I guess we must've gone on a bad night."

I reached up to place my palms on his face and shook my head. "We don't know it was that. Don't blame yourself."

That was it for the talking for a while, and I was sick for hours until it finally seemed to have run its course. Exhausted, I pushed to my feet and looked around the bathroom for my toothbrush. "Damn it. I haven't even unpacked yet."

"I'll grab your things," he said, reaching into the shower and turning on the faucet. "There. Hopefully, that'll make you feel a little better."

As I finally stripped out of my clothes under decidedly more depressing circumstances than I'd been planning, I caught sight of the clock in the bedroom and realized that he'd taken care of me the entire freaking night. In just a few hours, the sun would be up and he hadn't complained once.

Happy that he clearly cared about me, I dragged myself through a quick shower, beyond grateful when he handed me my shampoo, bodywash, and toothbrush. Too tired to even put on the pajamas he'd also brought to the bathroom, I barely managed to wrap the towel around myself once I was done.

Dash was there, though. He gave me one look and took over from me, drying me off before he helped me into my pajamas and then he picked me up and carried me to the bed in our suite. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck—twice.

But after he placed a gentle kiss on my forehead and tucked me in, I fell asleep with a smile on my face. Knowing I'd be sleeping next to him and especially after all the thought he'd shown me these past couple days, I was genuinely happy.

I didn't say anything, but when he climbed into bed with me, I snuggled into his side and almost immediately dozed off. I hadn't been one hundred percent sure of him before, but I was now. I could really see myself being with him, having seen enough to know that I had a pretty good idea of where this might be going.