The Secret Diamond Sisters (10 page)

“Aren’t they going to card us?” she asked, worried about what would happen if anyone asked to see her blatantly underage ID.

“Nope,” Damien said. “We have our own table, and I used my fake ID when I checked in, so it’s assumed we’re all old enough to drink. Oliver will hook you and your sisters up with IDs soon—I’ll make sure he gets on it. But as long as you’re sitting with us, no one will question you.”

The waiter placed the small glasses in front of each person, along with shakers of salt and a glass full of limes. Savannah tried not to think about how much she hated straight liquor. Some of the girls licked the spot between their thumb and index finger, and shook salt on it. Savannah wasn’t sure why, but Larissa handed her the salt, and she followed their lead.

“To Savannah Diamond!” Damien said, raising his shot in the air. Everyone else did the same, and Savannah lifted her drink to complete the circle.

It seemed silly to toast out loud to herself, so instead she thought silently,
To everything working out the way I want with Damien.
The other girls licked the salt off their hands and took their shots. Savannah imitated them, holding her breath so the taste wouldn’t overpower her, and thankfully managed to choke it all down. It had the burn that was inevitable with hard alcohol, but it wasn’t as bad as she remembered. Everyone sucked on a slice of lime after their shot, so Savannah did the same. Hopefully no one could tell this was her first time doing this shot-taking ritual.

She placed her empty glass next to Damien’s. “That wasn’t bad,” she told him. “Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He grinned. “I’m always up for tequila shots. But back to you—how are you liking your first night in Sin City?”

“I love it here,” she gushed, the warmness of the shot relaxing her nerves. “Myst is amazing. I had no idea it would be so...big.”

“And this is only a small part of it,” he said. “What do you say we explore? I’ll give you the grand tour.”

Savannah took a sharp breath and smiled back at him. The tequila gods had heard her private toast and were granting her wish. “That sounds fun.”

“I’m going to show Savannah around the club,” Damien told everyone at the table. “We’ll see you all in a bit.”

Savannah said it was nice to meet everyone, and stood with Damien. “Where to first?” she asked.

“Let’s start with the first floor.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and directed her around the dance floor. His skin felt warm where it touched her back. “The waterfall drops into a lagoon, and it’s open for swimming. It’s pretty fun.”

“There’s swimming in the club?” Savannah had never heard of such a thing.

“You’ll see.” He led her to a wrought-iron staircase that twisted to the lower floors, taking her hand in his. Her heart did somersaults from his touch, and she was glad the dim lights hid the flush that was surely heating her cheeks.

“I didn’t bring a bathing suit,” she said, trying to be outwardly cool and not obsess over how
he was holding her hand.
“I didn’t realize there would be swimming.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “There’s a store downstairs that sells them, and a locker room where you can change. You can charge it to your room.”

When they stepped onto the first floor, Savannah couldn’t believe her eyes. The lagoon was the size of a basketball court, with mist floating up where the waterfall collided with the surface. White cabanas with romantic drapes lined the sides of the pool, and people lounged on the cushioned seats, talking animatedly and holding colorful drinks.

“What do you think?” Damien whispered in her ear, pulling her closer to him.

“It’s amazing,” she answered, watching a big group of people dancing in the pool. They looked like they were having tons of fun. “I had no idea places like this existed.”

“So let’s stop looking around and join the party.” He motioned to the store and locker rooms. “I’ll meet you right here after we change, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, trying not to let her excitement show too much as she made her way inside. Once she was out of his sight, she pumped her fist in the air and did a small victory spin, smiling at her reflection in the mirror. It was only the beginning of the night, and it was already better than she could have ever imagined.

* * *

Savannah turned the key of the locker where she’d stashed her dress. The bikini she’d picked was white with stitched, dark blue designs, and showed off her thin stomach. It would be more flattering if her boobs were bigger, but at least she wasn’t completely flat. Hopefully her makeup would survive. If she’d known she would be swimming, she would have worn waterproof mascara.

She left the locker room, and when she saw Damien in his swim trunks it took her a second to process that he was waiting for her and not some other girl. His body was as perfect as she’d imagined; tanned and toned, and the blue spotlights dancing around the room reflected off his dark eyes. A few girls walking into the locker room checked him out, but he didn’t notice. He only had eyes for her.

“And I thought you couldn’t look any more beautiful than you did earlier.” He took her hands in his and held her at arms’ length, his gaze lingering over every inch of her body.

Savannah shifted uncomfortably. Guys had hit on her before, but they were always her age, so scrawny and awkward that they never made her nervous. They looked like little kids compared to Damien, who resembled a Greek god.

“You don’t take compliments very well, do you?” Damien asked.

“It’s not that,” she said. “I can take compliments. Just not...” She wanted to say “Just not from guys like you,” but she didn’t want to sound uncool. “Just not very often.”

“If you keep walking around like that you’d better get used to it, because there’ll be no escaping it.” He squeezed her hands and pulled her closer. “You ready to go swimming?”

Savannah looked at the people in the lagoon. Most of them were dancing in the center, the lights on the bottom of the pool illuminating them in an unearthly glow. Then she noticed a bunch of people congregated around what seemed to be a bar.

“Is that a bar in the pool?” she asked.

Damien gave her hands another gentle squeeze. “Yes,” he answered. “It’s a swim-up bar. You’ve never seen one before?”

“No.” Savannah shook her head and watched the bartender serve a girl a drink. It would have been normal, except the girl was sitting on a stool immersed in the water. “Places like this don’t exist in Fairfield.”

She almost smacked her forehead for saying that out loud. Wasn’t she supposed to be the new, sophisticated Savannah? But with the warmth of the drinks and Damien’s hands wrapped around hers, she felt like she didn’t have to pretend to be someone she wasn’t.

Someone she wasn’t
yet, she corrected herself. After adjusting to life in Vegas, she would leave Fairfield and who she’d been when she’d lived there in the past—where it belonged.

“Are you ready for your first swim-up bar experience?” Damien asked once they reached the edge of the lagoon.

She breathed in the smell of chlorine and dipped her toes in to test the temperature. “It’s warm,” she said, immersing her foot farther to make sure she wasn’t imagining it. “Like a bath.”

“Yeah,” Damien said, lowering himself into the water. “This is the Diamond Hotel. They want to keep people happy, and I doubt people would enjoy swimming in cold water.”

“Although most of them look too drunk to notice.” Savannah followed Damien into the pool, the water reaching her hips. It enveloped her skin like a blanket, and she unwrapped her arms from around her stomach, swirling her fingers across the warm surface. She’d never thought pool water could be anything but freezing. If the local pool in Fairfield had been like this, she would have gone much more often.

“To the swim-up bar?” Damien asked, holding out a hand. Savannah briefly thought about what Courtney had said about him earlier, how she thought he was an arrogant player. Her sister couldn’t have been more wrong. Damien had been nothing but welcoming since she’d arrived.

He wrapped his other arm around her to make sure she didn’t lose her footing, and led her to two empty stools at the bar. She sat down, the water lapping just over her belly button, and watched Damien take the seat next to her.

His knee rested against the side of her leg, and Savannah’s heart pounded faster. “Another round of tequila shots, or a glass of champagne?” he asked. “Or whatever else you want. I’m sure they’ll have it.”

“Just a Cherry Coke,” Savannah said, since her head already felt tingly from the champagne and tequila shot she’d had earlier. She didn’t want to get wasted. She’d seen how out of control her mom got when she’d had too much, and she wasn’t going to let that happen to her.

Damien charged the drinks to his room—a Cherry Coke for Savannah, a vodka tonic for himself—and raised his glass. “Your turn to decide what to toast to,” he teased, watching her expectantly.

“To...new beginnings,” she decided, clinking her glass against Damien’s.

“New beginnings.” He brought his glass to his lips and took a sip. “So...” he said. “What was the town like where you grew up?”

“I thought we were toasting to new beginnings?”

“We are,” he said. “But I want to get to know you. It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it, though.”

“No.” Savannah moved closer to Damien, and his knee pressed harder into her leg, sending another jolt of warmth through her body and making it hard to think straight. He’d barely broken contact with her since she’d found him in the club. “It’s just that Fairfield isn’t anything special. It’s a small town in California—nothing happens there. At least not anything like this.” She looked around the club to let him know what she meant. “The most exciting dances we had were at school. I thought they were fun then, but I guess they were pretty lame compared to this.”

After she finished speaking, she realized how not cool she sounded. She used to think high school dances were fun? What a moron. She couldn’t believe Damien was still talking to her—he probably thought she was a complete loser. Was he only flirting with her so he could make fun of her to his friends later? Some of the volleyball girls had laughed at her behind her back for “trying too hard” to be friends with them, and she didn’t want a repeat of that with Damien’s friends. It would be so embarrassing.

“Why’d you wait so long to decide to move here?” he asked, sounding genuinely interested in her answer. Maybe he
wasn’t
talking to her just to make fun of her.

Savannah couldn’t help but laugh at his question.

His expression twisted into confusion. “Why’s that funny?”

“I didn’t exactly ‘decide’ to move here,” she began. She wanted to tell him the truth, but she also didn’t want to tell him about her mom being in rehab. She’d never told any of her friends—except Evie—about her mom’s drinking problem. She didn’t want Damien to feel sorry for her, or worse, think badly of her because of it. “My mom had some...stuff happen, so my sisters and I couldn’t stay with her anymore,” she said. “We didn’t even know where we would be going until this morning. You see, our dad hadn’t spoken to us for a while until this afternoon.”

“And by ‘for a while,’ you mean...”

“The last time he spoke to my sisters was before I was born.” She shrugged, trying to stay lighthearted and keep the sadness from her voice, but that was impossible. “So I guess by ‘a while,’ I mean ‘never.’ He might have had some contact with my mom, but she never told us. She didn’t want to take any of his money. Also, he said it was dangerous for us here, just because we’re his daughters.”

Damien nodded. “I guess that makes sense,” he said. “Something pretty bad must have happened for him to feel it was safer for you to not have him in your life.”

“Yeah,” Savannah said, although she didn’t want to mention what Adrian had told them at dinner about Courtney. That felt too personal. “But what about you?” she asked, trying to move the focus away from her and her messed-up family life.

“What about me?”

“You said you were seventeen,” Savannah said. “So you’re going to be a senior next year?”

“Yep,” he said. “And I can’t wait. Senior year will be the best.”

“What’s Goodman like?” she asked. “Adrian told us at dinner that we’d be starting there in the fall, and I feel like it’s going to be really different from Fairfield High.”

“Is Fairfield High a public school?”

Savannah nodded. She hadn’t said much when Peyton made a big deal at dinner about not wanting to go to private school, because Damien went to Goodman and any place he went was good for her. But she was nervous. What if private school was too hard for her? She wasn’t as smart as Courtney, the genius of the family, but Savannah knew she wasn’t stupid. Unfortunately she cracked under pressure, whether taking tests or being onstage. It would be awful if she struggled at Goodman and everyone thought she was dumb.

“It will definitely be different,” Damien said. “But I’m sure you’ll be fine. Anyway, we have two months before school starts, so let’s worry about that later. Do you want to see something cool?”

“Cooler than this?” she asked.

“Trust me.” He stood and held out his hand the same way he’d done earlier.

“All right.” She lowered her hand into his, and he pulled her up from the stool, closing the space between them. Savannah’s breath caught in her chest at the realization of how close they were standing. He brushed a strand of hair off her face, his finger leaving a line of heat across her cheek. If they hadn’t been surrounded by people, she would have thought he was about to kiss her. Or maybe he
was
about to kiss her. Right here, in front of everyone.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about other people watching such a private moment—especially if it was going to be her first kiss with Damien. Wouldn’t that make it less special than if it was just the two of them?

“Follow me,” he instructed, apparently deciding not to kiss her. Savannah’s heart dropped, and she wondered if she’d done something wrong, but dismissed the thought. Wasn’t she just thinking about how she
didn’t
want him to kiss her right there? Her emotions must be going haywire.