One Night With Him
Copyright © 2013 K.S. Smith
ISBN: 978-0-9910279-8-9
Cover Art Designed by P.S. Cover Designs
Literary Editor @ Book Peddler - Liz Aguilar
All rights reserved. No parts of the book may be used or reproduced in any matter without written permission from the author, except for inclusion of brief. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, establishments, organizations, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously to give a sense of authenticity. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To Jo, you are my life, my love. No matter how many book boyfriends I bring to life through my writing, none of them will ever compare to you and the love you have continued to give me these past ten years. Thank you for being you.
To my family – I hope you don’t read this and think I’m a complete freak, besides y’all were there for the many “talks” with mom, so blame it on her.
My partner in crime, the person I began this journey with, I cannot begin to express the amount of fun I have had traveling down this road with you. You are my Addison, with a Rose personality. I love you and cannot wait to see where this amazing road leads us, together, always.
Ty – you were my first real five star and I cannot thank you enough. I love that you love this book as much as me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support.
And lastly, to the one and only Rachel Van Dyken, your infinite wisdom and loving heart has been a blessing. You have helped so much through this entire process and there are no words that could possibly describe my gratitude. Now get back to Nixon!
CHAPTER ONE
The toxic smell of Patron hit my nose and I instantly knew this was going to be a night I wouldn’t remember. “Shot! Shot! Shot!” The sound of fifteen women rang in my ears, as I grabbed the penis shaped shot glass off of the table and pressed it to my lips. Tilting my head back I cringed when the tequila slammed into the back of my throat. It reminded me of liquid lava. I could feel the burn all the way into the pit of my stomach.
“You
are
so lucky you’re my best friend, because you’re the only person I would do a shot of tequila for,” I yelled across the VIP section of the club to my best friend.
Addison was spinning herself around the stripper pole, a hot pink boa laced around her shoulders, grinning from ear to ear. It was the weekend before her wedding and we were all out celebrating her bachelorette party. “I knew you’d cave, you can’t say no to your best friend, can you?” The words rolled off her tongue in a slur, since she was already six shots ahead of me.
“You’re the only person I can’t say no to, and you know that!” I smiled as I raised another shot to my mouth. I knew as maid of honor I had some catching up to do. I couldn’t let my best friend drink herself into oblivion all by herself, especially not on her last weekend as a single woman. The perks of being Addison Cartwright’s best friend usually meant that you had whatever you wanted at your fingertips. In tonight’s case, it was the entire VIP section of the hottest night club in town, The Limelight, owned and operated by none other than Mr. Theodore Cartwright, Addison’s father. Addison came from money and her family only obtained more of it once her father took an interest in the night club scene. It had benefited us tremendously in college and tonight was no different. Our entire section was raised two floors above the rest of the club and everyone was envious. Bouncers lined all the entrances and only those escorted by Addison herself were allowed in and out, with the exception of me, of course. I was like a second daughter to the Cartwright’s, so I had just as much clout as Addison did when it came to the night club.
“I think we need more Patron,” I shouted across the table to girls, “and some guys, we really need some entertainment up here, I’m not doing all of these shots to entertain myself.” I stood up and scanned the VIP section for one of our servers, but they were nowhere to be seen; so I took it upon myself to make my way down to the second floor of the club to order a few more bottles of Patron and see if I could find any guys who looked worthwhile.
“Excuse me, Hank,” I tapped the huge bouncer on the shoulder, “I’m going down to the second floor to get more Patron, I‘ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Do you need a bouncer to go with you?”
“No.” I touched his arm to thank him, “I’ll be fine, Addison is the one who draws in all of the attention; I can usually go unnoticed.” Hank smirked and nodded his head, as I walked past him and down the stairs.
The bar was packed, music blaring; people were pressed together as tight as sardines. I could hardly get through the crowd and up to the bar. I should have listened to Hank and grabbed a bouncer, just so they could have cleared a path. After what seemed like hours of pressing through people’s sweaty bodies, I was finally belly up to the bar. I waved to Chris, the bartender, and he was in front of me within seconds.
“What can I get you, beautiful?”
“Four bottles of Patron Gran Burdeos, please.” Chris went into the back room and came out with four bottles. “You want me to send them up to the VIP area, so you don’t have to carry them?”
“That would be amazing. Can you grab me a water, while you’re at it?” Chris gave me a wink and was back in seconds with a bottle of water. “You’re the best.” I smiled and left a generous tip on the bar for our favorite bartender. I knew if I intended on drinking more tequila, I needed some water to keep me from wanting to die the next morning. So I leaned against the bar and pounded back my water.
“I’m impressed” a deep husky voice whispered into my ear. I glanced to my left and leaning against the bar next to me was what had to have been a model plucked straight out of a GQ magazine.
“Pardon me?” I asked looking him up and down.
“Impressive, I’ve been standing at this bar for over twenty minutes and I haven’t even been acknowledged by the bartender, then out of nowhere you run up here with your tight little ass and smile that would bring a grown man to his knees and instantly you have four bottles of Patron and water within seconds.”
I smiled, batting my eyelashes. “I guess those are the perks of having a tight ass”.
Did I really just say that?
It wasn’t like me to be so quick on my feet, but I was proud of myself. As I whipped around to walk away, GQ grabbed my arm and pulled me back towards him, so I was pressed right up against his chest. Damn, he smelled good, I’m not sure what cologne he was wearing, but it had my senses running on overdrive. “Is there something I can help you with?” I glared up at this beautiful stranger, who was much too close to my face.
“A drink for starters, I figured I’d have better luck with the bartender if you were calling his name.” I turned around in his arms and waved for Chris one more time as GQ nuzzled my neck and whispered into my ear, “and your number would be nice, too.”
Chris was in front of me before I’d even put my hand down. I pressed my ass against GQ’s crotch as I leaned over the bar and yelled, “Would you get this guy a drink, he’s been waiting a while.”
“Sure, what can I get’cha, man?”
“A Yuengling, please”. Chris grabbed a Yuengling and was back in front of us in just enough time for me to scribble my telephone number on a napkin.
“Thanks, Chris, be sure to put those four Patron’s on his tab for the hassle.” I grabbed the Yuengling, set it on top of the napkin that had my telephone number scribbled on it, handed it to GQ as he stood there with a shocked look on his face, then turned around and walked away as fast as my feet would move.
There was a reason I didn’t drink tequila, anymore, and that was it right there. It made me crazy, example number one, I’d just put four bottles of $500 tequila on a total strangers tab. I hoped he had a great job, because there was no way Chris was going to let him leave without paying for that liquor. I smirked, proud of my quick wit, as I looked over my shoulder just in time to see GQ take a drag off of his beer, his eyes raking over my entire body. My stomach flipped; who in the hell was this man and why was my entire body tingling at the thought of him watching me?
CHAPTER TWO
“Where in the hell have you been? You’re my maid of honor, you just can’t go disappearing like that!” Addison was standing on top of the table, taking a drink straight out of one of the bottles.
“I’m sorry,” I screamed over the blaring music, “I got side tracked downstairs. I promise, no more disappearing!”
Unless GQ finds me, then it’s a whole different story.
“For the rest of the night, it’s me, you, that bottle of tequila and all of our girls.”
Addison grabbed my hand and pulled me up onto the table with her, lifted her bottle as high above her head as she could get it without toppling over and screamed, “You’re damn right it is!” All of the girls with us began cheering and the cheering lead to dancing, the type of dancing you do when no one is looking. Oh yeah, between the shots and our screaming sorority sisters, there was no possible way I was going to make it to tomorrow without putting myself into a tequila-induced-coma.
After several hours of dancing on table tops and flirting with the few guys Addison allowed into the VIP section, it was time to call it a night. Addison, along with several of our other girlfriends were on the verge of being passed out drunk on the couches that wrapped around the room. All the while I was making sure everyone who was capable of still standing on their own two feet were getting their things together in order to make it back to the party bus. “Hank, would you have some of the guys help Addison and the other girls to the bus, I think it’s time we get back to the hotel.” Hank nodded and began to get a few guys together. After several attempts of corralling fifteen drunk women down two flights of stairs and through a sea of people, we finally made it back to the hotel in one piece.
I’d booked us a penthouse suite at one of Tampa’s most luxurious resorts, The Bellevue, so we all had plenty of space to spread out. But I’m not going to lie, when everyone got to the room they’d passed out everywhere but the bedrooms and it pretty much resembled the morning after scene of The Hangover. Bodies were scattered throughout the entire suite. I’d finally gotten Addison changed and into bed. Just as my head hit the pillow my phone started beeping.
You’ve got to be kidding me
, I thought as I stumbled around the dark room searching for my cell phone. Not recognizing the number I reached for the power button to turn it off and ignore the incoming text, but something in my gut told me to open it and see who in the world was crazy enough to bother me at this hour of the night.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS YOUR PARTY BUS IS PARKED OUTSIDE OF MY HOTEL?
WHO IS THIS?
I’LL GIVE YOU ONE GUESS…
MY BAR TAB WAS OVER TWO GRAND THIS EVENING AND I ONLY HAD 5 BEERS.
I stopped dead in my tracks and clasped my hand over my mouth, was GQ seriously texting me? With all the drinking we had done I’d almost forgotten all about him. I blushed remembering how good he smelled and how nice my body felt when he’d wrapped his solid arms around me.
GQ?!?!
WHO?
LOL, GQ…I NEVER CAUGHT YOUR NAME AND YOU RESEMBLED A GQ MODEL, SO IT STUCK.
HA! WELL THEN, YES, GQ.
WHY DON’T YOU COME DOWNSTAIRS AND MEET ME FOR A DRINK, I’M HEADED TO THE BAR.
A drink, was he serious? I was still drunk off my ass, there was no way I could drink anymore, not without potentially killing myself in the process. But there was just something about him that made me throw on my flip flops and saunter to the elevator. As I walked through the lobby, I quickly realized that I’d already changed into my pajamas and I was sporting yoga pants and a tank top, probably not the best outfit considering he’d last seen me in a dress so short my ass almost popped out, but what the hell, I was still half drunk, beyond exhausted, it was almost four in the morning, and I was pretty positive most of the hotel guests were already in bed.