I missed her.
Tania gave my shirt a tug. “Want to head out? Grab an early dinner?”
“I’m not hungry,” I said. “I have to get to A-1 soon anyway.”
“Shit, you should quit. In a week, you’re going to be famous.”
I rolled my shoulders. “I don’t know about that.”
“I do know about that. Have you seen Eme’s roster of guests?” She whistled low in her teeth. “Even without Chihuly it’s going to be a golden crowd, and all here to see you.” She rose from the bench and stretched her back. “Maybe you should take the night off. Take Kacey out somewhere and celebrate.”
“Good idea. I might do that.”
She ruffled my hair. “Or maybe you should take the night off and just get some sleep. You look like you need it.”
After she left, I sat for a few moments more, looking around the room.
This is happening.
I stood up. Or tried to. My breath caught hard in my lungs, then disappeared without me even exhaling. I tried to draw in another and couldn’t get it past my throat, as if I had a steel band wrapped around my chest.
Oh shit…
I sat back down, sucking in shallow huffs of air.
Easy. Nice and easy, I told myself, even as my heart clanged in my chest. My gaze darted around for a stray worker locking up or the janitor. I reached for my phone to call 911…
No! It’s not that bad. It’s not…
Gradually the band around my ribs loosened. Finally, it fell away and I could inhale to the bottom of my stomach.
Fatigue. I’d been working my ass off. That was all.
I nodded, rose carefully from the bench and left the gallery. My stride was sure, my breathing deep and regular. But every nerve ending cried out for Kacey. I needed her. Every inhale and exhale marked the seconds that passed without her, and I felt them slipping through my fingers like sand.
I took some of Tania’s advice and called in sick to A-1. My first time doing so in the five months I worked there. Harry was pissed it was such short notice, and I wondered why that didn’t bother me more, to leave him in a bind.
Because Kacey is more important than driving up and down the Strip all night.
I had an almost desperate need to see her. I rubbed my palms on the thighs of my jeans as if I were a junky jonesing for a fix. I called her and though she had to work too, she managed to squeeze out of it.
I took my beautiful girlfriend to a fancy restaurant at Mandalay Bay, which overlooked the glittering Strip. She was more radiant than all of the lights beyond the windows, and she teased me for staring more than once.
The food was delicious and what I needed after a long, emotionally and physically-draining day. By the time we left the restaurant, my need to be with Kacey had morphed into a fierce desire to have her alone. We’d planned to catch another fountain show at the Bellagio, but while we waited for the check, I slid even closer to her in our booth.
“I want to take you home,” I said in her ear, my hands sliding across the smooth material of her dress. She wore elaborate thigh-high boots that laced up the front and a button-down black dress, every button undone but for a few along the middle. The flaring fabric revealed the smooth valley of her cleavage and flaring open just above her boots when she walked.
“No water show?” she asked.
“You mind if we skip it?”
Her hand slipped between my legs, over my dress pants. She found my burgeoning erection and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“I want this more,” she whispered back.
At my place, I undid the laces on her boots—one at a time—and the buttons on her dress—also one at a time—until she was down to her black, lacy bra and panties. Then we celebrated the installation. We celebrated long and hard into the night, until we collapsed on the pillows, exhausted and satiated. My body felt heavy and thrumming with waning climaxes. Kacey was soft and limp, curled up alongside me, her head pillowed on my shoulder. The clock radio read two-fifteen in the morning.
“You were intense tonight,” she said.
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“God, no.” She snuggled closer. “I might not be able to walk tomorrow, but it’ll be worth it.”
I craned down to kiss her hair. “Just doing what you said at Great Basin. Taking each moment and wringing it for all it is worth.”
“I was wondering…” She let her fingers trail over my chest, across my scar, and along my shoulder. “If you’d given any more thought to letting me invite some of your old UNLV friends to the installation next week. Carnegie too, though that’s going to be short notice. I know you’re not—”
“Yes,” I said without thinking. “Let’s invite a few. The friends I was closest to.”
Kacey lifted her head to look at me, her smile radiant. “Really?”