Without Doubt (15 page)

I nuzzle her neck and speak softly near her
ear. “I know this is Macie’s doing, but you also knew it was going
to piss me off if you came here looking like this.” I rub my hands
down the length of her body, watching as the waitress brings her a
pink drink and me another beer.

“
Well, now I’m mad too.
You couldn’t just say ‘Hey, Sunshine! You look hot!’? Nooo, you
couldn’t do that because you were probably too busy trying to
figure out a way to get me out of here without causing a scene.”
Ava spits out that last word, takes a long drink from her glass,
and then continues on drinking it until it’s almost
gone.

“
I thought we decided you
weren’t drinking tonight.” There’s a fine line between being
protective and being an asshole. I know I’m teetering, I just don’t
know which side I’m going to land on.

She spins around and puts one hand on my
chest. “I thought I was going to have fun with my boyfriend
tonight. Guess we both thought wrong, didn’t we? And YOU decided I
wasn’t drinking tonight.”

I have no idea where this side of Ava is
coming from, but damn, it’s turning me on. I could argue with her
like this all night.

“
Macie! Let’s go dance!”
She spins back around and starts descending the stairs to the lower
level dance floor.

I’m trying to wrap my head around what the
hell is happening when Lyle puts his large hand on my shoulder and
Macie takes off down the stairs after Ava.

“
I’ll go down there and
keep an eye on ‘em,” Lyle assures me in with a deep grumble of a
laugh. “You finish that beer and get your girl another drink; she’s
going to need it with your possessive ass tonight.”

He’s right again, she probably does need it,
but I don’t want her drunk again today. I ask the waitress to have
their drinks ready when they get back up here and brusquely sit
down on the sofa next to Greyden, who seems to be in about the same
mood as I am and for once, he’s alone. I glance over at him and
when his matching scowl meets mine, he shakes his head with a look
of defeat before waving over the waitress for more beers.

Close to an hour later, Lyle appears at the
top of the steps, laughing with the girls as he supports them on
either arm. The skirts that have been sitting on the arms of the
sofa since Grey and I sat down don’t get up. Instead, the one next
to Grey slips down so close she’s practically sitting on his lap
and the one next to me attempts it before I tell her to get lost.
She pouts but listens, thank God. Macie walks over to Sloan and
whispers in his ear, her hands wandering a little too freely for my
liking. He nods and she leans back in to whisper again. This time
he laughs and pulls her into his arms. Lyle escorts a very drunk
Ava to me and helps her sit down.

“
I’m drinking Pink Panties
for you,” she slurs. “Maybe if you know that, you’ll have sex with
me tonight.”

Oh shit. Everybody around us roars in
laughter, including my own drunk ass sister.

“
It has pink lemonade in
it, so I thought you’d like to suck on my tongue, you know, since
you like lemons so much,” Ava continues, dead serious.

The only ones that aren’t laughing
hysterically are Sloan’s groupies; they probably don’t get what’s
so funny. Sloan is holding Macie up around the waist while they
laugh and watch my sweet drunk girl go on, completely oblivious to
the fact that it isn’t just me that’s listening to her right
now.

“
Ava, shhh.” I try to hold
my finger up to her lips but I’m laughing too damn hard and she’s
not having any of it. “Seriously, stop drinking that and just shut
up, Sunshine.” I can’t help but laugh along with everyone else.
She’s too damn cute like this.

“
I’m serious, babe, you
should taste it. It’s yummy.”

Grinning like an idiot, I play along. “You
want me to taste your drink?”

“
Her tongue, you dumbass.
She wants you taste the tongue that’s going to taste like wet pink
panties, Dec,” Sloan announces from a couple feet away.

Macie spins around to wrap her arms around
his neck. Sloan’s been drinking for a bit, and normally he would be
paying attention to the girl on his arm, not yelling his opinion at
me about my conversation. In this case, I’ll take his intrusion
since the girl on his arm is my little sister.

“
Nope. My tongue. Is it
pink?” she asks just before her naturally pink tongue darts out
between her glossy lips “Does it look like pink satin panties? I’m
pretty sure the waitress told me it would make my tongue look like
pink satin panties and you wouldn’t be able to resist sucking on
it.”

Oh my God. She is going to hate life in the
morning. I can hear the guys giving me all kinds of shit and Macie
telling Ava to stop talking, but none of it really matters because
Ava is staring at me like we’re alone and she wants me to do some
very naughty things to her pink satin panties tongue. I think it’s
time to go.

I turn to tell Grey, but he apparently reads
minds because he nods once and stands up to get Macie away from
Sloan’s wandering hands. Sunshine has moved in on me, kissing my
exposed neck and doing things with her hands that are illegal in
public in some countries.

“
Let’s go, Sunshine, time
to get back to the room,” I tell her as I pull her up and into my
arms.

Ava gasps and her eyes go wide. “Are we
going to have sex? Please say yes! I swear if you don’t have sex
with me tonight, Declan, I’m going to… Well, I’m too drunk to know
what I’m going to do right now, but I know you won’t like it!”

Of course everyone is listening to her and
the laughing continues. I want to crawl under a rock. That stopped
me from laughing along with everyone. Not only does everyone know
we haven’t had sex yet, she’s hounding me about it in public!

“
Just sleep with the girl
already, Boss; you’re driving her crazy,” Lyle booms from behind
me, laughing along with everyone else.

I hold on to Ava with one arm and shake
Lyle’s hand with the other, slipping him a large tip. “Good lookin’
out tonight, bro, I appreciate it.”

Lyle nods and tells me “anytime” as I
carefully scoop Ava up into my arms; there’s no way she’s making it
down the stairs drunk and in her heels.

I turn to find Sloan standing right behind
me, whispering to Macie that he’s getting ready to take off too.
He’s not, but I’m sure he’s telling Macie that to help us get her
out of here. Greyden is furious, barely able to control himself,
and I’m not sure if it’s because she’s being so flirty with Sloan
and we know how Sloan likes his girls—naked—or if there’s some
other shit going on there that I’m going to have to take care of. I
sure as hell hope not; that’s not something I want to deal
with.

“
Mace, I’ll catch up with
you again soon, okay?” Sloan says with a smile and wink. “It was
good to see you again. Here, let Greyden help you down those
stairs, beautiful girl, they’ll get you in those death traps you
call heels.”
Thank you,
Sloan
. Crisis averted. Drunken Macie goes
willingly into Greyden’s arms.

We navigate our way through the club, making
it outside into the throngs of drunken pedestrians with relative
ease. Ava is cuddled up into my neck and Macie is completely passed
out. Greyden’s having a hard time keeping her head from dropping
back over his arm while at the same time trying to maintain control
on her dress, which keeps hiking up. It takes a few minutes to get
back to the hotel; we had to go up an escalator, over a bridge that
allowed us to cross over the main strip, and then back down another
escalator. Just as we step into the casino part of our hotel Ava
mumbles into my chest, “I look like trash, you should put me
down.”

“
Sunshine, it’s almost
three in the morning in Sin City. Anybody that can still see you
knows how you’re feeling right now and I guarantee you they’re
jealous of you not having to walk in your ridiculous
shoes.”

“
The shoes are sexy
though,” she replies in a sleepy voice.

I laugh along with Greyden who just can’t
help himself. “You’re right, they are definitely sexy shoes.”

We make it to the room and I take her to the
bathroom. She can halfway stand so I slip her dress off and sit her
up on the vanity. She doesn’t speak, she just does what I ask and
watches me. I wet a washcloth and wipe the makeup off of her face
before I brush her teeth. When that’s all done, I carry her to our
bed and tuck her beneath the covers. She still doesn’t say anything
but she kisses me gently then rolls to her side and snuggles down
into the big comforter.

I brush my teeth and take a real quick
shower then crawl into bed next to my very drunk Sunshine. As soon
as my head hits the pillow, she drapes herself across my body and
I’m starting to rethink this whole “Ava needs to be completely
lucid in order to have sex with her” thing. I run my fingers
through her hair and push the short, tangled strands off her
face.

“
Good night, Dec. I Love
you.”

My heart just stopped. True statement. Shit,
Love? She loves me? Do I love her? I know that seven full days
without contact with her is not an option. I know that if I had my
way, she and Harper would be a part of my everyday life without
exception. I know that she’s a permanent fixture in my life and
there will never be another woman who will be able to compare to
her in any way and I haven’t even slept with her… Sonuva bitch… I’m
in love.

Ava

Oh. Dear. Lord. I feel like my entire head
is going to explode any second now. Everything hurts. Why does
everything hurt? I thought hangovers gave you a headache; this is
not your ordinary headache. No, this is the mother of all headaches
ever born. Even my arms and my legs are killing me and what the
heck is that ringing? I cover my head with the pillow and the
ringing thankfully subsides. I can hear Declan grumbling somewhere
to the right of me.

“
Sunshine, you awake?” His
raspy voice reaches my ears, the sound actually pleasant to the
sensitive little things.

“
No,” I manage to push out
of my abused throat. I don’t really remember every minute of last
night, but I’m thinking Macie and I had a ton of fun being the
world’s sexiest dancers and the club’s loudest singers.

I hear him laugh and the mattress dip
beneath me as he leans over my face. “It’s Harper,” he whispers.
“She said, ‘Decky, put momma on da phone white now!’ She means
business this morning, sweetheart. Time to wake up.”

I love my little girl, but I will never
forgive her for waking me up today. I take the phone from him and
rub the sandpaper from my eyes, then decide to just talk to her
with my eyes still closed.

“
Good morning, little
lady.”

“
Momma!” Oh my gosh!
Seriously, where did this kid get her voice? It’s extremely
high-pitched. I moan in slight pain from my head splitting in two,
watching as Declan sits up and laughs before he walks to the living
area wearing only his boxer briefs. “Miss Aubwey sleeped all night
with me. Her sang twinkol twinkol and her prayed to God too, but
her not do it like you do. I miss you, Momma.” What’s worse than
the world’s worst hangover? The world’s worst hangover while
feeling guilty for thinking I could never forgive my toddler for
waking me up.

“
I miss you so much lady,
but you know what? I’m pretty sure Miss Aubrey is taking you for
frozen yogurt after your Little Gym class; that’ll be so much fun,
right?”

Frozen yogurt sealed the deal. Harper seemed
to forget she missed me and started screeching for Aubrey to get
dressed for her class. Aubrey confirmed that everything is going
perfectly and promised to call back before bedtime tonight. I got
up after hanging up the phone to use the restroom and kill my
morning breath. I couldn’t care less that I’m walking around stark
naked; I just want to take care of business and lie back down as
quickly as possible. When I return to the bed, Dec is already there
with a bottle of water with some pain relievers for me. The man is
a saint.

I snuggle into him and he
doesn’t say anything, he just pulls me closer. I lay there
recalling the night before and how much fun we had, or
I
did, at least. I hope
he had a good time too. Some parts of the night are fuzzy and there
are few time frames that I’m missing completely. What I do
remember, though, is that I told Declan I love him. I do love him,
but saying so last night was a complete slip of the drunken tongue.
I don’t remember him saying it back, and that’s okay, but I should
probably clarify that although I said it because I was drunk, I
really do mean it.

“
I do, you know,” I say
softly into his hard smooth chest.

“
What’s that,
Sunshine?”

“
I do love you. I
shouldn’t have said it last night, but it was only a mistake to let
it slip out like that, it wasn’t a mistake that I was thinking
it.”

I feel him relax and release the tension in
his chest and torso. He rolls over so he’s hovering over me, his
blue-green eyes just staring into mine. I’m taking this as a good
thing but I do admit that I’m a tad bit uncomfortable that he has
yet to use his words to acknowledge my drunk or sober declaration
of love. The uneasiness of the conversation or lack thereof is
easily outdone by his complete sexiness. I was giving him a hard
time yesterday that he hasn’t slept with me but it really does
bother me. He’s just so freaking hot and I want to experience all
of him. I want to experience his bad boy looks while being loved by
his soft loving side; he’s the whole package and it’s about time I
get full access.