For the First Time: Twenty-One Brand New Stories of First Love (15 page)

I’ve owned the Blue Diamond casino for a few years now, taking it from a downtrodden, shabby dive to a shining jewel. I’ve been looking to expand some of our entertainment venues, and Charles is looking for the same. If we are able to work together, we both look to double our revenue, and it’s hard to turn down something like that. It’s unusual for casinos to promote one another, but Charles and I are birds of a feather. We both have a head for business and a strong work ethic. Although since Charles has gotten married, I can see he’s slowed down just a bit.

I would have slowed down with Tiffany
. The thought enters my mind before I can stop it, and it hits me in the gut. I’m usually in better control of myself than that, but being close to a couple who are obviously so in love is eating away at me. My jealousy is palpable, and I have the urge to go throw up.

For years I searched for her. Do you know how many Tiffany Smiths are in the world? Fifty-two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-nine. And that’s assuming she didn’t change her name. I’ve gone through countless private detectives and more money than a normal man could make in a lifetime trying to find her. False hope and women pretending to be her have broken me over the years. I’ve built my empire in the hopes that one day she might find me. Hell, I even named my casino after her. I’ll never forget her bright blue eyes. I see them every time I close my own. Somewhere in my heart, I always thought we would find one another, but maybe she’s with someone else, moved on. The thought makes me clench my fists and grit my teeth. I only have myself to blame. I should have found her by now.

“You doing okay, Ethan?” Charles’s words snap me out of my angry guessing game, and I just nod, following him through the casino lobby.

“Have you seen Foxy’s new show?” Mandy asks, obviously trying to bring us back to business.

“No, I’m afraid I haven’t had the time. But I’ve heard great things.” We pass one of her posters for the old show, and I get a funny feeling in my stomach. It happens every time I see something that reminds me of my Tiffany. The poster is of a woman, turned away from the camera with only her head and shoulders visible. Her hair is white blonde with a pink bow pinned in it. The words Foxy Bow are emblazoned across the bottom in glitter. The picture doesn’t show her face, but the blonde hair makes me think of my girl. This is Vegas, though, and a bottle of bleach is on every street corner.

“Oh, we need to have these changed out. They are the old promotional banners. Come around the front and see the new one. I think they installed it just this morning.”

“Sure, sounds great.” I don’t know why I’m melancholy all of a sudden, but I think it’s because Tiffany is on my mind so much lately.

As we walk through the casino, I try to pay attention to the conversation. Charles and Mandy are discussing plans for the casinos and what they want as far as the future of our partnership is concerned. I spend most of my life working to get noticed by someone I haven’t seen in ten years. Someone who may or may not want to see me. Someone who may or may not even be alive.

I stop that train of thought as soon as it enters my mind. I would know if my soul was gone. I would feel it in my bones if she wasn’t still breathing. I’d know it.

The day I was pulled apart from her was the worst day of my life. When I was put in the back of that cop car by DCP, I begged them to take me back. I knew that if I was separated from her, something bad would happen. If I didn’t have my eyes on her at all times, he would get to her. I just knew her father was waiting for his chance.

When we got down to the police station, it turned out that they had found a relative of mine. I’d gone into foster care after my mother died. I was placed with the Mark family, who just happened to live next to my Tiffany. When I was at the darkest point in my life, it was like God sent her to me. To shine light on my dark world.

They found my grandfather, but he had recently passed, leaving everything he had to me. A pile of money and a casino that wasn’t turning a profit. As soon as the cops let me go, I raced back to Tiffany, only to find her gone. I beat the shit out of her father but later realized he didn’t know where she went either. So I started looking for her and building a life for us. Taking what my grandfather left me and increasing it tenfold. For her. For us.

“There she is. Our star.” Mandy waves her hand up, and I follow her line of sight.

I look up, seeing a huge banner stretched across the front entrance of the hotel, and as her ice blue eyes stare back at me, my knees go weak. It’s her. It’s my Tiffany. Clutching my chest, I nearly collapse to the floor, and Charles and Mandy rush to help me.

“Where?” I manage to choke out, but they don’t respond. They look at one another as if they’re confused. Like my whole world isn’t about to explode.

“
Where is Tiffany?!
” I bellow, and it echoes off the black marble walls.

“She’s about to go on stage. What the fuck is wrong, Ethan?” Charles is still holding my arm to steady me, but I break free and run as fast as I can to the other side of the casino. My legs burn and my chest aches. It can’t be possible. It can’t be true. Please God, let it be true.

I don’t know what happens, or who I knock over to get there, but when I get to the entrance, security is there to try to stop me. I feel a sudden rage come over me and I turn, punching someone who puts a hand on me.

I see Charles out of the corner of my eye. He’s holding up his hands and telling people to let me pass. He must see that I’m in a fury that won’t be stopped.

When I get past the entrance, I walk into a dark room, seeing the stage at the end, and I watch the curtains part. A bright light centers on the woman, and all the air leaves my lungs.

Standing there, glowing with perfection, is my girl.

Tiffany

T
he cheers of
the audience meet my ears as they always do when the curtains part. The stage light blocks my vision of the audience, and it’s something I’m always thankful for. I know what’s out there: a sold-out crowd, mostly men, here to see Foxy Bow.

I start my routine, something I’ve done so many times I can do it in my sleep. I pop my hip to the first beat of the music that fills the theatre, silencing the crowd.

I don’t hear so much as a pin drop before I’m off the ground. He had me before I ever saw him. A strong body lifts me from my feet. A squeal leaves my lips as a giant of a man tosses me over his shoulder. I’ve had men try to get onstage before, but no one has ever made it this far without security taking them to the ground.

Flipping my hair out of my face, I see Charles and Mandy following behind the man who’s carrying me. Their faces don’t look worried, just shocked as the man carries me away from the crowd and through the backstage area, never breaking stride as he carries me further and further from the show.

Maybe he’s a bodyguard and something has gone wrong.
That thought quickly leaves my mind when the man’s deep voice fills my ears and makes my head spin. A voice I thought I’d never hear again in my life.

“Bunny.” With one word, so many emotions flood my body, overtaking everything, and I feel myself go limp. All the fear I was holding inside me leaves with the simple word. If Ethan has me in his arms, I’m utterly safe.

“Are you going to stop him?” Mandy says to Charles as they follow us out from the backstage area into the casino.

“There is no stopping a man with that look on his face,” Charles replies, making me want to see the look on Ethan’s face. I wonder if it still looks the same as it did ten years ago, but if the size of his body is any indication, I’m guessing not. I don’t remember him being this big all over, but I was never draped on him like this either.

“She’s mine. Back the fuck off, Charles.” Ethan’s hard voice is lethal, but it’s one I’ve heard him use before. The same one he always used when protecting me.

“Is this, like, a thing? Do casino owners just grab women they want and declare them as theirs or something? Because I’m starting to see a trend,” Mandy comments as she shoots Charles a glare that holds no heat to it. She’s always got something smart to say.

“Ethan, I don’t know where you think you’re going, but you can’t just take off with my employees.” At Charles’s words, Ethan stops in his tracks and turns so I can no longer peek at Mandy and Charles.

“Call her ‘mine’ one more time, Charles, and I’ll burn this fucking building down. Then you’ll have no fucking use for employees. You won’t call them yours then.”

“It’s like that?”

“It’s way fucking far beyond ‘like that.’”

No one says anything for a few moments, and Ethan turns and starts walking again.

“Stop him,” I hear Mandy say, but Charles grips her hand, not letting her follow.

“She’s not fighting him,” is all I can hear Charles say before he’s too far away for me to make out any more of his words. Ethan’s making a quick retreat, and I feel the Vegas night air hit my exposed skin as we step outside. Suddenly, I hear Ethan bark out an order.

“Door!”

I’m shoved into the back of a limo and quickly pulled into Ethan’s lap, straddling him. I have only a moment to take in his face before he grabs my neck, pulling me to his mouth.

Ethan kissed me once when we were young. It was a soft touch of his lips to mine. It happened two days before he was taken from my life. It was my first and only kiss.

This, however, is nothing like that first kiss, or how I thought our first real kiss would be. I’d pictured it soft, slow and sweet, but this is filled with so much more. It’s infused with the emotion and feeling pouring from both of us.

His hands on my neck hold me tight to him while our warm lips meet and his mouth opens. His tongue presses into my mouth, demanding entry that I eagerly grant him, and I’m lost to the powerful connection. It’s not a kiss, it’s the reconnection of our souls, years after being torn apart. It’s as if I’m whole now that his lips are on mine.

All too soon he’s pulling away from me, and I can’t stop myself from trying to follow him, to bring his lips back to mine.

“Don’t stop. Please don’t stop,” I beg, finding his mouth again and licking the seam of his lips. His whole body jerks in response, and a low moan rises in his throat.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! Bunny, stop. Wait. Please.”

I kiss his neck and chin, and I feel his body tense and shiver against me, pulling me tight to him. After a second, he’s completely lax, and he pulls back from me, his big hands cupping my face.

He looks the same but somehow totally different. No longer does he have his boyish features. He’s one hundred percent man now.

Ethan was never handsome like the typical boy next door, and he’s not handsome in the classic sense of the word either. His features are strong, with harsh angles that scream ‘caveman.’ His midnight hair is pulled back in a small messy knot at the nape of his neck. He’d always seemed masculine before, but now, seeing him all grown up, it’s more intense and pretty extreme.

No wonder Charles didn’t want to go toe to toe with him. Charles is a large man himself, but Ethan is bigger. Not by much, but at their size, anything bigger takes it to another level.

“Ethan.” His name from my lips almost sounds like a prayer. His dark eyes bore into mine as he holds my face in his hands like I might disappear right in front of him.

“I found you,” he finally says, his eyes searching my face. Had he been looking for me? When I ran away at fourteen, I had no idea where to even begin to look for him. I’d gone to the police station and all they could tell me was that he was gone and that they weren’t holding him.

There had been nights that I’d let myself believe that maybe he’d left without me. That maybe he took off on his own. He was so close to eighteen when the cops came for him.

I also wondered if he left because he no longer wanted to watch over the younger girl who followed him around like a lost puppy. It was stupid of me to think that. He never treated me like that. But over the years and on lonely nights, doubt would seep in. I remember all the girls in the neighborhood always trying to get his attention, but he never gave it to them.

His thumb traces my lips, and I can’t help but ask, “Did you look for me?”

Ethan

“D
id I look
for you? Are you kidding me? Bunny, I never
stopped
looking for you. You have no idea the lengths I’ve gone to.” I pull her lips to mine, tasting her sweetness. I can’t form words, I’m so overwhelmed. Seeing her on that stage sent me into a spiral. I don’t know what just happened, all I know is that I saw her on the stage and now we are in the back of my limo. I may need to send Charles an apology, but that can wait.

I run my hands down her body, feeling her lush curves and soft skin. Her costume is basically a nude bodysuit with blue sequins in just the right places. I pull her head back, looking her over once again. It’s as if I need to reassure myself she’s in my lap and she’s real. Her white-blonde hair is in big teased curls, and she’s got on tons of make-up, but I would know her big blue eyes anywhere. They have haunted my dreams for years, and finally, here they are in front of me. I pull her back to my mouth, nibbling on her soft lips and tasting her tongue against mine.

Tiffany wraps her arms around mine, and it’s as if we can’t stand even an inch of space between us. I feel the sticky wetness in my pants, and I’m trying not to cum again. Jesus, just having her kiss me sent me over the edge earlier. I wanted our first time together to be perfect and special, but I can’t wait. I’ve waited my whole life for her, never touching another woman besides her. I’ve saved my body and my heart for her, and I can’t wait any longer.

Pulling back again, I start to unbuckle my belt and undo my slacks. She looks down at my movements for only a second before she reaches out, grabbing my shirt with both hands and ripping it open. Buttons fly everywhere, but I don’t care. I can see the hungry look in her eyes, matching my own, and I can feel the need coursing between us. We are too close to the edge for teasing and light touches.