Her Forbidden Love (Forbidden Ties Sequel) (Forbidden Ties Series Book 3) (2 page)

              I felt crushed. Though I held back my tears on the drive back home, the rain wasn’t of any help. Each dropped that smashed against my windshield attempted to pull the water from my eyes. A lump formed in my throat as though I had just swallowed a poison apple.

As soon as I reached the front door of my apartment, I collapsed. The tears fell like the rain outside onto the hardwood flooring. How could have done that to me? How could I have been so stupid? All of the worry in the world wasn’t enough preparation for this cold reality.

              Looking around, I couldn’t bear being on campus. Everything around reminded me of Walker. The stone necklace felt as though it were wrapped too tightly around my neck. I grabbed the chain and broke it free at the latch. The stones pulled off of the metal and bounced off of the floor.

              “Why would you give this to me?” I asked while looking at the dark blue stones rolling by my hands. Their color reminded me of Walker’s eyes; unforgiving and cold.

              I grabbed what I could of the necklace and tossed it into the trash. Then I rushed into my room and ripped my luggage from the closet. As quickly as I could, I found clothes and threw them into the case before sealing it shut.

              My crush had kept me away from my friends and family. So many of my decisions were placed around Walker. In the summer, I stayed on campus just to take his mineralogy course. At that time, it was my mere crush, but by the end of the session, our tryst had begun. Even during the winter break, I attended his excursion to a volcanic island in the southern hemisphere. While the other students were asleep, Walker and I fucked all night in his tent. The passion was raw and intense, like nothing I had ever felt before. I thought he liked me, but as I collected the tears falling from my eyes, I just felt used.

              As I lifted my packed bags off of the floor, I felt that I was picking myself up with them. Then I set them on the rug by the door and made my way into the bathroom. I looked at my swollen and puffy eyes. They were red around my green irises like a broke Christmas ordainment.

              “This is what you were trying to avoid,” I said softly to myself. Then I took a deep breath, splashed a few drops of clearing solution in my eyes, and picked up my phone. “Hi, yes, I need a ride to the airport… Terminal One… I’m leaving for Las Vegas.”

              A shrill squeal bounced off the airport walls. It overrode the sounds of the chiming slot machines and the bustle of eager tourists that moved into the terminal that night. At first, I didn’t think it was aimed at me until I saw the creator of the piercing noise.

              Her red hair seemed to spout for miles like her enthusiastic squeal. It was the sound that could only come from one person that I knew: my childhood best friend, Penny Valtrese.

              “You’re here!” she screeched as onlookers squinted at the ecstatic girl. I had only been off of the plane for thirty seconds and was already being accosted. Penny flung her arms around me and squeezed so tightly that my shoulders felt as though they had lost all feeling.

              “Hi, Penny!” I said in an attempt to match her enthusiasm– though I knew that it was impossible to do so. Growing up, she was always the misguided ray of sunshine. I, on the other hand, felt like the Debbie Downer of our duo. Something inside of me felt that I had to compensate for Penny’s ridiculous behavior. Still, that was also one of her more fun qualities.

              “I’m
so
glad that you’re here!” she shouted. “We have a
lot
to do to make Mairead’s bachelorette party the
best
. And I mean a
lot
!”

              “Yay,” I said half-heartedly. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel excited; more so, I was terrified of what plans Penny could have concocted.

              “You have to wear this!” Penny screeched as she opened her purse. Out came two, long, fluorescent pink ribbons. She slung one of them over my head to form a sash. There was writing made out in silver glitter that I couldn’t read from my angle.

              “What does it say?” I reluctantly asked.

              “Bridesmaids!” Penny shouted as she hurled on her matching sash. “Duh!”
 

--

              We took a limousine to the hotel, which was on the other side of the strip. I wanted to help Penny plan the party, however, I was so busy with school– and my crush on Walker– that I hadn’t made the time. Penny, on the other hand, graduated from college in just over three years. Many of her high school classes qualified her for nearly two semesters of units. She spent the past six months in our hometown of Mayville, planning her next move in life.

              “Mairead is meeting us soon at the hotel,” Penny explained in the limo. “She’s bringing her college roommate who I’ve never met.”

              “What’s her name again?” I asked while I searched my head.

              “Leslie,” Penny said as she rolled her eyes.

              “Do you have a problem with her?” I said laughing a little.

              “To be honest, she hasn’t been very much help,” Penny confessed. “Leslie also
insisted
that we all drive to Vegas together. I, of course, refused. Mairead, being the sweetheart that she was, went with her in a car. This works out fine anyway, because I only arrived a few minutes before you did.”

              “Driving sounds fun,” I said while daydreaming of four girls packed into a convertible while blasting music down a desert road. Penny shot me a look as if to ask:
whose side are you on?

              When we arrived at the hotel, it was much more lavish than I expected. The bellmen took our bags up to our rooms as we checked in to get our keys. Then we roamed the casino for a minute before making our way up to the suite.

              The room was gigantic. It was three times the size of my apartment with sumptuous fabrics, plush couches, and a panoramic view of Las Vegas. My favorite part, however, was the piano in the center of the main room. As soon as I pressed one of the keys, it started to play on its own.

              “This suite is amazing, Penny,” I said in awe. “How much money am I giving you for this?”

              “Don’t worry about it,” she smiled. “My father visits her regularly, so the room was complimentary.”

              “Wow,” I gasped. “You did fantast–“ Suddenly, we heard a noise on the other end of the suite.

              “What was that?” Penny asked.

              “It came from the next room,” I said cautiously. Then we made our way into the master suite to see that clothes were spread out all across the floor, bed, and armchairs. Most of them seemed to be different colored lace thongs and animal print braziers. We looked around the corner to see a full figured girl curling her long blonde hair in the mirror. She turned to us, revealing her massive, bare breasts.

              “Hi, ladies!” cheerfully said the blonde.

              “Who in the hell are you?” Penny asked in a fit. That was when Mairead came out of a steaming room with a towel wrapped around her waist.

              “Jill! Penny!” Mairead screamed as she rushed toward us. “This room is amazing! Around the corner there, is a
sauna
!”

              She tossed her arms around the two of us while I returned her embrace. Though all of us looked much more mature than we did four years earlier in high school, things started to feel like old times. It was great to have the three of us back together again, especially to keep my mind off of Walker.

              “Hi!” said the naked blonde in the mirror. “I’m Leslie, Mairead’s roommate from college.”

              “Sorry, Les,” Mairead said as she pulled away from us. “I was just so excited to see them, I should have introduced you first.”

              “No worries!” squeaked Leslie.

              “How are you guys here already?” Penny asked flatly as the blonde continue to curl her hair in the mirror.

              “Leslie got us here a couple of hours ahead of schedule,” Mairead said. “Luckily, they let us have a key from the front desk since you put my name on the reservation.”

              “Right,” Penny said as she looked at the floor in disgust. It seemed as though she had regretted doing so. “And I see that you guys have helped yourselves to the master suite.”

              “Sorry!” Leslie called from the bathroom. “Those thongs and bras are mine. Still debating which one to wear later this evening for the nude stuff.”

              “That was supposed to be a surprise!” Penny exclaimed as she stamped her foot.

              “Oh,” Leslie said as she turned toward us while looking like a deer caught in headlights. “Sorry.”

              “What are we doing?” Mairead asked with a big grin on her face.

              “I got us tickets to the Aussie-Man Review,” Penny said as she reached into her purse and pulled out four white tickets. I had nearly forgotten that Penny lined up a series of things for us to do over the next couple of days.

              “No way!” Mairead laughed as she glanced at the tickets in Penny’s hand. “You are too sweet for all of this.”

              “As long as the four of us stick together,” Penny said. “Then I’m totally fine with whatever.”

              “About that…” Mairead said while looking a little nervous.

              “What is it?” Penny demanded with a scowl.

              “Cade decided to change his bachelor party date,” Mairead explained with a look of reluctance. “They are staying in this hotel just a few floors below us.”

              “You can’t be serious!” Penny screamed. I knew that this would cause a full-blown ginger meltdown, so I quickly intervened.

              “Penny, it’s fine,” I said with my hand on her forearm. “The boys will do their thing and we’ll do ours.”

              “I don’t care what we do,” Leslie said as she stepped from the bathroom. “I just wanna see come cock tonight.”

              We spent the next hour getting ready before heading down to the lobby for our limo ride to the show. I wore a little black dress and the sash that Penny forced on me in the airport. I put it on without asking, in an attempt to cheer her up. Though I could see the scowl was still present on her face, a lightness started to take over as soon as we hit the warm night air on Las Vegas strip.

              “Do we have champagne?” Leslie asked the driver as soon as she was let into the limousine.

              “Of course, miss,” he said while gesturing to the bottle in front of us. “Would you like me to pour you some?” However, by the time he had finished his sentence, a cork made a loud popping sound and bubbles began pouring all over the seat.

              “Sorry,” Leslie squinted while trying to stop the flow with the palm of her hand. “I always forget that happens with champagne.”

              After we climbed out of the limo, and then we were escorted to the show. A long line of ladies poured into the venue. We followed behind with Mairead in the front with her gifted sparkling tiara seemed to glimmer even in the dark theater.

              “We’re
so
close!” Mairead said as she hugged Penny. We were seated at a swanky dinner table that was just feet from the stage. A shirtless waiter in black dress pants and a bow tie approached our table. He was extremely handsome with perfectly trimmed dark brown hair and thick lashed, almond-shaped eyes.

              “Hello, ladies,” he greeted with a bright, white smile. “My name is Calvin and I’ll be your service this evening. Is there anything that I can get you?”

              “We’ll have a bottle of Rosé,” Penny said.

              “And I’ll have a bottle of Calvin,” Leslie moaned as she raced her hands down the waiter’s abdominals.

              “Coming right up,” Calvin said as he winked at Leslie.

              “I think I’m wet already!” she exclaimed. I looked over at Penny, who furiously rolled her eyes at the blonde.

              Ten minutes later, with our wine glasses full, the show started on the stage. A review of well-built Australian men swept the stage. They danced to the songs we loved in high school as they stripped down to their thongs and g-strings.

              The show made a turning point about forty-five minutes in when an extremely muscular dancer took to the stage. His skin had an even tan, and he was wearing a leopard print loin clothing.

              “Alright, ladies!” he announced as the crowd went wild. “We have many of you here who are celebrating tonight. However, this show we have someone who is marrying her high school sweetheart.”

              Suddenly, a spotlight was glowing on Mairead. She threw her hands in the air as the dancer made his way down the stage steps toward our table. His hand reached downward, picked Mairead up with ease, and lifted her onto the stage.

Penny, Leslie, and myself were all screaming at the top of our lungs as a slow hip-hop song pounded the room. Mairead was thrown onto a plush red mattress where the dancer crawled on top of her. Then he began to make slow, grinding movements on her as she laughed and flailed on the floor beneath him.

When the show finished, Mairead stumbled down the stairs, nearly falling until I reached for her. Then a crowd the dancers pulled all four of us onto the stage. They were grinding their wet, muscular bodies against us as confetti was shot into the air.

By the end of the night, my jaw hurt so much from smiling that I could hardly feel my face. All of us were drunk as we stumbled out of the limousine at the steps of our hotel.

“Look at these sexy girls,” I heard a familiar voice say as we turned around. Cade was standing with another guy near the casino entrance. They were both wearing tank tops designed to look like tuxedo shirts.

“Hi, baby!” Mairead said drunkenly as she stumbled toward them.

“Woah, there!” Cade smiled as he leaned down and kissed his fiancée on the lips. “You smell like cheap wine.”

“We had
lots
of it,” she said with a giggle. Even though Mairead was drunk, seeing them together again was undeniably charming. “There were even naked men on a stage who were touching me.”

“Wait, what?” Cade laughed.

“They weren’t naked,” Leslie scoffed with her eyes squinted. She appeared to be the drunkest of us all. “I didn’t see a single fucking cock!”

“Are you drunk, too?” Cade asked me.

“A little,” I answered honestly.

“Well, keep an eye on that one,” he said playfully as he pointed at Leslie.

“I’m calling Calvin!” Leslie screamed as she searched in her purse for her phone. “A stripper gave me his number!”

“Let’s go inside,” Cade suggested. “The other guys are playing blackjack.”

We made our way inside of the sliding door panels when I saw two other guys in matching tuxedo tanks walking toward us in the room. One of them was so familiar that he caused my entire body to tense. Suddenly, I felt as though I hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol in years.

He was just as tall as I remembered, but much more muscular. His tank top only made him look more ripped, but his styled hair and light scruff on his face made him
delicious
. My heart pounded as I met the handsome and grown up face of my high school crush, Allen Dunbar.