"Wow. And what's this opportunity?" she asks.
I look into her beautiful eyes. "You, this, us." She laughs, thinking I'm joking, but I'm not. "If you knew me better, you would realize how fucking serious I am." She shakes her head, heat rising to her cheeks. "Am I embarrassing you?" I ask.
She shrugs. "I feel like maybe you should be, but you're not. I like how you talk. It's direct, to the point." She licks her lips again. "You don't beat around the bush."
"No point in that," I say. "Life's too short to waste it not asking for what you want."
Fifi pulls in a sharp breath. "And Flynn, what is it that you want?"
I lift an eyebrow. "You." I say unabashedly, without hesitation. "I want you, Fifi, I want you now."
4
Fiona
There were a few times in life I almost lost my virginity. My prom date was an option, but he passed out before we even got to the hotel. And there was the surfer in Barcelona the summer after sophomore year. He was so charming until he spoke, which posed a problem. A big problem, really.
I was never the settling type anyways. So even if we had passed second and third base, rounding towards home, I don't think I would have been able to give myself over to the moment and seal the deal.
Those guys were fun and cute to some degree, but they weren't men. They were not Flynn.
And now standing in this pool, Lucia calling us over, handing us beer and a fresh piña colada, I consider Flynn's words. Lucia sits down on the edge of the pool, her feet in the water, smiling gregariously, bubbly. I love her.
She's good at making conversation. Usually it's not my strongest suit. I get a little shy or nervous around men because I don't have a lot of experience with them. Lucia though, she is familiar. If it's okay to say such a thing, she likes to date and she's good at it. Me, I'm one of those girls who could star in a romantic comedy, Never Been Kissed, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, something like that.
Anyways, now she's asking Flynn all sorts of things, but I can't even let my mind still for a moment to listen to his answers. Where do you live? What's your place like? How long have you been a bodyguard? Favorite movie? Favorite color?
My mind is spinning, not with his answers, with her questions, but with his statement—"I want you."
He wants me. And I want him too. I swallow, looking over at him, realizing this piña colada couldn't have come at a better time.
Straw between my lips, I suck it down. It's cold and it fills my belly in the perfect kind of way. Numbing, making me forget what's actually happening. A proposition, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the kind of thing I've been waiting twenty-one years for, and now it's here.
God, my father would kill me if he knew I was even entertaining such a thing. I'm his little princess, but Daddy's not here right now. And I'm a grown ass woman. Today I made a decision all on my own. I told my father what I wanted and look what it got me.
Maybe saying what I need isn't the dumbest idea. Maybe, actually, it's the best thing to do, to stop holding back, to stop waiting. I said I wasn't going to keep going to college if I didn't want to, but maybe the same thing rings true here.
Why hold onto my virginity if the man I want to take it is standing right in front of me? After all, who knows how long the offer stands?
No one stays in Vegas for long, except for my father. And I suppose Lucia and her family, and the O'Malley's. Okay. So a lot of people stick around in Vegas, but not me. I live for saltwater and the ocean breeze. I was made for sand between my toes and that dog, I want a dog.
"What?" Flynn asks, as if reading my mind, knowing that I'm thinking something.
"Nothing," I say, taking another sip. "Okay, actually, I was just thinking about how I really want a dog. I like to work out and I run on the beach, but I was thinking, wouldn't it be nice to run on the beach with a dog?"
Lucia laughs. "That's so random. Where do you even come up with things like this?"
"Like what?" I ask. "Isn't a dog the most American thing ever? Having a dog, and a backyard, and a picket fence."
"You want a picket fence too?" Lucia asks. "What happened to my best friend?"
I laugh. "I don't know." I look at Flynn. "I feel dizzy."
"Dizzy like overheated?" he asks, wrapping an arm around me.
I smile. Okay. So maybe I wanted that to happen. "No," I say dreamily. "Dizzy like happy. Like maybe this is going to be a really good night."