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Before: No Geishas


Ashley


I've never been a huge fan of Las Vegas for the same reason I don't feel any real connection to Los Angeles (other than the proximity to Nick): the lights are too bright, the people are too "city", and man is there a lot of ways to get into trouble.

I texted Nick the moment I arrived at the hotel. The car service he'd hired had driven me right to the front doors of the too-tall, almost incandescent-gold building. I'm here.

k. im in penthouse a. cya up here

It was like Dorothy stepping out of the sepia tone house from Kansas into the bright colors of Munchkinland. The inside of the hotel was glitz, glamour, and girls. They were everywhere. Half of them were dressed to the nines with dresses cut both high at the bottom and low at the top and girls wearing tee shirts with Nick's face emblazoned upon them. A gaggle of them were standing around a potted plant where Nick's security guards stood in front of the elevator.

"Ashley!" one of them called, spotting me headed their direction. He waved at me and I waved back. When I got close enough, he squeezed my shoulders into a crushing hug. "How've you been? Missed ya at New Years."

"Oh you know," I shrugged.

I could feel the fans' eyes on me, boring holes. "Who's she?" one whispered.

"One of Nick's friends," another answered. But she put bunny quotes around the word friends.

"Is Nick upstairs?" I asked, trying to ignore them.

"Yes he is," he replied, and he waved me access to the elevator. I climbed aboard. And despite my usual etiquitte in such situations, when the doors were about to close, I gave the one finger salute to the bunny quotes girl.

The elevator carried me to the top of the building. When it let me off, I stood in a glamorous little hallway, facing the door of the hotel room. I parked my suitcase and stood staring at the door, preparing myself. Despite all my big plans, I knew it was gonna kill me when Nick opened the door and a dozen girls were in there. I took a deep breath as an image of Nick in a golden bath tub seething with pink foam and being fed blueberries by geishas with ferns to fan him with flit through my head.

I knocked.

The door opened. And there stood Nick, fully dressed, in a suit no less, and no geishas anywhere. "Come in," he said, stepping back and holding the door open. I stepped inside. The lighting was low, candles lined a table a couple feet away. On the table was two bottles of Molson and what looked like the best fucking Chinese food I ever saw in my life. There was a pink Carnation laying across one of the plates and a package wrapped in gold paper on the seat in front of it.

"What is this?" I asked.

"It's the pre-party," Nick replied. "The flower is to say I'm sorry, and the gift is a long overdue thank you."

"Thank you?" I asked, looking up at him, "Thank you for what?"

"For being you," he replied.

"What?" I felt my eyebrows cinch together.

"You're good to me," he said, "And I don't say that enough."

"You never say that," I said, shaking my head.

"Well I am now," he answered, "And like I said, it's long over due."

I felt my throat swelling up with emotion.

Nick rolled my suitcase in and around the corner of the doorframe. He led me to the table and swept me into the seat where the gift in the golden paper was, handing it to me with an almost half bow. I felt confused by the change since I'd seen him last, and my heart was pounding in my chest. I watched as he slid into the seat beside me, turning so that he was facing me. "Open it," he said.

With shaking hands, I reached for the corner of the paper and slowly pulled it off, revealing the single LP version of Tom Petty's Free Fallin' - my absolutely favorite song in the world. And it was autographed. I felt tears in my eyes. "Oh my God, where did you find this?"

Nick smiled, "You like it?" he asked.

"Love it," I answered, turning it over to look at the back cover.

Nick smiled, "I'm glad."

I looked up at him. "Thank you," I said thickly.

He reached over and swiped away a stray tear at the corner of my lashes. His touch made a thrill crawl down my spine. I stared into his eyes.

I put down the record on the table and I stood up. I crawled onto his lap, straddling him, and I ran my fingers through the hair at his temples, tilting his head back so that I was looking down into his face, and I leaned forward and kissed him, deep and heavy, my hands continuing on through his hair to the nape of his neck. I felt his hands land on my hips, pulling me closer, and my chest pressed against his.

"Ashley," he said, "I --"

"Shh," I said.




Nick

It was the hottest fucking thing I've ever experienced in my entire life.

I kissed her and she ran her fingers through my hair, her nails scratching my scalp. And then she ran them down my spine, sending shivers through every nerve in my body. She stood up and took off her sweater, dropping it on the floor. Her breasts weren't so flat anymore that she'd grown up, and they were cupped together in a bra that peeked it's lacey edges over the neckline of a low cut tank top she'd been wearing underneath with little flowers all over it. She smelled like honey and coconut and watched as she unbuttoned her jeans and slid out of them. Her underwear was yellow and had the Batman logo on her butt, which I saw when she turned around and motioned for me to follow her.

I did.

She led me into the bedroom, where she sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes staring up at me as she slid my suit jacket off and unbuttoned my shirt. My chest bare, she grabbed me by the belt loops and pulled me closer to her so I was standing right in front of her. She slid her fingers up my chest, hooked them over my shoulders, and pulled me down on top of her.

I felt her legs wrap around me.

I could hardly breathe, my heart was pounding in my chest so hard that I thought for sure she must hear it, like a gong going off. But if she could hear it, she didn't make a single indicatio of it. She pulled me closer and we moved our way up the bed to the pillows, where she laid back, her hair pooling around her head. I couldn't keep my hands off her another second. I cupped her chest with my hand and bent forward, smelling her skin and she kissed my forehead, and the world seemed to spin.

It was perfect. It was more perfect than I ever could've imagined it being, and it took every ounce of energy in my body to take my time and really savor her. Every smell, every taste, every feeling, I stored it all in my mind, memorizing her the way astronomers memorize the constellations and patterns in the stars and planets. My mind was blown again and again and again every time she moved. I couldn't believe that all this time, all these years I'd spent searching for women, she'd been right there beside me, all the while capable of this.

It seemed like hours. I don't know how long it really was, but when we were finished, we lay there in the bed, fit together like two puzzle pieces, the lights of Las Vegas outside the wide window, and I had my arm around her side and I fell asleep smelling her, feeling her close to me. And it was into the dark silence that filled the room, when she'd fallen asleep and was breathing rhythmically, that I whispered, "Now that deserves a follow-up."