Crashed

“Well hot damn!” she says, slapping my thigh. “That’s my girl talking!”

We laugh together and try to figure out what the next clue at the hotel is going to be until she pulls up into the valet circle. “I’m assuming I’ll be right back,” I tell her as I climb out and jog into the lobby before I suddenly stop. I just can’t go up to the Penthouse and knock on the door.

I head over to the front desk and when I approach, a woman eyes me up and down. “Ms. Thomas, I presume?”

“Yes …” I reply, a little astounded she knows who I am.

“This way please,” she says, leading me to a private elevator on the side of the lobby. She takes out a key card and presses it to the scanner causing the door to open. “There you go,” she says, her stoicism breaking as she grins broadly at me before walking back to her desk.

“Thank you,” I call out to her before stepping in. The familiar décor inside the car causes memories to flood back from our first time, my nerves heighten from the dark promise of the words Colton said to me as we made the same ascent in a different elevator. The car dings when I reach the top floor and I exit, unable to fight my smirk over the desperation-filled, clumsy exit we made that night.

I knock on the Penthouse door and hear a giggle from behind it as the knob starts to turn. Zander opens the door with Avery standing behind them, both have beaming smiles as they look at me. And the carefree giggle that falls from Zander’s mouth warms my overflowing heart even more.

“Hi, guys! Let me guess, you have a clue for me?”

Zander nods his head frantically as he looks over at Avery to see if it’s okay to give me what’s in his hands.

“Hey, Rylee.”

“Hi!”

“Okay, our clue is, what one word first comes to your mind when you see what Zander has?”

I look down as Zander produces a small black box from behind his back and holds it out to me. I look down at it, as perplexed as the look on Avery’s face, until Zander flips it over.

And then I laugh.

The box contains a fire engine red pocket square for a tuxedo. My senses are suddenly assaulted with every sensation Colton evoked from me in the limo that night, when we were overdressed and underdressed. But that can’t be the answer because that’s two words. “Anticipation!” I almost shout when the word hits me like lightning, images of that more than memorable evening flashing through my mind.

“Bingo!” Avery cries out as Zander hops up and down.

“Good job, Ry!” he says as he holds out another box and envelope to me. I look at him with a furrowed brow that has him giggling again before I take it from him.

“This is for me?” I ask him.

“Uh-huh!” he says, nodding his head.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes! Just open it!” he says with amused exasperation.

I slide my finger across the envelope and smile before I even know what it says because I know Colton’s words are going to touch me.

Ry- I always knew you were different than the others … but this is the night you became my checkered flag. Without a doubt. Here’s to the night I knew the one thing I never wanted, I’d fight like hell to keep. Go where you first became familiar with the object in the box. – C

I cautiously open it and roll my eyes and shake my head when I see a scale model of a red F12 Ferrari. I know exactly where I’m going next because that night is most definitely one I’ll never forget.

I say my goodbyes and vibrate with anticipation as I ride the elevator down to the lobby and hurry past a smirking hostess at the front desk and out to the car. I slide in and tell Haddie about the clue and laugh when she shakes her head as she drives the few blocks to the hotel where the other gala I attended with Colton is.

I direct her to drive to the top floor of the parking garage and instinctively suck in a breath when Sex comes into view. Images and emotions fill me and I don’t even try to stifle the sigh they evoke in me.

“Damn that car is like a fucking visual orgasm,” she says with a hum of appreciation.

“You have no idea,” I drawl then whistle and am left blushing as I slide out and walk the short distance to its isolated spot in the garage. As I get closer I see a figure behind one of the columns beside the car and my heart leaps in my throat. I hope it’s Colton. I’ve had enough of memory lane, and as much as I love this right now, I just want him. Desperately.

I laugh as Beckett steps out, a shit-eating grin spread wide across his handsome face. He looks over my shoulder at Haddie and nods his head subtly at her, his grin softening to a smolder that has my curiosity piqued, but my attention is diverted quickly when Becks talks.

“Well, I’m not sure what you’ve done to my man,” he says, giving me a quick hug, “since his balls seem to have retracted, judging by this overt display, but fuck if I don’t love it!”

“I’m sure you’re giving him tons of shit,” I tell him, and he just angles his head and looks at me for a second, a softness settling over his features.

“It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him,” he says with a nod.

And before I even think of what I’m saying, the words are out of my mouth. “But why do you think that is?” I ask.

He just laughs that low chuckle of his and holds out a white plastic bag with humor in his eyes. I take the bag from him and look into it. It takes my mind a moment to figure out what I’m looking at. “Because I’m the whole alphabet,” I whisper as I gaze at the plastic preschool letters.