CHAPTER NINE
Las Vegas, Nevada
KIRI WALKED OUT onto the patio of the private villa her friends had rented at one of Vegas’s most luxurious five-star resorts. It was getting too crazy inside. There was a lot of alcohol and antics, including a very dirty cake that would make her naanii blush.
Heck, it made her blush just thinking about the racy genital-shaped cake.
There were some shrieks from her friends as the bride-to-be opened up another questionable gift. Kiri chuckled and then shouted through the open window.
“You’re surgeons, you’ve seen those parts before!”
Her friends began to giggle again and Kiri just shook her head and sat down on one of the lounge chairs that overlooked the private pool and walled garden. Sandy, the bridezilla-to-be, was accusing her of being a party pooper on this bachelorette weekend and maybe she was, but she was thinking about her final residency exam that was coming up. Also, she was envious. Sandy had it all. She was getting married, she had a career and she knew Sandy and Tony wanted to start a family right away. It was everything that Kiri had always wanted.
The problem was she couldn’t find the right guy.
Once she’d thought she’d found the right guy, the only problem being she hadn’t been the right woman for him.
To get over her heartache she focused on her work. Never really cutting loose. If she couldn’t have a husband and family right now, she’d have her career.
“You’re my maid of honor, Kiri. You’re coming to Vegas, whether you like it or not!”
“Professor Vaughan is tough, Sandy. He only picks the cream of the pediatric surgery hopefuls to work with him. I have to study. Go have fun without me.”
“No, you’re coming to have fun. The last three men you went on dates with you blew off because of studying. You need to have fun every once in a while too.”
Kiri had come to Vegas, but had brought her books with her. She’d smuggled them like contraband in her luggage. She reached down and pulled out a notebook from where she’d stashed it. She flipped to where she’d left off, brought up the flashlight app on her smartphone and tried to cram like she’d never crammed before.
Except it was kind of difficult with that music blaring in the background.
Lord.
She rammed her fingers in her ears and held the book open with her elbows pressed against her lap and read until her glasses began to slide down her nose.
Blast.
She couldn’t study this way.
Her friends had already completed their exams, knew where they were going to be practicing their surgical skills. The pediatric surgical residency exams weren’t until next week. She should be back in New York and studying, not here. Of course as a maid of honor she had a bit of a duty to Sandy. And she was failing miserably. At least Sandy’s sister had picked up some slack. Like arranging this weekend.
Blast that Sandy for getting engaged to Tony and having a wedding so close to exams. Who does that?
Tony was already a surgeon and was apparently somewhere in Florida, enjoying a golf weekend. Florida was probably warmer than here. She closed her notebook and shivered in the evening chill.
“I thought Vegas was supposed to be hot,” she muttered to herself, and took a sip of her Bellini, which was a poor choice to have when she was already chilled.
“It’s the desert. At night it gets cold. So very cold.”
Kiri spun around to see who was speaking in the thick, Latin drawl that sent a shiver of something down her spine. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of the tall, muscular, Latino god who was leaning casually against the French doors. He had a dimple in his cheek as he grinned at her, perfect white teeth and those dark eyes sparkled in the light that shone out through the doors, promising something sinfully delicious.
“P-pardon?” Kiri said, pushing up her dark-framed glasses, which had slid down her nose again and were beginning to fog up. She cursed herself inwardly for forgetting her contact lenses in New York.
“The desert. It’s very hot during the day, but at night it’s muy frio. It’s cold.”
“Who are you?” she asked.
A lazy grin spread across his face. “Your friends sent me out here to lighten your mood. They said you’ve been a bit of a party pooper this weekend and you need to loosen up.”
Oh. My. God.
She glanced over his shoulder and could see another group of bronzed muscular gods dancing to music while her friends cheered them on. This was the “entertainment” Sandy had been talking about. Male exotic dancers.
Apparently the best that Vegas had to offer.
Heat flushed in her cheeks as he took a step closer to her. He took her hand and led her into the room, sitting her down on the couch.
“Why don’t you sit back, mi tesoro?” he whispered in that honeyed drawl against her ear that made her forget that she was always just a bit awkward around men. “Let me take care of you.”
“Um...” A million thoughts were racing through her mind, but then all those thoughts melted into a pile of goo as he pushed her back against the cushions.
A familiar song that she’d heard so many times when she’d been young came across the stereo system. The kind her and her high-school friends had giggled at but which the school would never play at a dance.
Sandy and her friends began to shriek as the group of exotic dancers began to move together in a choreographed, erotic dance.
And as that Latino god began to move, his hips rolling, she suddenly understood why they didn’t play that song at high-school dances. Why her parents hated that song. As she sat there on the couch, her friends screaming around her and that gorgeous specimen of a man’s dark eyes locked on her, only her, he grinned at her, as if knowing she was completely aroused by him. He rolled his hips and peeled
