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I WAS BECOMING TOO sensitive. I shouldn’t have cared that he hadn’t cuddled beside me, that he’d taken his space as far to the other side of the gargantuan bed as he possibly could. Maybe I was overthinking it, but I soon found my mind fixating on it. After leaving the party last night, we’d had fun in the vintage car showroom, and made our way back to the luxurious room. We then had a heated and frenzied roll in the sack, me on my knees, him behind me pulling my hair and punishing my backside with delicious stinging slaps, until we both collapsed, out of breath and sated. It was superhot—but it had also been superfast, and wasn’t as intense as it had been in the past. I had stared at Tyler’s naked sculpted back lying a million miles away, and had hoped I hadn’t been reading into something that wasn’t there. It had taken me a good, long while to get to sleep because I had been dwelling on it. And it was a fitful sleep when it finally did happen.
When Tyler woke me with a jangle of keys the next morning and gave me a kiss that lacked the usual warmth, the tightening in my belly told me that we were beginning the end of our wild ride. He was distancing himself. Girls like me weren’t stupid; we were keen to that sort of thing.
He’d deny it if I called him on it, though, and it would be ridiculous even if I did so this soon into our connection, but that was exactly what he was doing.
“I’ll be back after the check-in. We can have breakfast before the preliminary races. You don’t have to attend those.”
“I don’t mind going.” I frowned, not liking the look in his eyes or the tone in his voice.
I noticed him bristle, and then fidget with the keys in his hand. “You’d be bored. Go down to the wave pools, instead. You’ll love those. Very extravagant and relaxing.”
“I’m not in the mood for the wave pool, Tyler, I’d rather—”
His gaze flicked up to meet mine, and I internally flinched at the burning I saw there. It wasn’t the same type of burning I’d seen yesterday when we’d been tangled up in each other, heated and breathless. There was a hint of annoyance—or was that disdain? What the hell was going on?
“You came here to have fun, right?” he asked on his way to the door, acting now as if I was making him late.
“Yes, with you,” I replied, getting frustrated.
“We’ve spending plenty of time together, don’t you think?” With his hand on the doorknob, he turned and looked at me. “I can’t spent every second with you, Charlyse. I’m here on business.”
Asshole. Why was he talking to me like I was some simple trick he’d picked up at a bar?
“Tyler, I wasn't asking to spend every second...” I bit back against the anger stirring in my gut and took a deep breath. “Look, Vegas just isn’t the same alone.”
“And we did have some fun, didn’t we?” he asked, now sounding more impatient than ever.
“Yeah, so, I’m only entitled to a little bit of fun? I came here with you because—”
He cut me off. “Well, you’re sounding a little... clingy. It’s taking the fun out of this trip. Why don’t you just go get a facial or something, do some shopping, and maybe hit the pool? Or go see the volcano. Just don’t wait around. I don’t know what time I’ll be back.”
“But you just said—”
Adjusting his cufflinks, he pulled his sunglasses from his pocket and said, “I gotta go. I’ll leave a ticket in your name at the booth so you can see the race.”
I cringed at the click of the door closing, and I had to bite back the tears of rejection welling up in me. What in the hell just happened?
I knew I hadn’t been... “clingy.” I’ve seen clingy. It was how Alyssa was to Colton when she wasn’t interested in some other dude at that moment. And I was nothing like her. How dare he use such a word! I was his guest. He was the one who insisted I come in the first place.
“Dammit!” Banging my fist on the bed, I fought to keep from crying. I refused to cry over this shit. Tyler Dalton was just another fucking asshole, just like all the rest. I didn’t know exactly when it had happened, or what I did to turn him off, but between last night and this morning, he’d decided he was bored with me, and he’d probably been waiting for the exact moment he could dump me on the sidewalk like old trash.
Why did I open to him so soon? I knew better. This was high school bullshit all over again. Guys would act interested, but they really wanted nothing more than another notch on their bedpost. Guys like Tyler really weren’t interested in girls like me, a chunky mechanic from Austin. God, I promised myself I wouldn’t walk into egomaniacal traps like this one. Yet, here I was, sitting at the edge of a king-sized bed in the penthouse of the fucking Mirage, holding my heart in my hand, determined not to shed a single tear, even if it made me sick holding it in.
Fuck this. I’m outta here. I got on my phone and booked myself a plane ticket back to Austin. I had really wanted to watch that race, but I couldn’t stay here. I felt like I was suffocating in regret and rejection. I’ll come here with Colton next year. Not a big deal. To hell with assholes crippled by commitment issues.
I could do better.
Throwing on some clothes, I quickly brushed my teeth and went down to the hotel’s gift shop and bought myself a small rolling suitcase to take my meager belongings home in.
After packing up, I took one last look around the once-beautiful suite that looked so ugly to me now. Tears threatened at the edge of my lashes as I looked at the bed covers we’d annihilated last night and sucked in a deep breath. No tears. It was just sex, Charlyse. Time to go home.
With a resigned sigh, I grabbed the suitcase and rolled it out the door. I was in no mood for the friendly, chatty elevator assistant, but he was kind enough to walk me to the entrance and put me into a waiting taxi, telling the driver my airport destination.
Bye, Vegas.