Page 75 of Firefly Embers

Both of us walked in companionable silence, letting our ears readjust to normal levels of hearing. As we stumbled down the sidewalk, both of us drunk enough to be feeling good, but neither drunk enough to make shitty decisions, we came to the heavy wooden doors of the cowboy bar.

The place was packed with cowboys and cowgirls, everyone wearing some form of hat and boots. It was definitely more our speed.

The bouncer at the door checked our IDs, scrutinizing Ray’s a little longer than mine as if she were freshly twenty-one. After verifying we were of age, he ushered us inside.

The bar couldn’t have been more stereotypical country, with its steer skulls, cowhide pool tables, lasso-wrapped bar stools, and Hank Williams on the old-school jukebox in the back corner. We made our way through the crowd, heading toward the bar to snag drinks.

I signaled the bartender, ordering both of us a whiskey shot and a beer. After all, whiskey before beer, you’re in the clear. The volume was less oppressive as we each grabbed our shot glasses, ready to cheers.

“Cheers to the heat! Not the kind that brings down shacks and shanties, but to the kind that brings down panties,” I yelled, earning a chorus of cheers and clinking glasses as all those within earshot toasted along with us.

I tapped my small shot glass to Ray’s as she laughed loudly. I smiled at the warmth that bloomed in my chest at the sound.

Fuck, I needed to get laid.

The sunlight was relentless as it blasted through the curtains I’d apparently forgotten to close the night before. Rolling over with a groan, my hand met the warm softness of another body, and I froze.

I’d had my share of one-night stands over the years. I’d taken many buckle bunnies back to my hotel rooms.

Never in my entire life had I let one sleep over. That crossed a line into something more than just sex, and it was a hard line in the sand for me.

Refusing to open my eyes, I lay perfectly still, hoping I was imagining the feeling of a woman’s body next to mine. I hoped and prayed I hadn’t made a huge mistake, and that it was Ray sleeping next to me.

That would have been a bigger can of worms to open that I didn’t feel like dealing with, especially with how shitty I felt due to the obnoxious amount of whiskey I drank.

“Good morning, stud,” the woman purred, rolling over and scratching her long nails along my chest. She nuzzled up close to me, and I could smell the sickly-sweet scent of too much perfume mixed with an insane amount of hairspray.

“Uh, mornin’,” I mumbled back.

“What a wild night. You’re quite the stallion,” she teased as she ran one of her long nails over my nipple, causing a pained hiss to escape my lips.

“Yeah, wild night, um, excuse me, I’ve gotta take a piss.” I fumbled out of the bed, snagging my phone from where I’d thrown it haphazardly on the nightstand, sending up a silent prayer that there was enough charge to send out an SOS text.

Slamming the door to the bathroom behind me, I unlocked my phone and pulled up the contact for the one person I could trust to get me out of a shitty situation, no questions asked.

The dial tone rang once, twice. “Fuck, Wade. How much did we drink last night? I feel like I got hit by a truck. Izzy didn’t even make it back to the room. She sent me a text letting me know she’d met someone at the rodeo and would meet up with us later before the events.”

A sigh of relief flowed past my lips at hearing Ray’s voice on the other end of the line. “Sunshine, I need your help.”

“Are you okay?” I could hear the frantic edge to her voice and the rustling of sheets on the other end.

I willed my mind to avoid conjuring images of Ray, half naked in her bed, hair mussed and hungover. Unfortunately, Las Vegas luck clearly wasn’t on my side because my dick was rock hard beneath my briefs.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said quickly. “I fucked up.”

“Wade, you’re scaring me,” she said softly.

“Apparently, I took a girl home last night. I normally don’t let women stay the night, but I must have been seriously fucked up. I don’t remember much after dancing at the cowboy bar on the strip and then walking you back to your room. I must have gone back out and ended up bringing someone back with me.” I groaned as the fluorescent lights of the bathroom assaulted my senses when I flicked the switch to get a look at myself.

There were claw marks down my chest and back, clearly from the woman’s talons that she called nails. I had a giant purple hickey on the right side of my neck, and lipstick smeared all over my face. I looked like a rodeo clown who had gotten in a fight with a bobcat.

“And how do you want me to help?” she asked pointedly, clearly irritated at my lack of responsibility.

“I don’t know! Come up with something! Please,” I begged.

Her sigh of frustration was followed by the clanging of a belt buckle as I assumed she was putting her clothes on. I willed my dick to stand down as she rustled around on the other end of the line.

“Give me five minutes, and somehow slide one of the room keys under the door.”