Page 59 of Bound To Be Mine

“That tracks,” Briggs said.

“Hey,” I said.

“Am I wrong?”

I thought about it for a second. “No,” I admitted. “That does sound like me.”

“Can you take us back there?” Briggs asked.

I grinned up at him. He was on board with my plan.

“Sure can,” Gary said. “Be about fifteen minutes.”

Fifteen minutes that I got to snuggle against my husband.

I watched the lights of the Strip blur past. I was hyperaware of every point of contact between us. His hand on my arm. My shoulder pressed against his chest. The way his thumb had started absently moving back and forth across my sleeve. I didn’t think he even knew he was doing it.

I needed to say something before I did something stupid like turn my face into his neck.

“Can I ask you something?” I said, tilting my head to look up at him.

He glanced down at me. “That depends on what you’re asking.”

“The song. Use Somebody. Why is it one of your favorites?”

He was quiet for a long moment. I thought maybe he wasn’t going to answer.

“It’s something I can relate to,” he said finally, his voice low enough that Gary couldn’t hear from his perch at the front. “The lyrics. The feeling behind it.”

“What feeling?”

He looked away from me. “Isolation despite success. Being surrounded by people but not really connecting with any of them. No one really knowing you.”

I hadn’t expected that level of honesty. I stayed quiet, giving him the chance to continue if he wanted to.

“I’ve spent most of my adult life being what everyone needed me to be,” he went on. “The responsible one. The lawyer who fixes problems. Adrian’s right hand. My brothers’ safety net. I’m good at it. But somewhere along the way, I stopped being just me. If there even is a ‘me’ underneath all that.”

I understood that feeling more than I wanted to admit. The pressure to maintain a certain image. To never let anyone see the cracks.

“You know what’s funny?” I said. “I watched those videos today, and I kept thinking—who is that guy? The guy in those videos looked free.”

“He was drunk,” Briggs said.

“Maybe. But drunk people don’t become entirely different humans. Drunk words are honest words.”

A slow smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Is that what you think happened that night? My inner playboy came out to play.”

“I think we both got so drunk we forgot we were supposed to be anything other than two people enjoying each other’s company. And we had fun. A lot of fun.”

A shriek stopped our conversation. I looked over and saw a woman who had tripped on the sidewalk, skirt up and her friends all laughing.

“Vegas, baby,” Briggs said with a laugh.

The night was perfect. Beautiful. And yes, I was a little warm, but I wasn’t about to move. I was just fine right where I was.

“Here we are,” Gary said, pulling gently on the reins. The horses slowed. “New York New York. You’ll get a good view of the Sphere from up there.”

The carriage rolled to a gentle stop. Above us, I could hear the distant mechanical shriek of the roller coaster.