Page 78 of Slumming It

Her words trailed off into silence when Reese turned to me and said, "I'm bored. Let's go someplace better."

Morgan made a sound of protest. "But thereisno better place, not around here."

"This place?" Reese glanced around. "It's a real shithole if you ask me."

Morgan's jaw dropped. "You're joking, right?"

Funny, he'd calledmyplace a shithole, too. At the time, I'd been just as offended, but not nearly as surprised. From the look on Morgan's face, this was probably the first time in her whole life that anyone had challenged the supremacy of anything associated with the Diamond Resort.

"No joke," Reese replied. "I don’t care how fancy you think this place is – it's a shithole if you're disrespectingmyVIP."

It took me a moment to realize he was talking about me. Yes, I understood it was part of some act, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that it made my knees feel just a little wobbly as I imagined being his VIP for real.

Across from us, Morgan looked thunderstruck, and I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. She wanted to tell him to shove it.Andshe wanted to suck his cock. I meant that literally, considering how her hungry gaze had been dipping to his pelvis ever since he'd shown up.

Unless his fly was open – which it wasn't – there had been no reason on Earth for her to be giving that area so much attention.

Finally, she looked to me and blurted out, "Okay, fine. How can I make things right?"

I froze in sudden shock. If I'd been smarter, I would've had an answer already prepared. But in my wildest dreams, I never expected her to actually ask the question. After a long, panicked pause, I stammered out the obvious reply. "I guess you could apologize."

Good answer, right?But when I looked to Reese Murdock for confirmation, he looked decidedly underwhelmed, as if I should've asked for something else.But what?

Free drinks?

A formal letter?

What was I missing?

But already, Morgan was saying in a voice lacking any semblance of sincerity, "Fine. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding." And with that, she returned her attention to Reese. "There." She visibly brightened. "So, are we good?"

He didn't hesitate. "No."

Morgan frowned. "What do you mean no?"

Next to her, Nikki said, "I think he wants you to do it better – you know, kiss her ass."

Morgan's mouth twisted into a grimace. "Well I'm not going to."

Reese said, "That's too bad."

Morgan looked confused. "Why?"

"Because," Reese said, "if you'd done it better, we might've let you sit at our table."

I tried not to laugh. Technically, every table in the whole place belonged to Morgan's family, but I knew what he meant. He was offering Morgan the chance to join him in a public setting, where lots of people were already watching.

It was true that nobody could hear our conversation over the music, but this wasn't stopping them from looking. Even though most of the cellphones had disappeared back into pockets and purses, there were still quite a few screens trained in our direction.

I watched with stupid fascination as Morgan licked her lips as if they'd gone suddenly dry.

Next to her, Nikki looked to Reese with eager eyes. "Does the offer go for me, too?"

With a half shrug, he replied, "Sure, why not?"

Nikki looked to me and said, "I'm sorry Morgan was rude."

And here I thought Morgan's apology was bad. I opened my mouth to reply, but shut it again when I realized I had nothing coherent to say.