Page 33 of The Girlfriend Card (Vegas Sin #4)

Dream Girl

Dakota

S hortly after, Ottavia fell asleep with me spooning her from behind. I probably could’ve fallen asleep, too—that was usually what I did after I banged a girl, after all: I rolled over and zonked out.

But with Ottavia, it was different. I didn’t feel like we’d banged so much as we’d made love.

Made love? I caught myself, silently chuckling. Are you going crazy, bro?

I didn’t know what to make of these feelings—but I also didn’t have to figure them out right now.

I scooted closer and squeezed her gently, careful not to wake her.

She gave a sleepy little moan in response and wiggled, pressing her body tighter against mine.

I loved the way her body fit so perfectly into mine.

Hell, I loved simply lying there and listening to the rise and fall of her breath.

She seemed so peaceful, I was filled with a sense of calm, of belonging.

It was sometime around then, with Ottavia sleeping in my arms, that I realized I never wanted to let her go.

I’d never felt that way about a woman before.

And I really wish I could say that it was a good feeling—and sure, that realization put a fuzzy warmth in my churning heart.

But it was a bittersweet feeling, too. Because I knew how these next few weeks or months of my life were going to go: I was going to continue to fall for this girl, until she broke things off, because she had to.

She had too much at stake. Hell, so did I.

Our circumstances would never allow us to be together.

But for now, at least?

I squeezed her tighter, wishing this moment could last forever.

A little while later, she woke with a startled gasp. “Mmm?” She rolled over and blinked at me, surprise on her sleepy face. “Oh, wow, I passed out. How long was I out for?”

“Not long. Twenty minutes or so.”

“And you spooned me the whole time?” she asked, her smile reaching her eyes.

I nodded bashfully. “Ha … yeah, I guess I did.”

“Aw. No wonder I got so comfy.” She traced her fingers along my jawline, her touch delicately grazing my stubble. “You’re a sweetie, Dakota.”

Our eyes remained locked, in a deep and unbroken connection, and I felt the intricacies of our souls beginning to unravel. An air of vulnerability settled between us, the air pregnant with unspoken truths.

“Can I ask you a personal question, Ottavia?”

“Sure.”

“Why did you wait so long?” The question slipped from my lips with a genuine curiosity and desire to better understand her.

“Well, first of all, I never intended to wait,” she began, a wistful note in her voice. “Growing up, I always thought Leo would be my first … and only , honestly. But you already know that story.”

“Hold up.” I had some new information since she told me her backstory with Leo—information that didn’t exactly fit what I now knew. “You and Leo started dating when you were fourteen, right?”

“Yup.”

“And you dated until you were how old?”

“Seventeen.”

“ Seventeen, ” I repeated, surprised. “But nothing physical ever happened?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say nothing,” she demurred.

“But no oral and no sex?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Were you two waiting for marriage, then?”

“No …” she hesitated. “Obviously, we talked about marriage, but we never had any discussions about waiting to have sex, no.”

My eyes narrowed. Something seemed off.

“Ottavia?” I asked innocently.

“Yes?”

“Do you know what your life would’ve been like if I’d met you when we were teens?”

Before she could answer, I attached myself to her hip, growling like a wild dog as I playfully humped her thigh. “Hngh! Hnggh! Hngh!”

“Oh my goodness! Bad! Naughty dog! Stop it!” Squealing with laughter, she shoved me off and bopped the top of my head.

“My point is,” I began, grinning, “at that age, I would not have left you alone, Ottavia.”

“Don’t worry. I fully believe it.”

Curiosity burned within me. “So what’s the real reason? You said you thought you and Leo were in love. But you weren’t saving yourselves—then what you were waiting for?”

“I don’t know …” she murmured, her voice trailing off. Her hesitation told me she did know—she just didn’t want to say.

I started to have an inkling of what it might be, so I blurted it out. “Is Leo into guys?”

Her eyes widened with alarm. “How did you—er—I didn’t say that!”

“No, I said it.” I pressed, sensing I was on the right path. “It’s true, right?”

Her stern gaze held mine, but after a lengthy pause, her facade broke and she let out a resigned sigh. “Dakota, please promise me you won’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t tell anybody,” I assured her, “but it’s also pretty obvious.”

“It wasn’t to him.”

“Sure, not at the time.” I paused. “Then again, if you’re a horny teenage male, and your girlfriend is a smokin’ hot, bombshell Italian billionaire, and you aren’t constantly rock hard and leaking cum every minute you’re together—”

“ Ew , Dakota!”

“Sorry.” I cracked a grin. “My point is, if he wasn’t attracted to you, he probably figured it out pretty quickly.”

“Well, maybe he did figure it out quickly,” she grumbled. “But we still dated for three years, and I had no idea until the very end.”

“I’m sorry.” I frowned and held her close. “How’d you find out?”

“I guess he’d been wrestling with it for some time, but he finally told me because I’d started acting a little crazy.”

“How so?”

“Well, when we first started dating—like I said, we’d experiment some—but Leo never pushed for more. Which was great, at first, because I wanted to take things slow. But after a while?” She cracked a smile. “Well, I was that horny dog humping his leg.”

She grabbed hold of me and gave my thigh a couple humps before we both exploded into laughter.

“So you were trying to get railed, and he kept turning you down?” I asked, amused.

“He was the master of artfully declining my advances, and then diverting the conversation elsewhere,” she said, beaming.

“And it worked for a really long time. But like I said, as time went on, I started to go crazy. None of my friends were virgins anymore; hell, by our senior year, they’d fallen in and out of love with several boyfriends.

I started to think he wasn’t attracted to me, or maybe he was cheating on me.

I became more and more desperate to be intimate with him, but that only drove him away further. It sucked for both of us.”

I gently caressed her soft cheek. “You poor thing. That must’ve been really confusing and painful.”

“It was so confusing,” she said. “Which is why it got to the point that Leo finally sat me down and told me that he’d been struggling with his sexuality for a while but he now knew he was attracted to men.”

“Okay, but wait. If he’s not even into women, doesn’t that get you out of the arranged marriage?”

“Yeah, right.” She tutted. “If anything, it’s the opposite. It makes the arranged marriage even more necessary.”

“What?! How?!”

“It’s his secret, Dakota, and he doesn’t want anyone to know. Remember, his dad is a Senator who’s running for President.”

“And that’s what you meant when you said Leo has his own reasons,” I grumbled, piecing the rest of her story together. “Does his dad know?”

She shook her head.

“So I guess your dad doesn’t know then, either.”

“No. I’m the only person he’s told. Which is why you have to promise me you won’t tell anyone.”

“Damn,” I hissed. “I promise.” A lull came between us as I tried to wrap my brain around her story. “So what happened after he told you? Did you break up?”

“Our romantic relationship ended, yes.”

“But not the fake one.”

“Not the fake one,” she said, a tinge of shame in her voice. “But my trust fund is on the line, Dakota. And so is Leo’s political career. Hell, maybe his dad’s, too.”

“But how would his secret hurt his political ambitions? Hell, it might even help .”

“I’ve tried telling him that, too. But Leo says he won’t be used as a political prop.”

“He’s got no such problem using you as a political prop, though, huh?”

She grimaced. “I never thought of it like that before.” With a shake of her head, she banished her frown. “Regardless, it’s not up to me to tell anyone. It’s up to Leo. And all I’m doing is what’s right for my future.”

“I get it,” I grumbled. “It just … wow, it really sucks.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said.

“But that’s why you’re allowed to see other people, huh?”

She nodded. “We have two rules: keep it secret, and don’t bring anyone home. Which is why Leo was pissed when he caught me with you, because I broke the second rule.”

I grumbled. I hated hearing about her arrangement with Leo. Hell, I hated thinking about it. It made me feel so powerless. It made our connection feel so pointless and futile. I could only imagine how weak it made her feel in her own life. I badly needed to change the subject.

“Okay. So you can officially date and fuck other people. Yet you remained a virgin, even after you went to college? How’d that happen?”

She chuckled and blew out a gust of air. “Y’know, when I shipped off to college, I thought it’d happen right away—because that’s what happens at college, right? Everyone’s partying and hooking up every weekend! But word quickly spread about me. And the boys seemed, I dunno, afraid of me?”

“Why, because you have money?”

“I think that’s definitely a big part of it. I don’t know if they were intimidated or had crazy expectations or what—but they almost never approached me.”

“That’s fucking wild.”

“Oh, and on the rare occasion they did approach me, it was almost always because they don’t know who I am. As soon as they find out, poof, gone, that’s the end of that.”

“If I was some broke college kid, I wouldn’t give a damn if you were rich. Hell, I’d ask you to be my sugar mama.”

“Yeah, but you’re clearly a different breed, Dakota,” she said with a laugh. “I think there’s another reason they’re afraid of me, too.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, there’s this pernicious rumor floating around that I’m the daughter of a mafioso …” she trailed off, a wily sparkle in her eye.