One Night Bride by Marika Ray
1
Esme
“I swear to God, Esme, if you pack a single pant suit in that suitcase, I will start a bonfire and burn every one you own.”
I shook my head, but my little sister, Vee, couldn’t see the movement through the phone. “Take your anger offline, sis.”
Her snort of a reply came through loud and clear. “Seriously, I’m on my way over right now to supervise the packing. If it doesn’t scream slut, don’t bring it.”
Dear God, if our parents could hear this conversation…
I didn’t have time to fight with Vee at the moment, especially when I kind of agreed with her. “Fine, but I’m bringing my laptop.”
She laughed and hung up on me.
My cell phone continued to buzz in my hand, but I ignored the notifications, however foreign that felt. If my genetic strengths had been distributed differently, I would have already surgically attached that thing to my body. I was constantly on it, responding to clients, booking new clients, and texting out marching orders to my three assistants. A fourth was needed at this stage, but I just didn’t have the time to deal with interviewing and training someone new.
Especially tonight.
I had exactly two hours to pack my things, grab something to eat, and make it to the airport in time for my flight to Lake Tahoe for the stupid bachelorette party. I didn’t even want to go, but I knew I had to. Why go to a bachelorette party for someone you didn’t even like? Well, one had to understand the lifelong history I had with Ashley Brenner, starting with the precious Rainbow Brite pencil eraser she’d stolen out of my desk in second grade. Or how about the prom date she stole from me senior year of high school?
To not go to Tahoe would be to admit that she’d somehow won in this unspoken game we played of who was prettier, richer, more successful, and just plain better. She had an ostentatious ring on her finger and wedding plans to rival Princess Diana while I was boyfriend-less. I had to go to Tahoe to show her it didn’t matter to me, when in reality, the fact that I remained single while even my sisters were getting married off was a source of great sadness. I’d entered that age where everyone around me paired off and rode off into the sunset with their one true love.
I hated that being single bothered me. It shouldn’t. In fact, I couldn’t let it get out that it did, or it would ruin my business. I’d built a coaching empire on the message that women didn’t need a man. That wasn’t my original intention, but you know how things spiral out of control when things go viral. One video seen by millions talking about how my business grew without a man at the helm and suddenly I was a man-hater millions of young women looked up to.
No matter how I felt inside, I had to continue this charade of being the happiest woman on earth without a man in sight. The only way I could enjoy a man without forfeiting my empire was to engage in a one-night stand, a situation that also didn’t happen very often here in the small town of Auburn Hill. I’d gone through the eligible pool of men that met my standards the first year.
But Lake Tahoe, the relaxed alternative to Vegas that drew in old family money, was the perfect spot to remedy my dry spell.
A smile grew on my face, picturing a buffet of shirtless men, all there for the picking. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Just choose one and go.
I threw a skimpy lace bra that covered almost nothing into my suitcase, followed by a couple G-string panties I never wore—have you tried to work all day with floss up your crack?—but looked aces on my ass. Vee would be so proud. Next up was a little black dress that leaned heavily on the little. The front dipped low between my barely there boobs and the skirt length flirted with a hoo ha peep show.
My phone dinged, and this time I did read the text, considering it was from the group of girls going to the bachelorette party. Maybe Ashley had come down with food poisoning or some rare disease that left her high-pitched voice quacking like a duck and had to cancel. A girl could always dream.
Ashley: Ladies! I have arrived and our hotel is to die for! Meet me down in the lobby at the bar when you arrive. I have a private room booked for dinner. Kisses!
I grimaced even as I gave the text a heart in response. God, that woman annoyed the crap out of me. Who says kisses at the end of a text, anyway? And of course she had a private room for our first dinner. A simple reservation in the main dining area would be too basic.
“I’m here!” Vee called out from downstairs, the door slamming behind her.
Getting a set of keys made for each of my sisters had been first on my to-do list when I bought this place last year. I may have officially moved out of Mom and Dad’s place, but I wanted them to feel free to visit me whenever. I was usually busy working, but Izzy, my twin, had moved in with me six months ago and she was all too happy to have our sisters around.
Laying out two more dresses on the bed, I contemplated shoes. Should I go with the stilettos or the wedges? Vee came through the door like a hurricane, all bustle and noise.
“Let’s see what you got!” She gave me a quick side hug and then rifled through my suitcase with zero concern about invading my privacy.
Making a stink about it would have only delayed my departure. Pick your battles was the motto our mother lived her life by with five daughters, and I was finding it also helped me run my business.
“Dude, ditch the wedges. You want stilettos, even for breakfast. And definitely not that skirt.” She tossed my favorite pencil skirt on the floor. “This bad boy is perfect.” She held up the leather skirt I’d gotten for a Halloween costume last year. “Put this one on right now.”
I made a face and resisted the urge to glance at the emails on my phone. “No way. You can’t wear a short leather skirt on an airplane. It’s like asking for herpes.”
Vee snorted and put the skirt in the suitcase for later use this weekend. “Fine, but then you have to wear this.” She held up the flirty magenta sundress I’d bought over the summer, thinking I’d have somewhere to wear it on some weekend I wasn’t working. The thing was too dang short for Auburn Hill and I hadn’t even found a time to wear it this summer either.
I wasn’t crazy about it, but this weekend was all about pushing boundaries, anyway. A girl deserved to get laid on vacation, didn’t she? I pep-talked myself and took off the pant suit and white blouse I’d been wearing for my back-to-back coaching sessions earlier in the day.
“Okay, that’s gotta go too,” Vee said, pointing at my beige bra and underwear.
The set did look kind of granny-like when I saw it through the lens of a vacation where I hoped to pick up a man, but they’d worked well under my work outfit. I grabbed the tiny panties Vee threw at me and wiggled into them, relieved I’d remembered to book a waxing appointment yesterday. These things left it all on display.
“What bra?” I asked, surveying what she’d put in the suitcase and what had ended up in a rejection heap on the floor.
“No bra! Girl, you are twenty-four years old. Those tits aren’t going to be perky forever. Have you seen Yedda at the beach?” Vee’s whole body shivered at the mention of the old lady in town who owned the National Cat Protection Society. We all loved her, but her skin did lack the necessary collagen to keep things in place. Gravity was a cruel bitch. “You need to put them front and center while you still can! Besides, the straps on this dress are too thin for a bra. Embrace your inner slut. I know she’s in there, silently screaming in agony when you put on those suit pants.”
“I wear suit pants because I have a job, Vee. It’s that thing you do to make money, so you can live your life and not leech off Mom and Dad forever,” I said dryly.
Vee clutched her chest in shock. “Ouch!” Then she gave me a dirty look. “I know what a job is, big sis. I’ve been in school.”
I slid the sundress over my head and shook out my long black hair. “I know and graduating in three years is awesome. It’s just the applying for grad school that has me concerned. Don’t turn into one of those career students who goes from degree to degree, but never starts a career. It’s just a piece of paper at the end of the day.”
Vee sniffed. “I won’t. In fact, one of my professors has taken me under his wing and is providing excellent guidance.”
A warning bell clanged in my head, but maybe that was just my normal caution because of my vocation. “A male professor, huh? Well, just be careful. Keeping students re-enrolling pays his salary.”
Vee’s cheeks pinked, which I thought interesting. The girl never got embarrassed. My phone dinged with a different sound, a reminder that I had to get in the car right now if I was to get to the airport in time. I’d have to question Vee later.
“I have to go,” I muttered, slipping my feet into tan peep-toe stilettos and grabbing my laptop bag.
Vee jumped, shoved something into my suitcase and zipped it shut for me. “I’ll drive!”
“It’s okay, I can park my car at the airport.”
Vee nearly ran out the door, my suitcase rolling behind her. “No way. The twenty-minute drive will give me time to pump you up.”
I followed after her, shaking my head while I went over the list of things I had to accomplish before I left town. “Pump me up for what?” It wasn’t a horrible idea. If she drove, I could fire off a few more emails before I had to shut my phone down for the flight.
“For your sex-cation of course!” Vee nearly shouted on my front porch, waiting for me to lock up the house. Thankfully, my neighbors were far enough away, they probably didn’t hear of my upcoming sexual debauchery.
Hefting the laptop bag higher on my shoulder and depositing the house keys in a pocket where I’d remember them, I surveyed my house and the stunning view overlooking the ocean. I loved my home and my job, but for the next forty-eight hours I’d ditch the pant suits and dive headfirst into the ocean of sin called Lake Tahoe. Vee didn’t even need to give me a pep talk. I was already one hundred percent in on the plan to blow out the cobwebs between my legs.
I looked down when I heard Vee grunt. She just barely got my suitcase in the back of her tiny Volkswagen Bug. Stepping down the stairs carefully in my heels, I went around to the passenger side and climbed in, probably flashing all the dolphins in the ocean with this short dress.
“Okay, so let’s talk about selection,” Vee said, starting her car and heading down my driveway. “You don’t necessarily want the richest guy in the room. They can be so full of themselves they don’t put much effort into the act, you know what I mean?”
I grinned, enjoying this conversation, as long as I didn’t stop to think why my baby sister knew so much about this topic.
“But I don’t want a fuckboy either,” I stated, thinking about that one guy I’d had a brief fling with who dressed nicer than me and wore his cap backwards.
“Oh God, no. They’re the worst!” Vee agreed. “You need a guy who’s hot and confident, but still willing to put in the effort to make sure you come five times before he does. It’s like hunting a unicorn, but I know they’re out there. They gotta be.” Vee trailed off, looking a little lost in her own thoughts.
“I don’t know. Ashley seems to have found one, based on her stories.” My lips puckered just forming words that sounded complimentary about that woman.
Vee snorted again. “That woman is so full of shit her skin’s tan. She’s marrying Marc because he’s got money, not because he knows what to do in the bedroom.”
“I don’t know. She says he’s blown her world.”
Vee slapped the steering wheel. “Did you see them at the fair the other day? He had on gray sweatpants!”
Wow, Vee was really upset. “So?”
She gaped at me. “He almost single-handedly ruined men in gray sweatpants for me! There was nothing there. Like, smooth as a baby butt. If he’s rocking Ashley’s world, trust me, it ain’t with his micro dick. Maybe he’s got a forked tongue or something.”
I tossed back my head and laughed. God, I loved this girl. All that jealousy I’d been harboring over Ashley snagging a man vanished, quite like Marc’s dick. I may want a man, but I wanted Mr. Perfect, not Mr. Rich or Mr. Just Okay. I made my own fortune, so I didn’t need nor want to marry for money. I wanted a man who lit my freaking veins on fire with a single glance. Someone who made my brain dance with excitement in conversation. Someone who could fill my lonely nights and lonely heart.
Or at the very least, some excellent dick for forty-eight hours.
“I think I’ll hold out for the unicorn,” I sighed, hoping I’d find him in Lake Tahoe.
“Now you’re talking. Look for the twelve-incher,” Vee said in a husky voice that made me want to giggle again.
I tilted my head to the side, just seeing the lights of the airport up ahead. “Twelve might be pushing it. I want all my inner organs to stay in place.”
Vee slammed to a stop at the curb outside my terminal. “Don’t knock it ’til you ride it.”
I gave her a hug and climbed out of the car to grab my suitcase. A guy pulling in a drag on his cigarette outside the sliding doors to the airport nearly choked when I flashed him. Oops. A flair of boldness at his reaction creeped up my spine and I strutted my way into the terminal, suitcase rolling behind me. I just needed to flash a little vag and see what happened.
Maybe Vee was right.
I should find a twelve-incher to scratch the itch.