“We’re almost in Vegas, baby.” Kyle pushed his sunglasses up his nose.
“Before we get there, you have to promise that was the one and only time you use the word ‘baby’ after the words ‘Las Vegas’?”
He smiled. “Whatever you say, baby.”
“In fact, let’s just ban the word ‘baby’ in general.”
“You can’t ban anything, BABY. We’re in Vegas now. There ain’t nothing banned in The Vegas.”
“You’re not allowed to call it The Vegas either.”
SITUATIONS THAT ARE DESTINED TO FAIL:
Taking things slow
+
A luxury hotel room
Thirty-four
The shimmering strip drew closer and I pressed my nose against the window to get a better view. My heart pounded with excitement. I mean, come on, Vegas! The Vegas! How had this summer led me here? I turned off Kyle’s weirdo music and began singing “Viva Las Vegas” in my very best Elvis voice. When that was exhausted I switched to “Uptown Funk” which has nothing to do with Vegas, but seemed to fit appropriately.
After being the only car for so many hundreds of miles, we were now one of thousands, and slammed into an epic traffic jam.
“Kyle –” I pointed out the window as we waited for a never-changing red light – “why is there a massive naked lady outside my window?”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “Welcome to Vegas.”
We were next to a gigantic travelling billboard of a completely naked woman with her legs spread, sucking her finger suggestively as her massive eyes stared blankly into the traffic. She was advertising Hot Girlz Direct 2U.
“This is never in the movies,” I said, as the billboard turned left and another naked billboard pulled up alongside us.
“It is called Sin City.”
“Is there more stuff like this in Vegas?”
Kyle took my hand and kissed it. “Oh, Amber, you have no idea what’s coming for you.”
We inched through traffic light after traffic light. I counted another ten naked lady billboards. And an entire hotel called Hooters, where Kyle informed me all the female staff had to have massive boobs.
“I’m starting to worry Las Vegas is just a place where the patriarchy took a massive dump in the desert,” I said.
“Or just humanity.”
“Why did you bring me here?”
Kyle smiled. “Because we’re going to have fun.”
We made it through to the main strip. It was so surreal, seeing all the hotels I’d seen so many times on TV in real life. We passed New York New York and Excalibur – this neon garish fairy-tale castle. We passed The Mirage, which Kyle informed me had a resident white tiger who lived there.
“What? Just padding along the corridors?”
“I don’t think so, I think he’s in a cage. But I wouldn’t be surprised. This is The Vegas after all.”
“I warned you not to call it that.”
“And how are you going to punish me?”
He grinned, and it was there again. The insane sexual tension, quivering between us, taking off all its clothes.
“How long till we get to our hotel room?” I replied.
Kyle’s face went serious, in this really intense sexy way that made me want to jump over the car and just start grappling him right then.
“Not soon enough.”
Two more traffic lights and Kyle steered us left, right into Caesar’s Palace. It was very tall. In fact, it was so tall, I wanted to stand next to it for the rest of my natural life, so I’d never feel tall again. Kyle pulled up in this huge circular driveway, before stopping in front of two men dressed in strange little outfits.
“Here we are,” he said. “It’s valet service, so we need to get our stuff out the car.”
I nodded. “Right. What’s a valet?”
He laughed and opened the door, saying hi to the weird outfit guys.
“It means they park the jeep for us.”
“Oh.”
I picked my bag off my feet and opened the passenger door. I was hit by the most intense heat of my life. My skin instantly broke out into a sweat; the air was so dry I wanted a drink. Like, straight away.
“It’s so HOT,” I announced. Kyle was at the boot, helping the guys take out our suitcases.
“It’s Vegas.”
“Is that going to be your answer to everything for the next twenty-four hours?”
“It’s Vegas.”
I chased him and hit him with my bag.
“That’s not funny at all.”
“Vegas.”
“I’m going to run away and marry someone else at the Elvis chapel.”
Kyle grinned. “How very Vegas.”
“Stop saying Vegas!”
The dudes in the uniforms stunned us by both cheering “VEGAS” at the same time and giving us a thumbs-up.
I was so surprised and impressed I gave them double tips.
Kyle queued up to get us a room, telling me to hover rather than queue with him, just in case they twigged I was underage. I watched him flirt with the hotel receptionist, and saw the way she warmed instantly to him, the way everyone did with Kyle.
I remembered Mum’s warning – everyone falls in love with Kyle… But I didn’t want to think about her, not in this strange new adventure…
Anyway, not everyone has Kyle fall back in love with them.
He dragged his bag over, smiling with every bit of his face. “Good news,” he said. “I got us an upgrade.”
“What?” I squealed. “How?”
He picked up both our cases and steered us through to the elevator. It was just…nuts inside the hotel. Giant gold statues of Romans adorned everywhere, the sky was decorated with ornate gold everything, huge marble columns held up all the garishness. Even the lift, once we got in, was insane. There were so many buttons I felt like I was in Willy Wonka’s Great Glass Elevator.
“It’s quiet season because it’s so hot in summer,” he said. “So it’s always worth trying your luck. I just told her I would try the other hotels if she couldn’t offer me a deal. Instant upgrade. I read it was worth a try online. It worked.”
The elevator pinged open and we emerged into a long corridor. It was more hotel-looking up here – just lots of doors and red carpet and parked cleaning trolleys. We walked and walked and walked until we found our room. Kyle jammed the card into the card reader and I pushed the door open.
“Oh my nuts,” I said, walking in.
“Oh my nuts?”
“I got stuck between saying ‘Oh my God’ and ‘this is nuts’.”
The hotel room was the size of a country. Not one, but two beds, both bigger than my bedroom back home dominated the space. But there was a wall to ceiling window showing us a great view of the strip.
“Oh my nuts, the bathroom.” I dropped my bags and ran inside. There was a jetpool bath that could fit my entire family in. And a rainforest shower thing.
I came out to find Kyle flopped backwards on one of the beds, his arms above his head. His eyes closed.
I climbed on top of him, kissing his face and neck.
“You tired from the driving?”
He opened his eyes, smiling, and put on his shit English accent. “I’m bloody knackered.”
“I’ll let you nap a while.” I went to clamber off, but he made a noise of protest and dragged me back. I giggled and we started kissing, all the energy from the car going up an octave, filling the room with lust and longing and no way was touching each other doing anything to satisfy it.
“Don’t we need to go see The Vegas?” I asked, between breathless kisses.
“You felt the temperature outside. No one goes out in Vegas until at least sunset. We’d melt.”
“And how long until sunset?”
“An hour or two.”
I kissed his ear, finding myself biting it – I wasn’t sure where it came from, but Kyle seemed to like it anyway.