As soon as I got out of the airport, the heat hit me. It wasn't unpleasant, as Texas weather was. See, in Vegas it's hot, but there's a breeze and no hair frizzing humidity. So, it was tolerable. I caught sight of Danny and I ran to catch up with his normal, long walking strides.

"Danny!" I called out. He kept walking.

"Dammit, Danny would you please just stop?" I pleaded.

He did exactly what I said, slowly turning around to face me.

"I'm sorry, all right?" I was panting.

"No, you're not."

He turned his back to me again and continued walking to his car. "No, Danny, please." I ran over to him again, tugging his arm back. He lazily turned around. His cocky manner was beginning to reveal itself again as he waited for my sincere apology. I looked him in the eyes.

"Look, I'm sorry for acting like such a bitch okay?"

He observed my face.

My eyebrows furrowed together.

"But you can't blame me." I mumbled.

"And you ruined it, way to go." Before he could walk off again, I held on to him. "No! I'm sorry, I promise." I giggled. He lightly chuckled, and I looked up at his face, subconsciously admiring his dimples as he smiled.  I hardly noticed his hands at my waist.

That was it.

That was the moment I knew it was going to be hard not to fall for him all over again. My eyes glanced over the subtle freckles on the bridge of his nose, the birthmark above his left eyebrow, and back into his heterochromic eyes. His right hand left my waist and caressed my cheek.

"Apology accepted." He whispered.

He pulled away from me and extended out his hand for me to hold. I was hesitant at first but seeing that we had found a moment of peace I decided to accept his gesture. I slowly placed my hand in his, and he brought it up to his lips and kissed it. "Welcome to Vegas bellissima"

We walked around the parking garage in comfortable silence until we reached Danny's car. He let go of my hand to unlock the car and open the trunk. I raised my eyebrows. "This is your car?" I asked astonished. His face lit up with pride as he smiled at me, putting my suitcase in the trunk which was located in the front to my surprise. "Yep."  I admired the car as I walked over to the passenger side. An Audi R8.

"As much as I hate saying this, I like it." I smiled.

"As much as I would love to just agree with you, I'll say thank you." He grinned, getting into the car. His car was extremely clean. A shiny black exterior and a spotless interior. It was clear he took good care of his possessions.

"So, what are you doing here in Vegas?" I asked as we exited the airport. 

"Well, I didn't want to go straight home to California from Italy. So, I passed by here to have some fun."

"And I just happened to be on your schedule, right?"

He chuckled, briefly taking his eyes off the road to look at me. "Yes, you did." We stopped at a red light. "So, what's the plan Danny hmm?" I eyed him intently, and it only made him more desirable. He placed a hand under my chin, putting light pressure on my jaw with his index finger and thumb.

"That's for me to know, and you to find out."

The red light on our faces turned green and he removed his hand, focusing all his attention to the road again. "Can you at least tell me where we're going?" I pouted. "A hotel." I saw the smirk creep up onto his lips. I rolled my eyes. "Nice one smartass." He quickly looked away from the road to look at me, quietly laughing to himself. I curled my lips back trying to prevent myself from smiling.

The drive to wherever we were going wasn't far from the airport at all. We were in the car for a good 7 to 8 minutes. 

I looked out the window seeing a familiar building from 9 years ago. "The Signature at MGM Grand." I whispered to myself. 

"So, you've been here before?" Danny asked. Guess I wasn't the greatest at whispering things quietly to myself. 

I turned to look at him. "Yeah," I looked back at the three identical towers. "It was my favorite hotel, I loved it so much." I smiled at the memory of my fifteen-year-old self being so excited when I walked into the hotel for the first time. 

Danny looked me, a smile appearing on his own face as he admired mine. He took my hand in his own. 

"Glad I could bring you back here."  His thumb slowly glided over mine.

An employee offered to park Danny's car after he got my suitcase out. I told him I could hold it, after all it was my own suitcase, but he didn't want to hear it again, and insisted he did all the work. 

He greeted a security guard named Nick, or for proper authority calling, Officer Delve. By the looks of it, they had to be good friends.

"Hold my hand." Danny whispered as we walked over to the check in counter.

"Why?" I asked.

"Just do it, I'll explain later."

He greeted one of the ladies once we reached the check-in counter. "Hello Kris." He smiled. "Hi, Danny." Her eyes didn't leave her computer screen. "How are you today Kris?" She glared at him.

"What's with the small talk Brivio? First off, it's past midnight, my day is over." 

I couldn't help but laugh. Kris looked at me, lightly smiling. Her eyes traveled down to our hands clasped together.

"You must be Nadia."

I looked up at Danny, glaring at him in question at how she knew my name. I turned my head back to look at Kris, quizzically. "Yes, I am." She read my facial expression easily. "This kid," she pointed at Danny. "never stops talking about you." Kris placed her hand at the side of her mouth, blocking Danny's view so he wouldn't see what she was saying to me. "It's kind of annoying." She whispered lightheartedly. I laughed. "All right Hernandez, that's enough, can you give us our room key please?"

"Hey," she warned. "only I can call you by your last name." She pointed to her badge.

"You see this?"

Danny rolled his eyes.

"What's it say Brivio?"

He sighed. "Kris, it says Kris."

She smiled boldly. "Thank you."

After checking me in as an addition to Danny's reservation, she handed us my key card, completely changing her persona. 

"Enjoy your stay." She smiled sweetly. 

"Yeah, thanks Kris." Danny mumbled playfully snatching the key card from her hand.

Kris waved at me, and I politely smiled before Danny dragged me along with him. I started talking again once it was just us two in the elevator.

"They're your friends? Nick and Kris?" I asked, already knowing the answer to that. 

"Yeah, I've known them for quite a while. They're the reason I came to this hotel. It's always nice to talk to Nick and Kris gives me good discounts." He winked. I giggled as we walked out the elevator. 

"So how long are we staying here?" I asked. "I told Kris one week." "One week? You know I'm staying in Vegas for two weeks, right?" "Yeah, but I don't want to spend your two weeks here in the same hotel. I've got a surprise for you." He smirked.

"A surprise?"

"Yeah, a surprise. So, don't bother asking what it is."

I giggled. "I wasn't going to anyway." 

"Sure, you weren't." He spoke under his breath.

I slapped his shoulder. "I wasn't." He pretended to wince in pain. "Was that supposed to hurt me?" He teased. 

Of course, Danny would indirectly brag about his muscular build, in comparison to my petiteness. "You are so full of yourself."  

He laughed, pulling me closer to him, suddenly leaning over to press a warm kiss to my cheek. I laughed loudly, playfully pushing him away from me. He chuckled and pulled me right back to his side. 

We got to the door of our room and once Danny unlocked it with the key card, I walked over to the curtains pulling them open to reveal the view.

The view of the Vegas lights from the Strip always made me happy. I loved this city for as long as I could remember. 

I felt a pair of hands at my waist that brought me back to reality. I turned around to face him as Danny pulled me towards his body, now wrapping his arms around my waist. It was dark, the lights from outside barely lit up the room. 

His eyes, they looked almost the same color in the dark. It was silent, except for the rapidly increasing sound of my heartbeat, and the shortness of my breath. 

Lustful tensions filled the room. 

I gazed into his captivating eyes before they traveled down to my lips. 

His right hand slowly traveled up my body, sending a shiver up my spine before stopping at my neck. I knew he could feel my pulse against the palm of his hand. 

I sensually looked up at him as his thumb slowly slid across my bottom lip. He dipped his head down until our noses brushed against each other.

Nadia this is wrong, what are you doing?

He's going to kiss you.

I closed my eyes and realigned my face, so his lips grazed my cheek instead. "I can't do this." I whispered, pulling away from him. "I'm going to take a shower." 

I had to get away from him. Metaphorically, I could wash away my sin. I felt dirty.

I thought about what I had done as the warm streams of water hit my back. In an act of penance, part of me wanted to increase the water temperature until it scalded my skin. 

I remembered the recent moment when Danny had kissed my cheek and I let him without second thought. I scrubbed that side of my face in hopes to wash off what he left. It made me feel slightly better about myself. 

Was there anything wrong with me to feel this way towards him? After all those years of sadness and loathing, I still had the heart to find love for Danny.

It wasn't love, was it? It had to be lust.

Love doesn't feel like that.

I knew what love felt like. Love was being with Leo and I couldn't let that fall apart. 

I turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. I wrapped myself in a towel and stood there. I didn't want to face him again. I was afraid, afraid of what he would do, afraid of what I would do. I couldn't trust myself. 

I could hear the muffled sound of the TV. What would he say to me? I practically rejected him. I sighed and prepared myself for the worst.

After purposely changing into non-revealing pajamas, I took the white robe that hung behind the bathroom door and bundled myself in it. I opened the door and stepped out, inhaling deeply at what I saw.

He was bent over, taking out a wine bottle from one of the cabinets when he noticed my presence. He slowly lifted himself up, placing the bottle on the counter. He was shirtless and I took sight of the artistic sleeve of ink on his left arm. 

The lights were dimmed, adding texture contrast to his body, where you could really see how toned he was. He now stood to his full height, six foot two, and stared right back at me. He took one step towards me and out of fright I spoke up.

"I'm sorry," I said meekly. "about earlier."

He lightly chuckled and it completely threw me off. "It's okay." He spoke softly, briefly looking away from me as he opened the wine bottle and poured himself a glass. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I had expected something utterly different.

"Would you like some?" He asked. I looked at the extra glass intended for me and back at him. I shook my head. "No, no thanks. I think I'm gonna go to sleep."  

"All right. Suit yourself." He put the extra glass away. 

I took off the robe and got into the bed. My body automatically sunk into the mattress below me. It was blissfully comfortable.

My eyes followed him as he sat down at the high table near the door to the balcony. I stared at his sleeve tattoo again. The upper half of it caught my attention; specifically two large roses. The second rose was placed on his elbow. My eyes veered to the first rose, seeing something cursive written on its petals, but I couldn't make out what it was from the way he was sitting. 

Danny turned his head in my direction and I quickly snapped out of my gaze.

"Goodnight." He faintly smiled.

I kindly smiled back at him. "Goodnight."

...

While Nadia was peacefully asleep, Danny was out on the balcony quietly speaking to someone on the phone. A light breeze blew as he put out his cigarette on the ground, crushing it beneath his shoe.

Smoke escaped from his mouth as he began to speak. "Yeah, yeah don't worry about her, I'll make her fall for me. It takes patience, you'll see. She'll come around." He smirked.

"I know her like the back of my hand."