"Lola, get your ass back over here, and let's talk about this," Seth begged, fearing he'll never see her again when she opened their hotel room door, dragging her suitcase behind her.

Halfway through the doorway, she stopped, annoyed by his demands, and turned around, holding her fist up and giving him the finger. "Fuck you, Seth. There's nothing more for us to discuss. You made your bed. Now you can lay in it," she hissed.

Desperate to get away from him, she hurried out of the room, letting the door slam behind her. Seeing an elderly couple exit the elevator, she rushed down the hallway, hoping to get to the elevator before the doors closed, but the second she got there, the doors had finished closing.

Irritated, she quietly hissed under her breath, "Damn it!"

"Lola, wait!" Seth yelled, running towards her.

Not wanting to hear what else Seth had to say and seeing he was getting closer, she repeatedly hit the button, hoping for the doors to open before he got to her, groaning, "Come on. Come on. Come on. Please open before he gets to me."

Hearing a bell ding behind her, she quickly turned around. Seeing the doors opening to the other elevator, her hand wrapped around the handle of her suitcase, and she hurried to get inside it. Once inside, she repeatedly pressed the close door button.

Seth shoved his arm between them as the doors closed, stopping them from closing. Lola snapped when he entered the elevator, "Go away, Seth. We're over." He sighed. She didn't like this any more than he did, but leaving him was something she felt she had to do. And seeing the look on his face that there was more he wanted to say to her, she aimed her finger at him, hissing, "And don't you dare say another fucking word. I don't want to hear what else you have to say." She felt tears welling in her eyes, and not wanting him to see she was about to cry, she looked away from him.

Sweating, knowing this was his last chance to save their relationship, he pleaded, "Lola, please listen to what I have to say. I know what I did was a mistake—a huge fucking mistake. I never thought it would go as far as it did. But it did." He reached for her, but she was quick to shrug him off. "Please don't leave me here. I promise I'll fix the mess I created—right after we get home. Please, Lola. Please stay."

Lola quietly stood still, trying to ignore Seth while she processed everything he admitted to. Sticking to her guns about their relationship being over, she lowered her head and quietly told him, "I can't do this with you anymore. It's gone on far too long, and you keep promising you'll seek help, but you never do. So when I get home, I'm calling your brother and telling him he needs to pick up all your belongings. We're over, Seth. Don't come after me, and don't contact me. Ever again."

"Lola, please. Hear me out."

She shook her head, letting him know she wasn't listening to another word of what he had to say. When the elevator stopped moving and the doors opened, she raised her chin and said, "Goodbye, Seth."

Seth stood frozen as he watched her exit the elevator. He badly wanted to run after her and say everything he could to stop her from leaving, but he knew everything he wanted to tell her wouldn't get him anywhere since the damage was already done. Feeling defeated, Seth dragged his fingers through his hair as he watched Lola hurry toward the lobby, wondering how to get her to give him a chance to fix what he'd done.

He knew she'd be upset once he told her what he did and never thought she would leave him over what happened. Aware he needed to do everything not to lose her, Seth headed back to their room, sat on the bed, and stared at the phone in his hand, thinking of who he could call who'd help him win Lola back.

He scrolled through his contacts, and when the one person he hoped to avoid calling came into view, he stopped scrolling and groaned as he stared at the name. "I can't call him," he mumbled and continued scrolling. But when he got to the last person in his contacts, his eyes closed as he whispered, "I have to call him. He's the only one who can bail me out."

Seth opened his eyes and groaned as he scrolled back to the one person he hoped he wouldn't have to call.

He pressed the call button, then slowly raised the phone to his ear when he heard the person on the other end answer, nervously saying, "Hey. It's me..." he paused, closing his eyes as he lowered his head, squeezing his temples with his thumb and middle finger, sighing as he said, "I need your help. Lola left me."

***

Lola was happy the airlines could get her on a flight home three days earlier than initially planned. The only problem was that she had to upgrade from coach to first class, and the flight didn't leave for another six hours.

She was thrilled they offered to seat her in first class but wasn't thrilled about spending extra money to sit comfortably. Looking for the ticket agent to feel sorry for her and waive the additional fee, Lola allowed the tears she'd been holding back to show and begged, "I've had a bad day—a horrible day. Isn't there something you can do so I don't have to pay to upgrade to first class?"

The ticket agent looked remorseful but shook her head, saying, "I'm sorry. It doesn't work that way. All flights from here to Miami in the next few days are booked. So, if you would like to return home today, I suggest you pay the additional fee before someone else purchases the available seat."

Lola didn't want to be in Vegas longer than she needed to be. Knowing her options were limited and how desperate she was to get home, she sighed as she removed her wallet from her purse. "I'll pay the upgrade," she murmured, handing the ticket agent her credit card, hoping there was enough money on it to get her home.

Relief washed over her when the payment went through. But when the ticket agent handed Lola her new ticket, the relief she felt immediately disappeared after realizing she'd be stuck inside the airport for the next six hours, worrying Seth would come looking for her and she'd run into him.

To make the time go by and not think about what Seth had done or that he'd come looking for her, she walked around the airport, hitting some of the overly-priced stores to see what she could live without. When she got bored shopping for nothing, she headed to a bar near her gate and ordered a strawberry daiquiri, nursing it while thinking about how she'd move on from Seth and ignoring the surrounding men who had been gawking at her ever since she sat there.

When she heard the gate agent announce they were seating the first-class passengers, she hurried out of the bar and boarded the plane, but when Lola got to where she was supposed to sit and saw someone occupying her seat, she pulled the strap of her purse further up her shoulder and looked at her ticket, ensuring she didn't look at her seat number wrong.

Seeing her ticket said 3A and that someone was sitting in her seat, she cleared her throat. "Ah, excuse me. You're in my seat."

The gentleman sitting in the aisle seat looked up and smiled. He was young, very charming, with olive-colored skin, big brown almond-shaped eyes, and ebony-colored hair, slicked back pompadour style. By his gorgeous looks, she wasn't sure if he was a model, celebrity, or just someone who liked making the girls swoon. But after seeing him wearing a fancy Giorgio Armani suit, she quickly assumed he was some prominent attorney at a big, well-known law firm.

The sexy businessman's lips curved into a playful smile. "Dang. I was hoping this seat was still available." He looked around Lola and pointed, "That cute little flight attendant over there told me she thought the seat was available, and if I wanted it, I could take it. So, I snagged it," he winked.

Not only did Lola think he was sexy, but his thick accent had her swooning. And how he winked at her made her body feel warm. After swooning over his accent, wink, and looks. In her mind, she screamed, 'Oh my God, he's Italian!'

She smiled at the Italian, happily saying, "Well, you're in luck because the seat you're sitting in isn't my seat." She pointed at the man sitting in the window seat. "The one that's mine is the one right there."

The guy Lola assumed was an attorney turned to the man looking out the window, avoiding Lola and the Italian, and he tapped the guy on his shoulder. "Ah, sir. You're sitting in this beautiful woman's seat. You'll need to move."

The man sitting in Lola's seat slowly turned her way.

Her breathing suddenly halted, and under her breath, she muttered, 'Holy shit, is this entire airplane filled with hot fucking men or what?'

She blinked a couple of times. At first, she thought the Italian was a dream, but she thought the man who stole her seat, refusing to move, was also gorgeous—a bigger dream than the Italian.

While looking at the Italian, the seat thief spoke how he sported his panty-dropping smirk—cocky. "I'm sitting in this seat because someone is sitting in my seat. I'm not moving."

Lola felt her ears and cheeks heating, knew her face was most likely red as an overripe tomato, and looked around her. Instantly embarrassed after seeing everyone's eyes were on her.

She crossed her arms while her eyes returned to the cocky man, and out of irritation and frustration, her foot angrily tapped the ground as she asked, "Where's your seat?"

He looked away from Lola and smiled at the Italian. "Looks like you're moving to the seat you were assigned to, buddy."

"He's not moving. You are," Lola snapped, growing more irritated the longer she stood in the aisle, trying to get the man to give her the seat she upgraded to back to her.

"I'm not moving."

"Why?"

"Because. This guy," he said, aiming his thumb at the Italian. "The one you were hoping to sit next to is sitting in my seat."

The Italian smiled, unbuckled his seat belt, and stood, saying, "It's all yours. I'll return to my original seat. Have fun, and enjoy your flight."

Lola stepped to the side, giving the Italian room to get around her. Once he was gone, she stood with her arms crossed, glaring at the man sitting next to the window, wondering if he would move so she could finally sit and relax.

Instead of moving, he stayed where he was, ignoring the look he knew Lola was giving him.

The cocky, gorgeous God looked at her, smirked, and winked, then returned his gaze to the window. She sighed, "Look. It's been a rough twelve hours. All I want is the seat I paid good money for. Something I no longer have. Is that too much to ask?"

He pointed to the open seat. "Just sit then. I've buckled in already."

"I didn't know it was that hard to unbuckle a seat belt and move. What are you? Two years old? Do you need some help?"

He smirked. "I'm not two, but my age has a number two in it. Thirty-two, to be exact. And no, I don't need help. If your day were that bad, then why don't you sit and silence your beautiful dick-sucking lips," he devilishly smirked.

Lola's mouth quickly fell wide open—shocked by his choice of words. She couldn't believe how he was talking to her—a stranger—a woman he didn't know. So before he said something else to upset and shock her, she immediately closed her mouth.

After dealing with Seth and feeling drained, she wasn't in the mood to argue. She also didn't want to hear him say another word, so she gave up the argument. Frustrated, she huffed as she sat in the open aisle seat, buckled her seat belt, and angrily crossed her leg over the other.

Needing a distraction and something to relax her mind, she dug into her purse, removed her earbuds, plugged them into her phone, then placed the buds in her ears. Next, she turned on her music loud enough to block the man beside her out and closed her eyes.

Lola was more than anxious to leave Vegas and return home to Miami. She also couldn't wait to get away from the jerk sitting beside her.

Occasionally, out of the corner of her eye, Lola noticed him eyeing and smiling at her. It was creeping her out and making her uncomfortable, and she began squirming in her seat.

He leaned closer to Lola and teased, "I can see you squirming in your seat. Is it because you're thinking about me and how I'd make you feel if you were lying beneath me?"

Ignoring his sexual advancement, she closed her eyes, pretending to have fallen asleep. Within seconds, he started shaking her. When that didn't get her to acknowledge him, he repeatedly tapped her shoulder.

Finally, her eyes opened, and she snapped her head toward him, evilly looking at him—the look of I'm going to kill you if you don't stop. "What?" she snapped through gritted teeth.

He removed an earbud from her ear and smiled while offering her his hand. "We haven't introduced ourselves."

"So?" she hissed, snatching her earbud from his fingers and shoving it back in her ear.

Frowning, he removed the earbud. "It would be nice to know who I'm sitting next to."

Lola sighed, "Why do you care? It's not like I care who you are. And to be honest. I couldn't care less who you are. Besides, didn't I already tell you I had a bad day?"

"Yes."

"Then why are you making it worse? Do you like pissing off women?"

"No," he smirked, leaning closer to her, his lips brushing against her ear as he said, "I like pleasuring them." His lips touching her flesh caused her to squirm slightly and the nerves of her pussy to awaken. He raised his hand higher, trying to get her to shake it. "My name is Ryder. Ryder Dickens."

"Very fitting," she mocked.

"Why?"

"Because the last name matches the person to whom it belongs."

His grin widened, finding amusement in her response. But that cocky grin only pissed her off even more.

"Why is that?" he asked.

"Because. You're a fucking dick."

Finding humor in her remark, he laughed. "I'm not a dick. Although, I do have a big one that the ladies absolutely love," he winked. Causing her pussy to pulsate more than it already was from the way he spoke. Desperate to stop how he was making her feel and growing more upset with her body for how it was reacting to the egotistical jerk, she tightened her legs and quickly faced the seat in front of her.

Lola despised he had such a handsome face and hated that he was turning her on with his panty-dropping looks. And strangely, even though she wanted him to leave her alone, she was enjoying the attention he gave her—something Seth wasn't very good at doing. She liked his persistence, cocky attitude, how his face lit up when he smirked, and his egotistical, dirty talk.

Still, after dealing with Seth, she was in no mood to be friendly and wanted to be left alone, so she closed her eyes and prayed he'd get the hint to leave her be.

He didn't.

Instead of getting the memo, he pushed her buttons by saying, "Aren't you going to shake my hand and introduce yourself?"

Her eyes sprang open, and she sighed as she looked at the annoying asshole, "Why should I?"

"Because it's the polite thing to do."

She laughed. "What do you know about being polite? You're not polite at all. You're rude. Not to mention a complete fucking jerk."

His brow amusingly lifted high, and the corner of his mouth twitched into a smirk. "Such nice words are coming out of a lady's mouth."

"What if I'm not a lady?"

He smiled dirty, slowly looking her down and up—starting from the top of her head to her face and stopping to gaze at her. Then, his eyes slowly lowered, stopping to admire her chest momentarily, and then his eyes trailed down to her toes. Then his eyes quickly bounced back to her legs. Eyeing them, he said, "Oh, you're a lady, all right. But I have to ask." His eyes returned to hers. "If you're not a lady like you so claim. Then what are you?"

Craving for him to leave her alone, she said the first thing that came to her mind, and once it left her mouth, she hoped that saying what she did would be enough to shut him up and leave her alone for the remainder of the flight. "I'm very unladylike, unpredictable, and very underestimated. Now, would you please leave me alone?"

Loving what he heard, humor played on his lips as they curved into a smile. He licked his lips, imagining what her mouth could do to his cock, and wiggled his brows up and down fast while looking at her mouth. "I can handle unladylike."

"Please," she retorted.

"You know. You still haven't told me your name."

Annoyed, she hissed, "You haven't given me a reason to."

"What if I wanted to take you out and show you a good time? I'd need to know your name, and then I'd need a phone number to make that night happen."

She breathed a laugh. "No fat chance."

"Name?"

"Oh. My. God. Are you always this annoying?"

"Yes," he admitted, smirking.

Her eyes rolled. "I should have known," she groaned, and he laughed. "If you must know, my name is Lola..." she groaned, watching him repeat her name by mouthing Lola with a smile.

"Lola. What a beautiful name. What's your last name? I'll bet it's just as beautiful as your first name."

"Cox."

"Now that seems more fitting," he gleamed with widened eyes.

Her eyebrows drew together as she asked, "Why do you say that?"

He laughed, pleased by her last name. "Cox? I'll bet you enjoy saying that word. I'll also bet you don't even have to think twice before saying cocks... Repeat it for me," he pressed.

"Repeat what?"

"Cocks."

"Whyyy..." she emphasized, feeling even more annoyed and wishing there was a way to quiet him once and for all.

He slid his pointer finger along her bottom lip as he said, "Because. I want to hear you say it and make you realize you want to wrap your mouth around my—" Ryder didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence. Lola backhanded him, directly hitting him in the nose and mouth—quieting him once and for all.

***

The first thing Lola did after walking into her apartment was call Seth's brother. She told him what happened in Vegas and admitted that she left him there to force him to figure out his life and how she wanted him to remove all Seth's belongings from their apartment immediately.

She gathered Seth's belongings and placed them into one massive pile on their living room floor. Then, before showering, she called her best friend, Monique. Even though she was upset, worn out, and hadn't slept much in the last twenty-four hours, she felt the need to go out drinking, unwind, and fill her friend in on what Seth did in Vegas and why she was home three days earlier than planned.

After stepping out of the shower, she heard the buzzer in the other room, alerting her that Seth's brother, Jason, was there. She grabbed a towel, quickly dried off, then reached for her robe hanging from the door and hurriedly put it on while heading to the door.

"Thanks for coming to grab his shit," Lola said, opening the door further for him to enter.

Looking sorry for what Seth did to her, he apologized, "I'm so sorry, Lola. My brother can be such a dumb-ass sometimes."

"Sometimes? This isn't the first time Seth did this shit. Only, this time, he went to the extreme and fucked up both our lives. More so, my life and everything I worked hard for."

Jason dragged his fingers through his hair. "Again, I'm sorry."

"I am, too."

He looked at the pile in the living room, then at Lola, saying, "It looks like you have things you want to do, so I'll hurry and get Seth's crap out of here." He stepped over to her, rested his hands on her shoulders, looked her in the eyes, and said, "Don't feel bad or beat yourself up for what you did. He needs to be taught a lesson, and this is the best way to get him to see that he's a fuck-up. Even though I was looking forward to having you as my sister-in-law, you did the right thing. I wish you the best."

She wrapped her arms around Jason, hugging him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Just know that if my girlfriend did what Seth did, she'd be out of my life, too."

While Jason removed Seth's belongings, she finished getting ready to go out with Monique. Then, knowing Monique would be arriving soon and seeing Jason was down to the last couple of items, she helped grab the last of Seth's things and followed him down to his truck.

She placed the items in the back seat and advised, "Do what you can to keep him away from me. I don't want to see or talk to him. So, if you could do me a huge favor and get his key for me, that would be great," Lola said, shutting the rear passenger door and stepping aside.

"Will do."

"Thank you."

"Have a good night," he said, saluting her as he rounded the front of the truck.

It's exactly what she wanted and needed to have—a good night. As Jason got in his truck, Monique pulled up behind him. "Was that Jason I saw leaving?" Monique asked after Lola opened the door and slid into the passenger seat.

Lola sighed, "Yeah."

Monique turned toward Lola, and looking confused, she asked, "What are you up to, Lola? Where's Seth?"

"Just drive. I'll explain everything while I'm drowning all my sorrows in tequila. I'm still trying to figure out what to do after tonight."

"Sounds heavy."

"You have no idea. This day possibly has been the worst day I've ever had to deal with in my life. It went from bad to worse, all within twelve hours. Now, I'm wondering, can the rest of this day get any worse?"

Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter, enough to go on and read the next!

We're off for a wild ride!😁😁🚘🚘🚘