A Month In Sin

Getting myself back into reality was much easier to do than I expected. While the pointless thoughts of Luke burned in the back of my mind, I was able to focus on things that needed to be focused on. Bridal shower, bachelorette party? It was far more important than wishing for something that could never happen.

Meeting Luke Hemmings happened by a stroke of luck. It was certain to never happen again.

So instead, I focused on someone else’s positive future and ignored the dismal future of my own. My sister was getting married, and I had never seen her look so happy. She was certainly high maintenance, so making her happy was pretty hard to do sometimes.

Not tonight. I don’t think anything could take her happiness away, honestly.

It was nice to see her this way before the Bridezilla kicked in first thing tomorrow morning.
Taking shots and dancing on tables, she had never been more carefree.

Oriella was the same way. She wasn’t high maintenance, not like Claire. Claire was the oldest of four, by five years, so she had plenty of time to get everything all the time.

Three babies all at once, however, changed her life forever. She demanded the same attention as before, but she never really got it. Three babies at once. That’s kinda hard for a mother who was used to having one little girl and a husband who had to stay away a lot of times in order to protect his family. She can’t be expected to give her undivided attention to the five year old.

Life was good. Things were getting better. At the time I was born—the middle of the triplets, as my luck usually worked out—things weren’t so good. Money only means so much when you can’t go outside without worrying someone’s going to kill you.

Things had settled down. People stopped hunting my dad. After a few partnerships with the right casinos in the right places, he was now one of the biggest men in Vegas. He owned most of the casinos in the western side of Vegas whereas Claire’s soon-to-be father-in-law owned most of the casinos in the eastern side. Together, they pretty much ran Las Vegas.

Life wasn’t empty of those who wanted him to pay, but we were better off. Dad was home more—believe it or not, owning almost fifty percent of the casinos in Vegas allows that—and we had personal security teams everywhere we went . . . most of the time. This morning, I had managed to sneak off without mine, but I saw them lingering in the distance.

The music was loud in this place, and the crowd was massive. People sweating all over one another, giving the air a musk that probably smelled worse when the night was over, this was the typical party scene I was getting bored of.

Ori gave our buzzed sister a small smile. “Come on, Claire. Think you’ve had enough?”

Claire snorted. “Loosen up, tight ass. I’ve only had two shots and that Long Island. This is supposed to be fun, so don’t ruin it.” Her eyes moved over to me, and she smirked. “Where are your shots?”

My eyes drifted over to the bartender, who I found looking at me again, and a smirk played on the edge of my lips. “Give me five minutes, and I’ll have us plenty of shots.”

“This is why you’re the maid-of-honor,” she giggled, and she, too, glanced back at the bartender. “Ooh. He’s cute. You should get his number.”

“And he’s probably mid-twenties, if not early thirties,” Ori scoffed, and she glared at me. “Besides, you just broke up with your boyfriend, remember?”

Claire glared at the youngest triplet. “Weren’t you the one who insisted she drop the loser? Let her be free. She’s single again!”

I hated talking about Chance, but I loved thinking about what happened after I found him with that girl. It was still a bit hard to believe that actually happened—Luke Hemmings told me I was beautiful and deserved better—but it was a nice thought . . . until it became depressing.

So I guess Luke would always be a bittersweet memory.

Chance, however, was a jackass, undeniably so, but he was just the kinda thing I would end up with no matter what. Why try for something more when nothing more ever wanted me?

Say whatever you want, but any decent guy goes for the sweetheart with the bright green eyes and curly blonde hair. With a personality to match her beauty, she was the one good guys wanted.

Me? Hardly. One bright green eye, one bright blue—Elysian had bright blue eyes that matched my left eye—and dark brown curls . . . I was far from beautiful. Guys saw that, and they probably saw past the cocky persona I liked to put on.

Truth of the matter was, I had no confidence in myself, but you better believe I made people think I did.

Good guys didn’t look for cocky. They looked for beauty, and with Ori beside me, they didn’t have to look far.

I stood from the table and shot Ori a smirk, something that only made her roll those green eyes. “I’ll be back with shots.”

Claire squealed in delight and clapped her hands, and I barely heard her tell Ori something about the flowers they had designed together.

Maid-of-honor was officially given to me, but truthfully, Ori did more of the work. She helped plan the wedding. All I was good for was planning the party, and even that seemed kind of lacking.

If you spend your entire life living in Las Vegas, eventually, the party scene is lacking in excitement. Shots are all you can do to numb yourself of the pain of a boring existence you can’t escape.

Tonight was a bit different. Usually, I didn’t party with my sisters. Ori never partied, and Claire and I usually split when we got somewhere, especially when she brought her friends. It made it easier to “have fun” if you were by yourself, for me anyways.

We had different definitions of have fun, even still. I liked to dance. She liked to get drunk and fuck. For me, getting drunk wasn’t fun. Fucking . . . well, I wouldn’t actually know. I had never done it before.

The dress I wore was uncomfortable, but Claire begged me to wear it. Black leather . . . never again. Anything leather would never happen again, really, except maybe a leather jacket. Or some leather boots.

I leaned against the bar and gave him a reserved smirk, let my eyes meet his and captivate his attention. The bartender was probably within the age range Ori said, but I was hoping for mid-twenties. The closer in age I was to a person, the easier they were to sway.

“Hey there,” I said, and his brown eyes lit up in delight. “What’s a girl gotta do to get a bottle of your best vodka?”

A smile grew on his lips. “Give me her number?”

“She can’t.”

At the sound of the same Australian accent from earlier, I nearly passed out where I stood. I had to turn around to see him with my own eyes to believe it, and sure enough, there he stood.
Dressed in something more suited for clubbing than before, and no longer donning the sunglasses that hid those gorgeous blue eyes from me before, Luke Hemmings was behind me, biting down ever so delicately on his lip.

And the lip ring only accented the attractiveness of such a simple action.

I held my new Galaxy S5 up at him and smirked. “Got my new one, thank you.”

“Well, that’s lovely,” he said, and he leaned against the bar. “I have a bruise, so you’re aware.”

“Softie.”

Luke’s grin grew three times in size as he laugh, and the light that began shining in those eyes made my heart take off again. “Or maybe you’re stronger than you think.”

My eyebrows rose. “So what are you doing here anyways?”

“Well, I was here to try and have some fun, but now you’re here, and I wonder if I should go somewhere else instead,” he informed me.

“Don’t worry,” I said, and I bit down on my bottom lip. “I shouldn’t get too angry. I’m only helping a bunch of bridesmaids get so drunk that they’re up all night puking and look like hell at the wedding tomorrow.”

Luke’s eyebrows rose. “That’s actually really mean. Why would you do that?”

“Gotta be the best looking one there.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard,” he disagreed. “I think ruining the wedding is a bit much for something you so easily achieve.”

I fought back the urge to blush, though I wanted to. It wasn’t the first time someone complimented my appearance, but something about hearing it from Luke was different. It seemed like more than it probably was. Something about it felt real, like a guy actually telling me I was attractive who wasn’t trying to get me into bed.

Then again, as we stood here now . . . was that all he was doing?

"So I didn't realize you had tattoos," Luke observed, and his eyes weren't looking at my face anymore. They were looking over my arms, my shoulders, my legs . . . at the tattoos you could now see.

I smirked. "Well, I was wearing clothes before, so you couldn't see them."

"I think what you're wearing counts," he informed me.

I rolled my eyes. "To my sister. Me? Nah."

"You pull it off well."

“How’d you recognize me anyways?” I asked, and I cocked one eyebrow at him. “Don’t you meet, like, thousands of new people almost daily?”

“I think thousands is a bit of an exaggeration,” Luke said, and his lips pressed together while his eyes drifted away from me and towards the ceiling. “Unless it’s an actual concert night, when we do meet thousands of people.”

I laughed. “You know what I mean.”

“You stand out,” Luke said, voice much softer and no longer teasing. His eyes immediately connected with mine again as a soft smile began forming on his lips again. “You’re a face worth remembering.”

The blush actually came to my cheeks this time, and I kept my eyes low while it remained. It was humiliating enough that a boy with a pretty smile had me blushing, but I wasn’t going to let him see that.

But I couldn’t stop the smile his words brought to my face, even if I wanted to.

“I’m sure my eyes have nothing to do with it, right?”

“Actually, I knew it was you from behind,” he informed me, and the smile turned a bit smug. “What are the odds?”

I gave him a wry smile before turning back to the bartender. He didn’t look too thrilled, but he also didn’t try and hold back the liquor I asked for. Usually, bartenders checked my ID, figured out who I was, and gave it to me anyways.

Not this guy. He just gave me the bottle and went to someone else at the bar.

I immediately began trying to open the bottle. “I think you made him mad.”

“He’ll be alright,” Luke assured me, and he took the bottle from my hands the moment I showed signs of struggle. I was going to protest, but he got the lid off before I could. “There are plenty of women for him to hit on.”

“You could have any woman in this bar, and you take the one who was talking to him,” I said, giving him a smirk of my own. “I think he has a right to be mad.”

Luke shrugged. “Maybe I could have any woman in this bar, though I don’t actually think that’s entirely true. For argument’s sake, we’ll say it is. I only want one.”

My heart pounded against my ribcage at the very blunt statement. Normally, people weren’t so straightforward. This was definitely not the first time a guy tried to take me home, but that didn’t seem to be what Luke was doing either. With a coy smile and something glowing in his eyes, this felt like a guy talking to a girl in the most innocent way.

Neither of us were legally old enough to be here, so there was nothing innocent about it. Still, it felt innocent. This didn’t feel like a con to get me into bed.

“You should go find her before someone else does,” I said, but it was a poor attempt to rid myself of the things Luke was making me feel again. I didn’t need to feel those things because in the morning, I would wake up, and he would be gone. Even if I let myself get caught up in him for the night, I doubt I’d wake up with him beside me. Much less awkward that way.

Luke surprised me when he laughed. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Subtly put yourself down,” he said, and the humor vanished from his eyes as something else replaced it.

I cocked one eyebrow at him. “Who says I’m putting myself down? Maybe I’m just trying to let you off easy.”

“From what I gather, you’re not that gentle.”

Notes

The lyrics in the description are from Don't Stop. :)

So this is another one of my chapters. You've now met Ori, however. She has a chapter starting with chapter 3. My sister isn't comfortable with party scenes, so I decided to write the first couple of chapters. She comes in with chapter 3.

Thank you guys for the comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the prologue. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

Eris is a new type of character for me. I'm used to writing shy characters, but she's not like that. She's different, so this is a lot of fun for me.

You can check out Eris and Ori's outfits here: Eris, and Ori

Let us know what you guys think of the chapter. :)