Desert Heat (Complete)
Desert Nightmare Chapter 17

{Vivienne’s P.O.V.}

“Mon Coeur, wake up,” I heard a sexy voice wake me from my slumber. “Come on, baby, it’s time to get up,”

“Ten more minutes, s’il vous plait,” I g*****d and turned over hugging the pillow. I heard a light chuckle and then felt a k**s on my cheek.

“Come on beautiful, we need to hurry and meet everyone,” I felt someone lifting me from the bed.

“Nooo,” I whined and fought against whoever was holding me.

“My goddess, you definitely are not a morning person,” I heard the sexy voice say. I finally opened my eyes and found J.D. staring at me.

“Mon loup, it is too early,”

“Mon Coeur, it’s almost 10:30, and we have to meet everyone by eleven. We already missed breakfast. Everyone is already up and ready to get the day started. Remember, we’re supposed to all hang out on the strip today,”

“I would much rather sleep in your arms,” J.D. chuckled again and placed me on the bathroom counter. I leaned my head back against the mirror and wanted to sleep some more. I watched as he turned on the shower for me, and I realized just then that he was wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. Seeing his muscular backside immediately made my legs quiver, and I felt the wetness drip from me.

“Viv, stop thinking dirty,” he said while he checked the temperature of the water. He turned back around and gave me a smirk. He helped me down from the counter and kissed my forehead before leaving me alone in the bathroom. I got rid of my pajamas, and quickly took a shower. When I was done, I wrapped a towel around my body, and one in my hair. I did my morning routine and went back out into the room.

“Mon loup, have you seen my bag?”

“It’s right here,” he said and picked it up from the other side of the bed. I quickly found my panties, a halter top, and some shorts. I went back into the bathroom and changed. I decided to just let my hair air dry since it was naturally straight. When I finished changing, I went back to the room, grabbed some socks, and my favorite flat booties. I quickly did some light makeup and packed up my bag, and crossbody Chanel with my phone, wallet, lipstick, and sunglasses.

“Are you ready, mon coeur?”

“Oui, mon loup, I am ready,” I said and took one last look around to make sure I did not forget anything. I took J.D.’s hand, and we went to meet everyone down in the lobby.

“Damn, took you guys long enough!” Allie shouted at us.

“Je suis désolé, Allie, I woke up late,”

“This girl is a heavy sleeper,” J.D. said squeezing my hand as I glared at him.

“Vivienne has always been a heavy sleeper. I am honestly surprised she finished college,” my brother said.

“Tais-toi, Andre!” (Shut up, Andre!) I shouted at him and scowled making him laugh, and J.D. kissed the top of my head.

“Alright, boys, let’s leave the bags with the bellhop while we have some fun on the strip,” Allie said. All of the boys went to the bellhop to drop off our bags, and when they came back, we all headed out. This was my first time in America, let alone in Las Vegas, so I was excited to be a tourist.

“Oh my gosh!” one of the girls shouted and we all turned to look at her.

“What’s wrong Cianna?” Allie asked.

“Lacie is finally old enough to go inside the casino and drink!!!” she shouted.

“Lacie, how old are you?” I asked her.

“I turned 21 in February,” she replied.

“You are so young, and you are married with a baby,”

“Yeahhh…Life of a shifter,” she responded and smiled while holding her husband’s hand.

“Lacie, remember the last time you and I were on the strip together?” Cianna asked.

“Oh god, I was helping Deacon and his brothers avoid my sister, and then we got stranded,” Lacie answered.

“That was the day we both met our mates too. I can’t believe how long ago that was!”

“Lacie joined our pack that day too,” Allie said. “Who would have thought that we all would all be here right now?” she asked everyone.

“I sure didn’t,” Lacie replied.

“Our lives have definitely changed in the last year and a half,” one of the Yellow Moon alphas said. I still cannot tell the difference between them but seeing their mates next to them makes it easy.

“Alright, so since most of us have been here, or at least live here, we’re going to do whatever Vivienne wants to do,” Allie said. “Is everyone okay with that?” everyone nodded.

“What? Why me?”

“Because you’ve never been to America before, and your first place to visit, is Sin City, where almost everything is open 24 hours, and s**t costs too much money,” she said.

“Well, I have always wanted to see the fountains at Bellagio. My friends back home have told me it is fun to watch the water dance to music,”

“That doesn’t start until the afternoon, so we can table that for later,” Allie responded. “What else have you wanted to always do if you ever came to Las Vegas,”

“Oh, I have always wanted to go on the roller coaster at the New York New York hotel,”

“Oh, you like roller coasters?!” Allie clapped her hands.

“I love roller coasters,” I replied.

“YESSS!!! YOU’RE MY MAIN b***h!!!” she screamed at me and hugged me. “The only other girls here who like them are Dani and Sam,”

“Really? I would think that everyone likes roller coasters,” I said looking at everyone else. All of the girls shook their heads.

“Nope, even some of the guys don’t like to go on them,” she replied and locked arms with me as we made our way to the New York New York hotel. “Even Dorian doesn’t go on it,”

“Quoi? But he is an Alpha,” I say and look at Dorian who just shrugs his shoulders.

“He’s a big baby when it comes to s**t like this,”

“Mon loup, do you go on roller coasters?” I asked J.D.

“Nope, I don’t like my head being whipped around like that,” I gasped, and looked at him in shock and he just smiled.

“Oh mon Dieu, is that the M&M store across the street?” I asked a little too excitedly.

“Do you like M&M’s?” Allie asked.

“C’est oui! It is my favorite candy! Can we please go there after we go on the roller coaster?”

“We can go anywhere you want,” she replied. I jumped excitedly like a little girl. We walked into the hotel and went upstairs to go on the roller coaster ride. I was shocked when I saw that we had to pay. I thought it was a free attraction, but I was wrong. Allie was kind enough to pay for everyone that wanted to ride, and thankfully, the line was not very long.

“Baby, me and the guys are going to go gamble some, link me when you guys are done,” Dorian said to her.

“Okay,” I watched as she gave him a sweet k**s.

“Mon Coeur, I’m going to go with Dorian and the others, you have fun,”

“I will, thank you mon loup,” he kissed me as well before leaving me with Allie, Sam, Dani, Cianna, and Lucian. The line went down pretty fast and the next thing I knew, we were in front of the gates waiting to get on.

“Vivienne, sit with me in the front,” Allie said, and I quickly agreed. “Oh, Viv, have you ever gone bungee jumping?”

“Non, but I have always wanted to try,” I tell her with a smile.

“I’m going to have to take you to the Stratosphere,”

“Hey! Take us too!” Dani shouted from two spaces behind us.

“We will have to make a separate trip since the Strat is on the opposite side of the strip. We won’t have time to go today, and I don’t think the others are going to want to wait for us to jump off of a building,” Allie said.

“You guys are crazy!” Lucian shouted. “This s**t is scary enough as it is,”

“Luci, you are a soon to be 29-year-old grown man, and you are afraid of this!?” Allie says pointing to the roller coaster ride.

“Yes, dammit! And I’m not afraid to admit it!” he shouted back making all of us laugh. Finally, the ride came back, and it was our turn. I was so giddy and excited. Allie and I quickly sat down and put the restraints on and waited. This was going to be so much fun.

—————

When the ride came to an end, I was laughing from pure joy and adrenaline. I wanted to go on again, but I also really wanted to go to the M&M store. We got off and made our way towards the back to leave.

“Alright, who the f**k was screaming like a little girl!?” Allie asked looking a everyone. Cianna immediately pointed to Lucian and we all died laughing at him.

“None of you can tell my brothers what you witnessed!”

“I’m so going to tell Lucianna when she gets older,” Allie said.

“Who is Lucianna?” I asked

“She’s our daughter. She’s only a few months old, so we left her with our Beta and Gamma to watch her while we came down here for Lacie’s wedding,” Cianna answered. I made an O shape with my mouth, and we headed out. We stopped at the photo booth that showed our photos from the ride, and as soon as we saw Lucian’s face, we all died laughing again.

“Oh my god, Cianna, buy that, please buy that and give us copies!!” Allie all but shouted.

“SHORTY! DON’T DO THAT ME!!” Lucian exclaimed making us laugh even harder.

“I want to buy my mine with Allie, is it the first memory I will have,” I said and asked the salesperson to print the photo. I quickly paid for it. We went back down the casino to replace the others.

“Knowing Dorian, he’s probably at the three card poker table with Lucas,” Allie said.

“J.D. is probably with him then,” I replied.

“My brothers are into blackjack, so Cici and I will go replace them,” Lucian said, and they went in a different direction.

“Andre prefers high limit slots, so I’m going to go look for him,” Dani said and walked off as well. Allie, Sam, and I went to go replace our guys, and sure enough, they were at the three card poker table as Allie said.

“Are we allowed to sit with them?”

“You can stand behind them while they play, but you can’t say or do anything,” Allie said, and I nodded my head. We stood behind our mates, and Allie rested her arm on Dorian’s shoulder. I figured that was okay, so I did the same and just watched. I didn’t know much about this game, so I was confused. I could tell by the stack of chips in front of J.D. he was doing okay, at least I hoped he was.

“Allie, how much are they betting?” I asked her.

“Ummm…This table is minimum $10 with a max bet of $2,000, and based on the colored chips, I would say J.D. and Lucas are betting the minimum while Dorian is betting at the max,”

“Doran is betting $2,000 per hand?!”

“He always bets max,” she says to me and I am in shock. We watched intently, and I saw J.D.’s stack of chips getting smaller then bigger, then smaller and then bigger. After a while, J.D. stopped playing and got up from the table. I watched as he gave his stack of chips to the dealer who then gave him a smaller stack in return.

“What did you do?” I asked him.

“Oh, it’s called cashing out. I give my big stack of chips, in smaller denominations to the dealer, and she gives me larger denomination chips in return, so I don’t have to carry too many and potentially lose some,”

“Oh, did you win or lose?” I asked him carefully.

“I’m up by five hundred, so I figured I would stop,”

“Oh that’s good,” he smiled and hugged me. I just loved the amount of affection J.D. gave me. After a moment, we heard shouting at the table, and Lucas was pumping his fist in the air.

“Babe! Stop playing and cash out!” Sam shouted.

“Hell yeah, I’m going to cash out!” Lucas shouted. J.D. and I walked to his side of the table.

“Nice man!” J.D. said to him and gave him a huge high five.

“What is it? What happened?” I asked.

“Lucas hit a full house and just doubled the amount of money he started with,”

“Oh, that is très Magnifique,” I replied and watched as Lucas changed out his chips as well. We waited a little while longer because Dorian was still playing.

“f**k, we’re going to be here a while,” J.D. said.

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“Dorian is winning, and that fucker plays until he loses all his money, or wins really big,”

“Oh,” I frowned because I really wanted to go to the M&M store.

“Hey, Dorian is going to be a while, you guys go ahead and cash your chips, and go replace the others. We will meet you at the M&M store,” Allie said almost as if she read my mind. We all nodded and went to go replace the others. Thankfully, all of them had finished playing, mostly because they lost all of their money. I was so excited to go to the M&M store that I just could hide my excitement from everyone.

“Damn, you must really love M&M’s,” Sam said to me.

“What is there not to love? Chocolate coated in candy, in all different colors, with peanuts, almonds, peanut butter, and all other sorts of goodness,” I said with my mouth salivating.

“Hey, I’m with her on that one, M&M’s are the bomb,” the girl with pink hair said.

“Evelyn, you only say that about the M&M store because they have pink M&M’s,” the girl with purple hair said.

“I wouldn’t talk Eileen, you always pick out the purple skittles,” Evelyn said back to her. The two of them started to argue back and forth as we crossed the street. I didn’t even wait for J.D. When I saw an opening, I ran into the store. When I saw what was before me, I thought I had died and went to candy heaven. There were so many different things that all had to do with M&M’s. Shirts, cups, mugs, backpacks, purses, candy bars, a giant race car, towels, blankets, key chains, you name it, it was in the store. What really caught my attention was the dispensers of all the different colors of M&M’s.

I quickly grabbed a plastic bag and started to fill it up with all the different colors and flavors,

“Whoa, hold on there, beautiful,” J.D. said and took the bag from me.

“J.D., what are you doing?!”

“Mon Coeur, don’t buy too much because we still have the entire day ahead of us, you don’t want it to melt before we get home,”

“But, but…” he gave one stern look and I pouted while nodding my head.

“We’ll come back, it’s not like the store is going anywhere,” he said and cupped my cheeks. “Now, only get two pounds of candy, okay? That should be plenty to last you until we make it back here,”

“Fine,” I said and took my bag back. Everyone grabbed their own bag and started to fill up their share of candy. Once I got my two pounds as J.D. allowed, I sealed the bag, and decided to go look around the store some more. I realized that there was a second floor and went upstairs and found more things that I wanted. I picked up a plastic bottle that was filled with regular M&M’s but seeing that I already had two pounds worth in my hand, I knew J.D. would not allow me to get it. So, put it back, and picked up a green souvenir cup instead.

I walked around some more, and found the cutest pajama set and decided to get one in blue, as well as a grey tank top and short set. I also ended up getting a couple of head wraps, and hair ties. I finally went back downstairs, and looked for J.D,

“Oh, there you are,” he said when he saw me coming to him. “Where did you go? And what the hell do you have in your hands?” I couldn’t help but giggle at this expression.

“I went upstairs and picked a few other items I wanted to have,” I said to him.

“Okay, you really are obsessed with M&M’s,”

“Is there something wrong with that?”

“No, I think it’s cute,” he said with a smile and kissed the side of my head.

“Have Allie and Dorian come in yet?” I asked.

“Yeah, they just got here. Allie is buying candy too, apparently, she loves sweets as much as you do. Dorian had to limit her to two pounds also,” I laughed at what he said. “Come on, let’s pay for all of this,”

“I can pay for the clothes, you can pay for the candy,”

“Give me your stuff mon Coeur, this is your first time at the store, so let me spoil you,” I smiled and nodded at his gesture. Thankfully, it did not cost too much to get everything. As soon as he handed me the shopping bag, I pulled out the baggie of candy and started to eat it.

“Don’t eat too much baby, Allie made reservations at a Brazilian steakhouse for us at five o’clock. I don’t want you to ruin your appetite,”

“I won’t, I promise,” I replied and popped a few candies in my mouth.

“Princess! Did you seriously only get purple M&M’s!?” I turned around and saw I believe it was Apollo staring at the baggie and Eileen was just smiling.

“See, at least I get different colors and flavors,” I say to J.D. who takes a handful of candies and eats them as well.

“Dude, I don’t know who is worse, Allie or Vivienne,” Dorian said walking out with two full bags.

“What the f**k dude?” J.D. pointed at the bags and started to laugh.

“Allie had to buy clothes for the twins,” Dorian said making us laugh. “And she ended up with three pounds of candy instead of two. She said that one pound is for the twins to split,” Dorian added and rolled his eyes.

“I saw that!” Allie shouted as she came up to us at the door.

“Alright, if we’re all done with buying candy, let’s keep sightseeing,” J.D. said. I linked my arm with him, and thankfully, we were heading in the direction of the Bellagio. Allie said that the fountains have already started, so when we got there, we decided to wait for the next show to start.

I took out my phone and took some photos like a tourist normally would, and even took some selfies with J.D. I felt a little shy taking photos like this with him, but then I saw that everyone was taking photos and selfies with their mates. It made me happy to see that I am not the only one who likes to take pictures and selfies.

When the show started, it was actually playing my favorite song of all time, Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On. I recorded a video of the show and was so mesmerized by how the water just moved to the music. It was so smooth and elegant, almost as if it was dancing. The smoke effects were a great touch to it as well. I was lost in a trance watching the fountains. Suddenly, at the highlight of the song, the fountains spouted so high and powerfully that I couldn’t help but gasp at the beauty and serenity of it all. The entire time, J.D. was holding me from behind and resting his chin on top of my head. This was definitely very romantic even in the middle of the afternoon.

This day could not get any better.