Читать книгу What Happens In Vegas... - Lauren Dane - Страница 7

I couldn’t believe my luck. First a nut flush draw that had become a straight flush on the turn, then Carinna’s agreeing to my every fantasy. True, she hadn’t agreed yet, but she would. With the cards showing on the table, she couldn’t beat me, and that meant I was as good as fucked in all the best ways.

I’d been convinced she hated me after the way I’d walked out on her four months ago. The lame excuse I’d given about responding to a fire had obviously been enough to pacify her. But it had been an excuse. The only fire I’d gone up against that night had been the one burning in my gut with the realization I’d fallen hard for Carinna. I’d always known I loved her, but until that night I hadn’t realized how far beyond friendship it went.

I’d lost my father to fast-burning flames and had seen too many others lose their loved ones the same way to consider a relationship while working full-time as a firefighter, so I’d bolted from her bed. And paid the price of knowing she’d been screwing some other guy for the past few months. A guy that my brother, Ryan, had informed me Carinna had kicked to the curbside just this morning.

I couldn’t have asked for better timing.

A lucky run of cards had recently allowed me to turn my poker hobby into something more serious. Tonight I was playing for fun. Every day for the past week and a half, I’d gone up against some of the biggest names in the game. With four days left to go in the tournament, I was third in the chips lead. If I could hang on to a top-five position, I’d finish high enough in the money to turn my career focus onto starting up the classic car restoration garage I’d dreamed of for years and my personal focus on making Carinna mine permanently.

My cock had been hard since Carinna had joined the table and sent me her sultry smile. It gave an anxious twitch now, over the thought of having her again. And again and again. All that stood in the way of losing myself in her lush body tonight was a futile river card; all that stood in the way of making her mine in the long run was her cast-iron commitment issue.

Pulling my mind above my belt, I concentrated on the unfolding hand.

The aging dealer was looking at us like we were a couple of half-wits. He spoke slowly. “You can’t make a side bet when you’re the only two playing, or with a player who has all of their chips in play.”

I glanced back at Carinna and gave her a quick perusal of her ample cleavage, hugged to testosterone-tormenting perfection in a navel-baring tank top. Lifting my attention to her face, I found she still held on to the remnants of the X-rated smile she’d flashed me moments ago. Out of respect for her job with The Liege, I relied on a naughty smile of my own to convey that we’d work out the finer points of the side bet later.

I nodded at the dealer. “Sorry. I was joking about the side bet.”

The old guy continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Now, you both need to turn your cards over.”

I almost snorted over the way he was babying us, probably two of the most skilled players in the room. Instead, I looked back down the table at Carinna. Her grin covered the lower half of her face, her full, sensual lips tinted with pink. She slipped her tongue out, moistening the soft flesh and my cock throbbed with the memory of my own tongue lapping at another area of her body that was just as soft and moist and pink.

The thought of her warm pussy sucking at my tongue had me returning to that fateful night four months ago. I wished it hadn’t taken her father’s passing to bring us together and show me our intertwined destiny, but, hell, her old man owed her for the way he’d messed with her head about relationships being the devil’s handiwork, so maybe in a twisted way his death bringing us together was a latent form of justice.

With Carinna’s husky laughter, I returned to the present to see she’d uncovered pocket queens. She flashed a cocky grin. “Sorry, Jack. But you can’t win ’em all.”

I let out a low whistle, almost feeling sorry for her. Almost. I couldn’t feel too bad for a woman I planned to spend the night providing with ecstasy. “Four ladies. Nice. But you’re right. You can’t win them all.” I turned my hold cards over, revealing the ten and jack of spades. “But you put up an admirable fight.”

Her cocky grin faded to an appreciative smile, as the dealer turned the river card: the seven of diamonds. “Still got the touch, Dempsey.”

While the rest of the players at the table congratulated me and shared their sympathies with her, I shot Carinna a wicked grin that said she would find out before the night was through just how good my touch still was. My hunger for her reflected in my voice as I said, “What can I say? Some things never die.”

“They just get better with time.” The sap who was sitting next to her, weighted down by ten pounds of gold jewelry, intruded on our conversation.

Carinna gave the guy another of the fake-as-hell smiles I’d seen her aim his way earlier. Raking in my chips, I didn’t bother with a smile but gave him a look of displeasure.

I played three more hands of cards, so as not to piss off the rest of the players by winning and running, then changed in my small chips for a short rack of fifties and hundreds. Carinna had stayed to watch the last few hands. I took that as a good sign. Grabbing the chip rack, I stood from my seat and moved behind hers.

Past the stench of cigar smoke, her scent hit me, a vanilla musk undercoated with something sweet and sexual that had my already stiff-as-stone cock ready to burst from behind the zipper of my jeans. “I’m taking off. Want to join me for a drink in the bar?”

“And spend time in my favorite place on my day off?” She pushed back her chair and stood. At five foot nine, she was a handful of inches shorter than me and right now her lips were so close it took almost more willpower than I had to resist their lure.

I lifted my gaze to her eyes to find their typically gray shade turned to smoke—a sure sign she was hot for me. Blowing out a breath, she pushed a tangle of wayward brown curls over her shoulder. She hated how thick and uncontrollable her hair was. I loved it, and my fingers itched with the need to get wrapped up in it. All it would take was a yes…

Finally, she said, “What the hell. I could use a drink after having my ladies dusted.”

Resisting the urge to punch my fist into the air, I made my way out of the poker room, cashed in my chips and followed Carinna as she headed toward the tequila bar.

Damn, the woman had an erotic sway to her hips. Each bounce of her curvy ass beneath her tight black jeans had my cock jumping against my zipper, ready to push between her supple butt cheeks and explode.

Unlike Carinna, I hadn’t indulged in sex since we’d been together. If I was going to be the orgasm guru she remembered, I had to get my mind on something other than fucking her in the ass. “I was surprised to see you in the card room.”

Without breaking stride, she lifted a slim, naturally golden-tan shoulder. “I’ve played poker on Wednesday nights since I was twelve. I wasn’t going to stop just because we were too wrapped up in life to find time to play together.”

“You’ve been coming here since I left…” I droned off with an inward groan. She’d boxed up the past four months of virtually no talk into a neat little “no time to play” package and I’d been about to unwrap that package to reveal a mess of shit.

Carinna stopped walking to turn back. Her astute look said she knew what I’d been going to say. The way her hip jutted out said she wasn’t as fine with my leaving and not calling for three days as she’d led me to believe. “I’ve been playing with the girls. Tonight I wanted fresh competition.”

“And instead you got me,” I teased, hoping to lighten the conversation.

Her gaze lost the shrewd edge. The heat I’d witnessed in her eyes at the poker table returned as she swiveled back and started walking. She might not be as fine with my departure as she’d let on, but she was glad I’d been in that card room tonight. Damned glad she was going to get me time and again before the night was through.

I resumed walking as a fresh wave of sexual adrenaline cruised through my bloodstream. Ten steps before she would have opened the frosted glass doors of the tequila bar to release the steamy beat of Latin music, I quickened my pace and walked past both her and the bar’s entrance. Almost instantly, her fingers curled around my upper arm, sending shards of heat dancing up to my shoulder. She tugged and, ignoring the curious looks of the passersby, I let her pull me around.

Her lips pushed into a sexy little mew. “I thought we agreed to a drink?”

Carinna never pouted. That she was doing so now, coupled with her potential ongoing anger over my actions four months ago, gave me hope it was more than sex she wanted from me. Of course, sex was the starting point. That being the case, I gave her a smug smile and went for it. “We can have a drink. Or you can get started on paying off that side bet the way I know your juicy-wet pussy is aching for you to do.”

A hot puff of air shot from between her lips. Her eyes narrowed. For a second, I thought I’d read her wrong, that she didn’t want me. Then she grabbed my other arm and pushed me hard up against the wall, her breasts rubbing my chest while her thigh moved between my legs to press none too gently against the swollen bulge of my cock.

“I have four words for you, you arrogant bastard.” A feline smile of elation took over her mouth. “Your bed or mine?”