“We were so distracted,” I said. “You never told me why you came all the way here.”
“Because I wanted to apologize. And I wanted to win you over. And tell you that the closer you got to me, the harder I pushed you away. I kept repeating these reasons why I couldn’t be in a relationship, and they were great reasons until we met. When you came along, it all changed. None of the reasons held water anymore, and that? It scared me. I fought for those reasons as if my life depended on it. But, tiny dancer, I’m sorry. My life doesn’t depend on protecting what I have unless I have you.”
Our clasped hands rested on my knee. His thumb ran along my finger.
“And I had an idea,” he added.
“What kind of idea?”
“The kind you don’t need now. Get down here.”
I took his face in my hands, but my face couldn’t reach his from up so high. Leaning on his shoulders, I pushed forward. He held me at the waist and lifted me, holding me up and dropping me in the circle of his arms.
Our lips found each other. He was warm and strong, and I was free to love him.
CHAPTER 66
CARTER
“It’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard in my life.” Emily sat across from me in a corner of the Bellagio VIP lounge, the stiletto on her crossed leg dangling from her toe. Her dress flowed over her thighs, covering everything I wanted to taste. The color had surprised me when I saw it. She called it “spite white.” Her blonde hair was up in a twist, and I was going to put bite marks on her shoulders by morning. “It never would have worked.”
Emily’s legs had tensed into pure tight muscle, and when she crossed them I got the sense she could wrap them around a second time.
Those legs around me . . .
“Now it doesn’t have to. Now you should just do it because you should.”
“Go onstage with a voice I haven’t trained in God knows how long?”
When she put her hands on her hips and thrust those bitable shoulders at me, the neck of her dress puckered until I saw a lavender bra.
“You sounded amazing this afternoon. And you’ll sound amazing tomorrow night.”
“Darlene would have never agreed to it.”
The lounge had the best of everything. Colored glass flowers and gold furniture. Wool rug. The waitstaff didn’t waste a second refilling wineglasses. I sat up on the leather chair and put my glass on the stainless table.
“She already did.” I took her by the back of the neck and pulled her close. “Why do you think she put you in front of a mic today?”
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
“You sneaky bastard.” She whispered it with a sexy inflection on each first syllable. She was warming to the idea. “Why would you do that?”
“Because when I had the plan, it was about Vince. And when they caught Vince, I was disappointed you wouldn’t sing.” I pushed her knee until she uncrossed her legs. “You deserve to be heard, and the world deserves your talent.” My hand went up her skirt to the lace tops of her stockings. “And it might be fun. And it would turn me on.”
“Carter, I have a room. We . . .”
I touched skin over the stockings, kept her face to mine as my fingers found lace between her legs. “What are you wearing under here?”
“I had the bag . . . uh . . . in the car . . .”
I ran my fingernail over the texture of her panties. She was wet already.
“Open your legs. Just a little more.”
I pressed my knee against hers, opening her up so I could get past the strip of fabric. Her eyelids flicked closed; her lips parted so her tongue could flick over them.
“Let’s go upstairs.”
“Sure.” But I didn’t stand. Behind us, the business of the lounge went on as I got one finger under and stroked her pussy. My own breaths went ragged. “After I get inside you.” I slid a finger in. She looked as if she was going to burst.
“Can we go now?”
“Two fingers.”
“I can’t . . .”
I pressed her leg open a little wider.
“You can.” Middle and index fingers. If she thought she was about to come, I wasn’t far behind. My cock throbbed at the base. I drove my fingers deep inside her and bent them, looking for the bundle of nerves at . . .
She hitched a little.
Found it. She grabbed my sleeve as if hanging on for dear life.
“What floor are you on?”
I didn’t stop the motions of my fingers or even slow down. We were so close I heard the workings of her throat. She had to breathe and swallow before she could tell me.
“Twenty-five.”
“So far. Do you want to come now?”
She opened her big brown eyes. They knotted between the brows. “If you keep doing that, I will.”
“What if I do this?”
I rubbed her clit with my thumb. She hissed through her teeth.
Her thigh muscles went rigid; her body fought itself to move and not move at the same time. I kissed her to anchor her face, but she didn’t have enough control to kiss me back.
When she was done, I pulled my fingers out of her. She gulped air.
“You all right?”
She fixed her hair and looked around the room. I put my hand to my mouth. My fingers smelled like her pussy. I didn’t think I was going to make it up the elevator.
CHAPTER 67
EMILY
When he put his fingers near his lips, the orgasm I’d had seconds before shrank to nothing, and I twitched for another. He was looking at me so intensely I had to look away, and of course I chose to look down, where his erection was stretching the seam inside his pants leg.
“Can we go?” I asked.
He stood and held out his hand. I took it, expecting to go up to my room. Instead, he guided me out to the casino, away from the elevators.
“Where are we going?”
He showed me his temporary security access badge.
“I don’t get it.”
“I do.”
Left at the carpet. Past the cashier. Against the wall and down a short hall was a door. Putting his card under the light, it beeped and clicked.
He opened the door for me.
“Let me show you where to go if there’s a problem.”
We walked into another hallway. After the dim lights and excited bells of the casino, the world behind the door was flat, bright, and quiet. He showed his card to a guard behind a grate, was buzzed through another door, had a short conversation about exit strategies, turned another corner, pulled me through a door, and shut it behind him.
The room went black except for a white light coming from a box on a shelf at his elbow. Inside it, an iPad, a laptop, headphones, and a porno DVD were all wrapped in plastic and labeled. The light came from a cell phone with its flashlight left on.