Call My Bluff: A Las Vegas Themed Anthology

by Elizabeth Knox

  I didn’t fight the involuntary grin that curved my lips. It would have been an impossible battle. I was happy. It was absurd, but I was. I wanted to ride this, and him, out for the week. When the job was done, he would go on his way, and I would have some choices to make about my own future.

  He stepped into my space, towering over me, and handed me one of the thin stemmed glasses.

  Then he blew my socks off.

  The large hand that had held delicate crystal between its fingers only seconds before, wrapped around the back of my head and yanked my face up to meet his.

  I wasn’t sure that I succeeded in preventing my wine from sloshing over, but I was convinced that in that moment, with his lips moving over mine, promising me so much more, I honestly didn’t give that first fuck.

  He devoured me, his mouth moving over mine until I forgot. Forgot we were in a room with over a hundred other people. Forgot about my nemesis, and I still didn’t know why she was my nemesis. Forgot my plans to enjoy him, but not get attached. I forgot every single thing except the way his mouth moved over mine.

  An eternity later, he slowed his beautiful, incredibly masterful assault on my senses, and pulled back. There was a breath between us, just that. His lips curved, his eyes lit, and I felt a pang in my chest that I’d never felt in quite the same way before.

  My hand lifted to cover my breast to rub at the pain of something I couldn’t identify. His eyes caught sight of it, and he reached out and lifted my hand to his mouth, holding my gaze intently as he brushed it with the softest of kisses.

  I was in so much trouble.

  His intensity lessened, never dying away completely, as he rested his forehead against mine, and slowly our surroundings sank in.

  Ragged breathing to my left drew first my gaze, and then his. I felt his body stiffen, but it was a jerk of surprise. He lifted to his full height and turned assessing eyes on the other woman for seconds before he spoke a single syllable, “Nat.” His tone of voice was neutral and gave not a thing away.

  Then he turned his attention back to me, and I watched as his posture loosened, and his face lost its severity.

  He bent again and brushed a kiss to my nose before standing and tossing me a wink saying, “You better drink that wine, Baby Doll. I have plans for you as soon as this game is over.”

  Then he turned and walked back to the table.

  An older man had his eyes on her, this woman Nick had called Nat. They were shrewd, and they weren’t happy. They trailed Nick and then briefly flicked over my face before returning back to her.

  The announcer requested all players back at the table for the second half of round one, and the man dropped his gaze and stalked to the table. His fists clenched and unclenched as his jaw ticked. Whatever all of this was about, it didn’t look good.

  The last ten hands went by fairly quickly, and not long after I’d tipped up my glass for a final sip, they were done and announcing the winners.

  Nick won his table, the man who’d looked so frustrated won his table, and eight others were declared winners of the night.

  Nick didn’t so much as glance at the blonde as he stalked in my direction, making me feel like prey once more. I recovered quickly, though, just thinking about that kiss he’d laid on me.

  I surprised myself at the giggle that left my lips, a girlish sound that I wasn’t sure I’d ever made before. Another time I’d give in to the embarrassment, but right in that moment, the only thing I felt was excitement and white-hot heat.

  He crashed into me, careful not to take me off my feet and buried his face in my neck, nipping lightly. He gave an answering laugh at my shiver and lifted, spinning me in the opposite direction and speed walking us out of the room.

  The elevator doors slid shut behind us, but he paid no attention, backing me into the wall and ravishing me. Neither of us noticed as the doors slid open once more until someone cleared their throat. I groaned and dropped my head on his shoulder when I saw who it was. Of course. Nat and her date.

  Nick chuckled darkly and nipped at my lobe before gesturing to the panel on the wall and saying, “Go ahead, Fred. I got a little distracted.”

  After Fred pressed the button to their floor and slid his card, letting me know that somehow, we’d gotten the not so great honor of sharing the same floor with them, he awkwardly cleared his throat and then offered his hand in my direction. My hands were still firmly buried under Nick’s suit jacket, so I had no choice but to release my grip with one hand and hold it out. Nick wasn’t moving, his face buried back in the curve of my neck as he did something that should be illegal there. Something that made the whole situation uncomfortable and bizarre.

  We lightly shook, and I awkwardly gave a small wave saying, “Nice to meet you.”

  Nick snorted in my neck, and Fred cracked a smile.

  Nat stood, arms crossed, and anger radiating from her every pore.

  Whatever.

  Ten years later, the elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Nick brushed a soft kiss to the spot where he’d been busy seconds before, and I tried to turn the moan into a cough.

  I knew the rat was laughing because as he turned to drag me from the elevator, hello caveman, his shoulders shook. I didn’t bother to look back as we walked to the end of the hall, and he dug out his key to slide in the lock.

  I was steps into the living room of our suite when he slammed the door, shed his jacket, and snagged my hand, yanking me back to him before I’d even had a chance to breathe.

  His mouth covered mine, and I was a goner. In record time, my dress was bunched on the floor. In the heated madness of our foreplay, I tried to reach for my thigh highs to shove them down and kick off the shoes, but he stopped me, “Nu-uh. They stay.”

  My thighs clenched, and I pounced. The momentum of my bodyweight crashing into his knocked him off balance, and we landed on the couch. I didn’t even slow down.

  Desperate hands tore at his tie until I’d pulled it free, then slid to his buttons. I had never wanted a man so badly in my life, and I was in a hurry for all the teasing to pay off.

  He chuckled as my fingers fumbled on his shirt buttons and his teased lightly over my skin. Every place he touched sparked the fire inside me higher and higher. When he lifted to shove out of his shirt and my apex ground into his hard, rigid length. I moaned and almost climaxed where I sat.

  He shed his shirt and wrapped his arms around me, unclasping my bra and pulling it down my arms. He tossed it aside, and leaning forward, his teeth closed lightly over my nipple.

  I came hard, keening, and wrapped up in all that was him.

  The orgasm hadn’t even left me yet when he bucked his hips up and got enough momentum to flip us and grind himself against me. I moaned loudly again. The quivers hadn’t left me from my first orgasm when he started building another in me.

  He nipped, nibbled, and licked his way from nipple to nipple and then blazed a trail further south.

  A lifetime later, he came hard, and so did I.

  It was number five for me.

  I’d had more orgasms in one long night of fucking a stranger than I’d had combined in my entire life by a hand other than my own.

  I couldn’t find the energy to climb off of him and go to my own bed. I worried he would think that I was reading more into this than I actually was. I worried right up until I passed out, sweaty, hot, breathless, and exhausted, draped over his chest.

  Thigh highs and pencil-thin heels still strapped firmly on my feet.

  Chapter Six

  Tuesday

  If I’d had the time to dwell on it, I would have worried about my every move, probably retreated into myself and become an awkward mess, but Nick was a master at this.

  At least with me.

  Instead, I woke up at half-past two in the afternoon, to a smack stinging my ass and a question that should have embarrassed me into silence, instead of making me giggle myself stupid. “Did my monster dick hurt you?”

  And that’s how I en
ded up laughing my ass off, laying naked on top of a high roller card player who’d hired me to be his escort for a series of card games and was related to my boss.

  I nuzzled into him, again without thinking, and answered honestly, “I haven’t moved yet, but I imagine I’ll walk a little funny at first. I can’t even remember the last time I had sex, much less pulled an all-nighter.”

  His arms wrapped tight around me and squeezed. Warmth spread through me, but it wasn’t the warmth of too much wine and a libido on fire like it’d been last night, this time, it was, as strange as it seemed, affection and happiness.

  He brushed a kiss to the top of my head and squeezed once more saying, “Well, let’s get my girl a shower and some food then we’ll see what we can do to get you limber and ready for round two.”

  And somehow, this had become my life. Joking about sex with a man that, in a perfect world, I would want for myself. Instead, he was a man that would make an indelible mark on my life, and I’d be lucky to make the cliff notes of his.

  I bit that thought back and promised myself that I would have plenty of time to pull out my dented and scratched up heart when he moved on with his life and left this memory behind.

  I got another squeeze, and his voice sounded like he was concerned when he prompted, “Baby Doll? You alright?”

  I lifted my head and faked a grin. He didn’t know me, not really, so surely, he wouldn’t know it was fake, brittle and surface deep.

  I had a sinking feeling that he could and did, as he took in every nuance of my expression, and his face lost the playfulness and became serious.

  I was terrified that he would read what I wasn’t really good at hiding, and we would have to have the humiliating conversation where he reminded me that this was just an interlude and nothing more.

  I’d known him for three days if you counted our disastrous meeting on Sunday, and yet, it felt like he was a cornerstone of my existence already.

  I was completely failing at holding myself back.

  Maybe it was the palpable connection between us that defied logic; maybe it was that he was fun and easy to be around, and I’d never experienced that before. Hell, maybe it was that I was an easy target, and he thought this could be something we picked up anytime he came through town.

  My heart told me it was number one.

  My gut said it was number two.

  But, my brain, that cynical bitch, was absolutely certain that it was door number three.

  In the way that he seemed to be able to do intuitively, he distracted me, tickling my ribs lightly and pulling me from my thoughts. I gave in to the playfulness of the moment and jumped up and dashed to the bathroom off of his room. It was the one I’d been using anytime we were in the common area, so I didn’t really consider it and just made a beeline for it. I cleared the bathroom door before he swung me up in his arms and spun me around once.

  Just like that, I was no longer pretending. I was content. Happy, even.

  After our shower and another quick round of goodness, I was wrapped up in a fluffy robe and hurrying to my room; it was a sweats day. I’d decreed it as such when we’d been coming down from the high of another orgasm, and Nick had laughingly agreed.

  So, I was booking it across the living room, happy, relishing the sheer fun of the last couple of days when someone knocked on the door.

  I didn’t stop to consider who it could be since only a handful of people knew we were there. Instead, I skipped happily to it, unlocked the door, and pulled it open, grinning, and ready to share my good cheer.

  And the smile froze on my face.

  I didn’t snarl, even though I wanted to.

  And I didn’t react to the look of disgust on her face as I stood there, wet hair around my shoulders, scraggly and stringy from a quick toss in the towel, wrapped in a bathrobe way too big for me and naked underneath.

  I was far from the coiffed, sophisticated look I’d rocked the night before.

  Her lip curled up, and neither of us spoke for a long moment. We were at a stalemate, a standoff, and the person to speak first would lose.

  I felt him before I heard him, Nick walked up behind me talking, “Tell whoever it is to go away. I need to fuck my girl and get some food in her before I—“

  Finally, seeing our visitor, he stopped speaking, pressed to my back, right arm wrapped around my waist and pulling me back into him.

  It was a magic trick, it had to be, that her eyes had filled with tears so quickly, fake as all hell as far as I could tell, and her face took on a look of utter devastation.

  She spoke for the first time since I’d opened the door, and she did it to wail, “Oh Nick. It’s— Oh God,” she spared a glance for me but had lost the disdain, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t catch your name, but can I please borrow Nick? I— oh!” She wailed loudly, and the crocodile tears raced down her cheeks, “Nick, please.”

  What. The. Fuck.

  It was the only thought in my head. Seriously, what the fuck?

  Involuntarily, I took a step back, moving further into Nick’s frame in shock. His arm tightened, and he bit out, “Jesus, Nat. Shit, I’m in the middle of something, can this wait?”

  She jerked her head from side to side and continued to wail, babbling incoherently.

  “Fuck, fine. Go to the bar downstairs, I’ll be down there in a sec.”

  She didn’t have a chance to fully nod before he had yanked me out of the way and slammed the door shut.

  He let me go, and my blood froze in my veins. Was he about to call this off? Tell me to get out so he could go do whatever with the incredibly blonde and petite Nat?

  Ugh. I was not that girl.

  I wasn’t falling down that rabbit hole of self-doubt and insecurity. So, I steeled my shoulders and braced for whatever he was about to say. I had no illusions about what we were, so if he did tell me to get out, I’d go. The only man I’d ever groveled in front of had been my father, and that shit would never happen again.

  All happiness was wiped clean out of me.

  Then he shocked a huff of breath out of my lungs when he said, “Fuck, I can’t stand that bitch.”

  I stood there awkward and unsure, then said the only words left in me, “Uh, what?”

  He read me fast, scarily fast given that we barely knew each other, and said, “Fuck that. I see what you’re thinking, and that wasn’t what she was. She was convenient. She didn’t make me laugh as easily as she made me hard, nothing like you. Nothing.”

  I liked to think of myself as a women’s woman, a warrior for the sisterhood, an unflagging figurehead, though only in my own mind. But damn if that didn’t make me happy.

  Though, I felt guilty enough to ask, “You weren’t, you know, with her, when we, ah—“

  He yanked me into his arms and left no room for doubt when he said, “I haven’t laid eyes on Nat in over a year and a half. No way would my uncle have given me the go-ahead if I had anything else in play.”

  He tipped my chin up and dropped a kiss to my upturned lips before saying, “Go get dressed, we have a change in plans. I’ll slip on some pants and a tee and run down there to see what she has up her sleeve, only because if I don’t, she’ll be right back up here, causing a scene again. You get dressed, do what you gotta do, and meet me downstairs as soon as you can. We’ll grab a bite to eat and see what kind of trouble we can get into tonight. He lightly brushed his lips to the tip of my nose, and I was a goner.

  It made absolutely no sense, but with that gesture and the way my heart reacted, I knew that when he left, I was going to be devastated.

  I’d always heard that bullshit line about it being better to have loved and lost, and I now knew that I would have an educated opinion on this in a matter of days.

  I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind, buried them under the things I rarely thought about, you know, things like, do two exact same make and models that come off the assembly line at the same time have the same miles per gallon on the highway? Or, who on earth l
ooked at the round mostly circle-shaped vegetation and decided, “I shall call this tomato.”

  I forced an answering smile, even though I knew he saw through it and stood a little taller on my tippy toes to brush my lips on his, “You got it, darlin’. I’ll be down there in two shakes of a stick.”

  As it was meant to, that made him smile and washed the worry from his eyes. I wouldn’t be able to fool him forever, but then again, I really wouldn’t need to.

  We only had three days left, and one of those was already more than halfway gone.

  Chapter Seven

  I briefly debated changing into something nice and putting on some makeup, but I nixed that idea fast. If I was going to find myself in the middle of a domestic dispute, then I was going to be comfortable while doing so. Instead, I brushed my teeth, combed my hair, and spritzed some spray to keep the frizz at bay, then slid on my Chucks.

  I took one last quick peek in the mirror, deciding that while I wouldn’t win any beauty pageants, I was far from ugly, and shoved my wallet into my pocket. I gave the room a quick glance, considered going back to the bathroom to check my straightener, even though I hadn’t used it, and let the door shut behind me.

  It was weird, finding myself in this situation. If I could call him mine, I could sally forth and claim my man, but he wasn’t, and he wouldn’t be.

  So, I was in uncharted territory.

  I looked around as I drew closer to the bar and easily spotted him. Nick was sitting on a barstool, a beer behind him on the bar, and he was facing me.

  Nat was almost pressed into his side, not that he was letting her get that close, and was bent at an angle where he could, should he choose to do so, look straight down her bra.

  I knew that ploy.

  I respected it.

  Hell, I was pretty sure I’d already pulled that one on Nick, though I’d been far more successful than she was.

  His eyes scanned the room before landing on me, and his face broke out into a megawatt smile.