He was met with a few groans, but the majority of the group was excited. “I haven’t played since high school!” Greer squealed.
“Does everyone know the rules?” John asked, his Louisiana accent coming through.
“I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never played before,” Sascha admitted.
“That’s okay!” Greer said. “It’s really easy. We’ll go around the circle and take turns saying things like ‘never have I ever had a hangover.’ If you’ve had a hangover, you’ll take a drink, but if you haven’t, you don’t do anything.”
“It’s basically a way to learn each other’s deep, dark secrets,” I joked, though there was some truth to it.
“Greer, since you’re the blushing bride, why don’t you go first?” Hanna said.
“Sure,” she said with a shrug. “Hm, never have I ever slept with someone on a first date.”
“Whoa, pulling out the big guns right away!” John joked, though both he and his fiancée took a drink.
“Each other?” I asked them, taking a drink myself. Unfortunately, the person I slept with on a first date was my ex.
Greer burst into giggles. “Yep! See, you can find love if you give it up right away!”
“I don’t know if would work for me,” Hanna said. Looking into her beer, she added, “Forever alone.” Greer swatted her arm.
John went next. “Never have I ever went streaking,” he said, and took a drink.
“Really?” Greer asked him.
“I was in a fraternity,” he said with a shrug.
John’s friend Cameron went next. “Um, well my girlfriend has been wanting to do that bondage stuff ever since Fifty Shades of Grey came out, so never have I ever done bondage. BDSM? Whatever you call it.”
A little self-conscious, I took a drink. And was apparently the only one who’d done it.
My friends stared at me, their jaws dropped.
“What?” I said, fighting a blush. “We’re all adults here. So what if I like getting spanked?”
After the guys all left, my friends pounced.
“How come you never told us you were into BDSM?” Hanna asked, incredulous.
I shrugged. “Sometimes I like keeping certain things to myself,” I replied, trying to sound more confident than I felt. Truthfully, it was all so new to me still that I didn’t know how to tell anyone about it.
“Oh, come on,” Sascha said.
“There’s no way you did that with Braxton,” Hanna mused. “He was a total wimp.”
I laughed. “Yeah, it definitely wasn’t with him.”
“So tell us then!” Sascha chided.
I thought about it. I almost did tell them, but in the end, I decided against it. “I’m not ready to share quite yet,” I admitted. “It’s new.”
“Okay,” Greer said, “that’s fair. But you’re going to need to spill everything one of these days.”
* * *
The night before, I made plans with Jackson and Caleb to meet up at the club again. I couldn’t wait to get there, eager to explore whatever new thing they planned to throw at me.
I took care getting ready, slipping into a fitted black dress that came down to my knees. I pulled half of my wavy hair back and kept my makeup simple but for the maroon lipstick I put on.
I’d never considered myself a vain person, but I knew I looked good. Maybe it was silly, but I wanted to impress Caleb and Jackson. I wanted them to like me.
Once I was ready, I grabbed my purse and slipped out of the suite. In the hallway, I passed Hanna who smirked and said, “Bye, Erin! Have fun tonight.” I grinned at her as I passed.
Outside the hotel, I was getting ready to call an Uber when I saw Caleb leaning against a car.
“Hi,” he said, walking toward me. He gently cupped the side of my face with one hand and said, “You look exquisite.”
“Thanks,” I replied, smiling. “As do you.”
He really did in his fitted navy suit. Whoever was his tailor deserved a raise.
Caleb smiled and leaned in for a kiss. My heart began to beat wildly. Caleb was such an incredible kisser.
Unfortunately, he kept the kiss brief, and offered me his arm as he escorted me to the black town car.
After he helped me inside, I asked, “Is it just you and me tonight?”
Caleb nodded. “Jackson got stuck at work. I hope it’s alright that it’s just me.” He looked unsure, like I might say no.
“Of course it is,” I said, laying my hand on his thigh and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “I love that it’s just us tonight.”
The smile he gave me looked grateful. It made me wonder if Caleb was self-conscious, if he knew how handsome he really was.
“This isn’t the club,” I joked when we pulled up to a hotel.
“No, it isn’t,” he said coyly.
“Are you going to tell me why we’re here or do I have to wait?” Caleb just smirked, an expression reminiscent of Jackson.
We got out of the car and headed inside. He led me by the hand to the elevator and pushed the button for the roof.
I raised my eyebrows, but didn’t say anything.
The elevator stopped and we stepped outside. Before us was a helicopter.
“What’s going on?” I asked quizzically.
“Come on!” he said. He still held my hand and tugged me toward the helicopter. When we reached it, he greeted the pilot before helping me into it. We buckled our seatbelts and each put on a pair of headphones. I quickly pulled a hair tie from my purse and secured my hair as best I could.
Then the helicopter rose into the air and my stomach sank. I’d never been in a helicopter before and it was a little terrifying.
Caleb must have noticed my apprehension because he held out his hand. I slipped mine inside and felt reassurance wash over me.
The helicopter began to fly over the city, giving me an entirely new perspective of Vegas. Though I’d flown in planes before, this was different. Being in a helicopter made me feel both close and far from it all.
“It’s beautiful,” I yelled, leaning up to Caleb’s ear so he’d hear me.
“I’d hoped you’d like it!” he said. At that moment, he looked so joyful that it took my breath away. I’d never thought of men as being beautiful before, but Caleb truly was.
Far too soon, the helicopter landed on the roof of another building and we got out.
We got into another elevator and, rather than ask him where we were going, I just let things come as they may.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened to a Halloween party. It was dark but for the flashing strobe lights and everyone was dancing, many of them in costumes. We stepped off and Caleb pulled something from inside his jacket, handing it to me.
It was a black mask made of stiff lace and decorated in pearls. “Wow, it’s lovely! Thank you.”
He pulled out a mask for himself, one similar to mine, and put it on. I quickly took my hair from the bun and shook it out as best as I could before putting my mask on.
Wordlessly, Caleb led me to the dance floor.
I could feel the bass pump through my body and began to move to it. Caleb did the same, his lean body agile as he danced. His hands found my hips and drew me closer to him. In seconds, we began to grind on each other. Feeling his body against mine, his hands all over my back, slipping down to squeeze my ass, drove me crazy. I felt myself getting wetter and wetter the more we danced.
At one point, Caleb spun me around and held me from behind as we danced. His hips were pressed right into my butt and I could feel how hard he was. He rubbed himself against me and I moaned right there on the dance floor. Not that anyone could hear me.
I didn’t know how much of it I could take.
As if he read my mind, Caleb leaned to my ear and said, “I have a hotel room.”
I turned around, grabbed his face, and kissed him hard. “Let’s go.”
* * *
I thought we would throw ourselves at each other the instant we made i
t into the room, but we didn’t. Instead he drew me close to him and kissed me softly. It was so different from how we’d been dancing just moments ago, but I found that I still liked it. It felt loving.
When he pulled away, he walked around my back and slowly unzipped my dress. He slipped it over my shoulders and kissed the bare skin there. I wiggled out of my dress, stepped out of it and turned to him.
His eyes were hungry as he took me in. I’d pulled out the big guns tonight, donning a black lace bra, a matching thong, and garters attached to black stockings.
“Wow,” he murmured, his hand running from the side of my breasts down to the curve of my hip.
I kissed him briefly and asked, “So what do you have in store for me tonight?”
It turns out Caleb had already prepared the room, two handcuffs attached to the headboard and footboard, waiting for me. He laid me down on the bed on my stomach and locked each of my limbs in place.
This was the most I’d been bound, and yet I wasn’t scared. Instead, I felt exhilarated.
I heard Caleb take his clothes off and turned my head to the side to see him. He was glorious, all lean, toned muscle. And he was so hard. I shivered as my eyes lingered on him there.
He climbed on the bed, his legs straddling either side of me. His hands began to lightly massage my back.
“Do you like this?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “I really do.”
“I’m glad,” he said, and then I felt the head of his cock nudge my slick entrance. I bit my lip in anticipation.
Slowly, so slowly, he pushed inside, filling me inch by inch.
“God, you feel even better than I imagined,” he said, his voice reverent.
My voice strained, I replied, “You feel even better than I imagined.” Caleb let out a choked laugh.
And then he began to move, pulling his hips back before thrusting again. He picked up the pace and, before long, he was snapping into me, and all I could do was lie there moaning and take it.
He reached under me and began rubbing my clit in quick circles. I came in seconds, moaning out his name, begging for more. He managed to make me cum again. I felt his body begin to stutter and I knew he was close.
“Come on, Caleb!” I yelled. I wanted him to cum. I wanted Caleb to feel as good as I did.
Somehow, he began to fuck me even faster, harder. Then he abruptly pulled out and I felt his cum splatter across my back as he groaned.
Caleb collapsed on me, laying kisses along my cheek and neck.
“Jesus, Erin, you were wonderful.”
“All I did was lay here,” I joked.
“No, you did so much more than that,” he said. In a small voice, he added, “You trusted me.”
For the rest of the night, we made love. He soon unlocked the cuffs and took me again staring down into my eyes. Then I rode him and finished him in my mouth. By the time we both collapsed around five-thirty, we were exhausted and fell into a deep sleep.
Jackson
Though I was disappointed that I got stuck at work and didn’t get to see Erin, I was ecstatic he got to spend some one on one time with her. Especially considering he took the initiative, asking me if I minded, and then setting up what sounded like a fantastic and sexy date.
I did everything I could for Caleb, tried to be there for him for everything, but there was still only so much I could do. Sometimes there were certain things a lover could do that a best friend couldn’t. That’s why Erin was becoming more and more vital.
After I dealt with the work crisis that prevented me from going out with Caleb and Erin--an angry vendor who’d mixed up invoices and blamed us--I had some free time to kill and decided to comb through the documents Mike had attached to the email that contained his report.
First I reread the report, finding myself taken aback that I’d somehow missed the fact that Erin’s father was in the service before he became a lawyer. He’d suffered from PTSD too and died when Erin was just thirteen.
It seemed like kismet, like fate that this woman who had firsthand experience with PTSD would waltz into our lives during the very moment we needed her. But things were still so early into our relationship, if you could even call it that, that it was so hard to tell.
Would Erin be able to put up with Caleb’s nightmares and all his quirks? Many women in the past hadn’t been able to, if he even let them in enough to give them a chance.
I sighed. At that point, only time would tell. In the meantime, I decided I wanted a little one on one time with Erin myself.
I remembered that, on the day we met, she told us she was staying at the Golden Gate Hotel. After I left the club that night, I headed over to her hotel and saw a cute young woman working behind the front desk. I added a bit of a swagger to my step and walked over to her, giving her my sexiest smile.
“Hi,” I began, “I was wondering if you could do me a favor?”
It took less than a minute before she agreed to pass along my phone number to Erin, along with a message that asked her to get ahold of me.
It was about midmorning when Erin got ahold of me. While I wanted to take to her an extravagant dinner, something told me Erin wouldn’t want that. No doubt everything was already overwhelming her with the whirlwind of the last few days. So I decided to see if she wanted to meet me at a coffee shop near her hotel instead.
I was already there when she walked in, sitting at a table far from anyone else. She smiled when she saw me and wasn’t afraid to give me a kiss. We each ordered a coffee and sat back down at the table.
Before I even had the chance to say anything, Erin said, “You know, something has been bothering me since that first night in the Dungeon.”
I gulped. Busted!
“I know that I didn’t tell you I was a lawyer, and yet you decided to do a scene in which I was one. At first I thought it was a coincidence, but the more I thought about it, the more I don’t believe that it was.” She gazed at me over her mug, eyebrows raised.
“Well,” she went on when I didn’t say anything, “Caleb never slipped and revealed more about me than he was letting on, only you. Based on what I know of you two, which I know isn’t a lot, you seem to want to protect him. So my guess is that you know certain things about me but Caleb doesn’t.”
I sighed. “I suppose I could bullshit you and say I found it out on Facebook, but considering you never told us your last name, that would be bullshit too.”
We continued to stare at each other for a moment, coffee mugs in hand. There was no point in keeping things from her if she already had her suspicions. “You’re right, I do know things about you. I asked a buddy of mine to look into you after the night we met. Caleb doesn’t know anything about it. He’s had a hard time lately and I didn’t want anyone around him that would make things more difficult for him.”
Erin’s face softened. “You said he has PTSD,” she said.
I nodded, and leaned back in her chair.
“My dad was a vet and he had that same look on his face when he thought no one was looking. You do too a little bit, but Caleb’s face really reminds me of my dad’s sometimes.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, reaching over to lay my hand on hers. She sighed and twisted her hand around so we held hands.
“Thank you,” she replied, giving me a sad smile. A moment passed in which Erin seemed to be deep in thought. “Well, if we’re laying all our cards on the table, then I have something to tell you. I fibbed a little when I said I was on vacation. I mean, I am technically on vacation, but I actually live in Vegas. But I’m sure you already knew that. Right?”
Sheepishly, I said, “Yeah, I do.”
“I’m you don’t know why I decided to lie. You can’t know, because I haven’t told anyone,” Erin said. She let out a long sigh. “I told you I recently broke up with my boyfriend, right?”
I nodded, listening intently.
“Well, after that, I felt really jaded. Braxton and I didn’t have a perfect relationship by any means
. He was kind of a shithead actually, but that didn’t stop it from really hurting when I found out he betrayed me. After that, I decided I was going to leave men alone for the next year. No dating, no having sex.”
“You kind of broke the no sex thing,” I said, giving her what I hoped was a reassuring smile.
She smiled back. “Yeah, no kidding! I wasn’t expecting to meet you and Caleb. I wasn’t expecting to be so enticed by your world. And I really wasn’t expecting to like you.”
Though it had been on my mind practically since we first met, I didn’t plan to ask so soon. But I did. “Have you given any thought to the fact that there might be something here? Something between the three of us?” I asked.
Erin remained silent, contemplative.
I went on, “You just said you like us, right? Well, I like you and I know that Caleb does too.”
“I don’t know how it would even work,” she said with a sigh, though she had a wistful expression on her face as if she was imagining it.
“Like any other relationship,” I explained, giving her hand a small squeeze. “Except there would be two men. You could date both Caleb and me. He and I are platonic, but we’re close. We don’t get jealous of each other and only want the other person to be happy.”
My voice dropped an octave as I said, “Erin, I know we just met, but you make us happy.”
“You make me happy too,” she admitted. She seemed so unsure. I didn’t like seeing her like that, like she felt overwhelmed.
Changing the subject slightly, Erin said, “I can’t say I’m too upset that you looked into me. You didn’t know me and just wanted to protect your best friend. I’d do the same for my friends too. And it makes me happy that you’re so protective of Caleb. He’s lucky to have you. But I have to admit, my head is just spinning right now. I have so much to think about.”
“It’s a lot,” I admitted with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” she said, “it really is.”
Two Billionaires in Vegas: A Halloween MFM Romance (Love by Numbers Book 1) Page 7