HazardsDare

by Frances Stockton

  He wore a long coat reminiscent of Morpheus’ from The Matrix and he simply radiated heat. The coat smelled like Hazard, a man’s cologne and faintly of the bar they’d just left.

  “Hazard, how is it that the club and this town maintains its reputation for anonymity? I’d think the press or paparazzi would be chomping at the bit to come here. Dare is like a mini-Vegas with small-town appeal.”

  “We have our own press and news station. Paparazzi aren’t welcome. For the most part, visitors come to lay low and avoid being featured on gossip TV shows or the internet.”

  “What about cellphones and mini-video cams?”

  “Visitors and residents tend to keep them tucked away or close at hand for emergencies only. Sometimes things are leaked, but nothing major so far.”

  “And the police force?” she asked, fascinated with all things Dare.

  “Is second to none, with a knowledgeable CSI unit, ME and advanced investigative techniques,” he answered. “Chief of Police Sawyer Hamilton came to us after getting burned out with the Feds.”

  “Feds…as in the FBI?”

  “That’d be right. He’s an excellent cop. Crime around here tends to be petty, but when something bad goes down, there’s no one with better instincts than Sawyer.”

  “It must be nice for those like yourself to have a place you can come to get away from all the media attention. They can be brutal and invasive. Alex is used to the limelight, but I always felt awkward. Whenever someone asked about my so-called romance with Timothy, I’d say it was none of their business and walk away.”

  “That didn’t go over well, I take?”

  “Like a lead weight. I’d end up coming off like a snob or an emotionless bitch.”

  “You’re not a bitch, baby.”

  “Thank you, but when we met, you thought it.”

  They’d made it across the street safely. Hazard halted, bringing Avery around to face him. “Not once did I think you were a bitch. We spoke for five minutes.”

  “You looked at me funny afterward.”

  “I was trying to figure you out. Sometimes first impressions are wrong and I recognized you were under enormous stress.”

  “Be honest. What was your first impression of me?”

  Hazard stood there for a second, his eyes combing over her face and hair and coat. Despite the fact that she was all buttoned up, the gleam in his eyes told her that he hadn’t forgotten what she was wearing.

  “At first, I saw you as Alexander Grant’s sensible sister,” he answered after he’d looked his fill. “Then I met your ex and imagined you’d make an excellent first lady of Kentucky if that ever came to be. You were so good at handling the crisis with your dad that I thought you’d be incredible at it handling the interests of an entire state.”

  A slice of pain pierced her heart. Not because Hazard was being callous, but because he’d seen only the image she’d once projected on a daily basis. He’d studied her so fiercely and closely when they’d touched hands, she thought for sure he saw the person she longed to be.

  While her father was in the Senate, she had to put up a façade of professional reserve and restrain her natural sense of curiosity. Very few knew that she liked country music and rock and roll and collected albums from vintage music shops or that she had a particular fondness for dancing and singing around her apartment nude.

  Now that she was free of Timothy and political maneuvering, life was beginning to open up for her. Her father had been gravely ill, forcing her to step back and ask herself what she’d do if she were sick.

  What had she missed? Had she ever really lived? Late one night, when her father and brother were in recovery, she’d gone off to be alone and wrote down a bucket list.

  Number one on her list was about to happen. Carefree, unadulterated, passionate sex with someone she truly desired and who wanted her not because she was a Grant, but because she was a woman.

  Whenever Hazard looked at her, she knew he wanted her. The truth was in his fascinating amber eyes, in the steely tension of his muscles and possessive hand at her back.

  “I’ve hurt your feelings. I’m sorry,” Hazard said softly, reaching out to stroke his finger down the side of her nose to her mouth. “Don’t frown, please? You have the prettiest smile.”

  “I’m fine. I asked for the truth. You gave it, thank you.” Refusing to change course now, she offered a smile. “Besides, it’s nice knowing that the years of braces helped make my smile so pretty. Might as well show it off, right?”

  “Braces and pigtails, I bet,” he commented, still watching her, still memorizing her features. “Growing up in Kentucky as you did, I’d guess you were a wild thing running around in Daisy Dukes, climbing trees and riding horses bareback.”

  Whoa! There was no way Hazard could know how right he’d been. “My childhood dream was to be a jockey. My family owns a thoroughbred horse farm, racing was in my blood. That clearly didn’t happen because of my height.”

  “What did you do instead?”

  “I competed in equestrian events my parents considered right for a young lady. Some of it was boring compared to racing, but I did enjoy show jumping and had tons of ribbons. Sadly, I stopped when my favorite horse was injured and had to be put down.”

  Recalling the dark-bay gelding that’d been her heart and soul in every riding competition and the reason she won so often, tears threatened to swarm her. But before the first teardrop fell, she was engulfed in a great big hug by none other than the Griffins’ linebacker.

  “What was the horse’s name?”

  “Shadow. He had a fancier name fitting to his impressive bloodlines, but I gave him a nickname.”

  Loving the feel of his hard-as-steel arms holding on tight, she welcomed the unexpected tenderness he offered. Sighing deeply, she rested her forehead on his massive chest, hearing the solid thud, thud, thud of his heart.

  “That sucks. I’m sorry about your horse. How often did you set aside your dreams for your family?”

  “More times than I can count,” she said against his coat, knowing her voice was muffled, but certain he heard well enough.

  “It was expected. We were to walk a straight and narrow line. By the time I was in high school, my dad was a state senator bound for DC and the Senate. Once he got there, the spotlight was even bigger. I couldn’t go on a date without bodyguards and media hounds.”

  “I can only imagine what that was like for a young woman starving to be someone other than what was seen in public. The stress alone must have been a burden.”

  “And now that it’s over and my dad’s no longer in Washington, I’m in a place where I can be myself. Sending Timothy packing, moving, getting a new job with my brother’s husband, it’s all been a dream and I’m happy.”

  “But unfulfilled,” he said, speculation in his voice.

  “Yes, but I’m getting there. When my dad got out of the hospital, I started a bucket list. Coming to this town, being wild with someone like you, are on the list.”

  “Let’s get inside,” he said, withdrawing enough to escort her through the glass and oak doors of the hotel.

  Small though Dare was, it had its share of casinos, restaurants, trendy shops, an excellent spa and a whole lot of possibilities. According to a plaque on the wall at the check-in desk, the hotel had once been a brothel.

  Now it was modernized and six floors had been added to the original two-story brothel, while still holding some of its old-time glory. Two restaurants flanked the hotel, each delivering room service. The rooms, all luxurious, were fitting to a five-star establishment.

  Most of the lobby and hallways were fashioned with red oak and brass hardware. Paintings straight out of the Old West adorned the lobby walls. Bellhops were always hovering near the front desk and the concierge desk was antique. The spa was spectacular, with a panoramic view of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distant horizon.

  There were two other hotels in town, both as fancy and gigantic as anything one could find
in Reno. Dare had its own Main Street where cars could cruise along and passengers could watch the animated luminous neon lighting decorating all the buildings.

  “Everything okay, Avery?” Hazard asked.

  “Yes, sorry. I was thinking about what Dare looked like before it was redeveloped.”

  “It was mostly dilapidated buildings, a few barns, a burned-out general store and corral, with the skeleton of a saloon and tent scraps. Many boomtown residents were mobile, most living in tents or hastily built shacks.”

  “Are you one of the investors, Hazard?”

  “Not of the town itself, but you know about the Truth or Dare Club,” he admitted. “I can only live here in the off-season and I like to travel when I’m not playing football. When I retire, I’m going to settle down, maybe here in town or at Hamilton Lake and build a house with a recording studio.”

  “That sounds really nice,” she said as he drew her through the lobby to the elevators.

  “Thanks. I’d like to establish myself as a country artist when football catches up with me.”

  “You’re amazing. I’ve no doubt you will be successful.”

  Hazard smiled in gratitude and jammed his finger at the arrow-up button. “Do you have your room key?”

  “Yes.” She quickly rummaged through her small purse for the key. It’d surprised her when she checked in and was given two brass keys rather than a plastic card.

  He took the key from her suddenly nerveless fingers, pocketed it and gave her a nudge inside the elevator when the doors slid open. The brass-coated doors slid closed, sealing them in together.

  Desire, strong and acute, drew deep on Avery’s midsection, something she’d never felt until she walked into the club and heard Hazard sing. Immediately aware that she was on the top floor and the elevator was slow, she settled close to the wall, watching him punch her floor number.

  “How’d you know the floor?”

  “It’s on the key.”

  The elevator started its trek upward. The higher it went, the stronger her need for orgasm became. It’d been so long since she’d climaxed during sex with Timothy that she’d stopped trying except for when she was alone.

  Hoping she didn’t make an utter fool of herself, she swallowed hard and straightened her shoulders. Admittedly, the tequila had given her courage and a warm buzz flowed through her veins, but her body’s needs weren’t controlled by alcohol.

  At last the elevator came to a halt, the doors opening smoothly. Hazard’s arm went around her to guide her forward, his hand staying at her back, the heat of his fingers caressing her skin, despite the thickness of her coat and velvet dress.

  As an excuse to take a deep breath, Avery stopped in the hallway long enough to scour her purse for a pack of Tic Tacs. She figured it’d never hurt to have fresh breath since she had no idea how long it’d be before they were skin to skin.

  “Tic Tac,” she offered, pouring out what she’d intended to be a couple.

  A couple turned into a puddle of tiny mints, her trembling causing them to scatter in all directions on the floor.

  Like a seasoned professional, he snagged two mints from her palm and began sucking on them as she crunched hers, then helped gathered up the mini-mint mess.

  “You can change your mind,” Hazard told her, still on his knees picking up mints.

  “I’m good,” she insisted.

  “You’re scared,” he said, grabbing her hand instead of a mint and helping her to her feet.

  Absently tossing the handful of mints he’d gathered in a small trash receptacle between the twin elevators, he guided her hand over the receptacle and had her toss hers too.

  “A little, yes. I’ve never done something like this. But I’m not afraid of being with you, Hazard.”

  “Everything’s going to be fine. You just need to relax and let everything unfold.”

  They moved on down the narrow hallway until they reached her door. Hazard withdrew the key from his pocket and slipped it into the keyhole, stopping shy of unlocking it.

  “Tell me something, Avery. If it wasn’t me you chose to be with, would you have gone through with your plan to scratch having a fuck buddy off your list?”

  Unable to look away from his sharply handsome face and mysterious eyes, she felt a curious pang in the depth of her heart, warning that she was on a dangerous precipice of going from having a crush to genuine feelings for Hazard.

  Telling herself to stick with the game plan she’d promised him, meaning no-strings-attached, no fuss and no tears, she gathered courage from his confidence.

  “Is my answer going to change the outcome of what happens when we go inside my room?”

  “No. I wanted you the second you walked into the club. Now having you is inevitable, unless you’ve second thoughts.”

  Sensing his honesty, she thought he deserved the same respect. “I wanted you the second I walked into the club too. Your voice, your passion for music, your intensity, everything about you drew me in.”

  “Then you wouldn’t have gone off with Jax or someone else?”

  “I’d have left as soon as I knew the guy who tried to pick me up wouldn’t follow me back here. As it is, it took a while to find the courage to walk into the club and see what destiny had in store. I’m real glad it was you.”

  Hazard smiled at that, showing off a flash of white teeth. Crow’s feet around the corners of his eyes became more visible. He was so incredibly attractive to her, so beautiful, that all she wanted to do was move up on tiptoe and kiss him.

  “You still willing to take a chance with me, baby? Be sure about this. As soon as that door slams closed behind us, I’m going to be all over you.”

  “I. Am. Sure.” Clutching her purse a little, she watched him turn the key.

  “One thing first,” Hazard said, his hand on the doorknob.

  “If you’re worried we might not be compatible or that I might not measure up to the women you’ve known before, I promise to do everything I can to please you.”

  “Avery, passion ripples through you like a stream caught behind a dam, just waiting for the right man to tap into and bust wide open until it flows free. I’m honored to be that man. Compatibility will not be an issue.”

  “How do you know?”

  Hazard shook his head, straightening to reach out and touch her. It was subtle, a whisper of a caress with his finger through her hair.

  “Pretty, I like it,” he said, studying the length as he swept a lock back behind her ear.

  “Thank you,” she said as he snagged a handful of hair at her nape, dragging her away from the wall she’d been leaning on until she was right up against his muscle-bound body.

  “This is how I know. Kiss me,” he demanded, his mouth seeking hers.

  The first touch of their lips was uncommonly gentle, revealing Hazard’s tenderness. Where her lips were soft, his were harder, yet he didn’t force her mouth to part or jam his tongue awkwardly into her mouth.

  He let the kiss linger. The tempting warmth of his breath and flick of his tongue along the seam of her lips was a tempting promise that passion’s dam was about to burst.

  Heart slamming behind her rib cage, she touched his tongue with hers and hell broke loose. Crushing her even closer to him with his strong arms, Hazard’s tongue penetrated deep into her mouth, demanding she meet him tongue to tongue.

  He tasted like mint Tic Tacs and citrusy lime.

  He wasn’t gentle at all. He didn’t need to be. Right then, he was all linebacker alpha strong and his sexy kiss was as intimate and passionate as fucking, driving her crazy.

  All she wanted to do was get closer, get horizontal and get laid…by him.

  The next thing Avery knew, he’d wedged the door open, shoved her inside the room and the door closed behind them. There was a pause in kissing.

  In the next breath, he reached behind her and flipped the deadbolt. They broke apart only long enough to tear off each other’s coats and kick off shoes.

  Vag
uely aware of blisters on her heels from the stilettos, she ignored the sting in favor of Hazard’s mouth reclaiming hers.

  “This is going to be fast and rough, baby. I want you so much that all I can think about is sinking deep into you,” he warned, his big hands caressing their way to her ass and latching on. “The next time will be gentler. I swear.”

  His right hand freed one butt cheek, skimming down her thigh to begin tugging on her dress, bringing it up and up, exposing her thong to his bare hands. With a jerk, the tiny panties were torn away and tossed into the oblivion of the room.

  Avery lost all thought, all reason, welcoming more kisses. She lost count of how many times their tongues tangled before his left hand shifted up to snag her hair, pulling enough to cause her to arch her head back.

  Hazard kissed her again, nibbling on her lips before delivering nipping kisses from her mouth to the base of her throat, leaving a heated trail. Her pulse went wild, erratic, the warmth and moisture between her legs grew stronger, the ache of needing to come more insistent.

  Cleverly, he homed in on an erogenous zone she hoped he’d find. That tender spot right above her collarbone. Rubbing her with his chin and jaw, the brush of his five o’clock shadow set fire to her veins, thrilling her.

  Imagining that he might be leaving a mark, and not caring if he did, she gasped when the halter around her neck came undone with a little help from his nimble hands. Her dress slipped down to be caught at her waist.

  Thinking she should probably wiggle out of the dress, she couldn’t move. Hazard kept her still when his mouth touched hers again.

  Parting her mouth to accept the delicious ravishment of his tongue, Avery giggled a little. It was fun to be with Hazard.

  But suddenly, kisses weren’t enough. She needed to be horizontal, like right now.

  As if it were the most natural thing on earth, Hazard leaned into her, sending her to the floor and crawling on top. Settling in to pepper kisses upon her mouth, nose and throat, he made her feel precious.

  It was heaven, divine, sublime. All she wanted was more, more of him, more kisses, more tongue, everything.