by K D Grace
‘I smell breakfast,’ she mumbled into his nape.
‘I smell us,’ he said, cupping her arse and sliding a finger down between her buttocks to stroke where her labia splayed around his cock.
‘Mmm.’ She sighed. ‘I need to come, Nick. Think you can handle that?’ She gave his cock a pussy squeeze that couldn’t have been tighter if she’d fisted it, and he sucked breath between his teeth. Then he rolled with her until she was beneath him and she wrapped her legs around him and groaned. ‘Oh God, yes! I don’t need foreplay, I don’t need finessing, Nick, I just want you to fuck me. We both need it.’
She bit back the last word, because, really, she was preaching to the converted. It wasn’t Fenton calling the shots this morning. Early morning awkwardness and need dictated a quick thrust and ride down into the expensive bedding, every sleep-stiffened muscle clenched and all breathing suspended. Nick thrust, and Elsa gripped. They grunted and strained out their orgasms in a matter of minutes, then collapsed in a heap until breath returned along with thoughts of something other than fucking.
Elsa broke the connection, shoving him to one side in a warm, wet flood against his thigh as she pushed her way to the edge of the bed. She reached for a towel that someone had thoughtfully placed on the bedside table and began to clean herself.
‘Where’s Fenton?’ Nick asked, finding a towel on his side too.
‘Probably gone back to his room.’ She tossed the towel and headed to the breakfast trays. Shoving a piece of bacon into her mouth, she munched, then brought the tray back to the bed and settled it onto her lap. Nick did the same. ‘This wasn’t his suite,’ she said. ‘This was rented for his fantasy. And since he so blatantly broke the rules and the suite’s paid for, I guess the team figured we might as well enjoy it.’ She cocked her head. ‘Funny, though. I’ve never fallen asleep after an act before.’
‘I’d imagine not,’ Nick said. ‘Certainly not if it involved having your ass beaten.’
She offered him a smile that was more like a grimace. ‘My ass doesn’t often get beaten, Nick.’
He studied her for a moment over his coffee cup. ‘You don’t like not being in control, do you?’
‘No. I don’t.’ She shoved a forkful of eggs into her mouth and swallowed without chewing. ‘And Fenton knows that.’ It was then they both noticed the hotel stationery envelope addressed to Elsa propped on the dressing table next to the mirror. ‘No doubt it’s from Fenton.’ She sat her tray aside and shuffled out of bed again to grab it. ‘Probably an apology for fucking with last night’s act, an apology he doesn’t mean.’ She opened the envelope. ‘Fenton always gets exactly what he wants, but he has a helluva lot more fun getting it when he’s sneaky about it.’
‘Then it’s not the first time he’s pulled a stunt like that?’
‘He pretty much does it every time, and I pretty much tell him I’ll never work with him again no matter how much he pays, and he pretends to be contrite, and I pretend to believe him. Then the next time he wants a fantasy, he pays Mount Vegas an obscene amount of money, and we plan everything out and brace ourselves for whatever the man throws at us this time.’
As she sat down on the bed and flicked open the folded letter, he reached over and stroked her thigh. ‘I like what he threw at us this time.’
With Elsa, a growl and a grumble at Fenton’s fucking with their act would have been as likely as a grab at his cock, but what he got was nothing. As she read the note her brow wrinkled, her lips tightened and thinned as though whatever words she wanted to speak, she held back.
‘What is it? What did he say?’ Nick asked, leaning over for a peek.
‘Nothing.’ Elsa shoved the note back into the envelope. ‘The man’s an idiot. He thinks he knows it all.’ She stood and began gathering her clothes from where they were strung across the suite, and Nick felt his stomach knot.
‘Elsa? What is it? What’s going on?’
‘I’ve gotta go,’ she said, leaning forward to ease her breasts back into the bra she’d just picked up. He followed her into the living room where she shoved into her trousers and blouse. ‘It’s a busy day.’
‘Surely not too busy for breakfast and a quick shower?’
She exploded. ‘Damn it, Nick! You’re not the boss. Don’t tell me what I need.’
She grabbed her bag and her shoes and practically ran for the door, leaving Nick wondering what the hell had just happened.
Elsa was blessedly alone in the elevator. She hated to be seen like this. It wasn’t so much that she looked like she’d had a wild night. Lots of people in Vegas looked that way before one in the afternoon. It was that she felt shell-shocked, like her skin had suddenly become too thin to protect her, too thin to hide behind. She wouldn’t let the letter get to her. Fenton was an idiot. He didn’t know anything. He didn’t understand anything.
She took a taxi over to the main offices of Mount Vegas, and since it was early, she made it up to her suite unseen. Once inside, she locked the door and practically fell into the chair behind her desk. She grabbed for the half-empty bottle of water in her bottom drawer and downed it all before she dug the letter out of her bag, opened it and reread it.
My dearest Elsa,
You were stunning, as always. I never doubted for a moment that you would be. Somehow I feel as though this time I should pay you double for letting me see so much more of Elsa Crane than you’ve ever allowed me to see before.
You and Nick are amazing together. I was totally taken aback by your performance. Though of course, it wasn’t a performance, was it? Love and sex, in those wild, frantic, early stages, when a couple can’t get enough of each other – when, in fact, they may not yet even know that they are in love – are the most powerful experiences for a watcher. They offer so very much more than just a good, voyeuristic orgasm. And though I’m very jealous that someone else finally won your heart, I can hardly hold it against you now that I’ve seen the two of you together. I hope you’ve been able to be honest with him about your situation, darling. Nick seems like the kind of person who would understand.
Thanks again for another wonderful experience.
Love,
Alex Fenton
The man was an idiot, she reminded herself again. He didn’t know anything about her or about her heart, and Nick Chase didn’t deserve to be dragged into the middle of all of this. He especially didn’t deserve any of the craziness she could offer him.
She shoved back from the desk, stripping as she went, and padded across her private lounge to the bathroom where she pushed into the shower, willing herself not to think about Nick Chase. And yet there was a part of her that regretted washing his scent off her body, regretted washing away the remains of their passion. Her insides quivered with muscle memory and she leant back against the tiles and relived the whole experience, even as she warned herself not to.
Nick left the hotel, stunned. He’d showered quickly and managed to retrieve his clothes from his locker in the Mount Vegas wardrobe suite unseen. Fine with him. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. Twice he’d attempted to call Elsa so they could have it out. But he’d lost courage before his BlackBerry could ring through. It was just as well. He was too angry over the way she’d fled to do anything but make matters worse.
He spent the drive home trying to figure out what had happened. What the hell was in the letter that had set Elsa off? In a surge of jealousy, he wondered if Fenton and Elsa were lovers. Fenton seemed to have intimate details about Elsa that a lover might have. But then this was Mount Vegas, and intimacy was a relative term.
Nick pushed his way into his house, trying to force his thoughts away from the letter and Elsa’s response to it. He had his own business to tend to, he reminded himself. He needed to touch base with Lou-Ann, find out how things were with the new driver, set a time to meet over the monthly expenses.
In the kitchen, he went through the motions of making coffee. He had just flipped the switch on the machine and grabbed a Pop Tart from t
he cupboard when Tanya appeared from the living room, and he nearly dropped his breakfast. ‘Tanya!’ he exclaimed. ‘Are you all right? What are you doing here?’
‘Hello, Nick. I’m sorry that we invaded your house, but I still have key that you let me borrow, and since this is important, I thought that you wouldn’t mind.’
‘We?’ Nick managed, instead of the curse that was right on the tip of his tongue over the invasion of his much-needed privacy.
‘Come.’ Tanya took him by the hand. ‘There is someone that I would like you to meet.’ She led him into the living room.
There, in front of Nick’s bookshelf, stood a man who could have passed for a bouncer except for the suit even Nick could tell was expensive.
‘Mr Chase, I’m Detective Victor Havers.’ It was then Nick noticed the man was handling one of his pyritic ammonites.
‘Please put that back.’ He spoke without thinking and grabbed it away. ‘It has sentimental value.’
The man offered an apologetic smile that didn’t seem very apologetic at all. ‘Sorry, Mr Chase, or do you prefer Dr Chase?’ Before Nick could respond, he continued, ‘I’ve always found fossils fascinating. What is it … palaeontology, right?’ He ran his finger along the shelf where some of Nick’s favourite fossils were displayed. ‘I’m sure you can understand how it would appeal to me, digging up the dead and trying to uncover their secrets. It’s just forensics, Mr Chase, isn’t it? And sometimes there’s not much left to go on at the end of the day, but there’s always something fascinating about it. Yes, fascinating.’ He dragged his gaze away from the fossils to settle on Nick. ‘And interesting to me that a palaeontologist would end up here in Vegas driving a limo.’
The skin prickled along the back of Nick’s neck. ‘Man’s gotta make a living. Why are you here?’ After what had happened with Elsa this morning, he was struggling with his manners.
That didn’t seem to bother Victor Havers. He only smiled, just before he dropped the bomb. ‘I’m here because we need your help to bring Elsa Crane and her Mount Vegas gang to justice.’
Nick shot Tanya a quick glance, doing his best to keep his surprise, and his anger, under wraps. ‘As far as I know, Elsa Crane hasn’t done anything that warrants the police’s attention.’ He hoped his voice sounded more confident than he felt. Elsa had secrets, he was sure of it. And what Mount Vegas was doing might be very unconventional, but Elsa wasn’t the kind of person who would be on the outs with the law, was she?
Havers plopped down onto the sofa without being asked, and nodded to the recliner. ‘Sit down, Mr Chase,’ he said, as though he owned the place. Tanya sat down next to him, but Nick remained standing.
The cop’s smile had congeniality plastered all over it, and yet for some reason, Nick couldn’t quite buy it. ‘Tanya told me about her contract, which I’m sure you know is not a legally binding document, therefore it’s unlikely she would ever actually get her bonus.’
‘Well, good, then. I’ll turn in my notice at Mount Vegas and get back to my life,’ Nick said.
‘No!’ Tanya practically jumped out of her seat. ‘Nick, you mustn’t do that. You are in good position to help me, to help the police get to the bottom of the situation with Elsa Crane and the Mount Vegas.’
‘Rich people paying a stupid amount of money to watch someone else play out their sexual fantasies. I hardly see how that’s a threat to the American way, Detective Havers,’ Nick said.
‘Mr Chase –’ As Havers leant forward and clasped his hands in his lap, Nick couldn’t keep from noticing a gold band with a chunky diamond on his sausage-sized ring finger. ‘Surely you’re not naïve enough to think that fantasies are all the Crane woman and her gang deal in.’
‘And surely you’re not naïve enough to think I’d believe you without more evidence than what you’ve given me so far,’ Nick replied.
‘Nick, has Elsa told you anything about the big event happening in few weeks’ time with the people from London?’ Tanya asked.
‘You mean the fantasy for Mrs Keyser? Yes, Elsa’s mentioned it. Why?’
Havers took over. ‘We have reason to believe that the whole act is a cover-up for a drug deal going down at that time, a big one. And as for the English folks coming in – well, they’re just a distraction. We suspect mob connections.’
Try though he might, Nick couldn’t imagine Elsa would have any sort of connections with organised crime. And he certainly couldn’t imagine Elsa or any of the Mount Vegas gang involved in dealing drugs. There was a strict “no drink or drugs” policy on all Mount Vegas acts, no matter what the fantasy called for. Even last night’s champagne toast was barely a touching to the lips, and the drinks in the casino were all non-alcoholic, except for Fenton’s. Nick had never seen any evidence that anyone used drugs and as far as he could tell, even after hours, the drinking was minimal at Mount Vegas. People were too busy fucking. It surprised him more than a little that he had absorbed so much of the Mount Vegas philosophy so quickly, and that he believed it. Something definitely didn’t feel right.
‘Go on, Havers. I’m listening,’ Nick said.
The detective scooted forward on the edge of the sofa and undid his jacket so Nick got a glimpse of his holster. ‘No doubt in the short time you’ve been at Mount Vegas, Elsa Crane has run a clean ship. She hasn’t had time to trust you yet, but the fact that she’s let you into her tight little circle at all says it won’t be long.’
‘So what is it you want from me, exactly?’ Nick asked, wishing Havers would just go away and leave him alone.
‘Details, Mr Chase. We want details. The police are planning a raid. We know some of the details from Tanya, but the dates and times of the operation hadn’t been nailed down when she was dismissed so unfortunately. We figure Elsa Crane got suspicious of her and that’s the real reason she let her go. So now we need someone from the inside who can give us those details, and everyone else within Mount Vegas seems loyal to a tee. All we really need from you, Mr Chase, is dates, times, and places. That sort of thing. Of course, any other information you can give us would be an added bonus. You’ll in no way be involved in our operation, and there won’t be any risk to you personally.’
‘And what about your bonus?’ Nick asked Tanya. ‘What about your mother’s surgery?’
‘Oh, we’ll see to Tanya’s mother, Nick. There are charities and support groups that will help her get what she needs. And the fact that Tanya’s helped the police out won’t go amiss. Of course, we’ll see that your name and reputation are kept out of the papers when the news breaks, as it inevitably will. Wouldn’t want anything bad reflecting on your business, now would we?’
In the kitchen, Nick could hear the coffee machine gurgling out the last of the brew into the pot. The only other sound was the quiet hum of the air conditioner. He was pissed off at Tanya for inviting herself and Havers right on in and making themselves at home. Plus, for some reason he couldn’t quite put his finger on, he really didn’t like the guy. ‘I’ll need more to go on than your word, Havers. The Mount Vegas team has been nothing but good to me, and I have no evidence that any of what you’re saying is true.’
Havers shifted in his seat and rubbed the bridge of his nose, and Tanya squirmed on the sofa next to him. Then he heaved himself to his feet and buttoned his jacket. ‘I certainly can’t force you to help us, Mr Chase. However, I would suggest you don’t take too long in making your decision, because Elsa Crane and her team are going down. The real question is are you going down with them?’ With an exaggerated effort, he extended his arm and looked at his watch. A rather nice watch, Nick noticed. Then he said, ‘I’ve got to go.’ He pulled a card from his pocket and laid it on the coffee table. ‘Here’s where you can reach me.’
With that, he motioned Tanya to follow him as he headed for the door, leaving Nick standing in the middle of his silent living room.
Once they were gone, Nick tried to call Elsa, but only got her voicemail. He left a brief “we need to talk” message and curs
ed Tanya out loud. He poured himself a cup of coffee, slopping it over the counter as he did so, and did his best to swallow a Pop Tart whole. Then he plopped down at the kitchen table and called Lou-Ann for the latest. After all, he still had a business to run, and it was still the limo service that paid the bills.
‘Hey, handsome. Just about to call you,’ came his dispatcher’s voice over the phone. ‘The new driver’s amazing. And hot. That makes him very popular with the ladies – and with the dispatcher. Oh, and he can drive too,’ she added. ‘I suppose that’s a plus.’
Nick grunted into the phone. ‘Well, glad that figured into his evaluation somewhere.’
‘Oooh, somebody didn’t get enough sleepy-time last night, did he, Mr Grumpy Bear?’
‘Never mind my sleepy-time, Lou-Ann; any other news I should know about?’
He heard her shuffling papers. ‘Do you know an Elsa Crane?’
Nick sat up straight and felt the muscles in his stomach tighten. ‘What about her?’
‘Don’t know how she did it, or why, but she’s been sending some pretty substantial clients, repeat clients, in our direction. Business is hopping. So have you got a hottie on the side you’re not telling me about? Hmm? Is that why we’re not getting our Zs?’
When Nick made no attempt to fill her in, she heaved a disappointed sigh into his ear and said, ‘Oh Nicky, sometimes you’re such a stick in the mud. Whoever this Elsa Crane is, I love her, and if business keeps up like this, the woman may just be responsible for getting me a much-deserved raise.’ Nick could hear the noise of the radio in the background calling for a limo to the Paris Las Vegas hotel.