Page 21 of Gamble (Black Light #38)
REAGAN
T he clamor of the entire venue pushing to their feet for a rousing standing ovation jarred Reagan back to the present. She’d been so stuck in her head, she’d barely paid attention to the talented performers now taking their bows.
Allowing Elijah to pull her to her feet using their already linked hands, she released his grip long enough to add her own applause as the overhead lights brightened.
All around them, couples and families started moving toward the exit, yet Elijah stood tall next to her, letting people file out around them.
As always, she could feel the heat of his attention. His knowing gaze flamed the warmth that had blossomed inside her since meeting him. It wasn’t lost on her just how absent that warmth had been for a long time in her life.
“That was quite a show,” he said, making small talk.
Based on the near-constant touching between them at dinner and during the Cirque du Soleil show, Reagan suspected he hadn’t been paying the performers much attention either.
Dare she call him out on it?
Finally looking up into his eyes, she answered. “I think you should have saved your money.”
Why did his grin look predatory?
“Are you trying to object to my spending money again?”
“No!” she spat, realizing now how her statement might have implied that. Stumbling for the right words, she finally added. “It’s just… I’m not sure either of us was paying enough attention to the show to get your money’s worth.”
Elijah reached out and clamped both hands on her hips, pulling her willing body against his hard muscles. She’d never been one to obsess about her body like a lot of women did, but in that moment, she also acknowledged just how wonderful it felt to be held by a man who made her feel small.
No, small was the wrong word. That implied that Elijah made her feel less than, and nothing could be farther from the truth. Instead, he made her feel surrounded.
Protected.
Seen .
Connected. In a way she hadn’t felt with someone in a very long time.
Reagan liked he was so much taller than her that she had to angle her neck back to maintain their visual connection while in his arms.
She caught a hint of his minty breath as he replied. “I confess, I’ve been distracted thinking about what I have planned for us when we get back to our room.”
Our room.
It was his room. She was just a visitor, yet she recognized how much she loved the idea of being an ‘our’ with Elijah.
Before she could answer, he pulled her into motion. When they caught up with the throng of the retreating audience in the lobby, Elijah wrapped his arm around her waist, keeping her close as they jostled through the crowd gathered around the entrance to the gift shop.
Like earlier at their fancy dinner together, conversation flowed easily between them. Considering they barely knew each other, Reagan kept waiting to bump into an awkward topic, but it hadn’t happened yet.
When they got to a fork in the corridor, she let Elijah pull her in a new direction.
“Neither of us enjoys walking through the smoky casino. I know a shortcut back to the Spa Tower elevators,” he said, heading in the direction of the pool.
The midsummer heat hit them the second they stepped out of the air-conditioning. It may be close to ten at night, but the arid desert air hadn’t gotten the memo that it was time to cool down.
Unlike earlier in the day, only a handful of guests remained in the water.
It was late enough that families with small children had been replaced with couples making-out and rowdy groups of friends drinking near the waterside bar.
Elijah weaved them through the extensive pool deck —around lounge chairs, tables, and decorative displays.
They were almost to the opposite side of the open space when the sound of people having loud sex hit her ears. It was close enough that Reagan stopped in her tracks, pulling Elijah to a halt alongside her.
“Hear something you like?” he teased with a grin, just as a man’s grunt of exertion filled the air.
She didn’t need to answer. Reagan felt her blood rushing through her body—half on the way to her face to blush and the other half to her pussy, making it throb with need.
Instead of pulling them back into motion, Elijah closed the inches between them, yanking her back against his chest while wrapping her in his embrace from behind.
“You like to watch, don’t you?” His words were gruff against her ear as he shuffled them to the left just enough to bring the errant couple into focus.
Her core spasmed with need at the sight of the nearly naked couple fucking just a few feet away.
The young woman was standing, bent over with her hands on the edge of a huge potted plant while a man with his swim trunks around his ankles plowed her from behind.
The woman may technically have a bikini top on, but her full breasts had spilled out of their small confines and were jostling to the tempo of his hard thrusts.
Were they close enough to the live-action porn for her to catch the whiff of sex in the air, or was that her own essence broadcasting just how desperately she wanted Elijah to show her the same treatment?
“Maybe you’d like to do more than watch. How would you like to be the one on display?”
She could hear the edge of his control fraying in his pointed question.
Embarrassed at the thought of having semi-public sex, Reagan wiggled in his arms, trying to get them moving again. His grip was firm, holding her in place.
“I think it’s time for your second orgasm, don’t you?”
The feel of his palm against her bare tummy accompanied his teasing words. She’d worn a ruffled crop top along with a short mini skirt to dinner and the show. By Vegas standards it may be dressy, but she knew it was one of the more risqué outfits in her closet.
Elijah’s right hand slipped lower, sliding into her panties, telling her he approved of the easy access to her hidden body parts.
His low chuckle as his fingers slid through her wet pussy should have embarrassed her, but it didn’t. Instead, she let the feel of his hard cock pressing against her ass cheeks remind her he was just as turned on as she was.
“The question is… are you wet because you like to watch or…” He paused long enough to pinch her clit, pulling an obscene groan from her. “Or… have you been thinking about how good it’s going to feel when I’m fucking you nice and hard just like he’s plowing her?”
Reagan’s knees buckled under her. She would have face-planted if Elijah hadn’t caught her. She couldn’t think straight. Part of her brain was screaming at her to move along. Good girls don’t let near strangers finger them to orgasm in the wide open of a public swimming pool. They played it safe.
Conservative.
But in that moment, she didn’t want to be the good girl anymore. She’d played that role all twenty-nine years of her life, and where had it gotten her? Maybe when it came to her career, that was the right course, but in relationships?
She turned herself over, trusting Elijah to not only hold her upright, but to also push her buttons—literally—until she fell over the cliff of ecstasy.
He succeeded at both in record time. Just as the out of breath man in front of her grabbed the woman’s hips and shouted his completion, white spots filled her own vision.
Reagan grabbed Elijah’s muscular forearms around her middle as she threw her head back against his shoulder, letting her own waves of pleasure shudder through her body.
Long seconds ticked by as she floated back to reality.
“Such a good girl, coming for me so fast. Although I’m beginning to think there might be a naughty girl in there trying to break free.”
Elijah’s voice felt like her lifeline. How was he saying what she’d just been thinking minutes before?
The feel of his lips nibbling along the crook of her neck up to suck on her earlobe brought a full-body shiver. The man had serious talent, literally pushing buttons she hadn’t even known she had.
With a groan, Elijah loosened his grip, pulling his hand from between her legs. But before he released her, he instead lifted his glistening fingers up to his mouth, sucking them clean.
His one word, “Tasty,” was the last response before releasing her from his embrace. His still-wet fingers linked with her hand, once again pulling them in the direction of the elevator bank to their room.
Reagan’s mind raced with a barrage of thoughts. Was she really about to go to a man’s room where she would almost certainly be having sex with a near stranger?
That was easy to answer. Yes, she was. Only the building catching fire would get her to leave before finding out how talented Elijah Keaton was between the sheets.
The harder question to answer was why she felt like she’d known Elijah forever instead of one day?
A crowd of guests waiting for an elevator acted like a speed bump, forcing her to rein in her need to be behind closed doors.
Elijah didn’t help matters when he pulled them into the back corner of a too-full elevator, spinning Reagan around so he could once again press his hard erection against her ass.
With a room on an upper floor, they had to suffer through stop after stop as groups of people exited, finally leaving them alone for the climb of those final few floors. Elijah didn’t budge, despite having more space to separate.
At the door to his suite, he waved the keycard in front of the electronic pad. The lock clicked, but instead of going inside, he propped his foot into the few inches of the now cracked open door and pulled her to face him.
“Last chance to escape, baby. Once I get you behind closed doors, you’re all mine. Got that?” He issued a final warning.
Oh, she got it.
“I can’t wait,” she whispered.
Elijah’s groan sounded a bit like he was suffering through torture. Considering she’d got to come downstairs and he hadn’t, she understood.
Still, his warning prompted her to press him. “Are you always this much of a gentleman?”
His grin was predatory. “Baby, I’m about to take you inside and fuck your brains out. Be warned. I won’t be satisfied until you scream my name loud enough that our neighbors call in a noise complaint. Does that sound like a gentleman to you?”
Her knees wobbled beneath her again at his raunchy promise. The fact that she couldn’t wait to get started was telling.
“Considering you’ve given me every opportunity to change my mind even when you have to know how much I want you… yeah, I think you are a gentleman.”
She’d thought her comment was light… teasing. So why did Elijah’s face get even more serious?
“Your consent is important, Reagan.”
“You’ve given me two orgasms and came in my mouth. I’m pretty sure I’ve been consenting.”
“So far… yes, but baby…” He paused, a flash of something she couldn’t quite understand turned his eyes a full shade darker. “There is so much more I want to show you. I’m just not sure you’re ready.”
His words confused her. She wasn’t some virginal newbie. Hell, she’d been honest. He knew she’d even been married and divorced already.
Lifting her palm up to his cheek, Reagan tried to put his mind at ease. “I trust you, Elijah. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I can’t wait to see what you plan on showing me.”
She’d expected her reassurance to appease him. Instead, his eyes went even darker. “Baby, you may want to put some limits on that trust. You’d be scandalized if you knew even half of the kinky things I’d love to do to this delicious body of yours.”
His left hand moved lower, pulling her against his body so she could feel his hard shaft between them.
Wild horses couldn’t drag her away from him. Not now.
“That sounds like a dare. We’re in Vegas. Maybe I want to be scandalized,” she teased, trying to lighten the unexpected heaviness between them.
“Christ… Reagan…”
Was he having second thoughts? Just thinking of the possibility that Elijah might back out of their weekend together crushed her. Thankfully, he didn’t make her suffer long before he asked a most unexpected question.
“Baby… do you know what a safeword is?”