Page 26 of Gamble (Black Light #38)
REAGAN
T he ding of an incoming text took Reagan’s attention away from her reflection in the mirror.
After another round of sexy times that morning, she’d elected to shower first. Considering she’d taken two showers and a bath the day before, she probably could have skipped showering this morning, but she’d been desperate for some alone time to think through all that had happened this eventful weekend.
Since moving out into the main suite to get dressed and put on her makeup, she’d been trying to figure out how to slow down time.
There were a lot of things she questioned, but one thing she knew for sure was that she wasn’t ready yet to say goodbye to the birthday boy.
The second ping of the incoming message had her crossing to the table where Elijah had left his phone. She shouldn’t look. It was none of her business. Not who was texting and certainly not what they had to say.
But she wanted it to be her business.
And that was just one of her many growing problems.
She got there just in time to see a short message fill the screen from someone named Kent. He was demanding Elijah meet ‘the guys’ for brunch before they all headed back to L.A.
Fresh guilt invaded. She’d already run the gamut of emotions on the topic of having kinky sex with a near stranger.
Hell, he’d made her come not just once but seven times.
She knew the count because Elijah was still actively working toward the magic number of a dozen.
The only problem was the clock. They were running out of time.
Now she could add feeling guilty for stealing Elijah away from his friends for the entire weekend to her worry list.
“I love that sundress on you.” Elijah’s deep voice said from behind her.
Reagan flinched. She’d been caught red-handed looking down at his phone.
Grateful she at least hadn’t picked it up, she answered without turning around. “Someone is trying to reach you. Your phone keeps dinging.”
Coming up behind her, Elijah slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her against his hard chest as his masculine strength enveloped her. She didn’t miss how the tension that had been building in their few minutes apart melted away when he was near.
“Probably just the guys trying to get me to meet them for food. They’re gonna be heading back to L.A. soon, but I’m still hoping I can talk you into staying with me another day. I don’t have to go back to work until Wednesday night.”
He’d made the same offer in the middle of the night. Once the sun had come up, she’d worried she’d dreamed the invitation.
“I would love to stay,” she said truthfully. “But I have to work tomorrow.”
“Would it make me an asshole if I tried to con you into calling in sick?”
Reagan chuckled. “You manage people, right? How do you feel when they call in sick at the last minute?”
Elijah nibbled along her neck, doing his best to tempt her into changing her mind.
“Fine. I get it. You’re a nurse. You save lives. I don’t want some bastard’s death on my hands because I left the surgical team short-staffed just so I could have sex.”
Reagan couldn’t help but laugh at his teasing. “I hardly think anyone would die, but yes… birthday sex or not, it would be rude of you to hold me hostage.”
Slowly spinning her around so he could look into her eyes, Elijah moved on to his next temptation. “I know I told you I’d give you a ride to the airport, and I will, but come down to brunch with me first. Let me introduce you to the guys.”
Reagan’s pulse spiked at the thought of meeting a whole group of men she didn’t know but who probably also had a good idea of what she and the birthday boy had been up to for the last twenty-four hours.
“Oh no. I don’t know them. But you should go,” she reassured him despite the sadness of having to say goodbye closing in. “I feel bad enough that I’ve stolen you away from them all weekend. You should at least meet them for a meal.”
“Are you kidding me? They’re jealous as hell. In fact… I don’t think they believed me when I told them I met the most amazing woman. You’d be doing me a solid coming down to eat with me and letting me show you off.”
She loved the nugget of warmth glowing inside as she let Elijah’s compliments wash over her.
As an independent career-minded woman, she prided herself on not requiring a lot of external validation, but now that she’d had a small dose of Elijah’s pampering, Reagan realized just how starved she was for the kind of attention he was showering on her.
“I don’t know. Won’t it be awkward?” she asked, still on the fence. While meeting a group of strangers didn’t sound like fun, saying her final goodbye to Elijah would be harder.
“Not for me, and I’m the birthday boy,” he said with a grin so big the laugh lines around his eyes lit up.
“You’re gonna milk that for all it’s worth, aren’t you?” she teased.
“Damn straight. Come on. You need to eat. And if I can’t talk you into driving to L.A. with me, then at least let me feed you before dropping you off for your flight.”
Her naughty response burst out before she could stop it. “You already fed me once this morning, remember?” She felt her face burning red with embarrassment as soon as the words left her mouth.
“Baby, I’ll never forget.” He hugged her tighter as he added, “It was the best kind of wake-up call having your mouth on me as I woke up. A guy could get used to that.”
Her heart lurched as she suspected she would love getting used to it too.
But it wasn’t meant to be. He was too old for any kind of long-term relationship… wasn’t he?
When she didn’t answer, he moved a hand down to her ass and squeezed. “Come on. It’s almost check-out time anyway, so if you aren’t gonna stay another day, then I vote we head down and grab some food before we have to leave.”
It was tempting. Not only because she was hungry, but the last thing she wanted to do was sit at the airport where she stood a good chance of running into Tristan and his friends. With any luck, they were already long gone.
“Fine… let’s go to brunch, but this time I’m paying.”
Elijah’s hand on her ass left only long enough to be able to slap her bottom. “I think I’ve made it very clear that you aren’t paying a dime this weekend. It’s my treat, and that includes brunch. Now, let’s get the last of our things packed up. I’ll text Kent and tell him to save us two seats.”
“Holy shit, you weren’t exaggerating.”
The outburst had come from a rugged-looking man sitting in the large booth the hostess had led them to. The guy ogling her looked to be about the same age as Elijah and was presently sporting a wolfish grin that made her feel beautiful.
Elijah’s soft caress on the bare skin of her lower back calmed her nerves at meeting a table full of complete strangers.
“I knew you assholes didn’t believe me,” Elijah offered in the way of a hello. “I expect you to be on your best behavior.”
A young bodybuilder looking man countered quickly. “We’re always on our best behavior. I have to admit, I thought you were just trying to ditch us last night because we’d kept you out too late the night before, old man.”
Before she could consider the implications, Reagan chose to throw back a response. “Oh, I can assure you, Elijah isn’t that old, and he’s definitely not afraid of staying up late.”
She could feel the blush creeping into her cheeks just as the entire table of men burst out laughing, congratulating the birthday boy on his ‘late night.’
Embarrassed, Reagan leaned into Elijah’s embrace, burying her face in the crook of his neck.
“Hey, don’t you dare get self-conscious on me,” he whispered in her ear. “We haven’t done anything to be ashamed of, baby.”
While his words bolstered her, she still had trouble looking back at the men crammed into the cafe’s booth. She reluctantly let go of Elijah as he turned to grab two unused chairs from nearby tables, pulling them up to the end of the table.
“You folks need coffee?” The question came from the seasoned waitress who’d snuck behind them as they took their seats.
Reagan and Elijah answered, “Yes,” in unison, and the group of men launched into a rousing conversation about all the adventures they’d each gone on the day before. Even having never met any of them, she noticed how the younger men in the group clearly looked up to Elijah.
“So, you went back for a visit to High Roller, eh? Guessing you didn’t dive off from the top like you did last time I was in town with you,” the man whose name she now knew was Kent asked.
“Naw, I had much better company with me this time.” Elijah squeezed her shoulder where he’d wrapped his arm possessively across the back of her chair. “I wasn’t in a big hurry to get away from Reagan like I was with you assholes last time I was in town.”
The good-natured conversation flowed easily, making it easy to forget she barely knew any of the men around the table.
Listening to Elijah interacting with his friends made her realize how completely different he was from literally every other man she’d ever dated.
Despite, or maybe because of, his age, he carried himself with a confidence…
an almost dominance that was sexy as hell.
When the waitress returned, Reagan placed her order for the breakfast she’d be having if she were with Tristan. “I’ll have a yogurt parfait with berries and granola,” she ordered without even opening the menu.
Elijah’s hand had moved into her lap and was now squeezing her thigh as he added, “I’ll have the ham and cheese omelet, and could you also bring a big stack of pancakes for me to share with my companion.”
Reagan protested. “I don’t need pancakes.”
“I beg to differ. You’ve burned a lot of calories in the last twenty-four hours. We need to keep you well fed.”
She could feel her cheeks warming from the blush consuming her as the men gave her and Elijah a good-natured ribbing.