Page 8 of Rio

“Because you can take your panties off, while keeping your dress on, and I can’t do that.”

She chortles.“You sound like a little sulky boy, Knight.”

Sentences elude me right now, so I focus on the game.We each pick up our cards.She grins.I groan because I lose.

“What’ll it be, Knight?”

I stand up and slowly undo the buttons of my shirt.Shel gives me one of those hungry stares I’m accustomed to.Encouraged, I slowly peel off my shirt, feeling thankful I have a body worthy of her looking at.

She licks her lips, as I sit down, then clears her throat and twiddles with the high-neck.She must be roasting in that dress.A thin sheen of sweat lines her face.I know she’s hot.I’m feeling hot myself.

We play another round.She sets the cards down, looking jubilant.“Straight flush.”She looks at me, but her gaze soon drops to my chest.

“Oh, princesa.”I set down my cards.I got super lucky.“Royal Flush.”I lay down my cards, all diamonds, high hands, in order, and look up, feeling gleeful.

She looks uncomfortable.It occurs to me later that she’s wearing a watch and a bracelet.She took off her earrings, and she could have taken her watch and bracelet off next, but she chose to take off her panties.

Now there’s a tease if ever I met one.

We play a few more rounds, and she loses, again.

I want that dress off.

Unless she’s going to fiddle around with her bra and take that off?That’ll only get me more aroused.I lean forward—as much as my stiff-as-a-rod boner will allow me to.“Are you stripping for me now, princesa?”

She arches a brow, trying to stay cool, but her dewy face, and the tightness around her eyes, gives the game away.She sits upright, her spine stiffening, and I know she’s trying to figure out how to dodge it.

She doesn’t want to strip.

“How about a question then?”I ask.

She clenches her jaw.“Fine.One question.Make it count.”

She’s all hard edges, with steel walls around her.I sense she doesn’t want me probing, but I so badly want to dig and unearth all her secrets.Even the painful ones, because I know this much.Despite her armor, despite that quick tongue and sharp mind, Raquel’s hurting.She’s hiding something.

“Why do you invite me in and then push me away, princesa?”She seems to have an internal battle whenever we’re close together, and her actions confuse me, but I can’t walk away because she’s different.There’s something about this woman that catches my curiosity more than it should.

"I can't make my mind up about you."

"You’re trying very hard to resist me."

"Not resist.I'm struggling with my morals."

"Morals?Who needs morals?”I cry.“How about we abandon them for tonight?"

She laughs, shaking her head and staring at me in disbelief."I figured you'd be the type of man to do that."

I sit up, gut hardening."What type of man?"

"The type who screws around and leaves.Not that I'm looking for anything more than fun from someone like you."

"Someone like me?"

"A playboy.Someone who probably has a woman in every city.Someone who uses women for pleasure.Nothing wrong with that, either.Women use men for pleasure.I do, too, sometimes."

She’s so wrong about that.I like to think of myself as a man of honor."Then what do you hate about me, apart from my name?"We could both use one another for pleasure, but I have a feeling she’s not the type of woman I’d screw once and discard.

"Who you are.I have no patience for entitlement."