Page 19 of The Night Ride (SEALs on Wheels #3)

Chapter fourteen

“F ull house. Drink up, sailor.”

Aiden eyed me with a lopsided grin. The power was still out, and the thunderstorm hadn’t let up. But after two hours of playing poker and taking shots of tequila, we were both hammered. It was the best I’d felt in a while.

“I’m thinking you wanted to get me drunk.” Aiden skin was flushed. It happened anytime he drank. And I didn’t understand why but I thought it made him even hotter.

“Why? Because I’m winning?” I chuckled and burped because I’d had quite a few shots myself. I’d likely regret this little game come morning. But I wouldn’t trade this time with Aiden for the world.

“How do you know I’m not letting you win?”

I snorted and eyed him. Sarcasm dripped from my words. “Because your hands have sucked.”

“True. Makes me wonder if you’ve got aces up your sleeves.” His eyes looked black in the low light as they trailed over my arms.

I shivered, but I wasn’t cold. It was from the heat in his eyes that he couldn’t hide now that he was drunk.

I held up my bare wrists. The burn mark from an oven incident in college marring the ivory skin. I liked to think of it as my battle scar for my career. “No sleeves where I could hide any. You’re just upset because I have more chocolate candy than you.”

“Uh huh, I’ll get you on the next round.”

“Bring it on.” I gestured like I was all big and bad.

“Oh, you’re baiting the tiger.” He took the shot, staring at me the whole time. Then shuffled the cards.

A shiver of anticipation shot through me at his intense stare. Like he was attempting to divine my deepest, darkest secrets. If only he knew that he still took my breath away. That when he looked at me with his steely blue gaze, I wanted him in the worst way possible. We’re talking jump his bones.

And in my heart, I knew I had to release what happened in the past. It shifted into a tense situation when Evan interrupted us.

He pulled rank on Aiden. These guys were built differently.

When a commanding officer gave them an order, they didn’t buck it.

I couldn’t keep blaming him for my brother being an ass.

He dealt out the hand. “Five-card stud, twos are wild. This hand we need twenty pieces of candy for the pot.”

I kept my expression serene even though I wanted to jump for joy at my hand. The man was going down. I counted out the required number and shoved them into the center. “I’ll see your twenty pieces and raise you twenty.”

“Think you can scare me.”

“Maybe.” I preened.

“You should know better than that.” He shoved the candy into the pile.

“How many?” he chin nodded toward the cards in my hand, asking how many I wanted to get rid of before we took the game to the next round of betting.

“Two please.” I handed over my discards. He doled out my new ones. Lifting the card edges, I peeked at what I got.

Holy smokes! The new ones made my hand even better. Aiden discarded two himself and grabbed two more.

“Any more bets?” he dared with a smirk.

With the hand I had, hell yes, I did. “Yep. I’ll see your twenty. And I’ll raise you one hundred pieces.”

I counted them out and pushed them into the center pile. Then pegged him with a satisfied grin.

“Getting cocky over there. Are you sure you want to go that route?”

“I just said I did.” That candy was mine as were the bragging rights.

He quirked a brow. “Fine. Have it your way. I will see your hundred. And raise you another hundred.”

Shit. Just what type of hand did he have?

There wasn’t much that beat the hand I had.

Except, perhaps he was bluffing. I studied him but couldn’t read his poker face.

He had more shots than me with all his lousy hands.

Maybe he’s just drunk and being a total dude, thinking he’ll get me to fold. But I didn’t scare easily.

I glanced at my pile of candy, then back at him. Before I shoved every piece into the pot. I had an amazing hand. At this point in the night, it was shit or get off the pot. This hand was a sure bet, I knew it in my bones.

“You sure you want to do that?”

“Yep.” I put an emphasis on the p.

“I’ll see your raise.” He shoved all his candy onto the pile.

The game had shifted and now was winner take all. We stared at each other, trying to gage whether the other was bluffing or not.

“I call it. Show me what you’ve got.” He nodded at my cards.

“Read them and weep.” I laid them on the table in grandiose fashion. His brows rose at my straight with Ace, two, three, four, five with two wild cards. My original hand was two wild cards and the ace with an eight and a nine. I got rid of the eight and nine and wound up with the four and five.

I started to reach for what I knew was mine. The pot with all the candy, and of course, bragging rights.

“Ah, ah. It was a valiant effort. I’ll give you that. But I’m sorry to say it’s not enough to win this hand.” He lowered his cards to the table.

My jaw dropped. A royal flush Ace high with a wild card serving as the ten.

“You won.” I couldn’t believe it. I blinked a few times to make sure my eyes weren’t seeing things. He’d won the biggest hand of the night.

He collected his winnings, popping a few pieces of chocolate in his mouth. Then poured another shot for me. “Don’t feel bad. You would have taken me if I hadn’t discarded two.”

I eyed the tequila as if it were a snake. I wasn’t sure my body could handle another shot. He began collecting the cards.

“What did you have?” I reached for the discards.

“It doesn’t matter.” He snatched them up before I could look at them.

“What? Let me see!” I tried to take them from his hand but could only pinch part of the cards. He pulled them back but there was no way I was giving up.

We engaged in a small power struggle, laughing like lunatics the whole time. Meaning we were both drunker than skunks. Until I found myself straddling him on the chair reaching for the cards he held out of my reach. Our faces were inches apart.

We remained in the heated silence for a breath. The seconds ticked by. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed outside while the storm raged on.

I wasn’t sure who moved first. Yet in the next breath our mouths fused.

Volts of electricity shot between us as we kissed.

Instead of questioning myself and my sanity, I leaned in.

This was the man I’d been crushing on since I was fifteen.

This was the man I had imagined fairy tale scenarios with, each one more lavish than the last. This was the man I had wanted with my whole heart growing up.

And the man who had dazzled me for a night.

Even though that night ended in ruins, it was still a night that impacted me because it was a wish fulfillment.

I knew it was weird that getting kissed by Aiden fulfilled a part of me. But the thing was, I had yearned for him for so long and felt as if his arms were where I belonged.

That sensation had only intensified in the years since that first magical kiss.

It had grown into a raging wildfire that I didn’t want to escape.

I wanted to feel the burn and everything he had to offer.

I didn’t want to hold back anymore. Regardless of the outcome, I wanted him in a way I didn’t really understand.

Yet if felt as if it would kill me if he stopped and pushed me away again.

He cupped my nape, angling my head the way he wanted it and delved deeper while the other pulled me in tighter until I was plastered against him.

I surrendered to the tide, tired of fighting the quixotic pull that was always constant between us. I wanted this man in ways I had never wanted anyone else before.

And I understood I was risking opening myself up to further disappointment. But I no longer cared. If this tryst, this time with him broke my heart, so be it. I would rather know him, experience being the sole focal point of his universe, even for the night.

Maybe it was the tequila talking, but I never wanted to stop kissing this man.

I rocked against him, feeling him harden and lengthen beneath me. Deep inside I quivered in longing, in need to be skin to skin with him. He was solid and well built.

And oh my god!

Tingles erupted down my spine as he nipped my bottom lip. Only to change the angle and take the kiss even deeper. He kissed me like he would never get enough of me. I shoved my hands into his short silky hair, imprisoning his mouth against mine.

Because I never wanted it to end.

I needed him closer. I wanted to be rid of the clothing between us. I just wanted—him.

It felt as if in my heart it had always been him. That he was the one I was supposed to be with against the rest of the world. That he had been handcrafted, molded to be with me. And that our timing had simply been off before.

He trailed his hands down until he cupped my ass. I couldn’t help the thought that blazed through my mind, even as my body melted even further into him.

Because oh my god, Aiden’s hands were on my ass!

He rose still holding me against his rock-hard body, devastating me with his ardent kisses and lowered us onto the sofa with my body beneath him.

It felt like I had waited lifetimes for this.

My entire body electrified at feeling the full length of him pressing me down into the mattress.

My hands explored his killer body and slid down his back.

Muscles rippled beneath my fingertips. There were just so many of them.

I gripped the hem of his shirt, desperate to reach his skin. I yanked it up to his shoulders but needed his help to go further. But neither of us were in a hurry to stop kissing. We kissed and everything else faded from view. We became our own world. A universe where just the two of us existed.

My palms slid over his exposed back, feeling my way over every muscular divot and scar to his ripcord obliques.