High Stakes (19 page)

What was he, fucking stupid? "Yeah, let me guess. You're a virgin and you've never done anything like that before." He moved his money over to the dealer to go in for the next round, and scoffed at her. "I don't know what game you're playing, but find another fool. I don't make the same mistake twice."

"Me either, I promise. This time I won't get scared, because I know what to expect."

That made no sense to him. Expect what? It wasn't like he had a defect or a double-wide dick or anything. He wasn't a nature show, and there weren't that many ways to have sex standing up.

Kelsey smiled and leaned a little closer. "Tell me your name."

He blew cigarette smoke in her face. "I don't have a name."

"Oh, come on. Pretty please, with sugar on top?"

Ringowanted to tell her to go fuck herself, since she had left him sixty seconds from sexual completion, feeling like he'd swallowed a shot glass of Demerol. Yet there was something about her… the way she was so perky and naive and flat-out stupid that he found he couldn't do it. He felt sorry for her.

Which shocked him, right down to his Italian leather sandals.It had been ahelluva long time since he'd felt any emotion for anyone.

"No. Now here's a twenty." He put a chip in her hand. "Run along like a good little girl and find someone else to talk to."

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She made a distressed noise, but he turned back to the table. Henoticedshe didn't set down the money he'd given her when she stood up.

But instead of leaving, she draped herself over his shoulder.Ringo stiffened. He didn't want her touching him. And under his jacket he carried his gun.

Ready to shove her off, or leave the table, he was shifting when she whispered in his ear, in an urgent voice, "You can't kill him, you know."

That stopped him cold. Abandoning his money and the game, he stood up and clamped a hand onto her wrist. She sucked in an exclamation of shock and pain.

But he just held her and said quietly, "We're going for a little walk."

Fear flashed in her eyes, but she didn't call for help.

And when he pulled her, she came along with him, giving zero resistance, like a skinny lamb with lipstick straight to slaughter.

@

Ethan couldn't believe he'd let Alexis throw her panties at Tom Jones on the stage.

But she had said she was repressed, and never did anything fun, and this was necessary to prevent her from becoming an angry, shriveled-up cat woman.

Ethan couldn't follow the leap in logic, so he had just nodded. But now that they were heading upstairs in the elevator, he was very much aware of the fact that under her tight, low-rise jeans, she was panty-free.

He wasn't a big fan of denim, finding the seams uncomfortable, and jeans awkward as hell to get off a woman. There was something much more satisfying about a dress dropping to the ground in a pool of satin or muslin than yanking and jerking at tight pants, but he was resigned to modern fashion.

And the thought that Alexis wasn't wearing a stitch under that denim did things to his own jeans.Like creating a pop-up tent. "That was so much fun."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"I'm sorry you were the only man there besides Tom and the bouncers." Alexis turned and put her hand on his chest. "But at least you're the owner of the casino so it didn't look too weird."

"I can handle looking weird." Ethan gripped her waist, determined to end the night buried deep inside Alexis. After enduring that screaming estrogen fest, he wasn't going to settle for anything less.

"And I'm sorry I hit you in the face with my panties when I wound upto throw ." She smirked as she walked her fingers up his chest.

"I didn't mind, trust me." Though he would have liked to have kept the scrap of satin himself, not watch it arc through the air and wind up at the feet of a geriatric sex symbol. He hadn't been thrilled when she'd rushed into the bathroom to strip them off in the first place, but he was trying to focus on the end result, not the why.

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She was naked under there, and that was the important thing.

Especially now that his hands were on her tight backside, running over those curves and dipping down between her legs.Her breath hitched and Ethan leaned down, intent on claiming those plump pink lips, when the elevator door dinged and slid open.

"Bloody hell," he said, as she darted away from him.

Alexis ran down the hall to her room, shoving the key card into the door slot. Half the time Alexis didn't carry a purse, she just stuffed her keys and driver's license in her pants pocket, and Ethan found that an interesting trait in a woman. Most he knew carried an entire drugstore in their handbag.

He strolled casually after her as she stepped into her room, his still present erection discouraging speed.

With a quick burst of energy, he could catch her, pick her up, and have her clothes off before she could even take a breath to protest. But he didn't feel like doing that now. He wanted to let Alexis lead. She craved control and he would give it to her.

It was hard to remember why that was an intelligent idea when he walked through her door and got a foot right in the chest. A whoosh came out of his mouth as a sharp pain vibrated through him.

"What the hell was that for?" he asked as she dropped her leg back down, her fists up and ready.

"You said I could practice," she said, bouncing on the heels o her tiny feet. "But I guess I shouldn't have nailed you right where you got shot. I wasn't thinking. Sorry."

Ethan realized Alexis was still thinking of him as a mortal man, with all the inherent vulnerabilities and weaknesses. That was inaccurate, and the one thing he could not tolerate was pity. Concern was well and good, and showed she cared about him, but Alexis didn't seem to understand the full scope of his powers. Ethan got a little irritated.

"I am a Master Vampire, nearly one thousand years old. I battled the Turkish in the First Crusade, the French in the Hundred Years' War—which I fought for all one hundred years, by the way—and the Germans in both World Wars. One little foot in my chest from a pint-size prosecutor is not going to take me down, bullet or not." Her mouth dropped. He realized that perhaps his words were moreincendiary than informative, right as the butt of her hand shot out toward him. This time he saw it coming and blocked her. But while he was busy preventing her hand from ramming into him, without actually using any sort of force that could hurt her, she pivoted and kicked him right below the knee.

A wince slipped out before he could prevent it. It had been a long time since he'd seen a battle. Maybe he was getting soft if a blow to the shin hurt.

"Pint-size?I'll give you pint-size."

Once again Ethan wished he could read Alexis's mind so he could anticipate what she had in store for him. He was hoping this was the point where she stripped and seduced him, but somehow he didn't think that was where she was going with it.

Just in case things got ugly, he closed the door and moved away from the mirrored closet doors, and into the open living area, back-ingup slowly so he could keep his eye on her. "I didn't mean it as an insult.

I was merely pointing out that I

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amnot the wimp you seem to think I am. And you're not a wimp either, as you have demonstrated on several occasions."

Instead of replying, she threw a series of kicks, punches, and jabs that had him scrambling to block her.

With his reflexes, it should have been a breeze, but since he couldn't read her thoughts or anticipate her moves, and was very conscious of holding back his strength so he didn't hurt her, she managed to land a few shots.

Most he blocked, but she got a foot to his shoulder, a hand to his gut, and an elbow in a place that was just going to hurt both of them if she wasn't careful.

"Alright, BB, you put Buffy to shame." He held up his hands in mock surrender. "You kick vampire ass."

Now he wanted her ass in his bed.

Alexis grinned. That scared him. And he had agreed to this. In her mind, he had no doubt she was simply practicing. She wasn't going to let it go yet, not until she was finished.

Ethan felt himself smiling back. Alexis got his blood flowing, aroused his competitive nature. He could hear her blood pumping faster than normal, her heart rate increasing as she lightly danced on the balls of her feet.

"What, you're not finished? Got something else for me?"

"You know it. I'm just getting warmed up." She gave one orthose karate yells that impaled his eardrums like a steel rod.

Then she came at him with a flying front kick. Afraid he'd knock her to the ground if he thrust her leg aside, he stepped back out of her reach.

"Ooohh, vampire speed," she said as she landed with a soft thump on the carpet. "That's cool." Her hands unclenched, and she looked finished.Satisfied.

Ethan relaxed his own shoulders and fists. In time to take a blow to the chin, one that sent his teeth slamming into his tongue, drawing blood, and rattling his skull. For such a little foot, which had to reach so far in the air, it packed a wicked punch. Shaking his vision back into focus, he gave her an assessing stare.

"All right, my dear, I'm done holding back. That annoyed me."

"Holding back? Please. You weren't holding back. You just can't handle me."

But this time when she went at him, he was ready and didn't temper his response. She went right with a knife hand, and he blocked. Left, he grabbed her wrist. He dodged out of the way of her palm, and stopped the right, right, left combo she threw at him. She pivoted, he ducked the kick, she threw a fake kick,then went with the opposite foot, only to find her toes jammed into the palm of his hand.

Sweat dampened her forehead and her eyes narrowed in concentration. They circled each other, Alexis poised for attack, Ethan on the defensive. His enjoyment of her grew with each blow she threw, his respect for the warrior in her higher than he'd ever felt for a woman before, and he found himself aroused.Excited.

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Physical exertion mixed with the competitiveness between them, when tossed in with the attraction he had for her, which had been hovering close to the surface all night, like a pile of kindling ready to be lit, their sparring took on a sexual tone to Ethan.

Aggressive foreplay, but foreplay nonetheless.He was turned on, fully hard, and breathing in quick, shallow bursts. His fangs wanted to let down, both from blood lust and from sexual want, though he resisted that. He'd save the first bite for when Alexis was writhing in passion beneath him.

After several long seconds of circling each other, she darted forward. He blocked, but she rained strikes on him one right after the otheruntiltfhey were both a blur of arms and legs, sweaty and bruised from the smack of skin and bone colliding, neither the clear winner. Alexis was relentless, and her determination and skill gave her enough of an edge to sneak in a punch or a jab here and there, which annoyed him and thrilled her.

Especially when she pulled that leg swipe move on him, and he tripped. Taking advantage, she thumped him in the chest and he lost his balance. Knocking his knee on the coffee table, he stumbled back. Alexis threw a punch with a loud "Ki-Hap!" but when she touched him, Ethan clamped his hand around her wrist.

When he fell, she went with him, landing on his body with a grunt. Not giving her time to react, Ethan flipped her onto her back. But she kicked him in the ass and skidded herself out from under him. They were rolling, bumping the coffee table, locked together, squeezing thighs and calves, and both trying to get the best of each other.Neither willing to give up.

"You know, this can only end in sex," he told her as she flattened her palm on his forehead in an attempt to hold him down on his back.

"That's what I'm hoping," she said, breathing hard, breasts brushing his chest.

If he wanted to, he could send her thirty feet across the room with one push, but he wanted to fight fair, and on her terms. That didn't mean he couldn't take it to the next level, though. On his back, Alexis on his lap, he reached forward and grabbed the fabric of her tight T-shirt. With just a little yank on his part, it split into two pieces, resisting only a bit at the neckline before completely giving way.

"What the…" Alexis exclaimed,then moaned when he cupped both breasts, flicked open the front latch of her bra, and kneaded the firm, warm flesh.

Eyes glazed, pupils dilated, a thin sheen of moisture on her upperlip, she leaned down and kissed him with hard, eager movements. She nipped his lip with her teeth, which shot desire through every inch of his body, while she ground her spread thighs on his erection.

They kissed with hot, tangled tongues, her nipples beading under his thumbs, and the air was filled with their excited breathing, the rapid race of their hearts, and the seductive flow of Alexis's blood through her plump veins. He rolled her onto her back, and she kicked him in the thigh. "No, I want on top."

"Then take it," he told her, desire thick in his mouth, and arousal reaching a fevered pitch. It had been hundreds of years since he had wanted with this desperate level of intensity, this slam-and-take instinct.

When she got turned on, her eyes went the most amazing shade of aqua. They were that color now, cloudy with passion, and spark-ingwith sensual confidence.

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"Okay." She tried to turn him, but he kept himself stiff, hovering over her. Dropping his head, heflickered his tongue over her nipple.

There was a tiny shudder from her, a pause as her eyes fluttered shut, but then she gathered herself and yanked at his shoulder, try-ingto roll him. Legs clamped around his thighs, she tugged and swore while he laughed.