Summer Heat (8 page)

“Just what?”

She hesitated before
answering. “Unlucky.”

Ah, so there was the
problem. “Luck plays some part in gambling. Skill is another and knowing when
to walk away a winner and when to cut your losses and leave the table.”

“Well, I understand all
the games and the concepts, I just can’t seem to ever win, so I don’t try.”

“Come on.” He took her
by the arm and led her to a blackjack table. “I’ll teach you.”

“I don’t want—”

“Just consider it
research, okay?” Damn, but the woman was difficult to loosen up. He swore she
was deliberately being obstinate just to piss him off.

But this time she
followed along, albeit reluctantly, and sat next to him at a blackjack table. A
friendly dealer smiled at both of them.

“Hi Sandy,” Aidan said
after he read the dealer’s tag. The woman nodded politely and began to deal.

It didn’t take Aidan
long to figure out why Melissa never won.

“You’re doing it
wrong,” he whispered as she once again stayed when she should have hit.

“No, I’m not.”

“You have to hit on
sixteen. It’s a no win otherwise.”

“Not true. I’ve won
before.”

“The odds are against
you.”

“I’ll do it my way.”

“You’ll keep losing.”

She sighed. “That’s
what I keep telling you. I’m not lucky.”

“Then let me teach
you.”

She turned her gaze on
him, those green eyes of hers melting his resolve to stay impersonal. “Give it
your best shot.”

He did, and within half
an hour she’d won more than she’d lost. Another half hour and chips were piling
up in front of her. The more her winnings grew, the bigger her smile. She liked
winning.

And she definitely did
not suck at gambling. Once she’d mastered the basics, she focused on the game,
the other players’ cards, the dealers’ hands. He swore he could hear the wheels
turning in her head as she calculated her hand versus the house.

Gathering up her chips,
she said, “This is great! Let’s go play something else now.”

He laughed and took his
winnings, following her to the craps table.

“Okay, teach me how to
play this one.”

Melissa was a quick
study. Her laughter and exuberance at winning rubbed off on the gathering players
around her. Before long she was leading the pack in chips and amassing quite a
fan club.

Unfortunately, many of
those were men. Men who ogled her, practically drooled on her, touched her arm
and high-fived her when she won.

Melissa seemed to enjoy
it, her gaze shifting to his every now and then. Quickly she’d avert her eyes
and smile up at some guy standing next to her.

And Aidan didn’t like
it one damn bit. Reminding himself that she wasn’t his woman, he backed away
and watched, playing a little bit here and there, but mainly keeping his eye on
Lissa.

She ignored him
completely, concentrating on the game and the men hovering near her. She
laughed with them, let them hug her when she rolled successfully, and seemed to
be having a great time.

He, on the other hand,
was nearly ready for a meltdown. He wrangled his way into the crowd and touched
her arm. “You ready to go?”

“Not yet. I’m winning,
Aidan! Look!” she said, pointing to the large pile of chips in front of her.

“I see that. I thought
you might want to try another game.”

“Come on, pal,” a tall,
blond guy said. “She’s our lucky star. Let her stay awhile.”

“Yeah,” said a
good-looking older man who smiled down at Melissa. “We don’t want to lose our
winner here.”

Aidan forced back the
grinding jealousy that stabbed at him, plastering on a polite smile. “I can
appreciate that, guys, but we really need to get going.”

Melissa turned and
arched a brow at him. “I’m not ready to leave yet. Why don’t you go play at one
of the other tables and I’ll find you when I’m done here?”

When she turned away
and started another roll, Aidan stepped back. Dismissed. He’d been dismissed by
her as if he were nothing more than a lackey to carry around her winnings for
her.

Didn’t that beat all?
For years he’d been the one women flocked to, he’d been the one that all the
females wanted to spend time with. And now he’d found a woman whose company he
really enjoyed, and she’d just given him the brush off.

The hell with that.
He’d get her attention like no other man could. Starting right now.

The energy had already
begun to swirl inside him and he didn’t need to work hard to call forth the
magic. In fact, it started so strong he had to tamp it down a bit so he
wouldn’t knock her off her feet.

Then again, maybe
that’s exactly what he’d do. No small little quirks here or there, but a full
blown big one.

Closing his eyes he
directed the energy toward Melissa, then waited for the show to begin.

* * * * *

The first sizzling jolt
hit Melissa without warning, making her instinctively want to reach down
between her legs and intensify the pleasure.

Recalling she was in
the middle of a very public, very crowded casino, she pulled her hand away and
reached for the cushioned side of the craps table.

Whoa. What the hell was
that? A shot of desire unlike anything she’d ever felt, and completely out of
the blue.

“Come on, honey, it’s
your roll.”

She looked up at the
blond man standing next to her and smiled. “Sure. Let ‘em roll.” She tossed the
dice, hoping whatever it was that had just hit her was an isolated occurrence.

“Oh yeah! Won again!”
the blond said, hugging her to him.

When she moved away
from the man it hit her again, this burst of sensation stronger than the last.
It was like having a huge, hard penis slide inside her for the very first time—that
sweet ache that made her moan out loud.

“Did you say something,
sugar?” one of the men asked.

Oh God, had she really
moaned? What was happening to her? She shook her head at the man and smiled
weakly, hiding her shaking hands by clutching the dice in her hands.

She could barely throw
them across the table as another pleasure peak shot through her. Her nipples
hardened, becoming more than obvious tips against her silk dress. Hopefully no
one would notice.

Yeah, right. A man at
the other side of the table nearly lost his eyeballs as they bugged out of
their sockets. Why hadn’t she brought a sweater?

And more importantly,
what the hell was going on? No one was touching her, and she’d never felt
pleasure like this without caressing herself or being fondled by someone else.

Yet she 
was
 being
touched. She felt it, both outside and in, as if a warm hand gently caressed
her breasts, then traveled slowly down her belly and cupped her mound.

She shuddered at the
nearly unbearable sensations, the dice falling out of her hands as something
that felt like a cock slid inside her. But there was nothing between her legs,
nothing but a pulsing, pounding pleasure that turned her legs to jelly. She
squeezed her thighs together as if that alone would stop the vortex of sensations,
but it only increased her pleasure until she had to bite down on her lower lip
to keep from whimpering.

Someone placed the dice
into her hands, but she couldn’t concentrate on what she was doing. A warm, wet
heat settled over her clit, pulsing gently, rhythmically stroking. She couldn’t
breathe. The vibrations intensified, and if she didn’t know better she could
swear she was getting close to—

“Oh my God!” she
screamed. The dice flew out of her hands and across the table and she gripped
the padded sides as an orgasm of epic proportions washed over her. The crowds
around her screamed too, but she was in such a haze of pleasure she had no idea
why. She shuddered, aching to slide her fingers into her now soaked pussy and
enhance the pleasure arcing through her.

Thankfully the people
at the table thought she’d screamed about the dice, which brought about another
stack of chips in front of her. Through their whoops and whistles and cries of
joy, she managed to ride out her climax until she could breathe semi-normally
again.

Panting and more than a
little wobbly, she breathed in and out steadily, hoping to calm her raging
heartbeat. What the hell had just happened to her? No longer able to
concentrate, she piled her chips into a plastic bucket and left the table, much
to the consternation of the other players.

After she cleared the
crowd and cashed in her chips she found Aidan leaning casually against a bar
stool, a cold smile on his face. He’d been near the craps table the entire
time. His eyes had darkened a near stormy black, and he gave her a knowing look
as if he knew exactly what had just transpired.

But he couldn’t know,
could he?

As soon as she stopped
in front of him, he grabbed her arm.

“We’re going outside
for a little talk,” he said, dragging her through the doors of the casino
lobby.

Ignoring Melissa’s
objections, Aidan all but dragged her outside. He paused for a few seconds,
looking left and right, then pulled her to the side of the building, pressing
her against the brick wall. When she tried to push away he held her there by
placing his hands on either side of her shoulders.

Shrouded in the
darkness, he couldn’t see her eyes, but her heaving breaths told him she was
more than a little perturbed.

“What the hell do you
think you’re doing?” she hissed.

What the hell 
was
 he
doing? Kidnapping her? Taking her away from the ogling eyes of the men who’d
surrounded her? Hell if he knew the answer.

But after watching her
squirm and feeling the same erotic sensations that she’d felt, he had to get
her out of there, had to get closer to her, had to—

What? Ravage her right
here against the building? In public, outside, where anyone could spot them?

Wasn’t a bad idea at
that.

“I’m tired of you
playing games with me,” he said, his body aware of her pulsing heartbeat. Her
scent wafted over him, sweet and musky like a woman who’d just enjoyed a
soaking orgasm. He was dying to drop to his knees and taste her sweet honey.

“I don’t know what
you’re talking about.”

“You know damn well
what I’m talking about. You don’t want to have anything to do with me, but you
smile and flirt with the guys at the tables in there, letting them put their
hands all over you.”

She reached up and
pushed against his chest, but he refused to budge. “I did no such thing. I was
playing craps.”

“Uh huh. You were
playing games all right, but the games you played were with me. I’m not stupid,
Lissa.”

“Are you sure?” she
replied, her voice loaded with sarcasm. “And don’t call me that.”

Fury boiled inside him
until the ground shook with a rumbling thunder. “Call you what? Lissa?”

“Stop it.”

“Lissa,” he said again,
this time lowering his voice, letting it trip seductively off his tongue.

“No. That’s not my
name.”

“To me it is.” Although
her muscles still tensed, it was tension of a different form. He felt the
change in her, the abrupt switch from anger to heated desire. “Melissa is cold
and unfeeling. Lissa is hot. Lissa has a few naughty thoughts that she’d like
to express but might be a little afraid to.”

“No.”

He chuckled, knowing
she’d already given up the fight. Now he had to convince her of that fact.

“Lissa has fantasies.”

“I do not,” she shot
out. “No, wait. Stop calling me that. That’s not who I am.”

“I think you’d like to
act on some of those fantasies, but you haven’t found the right man to unleash
the wild part of you that aches to be set free.”

“And you think you’re
that man?”

He reached for her,
lightly trailing his fingers over her bared shoulders and down her arms until
he felt her shudder. God how he wanted to see her face, see her eyes light up
with passion, but not here. Here he wanted privacy, darkness, a place where he
could hide her away and take a little taste of her.

And maybe, just maybe,
get her to admit that the passion boiling inside her was for him.

“Tell me, Lissa,” he
continued, relentlessly touching her skin every place she was bared. She sucked
in a breath when he drew his fingertips over her collarbone and stopped just
short of slipping them inside the silky dress to caress her breasts.

She wanted him to. He
knew damn well she wanted him to.

“Tell you what?” she
said, no longer able to hide her panting breaths.

“Tell me what you want
to do right now.” Then he did slide his hand inside her dress, lightly skimming
the sides of her breasts. They were soft, straining against his hands.

She shivered, her
breasts rising against his hand. “I want to go back to the hotel.”

Moving his hands inside
further, he glided his thumbs over her already hard nipples, rewarded when she
sucked in a breath.

“You want me.”

“No,” she whispered,
but her protest was weak.

He reached down,
grasped her hand and placed her palm on the granite hard bulge in his pants.
“Feel that?”

“Yes.”

“I want you. Right here
and right now. I’ve been hard for you for hours. Now tell me what 
you
 really
want.”

She didn’t answer, but
she didn’t remove her hand, either. His cock strained for release. He needed
her hands on him.

“Come on, 
cher
,
tell me what your mind and your body want. Tell me what you’d like at this
moment if you could do whatever you wanted.”

“I…I can’t.”

“Yes, you can. No one’s
listening but me.”

“Please, Aidan,” she
stammered. “I can’t do this.”

“Why?” He moved his
hand to her hair, loving the feel of the silken tresses gliding along his palm.

“Because it’s not who I
am. I’m not a hot seductress, I’m not sexually free. I don’t give men blow jobs
in public parks at night, I don’t let a man give me an orgasm in the same
venue, and I’m not about to fuck you up against this building.”

Her body shook with her
words, whether from fear, uncertainty or just plain desire he couldn’t tell.
“How about you just rub my cock until I come, then?” he teased, trying to
lighten the situation.

She hesitated, chewing
her lower lip. Finally, she spoke in a ragged whisper. “Okay.”

“Huh?”

“I said okay.”

Holy shit. She’d
agreed. Thoughts of her stroking him outside the busy building already had his
cock straining to be free of his pants.

The fact that Lissa was
bold enough to agree to it excited him even more.

She reached for him,
threading her fingers through his hair and pulling him toward her, all vestiges
of hesitancy gone. “Kiss me.”

He allowed her to pull
him hard against her. His mouth swept down over hers and took in her moist,
sweet taste, shuddering when the heat passed through him. He let loose the
crack of thunder as Lissa seared him with her lips and tongue, unable to
control the elements when he couldn’t even control himself around her.

“Damn, woman, you make
me hot,” he breathed against her cheek.

“I can make you
hotter,” she teased, reaching for his belt and loosening it so she could grab
the button of his pants.

Frantically she worked
to pop it open and slide the zipper down, quickly reaching inside. She moaned
excitedly when she circled his erection with her fingers.

He bit back a curse and
rested his palms against the hot brick of the building. Lissa pulled his cock
free and circled it with her hand, skimming the tip with her thumb. He ached to
spill his seed all over her greedy little fingers and began to pump his shaft
within her enclosed hand.

“It’s so hard, Aidan,
and pulsing.”

“I told you, I’ve been
hard for you all night.”

“Good.”

Whatever had bothered
her before, whatever reservations she’d had about involving herself physically
with him, seemed to have vanished. Aidan wasn’t about to question her motives,
and couldn’t at this moment if he wanted to. The feel of her hands grasping his
length and circling, stroking, pumping him, was more than he could handle.

Thunder boomed
overhead, lightning arcing through the sky for the briefest of seconds, but
long enough to capture Lissa’s face in its ethereal light.

She grabbed his lower
lip between her teeth. Her eyes had darkened, pupils dilated and all but
obliterating the sea green orbs. Their eyes met and fire passed between them.
Thunder cracked so loud that Lissa jumped, momentarily releasing her grip on
his aching cock.

“Don’t let go,” he
groaned.

“It’s going to rain,”
she protested, turning her head toward the ramp of the hotel leading into the
lobby.

“No, it’s not going to
rain.” He reached for her wrist and placed her hand over his cock, then folded
his fingers over hers. “Do it, baby… make me come.”

He kept his fingers on
top of hers, loving the sensation of her hand on his penis. He guided her,
showed her the rhythm.

“Yes,” he murmured,
“just like that, 
cher
.” She was wild, her movements increasing as
his pleasure heightened. The combination of her innocence in public sex and the
wicked thrill of possibly being discovered with his cock exposed did a number
on his normal restraint.

“Come for me,” she
commanded, squeezing his shaft harder, grasping him with both hands now and
twisting him into knots as she cupped his balls and tugged lightly. “Come for
me now, Aidan.”

He lost it. Purely and
simply lost it. Fighting to keep from shouting out, he leaned against the wall
of the building and shot come all over Lissa’s hands, pumping furiously into
her palm and fingers as his climax soared through him. A fierce wind blew
against them, the elements sounding out their own pleasures as he fought to
rein in the forces of nature threatening to explode around them.

Melissa stayed with him
the entire time, milking every drop with her hands until he relaxed and touched
his forehead to hers.

Their breath mingled,
hot and spicy and full of arousal. He kissed her lips, tasting the desire that
burned within her, knowing that although he’d been satisfied, she was still on
fire.

Melissa gasped for
breath, unable to believe what she’d just done. Her body flamed with excitement
and if Aidan had shoved his cock all the way inside her at this very moment
she’d have gladly wrapped her legs around him and fought for her desperately
needed orgasm no matter their location.

But reality slowly set
in, and once again she struggled for the control she’d so easily lost. He
handed her a handkerchief.

She was so turned on
she could barely manage to stay upright on her shaky legs. Yet she knew she had
to put a stop to this before she completely lost herself in Aidan.

“Now, 
cher
,
it’s your turn.” Aidan slipped his hands inside her dress, scraping his palms
over her nipples and cupping her breasts.

Her pussy throbbed and
spilled with liquid desire. She fought the battle within herself. She wanted
his touch, his cock, his mouth on her so badly she couldn’t breathe. But she
was losing herself, becoming someone she didn’t even recognize, and she
couldn’t, wouldn’t let it happen.

“Let me go, Aidan,” she
said, trying to shut down the part of her that burned for him.

“What?” he asked, his
hands stilling against her breasts.

Searching within
herself for a resolve she didn’t really feel, she blew out a breath and pushed
him away. “I said let me go. I want to go back to the hotel.”

She heard the sounds of
his zipper and belt buckle as he righted his clothing. She inhaled and exhaled
a few times to get her damned libido to calm down, until finally she managed to
at least appear cool and calm on the outside. Never mind that she boiled to
near overflowing within.

“I don’t understand.”

Ignoring the fact she
was about to hurt him, she said, “Don’t you? You got exactly what you wanted—an
orgasm. Now, if you don’t mind, we have a lot to do tomorrow and I’m tired. I’d
like to go to bed.”

“Lissa, let me—” he
started, reaching for her, but she eluded his grasp and stepped out into the spotlight
of the casino entry.

“No, Aidan. No more.
Take me back.”

“You’re pent up, you
need release. Let me take care of you.”

She wanted to—God how
she wanted to. She needed release right now. Touching Aidan, kissing him,
cradling his hard cock in her hands, knowing how much she wanted to feel him
inside her, was nearly unbearable. The building tension had reached volcanic
proportions and she needed release from the incredible pressure threatening to
erupt.

But she couldn’t. Once
she gave up her control to him, once she turned over her desires and wants and
needs to him, she’d be putty in his hands. And she’d be in the same predicament
she’d gotten herself into before.

She’d made that mistake
once. She’d gotten involved with a coworker and completely lost sight of her
goals. Never again.

“I don’t need anything
but to go back to the hotel. Now, if you don’t mind.”

He dropped his hand.
“Fine, if that’s what you want. But let me tell you this,” he said, approaching
her and grasping her upper arms, refusing to let her go when she tried to shake
him off.

“Quit hiding your
passion from me,” he said. “It’s pointless. A fire burns inside you, Lissa.
Right now you need an orgasm so desperately that if I touched you once you’d
climax.”

Miserably, she realized
he was right. But hearing it and acting upon it were two different things.
Instead, she lied and said, “I’m fine, Aidan. I don’t need anything from you.”