Hooked #3 (The Hooked Romance Series - Book 3) (7 page)

But Drew wasn’t embarrassed. He simply waved his
hand in front of his face, tossing it away.
“Of course.
Of course.”
He cleared his throat and took another sip
of whiskey.
“So.
As you play, you add up the numbers.
You have to bet when the card count is higher than plus three. Do you
understand?”

I nodded.
“Of course.”

“They’re playing with two decks over there, though.
So.
You have to divide the number you have by two to get
your true number count. Does that make sense?”

I nodded once more.
“Two decks.
Divide by two.
Got it.”

“Do you think you want to try this?”

I spoke through the alcohol. “I’m willing to try
anything once,” I said saucily. His eyes met with mine, and suddenly we knew—we
knew we wanted to fuck. We were on the same page. I walked back toward the
blackjack table, feeling my ass move this way, then that as I walked. I knew he
was watching. I sat at the same seat that had been Drew’s and gave the dealer a
single nod in greeting. I flashed him a bit of cleavage. I wasn’t sure who I
was, who I had become. But I loved the daring of it all. I nodded to the other
people at the blackjack table—the people who were trying to earn back what
they’d lost.
The woman on the end from Missouri.
The man in the middle without hair.
The
Asian man who punched the table every time he lost—which was every time.
Frustration churned on.

The dealer greeted me with familiarity.
“Madame.”
I nodded toward him. In the back of my mind, I
couldn’t believe I was in the middle of Iowa, that I was in the midst of
cornfields, of simple folk. All around me were beautiful millionaires and piles
of money.

“Hit me,” I said. I counted the cards.
First a four.
Then a ten.
I thought
in my head; Plus one.
Minus one.
I continued counting
until—about ten minutes later—I found myself hit with a plus six. My eyes wide,
I found myself winning that round.
And then the next.
And then the next.

Drew stood by me stoically as I used his chips.
“That’s my girl,” were his only words as I sat there, focused and counting,
counting, counting.

It was like I was addicted suddenly. I couldn’t get
enough. The drinks kept coming; my blood pressure kept rising. After an hour, I
had won over ten thousand dollars. My head was spinning. I could buy the
goddamned studio! The dance studio could be mine; I wouldn’t be in danger of
losing my apartment. My eyes were large as the dealer kept dealing, and the
chips were sent my way.

After another twenty minutes things started to die
down. The count died on the table, and I turned toward Drew, ready to give it a
rest. “I don’t know how my father got addicted, really,” I murmured, looking
down at the plethora of coins, feeling like I was waking up from a dream. My
blood pressure started to release. I could breathe again. “It really does get
old after a while.”

“I can only come here every few months, get it out
of my system. You earned quite a lot of coins, there, natural.” He winked at
me. “Let’s go cash in your winnings.”

But I started shaking my head vehemently. We
couldn’t cash in my winnings; these weren’t my winnings. “I would have never
been able to put the money up,” I murmured. “These are yours. They came from
your money. I can’t take them—“

“Come on, Mol. You earned this money. This should go
to you.” He smiled at me good-naturedly, but he sensed a darkness in me—a
prideful nature. He hung his head for a moment before walking toward the
exchange and collecting the winnings. He stuffed them in a yellow envelope and
pushed them into a secret, inner-jacket pocket. He looked at me, nodding,
noting that my eyes were dripping with fatigue. The flashing lights, the slot
machines were knocking into my brain. I was happy to see him taking the money
I’d earned, but I still felt a gnawing ache about it. After all; that was more
money than I’d ever seen before.

“Shall we go?”

I jumped toward him, kissing him on the cheek. I
felt the immense excitement of the evening’s festivities; I felt the
high-esteem of winning and winning and winning, chip after chip. “What an
adventure,” I murmured into his ear, allowing my lips to trace his neck.

We raced back to the Porsche. Drew tossed the valet
two hundred dollars to drive us back to the hotel; we were far too drunk, too
committed to laughing in the back seat, rolling around and holding our
stomachs.

“You, Molly—big-eyed and saying you just don’t know
if you CAN count cards,” Drew laughed, holding onto his stomach. “I can’t
believe you conned me. You conned me!”

I slapped him on the knee, giggling myself. “What
can I say? I’m just a natural.” The valet driver up front drove us fast through
the night toward the hotel, and I leaned my head toward Drew’s, allowing my
forehead to connect with his. “It was a beautiful night.”

And it was. I couldn’t get over how much fun it had
been. As he helped me from the Porsche and gave the valet more money to get
home from the hotel, I longed to hold onto him, to hug him close to my body. I
felt my breasts bounce as we rushed into the hotel, our hands linked.

As we clattered into the glass elevator, I sensed
everyone looking at us once more; the rich people, the blonde bimbo and her
grand millionaire. But I didn’t care. I caught him close to me and brought him
in an intimate hug. His eyes caught on mine, and he whispered into my ear.
“Say. Would you want to—would you want to go to the Jacuzzi? It’s personal; off
to the side of the hotel room.”

My eyes were wide as he spoke.

“It’s just. I’m not ready to let the night end yet.
You know?”

I nodded at this, feeling the excitement drape
around me like a cloth. The elevator shot into the sky and I leaned heavy
against him, ready to throw myself into the evening, whatever the costs. The
feeling of all that money in my hand—all those coins—had given me a sense of
power, a sense that everything in the world was possible. This, beyond anything
else, churned me to cling to this beautiful man, to hold onto every moment.

CHAPTER
NINE

We rushed into the hotel room and off to the side,
where—sure enough—there sat a bubbling Jacuzzi. The Jacuzzi room featured grand
windows that stretched above the Jacuzzi and on all sides, making you feel like
you were situated in a sort of shell. I felt the alcohol in my blood as I gazed
at the Jacuzzi, as I turned toward Drew beside me, who was watching me as well.
He reached up to his shirt and began unbuttoning, all the way down to his
waist.

I smiled at him, feeling oddly nervous. I knew we
had been together before, that he had seen me naked. But this time felt
different; it felt purposeful. I pulled my gown from my head, revealing my
low-cut bra that barely held my breasts in it, and my thong. The bra and
underwear were red. I didn’t know why I packed such sexy underwear; I had
simply longed to have the option—just in case I turned my body over to this
handsome, god-like man.

I sauntered lightly into the Jacuzzi, feeling the
hot water roll up around me, over my arms, along my slim waist. I smiled at him
as I sat in it up to my chin. “Aren’t you going to join me?” I asked him
saucily, feeling the drunkenness waft through me.

Drew held up one finger, standing in just his
boxers. He walked toward the kitchen and came back with a bottle of Jack
Daniels. I raised my eyebrow at him, deep in a blurred level of drunkenness. He
took a small sip from the bottle and handed it to me as he got into the
Jacuzzi, making slight waves in the water. “Take a sip,” he whispered.

I did. He smiled as I pulled it away from my lips,
gazing at his body as he stood above me in the water. He held the glass bottle.
“You were great in there, today.”

“Yeah?”

“You were remarkable. Most girls get sort of nervous
when they’re counting cards. They think it’s illegal or something.”

“It’s rather simple,” I said.
“But
satisfying.”
I raised my eyebrows high in the air, looking at him with a
sense of sexual playfulness. Was this going to happen?

“I’m sorry I brought you there, though. I didn’t
realize that your father had died, leaving, I’m guess, you and your mother
without a dime. What a dick.”

I hung my head. I didn’t want to get into it. “It’s
all right. It happened a long time ago.” I blinked my eyes at him.
“And what about you?
You said your father died when you were
young?”

He nodded and took another sip.
“Drunk
driving.
Crashed into a tree.
Which is why I don’t drink and drive at all.
You’ll notice I
hired the valet to bring us back here.”

“Your safety is really rare.” I rose up, bringing my
body closer to his. I could feel
a vibrancy
about him.
My body was pulsing with longing, one that I couldn’t retreat from. “I’m glad
you take care of yourself. And me.” I was inches away from his mouth. I longed
for him to kiss me, to wrap me in his arms. I longed for him to hold me, to
fuck me the way he used to—before I knew about the dance studio, before I knew
he had destroyed my life.

I touched his waist and watched as he pulled down
his boxers, revealing his pulsing dick in the water. He tossed the boxers from
the Jacuzzi, allowing them to flop on the ground outside of the water. He
grabbed at my bra and brought the straps down over my arms, revealing my
breasts as they popped from their hiding place. My nipples were hot, pointed.
My breasts were tingling. He unlatched the
bra in
back and tossed it to the ground. We smiled at each other, nervous.

He yanked at my underwear. I reached down and
touched my hot and revving pussy. He watched me as I did it, and he leaned
toward me, kissing my mouth and placing his lips around my nipple. His tongue
coursed around the nipple, making me feel so hot, so good. He brought his
fingers to my pussy and began rubbing me, making me horny out of my mind. I
looked up at his eyes, my own wide and nearly panicked with passion. I wanted
him so bad.

I pushed him against the Jacuzzi wall and pushed his
dick into my dripping pussy. I started fucking him, allowing my breasts to
bounce above his head, around his shoulders. His eyes rolled back into his head
and he grabbed me around the waist, easing me over his dick, forcing me to fuck
him slowly, passionately.

He was about to cum. I could sense it about him.
Suddenly, right before he did, I eased off him, tempting him with my wet,
dripping body. I waved my finger in front of his face, shaking my head. “Not
yet, baby,” I whispered.

I rose from the Jacuzzi tub and stood before him,
naked, with the Iowa stars above my head. I leaned myself against the glass
windows, spreading my limbs wide, allowing him to see everything—the way my
breasts bounced against my body, the way the water dribbled into my pussy.
“Come and get me,” I whispered to him.

He leaped from the Jacuzzi and turned me around
toward the window. He pushed his dick inside of me, and started fucking me from
behind. I could see the corn fields before me; I could see the sun. I felt his
hot breath against my neck. He pulled his fingers around to touch me hard,
rubbing me as he pushed himself inside of me, over and over again. I felt
myself nearly about to cum. I started to call out, to bang against the windows.
I thought surely it would break; I thought everything would come crashing
around us. I started huffing loudly, calling out. “YES. YES.”

But he didn’t let me. He eased himself from me and
spun me around, looking at me with those dark, penetrating eyes. “Get on the
bed,” he ordered. “Get on the bed.”

I rushed back toward the bedroom and jumped onto the
bed, feeling my breasts bounce around me, feeling my wet hair trace lines on my
naked, muscled back. He walked toward me slowly from the Jacuzzi room, still
holding the whiskey bottle. His dick was thick, hard, pointed directly in front
of him. I remembered the pressure, the passion the dick had created in my body,
and I longed for it again. I started calling for him. “Please, baby. Come to
me.”

But instead he sat at the table. He poured himself a
glass of whiskey. He came toward me, holding the whiskey in his hand, and he
began pouring it in my mouth. A bit of it dribbled out the sides, down my chin,
and he licked at my face, at my breasts as they coursed with the whiskey. I
fell back against the pillows, laughing as he did this so seriously, so
sensually. He set the whiskey glass on the night table next to me and eased his
great dick into my pussy. I sighed, feeling at one with him again. He looked me
in the eyes, and I felt such passion in my stomach. He started fucking me
military style—so he could see me, so we could know each other. I felt a sense
of calm form over me as we touched each other; as I touched his face, his
hands. He brought my legs up around his neck and brought himself so far into
me; he licked at my ankles, at my legs. I loved feeling his tongue on my body,
anywhere on my body.
Everywhere on my body.

We both came together in a sea of quiet—in a sea of
romance. We looked each other in the eyes, and I felt myself falling into the
chaos, the distortion of an orgasm. I grabbed his back and placed my nails into
it, feeling his dick inside me, bringing such passion into me. I called out
only once as we held each other close, deep into the night, our bodies falling
in fits of pleasure.