Shattered Perfection (9 page)

Mr. Deangelo looked relieved and excused himself to retrieve said vouchers.  I was about to launch into a frustrated lecture at Vance, who cut me off before I could begin.

“I know what you’re going to say.  I have no intentions of coming back either, but Pete and Laurel live close by, so maybe they can make use of the vouchers.  If nothing else, they can give them to their friends, who can use them.  At least that way, someone will benefit from this shitty situation.”

I smiled at Vance’s logic.  He was thinking a few steps ahead of the situation, whereas I only saw what was in front of me.  I could learn a thing or two from him.

Mr. Deangelo returned with two vouchers for three night stays for each of us.  We offered thanks all around and finally left the security offices, once and for all.  We breathed a collective sigh of relief as we reached the casino floor and made our way to the hotel’s exit.  We were all eager to leave the premises.

Everyone was quiet as we walked to the car.  Once comfortably settled inside and on the road back to the hotel, Vance cleared his throat and looked in the rear-view at Pete.  “So, brother.  What was your total for the evening?”

Pete, who suddenly seemed far less confident than he did when he and Laurel came stumbling into Caesar’s, said “Well, we initially lost six hundred between the two of us, but our luck changed at the blackjack tables and we walked away fifty-five hundred in the black.”  By the time he finished, some of his confidence had returned and he sat back in his seat with his arms folded across his chest.  Laurel leaned against his side, giggling softly.

I shook my head a little and looked over at Vance knowingly.  He was nodding as he responded.  “Wow, that’s really good.  Congratulations.  I lost a thousand initially at the craps table, but Mimi won one hundred and fifty at the draw poker machines.” 

Laurel cackled from the backseat and Pete clapped his hands together and whooped.  “I knew we’d have you beat!  Now you have to pay up!”

“Only two small problems with that, buddy.  One, I’m not finished.  Our luck changed once we split up.  After Mimi left to go play slots, I started winning at the craps table.  My net winnings were seven thousand one hundred.  Then, Mimi hit the progressive jackpot on her slot machine and she won ten thousand, two hundred dollars.”

“Ten thousand two hundred thirty-two dollars and fifty-three cents, to be exact,” I chimed in happily.

“Yes, Mimi.  Ten thousand, two hundred thirty-two dollars and fifty-three cents.  So that brings our total to seventeen thousand three hundred dollars.”  He looked at me.  “I’m rounding down, babe.  I know there’s two hundred thirty-two dollars and fifty-three cents to add to that total.”

I nodded enthusiastically. 

He continued, looking back at Pete in the rearview again “So it would appear, my friend, that we smoked you.”

Pete sighed heavily from the backseat.  “And what would the second problem be?”

I turned and grinned wildly at him.  “In your haste to measure dicks against each other, you two bright-barts failed to determine what you were wagering for.  Nobody won anything except bragging rights.  So, for now Pete, Vance’s dick is bigger than yours.  Eleven thousand, eight hundred inches bigger.”  I looked at Vance and stage whispered, “That’s a lot of dick.”

He just grinned and nodded.

Pete and Laurel just groaned from the backseat.  They huddled together trying to console each other while Vance patted my knee and murmured, “Well done, babe.”

Once we got back to our hotel, Pete pulled Vance aside as we were walking towards the elevators.  Vance waved us on, so Laurel and I continued to the bank of lifts. 

“I wonder what that’s all about,” Laurel speculated.  “Pete has been a little weird since about halfway into the trip home.”

“Weird, how?”  I questioned.

“I don’t know.  Kinda quiet and fidgety, I guess.”

“I’d say maybe he wants to borrow money, but since you guys won a grip, I doubt that’s it.”  I said.

“Yeah.  I have no idea, but I intend to find out.”  She said with a determined look on her face.  I had no doubt that she’d squeeze the information out of Pete at some point.

We watched from afar as Pete and Vance stood with their heads together, talking quietly.  Finally Vance pulled away with a grin on his face.  He nodded at Pete, and with a fist bump they headed our way.  I reached over and pushed the elevator call button, giving Vance a look as he threw his arm over me.  He just shook his head and muttered, “Guy stuff, babe.”

We were all quiet as the elevator came and we rode to our respective floors.  We said goodbye to Pete and Laurel when we reached theirs, and Laurel promised to call me the next morning.  Vance gave Pete a look, and Pete just nodded back knowingly.

I looked sideways at Vance as I crossed my arms over my chest and shrugged his arm off my shoulders as the doors closed.  “Guy stuff, huh?”

“Yep.  Kind of like when you’re out with two or more girls somewhere and you all disappear to the restroom for half an hour or more.  We don’t question what happens when you’re gone.  Same thing here.  To speak of it would violate the bro code.”

“The ladies’ restroom is like our church.  You have your man caves; we have the ladies’ room.  That’s how it works.  You do not get to hold your version of Tile Talk in the middle of a hotel lobby.  It violates the rules of sanctified conversation.”

“Tile Talk?” he asked.

“That’s what it’s called.  What do you guys call it?” 

“Um…shooting the shit?” he offered.

“Of course.”  I muttered.

The doors opened and we walked to our room.  I was still huffy.  I didn’t like secrets, unless I was the one keeping them.  He and Pete barely knew each other—how could they have bonded so deeply that it would trump the connection that he and I had?   I felt like Vance was betraying me in some tiny way.  Okay, that was bullshit.  I was feeling very nosy and it was driving me crazy that he wouldn’t tell me.  I made a mental note to get even.

Once inside the room, we headed directly for the bedroom.  I immediately retrieved my overnight kit.  He grabbed the remote and flicked on the television.

“I’m just going to get ready for bed.  It’s been a long day and I am ready to crash.  Do you need to use the bathroom before I take it over for the next few minutes?”  I asked.

“Nah.  I’m good.  Go conquer civilization, or whatever it is you intend to do in there,” he teased.

My purchase while searching for Vance was a short, black lacy chemise, in anticipation of sexy fun time.  Even though that was supposedly off the table, I intended to give it my best shot to turn that around.  After the way he ignited my fire with his kisses earlier in the evening, I thought the sisterhood would revoke my membership card if I didn’t at least try to coerce him into sampling the goods. 

I scrubbed my face and reapplied my make-up, once I discovered the excitement of the evening had left me looking somewhere between a jilted prom date and roadkill.  I brushed my hair until it shone, then put on my sex-kitten attire.  It was actually sexy despite being a simple bit of lingerie.  It was all lace, with the good parts obscured successfully but plenty of skin showing through, too.  It had spaghetti straps, a plunging neckline that revealed the totality of my cleavage and a hem that hit just below the curve of my ass—which meant the front got the imagination going, but just barely.  One wrong move and all one’s questions were answered.  Fortunately, I’d also brought along a black lace thong, so I could keep the suspension of disbelief alive a few minutes longer.

Once I was satisfied that I looked as enticing as I was ever going to look, I opened the door and did my best sexy slink into the room.

Vance was still glued to the television, reclined against the headboard, a pillow stuffed behind his back.  His shirt was pulled out of his pants and totally unbuttoned, giving me my first glimpse of his smooth chest.  From what I could see between the front panels of the material, his skin was smooth and virtually hairless, with a warm golden glow that begged to have my hands skimming every square inch.  I could partially see the curvature of the muscles of his chest and abdomen, but not enough to satisfy my hungry imagination.  It was just enough make my mouth water, this tempting piece of hard candy, but I wanted more.

I cleared my throat softly to get his attention.  His eyes flicked away from the screen, before turning back to whatever sports commentary show was on.  I stomped my foot and tried again.  He looked again, this time really looked, then quickly sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

“Mimi…” he choked out hoarsely, as if his throat had suddenly gone dry. 

I sauntered over, stopping in front of him and wedging my knee between both of his.  I gently spread them apart and stood between them as I placed my hands on his shoulders.  His hands immediately went to my hips and squeezed gently.

“Remember down in the casino,” I began, “just before I left you at the craps table?  When I said you were about to get very, very lucky?”

He swallowed hard and nodded his head roughly.  “I do,” he replied.

I lowered my face to his slowly, an inch at a time as I whispered, “I think it’s time for me to follow through on that statement, don’t you?”  Our lips were only millimeters apart as I finished my sentence and I could feel the warmth of his breath whispering across my lips. 

His hands tightened on my hips as he pulled me closer, and tilted his head to bring his lips the rest of the way to meet mine.  They landed lightly, ghosting over my mouth with a barely-there brush.  He teased me rather than deepening the kiss and solidifying the connection. He was a master at dragging out the anticipation and making me ache for him, with only a few innocent touches of his lips.  The stubble from his upper lip and chin scratching at the soft skin around my mouth awakened those nerve endings, causing a chain reaction through my whole body.

My need surged out of my control, so wrapping my hands around his shoulders, I climbed into his lap and straddled his hips.  I tried to deepen our kiss, but he slid his hands up to my ribcage and held me back just a little bit.  I wanted to devour him, to strike the match and set fire to all this passion inside me, but he was having none of it.  He lifted his mouth from mine and looked me in the eye tenderly.

“There’s no hurry, Mimi.  We have the rest of the weekend to make love to each other, and I intend to spend every second discovering every inch of you.  How you react when I touch you here…”  He glided a finger down the side of my neck.  “How you respond when I kiss you there…”  He pressed the fingertips of his other hand to soft spot behind my ankle.  “And when I kiss and touch and lick all points in between.”  He leaned in and breathed against my ear.  “I’m going to make you mine, Mimi.  Every last bit of you, and I won’t let you rush me through it.  No matter how hard your passion rides you, no matter how desperately you want it.  You’re going to be aching and begging by the time I am ready to bring this to completion, but I promise you, it will be worth it.”

I didn’t know whether to choke him out and demand that he satisfy me right then and there, or to expire on the spot.  His words aroused me more than I ever thought possible, but I had to admit I was a little bit intimated too.  It was obvious he intended to control every bit of our lovemaking, and I wasn’t used to that.  In that past, I’d been used to an exchange of control, of it bouncing back and forth between me and my partner in a spirited encounter for a half an hour or so.  What Vance had described sounded vastly different than anything in my experience, and I was out of my comfort zone.  I wanted him though, more than I’d wanted anything in my entire life, so I was totally on board with the plan.

I cupped one of his cheeks in my palm and nodded slowly.  “You’ll have to bear with me.  I think you’re different than anyone I’ve ever been with—not that there have been all that many, but enough—anyway, I’m not quite sure what you want from me.  What I should do?  I think I might need some, um, guidance, you know?  Oh, hell.  Can we just pretend I’m a virgin or something?”  

Vance leaned his head against mine and began to laugh softly.  “You’re overthinking this, Mimi.  Just relax.”  He picked me up off his lap and laid me in the center of the bed.  Standing, he pulled his shirt off his shoulders and let it drop to the floor.  While he dealt with his belt, I admired the hard planes of his chest.  The nervous flutters in my belly subsided and were replaced with a slow burning fire that threatened to rage out of control.

He toed off his shoes and slid his pants from his narrow hips, leaving himself before me in just a pair of black boxer briefs.  His body was even more marvelous than I expected.  His chest was perfectly sculpted, the pectoral muscles carved in broad swipes just below well-muscled shoulders.  Nothing about his torso was overly bulgy, just perfectly lean and sinewy, powerful without being overpowering.  His abdomen was ridged in a tight six pack, with his obliques doing that wonderful V-shape thing leading down into the waistband of his underwear.  There was a fine dusting of dark brown hair over his lower abdomen, but not enough that it suggested he was a candidate for serious manscaping down there.

He crawled into bed next to me and took me into his arms.  He kissed me more firmly that time, more than his usual soft, teasing brushes of lips.  He sucked my bottom lip between his teeth and bit down gently, before rubbing his tongue across it.  I couldn’t just lay there and be completely passive, so I sneaked my tongue out to tangle with his.  I managed to hold back from trying to take possession of his mouth, since I’d learned that would cause him to withdraw.  I wanted him to keep kissing me, so I tested this small liberty and he allowed it.  We lay there for a long time, our tongues caressing the other.  Vance stroked my hair as his kisses moved from my mouth to my cheek and neck.  I lay back, allowing him to move over me.  He bit down on my earlobe gently as his hand traced down from my hair, to my neck, to my shoulder and down to my chest.  He skimmed the outside swell of my breast with his fingertips, before cupping the weight of it in his hand.  I moaned softly as his deft fingers found my nipple and plucked it into a hard peak as his tongue traced around the outer shell of my ear.  I shivered at the dual sensations, amazed that he could produce such a strong response from my body with these simple actions.