Page 44 of Betting Blind
After what feels like a lifetime, we cross through the lobby of Caesars Palace, bride-and-groom style, and he finally sets me on my feet once we reach the back elevators. Jack remains the picture of calm and collected as the call button pings and the doors open before us.
He gestures for me to step inside the empty elevator and presses the button for our floor once the doors slide shut. My blood pumps erratically as I try to force words up my dry throat. He mimics my position with his spine flat against the wall, placing his body close enough that I feel the whisper of his fingers against my thigh. Slowly, tortuously, he rubs a lazy circle with his thumb over the material of my dress.
My head swims as I desperately try to grasp some bit of sanity, but this is a battle I was never meant to win. I thought by pushing Jack to the edge, he would give in, but it seems I’ve only awakened a beast.
The doors open to an equally empty hallway, and I slowly bring my gaze up to meet his. There’s an invisible thread between us, tethering us together, and the weight of what’s to come threatens to snap it in two.
With shaky hands, I fumble with the keycard to mine and Juliana’s room, attempting twice to unlock the door. A gentle breeze runs over my skin with his light chuckle, and he takes the card out of my hand, easing my embarrassment. The door unlocks with abeep, and Jack slowly pushes it open. “After you.”
I gulp at the feral way he watches me, choking down my nerves when I hear the quiet click of the door closing behind me. “Jack—” The objection barely touches my tongue before the heat of him is pressing up against my back. He guides me toward his powerful body, wrapping one hand around my waist as the other reaches up to grip my hair. The strands slowly begin to slip off my shoulder, and I encourage him with a hushed gasp.
Jack tickles the sensitive skin of my neck as he presses a kiss to my nape, nips the spot, then soothes the sting with a swirl of his tongue. I’m lost in the wild way he touches me—the pure, uncontained lust that has me thankful for my thin scrap of panties.
I groan, barely able to speak with his mouth against me. “You… know we can’t do this…” My words are weak with the heat of his erection against my ass, and it takes everything I have not to grind against it.
He loosens his hold as if coming back to his senses and gently rubs his thumb along the back of my neck. “I’m sorry,” he says on a sigh.
I turn to face him, tucking a few strands of hair behind my ear. “For what?”
His quiet composure mocks my rapidly beating heart. “I’ve repeatedly tried to convince myself that this can’t work. That I’m no good for you.” I open my mouth to argue, but he stops me, placing his forehead against mine. “But I’m sick and fucking tired of fighting it.”
Jack grips me protectively—securely—like he’s afraid I may vanish into thin air. “What are you saying?”
He laughs lightly, causing my eyelashes to flutter. “I’m saying that I want to wake up each morning knowing you’re as starved for me as I am for you. I want your laugh echoing around my bar and that smart mouth putting the guys in their places. I want to fuck you, make love to you, and worship you until you can’t tell where I begin and you end.Thatis what I want, Cassidy.”
His bright blue eyes trace the planes of my face before falling to my parted lips. “May I kiss you now?” Those five little words settle themselves around my heart.
“Yes,” I whisper.
I expect him to devour me, but the tenderness of his kiss nearly buckles my knees. Slow and sweet, he teases my lips, making little promises that I hungrily accept.
Reaching down behind him, I grab a handful of his ass, guiding his lower half to me and kissing his answering smile. His lips break from mine for a single moment as he lowers to lift me. “Do I need to grab a condom?”
I wrap myself around his solid form and place little kisses over the markings on the side of his neck. He’s as solid as the oak his Celtic tattoo represents, and I flatten my palm over the symbol of strength. “No, I have an IUD.”
My answer ignites fire in his gaze and I smile wide, peppering his face and neck with more kisses.
Heaven. This is pure Heaven.
The brightness of the stark white bathroom envelops us as he sets my ass on the countertop. I gasp at the bite of the cool granite against my burning flesh and spare a glance at our reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirror several feet away.
“I want you to watch,” he tells me.
Jack’s reflection nuzzles his bearded face against my neck as he reaches up to palm my breast, kneading it through my dress. He trails a finger over my collarbone, teasing me before dipping a hand into the top of the thin material and squeezing. I moan at the heat flooding between my legs.
“I love the noises you make.” He spreads my legs farther apart until my dress rides up my hips, almost baring me to him. “Grab the counter,” he says, and I do as I’m told. He steps back to remove his shirt and pants, leaving him in a pair of navy briefs. The bulge straining against them makes my mouth go dry.
I shake my head lightly. “That’s not going to fit.”
Jack looks down before slowly dragging his eyes back to mine. With a wicked grin, he says, “Oh, it’ll fit.”
After swiftly picking me up off the counter, he lowers me to my feet, trailing his fingers down my sides and gripping the bottom of my dress. “I couldn’t take my eyes off you tonight,” he says before slowly sliding the crimson material up over my head, inch by torturous inch. “You little tease.” He smiles, watching my nipples harden under his stare.
It’s been so long since I’ve been with a man this way, and I grow self-conscious, winding my arms around myself. “I-I may not be good at this.”
Jack’s hand wraps around the wrist of my tattooed arm, pulling the image to his mouth and placing a gentle kiss over the spot. My heart swells to the point of bursting when he lowers my arm to my side.
“You’ll be perfect.” His abdominal muscles are perfectly defined, and I unleash my greedy eyes on the sight before me as he brushes against my belly. He pauses, hooking his thumbs in the sides of my panties. Recapturing my gaze, he says, “There’s nothing you could do that would prove otherwise.”
