for the main course altogether.” His hand snaked possessively under the hem of her dress, and rubbed the top of her thigh. He closed the gap between them in a rush. Sloan lost what little appetite she had as his lips neared hers.
“A toast,” she giggled, turning her face and retrieving her glass of wine just in time.
His brow knit together, but he flicked his hand at the server and returned her smile. “If we toast together, we drink together.”
“As you wish.”
“Another glass,” he demanded to the young man in black and white.
Kobi slid her the small glass, sloshing its contents. “What’d you wanna toast?”
Playfully, Sloan wrapped her forearm around his. “To wild nights.”
The sinister laugh said he agreed, a little too much.
The liquid cooled its way down Sloan’s esophagus and plummeted into the hollow of her gut. When Kobi gestured for more drinks, Sloan snagged the roll off her dinner plate.
He thrust the shot at her. “To wild days.”
After four more rounds, Sloan could take no more toasts to wild anythings. Liquor in her enemy was her ally. Liquor in her was her enemy’s win, and therefore unacceptable. So, she changed tactics.
Pulling his head toward her with a firm grip on his tie, she pled into his ear. “Take me to your room.” A nip of his lobe drove the message home, and elicited a moan from his throat.
Kobi stood on sea legs, and took her hand in his. “Follow me.”
Sloan ignored the wobble in her own legs. Instead, she focused on the thick back in front of her and the path he took. Out of the dining room through a lavish vestibule. He ignored a curving staircase in favor of the hallway on his left. Down the other hallway were the working girls’ rooms. Five doors lined the new corridor—three single doors on the left and one set of double doors on the right. He turned into the room on the right, confirming her suspicion that Baine's and Devereaux’s rooms were on the second floor, along with The Devil’s office.
He flicked on a light and two lamps sparked on either side of a queen sized bed. The room was nice, but no more so than the one she occupied down the way. Before taking in all the details she required, Kobi’s weight pushed her against the now closed bedroom door. Sloan relaxed her muscles, which screamed for the freedom to unleash hell on the slimeball. In this inner struggle the liquor actually worked in her favor, taking the edge off her razor sharp reflexes. His hands breeched the privacy of her skirt and kneaded the flesh of her butt. She closed her eyes and breathed through the scorn his touch created. When those cold lips plundered the curve of her breasts, Sloan thought about the lovely cry they would surrender just before she broke his neck.
Muscles loose, Sloan held her inner self in a tight ball, allowing only the facade of playgirl to permeate. Until his mouth climbed her neck and moved toward her own.
“You must excuse me for a moment,” Sloan begged, slipping her hands up his chest and pressing him back slightly. The motion disconnected his lips from her skin, settling her tilting stomach in the slightest way. He seemed dazed, pupils wide as they struggled to center her. She used his state and the momentum she’d built to slip from between him and the wall.
“No,” fled his lips in an unyielding tone, but it was his biting grip on her wrist that stopped her cold.
Sloan turned, eyes apologetic. “I just need to get ready for you.”
“You look ready enough. I know I’m ready,” he added with a nod toward his pathetic excuse for a dick.
“I’ll be one minute,” she said, but his grip held. Time to switch tactics again. “I drank too much at dinner, and I know it’s a little crass, but I really need to use the restroom before we get started.”
The blood flow returned to her arm as his fingers loosened then released her. She smiled. “Fix yourself a drink. I promise to make it worth the wait.”
“I know you will,” he
Hugh Cave
Caren J. Werlinger
Jason Halstead
Lauren Blakely
Sharon Cullars
Melinda Barron
Daniela Fischerova, Neil Bermel
TASHA ALEXANDER
ADAM L PENENBERG
Susan Juby