Read Online Gambling on the Bodyguard by Sarah Ballance - Free Book Online
Authors: Sarah Ballance
Ads: Link
thoughtful.
“Oh, no,” she said. “I totally forgot to thank you for breakfast.”
“I think you already did,” he said as they stepped onto the elevator. “Besides, it was more of an apology on my part.”
“I didn’t eat it all,” she said.
He pressed the button for the lobby. “I don’t know where you’d have put it. I just wasn’t sure what you liked.”
“Bacon.” She sighed. Or rather swooned. “I never eat bacon.”
A corner of his mouth quirked. “Yet you ate the bacon?”
“You ever have bacon with syrup?” she asked.
“If you’d be willing to feed it to me,” he said, “and then lay there very still while I lick the syrup off your fingers, I might be willing to give it a try.”
And just like that, he’d turned bacon into a sexual experience—one that may or may not ever leave the recesses of her mind, but that she’d relive with every strip of bacon she ever consumed.
The elevator doors slid open to mayhem. At least that’s what she thought of the crowds, noise, and lights that comprised the hotel’s ground floor casino. Maybe it was the romance convention. Or maybe it was just Vegas. She missed the solitude of the mountains, but now when she pictured being alone there, the image was inexplicably entwined with one of Jax. She suddenly understood why he wanted to show her the desert, because she wanted nothing more than to see the mountains in his eyes.
He led her easily through the melee, so unfazed by it that she had no choice but to believe it was yet another shot of normalcy that, anywhere else, would be anything but.
“How are we getting to the desert?”
“You’re already there. But to answer your question, I have a big, black, environmentally disastrous SUV.” On cue, they reached the valet. Jax handed over his ticket, and moments later they were met at the door by a jacked up tank. Not really a tank, but she doubted anything got in its way.
He waved off the valet with cash and helped her up himself. “Kind of ironic to take one of those out to enjoy nature, isn’t it?”
“On one hand, yes.”
She ran her fingertips over the soft leather seats and inhaled deeply. “What’s the other hand?”
He eased shut her door and didn’t answer until he had jumped into the driver’s seat. With a firm pat to the dash, he said, “The desert is wide open. You can go pretty much anywhere, and it’s better to do it in four wheel drive.”
She gawked, and not just because the man was unfairly sexy. He exuded power, navigating with ease onto the busy street. She could probably stare at him all day. In fact, she’d love to get stuck with him, but in the desert? “Mud can’t possibly be an issue.”
“Nah, but rocks can be.” He glanced at the rearview while she admired his profile. “When it does rain,” he said, “flash flooding is a thing. Which means swales become one, only they’re more like concrete drainage ditches by the time the sun bakes them. You hit one good enough, you’ll leave your axle behind in it.”
Oh . “So is that what you do? Guard bodies by night and wander the desert by day?”
He shot her a sideways grin. “I guess. Never thought of it that way, but close enough.”
She leaned back into the leather and watched the city ease past, surprised to find that a sense of normalcy prevailed away from the strip. Vegas was very much an oasis in the desert—the view from an airplane left no doubt as to the emptiness of the surrounding landscape—but as they left the city, the rearview added a new dimension to the storied location. As wide as the interstate sprawled and as tall as the hotel casinos pierced the air above, the vast desert so quickly consumed the skyline that she wondered if she hadn’t imagined the whole place.
But she hadn’t imagined Jax. Couldn’t have conjured him if she’d tried. It was hard to believe that a mere twenty-four hours before she’d been in the air, high above that very road. Anticipating all the wrong
“Oh, no,” she said. “I totally forgot to thank you for breakfast.”
“I think you already did,” he said as they stepped onto the elevator. “Besides, it was more of an apology on my part.”
“I didn’t eat it all,” she said.
He pressed the button for the lobby. “I don’t know where you’d have put it. I just wasn’t sure what you liked.”
“Bacon.” She sighed. Or rather swooned. “I never eat bacon.”
A corner of his mouth quirked. “Yet you ate the bacon?”
“You ever have bacon with syrup?” she asked.
“If you’d be willing to feed it to me,” he said, “and then lay there very still while I lick the syrup off your fingers, I might be willing to give it a try.”
And just like that, he’d turned bacon into a sexual experience—one that may or may not ever leave the recesses of her mind, but that she’d relive with every strip of bacon she ever consumed.
The elevator doors slid open to mayhem. At least that’s what she thought of the crowds, noise, and lights that comprised the hotel’s ground floor casino. Maybe it was the romance convention. Or maybe it was just Vegas. She missed the solitude of the mountains, but now when she pictured being alone there, the image was inexplicably entwined with one of Jax. She suddenly understood why he wanted to show her the desert, because she wanted nothing more than to see the mountains in his eyes.
He led her easily through the melee, so unfazed by it that she had no choice but to believe it was yet another shot of normalcy that, anywhere else, would be anything but.
“How are we getting to the desert?”
“You’re already there. But to answer your question, I have a big, black, environmentally disastrous SUV.” On cue, they reached the valet. Jax handed over his ticket, and moments later they were met at the door by a jacked up tank. Not really a tank, but she doubted anything got in its way.
He waved off the valet with cash and helped her up himself. “Kind of ironic to take one of those out to enjoy nature, isn’t it?”
“On one hand, yes.”
She ran her fingertips over the soft leather seats and inhaled deeply. “What’s the other hand?”
He eased shut her door and didn’t answer until he had jumped into the driver’s seat. With a firm pat to the dash, he said, “The desert is wide open. You can go pretty much anywhere, and it’s better to do it in four wheel drive.”
She gawked, and not just because the man was unfairly sexy. He exuded power, navigating with ease onto the busy street. She could probably stare at him all day. In fact, she’d love to get stuck with him, but in the desert? “Mud can’t possibly be an issue.”
“Nah, but rocks can be.” He glanced at the rearview while she admired his profile. “When it does rain,” he said, “flash flooding is a thing. Which means swales become one, only they’re more like concrete drainage ditches by the time the sun bakes them. You hit one good enough, you’ll leave your axle behind in it.”
Oh . “So is that what you do? Guard bodies by night and wander the desert by day?”
He shot her a sideways grin. “I guess. Never thought of it that way, but close enough.”
She leaned back into the leather and watched the city ease past, surprised to find that a sense of normalcy prevailed away from the strip. Vegas was very much an oasis in the desert—the view from an airplane left no doubt as to the emptiness of the surrounding landscape—but as they left the city, the rearview added a new dimension to the storied location. As wide as the interstate sprawled and as tall as the hotel casinos pierced the air above, the vast desert so quickly consumed the skyline that she wondered if she hadn’t imagined the whole place.
But she hadn’t imagined Jax. Couldn’t have conjured him if she’d tried. It was hard to believe that a mere twenty-four hours before she’d been in the air, high above that very road. Anticipating all the wrong
Similar Books
