Rook and Ronin Box Set: The Complete Alpha Billionaire Series (Books 1-5)

by Huss, JA

  The car stops before she can answer, but she takes those few seconds before the driver opens the door to steal a look at me. “I can’t think about tomorrow.”

  “Then don’t. Forget about tomorrow. Tonight it’s only you and me and no one else exists until this date is officially over.”

  The door opens. I get out and reach for her hand, pulling her gently to her feet. She looks past me into the lobby and smiles. “OK. I’m all yours.”

  Damn right, I muse.

  I lead her inside to the elevators and we take it up to the top floor where the restaurant is. Our table is waiting when we arrive and the maître d’ guides us to a private semi-circle booth that faces the Strip and has an absolutely stunning view. “I said sushi, but the sushi bars in Vegas are not intimate, so we’ll have to make do with this tonight.”

  She hunches her shoulders a little and gets excited as she looks over the menu. “Wow, fuck the sushi—I’m getting lobster.”

  I close my eyes and shake my head slowly. Oh, dear lord. She’s going to drive me insane with her antics. “Why must you try me like this?” I ask as I open my eyes.

  She laughs. “Ford, you think I’m adorable, you said so. How much fun would I be if I just did everything you said and behaved myself?” She looks up at me and bats her eyelashes. “You’d never have your dirty way with me if I was compliant. And by the way, your package looks so good in that suit.” She looks down and then up and waggles her eyebrows.

  “I take it you’ve settled into the date, then? Your nervousness has passed?”

  She sighs and nods. “Yes. You’re too wily for me, Ford. You think of everything. Why fight it?”

  I slip my hand behind her neck and fist her hair as I whisper in her ear. “I do like the fight, but not tonight. Tonight you’re mine. Tonight I own you. I get to take care of you. I get to make you feel things for the first time. Tonight I promise you perfection. So just give in, Ashleigh. Give yourself to me and let it happen.”

  She turns her head, just slightly, just so her lips are against my rough cheek. My free hand involuntarily comes up to her neck and presses against her throat. She moans a little before I loosen my hold. “Ford,” she says seductively into my ear. “I’m going to kiss you right now. In public.” And then I feel the stretch of her neck under my palm and her soft lips touch my earlobe, just skim across the sensitive skin before pulling away.

  It actually makes me close my eyes for a second.

  “See,” she breathes. “It’s nice. I trust you. But I like soft kisses. So in between the rough stuff you like, be careful with me. Give me something soft, because I really need it.”

  I’m speechless. I’m still thinking about her kiss, so I have to play catch up with her words.

  This confession from her unlocks something deep inside. Something that makes me want to hold her close and protect her. To wipe away all the things that have her worried and make her world perfect.

  I want her. I’d let her sloppy-kiss me right here in front of everyone if she asked right now.

  But the waiter arrives and we both turn our attention to food for enough moments that the insane attraction I have to this girl is checked. She gets the lobster and I get the prime rib. But my appetite is gone and my mind is only on one thing right now.

  How the fuck do I keep her from leaving me tomorrow?

  When we’re done ordering we sit in silence and enjoy our drinks. This place is over-the-top yet subdued at the same time. Our booth has a high back that curves around the plush bench so we can’t see the diners on either side of us. It’s just Ashleigh, me, and the nighttime Vegas skyline.

  “Tell me something new, Ford.”

  I smile at her request. “That’s what started it, you know. Your confession that you thought I was a hot serial killer.”

  “A hot serial killer who would beat back my keen defenses with his unorthodox charm so that I’d beg him to kill me during kinky sex.”

  “Hmmm…”

  She laughs. “Yeah, seems like your diabolical plan is working. Please don’t make me beg you to kill me tonight.”

  “I’ll make you beg for something, but death will be the last thing on your list. More, that’s what you’ll be begging for. More.”

  She smiles and shakes her head a little, like I’m such a cocky bastard. “Let’s play a game.”

  “You have a game for everything, it seems.” I have my arm around her shoulder and I trace the curve of her small muscles in her upper arm, thinking of her shivering touch on my back last night. “What kind of game?”

  She turns her body a little so she can see my face. “It’s called Lie, Lie, Truth. You tell me three things about you, two of them lies, one not. And I have to guess which one is true.”

  “What do you get if you guess?”

  “A favor. To be claimed at some time in the future.”

  “I’ve never heard of this game, I think you make these games up.”

  “It was something my friends and I played in school. We had no boys, remember? We had to keep ourselves occupied somehow.”

  “Were you a Sandy or a Rizzo when you were in school?” She bursts out laughing and I have to shush her because it’s so loud. “Stop.”

  “A Sandy—are you talking about Grease?”

  Even I laugh now. “Sorry, I’m a film producer, remember? Now tell me, Sandy or Rizzo?”

  “You tell me. Ready?” I nod. “OK.” She stops, to think up her lies presumably, and then turns to me grinning. “In tenth grade I won a contest for selling the most candy bars for our school orchestra. I can play four instruments. I got kicked out of the orchestra in eleventh grade because I stood up and yelled, Play ball after we performed the Star-Spangled Banner for a competition.”

  “No contest, number two. You’re a Sandy who thinks she wants to be a Rizzo.”

  She squirms and huffs out a small laugh. “Yes, that’s true. I liked being smart as a kid. I was an overachiever. But why do you think that? I mean, how did you know that was the truth?”

  “It’s pretty difficult for foreigners to get into a Japanese university. I might not know much about you, but I know you’re exceptional. Selling the most candy bars is not exceptional and I don’t think you’d ever ruin someone else’s special moment just to be a brat. You play four instruments was the only logical answer. So I win a future favor and now it’s my turn. Ready?”

  “Yes, I’m ready,” she says, her eyes locked on mine.

  “I’ve never had a girlfriend. I’ve never wanted a girlfriend. I wish I’d never met you.” I look down at her and her mouth is open, gaping at me.

  “Um…”

  “Should I say them again?”

  She stares at me. “You’ve never had a girlfriend? How is that possible?”

  I shrug a little. “I’ve never had a girlfriend and I’ve never wanted one… until you. I’ve had lots of sex. And I’ve been on dates. But the girls I’m usually with have strict rules and no talking or touching were two of them.”

  “What did you do on the dates, if you didn’t talk?”

  “I fucked them in the limo on the drive to the restaurant. I bought them dinner and drank some expensive Scotch. I fucked them in the limo on the drive back to their place. I dropped them off.”

  She looks away, a little bit stunned, I think. “Why do they let you treat them that way?”

  “Because they can’t stop themselves. Because finding a man who will love and cherish them is too much trouble. Because I was offering a physical encounter only. Because I was unavailable except in this very specific way. Because they’re unable to see the benefits of nothing, and instead settle for something.”

  “Do you want to treat me like that?”

  “Never. And now I owe you a future favor too.”

  Before she can say anything else the wait staff delivers our salads. When they leave I change the subject and we talk about ridiculous things like Japanese game shows and the character development of Odd Thomas. But the entir
e time I’m really dying to ask her what she thinks of me. I need to know, but not yet. She needs to see all of me first. She needs to experience me and I her. We need to experience what us together looks like.

  We’ll do that tonight.

  When dinner is over we take the elevator downstairs and she leans into me as we wait for the car to be brought around. “Are we going back to the hotel?”

  “You didn’t get your long quiet walk yet.” The car pulls up and we get in. I take the silk scarf out of my pocket and hold it out in front of her. She looks up at me with a sly smile and I chuckle. “Ready?”

  “I thought we were talking a walk?”

  “Trust me.”

  She rolls her eyes. “I do.” And then she takes a deep steadying breath as I tie it around her eyes and knock on the window that separates us from the driver so the car can move forward.

  “Do you like being blindfolded?”

  “Yes,” she breathes.

  “Good, because after our long quiet walk is over and I have you back up in our bedroom, I’m going to do it again.” She smiles but I can practically feel her nervousness. The car stops and we wait for the driver to open our door.

  “That was fast.”

  “We didn’t go very far.” I step out and take her hand, pull her into my chest, and then put one arm around her shoulder and the other on her waist as we walk forward. An attendant opens the door to the building and we’re accosted by the smell of the ocean.

  “Where are we?” she asks.

  The subdued bluish light from the tanks ripples across her face, making her look like an underwater sea goddess. “Guess.”

  “An aquarium?”

  “Very good guess.”

  I slip her blindfold off and she actually claps her hands and squeals. “The Shark Reef! Are we the only people here?”

  “They closed an hour ago. You can’t have a quiet walk when there are throngs of tourists around, now can you?” I offer her my arm and she wraps her hands around it and leans her head on me. “Ready?”

  She simply nods and we walk forward. Slowly. Looking and thinking about life, but not our lives. We go in the tunnel and look at the reef first. “You wanted to watch life and not participate in it, right?”

  “You’re amazing. That’s exactly what this is. A glimpse at life from the outside looking in. It’s perfect.”

  “Yes, I think it is.” We watch the fish for a while, a part of their world, but yet not.

  “I want to cash in my favor now, if that’s OK.”

  “Ask away, Ash.”

  “Promise you won’t forget me.”

  I get this immediate pang in my chest. Like a twisting knife. Fuck, that hurts.

  “You’re not promising, Ford.”

  I huff out some air. “Of course not, Ashleigh. I’m never going to forget you. But I won’t have a chance to forget you either. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” She squeezes my upper arm and I turn her around so she’s facing me. I tip her chin up with my fingers and lean down, closer, keeping eye contact the entire time. My lips hover over hers. Almost no space separates us.

  “Will you kiss me?” she breathes into me.

  “No, Ashleigh. I need a promise first.”

  “Then what are you doing?” Her gaze never wavers from mine.

  “Teasing you.”

  She laughs and starts to pull away but my hand slips up to her neck and my thumb traces the line of her jaw. I lean in again and she actually sighs at my small touches. “I won’t give up. And this is my night,” I say so softly that the words almost escape even my detection. It elicits a moan and I pull back.

  She draws in a long breath. “I don’t want to be teased, I want to be kissed.”

  “Miss Li, we have all night for that. But this part of the date is for being slow and quiet. Just like you asked. And if I kissed you now I’d end up ripping your clothes off and bending you over so I could take you from behind. And I might still do that when we go back to the hotel, but I have so many, many other things I’d like to do first.”

  She looks up at me as she absently chews on her lower lip. She notices me noticing and she smiles. “You made me tingle.”

  I laugh. “Did I?”

  She nods, holding back her smile. “What favor will you ask of me?”

  “Are you nervous about it?”

  She nods again.

  “Do you think I’d ask for sex?”

  She shakes her head. “No. That’s the last thing you’d ask for. Either I give it willingly or you don’t want it.”

  “How do you know me so well?”

  She puts her hands on my shoulders and then rests her head on my chest, like we’re slow-dancing to the music of a captured sea. “We’re complements, you and I. Aren’t we?”

  “Yes, you bring me to perfection.”

  “I love my date.”

  “It’s not over yet. We’re still in the first tunnel. Should we keep going?”

  “Yes, but I’m afraid of what comes after.”

  “Of me?”

  “No.”

  And that’s all she says as she pulls back and takes my hand. I let it go because she was referring to tomorrow. She walks forward, leading me away from our moment and back into our date.

  We marvel at the fish. We walk through the tunnel and stop at all the tanks, and we look up at the sharks swimming above us with our mouths gaping open like children. We talk about the ocean and beaches we’ve visited and how many gallons of water are in these tanks. I hold her hand the entire time. She points at sea turtles. She makes a face at the Komodo dragon and quakes a bit when I point out the golden crocodile and the giant snake swimming in the water. She sits in front of the luminescent jellyfish for so long I have to pull her away. She lies on her stomach over the concrete bench around the stingrays and reaches down to touch them and then squeals and pulls back exclaiming they are slimy. I get her a stuffed pink dolphin and Kate an orange and white Nemo clownfish from the gift shop and leave a fifty-dollar bill on the counter.

  She is happy.

  Tomorrow isn’t even a blip on her radar when we leave the gurgling sounds of the underwater oasis behind and climb back into the car so we can be shuffled back to the Four Seasons. She leans into me the entire ride up the elevator, and then we stop and check in on Kate, but she’s sound asleep after drinking herself into a breast milk coma.

  “I’ll come back and get her in a few hours,” I tell the babysitter.

  And then I lead Ashleigh across the hall, pull her into our suite, and push her against the wall. “It’s time to end the date, Ash. Tell me what kind of promise you can give and I’ll hand over a kiss.”

  She takes a deep breath and tilts her chin. The light is low in here, but her eyes sparkle a bit as she studies my face. “I can do a phone number.”

  I lean down and touch my lips to her cheek, lingering for a moment, letting her warmth radiate into me, then pull back. “I can manage a peck.”

  “Is it good enough for now?”

  “It’s more than enough. Do you trust me, Ashleigh?” I ask her one more time.

  “Yes,” she replies immediately. “I do, Ford.”

  “Good,” I tell her as I stroke her cheek. “I’m so glad,” I whisper in her ear, sending a shiver down her entire body. I untie the ribbon around her throat that’s holding up her dress and the red fabric flutters to her waist, exposing her breasts to me. I squeeze, but this time I am kind and considerate and gentle. They are hard and full and the milk drips out. She moans because they are tender, even though my touch is light. “I will be very careful with you tonight, Ashleigh. The spankings might hurt for a moment, but I promise to fully satisfy you many times.”

  I kneel down and slip my hand over the top of her foot. She bites her lip and sucks in some air. I unbuckle her straps and slide it off, my fingertips lightly caressing the high arch and then her heel. She gasps again when I repeat the whole act on the other foot. Her dress is being held up only by the curve o
f her hips. It takes nothing more than a slight tug to make it whoosh to the floor at her feet. I lean forward and nibble her inner thigh and slip my hand around and cup her ass. I move up to the v between her legs and I bite her there too, gently, just above her most sensitive spot.

  This time she moans.

  “Do not come, Ashleigh.” She’s very close and I’ve barely touched her.

  She bites her lip and nods her head, but her eyes are closed. I stand up before she loses control and brush the hair away from her eyes. “Your nightwear is in the hall bathroom. Go put it on and join me in the bedroom when you’re done.”

  I watch her as she walks off, her hips swaying gently, her thighs brushing against each other, like she’s trying to stimulate herself. I smile at that. Because the first one will be easy. The first one will come out in a gush. She will writhe and scream. She will buckle her back and open her legs wider as she says my name over and over when I suck on her pussy. And then she’ll be primed and ready for the more adventurous things I have planned for her tonight.

  I’m going to take Ashleigh Li. I’m going to own her body in every way imaginable. I’m going to take her from behind. From above. From below. She’s going to beg me for more, beg for my cock in her mouth, and beg me to do it again and again and again.

  She will never forget me, even if she does walk out of my life tomorrow.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  The master bedroom in our suite has a vast view of the Strip. I turn out all the lights and enjoy it for a moment, then flick on two small sconces above the headboard. The light is soft and amber in color. It will shower Ashleigh’s beautiful body with golden light. At the foot of the bed is a bench upholstered in a plush light blue fabric that accentuates the aqua and cream color scheme of the room. There are some small throw pillows on the bed and I put a few within easy reach of the bench.

  When I turn around to check on her, she’s already there. Standing in the doorway wearing a black baby doll top that presents her full breasts, then flows down and stops just at her hips. Her panties are also black and are fully exposed.