Poker Face: A Small Town Romance (The Beaufort Poker Club Book 1)

by Maggie Gates

  “Yes. I—I want you.”

  “Say it,” he growled again, caging me in against the table.

  My breasts were pressed against his chest as he towered over me. He was intimidating and domineering. And God, I loved it. “I want you, Luca.”

  Whatever self-restraint he had been holding onto snapped. One hand snaked up my back and grabbed my hair, yanking my head back. The other started undoing the buttons on my chef’s coat with surprising ease. Luca’s mouth began working a path from my lips to my jaw, his heavy stubble scraping against my skin, sending shockwaves straight to my core. He pushed off my chef whites and let them drop to the floor. He grabbed the bottom of my AC/DC t-shirt and yanked it over my head.

  “Fucking hell, Mad—” He groaned as he stared at my breasts like a kid in a damn candy store. “You’re a fucking angel, Beautiful.” With a surprising gentleness, he unhooked my bra and let it fall away. “Shoes off,” he commanded.

  I kicked off my work clogs and he grabbed the waistband of my black pants, shoving them down. I worked them off my ankles while Luca kissed the valley of my breasts, down the line of my abs, to my hip bone. He bent down in front of me, wrapped his arms around my thighs, and lifted me to sit on the table.

  “I can’t tell you how many things I want to do to this perfect little body of yours,” he rasped as he slid his hands up my legs. “But this is where I’m gonna start.”

  I didn’t even have time to comprehend what the hell he was saying before his hands were spreading my thighs. “Oh God, Luca,” I whimpered as he dragged the thin strip of fabric in the middle of my panties aside. Cool air rushed up against my skin and I shivered.

  With one hand, he twisted my hair around his fist and tugged my head back. He leaned close to my ear—Close enough that his rough jaw brushed my lobe with every dirty promise he made. “What am I gonna find when I shove my fingers into your tight little pussy, Madeline?” He murmured. Luca’s gravely timbre damn near took my breath away. “Are you wet for me?” I could feel the curl of his wicked smirk at my ear. I whimpered in response, but it wasn’t good enough for him. He gave my hair a warning tug. “Answer me,” he demanded.

  “Yes,” I whispered through labored breaths.

  Luca teased my slit with a feather-light touch. “Dirty girl,” he chuckled before planting a searing kiss on my lips. He was warm and good, but dangerous in the same. He was safe, but vicious.

  One finger slid into my slick core and then two. I gasped and threw my head back. He drew his fingers out before driving them back in again. “Remember what I told you, Madeline?”

  “W-what?” How the hell was he expecting me to play twenty questions when he was doing unspeakable things to my body. I felt him curl his fingers as he stroked my G-spot and I cried out in ecstasy. Usually I had to draw the guy a fucking map. Not Luca.

  “Remember that I said I’d respect you on your turf?” He asked. I probably responded, but it wouldn’t have been admissible in court. Something about duress and not being coherent enough to speak when the guy is intent on giving you a fifteen minute orgasm. Not when he used his other hand to palm my breast and roll my nipple between his fingers. “I told you that when you’re on my turf, I’m in charge.” It was a reminder laced with a threat, triple dipped in dark promises. “This is my turf, Madeline,” he grunted, surging his fingers deeper and deeper in a steady rhythm. “Mine.”

  I nearly buckled over when he leaned down and captured one pert nipple in his mouth, sucking and nipping until I had tunnel vision, but he wrapped a strong arm around me and held me up—Held me close. “Luca—” I mewled,“I-I’m gonna—” And then the earth shattered. The stars rained down, the sky fell, and the angels sang. “Oh my God,” I whispered as I collapsed in his arms.

  With a practiced efficiency, Luca pulled a condom out of his wallet and tore the foil open with his teeth. He unzipped his trousers and freed the erection that was as big as a fucking rolling pin and rolled the condom on. I’d been with well-endowed men before, but nothing—and I mean nothing—could have prepared me for Luca DeRossi.

  The table was too high for me to sit on, and the fact that we were two grown ass adults meant we couldn’t lay down on it. Luca grabbed the side of my panties and ripped them in two. He gripped the other side and did the same thing. Before I could protest or finish working out the mechanics of exactly how this was going to go down, he lifted me up and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

  “Luca!” I squealed. I wasn’t arguing, though—the man had a great ass and I was staring straight at it. I gave his butt cheek a frisky pinch and he retaliated with a harsh spank on my bare ass. The shocking sting melted into pleasure and it filled me with a potent cocktail of excitement, anticipation, and nerves. The room flipped as he slid me down his chest, still holding me in his arms. My back bit into the cold metal siding of the row of refrigerators and freezers.

  My feet hit the floor, and I realized that I was completely naked while Luca was still in his suit and tie, except for his giant cock hanging out of his fly. I hated vulnerability and I never let a man dominate me—a few had tried, but they didn’t get that far. It wasn’t that I was opposed to it, but no one had ever been as convincing—as resolute in their role as the alpha. Luca wasn’t playing the role of the alpha. He was the alpha.

  “One foot on the ground, one around my hips, Maddie,” he commanded. I lifted my leg, but when I wasn’t fast enough, he grabbed my thigh and positioned me himself. There was no warning. No lead-up. He didn’t prime me. He didn’t need to. Luca shoved his cock into my pussy, and I nearly choked on my tongue. My vision went sparkly, and I pressed the back of my head against the refrigerator behind me to keep from overheating. “That’s not all of it, beautiful,” he chuckled with a satisfied smirk. He worked my hips to angle with his. “Relax for me,” he urged gently.

  I let out a slow breath as he slid all the way in. “Luca,” I whimpered.

  One hand left my hips, and he cradled my jaw, “I’m with you, beautiful. Keep my name on your lips. I’ve got you.” Slowly, he began to pump in and out. My muscles flexed and released with his in a mirrored tempo. When I got comfortable, he bent his knees and drove in hard and fast.

  “Luca!” I screamed. “Yes—”

  “You. With me. Madeline?” He grunted out between thrusts.

  “Yes. Yes.” I pleaded in return.

  He surged harder and my toes began to curl. My grip on his shoulders turned rigid as heat built faster and faster in my center. I was a volcano about to explode. Luca’s eyebrows dipped in toward a deep crevice above his nose. His features tightened and I felt his steady rhythm take a dive toward spastic. “Come with me.”

  I nodded listlessly because an audible response was out of the question. The first wave of his release jerked inside me, detonating my own orgasm.

  Luca pressed into me and rested his forehead on mine. Sweat dotted our skin, but neither of us cared. “How do you feel?” He asked between heavy breaths.

  “Glittery,” I giggled.

  He gave me a wide smile and drew my lips for a slow kiss while he was still inside of me. “I’ll take that as a good thing?”

  I closed my eyes. trapping my lower lip between my teeth to keep from smiling like the Cheshire cat, and nodded.

  Luca nodded in agreement. “Me too.” He gave me another chaste kiss before murmuring, “Give me a sec, okay?” He lowered both of my feet safely to the ground and made sure I was steady before walking away to deal with the condom.

  I quickly gathered up my clothes and threw them back on—sans underwear—and grabbed a bottle of sanitizer to scrub down every inch of the kitchen that we’d touched. A few minutes later, Luca came back into the pastry kitchen looking completely unscathed. What I wouldn’t give to see him wake up with morning breath and bedhead. Just the thought of waking up to Luca sent nervous butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. He crossed the room and immediately took me in his arms, pulling me in for a long, lingering kiss. />
  “How does a grilled cheese sound?” He asked when he finally pulled away.

  I laughed, because no one in the history of my sexual escapades had ever offered me a grilled cheese after sex. “Sounds amazing. That was quite the workout, Chef DeRossi.”

  He dipped his hand into my bra and gave my nipple a sharp pinch. “I thought we agreed on Luca, remember?”

  “Outside of work I’ll call you Luca.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I work hard, and I don’t want people thinking that I’m getting to where I’m going because I’m sleeping with my boss.”

  Luca seemed perturbed, but didn’t push the topic any further. “Fine. Meet me on the roof. I’ll be up in a minute.”

  “With grilled cheeses?”

  He smiled, “With grilled cheeses.”

  Apparently when Luca promised something, he went all in. Luca didn’t just slap a slice of suspiciously processed cheese on some Wonder Bread and called it a day. He used a beautifully crusty sourdough my bakers had made, layering the thick-cut slices of bread with crispy pancetta, muenster cheese, and thinly sliced pears. He slathered both sides of the sourdough with Duke’s mayonnaise for the perfect tangy, toasty crisp.

  “Oh my God,” I moaned as I took another bite. “This is the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had.”

  Luca grinned and tore off a piece, dropping it into his mouth. “So, the worst chef on the planet must be able to do something right.”

  “What?”

  “I follow you on Twitter, Maddie.”

  I, Madeline Lee Dorsey, was going to need a shovel. A big one. I was going to have to figure out some way to dig my own grave, hop in, kill myself, and then bury my own body. On second thought, maybe a backhoe would be easier. Could I rent a backhoe this late at night?

  “In my own defense, I thought you were Satan in chef whites.”

  His low chuckle had my body revving up for round three. “Have I, uh, done anything to change that thought? Even a little?”

  I pointed a finger at him, “The orgasms definitely help you cause.”

  “More where that came from, Madeline,” he winked.

  Picking at the crumbs on my empty plate, I said, “No one uses my full name, you know.”

  “They should,” he countered. “Just like you, it’s beautiful.”

  I snort-laughed, “That was such a line, DeRossi.”

  He leaned over the table and pecked my lips, “It’s the truth, Madeline.”

  “Have you ever seen the horses?” I asked. He shook his head. I got up from the table and took his hand, liking how natural it felt. I led him to the edge of the rooftop dining area that looked out over the sound to the barrier islands that separated us from the ocean. It was dark, but there were just enough lights that I could point the wild horses out. “Look. See there?”

  “The horses live on that little island?”

  I nodded. “Spanish mustangs. They’ve been here for centuries.”

  Luca’s chest pressed against my back. His muscular arms wrapped around my waist, keeping me close. “Come home with me.”

  “I have to be here early in the morning.”

  He leaned down and nibbled on my ear, mumbling, “Rae can handle it. Play hooky—Just for the morning.”

  I closed my eyes and leaned back into his arms. “I shouldn’t. And you’re my boss. You shouldn’t be telling me to call out just so I can wake up in your bed.”

  “Will the guarantee of more orgasms help sell it?”

  “Mm, sorry. I’m more Rae’s type than you are, if you know what I mean.” I clicked my tongue against my teeth and grinned, “I doubt she’ll be swayed with your offer of a few orgasms.”

  He dropped one hand and smacked my ass. I let out a little yelp and he chuckled, “Smartass. Besides, I didn’t say just a few orgasms.”

  I turned in his arms and draped mine around his neck. “I should be heading home.”

  “I’ll take you. I’ll pick you up in the morning.”

  “It sounds like you’re fishing for an invitation to stay over at my place.”

  “Maybe I am. Maybe I just want to make sure you get home safe.”

  “You seem to forget that my neighbor is a cop. I’ll be fine. Try again, hotshot.”

  Luca’s cocky grin faded into a wistful smile. “I just want to make sure this is what I think it is.”

  “And what do you think this is?”

  “You and me.” He pecked my lips, punctuating his point. “The way we should have been.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “After California.” He pressed a long kiss to my forehead. “I feel like the minute I let you go, you’re gonna disappear on me again.”

  “I feel like I should be the one who’s worried.”

  His thick brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

  “I follow you too, Luca—I’ve seen your dating history. Am I just another girl who’s temporarily on your arm in a long string of conquests?”

  “Never. Like I said—I’m with you.”

  “People say a lot of things during sex.”

  Luca cradled my jaw in his hands and gently stroked my cheek with his thumb. “Not me. I say what I mean.”

  “Did you actually mean what you whispered to me the day that I won the competition? What you said when you shook my hand?”

  “Yes.” Luca looked me in the eye as he repeated what he murmured in my ear as the confetti fell. “I think you’re spectacular. You have the kind of spark that sets the world on fire and I find myself constantly wonderstruck by you.”

  20

  ———

  LUCA

  I was home alone, but not before following Maddie back to her house and kissing her goodnight on the dock.

  And at her door.

  And again at her bedroom door.

  And stretched out on top of her on her bed where I took my time getting to know every little part of her.

  Driving back to a big, quiet beach house with a raging hard-on had been a begrudging act of discipline. I wanted her to be here with me. In my bed at night. In my kitchen drinking coffee in the morning. Stretched out on the couch. Curled up in a hammock on the deck. It had been a long time since I’d had sex that made me feel so alive. She wasn’t just another notch in my metaphorical headboard. Maddie was wild and fierce. She was untamed like the mustangs that roamed the island between the sound and the ocean. What made those horses so powerful was their rawness. They were meant to stay unbroken. You either ran with them or let them go.

  My tumbler of bourbon was nearly gone before my phone rang. I knew that the call was coming. “Well, well, well. I had you pegged as the wait two days to talk to him again just to make him sweat type,” I teased.

  “You asshole!” Maddie shouted over the phone. “You stole my vibrator!”

  I looked over at the kitchen island where the device sat, tucked away in its velvet bag and grinned. She had it sitting on her nightstand and the opportunity was just a little too good to pass up. “Figured after that goodnight kiss that you might go for some solo action. Didn’t want that happening if I wasn’t around to watch.”

  I heard her breath hitch and there was a long pause before she spoke again. “Well,” she began, trying to regain her composure. “Good thing I have a perfectly capable shower head, so screw you.”

  Fuck. “How ‘bout you keep your hands and your fucking shower head away from where mine should be and I’ll cook you dinner the day after tomorrow.”

  “But I—”

  “You have an early out that morning and Rae’s running dinner service. I already checked the schedule.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “No buts.”

  “Fine, but only so I can get my vibrator back.”

  I chuckled, “Goodnight, beautiful.”

  “Night, asshole.”

  I laughed and shoved my phone into the pocket of my trousers. I loosened my tie and unbuttoned my dress shirt. What a fucking night. I was tired as hell, but there was no way
I could go to sleep. Not with the adrenaline still coursing through my system after finally having Maddie. The beach house had a pool and doing a couple laps to work off the excitement sounded like just the right thing. I padded into the bedroom and stripped down to my boxers, pawing around my suitcases for a pair of swim trunks.

  I’d been in Beaufort for just over a month and still hadn’t unpacked. I knew it wasn’t home. It was all temporary. Still, the thought of Maddie staying the night at the rental house made me want to put my jeans in the dresser drawers and hang my shirts in the closet.

  The front door opened and closed and for a minute I wondered if maybe Maddie had driven out here. Without bothering to put pants on, I ducked into the hallway only to find Astrid letting herself in. “Dammit,” I groaned as I dove back into the master bedroom for a pair of pants.

  “Don’t be a prude,” Astrid said, rolling her eyes as she waltzed through the living room in a tight pencil skirt and blouse that made her look as uptight and unapproachable as her personality. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

  And I sure as hell wouldn’t be making that mistake again.

  One lonely night after a restaurant opening in Seattle, Astrid had dumped my tipsy ass into a car and driven me back to my hotel room. I vaguely remember inviting her in for a nightcap. One drink became two and the clothes started flying.

  Astrid was a professional and she never brought it up. She didn’t even stay the night, slipping off to her own room after the deed was done. Our working relationship had never been affected, so I didn’t see any reason to replace her. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants, still forgoing a shirt. It was my fucking house after all.

  “I need to know who you’re taking to the James Beard Award Gala in September so I can make arrangements. The list I gave you with vetted companions—”

  “Astrid, I’m thirty-six years old. I can get my own date for a damn gala,” I said bluntly. It came out much harsher than I intended, but I wasn’t going to entertain the idea that I’d go with anyone other than Maddie.

  She huffed and crossed one slim arm over the other. “The right date will boost your image and provide great P.R. for both of you. I really don’t understand why you’re fighting me on this. Look, I’ll take care of everything like I usually do. You just have to show up and look pretty.”