Shine Not Burn

by Elle Casey

  He turned to face the table, but leaned a little closer to me than the stool would normally allow. “You okay?”

  I looked at him, surprised to find his face so close again. I wasn’t complaining at all, though. He had a pretty damn fine face, after all. “No, I’m great. Why?”

  He smiled a slow, lazy smile that lit me on fire. “You look a little nervous.”

  I blew out a huff of air. “It’s because you’re too damn good looking.” The second the words left my mouth I heard them and cringed inwardly. “Did I just say that out loud?”

  “I’m not sure. What was it you thought you said?” he asked. He was teasing me. I could hear the smile in his voice, but I couldn’t look at him. Then my humiliation would be complete.

  I took a big breath for courage. “I am having a bit of a hard time acting like an intelligent human being with you sitting so close to me.” I was losing my breath, and there was nothing I could do about it short of asking for oxygen or leaving his presence, and I definitely wasn’t ready to do that yet. Talk about potential. This guy had the potential to be my Vegas fling. The wild and crazy sex Candice had talked about on the plane. The forget-Luke-and-move-on man. I looked at him really quick and then faced forward again. Could I have sex with this guy? A total stranger who I know nothing about? Who I’ll never see again? Whose name I don’t even know?

  “My name’s Mack, by the way. What’s yours?”

  Panic mode, level eight. What is he? A mind reader? Okay, scratch the not-knowing-his-name part. The question is, could I have a one-night stand with a man named Mack who wears a cowboy hat to a casino? He put his forearms on the table as he looked at his cards and waited for my answer. They showed lean muscles under tanned skin and golden highlighted arm hair sprinkling the surface enough to make me wonder what he had going on under his shirt. Yes. I can definitely do this.

  I looked at him. He caught my eye and smiled at me, revealing just the slightest dimple in his left cheek … and it was all over for any self control I might have possessed before coming to Vegas. “My name is Andrea, but my friends call me Andie.”

  “Andie it is, then.” He draped his arm across the back of my chair, standing so he could get closer to me. “What are you going to do, Andie? Hit or stay?” He wasn’t even looking at the cards. His piercing blue eyes were staring into mine, possibly daring me to take a challenge.

  I didn’t even look at my cards. “I could do either one right now and it would make me really happy.” The thrill that ran up my spine was nothing compared to the electricity that jolted my entire body when he leaned towards me and put his face near my ear. His breath tickled my skin as he spoke.

  “I meant on the table.”

  I smiled, the devil in me taking over. “Wherever, whatever. It’s your call.”

  He tipped his head back and laughed, rubbing his hat on his head a few times while he grinned like a madman. “You’re somethin’ else, Andie, you know that?” He took the cocktail from the waitress who’d shown up behind us and handed it to me. I had three drinks now and I planned to drink every one of them. Once he’d gotten his beer and tipped the girl a few dollars, he raised his bottle in my direction.

  “Here’s to getting lucky in Vegas.”

  I grinned like a crazy fool. “I’ll drink to that.” I clanked my glass against his bottle so hard some of the drink sloshed out. He backed up really quick, pointing a finger at me. “You’re dangerous. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to get me all wet again.”

  I shrugged, sipping my drink as innocently as possible. Then my mouth opened up and more ridiculousness came out. “Turnabout’s fair play.”

  He didn’t say anything but he lifted an eyebrow. And I noticed for the next three hands of blackjack, all of which we both won, he got closer and closer to me, until I was turned sideways and one of his thighs was in between mine. If I scooted any closer to the edge of the stool, I’d be humping his leg, but I totally didn’t care. I didn’t even worry about where my friends were or what was taking them so long to find me. I knew Candice would return eventually, even if she had to put Kelly down for the night upstairs first. And I felt more than confident that Mack would take care of me until they came back. If I were being honest, I’d admit that while I waited for my friends’ return, I sent up a few prayers to the goddess of love, begging that Candice not be able to find me for a really long time.

  Chapter Eleven

  MACK GRABBED MOST OF THE chips in front of us and put them in a plastic cup with the casino’s logo on it. He flipped a chip worth twenty dollars at the dealer. “You ready to get outta here?” He sounded surprisingly sober considering how many beers he’d drunk.

  “But what about these ones?” I asked, touching to the ones he was leaving behind.

  “Those are yours.”

  He must be confused. Or maybe he’s drunker than he looks. I felt a little panicked when I realized maybe it wasn’t confusion or beers … maybe he didn’t know that I’d been using his chips all along. I looked at the twelve hundred dollars of multi-colored chips in front of me. “Those aren’t mine, they’re yours. I kind of … took some of your chips in that first round. I’m sorry … I panicked. They said you’d lose your seat.” I grimaced at him, wondering if I’d just blown my chance at a roll in the proverbial hay with the sexiest cowboy this side of the Mississippi.

  “You won ‘em fair and square. Let’s just say I backed you for a little while, ’til you got on your feet.”

  I bit my lower lip as I considered whether I should insist that he take the money. I soon realized sitting still and concentrating like that was a mistake, though; the room was spinning way too much for well-reasoned, rational arguments. I decided it was more prudent to focus my energies on walking a straight line instead of denying any right to the money. I’d lost count of how many free cocktails I’d drunk in the last hour that we’d been playing, but I knew from the way the gambling pit was going round and round that I’d imbibed a couple too many. I stacked the chips up and fit them into the palm of my hand. Twelve hundred dollars was surprisingly light. “Thank you, cowboy. That’s incredibly generous of you.” I grinned like a drunk fool, which is exactly what I was. “I’ll just have to find a way to pay you back, I guess.”

  “Come on, let’s go get some fresh air,” he said, holding out a bent elbow for me.

  “Is that what they’re calling it these days?” I asked sliding off the stool, and shoving my hand through the hole at his side. I only punched him in the ribs a little. It was when my feet hit solid ground and I got a better hold on my dizziness that I realized what a dork I sounded like. Talk about a mood-breaker. “I did it again, didn’t I?” I asked, sighing. So much for the sexy black dress and the Jennifer hairstyle.

  “Did what? I didn’t notice you doing anything. Do you want to put your shoes on?” He pointed to the spot under my stool where Kelly’s shoes lay in a small, spikey pile.

  “If by saying shoes you mean the Devil’s torture devices down there, then no. I definitely don’t want to put them on.” I frowned at the way-too-high heels, wondering how much trouble I’d be in if I just left them there.

  He leaned over and grabbed them, crossing them over in the middle and holding onto them with his free hand. “How about I wrangle them for you ’til you feel like putting them back on?”

  “Good plan. I should probably go up to my room and change into something more practical anyway.”

  “You’re staying here? In the hotel?” He stopped, a few feet away from the blackjack table, causing me to bump into him.

  “Yup. In a bitchin’ suite.”

  “Humph.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  “Nope.” He didn’t offer any further explanation and I didn’t ask for one. It didn’t matter anyway, right? No need to complicate things.

  He started walking again. Our bodies were side-by-side, his upper arm rubbing up against my right breast. Even that innocent bit of touching sent a thrill throug
h me, especially as I wondered if it was intentional on his part. He didn’t have to walk so close, but he was. Or maybe it was just me, clinging to him like a piece of seaweed clings to a rock. God, please don’t let me be seaweed!

  “I haven’t heard that word in a long time. Bitchin’. I like it.”

  “Stick with me, cowboy. I’ll show you all kinds of retro cool stuff. Like my Jennifer Anniston ‘do. You like it?” I flicked my hair back and forth before glancing up to see if he was looking.

  “It’s pretty,” he said, smiling a little. He turned and stopped, causing my arm to come out of his. He was just inches away, staring down at me. Putting the shoes in his other hand with the cup full of chips, he put his free hand on my shoulder, his expression suddenly going serious. My heart dropped with a thunk. He’s going to tell me he’ll see me later. He’s going to disappear. I knew it. The Jennifer Aniston hair flip was too much. Dammit!

  “Listen, Andie. I know you’ve had a lot to drink, so I kind of feel like the gentlemanly thing to do is give you a chance to walk away … if that’s what you want to do.” He was staring at me with those damn glowy blue eyes of his, and I felt like I was being hypnotized by them. Being with him was so much easier to manage when I wasn’t looking right at him; I could notch down the sexy to something manageable when his attention was anywhere but on me.

  “Walk away? Walk away from what?” Playing a little hard to get seemed like the prudent thing to do just in case he was just being a good samaritan by hanging out with me. He sure sounded like one now, and in my experience, falling for a guy who has no interest in me is a particularly painful process.

  He put his free hand on the top of his hat and moved it back and forth, making the curls in the back move too. “I don’t know what I’m saying. That last Bud went right to my brain and addled it a little, I’m afraid.”

  “Addled. Good word. Are you coming up with me while I change my shoes?” I had zero fear of Mack being the wrong kind of guy to invite up to my room. He totally didn’t come off as rapist material. Me, on the other hand, I wasn’t so sure about. He was nearly irresistible, and if he got the ball rolling, I sure wasn’t going to stop it from going straight downhill a thousand miles an hour. No matter what though, I didn’t want to leave Vegas with any regrets. If he wanted to get all hot and sweaty together, then we were going to do that, no question. Screw second thoughts, screw ex-boyfriends who break up by text message, and screw complications. All I wanted was one night of reckless abandon so I could get all this craziness out of my system and go home with a clean slate, ready to kick ass, take names, and get on with my life.

  “Do you want me to come up?” he asked.

  Screw playing hard to get. “Yeah. Come on.” I took him by the hand and half-dragged him over to a bank of elevators. “I think my friends are up there. I don’t have a key so they’d better be.” I pushed the up button, trembling a little over what I was doing, namely bringing an almost complete stranger up to my room an hour after meeting him so I could rip his clothes off and be a wild and crazy slut. I was so ready to be a prostitute right now. Twelve hundred bucks was definitely going to buy him a blow job. All I could think about was what he might look like under all those cowboy clothes and whether that bulge I’d seen going down his leg would measure up to my imagination.

  “Your friends don’t like to gamble?”

  “Yeah, but one of them got too drunk so the other one was taking care of her.”

  “They left you alone in that dress?”

  I tried really hard not to smile. “Kind of. Not really.” One of the eight elevators dinged and opened. As I stepped in, I said, “I would have helped too, but I saw this totally hot guy in a cowboy hat and I got a little distracted.” I cringed at the way my words were slurring together. I was trying so hard for cool, but was afraid I was getting closer to fool. Pressing the button for the right floor, I did my best to act like I hadn’t just totally revealed my hand.

  “Is that so?” he asked. “Do I need to go speak to him?”

  I turned around, a sneaky smile on my face. I tilted my head, letting my hair hang down over my shoulder. “Maybe. What would you say to him?”

  He moved closer. “I’d tell him he missed out. That I got there first and to step aside.”

  “Are you sure about that?” I asked trying not to pant like a bitch in heat. He was so close I could feel the sexy coming off his chest. My knees were turning to jelly over how tall and broad-shouldered he was. And that stupid cowboy hat … I should have hated it. It should have taken all the sexy away and turned him into a hayseed country bumpkin. But it didn’t. It made him a wild thing. A dangerous stranger, untamed. Completely unconcerned with what anyone else thought, and comfortable in his own skin. If I hadn’t been so drunk I would have been too intimidated to even talk to him. Instead, I was stepping forward to meet him halfway, my eyes drinking him in and not at all ashamed to be doing it.

  His voice dropped to a near-growl. “The question is not whether I’m sure, but whether you are. Because I know exactly what I want, and I’m not the kind of guy who’s afraid to go after it once I see it.”

  He dropped the shoes and the chips in a messy pile and was up against me wrapping his arms around my waist when the elevator dinged. We’d reached my floor. A second later the doors slid open.

  His head came down slowly and the brim of his hat blocked out the light coming from above. We were in a cocoon of sexual energy, and I didn’t want to stop long enough to get off the elevator. I put my hands on his chest, moving them up over his soft cotton shirt to his shoulders, reveling in the strong, lean muscles I felt there. Wrapping my hands around his neck, I buried my fingers in the curls at the back of his head when he bent down to meet my lips with his.

  Our mouths connected and the passion that had been building flared up strong and hot. Nothing about our earlier flirtations and not-quite-accidental touches had prepared me for this. His lips were full and soft, but demanding in the way they pressed against mine and moved quickly to angle for more. I didn’t wait for an invitation, opening my mouth and letting my tongue lick his lips, daring him to come out and play. He took my dare with a moan, his bold tongue charging out to tangle with mine. I’d never in my life been kissed like this.

  The doors slid shut. Mack reached over and pushed the button for my floor again, but we were already going down.

  “Shoot, we missed my floor,” I whispered against his mouth.

  His hands slid down to my backside and squeezed, send a thrill into my hottest of places, making me wet with anticipation. I pushed my hips towards his, wanting to growl with satisfaction over the hard length I found there. He moved against me while massaging my ass, making me want to scream with unfulfilled desire. If the elevator bell hadn’t gone off at just that moment, I might have just yanked up my skirt and jumped on his offering. But it did go off, and then the doors opened, so I quickly pulled away and pushed down the bottom of my dress. Trying to look like I hadn’t just almost screwed a cowboy in the elevator of my hotel was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t doing a good job of pulling it off.

  “Going up?” asked an older couple, looking a little confused about seeing us standing there and not getting off.

  “Uh, yeah,” said Mack, having to clear his throat before he continued. “We’re going up. All the way up.”

  I hiccuped loudly and threw my hand over my mouth, my eyes bugging out. Not sexy! Not sexy!

  The woman put her hand on her husband’s arm, stopping him from stepping onto the elevator with us. She glanced down at the chips all around our feet and then looked up. “I think we’ll just take the next one. You kids go on ahead.” She winked at us and shushed her husband when he started to complain.

  The doors closed and Mack came after me without a second’s delay. I welcomed him with open arms and open legs. As open as they could be, anyway, in the damn tight dress I’d been forced to wear. It was like a straightjacket when all I wan
ted to do was jump up and wrap my legs around him.

  “What are we doing?” I said against his mouth. It was a stupid question, we both knew it. My mind was spinning and my hormones were raging. I needed him inside me, and I needed him there now. I’d never been so turned-on in my entire life. If Candice and Kelly were in our room, I’d just have to find a supply closet somewhere.

  “Feels like we’re about to have some fun,” he said, not a trace of amusement in his voice. “I’m willing if you’re willing.” The elevator jerked slightly as it began traveling up again.

  I pulled back, staring him in the eye, blinking to make the fuzziness go away. “I’m definitely willing. Definitely, totally willing.”

  We kissed again, and when he moved his hands down my back this time, he didn’t stop at my rear end. He kept on going until he reached my thigh while simultaneously pushing me back against the wall of the elevator. Once he lifted my leg, my hot center was angled up to fully appreciate the hardness that he once again pushed against me. I wrapped my ankle around the back of his hips, moaning as I moved up and down, rubbing against him in a rhythm that I had no control over. Our mouths moved in perfect unison while my hips swiveled, bringing him closer with each thrust. My skirt was up around my waist, and my red lace underwear were soaked through when the elevator bell dinged again.

  He dropped my leg and slid his hands down the sides of my hips and thighs, putting my skirt back to where it should have been when in public. He gathered up the chips and the shoes and stepped out into the hallway, pulling me with him. I tripped, getting tangled up in my own feet, but he caught me using his body and one arm. His hand holding the shoes dropped casually to my waist once I was upright again. “Which way?” he asked, squinting at the signs on the wall.

  “Room two-zero-one-four,” I said, sounding like a complete drunkard. I did some quick mouth exercises, trying to limber my jaw up so I could talk like the educated woman I am.