“15, for your birthday,” she whispered, looking at him for the first time. “And black… like your hair.” She laughed, but it quickly died down when he didn’t join her. “Or maybe your heart?”
Jack cracked a tiny smile, holding her tight around the waist as the dealer stood tall.
“No more bets.” The dealer plucked the white ball that would seal Nina’s fate between his fingers. He cradled his hand on the roulette wheel, and his dull blue eyes found Jack and Nina as he sent the numbered wheel into a clockwise spin, hurtling the white ball counterclockwise.
The ball blazed into a spin, so fast that it almost disappeared against the black edge of the wheel. It screamed against the wood, making a nearly unbearable sound that seemed to infiltrate both Nina and Jack at the same time. They found each other’s hands at the edge of the table, gazes moving along with the ball, their hearts racing as it began to slow down.
“Black 15,” Nina whispered. “The last four days have been setting us up for this moment, Jack. Setting us up for the good.”
Jack’s fingers intertwined with hers.
Her eyes fluttered closed. “Black 15.”
Jack’s eyes followed the ball as it slowed, more and more, second by agonizing second. Just when he was sure it was going to stop rolling and dip into a number that wasn’t black 15, it bamboozled him and kept right on spinning.
He tightened his fingers around Nina’s.
“Black 15.” He didn’t even know the words had come out of his mouth until Nina’s gaze shot to him.
He turned and held her eyes, the ball still making that awful sound as it slowed, and slowed, and slowed some more. Was it ever going to stop?
Jack realized he didn’t care as his eyes searched Nina’s. He didn’t care about anything but erasing the worry from her eyes. Even if it meant calling his friends and family right that second and having them wire him some money. He would do it for her.
He leaned down and took her bottom lip between his, moaning involuntarily. She sighed and pushed in, returning his gentle kiss. Their fingers clenched, so tight they could feel each other’s heartbeats through their palms, and the ball finally came to a halt, bouncing to an audible stop at its fated destination.
At the sound, Jack and Nina broke apart, eyes flying back to the table.
“Winner,” the dealer said. “Black 15, winner.”
Their eyes widened, mouths dropped, and as the dealer set to work matching Nina’s red chip thirty-five times over, both she and Jack broke into screams, their celebration so loud that it stole the attention of every eye in the casino. Even dealers from other games jolted at the unexpected shrieks, pausing their own games to gaze over curiously as Nina leaped into Jack’s arms.
Jack caught her with ease, his screams turning to laughter when she locked her arms around his neck, hiding her own hollering, tear-filled face in his neck.
“Holy shit!” Jack’s wide eyes went back to the dealer, who was now smiling at them with a shake of his head. “You just won thirty-five thousand—”
“Thousand dollars!” Nina pulled back and clapped her hands on his shoulders, shaking him. “Thirty-five thousand dollars, Jack! Who’s the karmic curse now, huh? Huh?”
“Holy shit, Nina, you’re the craziest person I’ve ever met.”
Their lips met, bringing them both into a laughing embrace as the dealer slid her winnings across the table. They didn’t even acknowledge it; too busy deepening their kiss with gentle tilts of their heads.
Nina locked her arms around him, and when their lips separated, smacking gently, she let her eyes flutter shut, pressing her forehead to his.
“I guess you’re my good luck charm.” She pushed her fingers into his hair.
“I don’t want to go home,” Jack whispered.
She shook her head.
“We have weeks until your trial, right?” His voice trembled. And air traffic control is on strike, anyway.”
She opened her eyes and searched his.
“Let’s go out.” He exhaled. “Tonight. On a date.”
She smiled, shaking his shoulders again. “Was that so hard? If only you’d asked me out the very first second you wanted to, we’d have saved ourselves a lot of pent-up frustration.”
He ran the tip of his nose along hers. “And when exactly do you think I first wanted to ask you out?”
“You wanted me from the second you saw me. Just like I wanted you from the second I saw you.”
“So, yes?”
“Yeah. Let’s go on a date.”
His face collapsed into a smile.
She gasped. “That’s it.”
His smile fell, and his eyebrows pulled.
“That’s the same smile you’ve been giving Rudy all day.”
“Jesus,” he moaned.
“You just gave me that Rudy Kalveeno fangirl smile. I never thought this moment would come.” She craned her neck away, glaring at him. “I gotta tell you, Jack, if you’re only asking me out because you think I have more heavyweight champions waiting in the wings, let me be the first to tell you… I don’t.”
“Stop talking.” Jack leaned in, but someone cleared their throat just before their lips met.
Jack and Nina’s eyes both flew toward the sound, arms still locked around each other, and they found themselves faced with a heavyset Italian man. A cigar hung from his mouth, and his dark eyes seemed locked in a permanent squint.
Nina’s gaze traveled the round man, from his flawless crocodile shoes to his perfectly tailored pinstriped suit, all the way up to his shiny black hair. The two men who flanked him had jet-black hair as well, just as undeniably Italian as the man before them. Sunglasses shaded their eyes, and their lips were locked into hard, unsmiling lines.
The round man removed the cigar from his mouth with two fingers and released the smoke from his lungs.
Nina closed her eyes when a heavy dollop of smoke hit her square in the face. Even as she sealed her lips shut, she still broke out coughing from the whiff that had snuck in through her nostrils. Soon, she was full on heaving. Her feet fell to the floor, with Jack still holding her around the waist, and she bent over, sure she was seconds from choking up a lung.
“Forgive me,” the heavyset man said, handing his cigar to one of the men behind him. He tried to wave the smoke away.
“That’s okay.” Nina held up a hand. “I’m fine.” The moment she told that lie, she fell into another rift of coughs, so powerful Jack had no other choice but to clap her on the back several times. “I’m good.” Nina stood tall again, eyes red and jaws tight as she fought to maintain control, pushing her hands to her hips.
The heavyset man held his hands out. “What a night, huh?” he beamed, his strong Italian accent making itself known right away. “A thirty-five thousand dollar hit. What a night!”
This time, Nina’s wide red eyes weren’t a product of the cigar smoke, but of the reality that was swooping in. She felt Jack’s arm go tighter around her waist.
She clapped her hand around Jack’s waist, too. “Yeah,” she said, clearing her throat. “Pretty lucky, but trust me, we earned that hit. We’ve had the week from hell.”
“You are very beautiful.”
“Yeah, a black eye tends to do that for a girl.” Nina chortled, unable to accept the compliment when she knew she looked like hell rising. She looked at Jack and saw that his eye had also exploded to twice its size, just as big and black as hers.
The heavyset man had the grace to let her self-deprecating words blow by, and motioned to himself, flashing a smile so friendly it almost overrode his innate, menacing nature. “Any lady as beautiful as you get’s a complimentary dinner in my hotel. Any woman as beautiful as you get’s the penthouse suite in my hotel.”
“That really isn’t necessary…” Nina paused. “Wait. You own this hotel?”
The man laughed. “Step outside, sweetheart, and look to your left. Then look to your right. Every hotel you see is Mr. Flynn’s hotel, and anyone wh
o wins in my hotel is my family. You…” He motioned to her, his smile brightening. “Are family.”
“I’m really not, though…” She squinted at him. “And you really don’t have to do any of that other stuff, either. Really.”
“It’s done.” The heavyset man, who they now knew as Mr. Flynn, stepped forward and pushed an arm between her and Jack, whisking her away.
Nina looked over her shoulder and saw that Jack was just as shocked as she was that this mobster had just swept in and cock-blocked the shit out of him.
She couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her lips when, as a bewildered Jack tried to follow, Mr. Flynn’s goons elbowed him to the back. After he’d swept up their winning chips from the table, Jack followed behind, craning his neck over the goon’s broad shoulders to see her.
***
The grand chandelier in the casino lobby sparkled down, making the golden marble floors glow as the heavyset man led Nina to the concierge desk, with Jack and his goons following close behind.
The perfectly pressed concierge smiled broadly. “Good evening, Mr. Flynn.”
“Good evening, Charlene. This is Nina Grammio,” Mr. Flynn said meeting Nina’s eyes. “She’s family, and she’s going to be staying in the penthouse suite with all the trimmings. Give her whatever she needs.”
After the concierge nodded her understanding, Mr. Flynn turned to Nina and said goodbye with two kisses on her cheek. After a few more words of congratulations, he breezed away, giving Jack a much cooler farewell.
Jack watched him go, his goons straightening their pinstriped suits behind him as they strutted away.
Once Mr. Flynn had disappeared around a corner, Nina leaned deep into the concierge desk. “Is he a mob man? He isn’t going to kill us or anything; is he? I mean we only won a little over thirty grand. That’s pennies to him, right?”
The concierge laughed. She was stunningly beautiful, but her laughter was canned, like something you’d hear on a syndicated sitcom. “Mr. Flynn always strives to reward our most loyal customers.”
“But I’m not a loyal customer,” Nina said. “I literally walked in and put one chip down on the table. That’s it.”
“If Mr. Flynn says you’re family, then you’re family.”
Nina cocked an eye at the concierge, who was giving her Stepford vibes that did nothing to ease her anxiety.
“Why are you so adverse to this right now?” Jack finally jumped in, appearing next to her. “Mr. Flynn has offered us a free room with all the trimmings, and a free dinner. He did not have to do that. I think a thank you is in order, and it’s even too late for that because he’s already gone. Forgive her,” Jack said to the concierge. “She wasn’t raised right.”
Nina shot him a look.
“We’re not exactly in a position to be picky, are we?” he asked.
“Why are you acting like you couldn’t make one phone call and pay for this room your damn self?”
“Why would I, when it’s being given to us for free?”
“Mr. Flynn has also thrown in a complimentary spa treatment of your choice,” the concierge informed as she printed up their room key.
“Nina. I need a shower,” Jack begged. “And what better way to start our first date than in the penthouse suite?” He pulled his hand out of his pocket with her winning chips and presented them to her. “One that neither of us has to pay for?”
She took the chips, cocking her lip at him while shoving them into her bag. “I’ve never seen you this adamant. I guess the richest people really are the cheapest, huh?”
“A fool and his money are soon parted, doll. Rich people are rich because they don’t spend.”
The concierge’s eyes flew back and forth between them; the smile ever plastered to her face.
Nina was still hesitant. “Were you not getting the Scarface vibes that I was getting back there?”
“Of course I was,” Jack laughed. “But he’s a casino owner. He’ll do everything in his power to keep us in his casino so he can take more of our money. He’s a businessman.”
“He’s a killer,” Nina whispered, under her breath. “Did you see those two guys behind him? They were both packing.”
“He’s buttering us up because he wants us to keep gambling, but that doesn’t mean we have to. Knowing you, our luck isn’t going to last much longer, so we might as well take this room, take this dinner, have a nice night and recharge our batteries before we attempt to head home and Hurricane Nina inevitably strikes again.”
Nina exhaled. “Fine.”
***
The moment they stepped into the tall, gold plated double doors of the penthouse suite, even Jack’s mouth fell open in shock. Thirty-foot windows greeted them, giving them an unobstructed view of the Los Angeles skyline outside. White marble floors gleamed against the grand piano in the corner, nestled next to a spiral staircase that led to the second level. Set into the glass encased balcony was an infinity pool and Jacuzzi, which appeared to be spilling over the edge of the building.
The door slammed closed behind them as they nearly tiptoed in, eyes flying from left to right as they drank in the beautiful, three bedroom suite.
Splitting away from each other, Jack moved to the piano and played a few keys. Nina went to the window and drank in the view.
When they turned to each other, eyes meeting across the room, they exchanged easy smiles. Even as their smiles reddened their cheeks and their eyes fell to the floor, their gazes always found each other, again.
Jack played his fingers together as he watched her, and then he turned away, covering his jaw with his hand.
He wasn’t quick enough. She’d seen the heat on his cheeks, and how quickly it was spreading down his neck and disappearing into his button down.
Her smile bloomed.
“Why don’t you hop in the shower, give me your clothes, and I’ll call to have them dry cleaned downstairs?” he said, after the crimson deepening his skin had dissipated.
“Or…” She raised an eyebrow. “We could both take off our clothes, call dry cleaning, and enjoy a shower together.”
“Or…” The red was back, but, this time, he didn’t attempt to hide it. “We can do this the right way. Have a nice dinner. Get to know each other…”
“And by ‘get to know each other’, you mean me asking you more questions that you refuse to answer?”
“I’m not the only one of us holding back, you know. You hold back a lot, too.”
“So tonight we stop holding back?”
“We stop holding back. Yeah.”
“What changed?”
Jack hitched an eyebrow.
“What changed in four days, Aries? The first day we met, I couldn’t get half a second of solid eye contact out of you. Now you’re talking about dates. Volunteering yourself to be asked personal questions…” She gave him the corner of her eye. “I don’t know, man. Feels like a trap.”
“I don’t set traps,” Jack said. “What you see is always what you get with me.”
“So what changed in four days? What was the turning point?”
“Honestly?” His smile broadened. “Rudy Kalveeno.”
“Screw you. I’m serious Jack.”
“So am I.” He laughed.
She crossed her arms and jutted out her leg, shooting him an exasperated look.
He sobered. “Hell, what didn’t change, Nina? Four days, and I already feel like you know me better than the three hundred people still waiting for a return phone call.” He motioned to the iPhone in the back pocket of her pants.
“I might be asking you some personal questions about those three hundred people, Aries. And your success with me in bed tonight might hinge heavily on how much trouble you give me when answering.”
He licked his lips, and after gazing toward the king sized bed peeking out of the suite’s master bedroom, he re-met her eyes and shook his head. “I won’t give you any trouble.”
“So, come and get in this damn shower with me, Jack
. I got news for you. I don’t take three whole days to give in to my attraction to someone. I knew it from the moment we met, and I know it now. I want you. So, come shower with me.”
Jack took one slow step forward, then another, never breaking their gaze, not even when his cheeks grew hot again, not even when he was close enough to brush the tip of his nose against hers, the back of his fingers along her jaw. His gaze fell to her lips.
“The first date is the most important,” he said. “Because it sets the stage for what’s to come if, and when, we make it back up to the bedroom.”
“If and when?”
He ignored that, his brown eyes following the beds of his fingers as he ran them across her lips and down her chin. “Looking across the table from each other, talking about our five-year plans, our hopes and dreams, all while our eyes are filled with all the things we’d do to each other if we made it to the bedroom. Things we’d do right there at that table if we wouldn’t be arrested for indecency. Doing everything in our power to hold back until we’re finally alone and it just…” He licked his lips. “Pours out of us, uncontrollably. Hard. Fast.” He nodded. “I need that, Nina.”
Nina breathed in deep.
“So, you get the first shower.” He sat on the arm of the stark white couch, holding her gaze as he unbuttoned his shirt. “Hand me your clothes once you’re undressed, and I’ll call for a dry cleaning. Our clothes will be ready within the hour, and then we can go to dinner.”
Nina watched his arms contract as he pulled his shirt off. Even sitting on the edge of the couch, hunched over at the waist, not an inch of fat was visible on his stomach. Only rock solid abs stacked on top of each other. He trailed his fingers along those abs, all the way down to his belt buckle, and popped it open.
“You’re a tease,” Nina accused, turning away from him and shooting him a look over her shoulder. “And you’re going to pay for it.”
Jack feigned fear, covering his mouth with wide eyes before it dropped in an instant. “I’m terrified,” he deadpanned.
Lightning Strikes (The Almeida Brothers Trilogy #3) Page 17
