At Any Price

by Theresa Leigh

  "Here," he said, reaching into his wallet and pulling out a twenty and pressed it into my hand.

  I looked at where it lay in my palm like I had never seen money before. "What do I do with it?" I asked.

  "You know how to play cards?" he asked.

  "Nope." I shook my head. Embarrassment was starting to crawl in heated fingers across my cheeks. This was way out of my league. I had no clue, what was I thinking? This wasn't my world. This wasn't where I belonged. These weren't my people. And Jameson, he was definitely on a different plane from me.

  But I refused to be ashamed about it. "No," I said, lifting my chin. "I don't know how to play cards. I'm not a gambler."

  I expected him to be irritated, but Jameson just smiled. "Okay, then just stick it in the slot machines then," he said. "It's kind of hard to screw that up."

  I turned and walked over to the nearest one. "Just stick it in there?"

  His eyes twinkled a little, and the corners of his mouth turned upward. "Yeah," he said with a mischievous grin. "Just stick it in."

  Suppressing a laugh at the middle school joke, I slid Jameson's twenty-dollar bill into the slot machine. "Now what?"

  He leaned over me. I could feel the way the heat was rising off his skin. He was so close and the millimeter of space that separated us was electrically charged. "Well now, let's see if you get lucky," he said in that same low voice as before.

  Dizzy, I jammed my finger uncomprehendingly against some of the buttons and waited to see what happened, but nothing did.

  Jameson chuckled. "Only a dollar?" he asked.

  I turned to look at him, sent off-kilter all over again by close he was. My cheek almost brushed against his. "But it's your money," I pointed out

  He shook his head. "I need to see if you really are my lucky charm," he said. Grabbing my hand, he slid it back over and changed my bet. "Now, press there," he told me.

  I rested my fingers on top of the bet button, too worried to take the next step. "I can't," I squeaked. Twenty dollars was a pack of the cheap diapers at Target. Twenty dollars was a tank of gas. Twenty dollars was a lot of money to me and here I was just... playing with it. Like this was all just a game.

  Jameson's fingers slipped over mine again. "So we do it together then?" he asked.

  I nodded, my powers of speech abandoning me. We pressed down on the button together.

  Then I jumped back, startled as the lights above the machine started whirling. Jameson was clapping his hands. "A hundred dollars?" he crowed. "Not bad sweet thing. Not bad at all.

  "Holy shit!" I gasped as I watched the numbers climb higher, announcing my win. "We won?"

  Exalted, I whirled around, and without thinking I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tight. He made a low noise, and slid his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him, so that our bodies were flush. I could feel the hardness of his chest pressing against mine, the round circles of his button-down shirt making indents in my skin as he hugged me tight.

  I pulled back to see that he was peering at me, hard. The shape of his lips was something completely new that I hadn't seen yet on his face. Not laughing, but not frowning. It was an expression wholly his own. At the corners of his eyes, the little crinkles deepened and from this close, I could see the swirl of stubble at his jaw line and smell the mingled scents of soap and warm pine rising off of him.

  I jumped back, heart pounding and it had nothing to do with the money we'd just won. I was trying to move away from him, but my feet weren't obeying my brain and somehow his arm stayed draped around my shoulder, just like it belonged there.

  "My lucky charm," he said, almost in wonder. "Ready to see what else we can do?"

  Chapter Fourteen

  Jameson

  I knew that Parker would be at the roulette tables even before he'd sent me fourteen increasingly panicked texts in a row. "We're here!" ran the gamut all the way to, "DO YOU SEE ME??? I'M WAVING RIGHT NOW!!!"

  I shook my head as I tucked my phone back into my pocket. The only deal I wanted to be making right now was negotiating with Charlie about how long I could put my face between her legs.

  But then again, she was my good luck charm. And I was never one to avoid mixing business with pleasure. So after printing our voucher from the slot machine, I led her over to the roulette tables with a strange mix of dread and excitement.

  She must have been feeling something similar. Because she stopped midway back to the tables and flagged down a circulating cocktail waitress. "Thanks," she said as she grabbed a glass of wine off her tray.

  "Good idea," I nodded, grabbing one for myself. "Cheers!"

  Charlie grinned and clinked glassed with me, then proceeded to knock the whole glass back like a shot.

  "What?" she asked accusingly, then slammed the glass back down on an empty tray, startling the poor waitress who was carrying it. "If I'm gonna be your good luck charm, I need to be relaxed."

  "True," I nodded. "And you're gonna need another one," I said, gesturing to the table two places over from us. "Because Parker just spotted us."

  "Yay," she deadpanned, and then grabbed another glass. "What? I'll sip it."

  "No judgment here," I muttered as I led her over to the table. The sooner we dispensed with the business shit, the sooner I could get her out of here. In the back of my head I was acutely aware of my return flight, the seconds I had left with Charlie ticking down like the seconds left on a bomb set to detonate. I kept having this feeling that I was going to ruin everything without even meaning to.

  "Hey!" Parker bellowed, sliding from his chair and leaping to his feet. "There he is! Jameson Tellar, man, I thought you'd gotten lost, haha!" He actually said the word haha instead of laughing and looked around really quickly to see who was listening to his joke. "I was ready to send out the dogs, haha!"

  I sniffed as he took my hand and pumped it up and down. He was red-faced and sweating already. The guy never could hold his liquor, not even back in our frat days. And underneath that boozy bravado, I could almost smell the fear that hung around him and I knew I was the cause. I'd been late and incommunicado. He thought he'd blown the deal.

  This was going to be even easier than I'd thought.

  "Parker Henley? You remember Charlotte..."

  "Charlie," she interrupted, glaring at me. "Charlie Kendall." She reached out her hand to shake Parker's. If she looked a little disgusted when he turned her palm over and kissed it, she hid it well, and I was too triumphant over learning her last name to make a comment about it.

  "Oh, course I do," Parker said smoothly. "You were the waitress, right?"

  I opened my mouth to correct him.

  But I needn't have bothered.

  "Your waitress was Gina," Charlie said icily. "She was the one who brought you your food and drinks. My name is Charlie and I am the front-end manager and expediter at Indigo. Gina your waitress? She reports to me."

  Parker looked a little dazed for a moment. "Oh, I thought..."

  "I know what you thought," Charlie said with a breezy wave of her hand. "I'd say it's an easy mistake to make. But, it's really not."

  Parker looked even more red-faced and sweaty than before. I was really starting to enjoy this girl.

  "Place your bets!" the croupier called.

  I turned away from Parker, letting him sweat it out a bit longer while I focused my attention on Charlie. "Red or black?" I asked her.

  She stood there, wavering slightly back-and-forth, her tongue poking adorably through her pretty, wine-stained lips. "Oh God," she groaned. "This is too much pressure."

  "You want to flip a coin?" I asked her, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my lucky quarter.

  "Sure," she said, watching me carefully. "Go ahead."

  I put my thumb underneath the worn base. "You pick. But don't say anything until I catch it."

  She wrinkled her nose and nodded. "Got it."

  I flicked my thumb upward sending it spiraling in a perfect arc. As it fell back down, snatc
hed it out of the air and slapped down onto the back my hand, then looked at her.

  "Heads is red," she said. "Tails is black."

  I slid my hand back and smiled. "Heads it is," I told her, letting my eyes sweep up and down her body. "And since my lucky charm is wearing a red dress, it must be a good sign." I turned back to the table and put my money down. "Put it on red," I instructed the croupier. He nodded. And Charlie reached over and grabbed my arm as he spun the wheel.

  "Red wins!"

  She let out a squeal, clapping and grabbing my arm tightly. The rush I felt when her breast pressed against my arm was nothing like the rush of winning. It was better.

  On impulse, I turned and pressed my lips to hers, going with my gut.

  She froze, and her eyes blinked up at me, but her lips parted eagerly and when her tongue met mine I couldn't help the noise that rumbled up from my throat. I could taste the wine on her lips and hear the sweetness of her gasp as I pulled her close to me. "You really are my lucky charm," I breathed, moving my lips down her neck.

  I could feel her pulse under my lips. If it was beating this fast just from me kissing her, how fast would it throb when I was fucking her?

  She inhaled sharply and pulled back, and suddenly I remembered that we were on a crowded casino floor and the whole table was watching. "What happens now?" she asked, and I loved how pink her cheeks were.

  I tucked to strand of coiled gold behind her ear. "We let it ride," I told her, and she must have heard the double meaning in my voice because the pink in her cheeks deepened to almost the same shade of red as her dress.

  I nodded to the croupier who played red again.

  I pretty much knew we'd win again. We were on a roll, both of us, and I could feel that electric surge that comes when you know your luck is holding. When you're in the zone. Charlie clapped, laughing loudly in shock, but I was as calm as anything. She pressed her hands to her mouth biting her nails. Hungrily, I reached up and pulled her hand away. "Should we let it ride again?" I asked her.

  She winced. "I don't know..."

  "Go with your gut."

  She thought for a moment and then shook her head, causing her curls to tumble about her face. "Play something else," she suddenly said urgently.

  It only took a moment for me to realize. "Thirty," I said, nodding to the croupier. "For her son's birthday." She gaped at me. "What?" I asked. "You told me he was a good luck charm too."

  "I said he was my good luck charm."

  I shrugged. "Then he's mine too," I told her bluntly.

  I didn't have a single clue why it was so easy for me to say these things. I didn't like kids, and I didn't like making declarations that sounded like promises. I'd been an Army brat since I was born, shuffling from town to town whenever my Dad was reassigned. I didn't promise anything to anyone because I knew that I couldn't trust that I'd wake up in the same place the next morning. Putting down roots only meant it hurt worse when you were yanked away.

  "Holy shit," Charlie breathed as the little silver ball nestled down into the thirty like it belonged there. "How...?"

  Then she whirled to me, eyes shining. I saw something flicker across her face — maybe it was disbelief — and it struck me that Charlie and I were both playing an elaborate game of pretend tonight. She was pretending she was a carefree single girl out on the town, and I was pretending I wasn't leaving in less than eight hours.

  "You're insane," she exhaled. She leaned forward and I caught her up in my arms. We might only be playing a game here, but I always played to win.

  And all at once I was kissing her again, pulling her flush against my body, devouring her hungry mouth with no regard to the people around the table. My ears were filled with the sound of her breath, and the whooping and laughing of the people at the table. And somewhere in the background, buzzing as inconsequentially as a fly, came Parker's nervous laughter. "I guess you're enjoying yourselves huh? So we can uh...go over the paperwork later, right Jameson?"

  Chapter Fifteen

  Charlie

  As I melted into his chest, I realized how long it had been since I was last kissed.

  Too long.

  I might be somebody's mother, but dammit I was still young too. As much as I tried to pretend I was done with these wild days, I was still that same girl chasing down the unbelievable high that came from connecting with a stranger. I'd spent years before Malcolm chasing that high, searching through the wreckage of the bar scene for that perfect moment with the perfect person when everything seemed to click.

  And holy fuck I had never clicked this hard with anyone. I was clicking so hard it sounded like thunder in my ears and all at once I was laughing because it was almost ridiculous to feel this free.

  I laughed as he was leading me through some long corridor, away from the lights and sounds of the casino floor. Rushing away from the prying eyes of Parker and the rest of the businessmen like he knew exactly where to take me and I let him because it had been way too long since I'd felt like this.

  Laughing with me, he pushed through some nondescript door and suddenly we burst out into the cool night air. I'd gotten all turned around inside the maze of hallways and blinked for a moment before I realized we'd come out in the back loading area somewhere. The lights in the parking lot gleamed overhead, but the hulk of the building kept us in shadow.

  Jameson turned around and yanked me back to him. "Now," he growled with his lips against my throat. "Where was I?"

  The feeling of his mouth on my skin, sucking a line of kisses along my neck before he nipped at my earlobe had me nearly fainting with pleasure. I felt hot and tight, a piece of overripe fruit desperate to be plucked from the vine before she explodes. Hardly able to control myself, I flung myself against his body, desperate to feel every part of him that I could, as if somehow, I could make up for three long years of deprivation in one rushed moment.

  But instead of being overwhelmed by my sudden assault, he growled eagerly in the back of his throat, stepping forward, backing me up until I was pinned against the outer wall of the casino, his chest pressed up against mine as he braced and lifted me up in his arms.

  Gasping with disbelief at my own wantonness, I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him tighter, all the while his mouth claimed mine, hot and hungry, the kind of kiss that burned through me like a wildfire, leaving me breathless and gasping.

  "Fuck," he growled, his lips moving against my mouth and then down my jaw, pressing his lips to the place on my throat where my pulse beat like a hummingbird's wings before pushing the strap of my dress to the side and kissing a line down my shoulder to the top of my breasts. I squirmed against him, feeling the heat pooling between my thighs, and as I did, my skirt hitched higher.

  Jameson pulled back. Pressing his forehead against mine, he whispered something utterly profane before snaking his hands up underneath my dress. "I want to see you," he whispered, ragged and hoarse.

  But we were in the shadows, and there was nothing for me to see, only feel and hear and taste and smell. I heard my own heartbeat, thudding loudly in my ears as he pushed my panties aside, and I heard my own low groan, the whispered hurried ‘yes’ as his fingers found my center drawing up through the slick heat. I was so wet already, my body was like a river after the spring rains, finally flush and overflowing after being frozen for so long.

  "Touch me," I said and he growled his assent, and when his finger slipped inside of me I nearly blacked out.

  "Holy..." He didn't finish his sentence, only pressed himself against me harder, squeezing the breath from my lungs as he began to move his finger, swirling his thumb around my eager clit, his hips undulating in the same rhythm as his hands.

  "Oh my God," I whispered, gritting my teeth. The white-hot heat coiled around my spine, poised and ready.

  I couldn't see him, so I closed my eyes and gave myself over to the skill in his fingers. From somewhere outside of myself I could hear the noise going on around us, the clack of high heels across the pavement of th
e parking lot, the sounds of muffled laughter from inside of the casino, but there was nothing else in the world here in the shadows. It was like we were in our own little corner of the universe, unseen, and unnoticed. I felt like I was invisible, weightless, floating silently until suddenly I was flying.

  "Oh my God!" I shrieked into his neck, biting down on his skin to muffle my cries. His own growl was low, vibrating through me like the shockwave that was overcoming me, and I could feel the press of his length, sliding against my thigh as I arched into him again and again, riding out the waves of pleasure that coursed through me.

  "Shit," he repeated, breathless and ragged. I could hear the strain in his voice, and feel the trembling in his muscles, and my God it was the sexiest thing I've ever felt to feel how hard it was for him to hold back. And suddenly I didn't want to. I turned my lips to his ear. "Fuck me," I whispered.

  I felt him turn his head, catching his lips against the corner of my mouth. "You sure?" he asked, his voice tight.

  I hesitated, biting my lip for a moment. This was crazy. What we were doing here? This was like the old me, the wild free woman who had no consequences until, suddenly there was a consequence. I was acting like a child again, foolish and dangerous.

  But it made it all the more delicious to know exactly all the things that could go wrong. I didn't feel immortal anymore, I knew that bad things could happen, but I didn't care. Because this wasn't bad, right? What I was doing right now? There was nothing wrong with having a little fun, and I was grown up enough to accept whatever happened afterward.

  I could feel myself nodding as I convinced myself because my brain took no time at all to catch up with where my body already was. "Fuck me," I whispered again, catching his earlobe between my teeth and nipping down.

  He hissed a sharp inhale, and then a low chuckle rumbled up from his throat.

  "Holy—" he breathed again. "I think I'm the lucky one."