Trey smiled and held out his hands. “Have at it, Angel. I’m all yours.”
CHAPTER NINE
Grinning like a woman who was holding onto a naughty little secret, Angel reached out to tug the cotton t-shirt free from beneath the waistband of his jeans. As her hands smoothed up his bare chest, she leaned forward to whisper against his ear, “I’ll try to be gentle.”
He laughed, loving this sexy, playful side of her. “Don’t try too hard.”
A mischievous twinkle lit her eyes as she worked his shirt further upward.
He raised his arms as she dragged the shirt off over his head, tossing it aside. Then he kicked off his shoes and reached for the fly of his pants.
But hands, definitely not his own, were already there working the button free on his jeans. The rasping of his zipper drew his gaze downward.
She smiled up at him, the glint in her eyes promising even better things to come.
Trey watched Angel’s slender fingers work the faded denim down his hips. Then she took him completely by surprise by shimmying downward as she slid his pants down his thighs. The warmth of her breath teased him through the straining cotton of his briefs as she tugged the jeans free off his feet.
Trey dropped his head back with a groan.
Angel’s hands stilled. “Am I being too rough?”
Rough he might have been able to take. It was the look in those dark brown eyes as she removed his clothes one by one, the intentional sweeps of her hands over his flesh, the growing urgency of her actions that had him wanting to toss her down on the bed and make passionate love to her.
He opened his eyes to look down at her. “I think I can handle it.” He hoped like hell he could.
The thought had barely settled in his mind when Angel stood, her hands going to the straining waistband of his briefs. She dragged them carefully, and with agonizing slowness down over his awaiting arousal, her fingertips brushing against his straining flesh.
He swallowed a curse as desire shot through him. Angel’s little walk on the wild side was going to kill him.
The moment his briefs hit the floor, he moved to undress her, but Angel stopped him.
“Not this time,” she said, pushing his hands away.
She was kidding him, right? He was standing there buck naked and she intended to keep her clothes on? “It’s going to be kind of hard making love to you with your clothes on.”
“They won’t be on when we make love,” she assured him with a sexy smile.
“Had me worried there for a minute.”
She reached up to stroke his cheek. “No need to worry, Trey. I plan to be every bit as naked as you are, but first I’m going to tie you up. Then I’m going to undress for you while you watch.”
Erection lift off! Her promises had just shot him right off the sexual launch pad.
“That is, if it’s alright with you.”
What man in his right mind could resist an offer like that? He held out his hands with a grin. “Tie away.”
Instead of tying them together like he’d expected her to do, Angel pointed to the bed. “Not yet. First, you need to lie down.”
“You’re turning into a very naughty girl, Angel,” he said as he crossed the room to the bed where he stretched out, face up, across the comforter.
“I certainly hope so,” she replied as she stepped up beside the bed. Taking hold of the wrist nearest her, she began tying it to the bedpost with one of the scarves. “I read in a magazine that men like this sort of thing.”
“Some magazine,” he muttered, his voice hoarse with desire. “Remind me to buy you a lifetime subscription to it when we get home.”
Angel clicked her tongue and shook her head. “You’re not supposed to be thinking about some magazine while I’m seducing you.”
“Sorry,” he said, fighting the urge to grin. “Have I told you how damn cute you are when you’re trying to be seductive.”
She paused to look at him, a hint of disappointment on her face. “Trying?”
“Bad word choice. Succeeding in being seductive would be more appropriate at this moment,” he quickly rectified. Then with a glance at his jutting arousal, he added, “Most definitely succeeding.”
Her confident smile returned as she followed his gaze. “I guess there isn’t any bigger…I mean better proof than that.”
Damn if her gaze sweeping over his prone form didn’t arouse him even more. “Angel…”
“Almost done,” she said as she moved around the bed to secure his remaining wrist to the other post, the spiraling strands of her hair sweeping across his bare chest as she did so. “There, that’s better.”
He was completely at her mercy now. This was definitely a first for him. Being tied up by a woman with the promise of being taken advantage of. He had to admit he kind of liked it.
“Make sure you don’t make those knots too tight,” he said as he watched her fingers work the knot.”
“Shh, you’re not allowed to talk.”
He arched a brow. “Are you making these rules up as you go?”
“Maybe.” Angel gave the scarf a tug and then stepped back. “There, all done.”
He watched her round the bed to dim the lights and put on some soft music, no doubt setting the atmosphere for her seduction. She had his heart pounding with anticipation.
Angel returned to the bed with a sexy sway of her hips. “Ready for the show?”
As if proof of that wasn’t sprouting up from the center of the bed. “And then some,” he told her, his voice strained.
Angel began her little striptease.
A moment like this had to have been the inspiration behind the invention of air-conditioning. He was sure of it. Only the one in their hotel suite didn’t appear to be working. The room seemed to be growing hotter and hotter by the minute. Like a sexual sauna.
He watched as she stripped, piece by piece of her clothing away, revealing more and more of her tanned flesh.
Angel paused in the middle of her lust-provoking hip gyrations. “Am I doing this right?”
Was she doing it right? He groaned. How could she doubt it? His cock was literally dancing along with her. “Angel, if you were doing it any more right, I would self-combust.”
Tossing the last of her clothes aside, she moved toward him. “We can’t let that happen. Because if it did, then I wouldn’t be able to do this…”
Trey closed his eyes with a low moan as she joined him on the bed and lowered herself onto his erection. He might just go up into flames yet.
Angel’s hips began their dance of seduction once more, this time with their bodies joined.
“I need to touch you,” he said hoarsely, tugging at the scarves that bound him.
She needed that, too. Desperately.
Angie stopped moving and leaned forward to free his wrist from its binding. The knot wouldn’t budge. She worked at it harder. Nothing.
“Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh?” Trey repeated as he looked up at her. “I’m not so sure I like the sound of that.”
“I’m just having a little trouble with the knot on this one. Here, let me get the other wrist,” she said, tamping down her panic.
His blue eyes pinned hers. “Are you telling me you can’t get the knot undone?”
She tossed her head to get the hair from her face as she straddled him. “I’m sure I can get it undone. It’s just going to take a little more work.”
“Okay, not a problem,” he said calmly. “Just undo the other one and then I’ll get that one untied.”
“Trey, I’m really sorry,” she said with a frown. “So much for my seducing you.”
“You’ve done one hell of a job so far,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Don’t stress over one little knot.”
She nodded and went to work on the other bound wrist.
That reassuring smile Trey was giving her melted away like ice on a hot summer day as she tugged and pulled at the other knot.
“Angel?”
“Damn.”
“Oh, hell.” He squirmed, tugging at his wrists.
“That’s only making the knots tighter,” she told him as if he didn’t already know that.
Much to her surprise, Trey dropped his head back onto the pillow with a chuckle. “Oh, Angel…”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I suppose I should be thankful the fire alarms aren’t going off in the hotel right now. I wouldn’t get too far.”
“What do we do?”
“I’d suggest cutting them, but I left my pocket knife at home. The airline doesn’t take too kindly to passengers carrying weapons.”
She lifted away from him with a frustrated groan and then climbed off the bed. Hot, wild sex would be momentarily delayed until she found a way to fix the situation. She hurried to dress.
Trey raised his head to look at her. “What are you doing?”
“I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” he asked, his voice sounding a lot less calm than it had only moments before.
“I’m going downstairs to see if I can borrow a pair of scissors from the reservation desk.” Angie slipped on a pair of sandals and made her way toward the door.
“You aren’t really going to leave me here like this,” he called out to her.
“Consider this sort of a sexual intermission,” she replied with an apologetic smile.
“A what?”
“Halftime.”
“Angel, this isn’t a football game. And you can’t just leave me tied to the bed.”
She had no choice. Grabbing the Do Not Disturb tag from the door handle, she waved it in the air for him to see. “Don’t worry. You’ll be safe.” She hung it on the door knob outside then took one last visual sweep of Trey’s hard, lean form, still fully aroused. “Just hold that thought.”
“Angel!” he exclaimed as she let herself out. Threats of paybacks followed her from the room.
The door clicked shut behind his departing captor. Trey dropped his head back down onto the pillow. While he liked the excitement Angel added to his life, this kind he could do without.
He did a quick perusal of the silk scarves that bound him to the bed. TV’s MacGyver would get out of this situation by using a twisty tie or paper clip. But this was real life, and the only thing he had right now was an erection. He highly doubted it would be of much use in getting him free. His only choice was to sit tight, or in his case lay tight, and wait for Angel to return.
A few minutes after Angel left, the door knob jiggled. He heaved a sigh of relief. “That was fast. What did you do? Take the express elevator?”
The gasp that followed wasn’t Angel’s.
His head shot up off the pillow. There, standing in the entryway, was one of the hotel’s housekeeping staff. The woman’s face was as white as the clean sheets she held clutched against her uniform.
“Oh, shit.”
Somehow he managed a smile, trying to appear as calm as he could for a man who was tied stark naked to a hotel bed, erection deflating at warp speed.
“This isn’t what it looks like.” What the hell he meant by that he had no idea. It was exactly what it looked like. But he had to say something.
The woman dropped the bundle of sheets and moved toward him, pointing the feather duster she held in her other hand at his now flagging erection. She ranted at him in a stream of foreign words, no doubt thinking he was some kind of maid-flashing pervert.
“Look, I can explain—”
She wasn’t listening.
Trey cringed as the woman whacked him several times with the duster. “Hey! Ouch! Damn!” Who would have guessed feathers would sting like that on bare skin?
The female jail warden look-a-like went at him again, swatting at him like she was trying to exorcise the devil out of him.
“Lady, are you loco?” he hollered, having more than his fill of her feather duster. He followed that up with a frustrated growl.
The woman jumped back, her dark eyes wide, and then raced for the door.
“Don’t expect a tip!” he called after her retreating form.
With no other choice, but to wait for Angel’s return, Trey laid his head back down. He began mentally checking off all the reasons why he shouldn’t strangle Angel’s pretty little neck whenever he finally got free.
*
Angie was still smiling when she stepped off the elevator and headed for her and Trey’s suite with the borrowed scissors. This could only happen to her. At least, Trey had been a good sport about it. Not that he’d had much choice in the matter.
She dug out her room key and had just reached out to insert it into the slot when the door swung open. Angie jumped out of the way, nearly run down by a shrieking hotel maid. Then she was almost run down a second time by the woman’s cart as the housekeeper scurried away, muttering something in Spanish. She couldn’t understand a word of what the woman was saying, but it sounded bad.
The hotel door clicked shut behind her, making Angie jump again. Then the realization of what had just happened sank in. The housekeeper had been in their room!
“Trey!” she gasped as she shoved her hotel key into its designated slot, unlocking it. Then, flinging the door open, she raced into the room.
Just as she feared, Trey was still tied to the bed. And he was looking a lot less enthusiastic than he had been when she’d left. Not that she could blame him.
So much for her walk on the wild side.
She moved toward him, her gaze focused on the muscle twitching rhythmically in his jaw. “Trey, what was that woman doing in here?”
He turned to her, his expression unreadable. “I invited her.”
“You did what?”
“As if I could use the phone,” he said, rolling his eyes. “She came in because you asked her to.”
“I did no such−”
“Oh, but you did,” he said, cutting her off. “Remember hanging the Do Not Disturb sign on the door before you left to keep me safe?”
She nodded slowly, still trying to process what had happened.
“Well,” he continued, “I’m assuming you hung it backwards with the Maid Service Requested side facing out.”
Angie gasped. “Oh, no.”
“Oh, yes.”
“Damn.”
“My sentiments exactly when she walked in and found me lying here buck naked and sporting a tent post.”
Angie wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. She felt terrible for having put Trey in such an awkward position. But it was funny.
“Poor woman,” she said, giving in to the laughter.
“Poor woman? How about me? She beat me with her feather duster, calling me something I’m sure meant ‘pervert’ before running out of here.”
Angie covered her mouth with her hand to muffle her laughter.
“Glad you’re enjoying this.”
She fought to regain her composure as she stepped up to the bed. “I really am sorry.”
Slipping the scissors beneath the silk encircling his wrist, she cut him loose, then moved to free his other arm.
“Are you grinning?” he asked with a raised brow.
“I know it’s terrible of me, but it’s hard to keep a straight face when I’m picturing that woman walloping you with her feather duster.”
The last of the bindings fell away, freeing Trey’s remaining wrist. Without hesitation, he snatched the scissors from her hand and tossed them to the floor before dragging her down onto the mattress with him.
Angie let out a shriek.
He rolled over, effectively pinning her down. “So you find it funny that I was accosted by the housekeeper?”
“Maybe a little.” She couldn’t lie. Her smile would only give it away. “At least she wasn’t sweeping. You should be grateful for that.”
He lowered his face to within inches of hers. “No, sweetheart, you should be grateful.”
Her pulse leapt. She was so going to love this payback.
CHAPTER TEN
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Angie looked down at the large fingers twined through hers, Trey’s fingers, and smiled. It was amazing how right the simple gesture of holding hands felt.
She and Trey blended right in with all the other love-struck couples who were out enjoying the tours that day. If only it didn’t have to end.
Her gaze drifted upward to study Trey’s expression as he sat looking out the helicopter’s window. Despite the breathtaking view outside, the only one she cared about at that moment was sitting right next to her. Her best friend. Her lover. A man who made her feel so many things. Beautiful. Sexy. Confident.
He had more than held up his end of their bargain. She was the one wavering, thanks to a heart that seemed determined to break all the rules. Falling in love with Trey wasn’t part of their agreement.
She used his distraction with the view outside to memorize every detail of his handsome face. She was tempted to run her fingers along that strong, determined jaw line and over those pleasure provoking lips.
“This is incredible,” he said.
Yes, you are.
“Angel?”
She snapped out of her thoughts to find Trey’s blue eyes now centered on her. “What?”
“The view,” he said with a smile. “It’s incredible. You have to check it out.”
Angie looked past him to the oversized window as the helicopter dipped down between the massive, cavernous walls of the Grand Canyon.
He looked out with her. “It’s a hell of a lot bigger than it looked from the plane when we flew in to Vegas.”
She leaned forward to rest her chin on his shoulder, taking in the lingering scent of his aftershave as she enjoyed the view around them.
Trey turned his head, brushing a kiss over her lips. “Thank you for talking me into doing this.”
Trey wasn’t big on flying in small planes, helicopters included, so it had taken some convincing on her part to get him up there.
She smiled softly, glad he was enjoying himself. “You’re welcome.”
“It’s definitely winnings well spent.”
Trey had insisted on paying for both of their tours that day with his slot winnings. Not only was the man hot in the bedroom, he was every bit as hot in the casinos. If he were a heavy better, Trey would have made a small fortune that week. As it was, he’d be leaving Vegas the next morning close to three thousand ahead. That is, unless they hit the casino again. Then it would probably be more than that, if Trey’s current run of luck held.
Only in Vegas Page 12
