When she said “Tim,” she pointed at Craig, and at Jeremy when she pointed out “Jim.” Then she extended her hand and moved it over Jeremy’s cheek. “This is Brian,” she purred.
Leigh was looking from Billie to “Tim” (who was smiling) to Jim.
Then she surprised Jeremy again by saying: “Oh hi, guys.”
Jeremy stared as, when she turned around, the guy behind her put his hands on her waist.
Leigh was slow to react, almost as if she didn’t realize he was doing it. But then she looked alarmed.
Jeremy stepped toward her and kissed her on the mouth, leaving no doubt that he knew her very well. This college-aged kid wasn’t who he had in mind, and he was getting a little unnerved by Leigh’s reckless, off-the-rails behavior.
The guy pulled his hands away, trying to make it look like nothing had happened. Jeremy met his eye and gave him a cool stare-down until he looked away.
“Well,” he said, “we gotta go.” He rubbed his fingers through his hair. “Chris?”
Chris, who was having infinitely more luck with his girl, looked very reluctant, but he had also run his eyes over the whole scene a few times, with extra attention to Craig’s tattoos. He opted to get out of there.
“Well, uh, nice meeting you,” he said, and the two awkwardly left.
“Oh Jeremy,” Billie sighed. “You got rid of my nice new friends.” Then almost in the same breath: “Let’s go play roulette.”
Leigh slid her hand into Jeremy’s. Billie linked arms with Craig and they started toward the roulette tables. “What are you doing?” Jeremy whispered to Leigh.
Close to her, he got a taste of just how magnetic she really was. He couldn’t help letting his eyes drop to her beautiful rack, pressed up by some magical force beneath the dress and perfectly sculpted into full, spherical shapes, only the black fabric clinging to them (and barely).
“Just flirting,” Leigh said. “I thought you would like it. They came over to us.”
“I thought this was about Craig,” Jeremy said. “Not… you know, anyone off the street.”
Leigh stopped in her tracks. “Okay,” she said, almost sassily. “Sorr-y.”
Jeremy realized then that she was pretty tipsy.
“Look,” he said, and then faltered.
No, he was tipsy.
He didn’t really have any right to complain about what she had just done. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s -”
“Look, if you don’t want to do this,” Leigh started to say.
“No,” Jeremy said, squeezing her hand. “No, that isn’t it… I just… I didn’t expect that, I wasn’t ready for… I just want...”
“Keep it to Craig?” she offered.
Jeremy looked relieved.
Leigh swatted him, and she gave an exasperated sigh. “What did you think I was going to do?” she said, and while she was doing her best to indicate she was just pretending to be offended, Jeremy knew there was some truth to it. She shook her head. “I can’t believe you thought I’d just run off with some… that kid is like twenty.”
Jeremy was racking his brains for a way to save the situation. “Billie would do that,” he said.
Thankfully, Leigh laughed. “Yes, yes she would.”
They looked at each other.
“Listen,” Leigh said, and she stepped toward him, taking both hands in hers. “If you have any doubts about this, now is the time to say them.”
It was a weird, romantic moment, there on the floor with the glittering, flashing, clanging gambling scene all around them. Like in some chick flick, the whole world seemed to condense down to just the two of them. Jeremy looked at his wife’s eyes.
There wasn’t really any going back from this, he realized.
“Okay, but just Craig,” he said.
Leigh shook her head and smiled. “Got it,” she said.
She began to walk again, and had to tug on his hand to get him to follow her. She looked behind her, right at him, giving him a smile, and his stomach lurched. Even in that wild dress, even with the makeup and the hair, Leigh looked so incredibly… unspoiled, virginal almost. That was all about to change.
But he didn’t stop her. He just followed.
*
“Okay, Place your bet,” Craig said to Leigh, who was staring at the roulette table.
She shrugged. “I don’t know how,” she said. “I don’t really gamble.”
Jeremy saw that this lit Craig up from the inside. He slipped a $20 chip out of his pocket. “It’s easy,” he said, and he moved toward Leigh, his voice low and seductive. He picked up her hand and placed the chip in it, stroking the meat of her palm in a little circle as he did. “You just put the chip somewhere on this table, wherever you want to bet, and then you wait. And see what happens.”
Jeremy’s head spun while he watched the effect of all this on his wife. He could almost see the hum it stirred up inside of her: the flush of color to her skin, the flutter of her breath in the hollow of her throat, the electricity that was traveling through her and making her finest hairs stand on end. And lower, he knew: she was welling up with excitement that was soaking right into whatever lingerie she had on.
Leigh’s eyes fluttered over to Jeremy, and then seeing his approval, she looked away to the table and scanned it. “What do I bet on?” she said.
Billie, who was watching this whole scene unfold with interest while sucking something strong through a straw, gave a laugh. “Black, always,” she said. She reached out and set her chips on the table on a totally different bet.
Jeremy couldn’t tell if any of this went through Leigh’s mind, or if the innuendo meant anything to her. She turned to the table, and set her chip on the black square.
Craig smiled.
“Okay,” she said.
And then they waited. The ball dropped with a rattle and then a smooth scraping sound, Craig moved closer to Leigh – just close enough that she could feel his body against her back. His thighs close to hers, his chest, hard as a rock, against her upper back, but only barely.
Click.
The wheel created delirium for a moment, as the ball came to rest in the pocket for 28, black, and the effect of it stopping made the wheel appear to spin in another direction. Sighs of disappointment were drowned by cheers, overall Billie, who had placed a bet on the third twelve.
Billie tossed back her drink and rubbed her hands together. “I always win so much money at this game,” she said. “I love it.”
Craig shrugged. “You lose so much money at this game, too.”
Billie smiled as the croupier removed the dolly and she collected her winnings. “I only lose when I play with your money,” she purred.
Leigh gingerly collected her winnings. “Wow,” she said, twisting the chip in her fingers.
“Play again,” Billie said, scoping out her next bet.
Leigh looked at Craig, holding the two chips in her fingers as if to ask for permission.
Jeremy felt a burning sensation creep through his abdomen as his wife turned to Craig with that familiar expression, the one that always belonged only to him.
Craig smiled. “Go ahead,” he said.
Leigh looked uncertain. “What if I lose?”
Craig shrugged. “It’s just money. Anyway Billie’s losing so much of it you can’t possibly compete.”
“I’m up like $900,” Billie protested.
Jeremy saw Leigh suck her breath in a little at the – for her, for them – staggering sum.
Craig reached for her hand, and took the chips. As he did this, he leaned very close to her, and caught her eyes in his serious, commanding gaze. His lips were very close to hers. “Red or black?” he said, and to Jeremy it seemed that he moved his lips a little closer to hers.
The man was seductive as hell.
Jeremy knew his wife could almost feel his lips forming the question, taste his breath on her skin. She dropped her eyes. “Um… black again.”
“Black it is,” Jeremy said,
and placed the bet.
Then he retreated behind Leigh to watch – but this time, he slid in behind her and placed his hands on her hips.
When they won, Leigh lifted her hands and turned around, her face flush with the excitement of winning, and they almost kissed. Her breasts pressed against his shirt, and Craig’s hands moved over the shape of her hips as though they were a couple, had always been a couple.
Jeremy’s head was spinning.
“I need more drinks,” Billie said, turning around abruptly to Jeremy. Her eyes flitted over at Craig and Leigh, and she grinned as she looked at Jeremy. “Come on, let’s go and get them,” she said, linking her arm through his.
They sauntered to the bar. Jeremy wasn’t sure how he felt about Billie, and the familiar way she was putting her hands all over him. Certainly he was attracted to her, but that wasn’t his main concern right now. And he had never really talked to Leigh about how she felt about any crossing of the line on his part.
So he had the sense that he was doing something vaguely inappropriate, as strange as it may have seemed in that situation.
“Are you nervous?” she said, swinging her hair around and plopping into a high chair at the bar. “You seem nervous.”
A bartender of course came right away to attend to Billie, who leaned on the bar and intimately asked him a question about drinks she already knew everything about until she settled on a gin and tonic.
“Same,” Jeremy said, in a daze, even though it wasn’t his drink at all.
“You know that Craig filmed you the other day, right?” Billie said.
Jeremy’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Billie laughed. “It was hot,” she said, picking up a straw from a dispenser behind the counter and playing with it between her lips. She moved the straw along her lower lip, in and out of her mouth, slowly insinuating something oral and filthy with a grin. “You know women will do all kinds of things with another man that they won’t do with their husbands.”
The bartender returned with their drinks and set them on the table. Jeremy fumbled with his wallet.
Billie smiled. “We forgot all about those two,” she said, biting sensually into her lime.
Jeremy had no idea what to say. Billie’s eyes were burning through him, and she was leaning close to him on the chair, her olive skin begging him to have a tiny taste. Maybe just her shoulder, or the long neck under her brown hair. Billie seemed like the kind of girl who would like to be on top, or contorted into some impossible position…
He blinked.
Billie’s eyes dropped to his erection, and then she grinned again.
“Their drinks,” she said. “I meant, we forgot all about their drinks.”
She spun on the swivel chair and beckoned the bartender back to them, while Jeremy tried to calm his heart down.
“What am I doing?” he asked himself under his breath.
*
Craig and Leigh were still at the roulette table, betting, flirting, very close to each other. As Billie and Jeremy approached, Jeremy saw Craig slide his fingers into Leigh’s hair on one side of her head as he brought her ear close to his.
Just telling her what to bet on.
He lifted his eyes from the table and looked at Jeremy as he approached.
Jeremy’s gut twisted.
The wheel began to spin again.
“I’m winning so much money,” Leigh said breathlessly, when Jeremy stood behind her.
Her eyes were lit up and she was definitely on a high, between the alcohol, Craig, and the fact that she was winning at gambling. She didn’t look like herself.
“Black, 29,” the croupier called.
Leigh gave a low, excited shriek and turned back to the table. “Again!”
“What is she betting, only black?” Billie purred to Craig, handing him his drink.
He smiled. “Sometimes red.”
Leigh turned around with her chips in her hand.
“Maybe,” Billie purred, “we can make this bet a little more interesting.”
Leigh was quite drunk, and Jeremy only realized how much so when he looked at her reaction to Billie’s declaration. There was no mistaking what Billie was insinuating, even if she hadn’t laid out the specifics yet.
Leigh just laughed a little, and took her drink from Jeremy. She took a sip.
Jeremy was starting to feel out of control again, and his sense of it was mirrored in Leigh’s loosening up. She was far from being herself, and he wondered if it wasn’t too far for her own comfort.
But there was no time to discuss it, because Billie was already holding some chips in her hand. “What if we have a friendly wager between the four of us. If red wins, you get something you want, and if black wins, we get something we want.”
Craig’s face registered interest, but he also seemed to be used to Billie’s “ideas.”
“And what it is you want?” he said.
Leigh looked at Billie, her interest piqued as well.
Jeremy wasn’t even sure which team he was on. Who were “you” and “we” in this game?
Billie slung her arm around Leigh’s shoulders, almost as though she sensed the question and wanted to answer it. She smiled sweetly. “If we win, you have to order us a massage.”
Craig looked at Jeremy, and winked. He folded his arms, as though he were negotiating. “Do I get to watch?”
Billie shrugged. “Sure.”
This felt like a win-win to Jeremy, supposing he had sorted out the teams correctly.
“And if we win?” Craig said.
Billie put her finger to her lips. “If you win,” she teased, as if she hadn’t really thought about it, “we will… kiss each other.”
This sentence made its way through Jeremy’s body with a strange hum. He stared at Leigh, who had evidently heard Billie’s plan, but did not seem as scandalized by it as she should have been. She just flitted her eyes at Jeremy, and smiled.
Then she looked at Craig. A long, deliberate look.
Jeremy moved closer to the table to hide his erection. The croupier eyed him warily.
Craig looked at Jeremy. He raised his eyebrows. “Sounds like a good bet,” he reasoned.
Jeremy just nodded. His head was spinning. Leigh and Billie were still clinging to each other, and they now turned their attention to the table, where Billie placed a pile of chips on red.
“Wait,” he said. “I thought...”
Billie looked over at him, and her lips were tantalizingly close to his wife’s shoulder. “This is so I win either way.”
“Okay,” Jeremy said. He was pretty inebriated, and he wasn’t sure that he knew exactly what the rules of the game were, but he was pretty sure that any outcome was going to be okay with him. He set some chips on black.
The croupier called an end to bets, and Craig rubbed his hands together. “Now, this is getting interesting.”
Jeremy looked at Leigh as the ball spun in the wheel. He vaguely wondered if he shouldn’t put an end to this before she did something she’d regret later. She seemed pretty drunk.
At the same time…
He didn’t have much time to ponder it, because the ball landed on a red before he knew it. Things happened very quickly and yet in what seemed like slow motion after that: Billie turned her head, smiling. Her bare shoulders moved up, and down, in a shrug. She slid herself between Leigh and the table, and looked first at Craig, then at Jeremy.
Leigh let herself be maneuvered into position by Billie, but if she had any doubts about what was going to happen next, her face didn’t reveal them.
Jeremy stared in disbelief as their mouths moved closer to each other, and then met. Their pink tongues darted in and out of each others’ lips, in a kiss that was not just a kiss, but a filthy, wet kiss.
Billie bit on Leigh’s lower lip as she pulled away.
And that was that. They – Craig and Jeremy – had won.
Billie turned and collected her winnings, gave Jeremy another smile, and tucked some of h
er chips into her purse.
Craig was excited, and for the first time that evening Jeremy could see the bug of gambling biting at him. Up until then, he’d been pretty blasé about it.
“Okay,” Craig said. “Let’s talk serious bets.”
Billie seemed thrilled with this, and Leigh looked at him with interest. She stole a glance at Jeremy, because it was pretty evident that this was the moment, the one they wouldn’t be able to turn back from.
“Serious bets,” Billie said. She gave Jeremy a friendly smack on the shoulder. “What do we win?”
At this moment, Leigh, who had seemed to be in more of a trance than anything else, sort of slouching and spacing out, suddenly came to life.
And it was then that Jeremy realized she was not drunk – not so drunk that she couldn’t make decisions. He also saw that she had been waiting for a good moment, and thinking on it, kind of circling around the scene to see where she could jump in.
“Everyone say what they want,” she said. “And then we decide what the odds should be.”
This made Jeremy jerk his head a little. “Really?”
Craig’s lips formed a smile. “I like it.”
Billie said nothing, just twisted her straw.
Jeremy looked at Craig, looked at his wife, and then at the roulette table.
Well, he supposed he could just put his faith in fate. It was kind of better this way.
“Okay,” he said, and his heart fluttered so rapidly for a moment he thought he might keel over.
“I want to have a foursome,” Billie said, plainly, like she was ordering a smoothie.
Everyone looked at Leigh, whose face did register a certain amount of uncertainty at this thought. Her mouth opened. “I don’t… I never...”
“Hmmm,” Craig said, grinning at Billie. “What about a corner bet?”
“What’s that?” Leigh asked.
“Okay,” Billie said.
“What’s that?” Leigh repeated, and this time she looked to Jeremy for help.
Leigh Uncovered: A Wife Sharing Novel Page 17
