They looked at each other, not saying anything. She imagined that, like her, he was trying to figure out what to make of their current situation. Silent, until the shadow of the waitress fell over their table.
“What can I get for you folks?” she asked them, barely looking up at them from her notepad, seemingly unaware of the tension that radiated between Jessica and Rafael.
“I’ll have a coffee,” Rafael said.
“How do you take that?”
“Black.”
“And you, hun?” She turned to Jessica.
“I’ll have tea. Something herbal, if you got it.”
“Lemon okay?”
“Sounds good.”
“Any food?”
“No.” She shot a pointed look at Rafael. “I’m not hungry.” She was, in fact, starving, but she couldn’t afford to spend any longer in his company than she needed to.
The server turned to Rafael, pen poised to take his order. “Nothing else for me, either. Thanks.”
When the waitress walked away, Jessica folded her arms and leaned across the table. “I thought you wanted breakfast.”
“Well, I don’t want to order food if you aren’t going to have any. I can’t have you seeing my food, getting jealous and stealing any of my bacon.” He said, serious, before flashing a bright smile at her.
Flabbergasted, Jessica shook her head. Rafael had her at his whim, and he sat there joking. “So, what now?” she asked him, ignoring his attempts at humor. She needed to get down to business. “Are you going tell the press? Or leak the fact that I strip online? Or just plain old blackmail me into dropping out of the mayoral race altogether?”
Rafael honestly seemed to consider his response. “That was my first thought. But, you know, it’s not really my style to go to the press. Maybe I’ve had a change of heart. I’m not a snitch. And God knows I’ve got my share of skeletons.”
“Oh, really? So, what then? What are we doing here?”
He shrugged. “Intrigue, maybe? I guess I was curious why a fairly popular city councillor and mayoral candidate has stripping as a side gig.”
“Only fairly popular? Check the latest polls, bud.”
“Polls don’t mean anything,” he said with a wave. “Up, down, whatever. The only thing that matters is election night.”
She sighed. “I’m going to ask once more—what are we doing here? It’s late, and I’m too tired for this.”
“Why do you do it? Is it the money? Councillors make a decent salary.”
The waitress reappeared with her tea and Rafael’s coffee. When she shuffled off again, they both sipped from their cups until Jessica spoke again. “It’s fun, it’s empowering and I’m good at it. And it isn’t a side gig. For a long time, stripping was my full-time job. I know I won’t be able to do it for much longer without being found out, especially not when I’m mayor.”
“You are good at it. One of the best I’ve seen.” He nodded and looked her over. His heated gaze made her breath halt. “You’re still so confident that you’re going to win? I’m also curious what the more conservative Las Vegans would think about your job when they find out?”
She said nothing, bristling at the implication, still unsure of what his plans were. “When they find out? I thought you weren’t going to tell.”
He chuckled, and the sound resonated deep within her, and she realized that she’d never heard him laugh before. Hell, she’d barely even had a conversation with him. And damn him, she was starting to like it. He took a sip of coffee and leaned closer. “Why don’t we get out of here?” he asked, his deep and dark tone told her exactly where he wanted to go with her.
She stilled. And that was it. Angry words bubbled to her mouth. She leaned across the table and pointed her finger in his face. “I’m not going to sleep with you to keep your mouth shut. You can forget that.”
He blinked quickly, and paused, as if he were trying to choose the right words. “Trust me, sweetheart, I’ve never had to resort to blackmail to get a woman into my bed. I’m not about to start now.” His eyes searched her upper body, and she felt the burn from them. “No matter how good of an idea it might be.” She remained unconvinced, and tried to stop herself from thinking about him getting her into his bed. He kept going, and she had to focus her attention to hear what he was saying. “You clearly have the wrong idea about me,” he started. “You don’t seem to like me very much.”
A shocked laugh made its way past her lips. “How fragile are you? Is that what you’re worried about? People not liking you? So what if I don’t? You’re everything I don’t like, everything that’s standing in the way of real change.”
“No, not quite.” He held up his hand, cutting her off. “I know that there are quite a few people around town who don’t like me, and I don’t care. But for some reason, I’m just concerned about you not liking me.” He paused to let it sink in. “I’m not a bad guy, Jessica, really. And even though you think you know a lot about my life and my upbringing, you really don’t. And that’s unfortunate. And seeing as how we’re spending so much time together lately, going to the same events, I think we should get to know each other.”
She rolled her eyes, used to having men propose that they get to know each other. “I’m sure you do.”
“Come on.” He smiled. “My closest friends, at least four people who aren’t blood-related, agree that I’m actually a pretty great guy.”
“And what if I already feel like I know enough about you?”
He yawned. “You know, it is pretty late. We should probably go. My flight leaves in a couple of hours.”
“Wait. We aren’t done discussing what you’re going to do with the information you plan to hold over my head.” His constant switching of gears, changing the conversation, had her experiencing whiplash.
He shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet. Maybe I’ll give you the opportunity to plead your case. Spend some time with me when we get back to Vegas. I’m sure we can talk through this.”
“I don’t have time to spend with you. I have to work.”
“Stripping or campaigning?”
She seethed. “Campaigning. I don’t strip in Vegas.”
“That’s unfortunate for Vegas.” He frowned, looking her up and down. She was grateful for the table, as it stopped his gaze from lighting the rest of her on fire.
Jessica looked across the table at him. His dark brown eyes were warm, disarming and held the slightest bit of humor. Part of her knew all she needed to know about Rafael Martinez—that he was a self-interested businessman. It wasn’t common knowledge just how deeply lined his pockets were, or just how well connected he was in the local business scene, but she’d learned enough in her time working with him to know he wasn’t what Las Vegas needed right now. But she was attracted to him, there was no denying that. Just looking at him stirred the interest between her thighs. Maybe the other part of her wanted to get to know him in a physical way. Either way, she was too exhausted to put up much of a fight. She wanted to sleep, and she would let her brain and her loins fight it out tomorrow. She blew out an impatient breath. “Fine. What do you have in mind?”
“I don’t know. How about dinner tomorrow night? A drink or two. We’ll talk.”
“We can talk now.”
He looked around the restaurant. “Nah,” he told her, shaking his head. “Let’s do it when we get back to Vegas.”
“I get it. You want the hometown advantage, hey?”
He grinned again. “Maybe you know me better than I thought.”
Her energy was flagging, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to stand up to him much longer. “Okay, fine, I’ll have dinner with you.” She could spare at least an hour, to talk to him and keep her secret life exactly that. She paused. “This sounds an awful lot like blackmail, though.” He was sipping his coffee, but his eyes smi
led at her from behind the mug. “So, how did you find out I was here?”
“I don’t know how that matters.” He shrugged. “I found you, either way.”
Unbelievable. His reluctance to tell her made her angry. “Are you not going to tell me anything? How dare you just waltz into my personal life and completely turn it upside down by holding this over my head, and then not even explain how you found out?” She watched him, noting how sure and confident he was, sitting in the booth. She rolled her eyes, put down her mug of tea and stood. She threw a twenty-dollar bill on the table for the tab—she didn’t want to owe him anything. “I don’t have time for your mind games, Rafael. I’m tired, and I just want to go back to my hotel.”
He stood after her. “Jessica, wait. I’m not letting you leave alone in a neighborhood like this.”
Feeling the rage rise from her core, she huffed out a breath. “You know, I feel safer in a neighborhood like this, than I do in your world,” she sneered, then turned away from him and headed for the door. “Where a man can just steamroll over another person, with no warning, no reason. You know what? I’m done with you. Tell people whatever you’d like.” She just wanted to get away from him.
“Jessica, wait,” he called again, and she turned in time to see him also throw a twenty on the table. At least their waitress would have a good tip. He caught up to her. “At least let me get you a cab.”
“I can get my own cab.”
He looked up and down the street, and saw the road was empty but for a lone taxi coming toward them. It stopped, and Rafael opened the back door for her. “Mind if I share? There don’t seem to be any others around.”
Jessica thought about refusing, but she looked him over in his designer jeans and her gaze snagged on that watch. Pretty boy wouldn’t last a second. No matter what she thought of him, any harm that befell him would be on her hands for leaving him there. “Whatever. Come on.” She shuffled inside the cab, but she found herself against the hard plastic of a child’s car seat that was strapped into place behind the driver, unable to move beyond the middle seat. Rafael then got in after her, firmly trapping her in her place.
* * *
Rafael was surprised by the lack of space in the back seat of the car, and the closed confines made him squeeze his body against hers so he could shut the door. His arm and thigh pressed against hers. Her skin was warm and smooth against his, and interest stirred deeply inside of him. The crackle of electricity that danced between them was like a live wire. He looked over at her, and she sat rod-straight, looking directly out the windshield, ignoring him entirely. He wondered briefly if she’d felt it, too. He shifted again, just to see, brushing her arm as he moved. He got his answer when she drew in a quick breath between her teeth, like a gasp, and she quickly shifted away from him, putting as much distance between them as she could. Which wasn’t much.
“Where to?” the cabdriver asked. Rafael looked in the mirror and saw the eyes of the driver. Jessica gave him the address of her hotel.
“And you, buddy?”
“Drop the lady off first, then we’ll worry about me,” he said, not taking the chance that the driver would drop him off first. Rafael’s protective nature pulled at him. This late at night, well, early in the morning, he wanted to make sure Jessica got to her hotel safely before he got out of the car. The driver shrugged, indifferent to Rafael’s answer, and pulled away from the curb.
They drove in the tense silence of the car, their bodies pressed together. Every time Jessica tried to shift away from him, he felt her soft skin rub against his own, and the contact caused a familiar stirring in his groin. He’d always thought she was gorgeous, but Jesus, since seeing her performance on the stage, there was no fucking doubt that he wanted her. As his dick came to life in his lap, he tried to think of anything that would dissipate his desire. Baseball, Antiques Roadshow, Monopoly, the three-hour Easter vigils his mother dragged him to as a child. Nothing worked. He coughed to clear the lump in his throat.
Jessica was facing forward, looking out the windshield of the car as they made their way to her hotel. But Rafael kept his eyes on her. He’d harbored at least one or two (dozen) fantasies about the woman beside him, most of them capturing his imagination at the duller moments during their city council meetings, or during mind-numbing political dinners and fund-raisers. She was intelligent, tough, articulate, goddamn sexy. Since campaigning had begun, she always had an opinion about something he proposed, and she was a continual thorn in his fucking side. They were political opponents, and she took potshots at him any chance she got, while he did the same. But pressed against her in the back seat of a San Francisco taxi, all he wanted to do was kiss her. But he had to stop himself; he couldn’t let on what he was feeling, and he hoped that the bulge of his stiffening dick wasn’t plainly obvious to her. He looked down at her, her features highlighted in the light of the dash. She was beautiful, soft, vulnerable. As a man who was so normally in control of his desires, he tried to fight his need. But he wasn’t sure he would win.
Perhaps feeling his eyes on her, Jessica turned her head and they locked eyes. The air between them was still charged. Jessica said nothing, but her lips parted; the movement was small, but he caught it. Before he knew he was doing, Rafael reached for her and, putting his palms on either side of her face, brought her lips to his.
She was hot, sweet, and the moment his lips hit hers, he knew she would either reciprocate, fall into his kiss, or smack him with rejection. At first, she was stiff, but when he took her bottom lip between his own, nibbling her lightly, she sighed and softened, yielding to him. She lifted her hands and fisted them in the front of his T-shirt as her lips parted with his. She tasted like lemon from the tea she’d had at the diner, and her tongue dueled with his as he tried to maintain control of the kiss.
He reached across her, unsnapped her seatbelt and pulled her into his lap, so that both of her legs draped over one of his thighs and his dick, rock hard, drove into her lush ass. The low ceiling of the car didn’t give them a lot of room, and she had to duck her head. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her fingers fisting his hair, and he kissed her harder as she lowered them, running her hands over her shoulders, down his chest. Rafael was harder than he’d ever been in his life, and he needed to be inside of her.
He knew that they were in the back of a cab, and that they had an audience in the driver, but he didn’t care, and from the way her lithe fingers made their way under his shirt, and up his chest, she didn’t, either. The hand that rested on her bare thigh skimmed upward, until he was under her skirt. Her legs parted slightly, and he took it as an invitation to go further. When his fingers hit the satin barrier of her panties, he slipped past them and, again, she offered no resistance. He about shook with desire as his fingers found her hot flesh, already slick with her need. His fingers circled her clit, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, clutching him, pulling him closer. She cried into his mouth. Oblivious to the driver in the front seat, Rafael slid one finger and then another inside of her. She gripped his fingers from the inside, and he began to slide them in and out, as the heel of his hand pressed against her clit, his movement almost made effortless by how wet she was. He imagined that it was his dick, and he groaned into her mouth. Jessica’s breathing quickened. Her every physical response, her shallow breath, the way she spread her legs wider, allowing him greater access, the small desperate sounds that she made in his mouth, told him that she was coming.
He considered taking her then and there, as his cock about threatened to burst through his jeans, and he would have, if not for the sound of a throat clearing from the front seat. The driver, requiring their attention. He pulled away from her long enough to look at the other man. “Fuck,” Rafael muttered.
“Miss, we’re at your hotel,” the driver announced, looking straight out the windshield.
“Oh, right,” she said, her voice shaking, with her impending release, and
his hand still between her legs, neither of them making any effort to move.
With one hand at the back of her head, he pulled her to him again, not letting her get away that quickly. He kissed her again. “Invite me up,” he told her, just a breath of electric air was all that separated them, his lips skimming hers with every word.
She said nothing, as he held his breath, waiting for the okay to go up with her and continue the night. But as the haze of desire cleared from her eyes, a look of shock replacing it, she gave him a soft “no” and pushed herself from his lap. “I can’t.”
His need for her numbed the surprise he felt by her refusal. Most women didn’t refuse him, especially after he made them feel the way he just had. But Jessica was different. She disengaged from him, taking her seat next to him. He immediately missed her heat, her slight weight against his dick. And they both remembered that because of the car seat that blocked the door nearest her, he had to get out to release her. “Move, please,” she said, her breath still heavy and matching his own.
He could have remained seated, insist again that they spend the night together. But she was right, and he knew it. They couldn’t. They shouldn’t. So, he nodded and got out of the car, adjusting the near-painful erection that threatened the integrity of his jeans zipper. She stood and opened her purse and withdrew her wallet.
“I’ve got the taxi,” he said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“I pay for my own ride,” she told him, putting some money on the back seat of the car, and before he could insist she take it back, she was already halfway to the hotel door. Rafael got back into the cab and blew out a breath. Jessica might pay for her own ride, but he knew that he would pay dearly for it, as well.
Sins of the Flesh Page 3
