Alex smiled. “And you shall,” he said.
“So I’m not disqualified?” Kari asked.
“Because you have a history? No. Of course not. If I was opening a nunnery, yes, you would have a problem.” Kari laughed. “But a casino?” Alex added. “You’ll fit right in.”
Kari felt good to know that!
“Ask away.”
Kari didn’t understand. She looked at him. “Excuse me?”
“Ask me anything you wish to ask me about the contract you’re in the running for.”
“Oh! Okay. But . . . isn’t it usually the other way around? Wouldn’t you want to ask me questions?”
“I will. But I think I already know the answers. If my perception is reality, you know nothing about what the contract might entail. So ask away.”
He was right, as usual, Kari thought. And she did have some basic questions. So she jumped right in. “The contract would be for the hotel only?”
“And the casino.”
“The casino too?”
“That’s right.”
“How large a structure are we talking about? And how many rooms will be in the hotel?”
“The gaming space will be about a hundred thousand square feet.”
“Wow! Now that’s some space.”
“It’s the equivalent of roughly seventy-five average size houses.”
“Seventy-five? Okay.” Was he mad? How in the world was she and her little company going to clean anything that size? And that didn’t even include the hotel. “What about the rooms?” she asked.
“The hotel will have fifty floors, thirty-five hundred rooms, and initially, five restaurants.”
“Three thousand and five hundred rooms?” Kari asked.
Alex smiled. “That’s right.”
Kari nodded.
“How many maids do you have on your books now?” Alex asked.
Kari had to smile herself. “Twelve,” she said. “Which, I don’t know, Alex, I’m going to go out on a limb and say probably won’t be enough.”
Alex laughed. He laughed with a booming laugh. “Twelve maids to clean thirty-five hundred rooms? They will each have to clean around two-hundred and ninety rooms per day.”
“That’s all?” Kari asked jokingly. “Whew. I was thinking it would be three hundred rooms per day.”
Alex laughed again. He really liked this lady! But would she give in? Would she realize it was too overwhelming and throw in the towel? Her reaction, Alex felt, would tell him a lot. “So,” he said, “what do you think? Too hot to handle for your little company?”
“For my company as it’s currently situated, yes,” Kari said. “But if you give me that contract, I can guarantee you that I’ll be fully staffed and ready to go when that hotel and casino opens. I’ll need to hire three or four hundred more maids,” she said with a laugh, “but I’ll hire them. I’ll be ready, and they’ll be ready.”
Alex was pleased. She didn’t fold under pressure. She saw the challenge, and was willing to take it head on. That didn’t mean she would ultimately get it, but it did mean she was on the right track. “That’s good to know,” he said.
And that was all he said about it.
But that was enough for Kari. He knew she was interested. He knew she was willing to do what she had to do to make it work. But would her past knock her out of contention? He claimed it wouldn’t, but she never went by anybody’s words only. She had to see what they did too.
He rose to his feet. “Come with me,” he said, offering his hand.
Come where, Kari wondered. They were on a plane, after all. There were just so many places they could go!
But she took his hand, and followed him.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kari looked at the plane’s crew when Alex began escorting her to his bedroom. Some of them had the decency to look away. But others had that smug smile on their faces as if they knew all along that Alex’s bed was where she was going to be heading from the moment she boarded the plane. She felt a little self-conscious. She was nobody’s whore, and she didn’t like anybody to take her for one. But she was realistic too. Those bastards were going to think ill of her no matter what transpired on that plane. Including nothing! She, therefore, forgot about them, kept her head high, and easily followed Alex’s lead.
Alex wasn’t thinking about his crew, either. They knew to look away if he so much as glanced in their direction. But his thoughts were more on Kari. She turned him down once, and could very well do it again. He also knew that two was his limit. He never asked again if he was turned down twice. No woman, in his estimation, was worth his humiliation.
He led her, as she suspected, into his bedroom. A big, beautiful bedroom. A bedroom, Kari quickly realized, that was bigger than her own. A bedroom on a plane was bigger than her bedroom in her house? She couldn’t believe it. Did people actually live like this?
Alex did, anyway. And he was accustomed to getting what he wanted. She saw that too. And right now, at least, he wanted her. But he wasn’t a brut about it. He didn’t start removing his clothes and started implying that if she wanted that contract, she’d remove hers too.
He, instead, walked her over to the sitting room, still holding her hand, and sat her down, and then sat down beside her, on a beautiful lounger. It was built for two, and they sat side by side, reclined, with Alex’s arm around her waist. There was a big window in front of them, and from that window they could see the stars outside, and the clouds. It was so beautiful and serene to Kari, so well beyond anything she was used to, that she actually snuggled against Alex.
But when she snuggled against him, her arm accidentally landed on his midsection. And it was only then did she realize just how serious this man was. He wasn’t just a little aroused, as she suspected was the reason he brought her in the bedroom to begin with. She was a little aroused herself. But that man was fully erected! He was aroused to the point that his pants had tented. He was ready to go inside of her. She doubted if he would be able to do any foreplay at all.
But what was concerning Kari even more than that, and something she really didn’t want to admit, was the fact that she would probably be unable to resist him. She removed her arm as soon as she had touched him there; she did her part to keep her distance. But he had taken her arm and placed it right back in place. Right back on top of his erection. He began rubbing her arm, which, by extension, meant that she was rubbing his penis. And when she looked over at him, his gorgeous blue eyes were hooded.
“You have very smooth skin,” he said as he rubbed her. His voice was already whispery.
“Thank you,” Kari said, hoping hers didn’t give her away too.
“As you can tell,” he said, “we have a very pressing matter in front of us. Or have you not noticed?”
She smiled. “I’ve noticed.”
He stared into her face, and then lifted her chin up to his own face, with his hand. “You’re a very interesting young lady.”
“You aren’t exactly a pile of rocks yourself.”
Alex would have smiled, but he was too far gone. And even though he was staring at her lips, she doubted if he heard a single word that came out of her mouth.
When he slowly, painfully slowly, moved down and kissed her, Kari forgot words too. Because it felt so good. She closed her eyes, and for once in a long time, just enjoyed the moment.
Alex was already enjoying the moment. She tasted like a breath of fresh air. And he couldn’t get enough. He kissed her and kissed her until he lifted her from her seat and onto his lap, continuing to kiss her. He wrapped his big arms around her, and held her as tight as he safely could, and kissed her even harder.
Kari was wrapped up in his kiss, too. It felt as if she had been drowning, and now he was saving her with a kiss. But he didn’t stop there, and she didn’t want him to. He got bold quickly and began unzipping her little red dress. Kissing was one thing. Unzipping a dress was something completely different. They were about to get into points-of-no-retu
rn territory.
But to even Kari’s shock, she couldn’t stop him. She wanted him to take it there. And when he removed her arms out of the dress, and the top of the dress dropped down along her waist, she was thrilled rather than alarmed.
Alex lifted her bra, causing her big breasts to pour out of their cups. When he saw her nakedness, his heart pounded. A woman’s breasts were what he lived for. He loved them. And he began feasting on Kari’s.
Kari loved it, too, and raked her hands through his thick hair as he feasted. And he went on and on, squeezing and sucking the life out of them. He went on so long that her nipples were swollen. He went on so long that her breasts themselves were becoming sore. She had thought that he was too aroused to be able to perform foreplay on her, and that he would need to put it in her almost right away, which wouldn’t have been great for her. But that wasn’t the case at all. If anything, she was the one who could barely hold out. She was the one super-anxious to see what he was working with. But she also was the one who had to wait. Alex was the car. He was the driver of this ride. And he wasn’t there yet.
He got up, with Kari in his arms, and carried her to his King-sized bed. When he laid her across the bed, he didn’t undress her first, which she appreciated. He undressed himself first. When he was completely naked, and she got a chance to see, rather than just feel, his equipment, her eyes were very pleased. He was big. He put Vito to shame. Alex would be the biggest, by far, she’d ever had.
He pulled a condom from his drawer, put it on, and then finished undressing her. And then it was his time to feast. But unlike Kari, he verbalized his response. “Very nice,” he said, staring at her body. “Very nice.”
And then he knelt down, between her legs, and showed her just how nice he thought of her. He went down on her hard.
Kari hadn’t been touched down there in so long that she felt as if her innards were on fire. She was squirming around as if she was inflamed, and he kept holding her tighter, pulling her closer, licking and sucking and making her squirm more and more. And just as he had kissed her breasts, he was feasting on her vagina. By the time he finished, she was so swollen, and so red, she wondered if he was going to be able to fit.
He fit. But it was tight going. So tight that Alex almost came even before he was completely in. He’d never felt this good this soon before. Never! It was as if the mere anticipation of fucking Kari had him like some excited school boy.
And as he began doing her, as he worked his ass off doing her, both of them settled into a wonderment that had Kari feeling as if she was on a floatation device. He was a master at control, and for the longest time he was able to keep them on the verge.
Alex remained inside of her as he pushed her further on the bed, laid down on top of her, and continued to fuck her so hard that both of them were sweating with passion. He couldn’t stop. His ass kept pounding and pushing deeper into her. She didn’t want him to stop.
Until, for both of them, the feelings became unbearable.
They came. Not together. Kari came first, and then Alex went over. But when they came, it felt as if they were burning up with desire. Alex let out a loud grunt that Kari just knew the crew had to have heard, although, knowing a man like Alex, that bedroom was probably as airtight as the cockpit. And he kept pumping into her, and pumping into her, until they were both too tired to move.
When Alex finally fell off of her, it felt as if they had been in a workout, and they were both beyond drained.
It was so good, and so needed, that Kari fell asleep in Alex’s arms within minutes of their cum. It was a strange event for Alex. He had a well-known routine of removing a woman from his bed immediately after sex. He did not want to sleep with her, or hang out with her. He got what he wanted. She got what she wanted. He had his driver take her wherever she needed to go. That was his reputation, and he lived up to it without fail.
Until Kari.
She wasn’t the first woman he made love to on his plane, but she was the first one he didn’t send away to the second bedroom onboard to shower and sleep or whatever she needed to do. And with Kari, not only did he not mind her in his arms, but he held her tightly in those arms. And then, to his own shock, as if to prove how he felt about her to himself, he lifted her, pulled back the bedding, and laid her sleeping, naked body between his sheets: something he’d never done with any of his other ladies. He even got in beside her, and held her still.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Kari?”
She began to stir.
“Kari, darling?”
She opened one eye.
When she saw that it was Alex, and he was smiling and sitting on the edge of her bed, she smiled too. And opened the other eye. “Hey.”
Alex, unlike her, was fully dressed. In yet another gorgeous suit. “I’m back,” he said.
She didn’t understand. “Back?” She leaned up on her elbows. The last thing she remembered was them making love, and then him wrapping his arms around her. “Back from where?”
“My meeting.”
“Your meeting?” She was surprised. “You’ve been already?”
“Yes, sleepyhead,” Alex said, touching her small nose. “But, unfortunately, it didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped.”
Uh-oh, thought Kari. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’m going to have to stay in New York for a few days, to iron out more details.”
Kari, realizing what he had just said, quickly sat up in bed. To her surprise, she had on one of Alex’s dress shirts. It smelled like him and everything. He had apparently put it on her before he left. But did she hear him right? “You can’t go back to Apple Valley tonight?” she asked.
“No,” he said, looking genuinely disappointed. “I won’t be able to.”
“But I have to, Alex,” she said. “I can’t leave Jordan alone all night. And I have a business to run.”
“Don’t worry. You will get back tonight. Just as I promised you. The pilot is getting ready for takeoff now.”
Kari was confused. “I don’t understand. The pilot is getting ready? But I thought you said you couldn’t go back tonight.”
“I can’t. And I’m not. But you’re going back.”
“On your plane?”
Alex smiled. “Yes. Of course. How else did you think you were going to get back?”
“On a commercial airline.”
Alex was offended. No way was he sending her away like that. He’d done it before. Many times, with many different ladies before. But not with Kari.
But he had to conceal his anger. She was only viewing him as he normally was. “No,” he said calmly, “you won’t be flying commercial. My plane will take you safely back to Apple Valley. Then a car will take you home.”
“But what about you? How are you going to get back if I have your plane?”
He smiled. She just might be the most thoughtful creature he’d ever met. “It will return to New York as soon as it drops you off.”
But that sounded like such an enormous expense to Kari. But she didn’t voice it. She realized it was probably no big deal at all to Alex. He probably treated all his ladies this way. “Okay,” she said. “And thank you.”
“No need to thank me. I invited you along, remember?”
Kari smiled. A part of her wanted Alex to tell her that her sex was so good that he was foregoing protocol and offering her that contract with no consideration to her competition. Then she felt terrible for thinking it. It would be as if she slept her way to the top, and she wasn’t about to do that.
He pulled out his cellphone, pulled up the relevant screen, and handed it to her. “Give me your number,” he said.
“Give me yours, too,” Kari said, as she absently handed him her phone that sat on his beside stand. Then she realized who she was talking to. Did he even give out his number? “That is, if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t mind at all,” Alex said as he took her phone and typed in his personal number. “It is not for pub
lic consumption, however,” he told her.
Kari had enough sense to know that already, so she didn’t respond.
When they returned their phones to each other, Alex stood up, leaned down, and kissed her forehead.
But then he thought about earlier, and how wonderful he felt inside of her, and couldn’t resist. He kissed her on the lips for a long, passionate kiss. And when he stopped kissing her, and looked into her honest, beautiful, soulful eyes, he couldn’t just walk away. He removed the shirt he had placed on her earlier, dropped his own pants, and entered her once again.
They fucked on that bed for another half-hour. He was on top, Kari’s legs were wrapped around his back, and they were going at it harder than they had before.
Alex felt as if he was high on some drug as he fucked her. He had never felt so beyond himself before. And it wasn’t because Kari was some expert seductress. She wasn’t. She wasn’t, he would say, given his experience with the best of them, a seductress at all. But what was between Kari’s legs gave him a feeling he had never felt with any other woman before. It was a feeling he knew he was going to crave long after their hookup. It was, in many ways, worse than most drugs: one hit, and he was already addicted.
Kari was feeling the addiction, too. Her body was rocking with every stroke and gyration Alex made inside of her. She was drunk on how he made her feel. He was so big and thick that she felt an explosiveness inside of her. Yet he was so tender, too, that she felt a sense of ease, and security, and safety when he was inside of her. Kari had never felt this way before. Even beyond sex, when she was just around him period, were new feelings for her as well.
And when they came this time, they came together. Totally in sync. It was a coupling that made them feel as if they were a couple already: something neither one of them had bargained for. But that was the feeling.
And that was the reason, after he had poured out the last of his juice deep inside of her, Alex stared into her eyes, and could not look away. He wasn’t looking for love. He wasn’t even looking for sex when he met Kari. But he found something. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was something special and new and exciting, too. But because it was so new, and so exciting, and so different, it was a little alarming too.
Alex Drakos: His Forbidden Love Page 11
