High Stakes (Vegas Vampires #1)(31)
Author: Erin McCarthy

The words were barely out of her mouth before she suddenly found herself hauled up against Ethan’s naked body. " Wha—"

He cut her off with a kiss—a long, juicy, hello Mr. Tongue kiss—that had her swallowing her question and clinging like shrink wrap to his chest.

"You’re turning me on, you know," he said, even as his lips trailed down her neck.

Alexis dropped her head back, the crotch of her jeans erupting with volcanic heat, her breath shallow and excited. Damn, he knew what he was doing. Years of experience, she imagined. "Was it the queen voice? That can be a turn-on."

"It wasn’t the queen voice." His tongue moved into her ear then out again, leaving her feeling warm, wet, and invaded. "I’m just having a hard time resisting you."

"It doesn’t feel like you’re being very successful at resisting me." Alexis took advantage of the moment and slapped her hands onto his buns. Oh, yeah.Hot and hard.

"I don’t suppose I am." He yanked the top of her tank down practically to her belly button.And sucked the swell of her breast.

" Mmm," she said eloquently as her knees went weak, her ni**les sprung up, and her doo-dah rolled out the welcome mat. Oh, yeah, this was working. Hot vampire kisses.

What a difference a day made, twenty-four little hours as her brain sang, so did her body, and when Ethan reached her nipple with his mouth and plucked it through her bra, she came dangerously close to levitation.

Right as his tongue made wet swirls over her sensitive nipple, his erection managed to slide right between her thighs.Perfect fit. Denim was no barrier against the hot heat of him nudging along her clitoris, and as Alexis dug her fingers into the bare flesh of his upper arms, Ethan stroked.

Once, twice, while she sucked in massive amounts of air and gave an agonizing groan of abandon. She wasn’t sure when she had suddenly morphed into go-with-the-flow girl, but he was going and she was flowing.

Until he yanked back so fast she almost landed in a heap on the floor. "Sorry," he said, running his hands through his hair.

Alexis just stared at him, her body cursing and whining and screaming for more. "Excuse me?"

"I didn’t mean to do that. I apologize for moving too quickly."

Said the man who was naked.There was a red flush to his skin.Everywhere. And he looked a bit sheepish.

Men obviously never changed. "I would think that after all these years of living, you would have figured out that no woman on earth, or any other planet for that matter, wants a man who has just kissed her to apologize. If she didn’t slap you, say no, or knee you in the nuts, and she kissed you right back, chances are she wanted it. And she doesn’t appreciate the ‘gee, sorry my hormones overtook me and made me suck face with the first available female, but now I wish it hadn’t happened’ response."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Go get dressed and take me on your damn tour," she snapped at him, annoyed that he looked genuinely puzzled.

"Brilliant idea."He did that vampire trick. There one minute, gone the next.

Lips still wet and swollen, she stuck her hands in her pockets. ‘Brilliant idea," she mocked in a low voice, glaring at the empty room. "It’d be a brilliant idea to stick my foot in your ass."

"I heard that," he called from the bedroom down the hall.

"What?" she asked, playing theinnocent.Then whispered, "Sorry? Shit. I’ll give you sorry."

Will you now?" Ethan murmured from behind her, his mouth right next to her ear. She could hear the rustle of his clothes as he leaned forward, gripping her upper arms from behind. "That sounds promising."

"Quit doing that whole faster than the speed of light thing. It irritates me." Then she gave real punch to her words by leaning right back against him, her backside bumping his front side in a fun, cheap thrill collision.

Ethan ran his lips over her temple. "Sorry for saying sorry."

"Fine.It’s all good. And maybe I’m sorry for waking you up."

"No, you’re not."

Alexis had a George Washington moment. She could not tell a lie. "You’re right. I’m not sorry in the least."

Because if she hadn’t woken him up, she wouldn’t have discovered that vampires don’t need Viagra. She had to admit that had been worrying her a bit after all those messages she had read in the vampire slayers e-mail loop.

Not that she was going to sleep with him.

But it was good to know he was fully functional, in case she did decide to sleep with him, undersexed single woman that she was.

Time to call a spade a spade.There was a reason she hadn’t alerted the vampire slayer group to her presence, or to the fact that there were hundreds of vamps in Vegas at the moment. There was also a reason she’d changed her mind and decided not to tell Ethan about the group, though her rationale behind that was much murkier. It kind of felt like she was protectinghim, or somebody anyway, and she and Ethan were clipping along nicely. She selfishly did not want to interrupt that.

The reason she didn’t date was because the men she met were shallow, patronizing, and intellectually narrow.

Ethan Carrick was the first man in almost a decade to arouse interest in her.To arouse anything in her.

His hands dropped to her waist as he nipped her earlobe. Yep, he was really good at the arousing thing. And she did want to sleep with him.

Ringostrode through the lobby of the Venetian. He didn’t like being summoned by anyone. Donatelli was no different.

He had been hired. He’d completed the job. There was no reason for further contact aside from a cash payment, but he knew that wasn’t the purpose of this meeting. He had been commanded to get himself down to Donatelli’s hotel room for a reassessment of the contract’s terms, according to the businessman’s whipping boy. Ringo was prepared to tell Donatelli to go f**k himself. He worked alone for the very reason that he didn’t want to answer to anyone. He had left that behind when he was discharged from the service and he had no intention of being forced into bootlicking. Fortunately, the hotel had zero security, because he was packing his piece.

The hit hadn’t gone the way he had planned it, but he was smart enough to take advantage of an opportunity. What he didn’t understand was what had happened in the few minutes prior to that. One minute he’d been getting it oh with Kelsey the giggler, the next he’d been standing there with his dick hanging out and a big-ass crick in his neck.Alone.

He didn’t black out forno reason.Which meant she’d slipped something into his drink. Yet she hadn’t stolen his wallet, so he had no idea what she’d been after. And he wanted to know.

But first he had to resolve this little paperwork problem.