High Stakes (Vegas Vampires #1)(37)
Author: Erin McCarthy

The whole situation was starting to piss him off. His specialty as quick, clean kills with high-caliber weapons. He’d been a sniper in the Marines, and in a manner of speaking, he had continued with the same work.

He didn’t kill with his hands, or with messy, convoluted sick shit like rope or a blunt object. He didn’t want to beat anyone with anything, exert any sort of energy, or have to resort to violence. There was no blood on Ringo’s hands, clothes, or shoes when he did his job, and half the time his victims never knew what had hit them.

If he had known Donatelli wanted something weird, he’d have said no thanks right from jump. But he’d thought an Italian businessman would appreciate a quick shooting, not go in for this mutilation crap. Ringo didn’t even know how to cut someone’s head off. He’d looked into it, and the bottom line was, it was messy as hell.

The Italian was going to have to settle for a slit to the throat, and even that didn’t thrill him. He just wasn’t comfortable putting his hands on anyone. Not that it mattered since Carrick was a no-show and come morning Ringo was either going to have to beg for another chance, run for his life, or plug Donatelli to end the situation.

Not happy choices.

"Hi!"

Fuckin’ A. Ringo studiously ignored Kelsey, even as she popped her skinny little ass into the seat next to him. He did not need this shit right now.

"Don’t you remember me?" She sounded hurt, as she tugged on his jacket sleeve.

Sitting very still, he turned his head and just looked at her. She was wearing a red dress this time, with crisscrosses under her br**sts. She wasn’t giggling, but pouting.

"I remember you with regret."

"That’s not very nice."

If she was looking for nice, she needed a better strategy than hitting on guys hugging the gambling table. "I also remember you leaving me right when things were getting interesting."

"I got scared when things went so fast," she told him with a perfectly straight face. Her fingernail was trapped between her teeth and she slouched in the seat, looking worried. "I’m really, really sorry. Do you forgive me? I shouldn’t have run out on you like that."

What was he, f**king stupid? "Yeah, let me guess. You’re a virgin and you’ve never done anything like that before." He moved his money over to the dealer to go in for the next round, and scoffed at her. "I don’t know what game you’re playing, but find another fool. I don’t make the same mistake twice."

"Me either, I promise. This time I won’t get scared, because I know what to expect."

That made no sense to him. Expect what? It wasn’t like he had a defect or a double-wide dick or anything. He wasn’t a nature show, and there weren’t that many ways to have sex standing up.

Kelsey smiled and leaned a little closer. "Tell me your name."

He blew cigarette smoke in her face. "I don’t have a name."

"Oh, come on. Pretty please, with sugar on top?"

Ringowanted to tell her to go f**k herself, since she had left him sixty seconds from sexual completion, feeling like he’d swallowed a shot glass of Demerol. Yet there was something about her the way she was so perky and naive and flat-out stupid that he found he couldn’t do it. He felt sorry for her.

Which shocked him, right down to his Italian leather sandals.It had been a helluva long time since he’d felt any emotion for anyone.

"No. Now here’s a twenty." He put a chip in her hand. "Run along like a good little girl and find someone else to talk to."

She made a distressed noise, but he turned back to the table. He noticedshe didn’t set down the money he’d given her when she stood up.

But instead of leaving, she draped herself over his shoulder. Ringo stiffened. He didn’t want her touching him. And under his jacket he carried his gun.

Ready to shove her off, or leave the table, he was shifting when she whispered in his ear, in an urgent voice, "You can’t kill him, you know."

That stopped him cold. Abandoning his money and the game, he stood up and clamped a hand onto her wrist. She sucked in an exclamation of shock and pain.

But he just held her and said quietly, "We’re going for a little walk."

Fear flashed in her eyes, but she didn’t call for help.

And when he pulled her, she came along with him, giving zero resistance, like a skinny lamb with lipstick straight to slaughter.

-at-

Ethan couldn’t believe he’d let Alexis throw her panties at Tom Jones on the stage.

But she had said she was repressed, and never did anything fun, and this was necessary to prevent her from becoming an angry, shriveled-up cat woman.

Ethan couldn’t follow the leap in logic, so he had just nodded. But now that they were heading upstairs in the elevator, he was very much aware of the fact that under her tight, low-rise jeans, she was panty-free.

He wasn’t a big fan of denim, finding the seams uncomfortable, and jeans awkward as hell to get off a woman. There was something much more satisfying about a dress dropping to the ground in a pool of satin or muslin than yanking and jerking at tight pants, but he was resigned to modern fashion.

And the thought that Alexis wasn’t wearing a stitch under that denim did things to his own jeans.Like creating a pop-up tent. "That was so much fun."

"I’m glad you enjoyed it."

"I’m sorry you were the only man there besides Tom and the bouncers." Alexis turned and put her hand on his chest. "But at least you’re the owner of the casino so it didn’t look too weird."

"I can handle looking weird." Ethan gripped her waist, determined to end the night buried deep inside Alexis. After enduring that screaming estrogen fest, he wasn’t going to settle for anything less.

"And I’m sorry I hit you in the face with my panties when I wound upto throw ." She smirked as she walked her fingers up his chest.

"I didn’t mind, trust me." Though he would have liked to have kept the scrap of satin himself, not watch it arc through the air and wind up at the feet of a geriatric sex symbol. He hadn’t been thrilled when she’d rushed into the bathroom to strip them off in the first place, but he was trying to focus on the end result, not the why.

She was naked under there, and that was the important thing.

Especially now that his hands were on her tight backside, running over those curves and dipping down between her legs.Her breath hitched and Ethan leaned down, intent on claiming those plump pink lips, when the elevator door dinged and slid open.

"Bloody hell," he said, as she darted away from him.

Alexis ran down the hall to her room, shoving the key card into the door slot. Half the time Alexis didn’t carry a purse, she just stuffed her keys and driver’s license in her pants pocket, and Ethan found that an interesting trait in a woman. Most he knew carried an entire drugstore in their handbag.