Sucker Bet (Vegas Vampires #4)(24)
Author: Erin McCarthy

"Are you honestly just going to leave without even mentioning that we had hot sex last night?"

Nate came to an abrupt stop. Gwenna’s heart was pounding as he turned around, but it was more from anger than nerves. If he just did that thing where he stared at her and didn’t speak, she was going to throw something at him. Like her sofa.

But his eyes narrowed and he said in a very low, tight voice, "You’re the one who left without a word. I figured that meant you didn’t want to discuss the fact that we had hot sex. On a massage table. Where you came three times."

Oh, my. Gwenna felt heat flare up spontaneously between her thighs. Had it only been three times? She’d been fairly certain she’d spent the whole time in a sort of continuous orgasm.

If the fact that she had left was the only thing bothering him, then she could resolve that straight away. "Sorry about that. I got a call from my sister-in-law that a friend has left her husband—a real rotten sort—and she was crying… it was a girl thing. I had to go over there and offer some comfort."

"You’re just a comforting kind of gal, aren’t you?"

"What the hell does that mean?" It almost sounded insulting.

"Nothing." Nate rubbed his head with his hand and made a sound of frustration. "You could have woken me up. I felt like a jackass waking up in that room by myself while the staff checked me out."

Yikes. The staff had found him? That must have been an eyeful. "I thought you could really use the sleep… I know you’d had a hard couple of days and it seemed important that you get some deep sleep."

He stared at her. She stared back.

Nate sighed. "Fuck."

That’s what she had in mind, but she didn’t think that’s what Nate meant.

"Gwenna. I have had a hard couple of days and I don’t have it in me to be playing guessing games. If you didn’t mean to ditch out on me, what are we doing here? What do you want from this? Just last night?"

She shook her head. It felt like they’d just got started and she was attracted to him, physically and otherwise. "No. I would like to see you again. What do you want?"

What Nate wanted was a big old tropical island far away from death with Gwenna naked on it, but seeing as that wasn’t a real likely possibility anytime soon, he gave her the simplified version of the truth. "I want you." Painfully. Immediately.

Her blue eyes widened, sparking with desire. "It’s good to hear we’re in agreement then."

Nate closed the distance between them. Gwenna was wearing the tightest stretchy pants he’d ever seen, and he loved the way they hugged her ass, and even better, the way they clung in front, outlining her sex for him. He cupped the back of her head and kissed her, hot and hard, forcing her lips open with his tongue, while his free hand stroked over the front of her pants, and his c**k went hard on cue.

Her gasp against him satisfied him. Gwenna’s knees bent, and she leaned forward, her soft fingers wrapping around his wrist like she meant to stop his touch. The hell with that. Nate pressed his thumb against her clit, nudging her legs apart. Then he stroked and petted her over the soft stretchy pants, loving the way the fabric cupped her mound, enjoying the sound of her breathing in his ear, her tiny little gasps and sighs. Gwenna was petite and proportionate, but while he’d originally thought she was fragile, lithe, skinny, he now knew her body was all woman, with curves and a healthy muscle tone. She was thin, but firm, curvy, but toned. Perfect. Absolutely f**king perfect.

Driving her wild without undressing her was really damn hot, and Nate saw no reason to stop. He kissed and licked her mouth, his fingers moving over and over her, brushing her ni**les, smoothing over her tight ass, sliding up and down in the indentation in her pants he’d created by stroking her, pressing a little deeper and deeper as she moved restlessly, knees bending further.

"Take my pants off," she murmured, her cheeks bright pink spots of color, and her eyes half closed, glazed with desire.

Nate bit her bottom lip. "Shh. You’re fine like this."

Her gasp of indignation turned him on. "Take my pants off," she demanded, clamping her hand around his wrist and holding him still with a strength that surprised him at the same time it made him hotter than hell. Damn, the lady wanted her pants off. She looked so sweet and innocent, like she’d faint at the site of a naked man, but looks were deceiving. Shit. Gwenna gave as good as she got.

"Yes, ma’am." He ripped her pants down to her knees and slid two fingers inside her wet, eager body.

"Oh, hell, Nate." She closed her eyes, and still gripping his wrist, she came, with graceful shudders, head falling back, back arching, hips thrusting to meet his touch.

It was beautiful. And suddenly, in the midst of the lust, the hot, wet desire to grab her hips and f**k the life out of her, Nate felt something else. Maybe a kind of gratitude to her for sharing herself with him at the right time, maybe an attraction for her as a woman, a human being, or maybe a kind of interest stirring to life that went beyond sex, and the instinctive urge to protect her, in all her intriguing mix of strong yet incredibly vulnerable. Whatever the hell it was, it was there, and Nate was caught off guard. It wasn’t a bad feeling, but it was unnerving, and he needed to regroup, get a grip on his life before he dove in and did something stupid as hell.

So after she came back to earth and smiled at him, making little sighs of delight, Nate gave her a soft kiss, and pulled her pants back up.

That earned him a frown. "What are you doing?"

"I need to go back to work."

"You can’t take five more minutes?" Her outrage nearly made him laugh.

"I don’t want to settle for five minutes," he told her, which was true. It was also true he was feeling a little like he’d been nailed by a baseball in the gut, and he needed to figure out what the hell that meant. Or more importantly, what to do about it. "What are you doing tomorrow night? Can I see you?"

Tomorrow was Kyra’s wake, which meant he should probably spare Gwenna the lousy company afterward. But then again he’d have to see his parents, which was always a total nightmare, and Gwenna Carrick was a wonderful distraction. She had a quiet comfort about her that appealed to him.

"Oh, shit, I can’t tomorrow." She entwined her fingers with his. "My brother has this big corporate party thing and I promised I would go. I’m appalling at these functions—I can’t think of a damn thing to say and I hide by the potted plants, but I told Ethan I’d be there. How about Sunday night?"

"Sure. I’ll call you." He took another kiss, enjoying the way she responded so quickly to him, and the sensual feel of her mouth beneath his. "Can you send that slayers’ loop info before you go to bed tonight?"