Page 39 of Playing for Keeps

“Thanks again,” Frankie said, giving me a one-armed hug.

“Of course,” I told her, handing her the other tote. “I’m glad I could help. Let me know if you need anything else.”

“I will.” Frankie glanced over my shoulder. “It was nice to meet you. Nice to see you again, Kelly.”

“Bye, Frankie!”

When the girl was gone, I turned to my friends, only for Aaron to drape his arm around my shoulder again and pull me into his side.

“What do you say we get going,” he said, a smile tipping his lips. “We’ve got some partying to do.”

9

Vinny

Sliding off my motorcycle, I slipped off my helmet and walked to the back door of my father’s private club. A hard knock had the security window in the solid steel door sliding open. The man inside swept his gaze across my face and down my body before the window slid shut and the door opened.

I entered with nothing but a nod in his direction, then passed along a short hallway before descending the stairs. There was a steady beat coming from behind the set of ornate wooden doors, and the few bodies lingering in the hall kept to themselves.

Except for Carina.

The woman came for me like a siren, her tight red dress meant to seduce men and tempt them to part with their money. I’d seen it work a million times. The way her curves enticed and charmed the men coming into the club, their goal to hit it big, believing they were due.

It was a fallacy. One that the whole operation depended upon. Gamblers coming to spend their hard-earned cash on the dream of a better tomorrow, their only investment a few hands of cards and the fickle bitch called Luck.

“Baby, you look stressed.” Slender hands slid inside my leather jacket, running up my chest to hook around behind my neck. “You need me to take care of you?”

Her seductive whisper tempted me the way it did so many others, her hot breath at my ear so fucking alluring, her lush body pressed against me wooing my dick.

My will to resist her charms wavered, especially as her hand snaked down between us, covering my growing length.

It wasn’t the first time. No, Carina had often been a guest in my bed. A warm body to get off in, a hole to fill as the chasm in my heart drained a little more.

Though the woman cared for me on some level, I had no doubts it was my pocket book she admired most.

“Use me, baby,” she cooed in my ear. “Let me make you feel good.”

And God, I wanted to feel good. Wanted to lose myself in a way I’d never wanted to before. I needed something, anything, to get Frankie’s words out of my head.

“Jen’s seeing someone now. Did you know?” Frankie watched me as the words dripped off her tongue, the poison of them seeping into my heart and killing me slowly. “Some fella she works with. Came over tonight to pick her up and take her out.”

Of course, I fucking knew. I knew I’d missed my chance with the only woman I’d ever really loved. And Frankie bringing it up like it was something new just had that poison burning in my veins once again.

Carina’s hand squeezed at my cock through my jeans, her body doing everything to guide me to the back office. Her teeth nipped at my ear as her fingers played along the waistband of my pants. My helmet fell from my hand, my backpack falling from my shoulder with a thud. Heat flashed across my skin, my fingers and toes tingling, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

Then she was on her knees, the door to the office closed behind us, and my throbbing dick stood at attention before her as she licked her lips.

I closed my eyes as her tongue snaked out to lick me. I threw my head back against the wall as the heat of her mouth covered me. And I tortured myself with images that didn’t belong to me as I fucked the mouth of a woman I would never love.

Tears streamed down Carina’s face by the time I’d finished using her, her makeup smeared where it wasn’t running down her cheeks. My fingers that had tangled in her hair pulled strands out as I freed myself from its grasp. An oily sensation wound its way through me as I zipped up my pants and smoothed down my shirt.

“It’s been a while,” Carina said, her voice raspy in a way it wasn’t before. A way that made me flinch. Knowing that I did that. That I hurt her as she’d swallowed me down. She climbed off her knees, adjusting the short skirt of her dress, and eyed me like she wanted more.

It had been a while. It’d been more than a fucking year. Jen was the last woman I’d slept with. The last kiss I’d had was the day she ripped out my heart. And even though she wasn’t mine, even though I didn’t owe her anything, my stomach roiled when I realized what I’d done.

While Carina’s mouth was on my dick, my thoughts were on the girl I couldn’t have. While I filled Carina with my cum, my heart was ripping open further, the stabbing pain of longing turning ripe and angry as it filled me up.

I wanted Jen so badly, I’d given in to my desires and let this woman take away my control.