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Aidan could have laughed at the expression on Melissa's face. She thought something different than what he meant. Good.
"Play a little?"
"Yeah. You know...poker, blackjack, craps, some of the games."
"Oh, that. I don't play."
"You work for a casino and you don't ever play the games?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I just don't."
"So, you suck at gambling, huh?"
She lifted her chin and cast him a defiant glare. "I do not. I just don't like to gamble."
"I can see where gambling would be a problem for you. After all, it's risky, takes you out of your comfort zone."
Her eyes narrowed and she said, "I'm perfectly comfortable gambling. I'm just..."
"Just what?"
She hesitated before answering. "Unlucky."
Ah, so there was the problem. "Luck plays some part in gambling. Skill is another and knowing when to walk away a winner and when to cut your losses and leave the table."
"Well, I understand all the games and the concepts, I just can't seem to ever win, so I don't try."
"Come on." He took her by the arm and led her to a blackjack table. "I'll teach you."
"I don't want--"
"Just consider it research, okay?" Damn, but the woman was difficult to loosen up. He swore she was deliberately being obstinate just to piss him off.
But this time she followed along, albeit reluctantly, and sat next to him at a blackjack table. A friendly dealer smiled at both of them.
"Hi Sandy," Aidan said after he read the dealer's tag. The woman nodded politely and began to deal.
It didn't take Aidan long to figure out why Melissa never won.
"You're doing it wrong," he whispered as she once again stayed when she should have hit.
"No, I'm not."
"You have to hit on sixteen. It's a no win otherwise."
"Not true. I've won before."
"The odds are against you."
"I'll do it my way."
"You'll keep losing."
She sighed. "That's what I keep telling you. I'm not lucky."
"Then let me teach you."
She turned her gaze on him, those green eyes of hers melting his resolve to stay impersonal. "Give it your best shot."
He did, and within half an hour she'd won more than she'd lost. Another half hour and chips were piling up in front of her. The more her winnings grew, the bigger her smile. She liked winning.
And she definitely did not suck at gambling. Once she'd mastered the basics, she focused on the game, the other players' cards, the dealers' hands. He swore he could hear the wheels turning in her head as she calculated her hand versus the house.
Gathering up her chips, she said, "This is great! Let's go play something else now."
He laughed and took his winnings, following her to the craps table.
"Okay, teach me how to play this one."
Melissa was a quick study. Her laughter and exuberance at winning rubbed off on the gathering players around her. Before long she was leading the pack in chips and amassing quite a fan club.
Unfortunately, many of those were men. Men who ogled her, practically drooled on her, touched her arm and high-fived her when she won.
Melissa seemed to enjoy it, her gaze shifting to his every now and then. Quickly she'd avert her eyes and smile up at some guy standing next to her.
And Aidan didn't like it one damn bit. Reminding himself that she wasn't his woman, he backed away and watched, playing a little bit here and there, but mainly keeping his eye on Lissa.
She ignored him completely, concentrating on the game and the men hovering near her. She laughed with them, let them hug her when she rolled successfully, and seemed to be having a great time.
He, on the other hand, was nearly ready for a meltdown. He wrangled his way into the crowd and touched her arm. "You ready to go?"
"Not yet. I'm winning, Aidan! Look!" she said, pointing to the large pile of chips in front of her.
"I see that. I thought you might want to try another game."
"Come on, pal," a tall, blond guy said. "She's our lucky star. Let her stay awhile."
"Yeah," said a good-looking older man who smiled down at Melissa. "We don't want to lose our winner here."
Aidan forced back the grinding jealousy that stabbed at him, plastering on a polite smile. "I can appreciate that, guys, but we really need to get going."
Melissa turned and arched a brow at him. "I'm not ready to leave yet. Why don't you go play at one of the other tables and I'll find you when I'm done here?"
When she turned away and started another roll, Aidan stepped back. Dismissed. He'd been dismissed by her as if he were nothing more than a lackey to carry around her winnings for her.
Didn't that beat all? For years he'd been the one women flocked to, he'd been the one that all the females wanted to spend time with. And now he'd found a woman whose company he really enjoyed, and she'd just given him the brush off.
The hell with that. He'd get her attention like no other man could. Starting right now.
The energy had already begun to swirl inside him and he didn't need to work hard to call forth the magic. In fact, it started so strong he had to tamp it down a bit so he wouldn't knock her off her feet.
Then again, maybe that's exactly what he'd do. No small little quirks here or there, but a full blown big one.
Closing his eyes he directed the energy toward Melissa, then waited for the show to begin.
*
The first sizzling jolt hit Melissa without warning, making her instinctively want to reach down between her legs and intensify the pleasure.
Recalling she was in the middle of a very public, very crowded casino, she pulled her hand away and reached for the cushioned side of the craps table.
Whoa. What the hell was that? A shot of desire unlike anything she'd ever felt, and completely out of the blue.
"Come on, honey, it's your roll."
She looked up at the blond man standing next to her and smiled. "Sure. Let 'em roll." She tossed the dice, hoping whatever it was that had just hit her was an isolated occurrence.
"Oh yeah! Won again!" the blond said, hugging her to him.
When she moved away from the man it hit her again, this burst of sensation stronger than the last. It was like having a huge, hard penis slide inside her for the very first time--that sweet ache that made her moan out loud.
"Did you say something, sugar?" one of the men asked.
Oh God, had she really moaned? What was happening to her? She shook her head at the man and smiled weakly, hiding her shaking hands by clutching the dice in her hands.
She could barely throw them across the table as another pleasure peak shot through her. Her nipples hardened, becoming more than obvious tips against her silk dress. Hopefully no one would notice.
Yeah, right. A man at the other side of the table nearly lost his eyeballs as they bugged out of their sockets. Why hadn't she brought a sweater?
And more importantly, what the hell was going on? No one was touching her, and she'd never felt pleasure like this without caressing herself or being fondled by someone else.
Yet she was being touched. She felt it, both outside and in, as if a warm hand gently caressed her breasts, then traveled slowly down her belly and cupped her mound.
She shuddered at the nearly unbearable sensations, the dice falling out of her hands as something that felt like a cock slid inside her. But there was nothing between her legs, nothing but a pulsing, pounding pleasure that turned her legs to jelly. She squeezed her thighs together as if that alone would stop the vortex of sensations, but it only increased her pleasure until she had to bite down on her lower lip to keep from whimpering.
Someone placed the dice into her hands, but she couldn't concentrate on what she was doing. A warm, wet heat settled over her clit, pulsing gently, rhythmically stroking. She couldn't breathe. The vibrations intensified, an
d if she didn't know better she could swear she was getting close to--
"Oh my God!" she screamed. The dice flew out of her hands and across the table and she gripped the padded sides as an orgasm of epic proportions washed over her. The crowds around her screamed too, but she was in such a haze of pleasure she had no idea why. She shuddered, aching to slide her fingers into her now soaked pussy and enhance the pleasure arcing through her.
Thankfully the people at the table thought she'd screamed about the dice, which brought about another stack of chips in front of her. Through their whoops and whistles and cries of joy, she managed to ride out her climax until she could breathe semi-normally again.
Panting and more than a little wobbly, she breathed in and out steadily, hoping to calm her raging heartbeat. What the hell had just happened to her? No longer able to concentrate, she piled her chips into a plastic bucket and left the table, much to the consternation of the other players.
After she cleared the crowd and cashed in her chips she found Aidan leaning casually against a bar stool, a cold smile on his face. He'd been near the craps table the entire time. His eyes had darkened a near stormy black, and he gave her a knowing look as if he knew exactly what had just transpired.
But he couldn't know, could he?
