Hooked 3 (Hooked #3)(15)

But I started shaking my head vehemently. We couldn’t cash in my winnings; these weren’t my winnings. “I would have never been able to put the money up,” I murmured. “These are yours. They came from your money. I can’t take them—“

“Come on, Mol. You earned this money. This should go to you.” He smiled at me good-naturedly, but he sensed a darkness in me—a prideful nature. He hung his head for a moment before walking toward the exchange and collecting the winnings. He stuffed them in a yellow envelope and pushed them into a secret, inner-jacket pocket. He looked at me, nodding, noting that my eyes were dripping with fatigue. The flashing lights, the slot machines were knocking into my brain. I was happy to see him taking the money I’d earned, but I still felt a gnawing ache about it. After all; that was more money than I’d ever seen before.

“Shall we go?”

I jumped toward him, kissing him on the cheek. I felt the immense excitement of the evening’s festivities; I felt the high-esteem of winning and winning and winning, chip after chip. “What an adventure,” I murmured into his ear, allowing my lips to trace his neck.

We raced back to the Porsche. Drew tossed the valet two hundred dollars to drive us back to the hotel; we were far too drunk, too committed to laughing in the back seat, rolling around and holding our stomachs.

“You, Molly—big-eyed and saying you just don’t know if you CAN count cards,” Drew laughed, holding onto his stomach. “I can’t believe you conned me. You conned me!”

I slapped him on the knee, giggling myself. “What can I say? I’m just a natural.” The valet driver up front drove us fast through the night toward the hotel, and I leaned my head toward Drew’s, allowing my forehead to connect with his. “It was a beautiful night.”

And it was. I couldn’t get over how much fun it had been. As he helped me from the Porsche and gave the valet more money to get home from the hotel, I longed to hold onto him, to hug him close to my body. I felt my breasts bounce as we rushed into the hotel, our hands linked.

As we clattered into the glass elevator, I sensed everyone looking at us once more; the rich people, the blonde bimbo and her grand millionaire. But I didn’t care. I caught him close to me and brought him in an intimate hug. His eyes caught on mine, and he whispered into my ear. “Say. Would you want to—would you want to go to the Jacuzzi? It’s personal; off to the side of the hotel room.”

My eyes were wide as he spoke.

“It’s just. I’m not ready to let the night end yet. You know?”

I nodded at this, feeling the excitement drape around me like a cloth. The elevator shot into the sky and I leaned heavy against him, ready to throw myself into the evening, whatever the costs. The feeling of all that money in my hand—all those coins—had given me a sense of power, a sense that everything in the world was possible. This, beyond anything else, churned me to cling to this beautiful man, to hold onto every moment.



CHAPTER NINE

We rushed into the hotel room and off to the side, where—sure enough—there sat a bubbling Jacuzzi. The Jacuzzi room featured grand windows that stretched above the Jacuzzi and on all sides, making you feel like you were situated in a sort of shell. I felt the alcohol in my blood as I gazed at the Jacuzzi, as I turned toward Drew beside me, who was watching me as well. He reached up to his shirt and began unbuttoning, all the way down to his waist.


I smiled at him, feeling oddly nervous. I knew we had been together before, that he had seen me naked. But this time felt different; it felt purposeful. I pulled my gown from my head, revealing my low-cut bra that barely held my breasts in it, and my thong. The bra and underwear were red. I didn’t know why I packed such sexy underwear; I had simply longed to have the option—just in case I turned my body over to this handsome, god-like man.

I sauntered lightly into the Jacuzzi, feeling the hot water roll up around me, over my arms, along my slim waist. I smiled at him as I sat in it up to my chin. “Aren’t you going to join me?” I asked him saucily, feeling the drunkenness waft through me.

Drew held up one finger, standing in just his boxers. He walked toward the kitchen and came back with a bottle of Jack Daniels. I raised my eyebrow at him, deep in a blurred level of drunkenness. He took a small sip from the bottle and handed it to me as he got into the Jacuzzi, making slight waves in the water. “Take a sip,” he whispered.

I did. He smiled as I pulled it away from my lips, gazing at his body as he stood above me in the water. He held the glass bottle. “You were great in there, today.”

“Yeah?”

“You were remarkable. Most girls get sort of nervous when they’re counting cards. They think it’s illegal or something.”

“It’s rather simple,” I said. “But satisfying.” I raised my eyebrows high in the air, looking at him with a sense of sexual playfulness. Was this going to happen?

“I’m sorry I brought you there, though. I didn’t realize that your father had died, leaving, I’m guess, you and your mother without a dime. What a dick.”

I hung my head. I didn’t want to get into it. “It’s all right. It happened a long time ago.” I blinked my eyes at him. “And what about you? You said your father died when you were young?”

He nodded and took another sip. “Drunk driving. Crashed into a tree. Which is why I don’t drink and drive at all. You’ll notice I hired the valet to bring us back here.”