“I knew it!”
She held the portal key between her two fingers, still gripping my throat like it was fused to the wall, and I started to get worried. I needed to have just a chance to get her in the portal or I won’t hear the last of it from my brothers.
“Then I guess your father was right. You can’t handle a true challenge,” I rasped in a mocking voice, hoping desperately that the play I was making worked out. I was taking a guess that she had daddy issues and might take the bait before she smashed my chance.
She raised an eyebrow at me, pausing her crushing party while her eyes sparkling at the challenge I put before her.I hope this worked.
“Is that what he said? Well, it’s a coward’s way to send four assailants after me. Why would I care what he thinks—what any of you think?” Her question came out scornful, and I lifted my hands to show I wasn’t a threat.
“You wouldn’t, you shouldn’t, but if I was to offer you a fair deal, a fair challenge… Would you take it?” I tried to hold my excitement at bay but this on-the-fly challenge was a great idea, and so like me.
She kept her hold on the portal key but let go of my throat, and my feet landed back onto the ground. I was relieved to be let go, but missed the feeling of her hands cutting off my breathing. That was going to be something I reflected on later, because right now I needed to put my whole focus on the dangerous creature in front of me.
Her sexy heels clicked on the marble floor as she stepped back and looked me up and down with a how-dare-you look full of disbelief before putting her hand on her left hip, cocking it out with a scoff. I had to give it to her, it was a good fuck-you stance, except for the craving glint I caught in her eyes as they lingered on my dick for longer than acceptable.
“And you think you could give me a challenge?” She tried to hide how she bit her bottom lip as she was still watching me, and I knew I had her hooked.A fellow adrenalin seeker I see.
I took a bold step forward, making sure we were chest to chest as I looked down at her and whispered, “I know I can, sweetheart.”
Her eyes fluttered before they snapped open. She rose to her tippy toes, threw out her chin, matching my energy as her sultry voice got low and slow. “Prove. It.”
We both gave each other a cruel, matching smile. I didn’t know if it was the atmosphere or because we had been playing with each other all night, but the chemistry between us right now was electric. I could feel our energies bouncing off each other, swirling around, trying to invade each other's space. Find a weak point we can slither into. It was charged and gripping.
It was almost like our combined energy had a mind of its own, telling me to grab this being and never let her go. The odd part was that neither of us were using our magic. It was locked tight under our control. All of this was just us in our natural state. Two forces clashing, battling with each other while at the same time respecting each other. It was so thick in the air that I almost didn’t want to move back and break the bubble we’d created. If her eyes matched mine like I thought they did, she didn’t want to, either.
She slowly ran her hand up my chest, playing with the buttons on my shirt as she cooed, “What are the terms, blue eyes?”
I want you turned around and bent over, those are my terms.But I couldn’t fucking say that. Think with your brain, not your dick.
Her hand kept running up and down my chest and it was making me think crazy things, losing my train of thought, wanting her to slip her hand beneath my shirt so we could be skin to skin.
I gripped her hand to stop her ministrations, and I glowered at her.
“Next round, if I win, you walk through the portal of your own free will.”
Her eyes deepened as I felt her body go rigid. Her voice turned arctic. “And if I win?”
I thought about it for a second, trying to think of something that she would want to see me do. I’m sure she would want something more degrading. Something that would make me embarrassed, but what would embarrass me? I got it!
I lifted the hand I was still gripping, laid a soft sweet-as-sin kiss on her inner wrist, then lifted my gaze to look her deep in her eyes as I whispered, “Then I will walk through the portal of my own free will. You will have ticked us all.”
She watched my lips, tracking their movements as her chest started to rise and fall rapidly. The sexual tension was off the charts between us. Was it wrong that it was for a bet like this? Naw. That's what made it all the sweeter.
Before I lost my head to this woman, I whispered, “No magic. Just a clean game between the two of us.”
She stepped closer to me, surprising me, running her nose up my cheek. It was my turn to get tense, muscles seizing up as my breathing turned erratic. I didn’t want her to take it too far, like kissing me, but I also secretly wanted that sweet breath sinking into my skin.
Her lips lightly touched my cheek. I was prepared to yank back, but she panted, “You’re on.”
Then she was out of my grasp and gone, heading back to the table and leaving me standing there like an idiot before I had a chance to register what she just agreed to. The terms of the bet. My chance at a major win for the night.
When she was almost at the table, she did a half turn, lifted her hand with the portal key, and put it down her cleavage with a wicked smile and a wink before turning back around and settling into her seat. Waiting for me.
Oh, that little minx. I was going to show her why I was the brother not to be messed with.
Chapter 20
Well,fuckmesideways.I’d almost jumped that man's bones right there in the service hallway. I kept my focus on the poker table in front of me. It looked like Deekahal had finished his speech—oh bummer, I’d missed it—and all the casino games were back in full swing.
