First. As if that means the rest is to come.
“Of course,” Adrian said. “No need to rush things, right?”
I tried not to read too much into things. But honestly, my mind was much too frazzled to differentiate heads from tails. The coffee shop hadn’t made things better; if anything, going there had simply given Adrian the excuse to take me to a placeeven “worse” than his office or his penthouse. At least there, I was under no delusions about what he was trying to set me up for.
But here? The proof was incontrovertible. Even a billionaire could only mask flaws and errors so much. For Aces Up to be in the kind of condition it was showed that Adrian had been sincere when he said that he kept it as it was as much as he and his brothers could have.
Everything I saw only reinforced that. The food court was pristine. The tables were filled with cheerful employees, and the rugs were well kept. The decor, which felt almost like a chessboard in its black and white design, would never be confused for upscale or elite, but it was done in a tasteful, tactful manner.
The entire tour of the casino itself went by in a blur. I hardly took any notes, had my recorder on only out of habit, and found myself drifting in and out of being present. When we got upstairs…
“Now,” Adrian said, “can I show you to the rooms?”
I nodded. Just good journalism to explore everything, right? Just me doing my job to make sure all was examined, right?
I followed Adrian to the elevators. The doors opened to an empty ride up. I made sure to stand with my back against the wall; suffice to say, I still wasn’t sure how I felt about all of this.No bullshit, Delilah. Don’t rely on bullshit.
The ride up went by silently. Not a word was exchanged. Adrian looked back at me once, eyed me up and down rather obviously, and then looked back to the doors with a smirk.You wanted real? Keep it real.
The doors to the top floor opened. There was only one door in this hallway.Speak honestly as a journalist.
No.
Speak honestly as a human being.
“Is this all just one massive setup to try to fuck me?”
The words came out far harsher, far more brutal than I cared for. But you know what? That wasn’t the question from the reporter of theLas Vegas Times.That was the question of a woman tired of playing games of coy words and sly glances.
Adrian had his hand on the door handle. He paused, looked down at his hand, drew in a breath, and opened the door.
“Don’t fucking ignore me, Adrian,” I said. “You asked for honesty, and you got it.”
He kept walking forward. I fucking hated when people did that; it was one thing to look me in the eye, lie to my face, or answer no comment. It was another to walk or even run away; that was as sure a sign to me as a truth that I had just unraveled that no one wanted to face.
“I want you to look me in the eye and tell me the truth,” I said. “I want you?—”
I had barely gotten a foot in when everything happened so fucking fast, my mind was a good five seconds behind.
He pulled me into his arms, pressed me against the wall, and stared me down. I looked into those heavy brown eyes, the eyes that had lost their gentleness and become something of an animal’s. He was no longer human; he was a lustful creature that had found its target.
“Is it?” he said.
He smirked.
And then he leaned in to kiss me.
And I took it.
Embraced it.
Escalated it.
We kissed against that wall, him pressing his hips against mine, tearing his clothes off, with the vigor of pent-up tension from weeks of playing coy, weeks of coming within inches ofdoing this, weeks of wondering what if, maybe not, perhaps so… but now fuck yes. Within seconds, he had both of our shirts off.
I still had my bra on, but his hands were working behind my back to take it off. The only reason he didn’t have them off quicker wasn’t due to lack of skill; the desire to hold me against the wall and take my bra off worked against each other. No matter. He turned me, had my bra off, and tossed me on the bed.
I looked up at him, amazed at how every time more clothing came off, he was just that much more handsome, that much more muscular. His toned chest, chiseled shoulders, and ripped abs were just one cherry on top of the other, one extra layer of strength to control me with.
