Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“Don’t do that. There’s no way you’d get lucky a third time tonight.”
I crossed my arms. “I’m not taking it back. So, either you take it, or I’m gambling with it.”
He sighed. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll take the money, but we’re spending it together tonight. We’ll have the time of our lives with it.”
“Okay.” My mouth spread into a smile. “I can live with that.”
He glanced at the card I was holding. “What’s that?”
“Oh, uh…they also gave me a complimentary room key. I guess they want me to stick around a while and dump all of my winnings back into the casino. I’m not gonna use it. We’re heading back to Boston later, right?”
“Neither of us is really in condition to drive tonight.”
“You want to stay overnight? We can’t sleep in the same room.”
“I wasn’t suggesting that, Greta. I’ll get my own room.”
Of course. Now, I felt stupid for even assuming that was what he meant.
“Right. Okay. If you think that’s a good idea, we can stay.”
“The truth is, I’m not ready for this night to end. I don’t want to face reality again until I absolutely have to. My flight isn’t until tomorrow night. If we leave in the morning, we’ll have plenty of time.”
I rubbed his arm. “Okay.” I followed him out of the game room. “Where are we going first?”
“To buy you a new outfit. I get to pick it out. We’re going clubbing later. You can’t wear that.”
“Clubbing?”
“Yeah. They have a nightclub downstairs.”
“Should I be worried? Exactly what do you consider clubbing attire?”
He looked at my outfit. “Something that doesn’t make you look like an 85-year-old Greek woman in mourning.”
I straightened my dress. “What are you trying to say?”
“Make that an 85-year-old drunk Greek woman since you smell like a bucket of booze.”
“Thanks to you.”
“Let’s go spend some money.”
CHAPTER 16
“How about this one?” I lifted a canary yellow chiffon mini-dress off the rack.
“You’ll look like a banana.”
I chose another one. “This?”
Elec shook his head. “No.”
He picked up a burgundy satin and sequin number that draped over the tattoos on his arm as he showed it to me. “This is hot. This is it.”
At first, I thought it was too much but agreed to try it on.
Out of the three dresses I’d taken into the fitting room, the one he picked fit my body the best. It actually made me look like I had boobs, and the short style accentuated my legs. I had to give him credit. The sequins were a little loud, but then again, we were dressing for da club.
The dress fit me so well, in fact, that it didn’t want to come off. The zipper was stuck, and I couldn’t pull the dress over my head. I was starting to sweat because I couldn’t reach it to diagnose the problem.
“You alright in there?” Elec asked.
“Uh…can you see if there’s a salesperson that can help me?”
“What’s the problem?”
“I can’t get the dress off.”
“Well, you did finish off my steak and yours at dinner…”
“The zipper is stuck!”
He laughed. “I can help you.”
“No! I’d just be more comfortable if—”
The curtain slid open suddenly, and he stepped inside. “Come here.”
The warmth of his body was tangible in the small confines of the space. He slid all of my hair to the front and pulled at the material that was stuck. My breathing quickened with every second that his hands worked the zipper at the top of my back.
The image in my head of him ripping the dress off and wrapping my legs around him wasn’t helping.
“You weren’t kidding,” he said as he fiddled with it.” After about a minute, I heard him say, “Got it.”
“Thank you.”
He slowly lowered it a few inches then stopped. “All set.” But his hands lingered on my shoulders. I’d been looking down, and when I looked up, he was staring into my eyes from behind me in the mirror.
I turned around abruptly. Our faces were close, and his eyes dropped to my mouth and stayed there. This time he didn’t try to hide the fact that he seemed mesmerized by my lips.
He closed his eyes briefly as if to fend off the urge to kiss me. It troubled me that if he had tried, I knew without a doubt that I couldn’t have resisted. I would have kissed him with everything in me. That lack of self-control scared me.
It was impossible to see anything beyond him at that moment, not Chelsea, not the consequences. The memory of his mouth all over me, of him deep inside my body was overwhelming me.
My mind could be talked down, but my body knew better. It knew that it had within its grasp, the one thing it craved every day for the past seven years.
No one had ever been able to measure up or replace him.