Chapter 24 Ace #2
When the elevator doors slide open, he ushers me into the same hallway from where we first met before crowding me against one of the gray walls.
“Start talking, Ace.”
Why his Neanderthal ways are a turn on, I’ll never know, but it doesn’t stop me from digging my teeth into my lower lip and clenching my hands at my sides to stop them from pulling him closer to me and putting both of us out of our misery.
Rule #6 takes a second to scream that I’m an idiot before I lick my lips and reveal to him the truth. “It’s nothing crazy. I just have a friend who was acting weird. We’re close, but our relationship isn’t exactly conventional.”
He quirks his brow in interest, and I laugh.
“Not like that. I just mean that even though we’d kill for each other, we’re pretty quiet about our personal lives.
It’s hard to explain. She was acting weird today, but she disappeared before I could ask what was going on.
It left me feeling helpless, and when I feel helpless—”
“You search for control in any way you can.”
“Yup. Which includes—”
“Blackjack,” he finishes for me. With the gentlest of touches, Kingston lifts my chin and places a soft, open-mouthed kiss against my lips. Sighing, I close my eyes and soak up his touch. The knowledge that I’m slowly becoming addicted to his mouth is troubling, but I push it aside.
“I’m glad I could give you the control you were craving,” he admits.
“You sure about that? I would’ve pegged you for a guy who doesn’t like to give up control to others.”
He takes a step closer until the toes of his loafers brush against my beat-up Chucks. “You have no idea. In my profession, giving up control is giving up power, and I think we both know I don’t relinquish it without getting something in return.”
I laugh. “That, I can believe.”
“And what do you think I want?”
Biting my lip, I drop my gaze to our shoes and hedge, “I think I can guess.”
“I think you can too.” His breath fans across the top of my head as I dig up the courage to look back up at him.
“Come on, Kingston. Show me a little of that control you were just boasting about. Patience is a virtue, isn’t it? Or would this be more of a self-discipline kind of thing?” I ask while tapping my chin in thought.
“Why, Ace, I don’t know if I should be offended or proud that you’ve questioned my self-discipline.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because you’ve willingly stepped into a private elevator with me while knowing I could have my way with you. I’m currently displaying the self-discipline of a saint by not pushing you up against this wall and taking what you so innocently revealed to me last night.”
Clearing my throat, I mutter, “I didn’t reveal anything.”
“Lie. I can practically smell the innocence on you, Ace, and it’s a lethal scent.”
With a smile, I ask, “Are you saying that if I won’t let you have me, you’ll die?”
“Possibly,” he mutters, bending down and hovering near my lips. “Now tell me, Wild Card, will Punk Rock Ace knee me in the balls if I kiss her again?”
“Possibly,” I tease, my gaze bouncing between his hypnotic eyes and tantalizing lips. “Are you willing to risk the future generations of the Romano lineage to find out?”
A wicked grin spreads across his face as he inches closer.
“Possibly.”
Closing the last millimeter of distance between us, he presses his lips against mine then tugs the wig off, dropping it near my feet as my brunette hair pools around my shoulders.
Smiling, I return his kiss and wrap my arms around his neck then lace my fingers through the short hair on the back of his head.
With a groan, a sexually frustrated Kingston tugs on my lower lip with his teeth, pulling a light laugh from me in return.
“I like you,” I admit on a sigh as he teases me with his mouth. My fingers unlace themselves from his hair before brushing against the jaw I’d been drooling over earlier. When the five o’clock shadow grazes my fingertips, I smile softly in fascination.
Looking down at me, Kingston wraps his thick forearms around my waist and drags me into him. “Then you should show me, Wild Card.”
He’s called me that before, but I didn’t have the guts to ask why. Maybe I’m still drunk from his kiss, but I’m curious enough to voice my question.
“Wild Card?”
“I never know what to expect with you.” Lightly, he tugs on my messy curls, mimicking his motion from a few minutes ago.
Only this time, it’s the real me instead of a wig I’d been using as a disguise.
The girl in front of him is stripped bare.
She’s the girl I normally keep locked away in an attempt to protect myself.
But as he peers down at me, his gaze shining with lust and intrigue, I like that he can see her.
“Truth.” Smiling up at him, I reach onto my tiptoes and plant a soft kiss against his lips before murmuring, “So is there a reason you brought me down here?”
He shrugs. “We still can’t be seen together, even in my own casino. I think we both know what would happen if Burlone found out we were….”
As his voice trails off, I catch him studying me like an abstract piece of art.
The intensity is almost bruising, and my body presses back into the wall behind me to escape it.
There are so many ways he could finish that sentence, and I’m dying to know what was on the tip of his tongue before he thought better of voicing his statement aloud.
What are we? Working together? Passing the time with each other?
Possibly sleeping together? Dating? I have no idea what I want, let alone what the man in front of me is interested in.
If only I could read minds as easily as he can read faces.
Clearing my throat, I tuck a stray strand of my hair behind my ear. “I should probably get going. Thanks for letting me feel a bit of control for the night, though. I really appreciate it.”
The silence that follows is enough to shine a glaring light on our unconventional…whatever this is, and he takes a step back to give me a little breathing room.
“Anytime, Ace. Anytime.”