“Alyssa,” he grated against her mouth, “my sweet lady gambler. Do you know what you do to me? What you’ve been doing to me all evening? I’ve never wanted a woman as suddenly, as completely, as I want you tonight.”
The barely restrained passion of his words touched her senses as deliberately as his fingers stroked the curve of her hip, and Alyssa sighed as her mouth was freed. When he feathered the smallest of kisses on her temple, she turned her lips instinctively against his throat. The shudder that went through him as she began to respond was accompanied by a husky groan. Jordan’s hold on her tightened.
“Jordan?” The question in her single word was fraught with a million uncertainties, all ancient and all female.
“Hush, sweetheart. There is only the present for you tonight, remember?”
Alyssa knew she was being seduced, and she could only wonder at it. She was thirty years old, and never had she experienced anything quite like this, not even during the short, disastrous period of her marriage to an awesomely brilliant mathematician. It fascinated and hypnotized and lured and promised. She had attempted to live a reasonably normal, if somewhat restrained, social life since her divorce. But always she maintained a sense of control over any given situation. No, never in her whole life had she known the true sensation of outright seduction. Was this the peril involved when illusion became reality?
The dance slowly drifted to a conclusion, leaving Alyssa feeling as unsteady as if she had been drinking far too much. There was no need to worry about how she would make it back to the table, however; Jordan’s arm was anchored securely around her waist, and she was pinned tightly against the side of his lean, warm body.
“Another Drambuie for my lady and another Scotch for me,” Jordan murmured to the hovering cocktail waitress as he carefully seated Alyssa.
“Are you plying me with drink?” Alyssa demanded interestedly.
“Don’t fret,” he said, sitting down next to her and reaching out to cover her hand with his own. “I don’t intend to get you drunk.” The pad of his thumb traced a tantalizing line across the sensitive skin of her inner wrist. When Alyssa silently caught her breath, he cradled her hand in his fingers and lifted it to his lips for a fleeting caress.
“You’ve been spending too much time on the Continent,” Alyssa informed him with an attempt at lightness as she retrieved her hand. Propping her elbow on the table, she rested her chin in the palm he had just kissed. His eyes met hers, and now she could clearly read the desire in them.
“Alyssa, are you going to play games with me tonight?”
“Why not? We’re both so good at games of chance,” she mocked, feeling an overwhelming desire to bait and tease. It wasn’t at all her normal style, but she was beyond questioning her own behavior now.
“Ah.” He nodded as if he understood exactly what she was doing. “I must warn you that I feel an overpowering need to win tonight.”
“Meaning you might resort to cheating?”
“Will that be necessary?” The eyes of antique gold seemed to shimmer for a moment as he searched her expression.
“Yes, no, maybe. Do you expect me to go to bed with you when I hardly even know you?”
“Yes, no, maybe,” he retorted softly. “I only know I want you.” He paused. “I take that back. I know something else. I know I need you tonight. Come upstairs with me, Alyssa.”
“Upstairs?”
“I have a room in this hotel,” he explained, watching her intently.
“But I’m staying in the hotel where I met you,” she began, feeling strangely confused by the accelerated pace at which the evening of illusion was beginning to move.
“You won’t need anything. I’ll supply everything you ask for tonight, Alyssa. Take a chance and trust me, honey.”
“I never take chances when I can’t calculate the odds,” she made herself say deliberately. Yet she was longing to take his hand and go with him. The sweet desire to abandon herself to fate this evening was growing with every second that passed.
“I can’t seem to calculate the odds tonight, either,” Jordan drawled softly, leaning forward to brush the lightest of kisses against the tip of her nose. “We’ll go into this game evenly matched.”
“You mean evenly uncertain about the outcome,” she countered.
“Haven’t you ever wondered what it really means to take a genuine gamble? One where you can’t predict the final card in the deck?”
“I find the thought a little frightening,” she admitted, unable to look away from his gaze.
“But you’re a daring lady gambler, remember? Come with me, Alyssa, and we’ll find out together what chance has in store for us.” As if he knew the depths of the spell he had cast, Jordan didn’t wait for an answer. Tossing the cash on the table for the drinks they had not finished, he stood up and tugged Alyssa up beside him.
Without another word, he guided her through the lounge, out across the wide casino floor and over to the elevators on the far side. In a sensually taut silence, they traveled to the high reaches of the huge hotel. When the elevator doors opened onto a wide hallway decorated in the typically ornate Las Vegas style, Alyssa hung back for a moment. Then Jordan was gently crowding her out into the thickly carpeted hall.
“Don’t think about the future, sweetheart,” he coaxed huskily. “Just think about how much I need you tonight.” His arm around her waist was binding, the palm of his hand against her hip a heated branding iron that burned through the thin material of the draped black dress.
“Jordan?” She turned a questioning face up to him as he brought them to a halt in front of one of the doors.
“You’ll have to forgive the room, honey,” he said on a note of wry humor as he shoved the key into the lock. “I didn’t have much choice!”
“The room? But I…Oh!”
Alyssa stared in shock as he opened the door and switched on the light. “Oh, my goodness,” she managed before the laughter overtook her. “I had no idea there was anything like this available! My room is quite ordinary.”
“Anything is available in Vegas for a price, but I give you my word I didn’t request this.” Jordan grimaced ruefully as he shut the door with quiet firmness. “The front desk said it was all they had left.”
It was undoubtedly some decorator’s fantasy of a room devoted to passion. Everything appeared to be done in red—heavy, plush bordello red. The bed was round and elevated on a red-carpeted pedestal. There was a round canopy above lined with a round mirror. Red velvet drapes framed the view of the endless Las Vegas night, and one wall was done in mirrors. A wallpaper design in red velvet and gold foil dominated the opposite wall.
“I’m afraid to go peek in the bathroom!” Alyssa managed between giggles. The laughter shone in her eyes as she watched him cross the room toward her. For some reason, humor was an excellent release for the tension that had been building within her from the moment when she had first become aware of those golden eyes. She clung to the uneasy laughter as if it could save her.
“Equally tacky, I’m afraid,” Jordan said regretfully as he fitted his hands to the bare curve of her shoulders. “No one has ever accused Las Vegas of having taste. Plenty of flash and glitter but not taste!”
“You’re going to stand there and claim you didn’t deliberately request this room for purposes of seduction?” Alyssa demanded innocently, desperately trying to keep the small joke alive. Anything now to stall the inevitable.
A dull red stained the high bones of his cheeks. “Dear God, no! How could I have guessed I’d be lucky enough to find you tonight?” Jordan rasped, hauling her close and forbidding any further mockery by sealing her mouth with his own.
In an instant, the brief flare of humor was gone, evaporated beneath the heat of Jordan’s kiss. Alyssa forgot all about the garish room, the exotic world of the casino twenty stories below, the future and the past. Right now there could only be Jordan Kyle and the passion he was offering. Illusion or not, Alyssa surrendered to it.
r /> “Jordan, oh, Jordan…” His name was a sigh on her lips as he freed her mouth to begin a fiery trail of stinging kisses down the line of her throat. Alyssa’s questing fingers slid up from the firm breadth of his shoulders to tangle in the dark depths of his hair. Deliberately, she drew the frosted flames of her nails through the inviting pelt, glorying in the shudder that passed from her body through his.
“Don’t think about anything else except us,” he commanded thickly, moving his palms along her slender back. Every inch of her was being molded against the strength of him, and when he at last cupped the roundness of her buttocks in his hands and lifted her boldly into his hips, Alyssa sucked in her breath.
“I never intended anything like this to happen,” she heard herself whisper dazedly, pressing her face into his jacket. The intoxicating male scent of him tantalized her nostrils. It seemed to be comprised of a hint of spicy aftershave and the natural musk of his body.
“I know, sweetheart, I know,” he soothed, and then the gently probing touch of his fingers located the long zipper in the black and silver dress. The fabric began to part, and Alyssa felt the coolness of her back as the fastening was slowly undone.
Suddenly, vividly conscious of the mirrors lining the wall behind her, she stirred in his arms. “Jordan, wait. I…all these mirrors,” she ended lamely, not daring to lift her face from the shelter of his jacket.
“I want to see you. All of you.” One hand lifted to circle her throat and raised her chin. For a timeless moment, his eyes searched hers, asking questions she couldn’t begin to unravel, and then he kissed her.
Under the spell of the deep, drugging kiss, Alyssa stood submissively as the black gown cascaded lightly over her hips to fall into a soft heap at her feet. Then she remembered the outrageous underwear she had bought to go with the dress. My God! She must look right at home here in this gaudy room.
Deeply embarrassed at the thought of how she must appear in the strapless black silk demibra and infinitesimal panties, Alyssa tried to step back. The two wisps of enticement were iced in black lace and had been bought in an attempt to complete her private fantasy. She had never intended any man to see them!
“What’s the matter, honey?” Jordan’s fingers moved persuasively, gentling her as he sensed the shift in her mood.
“These, uh, things,” she began awkwardly, flicking a disparaging gesture down her own almost-nude body and aware she was blushing rather vividly. “I didn’t…That is, I don’t want you to think I normally dress like this. I mean, they sort of went with the gown and…” Helplessly aware that she wasn’t making much sense, Alyssa lifted pained eyes to meet his.
Jordan was grinning with unreserved masculine appreciation. “And the gown sort of went with the casino,” he concluded helpfully. “Don’t worry, honey, they’re perfect on you tonight. Even if you never intended anyone else to see them.” He pulled her back into his arms, finding the back clasp of the tiny bra.
“Yes, well, that’s just it, you see. I didn’t intend anyone to see them, and they’re rather like this bedroom. A little embarrassing to explain to strangers.”
“But we’re not strangers, are we, Alyssa?” he countered deeply, the humor fading back into passion. “You and I are kindred souls. I think we already know each other better than most people ever get to know one another, and by morning…” He paused as he slipped the little bra off and bared the soft, full curves of her breasts. “By morning, we will know each other very, very well.”
Alyssa’s lashes fluttered shut, and she heard herself make the tiniest of kitten cries as Jordan’s ultrasensitive fingertips went to her nipples. Trustingly, she once again lifted her arms to encircle his neck and let him find her mouth with his own. She clung to the warmth that flowed between them, trembling again and again in wonder at the passion being generated. When a part of her rational mind tried to interrupt, questioning this complete giving of herself to a man she barely knew, Alyssa pushed the shred of common sense aside. Somehow tonight everything seemed right: the man, the mood, the fantasy. Time enough later to go back to being the real Alyssa Chandler. The odds were against her ever knowing anything quite like this again, and she couldn’t bring herself to refuse the promised ecstasy.
He was using the tips of his fingers to draw little circles of fire around each nipple, persuading the budding peaks into an aching, taut fullness that insisted on more and more attention. Alyssa moaned softy and tried to press herself into his hand. Instinctively, her hands began fumbling with the evening jacket he still wore.
“Yes, please,” Jordan begged throatily. “Please undress me, sweetheart. Touch me. Hold me. God! I’ve been wanting you for hours.”
Without question, Alyssa obeyed, her hands unsteady as she pushed off the charcoal jacket and unfastened the black studs of the white shirt. All the while, her work was made increasingly difficult as her body continued to respond to Jordan’s touch.
When at last she had slipped off his shirt and freed the broad expanse of his chest to her own questing fingers, Alyssa drew in a deep breath of desire.
“Oh, Jordan…” Her fingers entwined themselves eagerly in the curling mat of brown hair that covered his chest, and she probed the flat male nipples in curious wonder. “You’re perfect. So perfect.”
He managed a husky growl of a laugh, his thumbs grazing lightly across the tips of her breasts as he slid his hands around to her back. “That’s supposed to be my line, sweetheart! You’re the one who’s perfect. A bit of real magic in a world that’s full of the fake kind. Perfect.”
His hands traveled slowly down the length of her slender back as he pressed her nakedness close against his chest. When her breasts came in contact with the teasing, rasping hair, Jordan moved her very gently back and forth in a swaying motion that made her nipples slide across the crisp, dark cloud. The unexpected caress sent ripples of excitement cascading through Alyssa’s veins.
“Jordan, what are you doing to me?” she demanded helplessly, her head tipped back so that she could lose herself in the inviting gold of his eyes.
“It’s called sleight of hand,” he murmured thickly as his fingers slipped to the upper edge of the tiny black silk panties. “Now you see them”—he peeled the sexy underwear down over the curve of her hip and let it drop to the floor at her ankles—“now you don’t. But now I see you. All of you!”
She felt his palms cupping the rounded globes of her buttocks and belatedly remembered the mirrors behind her. He was watching the full length of her body revealed in the mirror, and the knowledge of his blatant hunger sent another rush of heat through her.
“You’re not playing fair,” she protested shakily, burying her warm face against his broad shoulder.
“There’s nothing fair about good sleight of hand,” he murmured, sinking his nails into the soft flesh of her hips. “It’s all magic.”
“What do you know of magic?”
“I know a hell of a lot of card tricks,” Jordan confessed dryly, and then moved a couple of paces, pulling her with him. “But if it makes you feel any better, we’ll even up this situation. There, now you can see as much of me as I can see of you. It’s not my fault I’m still half dressed,” he added with gentle encouragement. He dropped a soundless kiss in her hair.
Automatically, Alyssa glanced at their figures as they both stood sideways to the wall of mirrors. The sight of herself standing fully naked in the arms of a man who by all of the normal definitions was still a stranger made her gasp. There was something unbearably abandoned about the image, and Alyssa went suddenly still as the realization of what she was doing came home to her. She stared at the image of herself, seeing the way the darker shade of Jordan’s skin contrasted with her own paleness, absorbing the possessive curve of his sinewy arms as they encircled her waist. Her bare thighs were arched against his lower body in a silent plea, and even as she watched, momentarily shocked, Jordan deliberately thrust a foot between her legs.
The action, an unsubtle masculine asse
rtion of intent, broke the spell of the mirror. Eyes wide now with an uncertainty that had been sparked far too late, Alyssa faced him. “Jordan, wait, please wait. This is all happening much too fast, and I can’t seem to think. This isn’t what I had planned…”
“This isn’t what either of us had planned for this evening.” The rich, dark voice was a soothing, gentling force designed to ease her rush of indecision. “But it’s what’s going to happen. I told you earlier that there really is an element of luck in the universe, sweetheart. Don’t fight it. I’m not going to let you fight it!”
“No, Jordan, wait.” She moved her head restlessly from side to side in a negative gesture, but he caught her lips with his own and held them fiercely captive. Then he shifted one hand to burrow it beneath the fall of her auburn hair and find the delicate nape of her neck. Instantly, his fingers began a slow massaging action that calmed and tamed. Alyssa felt herself succumbing to the magic of his hands and the kiss that anchored her mouth. Her palms, which had lifted to his shoulders in protest, stilled once more, hovering uncertainly on his skin.
“I can’t wait, sweetheart. I’ve been looking for you far too long.” Jordan’s free hand went to the buckle of his belt, and he finished undressing himself impatiently. The beautifully tailored trousers fell into a heap, followed by close-fitting briefs. Before Alyssa had even begun to rescue herself from the spell of his embrace, he, too, was naked.
She felt the brush of his thigh as he thrust it boldly between hers, parting her legs for his touch. “Jordan, ah, Jordan.” The words were a sigh of surrender as he slid his palm across her hip and then began to explore the hidden secrets behind the triangle of auburn hair at the apex of her legs.
“Sweetheart, you’re so warm, so ready for me,” he groaned as he discovered the evidence of her desire. “Don’t deny me what I need so much from you tonight. Stop worrying about the future and go back to thinking only of the present. I’ll take care of the future.”
Alyssa accepted the fact that she could no longer think properly at all. Her moment of doubt inspired by common sense had passed with the renewed touch of his hand, and she shuddered against him. How could she deny the magic of those hands? Never had she felt anything like it.