Carter's Cuffs (3 page)

Admittedly, this wasn’t his usual demeanor. He lusted for women and loved sex as much as the next guy, and the night he’d spent with Diana and Marc when Diana had first come to town was the most intense erotic experience he’d ever had—but he didn’t usually sit around begging for sex and Diana knew him well enough to know it.

“It’s Erin,” he said without weighing his words. He hadn’t even admitted that to himself before right now, but he understood, in an instant, that it was his unrequited attraction to Erin making him so damn horny.

“Erin, huh?” she said with a cute little grin. He trusted Diana and had confided to her how drawn he’d been to their neighbor ever since the dinner party.

He shook his head. “I can’t get her off my mind. I don’t know what it is—but I’ve got it bad. And she’s just not interested. So I get the torture of watching her head off to work wearing her skimpy hooker clothes, but none of the rewards.” The truth was, he wasn’t used to women turning him down, so Erin’s rejection had come as a blow in multiple ways.

“Poor baby,” Diana said, sounding sincere but still smiling. She lifted a kiss to his forehead. “Don’t worry—before the night is over, you’ll feel
all
better.”

He was so horny that his cock perked to life just from the promise, and from the feel of Diana’s soft, feminine arm around his shoulder.

“Hey, sweetheart, they’re playing our song!”

Carter looked up to see his buddy Marc, plainly intoxicated as he drew Diana to her feet. “Sorry to steal her away, dude,” he said, “but I want to dance with my woman.”

Carter just laughed, because only alcohol could make Marc dance, and he had a feeling
any
song would be
their
song right now.

But as Diana slipped her hand into Marc’s, Carter suffered a pang of jealousy. Not about Diana, but about how damn happy they were. He’d never met two people better suited for each other, and since Diana had come into Marc’s life, Marc seemed at once more energized yet content, always wearing a smile.

And given that Carter had turned thirty-three today, the idea of settling down didn’t sound bad to him. The truth was, he’d trade twenty Nurse Goodbodies for a nice, settled life with the right woman. He couldn’t help envying what his friends had.

That’s when he realized
all
his friends had taken to the dance floor. Maybe he was the only one not yet drunk enough. With that thought in mind, he took a swig from his beer bottle and sank his fork into his cake.
Happy-fucking-birthday to me.

“Hey, Carter—come dance!”

Glancing up, he found Lena, a redhead, and Holly, a blonde—both girlfriends of Diana’s whom he’d gotten to know socially. He’d made out with Holly last Fourth of July after they’d all watched the fireworks together at Desert Breeze Park, but it hadn’t gone any further. She was cute and a lot of fun, but a little silly for his taste. Not that he needed a genius, but…hell, he guessed he
was
looking for a girlfriend, someone he really wanted to spend time with, in
and
out of bed.

Yet as Carter found himself letting Lena and Holly draw him up out of his chair toward the dance floor, he decided that maybe tonight things
would
go somewhere with Holly. Or maybe Lena, who Diana’d met in her spinning class and had predictably great legs, which she was showing off in a short leather skirt. Yep, maybe he’d just get out on the dance floor, drink his beer, have some fun and see what happened.

And that plan might actually have worked if he hadn’t been thinking so damn much about Erin and her naughty hooker outfit.

Where was a cop when you needed one?

* * * * *

Twenty minutes later, Carter was almost having a good time. Beer helped—and he’d just finished another. Something by Shakira blasted over the speakers, and though it wasn’t his usual taste in music, he still swayed back and forth, the middle part of a sandwich formed with Holly in front and Lena in back. He still wished Erin was there, that it was
her
breasts rubbing so suggestively against his chest, but he was trying to make the best of it.

Diana and Marc danced next to them, and when Diana caught his eye, she leaned over to yell in his ear over the music, “Happy birthday, baby!”

And that was when it hit him. Holly and Lena. The sandwich. That was Diana’s birthday surprise for him.

Shit.
He couldn’t help being disappointed.

On the other hand, though, what was he expecting? And who was he to complain? They might not be Erin, but Diana wasn’t a miracle worker. And just a little while ago, he’d been hoping for a naughty Nurse Goodbody—and two ready-and-willing girls could be a lot more fun than a five-minute dance from a stripper.

“Hey, what’s going on?” someone suddenly murmured behind him.

“Cops!” Holly gasped just then.

And Carter forgot all about his birthday present as he turned to see two officers making their way through the crowd onto the dance floor. Both of them women, he realized. “Sir, I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us,” said the blonde, fair-complexioned one.

He was just about to grasp that she was talking to
him
—when he recognized the other. “Erin?” he asked, taken aback.

She didn’t answer—just peered up at him, her brown eyes wide and luminous, her dark hair tucked up under her hat. “What the—” he began, but the other policewoman cut him off.

“Hands behind your back, sir.” The blonde cop was physically turning him around, reaching for his wrists.

And he was confused as hell. “What
is
this? What are you doing?” By now, everyone around them had stopped dancing and stood waiting to see what would happen.

“We’re placing you under arrest,” Erin said, her voice bolder than he’d heard it before.
Must be her cop voice,
he thought—but why the hell was she using it on
him
, and did she just say he was under freaking
arrest
?

“
What
?” He looked Erin in the eye.

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” Erin continued with the Miranda rights and he heard the click of handcuffs around his wrists just as he felt the cool steel binding his hands behind his back.

As the two women began to usher him off the floor, Shakira still shrieking in the background, Carter couldn’t think straight. Erin was arresting him? What had he done wrong? What law had he broken?

He looked up at Diana to see her mouth the words:
Don’t worry—it’ll be all right.
And Marc—
Marc
was fucking
laughing
! Given the beer Carter had consumed throughout the evening and the fact that he was good and drunk now, the whole thing felt impossible and surreal.

He stayed quiet, trying to wrap his intoxicated mind around it, until they’d woven through the crowd in the club and exited across the wooden bridge into a wide hall that connected two casinos. His “police escorts” turned him to the right, toward the main casino and registration desk. People stared.

“What’s going on?” he asked, the club’s music fading behind him. “What the hell am I being charged with?”

“Drunk and disorderly conduct,” the blonde answered. They each had him by one arm, but given their hats, it was hard to see their eyes when he looked down at them now.

“When?” he asked, dumbfounded. “When the hell was I drunk and disorderly?”

An old couple passing by them scowled, apparently thinking he was a difficult prisoner.

“I think it’s fair to say you’re drunk right now,” Erin said.

Erin. His sweet, sexy neighbor.
He still couldn’t believe this.

“And growing more disorderly by the second,” added the blonde.

They brought him to a halt at a bank of lavish elevators and Erin pushed the up button. It didn’t even hit him how weird that was until the doors opened and they led him inside. When a young family started to follow, the blonde held up her hand to stop them. “Police business, folks. We’re making an apprehension here. Sorry.” And the doors closed behind them.

“Where are we going? Since when does Caesars Palace have a police station?”

“Special outpost,” Erin answered.

Special outpost?
“Get real,” he snapped.

“Oh this is very real, sir,” the blonde said. “And we’ll thank you to calm down and watch your tone.”

Carter had never felt so bewildered in his life. And as the elevator opened a moment later and the two lady cops led him into a plush hallway, it occurred to him that he could easily overpower them and get away. But how far could he get with his hands behind his back? And now that he thought about it, Erin had mentioned knowing karate—and they
did
both have holsters at their hips.

“I don’t understand,” he said simply, at a loss as they guided him down the hallway lined with doors. “What is this about, Erin?” Again, he tried to look at her, but her hat shaded her face from his gaze.

This time no one answered, but the blonde cop drew a card key from her pocket and slipped it in the lock on the door they’d just halted in front of. When the little entry light flashed green, she pushed it open and they led him inside to a standard guestroom. King-size bed with a cherry headboard, large matching TV cabinet, table and chairs, and a small sofa near the window.

Guiding him to one side of the bed, they pushed him down until he was sitting on it. He’d quit asking questions since no one was giving him any real answers, and just waited to see what would happen next.

He couldn’t have been more stunned when Erin walked toward the window, then turned back to face him, whipping her hat from her head to say, “Happy birthday, Carter,” her voice turning silky, sexy.

He squinted. “Huh?”

She smiled bashfully, biting her lower lip, and now those big brown eyes looked…completely inviting. Especially when she reached for the top button on her uniform and gave a hard yank with both hands, opening her shirt to the waist.

“Oh,” he said, blood rushing to his cock as all the puzzle pieces started falling into place. Man, he’d been stupid. And slow. He could only blame it on the beer. And her abject refusals when he’d asked her out. “You’re not arresting me.”

She shook her head, but it was suddenly hard to keep his eyes there because they kept dropping to what he could see of her bra—a lacy mix of lavender and blue—and the beautiful curves of her ample cleavage. “No,” she said softly. “We’re
seducing
you.”

He shifted his glance to the blonde, who’d just tossed her own hat aside to send sexy, wavy tresses falling just past her shoulders, and who was, he’d just realized, a gorgeous girl. Then he looked back to Erin. “
We
?”

Lowering her chin provocatively, she gave a short but deliberate nod.

“Oh,” he said again, and his cock got a lot harder, fast.

“This is Melanie,” Erin said.

He looked back to the blonde once more. “Hi, Melanie.”

“Nice to meet you, Carter,” she replied with a suggestive smile. “Now just lie back, relax and let us do all the work.”

Uh-huh, yeah, he could do that. He couldn’t quite believe this was happening—that Erin was about to have her way with him and that she’d actually brought a friend along to help—but he wasn’t going to argue.

Following Melanie’s instructions, he eased back on the bed—only to find his hands trapped behind him. Damn, he’d gotten so excited that he’d actually forgotten about the handcuffs. He sat back up. “Uh, about these cuffs, could we, uh…”

“Yeah, about those cuffs,” Erin said, then came to the bed, slid a small key from her holster, and a second later, one wrist came free. He instantly drew his arms around to his sides, ready to reach for her and get this party started—but just as quickly, her small fists closed over his hands, lifting them over his head as she urged him to his back again. Gazing up at the large, beautiful breasts curving from the bra beneath her open shirt, he let himself follow her lead, okay with the idea of surrender now. And only when he felt the cuff come back around his wrist with a snap did he look over his head to see she’d chained him to one of the tall cherry bedposts.

“Oh,” he said. More fun with handcuffs. He’d never played that way before, and immediately realized he wasn’t all that comfortable being confined. But on the other hand, he could be open-minded, and it was easy enough to go with the flow. Hell, his cock strained behind his zipper, so he must not mind being restrained
too
much. And if Erin and her friend wanted to have a three-way with him, he wasn’t gonna nitpick over the details. Nope, he was gonna do exactly what Melanie had said—lie back, relax and enjoy.

Every nerve ending in Erin’s body prickled with the reality of what she’d put into play here. She’d never really seduced a man before, and she’d
certainly
never taken part in a threesome, so she was a little nervous. But now that the plan had actually worked, now that they had him in the room and the seduction had begun, she was equally as turned on, her pussy warm with anticipation.

The idea had hit her a week ago, that night at the Desert Oasis when she’d been so dangerously aroused because of Carter. And Melanie was the perfect partner. New to the force, she and Erin had become fast friends and Melanie had happily shared her many sexual exploits since coming to town. She’d moved to Sin City from Peoria, Illinois, seeking some excitement while she was still young enough to enjoy it, she’d told Erin. When Erin had shyly shared her idea for Carter’s birthday present, Melanie had agreed, without even having seen him.