Hustler (26 page)

“What are you thinking?” he asks, his smooth voice trailing over the bare skin of my shoulder, causing me to shiver.

“Honestly?”

“No,” he laughs lightly. “Lie to me, please. I love it when you do that.”

“Smart ass,” I giggle, throwing my elbow back, catching him softly in the ribs, not enough to hurt, just enough to be playful. “Truth is,” I continue, trying to find the right words to answer his question. “I’m not really sure.”

“You aren’t sure what you’re thinking?” he asks in a bewildered voice.

“Well… no, I guess…” I stumble. “I guess I’m just confused. I mean, this really isn’t a side of you I ever expected to see. Not that I don’t like it!” I add, quickly back pedaling. “Because I do. I like it a lot. I guess what I mean is I’m a little surprised by it. I didn’t know you had it in you to be sweet, Gavin Saint.”

“I didn’t either,” he answers in a voice devoid of any humor. He’s serious, and from the sounds of it, just as confused as I am. “I don’t… do relationships, which makes this whole thing with you feel so foreign.” I’m not sure if I should feel insulted, but before I can decide on an emotion, he’s talking again. “I’ve never met a woman I
wanted
to have a relationship with. Then you came along and I feel like I haven’t been able to catch up.”

I tilt my head to the side, my brow furrowed as I study his profile in the waning light. “What do you mean?”

Gavin’s body moves away from mine and I instantly miss his heat against me, but before I can protest, his strong hands grip my waist, and spin me around on the ledge so I am facing him. His narrow hips push against my knees, giving me no choice but to open my legs to accommodate him. His long fingers come up, cupping my cheeks, forcing my eyes to meet his.

“I love a challenge, Penelope, and God knows I haven’t gotten much of them in my life lately. Something in me had shifted before I even met you. Things that used to give me a rush, give me that high I love, have been leaving me disappointed and empty.” I stare into his inky eyes, mesmerized as he speaks, lost in his words and his dark gaze, almost the color of the darkened sky. “When I met you I’d been feeling complacent. Nothing seemed to matter as much as it used to. That void remained empty on a daily basis. When you walked in that room and I saw you on camera, throwing your sass around without a thought, I saw something I’d been craving for a while.”

“I was a challenge,” I finish for him, my stomach in knots at the thought that what I’m feeling isn’t real, that it’s just a high he’s chasing.

“You were, yes. But now it’s different. I’m not going to lie, and I won’t sugar coat the truth. I’ve been inside of you almost every way I can. If it was just a challenge for me, I’d be gone by now.” I try to pull my face away, suddenly feeling overwhelmed, angry, and a little sad. And I
hate
feeling that way, but he won’t let go. “But I still want you, Penelope.” I stop struggling, my gaze shooting back to his in surprise. “I don’t think it’s the challenge of catching you I love so much. I think that it’s just because you challenge
me
. Every single day.”

His thumbs rub slows paths along my cheeks, trailing down to my bottom lip as he leans in closer. “And it’s not just your attitude I’m talking about,” he says softly, with a cheeky grin. “It’s because you’re smart. Yes, you’re so fucking sexy you drive me out of my mind, but it’s more. You’re passionate, and caring, and loyal… so goddamned loyal. I can’t help but wonder what it would feel like to be worthy of your loyalty. Being around you challenges me to be a better man, and it’s the first time I’ve ever felt that.”

I don’t know how long I’ve been sitting here, my lips parted in shock, but it takes me a few seconds to realize he’s gone silent in expectation of my response. “I… wow. I don’t…”

So freaking smooth, Nell
.

“Holy shit,” he chuckles. “Did I just stun Penelope Prescott speechless? I didn’t know you were capable of silence.” At his words, I narrow my eyes and glare. “There it is,” he murmurs, leaning in kissing my lips softly, fleetingly. It’s just enough to have me craving more. “Call me crazy, but I much prefer your sass to your silence. I have to admit, that attitude gets me hard as a rock.”

“How do you do that?” I ask in exasperation.

“Do what?”

“How do you go from a man so sweet I’m actually terrified of what I’m feeling, to someone whose sole focus is sex? It’s infuriating!” I huff, leaning out of his hold just enough to cross my arms over my chest and pout.

Gavin’s grin is positively sinful. “Easy,” he shrugs. “Have you
seen
you? If there ever comes a day that I think about you and don’t get hard enough to break wood, I’m more than likely dead.”

I can’t help it, he’s so outrageous that I throw my head back in laughter, the sound echoing across the dam behind me.

“Penelope.” His voice is once again serious, immediately halting the laughter spilling from my lips. When I lift my head to look at him, he’s staring down at me, so many emotions flitting through his eyes that I can’t pinpoint a single one of them. “If it makes you feel better, I’m fucking terrified of what I feel for you. And the worst part of that is, I don’t know what to do about it.”

“I don’t either,” I shrug, giving him a small, uncertain smile. “I guess all we can do is take it one day at a time, huh?”

As soon as the words leave my mouth, a chilly gust of wind blows around us, causing my skin to break out in goose bumps. That’s one thing I’ve never gotten used to living in the desert. The days can be sweltering hot, but the moment the sun goes down the nights can be positively frigid.

“Come on,” Gavin coaxes, lifting me from the ledge and placing me on my feet before taking my hand in his. “It’s getting cold, we should go.”

As I let him lead me to the car, I’m suddenly overcome with a sense of loss, like the moment we just shared is at risk of disappearing the second we’re back within the city lights. I’m not ready for it to end yet. I need more of
this
Gavin before we go back to our real lives and run the risk of losing what we’ve gained tonight. Once we reach the car, Gavin releases my hand to reach into his pocket for the keys. I scan the area and realize just how secluded we are, not that it would have mattered, not with how I’m feeling at this very moment. And that’s what I’m doing…
feeling
. I’ve allowed myself to shut down my brain and just feel.

Gavin’s eyes come to mine when I take a step away from him. “Penelope?”

I don’t say a word as I reach beneath my skirt and hook my thumbs in the waistband of my panties, sliding them down my thighs until they pool at my feet.

“What are you doing?” he asks, his voice instantly going rough and gravelly. I can see it in the lights of the dam the way his pupils dilate, turning that dark brown almost completely black. The moment my thong hits the ground, he’s as consumed as I am.

Walking to the front of the car, I place my hands on the hood and look up, my eyelids heavy as I take in the rapid rise and fall of his chest. “Fuck me, Gavin. I need to feel your big cock inside me. Right now.”

He doesn’t hesitate. The instant the words leave my mouth he’s stalking toward me, and I want to cry out in relief because if he’d paused, for even one second, I don’t know what I would have done.

The heat of his chest hits my back at the same time the cold air brushes against my thighs as he trails his hands up, up, up. I’m too far gone to notice the drop in temperature anymore. I let out a needy whimper as soon as his fingers slide through my drenched slit.

“So fucking ready for me,” he growls in my ear before pulling the lobe into his mouth and nipping. “No one else can do this for you, can they? No one else makes you so wet, so fucking desperate.” I whimper again. “You want my cock, Penelope?”

“Yes,” I groan, my head falling back against his shoulder as he grinds his massive erection against my ass. I can’t think of anything in my life I’ve ever wanted more than him at this very second. “Please, Gavin. Please fuck me.”

He moves away just far enough to free himself from the confines of his jeans, and as I look over my shoulder to see that big, straining dick pointing directly at me, I moan, long and loud. I barely notice him removing a condom from his wallet and ripping the foil open with his teeth. In a matter of seconds, that feel more like a million years, he’s fully sheathed and pressing against me, lifting the skirt of my dress over my ass and shoving into me in a hard, brutal thrust that has me shouting his name into the dark night.

“God
dammit
,” he hisses between clenched teeth as he pumps into me, stretching me around his thickness at a relentless pace. “So. Fucking. Tight.” Each word is punctuated with a thrust that hits that most sensitive spot inside me. No man has
ever
hit that spot, and as the edges of my vision grow hazy, I feel the insane need to pay homage to Gavin Saint’s glorious cock. Luckily, all I’m capable of just now is a loud cry of pleasure as his fingers dig into the flesh of my ass, kneading and pulling at my cheeks as he fucks me better than anyone ever has before.

“Gavin. Oh, God. Don’t stop. Please don’t stop. I need to come,” I chant, or at least I think I do. For all I know, I’m speaking in tongue as he manipulates my body in a way I’m certain only he can. The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoing in the air is the most erotic thing I’ve ever heard.

One of his hands releases my ass and comes to rest between my shoulder blades, and before I know it, my chest meets the cool surface of the car’s hood. I’m bent over, completely at Gavin’s mercy, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be.

Each of his hands is braced on the metal on either side of my head as his cock pulls almost completely out, only to dive back in again and again with perfect precision. I swear to God, Gavin Saint was born to fuck me.

“Jesus Christ,” he grinds out. “Do you have any clue how fucking beautiful you look, spread out across my car like this?” His crude words are followed by a loud
crack
and what feels like fire stinging the cheek of my ass.

I throw my head back in a guttural yell, the feel of his palm slapping me only heightening the pleasure I’m already feeling. He does it again. And again. And again. It’s so good I think I might be able to come from him spanking me alone.

“That’s it, Penelope,” he rasps. “That’s it. Take every fucking thing I give you. Such a good girl. Squeeze my cock and I’ll let you come.”

I do what he says, clenching my walls around him. He gives me one last spank before trailing his hand along my hot flesh and down between my thighs where he presses against my clit just hard enough that, with a throat-burning scream, I dive into the blissful abyss of my release, coming so hard I see stars.

“Oh shit. Holy fucking
shit
! I’m coming!
Uhn
…” he groans as he buries himself to the root and follows me over. His cock swelling as he empties everything he has inside me. My head drops back down as I pant uncontrollably, reveling in the way his dick twitches inside me.
I
did that to him.
I
made him come so hard he collapsed on top of me, his breaths just as ragged as my own.

For long seconds, the only sounds are our heavy breathing. Then, “I’m never fucking washing this car again,” he declares in a tone full of worship. I laugh as much as my still deflated lungs allow.

Gavin’s fingertips brush my chin as he turns my head just enough for our lips to meet in a long, languid kiss that holds more emotion than any kiss I’ve ever received. I know we have to move, that we can’t stay like this all night, but that doesn’t mean I’m not sad when he finally removes his lips from mine and pulls out of me. I gasp as a cold breeze hits the wet, sensitive flesh between my thighs.

“You okay?” he asks as he helps me from the hood of the car.

I offer him what I have no doubt is a drugged grin. “I’m great. I’m
more
than great.”

“Me too,” he smiles back, and I’m lost again in his smile.

We’re both silent as he helps me into the car, closes me in, and makes his way around the hood to the driver side. We might not speak the whole way back to the city, but with the contentment thickening the air around us, there’s no need to. His fingers stay laced with mine the whole time, only letting go long enough to shift before coming right back.

The brightly lit Strip can be seen from miles away, growing closer and closer, and if I’d have had to pick a way to end our night, this is exactly what I would have wanted.

Only, it doesn’t end. Gavin doesn’t take me home. He takes me back to the hotel…

**GAVIN**

Fucking hell.

What am I doing? What the
fuck
am I doing?

For the first time in my entire life, I’m feeling shit about a woman and not only am I accepting those feelings, but I’m
expressing
those feelings to said woman.

What the ever loving fuck!

I blame the sunset for making me lose my mind, for making me turn into a man who opens his heart to another human being.

This isn’t me. This isn’t the Gavin Saint that took the poker world by storm and annihilated all competition.

But do you know what? There is this weird sense of ease that washed over me the minute I wrapped my arms around Penelope and told her what I’ve been feeling. As if there’s been a clamp around my chest, tightening with each passing day, Penelope’s candid spirit and warm smile has loosened the vise’s hold, to the point that I almost feel like a completely different man.

It’s terrifying.

I’ve never been a pussy, I’ve taken what life’s given me and made my own royal flush, but with Penelope, I feel like no matter what cards rest in my hand, I’m going to lose. I’m going to lose the hard shield I’ve built to protect myself from a woman who can easily destroy a man. Even knowing this, the hand that rests in mine is one I don’t want to let go of.

When did I become so protective of this woman? When did the tables turn to the point that I no longer just wanted to fuck her, but that I have this desperate feeling of responsibility to bring happiness to her life?