Page 57 of Casino King

I wonder what he has planned this year. He hosts these parties for the areas around the country and world with the highest concentration of his clients, and he doesn’t spare any expense.

Moving around the room for the next hour, Leo and I make small talk with politicians, including the mayor of Atlantic City and New York, police chiefs from precincts all around the tri-state area, and presidents of the unions we control. It’s always important to show them your face every so often to remind them who owns them. Let them look us in the eyes so they know what’s coming for them if they decide they want to go back on any of our agreements and try to fuck us over.

Nothing instills fear in a man who thinks they have a powerful position in life more than when you come around to remind them it can all be taken away in the blink of an eye.

We avoid who we need to, and our men make sure none of them get too close to us either.

After my third whiskey, and while in the midst of telling Leo how board I am of these people, the lights dim, and the DJ’s music morphs into something slow and sexy – a song I recognize.

Three women take the stage and start to dance a routine I’ve become all too familiar with over the past two months.

My eyes search the dark area surrounding the stage and in between all the guests, hoping it’s just the liquor making me realize what I’m seeing.

The song eventually fades out and the women leave the stage, the men all around yelling their praises and vulgarities after their retreating figures.

I’m vaguely aware of Leo saying something next to me, but when the next song starts, and it’s one I know better than any other, I throw back the rest of my whiskey and shove it at a waitress passing by before pushing my way forward.

Leo yells at me, but I ignore him, letting him and our men find their own way through the crowd, not caring in the least that I’m exposing myself. My eyes stay glued to the spot I know she’ll emerge from any second now.

Chapter 18

Tessa

My emerald green skirt fans out around me as I spin out onto stage. My costume tonight for this party is different than my others, but my manager insisted, saying it would go well under the dim colored lights reflecting off the glass dome and pool. He told all of us performing that we needed to elevate our look, and even tweaked our routines slightly to make them even more sensual and eye catching than before.

I got a glimpse of the party through the curtain when Jenna, Kayla, and Gina took the stage a few minutes ago, and all I thought was, holy shit.

I’d always wanted to see one of Sahara’s midnight pool parties, but this is something else. Something more than I think they usually do. And I know the guests here aren’t of the garden variety kind that are typically in attendance either.

I can feel a mixture of fear, power, rage, and a simmering of sinister energy swirling around the room. I don’t know who’s here, but I know they’re all dangerous.

Amongst all of them, though, there’s one energy in particular that I feel caressing my skin like a black rose – soft velvet petals before the thorns cut me deep. Gently seductive, yet possessively scarring.

I know that caress. I’ve come to crave that caress. I’ve come to need that caress.

On my next pirouette, I stop with a pose center stage, and my eyes lock with a pair of dark and angry ones that I’ve been drowning in since they first met mine.

The show’s manager, Dan, only told us a couple of days ago about working this party. I’ve barely been able to talk to Alec this week with how busy he’s been, and telling him about working some party I was given no information on for privacy and anonymity reasons because of whoever is hosting it, was the last thing on my mind. I was only able to tell him in passing this morning before his hands on my body distracted me, and then he left me in my post orgasmic haze for work.

Alec’s eyes look like they could burn all of Atlantic City to the ground right now, and after what feels like forever, but is really only a second, I’m moving away from him, my body following the music as it carries me around the stage – controlling me, guiding me, embodying me.

Alec remains where he is. Under the burning rage, I can still see his desire for me like a flame in the distance of a black tunnel, and I go towards it until it’s front and center and I’m blinded by the blaze.

Something comes over me, and without consciously knowing it, I change my routine, my own desires fueling me to do as they please – enslaving me to their needs.

Before I know it, the song is over, and I’ve danced a routine I’ve never done before. I don’t even hear the audience’s response. I only see Alec. He’s the only one that matters. He’s above them all. He’s the reason I can do what I just did.

When the music morphs into something more upbeat, I blink out of my daze and fade back into the shadows so Daphne and Jen can take the stage.

“What was that?” Dan asks me.

“I…I don’t know. I’m sorry…I just…I don’t know what came over me. I saw him, and…”

“Who?” he asks, perplexed, his eyebrows coming together.

“No one,” I say quickly, and he looks even more confused, but he just shakes his head.

“I should be mad, but that was amazing, Tessa. Beautiful.”

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