Page 33 of Contracted

Chapter Eighteen

Delilah

I ached from head to toe, but they were delicious aches, ones that left me beaming. I couldn’t help but smile even wider as I stepped out of the elevator with Serafino and onto one of the gaming floors where people milled about.

The whole place buzzed, the atmosphere electric. A shout filled the air after a gambler won the roll of the dice on the roulette wheel.

Serafino glanced at me. “Let’s start there.”

I nodded, his hand squeezing mine as we approached the gaming table, the crowd parting to let us through. Though I doubted anyone few knew who he was, his dangerous aura was enough for them to get out of his way.

If their stares weren’t already drawn toward us, with him in a dark tailored suit and me in a sparkling silver sheaf dress with an irregular hem, then they certainly were when he put down five thousand for the croupier to exchange for chips.

“They’re yours,” he said, pushing the chips in front of me. “You just have to decide where to place them.”

“They are?” I breathed. I glanced at the board and bit my bottom lip. “I want to put a grand on black.”

He grinned. “Let’s do it then.”

I slid some of my stack of orange chips inside the black rectangle on the table even as the croupier threw the ball into the spinning wheel. When the ball popped into number thirty-three black, for a moment I stood there with my mouth open.

“You won,” Serafino said with a chuckle.

I turned to him. “I did,” I said with a breathless rush before I threw my arms around him and clung on.

His laugh vibrated straight through me, his strong arms encircling me before he said into my ear, “Keep clinging to me like this and I might have to take you someplace private and have my wicked way with you.”

If his words weren’t warning enough then the bulge against my stomach most certainly was. I pulled back, my face flushing. “You’re insatiable,” I managed, before I turned away from his smug gaze and watched my chips grow in size.

We tried baccarat next, and though I lost more than I won there was something invigorating having Serafino standing behind me like an impenetrable wall. That he had my back was irrefutable.

A bald man in a pale gray suit approached from out of the crowd, and Serafino smiled before he shook hands with him. Then drawing me close, he said to the man, “Jarrod, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend, Delilah.”

My heart pounded at his words. Girlfriend? Why did I wish for that with every cell in my body?

“Delilah,” Serafino continued, “Jarrod is the director of this casino.”

I turned to meet the man’s pale blue stare, my breath shuddering and the hairs on my arms standing up with a sudden sense of foreboding.

“I didn’t know you were with someone,” Jarrod said to Serafino before he slid me a sideward glance that seemed full of insinuation.

Serafino’s voice sharpened. “Now you do.”

“No offense intended,” Jarrod said in placating tone, jerking his gaze away from me. “I can see she is special to you.”

“She is,” Serafino agreed. With a dismissive tone he added, “I’ll catch up with you later in the week.”

“Of course, you know where to find me.”

He didn’t look my way again when he pivoted and walked away.

It was only after the director was out of sight that Serafino murmured, “You looked like you saw a ghost.” His voice tightened. “Have you and Jarrod already met?”

My laugh was dry. “If you’re asking if he’s ever been a client of mine, then no, he hasn’t.” I shook my head and admitted, “There was just something off about him.”

He brushed a hand up and down my back. “I’ll have someone look into him.”

I nodded, the bad vibe soon dissipating as I tried my hand at craps. I won more than I lost, my adrenaline surging as the croupier slid my pile of chips toward me.

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