Page 52 of Gamble
She got there just in time to see a short message fill the screen from someone named Kent. He was demanding Elijah meet ‘the guys’ for brunch before they all headed back to L.A.
Fresh guilt invaded. She’d already run the gamut of emotions on the topic of having kinky sex with a near stranger. Hell, he’d made her come not just once but seven times. She knew the count because Elijah was still actively working toward the magic number of a dozen. The only problem was the clock. They were running out of time.
Now she could add feeling guilty for stealing Elijah away from his friends for the entire weekend to her worry list.
“I love that sundress on you.” Elijah’s deep voice said from behind her.
Reagan flinched. She’d been caught red-handed looking down at his phone.
Grateful she at least hadn’t picked it up, she answered without turning around. “Someone is trying to reach you. Your phone keeps dinging.”
Coming up behind her, Elijah slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her against his hard chest as his masculine strength enveloped her. She didn’t miss how the tension that had been building in their few minutes apart melted away when he was near.
“Probably just the guys trying to get me to meet them for food. They’re gonna be heading back to L.A. soon, but I’m still hoping I can talk you into staying with me another day. I don’t have to go back to work until Wednesday night.”
He’d made the same offer in the middle of the night. Once the sun had come up, she’d worried she’d dreamed the invitation.
“I would love to stay,” she said truthfully. “But I have to work tomorrow.”
“Would it make me an asshole if I tried to con you into calling in sick?”
Reagan chuckled. “You manage people, right? How do you feel when they call in sick at the last minute?”
Elijah nibbled along her neck, doing his best to tempt her into changing her mind.
“Fine. I get it. You’re a nurse. You save lives. I don’t want some bastard’s death on my hands because I left the surgical team short-staffed just so I could have sex.”
Reagan couldn’t help but laugh at his teasing. “I hardly think anyone would die, but yes… birthday sex or not, it would be rude of you to hold me hostage.”
Slowly spinning her around so he could look into her eyes, Elijah moved on to his next temptation. “I know I told you I’d give you a ride to the airport, and I will, but come down to brunch with me first. Let me introduce you to the guys.”
Reagan’s pulse spiked at the thought of meeting a whole group of men she didn’t know but who probably also had a good idea of what she and the birthday boy had been up to for the last twenty-four hours.
“Oh no. I don’t know them. But you should go,” she reassured him despite the sadness of having to say goodbye closing in. “I feel bad enough that I’ve stolen you away from them all weekend. You should at least meet them for a meal.”
“Are you kidding me? They’re jealous as hell. In fact… I don’t think they believed me when I told them I met the most amazing woman. You’d be doing me a solid coming down to eat with me and letting me show you off.”
She loved the nugget of warmth glowing inside as she let Elijah’s compliments wash over her. As an independent career-minded woman, she prided herself on not requiring a lot of external validation, but now that she’d had a small dose of Elijah’s pampering, Reagan realized just how starved she was for the kind of attention he was showering on her.
“I don’t know. Won’t it be awkward?” she asked, still on the fence. While meeting a group of strangers didn’t sound like fun, saying her final goodbye to Elijah would be harder.
“Not for me, and I’m the birthday boy,” he said with a grin so big the laugh lines around his eyes lit up.
“You’re gonna milk that for all it’s worth, aren’t you?” she teased.
“Damn straight. Come on. You need to eat. And if I can’t talk you into driving to L.A. with me, then at least let me feed you before dropping you off for your flight.”
Her naughty response burst out before she could stop it. “You already fed me once this morning, remember?” She felt her face burning red with embarrassment as soon as the words left her mouth.
“Baby, I’ll never forget.” He hugged her tighter as he added, “It was the best kind of wake-up call having your mouth on me as I woke up. A guy could get used to that.”
Her heart lurched as she suspected she would love getting used to it too.
But it wasn’t meant to be. He was too old for any kind of long-term relationship… wasn’t he?
When she didn’t answer, he moved a hand down to her ass and squeezed. “Come on. It’s almost check-out time anyway, so if you aren’t gonna stay another day, then I vote we head down and grab some food before we have to leave.”
It was tempting. Not only because she was hungry, but the last thing she wanted to do was sit at the airport where she stood a good chance of running into Tristan and his friends. With any luck, they were already long gone.
