Page 63 of House Rules
“S-she was the girl that you and I played poker with the other night, the one that kept losing hand after hand?—”
“Okay, what about her?” That vaguely rings a bell.
Phoenix stares at me, her eyes flicking across my face like she’s trying to solve a riddle I don’t knowI’m telling. Her legs start to close, and I pull my thumb away from her pussy, pressing my hand against her inner thigh until she relaxes. “A few days ago she was found in her trunk.”
“Why was she in her trunk?”
She blinks. “I’m assuming someone put her there after they killed her.”
“Oh shit. That sucks.” It really does. I may not particularly like them, but I don’t wish any harm to any of the girls that I spend time with.
“That sucks?” Phoenix echoes, an incredulous note in her voice.
I lift my hands in a shrug. “I mean, yeah, it’s sad. But is it really that unusual for girls who make a habit of hooking up with random guys to go missing? I mean, life’s dangerous, right? Especially for…what is it the police call them? Women with high-risk lifestyles?”
“This is true,” the dealer says, working on the next hand. “She’s not the only one. Another girl, Anna, went missing not too long ago. You know, the tall one with the silver hair?”
“I have no idea who she is, man, but hit me.”
He deals me out another card and gives Phoenix a knowing look. She shifts uncomfortably, looking away. I tighten my hand around her thigh to stop her from moving, my thumb slipping between her legs and just barely brushing her folds.
“I think she was the girl who was with Con a few nights ago,” Phoenix says as the dealer flips another card for me. It’s a nine, giving me twenty-two.
“Fuck,” I say, and place my bet on the next hand. “What about her and Con?”
“Nothing,” she says with a sweet smile. “It’s the same thing Sarah and I were just talking about, though. How it’s weird so many people quit and don’t even give notice. Working here is actually a pretty stable gig, and there’s not a lot of those around here, so it’s surprising.”
I shrug. “Happens all the time. It’s the cost of doing business.”
Does this shit have something to do with why she’s been acting so strange? I cut her a look. I want to know why she was in Atticus’s room. I want to know what her end game is, and I want to help her achieve it. Why won’t she just tell me her secrets?
Maybe I can tease them out of her.
I slide my hand further up her thigh, openly cupping her sex beneath the table while the dealer pretends not to notice. Smart man.
All the same, Phoenix shoots him a nervous look.
“It’s time for your break,” I tell him, and he nods, lifting his hands over the table and turning them back and forth before leaving the table. A waiting dealer takes his place, this one a blonde woman. She’s older and not much of a looker, but more importantly, not anyone that I would give a shit about seeing what I’m about to do to Phoenix.
As the dealer shuffles the cards, I slide my hand up further, my thumb circling her clit until Phoenix lays back against my shoulder and spreads her legs a fraction wider for me.
It’s all the encouragement I need.
“Do you like the way I touch you, little firebird?” I whisper in her ear.
She bites her lips and nods as I move two fingers to her drenched pussy and thrust them in.
Jesus fuck, Con wasn’t kidding. She is unbelievably tight. God, she’s going to feel so good around my cock.
One eye on the dealer, I tap the fingers of my free hand on the surface of the table. I keep working her pussy with the other, though, teasing her clit while playing blackjack.
It’s not easy to act unaffected when my cock is practically throbbing, it’s so hard. I can’t just fuck her. If she was any other girl, I would have her on her knees sucking my cock in one of the back hallways. Hell, I’d probably just have her suck me off under the table.
But I can’t do that with Phoenix. Not until she begs for my cock.
“Do you want to come, little firebird?” I nuzzle the skin of her ear, and she bites her lip harder as she nods, letting out a tiny little moan.
I look up at the sound and see that while we’ve been in our own little bubble, we’ve attracted the attention of a few players at other tables. I shift my hand away and tug her dress down, giving them a hard stare until they glance away. Nobody else gets to seeher come. I don’t want to take her apart with an audience. Not this time, anyway.
