Another instance of gazing at the stars. I was past that.
Even if my pack wasn't in crisis mode, I needed health insurance, for fuck's sake. At the very least, my own personal credit-card cloning machine wouldn't go amiss. Please, Santa, please.
Everyone in my family was sacrificing. We all had dreams we'd put on hold. Karin wanted to save up and be a full-time mom. Al and Gram had been planning to go on a world cruise to fleece obnoxious tourists and teach them never to travel again. Mom and Dad dreamed of owning a real art collection to replace the scam props littering the house. Benji, with his artistic soul, wanted to pick up a camera and document wildlife, instead of degenerates. And Pete . . .
Actually, Pete was delighted with his plum new position at the Caly.
I told Dmitri, "We all have dreams, huh?"
He canted his head. "I am starting to believe that."
The server came back to refill our wine. Had I downed a glass? I struggled to resist Dmitri in the best of circumstances. If I had a couple of drinks, he could make me plead for it. Again.
The idea of begging turned me on so swiftly, my face grew heated once more.
"Tell me about your hobbies," he said. "Do you ride horses?"
Eyes on the prize, Vice. "Um, not in a while." Not since we'd worked a real estate con near a ranch in neighboring California. My family had hated being away from Vegas; not me. "Do you ride?"
"I once did, avidly. I'm thinking about picking it up again." Must be nice. "Do you like the seaside?"
"Dunno. I've never been to one."
"How can that be? Would you like to travel more?"
"Sure. We have so many replicas of other places here. I'd love to see the Giza pyramids or a real castle or the Eiffel Tower. Just getting a first stamp in my passport would be huge for me." Hell, I'd be happy to drive back to Cali. I always said if I won the lottery I'd get a vacation place there. "But I could never stay away long. My family's here. Sunday dinner is mandatory. You only get to miss a few a year."
"You must be very close to them."
"They're everything to me."
"You are loyal to those you love," he said quietly.
"I will be till I die." I had a catalog of faults, but I possessed loyalty in spades. Once I identified someone as part of my pack, I always would. "'To the grave' is our family motto." That also described how long we Valentines kept secrets.
Dmitri's lips almost curved again, the closest that man came to smiling, and he raised his glass to me. "A toast to loyalty."
I clinked glasses with him.
The intensity of his stare made me feel awkward, so I cast about for something to say. "I couldn't find much about you online."
"I work to keep it that way."
As I suspected. So what was he hiding? More than his eccentricity? "Are you a 'have more than thou showest, say less than thou knowest' kind of guy?" Grifters lived by those words.
"Ah, Shakespeare's King Lear."
I grinned. I shouldn't be surprised Dmitri recognized the quote. My mark was scarily brilliant. "So what do you do now? Since you've already finished a lifetime of work?"
"Now I'm a steward for my own holdings."
"I think that's a non-braggy way to say you oversee a financial empire 'cause you're so rich."
He inclined his head. "I've got it down to a science, actually. I can work an hour a day from anywhere. I've decided it's time to enjoy myself more."
"Doing what? What are you looking for out of life?"
"The same as most men. A wife and a couple of children."
I couldn't believe he'd admitted to wanting a wife. And he'd also revealed yet another way we didn't fit: kids. "A family of your own, huh?"
"Wealth is meaningless without loved ones to spend it on."
"I'll have to take your word about the wealth. Though I am surprised you haven't settled down then."
"I hadn't met the right woman."
Hadn't met? As in, he had now.
He'd told me he wanted to get something solidified, but that was a far cry from settled down and having kids. Lucia, Natalie, and Jess had gone on about Sevastyans falling at first sight. Could Dmitri truly think I was the one for him?
No, no. Russian was his first language; he'd probably mistaken the tense of the verb. Or I'd misheard him.
So why was he looking at me so keenly. . . ?
CHAPTER 16
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As Dmitri and I talked over more wine and shared a decadent tiramisu, I discovered we did have a few things in common.
We liked some of the same art and books and even some of the same music. He didn't laugh or smile, but he did have a sense of humor. "Perhaps you'll be the one to make me appreciate eighties hits," he'd said, his eyes crinkling at the sides. "My tutors failed at every turn." Whenever he almost smiled, my body grew tingly.
Now that I was more in tune with his moods and expressions, we'd found a comfortable ebb and flow. But sometimes I would sense that social discomfort, as if he was out of practice conversing.
What a confusing, complicated man. Polished at times, but unpracticed at others. Gorgeous, yet oblivious to the babes sighing as they passed our cabana. Brilliant, but he couldn't read people. . . .
When my phone started vibrating in my purse, I figured it was growing late and everyone wanted an update. "I should be getting home."
He signaled for the check. "Tomorrow I am taking you on a trip. We will spend the week anywhere you want to go."
After last night's detour, I was back to step five: gradually making my desires known. "I have to work. As much as I'd like to, I can't live in the Porsche you bought me."
He grew very still as he said, "I want to take care of you." In a way, he was pitching me too.
I playfully asked, "Dmitri, are you offering to be my sugar daddy?" In Sin City, the going rate was a bauble an orgasm.
He gazed at me as if he sensed a verbal trap. "I want . . . not to send you running from me again."
"I'm not going anywhere. Talk to me."
He sighed. "I have more money than I could possibly ever spend, but it brings me no enjoyment. Being with you does, and so I crave time with you. I resent your work for keeping me from what I want. Will you accept more from me?"
Holy shit! I'd never dreamed of a mark like this. The richest, hottest man I'd ever met was teed up for the kill. But my doubts flared again. The nicer he was to me, the harde
r this job felt. "Why don't we slow things down a little?" said the con artist to the unbalanced billionaire.
He looked frustrated. "I'm spooking you."
"You must be leaving Vegas soon."
He seemed to be weighing his words. Finally he said, "Not without you."
My jaw slackened.
"That was one of those things I shouldn't have said aloud, isn't it?"
Red flags waved all over the place. "This is going too fast." I struggled for equilibrium.
"Compared to most other couples? Yes. But you and I are both aware of what's happening."
I sputtered, "Spell it out for me, big guy."
"You are going to be mine," he said. "Exclusively. You're as good as already."
I blew out a breath. "Exclusively." I was supposed to manipulate him over the finish line. This was supposed to take all of my cunning and skill, and assistance from all kinds of rogues across the underbelly of Sin City.
Dmitri was offering himself up for the taking!
It must be a ploy of some kind. My eyes narrowed. Of course! "This is very convenient." I glared at him.
He looked perplexed. "Now I definitely can't read you."
"You promise no sex, hinting about a relationship first. Then, coincidentally, you tell me you happen to want a relationship. Right now! Even though you've never had one before. Why, we could sleep with each other this very night!"
"You beautiful stubborn girl," he said. "I'm not in this merely for sex. I swear to you I won't fuck you until you are mine alone." His eyes flashed. "Tonight, you will beg for me inside you, and somehow I will deny myself yet again."
I studied his face. I could get this guy to marry me. But without a prenup?
It'd be the ultimate con on a billionaire mark. . . .
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Back in the limo, he dragged me into his lap.
I wanted to curl into him and soak up his heat, but I needed to tantalize. "Why do you keep putting me in your lap?"
"Tell me you don't fit me perfectly, and I will stop." He started to harden beneath me.
"You said I'd beg for you tonight. You just assume we'll be intimate?"
"With the way you eye-fucked me all through dinner?" I realized he was playing with me when a glint of humor shone in his eyes. "We're not only going to be intimate. I'm going to show you how much you'll enjoy bondage."