Cold snapped in his blood.
Stop being ridiculous. He was just off kilter because this whole night felt dreamlike.
Feeling as if he’d been sucker punched, Elias faced a curious Roksana and forced himself to laugh off the ominous sensation in his middle. “Very funny, havoc wreaker.”
After a moment, she smiled and continued to play with his collar. “You think it was just an excuse to get close to you, da?”
Her low purr made his jeans feel tight. “You don’t need an excuse for that.”
“Elias?”
“Yes.”
She tilted her head. “Did you choose to bring me here to this casino because you are staying upstairs?”
His brows drew together. “How did you know that?”
Without breaking eye contact, she lifted his room key up between them, pinched between her thumb and index finger. “Lucky guess.”
Caught off-guard, he barked a laugh. She must have pilfered the room key from his pocket when he wasn’t looking. And he should be outraged, but instead, he was really, painfully turned on. “Vampire, huh?” He wrapped his forearm around the small of her back, easing her closer, little by little, unable to hide his interest in the way her breasts swelled in the opening of her sweater. “You wanted to distract me.”
“Or…” She scrubbed her palms over his pecs, whipping up lust inside him like a smoke cloud. “Maybe he was an incidental vampire distraction.”
He tucked his tongue into his cheek to hide his smile. “Right.”
“Yes. So I could find out your true intentions, temnota moya. Not merely to admire me and buy me chocolate drinks, but bring me back to your fancy room.”
“This is the closest place to Circus Circus that’s worthy of you even setting foot inside it, Roksana.” Taking a chance, he leaned in and grazed their lips together, the friction burning him head to toe. “But I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t need you underneath me tonight.”
“Need?” she whispered, unevenly.
His fingers twisted in the hem of her skirt, pulling, rocking her against his distended cock. “Yes.”
Her eyelids drooped, her tits shuddering up, down, up, and he could make out the rough, little patch of her areolas, the hard bud at their center. “Is it a cliché here in America, too, if I say I don’t do things like this?”
“Things like what?” Elias rasped, starved for the taste of her tits. For any part of her he could reach. “This is like nothing else.”
Their eyes met. “I know,” she whispered. “Why is that?”
Elias pressed their foreheads together. “Come upstairs with me and let’s figure it out.”
She started to nod, he was already reaching for his wallet—but that’s when hell broke loose. In the form of four Russian girls in Circus Circus T-shirts.
“Oooh, look at Roks. She’s such a fancy bitch now!”
A chorus of laughter kicked up near the entrance and Roksana groaned, her head falling back. A smile formed on her mouth, however, as her friends drew closer.
Elias sat there in total denial, his cock full to bursting behind his fly.
This girl that had fucking enchanted him had been about to say yes, she would come back to his room, and now his sanity was in jeopardy. Because if he didn’t consume her, if she didn’t consume him, he wasn’t sure what came next. She was essential somehow. His.
“We’ve come to bring our friend back to the Circus Circus,” announced a brunette girl, her speech slurred slightly, accent thick, as she wrapped her hands around Roksana’s bicep. “We have hair appointments early in the morning. Olga will rain hell down on this town if you are off playing with this man. Are you crazy?”
Another friend joined in the effort to usurp Roksana from her stool. “Come. I am seconds from passing out. No time for bullshit.”
“They’re right,” Roksana murmured to Elias. “I’m here for my friend. It’s her wedding and I can’t…I can’t.” She cast a bright laugh up at the ceiling. “And I don’t do this!”
“Roksana,” he said, squeezing her hip, dropping his mouth down near her ear. “I can make sure you’re where you need to be in the morning. Just as easily as I can get you where you need to go tonight. As many times as possible.”
“Oh boy.” Her body swayed, falling against him for a too-brief second before her friends hauled her away. Elias watched in total disbelief as they hustled her toward the door, away from him, never to be seen again unless he found her in the wilds of Vegas.
“Wait,” he growled, through his teeth, vaulting off the stool and following the group.
To his surprise, at the same time, Roksana shouted, “Wait,” digging in her heels before they could spirit her through the exit. Rolling her eyes at the clipped Russian admonishments being leveled in her direction, she turned and cut a path back toward Elias. She was like something out of another world, coming toward him in slow motion, hips swaying, eyes on fire. He expected her to stop in front of him, to pass on her phone number, but even after their short acquaintance, he should have known better than predict this girl’s behavior.