Chapter One
Don
Looking down at the computer screen, I clench my fists a little tighter. The cool glass of my desk does nothing to ease the burn running through my veins. It takes everything in me not to reach out and touch the screen.
When I hear the door to my office open, I don’t even have to look up to know who it is.
“Sir, she’s on the casino floor,” Dawson, my head of security, informs me. His tone is flat like it always is, never giving anything away. Finally pulling my eyes from the screen, I give him a nod, and he turns to leave. After he closes the door behind him, I finally break, reaching out to touch the screen and run my finger across her face.
Dawson didn’t have to tell me she’s here. I knew she was. In fact, I’ve known where she was for the past three weeks. Since the day she strolled into my casino and walked right past me without a second look, her arm locked around another man’s arm. I growl at the reminder.
For the first time in my life, jealousy surged through my body. It coursed in my veins as I followed them through the casino, needing to get closer to her. Listening to the laugh that drowned out the sounds of the rest of the casino. It was infectious and so full of life. Just like she was. She pulled attention to her as she walked, chatting away, completely unaware of me. I couldn’t make out her words until I’d gotten a little closer. Her deep southern accent hit me like a shot of something strong. It burned through my body, all the way down to the pit of my stomach, warming me from the inside out and making my dick come to life.
I knew from that moment I was in trouble. I was completely and utterly fucked. I tried to fight it, a fight I knew I was going to lose, which was something I was not accustomed to. I needed to put myself out of my misery and finally take what I needed. She was going to be a fight because I knew what she was the first night I saw her. The man she had her arm wrapped around had no idea, but I could tell. From the subtle tics of her jaw when he’d whisper in her ear, to the fake smile she gave him that he never seemed to notice. He was her bank roll. She was using him, and for some reason the idea both pissed me off and turned me on. I would enjoy her using me in any way she saw fit.
I grab my suit jacket from the back of my chair and slip it on as I make my way out of my office. My assistant, Jen, stands, grabbing a pile of papers off her desk. Her stick-straight black hair doesn’t move as she goes to follow me to the elevator. I’m sure she wants to go down a list of items she needs to go over with me. I’m being slack at work, and it’s driving her crazy, and for the first time in my life I don’t care. I have an army of employees; they can handle it. It’s what I pay them to do.
I hold my hand out as the elevator arrives, letting her know I’ll be taking it alone.
“Handle it,” is all I say as the elevator doors start to close. I see a scowl form on her brow, but she quickly smooths it away, replacing it with a fake irritated smile. I know she wants to say something, but she won’t. She’s already tried once, and I quickly shut her down. I’m not sure anyone could talk me off this ledge. In fact, I’m going to jump off it right now.
I make my way across the casino and head straight for the blackjack table. When I spot her, I stop a few steps back and watch her while she plays. She’s counting cards as she laughs with the table, everyone charmed by her. Her slow sweet accent seems to pull everyone in.
She keeps coming back here around every three days or so. Maybe she thinks the Golden Peacock is an easy mark, and letting her win hundreds of thousands of dollars. In truth, I’ve been on to her from the very beginning, I just didn’t care. I wanted her coming back, and I didn’t care what it cost me as she stole from my casino. Furthermore, I wanted her to be comfortable and not to feel the need to have to bring in a bank roll to hide behind, because that’s what she’d been doing that first night. I know if I see her on another man’s arm I might lose it. My obsession has grown too much now. I already see her as mine.
She plays the part of a woman who doesn’t really know what she’s doing while a high roller pays for her chips as she starts to rob us. The high roller has no idea what she’s up to. She’s probably charmed him, and he’d eaten up the idea of a night on the town with her. I could understand that, too. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to get close to her. For example, that night, and every night since, I made sure she went home alone. Which, oddly enough, was a room at a casino.