Finding Beauty in the Darkness

“Where did all the chips go?” She looks around us like I’m hiding the chips from her. She grabs my hand and searches in my lap.

The gentleman next to her cracks up laughing. “You lost them all. That’s what the casino does to you, sweetheart. It’s a mindfuck. You start off winning so you gain confidence. The more you win, the more you think you’re invincible. Then, little by little, the house takes from you in such small increments you don’t even realize you’re being robbed with your eyes wide open, until you’re sitting in this chair, thousands of dollars poorer.” He gives Aria a small wink and if he didn’t look to be in his eighties, I’d probably have decked him for flirting with her, but seeing as he’s old enough to be her great grandfather, I simply chuckle.

“Wait! What do you mean thousands?” Aria turns to me. “How much did we lose?”

“We?” I laugh. “You lost all our money.” She bites on her lower lip nervously looking around like the money will reappear. Running my thumb over her lip, I pull it out from her teeth. “Did you have fun?” She nods. “Then that’s all that matters. What do you want to play next?”

We grab our drinks and she says bye to the guy sitting next to her.

“How much did I lose?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s my casino. I get it all back regardless.”

She rolls her eyes. “Okay, but just tell me. If it wasn’t your casino, how much would I have lost?”

“Two grand.” I shrug.

Aria splutters out her drink. “Two thousand dollars?”

“Baby, that’s child’s play. The man next to you put out and lost probably triple that.”

“I think we should go play the penny machines,” she says seriously, and I can’t help but laugh at her. She has millions of dollars in the bank from the sale of the shares and in less than a year she’ll be five hundred million dollars richer, and the woman wants to play the penny slots.

“Well then, let’s go play those penny slots.”

Aria and I spend the day gambling. She tries out damn near every table and machine in this place. She cheers when she wins and pouts when she loses, and I feel like my face should be in pain from all the goddamn smiling I’m doing watching her every reaction.

When it’s close to dinner time I get a text from Nico letting me know he’s aware we’ve been down here all day and we better meet him and Amber for dinner. I text him back that we’ll meet them at one of the restaurants in the hotel.

“Let’s go up so we can shower and change for dinner. We’re meeting Nico and Amber.” Aria agrees and throws the couple chips she has left into her pocket.

“What are you doing? We have to go cash them in.”

“I only have a couple. I want to keep them.” Her face heats up, turning a faint pink shade.

“Why are you blushing?” I pull her into my side while we wait for the elevator to go up to our room.

“I like to keep mementos. It’s similar to taking a picture.” She shrugs. “This was my first time in a casino and it was with you. I want to keep the chips to remember this day.”

We enter the room and I strip my shirt off as I walk toward the bathroom to jump in the shower, stopping at the door. “You coming?”

Aria giggles. “Hell yes.” It takes me a second before I put it together. My girl has jokes.

“You’re a bad girl.”

“I blame you! You’ve turned me into this.”

“Into what? A beautiful woman? I’m pretty sure you were just as beautiful the day I took you. A bit skinnier, but still just as beautiful.”

“What I meant was, you’ve turned me into a horny sex maniac! But now I’m stuck on the fact that you just called me fat.”

Grabbing Aria’s shirt, I lift it over her head then reach around and unclasp her bra, pulling it off her. Her hands go to her soft stomach and I ignore it while I undo her jeans and pull them, along with her underwear, down to her ankles.

I turn the water on so it can heat up, then set her on the counter, separating her legs and stepping in between them. “You see these beautiful, perfect tits?” I don’t give her a chance to answer. “When you moved in with me, they were still gorgeous, but the last several months they’ve become full. When you wear those tiny little tank tops, they spill out and it takes everything in me not to spend my days and nights sucking on them.” I take one hardened nipple into my mouth and suck on it before letting go of it and sucking on the other one, earning me a breathy moan from Aria.