Just Until Morning

C H A P T E R  O N E

Lincoln

How is she so fucking calm? She has to crane her neck just to look up Melvin’s nose, but she makes it seem like she’s the one in charge. Bold as a stallion, that’s what she is, golden twilight sparkling in the green of her eyes. She doesn’t even blink.

Walking into a lion’s den like this, this little lamb should be shaking like a leaf. Instead, she’s so fucking calm it’s almost frightening.

I’ve never been a man not to take what I want.

I’ve never wanted a woman at first sight before.

Not like this, anyway. Not this deep. Not in a way that cannot be undone.

“I was fucking invited.” Even her curse word sounds sweet. I have to fight to hold back a laugh. She’s baring her teeth, more a smile than a sneer, but still, I prepare myself to step in. I don’t want to, though. I want to see how this plays out. I watch as she waves one of our numbered invitation cards in Melvin’s face. “See?”

Our invitation cards for newbies are simply a generic black-and-white business card, but it’s one of ours. I can tell that from here. Mel’s so taken aback by this girl’s mixture of whiskey and bubble gum that the hardened gatekeeper he’s become nearly evaporates in an instant.

He takes the card carefully, the horizontal wrinkles in his forehead deepening as he examines it. “Yes, I see.”

If anyone else spoke to him in that way, shoved a card into his face like she just did, they’d be on their ass before their next synapse fired. Instead, I note his uncertainty. He doesn’t know how to react to this blond spitfire who’s exploded into the penthouse. This place is exclusively for my highest rollers, and she may be a fresh face here, but she’s acting like she belongs and it’s thrown him.

“It’s real, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Her words are harsh and street-smart, yet coated in a twist of sweet lime and a shot of Southern charm. Her body is a throwback to when women wore their hips with pride and their lips bright red. “Cruzer told me to show this card to the guy at the door. I do know how to play, you know. Don’t judge a book by its cover.” There’s that smile again, and I feel the impact of it in my chest.

She’s a splash of Mae West’s sex appeal married to Judy Garland’s naïveté, and the combination has my dick the hardest as it’s been in years. Damn thing’s been practically dormant, but now it’s draining all the blood from my brain. Nothing and no one have raised the flag in so long it’s like the return of an old friend. I’m barely able to form a coherent thought with this minx in my line of sight.

Mel drags a hand down his face, trying to make sense of her. She bats her dark lashes, long and thick, and I get another glimpse of those eyes, like emeralds at dusk. Exotic, that’s the only way to describe them, but that doesn’t do her justice. Almost dismissive, she tips her head, turning away from Mel to examine the room.

I’m about a rat’s hair away from moving over to her myself, fisting those soft waves and forcing her to her knees. All I can think of is how amazing those red lips are going to look with a mouth full of my cock. Those green eyes looking up, wide and willing. Filling with tears as I cut off her oxygen and I shove every inch of me down her throat.

Fucking perfect.

She breaks my trance with a flip of her hair, her cute-as-fuck button nose turning up, taking a dramatic sniff before she says wryly, “Ahh, I love the smell of money getting ready to become mine.”

“Let’er in, Mel,” I order from the shadowed corner of the room, and her eyes flick my way.

Mel hears me but doesn’t turn from her, doesn’t even acknowledge that I said a thing. That’s his way, how he maintains his authority, and it’s why I need him. “Buy in is ten grand,” he says, listing the instructions as he would for any other new addition. Seductive and peculiar, she may be, and that might knock him off his stride for a moment, but the professional in him recovers quickly. “Small blind is ten, big blind is twenty. Ten to buy in first round.”

Her eyes, still aimed my way, betray her. I note the split second of uncertainty. I’m a master at reading tells, and she’s good. But I’m better. The light catches on her throat as she swallows, the sun lowering in the sky outside. It’s an early game, but it will go on for days. They always do. I’ll be up for at least forty-eight hours.

It’s just a part of this life, the restlessness. And truth is, this life is all I know. Been at it so long my body is used to it, prepared, pacing itself for the long hours ahead. But it’s taking its toll. Others can’t see it, but I can feel it. I’m older than I should be, and that’s why I have to make a change. Next week. Taking my offshore bank account and heading west. Back to where I came from. Back to a life I’ve forgotten, if I ever really knew it in the first place. A life I want more than anything.

Peace.

Open spaces.

Comforts of home. Not that a streetwise fuck like me knows a thing about that, but I’m going to try. I have to. This life, it’s killing me one way or another. Either I die slowly from the endless stress and worry, or one night someone is going to get a burr up their ass and they may kill me quickly. Hazards of the profession. I turn forty next week, and hell if I’m going to spend the next forty wondering if I might not wake up tomorrow just because some fuck lost his stack and his mind.

“No problem.” She regroups, licking those pouty, seductive lips before eyeing Mel again. “Cruzer said he’ll vouch for me. I’ve got five with me, and the house will spot me another five. Trust me when I say I’ll be walking out of here with a lot more than that. My markers always get repaid, plus some.”

I’m finding it hard not to grin. She’s bold as fuck, and it’s adorable.

It’s also making my dick hard as a lead pipe.

A total newbie, strolling in, asking the house to spot her five grand? If I didn’t know better, I’d think she’s walking in here with a kick hidden up her sleeve. Or a set of iron balls that don’t suit the rest of what I see.

Although that thought just makes my mind wander to what’s under those painted-on jeans. Her pressed white oxford pulls tight over tits that any man would topple kingdoms to have in his mouth. On top of that, she’s wearing a pair of red, patent leather pumps and a plaid schoolgirl tie.

I don’t know what her game is, but I’ll play. Fuck, will I play.

Play her all fucking night.

Kick. That’s what she is, my own personal Kick.

Melvin bobs an incredulous brow at her before throwing me a side-eye. I lower my chin, the movement so small no one else would notice. After ten years together, we barely need to speak to know what the other is thinking.

“Name?” Mel pulls a palm-sized black leather notebook and pen from the inside pocket of his black suit coat. He dabs the ballpoint to his tongue, showing his age, then holds it to the paper, waiting for her reply.

I realize I’m holding my breath, waiting for her lips to move. Who the hell is she?

I need to know where she came from and, most importantly, how I’m going to get her into my bed and under me for the rest of my damn life.

She twists her body to and fro and purses her lips, stifling a chuckle before answering, “I’m Ellen Olenska.”

I clear my throat, choking back another laugh. This girl is fearless, dropping a fake name when she should be on the back foot. I know the origin of her Ellen Olenska, but Mel doesn’t catch her play, even when she offers a hand for him to kiss and adds a mocking curtsy.

The alter ego is obscure enough to pass, and I let it go because it only serves to heighten my fascination with this brazen creature.

Mel considers her for a second, and something deep inside me stirs to life. Some dark beast I’d either forgotten or didn’t know existed. I don’t like Melvin even looking at her. Before I know it, I’ve taken a step forward, ready to get between them, but then he finally speaks.

“Ten minutes, then you’re on table two. You want a drink, the bar’s over there.” Mel stuffs the little black book into its home again before continuing in a gruff burst. “You need to piss or shit, you wait until you’re out or all the players break.”

“If I need to whaaaa?” She places three fingers over her lips, shrugging her shoulders to her ears.

Mel rolls his eyes, then turns his body to the side, allowing her full entry, and shuts the door behind her glorious ass. “Get your chips from Walrus. Over there.” He twitches his head, then turns away just enough to let her know she’s dismissed.

The only gloomy corner of the penthouse is the one where Walrus sits, blocking out the remnants of light breaking through the two-story windows behind him. Cigar smoke drifts in a haze around him like a Lewis Carroll dream. He dwarfs the enormous desk that is his home when we run games here, making it look like dollhouse furniture.

Still, she’s not intimidated, sashaying over without another word.

Walrus’ eyes flick up. His acute sense of his surroundings notifies him she’s afoot, and he watches from behind his thick glasses as she heads his way, the cigar drooping between his surprised lips. He darts a look my way, and I hold up my hand, splaying five fingers wide, and he nods in understanding.

Mel eyes me then shifts his gaze to her working the room, and he chokes back a grunt, which is as close to laughter as he gets. I lick my lips and adjust my stance. My fucking cock is as full and thick as if I were ready to push inside her right now, and it’s uncomfortable as hell being all bound up inside my boxers and suit pants.

The tension that’s thundering in my groin spreads upward, clutching in my gut before settling thick in my chest. Something inside me twitches. Something I haven’t felt for so long it’s barely recognizable.

It’s my fucking heart. It’s pounding.

How fucking old is she anyway? Eighteen? Jesus, she could even be sixteen for all I know. We don’t fucking check ID in here. But fuck, she’s young. Too young for an old fuck like me. But my dick seems to disagree, because he sure feels twelve right about now.

“Thank you.” She chirps, laying on her sweetness as thick as syrup, while Walrus counts out her ten grand in chips. Then she raises an eyebrow as he hands them over. “Walrus, huh?”

He hands them over with his standard growl, “Ku ku ka choo. Good luck to you.”

Walrus’s signature bastardization of the Beatles lyric has become his tag line. But, I have to agree, if he used the “Goo Goo Joob” they actually wrote, it wouldn’t have the same effect.

A groan catches in my throat as I watch her take her chip tray from him in her left hand then hold it up like of the tray of a 1950’s cigarette girl, before blowing a kiss at Walrus with her free hand. Then she spins on her sexy as hell tiptoes back toward the table.

We’re running three tables of ten tonight, which is our usual. Mostly regulars, a few vetted newcomers, but she takes the fucking cake. There is a low hum in the room as the players settle in at their seats. They range in age as much as they do in their styles of dress. There are guys in douchebag hoodies and sunglasses, others in three-piece handmade suits and fedoras.

But her.

Holy mother of pearl.

She’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. And from the looks on the faces of some of the other players, players they aren’t sure what to make of her either.

I meet a look from Walrus as he pinches his cigar back into place between his beefy lips.

He and I have been at this game over twenty years now. Started out down in the alleys behind the wig and liquor stores on Gratiot Avenue. Got our asses handed to us more than once too, trying to carve out our niche in this dirty, cutthroat business.

Hell, I’d trust him with my fucking life. But right now, for the first time ever, I want to choke that fat son of a bitch until lack of oxygen makes him forget all about that air kiss she just tossed his way. Because that shit is about to be mine.

It’s all fucking mine.