Read Let It Ride for Free Online Page B

really see the display. Come on. I’ll take you to a special place I know you haven’t seen.”
    “Deacon?”
    “Yes?”
    “I’m confused. I thought you wanted something from me.”
    “I do.”
    “Then why the diversion?”
    He took a deep breath, sensing he was on the cusp of losing her. “There are certain parts of me that I share with no one.”
    “What parts?”
    “My past. Please don’t ask me about it again.”
    She said nothing, crossing her arms over her chest and tucking her chin down. He felt her shutting him out and didn’t blame her. It might be the end to his plans and the loss of a bet. But he didn’t want it to be.
    “Should I escort you back to your room?” he asked. Defeat was foreign to him, so he wasn’t giving up. Strategy was something he’d learned as a young man, and he knew when to retreat and regroup. If knowing about his past was going to be an issue between them, he’d tell her the story he told others who asked. The one he’d made up when he first started working in casinos, because few legitimate operations were interested in hiring a guy who’d worked in that shady gray area that was almost the other side of the law.
    And Kylie was too innocent. There was something about her he wanted to protect. Even—especially—from himself.
    She shook her head and let her arms fall to her sides. Crossing the room to him, she took his hand in hers and smiled at him. “I thought you were going to show me the hidden El Dorado.”
    He led her out of his office to a bank of elevators. They traveled quickly to the top of the building, and then he accompanied her through a glass-enclosed hallway that led to the other side of the resort. She paused and looked down on his kingdom and all of Vegas sprawled beyond.
    Deacon stood next to her. This glass hallway was one of his favorite places. He could look out on the city he’d grown up in and see just how far he’d come. This was a view that the teenage Deacon had never had. And from up here the city seemed fun, exciting and clean. From the street he knew it was dirty and had an edge of excitement, but it came from wondering if you’d survive the night.
    “I can’t imagine growing up here,” she said.
    “Why not?”
    “It just seems it’d be a hard place to live. Kind of like Jamaica. I visited there on a cruise last summer, and there was such a duality in the lifestyles. Wealthy cruise passengers buying stuff in town and the natives who made do with so little.”
    She’d hit it on the head. That was Vegas in one brief sentence. It was very important that she never realize that he’d been one of the natives.
    He didn’t say anything else, just took her elbow and led her back down the hallway. He loved touching her. Her skin was so soft and smooth. He knew she didn’t need his hand on her arm to guide her, but he wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to touch her.
    He opened a door to a darkened staircase. He lifted her into his arms and carried her down the one flight of stairs quickly. When they reached the landing and viewing platform, he let her slide down his body. Keeping her in his arms, but turning her so that her back was pressed to his front. He lowered his head and whispered into her ear, “Prepare to be awed.”
    He couldn’t resist nibbling at the smooth expanse of her skin by her ear. She shivered in his arms, her head falling back against his shoulder. He lifted his head and waited until the golden light of El Dorado filled the landing before taking her mouth in a kiss that asked for nothing. That took her completely with the intention of putting to rest any of the questions she might still want to ask.

Five

    S he knew in her heart that he was using the physical attraction that ran so strongly between them to distract her, but she didn’t care. The darkness in Deacon’s eyes spoke to her lonely soul. She needed to soothe him in whatever way she could.
    But it wasn’t only to soothe him that she lifted her arms and