Page 27 of Shamelessly Loyal
I rolled my eyes, but she patted my cheek, and I caught her hand before she could pull back. “Mayhem?”
“Pretty Boy?” I didn’t care that she mocked the stone-sober seriousness of my tone.
“You stay with me out there. Nowhere alone. Nowhere I can’t see you.”
“That might prove problematic if I have to use the facilities. Nevertheless…I can live with that. It just means you need to be where I can keep an eye on you.” Head back, she bared that throat to me like she wanted me to kiss it. Or maybe I was the one picturing kissing all that soft skin. “Shall we?”
Fuck. We were doing this. Turning, I tucked her hand into the crook of my arm. The gentle press of her right against my biceps was another reminder that we weren’t just playing with fire, we were handling live incendiaries.
“Besides,” Mayhem said as she glanced up at me. “Pretty sure someone with your legal mind can talk us out of trouble, if necessary.”
I snorted. She was going to be the death of me.
The trip to the hotel floor, following the indicated signs toward the casino, gave me a good look at the place. The clothes she’d had waiting for us were definitely well-planned. Everywhere I looked, men in suits and tuxedoes made themselves comfortable at tables alongside women dressed in the same type of finery that Mayhem sported.
Not that any of them looked like her, what few I’d glanced past. A host, a well-armed one, sporting a handgun in a shoulder holster that was hidden and a second in a hip holster that wasn’t, stepped up as we arrived at the entrance of the doors to the casino.
“This is a private club,” he said, his expression benign, though the blunted nose indicated a fair share of strikes in the past.
Mayhem released my arm long enough to reach into her little clutch purse. She pulled out what amounted to an electronic keycard. It was blank, with no marks indicating anything about it.
He took the card and scanned it with his phone. He glanced from it to her then to me before focusing on her again. “Good evening, Ms. Rushman. Is the gentleman your plus one?” He really did seem to struggle with taking his eyes off her.
“No,” I informed him as I held up my own card.
“My apologies.” The man was in his late thirties, easily. He had no business eyeing Mayhem like she was his next conquest.
It didn’t help that she wore a Mona Lisa smile and actually ran her fingers over his hand when she took her card back. Then and only then did he scan my card. Mayhem raised her eyebrows at me as though this proved her point.
“Mr. Noble,” he said after scanning the card and glancing at me. Since Mayhem’s worked fine, so should mine. Although his expression grew a little tense for a moment.
“I’m bored,” Mayhem said, glancing up at me with playful eyes. “You promised we would have fun.”
“I promised I would spank your ass and tie you to a bed too, if you kept it up.” I had no idea where that came from, but it just rolled out and the corners of her lips curved even deeper.
“Well, I wouldn’t be bored then.”
The guard coughed. “My apologies, Mr. Noble. You are a VIP and should have been informed ahead of time. This is the standard entrance. If you’ll both come with me, I’ll escort you to the high rollers.”
“Sounds like you’ll have to indulge this boredom a little longer,” I told Mayhem as I slid an arm around her. I didn’t want her out of reach. The deeper we plunged into the casino, the more unusual it became.
There was a ring for fighting on the far side where a pair of competitors were currently beating the shit out of each other. Shouts came from outside the ring and at various tables. Our escort began to climb a circular staircase, and I allowed Mayhem to go a little ahead of me.
She paused at the next level, and it took me a moment to realize why. The sound of shouting and fighting below masked the fucking up here. Nothing could mask the smell, though. There was one woman not four feet from us swallowing a cock while two men pounded her pussy and her ass. She was giving hand jobs to two other men.
Beyond that little orgy were other beds and chairs. Nude men and women alike danced, performed, or were getting railed.
I put my hand against Mayhem’s lower back, and she shuddered. Worried, I locked onto her dilated eyes. Her nostrils flared as the woman getting fucked within an inch of her life let out a desperate moan before she choked on that dick.
Raising my eyebrows, I trailed a finger down her cheek to her throat, then along the gorgeous dip of skin to her breasts.
“Focus, Mayhem. We’re not here for this.”
Despite my soft tone, she jerked her head and blinked rapidly, as though just realizing she’d stopped. Another delicate shudder wracked her and she twisted away to start up the stairs again. Our escort waited patiently above, but he was staring right down at her breasts, or was until he peered past her to me.
I made no pretense of what I was imagining at the moment. I’d start by ripping out his eyeballs. They gave the first offense.
He backed up ahead of us hurriedly. Three levels up, he walked to a bank of elevators and scanned a card. “For the future,” he said, finally taking his gaze off Mayhem and keeping it off her.