Claire: The Forced Virgin Of The Billionaire

Another ding of the phone made me realize I had to get out of bed and get on with the reason I was here. I grabbed the phone and checked my messages. We were heading back home this afternoon. I needed to talk to Uncle and then go see Goldberg and see what his decision was. I didn’t know how he’d take the news that the Clarkes, as well as John Lewis, would not get involved in his project if Leo Denarda was even remotely a part of it.

We’d talked just briefly before I got in the cab last night and the three of us were meeting for lunch at John’s hotel room. But if he opted to work with us and turfed Denarda out, I had a pretty good idea how Denarda would take it and it’d probably mean another step up in security.

The smarmy goof had been leering at Claire last night instead of his skanky date and we’d already had a showdown of sorts where he puffed up his chest when I’d given him a look. If it weren’t for the fact that his sick uncle was an important man down here, he’d not even be at these meetings. Goldberg f****d up by even involving that crew. The guy would’ve been way better off just coming to us. But it was a timing issue, too. When the uncle croaked there’d be a power play in Vegas and it wouldn’t take long for Denarda to be out. Problem was that the uncle had been on his death bed for almost a year, not getting better but not kicking the bucket, either.

I talked to Uncle on the phone in the other room while she took a bath and then when I was done I got in with her. She had the jets on and had her eyes closed.

I got in and she immediately started to scrub my back. When she was done, I leaned back against her chest and tilted my head back and looked up at her. We didn’t talk but her eyes said so much. If I was reading them right they said she and I were opening a new page, starting a new chapter. I wanted to say so much to her but right now I didn’t have the words so I just let her scrub my chest and then I reached down and pulled her calves up so that her legs were wrapped around my stomach. I massaged her feet and we just hung out for a while in the bubbles, not talking, just touching and cuddling and looking at each other, just being. It felt beautiful; it felt right. I never wanted to hurt her again; I felt bone-deep remorse over what I’d done the other night. I just prayed that she was okay, really okay.

Claire’ POV

Azriel left for a meeting and I ordered some soup and a sandwich from room service. He said he’d be back in a few hours and would take me gambling and then we had to head to the airport to catch our flight around 8:pm. I packed up our stuff and I stared at the TV but was lost in thought until he got back.

Vegas had been enlightening, to say the least. I was curious about whether or not having me see that specific act last night was intentional or whether it’d been a coincidence. Whatever the case was, I guess it happened for a reason. I was just taking things minute by minute, breath by breath. I had strong feelings for him. I felt love, I felt fear, I felt dread, but I also had hope.

When he walked back in, he was smiling, had a spring in his step. “Let’s go show you why they call it Lost Wages.”

The ringing of the slot machines and the buzz of excitement: people and glasses tinkling was overwhelming, at first. But before long I probably had dollar signs in my eyes because the slot machines were fun and addicting. But I sucked at it. I don’t know how many twenties Azriel had fed in, probably 7 or 8, maybe? Maybe more. I didn’t know. It felt bad because it felt like I was flushing his money down the toilet.

He didn’t gamble, he just hung out and watched and followed me from machine to machine. When I’d cashed out of a machine and then saw it pay out right afterwards with 1000 quarters to some old lady with a blue hair rinse I decided I wasn’t moving again until I won, or until we had to leave to catch our flight, whichever came first.

“Cash out, baby. This machine is shit.” He said this after I let him feed two twenties into it and was down to 9 quarters left without going up more than once or twice.

“One more pull.”

“You don’t have to pull, you know; you can just hit the button.”

“I like to pull.” I wrinkled my nose and glanced up at him and he was smirking. I smirked back.

“Claire, this is getting a little like fishing.”

“I’m not catching anything, though.”

“No, but remember what I had to do to get you away from that pond?”

“You’d seriously carry me out of this casino over your shoulder?”

“What do you think?”

He was serious.