Vegas Ch. 01

"You were wonderful, really great tonight," he told her, the melancholy created by his earlier thoughts still present in his tone.

Grace returned the kiss with a passion he was not expecting, sliding her cold hand around his neck as she did so.

"Thanks," she said as she pulled away and settled back into her seat, pulling her jacket around her before applying the seat belt. "I blew a couple of notes, but I do appreciate the praise," she purred.

Sitting back, Daniel watched as she sexily crossed her bare legs, exposing a brief glimpse of thigh as the black skirt rode up her leg.

"Well, I didn't hear them. You were fantastic," he encouraged.

He felt an aroused reaction to both the kiss and sight of her attractive, tanned thigh and he ran his hand along her shapely, toned leg as he put the car into gear and began to back out onto the side road.

"You think so?" Grace replied, laughing. "Gigs like this are good practice for when I make it big."

She knew the evening had gone as well as she could have expected, better even. But despite being such an independent woman, she still had a problem easily accepting praise. Daniel grinned at her, driving with one hand on the steering wheel whilst the other continued to caress her leg through her skirt.

"Then you'll have make sure to thank the place in you liner notes on your album," he suggested.

Grace did not answer, instead resting her head against the window and looking off into the dark distance. She was thinking of her ambition and wondering if that dream of an album would ever come true? A crack of thunder pulled her back from her thoughts and she peered out of the grubby window and upwards at the threatening clouds that had been building throughout evening. Within minutes the sky finally opened. It slowed their progress and by the time they parked near the flat, the torrential rain was hurtling against the car.

"Oh, by the way," Grace said, speaking loudly above the driving rain that was thundering down against the exterior of the car. "Lauren rang this evening with some exciting news."

Daniel held up his hand. "Tell me inside," he suggested. "We better make a dash for it." He counted "One, two, three," as a cue for their short race to their door.

Although the distance was no more than twenty yards they were soaked through as they entered, the water dripping from their clothes and onto the floor.

"I'm going to take a shower," Grace said, casually pulling her top over her head and then discarding her skirt as she squeezed past him.

She saw the arousal in his eyes as he took in the sight of her in the sexy, matching underwear. She threw her head back as she blew him a kiss, and gave an exaggerated swing of her hips as she swayed towards the bathroom.

Looking back over her shoulder, she caught his eye and whispered, "Later, sexy."

*

Daniel removed his wet shirt and threw it on the wooden floor beside him and then did the same with his jeans and socks. He flopped back onto the small, rust coloured, linen couch in only his Calvin Klein black boxers. Relaxed, his tiredness overtook him and he had drifted into a light sleep when he felt a soft kiss on his lips.

He smiled up into Grace's sensual face as he wearily opened his sleepy eyes. She sat on the side of the couch, her curved shoulder leaning against his, but when she had his attention she eased her bottom off the arm and stood beside him. She raised an eyebrow as she did so, seductively placing her petite hands on her hips in a way that exposed the curve of her hour-glass waist.

It was only at that point that Daniel seemed to realise she was naked except for the fluffy towel that covered her from the top of her breasts to the top of her legs, only just covering her body in between. She knew her breasts were a little flushed from the heat of the water and could feel her hard nipples pushing against the Egyptian cotton. She watched Daniel's eyes wander across the towel until he, too, could see her arousal.

"The shower is all yours if you want," she softly said.

But as he watched, she slowly and provocatively unwrapped the towel and allowed it to drift to the floor. She leant forward and traced a delicate finger across his arm and onto to his muscled chest, stroking gently along the way.

"Or did you have something else in mind?" she added, raising an eyebrow again.

Daniel felt a dryness in his throat as he watched a tiny drop of water release itself from her left ear, landing silently on her full, rounded, right breast and tantalisingly making its way down to her erect, dark, nipple. Suddenly, his tiredness was easing.

"God, you look fucking sexy," he muttered, feeling his body begin to react.

Grace smiled sexily at the compliment and then deliberately and provocatively raised a hand to each of her full, luscious breasts, accentuating the cleavage as she did so. She appeared to hold them out, offering them to him, and her tongue slowly ran across her full lips as she did so.

Daniel breathed out heavily, his voice thick with arousal as he teased, "Why Miss Grace, I do believe you are trying to seduce me?"

Grace's face lit up as she switched her voice to a deep Southern drawl. "Why, Mr. Daniel. I do believe I am. I do hope that doesn't upset you?"

As she spoke, her hands slid upwards and she locked them behind her neck, a movement that deliberately thrust her firm breasts out towards him, bringing them into even greater prominence. A wicked grin crossed her beautiful and suddenly intense face, her own eyes now ablaze with longing.

Without a word, Daniel quickly rose from the couch and urgently took Grace's hand, pulling her behind him as he silently raced into the bedroom. As they fell back with a soft thud on the bed, causing the bed springs to rock, she arched her back as she spoke in her deep Southern drawl again.

"I do believe Mr Daniel has something for me?"

Daniel ran his fingers slowly down onto the soft skin of her inner forearm before trailing his fingertips across and onto the tanned thigh. Her soft lips parted as he began to stroke her, his fingers running smoothly back and forth from knee to groin. Her nipples were like two bullets as she allowed her thighs to part slightly under his deft touch, giving his fingers room to slide between them.

She softly exhaled as she felt his big hand ease between her legs, his searching fingers gliding deliciously over her soft, warm, skin. His hand stroked back and forth over her welcoming inner thighs, moving ever-closer to the inner warmth waiting just inches from his searching fingers.

Involuntarily, Grace eased her curvy hips forwards, her breath beginning to quicken. Daniel ran his fingertips closer and closer to her vulva, brushing against the short, vertical stripe of tight brown curls before tantalisingly stopping just short of their target. Grace could feel her shining clitoris beginning to urgently slither from its hood at his teasing ministrations and could wait no longer.

"Now..." she breathlessly urged him. "Daniel, please... fuck me now..."

Without hesitation, he silently rose from his knees, wrestling in his haste with his boxer shorts until he impatiently pulled them down and away from his hard body. His erect penis sprung free, the rounded head pointing skyward. As her eyes feasted on him, she shivered in eager anticipation, eagerly allowing his gentle hands to ease her long, slender legs apart.

Daniel knew from the urgent look in her half closed eyes exactly what she needed and wanted. With only a silent glance between them he hooked his hands under her knees and eased her legs up and over his shoulders, eagerly aligned his hips up with her glistening and welcoming opening. Grace immediately wrapped her small feet behind his ears, a sign for him to urgently press himself forward.

The large tip of his penis deliciously pressed against her welcoming body and he felt her hand impatiently drop to his erect shaft. She steered him closer to his objective as he eased his hips forward, her breathing replaced with a helpless whimper as he sank exquisitely slowly into her hot, tight body. Her pretty head rolled to one side and she allowed a soft and low moan to escape from between her full lips.

Wanting to maximise the sensation, Daniel's lips and tongue begin to heighten her arousal as they pleasured her sensitive neck whilst he slowly slid further inside her. Grace bit down on her full, lower lip in pleasure at the sensation, her exquisite calf muscles tightening involuntarily against his broad shoulders.

Daniel pulled back slightly before thrusting forward into her, making her firm bottom bounce wickedly on the firm bed as the full length of his heavy erection was now completely enveloped inside her willing body. This was a feeling she desperately needed, and her eyelids fluttered involuntarily, her hoarse breathing becoming more ragged as with a delicious slowness, they began to fuck.

Daniel had pinned her willing body to the white sheets with his rhythmic thrusts but Grace wanted more. With some difficulty, she extracted her long legs from behind his head and now deliberately spread herself, attempting to open herself as much as possible to accentuate the raw sensation she was experiencing. Daniel accommodated her new position without breaking his urgent thrusts, his rounded buttocks pistoning relentlessly against the smooth flanks of her inner thighs.

Without breaking the movement of his hips, his lips and tongue slid down her slender body until he began to run his mouth over the velvet skin of her bouncing breasts. She gasped as he eased himself upwards, creating room so that his big hands could cup her superbly firm globes. He fleetingly paused in his fucking movements, allowing him to stroke and squeeze the supple flesh as his tongue began to run feather-light around the edge of one dark nipple.

But Grace did not want him to stop and thrust her hips against him, urging him to continue with their lovemaking. The bed shook violently beneath them as Daniel responded, but not sufficiently urgently for Grace, who mouthed out "faster" to him.

Her beautiful and urgent face had an ungraceful look of determination at being so close to reaching an orgasm. She felt him comply with her wishes, her obvious desire transmitting itself to his heaving body. He began to put his entire being into fucking this woman, his thrusts accelerating and forcing Grace's sensuous, open lips to quiver with the effort of absorbing him.

Moaning loudly now, she could feel her head bouncing up and down on the thick pillow as he thrust into her accepting body. His mouth began to open as he felt his own orgasm approaching, and Grace whimpered with helplessness and desire as his thrusts continued faster and faster. Realising how close he was, her slim arms pulled his sweating brow to hers.

"Not yet, baby, not yet. First, make me cum, baby. Please... make me cum," she gasped.

Daniel looked into her face but saw only dilated pupils, blurry with raw desire. She wrapped her tanned arms around his shoulder, heaving him closer and deeper as the end quickly approached, both sweating wildly now. Unwrapping the long legs that had for some time wrapped themselves around his broad back, Grace wearily lowered them to the bed, feeling her muscles tighten as she did so, allowing Daniel to slide his strong hands underneath her heaving buttocks.

He lifted Grace up and off the bed, as if he was picking up a twig, his urgency adding strength to his heaving body. She was now half sitting on his lap, half leaning back. His fingers dug into her superbly firm buttocks as she rocked her curvy hips in time with his movements, lowering and raising herself like a dervish as they finally began to lose control. Grace pulled her head back slightly to watch his hooded eyes in anticipation of both their orgasms.

Instead, she saw that Daniel was looking down. He had noticed her clitoris was now fully exposed as if begging to be touched. He grunted, with some effort shifting his impressive weight onto one straining arm while he slid the other down between her open legs. She gasped and thrust against him as he gently flicked her clitoris with his fingertip, and when he took it in his fingers and began to massage the sensitive little piece of flesh, her heaving body jerked involuntarily and she opened her mouth and screamed like a banshee.

She whimpered helplessly as the sweet release overtook her and as a second, even more intense orgasm overcame her, she bit into his neck, drawing blood. Daniel moved his hand away and placed it at the small of her curved back, urgently lifting her upwards as he fell back, so that now she sat fully on him. Knowing it was his time, she raised and lowered her body with each fevered thrust more pronounced than the last in her efforts to allow him his own release.

He moaned a deep, guttural sound as she ground her sweating body up and down hard on top of him. She slowed the rotation of her hips as she fixed her small feet onto the mattress for extra purchase and having done so, it took only a few deep circular thrusts for her to take Daniel over the edge.

She felt him shudder inside her, his hands and arms gripping her tightly as he held her still. A split-second later she felt him begin to shake as he climaxed, and she used the timing to thrust uncontrollably against him, eager to encourage every last drop from his body and into hers. His breath came in gasps against her soft cheek, her weight on top of his hard body as he shot inside her, again and again.

It took them both a long, delicious while to recover. When she felt her breathing return to normal, Grace reached into the top drawer of the glossy white bedside table and slowly pulled out a small bag. It contained two joints of pot, with a little bit more of the drug filling up the bulging bottom of the light coloured bag. Her slender hand emerged with a lighter from the same location, and she carefully lit the two joints, handing one to Daniel.

She knew that whilst he usually voiced opposition to what she saw as an innocent habit, he was usually more than willing to participate following a heavy lovemaking session. She took a couple of quick hits on her joint, and her shaded eyes glanced sideways to observe him do the same. Her eyes were half closed in contentment as she watched him hold in the smoke, long and deep. Then she did the same, finally released the smoke from her mouth and into the once clean air.

The sex, combined with the buzz and euphoric feeling of the marijuana, completely relaxed their bodies and when they finished, Grace snuggled her body into Daniel's. As she drifted off into the unconscious world of dreams, she vaguely remembered that she had not yet told Daniel of Lauren's news. That could wait until the morning.

*

Despite their intense lovemaking, Daniel for some unknown reason found sleep hard to come by. He could just make out Grace's serene face breathing rhythmically beside him in the murky dark of the night. Why had such sessions become increasingly rarer, he asked himself, his mind returning to the negative thoughts that had started whilst waiting for Grace outside the club.

As sleep continued to elude him, he realised that his poker aspirations had become a barrier between him and Grace. But he naively believed that his success would make the difference. He had often found himself playing poker well into the middle of the night, after convincing himself that sleep was an unnecessary luxury, in the certainty that these countless hands online provided essential experience leading to future success.

And he had significantly improved his game, eventually moving up to high-stakes tables. It had taken a little time, but his game had sufficiently improved so that unbeknown to Grace he had gradually built up a nice little stack. At first, she had been supportive of him and had understood his dream, just as Daniel understood and supported hers. But pretty soon, his life revolved around three things – poker, his job and Grace. And that was when their relationship had begun to change.

He glanced over again at Grace, squinting to make out her features in the dark. She seemed so peaceful and content in her sleeping state. He was tired now, but poker was on his mind and with a gentle, soft, kiss on her warm forehead he began to crawl out of bed. A quick game of internet poker was probably just what he needed to help him sleep, he thought. He would worry later about work in the morning.

He tiptoed from the bed to the door, stopping only to cover his naked body in a white cotton dressing gown, and quietly slipped outside the room and along the small corridor. He had no way of knowing that his difficulty in sleeping, and what he discovered as a result, would eventually change their lives forever.

*

Grace had been sitting on the edge of their bed for a few moments, fully dressed, shaking Daniel's naked shoulder. She stood up as she saw an eye flutter open.

"Hmmm, something made you sleepy," she purred. "There's a cup of tea on the bedside table. I make it you've got less than an hour to get to work."

As she started to turn to the door, Daniel abruptly sat up, grabbing her slim arm.

"Wait, Grace," he gasped excitedly.

Grace laughed as he pulled her back down onto the bed, raising a perfect eyebrow in amusement.

"You want more? After last night, Mr Insatiable wants more?"

"No. It's not that," he corrected her, still holding her arm. "I've gotta tell you something."

Grace ran her hand along his naked chest. "Well, I make it that you have less than an hour before you are late. And you know how Slim feels about that..."

Daniel ignored her. "Listen, Grace. Last night I could not sleep. So eventually I went to play in a satellite tournament.

"Wait a minute," she interrupted as his words hit home. Her voice was suddenly harsh and her eyes blazing. "You weren't able to sleep after..."

"Listen, Grace," he repeated, oblivious to her anger. "It was like fate. A satellite tournament was just about to start and it turned out to be one that offered the opportunity a shot for a $10,000 seat at the World Series of Poker. The World Series of Poker in Vegas, Grace!"

But Grace had stopped listening. "You could not sleep after we fucked? And you played poker?"

She almost spat out the words, her face reddening with rage as she jumped up.

"Please, Grace," he exhorted, his eyes wide. "It was only a $40 entry fee and I won the bloody thing. I actually won it Grace."

His words were sufficient to make Grace pause, her anger subsiding as she attempted to understand what he was telling her. She flopped back down on the edge of the bed, staring into his excited eyes.

"You... you won us a trip to Vegas?"

Daniel turned in the bed so that he was now fully facing her and took both of her hands in his, pulling her closer.

"No, not yet..." he said, pausing as he saw the frustration rise in her eyes once again. "But it gives me free entry to a $600 tournament and if I finish in the top three in that one, we're on our way, babe."

Grace snorted, pulling her hands away, "And if your Aunt was your Uncle..."

She paused, looking at the crestfallen look on his face. Men could be such boys. All of a sudden, she did not have the heart to pour cold water on his enthusiasm, though his ever increasing obsession with poker had fast become a major problem in their relationship. It seemed to have taken precedence over everything, including her. And the fact that he had played last night, or rather in the early hours of this morning, after what had been an intense, but increasingly rare lovemaking session, just about summed up the current state of their relationship.

But seeing her features soften, Daniel added more detail, assuring her that this was an incredible chance for them to visit Vegas, and for him to play in what he described as the world championship Main Event in the World Series of Poker.