Aces Wild (House of Cards Series 4)

Exit Stage Left

* Photo of Nanthiel Spade Vega to the side

Nathaniel Vega felt a grin spread across his face as he heard the young woman’s angry father scream after him as he dropped out the window and made his dash away to safety. Throwing his clothes into the passenger seat of his beat up impala, Nate hopped in and drove off, nearly crashing when he started to crack up.

He wasn’t ready to go to his tiny apartment but knew he couldn’t go home in this condition. His mother was an understanding woman, but she had certain views about appropriate behavior that sometimes lacked a sense of humor. His father was a little more liberal minded, but even he’d give Nate that look over this incident. Anastasia was one of Nathaniel’s little sister, Adrianne’s, friends. She was only two and a half years younger than Nate was, but he knew that his sister’s friends were supposed to be off limits. But she was a sultry fox, a buxom and curvy woman that made his hands itch with the need to wander. And at twenty one, Nathaniel wasn’t too proud to have to sneak into her house to seduce her. They’d just gotten to the fun part when her father came storming into the room, screaming bloody murder. Nate had grabbed his clothes and bolted, knowing that the girl was eighteen and at worst he’d get nailed with trespassing. Still that meant his parents would find out and that’d be a drag.

So delaying the inevitable, Nate drove to his best friend’s house, knowing that Grace was easier to deal with than Alice and Malcolm, his parents, are. He pulled his pants on but just carried the rest of his clothes with him as he scaled the tree outside Grace’s window and snuck into the second girls’ bedroom of the night. Since it was near two am, he wasn’t surprised to find Grace sleeping and he took a moment to grin down at his best friend. She was a few months younger than his own sister, but the friendship was between him and her because Adri was far more girly minded than Grace ever tended to be. They got along fine, but the red head liked the kind of trouble Nate usually got them into.

Grace wasn’t living up to her name sake at the moment. She was sprawled out on her bed, comforter kicked off and her arms and legs akimbo. Her red hair was tangled, and her mouth was open and drooling as she snored softly. Nate assessed his best friend, knowing that she was beautiful, and wondering for the umpteenth million time why she didn’t have a man in her life. His eyes snagged on where the hem of her night shirt was riding up and the soft muscles of her stomach were exposed. He knew that her tummy was her weak spot and couldn’t resist the temptation to be an a**hole and jerk her around.

He dropped his shirt to the floor and shucked his pants off again, walking over to her bed side in just his boxers. He carefully crawled onto the bed next to her and lowered himself down so he was eye level with her navel. She smelled faintly of that honey dust body powder he gave her every year for Christmas and he grinned and gently kissed right next to her pierced naval. He knew there was a tattoo on her hip and down her right side a little, a pinup photo of a hunky man tearing off his shirt. He knew the tattoo was there because he was the one who’d gotten her drunk and tattooed her, and he made the man look like himself on purpose. An eighteenth birthday gift she’d remember forever. She’d punched him bloody for it when she’d sobered up.

Nate bit on her navel gently and her breathing hitched. She was waking-up slowly as he continued to kiss her stomach, breathing along her rib cage as she moaned softly in her sleep. He pushed the hem of her shirt up more and kissed along her ribcage and her hands came down to sink into his hair. Nate’s hands came down to her hips and pushed her shorts down lower and bit down on her hip, making Grace wake up fully with a barely swallowed moan. Then Nate rasp berried her belly and make her squeak in surprise.

Grace slapped the back of his head and he pulled away from her belly and grinned at her. “You’re such an a**hole.” Grace growled at her handsome best friend, trying to ignore the way her body tingled with sleepy arousal. B******* sure knew how to push her buttons, but since she wasn’t dumb enough to fall for his ploys and actually fall into bed with him, Grace shoved her best friend away by his face.