WINNING DENVER

Las Vegas is America's adult amusement park. I spend two or three weeks a year there to gamble and enjoy the other festivities. I'm never a big winner or loser unless you consider $20,000 a trip big. At thirty-seven, I was in my fifteenth year of Vegas trips, and over the years, I was actually ahead by more than a hundred thousand.

I always stay at the same place and gamble there most of the time. As a regular, I get the freebies they offer to generate repeat business, such as lunches, drinks, or tickets to the shows. Each trip, I find a nice girl to share my bed a few times, which is part of the Vegas appeal. Not street walkers. Vegas-quality call girls, pretty and clean. My family says one of my deepest personality traits is the inability to make a commitment. I've told them I'll find the right someone some day, although I'm not looking.

On the first night of a two-week stay, I gambled until five in the morning. When I called it a night, I was seventy thousand ahead, which made for sweet dreams someone rudely interrupted by knocking at my door. As I stumbled to answer, the clock read ten thirty. It was Dave Walton, the assistant security chief, whom I had gotten to know over the years. A hard-nosed SOB with some old Mafia ties, he did a fine job for the casino, handling all the tough problems while his pretty boy boss looked good for the Gaming Commission.

"Having a good trip, Chet?" he asked as I let him in.

"So far, Dave. What the hell do you want at this hour?"

"Planning on hiring any females this time?" he replied.

"Like always. Got anybody special in mind?"

"Yeah, I do. You know this is top secret, Chet." That was Dave's code for telling me if I mouthed this off, my legs got broken.

"Well, let me hear."

Dave told me an intriguing story, a story I had heard other times but always believed to be an urban myth. A young couple on their honeymoon got caught up in the gambling and was down a total of $26,000 to three different casinos. Dave was handling the collection for all three. The husband had lost the money and his new bride was mad as hell at him.

"The woman had agreed to work it off, so to speak," Dave continued. I studied his face but found nothing there. The term poker face was invented for Dave and guys like him.

"And?" I said.

"She's a cute little thing. Not my taste really because I like my women with bigger tits, but she's a doll." He shrugged. "I can put her with a service and she can fuck three or four dozen different guys to earn my money, or..." He shrugged again.

The idea stirred me. Why, I don't know. Maybe because it was a faux rape since she was being leveraged into doing it. Or her age and innocence. Maybe it was fucking someone else's bride on their honeymoon, or just fucking another man's wife while he watched. Whatever the reason, I agreed to meet them and went with Dave to his office.

Her name was Denver, which she explained was because she was born there, the love child of hippie parents. She was twenty-one. His name was Toby. They were scared to death since they knew they were in very deep trouble with very bad people. The tension in Dave's office was as oppressive as lava. She had been crying, but now was deathly still and quiet except for a few involuntary, intermittent shakes. Toby was catatonic.

Dave was right. She was a doll with an intrinsic sexual appeal that hit some hot buttons in me.

When I asked to speak to her alone, she followed me to a smaller office Dave gave us. At first, we looked at each other, or, rather, I looked at her and she glanced at me then turned away in embarrassment, only to glance at me again.

"Talk to me," I said. "Tell me if you understand what's going on here."

"I'll be a whore. I..." Her voice cracked and she began to sob-little gasps released under great pressure as she fought to maintain her composure. I put my arms around her to comfort her, but it increased her anxiety. She became rigid, shaking slightly, so I stepped away to give her the space she needed. Eventually, she took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it. Still, she didn't look at me.

She spoke as if relating a tale of death in her family. "I know what I have to do and I'll do it. I'll be a bride on her honeymoon, being happy about having wild sex, doing anything my man asks of me, except the man won't be my husband."

Her voice would break the heart of a statue, but it was so erotic, I thought I'd be spilt open.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"No pain. They promised me no pain...no real pain, anyway."

"I agree. There won't be any pain," I said. "Well, Denver, do we have a deal?"

There was a long silence. "I can do this," she said very softly as if trying to convince herself rather than communicate to me. I hoped she could do it because the fantasy of her being with me under these circumstances was quickly growing in me. When she reached the point where she looked at me openly, I knew she was ready for the next step.

"Let me see you, Denver."

She turned a scarlet red and shook her head. My immutable stare told her to proceed. A tear came to her eye as she began unbuttoning her blouse.

There is something very erotic about forcing a woman sexually, about taking her to or beyond her limits. She seemed unaware that her hesitation and the slow, rhythmic pace of her undressing increased its erotic impact, as did the begging in her eyes.

My mind flashed to Gina, a wild Italian I had dated before she hooked a doctor. Gina loved sex and was a master at building tension, of making foreplay itself so special and unique. She knew how to make a man force her-how to maneuver him into making her surrender to him, take her against her apparent will. She'd surrender with elan.

The eroticism those dances with her generated fueled dreams for a lifetime. Now Denver was generating that kind of heat, albeit without intent and with consequences, real or imagined, if she didn't comply.

Had she looked away, or looked angry or disgusted, the spell would have been broken. But, her eyes continually transmitted their message of humbling and involuntary submission that the rhythm of her hands reinforced. It was a slow, desperate dance by one building desire in another.

Clad now only in a bra and panties, with her hips turned so her leg blocked my frontal view and her arms covered her breasts modestly, she finally verbalized what her eyes and body had been saying: "Please, don't make me."

I said nothing. I didn't want to "make her." I wanted her to do it without my insistence. More though, I wanted her to continue at her own pace, a pace I found highly erotic. She knew what needed to be done. Somewhere deep in her mind, she found strength. I could see her back straighten as a hand slipped behind her to release her bra. The bra fell loose but not away, trapped against her breasts by her arm. She looked away and closed her eyes. Slowly, with one hand, she began to slip the panties off her hips and down her legs.

She looked like "September Morn," her side to me, body curled to hide her nudity, protecting herself as best she could with only her hands and arms, panties trapped around one trim ankle like a white flag of surrender.

Did she realize how delicious she looked? How helpless, how feminine, with her ass and legs so perfectly posed to arouse the animal in a man? Did she realize she was driving me wild with desire?

I let her work her way through it, giving her time to adjust to being seen naked by a man not her husband. Finally, she looked at me. It was a look I didn't expect-an expression of sexual desire and a pleading for tenderness, not a reflection of humiliation. I spoke as gently as I could.

"It's time, Denver. Move your hands away and let me see you."

She sobbed audibly and quivered. Tears, absent since we first began, rolled silently down her face. Her hands clenched, knuckles white, muscles in her arms corded, as she fought to do what she knew she must. She turned, like a steel bar being slowly torqued to straightness, until she faced me, legs together, arms rigid by her side, eyes clenched shut, her face a grimace.

She was about five seven with a lean, athletic body. Her best feature was an unbelievable, jutting ass, the kind skaters or cyclists have, and shapely, long, rock hard legs. She had small but firm and pretty breasts with prominent nipples and a six pack stomach. She had short strawberry red hair and freckles on a delightful face.

"You're magnificent," I said. My comment was muted, said unintentionally, just an honest acknowledgment slipping out when not expected.

She gave me a shy smile, and there was a passive twinkle in her beautiful eyes. I waited until I saw her relax with her hands falling open by her side and the tension lines in her face disappearing. I slowly walked to her, watching her eyes widen and tension return to her face as she stared unblinking. With the tip of a finger under her chin, I guided her head upwards and held it there as I softly kissed her closed lips.

"Denver, I know that was hard for you."

"Thank you for being understanding, for being...gentle with me."

"You're welcome. You can redress now."

As she redressed, she made no attempt to conceal herself. Rather, the way she moved, held her head and body, sent the clear message she was redressing to appeal to me, not just clothe her nakedness. It gave me hope.

After returning to the group, we struck a deal. I got Denver for the thirteen days remaining in my vacation on a twenty-four hour, no questions asked, all orders happily followed basis. They got the bad guys off their backs. I paid the $26,000.

As we stood in Dave's office, Denver looked at Toby with distaste and hatred. "Can I ask you something before I agree?" she asked, speaking to me.

Dave answered, his tone leaving little room for compromise. "What?"

"I want Toby to be with me, Chet. Take him as your valet. He'll agree to be totally obedient just as I have. Won't you, honey?" "Honey," sounded like a snake's hiss just before it strikes.

Toby had no choice, so he agreed. We modified the deal to have the casino provide a small bedroom on another floor for Toby if I wanted him away from us. Before letting us all leave, Dave carefully explained any problem would be met with great anger by him.

Denver followed me into the suite with Toby behind her. Once in my room, I said. "Let us get something straight. Toby, you and Denver may not talk without receiving permission in advance except what is necessary as servants to get the job done." I thought for a second he was going to rebel, but he nodded agreement. "The two of you may not touch each other at all."

I got a dirty look from Toby but no reaction from Denver. "Chet, may I speak to Toby as man and wife?" she asked.

She had been through hell today, but steel is made with fire. That lean, attractive, young woman was as tough as nails underneath. After I gave permission, she sat on the couch and patted the seat next to her. When Toby sat by her, she took his hands in hers. Her face showed determination not love, steel not softness.

"Toby, two days ago I was a brand-new bride on my honeymoon. Today, I'm a whore. We sold my body to Chet to pay your gambling debts. I'm going to enjoy the rest of these two weeks. I'm going to enjoy being his whore, his woman, for every minute of these thirteen days. When the time is over, if you want me, I'll go back to being your wife and we can put this whole thing behind us. But...I never, for the rest of our married life, want to hear anything from you about this. I don't want it thrown in my face. I didn't cause it, but I am going to make the best of it. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Toby answered through clenched teeth. He was a sealed pot ready to explode, but she was cold as ice, and her coldness overcame his heat until he slumped against the couch.

She released his hands, sat back, and looked at me. I could see in her face acceptance of the reality of her situation. She had crossed her Rubicon. She was ready and willing to begin.

"Denver, let's start by you showing me your wardrobe. We'll be in the casino gambling, eating dinner, or seeing a show. I want to make sure you look nice. Toby, you can bring Denver's clothes out of the closet one by one and help her do a style show."

Toby almost lost his cool as Denver began undressing. There was no hesitancy in her disrobing. There was no eroticism either, just a model exhibiting a wardrobe without regard for her audience. She treated him as if he really was a servant and me as if I was a disinterested observer of no concern to her.

She had only two dresses that were marginally suitable for a fine evening out, so it was a short style show. I gave Toby a hundred dollar bill and the key to the other bedroom, told him to get lost until tomorrow, and took her downstairs to a woman's clothing store. Denver was pleasantly surprised when I bought her three lovely dresses with shoes and accessories to match. She looked like dynamite, which is the way I wanted her to look when she was with me. More than that, it's the way she deserved to look.

The shopping had further relaxed the atmosphere between us. She had accepted her fate and intended to enjoy her time, just as she told her husband she would. I took her hand in mine when we left the clothing store, and she squeezed it and smiled up at me. I stopped in the hall with people all around us, pulled her to me, and kissed her. It was an impulse by me as I responded to her. For an instant, she pulled back. Quickly, she relaxed and kissed me warmly before we broke, each of us smiling from the encounter. She blushed slightly, probably as a result of the wolf whistle we had heard from a passerby.

We returned to the room and put the new clothes away. Passing small talk and sipping on the bourbon and water I had prepared, we sat in the living room of the suite, the bed lurking ominously through the open French doors at one end of our room. A fly on the wall observing us would have laughed at our little dance, pretending to ignore the bed when it was the most important piece of furniture in the suite.

We reached the point where we both knew she was ready to do what she had agreed to do. I was in no hurry, relishing the luxury of the building tension, enjoying the situation and her. Silence fell. She broke the ice by glancing at the bed with her eyebrows raised, asking the question nonverbally.

"When you're ready, Denver. There's no hurry," I said.

"You're not going to push me?"

"No."

She watched me, reading my feelings as I read hers. Slowly, her expression changed. A killer smile, the kind of smile that, when a man is lucky enough to get one from a woman, makes his heart soft and his cock hard rewarded me.

"I appreciate you being gentle, Chet, but I'm ready."

She slipped to me, raising her head to be kissed, which I gladly did, feeling her softness against me. Her lips were hot, almost eager as her mouth opened, inviting my tongue to make my first penetration of her. When she turned her back to me, her finger tips brushed my groin suggestively.

"Unbutton me, please," she said.

Have fashions reached the point of diminishing returns? Where woman wear so little the sheer romance and thrill of undressing them is tepid from overexposure when they are "clothed?" I enjoy undressing a woman, and the more there is to remove, the more I enjoy it.

She was wearing a sleeveless, high necked silk blouse with many buttons in back. With each button I opened, a piece of her was revealed to me, building my already great desire for her. My hands stroked and caressed her with each button I touched. When I finished, she stayed with her back to me. I pushed the blouse over her shoulders, watching it flutter to the floor like a dove landing in soft grass. I relished the feel of her naked skin on my hands, the tingle her heat made in my fingertips, the feel of her skin and muscles against my palms, the promise her back offered, a promise that would be fulfilled when she turned around.

She moaned quietly when I kissed the nape of her neck, pushing her ass back against me, turning her head slightly to increase my access to those tiny, oft overlooked, erogenous zones from the base of her skull to the side of her neck where the collarbone disappears into soft flesh. She sighed as I unfastened her bra.

She turned in my arms, her hands finding my shirt buttons as her eyes held mine, burning into me, weakening my resolve, increasing my need. She pushed the shirt back over my shoulders. She put her head on my shoulder as her arms slid around my waist and her nipples burned a hole in my chest. I crushed her against me, holding her tightly with my left arm as my right hand searched for the zipper to her skirt. She let the skirt fall away, wiggling her hips to help it slip to the floor, leaving her only in her panties, which were a tiny pair in white.

"Now, sit, let me finish undressing you," she whispered, pushing me back on the bed, kneeling to untie my shoes. Shoes and socks gone, she shimmed my trousers down as I raised my hips, supporting my weight on the bed with my arms. She hooked her thumbs in the elastic waistband of my boxers, but, when, I lifted my hips, she stopped and gazed into my face.

"Do you really think I'm beautiful?"

"Yes. Very much so."

"That means a lot to me."

She stood, slipped her thumbs in the elastic waist of her panties. Her eyes held mine as she started to lower them. She couldn't stand it and looked away, a slight blush crossing her cheeks. Naked now, she leaned against me, pushing me back on the bed with her weight.

She leaned to me, kissing me. As the kiss accelerated and our desires overcame whatever resistance we may have had, I rolled her over. Her legs parted, letting me in. She wrapped them around me, locking her ankles at the small of my back, pulling me tightly to her, so tightly I couldn't penetrate her. She had a wild, devilish look as she rubbed her pussy against me, teasing me.

I'd wondered if I was going to have to break through her defenses, but I didn't. She was wild and eager, hot, sweating, active. She was playing with me, keeping me from getting in her, building the desire in both of us as each movement generated heat and need. Never was there a question of her willingness. The question was just timing, which she wished to delay.

Finally, I could stand no more and worked my way into her. She was sopping from her love juices, her pussy bloated and ready for me, but she groaned slightly as she pulled her hips back and rolled me over on my back.

"I'm the paid professional here. Let me do this," she said. There was no remorse, only laughter, in her statement.

She pushed my arms down by my head, her small but powerful fingers wrapping around my wrists to hold me down as she slid me up into her pussy with such slowness, I believed I felt individual cells of skin as they caressed my cock. I was buried in her hot warmth, which was oozing her pussy juices from the several orgasms she had enjoyed. I had never experienced a pussy with the muscle control Denver had. She watched my face and adjusted the movement and tension accordingly. I knew she had no intention of letting me cum. She wanted to make me last forever.

Shaking, almost sobbing and out of control from the need she built in me, I flipped her over. She locked those steel cable legs around me and milked me with her pussy as I pounded her with everything I had. It was the best orgasm I ever experienced.

We didn't leave the room the rest of the day. We fucked against the wall, in the shower, on the floor, everywhere, fucked until we lay, spent and happy, in each other's arms.

The following day, Toby was beside himself when we finally exited the suite in mid afternoon. She coolly said, "Hello, Toby" as if he were indeed a servant. Toby, again, almost lost control at seeing us both so happy and well fucked. Again, I gave him a hundred and told him to get lost. She didn't even look at him when he walked away.

We enjoyed a fine restaurant and a show, before gambling until it was late. She was lucky for me and I was a big winner. Back at the suite, we wore out ourselves and the furniture. Our second night together was better than the first, which I would not have believed possible. The next morning we stayed in the suite again, ordering room service and talking.

She was a wonderful young woman. Toby was her sixth lover (making me the lucky seventh) and she spoke openly and warmly of them, talking of her experiences. From a broken home, she spoke of her mother and father, of her brother and sister, in loving and understanding terms, showing maturity as well as compassion, strength as well as tenderness.

She married Toby hoping for a man to spend her life with, a man to care for, a man to give her children. She knew, as I did, the chances of success in her marriage to Toby had slipped away. She never would be able to forgive him for what he did to her, and she was having trouble forgiving herself for hating him for it.

"Are you enjoying being with me, Denver?" I asked. No sooner had the words escaped than I wished I could pull them back. It was a stupid question.

She smiled shyly. "You can tell that," she whispered.

I was touched by how open and honest she was with me, as if she were there willingly rather than under duress. It was somewhere in that morning, I realized I was falling for her.

Some stupid and unexplained electron in my brain kept firing, creating in me the need to not fall for her-to resist what was growing in other regions of my gray matter. I decided we needed to get out of the suite, so we gambled most of the late afternoon.

I made sure Toby was with us, but, again, Denver ignored him. I invited him to dinner with us that evening. It was a rather dull affair, ending when Denver and I returned to the suite and Toby gambled away the funds I had given him.

The following night the three of us went to a dinner show. Toby sat on one side of me and Denver on the other. She was a dream in a tight, black, mid-thigh, cocktail dress, which she wore braless so her ripe nipples showed through the thin material. She wore thigh high stockings and high heels. She had made a point of saying in front of Toby that she was without panties, which I know he and I both thought about almost constantly.

She was flirtatious and sexy, ignoring him and playing with me all evening. He was getting mad as hell. When he went to the rest room, I pulled her to me.

"You're being a little tough on him. Tone it down some," I said.

She stared at me for a long time, before saying, "Please, Chet. Be a bastard to me. Make me hate you. Don't let me come out of this in love with you. I can't handle that."

She began to cry and I folded her in my arms. As Toby reappeared, a security guard came from nowhere and escorted him out. When Denver was composed enough to leave, we went back to the room. After putting her to bed in the bedroom, I went to the living room where I watched TV and drank until sleep found me on the couch. Thoughts of her were my dreams.

In the morning, I awakened when she lay her naked body on mine and hugged me, her head buried in my chest, her tears warm and wet on me, her little sobs faint in my ears. Softly, tenderly, I held and comforted her. I heard and felt the stages of her sorrow, which ended quietly as she lay next to me, her tears drying on my chest.

"Please, Chet, make love to me," she whispered.

At that moment, I wished I was strong enough to push her away, to resist the love growing in each of us. I wished I was cold enough not to fall in love with her. But I wasn't.

The next five days were very strange. Always together, I tried to ignore her and she tried to ignore me, although not necessarily at the same time, and with the result both of us felt unsettled if the other was out of sight. Toby was always with us except at night when we retired to our suite, but his presence was only an irritant as neither Denver nor I did more than acknowledge him.

The tension was eating us all.

At night, together in the big king-sized bed in the suite, we made love with enthusiasm and joy until the reality of our situation forced its way back into our consciousness like a rat encroaching on a banquet and its darkness spilled over us.

As we ignored each other, as we fought to resist, the love we had planted was growing inside each of us and nothing would stop it.

Dave called me to his office. "How's it going?" he asked.

I didn't know what to say. But Dave had been watching us and he was shrewd. He began his gentle questioning, pulling answers out I did not know were in me. However, Dave wished to see a different ending than I had envisonaged. As a way to end our turmoil, he suggested I violently rape Denver while Toby watched, then release them and let them go home.

It was a stupid idea. I knew I didn't have the will in me to violate her, no matter the circumstances. I wonder if I ever did, for while the idea of having her against her will appealed to the dark animal in me, seeing her and knowing her and having her in my arms brought forth different emotions. I knew if she hadn't suggested we go to bed that first time, we might never have slept together. She knew it, too, and that knowledge was very important to me. Don't ask me to explain why a man would pay $26,000 for a woman and then let her decide to come to him. I can't explain it. I just know that was the way it was.

The only way out of my dilemma appeared to be for me to talk with Toby, which, with Dave as referee, I did. I explained to Toby I had fallen in love with his wife and that I wanted her.

He responded as if he expected it and had already reconciled himself to the idea. I would have thought he would have been angry-angry with me, or her, or with himself for causing this mess. He was resigned to losing her, perhaps even grateful she was leaving. Staying together, she would be a constant reminder of their experience with his gambling losses and his failure to protect her as he pledged when they stood on the altar.

Then the weaseling sonofabitch suggested I pay him for Denver, which irritated me so much I almost hit him.

Dave was watching me like a hawk and diffused the situation. "Sounds reasonable," Dave said, telling me to shut up in his own polite way.

Toby and I agreed to a price for him giving her a divorce.

Denver was sitting on the little couch by the big window in the suite when we arrived. She looked tired as she stood, folding her arms across the blouse she wore with pants, her feet bare. She joined us in the sitting area, sitting primly on the edge of the chair, knees and feet together, arms across her body in a protective pose.

The four of us sat without speaking. I screwed up my courage and opened my mouth. "Denver..."

"Toby," she interrupted. "I love Chet and I want a divorce."

"You bitch. I'd worked out a cash payment from Chet for you."

Dave is a professional used to handling surprise situations. I'm fast on my feet. Denver caught us both off guard as she launched herself into Toby. It wasn't a slap. With a closed fist right cross, she caught him full on the jaw and knocked out a tooth.

She also broke her hand.

Denver sat on the plane next to me on the way home. She was in the window seat and to my left, so I was holding hands with fingertips and a cast. She was serene and bubbly, generating the positive and effervescent heat women-those special women-do when they're happy and with the man they love. She made me happier than I could ever remember being.

"How are you going to explain me to your family?" she asked, referring to the brothers and sisters and parents in my hometown who would be shocked I finally found the woman I wanted to marry. Her teasing and loving eyes shone up at me.

I grinned devilishly. "We'll tell them I won you gambling. That's the truth, isn't it?"

She stroked my face with her good left hand and kissed me softly.

"Why don't we make up something different to tell them? Only in our bedroom do I want to be the woman you won in Vegas."

The End
E. Z. Riter