Blush

by Lauren Jameson

  If it’s what she wanted? So . . . what did he want?

  “Um . . . yes. I’d like to see you.” She didn’t know what else to say, or even what she was answering, exactly. There was a minute’s pause, and she heard him murmuring in lilting tones to someone at the other end, and she wondered whom he was with.

  “Tomorrow afternoon. Four p.m. I will send my driver for you. Wear jeans.” It sounded like he was taking the phone away from his ear, and she was left reeling again.

  It all sounded fine, except for one thing.

  “Wait!” There, he was back. She could hear his breath.

  “Yes, Miss Stone?”

  Maddy couldn’t tell if he was exasperated or amused. “I’ll meet you there.” The number one thing that her older sister had always taught her about dating was to take her own transportation. She knew better than to find herself alone in the car with a boy—a man—if she didn’t know without a doubt that she could trust him.

  Well, Alex Fraser was no boy—he was most definitely all man. But though her gut told her she could trust him, really, she didn’t know anything about him.

  Driving her own car was a smart decision.

  On the other end of the line, she could hear Alex sigh. This time she was fully aware that it was a noise of irritation.

  “I would like to extend to you the courtesy of my driver and car.” Although his voice was deep and sexy, in this stilted conversation he sounded like someone straight out of the pages of Pride and Prejudice, and Maddy briefly pictured him in tight pants like those worn by Colin Firth.

  Bad Maddy. Bad. Pay attention. You’re not going anywhere if he insists on his car. It was enough that she was agreeing to go see him, something that had the potential to throw her into a tizzy if she obsessed about it too much.

  “Thank you, but it’s not necessary. I’ll drive myself there.”

  There was another pause, and when he replied, his voice was clipped. Was he angry? Surely she hadn’t done anything to make him angry. She’d thought maybe he would be attracted to her more confident self, rather than the awkward version he’d met at the diner. “Very well, Miss Stone.” He did sound angry. Maybe he thought she’d been rude, refusing his generous offer.

  His demeanor was disconcerting. Did she even want to spend time with someone who would get upset over something so small?

  “You owe me one, Maddy.” His voice had softened as well, and it was low and full of promise.

  She shivered, in a very good way.

  “The rest, however, is nonnegotiable. Four o’clock. A Casino in Paradise. Wear jeans.” And then he was gone, having reverted back to his formidable self with his parting words.

  Maddy hugged herself with glee, though she didn’t quite understand why. Oh, that was a lie; she did know. Something about Alex inexplicably drew her to him, magnet to metal. What she didn’t understand was why, after she had become so comfortable in her own little cocoon. He’d stirred a part of her that she almost didn’t recognize after so long.

  Well, she would take the happy feelings where they came. Heaven knew they’d been in short supply over the last year. Maddy did a little booty shake in the privacy of her bathroom, enjoying the moment, as she put the phone down on the counter and rose from her seat on the lid of the toilet.

  Then she realized something.

  Shit.

  Four o’clock at a casino in Paradise? He didn’t say which one.

  Shit.

  • • •

  “A Casino in Paradise. Very funny.” Maddy was a little irritated when she marched up to Alex in the lobby of the casino. Her spirits had hit rock bottom when she’d thought that he had perhaps not wanted her to tag along with him after all and had deliberately not given her the name. Before calling him like a lovesick schoolgirl, though, she at least had the presence of mind to hit the Internet connection on her phone.

  She’d searched on the Internet for “casinos in Paradise, Nevada.” The only hit was for the tacky joint in which she now stood.

  Alex appeared to be entertained. He was wearing the kind of blue jeans that she just knew were from some high-end department store, a white T-shirt, and that battered leather jacket. His eyes were hidden by dark aviator sunglasses, the name of some French brand that she’d never heard of emblazoned on the temple.

  She imagined that this was his idea of blending in. If only he understood that with his fallen-angel face, his ridiculously toned body, his sexy-as-hell smirk, he would never look like he belonged with the tourists, the showgirls, the sweaty businessmen who frequented this kind of place.

  Maddy pulled her stare forcibly away from his face. She couldn’t see his eyes behind the dark glasses, but she was sure he was looking straight at her.

  It was unnerving not having even a clue to what he was thinking, and she was unnerved enough just being there. She’d gotten lost on her way there, and though it turned out she was only a block away, it had been enough to send panic coursing through her veins.

  She told him about none of that, though. She wanted to show her best self to him.

  “Hello, Miss Stone.” His voice was low and husky. “You look sexy in heels.”

  What?

  “I’m wearing jeans, as you requested,” Maddy remarked as she stared at her feet. She’d painted her toenails so that they would look nice in her sandals, but the glossy red now seemed ridiculous, like she was trying too hard. She should have stuck with her usual pale pink.

  Alex followed her stare down. She squirmed under what she assumed was scrutiny—she still couldn’t tell, because he had those damn sunglasses on.

  He looked back up to her face, and suddenly she felt hot, though she couldn’t see his eyes.

  “What?” Maddy stuffed her fingers into her pockets, then took them out again.

  Before she could form a reply, he was moving, finally removing those sunglasses, but now his face was carefully blank.

  “Let’s go.” He replaced the shades with spectacles and started to walk toward the entrance to the gaming floor.

  Maddy felt her insides melt. She had such a thing for a good-looking man in glasses.

  Trying not to drool, she glanced at him from the corner of her eye. It had been two years since she’d worked as an optician, but she was pretty sure that his glasses weren’t real. There was a glare from the lights shining off of the clear plastic, which most prescription lenses—especially lenses belonging to someone who could afford all the bells and whistles—no longer had.

  “Are you nearsighted?” Startled, Alex stopped in his tracks next to her, his sexy mouth frowning. Maddy couldn’t help the small wash of satisfaction, that she’d managed to catch him off guard, something she didn’t think many people managed to do.

  “As a matter of fact.” He studied her intently.

  “But those aren’t real.” Maddy was confident she was right.

  “They don’t look good?” And there it was, a first thread of vulnerability that made him seem like a real human instead of a god.

  Maddy was quiet for a moment before telling him the truth. “They look great.” Well, it wasn’t actually the entire truth. If she told him that, then she would have to let it slip that those little wire-rimmed frames perched on his nose made her hot in a way that she’d never been before.

  She still didn’t understand it. All she knew was that she wanted him and that the wanting couldn’t be good for her.

  Maddy caught him studying her face for a long moment, as if to ascertain some truth there, one that she wasn’t sure she knew herself. Eventually, he took her hand and led her across the lobby. His palm was warm and dry against her own clammy one, and he rubbed the base of her thumb absently with his own as they walked.

  A rush of nerves and excitement nearly knocked her to her knees. She hadn’t been touched with such simple pleasure in . . . oh, it had been so long. And there was something between them that was getting harder and harder to ignore, something intense, something intoxicating.

 
Maddy snuck a sidelong glance at Alex. He was looking at her straight on—no sneaky glances for him. His lips were frowning, just a slight bit, but his eyes told her that his mind was just as far into the gutter as her own.

  A squeak escaped her lips. Her words got stuck in her throat at the intensity of that gaze. Mortified, she felt herself turning red and stared at the ground as they walked.

  He tugged at her arm just before they entered the casino floor. She hadn’t realized that she’d pulled away slightly, resisting entering the area—she’d grown somewhat comfortable where she was already, next to Alex in the lobby. She wasn’t eager to change. But he insisted, pulling her along gently. When she got the nerve to again meet his eyes, she thought, for a moment, that he was going to kiss her.

  He reached out, ran a finger over her heated cheek, then looked puzzled, as if he didn’t know why he’d done that.

  “That blush.” He raised an eyebrow, then said no more about it. Instead he transformed in front of her eyes, moving from the more approachable man who let a small vulnerability show to Alex Fraser, the smooth, suave businessman she’d met the other night. Even in blue jeans, he exuded confidence—the young billionaire with the world at his feet.

  Maybe that was why Maddy was so drawn to him. He had enough confidence for the both of them.

  “We are a young couple here on our honeymoon. Just tourists looking for a fun afternoon gambling at a casino. Okay?” Ah. So that explained the denim and glasses. Maddy didn’t want to be the one to tell him that even dressed down, he didn’t fit in. He was too handsome, too self-assured.

  Too damn sexy.

  “All right.” What else was she going to say? She certainly couldn’t tell him that his words had sent her mood crashing, or that the entire experience had her on pins and needles.

  That was why she was here, then. That’s why he’d asked her here—to help him make a business decision. She shouldn’t have cared, but she did.

  “I want to see what the casino is really like, from a consumer’s point of view. What I get shown is often what the current owners want me to see.” His thumb moved absently over the mound of Maddy’s palm. It was not an erogenous zone, but still she felt a thrill throughout her entire body, one that she fought.

  This would never lead anywhere. Even if he weren’t a gorgeous gazillionaire, she was a waitress with more baggage than he could ever possibly imagine.

  “Do you do that for every place that you buy?” Maddy was pretty sure that Alex owned more businesses, more buildings, more things than her mind could fathom.

  “Yes.” His voice was curt. “I didn’t become wealthy by being careless. Though this deal . . .” His voice trailed off as he studied the casino around him, his eyes finally coming to rest on Maddy.

  “I’d like to have your impression of the man who wants to sell this to me.”

  Maddy nodded. She would have agreed to just about anything, just to keep enjoying the feel of his hand in hers.

  They walked around the casino slowly, looking carefully at the slot machines, the blackjack tables, the poker games. At least, Alex looked carefully—Maddy was consumed with awareness of his presence. It was a weird sensation for her, one that took the place of the ever-running stream of consciousness that usually clouded her mind.

  She liked it. She really, really liked it.

  • • •

  “Would you care for a drink?” Maddy was looking a little overwhelmed by either the casino, Alex’s hand holding hers, or maybe a little bit of both. He steered her to the bar in the center of the room.

  A drink would do her good. He would have been lying if he’d said that he didn’t hope it might also bring that color back into her skin.

  He led her to a small, round table by the bar. The waitress asked for his drink order first, and Alex interrupted her, not impressed.

  “The lady will have a gin and tonic, with a lime wedge. I will have a golden tequila . . . in a highball glass, with a lemon wedge.”

  Maddy blinked, probably wondering how he knew what kind of alcohol she liked to drink, since she hadn’t been drinking it the other night. He wasn’t about to tell her that he employed people who could find out all kinds of things about anyone . . . or that he’d wanted to find out just such things about her.

  He was pretty sure that she wouldn’t appreciate it. Still, he’d felt like he had to know—he’d wanted to know everything about her.

  No, he would just keep that little detail to himself.

  The waitress flushed, nodded, babbled a little, and retreated. Maddy cast a sympathetic smile after her, and Alex frowned.

  He was used to the effect he had on women, though he never really thought about it. It was his looks, which he’d had no part in, and his money, which he couldn’t blame them for being attracted to. It was just how it was.

  Still, he’d rather elicit the kind of reaction in Maddy that had her snarling at any woman who came near her man.

  Not that he was her man, but he had hope.

  “What if I don’t like gin?” Maddy seemed to be a little more relaxed around him today—relaxed enough to question him a bit.

  He liked that she didn’t just smile and nod along with whatever he said. Though once inside his club, the term for her behavior would be “brat,” outside of sex, he found that he was enjoying the hints of spunk that blazed out of her sweet personality from time to time.

  Alex didn’t crack, merely arched an eyebrow in her direction. She did it right back, and he found the small movement to be sexy as hell.

  “Do you?” He sounded sure of himself, which was the entire reason that he liked having information on people.

  He liked knowing what he was dealing with. He liked being in control.

  Maddy muttered a reply that he couldn’t quite make out and sipped at the drink that the waitress had just placed in front of her. The gin must have been strong, since she made a face as she swallowed, but then again, if he’d guessed correctly, she wasn’t much of a drinker.

  He watched as she licked her lips, which started a slow burn in his gut.

  “Do you see the man to your left?” Indicating with his head, Alex didn’t shoot the tequila that he’d ordered, instead squeezing the lemon over the glass, then sipping, running his tongue over his lips to savor the liquor.

  From the corner of his eye, he caught Maddy watching him, her stare fixed on his mouth. Gratified to find that she was feeling the heat as much as he was, he smirked, enjoying the way her skin flushed when she realized that she’d been caught.

  “The man in the blue suit, with the three big men. The ones standing behind me.” Alex had zeroed in on the man he’d seen only in pictures as he’d guided Maddy to the bar. The man stood out like a sore thumb among the brightly adorned tourists, both because of the lack of color in his attire and also because of the desperation that Alex could feel radiating from him, even from across the room. “That is Massimo Santorini. He purchased this casino ten years ago and is looking to sell quickly. He is offering a good price, because he needs the cash fast to pay off a gambling debt. What I don’t understand is why he would target me, a complete stranger, for a cash deal.” It wasn’t unheard of, but Alex would have thought that the people he owed the money to might have been interested in taking the casino over as payment, or in purchasing it themselves against the debt. It was what he would have done.

  That said, he was still the head of a successful empire, and Massimo was liquidating to get out of trouble. Perhaps they just had entirely different points of view.

  Still, something didn’t sit right. He just couldn’t put his finger on what.

  “What do you think of this place?” Alex hadn’t lied—he was interested in Maddy’s point of view, as someone who hadn’t actually spent much time in casinos and therefore had no expectations. She looked a bit unnerved by the question, and Alex sat back in his chair, giving her a moment, still aware of Santorini and his goons behind him.

  “Well, I . . . I don’t really
have anything to compare it to, but . . . it’s kind of garish, isn’t it?” Her cheeks heated as she spoke, and Alex couldn’t smother his grin of enjoyment.

  “Casinos tend to be, babe. That’s what Vegas is all about.” He grinned as he thought back to his first sight of the city, way back when he was a kid, on vacation with his family. They’d done a long road trip, down from their home in Washington, along the California coast, into Nevada, Arizona, Mexico.

  His world had opened up on that trip, but the thing that had fascinated him the most had been Las Vegas. He’d been overwhelmed by the lights, the opulence, the excess. He’d never forgotten, and that was where he’d headed, right after his business degree was hot in his hand.

  The never-ending crowds made him feel a little bit less alone, too, since that once carefree family had disowned him for his “immoral” lifestyle. It still hurt, but he had to give them credit for sticking to their guns—and their beliefs. They’d never once tried to make nice, begging for a handout.

  He hadn’t talked to them in years, and so apart from a few staff members, like Declan and Kylie, and of course, Rae, he had very few people who could comfort him when he needed it.

  The lights of the city that never slept, though, kept him from feeling quite so alone.

  Shaking away the heavy thoughts, Alex looked down at Maddy. She had been watching him think—watching the emotions play out over his face—and she looked thoughtful.

  To please himself as well as to distract her, he took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips for a kiss.

  She gasped, then froze, her eyes fixed over his shoulder.

  “What is it?” Alex shifted abruptly, leaning on the table with his arm, partially blocking his face. “Did he see us?”

  Maddy nodded, and Alex cursed. Reaching around her, he splayed his hand flat on her back and drew her in. The skin beneath his hand heated, and he eyed the long, graceful curve of her neck, wanting to plant his lips there.

  He wanted to kiss her everywhere.

  “Is he coming over here?” When Maddy nodded, Alex felt disgust wash over him, though he followed it with a reassuring smile for Maddy. There was no way that he could have missed her breathy little sigh of pleasure, since they were now practically nose to nose. He could feel her exhalation, warm on his cheeks. “Prepare yourself for his version of the VIP treatment.” From what he’d dug up, Alex knew it was nothing he wanted.