What the hell did that even mean? I couldn’t help but obsess.
Randi downed her tequila shot and scanned the crowd. I knew she was looking for her next dance partner, but suddenly, she reached over and grabbed my arm. “Sloan,” she shouted in my ear. “That guy is staring at you.”
“He’s probably staring at you,” I said absently as I held my empty beer bottle up. The bartender popped the cap off another one and handed it to me.
Her nails dug almost painfully into my skin. “Believe me, I wish he was staring at me. He’s got to be the sexiest guy in here.”
Curious, I turned around to follow her line of sight. Above us, on the second floor balcony, the man leaned over the bannister. Randi wasn’t lying. He looked like sin personified. Dark hair swept low over piercing blue eyes and curled at the nape of his neck. His stubble didn’t do anything to hide his strong square jaw, and it was clear that he was tall and built.
Chills raced down my spine. He did seem to be staring at me. I’d indulged in some loaded fries earlier. Maybe I had parsley stuck in my teeth. Self-consciously, I turned and ran my tongue over them before I tilted back my beer.
“Go talk to him,” Randi urged me.
“Hell, no,” I muttered. It was too quiet for her to hear, but I’m sure she knew exactly what I had said. Randi had been my best friend and roommate for two years. She knew my weaknesses and limitations. I didn’t talk to men. Lately, I’d been hiding behind the fact that I was so busy with school, but she knew that I was still hurt from my last relationship.
My one and only boyfriend, Victor Willis, had spent two years keeping me down before I realized he was cheating on me. That was six months ago, and I hadn’t even tried to hook up with anyone since.
“Suit yourself. I’m going to go dance.” Randi gave me a disgusted look before heading back to the dance floor. Two of her friends had made it to the edge, and she sandwiched herself between them and gave everyone quite a show.
I envied Randi’s confidence. She could use her body like a weapon, but she was also brilliant. As a student of childhood psychology, she was often the driving force behind my teaching theories, but while I had to spend almost every minute working, she could go on a weekend bender and still ace her Monday test.
Once again left to my own device, I returned my attention back to my phone. I typed a quick reminder to myself when someone rammed into me.
Gasping, I stumbled back and dumped my beer all over myself.
“Damn it,” I swore. Looking up, I tried to pinpoint the culprit, but there were too many people near me, and no one was paying any attention.
“At least it’s not my dress,” I grumbled as I leaned over the bar to grab some cocktail napkins. “Can I get some club soda?” I asked loudly.
To the dismay of some of the other patrons waiting, the bartender moved quickly to fulfill my request. Holding my phone between my teeth, I tried to maneuver through the crowd until I burst onto the patio. “I had a little accident,” I explained to the bouncer who stared at me like I’d lost my mind. Deeply breathing in the fresh air, I dipped the napkin in the club soda and tried to dab at my dress. I didn’t know what I expected it to do. It wasn’t just a little spot. The beer had spread from the straps all the way to my midriff and was slowly soaking through my skin.
My cleavage was sticky, and I reeked. Disgusted, I tossed the napkins and left the glass on the table. I kept several changes of clothes in the trunk of my car, and there was a tank-top and jeans in there that would get me through the rest of the night. Snagging my keys from the small pouch, I opened the gate of the patio and slipped out.
I’d just made it to the car when a dark van came to a squealing halt in front of me. My heart stopped when the door slid open.
Son of a bitch. I was about to be kidnapped not more than twenty feet from a crowded club.
The first masked man jumped out, and I could feel his eyes raking over me. “Damn. Lucas Montgomery is going to pay handsomely for your safe return.”
Who the hell was Lucas Montgomery?
“I don’t have any cash,” I said as I tried to keep my voice calm. “And I don’t know any Lucas Montgomery.”
The masked man snickered. “From the way he was looking at you, I bet he knows you quite intimately. No one looks at a woman like that unless he’s already licked every inch of her skin.”
I shuddered and fisted the key in my palm so the metal edge stuck out between my fingers. If he thought I was going to meekly get in the van, he had another thing coming.
The two of them tried to grab me, and I moved. I wasn’t a Kung-Fu master, but I’d learned a few things from the kick-boxing classes Randi had dragged me to, and I’d taken more than a few defense classes. I swung my key around to dig it into one guy’s eye and lashed out with my foot. It connected solidly with the guy’s nuts, and he screamed and hit his knees.
Dodging my key, the man wrenched me around and slammed me against the car. Fear coursed through me, and I kicked out wildly again. I didn’t hit anything, but it was enough to make him move. He pulled me roughly to the ground and wildly looked up. “Come on,” he yelled as he grabbed the abductor still moaning on the pavement.
I guess I had caused too much of a scene. By the time I’d pushed myself off the loose gravel, they’d jumped back in the van and were gone.
Chapter Two
Lucas
She was captivating. I couldn’t help but stare as I caught sight of her. After a two long and boring hours of an investment meeting, I was ready for a drink, but watching her was better than a shot of whiskey.
It was obvious that she was completely out of place. When she wasn’t staring at her phone, she was constantly tugging on her green dress. First she’d pull it up in an effort to hide her ample cleavage, and then she’d tug it down to cover more of her creamy thighs. I was already lost in a fantasy of what I would do to her if we were alone.
What would I touch first? Her tits were just begging to be held, but I also desperately needed to fill my palms with her ass. I wanted to pull out the clip that held her curls and yank her hair back until I could press my lips to the column of her neck. I wanted to yank her dress up and discover what kind of treasures she was hiding underneath. Would she be hiding a black lacy thong? Pearly white panties with bows? Maybe she was naked underneath, and I could sink my fingers inside her.
I was the kind of man who didn’t have to look far for a beautiful body to warm my bed, but there was a distinctive downfall to having so many women to choose from. It took more work to excite me, but one look at her, and my cock was already rising to the occasion.
Fuck. The blonde that I’d tied to my bed last night didn’t even have this effect on me, and she’d been very talented with her mouth.
The mystery woman’s friend said something in her ear, and she looked right at me. When her gaze met mine, I saw her eyes widen as she took me in. Her lips parted in surprise, and she suddenly whirled around. Amused, I straightened and started walking to the stairwell. I craved her. I’d pull her on the dance floor and hold her against me. It was so crowded tonight that I could easily flick my fingers over her clit until she came in the middle of all the other horny dancers.
Then I’d take her home and fuck her until she screamed.
Just as I reached the top of the stairwell, the bouncer grabbed my arm. “Mr. Montgomery? There’s a phone call for you.”
Of course there was. With a sigh, I headed back to the VIP room where the young waitress handed me the phone. She was a cute little brunette with a smile that said she knew she was attractive. If there was one good thing I could say about the club, it was that the owner knew how to staff it.
The glass separated me from the rest of the clubbers, but the floor still vibrated with the base, and I could still faintly hear the music. At the back, a private bar was fully stocked with only the finest liquors.
“Montgomery,” I growled into the receiver.
“You’re not picking up your c
ell,” Steinburg growled. Howard Steinburg was my Vice President of operations, and he’d been stressing over the investment meeting. While it was my money to do as I pleased, investing in Club 9 would have been a public move. He was concerned about how it would reflect on my character and my company.
Steinburg worried too much, but that’s why I kept him on.
“It’s a club,” I growled. “I can barely hear my own thoughts, let alone my damn phone. What is so important that it couldn’t wait until morning?”
“How did the meeting go?” Steinburg was a good twenty years older than my own thirty-two. He always liked to say that he was too old for pleasantries.
I turned around to watch the dancers below. “The numbers are good. The club has done well for the past six months, but I have a feeling it’s just a trend. In a few more months, it’ll be old news, and it’ll die just like the other ninety percent of the clubs in the city. I told the owner that I would think about it, but I don’t think it’s going to make me any money.”
Steinburg sighed in relief, and I couldn’t help but smile. I wasn’t exactly the golden child of the media, but the press wasn’t knocking down my door in search of scandal. The city had come to know me as a perpetual bachelor and playboy, but I didn’t break hearts or cause drama. Still, Steinburg made sure that my PR agents stayed on top of things. He’d been pissed when I told him that the manager of Club 9 had invited me to an investment meeting.
I was careful with where I invested my money, and I fielded offers on a weekly basis. It was rare for me to actually attend these meetings, but Club 9 was all the rage these days, and while I wouldn’t be investing, I was happy that I took the meeting.
As Steinburg blabbered on about how I had made the right decision, my mind wandered to the delicious treat downstairs. “Steinburg,” I said abruptly. “This is all stuff that you can tell me on Monday during normal business hours. Go to bed. Men your age went to sleep hours ago.”
“One day, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to my age and you won’t think those jokes are so funny,” he snapped. Without bothering to say goodbye, he hung up the phone. I chuckled as I put the phone back on the receiver and headed out of the room. The small second floor lounge served as overflow, but because it didn’t have a bar or dance floor, it was mostly for people trying to take phone calls or hide from club creepers. The glass windows separated it from the VIP room, but heavy curtains obstructed the view.
Leaning over the bannister again, I scanned the main floor for the woman, but she was nowhere to be found. Irritated that I had lost her, I headed back to the VIP lounge to exit out the back private entrance of the club.
My faithful driver, Danny O’Brien, had been with me for almost five years now. Although he’d moved from Ireland more than a decade ago, he still held fast to his Irish accent. He told me it was because it drove women crazy, but I had a feeling that Danny felt a little lost sometimes. Like everybody else, he needed something to remind him of home. A man in his late forties, he’d been married to the same woman since he was eighteen years old.
His wife was terrifying.
“Going home alone, Mr. Montgomery?” Danny was one of the few members of the staff who spoke freely to me. Although he was always polite, he rarely filtered his words.
I was not a fan of the backseat, so unless I was making a public appearance somewhere or riding with another passenger, I almost always sat up in the front with Danny. I was much more comfortable in the driver’s seat, but I always had Danny drive me when I knew that I would be drinking.
“It wasn’t a successful night,” I muttered before ducking into the car. The dark steel colored Bentley Continental GTC was my favorite car in my collection.
“Unsuccessful because you’re going home alone or because the investment didn’t work out like you wanted?” Danny teased as he started the car. The engine purred rather than roared, and I settled back in the leather seat.
“Both,” I said wryly. “I had my eyes on a beautiful wallflower, but Steinburg had to call and pull me away. I lost her.”
“Wallflower? That’ll be different,” Danny commented with a sly grin.
As we pulled out to the main street, several police cars flew past us with their lights flashing. “Just because you have to go home to the same woman every night doesn’t give you the right to judge my own love life,” I muttered as I watched the police cars. They were pulling into the club parking lot. What had happened?
“I get to go home to the same woman ever night,” Danny corrected. “And it’s not really a love life unless you actually cultivate more than a one-night stand.”
“Turn around.” I wanted to see what all the commotion was all about.
Danny obeyed without comment and within minutes, he parked close to the police cars. “What happened here?”
“That’s what I intend to find out. Stay here and keep the engine running. I won’t be long.” Exiting the car, I walked slowly to the closest officer as I took in the scene. A small crowd had gathered, and the police were still taping off a small section of the parking lot. In the middle of everything, one officer was draping a blanket across the shoulders of a woman.
My wallflower. As I took in the tangled mess of curls and green dress, I felt an invisible fist punch me in the stomach. “Excuse me. What’s going on?”
“No questions,” the officer said gruffly as he tried to wave me away.
“I’m Lucas Montgomery,” I said quietly. “I was just inside a few minutes ago.” It was rare for me to drop my name like that. Normally people knew who I was, and if they didn’t know, I didn’t care to tell them.
The officer’s eyes widened. “Did you just say Montgomery? Hold on just a minute. Don’t move.” He ran over to someone else and, after a few seconds of conversation, waved me in. I ducked under the tape.
“Mr. Montgomery, I’m Detective Allen. Are you familiar with a Sloan Whitlow?”
I noted that the detective had flipped open a notepad. “I’m not,” I said slowly.
The detective pointed to the woman behind him. Paramedics were still checking Sloan out. “That’s her. You have no idea who she is?”
“I saw her in the club, but I’ve never seen her before tonight, and I didn’t know her name. If you’re asking if I witnessed anything, the answer is no. I’m just here out of curiosity.”
“Curiosity, huh? Are you the Montgomery from Montgomery Industries?” Allen asked. His eyes gazed at me shrewdly.
I knew when I was being interrogated. Peeved, I shook my head. “I’m not answering any more questions until you tell me what happened. Otherwise, you can talk to my lawyer.”
“I apologize for the third degree, Mr. Montgomery. You’re not a suspect, but it took me by surprise when you showed up at the crime scene. Ms. Whitlow contends that while she was at her car, two men tried to abduct her. They said that Lucas Montgomery would pay for her return. She says that she has no idea who you are or what you do. She must have fought like hell to get away.”
“Is she okay?”
“A few scrapes from the pavement. Nothing severe. She’s a very lucky woman. Do you think she knows who you are?”
Immediately, I clenched my teeth. “She’s probably telling the truth. I did see her at the club, and I may have exhibited some signs of interest. Anyone watching me may have misconstrued that.”
“Did you walk to her? Dance with her? Buy her a drink?”
“No,” I said softly. “She was by the bar on the first floor, and I was on the second floor by the stairs leading up to the VIP room. I just watched her.”
“It must have been some look that you gave her,” the detective said softly. “Leave a number where we can contact you if we need to. There are cameras in the parking lot, but apparently the men were masked. We may have some further questions for you.”
I rattled off my cellphone number as I stared at Sloan. As if she knew that I was watching her, she turned her head and locked eyes with me. Her mouth parted in surprise,
and I knew that she recognized me from the bar.
Rather than go talk to her, I thanked the officer and headed back to my car. I wasn’t quite ready to speak to her yet, but I did need to get more information about her. If she had been harmed because of me, I wanted to keep an eye on her. And if she were running some kind of game, I wanted to know.
There was just something about her that I wasn’t quite ready to let go of yet.
Chapter Three
Sloan
The blue lights flashed around me, and I wrapped the blanket tighter around my body. The officer took my statement, and the paramedic kept urging me to go to the hospital. The attack kept flashing in my mind.
“Damn. Lucas Montgomery is going to pay handsomely for your safe return.”
It couldn’t have lasted more than a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. My skin still burned from where I’d scraped it on the pavement, and loose gravel still bit into the palms of my hand.
The paramedic interrupted my thoughts, and I blinked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you.”
“That’s okay. There isn’t a whole lot more we can do, but if you feel any type of unusual pain, you need to get to a hospital. Do you understand?”
I nodded my head and tried to smile at him. As he packed his bag, I felt the heat of someone staring at me. Turning my head, I felt shock jolt through me. The gorgeous stranger from the club was speaking to the detective and watching me. Dropping the blanket from my shoulders, I took a couple steps towards him, but he had already turned and disappeared into the crowd.
“Excuse me, Detective? Who was that man that you were just speaking with?”
Detective Allen gazed at me steadily. “Why? Do you recognize him?”
Immediately, I flushed. After everything that had happened, I felt strange telling the detective that I needed the name of the man that made me wet with just one look. “He was watching me at the club,” I said lamely.
Evergreen: An Alpha Billionaire Romance Page 82