Vegas, Baby

by Theodora Taylor

  She was fascinating, not at all what he’d expected, not just because she was African-American—though Nora choosing someone outside their race for him to wed had certainly been a surprise. She was so opposite of most of the people he associated with in Vegas. Vegas was a town built on big gambles and everyone who worked there from CEOs to the guys who cleaned the pit floors tended to hold their cards close to the chest. But not this woman.

  It was the wide-open expression that had really thrown him at first. Every emotion she felt shone clearly on her face. Starting with her initial attraction to him when they first met in his doorway, soon followed by her irritation and righteous indignation as she defended the jobs of her fellow dancers, and eventually careful pride when she told him about the little scholarship she’d gotten to NYAU.

  In fewer than ten minutes, he’d figured out that she wasn’t quite the parasitic gold digger he’d assumed she must be when Nora had first brought up her name. But then again, she wasn’t exactly a helpless damsel in distress, either. He’d found that out when he tried to run roughshod over her pitch to save The Benton Girls Revue and gotten an earful back.

  She wasn’t jaded, but she wasn’t easily manipulated, either. Cole valued frankness and candor in many of his business dealings. But in this case he had the feeling that straight-up asking her to help him deal with his grandmother’s outrageous demand wouldn’t go over too well, even if she truly did need money to fund her move to New York.

  “My grandmother...she likes you a lot,” he said carefully. Then he waited for her to respond.

  “I like her, too,” Sunny answered. “She’s a wonderful woman, and she always made sure my grandmother had a place at The Benton. I’m fortunate to call her a friend.”

  Cole didn’t know whether to be annoyed or impressed that his grandmother apparently wanted him to marry her biggest fan.

  “Yes, she is an extraordinary woman.” Extraordinarily presumptuous, he thought to himself. “And unfortunately, she’s in declining health these days.”

  Declining mental health—and that was technically only Cole’s opinion as of now, but tomato-to-mah-to.

  Sunny’s eyes widened and she seemed truly worried. “Oh, no, I’m sorry to hear that. I saw her at one of our shows last week and she seemed in perfect health. She never said anything.”

  Cole lowered his eyes, which he hoped was a good enough approximation of upset. It had been so long since he’d allowed himself to show any feeling at all during a business negotiation, he wasn’t sure what it would even look like. “It’s not something she likes to talk about. Her good days are pretty good, but her bad days...” He deliberately let that sentence trail off. “Her bad days aren’t something I like to talk about, either.”

  Especially now, when he was trying to convince this showgirl that his tough-as-nails grandmother was in declining health.

  He pushed forward to the next topic. “But you’re right. I’ve been focused mainly on establishing The Benton Group as a national contender in the hotel industry over the last few years, but my grandmother had an episode this morning, and it made me realize, blood really is more powerful than money.”

  Especially when that blood holds more power than she should in your corporation, he thought with an inner glare. Why his grandfather had willed Nora so many shares without limiting her power to use them, he had no idea. But if and when he ever got married, Cole knew he wouldn’t make the same error in judgment with his own wife.

  Sunny put a hand over her chest and her eyes went soft as she said, “It is. It truly is. I miss my own grandma every day.”

  “Ms. Johnson, I’m just going to level with you. My grandmother doesn’t have long. To the end of the year if she’s lucky, and it’s become important to me to make her happy during these next few months.”

  Sunny nodded. “Of course. I completely understand.” She pursed her lips. “But how do you figure cancelling The Revue will make her happy?”

  Cole kept his face composed while scrambling for an answer to her question. “The truth is cancelling the show was my way of trying to put some limits on her activities. I want her to get the rest she needs.”

  Sunny frowned. “Knowing Nora, she definitely wouldn’t appreciate that.”

  “No, I suppose she wouldn’t. But now that I know there’s a sympathetic person on staff who knows about the situation, maybe I could see my way to reopening the show, at least for the next few months. Especially if it would make Nora happy.”

  Sunny sat forward, her eyes full of worry for his grandmother. “I will do anything to make sure she doesn’t overdo it when she’s visiting us.”

  “She won’t appreciate being coddled,” Cole warned her sharply.

  “I know she won’t. And I won’t coddle her, I’ll just make things easier for her, I promise. If you put the show back on, you won’t regret it.”

  He nodded as if he were giving her idea of helping out serious consideration as opposed to leading her straight into his trap. “The only thing is that even the show isn’t enough to make her happy these days. You won’t believe what she— No, I don’t want to drag you into this.”

  But Sunny shook her head. “No, tell me. Maybe I can help.”

  “You could, but it would be weird. I couldn’t...”

  “Please tell me, Mr. Benton.”

  Cole put a reluctant tone into his voice as he answered. “The thing is my grandmother is very fond of you.”

  He pretended to hesitate some more and waited for Sunny to prod him along, so that she could think this whole conversation was her idea.

  “Yes, you told me that,” she said, right on cue. “But what does that have to do with the state of her health?”

  “She’s so fond of you, that her wish—I guess you could call it her dying wish is that I...”

  Again he stopped and waited.

  Sunny was leaning all the way forward in her seat now, her pretty brown eyes wide with curiosity.

  “That you what?” she asked.

  “Marry you.”

  He could hear Sunny’s breath catch, and he again went silent. Biding his time. Like the predator she had no idea he was when it came to business.

  “Are you serious?” she finally asked after a few opens and closes of her mouth.

  He laid a solemn hand on his chest. “Believe me, Ms. Johnson, I would never ever joke about something like this.” Lie through his teeth, yes. But joke? Never.

  “I don’t...I don’t know what to say.”

  “You don’t have to say anything right now,” he answered, his mind working furiously behind his calm eyes to figure out how to make this next thing sound less like a threat and more like a win-win for both of them. “You want something from me and I need something from you for my grandmother.”

  “You want me to help you trick her?” Sunny asked. He could practically see her struggling with her conscience.

  It must be tiring to have one of those, he thought to himself. “I want you to help me make my grandmother happy,” he rephrased.

  “And making Nora happy...what would that entail?” Sunny’s voice was hesitant, but Cole could tell she was mulling the idea over, which meant he was in.

  He somehow kept the smirk off his face as he answered. “There would be a whirlwind romance for a couple of months, and then we’d announce our engagement—probably at one of my grandmother’s events.”

  “Like her August Children’s Charity ball?”

  He pointed at her. “Perfect.” Nora had been nagging him to attend that stupid event for years and this year it would be the weekend before the end of summer board meeting. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

  “It would make Nora very happy to have us announce it there.”

  “And if I agreed to this...to making Nora happy, it would just be pretend, right? We
wouldn’t have to...be intimate. Would we?”

  This time Cole let the silence drift on for much longer than he knew was suitable, even in business. He was aware this question was meant to be a deal closer. He should just say no, there wouldn’t be anything intimate required and leave it at that—he knew that would be enough to close the deal and ensure that his playboy brother didn’t get his grubby mitts on his business.

  However, he found that he didn’t want to make the woman sitting in front of him this guarantee. He surreptitiously let his gaze roam down her body. Her yoga pants and tank top combo, while not the jewel-covered bikini she was required to wear for The Revue, only seemed to accentuate her curves. An image of himself disrobing her, yanking that thin cardigan down her arms, and pulling that tank top over her head to reveal what lay underneath flashed into his mind.

  He considered himself already married. To his job. The occasional discreet one-night stand arranged when he found that his other needs were getting in the way of his concentration at work. But obviously he’d let the time between one-night stands go too long, because he found himself suddenly unable to focus on the business at hand. Maybe Nora had been right about the needing to get laid part.

  In any case, he found himself going off script to say, “Ms. Johnson, you are doing me a great favor, so this arrangement can be whatever you want it to be.” He then asked her, “Do you want it to be intimate?”

  Chapter 5

  “Do you want it to be intimate?”

  Sunny felt something catch in her throat and then there came a flood of emotion, suffusing not just her cheeks but also her entire body.

  And though she barely knew the man, suddenly she was wondering what it would be like to kiss him. The lines of his face were so sharp and hard. Did they soften when he kissed a woman? What would his hands feel like on her body? She could almost feel them now, disappearing underneath Sunny’s cardigan, pushing it off her shoulders—

  Sunny! she chastised herself. What are you thinking? Get it together, girl!

  Obviously she’d been single way too long. It had been a year since her breakup with Derek, the one that had inspired her to finally apply to grad school, and apparently the longtime drought was making her mind go to some seriously inappropriate places.

  She averted her eyes, trying not to notice how rock solidly handsome Mr. Benton was in real life, how much hotter and sexier he read than his picture downstairs, as she answered, “I think it’s probably best if we keep this strictly professional, don’t you, Mr. Benton?”

  Cole’s face remained impassive, but she could sense him smirking behind those green eyes. “Professional it is behind closed doors, but you do understand that when we’re out in public, we’ll have to at least act intimate...for my grandmother’s sake.”

  Sunny thanked the heavens for her melanin, because she could once again feel her cheeks burning. “Yes, I understand, Mr. Benton.”

  “Then perhaps you should call me Cole.”

  Sunny bit down on a rising panic, wondering how she’d come up here to fight for the survival of The Benton Girls and had somehow ended up agreeing to pose as Cole’s fake girlfriend.

  “I understand...Cole.” His name felt foreign in her mouth. “What exactly would I be expected to do?” she asked him.

  Strangely, this question was the one that finally drained the sexual tension out of the conversation. “Yes, good question,” Cole said, leaning back in his chair, as if some spell had been broken and he was able to return to his businessman persona. “Let’s talk terms...”

  * * *

  “What did you do?” Rick screamed when she came back to the Nora Benton theater about an hour later. He was on the phone, but that didn’t stop him from catching Sunny up in a bear hug. “Sunny’s here. I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you for tonight’s show. Six p.m. sharp,” he yelled into the phone to whoever he had been speaking to.

  When he hung up he looked at Sunny as if she were made of magic. “Cole Benton’s secretary called a few minutes ago. She said the show was back on for at least another three months. How did you do it?”

  Sunny shook her head, feeling sick to her stomach. “It’s a long story,” she said. “And you’ve probably got a lot of calls to make if you want to make the six o’clock call time. Maybe I can help you with that?”

  “Oh, sweetie, would you?” Rick said, handing her the second sheet of the dancers’ contact info list. “You truly are an angel. One of my best dancers and you got Benton to put the show back on. I still can’t believe it.”

  “Actually, only one of those things are true now,” Sunny said with a grimace. “I can’t be one of your dancers anymore.”

  “What!” Rick responded to her announcement. His voice could probably be heard all the way on the pit floor, which only made Sunny more reluctant to go on. This was going to be way harder than quitting her cocktail waitress job, but she stuck to the script Cole had given her, even if it made her feel guilty as hell for outright lying to her stage dad.

  “Well, Mr. Benton—ah, I mean Cole—said that he’d bring the show back, but he’d need someone to help him with his grandmother, Nora, and he offered me the job.”

  “So you’re going to be Nora Benton’s caretaker now?” Rick asked.

  “No, not exactly. Technically, I’ll be her assistant. I’ll be accompanying her to the show every month, helping her plan her August charity ball. Stuff like that.”

  “Why does Nora Benton suddenly need an assistant?” Rick asked. “She has more connections in Vegas than pretty much anybody else on the planet, and she’s a total control freak. She’s never needed any assistance before. What’s changed...”

  Rick’s voice trailed off, then his eyes widened. “But The Benton Group doesn’t allow its employees to date. Cole Benton wants into your pants! That’s why he agreed to put the show back on, but made you take a job as his grandmother’s assistant. He’s into you!”

  Sunny felt her cheeks warm for the third time in as many hours. Seriously, she was beginning to long for the days when the most embarrassing thing she did was wear a rhinestone bikini every night on stage. “I’m sure that’s not it,” she said, trying to keep her voice as demure as possible, despite knowing that was exactly what Cole Benton wanted people to believe, and that Rick was already playing right into his made-up story of a whirlwind romance.

  “And I’m sure it is,” Rick said. “But I’m not going to complain. You got the show back on, so I’m happy. Good job, Sunny!”

  “Um...thank you, I guess,” Sunny said, trying to decide whether she should be offended that Rick was more than willing to pimp her out to what he believed to be a predatory new boss if it kept The Revue going.

  Rick soon redeemed himself with a sad look. “But baby girl, I have no idea how I’m going to replace you. I mean who’s going calm the dancers down enough to go onstage after I finish screaming at them?”

  Sunny threw him a surprised look. “You knew I was doing that?”

  “Of course I did,” Rick said. “I’m like God, I know everything that goes on in my backstage. But seriously, I’m going to need a name. I’ve got a doozy of a rant I’ve been writing out in my head for weeks, and I’m pretty sure there’s going to be tears from some of the newbies. Do you think Pru can handle backstage mama duties?”

  Sunny laughed. “I think she’s ready, I really do.”

  “She better be!”

  Sunny had to give her incorrigible boss a warm hug then. “I’m going to miss you so much, Rick,” she said, meaning it.

  “Me, too, sweetheart.” Then he leaned back, and held his finger up. “Go take one for the team with Cole Benton, but be careful with that one. He’s good lookin’, but he’s a shark. Don’t let your heart get involved or he’ll eat you alive.”

  A chill ran down Sunny’s spine. She had the feeling she
should be taking Rick’s warning seriously, even though she was the one who’d agreed to help out Cole.

  Chapter 6

  On Tuesday morning Sunny had two jobs. By Tuesday afternoon, she only had one...and no idea what to do with herself. Her new job was pretty much fake, a cover story to get around The Benton Group’s nonfraternization policy, which would hopefully help sell their whirlwind romance. Though Cole Benton didn’t exactly strike her as a whirlwind-romance type of guy. Their first date wasn’t scheduled until Sunday night, some business dinner, which she didn’t even have to shop for, because Cole’s secretary had emailed that she’d be sending over a dress for the event. So she had a lot of time on her hands. A lot of time.

  The first few days, she spent deep cleaning her entire apartment and setting up a bunch of traps for the rat who’d stolen her meal replacement bar. There were no signs of him in the cabinets, thank goodness, but she doubted she’d seen the last of him. Quite frankly her apartment was a dump, chosen shortly after she and Pru had given up their lease due to Pru’s parents dying in a car accident and her having to take over as her high-school-aged brother’s only guardian. Sunny’s apartment was cramped and in a questionable neighborhood, but it was also cheap and right on a major bus route, so she never had any trouble getting to work. The good had outweighed the bad—until her furry roommate had showed up.

  After that it hadn’t been worth the amount of sleep she’d lost, because she kept jerking awake, thinking she heard the quick movement of tiny feet inside her walls.

  By the time Saturday night rolled around, Sunny was a wreck, still tired, and bored on top of it. But for the first Saturday night in her working life, she had no boss to report to, no dances to perform or drinks to serve, no friends to go out with since they all were Benton Girls performers—nothing to do but twiddle her thumbs.

  She’d already read every book in her apartment, and choreographing a whole new routine for her Sunday girls’ dance class at the Balzar Community Center had only occupied her time for a few hours. By five, she was nearly out of her mind with boredom, and thinking she should use some of her hard saved money to buy a TV. Something she’d never bothered with before, because she was usually too exhausted to do much more than fall into bed when she got home from either of her jobs.