Vegas, Baby

by Theodora Taylor

  “I’ve got money, because I don’t let myself get swindled,” Cole replied evenly. “Twenty.”

  Lucia folded her arms. “That your car outside?”

  Cole, who didn’t seem to recognize the difference between a fellow businessman and child, narrowed his eyes as though he suspected Lucia might be trying to pull one over on him. “Yeah, that’s my car,” he said carefully.

  “Give me a ride home in it, and I’ll take the twenty.”

  “Fine,” Cole said. “What’s your full name, kid?”

  “Lucia. Lucia Reyes,” she answered.

  Cole held out his hand, stiff as a general. “Lucia Reyes, we’ve got a deal, but if you break your promise, I’m going to make sure this dance class gets shut down and you never have anybody to teach you to twirl around for free again, because you couldn’t keep your mouth closed.”

  “Cole!” Sunny admonished.

  But before Sunny could speak another word, Lucia said, “Deal! And you won’t have to shut us down. I don’t snitch!” She took his hand and shook it firmly, while Cole smirked at Sunny over the little girl’s head.

  * * *

  When Cole had agreed to help Sunny with her class, he’d thought, sure, why not? How hard could it be?

  The answer was, pretty damn hard.

  Cole ran an extreme amount of miles three times a week and did a brutal strength workout every Tuesday and Thursday, but helping Sunny teach her free dance class on Sunday nearly did him in. The pliés alone seemed to be working muscles none of his squat sessions had ever addressed. And though he’d done Arnold presses with dumbbells that weighed more than the girls in Sunny’s dance class, dumbbells didn’t wiggle or giggle when Sunny yelled at him. “You can do better than that, Benton. Get her higher!”

  The unassuming showgirl who’d walked into his office became a complete harridan in the little dance studio, yelling at both him and the girls. It felt as though their jumps were never high enough, their arms never straight enough. And even when he’d thought they’d done something perfectly, she’d just bang her stick on the ground and yell, “Again!”

  “Now I know why you volunteer,” he grumbled as they left the building with Lucia following behind them. Lucia was making a big production of their exit, giving the other girls a swanning wave as she informed them she’d be riding home in the Bentley.

  Cole ignored Lucia’s antics, instead turning to Sunny as he said, “I can’t see anyone actually paying you to put them through that kind of abuse.”

  Sunny just smiled at him. Apparently yelling at him and sixteen little girls for an hour had energized her in a way that her pre-shower cup of coffee hadn’t. “I challenge them, and when they’re done with my class they leave with a feeling of accomplishment. That’s something money can’t buy.”

  “Everything can be bought.” He jerked his thumb at Lucia, who’d taken it upon herself to open the door to the Bentley and climb into the backseat, no invitation needed. “That’s a fact of life. You just have to figure out the price.”

  She returned his look with a sharp one of her own, and he could see she was trying to figure out if he was still talking about the proverbial sense of accomplishment...or something else.

  Cole decided to make it easy for her. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “That was one hell of a kiss, Sunny, and before this is all done, I’m going to figure out what it will take to get you in my bed.”

  She let out a soft gasp, but before she could answer or slap him, he opened the passenger door for her. Like the gentleman he definitely wasn’t.

  Chapter 8

  Cole Benton had misled everyone. He wasn’t boring, or frozen, or stiff—in fact, he was a very, very dangerous man. Sunny realized this way too late. After she was fully installed in his apartment, and after she’d already agreed to go to the Businessperson of the Year dinner as his date.

  And she cursed herself for being so late on the penny drop as she found herself alone with him once again after they got into Cole’s private elevator to go back up to his penthouse.

  Or at least she would be riding the elevator back to his penthouse suite. Cole pushed the button for the 35th floor.

  “You’re going straight into the office?” she asked, eyeing his sweats.

  “I have a shower in my personal bathroom,” he answered. “And an extra suit.”

  “Oh, that’s...nice.”

  The doors whispered closed and Cole gave her a sideways glance. “I’ll be back in time to escort you to the dinner.”

  “Okay, good, good,” Sunny answered, not really knowing how to talk to him after what he’d said to her before they’d gotten into his car.

  An image of Cole kissing her against the community center’s wall, his hands in her hair, his hard rigid length pressed against her, came crashing into her head, creating all sorts of inner havoc before Sunny shook her head to force it out. No, Sunny, no, you can’t let yourself go there just because you’re a little more horny than usual these days.

  “Everything okay?” Cole asked.

  “Everything’s fine,” she answered, pretending her breasts hadn’t grown heavy with—something she didn’t really want to think too hard about—but the longer they were in the small enclosed space together...the more her body stirred.

  Yes, she needed to get back to the penthouse. That was definitely where she wanted to be. She needed some time with her own thoughts, and she needed to figure out how to get out of this arrangement without hurting Nora.

  “You’re thinking about that kiss,” Cole said, his voice low and husky beside her.

  Sunny’s heart dropped into her stomach. How had he known?

  “No,” she lied.

  “So am I,” he told her as if she hadn’t denied it.

  “I wasn’t...” she began.

  Suddenly she found her back against the elevator wall, with Cole pressed up against her front. “Sunny, here’s something you don’t know about me,” he said, his breath hot against the side of her face. “I hate when people lie to me. So unless you want me to do what I’ve wanted to do ever since you came out of your room this morning, don’t. Don’t deny it.”

  Sunny swallowed, feeling as if all the moisture had suddenly run screaming out of her mouth. “I—I was thinking about the kiss,” she admitted, deeply aware of his rigid length against her leg. “About how inappropriate it was...”

  “Sunny— No look at me, Sunny,” he said when she tried to avert her eyes. “You kissed me back,” he reminded her.

  Not that she needed the reminder. “Yes, I did, and that was...wrong.” She swallowed again. “Really wrong.”

  Silence, and even though she really did avert her eyes this time, staring at the elevator’s stainless-steel ceiling, she could still feel his eyes on her, as precise as a tractor beam. Then he moved against her.

  Sunny let out a gasp of surprise, when his rigid length found her core, rocking against her so that despite the leotard she was wearing, she felt him from the bottom of her cleft all the way to the sensitive button at the top of it. And damn her traitorous body, her entire core suddenly filling up with the sweet ache of sexual need.

  “Cole...” She meant for it to be a reprimand, but it came out as a helpless breath. Even to her own ears it sounded less as though she was chastising him and more as though she was begging for him.

  The elevator dinged, and reality came crashing back down around Sunny. What was she doing? How could she have let the situation get so far out of hand? Again? Because shame of all shames, she knew if that elevator hadn’t dinged, she would have let Cole in, let him get it right there in the elevator with nothing but a small breath of nonprotest.

  She put her hands on his chest and pushed. “Here’s your floor,” she told him. “You better go now before the doors close.”

 
For a moment, she thought he might ignore her. He was breathing hard and she could feel him impossibly hard against her own sex. But just as the elevator doors were about to close, he stepped back from her and waved his hand between them, sending the two pieces of steel flying back open.

  He cupped his hand around the elevator’s inside frame, forcing the doors to stay open, and Sunny allowed herself an inner sigh of relief. Now he was on the other side of the elevator and out of touching range, so she was safe from him and the frightening level of desire he’d managed to spark within her with lightening speed. Twice.

  But her relief was short-lived. His green gaze stayed on her as sure as a touch, for an alarmingly long time. So long, the elevator started to ding with irritation.

  “I take that back,” he said. His words were quiet, but Sunny was able to hear them perfectly despite the elevator’s incessant ringing. “I hate when people lie to me, but I don’t mind when you do. It’s going to make it that much more fun when I make you take back every word.”

  Then and only then did he step out of the elevator. But he continued to stare at her, his eyes as cold and hard as the steel doors closing in front of him.

  * * *

  The memory of the stunned look on Sunny’s face as the elevator doors closed made it hard for Cole to concentrate on his work. Too hard. He found himself reading over the same report from the efficiency firm he’d hired to look over The Benton Kansas City again, and he still couldn’t say for sure whether the report was good or bad.

  Not very efficient. Not very efficient at all.

  He had to get his mind off Sunny, the way that pink leotard had covered all her lush curves without leaving anything to the imagination, the way her full lips had felt underneath his, the way she’d responded to him—before the dance class and in the elevator...

  “Will you be needing anything else today, Mr. Benton?”

  Cole looked up to see his assistant, Agnes, standing in the doorway, her dark eyes looking askance behind her round glasses. Confusion replaced his erotic thoughts. Was Agnes leaving early? That wasn’t like her. After losing two assistants to claims of needing work–life balance, he’d explained to Agnes from the start that he needed an assistant who’d be available to him from six to six, not only on weekdays, but also on weekends, and even later if an important project came up. Agnes had answered that she really wanted this job, and that she’d let her husband, a construction worker named Steve, know what would be required of her.

  But lately she’d seemed a bit worn down, like his seven-day-a-week schedule was taking a toll on her, and maybe her marriage. He’d overheard enough whispered phone conversations with her husband to know that Steve wasn’t exactly on board with how many hours Cole required Agnes to work. But Cole kept his work life separate from his personal one, and he’d trusted Agnes to do the same, no matter how much her husband whined about it. Yet here she was trying to leave work early for the first time since he’d hired her and without asking permission ahead of time.

  However, when Cole’s eyes found the clock on the wall, he realized he was the one in the wrong. It was six o’clock. Which meant he’d just spent the past two hours looking over the same report and trying not to think about Sunny.

  Unsuccessfully.

  He cursed under his breath.

  “Is everything okay, Mr. Benton?” Agnes asked, looking worried.

  “No, it’s fine,” he answered, rubbing a hand over his face. “I just...didn’t get as much done as I wanted to today.”

  “Oh,” Agnes said. “Well, I can stay if you’d like. You have your Businessperson of the Year dinner tonight, but if you’d like, I can call Sunny and let her know you won’t be able to make it. I was planning to give her a ring before I went home, anyway, to make sure she was fully satisfied with her hotel room.”

  Cole went still. Very still. “What hotel room?”

  Chapter 9

  Sunny pulled on the silk sheath dress that Agnes had arranged to have delivered to her new room just a few hours ago. How she knew Sunny’s dress and shoe size, Sunny had no idea. She was just glad to be wearing an outfit that wasn’t designed to put her cleavage and butt cheeks on full display, and which didn’t contain a metric ton of rhinestones. No, this dress was black and slightly on the demure side with a lace bodice that only hinted at Sunny’s breast size, but didn’t point it out with neon signs.

  Not quite the yoga pants and tank top ensembles she favored during her off hours, but Agnes had done well. The dress looked exactly like what someone Cole Benton was dating would wear. Stately and subtly sexy—but not too sexy.

  Speaking of too sexy...embarrassment washed over her as she opened the box with the chandelier earrings. What had happened in the elevator with Cole—well, it just shouldn’t have. She still had no idea how or why it did. Why she had let it.

  But she was sure of one thing: asking Agnes to put her up in one of The Benton’s empty hotel rooms until she could find a suitable apartment for Sunny to move into was probably the smartest thing she’d done since applying to grad school. Sure she felt a little guilty about the extra expense. Okay, a lot guilty. Even with her employee discount, Sunny knew that even a standard room at The Benton was way out of her price range. But at least she was on the third floor of the hotel now. Nearly as far away from Cole Benton as she could get without leaving the building.

  A loud banging knock sounded on the door, interrupting her thoughts.

  “Sunny, it’s Cole Benton,” the heavy knocker said on the other side of the door, his words full of angry grit and gravel.

  Sunny winced as she went over to the door and called back, “Oh, there must have been some kind of miscommunication. I’m still getting dressed, and I told Agnes to tell you I’d just meet you in the lobby at seven. So...” She let the sentence trail off, hoping he’d get the hint and go away.

  He didn’t go away. He definitely did not go away. Not only did Sunny not hear any footsteps but she could also sense him standing still on the other side of the single piece of wood that stood between them. A few beats ticked by. “Sunny, open the door,” he said in a voice so menacing, she actually took a step back.

  “Why?” she asked the door. “There’s nothing to talk about. I’m staying here until Agnes finds me a new apartment. End of conversation. I’ve made my decision.”

  Silence.

  “Don’t make me go down to the front desk and get a key card for your room. It will be worse if you do.”

  Worse than what? Her whole body began to tremble.

  Why? She had no idea. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to facing down an audience, some of whom would yell out rather colorful commentary as she danced. Cole Benton was just another heckler, she told herself, one obviously hell-bent on making her uncomfortable just because he could. But what right did he have to threaten her? Or act like she had to do everything he said?

  She would open the door, she decided, but not because he told her to—she’d do it to give him a piece of her mind. She wasn’t going to let him intimidate her, she thought as she pulled open the door.

  He came through the doorway like a rushing bull, fusing his mouth to hers with such force that she would have fallen backward if his arms hadn’t come around her tighter than steel bands.

  It all happened fast after that.

  He lifted her off her feet and slammed her against the hotel room door, which had swung closed on its own.

  “Are you trying to drive me crazy?” he demanded against her mouth, before kissing her again with bruising force. Then he stated it as fact. “You’re trying to drive me crazy.”

  “No, I’m not,” Sunny insisted, even as she let her neck fall back to receive his lips there, as well. “I would never... Believe me, I was just trying to put some distance between us, so this—this wouldn’t happen again.”

 
His eyes collided with hers, harsh and unforgiving. “Listen to me, Sunny. Listen hard. This—” he pointed between the two of them “—this is happening. I don’t know what you thought you would accomplish when you tricked Agnes into giving you a room in my hotel behind my back, but all you did was make the inevitable come even faster. Now you’ve pissed me off.”

  He stood back and ripped her dress down the front. Actually ripped it! And before she could gasp, he caught her response with another hard kiss, his hand finding the V between her legs, cupping it as though it belonged to him, even as he growled, “You’re not wearing underwear. Bullshit, you’re not trying to drive me crazy.”

  His hand was so hot on her sex, she squirmed not knowing quite what to do. “No, I just hadn’t put them on yet. I told you I wasn’t finished getting dressed—”

  She broke off with another gasp when one hand locked around her wrists, pinning them above her head on the wall. Meanwhile two of his fingers pushed into her with sharp intent.

  He looked at her, his eyes as cold as gravestones. “Here’s what’s going to happen now, Sunny. You’re going to get wet, as wet as you need to be to take me inside of you. All of me inside you.”

  As if under his thrall, her body responded to his command. Sunny whimpered, and she could actually feel herself creaming with desire, as she clenched and unclenched around his fingers.

  “All of me all the way inside of you,” he growled in her ear.

  The feel of his fingers pumping in and out of her. So wrong. So not what she should be doing with this man. It was too much, and she could already feel a climax building up inside of her. “No...” Sunny moaned.

  Cole’s hand came to an abrupt stop. “Don’t tell me no.”

  “We shouldn’t,” Sunny gasped out, even as her hips rolled against his now still hand, seeking the sensations he’d taken away when he stopped.

  Cole tutted. “Sunny, Sunny, Sunny...you’re beautiful and you’re sexy as hell, but you’re a terrible liar. Your mouth is telling me one thing while your body is telling me another.”