Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (20 page)

He winced at his own cynical thought. Kelly
wouldn’t have liked it at all. Funny how often he
stopped himself lately with that warning. Funny how often he was heeding the warning and changing his
ways.

Now here he was, and he couldn’t keep his eyes off
her. He watched her talking with Nathan, his young
blond assistant. She was animated, charming Nathan
to the hilt. That should have filled him with happi
ness. Why did he feel resentful instead?

Suddenly she was at his elbow. “Nathan’s offered to teach me the finer points of blackjack,” she told him. “Would you like to come along?”

Her eyes were sparkling. She knew she was the belle
of the ball. Her joy in it was irresistible and he had to
smile back. “Sure,” he said, putting down his drink.
“Let’s go.”

He sat with her on the high stools at the blackjack
table while Nathan expertly shuffled the cards and cut
the deck. Nathan and Kelly laughed together. Cody smiled, but didn’t join in the game. He just watched
Kelly. That seemed to be all he wanted to do this eve
ning.

Nathan had only dealt a few hands when Jasper Cramer appeared, motioning him aside.

“Let me deal for the lovely lady,” he said, smiling his oily smile, looking Kelly up and down and ignor
ing Cody altogether.

Cody stiffened, but didn’t change his expression.
There was no point in alerting Kelly to the sort of man
she was dealing with here. Jasper would simper and flirt and be his own obnoxious self, but he wouldn’t do
anything overtly offensive in front of everyone.

Nathan glanced at Cody, waiting for a cue as to how
to react. He saw the dismissive signal in Cody’s glance,
so he shrugged and gave way to Jasper. “Why sure, Mr. Cramer,” he said, turning away. “I guess I’ll go
get myself another drink.”

Jasper leaned too close to Kelly and dealt her noth
ing but twenty-ones, dealing from the bottom, from
the middle, from anywhere he felt like dealing from,
and Cody didn’t say a word. In fact, he had to admire
Jasper’s skill. He saw him stacking, false-shuffling and
shifting the cut, but he knew Kelly couldn’t detect it.
She was too overwhelmed by her good fortune to think
about it. Cody had a feeling Jasper was putting on this little show mainly for him. But impressing Kelly was
also a consideration.

“The lady is a winner,” Jasper said smoothly,
smiling into Kelly’s eyes after she beat him once again.

Delighted, she laughed. “I think I ought to take you
with me to the other casinos,” she said. “We could
clean up.”

“I’d go with you anywhere,” he told her, his voice
annoyingly familiar.

She looked up, a little startled by his tone. But before she could react, another figure had entered from the rear of the room. Though he was dressed in a suit,
he had the look of a street tough. He glanced about, then came straight for Jasper, pushing through the
crowd. Tapping him on the shoulder, he whispered
something into his ear, then left again after only a
brief glance at Cody and Kelly, his dull eyes register
ing no recognition.

Kelly, however, recognized him immediately. Cody
saw her reaction and quickly put a hand on her arm, squeezing warningly.
Yes
, Kelly, he said silently.
You’re right. That’s one of the men who had me in the alley. And no, Kelly. Don’t say a word.

She was very good, he thought. He could see her pale beneath the heavy makeup. She didn’t look at
him, and the smile was still frozen on her face as she looked at Jasper. But she’d put two and two together,
and he didn’t like to think of what would happen when
the sparks began to fly from the combustible material
she’d assembled.

“Enough blackjack,” he said firmly, taking her el
bow and deliberately turning his back on Jasper.
“Let’s go over and see how lucky you are at dice.” She
nodded to Jasper, but neither of them said goodbye. Cody quickly took Kelly to a group at the opposite corner of the room, and before long she was talking
and laughing with them. Everyone wanted to get a
chance to talk to her. She was a hit.

But some of the enjoyment had apparently gone out
of her evening. Cody noted that she looked back over
her shoulder to get a fix on where Jasper was every
now and then. Though she didn’t say a word, he knew
what she was thinking. He drifted away from the
bunch she was with, standing alone and surveying the
scene.

The night was shot to hell as far as he was con
cerned. Jasper had ruined it.

“Mr. Marin, may I get you a refill?”

Cody looked up at the waiter. He was leaning against the wall again, away from the others. His
scowl must have scared people away, because no one but the waiter had bothered with him for a long time.
“Thanks. Make it a double.”

He took the heavy glass and downed half of the
drink in one swallow. Jasper was hovering near Kelly,
but he hadn’t yet attempted to thrust himself at her again. Cody’s fingers tightened on his glass until the
knuckles were white.
Damn you
, Jasper, he thought harshly.
Lay one hand on her and you’re a dead man.

He took a deep breath and steadied himself. No use blaming it all on Jasper, he realized. He had to admit the evening had been off center from the start. There was a feeling growing in him, something he couldn’t quite analyze. It made him uneasy, wary. He looked at Kelly. Maybe he should just grab her and get out of
here.

Every time he was near her, he found himself
touching her, putting an arm around her shoulders as
though he were protecting her from something. But
there was no need. She was having a major success and
no one wanted to hurt her.

Finishing his drink, he set down the glass and took the two steps to her side. He touched her shoulder and
she turned into the curve of his arm. “Come with
me,” he whispered to her. “I want to show you where
I live.”

She looked up into his eyes. “What?”

“My room is in this hotel. Didn’t you know that?”

“No.” Her smile was surface only. “But I knew you had to live somewhere. Why not here?” She touched him lightly, standing close but not cuddling. “I’d love
to see it.”

He took her to the private elevator. It shot them to the top of the twelve-story building, but she didn’t
look him in the face once during the trip. Still, he put
an arm around her waist as they disembarked.

He unlocked the door and turned on the light, es
corting her in. She turned slowly, taking in the sunken conversation pit, the plush white carpets, the chrome and glass, the original sculptures in bronze, the origi
nal oil paintings.

“Wow!” she said softly. Looking at him, she felt odd. He was almost a stranger again in his exquisite suit, gold glittering at his cuffs and from his tie bar. “This is beautiful,” she said, a little more formally.

He frowned, watching her, sensing her discomfort.
“You’re the most beautiful thing in it,” he said, but
he knew his words didn’t ring true. Cursing softly, he
reached for her.

“Careful,” she warned, pulling away. “Don’t
smudge the makeup.” She wasn’t sure why she’d said
such a thing, but she knew she didn’t want him to hold
her right now.

He turned on his heel and strode to the bar to pour
himself a stiff drink.

“Haven’t you had enough?” she asked him a little
anxiously, following him over.

“No. Not nearly enough.” He drank it neat and set
down the glass. Everything was wrong. Everything was messed up and he didn’t know why. He didn’t
want to go back down to the party. He didn’t want her to be like this. He didn’t want her in that makeup. An
urge to take her into the bathroom and scrub it from her face came over him, but he fought it.

Kelly watched him, not sure what he wanted. Her own emotions were awash in confusion and she didn’t
want to think things through right now. On the one
hand, Cody’s friends were being wonderful to her. On
the other, seeing one of the men from the alley had
only served to remind her of things about his way of
life.

Jasper Cramer was the man who was doing illegal things. She was sure of it. He was the man Cody re
fused to turn in, the man who had ordered him beaten.
Yet he worked with the man, partied with him. It
didn’t make sense, but she didn’t want to discuss it
with Cody now. If she brought it up, she knew they
would only end up fighting.

“Come sit down,” he said abruptly, leading the way to the long sectional couch, taking off his jacket as he went. He sank into the pillows and watched her ap
proach.

“Are you having a good time?” he asked.

She moved restlessly, trying to find a place to set
tle. “Yes. Of course,” she said automatically. “It’s a
wonderful party.”

He looked away and frowned. “You fit right in.”

She took a deep breath. “Everyone has been very
kind.”

They were like two strangers sitting on the couch, talking, he thought. He couldn’t stand it. He had to do something to erase this black feeling in the pit of his
stomach.

“Kelly.” He touched the back of her neck with his
fingertips. Tiny hairs seemed to bristle at his touch.
“Oh, Kelly.” When he said her name, all his yearning
filled his voice. Leaning forward slowly, he pressed his lips just below her hairline, brushing lightly, letting his
tongue flicker out to tantalize her.

She closed her eyes and forgot about the makeup.
As his mouth moved across her skin, her tension
flowed away, leaving her limp and lazy. There was something in her that could turn off her mind when he
did things like this. She could block out all thought and let herself float on a lake of sensuous pleasure.

“Oh, Cody,” she sighed, turning into his kiss, tast
ing him, reveling in him. Her hands went to his chest
and began to stroke up and down in wide, circular motions, but in a moment they stilled, intrigued by
what she could feel.

There was a wildness in him tonight. She could feel
it in his heartbeat. He kissed her hard, as though he had to probe for what he needed, and she gasped,
wanting to please him but disturbed by his intensity. He pushed her down onto the couch, sliding his hard body next to hers, pressing against her.

Roughly he murmured something near her ear. She
couldn’t make out the words, but she knew he was impatient. He’d never been the impatient one before.
It was usually she who was rushing him, he who was teasing, holding back, making her do the demanding. But not this time. Kelly felt his hand slide under her skirt, up across her thigh, his fingers urgent. But she was eager, too, and she arched
her hips to cradle his touch.

His hand had the magic that lit the blaze. Every time
he was near her this way, her skin caught fire. Every touch was agony and ecstasy intertwined. She closed
her eyes, taking in the raw scent of him, the textured
touch, the ragged sound, letting herself begin the ride
toward the edge of the waterfall.

Cody felt like a driven man. He wanted her so badly,
it was like a wound that he was frantic to assuage with
her body. She was lovely as a crushed rose, com
pletely in his power. All he could think of was how
much he needed to prove she was his, to prove it to
her, to prove it to himself by possessing her so totally
that neither one of them might ever recover.

Her skin felt hot beneath his hands. Her fingers
curled into his hair, pulling him to her breast, and her
body writhed against his. He shuddered, his breath coming faster. His hand slid up across the silk of her
panties, his fingers catching in the lacy elastic.

She made a sound, he raised his head and looked at her face, and suddenly everything went still. He stared
at her, and as he stared, her face blurred and a daz
zling parade of faces flashed through his memory—
women’s faces, beautiful faces—they’d all been lying
here on his couch, just the way she was. Over the years
there’d been too many of them. And here was Kelly— just another? A wave of revulsion swept through him. His mouth went dry and he took a shuddering breath.
Then he tore himself away from her.

“Come on,” he said roughly, rising from the couch
and pulling his clothes back together. “I think we’d
better get back to the party.”

Kelly sat up slowly, staring at him. What had hap
pened? She didn’t know what she’d done. She’d been so sure he was going to make love with her. She’d
wanted him so much. But the look on his face told her
it was over.