Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) (9 page)

“Take it easy,” Cody murmured, pulling his chair closer to hers and moving the silverware accordingly.
“More champagne?”

He didn’t wait for an answer and that was lucky.
 
She didn’t give one. She was still looking around, nervous as a cat. She’d never felt so conspicuous before in her
life.

“I feel like I’m dreaming,” she whispered loudly to
Cody.

Cody laughed and touched her hand. “Dreaming is
one thing. Acting out your dreams is another.” He
held up his glass. “Drink your champagne.”

“I hate champagne,” she said, her fingers curling
around the stem of the glass.

“So do I,” he admitted conspiratorially. “But it
does look so good in these glasses, doesn’t it? Milk just wouldn’t be the same.” He leaned a little closer. “That’s why I had Pierre substitute ginger ale. Drink
up. It won’t hurt you.”

She looked at him in surprise and he smiled, holding his glass high. “Here’s to real life,” he toasted.

She picked up her glass and tapped it with his.
“Real life,” she agreed softly, taking a sip. He was right. Ginger ale. Then her eyes met his, and it hap
pened again, the twisting, burning sensation in the pit
of her stomach. She didn’t retreat from it this time. Maybe if she met it head on, if she didn’t try to run
away...

A waiter appeared, claiming Cody’s attention, and
she went on examining him, letting the warmth wash
over her. The dark, straight brows, the high cheek
bones, the bronze skin were set off marvelously by the
immaculate white shirt and the splendidly cut suit he wore. His hands were strong with long, tapered fin
gers. The turquoise ring glittered on his right hand and a slim gold watch adorned his wrist. Everything about
him was smooth, silky, sophisticated, yet there was the
definite impression of steel beneath the velvet. He was
a man a woman could be proud to be seen with.

He was giving last-minute instructions to the waiter.
Dinner had already been planned ahead, but she paid no attention to the details. She was thinking of the kiss
they’d shared that very afternoon, of the way he’d
pulled her up against him. His body had been hard.
She could remember just what it felt like. Her breath
caught in her throat as a quiver ran through her.

“Potage aux concombres,” he announced as the
waiter brought in the soup.

“Lovely,” she murmured, watching him ladle the
creamy liquid and thinly sliced cucumbers into her exquisite china bowl. An elegantly dressed couple stopped to say hello to Cody, throwing Kelly a ques
tioning glance, but they didn’t linger long enough to be introduced. The waiter retreated and Kelly turned
to Cody. “I feel so out of place here,” she said.

“You look adorable.” His grin didn’t leave room for contradiction. “All-American. Apple-cheeked. And with that cute little cap on...”

“Oh!” She’d forgotten all about the blue delivery cap. Snatching it off her head, she hid it quickly beneath the napkin on her lap. “Why didn’t you tell me
I still had that awful thing on?” No wonder she’d been
getting so many strange looks!

Amusement shone in his eyes. “As I was going to say, with that cap on you look even more wholesome.
Like the softball mom you are.”

Kelly made a face and reached for her soup spoon.
“From what I’ve seen, wholesome is hardly your
style,” she noted wrly. “And softball is hardly your
game.”

“That shows how little you know about me,” Cody
retorted. The amusement evaporated. “I was a kid
once, you know. Like everyone else. And I’ll have you
know I was the best pitcher and base runner on my
Little League team.”

She noted the serious turn he was taking. She also noticed that he beamed right in on the baseball, but
didn’t refute the crack about wholesomeness not being his style. Of course, it would hardly be, from the evi
dence she’d come across all afternoon long.

“I can’t imagine you stealing home,” she murmured.

His eyebrows rose mockingly. “Really? From the things you’ve been saying, I thought you could imag
ine me stealing just about anything.”

She started to protest, but the words died in her
throat. It was true. She’d been acting as though he had
the plague, or at least a bad case of kleptomania.
Maybe it was time for her to lighten up a bit.

Pierre brought the salad, serving each plate with pomp and ceremony that made her feel like a prin
cess. Turning just a little she met Cody’s laughing
gaze, and before she knew what she was doing she was
laughing, too.

When he reached out to cover her hand with his, she
let him for a moment.

“You like?” he asked softly as Pierre left.

What could she say? Kelly couldn’t deny that this
was fun. “I like,” she admitted.

He moved closer. He was about to say something,
but a flurry on the casino floor drew their attention
before he had the chance.

A vision in red flash and golden glitz was bustling
their way, calling out as she came. Feathers and
plumes seemed to sail behind her. She had blue-black
hair, crimson lips, and blue eyes that glittered.

“Cody! Darling,” she cried, waving her arms. “The flowers are magnificent!” Throwing her arms around his neck, she kissed him hard and hot on the mouth.
“How can I thank you enough, darling?” It was ob
vious that she was playing to the crowd on the casino
floor as much as to Cody. She wanted everyone within
earshot to know that he’d sent flowers to her.

Kelly edged back in her seat, trying to get out of
range of the plumes as they whipped about behind the woman. Surely this was Sugar Delfinio, whose hotel
room Cody had trapped her in.

The glorious creature turned and trained her sights
on Kelly. “And who is this?” she said dramatically.
She looked down, eyebrows raised even higher than
they’d been painted. “A sweet little cousin from out
of town, perhaps?”

Cody seemed to have recovered from the kiss.
Kelly had to admire his recuperative powers—that thing had been a doozy.
 

He leaned between them and smiled. “Sugar, this is Kelly Mc-
Cormick. She’s the one who so recently saved my hide... and just possibly my life.”

“What?” Sugar’s face registered disbelief, sur
prise, joy. It was clear that this changed everything. Before Kelly had a chance to defend herself, the arms
were around her neck as well, and a big, moist kiss
that made her ears ring was planted on her cheek.

“Darling, you’ve done all of mankind a favor by sav
ing Cody for the rest of us.”

Kelly tried to laugh as she extricated herself from
Sugar’s embrace. “I didn’t realize he was so important to the national welfare,” she murmured.

“Oh no, darling, you see the thing is...” Sugar
glanced around, grabbed a vacant chair from a poker table and plopped herself companionably close to
Kelly, reaching for a bread stick from the center of the
table. “The thing is, I spend most of my time with
men so ancient they creak when they walk.” She took
a tremendous, crunching bite, then waved the bread
stick to emphasize her point. “They’ve got money, of course. Plenty of it. And they take me out to wonder
ful places. But they can’t stay awake long enough to
get through dinner, much less anything else. And every
now and then, when I get so bored I could fall asleep
right along with them...” She threw a grin across the
table. “Well, I just go see Cody to remind myself of
what a real man is like.”

“Not much money,” Cody said, pretending mod
esty. “But she loves me, anyway.”

Kelly watched them banter back and forth. There was an obvious affection between them, though it
didn’t seem especially serious. But they were from the same world. They were comfortable with each other. They both had the code words down pat. They spoke
the same language.

She didn’t feel so much an outsider as an explorer. They were both ready to draw her in with them. She
just wasn’t sure she wanted to go.

Sugar dashed off to catch her show as Pierre ap
peared with the scallops en brochette. Just before serving, he doused them in brandy and set them ablaze.

“You’ve heard the old joke about the rookie CIA agent who kept getting handed files stamped Burn
before Reading, haven’t you?” Cody asked, watching her eyes widen at the sight of their twin fires. “This is
similar, only it’s Burn before Eating.”

“Better it than us,” she said, making no particular sense, but it didn’t matter. Even after Sugar’s whirl
wind embrace she was enjoying herself. The food was
melt-in-your-mouth delicious, and Cody was being the perfect host. The evening was taking on a special glow.
She knew she would never forget it.

There were drawbacks, of course. For one, she was
dressed inappropriately. Her simple checkered sun
dress and sandals were much too casual, like a country cousin to the elegant finery being displayed all
around the room. That had embarrassed her at first,
but now it hardly mattered.
 

Cody wasn’t bothered by it. In
fact, he was looking at her as though he thought she
was beautiful. How could she resist? She smiled into his eyes and he smiled back. She felt her cheeks flush, but this time it wasn’t with embarrassment. Her breath came faster and she pulled her gaze away, suddenly
nervous. She had to be careful. He’d begin to think she
was making promises she had no intention of keep
ing.

Cody saw her withdrawal and recognized what it
was, but he was a man used to waiting for the right moment. Timing was everything in gambling—and in
matters of the heart, as well.

His gaze traveled up and down the slender length of
her bare arm and rested on her smooth shoulder.

“Where do you go to get that tan?” he asked, his voice low.

It was an opening for embarking on a journey to
ward intimacy. She could say something teasing back.
He would move his chair a little closer and say some
thing risque. She would flush, laugh, lean closer to
him.

It was a pleasant picture, tantalizingly seductive.
But Kelly shook it off.
 

“I work in the yard,” she said
bluntly.

He could read her mind, she thought, watching his reaction. And nothing really seemed to make him angry. Always there was a flash of humor in his gaze.

“No kidding.”
 

He made a face.
 

“Right out there un
der the burning sun?”

“Of course. Don’t you take advantage of the cli
mate?”

“What climate?” Cody looked around the room.
“You mean the air-conditioning?” He grinned at her. “The thing is, neon becomes me. Sunshine makes me
break out.”

She glanced curiously at his dark skin and he followed her gaze. “I come by this shade honestly,” he said, holding up his arm and pulling back the sleeve. The color was creamy bronze. “My mother’s a Paiute
.”

She’d been pretty sure it was something like that.
“Really?”

He nodded, the ghost of a smile hovering on his lips. “You’d like her, I think. She’s an artist, lives in Arizona these days. In an art colony in Sedona.”

She looked at his hands, remembering how she’d thought he had the hands of an artist. “Did you in
herit any of her talent?” she asked.

He stretched out his fingers and looked at them,
too. “My talent lies solely in the cards,” he said softly.

Kelly frowned, hating the way he kept rubbing her nose in it. It wouldn’t take much for her to forget what he did for a living, if he would only give her a chance.
 

“How does your mother like having a gambler for a
son?” she asked, her annoyance making her blunt.
The minute the words were out of her mouth, she re
gretted them.

He stared at her, and for once his gaze was cold as tinted glass. But he turned away without saying anything and she closed her eyes, wishing to heaven she’d kept her mouth shut. He didn’t deserve scorn. He was
what he was, and it was certainly none of her busi
ness.

“I met Ivy Blake,” she said quickly, to make up for her rudeness. “She told me what you’ve done for her
and her husband.”

Cody frowned and twisted restlessly in his chair,
avoiding her gaze. “I haven’t done anything,” he
muttered. “Eat your dinner. It’s getting cold.”

She tried to do that, but the lump in her throat was
making it impossible. She’d hurt him for no reason. She hated herself for that. He was being nothing but
nice to her. He couldn’t help it if he threatened her
peace of mind.