Angelique Rising (9 page)

             
"You know she's on the pill, right?" Lexa said crisply in the world's most obvious premeditated ploy.

             
"Lexa!"

             
"Well he needs to know, lovebug. All of us are. It's the performances. You know how ghastly it is getting your period right before you step onstage? Messy! And painful. So we all take the pill and when we need to take a few extra ones to postpone the blessed event, we do. The contraception is an added bonus. You might want to try getting some use out of it."

             
"Lexa, you get enough use out of it for the entire Company."

             
"Oh lovebug, what I could do to you, turn you into a Sherman tank. I hear you're coming to Vegas with us in the morning. For the costumes?" she asked eyeing him doubtfully.

             
"The secret to conversing with you, Lexa, is to dive off the boat," Anthony responded with a cagey quirk of his eyebrows knowing she could pester an answer out of granite.

             
Vegas, Wyatt let his mind roam. Yes, that was the answer the devil half of him said decisively. Don't even need a blood test to get married in Las Vegas.

             
He needed to get online.

*****

              Malcolm Cochran sat in his one hundred year old mansion, in his study, nursing a snifter of cognac and a steaming displeasure. He'd heard of a gorgeous girl working at the Center but always that she was young, a teenager, so Malcolm had never bothered checking her out. And now his nephew had stolen her right out from under his nose, once again the thief stealing from him what was rightfully his! He sipped the cognac. He had introduced Wyatt to cognac and to so much else. Some of his lessons took, others, well...

             
And now the girl.

             
He pictured Angelique, that creature of light, writhing under him, trying to escape, begging...

             
He threw his cognac glass across the room where it shattered against the wall. His housekeeper would have to clean it up. He didn't care, his housekeeper had cleaned up messes of his far worse than this, that was the good thing about illegals, they kept their mouths shut.

             
No,
he ordered himself,
don't think of it as a rout, it's just a slight setback.

             
He would wait. Wyatt's romance with the girl would run its course and then he would move in, take her, make her one of his
private arrangements
. In the meantime he would ready for her, start by getting Wyatt to tell him what her favorite color was.

             
He'd have the secure chamber redone for her. He preferred it when his reluctant guests were calmed.

             
In the beginning anyway.

*****

              Angelique knocked on the suite door and Wyatt opened it eagerly, his face alight at seeing her.

             
"Hi," he brimmed with a sweet joy at the sight of her despite the ungodly hour and he kissed her lightly, "how did your performance go?"

             
"Wow," she answered entering his hotel suite, "this is
opulent
. A lot nicer than the hotel I'm in. The show went fine, too many ovations though, I was almost late for my poker game."

             
"And how did
that
go?" he pursed his lips in disapproval.

             
"Great! I stopped at three hundred thousand dollars, Anthony was disappointed, he wanted me to keep going, he needs it for his summer fashion show but..." she paused, obviously quite pleased with herself but realizing that she was looking at him in a way she shouldn't.

             
Wyatt too knew why she had paused and why she was blushing so. Angelique had left the game to come to
him
her eyes impassioned for one wicked intention.

             
"You put your cash in the hotel safe, didn't you?"

             
"Um no. I gave Anthony his and I put mine under my pillow in my hotel room."

             
There was silence for a full five seconds and then Wyatt said "Shit." And, "For the luvva---" escaped him as well, "how many people saw you leave the game with that cash?"

             
"Oh... maybe a dozen. Gee, I didn't think of that."

             
He was on his phone.

             
"Get her things," he was saying, "all of them. Check her out of that room. Bring them here to my suite. She left a hundred thousand dollars cash under her pillow... I know, I know... Put it in the suite safe. Right."

             
He hung up.

             
"Give me your room key card, Johnson is going to move you over here. I don't want you going back there."

             
There was a knock at the door, Wyatt opened it.

             
"Morning, Ma'am," Johnson said politely but Angelique saw from his stern expression that he too wanted to
talk
to her, she could see the words forming.

             
"I'm sorry to have woken you up, Johnson," she said by way of mollification. It was three o'clock in the morning.

             
"I wasn't asleep, Ma'am," he said, leaving.

             
No, she didn't think Johnson slept. Ever. Johnson looked like a well-groomed forty year old Viking that men esteemed and foolhardy ones attempted to emulate.

             
"Are you hungry?" Wyatt asked.

             
He saw the words, the joke, come right to her lips, she opened her mouth to say them then wisely changed her mind.

             
"Angelique," he said softly, cupping her face with both of his hands and tilting her up to meet his gaze, "are you sure you want to do this?"

             
"Yes. But... I gotta tell you something. I... I've never... I mean..."

             
"You're a virgin?" he asked kindly.

             
She nodded mutely.

             
"I thought so."

             
"You don't mind?"

             
He smiled.

             
"We will take it slowly, Ange, anything you don't like you just say something. I mean it." He stood up offering her his hand. She took it and he led her into the suite's largest bedroom.

             
He was gentle (he watched her closely), it was tender. Until it was explosive. More than anything Angelique had ever fantasized, and incredibly, more than Wyatt had ever experienced and his experience was vast.

             
Who
is
this woman Wyatt gasped quietly as he collapsed beside her on the bed, who can entice me so? Confound me, heat me,
unleash
me. He scooped her up positioning her across his chest, encircling her snugly in his arms. The heat from her bare breasts on his naked chest saturated right down to his heart.

             
"Happy birthday, baby," he whispered but he knew she hadn't heard him, he'd felt her body melt into sleep moments after she'd settled onto him.

             
The smile she had on her face still made him think of a summer dawn.

*****

              George stared at his brother in shock. Wyatt was in bed with his arms wrapped around an obviously naked woman who was sleeping on his chest. The woman wasn't what was almost too much for George --it was the small stain of blood on the sheet beside her. Wyatt had found a
virgin?
In
Vegas?
Wyatt opened his eyes, spotted George gawking from the open doorway and signaled him with his eyes.

             
Get. Out.

             
George didn't budge but continued to leer lewdly, jerking his eyebrows up and down theatrically at Wyatt, giving him an energetic thumbs-up salute.

             
Wyatt flicked his head sharply in fruitless threat.

             
NOW.

             
George pulled a face, turned and closed the bedroom door, bowing with great although silent aplomb. Leave it to his older brother he reveled cheerfully, to come to Vegas and get some. He sat down, waiting. Two minutes later Wyatt appeared, quietly closing the door behind him.

             
"You're late, George."

             
"You're right, Wy, don't know what we'd all do without your mind-blowing assessments."

             
Wyatt scowled at him in wry amusement trying to repress a smile.

             
"But I see you put the morning to good use, bro," George continued, his eyes dancing in mirth. "Now you want to tell me what this is all about? Not often I get a message like that --
get your ass on the jet to Vegas pronto.
"

             
"I'm getting married today. You're best man."

             
"WHAT?"

             
"Her name's Angelique Reising, that's her in there," Wyatt smiled slyly.

             
"You're marrying a Vegas
showgirl?"

             
"She's a student, George, from home. She's here giving a performance, she earns her living by singing which you would know if you had shown up at the Gala, she was the headliner there."

             
"Wait a minute --is
she
the woman you sang that duet with that everyone can't shut up about? She's going to
marry
you?"

             
"Hopefully."

             
"What d'you mean
hopefully?
You haven't asked her yet?"

             
"No, and I'm not going to. She would say no."

             
"Then how--"

             
"I'm going to get her drunk today. Crazy drunk. She's young, she's never had hard liquor before. The wedding will be here in the suite --Johnson's arranging everything. I figured the best way to keep him from scuttling the whole thing was to put him in charge of it. As soon as I've got her amenable, we'll do it." Somehow he almost made it sound permissible, a minor inconvenience.

             
"Wyatt, that's crazy. You can't--"

             
"I can and I'm going to so I need you standing by ready. And don't tell me you've never done it, deliberately gotten a girl drunk, I have a very good memory."

             
"Yeah, but not to say yes to
marriage!
Mom and Dad will have a nut. And
Maureen!
She still thinks the two of you are gonna get back together. I take it there won't be any prenup."

             
"No George, but don't worry, I'm keeping this one no matter what it takes. She's... different. I know you don't believe that, you think I'm some dumb fool in love but that's because you haven't met her yet. Trust me, there's something about her--"

             
"You're sure about this? Remember how much Maureen cost you?"

             
"I'm very sure."

             
"Okay then, bro, I'll be there. Probably would've just lost my money down in the casino anyway, I never win anything."

             
"That," Wyatt said handing him an envelope, "is where I want you to wait, make sure your cell is working properly. That's a check they'll cash for ten grand, make it last, I don't know how long this is going to take. Once she's drunk I have to bring her to the License Bureau to get the Marriage License and Certificate."

             
"You ever try waiting in line with a drunk chick, Wyatt? Not pretty."

             
Wyatt laughed, remembering the website's advice.

             
To save time, please complete the Pre-Application for a Marriage License. We want you to have joyful memories of your wedding day. No one wants to be stuck in line at the Marriage License Bureau.

             
"Nope, it's all ready to be picked up, I checked. We have to appear in person and I'll be the one presenting our driver's licenses. Put your stuff in either of the empty bedrooms George, then make yourself scarce. As soon as Angelique wakes up we're eating here in the suite. She performed last night --don't make the joke, George-- and she never eats before a performance so she'll be hungry and hungry means thirsty too."