Blush (5 page)

A squeak escaped her lips. Her words got stuck in her throat at the intensity of that gaze. Mortified, she felt herself turning red and stared at the ground as they walked.

He tugged at her arm just before they entered the casino floor. She hadn’t realized that she’d pulled away slightly, resisting entering the area—she’d grown somewhat comfortable where she was already, next to Alex in the lobby. She wasn’t eager to change. But he insisted, pulling her along gently. When she got the nerve to again meet his eyes, she thought, for a moment, that he was going to kiss her.

He reached out, ran a finger over her heated cheek, then looked puzzled, as if he didn’t know why he’d done that.

“That blush.” He raised an eyebrow, then said no more about it. Instead he transformed in front of her eyes, moving from the more approachable man who let a small vulnerability show to Alex Fraser, the smooth, suave businessman she’d met the other night. Even in blue jeans, he exuded confidence—the young billionaire with the world at his feet.

Maybe that was why Maddy was so drawn to him. He had enough confidence for the both of them.

“We are a young couple here on our honeymoon. Just tourists looking for a fun afternoon gambling at a casino. Okay?” Ah. So that explained the denim and glasses. Maddy didn’t want to be the one to tell him that even dressed down, he didn’t fit in. He was too handsome, too self-assured.

Too damn sexy.

“All right.” What else was she going to say? She certainly couldn’t tell him that his words had sent her mood crashing, or that the entire experience had her on pins and needles.

That was why she was here, then. That’s why he’d asked her here—to help him make a business decision. She shouldn’t have cared, but she did.

“I want to see what the casino is really like, from a consumer’s point of view. What I get shown is often what the current owners want me to see.” His thumb moved absently over the mound of Maddy’s palm. It was not an erogenous zone, but still she felt a thrill throughout her entire body, one that she fought.

This would never lead anywhere. Even if he weren’t a gorgeous gazillionaire, she was a waitress with more baggage than he could ever possibly imagine.

“Do you do that for every place that you buy?” Maddy was pretty sure that Alex owned more businesses, more buildings, more
things
than her mind could fathom.

“Yes.” His voice was curt. “I didn’t become wealthy by being careless. Though this deal . . .” His voice trailed off as he studied the casino around him, his eyes finally coming to rest on Maddy.

“I’d like to have your impression of the man who wants to sell this to me.”

Maddy nodded. She would have agreed to just about anything, just to keep enjoying the feel of his hand in hers.

They walked around the casino slowly, looking carefully at the slot machines, the blackjack tables, the poker games. At least, Alex looked carefully—Maddy was consumed with awareness of his presence. It was a weird sensation for her, one that took the place of the ever-running stream of consciousness that usually clouded her mind.

She liked it. She really, really liked it.

•   •   •

“W
ould you care for a drink?” Maddy was looking a little overwhelmed by either the casino, Alex’s hand holding hers, or maybe a little bit of both. He steered her to the bar in the center of the room.

A drink would do her good. He would have been lying if he’d said that he didn’t hope it might also bring that color back into her skin.

He led her to a small, round table by the bar. The waitress asked for his drink order first, and Alex interrupted her, not impressed.

“The lady will have a gin and tonic, with a lime wedge. I will have a golden tequila . . . in a highball glass, with a lemon wedge.”

Maddy blinked, probably wondering how he knew what kind of alcohol she liked to drink, since she hadn’t been drinking it the other night. He wasn’t about to tell her that he employed people who could find out all kinds of things about anyone . . . or that he’d wanted to find out just such things about her.

He was pretty sure that she wouldn’t appreciate it. Still, he’d felt like he had to know—he’d wanted to know everything about her.

No, he would just keep that little detail to himself.

The waitress flushed, nodded, babbled a little, and retreated. Maddy cast a sympathetic smile after her, and Alex frowned.

He was used to the effect he had on women, though he never really thought about it. It was his looks, which he’d had no part in, and his money, which he couldn’t blame them for being attracted to. It was just how it was.

Still, he’d rather elicit the kind of reaction in Maddy that had her snarling at any woman who came near her man.

Not that he was her man, but he had hope.

“What if I don’t like gin?” Maddy seemed to be a little more relaxed around him today—relaxed enough to question him a bit.

He liked that she didn’t just smile and nod along with whatever he said. Though once inside his club, the term for her behavior would be “brat,” outside of sex, he found that he was enjoying the hints of spunk that blazed out of her sweet personality from time to time.

Alex didn’t crack, merely arched an eyebrow in her direction. She did it right back, and he found the small movement to be sexy as hell.

“Do you?” He sounded sure of himself, which was the entire reason that he liked having information on people.

He liked knowing what he was dealing with. He liked being in control.

Maddy muttered a reply that he couldn’t quite make out and sipped at the drink that the waitress had just placed in front of her. The gin must have been strong, since she made a face as she swallowed, but then again, if he’d guessed correctly, she wasn’t much of a drinker.

He watched as she licked her lips, which started a slow burn in his gut.

“Do you see the man to your left?” Indicating with his head, Alex didn’t shoot the tequila that he’d ordered, instead squeezing the lemon over the glass, then sipping, running his tongue over his lips to savor the liquor.

From the corner of his eye, he caught Maddy watching him, her stare fixed on his mouth. Gratified to find that she was feeling the heat as much as he was, he smirked, enjoying the way her skin flushed when she realized that she’d been caught.

“The man in the blue suit, with the three big men. The ones standing behind me.” Alex had zeroed in on the man he’d seen only in pictures as he’d guided Maddy to the bar. The man stood out like a sore thumb among the brightly adorned tourists, both because of the lack of color in his attire and also because of the desperation that Alex could feel radiating from him, even from across the room. “That is Massimo Santorini. He purchased this casino ten years ago and is looking to sell quickly. He is offering a good price, because he needs the cash fast to pay off a gambling debt. What I don’t understand is why he would target me, a complete stranger, for a cash deal.” It wasn’t unheard of, but Alex would have thought that the people he owed the money to might have been interested in taking the casino over as payment, or in purchasing it themselves against the debt. It was what he would have done.

That said, he was still the head of a successful empire, and Massimo was liquidating to get out of trouble. Perhaps they just had entirely different points of view.

Still, something didn’t sit right. He just couldn’t put his finger on what.

“What do you think of this place?” Alex hadn’t lied—he was interested in Maddy’s point of view, as someone who hadn’t actually spent much time in casinos and therefore had no expectations. She looked a bit unnerved by the question, and Alex sat back in his chair, giving her a moment, still aware of Santorini and his goons behind him.

“Well, I . . . I don’t really have anything to compare it to, but . . . it’s kind of garish, isn’t it?” Her cheeks heated as she spoke, and Alex couldn’t smother his grin of enjoyment.

“Casinos tend to be, babe. That’s what Vegas is all about.” He grinned as he thought back to his first sight of the city, way back when he was a kid, on vacation with his family. They’d done a long road trip, down from their home in Washington, along the California coast, into Nevada, Arizona, Mexico.

His world had opened up on that trip, but the thing that had fascinated him the most had been Las Vegas. He’d been overwhelmed by the lights, the opulence, the excess. He’d never forgotten, and that was where he’d headed, right after his business degree was hot in his hand.

The never-ending crowds made him feel a little bit less alone, too, since that once carefree family had disowned him for his “immoral” lifestyle. It still hurt, but he had to give them credit for sticking to their guns—and their beliefs. They’d never once tried to make nice, begging for a handout.

He hadn’t talked to them in years, and so apart from a few staff members, like Declan and Kylie, and of course, Rae, he had very few people who could comfort him when he needed it.

The lights of the city that never slept, though, kept him from feeling quite so alone.

Shaking away the heavy thoughts, Alex looked down at Maddy. She had been watching him think—watching the emotions play out over his face—and she looked thoughtful.

To please himself as well as to distract her, he took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips for a kiss.

She gasped, then froze, her eyes fixed over his shoulder.

“What is it?” Alex shifted abruptly, leaning on the table with his arm, partially blocking his face. “Did he see us?”

Maddy nodded, and Alex cursed. Reaching around her, he splayed his hand flat on her back and drew her in. The skin beneath his hand heated, and he eyed the long, graceful curve of her neck, wanting to plant his lips there.

He wanted to kiss her everywhere.

“Is he coming over here?” When Maddy nodded, Alex felt disgust wash over him, though he followed it with a reassuring smile for Maddy. There was no way that he could have missed her breathy little sigh of pleasure, since they were now practically nose to nose. He could feel her exhalation, warm on his cheeks. “Prepare yourself for his version of the VIP treatment.” From what he’d dug up, Alex knew it was nothing he wanted.

He also knew that there was no way that the man would not come over to introduce himself in person, now that he’d seen him.

“What is his version of the VIP treatment?” Maddy whispered, though Santorini could not have heard her from across the crowded casino.

“Expensive liquor and even more expensive whores.” Alex eyed Maddy speculatively, curious to see if she thought that was what he was used to anyway.

He smiled slowly, possessively when her cute little lips pursed with displeasure. Unless he was very much mistaken, she was getting to the point where she wasn’t thrilled at the idea of another woman’s hands on him.

That was good, because the only woman whose hands he wanted on him was the one sitting so close that her freesia scent clouded his brain.

Alex got one hell of a surprise when, after inhaling deeply, Maddy placed her hand on his thigh and leaned in closer, until her hair brushed over his shoulder. If Massimo hadn’t been heading toward them, he might have taken that moment to thread his fingers through her hair, to finally possess her mouth with his own. Still, with the muscles of his leg hard beneath the flat of her palm, he found himself loath to move. He wanted to nip at her neck, to inhale her scent.

Swallowing thickly, he tried to shake off the lust that was riding him. He needed a clear head to gauge Santorini.

“What are you doing?” Alex’s words were a warning, but he wasn’t sure if the warning was for Maddy or for himself.

“You don’t want to be noticed. Maybe he didn’t actually see you. Now you’re hidden. We look like a couple stopping for a drink during their day of gambling.” Alex turned his head to find her lips close, so close.

Unable to resist, though it went against every bit of business sense that he had, Alex leaned in and brushed his lips over Maddy’s in the briefest but sexiest kiss he’d ever had in his life. Her mouth was hot, wet, and tasted ever so faintly of strawberries.

He wanted to drag her upstairs, to fist his hands in that wealth of golden brown hair, and to slide inside of her waiting heat until he forgot his own name.

Unfortunately, right at the moment, it wasn’t an option.

Pulling back a fraction, Alex saw the rejection run over Maddy’s face. He shook his head, needing to explain that he wasn’t pulling away because he wanted to.

The women he knew wouldn’t have felt rejected—they would have slid onto his lap, grasped his cock in long, greedy fingers, and continued right on with what they were doing.

Maddy wasn’t like those women. He had to remember that.

Desperate for one more taste, he nipped at her ear before whispering into it, “You’re playing a dangerous game, Miss Stone. If you knew what I truly wanted to do to you, you would run screaming into the night.”

She inhaled slowly, as if trying to offset the rise in temperature that surrounded them.

“Don’t look at me like that.” Again, he didn’t hold back that warning tone.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” she protested, and he withdrew fully. He was a whisper away from clearing the table where they sat with one arm and sliding his fingers into her liquid heat after laying her on it.

He could breathe a bit more easily when her sweet floral scent wasn’t invading his every sense.

“Mr. Fraser!” The name was shouted from halfway across the room, yet was still discernible over the noise. The man speaking was loud and had a heavy accent. Wincing—he had indeed been made—Alex and Maddy turned as one to find the man Alex recognized from his research as Massimo Santorini bearing down on them, his beefy black-clad bodyguards following closely in his wake.

“Shit.” Alex felt his muscles stiffen underneath Maddy’s fingers. Though he wanted to wrap her away where she couldn’t be touched by this man—what the hell had he been thinking, bringing her here?—he did the next best thing he could think of, stepping into his ruthless tycoon suit so fully that when Santorini reached their table, it was the eyes and smile of a shark that waited for him.