Tempt Me In Vegas

“Sorry I’m late?” She smiled with the question and her eyes lit up. Completely irrelevant.

“You’re not late. I just thought you would arrive sooner than you did.”

Cooper noticed the bellman now getting even more interested in the conversation and he had no interest in supplying his employees with entertainment. Fixing his gaze on the younger man, he said, “I’ll take it from here, thanks.”

“Yes, sir.” Bill shot Terri what Cooper thought of as a sympathetic glance, then Bill turned and hurried back to the main lobby.

“Wow, he moved fast.” Terri sent a quick look over her shoulder. “Do you inspire fear in all your employees?”

“Not fear,” he corrected. “Respect.”

“Oh, of course. Wide eyes and a dead run are sure signs of respect.”

He took a breath. Apparently, she’d be harder to intimidate than the people who worked for him. “Are we going to talk about the bellman, or would you like to see your suite?”

Terri grinned. “I can do both.”

“Why am I not surprised?” he muttered. Gripping the suitcase handle with one hand, he placed the other at the small of her back, turning her toward the bank of elevators and one that stood alone, separate from the rest.

“Anyway,” she said, turning her head to take in the expansive casino behind them, “I’d have been here sooner, but there was a lot to do. I had to put in for a leave of absence at my job, get my car checked to make sure it was safe for the drive—”

“You drove?” He interrupted the flow of words because he was pretty sure that was the only chance he’d have to speak at all. “If you had called to let us know you were coming, I’d have sent the jet for you.”

“You have your own jet?” she asked, goggling at him.

“We do.”

“We have a jet. Right. Who doesn’t?” Shaking her head, she took a breath and said, “Anyway, I drove so I could stop off in St. George to see my mom and my aunt. Tell them what had happened and get them to babysit my dog for me because I didn’t know how long I’d be gone and I couldn’t ask my friend to watch her for who knows how many days—”

“You have a dog?” Cooper didn’t know why that hit him, but it did. It was something that hadn’t come up in Dave’s research, either. Cooper’d never had a dog. Or a cat. Or hell, even a hamster. Growing up in a hotel didn’t lend itself to pets. As a kid, that had bothered him. Apparently, it still did.

She grinned. “Yes. Daisy’s a cute mix of about a hundred and fifty different breeds, and she thinks she’s a Great Dane, so she needs a lot of attention and really doesn’t like being left alone. My mom loves her, so Daisy’s happy and—”

“What did your mom say about all of this?” Another interruption and he didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty about it. Until she spoke.

“You keep interrupting me. That’s rude, you know, but it’s okay for now.”

“Thanks so much,” he said wryly, but she apparently didn’t catch the sarcasm.

“Mom’s as freaked out by this as I am,” Terri continued. “Neither of us knew anything about my biological parents so we’re kind of shocked to find out my birth father even knew who I was, let alone where I was. Sorry. Rambling. The point is, I had a few things to take care of before I could come to Vegas.”

That bright, brilliant smile had knocked him back for a second but thankfully she hadn’t noticed. He felt off his game and that was something Cooper couldn’t afford. With that firmly in mind, he brushed aside her rambling. “Doesn’t matter. You’re here now.” Nodding, he slid a card into the slot of the stand-alone elevator. “This is a private elevator. It’s the one you’ll use to get to and from your suite. The other elevators stop at the nineteenth floor. This one goes directly to the top five floors and the roof.”

“Okay...” Another deep breath and he refused to notice how her breasts lifted with the action.

Focusing had never been an issue for Cooper. Until today, apparently.

“The waitstaff and housekeeping have their own elevators that will take them to the top floors for business purposes. The general public can’t access the higher floors.”

“Sounds very...secure.”

If she was joking he let her know by his tone that he didn’t find it funny. “As secure as technology can make it. Hayes Corporation offices are on the twentieth floor,” he said, turning his focus from her to the matter at hand. “And on twenty-one, two and three we have suites for special guests, dignitaries, celebrities...anyone whose security issues demand a safe, impregnable, luxury suite.”

“Impregnable. Right. Sounds cozy.” She nodded as the elevator doors whisked open.

“Our guests don’t come here for ‘cozy.’”

“Good thing,” she murmured.

He took that as a direct insult. “A cozy hotel is a B and B. A Hayes hotel offers luxury. Exclusivity.”

She blinked at him. “Wow. That sounds terrible.”

Surprised again, he said, “What about that is terrible?”

“Oh, just everything, but never mind...”

Cooper thought about arguing her ridiculous point but buried his irritation instead. Unknowingly, she was proving that he was right to want to buy her out of this partnership. If she didn’t understand the basics of the hotel industry, then she had no business being a partner. Certainly not his partner.

He took a breath. “The owners’ suites are on the twenty-fourth floor.” Cooper steered her inside the open elevator, slid his card into the slot again, pushed the right button and stood back, looking at her. With the mirrored wall behind her, he was able to take her all in at once. And he had to admit, every damn view he got of her was a good one.

Too bad she was such a pain in the ass.

The elevator swept up in a rush and she laughed, a rich, deep bubble of sound that whipped through the small, enclosed space and wrapped itself around his throat until Cooper felt like he couldn’t breathe. Pure enjoyment wreathed her features, when only a moment or two before, she’d been irritated, and damned if he wasn’t...captivated. Most women he knew were more guarded about their emotions. But Terri was honest and open and he found that intriguing.

She grabbed hold of the brass rail at her side, tossed her hair back and slanted him a delighted glance. “Well, that’s faster than I expected.”

“Express elevator.” His own voice sounded as tight as he felt. Cooper watched her staring up at the elevator roof and realized she was the first woman he’d been with in this elevator who didn’t turn and check herself out in the mirror. Every female he knew would fluff her hair or smooth her lipstick or simply give her appearance a mental thumbs-up. Terri Ferguson, though, was looking up at the digital midnight sky.

“That’s so fabulous. Like the lobby.” She shook her head. “I love the shooting stars. It looks so real.”

“I wouldn’t know. Living in a city with this much ambient light, you don’t see many stars.”

She leveled her gaze on him. “Now, that’s a shame.”

“I’ve never thought so.”

“Then you don’t know what you’re missing,” she said, looking at him with what could only be sympathy.

Well, Cooper Hayes didn’t need anyone to feel sorry for him. Especially over something as minor as not being a stargazer. Watching her, he figured this was just one example of how the two of them were from different worlds. She looked at the stars in the sky, and the only stars he was interested in were the celebrities who came to his hotels. Yeah, a partnership between them would be doomed. Best to end it as soon as possible.

She turned her gaze back to the ceiling, a soft smile on her face, when falling stars left trails of gold dust across a digital sky. Cooper didn’t bother looking at the illusion. Instead, he watched her pleased smile and wondered why the hell he was enjoying it.

Deliberately, he brushed it off and started talking. “We work with a company who designs and installs illusionist skies in the hallways, casino, the lobby. StarFire can follow you all over the hotel.”

“That’s amazing. I’m a little technologically challenged, so imagining people who can do that? Wow.” She looked at him. “It’s really great. I mean, everything I’ve seen since I walked in the door has been just beautiful.”

Her face was open and easy to read. So he saw her excitement, the touch of nerves in the way her teeth tugged at her bottom lip. The easy curve of that smile did things to him he really didn’t want to think about. Irritated, he snapped, “Glad you approve.”