“It’s my place. I don’t have to knock.”
Annie knelt to pick up the heels, slipped the dress from the hanger and draped it over her arm. When she returned to the bedroom he was still there, his hands buried in his pockets, his dark gaze silently appreciative of everything he saw.
“Do you like it?” she asked, holding the dress out for him to see. The dress was short, jewel-blue and had a halter collar with tiny silver studs that wrapped around her throat. The reverse was wide open, draping below the small of her back. It was decadent and sexy, a completely unexpected detail, so she didn’t share that with him. She’d let that be a surprise.
“Very much.” His voice was slightly strained. “It matches your eyes.”
Annie draped the dress over the bedspread. She’d thought the same thing when she bought it. “Are you going to watch me dress?”
Nate thought for a moment, his lips puckered in amusement, his eyes still drinking in every inch of her. He let his gaze dart to the curve of her backside peeking out beneath the lacy panties. “No...I just wanted to let you know I was going down to the reception to make sure everything is set up.”
Annie nodded. “I’ll meet you there in a bit.”
Nate eyed his watch. “Shall I order you a drink?”
“A diet soda this time.” Annie smiled. “Thank you.” The last thing she needed was a repeat of the champagne incident.
Nate returned the smile, clearly following her thoughts. His gaze slowly traveled over her once more, then he turned and disappeared down the hall.
Annie had to take a moment to sit on the edge of the bed. He’d looked at her so intently she could almost feel it like a caress. The heat of it traveled over her body, making her breasts ache and her skin tighten. A deep throb of longing echoed in her core, acknowledging the connection between them that she denied. Perhaps tonight was the night.
A half hour later, she was downstairs and heading toward the Sapphire Lounge. The slinky bar was usually packed with tourists and locals alike for mingling and dancing to the sounds of the talented jazz singer and pianist who played there.
Tonight it was reserved for those registered in the tournament and the bigwigs from the sponsors. A quick look around the room confirmed that many of the players had brought their wives. That would cut down on how many of them would ask her to dance. She was relieved.
It was a male-dominated sport, and wives didn’t always follow their men along from game to game. Nate had gone out of his way to schedule several events at this year’s tournament to include them. Tonight was the reception, of course, but over the next week there was also a poker widows’ luncheon and an excursion to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. Nate was good with the details.
As Annie stepped into the lounge, she was greeted warmly by several friends. Benny the Shark hollered, “The Barracuda!” and before she knew it, the Captain was clasping her in a musty bear hug and Eli was trying to buy her a drink.
She declined, trying to disentangle herself, but got stuck chitchatting. They were boisterous and loud, going on and on as though they hadn’t all seen each other in Atlantic City a month ago. The Captain was wearing his best Hawaiian shirt—it was a special occasion, after all—but most of the others had forgone their jeans and polo shirts for suits and ties. It was a nice change. She almost didn’t recognize Rodney Chan, he cleaned up so well.
Of course, the first words out of his mouth were about her and Nate. It was apparently all over the tournament that someone had snagged the Barracuda. Most of her friends had already heard the whispers, and those that hadn’t turned to her in surprise and pumped her for details. Annie wasn’t very close with her family, so these were the people who knew her the best. They were also the people who would be the most surprised to see that ring on her finger.
Annie took the congratulatory drink forced on her by Eli and chatted for a while before she made excuses to leave and find Nate. She weaved through the crowd but couldn’t see him anywhere. Normally he stood out, a head taller with a booming voice and contagious laughter, but the lounge was too full tonight to find anyone.
She was about to give up and find a stool at the bar when she caught the flame of red hair out of the corner of her eye.
Tessa was looking lovely in a Kelly-green satin cocktail dress. It was strapless, showcasing her creamy, flawless skin. Her hair was down now, falling over her bare shoulders like liquid fire. Annie had always been jealous of her younger sister’s hair. It only got worse as Tessa got older and grew into a stunningly beautiful woman. She was only twenty-two and had a lot of growing up left to do, but she was off to a fine start.
A man with his back to Annie stood near to Tessa, slipping a hand around her waist. It was an intimate gesture, one Annie was not accustomed to when it involved her baby sister.
Then he turned to speak to someone and she saw his face. It was Eddie Walker. A touch of bile started rising in her throat, but she forced it back down.
Hell, no.
That dirty bastard was not touching her sister.
Before she could stop herself, Annie marched across the dance floor and grabbed her sister by the wrist.
“Hey!” Tessa protested as Annie tugged, but she stayed firmly in place with the assistance of Eddie’s grip around her waist.
“Tessa, come with me
right now.
” Annie could hear her mother’s scolding tone in her voice.
The demand obviously chafed her sister’s pride and she clung with more determination to Eddie. “No.”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Annie. This is a party.” The leech had the nerve to speak to her, a cocky grin spread across his face. “It might be better if you just stayed out of this.”
“Don’t you tell me what is or isn’t my business when it comes to my sister and a sleaze like you. Tessa, come on.” She tugged again, this time shooting eye daggers at Eddie until he released her. She pulled Tessa into a dark corner near the ladies’ room, well out of anyone’s earshot.
“What is
wrong
with you?” Tessa complained, yanking her hand away.
“Me? What’s wrong with
you?
Eddie Walker? Are you kidding me?”
Tessa’s face hardened, her jaw setting defiantly as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re one to talk,
Mrs. Reed.
”
“That’s not what I mean. Eddie is...” Annie struggled to find the right words.
“Wonderful?”
“No. He’s a dirty, stinking, lying poker cheat.”
Tessa’s eyes widened for a moment, an expression of shock paralyzing her mouth in an open O. Apparently she thought Eddie’s reputation hadn’t spread that far. Had he convinced her that no one knew about his activities?
“Please don’t get involved with him.”
“It’s too late, Annie. I’ve been seeing him for almost six months.”
Six months? How had Annie missed this? She wasn’t very social with Tessa, but she must’ve been trying fairly hard to avoid the subject this long. Why did she have to break her relationship streak of two months with a scumbag like Walker? “He’s bad news, Tessa.”
“Oh, please. You’re just jealous.”
“Why would I be jealous? He’s not a great catch, Tess. You’ve known him six months. I’ve known him six
years.
Everyone knows that he plays a dirty game. They just haven’t caught him yet.”
Tessa’s expression changed then. It almost beamed with subdued pride. Was she honestly proud that Eddie was too crafty to be caught? That would all change, and quickly, with Nate involved. He wouldn’t tolerate it in his hotel and he was using Annie to ensure it.
“I know what I’m doing.”
Annie sighed. There was no more sense in arguing. For one thing, Tessa was stubborn. Telling her she couldn’t do something was like a challenge. Annie realized she’d already made that mistake when she saw the defiant look in her sister’s eyes. Second, the harder Annie pushed, the more closed off Tessa would become. They weren’t close, but the gap could easily widen. She couldn’t afford that, especially now.
Her sister was playing with fire, thinking it was safe because she believed she was the one in control. How quickly would she get burned?
Annie knew this was her last chance to say her peace, to warn her sister before Gabe would start listening in on every conversation she had. “Just be careful. Don’t get in too deep with him.”
Tessa exhaled roughly, nodding slightly in relief that her sister backed off the uncomfortable subject. “I don’t get in too deep with men.” She smiled. “You should know that. You used to be the same way.”
Six
B
y the time Nate looked down at his watch, the cocktail party had been going strong for over an hour. Certainly Annie was here somewhere. Fashionably late had passed quite a while ago. He’d kept an eye out while glad-handing all of his VIPs, but there’d been no sign of her. At least not from his side of the bar. He’d thought there was no way he’d miss that blue dress, but he’d underestimated how many people would be here tonight.
Then he saw her.
Annie came charging from the bathroom, leaving her befuddled sister in her wake.
Nate’s breath caught in his chest at the sight of her. The dress was like a dream, the bright blue playing beautifully against her tan skin and jet-black hair. The high, firm breasts he’d seen earlier moved tantalizingly beneath the fabric as she walked, reminding him that they were free beneath it. The short cut of the dress highlighted the sculpted muscles of her calves and rhinestone-covered sandals.
In that instant, the last of his resistance was blown to pieces. He would have Annie in his bed tonight, consequences be damned. He could no longer convince himself otherwise.
She looked gorgeous...and agitated. Her skin was flushed, her brow furrowed, her delicate jaw tight. That was unusual for her. He didn’t like it. Not one bit. It made him wish he could listen in on the sisters’ conversation. It was a shame she wasn’t wearing the wire tonight, but that dress left no place to hide it. It barely hid what it was supposed to.
Nate signaled for a refill on his vodka tonic and a Diet Coke from the bartender and carried the drinks to where she’d stopped. She was leaning against one of the high-top bar tables, her beautiful face buried in her hands.
“Here’s your soda.” He leaned over to her. “I can have Mike add a shot of rum if you need it.”
Annie stood up with a start, her face quickly composing into her usual cool demeanor. “Oh! You startled me.” Whatever was bothering her was rapidly compartmentalized and put away. She eyed the glass in his hand and accepted it with a forced smile. “Thank you. The rum won’t be necessary.”
Nate came to her side, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek and slip an arm around her waist. To his surprise, his hand came in contact with her bare, smooth skin instead of fabric. Thoughts of her earlier agitation vanished as he let his fingers travel across her skin, searching for where the dress began. He was forced to stop short of public fondling.
“You should’ve told me,” he murmured into her ear over the buzz of the crowd.
A slight look of panic widened her eyes for a moment. “Told you what?”
He let his warm palm press into the small of her back, the heat of her skin almost burning him. “That you could only afford half a dress. I would’ve bought you a whole one if I’d known.”
Annie sighed, wrinkling her nose and sipping her drink. “You don’t like it?”
Nate chuckled. “Of course I
like
it. The problem is that so does every other man in this place.”
“Ahh.” She smiled. “You’re jealous.”
He had every damn right to be. Everyone knew the Barracuda used her looks to distract her opponents. She’d developed a long list of admirers over the years as a result. The mere thought of another man looking at Annie like that was enough to send his blood pressure skyrocketing. Even after all this time there was a primitive part of Nate that still considered her to be
his.
“I am not jealous. Simply territorial.” He picked up his glass and sipped.
“Are you going to piss on me?”
Nate nearly choked on his vodka tonic. Annie was unpredictable. He had to give her that. “I don’t think that will be necessary.” He coughed.
“Good. I don’t think this fabric is washable.” Annie smiled, taking another sip of her drink. The worries of just minutes ago were so far buried Nate wouldn’t know they were even there if he hadn’t seen her upset.
“Are you having a good time?”
Annie shrugged. “It’s a very nice party.”
“I think so. But you didn’t answer my question.”
She turned, her blue eyes penetrating him as she attempted to read what he was really after. “Yes, I am,” she said slowly, watching his face for changes.
Nate nodded and took another sip of his drink. “A poker player should be a better liar. What happened with Tessa just now?”
“Nothing.” Annie responded too quickly, breaking eye contact and gazing down into her glass.
Nate looked in the direction Annie had come from. Her sister had sat down at a table, but she wasn’t alone. Now she was in the arms of a despicable man. If Tessa were his sister, he’d be pretty damn upset, too. “Hanging out with Eddie Walker isn’t nothing.”
Annie’s head snapped up, her eyes narrowing at him. “She just told me they’re dating and have been for several months. I had no idea.”
Nate raised an eyebrow at her response. Weren’t sisters supposed to share everything? “That’s no revelation. I can see that much just by the way he touches her.”
They both turned to watch Eddie and Tessa in the corner. They were talking to one another in the dark, rounded booth. Their body language screamed sex; their legs crossed together as they leaned in and gazed into one another’s eyes. Eddie had one hand on her bare knee, the other rubbing strands of her red hair together between his fingertips.
Nate turned to watch Annie instead of the secluded lovebirds. Her nose was wrinkled, her brow furrowed again in concern. Whether or not she had prior knowledge, she obviously didn’t care for this love match. Eddie had a rotten reputation, and he wasn’t the kind of guy you’d pick for your sister.
Eddie had been his number-one candidate to watch from the beginning. Everyone knew he was cheating; they just couldn’t catch him. Whether he was involved in the big operation the tournament sponsors were after, he wasn’t certain.
That’s why he’d asked Annie to help him. She could lure him out, get evidence to charge him. It required someone on the inside who really knew the game. Annie was perfect for the job. She wouldn’t let anyone get in the way of her winning the grand prize, and he had no doubt she would do what she could to stop Eddie. And now that her sister was dating him, what better way to break them up than to send the creep to jail?
He would talk to Annie about that. But not tonight.
Tonight he had better things on his mind. Like getting Annie back in his bed. He’d fought with himself since the moment she’d arrived, but damned if he didn’t still want her. Even after everything. Their three years apart had only amplified the hum of arousal that buzzed through his veins. He wouldn’t love Annie. He wouldn’t even let himself care about her. But he could get his fill of her before she walked away.
When Nate was a child, his grandfather had once given him a huge bag of cherry jelly beans. With his father busy and his mother off shopping, he’d sat in front of the television one afternoon and eaten the whole bag. Nate had never been so sick in his life. To this day, he couldn’t abide cherry jelly beans. Or cherry anything, for that matter.
Perhaps the same would be true of Annie. Resisting was the wrong tactic. He needed to fully indulge himself in her soft body and silky skin. Overdose on her. Get her out of his system. And maybe by week’s end, when the divorce paperwork was drawn up, he would be just as disinterested by the thought of her as he was by that noxious candy.
Nate eyed a tray of appetizers being passed by a server. “Are you hungry?”
Annie turned to look at him, then shook her head, waving away the waiter. “No, watching those two paw at each other made me lose my appetite.”
The loud, upbeat music came to an end and a crowd of people returned to their tables. The next song was slow, and he watched several couples step out onto the dance floor. “Well, then, would you care to dance? This would be a good opportunity for everyone at the tournament to see us together.”
Annie eyed the people on the dance floor anxiously, then nodded with hesitation. “Okay. But you should know I’m a terrible dancer.”
Nate laughed, reaching out a hand to her. “Somehow I find it hard to believe that you could be anything but graceful, Annie.”
Her hand slipped into his, her soft velvet skin unusually cool as he clasped it. He squeezed it to warm her fingers as he led her gently into the center of the dance floor. With a turn, he wrapped an arm around her waist, his palm resting low on her bare back once again.
“That’s it.” He smiled down at her. “I’m buying you a new dress. Your hands are like ice.”
Annie smiled with uncharacteristic nerves and shook her head. “It’s not the dress,” she admitted. “It’s the dancing. I go cold when I’m nervous.”
Nate couldn’t help the look of surprise that spread across his face. His eyebrow arched high, his eyes narrowing at her. “The Barracuda, nervous? Never.”
Annie was tough. She could take on every man in this room and beat them thoroughly. No doubt, she’d do it in stilettos and a skintight skirt. And yet the idea of dancing made her go cold in fear?
Annie wrinkled her nose and shifted in his arms, struggling to find a natural position. “Don’t say that too loud.” She leaned in. “It’s one of my secret tells. All the players will come up with lame excuses to touch me if they think it will give away my bluff.”
Nate chuckled, easing her into his arms, their bodies close but not quite touching. He wasn’t sure he could take it if she pressed the full length of her against him.
Not here, at least.
He glanced around the room at the men watching them from the bar before meeting her unsure blue eyes. “Something tells me most of these men would need little excuse to touch you.”
His firm hand guided them to the rhythm of the band playing. Annie was hesitant at first but fell easily into the motion. The song was slow with a slinky beat that the body couldn’t help but respond to.
After a few moments, she leaned in and placed her head on his shoulder. Nate closed his eyes, hugging her closer and changing their motion to a subtle shifting of weight on his feet.
It felt so good to just hold her.
He leaned down to plant a kiss in the silky strands of her hair and breathed in deeply, letting the warm, seductive scent of her fill his senses. It was eerily familiar, like a distant memory he couldn’t quite place and yet its name rested stubbornly on the tip of his tongue.
Annie was so soft in his arms. She fit there perfectly, as though her body had been made for him. It was the most comfortable feeling in the world, like slipping into a warm bath. He let himself submerge in the sensation.
Soon, the rest of the dancers, the musicians...even the room itself faded into nothingness. It was just Nate and Annie in each other’s arms. Why did it feel as though he’d never held her like this before?
Perhaps because he hadn’t. Yes, he’d made love to her. He’d explored every inch of her body. But never truly held her. Not like this. Annie was like a hummingbird, always flitting from one flower to the next. She was beautiful to look at, but you couldn’t hold her. If you tried, she would vanish again. He’d learned that lesson the hard way.
Annie sighed, nestling deeper into his chest.
Nate’s jaw tightened at the small cooing sound she made into his lapel. It was the same contented sound she made as she fell asleep. He remembered it in that instant. It had been so long since he’d heard it and at the same time, like yesterday that he’d made love to her.
The last night they were together she’d curled into a ball and had fallen asleep while he was in the shower. When he returned, he’d stood for a good half hour watching her sleep. He’d been mesmerized by her loveliness, her well-fortified facade wiped away by sleep. Her coal-black lashes had fluttered gently against her flushed cheeks, her kiss-swollen lips mouthing sleepy, confused words into her pillowcase.
His heart had nearly burst with pride when he realized she was his.
Nate had almost woken her up to make love to her again. If he’d known how quickly she would vanish from his life, he would’ve. He’d thought, foolishly, that he had all the time in the world to be with her and so had let her sleep.
Perhaps tonight he would make up for lost time and pick up where they’d left off.
He shouldn’t have gone there. The instant heat flooded his groin, his body going from relaxed to uptight like the flick of a switch.
Annie noticed the sudden change as his body tensed, lifting her head to look at him with concern worrying her deep blue eyes. “What’s wrong?”
The ballad came to an end, another upbeat song on its heels. People came and went on the dance floor, but Nate held them both in place. A slight shift of his body pressed the hard length of him against her stomach. “Nothing,” Nate said with a wicked grin.
Annie’s eyes grew wide before her lips twisted into a knowing smile. “I think we should go upstairs and do something about that.”
* * *
Annie couldn’t move fast enough. They said no goodbyes as they made their way through the crowd and slipped out of the lounge. As the private elevator doors enclosed them, she turned to him, expecting him to devour her the moment they were finally alone.
Instead, Nate stuffed his hands in his pockets, leaning casually against the opposite wall. Despite his relaxed stance, his entire body was tense, his jaw flexed. His gaze penetrated her as it raked from top to bottom, but he didn’t make a move except for a hard swallow that traveled down his throat to the buttoned collar of his tuxedo.
She’d forgotten how controlled he was. His gratification had always come from taking his time and enjoying every delicious second. Annie could never understand it. She was burning up for wanting him. She could feel the warmth between her thighs, the painful hardening of her nipples as her breasts tightened with desire. Her every nerve ached for the touch he denied.
She glanced down at the control panel. They still had fifteen floors to go. She couldn’t wait that long. In one quick motion, Annie smacked the emergency button, bringing the elevator to a shaky, abrupt stop. Nate adjusted his footing but didn’t argue with her.
She looked him straight in the eye as she reached behind her neck and unfastened the halter of her dress. It was the only thing that held the dress on, so with a quick shimmy of her hips, the slinky blue fabric pooled to the floor. She stepped out of it, her eyes never leaving his dark gaze.