She caught him watching her and she smiled, giggling in a girlish way that made his chest ache unexpectedly. Annie away from the casino was like a new person. She didn’t just look different, she acted different. In only a few hours’ time, he’d gotten to see a more casual, easygoing version of her. He liked this Annie even more than his superconfident but guarded card shark.
But that wasn’t all of it. There was something familiar and soothing about the banality of their actions. Making lunch together in his house away from the casino...it was more significant a moment than he’d expected.
Yes, making love to her again had been great, but this kind of experience seemed important in a different way. They’d never had any real domestic moments together. Suddenly that bothered him more than he wanted it to. They’d never had a real marriage. They’d just had some fantasy honeymoon that existed only within the walls of his hotel. His work quickly became her prison. Making lunch, watching television, even grocery shopping were things they’d never experienced together and it made him sad. Perhaps they would’ve had a shot if they’d done this three years ago.
This week was supposed to be about making Annie miserable and finally being able to put her out of his mind for good, but he wasn’t getting over Annie as he’d planned. The more he had her, the more he wanted of her. He should’ve just signed the divorce papers instead of luring her back here.
“You have sauce on your cheek.”
Nate looked up, his thoughts disturbed. “What?”
Annie reached out and wiped a dab of renegade marinara off his face. She licked it off her finger and smiled. “Ella makes wonderful tomato sauce.”
“She does. It makes me want to stay at the house more often so she can cook for me all the time.”
“Why don’t you?”
Nate shrugged, scooping a few tomato slices off the counter and scattering them on the pizza. The answer was that there was really nothing to come home to. Work always needed him. This empty house, not so much. If he’d had a family, it would be a different story. “No real reason to be here, I suppose.”
“Then why do you have a house?”
“I bought it when the market was low, so it’s a good investment. Someplace to go when I need to get away from work. And...” He hesitated before completing the thought. “I’d hoped that I’d get married one day and have a family here.” He looked up at Annie with a playful grin. “That hasn’t quite panned out for me yet.”
Annie uneasily matched his grin, quickly turning back to slicing the last of the tomato and starting on the basil. “So if you never come here, Nate, why exactly did we make this little field trip today?”
Nate stilled over the pizza. He’d been waiting for the right moment, enjoying his afternoon with Annie too much to ruin it. But she’d opened the door. It was time. “I wanted to bring you here to ask you something.”
Annie frowned slightly. “Sounds ominous.”
“I guess it depends on your answer.” He shrugged. “I wanted to get you away from the casino, the tournament and the wires recording your every word in the hopes I could get an honest answer out of you.”
Nate laid the last of the tomato slices onto the pizza. “I’m worried about the conversation you had with the Captain about Eddie. If Eddie really is working with a woman, the list of partners dwindles significantly. You can imagine what my concern is.” He paused, watching her look down at the herbs to avoid his gaze. “Hit me with some basil.”
Annie’s expression was neutral as she sprinkled the leaves across the pizza and dusted her hands together to brush the remaining bits into the sink. “You think Tessa might be more than just his flavor of the month?”
“It’s a scenario we have to consider. She is registered in the tournament.”
“And you’re worried I won’t cooperate in convicting my own sister.”
Leave it to Annie to cut to the chase. “I hope it doesn’t come down to that, but yes. Gabe is concerned that you can’t be trusted to bring us information if it might implicate her. Or even that you might try to use our relationship as a distraction to protect Tessa.”
“And you? Are you suspicious of me, too?”
Nate turned and looked her directly in the eye. “Yes. It would be stupid not to at least consider it as a possibility.” A flicker of emotion ran across Annie’s face, but it was too quick for Nate to detect whether it was guilt, pain or irritation.
“Let me ease a couple of your concerns,” she began. “First,
you
came to
me
with this arrangement, so you can hardly accuse me of manipulating the situation to protect or distract attention from Tessa. Two, my sister and I aren’t very close. She doesn’t confide in me, so if you think I have any inside knowledge into what she’s doing, you’re wrong. If I had any evidence of her or anyone else cheating, I’d turn it over so I could focus on my game and stop wearing that itchy damn wire.
“And finally,” she said, reaching a hand up to cup his cheek and looking him directly in the eyes, “I’m sleeping with you because I want to. You’re the sexiest man I’ve ever encountered and I can’t help but want you.”
Nate’s chest tightened. He didn’t know if it was her brutally honest answers or the way she looked at him when she said how badly she wanted him. Before he could reach out to her, she pulled away to scoop up the pizza stone and carry it to the oven. Annie slid the pizza stone inside and shut the heavy stainless-steel door. “How long does it bake for?”
Nate examined the card Ella had left for them. “She says about fifteen to twenty minutes but that we should watch for the crust to brown.”
She set the digital clock for twenty minutes. “Okay, that’s done, so I’m going to hop in the shower.”
With that, she turned and sauntered out of the kitchen, the colorful wrap falling seductively from her hips to the tile floor.
* * *
Annie hadn’t been surprised by Nate’s questions. She’d been caught off guard by the Captain’s words at lunch the day before, which was why she’d choked, but her fears about it being true were why she hadn’t returned to follow up. She didn’t want to turn in Tessa. And she would go to great lengths to avoid uncovering her sister’s involvement. But at this moment, she had absolutely no evidence of anything but her sister’s poor choices in men and no problem telling Nate as much.
Her answers seemed to satisfy him. For now.
When she got out of the shower, Nate had taken the pizza and a pitcher of iced tea out onto the covered patio. They dined, then moved to the poolside chairs. Annie lay out on her stomach and was very nearly asleep when she felt Nate’s gaze on her. She opened one eye toward him, wincing at the sunlight despite her fashionably oversized sunglasses.
He was openly appraising her body, his jaw hard set in restraint as he took in the dark expanse of her skin. When he realized she was watching him, he smiled sheepishly. “Your body should be bare and sun-kissed more often. It belongs on the white sand beaches of the Caribbean. Not in a dark, smoke-filled casino.”
Although Nate hadn’t specifically said it, Annie’s brain immediately went to being on that beach with him. Being here with Nate had been an eye-opening experience, to say the least. She’d been given a glimpse, however small, of what life with him could be like. Life away from the casino. Just him and her living their lives together the way they’d first envisioned.
Annie had expected their time together to be uncomfortable. Nate had made it perfectly clear that he’d wanted her to suffer. Adding sex to the mix had changed their dynamic, but she still anticipated the panic to come eventually. The urge to run. Now she was envisioning herself in a hammock swinging in the breeze on the beach
with him.
She didn’t feel oppressed. She didn’t feel tied down. She actually felt...great. Which was terrible.
“There isn’t much money to be made on a beach.” She rolled onto her back and smiled at him. “I follow the tournaments. If there’s not a casino to host one, I probably won’t go there.”
Nate frowned at her. “So you never just take a vacation for the sake of vacation? No break from cards and casinos?”
Annie shrugged and closed her eyes. “Not really. I travel so much as it is that I don’t exactly relish the idea of traveling just to spend money instead of making it.”
“What about as a kid? Didn’t your family ever go on trips to Florida or the Grand Canyon?”
“As a child, I saw almost every corner of this country, but not to vacation. We just moved all the time. My mother was on this constant journey, looking for something that she never found. To this day, I still don’t know what it was.”
“What about your father?”
Annie tried to shrug dismissively, but it wasn’t convincing. “She left him behind. Apparently I wasn’t important enough for him to chase after. And even if he’d wanted to, she would’ve vanished again.”
“So that’s where you get it?”
Annie frowned. She hated her childhood. Hated growing up never keeping friends or a real home. Being compared to her mother wasn’t exactly the highest compliment in her eyes.
“I suppose so,” she admitted. She knew what he meant. Through someone else’s eyes, she supposed she looked flighty. And part of her was. When she was of age, her inner nomad had immediately taken over and she’d nearly become as bad as her mother. She fought it, maintaining a home in Miami and finding a line of work where she filled the urge by traveling a lot. But there was a difference. She was alone, doing what she pleased. She’d never subject a child to her lifestyle. Or a husband.
“Why did I have to marry a woman with a long family history of nomadic male abandonment?”
“You should never fall for a gypsy, Nate. It always ends badly.”
“I’ll take that under consideration, though I might suggest that in the future you throw that line out on the first date.”
Annie rolled her eyes and lay back into the chair. “It sounds like you’re the one that needs a vacation. You’ve been killing yourself at that casino for years.”
“I was thinking about it. My family owns a house on St. Thomas. I haven’t been there since I was a kid, but it might be time. Where are you off to after this?”
“I have another tournament in a few weeks, so I’ll be heading up to Vancouver, then Monte Carlo a month after that. Not quite a vacation, but it’s my first chance to see Monaco.”
Nate perked up in his chair. “Monte Carlo? I’ve always wanted to see the Formula One race. It’s in early May, around when you’re going, but I’m always too busy to get away.”
He hadn’t said he wanted to go with her, but Annie sensed an interest she didn’t expect. She never imagined that Nate would follow her anywhere, especially for something as insignificant as a poker tournament. She’d always envisioned their marriage inside the sphere of the Sapphire, as though they were both trapped within a snow globe. That was the way he’d seemed to like it back then. He didn’t want to leave and he certainly didn’t want Annie leaving without him. It definitely changed her outlook on things to know he was branching out.
Annie sighed, shifting the uncomfortable subjects from her mind. It was easy to do. The warmth of the sun was so soothing, soaking into her bones. “I don’t want to go back to the hotel. Can’t we just stay here?”
Nate chuckled beside her, a low rumble on the breeze. “That does sound tempting, but it’s hard to win a tournament that way. Even for someone as talented as you are.”
Annie laughed and closed her eyes. “Ruin all my fun, why don’t you?”
All this talk of vacations was just that...talk. Here, away from the troubles that surrounded them, it seemed possible. But once they returned to the Sapphire, she was certain it would fly out the window. If he was right and her sister was involved, their reunion was just a ticking time bomb. Annie was sure if she didn’t leave first, Nate would be the one to push her away.
She wasn’t certain she could stand mourning this relationship a second time.
Eight
N
ate was tired of the tournament already and they still had three days to go. Hosting it was good business, but now that he had Annie in his bed, the tournament and the chaos that surrounded it could disappear for all he cared.
He eyed his watch impatiently. There were two hours left of play today. Annie was doing well. She’d already single-handedly eliminated three people at her table. Before long, she would move on to another.
He’d tried not to hover. There were dozens of tables to watch and VIPs to entertain, but he kept wandering back in her direction. She had a gravitational force that seemed to impact only him. No matter how hard he tried to pull away, she’d draw him back to her. If he’d been smart, he would’ve left a few hundred miles between them. Now he had no way to fight it.
And he no longer wanted to.
Nate needed to focus. His short list of potential cheaters required his attention. Annie was watching another player at her table today, but she’d muttered under her breath into the wire that it was another dead end. He wasn’t about to give up, though. An entire team of security staff was watching the tables from overhead security cameras in addition to the people on the floor. A couple were plainclothes, but most were in the standard navy blazers with earpieces that gave them away. Gabe had been assigned to watch Eddie. A few of his best guys were assigned various other people, which now included Tessa.
As much as Annie insisted she would turn over her sister if necessary, he knew she wouldn’t go out of her way to collect evidence against her, either. If she was more than just Eddie’s girlfriend, his team would have to be the ones to uncover it.
Annie’s laughter called to him over the chaos of the room. He turned, drawn back to her. She looked so lovely today. Her shiny dark hair hung loose around her face. Her vivid purple blouse was clingy and unbuttoned low enough to give all the players an ample view. She knew it, too, leaning forward innocently onto the table. If she wasn’t careful, someone might see the tiny black microphone nestled between her breasts.
Nate’s jaw tightened. He knew it was simply a part of her game strategy, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. They might not have much of a marriage, but they were telling people they had reconciled. Seducing her opponents at the table didn’t do much for their cover. If it was even a cover anymore. His pangs of jealousy felt real. The lines had become terribly blurred lately.
He took a deep breath and tried to focus on her game. The other player went all in. Nate watched, knowing Annie wouldn’t give away a single thing. Her face was serenely calm, her lips parted in a smile that would confuse any man. She sat for a second, mentally calculating her hand and how best to play it. The cards on the table didn’t give much away.
Annie’s fingernails ran down a stack of chips, counting them out, and then she tossed them onto the pile in the center. Both players flipped their cards, but Nate didn’t get to see them. It wasn’t until he saw the man shake Annie’s hand and walk from the table that he knew
the Barracuda
had claimed another victim. Nate tried not to smile, but he couldn’t help it. He was beaming with pride. His wife was beautiful and talented, and everyone knew it.
His wife.
Nate stopped in his tracks when he realized what he’d just thought. His mouth went dry. Despite being legally married the past three years, Nate had never really thought of Annie as his wife. He’d barely adjusted to the idea of being married when she left. Then she’d simply become
“her.”
But now...now that he knew she had one foot out the door of his life, never to return...now he decided to stake this mental claim to her?
He’d thought he had done well to compartmentalize this week and what it really meant—nothing but some great goodbye sex. Focusing on their physical connection was the smart choice. It was the piece that had always worked between them. But recently, it was not Annie’s naked body or cries of passion that occupied his thoughts. He’d started thinking beyond the tournament and the potential for more.
He glanced across the tables to where Annie was sitting. He wanted to ask her to stay. To give them another shot at the relationship they never really tried. But what would she say if he asked? Nate had felt them growing closer, felt her letting down her guard, but would it be what drove her away?
This was definitely not what he’d had in mind when he hauled her to his suite and blackmailed her into helping him.
“Mr. Reed?” A voice chirped over his radio.
Nate unclipped it immediately and moved away from the crowd for privacy. “Yes?”
“Sir, we’ve detained someone in the security office. Gabe has requested your attendance.”
Nate frowned and cast a quick glance over to where Tessa had been sitting. She was still there, her flame-red hair giving her away. Richard, one of the senior security agents, was still watching her, and another security agent had taken Gabe’s place watching Eddie.
He breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll be right there,” he answered. Hopefully they’d get a break that wouldn’t involve his sister-in-law. That would make everything easier.
When he arrived in the security office, he found Gabe sitting at a table in the conference room with someone he didn’t recognize. The guy was short, thick through the middle, with pudgy fingers, greasy gray hair and a bristly beard. He was older, in his late fifties, maybe.
His eyes widened when he caught a glimpse of Nate standing in the doorway. He’d opened his mouth to argue something with Gabe, but froze, clamping his mouth tightly shut.
“Mr. Hansen,” Nate greeted Gabe officially. “Who do we have the pleasure of meeting with today?”
“Mr. Reed, this is Keith Frye. Mr. Frye was participating in the tournament downstairs. It seems our cards weren’t good enough for him and he felt it necessary to bring a couple of his own.”
“I just wanted to—”
“That’s fine, Mr. Frye,” Nate interrupted. “We understand. Some people prefer to use their own, especially when they’re better than the ones the dealer provides.” He turned to Gabe. “Do we have everything we need?”
“Yes, sir. The overhead camera has clear film of him slipping cards from his pocket into his hand. We’ll notify the authorities as soon as we’re done here.”
“Excellent.” Nate was pleased things were under control but slightly curious as to why he had been summoned up for something this trivial. Yes, he liked to know everything that went on in his casino, but Gabe normally handled things like this on his own.
“I’m not the only one!” Keith blurted out as Nate turned to walk out.
Now they were getting somewhere. Nate met Gabe’s grin with interest and returned. “Continue.”
“He said it might help me out.” He flipped a thumb in Gabe’s direction.
“Might,”
Nate emphasized. “Let’s hear what you’ve got first.”
Keith looked down at his hands, nervously picking at his fingernails. “There’s this guy, Darrell. I don’t know his last name. A couple nights ago I was hanging out in the bar, having a few drinks, when Darrell and some other guy I don’t know sat down at a table near me.”
There wasn’t a Darrell on his list of suspects. “Do you know this Darrell guy?”
“No, but he had a blue dealer’s vest folded up beside him, and the guy he met up with called him Darrell.”
Nate clamped his teeth together to keep from yelling at the man in frustration. That was why. He was a dealer, not a player. He hated to think that one of his own employees was involved in something like this, but it was inevitable.
“So these guys start talking about the tournament and what they’re planning to do. They were sorta speaking around what they really meant, but I could follow along well enough. I pretended I wasn’t listening, but it was easy to hear with them sitting so close.”
“And?” Nate was anxious to hear the rest of this convoluted tale.
“And they sounded like they were plotting something. Arranging who was going to do what. Sounded like this Darrell guy was messing with the cards. That’s where I got the idea, you see? It sounded like there were several people in on it. Other dealers, other players. Even some chick.”
Nate perked up. “Some chick?”
“Yeah, she came into the bar later. They’d been talking about her on and off, but then this redhead strolls in and the other guy left with her.”
Nate’s stomach sank. A redhead. Every word out of this guy’s mouth seemed to put another nail into the coffin of his future with Annie. “What did the other guy look like? The one Darrell was talking to?”
“Kinda skinny. Dark hair. He was wearing a Dallas Cowboys windbreaker. The girl was hot. Pretty tall for a girl. Nice rack.”
Nate swallowed the lump in his throat. There was no question he was talking about Eddie and Tessa. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s about it. So, hey, was that good enough to cut me some slack with the cops?”
He thrust his fists into his pockets and nodded. “Yeah. You leave your personal information with security here, in case we have any questions, and you’ll be free to go. I’m sure the money you lost paying to enter the tournament will be punishment enough. If I ever see you back in this casino again, I won’t be as lenient, Mr. Frye.”
Nate turned to Gabe. “Find me this Darrell guy’s personnel file. And see if you can find footage from that night in the lounge. I’m heading up to my office.”
Gabe gave him a curt nod and continued filling out the forms on the table.
Nate spun on his heel and disappeared from the conference room. He needed to get out of there. Get away from the guy who had given them their big break in the worst possible way. He blew down the hallway, his friendly demeanor gone. Employees dodged out of his way as he stomped to the elevator and up to his suite.
He was pounding mercilessly on his laptop when the elevator chimed. Nate looked up, anticipating Gabe with the file he’d requested, but it was Annie.
She came over to him, dropping her purse onto the sofa and sitting on the edge of his desk to face him. Her pink grin was wide, born of confidence. She’d no doubt slaughtered the competition today. Her sapphire eyes searched his scowling face for a moment before the light in her expression dimmed. “What’s wrong?”
Nate swallowed and looked down at her knee. He let his hand roam over the bare skin, distracting himself with the silky touch of her. “Work stuff,” he said. He would leave it at that until he was certain there was something more to say. He wanted solid, convictable evidence on Tessa first.
“Aww,” she cooed, slipping off the desk and circling his black leather executive chair. She leaned over the back, her fingers kneading at the tense muscles of his shoulders.
Her touch was enough to chase away all his dark thoughts. Her hands worked on the knots and nerves like a skilled masseuse. It was unnerving how she knew just how to touch him, just what he needed. There was a comfort in her mere presence that made the stress of his day not seem as important anymore.
“You know what you need? A dip in the spa.” Annie walked out of the room, various articles of her clothing left in her wake. Nate shrugged out of his coat and tie, following the crumbs Annie left to the balcony.
The secluded balcony was off the large glass wall of the living room and overlooked the hotels across the strip. It had an in-ground spa, a fully stocked bar, a luxurious outdoor living room set, a fire pit and even a putting green. It was the perfect place for a party or an interlude for two. At least that was the idea. He almost never came out here.
A chrome-and-glass overhang and a few well-placed trees in glazed clay pots provided ample privacy, with a latticed alcove around the sunken Whirlpool. It was a necessity with the child-friendly Excalibur Hotel so close. Anyone with binoculars and an inclination could see onto the patio from the right hotel room.
Nate slid through the glass door and turned the corner just in time to see Annie’s round, firm behind slip into the swirling, hot water. She’d clipped her hair up into a messy bun on the top of her head, but a few strands still trailed over her shoulders. He unbuttoned his shirt slowly, his eyes glued to her bare back as it disappeared beneath the surface.
With the water up to her shoulder blades, Annie turned and sat facing him. The steam from the water had dampened the loose tendrils around her face and gave her cheeks a rosy glow. She smiled at him, the cheerful pink lipstick ready and waiting for him to remove it.
“Well, come on,” she urged.
Nate complied, tugging off his shirt, throwing it to the patio floor and following it with the rest of his clothes. He could barely feel the scalding water as he stepped into it. He was focused only on Annie. Even with his suspicion of her sister lingering overhead, he needed to touch her. His body demanded it.
He didn’t bother sitting. Instead, Nate crouched low into the water and moved across to kneel in front of her. His hands pried her thighs apart, giving him a place to nestle in against her.
She moved in, wrapping her legs around his waist and tugging him closer. With a quick spin, he lifted her with him until he was the one sitting and she was straddling his lap.
“Mmm...” She sighed, pressing against him. “So, would you like to talk about your bad day?”
Nate smiled, gliding the length of him back and forth across her most sensitive parts. “What bad day?”
* * *
Annie ground her hips against him, closing her eyes to allow herself to fully experience the sensations coursing through her body. It amazed her how quickly and easily he could bring her to the edge. It seemed to take almost no effort at all on his part, making her wonder once again if he’d been given the instruction manual to her body.
In her new position, her breasts were easily within reach of his mouth. He didn’t hesitate to lean forward and run his tongue through the valley in between. Nate turned his cheek, planting a kiss on the side of her breast, then continuing down around the edge of it. His caresses moved lazily around her hardened nipple, coming close but not touching the place she ached for him the most.