Hot Number (8 page)

* * *

Midnight.

Nick clasped his hands and stretched his arms
over his head as he glanced up at the old-fashioned stainless steel
clock on the wall of the super high-tech security operations
center. The nagging ache in his shoulder came back whenever he had
to hunch over a keyboard for more than ten minutes. It was a
reminder of the jagged piece of Humvee metal that had sliced into
his right shoulder blade in Anbar province. But he’d been one of
the lucky ones that day, something he tried never to forget.

It had taken him an hour to file his report
on the latest case of employee theft at the Desert Oasis. He could
just as easily have completed it in the morning, but he’d wanted to
finish it tonight. A bartender at
Connect
, the hotel’s
popular lobby lounge, had been arrested for theft. As assistant
chief, it had been Nick’s responsibility to liaise with the city
police, who had hauled the man away in handcuffs less than an hour
ago.

Just another twelve-hour day in Sin City.

Fortunately, he’d been too busy all evening
to focus on his uncharacteristic preoccupation with Sadie Bligh.
But as he thought about heading home, the cute, clumsy babe popped
through the door of his brain—almost as if she’d been leaning on
the bell all night. That didn’t exactly surprise him. Before this
case of theft had dropped onto his desk, he’d had every intention
of tracking her down and trying to talk her into...what? A date?
Something that would have ended up with them both in the prone
position if he’d had anything to say about it.

He rose from his desk and grabbed his jacket
as he considered his options. There was every chance that if he
went back to his place now, he’d just lie awake thinking about her,
anyway. That exercise in frustration would drive him crazy, so he
gave in to the nagging voice telling him to go look for her. One
pass through the casino and a quick look into
Esprit
and
Energie,
the hotel’s two dance clubs—that would be the
extent of his search. If he hadn’t found her by then, he’d give it
up for the night.

Nick strode quickly down each main aisle of
the casino, scanning the rows of slots and gaming tables. As much
as he tried to block it, an image of her dancing and laughing with
that idiot from the pool swarmed into his head and latched on like
a computer virus. It made him feel like a caveman stereotype, but
if he actually saw the two of them together he’d run the guy off.
Again. No way was anyone else getting near her if he could help it.
At least not until he’d had his shot.

And Ms. Sadie Bligh deserved his best
shot.

He’d have to be smart, though. Inside the
hotel, he had to play it straight and cool. Outside the hotel…well,
that was something else.

After striking out on the casino floor, Nick
headed for the nightclubs. As usual, mostly young guests and
bar-hoppers had jam-packed
Esprit
. Its glittering décor,
high-tech sound and lighting, and celebrity clientele had made it
one of the Strip’s more popular nightclubs. He slipped past the
lineup outside the club’s door and headed straight to the
glass-and-steel bar. Every one of the bar stools had a well-toned
ass perched on it, but he wasn’t there to sit and nurse a drink,
anyway.

Maria, an Italian-born stunner who worked
tending bar, gave him a warm smile, full of its usual sexy mystery.
As he checked out the tantalizing way she filled her tight, black
Esprit
tee shirt, he pondered the good fortune of her
husband, a Vegas firefighter.

“Working late again, Nick?” she asked.

“What else is new, beautiful?” He gave her a
slight smile but let the small talk go at that. “Maria, I could use
your help. I know you see too many people pass through here to
remember individuals. But maybe you can recall a couple of women
I’m looking for? Both are around thirty or so, good-looking. Not
Vegas regulars. The taller one is thin with long, straight blond
hair—”

Maria interrupted him, laughing. “That covers
at least half the women in this place.”

“Exactly why I need your help,” he said.
“You’re more likely to remember the shorter one, anyway. Curly
hair, reddish brown, pretty face with a smallish nose. Amazing
body—you know, great curves in all the right places. And she might
be having some trouble walking if she’s wearing high heels.”

“O—kay.” Maria nodded. “Those two came in a
while ago. But it was the blonde who could hardly stand up. She was
totally loaded. The short one looked reasonably sober—at least by
comparison.” She stood on her tiptoes and scanned the room.
“Actually, I see her, right over there.” She pointed to a spot near
the middle of the dance floor, maybe fifty feet from the bar.
“That’s her dancing with the tall guy in the white shirt that’s
unfortunately open to his belly button.”

Nick followed the direction of Maria’s
outstretched finger until he caught a glimpse of Sadie between the
undulating bodies. Partly hidden by her partner’s bulk, she had her
back to Nick but he had no doubt it was her. The floor could have
been twice as crowded, but he still would have recognized her. The
shape of her body and the turn of her head seemed to be burned into
his brain.

He let out a disbelieving laugh. God, she was
dancing like she was loaded up on speed. He craned his neck to grab
a look at her feet. Smart—she’d picked sensible shoes tonight. At
least she stood a decent chance of not killing herself, although
the way she was flinging her arms about certainly endangered the
guy she was dancing with.

The pounding music had already started Nick
on a headache, but to Sadie it seemed to be a high voltage line
directly tapped into her nervous system. He couldn’t believe the
energy exploding from her. Her hair had given up any semblance of
order, and flew wildly around her head. Damp ringlets dangled
around her ears, and perspiration trickled down her brow. But he
didn’t give a damn about how unruly her hair might be, nor,
obviously, did her partner. Like Nick, the guy kept his eyes glued
to the outrageously sexy moves of her body. Sadie had sworn she’d
been clumsy from birth, but you’d never know it by the way she
danced. Some of her moves were barely legal, even in Vegas.

Nick frowned. Maybe his boss was right. Maybe
she
had
been playing him with that clumsiness routine all
along. Once again, not much was adding up when it came to her.

A flare of anger shot through him as he moved
onto the dance floor. He ignored the mass of gyrating dancers,
other than gently pushing away some drunken putz that backed into
him. As he edged nearer Sadie, he got a full look at her twisting
body through shifting gaps in the throng that separated them.

Her filmy dress covered just enough to
forestall a morals charge. The soft, clingy fabric hugged her
curves like a cherry-red skin, barely reaching past the tops of her
pale thighs. A deep scoop in front exposed most of the fabulous
breasts that threatened to jiggle their way out as her body swayed
and rotated. As she spun away from her partner, the dope grinned,
lunged, and grasped her hips. When he jammed his groin right up
against her ass, Nick’s headache—and his temper—threatened to
explode.

Damn.
Sadie looked to be enjoying it,
too. She whirled around to face her partner, whose flamboyant moves
looked like he was auditioning for Dancing With The Fucking Stars.
When she reached up and rested her hands on his shoulders, her
dickhead partner clamped his hands over her hips again.

Giving into his instincts, Nick surged
through the rest of the crowd, parting the jam like an icebreaker.
Seeing him, Sadie froze, her soft green eyes going round and
wide.

Nick wedged himself between her and Dickhead.
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to come with me,” he said in a
voice that brooked no other option.

“Oh hell, not
again
,” Sadie groaned.
But the half-smile that turned up the corners of her pretty little
mouth told Nick she wasn’t nearly as exasperated as she was trying
to sound. “So, back to the gulag for me, is it, Sheriff?”

Dickhead stared at Nick with dopey
bemusement. “Sheriff? What the hell’s that about?”

Nick swallowed a laugh. “Hotel security, sir.
The lady is making a reference to an earlier criminal encounter. If
you value your safety, you’ll pay no attention. In fact, consider
yourself very fortunate that I intervened in time.”

The guy’s eyes bugged halfway out of his
head. “You mean she’s dangerous?”

“You have no idea.” Nick wrapped his fingers
around her upper arm, relishing the soft heat blazing beneath his
fingertips. “Ms. Bligh, for your own good, I suggest you come
quietly.”

“To the ends of the earth and beyond,
Sheriff,” she purred in a voice laced with one too many mojitos.
Again. Maybe Sadie Bligh was a bit of a wild child, after all.

Leaving her former partner with his mouth
flapping open, Nick ushered her off the floor.

“Hey, wait a minute, okay?” She had to shout
over the din. “I left my bag with Cassie. Let me get it and meet
you outside.”

“Don’t even think about trying to give me the
slip,” he growled.

She gave him an impish grin. “I would never
flee a crime scene, Sheriff.”

Nick shook his head as he watched her skip
away. He couldn’t wait to commit a few crimes himself.

* * *

Nick pulled Sadie into a corner outside
Esprit—
a tight corner he knew was beyond the sweep of the
security cameras. “So, what was all that crap you gave me about
being clumsy? You sure as hell weren’t clumsy on that dance
floor.”

She gave an exasperated sigh. “Oh, for God’s
sake. I wasn’t exactly dancing
Swan Lake
. How much
coordination does it take to jump around and shake your ass?”

He suppressed a smile. “Yeah, well you looked
pretty damn good at it to me.”

“Thanks, but you really must be an utter
nightmare of a dancer yourself if you think I’m any good.”

He couldn’t help it. He had to laugh. The
woman was the queen of the lightning fast comeback. He didn’t know
what to believe when it came to Sadie Bligh. Who—or what—the hell
was she, anyway? “It’s time we had another conversation, Ms.
Bligh,” he said, forcing himself to glower at her.

“Well, if I say no, I’m sure you’re going to
drag me off, anyway. So, you might as well lead me back to the
gulag.”

“Actually, I was thinking of somewhere a
little more comfortable than that.”

Her mouth opened, but for a moment no words
emerged. For once she seemed at a loss for a quick retort.

“Like my favorite bar,” he said. “It’s only a
few blocks from here.”

She tilted her head, pursing her lips as if
she was working through some complicated math problem. “Good grief,
Saxon, surely such a thing would violate not just hotel rules, but
state, federal, and every other kind of law, wouldn’t it?”

“Call me Nick.” He glanced at his watch. “I’m
on Nick time now, and in a second we’ll be off the hotel premises.
Where I go then, and who I go there with, is my business.
Period.”

She unleashed a smile, one so sweet and
tempting he could almost taste it.

“In that case, very well. Lead on, Sheriff
Nick.”

It had to be the darn mojitos again. As she
gazed at Nick, no doubt looking like a moonstruck teenager, Sadie
found herself contemplating crawling into his lap and wrapping her
legs around his waist. That’s how turned on she was after his
little intervention at the casino.

When he charged across the crowded dance
floor of
Esprit
, he’d reminded her of a bull with a hapless
matador dead in its sights. The guy she had been dancing with—if
that’s what you could call what he’d been trying to do with her—had
looked first astonished and then more than a little alarmed when he
caught sight of Nick. Her partner hadn’t been wrong to see
impending mayhem in the sheriff’s coal-black eyes. Maybe it had
just been a caveman moment for Nick, but she’d loved it anyway.
She’d have happily gone anywhere with the man then, even back to
the dreaded gulag if that’s what it took to be alone with him.

They sat at a small table in a bar that might
have been physically near the Strip, but was light years away from
the glitz of Las Vegas Boulevard. With worn brown carpet on the
floors, Michelob neon in the front window, and waitresses that
might have been working Vegas since Bugsy Malone opened the
Flamingo, it had a down-in-the-mouth charm that spelled relief
after the Strip’s relentless glam. When Nick ordered a Bud, she’d
made it two, even though she usually hated the taste and smell of
beer. But not tonight. Tonight the cold brew tasted delicious.

Round five to the sheriff.

Smoothing the silky and slightly damp bodice
of her dress down over her breasts, Sadie contemplated the best way
to provoke a response in the strong but silent type leaning back in
the chair next to her. Nick had hardly said a word on the ten
minute drive from the Desert Oasis. Not that he’d ever been a
fountain of words at any time they’d been together. He seemed more
comfortable with interrogation than small talk. But that wasn’t a
particular problem, since her father had always told her she could
talk enough for any two human beings.

A little stab of pain sliced through her haze
of pleasure. With effort, she forced away memories of her father,
her job, and anything to do with her life back in Chicago. All she
wanted to think about right now was Nick Saxon.

She gave him what she hoped was a sultry
smile. “All I can say is you sure have a funny way of cutting in on
a dance, Sheriff. My partner probably had to go back to his room
and change his underwear.” To her surprise, her voice actually came
out in a soft purr. Sadie had never purred at a man in her
life.