Well. Maybe not such a gentleman after all.
And judging from the way my shoulders tingled, maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea.
“Hello,” I said and glanced back at the limo. “You’re not driving, are you?”
He let out a deep, throaty laugh that made me shiver down to my toes. I had to get it together. Daniel was just a man. Just a first date.
So why did his simple laugh turn me on? Or maybe he did already.
“One of the perks of owning a limo company is getting to take them out occasionally,” he said with a warm smile. “We’ll be in the back. I have some champagne if you’d like. Or water. Soda. Or tea. I like to come prepared.”
I kind of loved that. His presentation of options.
“Champagne sounds fantastic.”
He smiled, and I smiled back, feeling as giddy and bubbly as what we were about to drink.
He opened the door for me, and I slipped inside. It smelled like clean leather and his cologne—musky and rich—and I shivered a little as he slid in next to me.
He reached for the bottle of champagne and poured me a glass. The whole time, I watched how sure and steady his movements were.
How he gripped the bottle with purpose.
It made it easy to imagine his hands on me.
Hmm. Maybe I was more ready for this date than I thought. Or maybe my body was saying I was ready for other things too.
That didn’t sound like such a bad idea.
“So, Christine,” he said, watching me with intense and knowing eyes. “Are you ready for tonight?”
I breathed. Was I?
“Yes,” I said, meeting his gaze “I absolutely am.”
He smiled, passing me the glass and clinking it against his.
“To new beginnings,” he toasted, and I repeated it before tipping it back.
On the way over, we traded questions back and forth, chatting about work and the city.
“Tell me about the life of a Las Vegas limo driver,” I said, finding talking with him surprisingly comfortable. He had a way about him of putting me at ease.
“This might sound odd, but the city feels like a friend.”
“How so?”
“It listens to me,” he said, and when I raised an eyebrow, he laughed.
“No, really,” he insisted. “Sometimes, if there’s traffic, I’ll ask it if it could just let me through a little faster. And it does.”
“That can’t be true,” I said, but I was grinning.
“Maybe I’m just magic,” he said with a roguish wink.
“Maybe you are. Lucky man.” I took a beat. “So you’re the owner who likes driving. I suppose at the risk of sounding obvious, does it ever get exhausting?”
He shrugged. “I like the peace. Helping people get to their destinations. And I’m lucky because I have good clients.”
“Like Trish?” I asked.
“Trish is great. She’s always got a plan. Or a scheme.”
I smiled a little shyly. “Like with setting us up?”
Daniel rubbed his chin, quiet at first. But his eyes sort of twinkled. Something was clearly on his mind.
“Truth be told, that was only partly Trish’s scheme,” he said, his voice confident, a little lower than before. “The other part was me.”
At first, I thought he was joking. But when I looked again, he was serious.
“It was? Your idea?”
He tapped his chest, owning it. “My idea. What can I say? There was one time when I drove you and Trish, and I couldn’t stop watching you. Usually, I’m able to tune out whatever’s happening behind me. But with you, I had to watch. I was compelled.”
I blushed at his words. “You’re kidding.”
He shook his head. “You’re lovely, Christine.”
And that tingle I felt earlier turned into a full-blown swoon.
“Thank you. I don’t know what to say, except thank you.”
“Thank you for saying yes. I was hooked on your laugh the very first time I heard it. You laughed like the world was there for the taking. And the way you could hold your own. You know what you want, and I’ll be honest with you, Christine.”
“Yes?” I asked, and I felt as if I were on the edge of my seat.
He stared at me, the scent of champagne lingering between us. It was going to my head in all the good ways.
He leveled me with a sexy stare. “I wanted you to want me.”
The limo slowed and then came to a halt, and Daniel smiled as he leaned back again.
His confidence shocked me.
Thrilled me, honestly.
I’d never had a man be so bold on a first date.
But Daniel said those words as if he were telling me about the weather.
But I couldn’t let him off that easily. What if this was a line? I was no college girl out for her first date with a real man. I was a grown woman, owner of a successful company. I’d been around the block a few times.
If he thought it would be that easy, he was wrong.
“I’m glad to hear that,” I said, a little playful, as the driver opened my door. “But I guess you’ll have to give me a reason to want you, then.”
And just then, something hit me. Something wonderful. I was getting my groove back. I was flirting. I was having fun.
Daniel laughed. “I fully intend to.”
Before I knew it, he’d come around to take my hand as I stepped out onto the sidewalk. I let his hand linger on mine as he walked me to the front doors of the Delano Las Vegas Hotel. The building shimmered and the palm trees around us swayed gently in the breeze.
But the shiver I felt wasn’t just from the night air.
It was from Daniel, still holding on to my hand as we walked into the hotel.
Right away, I could tell that the Delano was all about decadence in a way that only Vegas could do. We took the elevator all the way to the top to Rivea, a restaurant I’d heard about but had never had a special enough occasion to go to.
Now, I did.
As soon as we entered, my eyes drank in the beauty. The chandelier in the center looked like water frozen mid-air, though Daniel said it was actually handblown glass.
“Just wait until we get outside,” he told me, touching my lower back as he guided us inside. “It’s the best view in Vegas.”
“We’ll see about that,” I teased. “You’re setting some high standards tonight.”
The devilish grin made another appearance. “And I intend to meet all of them.”
And a shiver stole up my spine again.
What was it about this man that undid me so easily?
I would focus on dinner, I decided. Just because this was my first date back on the scene didn’t mean I needed to be so easily won over.
Lucky for me, dinner was delectable, and I was sure you couldn’t go wrong with burrata with heritage tomatoes, or mouth-watering lobster risotto. As I ate, he watched me like I was a painting he wanted to memorize. I wasn’t used to that, but I found I loved being on display for him. I craned my neck and tossed my hair over my shoulder.
Hell, I even fluttered my eyelashes at him.
Maybe I was being silly.
Mostly, I felt free.
He made me feel like I should as he tossed questions at me. He wanted to know about Carson, about my business, where and how Trish and I had met.