Still standing on her toes, all she managed to do was see a line full of heads and shoulders. “What’s he doing now?”
“He’s got his casino card and she’s handing him a receipt just like everyone else.”
As they made their way closer to the window, she looked up and, cocking her head to the side, asked, “Shouldn’t we keep an eye on Errol?”
“If I had to guess, he’s probably in one of the exclusive rooms.”
Jerking her head around, she looked as though she expected a room to magically appear with a large sign that declared it ‘exclusive’. Hearing him laugh again, she swung her attention back up to him.
They finally made it to the front of the line and pulled out their driver’s licenses, and he bought their cards. Turning, he tapped her card on her nose as he handed it to her and said, “Now you’ve got fifty dollars you can gamble with.”
Eyes wide, she shook her head. “I have no idea what to do! Anyway, I don’t like the idea of gambling.”
Throwing his head back, he laughed. “Well, if nothing else, you can sit at one of the video games and press the button to see if you win more money.”
As boring as it sounded, it was probably the only activity she could do without embarrassing herself.
“Come on, let’s have some fun. I have no doubt that Errol’s off in one of the private rooms gambling away—”
His words halted as his gaze moved over her head to the far side of the room. Twisting, she stood on her toes but was unable to see what he was looking at.
He bent, and with his mouth next to her ear again, he said, “I see him. There’s a guard by the far door and Errol’s just gone inside that room.” He squeezed her waist. “There’s no way we can get in that room, so we might as well just have some fun.”
Agreeing, she allowed him to lead her over to a section of video games near a corner that didn’t have as many people around. They sat next to each other and began playing, although she had no idea what she was doing. Nolan had several buttons he was pressing, and he explained it allowed him to change how much he was betting. Looking at her machine, it seemed that she was only betting a small amount at a time. Continuing to press the button, the lights blinked and the bells jangled, and she finally concluded that her original assessment was true. This is boring.
But with Nolan sitting next to her, his hand drifting over to rub her shoulder or settle on her thigh, the idea of boring was quickly replaced by the idea of what she would like his hands to be doing. Servers in little skirts walked around with trays, offering drinks. Starting to go for her wallet, Nolan stopped her.
“It’s included, babe.”
Eyes wide, she was sure she misunderstood him, but he turned to the server and ordered a whiskey. Glancing toward her, he grinned and ordered a fruity cocktail.
“Yes, Sir, Ma’am. I’ll be right back.”
As the server retreated, she lifted her brows and bugged her eyes. “Included? Like free?”
Laughing, he said, “That’s one way of looking at it. The other way of looking at it is the casino is not losing money. They’re making so much money on these games that everyone’s losing on, they can afford to offer free drinks. And then the more people drink, the more they’re going to stay and gamble.” He pointed to a coffee bar nearby offering complimentary coffee drinks. “Believe me, their coffee will be great, and it’s also free.”
Unable to follow that logic, she continued to stare, waiting for him to explain, but they were interrupted when the server returned. She handed the whiskey to Nolan and turned with a pleasant smile and handed the fruity cocktail with pineapple and cherries on top to Lynn. Turning back to Nolan, the server accepted her tip, thanking him before wandering to the next group of people.
Wrapping her lips around the straw, she sucked, surprised that she could taste the alcohol. “I figured this would be mostly fruit juice, but this is fabulous!”
He laughed and took a sip of his whiskey. “This is all part of their plan. People drink and gamble more. And then they have coffee and sober up to start the process all over again.”
“How long do most people stay here?”
“Some of these people will be here all night. They’ll keep drinking and gambling until all their money is gone.” At that, he shook his head slightly. “I guess that’s on them, but it’s sad when you know some of these people are gambling their paychecks away.”
Still slurping, she looked down at her gaming machine. “Do we have to keep staying at this one machine until all our money is gone?”
“Nah. Pull your card out and we can use it again tomorrow if you want. Keep in mind that it’s what will get us into the all-you-can-eat buffet.”
Her face brightened at that thought, and he laughed again. Glancing down at her drink, he said, “Drink up and we can head to the room. At this rate, you’ll be too tipsy to look at the records.”
At his words, she remembered that she had a job to do. As another server passed by, she placed her now-empty cocktail glass onto the tray. “You’re right. We should get up to the room.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished they meant something besides just looking at pages of financial records. As he wrapped his arm around her again, she released a little sigh. Yeah, just my luck. I finally have a night with Nolan Bell, and all I’ll be doing is working.
12
Stepping back inside their suite, Nolan tried to still his nerves. It’s just Lynn. It’s not like anything is going to happen. Desperate to get out of his suit, he jerked on his tie. “Do you want to take a shower before you start looking over the records? I’m anxious to get into something more comfortable.”
“No, that’s fine. You go ahead. I just want to get out of these shoes.”
As he glanced into the mirror, he watched as she held on to the edge of the dresser and bent forward to pull her strappy sandals off. Her dress rode up in the back, giving another view of her perfectly-toned legs. He jerked his gaze back up to her face as she turned around. Without her shoes giving her the added few inches, she appeared even more petite. Taking in her lacy dress embroidered in butterflies, it struck him that was what she reminded him of. Beautiful, but oh, so delicate.
He turned quickly and stalked into the bathroom with his bag in hand. After shutting the door and starting the water, he pulled off his suit coat and dress shirt. Staring into the mirror, his thoughts tangled. The day had not turned out at all as he expected… or planned. Being forced to go through with the sham ceremony had certainly not been what he thought would happen, but he was impressed with how easily Lynn adapted to their ever-changing situation. And, once they snuck inside Errol’s office, she’d impressed him further with her quick thinking in searching the room and finding the extra files.
Dismissing her as delicate might not be right. Somehow, she managed to be both delicate and tough. Glancing back into the mirror, he held his gaze and whispered aloud, “But not for you.” He sighed heavily. His constant mantra of not looking for a relationship was beginning to sound old even to his own ears.
Stepping under the stream of water, he quickly washed away the nervous sweat from the day. If I was this nervous at a pretend wedding, what would I be like at my real wedding? Washing his hair, he tried to imagine what his real wedding might look like, but he could only come up with Lynn’s beautiful face staring up at him as he slid a ring on her finger.