Chapter Four
Sugar daddy. Reed couldn’t help but wonder if Miss Single had one of those, past or present. He enjoyed the view as she sashayed away. Honey blonde hair, a sparkle in her blue eyes that wasn’t flighty like her overly animated friend’s. There had been a smirk behind her serious expression, and when she had started on the pole dancing line. She had curves, and that ass . . . yeah, a week on the open sea pursuing that one was a challenge he happily accepted. His eyes landed on the bill, which had her room number on it. One of the penthouse suites. He wasn’t surprised. This woman, and those she surrounded herself with, dripped with sophistication and money.
He took a pull on his longneck beer and opened the daily itinerary the ship provided. He reached for the pen left behind by Miss Single and circled a singles mixer dance party for later that night. None of the women Miss Single was with wore wedding rings, so it was safe to say he’d find them among the unattached on the ship.
His phone buzzed. A number from the States displayed without a name.
“Reed,” he answered, 99 percent sure who the caller was.
“How is Spain?” the female voice asked.
“Balmy.”
“I trust your accommodations are satisfactory.”
He glanced around the deck. “They’ll work,” he said without humor.
“Anything to report?”
“I’ve located my target.”
“Well, I hope so. That suite didn’t come cheap.”
Reed looked around the Haven’s private accommodations and was glad he wasn’t paying the bill.
“She’s traveling with friends.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know yet, I’ve been on board less than an hour.”
She muttered something crass. “I will call you in Rome.”
“Until Rome.” He hung up and signaled the bartender for his bill.
“Don’t look.”
Funny how when someone tells you not to look, that’s exactly what you want to do. Lori found her eyes drifting from the spinning ball on the roulette table.
Shannon elbowed her gently.
Lori snapped her attention away from the table.
“He cannot take his eyes off you.”
“Who?”
The croupier called out the number, placed his marker on the board, and paid out the winners. Sadly, Lori wasn’t one of them.
She took the moment to pick up her drink and briefly scan the room.
Sure enough, Mr. Single stood on the opposing side of the craps table, watching her.
Instead of pretending she didn’t notice him, she lifted her glass in salute and smiled. It felt good to flirt, even though it was against her better judgment.
His answering grin was mixed with mischief.
“That’s the guy you were telling us about, isn’t it?” Shannon asked.
“Sure is.”
“Wow, he is something to look at.”
Lori hummed.
“Needs a haircut, though.”
Lori broke eye contact with him and turned to Shannon. “I know, right?” She set her chips on the table and stood back.
“Place your bets,” the croupier told them. Shannon leaned across Lori to reach the higher numbers.
When Lori looked back up, Mr. Single was gone. A hair of disappointment wiggled up her spine.
“Thirty-one black.”
Shannon high-fived Lori. “Whoop, whoop!”
Her five-dollar chip sat on the line between thirty-one and twenty-eight.
“Next round is on you,” Lori teased.
Shannon collected her money and generously placed her bets. She glanced up. “Where did he go?”
“Who knows?” Lori looked at her hand of dwindling chips, promising to walk away if she didn’t win on the next turn of the wheel. Just then her skin prickled and her palms started to itch.
“Red.” His voice came from behind her, his lips close to her ear.
She forced herself not to smile. “You’re sure?” she asked.
The croupier spun the wheel and released the ball.
“Forty-eight percent sure.”
She looked up and down the table, remembered the green zero and double zeros. She put twenty on red and scattered another twenty bucks on various red numbers.
“No more bets.”
The ball started to bounce.
Lori held her breath.
“Fourteen, red.”
“Okay, then. I guess I owe you a drink,” Lori said as she peeked over her shoulder to find Mr. Single staring.
“Hello.” Shannon peered from Lori’s other side.
“Hello,” he replied, then narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t you—”
Lori panicked and lifted a finger to his lips as if she had a right.
His amused eyes widened as he reached to touch her hand.
“My friend is on vacation.” Lori hoped her words kept him from bringing unwanted attention to Shannon. “Far away from home.”
His eyes told her he understood. With a tiny squeeze of her hand, he let her go.
Shannon tilted her head. “Thank you. Do you have a name other than Mr. Single?”
“You’ve been talking about me.”
Lori felt like she was sixteen years old, caught talking about the new kid in school. She tried to hide her embarrassment.
He reached across Lori. “I’m Reed.”
“Nice to meet you, Reed. This is my friend Lori.”
“Lori.” It sounded as if he was testing her name with the weight of the sigh he used when saying it.
The heat on her neck felt unnatural.
“Now that we have the names straight, what should I bet on now?”
The ball was already rolling.
“Let it ride on red.”
“I never let it ride.”
He stopped her hand from pulling her chips away. His lips moved close to her ear again. “What are you worried about, losing Sugar Daddy’s money?”
Before she could pull the chips away, the croupier waved a hand over the table, indicating she’d lost her opportunity to back out.
“Twenty-seven, red.”
She sighed, and once she’d been paid out, she removed her chips. Not that she worried about losing forty dollars. Hell, she was down two hundred and she’d only been in the casino for forty minutes. Gambling in general was outside her control spectrum. A little bit was fine, exciting even . . . but if any real money was involved, she’d probably break out in hives before the ball settled on a number.
“No guts to do it again?” Reed asked.
She pointed to the table. “Where’s your bet?”
“Touché.” He removed his wallet, placed a hundred-dollar bill on red.
The croupier made quick work of removing the cash and replacing it with several green chips.
Less than a minute later, twenty-one, red was called.
Lori stood back to watch, her hands tightening in on themselves with each rotation of the ball.
All she noticed was the color when the ball dropped.
Red.
Reed let it ride.
“You’re nuts,” she whispered.
Lori wasn’t sure if his reckless gambling was because of his cocky self-assuredness or if he was just a man using his money to flirt with her. Either one was slightly flattering.
Four spins later, Reed was up sixteen hundred dollars. Only then did he pull off the hundred dollars he started with.
“You’re going to leave it there?”
He shrugged with a grin.
The other players at the table were watching. Others were putting their money on black, muttering his luck was about to run out.
Lori held her breath, the ball bounced. “Twelve, red.”
Even Shannon was speechless.
Lori was sweating, and it wasn’t her money.
“You’re not a gambler,” he observed.
She looked up to find his eyes laughing at her. “Apparently not.”
“Sir?” the croupier caught Reed’s attention.
He smirked like it was a natural thing for him to leave three grand on the table riding on a color. “Leave it,” Reed told him.
By now a small crowd had gathered to watch.
Lori leaned in. “You’re crazy.”
He leaned closer. “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone, Lori. You should try it.”
None of the other players placed bets on the table as the ball rolled.
“Three, red.”
“Dude is lucky.”
“Holy crap,” a man behind them said.
The noise grew around them as spectators took in Reed’s pile of chips, chips equaling six thousand dollars that looked like a pot of gold to Lori.
“Sir?”
“Well, Lori, should I walk away?”
Walk, hell, she’d be running.
Her heart sped and she found herself shaking her head. “Let it ride.” She couldn’t believe the words came from her lips. She wanted to retract them but heard an opposing counsel in her head shouting “objection.”
He winked. “You’re learning.”
Shannon leaned close. “Crazy.”
The croupier signaled his manager.
The delay in spinning the wheel had Lori looking around. She glanced at the plaque on the table indicating a five-thousand-dollar limit.
The manager spoke with the croupier and glanced at the previous winning red numbers on the digital board above the table. A single nod and the ball spun.
Lori gripped the edge of the table, her eyes following the ball, with suspended breath.
Just when the ball bounced onto twenty-one, red, it flipped out and settled on four.
“Four, black.” The deep tone of the croupier sounded as disappointed as Lori felt.
A collective sigh from those watching hummed in the air, and the six thousand dollars in chips were taken away.
Lori hung her head, her hands still buzzed with excitement.
Reed reached across the table, leaving the hundred dollars he started with at the croupier’s side as a tip.
“Well, that was fun,” Shannon said with a lift in her voice.
“How about that drink?” Reed asked Lori.
The music from the singles mixer was blaring through the doors of the ship’s nightclub.
Lori was keenly aware of the proximity of the man moving beside her. She hadn’t felt this high on a man’s attention in so long that she had forgotten how warm and fuzzies felt.
“There’s Avery and Trina,” Shannon said over the noise of the music and people.
The three of them weaved through the crowd until they reached the high-top table their friends were standing around.
Avery sized Reed up before saying hello. “Are you Mr. Single?”
Lori felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment.
He reached out a hand. “I’m Reed.”
Avery made a little growling noise and winked at Lori before introducing herself and Trina.
“You need one of these.” Avery took a pen and self-sticking nametags from the table and started to write down their names.
“What’s this for?” Shannon asked.
“It’s a mixer. We need to mix,” Avery said as if that explained everything.
It wasn’t long before a cocktail waiter took their order, delivered their drinks. There weren’t any real rules except one. Every time the bell rang, you moved to another person.
Lori started in front of Reed.
“You have a wild look in your eyes.”
She looked over to find Trina fidgeting while she spoke with a man twice her age who slid up beside her at the first bell.
“I do?” Lori didn’t meet his gaze.
Reed paused. “You’re worried about your friend.”
Lori watched for signs of distress on Trina’s face. “She’s, uhm . . .” Lori didn’t finish her sentence when the bell rang. Without another word, she rushed to cut off another guy walking Trina’s way.
“You okay?”
“This isn’t blending,” Trina pointed out.
Lori looked around, saw Shannon being hit on by a redhead. A single nod and Shannon got the hint. “It’s a twenty-minute meet and greet, and we’re done.” Lori made light of it and extended her hand. “Hi, I’m Lori.”
Trina smiled. “I’m being silly.”
The bell rang, and Shannon took Lori’s place.
Lori found Reed in front of her again. “Do you always take care of your friends?”
“Don’t you?” she asked.
“You’re assuming I have friends.”
She wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. The man had quite the poker face. “A man without friends . . .”
The bell rang.
Avery took Lori’s place, and Lori moved back to Trina.
“The men are going to think I’m a lesbian,” Trina said.
Lori glanced around them . . . “Are you ready to talk to a stranger?”
Trina placed both hands on her head. “This used to be easy.”
“Let them speak first, then switch languages if you don’t want to interact.”
“That’s a great idea,” Trina said with a strangled smile.
The bell rang and Lori turned to find a hard-bodied Spaniard grinning down at her. He said something in Spanish that she didn’t understand, but his grin and wink were enough. “Oh, you’re too much for me.” Lori looked at Avery, who was still talking to Reed. She pulled the other girl over in front of Mr. Spanish Charm. “Switch,” Lori said.
Reed was grinning. “So Avery you feed to the wolves, and Trina you protect.”
The bell rang again, and instead of moving, Lori reached for her drink. “This is exhausting.”
Lori rose the next morning to find a note attached to the daily itinerary slid under her door. The yoga class was circled in red with a note: Since you missed your Sunday ritual.
The man put a smile on her face. Maybe because she hadn’t taken the time to flirt or get to know a member of the opposite sex in several months. Not because she was opposed to the thought, but she’d burned out on the dance. At thirty-five, she’d dated plenty of men. Only half of whom were emotionally available. And of those, half of them only wanted sex. The rest couldn’t handle her success or she couldn’t handle their egos.
When she’d turned thirty, she’d decided that she never wanted to marry again. On some level, she knew that made her less emotionally available than the men who asked her out. Once the men found out what she did for a living, they assumed she was single by choice, which either turned them on or completely off.
Where did Reed fall?
Temporary.
If for no other reason than they were on a cruise ship.
Lori glanced at the clock and wondered if Reed would show up at her yoga class.
Only one way to find out.
“Good morning, Miss Lori.” She dressed, bolted out the door, and ran right into the resident butler.
“Morning, Datu. Can you tell my friends when you see them that I’ll meet them poolside at eleven?”
“Of course. Any other requests?”
“How about fruit and yogurt in my room around ten?”
“Coffee?” he asked.
“Yes, please.” Lori was all smiles as she walked away. A butler was something she could get used to.
The fitness center was lined with bikes, ellipticals, and treadmills, all facing a massive window looking out over the Mediterranean Sea. Since this was the only full day at sea, the place was packed with hard bodies and even a few soft ones trying to combat the opulent food on board.
She spied Trina lying on a mat in the far corner of the classroom. Lori removed a mat from a stack in the corner and took the spot next to her.
“Good morning,” she whispered over the calming music.
Trina opened her eyes and smiled. “Morning.”
The room was library quiet, with only a few mumbling students settling in.
“I didn’t know you liked yoga,” Lori told her.
“Been a while. But I thought it would help . . . you know.”
A wave of guilt crashed over Lori when she realized she’d been preoccupied with herself. Her job was these women. Especially Trina, since her world was falling apart.
Reed had stolen her attention the moment she’d laid eyes on the man.
Lori mentally kicked herself.
Refocus.
Thoughts of a temporary anything with Reed should not be dominating her head before reaching the twenty-fourth hour on the ship. Trina, Shannon . . . Avery, that’s what she was there for, not Reed and his sexy smile and cocky gambling techniques.
The instructor started to speak, and Lori took her place on the mat and pushed Reed out of her head.