“You good now?” Amanda asked.
She rolled her head to release her tense neck muscles. “Could I get another mojito, please?”
…
A few hours later, Lucy stood in front of a mirror in an elegant bedroom suite. Her upswept hairdo was all that—and a touch of Amanda, too. The only thing missing was a crown and a magic carpet to have flown her to her room.
Outside her double-locked hotel door, the large Viking-looking woman waited on her to finish dressing. Lucy was grateful for her presence. It all but guaranteed Gino or Joey wouldn’t bother her for more ice.
The woman’s nametag had said Lilly Belle. It was a silly name for such an imposing woman. She had to be six feet tall, with veiny arm muscles and stocky legs. She was about as much a Lilly as a rawhide bone, and even less a Belle.
Lucy turned to study her reflection in the mirror. Her skin glowed with exfoliated and mineral-soaked health. She wore the La Perla lingerie set that had been waiting for her on the bed. The bra and panties were white and made from the softest lace that cupped and lifted in all the right places.
The professionally applied makeup made her eyes big and her cheekbones stand out. Her face appeared more triangular, like a sultry pixie with good skin. Her hair was improved by the addition of lighter reddish highlights. Strands of fake diamonds glittered through her braided up-do like a princess’ tiara.
“Princess for the day,” she whispered to her reflection.
They had been too poor for new clothes when she and Joey were kids. While other kids went to the mall, she and Joey had gone to Goodwill. Memories of schoolyard taunts flooded her mind. Simon says: bend over and touch your toes… Oh! Look! Lucy has a hole in her pants, you can see her underwear! Hot mortification, now twenty years old, flooded her dressed-up self from her head to her heart.
Days like this didn’t just happen. There would be a price. But her heart felt like she had landed inside a fairy tale. She wanted to believe in happily ever after and magic, just for the night. Lucy sighed at the dilemma she didn’t exactly want to resolve, but she knew herself too well.
Pragmatism would win.
Guess you could change the clothes, but you couldn’t change the woman.
Lucy sighed and padded to the hotel window to peek outside. Her room was in one of the towers at the top of the casino that looked like the tines of a gold crown from the ground. The planes circling on the horizon seemed to be at her same elevation. She was very high up in the air. Her head spun and she stepped back and clutched the curtain for support.
Next to her tower, six other tined towers circled around the casino roof. The roof was green with palm trees and plants. In the middle, a long rectangular pool reflected the cloudless afternoon sky. At the pool’s corners, four oasis-motif whirlpools bubbled from boulders. She didn’t want to guess how much it cost to pump water, in the desert no less, over one-hundred-thirty stories into the air. The evaporation rate alone would be staggering.
Shaking her head, she released the curtain and walked toward the plush bed. A knit wrap dress lay in plastic sheeting for her dinner date with Alec. She had already peeked at the brand, Diane von Furstenberg. More princess material, but she knew it would be amazing on her curves.
Alec would like it…
Her toes curled in the plush carpet, and heat spiraled in her belly at the memory of his muscled backside on the massage table. She remembered the scent of moist eucalyptus and inhaled deeply.
The “you are mine” comment in the shower was a little stalkerish, but people said funny things in the heat of the moment. Hell, if he had asked her to, she would have pledged allegiance to the shower nozzle, and that was before the spa and amazing lingerie.
Enough. She was going to quit thinking and start enjoying. She picked up the beautiful dress and tied it on, loving the silken stretch of the knit material.
Alec was a once-in-a-lifetime fling, making her more a Cinderella than a true princess—her glass coach would turn into a pumpkin soon, whisking her back to her normal life. She would do what any intelligent Cinderella would do—enjoy her Prince Charming—until the fairy tale came to an end, and she grabbed Joey and boarded a plane to Brazil.
Two knocks sounded at Lucy’s hotel door. She startled at the rap-rap sound, and her heart banged in her chest. Lilly Belle had told her not to rush.
Could it be Bruno?
Her mind replayed the sound, trying to discern who was on the other side. The knocks had not been overly demanding, but still a solid rap-rap that knew she would open the door. Slightly impatient and confident.
Alec, it had to be Alec.
Nerves zinged along her skin, and the twin impulses to hide or fling the door open cascaded through her veins. Silly. Get it together.
Swallowing down excitement, Lucy took a deep breath and strode across the room to open the door.
Alec stood with his hands in the pockets of his black pants. He wore a white shirt unbuttoned below his collar, the sleeves rolled up his forearms. He grinned when he saw her and his eyes dropped to her high-heeled sandals, then tiptoed up her bare legs, to her waist, and her chest before stopping on her face.
“You look beautiful.”
Blood rushed to her cheeks. “Thank you.”
She should probably invite him in, but instead she stared at the ground, focusing on his shoes. They were black and shiny, and the hem of his pants broke over the top just right.
She acted like she had never been on a date before. “Would you like to come in?”
Alec’s fingers lifted her chin so that her eyes met his dark blue ones. He smiled gently and rubbed the pad of his thumb over her lips. “Why are you so nervous?”
“I like your shoes.” As couth went, it wasn’t the greatest response, but at least it was honest.
Alec released her chin and looked amused. “My shoes?”
“They’re big and shiny,” she rambled. “And you know what they say about big feet.”
Mary, Joseph, and Peter. Had she really just said that?
Out loud?
Hot embarrassment flooded her cheeks and she chanced a quick look at his face. Alec smiled, and his white teeth stretched below amused eyes.
“No,” he said, but his wide smile said otherwise. “Do tell?”
“I, ah. I just noticed them, that’s all,” she managed, feeling like the village idiot.
Alec’s pupils dilated, and a tight intensity settled over his features. “Well, I am glad you approve of my big feet.” He cleared his voice. “I have a gift for you.” Alec walked into her room and opened an adjoining door. “My rooms are through here. Come on in.”
A gift? Lucy forced a surprised laugh through her throat and closed the hallway door. “That’s not necessary. The spa and the dress…” She was rambling, and Alec was already gone, rightly assuming she would follow.
Anger fired through her system—did he still think she could be bought? Even as her mind threw out the javelin, she knew it was false. Anger was just her go-to emotion to cover all manner of discomfort.
Alec Gerald unsettled her equilibrium in a way no other man ever had. Get a grip. It was just a date, a possible fling, nothing more. A gorgeous man, in a gorgeous place, whose presence just happened to shield her from Gino and Joey.
It would be fun. Fun, fun, fun.
You could package this evening and Alec Gerald into a silent-auction item and make thousands. Women would line up for hours to bid on a date with this man.
Win-win.
Right?
Nothing resolved in her mind, Lucy walked into the next room, still uncertain and unbalanced “How many gifts do you usually give to your women?”