Epilogue
EPILOGUE
Sage
I frown as I study the building across the street.
It shot up in record time, redeveloped quickly by an expert team. Word is that no expense was spared—that The Invitation is a casino that will truly take the town of Vegas by storm.
Of course, rumors of one of the owners have reached me too. Talk about the man who’s so driven by his desire to succeed, whose success in hotels all over America and Europe too, have made him one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the land.
But money doesn’t interest me.
Money doesn’t make a man a man.
Nor do games.
I take one last look at The Invitation, then walk back inside the doors of my casino.
I pass a woman in a mask on the arm of a man in a tux.
She’s hidden in plain sight, her features obscured but her mouth wide in a smile, and it brings a smile to my lips too.
I love that The Extravagant brings this to people—happiness.
A chance to dress up, step out, and shine.
Yes, one new business cannot impact mine—not in a city full of casinos and hotels and people, people everywhere who are willing to spend money for quality, for pleasure and for indulgence.
Perhaps I’ll meet that new owner soon, I muse as the elevator hurtles me up to my suite. Perhaps we’ll find a way to work together to drive business down this end of the Strip.
Perhaps we won’t.
It doesn’t matter either way, because The Extravagant is finally taking off. Thanks to hours, weeks, and months of hard work from my sister and me, the books are aligning. I tap my purse as if to reaffirm the fact. Everything is falling into place.
But as I hang up my blazer, as I set my purse on the floor by my lounge, I feel it—that longing. A yearning for something more—to be someone else.
Someone who’s more than just facts and figures and analysis of the latest competition.
Someone who’s also . . . deep.
Decadent.
A person to be desired.
A woman after dark.
This feeling isn’t something new. It’s lingered inside me for weeks now, perhaps even months. It’s haunted me so long that perhaps it’s time for me to act on it.
But what would that look like? Could I just walk out into the casino, find a willing man in the high rollers’ room and seduce him into my bed?
No .
The idea holds no appeal.
All it would take is one set of loose lips to send scandal my way. I shudder. Gossip is the last thing I need.
But maybe there’s another way.
My mind fleets back to the woman I saw earlier—the woman in the mask.
Could I do that? Transform into a more sensual version of myself simply by slipping a scrap of lace and feathers over my eyes?
Would that be enough to hide my identity?
Would it be enough to make me feel . . . free?
I pour myself a glass of red and bring out my laptop. Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn’t.
Alcohol emboldens me, and I slide the barrette out of my hair, letting the structured bun fall into waves of hair over my shoulders.
I pull up a website for a store that sells all kinds of gorgeous masks, sensual, feminine designs that obscure the wearers identity but hint at the kind of woman who hides beneath.
A woman who likes to play. Who likes to try. Who likes to want .
It doesn’t take long until my shopping cart is full.
If I don’t at least try, I guess I’ll never know.
Sage’s romance comes in One Exquisite Touch. Turn the page!