18. Daniel
DANIEL
I believe in listening to your gut, but I also place a hell of a lot of faith in doing your research.
I’d never spoken to Sage before the night of the party last week. But my instinct coupled with my research told me she’d be good for Cole.
That’s why I shared my plan with Scarlett in advance. That’s why my gorgeous and clever business partner urged me to go for it. To keep an eye open for Sage at the masquerade. Which is exactly what I did, and that strategy paid off.
Because Cole and Sage fit. They go together. I knew that because of her background, her life, and her place in Vegas. All of her story aligns with my friend’s story, with his unspoken wishes, with the wants he tries to deny.
I can still recall how Cole changed during those few months with Georgia.
He was happier than he’d been since I met him, and I’ve known him for years.
He’s always carried a burden because of his father, but when he was with the vibrant and lovely Georgia, that burden started to lift.
A weight moved off his shoulders; a glimmer shone in his eyes.
I saw what the kind of connection he had with Georgia could do for the man.
It could free him of some of that pain he’s carried since childhood, pain wrought from the things his father said.
Love seemed to change him, until the night it all shattered, the night when I was behind the damn wheel.
Doesn’t matter that someone else hit the car. Out of nowhere.
I was the fucking driver.
I owe this to him. I owe him the chance to find someone who will make him happy. I want that for him again.
Want it desperately.
I love the guy.
He’s the best mate I’ve ever had.
And I’d like to see him happy.
He needs it, only he doesn’t realize it.
And so I can work toward that again tonight.
Something I’ll do by chatting with Sage. I get to do that throughout dinner, since I’m sitting next to her while Cole is on the other end of the table.
I have her all to myself, for all intents and purposes, as we work our way through the salad course, finishing the arugula.
I set down my fork, take a drink of my white wine, then lean a little closer, glancing around the table full of Las Vegas’s glitterati.
“So, you’ve got a room full of the most powerful hotel owners in Sin City.
Do you think this dinner is actually a sinister plot to drug and kidnap all of us?
And then robots or androids will take over owning the hotels? ”
She laughs and gives me a you’re crazy look. “My, my. Someone has an active imagination.”
I flash her a grin. “But I’m right, am I not? This could be the moment.”
“Shall we make a run for it, then?” she asks, her forehead tipping toward the door as she makes a running gesture with her fingers.
“See? You’re also convinced we’re being targeted. How else to explain a dozen or so hoteliers in one room?”
“Either that or it’s a punchline to a joke,” she offers with a playful glint in her pretty blue eyes.
“In that case, I vote joke. But I’ve been known to opt for the light and easy answers,” I say.
“I had a sense you were like that.”
“You did?”
She meets my gaze, tilting her face. “Yes. You have this sunshine air about you. A happiness. A lightness,” she says.
If she only knew what it masks.
But at least the ruse is working.
“That’s me,” I say with a smile.
As the waiter swings by to clean up this course and bring us the next one, I shift my voice, turning more serious. “The other night was quite lovely,” I say.
She shudders. Dips her head. Her cheeks turn the most delicious shade of pink. “But it won’t happen again,” she says in a whisper.
I arch a doubtful brow. “No? It won’t?” I say it like I don’t believe it, because I don’t.
“You’re the competition,” she says, almost like she’s imploring me to understand the nuances of this situation.
I set a hand on my chest, acting ever so innocent. “Me?”
“Both of you are, aren’t you?”
I dodge the question. “Hardly. And regardless of whether you’re competition, you’d be good for Cole,” I say, since why beat around the bush? I may as well speak the truth. I’d rather she know what I believe. Life is short. This is a chance. It must be seized.
“So you’re cupid,” she says, like she’s intrigued by this new bit of intel.
I give a little shrug, an impish one. “I might be.”
She taps her chin. “And why is that?”
I speak from the heart. “Because I care deeply for him.”
“And why am I right for him?”
That’s so easy to answer. “Because you’re smart, kind, respected.
Because you’re learned, and so is he. Because you’re both passionate about your families.
And you both play hardball, but are softies underneath,” I say, rattling off all the things they have in common, all the reasons I know this would work.
Her eyebrow remains arched, but her body shifts toward me, as if she’s slightly more convinced. “And are you sure that aligns with his wishes and wants? Or, to put it another way, are you revealing his weaknesses to me by saying he’s a softie?”
I shake my head. “I suspect you’ve seen that side of him already. It’s impossible to spend more than twenty minutes with Cole and not see it. He tries to pretend he’s such a hard-ass, but underneath he’s a teddy bear. Isn’t he?”
A smile seems to tug at her lips. “I suppose there’s a little bit of a teddy bear in him.” She’s quiet for a beat, her eyes lost in thought. “But I have a question for you.”
I hold my hands out wide. “I’m an open book. Hit me up.”
Her face is inquisitive, her eyes intense. “What does the cupid in you want, Daniel? Are you trying to set me up with him or with both of you?”
I give her nothing but the truth. “Either, Sage, either. And since we’re speaking the truth, let me tell you that I return to London after this weekend. He lives in the same town you do. I’m leaving. He’s staying. That ought to underline my intentions and my limitations.”
She nods several times, getting it. “So you’re offering up another time with the two of you before you go?”
My lips twitch, and my dick throbs at the possibility. “I would love another time with you. I’d love to see you savoring new worlds of pleasure. Isn’t that what we offered at the end of the party? To show you that. To give you that.”
Her breath hitches with a sexy little gasp. Her shoulders rise and fall. “And do you still want what we can give you?”
I inch closer, thoroughly captivated by her, and completely determined, too, to deliver this woman for us, and then for him. “I can still taste you, smell you, feel you. If you want us again, I’ll make it happen.”
She might be determined to resist. He might be determined to stay away from her. But I’m determined too.
Especially when she shivers all over from my words, then runs her tongue across her lips. She whispers, her voice already giving away her desires, “You don’t care that I’m your rival?”
I shake my head. “There are too many other things on my list that I have to care about. Fucking a rival or my friend fucking a rival is not one of them.”
She blinks, drawing a deep breath, like she’s digesting this information. “Then I have a question for you.”
“Ask it.”
Her chin lifts, a defiant gesture. “Why do the two of you do this? I know I’m not the only one.”
So he told her about Georgia. More proof that Cole likes this woman in all the ways I anticipated, because he’s opened up to her already. He’s told her something precious and private. “You’d have to ask him for his reasons. I can only give you mine.”
“And what are they?”
I slide a hand along her thigh under the table, savoring the way she trembles against my touch. “Giving a woman pleasure, more pleasure than perhaps she’s ever known, makes me feel less empty,” I say.
She presses her lips together, her eyes softening. Perhaps with understanding. “So you need it.”
“I do. But I also think he needs someone like you. And perhaps more important is this—did you enjoy the evening we spent with you? The fifteen minutes in the alcove?”
Her cheeks flame red. The hair on her arms stands on end. “You know I did. More than I ever expected to.”
I lean back in the chair. Smile. “Then why fight it? Why resist it?”
She arches a brow. “It’s that simple?”
“We complicate things that don’t need to be complicated. Pleasure doesn’t need to be complicated.”
She hums, like she’s considering my proposition. “That may indeed be true.”
When the dinner ends, I whisper, “Have a drink with us.”
She says yes, and she looks drunk already.