All In (9 page)

Chapter Twelve

High heels in hand, Daisy straightened her shoulders and headed out of the nightclub. Her next stop should be her room, but she didn’t think she could sleep knowing Ryan was just next-door. What if he brought another woman back to his room? Her stomach rolled at the thought. The noises she’d heard on her first night in Las Vegas had been annoying, but now? She’d rather stick hot pokers in her ears than hear him make another woman moan.

Part of her wanted to run back to Los Angeles and her neat, orderly life.

But she’d never make it back in time for the next round of tournament play. There was only one other place she could think to go.

One place in the city of Las Vegas where she’d be safe.

Home.

She needed a taxi. Her head swiveled as she searched for a way out of the luxury casino. Why were these places always so hard to navigate? She took a tentative step to the right, then turned and slammed into a solid wall of muscle covered in blue cotton.

Her head tilted up to peer at his face. Pretty green eyes. Cheekbones like glass shards. Square jaw. Gorgeous blond hair that felt like silk between her fingers. It was definitely Ryan.

She’d punch him in the face if she had a step stool.

“Go away,” she snarled. “I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“Is this because I left you with Blethins?” Ryan frowned. “He didn’t try anything, did he?”

“Blethins was a perfect gentleman.” Daisy sniffed. “But you were in the bathroom for a long time. I think he went over to Caesar’s to play blackjack.”

“Okay.” Ryan reached out to put a hand on her arm.

Daisy jerked away. “Get lost.”

Green eyes blinked in surprise. “Are you feeling okay?”

She considered his question for a long moment. Her head was pounding, her stomach hurt, and the pattern in the rug underneath her feet was starting to blend together. “I’m drunk.”

“I figured. Want to go back to the room?”

“No.” She poked him in his big, manly chest. The big, manly liar. He’d told her he was going to the bathroom and then he’d hightailed it straight to his girlfriend’s room. “I don’t want anything to do with you.” She hadn’t brought her wallet to the party, just her room key.
Fuck.
“Do you have money for a cab?”

“I’ve got something better,” Ryan said. “I’ve got a car—and a burning need to get out of Dodge. I’ll give you a ride anywhere you want.”

“But you’re the person I’m trying to get away from.” She sniffed. “Can I use your phone? I’ll get a ride.” Lily was probably still working, but if she could let her sister know she was there, she could sit in the lobby and sober up while she waited. That was probably a good idea.

“If you’re leaving this casino, then I’m driving you,” Ryan insisted. “Like I said, I need to be somewhere else anyway.”

“There you go, being all sexy and commanding.”

“Don’t push me on this, Daisy. I’ve got handcuffs.”

And why did the thought of hard metal restraints suddenly turn her on? “Sexy. And. Commanding,” she said, drawing out each word out as if it were a separate sentence.

“That mean I’m giving you a ride?”

“Sure.” She thrust her shoes into his hands. “Carry these.”

“Okay, sweetheart—”

“And don’t call me sweetheart,” she said with a huff.

Somewhere between the first vodka tonic and her decision to leave the party, Ryan’s little bunny had gone from sexy and disgruntled to downright pissed. Unfortunately, he got the feeling that asking about it would just make things worse.

Luckily, they were leaving the Hendrix. It would give him time to figure out what was going on with Daisy and help him avoid the LVPD while he was at it. The police hadn’t shown up yet, but he assumed they’d be called as soon as Blethins reported the break in. Ryan led Daisy out of the casino’s maze-like interior and across the Sky Bridge to the parking lot. It was dark out—closing in on eleven—but the heat coming off the desert was still intense.

The sudden temperature change made Daisy wobble in her bare feet. She stumbled on the garage’s angled concrete floor and pitched over. Her arms went wide. She slammed into Ryan’s side.

“Easy, babe,” Ryan said, holding her easily
.

“Babe’s worse than sweetheart.” She pulled away.

Oh, yeah, Daisy was definitely upset.

He led her over to the silver sedan he’d rented at the airport. Big and bland, it was the kind of car eyes slid over without registering. When Daisy looked at it, he wished he’d asked for a convertible.

He hit the remote to unlock the doors and got in the driver’s seat. It took Daisy a little longer to open the passenger side door and wiggle her tight ass inside. She slammed the door. “Let’s go.”

“Seatbelt.”

“Boy scout.” She fumbled with the seatbelt until it
clicked
into place.

Ryan stuck the key in the ignition and turned the car on. He reached for the in-dash GPS. “You got an address?”

“Don’t need one.”

Right. Between her sister and Bullet, Daisy clearly had friends in Las Vegas. Was she from the city? Ryan suddenly regretted canceling the background check. If he’d had Jack follow through, at least he wouldn’t be driving around town with his thumb up his ass with no clue where they were going.

The sedan’s engine rumbled as he pulled out of the parking garage and onto the street. Daisy’s directions were short and to the point, even if her voice was slightly slurred. How much had she had to drink?

It wouldn’t take much. She was just a slip of a thing and she hadn’t had any dinner.

Two blocks off the Strip, Ryan made an unauthorized right turn into a drive-thru. He ordered quickly: two hamburgers, two orders of fries, two Sprites, and a chocolate milkshake. Maybe if Daisy got some calories into her, she’d come down from whatever dark cloud she’d landed on.

“I don’t need anything from you,” she snarled.

“Too bad.” He pulled up to the window and exchanged cash for the food. He shoved the milkshake into Daisy’s hands. “Drink this.”

“Fine.” She took a sip.

The second half of the ride was even quieter than the first. Daisy wasn’t even giving spoken directions anymore. She just pointed when she wanted him to turn.

But at least she was eating and no one was following them. No cops. No men in black ski-masks looking for something to do after breaking into Blethins’s room.

It took twenty minutes for them to get from the bright lights of the Strip to a battered trailer park on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The place was little more than a sandy smudge in the desert, but Daisy straightened in her seat as they rolled through the front gate.

“It’s a right at the next corner.” She took a long sip from the milkshake. “No, left. It’s a left.”

“Whatever you say.” He took a left and slowed the car to a crawl as Daisy peered anxiously out the window. “You want to tell me what we’re looking for?”

“There.” She jabbed a finger toward a yellow trailer with a pink flamingo planted in the yard out front. “That’s where Lily lives.”

“Nice digs.”

“Don’t make fun.”

“I’m not.” The place had probably been new during the Nixon administration, but it was clean and tidy. The curtains were a cheerful white and yellow pinstripe. The flamingo looked like it was planning something. “Your sister obviously takes care of the place.”

“Yeah, well—” Daisy hesitated for a long moment. “My mother didn’t.” She waved back in the direction they’d come from. “Her trailer’s not there anymore. They tore it down when she died. No sense keeping junk when the plot was big enough for a double-wide.”

Driving to her mother’s trailer must have been a right instead of a left at the intersection. Ryan nodded. “You grew up here?”

“Desert Pines, born and bred.” Her entire body slumped forward slightly. “The trailer was nice when we moved in—small, but nice—but my mother could never keep things together for long. She’d fall in love with anything in pants, and when things went south, it’d be another run to the liquor store. Then she’d forget to show up to work and end up fired. Every single time.”

Her voice was ragged with emotion, “It got so that no casino would hire her. Then she couldn’t even get work in any of the nicer lounges. When I was fourteen years old, she got a job at a strip club in Henderson. It wasn’t exactly respectable, but it was better than most. Then she fell for the manager.”

Under the borrowed jacket, Daisy’s shoulders were shaking. Ryan wanted to wrap his arms around her and promise her that Desert Pines was in the past—that her memories couldn’t hurt her—but he didn’t want to make things worse.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he said.

“I’m trying to explain.” Daisy’s head lifted a little. “The manager’s name was Tony. He was nice when he was sober, but that wasn’t often. One night they stumbled home—Mom was so drunk she fell asleep in the front yard—and Tony…”

There were tears in her eyes.

Ryan’s stomach churned. He didn’t know if he wanted to hear the end of her story, but he couldn’t stop her now, not even if he tried.

“I ran. He grabbed Lily.” Daisy’s voice was so small it took a moment for the words to register. “He hurt her.”

Relief flooded through Ryan, followed immediately by regret. Maybe the man hadn’t gone after Daisy that night, but he’d still attacked her sister and stolen Daisy’s sense of security.

“He would have raped her, but he was so drunk, he couldn’t get it up,” Daisy said. “She cried—she cried so much—and then he wrote my mother a Dear Jane note on the back of a napkin.” There was a long pause. “You want to know the worst part?”

“Go ahead.”

“When my mother woke up the next morning, we were the ones she was angry at. For making him unhappy.” Daisy’s voice cracked. “She blamed us for making him break up with her.”

“The woman didn’t deserve to have kids.”

“And that’s why I only have one-night stands,” Daisy said. “If I never let someone in, I can never fall in love. Never have a broken heart. Never be like my mother.”

“It’ll never happen—”

“Don’t—” Daisy’s voice was firm. “Don’t say anything.” The tears were streaming down her face, coloring her cheeks with mascara. “I let you in, Ryan. I liked you, and you let me down.”

Ryan didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to apologize. He didn’t know what the hell he’d done.

“I’d never hurt you,” he swore.

“You lied to me. You left me at the party and you went to someone else’s room,” Daisy said. “Tell me the truth. Was it the blonde from the other night? Your girlfriend?”

“She’s not my fucking girlfriend! She’s my boss, and I wasn’t even with her.”

“Then where were you?” she asked.

This was no time for lies or half-truths. She didn’t give a fuck about his case and—at the moment—neither did Ryan. “I was in Blethins’s room.”

“Blethins.” Daisy blinked twice. She peered forward as if trying to read his mind. Good. If Ryan could rip out his heart and put it on a platter for Daisy to see, then he would. They might not be dating, but she meant something to him. He would never hurt her. “But he’s
fucking
boring.”

Chapter Thirteen

“Blethins is an accountant for the mob,” Ryan explained. “He kept the books for Victor Morelli—the biggest bad guy on the Eastern Seaboard—right up until Vic went to prison. We’ve frozen most of the accounts, but Blethins is still hiding something. Our accountants estimate it at just under eleven million, and we’re going to find it.” There was a long pause. “You have to believe me, Daisy. I was just doing my job.”

His job. Daisy took a sip of her milkshake. Could she have made a mistake? No, it wasn’t possible. She was Daisy Adams, tenured professor at UCLA. Her IQ was off the charts. She didn’t make mistakes. Besides… “Bullet said there was a woman in your room yesterday.”

“Stephanie Block. She’s the head of the Bureau’s Las Vegas office.” Ryan’s hand was suddenly on her knee, warm and reassuring.

“She wasn’t exactly dressed like an FBI agent.”

“She was undercover. I’m undercover.” His grip tightened. “You do know what that means, right?”

“I’ve seen
The Fast and the Furious
.” Maybe Daisy had made a mistake. It was possible. Maybe. “You weren’t sneaking off to sleep with another woman?”

“I swear, I was checking out Blethins’s hotel room.” Ryan crossed his heart. “I’ve been a lot of things, Daisy. I’m not always a good man—you can ask any of my exes—but I’ve never been a cheat.”

“You were in Blethins’s hotel room.” She wanted to believe him, but it had taken a lot to admit she liked Ryan. She couldn’t take him back on a whim. “Do you have any proof?”

“Here.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and opened the photo app. “I took pictures.”

The screen was small, but the photos were definitely of a hotel room at the Hendrix. It was a mess.

Daisy frowned. “For an FBI agent, you make a sucky maid.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t the only one who’d been there,” Ryan said. “Do you want me to show you the time stamp?”

“No, that’s okay.” Daisy shrank back in her seat. She felt like crap. Her headache was gone and her gut had stopped doing the cha-cha somewhere between the burger and the French fries, but she still wanted to bury herself under the nearest blanket. “I shouldn’t have brought you out here.”

“I’m glad you did,” Ryan said.

“Liar.”

“This is where you’re from. It’s important to you.” He reached out to smooth her hair back against her head and damned if it didn’t leech some of the tension from beneath her skin.

It felt good.

So good.

She wanted to lean into his touch and
purr
.

Instead, she pulled the borrowed jacket even tighter around her body. “My house in Los Angeles is more impressive. It’s small—very small—but the neighborhood’s good and I can walk to work. Except for the mortgage, it’s perfect.”

“Uh-huh.” Ryan cocked his head toward the small trailer. “Do you want to go inside?”

“I don’t even have a key.”

“I don’t need keys.”

Right, he was a super-spy. He could walk through walls and break into hotel rooms. The trailer lock would be nothing.

She could go home.

Except, this wasn’t her home. It was Lily’s. It was the place where Lily felt safe, and Daisy couldn’t take that away from her. Not again.

“Take me back to the hotel,” she said. “To my room.”

“Anywhere you want to go.” The car growled to life, and Ryan pulled away from the curb. He didn’t ask for directions, but simply reversed the path they’d taken to get there with ease. His entire body was calm. His gaze was pointed straight ahead.

Like he didn’t care that she’d just dragged him out into the middle of nowhere.

Like her deepest, darkest secret hadn’t phased him in the slightest.

Finally, they pulled onto the Strip with its shining lights and non-stop traffic.

“So, Bullet told you that a woman had been to my room and you got upset?”

Crud
. Heat flooded Daisy’s cheeks. Her entire body went still. “It didn’t mean anything.”

“You said you liked me.” She could hear the pride in Ryan’s voice.

“I like puppies. That doesn’t mean I’m going to do anything about it.”

“Chihuahua or German shepherd?”

“Excuse me?”

“If you were going to get a puppy—to keep—what kind would it be?”

Why the hell was he being so cute and playful? Daisy shifted forward in her seat. If he’d just get mad, it would be one thing, but this? She didn’t have any kind of defense for questions about puppies. “Something not too big. Smart. Cute.” She frowned. “Maybe some kind of Spaniel? Of course, I can’t have a puppy. I work long hours. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“So…” He waggled his eyebrows. “You’d need a puppy and someone to help take care of it.”

Un-freaking-believable
. Daisy didn’t do relationships ever. They freaked her out. She’d made it abundantly clear.

But Ryan was still flirting with her, still smiling with his gorgeous face and bright green eyes. He made her wonder if maybe a relationship wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world after all. Not forever—she was no one’s idea of forever—but long enough to learn about his favorite food and the way he took his coffee.

There were two days left in the tournament and then it would be time to go home. She’d head back to Los Angeles and Ryan—

“Where do you live?” she asked.

“I’m from New York.” He shrugged. “Little Italy.”

“Guess that explains your last name.” She turned the thought over in her mind. “How’d you end up with a name like Ryan?”

There was a long pause, as if he was considering exactly how much to tell her. He shrugged. “I’m named after Ryan O’Neal, the actor. Mom was a huge fan of the movie
What’s Up Doc?
It was a pain in the ass growing up. There aren’t a lot of Italian kids with Irish first names, but I’m just glad she didn’t name me Igneous.”

Daisy blinked in surprise. The movie was okay—she’d seen it on the late night channel when she was a kid—but it hadn’t exactly rocked her world. Except for the piano scene. She loved the piano scene.

“It could have been worse,” she finally said. “She could have named you Eunice.”

“Yeah.” He grinned and the smile rocked her to her core.

The river of taillights in front of them shifted and the car rolled forward a few feet. Up ahead there were fireworks going off. Every hour on the hour. Red, white, and blue. Boom. Her heart stuttered in time with the explosions. Boom. Boom. Boom.

She was probably still drunk. She
had
to be drunk. That was the only explanation she could think of for what she was considering…or maybe Ryan was just that seductive, that gorgeous, and that trustworthy.

“I’ve never gone to bed with someone two nights in a row,” she said, forcing the words out through clenched teeth. “Never even considered it before.”

“And now?”

In two days, he’d be headed back to New York, and she’d be safe in Los Angeles. They could be together for that long without her screwing everything up. Her heart wasn’t stuttering anymore. It was thundering. Blood rushed through her ears. Panic made her lungs feel tight. She sucked in an awkward breath.

“I think I might want to try it with you. If that’s okay.”

“Yeah.” Ryan reached out to rest a large hand on her thigh. His fingers stroked against the hem of her dress. Rough calluses made her shiver even through the soft material. “That’d be okay.”

He managed to maneuver the car one-handed all the way back to the Hendrix. His other hand never left Daisy’s thigh…never going too far…never crossing any lines. It was just there. The weight was reassuring against her skin. The heat made her feel alive.

Everything felt so damn good.

Ryan pulled into the garage and parked. He finally pulled his hand away, leaving Daisy tired and alone. She let out a soft moan.

“Patience,” he whispered, his hot breath passing her cheek as he spoke. “Wait a minute.” He got out and walked around the car. Opening the passenger side door, he pulled Daisy up into his arms.

“No, I—”

“I’ve got you.” He gripped her tighter and closed the door with his hip. Then he started to walk.

“I’ve got you…” His words echoed in her mind. Like he’d protect her from anything, whether it was flying bullets or a broken heart. That’s what she wanted.

He didn’t let her down until they were standing in front of Daisy’s room. “Key,” he demanded.

Right
. Daisy shimmied slightly in her borrowed jacket, slipping the strap of her dress down off her shoulder and pulling the key card out of her bra where she’d stuck it for safekeeping.

When she glanced up, Ryan’s eyes were wide and glittering. Lust made his cheeks pink and his lips wet. “Got anything else in there?”

“Guess you’re about to find out.” She swiped the card through the electronic reader. “You are—you’re coming in?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m coming in.”

Good.
Daisy opened the door and walked inside with Ryan quick on her heels.

The view was the same, the king-size bed was neatly made, but somehow the room felt different. This felt different.

They’d been in a room together before—they’d fucked in the bed less than ten feet away—but something had changed since this morning. They’d had their first fight. They’d come to an understanding.

They were together.

Sort of.

For now.

Ryan’s hand landed on her hip, tugging her back in his direction. His lips fluttered against her mouth. “Damn, babe. You’ve got no idea what you do to me.” He smiled. “You still got those pajamas? From the first night?”

“Counting sheep?” Daisy’s head bobbed up and down. “They’re my favorites. I’ve got ones with frogs at home.”

“I’d like to see that.” His hand moved to squeeze her ass. “Go in the bathroom. Wash your face. Put on the sheep.”

And then sex?

Daisy wanted to object, but Ryan’s voice hadn’t left any room for argument. She collected her pajamas and went into the bathroom. Her hands fumbled as she folded Ryan’s jacket and left it on the side of the sink.

When she got out, Ryan was sitting on the edge of the bed wearing a pair of royal-blue boxer briefs and nothing else.

Damn
. Her mouth watered. She wanted to trace the lines of his chest with her tongue until he came shuddering beneath her touch. She wanted to follow the line of golden hair down across his chest, shove those briefs down, and swallow him whole. She’d never given a man a blowjob before. It had always seemed messy and distasteful and—anyway—it wasn’t something generally done on first dates, right? But she desperately wanted to give Ryan a blowjob.

“Your brain’s whirring.” Ryan pulled the covers back on the bed. “Tell me you’re not trying to work out some math problem.”

“Just trying to decide what I want to do first.”

“You think too much.” He climbed into the bed. “Let me take care of everything tonight.”

It should have sounded like a challenge. But then Ryan smiled at her and Daisy didn’t care. She walked over and got underneath the covers with him.

Now there’d be kissing.

And sex.

She was really looking forward to the sex.

But, instead, Ryan tucked her body up against his and ran his fingers through her hair. “You smell like perfume.”

“Do you like it?”

“It’s fine.” His head bent and he nuzzled the back of her neck. “You usually smell like oranges. Is that perfume?”

“My shampoo.” Daisy frowned. “I can change it if you want. The hotel has free shampoo.” It wouldn’t kill her to use something else for the next few days.

“Don’t you fucking dare.” His hands never stopped moving, petting her tired muscles through the pajamas, stroking her worries away. “I love the way you usually smell, like fresh-squeezed orange juice and Sunday mornings.”

This might be the weirdest conversation Daisy had ever participated in. “I’ve never had fresh-squeezed orange juice.”

“I’ll make it for you.”

“Right.” She tilted her head backward, trying to see him in the flickering lights coming from the Strip. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip. “Are we going to have sex?”

“Not tonight.”

“Because I smell like perfume?”

Ryan chuckled. “Because you’ve had a hard day. It wouldn’t feel right.”

That was okay. Daisy had gone to all the standard lectures in undergrad. Sex was more than just penis-in-vagina. It was about trust and intimacy. Maybe she’d get to give him that blowjob after all.

She waited a long moment. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to sleep.” His lips fluttered against her neck. “And I’m going to hold you all night long.”

It was the most intimate thing Daisy had ever done.