GAMBLING ON LOVE (Travis Series) (3 page)

Beth stood on the deck of her beach house
, breathing
in the fresh ocean air
.
It felt good to be home
.
She’d taken a taxi from the airport and immediately sent her report with a cover letter and invoice to Mr. John Stockton of Stockton Enterprises
.
By tomorrow afternoon she should have an additional seventy-five thousand, plus the cost of expenses, deposited into her
company
bank account
.
This assignment had lasted over a month and she was ready to take on something closer to home
.
Greece
was
fascinating, but
nothing
delighted
her more
than
puttering around
her house o
r taking a walk o
n the beach.

She’d already showered
but hadn’t gotten dressed yet. T
he temptation to spend a few minutes gazing at the beauty of the ocean
was simply too hard to resist
.
It was a balm for her troubled mind. In the hours
since parting with Sam, she’d begun to worry
about what would be expected of her that evening
.
Would Sam want her to engage in the conversations or was she
merely
there as an ornament?
She didn’t relish being any man’s arm candy, but refused to let herself hope for anything more.

Another thing that
concerned
her was th
e lack of thought she’d given to leaving her car at the Santa Monica Pier where she’d asked Sam to meet her. Vandalism wasn’t likely while there were still so many people around, but if the dinner party lasted too long
, there might not be a car to come back to.  Well, it
was too late to do anything about it now
.
She
didn’t
even
have
his phone number,
al
though she supposed she could look it up in the phonebook if she really wanted to.

Beth wandered back into the house and closed the sliding glass doors
.
It was five o’clock and time to start getting ready for her date
.
Date
.
Could she really call it that
?
Lord, she hadn’t been on a date for almost five years
.
As she
settled on the stool in front of
the
vanity
mirror
to
apply make-up
,
Beth’s
thoughts strayed
to her business and the beginning of her career
.
 

Once she’d figured out how good she was
as
a corporate investigator, Beth quickly made a name for herself
.
Since starting her own investigation company
,
she barely had time to think about the other things that were missing in her life
.
Not that she’d ever had much luck maintaining relationships of any kind anyway
.
After her mother died seven years ago, she
’d
rarely even called her father and couldn’t even remember the last time she’d seen him.
 

As for her two sisters…well, they’d never really gotten along when they were growing up so why should they make the attempt
as adults
just because they happened to have the same parents
?
She’d dated in high school and college, of course, but there had never been anyone she’d cared enough about to see more than a few times
.
Then she’d met Stephen.

Stephen DeBay was the CEO at a corporation she’d been called in to investigate early in her career
.
She’d been attracted to him and his boyish charm
immediately,
and Stephen made no attempt to disguise his attraction for her
.
Even though it
was against her personal policy to become involved with anyone employed by a corporation she was investigating, she’d found it impossible to resist him once he decided to pursue a relationship
.
Beth had been set up as the new
account executive
to the
p
resident so she had frequent reason to be in the presence of the company’s
handsome
CEO.

It
still
made her
blush
when
ever
she
re
called
how shocked Stephen had been to discover she was still a virgin
. T
he weekend of passionate lovemaking that followed
was
a source of shame for her now, but at the time she thought she was madly
in love and that the feelings were mutual
.
For the three days Beth had spent with Stephen, she’d been happier than she could ever remember being in her life
.
Then the following Monday, she uncovered an e-mail sent from Stephen to one of the production supervisors.
 

He thought it had been erased, but Beth was extremely adept at searching the hidden files in computers and reconstructing them
.
Stephen
was the one
who
ha
d been selling
the
company’s secrets to a competitor
.
The production supervisor
was
pulling parts from the line and passing them to Stephen so he
would have
samples to forward with the stolen blueprints
.

Beth finished her make
-
up and brushed her hair out
.
Her auburn hair was naturally curly
,
falling
almost to her waist
.
She rarely wore it down, but tonight she pinned only a small tendril with a diamond studded butterfly
.
For some reason, she felt Sam would like it better this way
.
As she pulled on her undergarments and nylons, Beth’s mind wandered back to Stephen.

She’d been crushed by his betrayal, especially once she learned he’d known all along
she was an investigator
.
Even though the
p
resident of the corporation
had been instructed
to tell no one, he’d
confided in
Stephen
.
De
spite Stephen’s protests and vows of love, she knew in her heart he’d only been using her
. He’d planned to seduce her from the beginning
;
Hoping
, of course,
that she was so enamored by him that she wouldn’t
reveal his
criminal
involvement.
 

Beth had walked away with a broken heart and a much greater grasp on the realities of just how deceptive men could be
.
She hadn’t so much as cast a second glance at a man since her painful experience with Stephen
.
Until she’d met Sam.

She stepped into the shimmering blue dress and pulled the thin straps over her arms
.
Her
favorite semi-formal never failed to make her feel sophisticated and sexy
.
The scoop neck and form
-
fitting bodice emphasized her ample breasts while the soft material clung to her slim figure like a second skin
.
Beth examined herself in the full
-
length mirror, turning sideways,
and
then doing a complete circle
.
The dress fell just above her knees, and with the matching high
-
heeled sandals and clutch purse to complete the outfit, she felt satisfied Sam wouldn’t be disappointed.

Beth checked the time and was surprised to see it was almost six o’clock
.
She grabbed a silky lace shawl in case the night air got too chilly and was out the door less than five minutes later
.
The
Carousel
wasn’t more than ten minutes down the road so she wasn’t worried about being late
.
After parking
her sporty red car
, she strolled over to the
Carousel
where
children and adults alike
were
laughing
and
having the time of their lives as the horses went round and round.

Sam strode toward the
Carousel
keeping a sharp eye out for Anne
.
If she hadn’t looked so out of place in the sexy dress she was wearing, he would never have recognized her
.
As he drew closer, desire for her flooded his body in a heated rush
.
She had her back to him so his view was restricted to
the
long flowing mane of auburn hair accompanied
by
a well
-
rounded bottom and shapely legs
. He
couldn’t imagine how the front view could possibly be any better
, but it was
.
 

Anne
must have
sensed his
presence because she turned around at that precise moment.
Sam’s
libido
instantly
kicked into overdrive
.
He let out a low whistle between his teeth
.
God almighty, she was breathtaking
.
Her bright smile drew his attention to her lips
, and
it was all he could do to keep from pulling her into his arms right there and kissing her.

“You look stunning, Anne,” he said when he stood before her.

“You’re not disappointed
?”

“Oh, no,” he said huskily, “I’m extremely pleased
.
Shall we
?”
He held out his arm, shocked
by
the way her soft touch excited him.

“So tell me what I’m supposed to do,” she said as he walked her to his car.

Sam found it difficult to keep his eyes from straying to the enticing swell of her breasts as he spoke
.
“Honey, the way you look tonight, I don’t think you’ll have to do anything but stand there.”

Beth laughed
.
“I assume that means you approve of the dress?”

“You look positively delicious.”
 

He stopped
next
his car; an
Aston Martin
V12 Zagato that he’d acquired less than a year ago. That particular model hadn’t even been released to the public yet, so he was particularly proud of the sleek Aston and enjoyed driving it on special occasions.
Normally,
Sam
preferred his pickup, but he could hardly expect a woman in a dress to climb into it with any semblance of grace
.
He opened the door for
Anne
and was pleasantly surprised
when
she didn’t bat an eye at the expensive car
.
Most of the women he took out fell all over themselves when they saw the shiny black
Aston
, impressed by the
evidence of his extensive wealth.

“Is this just a dinner or is it a business meeting too
?”
Beth asked once they’d started on their way.

“There’s a presentation first,
and
then dinner and dancing
.
I won’t start working the crowd until after they’ve eaten and had a few cocktails. People tend to be much more
amenable
to a sales pitch when they’re relaxed. I’ll need you by my side while I’m circulating the room
, especially when I’m speaking to female executives.”

Beth shot a sidelong glance at Sam.
“
You have a problem communicating with female executives?”

“Not at all.
The problem is attempting to carry on an intelligent conversation with a woman while her husband or
boyfriend size
me up
.”

“Ah, now I understand. The men peg you as a playboy out to steel their woman. By having a female companion
at your side, the jealousy factor is eliminated
.
”

“Exactly.”

Well, that explained why a man like Sam would utilize an escort service. The woman was given a role to play and was, undoubtedly, paid well for doing it. No surprises, no worry on his part that his date would alienate a potential client
.