Hot Number (13 page)

The bimbo act made it harder to keep her
concentration on the count, but it didn’t seem to matter. Her hot
streak kept going, and by seven o’clock her winnings had increased
to more than seven thousand. Another player at the table, an older
man with a Stetson and a Texas accent, had won even more. Still,
the pit boss remained far more interested in Sadie, often standing
directly behind the dealer and glaring daggers in her direction.
She didn’t know what she’d done to attract so much venom, but it
was starting to seriously cut into her mood.

Staring down at her pile of chips, Sadie
weighed her options, knowing she should probably just stop for the
night. Or maybe even head down the Strip to another casino. But she
didn’t want to stray from the Desert Oasis—not when she still hoped
the sheriff would come riding in soon.

She pushed a fifty-dollar chip toward the
dealer and was rewarded for the tip with a nod and a wry smile. As
she got up, she searched for a table where the minimum bet was much
lower, and spotted one chair open at a twenty-five dollar table at
the far end of the pit.

At the new table, she stuck to the basic
strategy, betting the minimum every time. It bored her half to
death, but she needed a break from the pressure of high-stakes
betting and pit boss scrutiny. Maybe she wasn’t so great at the
risk-taking, high roller life after all.

“Looks like somebody’s been doing some
winning.” A warm breath caressed her ear as she registered the
familiar deep voice.

“Sheriff!” She spun around in her seat to
face him, the relief making her almost lightheaded. God, he looked
good. Tall, broad-shouldered, and so masculine in jeans and a
leather jacket. Still, she couldn’t help but notice the weariness
in his eyes and the deep grooves around his mouth that signaled a
whole lot of stress. “How are you?” she said anxiously. “How’s your
mother?”

He stared at the stacks of chips in front of
her, a slight frown marking his brow. “It could have been a lot
worse. The doctor wants to keep her in the hospital for at least a
few more days to run tests.”

“I’m sorry, Nick. I sure hope she’ll be
okay.”

He nodded, finally looking at her. “She will
be. Look, why don’t we go someplace where we can talk? Unless you
don’t want to break your lucky streak.”

Sadie reached to scoop up her chips. The
blackjack table drew her like steel to a magnet, but the choice
between cards and Nick Saxon didn’t take any brain power to figure
out. “I don’t know why I’ve been so lucky. Must be living right,”
she replied, so happy she couldn’t help giving him a huge grin.

“Right. That must be it.”

The skeptical tone in his voice startled her.
“Well, I can always come back later,” she said uncertainly. “Unless
I get a better offer, of course.”

The words were out of her mouth before she
could stop herself. She could hardly believe she’d just handed him
a gold-embossed invitation to her bed. Holding her breath, she
prayed he wouldn’t bat the offer back in her face.

His mouth still held to a compressed line,
but his eyes flashed with heat. “I’ll see what I can come up with,
Ms. Bligh.”

“Lead on, then, Sheriff.” She tossed a chip
to the dealer and followed Nick out of the casino and through the
side doors of the hotel. He’d parked his SUV under the green
canopy.

“You spent the whole day at the hospital?”
Sadie asked as he opened the door for her.

Nick helped her up into the impossibly high
passenger seat. “Pretty much. I left at about four. She was resting
okay by then.”

She reached out to touch his arm, still
worried for him. “I’m really glad she’s all right. I just wish
there was something I could do to help.”

He propped a booted foot on the runner and
leaned his arm on the door frame, smiling down at her. “There is,
actually. How about you take a little drive with me out of town? I
could stand to unwind a bit.”

A vision of a moonlit drive into the nearby
canyons flashed into her mind, but she didn’t want to get her hopes
up. “Don’t tell me—there’s a monster truck rally somewhere,
right?”

He snorted. “That’s really lame, even for
you.” He nudged her into her seat and closed the door. A few
moments later he had the SUV in gear and rumbling down the Strip.
“Ever been to Laughlin?”

Sadie had never heard of it. “Is that a
town?”

“A small city, actually. About ninety miles
south of here on the Colorado River. It’s become a pretty big
resort destination. Lots of casinos.”

“That’s where we’re headed?” She had no idea
why he’d be taking her to another gambling town, especially one an
hour and a half away.

“Yep.”

Even in the dusky twilight, she caught a
mischievous look in his deep-set eyes as he glanced toward her. “I
must conclude that you have a very good reason for dragging me away
from a remarkable winning streak so I could spend three hours on a
dark public highway.”

He flashed a sexy, wolf-like smile. “What do
you
think?”

“Would you care to share it by any
chance?”

“Why? Don’t you like surprises?”

Sadie shook her head and sighed. “I forgot.
Professional interrogators only
ask
questions.”

He laughed, reaching over the console to pat
her knee. The welcome brush of those calloused fingers across her
skin was enough to set off a shower of sparks low in her belly and
between her thighs.

“Sadie, just stretch out those sexy legs of
yours and relax. You can tilt the seat all the way back. We’ll be
in Laughlin before you know it.”

He pushed a couple of buttons on the dash and
some alt-country music floated out from speakers all over the car.
She smiled back at him, hoping she didn’t look as nervous as she
felt.

In fact, she loathed surprises. Not that she
was a
total
control freak, but she couldn’t stand not to be
prepared—for anything. Nothing gave her more
agita
than
being thrust into a situation she hadn’t had the opportunity to
think through and prepare for. It was one of the reasons she loved
mathematics so much. It was something that made sense to her,
something reliable, something she could control.

Until losing the Eagleton Prize had blown her
life to smithereens, that is.

Sadie bit back a groan, frustrated at her
inability to stop thinking about work, especially when she was
about to head out for a night with the hot sheriff of her dreams.
She must be even more tired than she realized.

Jerking upright in her seat, she suddenly
remembered Nick had been up all night. “Are you sure you’re okay to
drive? You must be exhausted.”

“I grabbed a few hours sleep before I went
back to the hospital this afternoon. I’m a Marine, remember? I’m
used to long hours and not much shut-eye.” He gave her a mock
glare. “Now just put your seat back and get a little sleep
yourself. I have plans for you, and they don’t involve you falling
asleep on me.”

Sadie rolled her eyes at him, but the tension
in her chest began to ease. It seemed Nick had everything under
control, just like he had last night. And she
was
nearly
bone-tired, especially since she spent most of the night tossing
and turning. Reaching her right hand between the seat and the door,
she located the power controls and inclined the seat to forty-five
degrees, extending her legs and leaning back into the luxurious
leather.

The big SUV arrowed along the desert highway
as the dusky sky faded from orange to pink, and then into the
gorgeous blue shades of the fast approaching night. As her eyes
started to get heavy with sleep, she gazed across the console at
the sheriff. It hardly seemed possible, but he looked even sexier
than he did in one of his suits, not to mention a whole lot more
approachable, with his low-slung, faded jeans, tight black tee
shirt, and brown leather jacket so soft it looked comfortable
enough to sleep in. He clearly hadn’t had a chance to shave. She’d
never been a fan of the five o’clock shadow, but in Nick’s case she
was happy to make an exception. The tingling in her breasts and the
heavy, soft pulse between her legs told her how much of an
exception.

But he confused her. So powerfully,
resolutely masculine, and still so dark and dangerous even now that
she knew him, Nick Saxon was not the kind of man to pick out
someone like Sadie Bligh for a fling. But pick her he did, and for
the life of her she couldn’t figure out why.

Not unless he really did have a hankering to
discuss particle physics after all.

* * *

“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty. We’re here.” Nick
gently shook Sadie’s shoulder. She’d looked so damn cute snoozing,
with her sweet lips softly parted, open and vulnerable. Of course,
if she knew she’d slept with her mouth open she’d probably be
mortified, but he’d found it strangely endearing.

She sat up, shaking her head to clear the
cobwebs. “I slept through the whole trip?”

Then she noticed her little red skirt had
ridden up to within an inch of dangerous territory, so she wriggled
her behind and tugged it down. He’d been glancing over at those
gorgeous bare legs every few minutes, wanting nothing more than to
run his hand up her smooth thigh until he again found the
ultra-feminine warmth he’d explored so thoroughly last night. “Only
for the last hour or so. I think you need more stamina, ma’am.”

“We can’t all be Marines, soldier-boy,” she
huffed while she stared out the window. “I’m guessing this is
Laughlin?”

“Sure is.” A few seconds later, he stopped,
hopped out, and strode around to help her down from the SUV’s high
seat. He’d deliberately parked at an angle away from the building
so she wouldn’t see their destination immediately.

Holding her shoulders, he turned her to face
in the opposite direction. “There’s where we’re going.”

Her hand flew to her mouth and her eyes grew
big with surprise. “Lord, save us. What in heaven is that?”

The ocean of rainbow neon that assailed their
eyes had been Mac Morgan’s pièce de resistance when he built the
Moroccan Spa near downtown Laughlin. Sadly, the usual good taste of
Nick’s best friend had decided to take a leave of absence when it
came to designing the exterior of the building. To Mac, it had been
a spectacular success, but Nick thought the outside of the
two-storey structure, with its garish tiles and pointy Arabic
arches, might have been somebody’s idea of a Middle Eastern
whorehouse. Fortunately, the inside looked a lot better.

“I know it’s over the top, but believe me,
you’re going to love this place.” He put a hand behind her back and
gently pushed until she started to move forward of her own
volition.

Sadie scanned the building. “Kind of Mecca
meets Vegas, isn’t it? But it looks closed. The parking lot is
completely empty.”

“It
is
closed. To the general public,
that is. But not to us.” He pulled on the heavy double door whose
polished wood was stitched horizontally with heavy iron bolts.

“Finally. I thought you were going to keep me
waiting here all night.” The gruff voice of Mac Morgan boomed
across the foyer. As he strode up to greet them, his gaze latched
onto Sadie like a missile locking onto its target. “Ah, Nick. This
is the lovely young lady you told me about.”

Nick tamped down his irritation as the other
man let his gaze linger far too long below Sadie’s collarbone.
Unfortunately, his friend could be a bit of a sexist dick when it
came to women.

“Knock it off, Mac,” he growled under his
breath. Sadie was turning five shades of pink, but also looking
kind of flattered under Mac’s admiring gaze. “Sadie Bligh, meet Mac
Morgan, spa keeper extraordinaire. And formerly the best damn
weapons specialist I ever worked with.”

Sadie reached out a tentative hand, then gave
a startled squeak when Morgan reached his gorilla arms around her
and hugged her to his chest. “Give Mac a hug, darlin’,” he
bellowed, giving her a squeeze and a couple of hearty slaps on the
back before releasing her.

Nick had to repress a laugh at Sadie’s
stunned expression. “When I told Mac I’d met someone interested in
having some special experiences during her vacation, he offered to
let us use the spa for the evening. We’ll have it completely to
ourselves.”

Mac leered the way guys do when one of them
is about to score. Thankfully, Sadie didn’t seem to notice. “We
closed up at eight tonight, as usual, Nick. But I’ve left
everything up and running for you two. You’re welcome to stay as
long as you like. Even overnight, though the cleaners will roust
you at six.”

“We’ll be heading back tonight,” Nick said.
“But thanks, anyway.”

Mac gave him an obvious wink. “I’d love to
chat, but I expect you two have better things in mind. Here’s a key
for the front door. You can hold on to it. I’ll get it back next
week when I’m in Vegas.” He gave Sadie another overly warm hug,
shook Nick’s hand and headed toward the back of the building where
he kept his car.

“What a nice man,” Sadie said with a warm
smile.

“Sure, but you don’t know him like I do. If
he’d hugged you one more time like that, I’d have had to kill
him.”

She blushed again, but gave him a reproving
look. “Nick Saxon! You’re jealous of your kind and generous
friend?”

“Hell, yeah. Mac’s never seen a good looking
woman he didn’t want to get flat on her back.”

Sadie ducked her head and let out a little
gust of laughter. “Men. You’re all such pigs. But I must say that
you two are doing wonders for my fragile ego.”

Nick slipped his arm around her waist. “Well,
I’m about to boost that ego some more. Come with me, little lady.
It’s time to explore the casbah.”

Sadie was going to love the Moroccan Spa, and
he couldn’t wait to throw some fuel on the bonfire they’d started
last night.