Lotus Blossom (3 page)

When Lotus hung back, Dash put his arm lightly around her shoulder and urged her to follow Alain.

The table was on a low dais, sheltered by plants but had a clear view of the small stage.

“I didn’t know they had shows in here,” Lotus whispered as Dash seated her, then himself. Alain melted away.

“Small stuff.Piano players, trios, that sort of thing. I don’t like loud sounds with my meals. . . ”

“Neither do I.” Lotus smiled at him.

He leaned toward her. “You have the most beautiful face.”

Lotus drew back, feeling her eyes widen. She came from a loving family, but there had always been a little restraint when it came to deeply personal things. She wasn’t used to someone speaking to her the way Dash did. “Thank you.” She could feel her lips lift in a smile.

He grinned at her. “You
^!
re welcome.” He moved closer to her. “Your skin doesn’t have the olive tones of an Oriental.”

“My mother says that just my eyes and skin are of the West. The rest of me is Eastern.” Lotus smiled as she thought of her adopted mother with the fading blond hair. Her thoughts carried to her adopted father and brothers, then to her cousins, her aunt . . . and then to Uncle Silas.

She heard Dash speak to the waiter, but she didn’t listen to what he had ordered. When the waiter left. Dash turned to her.

“Why are you frowning? " Dash’s breath lifted the fine hair that swept across her forehead.

“I was thinking of my uncle. He’s been ill. He had a stroke." Lotus struggled from her painful memories to look at her dinner companion. She had forgotten for a moment why she was here, what had happened, to her family and Uncle Silas. She had even blanked her mind to Dash being a gambler, and owning the casino that held so many of the bogus IOU’s attributed to her uncle.

“I’m sorry.” He watched the play of emotions across her face. Pain, incredulity, then a slight acceptance. He lifted her fine-boned hand and kissed the palm. “I am sorry that your uncle is ill.” “Thank you.” Lotus didn’t want to believe him. Wasn’t it to his gambling houses that much of the embezzled money was sent? Wasn’t it his accounting department that had sent the bills found in her uncle’s personal files? “I believe you,” she whispered. When his hand tightened on hers, she turned it over so that their palms were together.

Their food came and as they ate, Lotus didn’t remember what she put in her mouth a moment after she swallowed it, yet she knew it was food for the gods. When he opened his mouth for a taste of her food, she lifted her fork with a piece of fish and pepper on it. “Oh, dear, I dropped the pepper.” She laughed, then bit her lip when she saw him watching her.

“Your laugh is beautiful.”

She chuckled. “Can’t be. You said my face was beautiful.” She giggled, then covered her mouth. Dash pulled her hand away, leaning over to

place his lips on hers. “Let me cover your mouth.” Never in his life had he felt so carefree.
You’re a damn fool
,
Colby,
he castigated himself, but he couldn’t stop his pulse from jumping into overdrive when her mouth quivered under his.

Lotus pulled back. “Have to eat my dinner,” she babbled, feeling as though her heart had leaped from her body. Everyone in the busy supper room seemed to have faded away. She and Dash were alone!

“Yes. Do you like the swordfish?” He fought a desire to pick her up and carry her out of there.

Lotus’s head shot downward. Swordfish! So that’s what they were eating. Delicious! “Yes. Thank you.”

“You’re very polite.” Dash smiled at her, and his stomach dropped a thousand feet when dimples appeared at each side of her mouth when she smiled back.

She nodded. “In our house you were either courteous or you received lecture Number 233 as my brothers called it. It could last for two days.” She leaned her chin on her hand when the waiter removed her plate. “Mother is a stickler for good manners.”

“You love your family. Did you say you were adopted?” Dash noticed her stiffen. “Is that a sensitive subject? Your adoption?”

So that’s what he thought?
Lotus mused, hoping he hadn’t noticed her sigh of relief. The man was sharp! She should stay out of his way! Playing around with him was like waltzing with a tiger shark. She nodded, hoping he wouldn’t pursue the subject.

“Shall we have the cheese board and fruit, or would you like a sweet?” Dash changed the subject.

“Fruit is fine.”

After they finished the dessert and drank some coffee, they left the Crystal Room.

“I’d like to dance for a little while. Would you?”

Lotus looked at her watch and was about to shake her head.

“Don’t say no, Lotus. I’ll drive you home after a few dances, I promise.”

“No need. I have my bike.” She had purchased the rather battered five-speeder from a second-hand shop. It gave her the exercise she needed, and it was faster than walking to work.

“We’ll put the bike in the trunk of the car. I won’t let you ride it home so late.” He led her toward the nightclub section of the casino.

Lotus opened her mouth to protest, then closed it. Why should she? She wanted to dance with him.

Again the maitre d’ hopped forward when he saw them, and they were led to a secluded table that had a fine view of the stage and the orchestra.

Lotus lifted her hands to remove her jacket. When she felt Dash’s hands there, pushing hers away, she allowed him to remove it. She turned to smile her thanks and saw him looking down at her, the jacket still in his hands.

“That vest is . . .”

“Beautiful. I know.” Lotus chortled, breaking into a laugh when she saw the appreciative gleam in his eye.

Dash felt his mouth lift in response. She was a darling! Totally unaffected! He felt a surge of sensual interest that he hadn’t felt in years. “How old are you, Lotus?”

“Twenty-five. How old are you?”

“God, you look about eighteen.” Relief coursed through him, glad that she wasn’t as young as she looked. The theory that dark-haired women looked more mature than their lighter-haired sisters just went out the window, he mused, all at once realizing that blondes and redheads seemed bland next to Lotus’s luscious exotic coloring and features.

“Well?”

“Well, what, angel?”

“How old are you?”

“Thirty-seven. Tell me about this engagement of yours while we’re dancing.” Dash helped her from her chair, not seeming to notice the persons who tried to get his attention as they wended their way to the dance floor.

Dash turned her and took her in his arms, bending low so that he could hold her comfortably.

“Won’t you get a crick in your back?” Lotus
said,
out of breath, feeling curtained from the world by his body.

“Not to worry, darling. Now, tell me about your engagement.”

‘There isn’t much to tell.”
And that’s the truth since there isn’t an engagement, not even an understanding,
she thought, wishing he would change
the
subject. “Jeremy went to the university with
my
brothers. That’s how I met him. After graduation my brothers went into, ah . . .” She had been about to say Sinclairs, but she caught herself. If
Dash
made the connection between that name and
the
same one in his files, it would be trouble. “. . .
the
family business. There was a job opening. It w
as
offered to Jeremy and he took it.” Lotus shrugged. “We began dating.”

Dash watched her all the while she spoke. “And are you sleeping with him?”

Lotus stopped dancing, but when she would have turned away, Dash caught her around the waist and held her. “I have to go, Mr. Colby,” she said.

“I was out of line. Forget I asked. Turn around, love, and don’t be angry. They’re playing a great love song.”

Lotus hesitated, aware that other dancers were looking at them curiously. “All right.” She turned in his arms, feeling comfortable when his arms closed around her. “But I won’t answer questions like that. You’re my employer, not my mentor.”

“Right,” Dash agreed, knowing he was going to go crazy thinking of her with Jeremy. With great effort he masked the thought from his mind and concentrated on the words to the song, “Stardust,” which the musicians were playing.

“It is a lovely song,” Lotus whispered.

“Yes.” Dash tightened his hold, feeling her tiny boned but strong body against him.

They danced until the club closed, only sitting down for short periods to sip their drinks.

“Do you always drink mineral water and lime?”

She nodded her head. “Alcohol gives me a headache.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever tasted Saratoga water, even though we sell a great deal of it.”

Feeling daring, Lotus offered him her glass.

He accepted, turning the container until he was drinking from the same spot that she had. Sipping, he watched her, the blood fluctuating in her face. It satisfied him that he could disconcert her. At least she wasn’t indifferent to him! The fact that he cared so much bothered him and he literally stiffened in his chair.

“What is it? Have you a headache?” Lotus noticed the deep scowl on his face that had appeared suddenly—and had just as quickly disappeared.

He looked at her. “It’s nothing. Let’s dance.” He rose to his feet and came around to help her from the chair.

As she led the way to the dance floor, his eyes seemed to fix on the flowing motion of her hips and legs.
She doesn’t walk, she floats,
he thought.

Later when he was walking with her through the casino to his office and all the clubs were closing, she paused in front of the gaming rooms, which never closed. “Do they ever go home?” “Some don’t seem to have a home.” He gave a hard laugh. “Not that I’m complaining. A man lost a million, seventy-five thousand at a twenty-hour session of baccarat last month.”

“You’re joking.” Lotus choked. That made her
uncle’s
so-called debts
of
a half a million dollars, in this casino and in the Xanadu in Atlantic City, seem almost natural. At least it hadn’t taken place in just one day! “What size installment payments does he have?”

“None, love.” Dash led her down the hall to his office, unlocking it with his key.

Lotus felt crimson from head to toe as she stood in front of the office door. It embarrassed her :hat she had broken into his files. Fear that he would discover that she had done it before she could copy the file and return it to its rightful place filled her as she watched him “He wrote a check for the entire amount, and we deposited it in our bank the next day. We didn’t expect it to bounce, and it didn’t.”

“I see.” She tried to smile at him as she walked past him into his office. She faced him. “I really should go, and it’s no problem for me to ride my bike. I ride at night all the time.”

“No,” he rasped, glaring at her, fear filling him at what could happen to her if some creep stopped her. “No, I don’t want you to do that. I’ll drive you from now on when you work at night. You ride your bike when you work in the daylight hours only. If you work at night, I’ll drive you home.”

Lotus could feel her mouth drop open. “Don’t be silly. I usually work at night and I always use my bike.”

“Not anymore.” He pulled a lightweight cotton pullover from a closet. Then before she could blink, he had dropped his trousers and hung them on a hanger on a portable valet near the closet. He grinned at her. “You’re blushing again, love. Haven’t you ever seen a man undress?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I have two brothers.”

He would have bet the casino that she hadn’t seen any men undress in front of her. What brought an innocent young woman to Las Vegas to work? The thought caught in his brain like a burr until he shook it loose. He would think about that some other time. The best news, he thought, was that if she ever did sleep with that fiance of hers, it wasn’t more than once or twice; otherwise, she wouldn’t have looked so uncomfortable when he changed his trousers and shirt in front of her. “It’s not as though I’ve stripped down to the buff, Lotus, is it?”

“Not as if you’ve stripped to the buff,” she echoed him, feeling her stiff lips lift in a smile. God, he was beautiful. Even if she never saw another man peeled down, she would know that she had seen the best there was in physiques when she looked at the man in front of her. She blinked, trying to clear the picture of him from her head. ‘Ready?”

“Ready.” He slipped on the cotton pullover, hooked a blazer over his shoulder, and led her out of the room. When she would have turned left, he urged her right. “This is the way to where the car is parked.”

“But my bike is this way,” Lotus explained.

“Not to worry.” Dash backtracked to his office, unlocked the door, and went over to the phone on the desk. He punched out a few numbers, then barked instructions into the instrument. “There,” he said after he hung up. “The bike will be locked up until tomorrow.”

“But, don’t do that,” Lotus sputtered. “That’s my transportation in the morning.”

“I’ll pick you up,” Dash said soothingly. “Not to worry.” He was leading her to the parking lot as they spoke.

“And do you want to get up at five and ferry me over to Mac’s cafe for the early shift?” Lotus expostulated, trying to loosen his grip from her upper arm.

Dash stopped dead, his eyes narrowed in fury on her. “Why do you work there?”

"Because I get breakfast that way and the few tips I get help keep the Reaper away,” Lotus snapped back. “Now, do we get my bike?”

He continued to walk and she followed. “No, I’ll drive you home, then I'll pick you up tomorrow morning at four-thirty."

“Four-thirty . . . Lotus wheezed, thinking about the two alarms clocks needed to wake her at five, so that she could be at the cafe, one block away, at five-thirty. “I don’t need to get up half an hour early.” “You can at least jog with me as long I’m taking you to work, then waiting to bring you to Cicero’s.” “Waiting?” Lotus gasped.

“Of course. How else would you get to work?” He helped her into the passenger side of the car.