Cat Schield - With Love From Las Vegas

A reduction in the car’s vibration told him she’d eased off the accelerator. The world continued to streak by, but he could pick out a few more details in the shadowy landscape.

“Are you sure you don’t want to drive?”

“Positive.” He turned his head in her direction. “Being your passenger lets me enjoy the view.”

Her gaze left the road and darted his direction. “Except you’re not looking at the scenery. You’re staring at me.”

“Exactly.”

She returned her attention to the empty two-lane road. “I don’t get it.” Her lopsided smile told a different story. She liked his attention.

“Don’t get what?”

“Why’d you leave your dad in charge of entertaining the executives tonight?”

“Rather odd for a control freak like me, isn’t it?”

“Are you planning on throwing that in my face all night?”

“I don’t know. Are we going to spend the night together?”

“I hadn’t given it much thought.” Missy’s breathless tone gave her away.

Sebastian grinned. “I have no plans in case you’re wondering.” He noted the time on the dashboard clock. Nine-thirty. They’d been driving an hour. “We can drive all night if that’s what you want.”

“But what do you want to do?”

“I’m not the one in charge of tonight’s entertainment. You are.”

The car slowed still more. “I don’t like being in charge.”

“Really? I’m enjoying it immensely.”

The car stopped. Missy made a U-turn and began to head back to town. Sebastian hid his relief.

“Why?”

“Because role reversal is a good way to broaden your understanding of someone else.”

“And that’s what we’re doing?” she prompted, her tone wry. “Broadening our understanding of each other?”

“You tell me. How does it feel to be in charge of all the decisions?”

“Exhausting. How do you do it all the time?”

He laughed. “It’s not so bad once you get used to it. And I don’t make all the decisions all the time. Why do you think I gave you my house to decorate?”

“When did you become so enlightened?”

“Around the time you called me a tyrant, I think.”

She shook her head. “I never called you a tyrant.”

“You told me my demanding ways were responsible for the company’s employee turnover. If that’s true, I’m not acting like a good leader, am I? And that’s what this week is all about—improving leadership skills.”

“I forgot to ask you how it went today. Is your father behaving himself?”

Sebastian entertained Missy with stories of his father’s preoccupation with his cell phone as they drove back to the hotel.

“I’m surprised,” she said as the lights of Las Vegas drew closer. “He seemed very interested in your speech.”

“When did you talk to him about that?”

“This morning as I was checking to make sure everything was ready to go.”

Sebastian drummed his fingers on the car door. “What else did you talk about?”

She must have heard the tension in his voice because she grimaced. “Nothing about what he saw in your suite yesterday morning, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I wasn’t,” he lied.

Conversation drifted into less complicated topics as she negotiated the strip and parked the car back at the hotel. He set his hand on the small of her back as he guided her across the concrete to the elevator that would return them to the hotel’s lobby. From there they could head into the casino or back to his suite. He wondered which she’d choose.

“Winning the car was fun,” Missy said as they stepped off the elevator and were met by the activity of a casino in full swing. “Problem is, I don’t know how to get it home.”

Sebastian followed her as they headed toward the elevators that serviced the hotel’s rooms. Tension leaked out of his body with each step. She was obviously not interested in gambling away the night. But was she up for anything else?

“Max ships cars all the time,” he said. “I’ll give him a call in the morning and see if he has a carrier he can recommend.”

“I never thought about shipping it home. I figured I’d either have to drive it back to Texas or sell it before I left.”

The elevator deposited them on their floor. Sebastian kept his hands to himself as they walked down the hall. He didn’t trust himself to touch her. Plus, he’d put her in charge of tonight’s entertainment. She was in control.

“Why would you sell it?”

“I’ve never owned anything so impractical before.”

“Maybe it’s time that changed.”

They stopped beside the door to her hotel room. Missy regarded him with open curiosity, waiting to see what he’d do. Sebastian surveyed the pliant curves of her mouth.

“Good night, Missy,” he said, squashing his satisfaction at her disappointed expression. Whether they spent the night together was her decision to make. He bent down and brushed his lips across her cheek, lingering to enjoy her tantalizing fragrance. “Sweet dreams.”

With her disappointment in Sebastian’s chaste kiss thundering through her body, Missy watched him disappear into his hotel suite, leaving her abandoned in the empty hall. Heat blasted her cheeks. Her hands trembled so badly she had trouble fitting the keycard into the slot. She stumbled through the door when it opened, scarcely supported by knees turned to warm jelly. The bed looked like a safe place to rest until the whirling in her head slowed. Instead, she walked to the door that connected her room to Sebastian’s.

When she pulled it open, she found him waiting for her. Before she completed her sigh of relief, he’d caught her up in his arms and strode toward the bedroom.

“Hey,” she protested. “I thought I was in charge of tonight’s activities.”

“As soon as I get you naked I’m at your command.”

Sebastian dispatched her dress with more urgency than finesse. She wasn’t wearing stockings, but he made quick work of her bra and panties.

“Beautiful,” he murmured, his lips drifting down her neck. He lowered her to the bed, ignoring his earlier promise to let her be in charge.

Missy didn’t care. She tugged his coat off his broad shoulders and somehow worked all his shirt buttons free.

“Help me,” she demanded as her fingers fumbled with his belt.

Brushing her hands aside, he rolled off the bed and shed the rest of his clothes. Gloriously naked and aroused, he returned to her.

“Fast or slow?” he queried, his tongue dipping into her navel.

Missy’s hips bucked off the mattress as his fingers glided up her thigh. “Yes.”

He chuckled. “It can’t be both. That was an either-or question.”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

“That I can do.”

And to her delight he did.

Long, slow and deep. Tender and adoring. By the time Sebastian settled between her thighs, his kisses and caresses had touched every inch of her skin.

“I could get used to this,” she sighed as his erection nudged her entrance. She clutched his shoulders as he flexed his hips and drove home.

He framed her face with his hands and smiled. “Get used to what?”

As he began to move, Missy arched her back to take him deeper, the sense of fulfillment touching every cell in her body. She belonged to him. And he to her. They were a match. No wonder she’d lasted longer than any other assistant he’d had. She understood him like no one ever had before.

She could get used to having his arms around her every day. Get used to arguing with him as often as they made love. Get used to being the woman he came home to every day.

“I could get used to telling you what to do.”

A good three feet separated Missy from the floor-to-ceiling windows in Sebastian’s suite and the fifteen-story drop to the bright lights of the Vegas strip. The view enthralled her, but the height made her head spin. Seemed like a lot of things made her head spin since she’d come to this glitzy city. The man sleeping in the bed behind her was the leading cause.