that good or bad?”
“You know it’s good.”
He shrugged. “Few people have the insight to see the impact they make on others.”
She laughed. “I did. When I was working as a dancer. I was talented, but it was pretty obvious men saw me as a sex object.”
“They didn’t look very far. There’s a hell of a lot more to you than a pretty face and a great body.”
“Thanks. But how do you know?”
“I’m a good judge of people. Where did you dance?”
“At one of the big hotels on the Strip.”
“Why did you stop dancing? Did you get caught in the economic downturn?”
“No. I was on the fast track for a big featured role. Then a drunk driver in the parking lot ended my career.”
“Ouch.”
“In more ways than one.”
“Did they catch him?”
She shook her head.
Noah gave her a considering look. “How do you know he was drunk?”
The question took her by surprise. “I just assumed…you know.”
“I’ve learned not to make assumptions,” he said, the words hard-edged.
The way he said it sent a little chill skittering over her skin. Could somebody have hit her on purpose?
But who? And why?
Who would gain from that?
Her brother’s smirking face leaped into her mind. But she simply couldn’t deal with thoughts of him deliberately setting her up. She shook them away and focused on Noah. “I’m finally back on my feet, but I won’t be dancing professionally again. It’s just too much strain for someone who injured a leg.”
“You got workers’ compensation?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Yes. But it’s run out.”
He kept his gaze on her. “Before we were so rudely interrupted in the garden, you were going to tell me what’s bothering you. I guess it was losing your job?”
She heard the question in his voice. And wondered how she was going to answer.
Olivia struggled with a surge of emotion. The offer was so tempting. It would be such a relief to tell Noah Fielding the whole truth. Pearson had gotten her into bad trouble. Well, not as bad as it could have been, but bad enough.
She’d seen how Noah handled Eddie Carlson’s brother. Maybe he could handle her brother, too. Make him back off from his dirty little plot aimed at rich guys who wanted to make sure that what happened in Vegas stayed in Vegas.
But the idea of admitting to Noah that she was involved in a shameful scheme to blackmail men made her chest tighten painfully.
She liked Noah and he liked her. What would he think if she told him that desperation and coercion had driven her to the edge of doing something criminal?
She took a breath and exhaled. Before she could give in to temptation, she said, “It’s personal.”
“All right.”
The flat way he said it made her half wish she had the guts to trust him. But she simply couldn’t do it. Maybe because it was too important for him to think well of her.
“I’d better go,” she said.
He’d scooped her up as if she was light as a cloud. Now it was awkward climbing out of his lap and she felt even more awkward as she reached to pull down her tight dress and twist the skirt back into place.
He gave her a long look that made her insides quiver. Before she could change her mind, she turned and fled.
NOAH waited until Olivia was out the door. He didn’t know why she had become important to him, but she had, in a very short time. Hurrying to the door, he opened it a crack and watched her waiting for the elevator. When it arrived and she stepped inside, he hurried down the hall and pressed the button, hoping the next car would arrive quickly.
As he shifted his weight from foot to foot, he thought about running down the stairs. He was fast, but he wasn’t a superhero. From the seventeenth floor, he would never make it before she walked out of the elevator lobby. Then he’d lose her in the crowded casino.
When the next car came, he leaped inside, startling a couple who looked like they’d gotten into something kinky on the rooftop observation deck.
By the time they’d exited on the eighth floor and he’d reached the lobby, Olivia was nowhere in sight.
So where would she go?
He thought about the guy who had been watching her in the Fountain Bar. Maybe he expected her to report in. Maybe she’d oblige him and maybe she wouldn’t.
He headed toward the bar, which was also near the hotel’s entrance onto the Strip. When he spotted her, he breathed out a sigh of relief. Then he saw that she was talking to the guy in question, who wasn’t exactly acting like her best buddy.
Noah’s first impulse was to rush over to them and get into the middle of the conversation. He could make sure the man understood it would be dangerous to hurt Olivia. Anybody who did that would have to deal with Noah Fielding.
As his logical mind considered the consequences of such impulsive behavior, he wasn’t sure the threat would have the desired effect. Olivia and the guy both presumably lived in Las Vegas, and Noah was only in town for a few days. He might frighten the man in the short-run, but that left a whole lot of time afterward when Olivia would have to deal with any local problems on her own.
Noah had had centuries of practice reading body language. He might have said his life had depended on it, but of course, death was not an option for him.
As he studied the pair, he was sure they knew each other well. Husband and wife? He clenched his fist, hoping that wasn’t true. Not when she’d been so responsive in his arms.
Taking a deep breath to settle himself, he studied both their faces and noticed a similarity about their features. There was a definite family resemblance. The guy’s face was a masculine version of Olivia’s, but while Noah sensed an underlying honesty in her, the man came across as a slime.
It wasn’t just his features. From the guy’s posture, Noah would bet he wanted to get rough with Olivia, but he couldn’t do it in a public place.
Confirming Noah’s suspicion, the man looked around the hotel lobby. When nobody appeared to be watching the little drama, he made a grab for her arm. His fingers touched down on her skin, but
