immediately stilled and shifted to the side of the open door, inside the room.
“Halloo?”
The voice was cultured, British. And decidedly female. Tucker recovered quickly, but didn’t respond. He was tucked behind what looked to be a hand-painted Japanese screen. Why hadn’t security known someone was in this sector? Unless she was hiding. But why call out then? He peered through the slit between the panels, thinking maybe she’d been detained somehow, or that it was a trap of some kind. “Sweet Jesus,” he murmured as he got a good look at the raised dais in the center of the room.
If this was a trap, it was a damn good one.
She was splayed, all dewy skin and wide eyes, across a pile of silk and satin. She certainly didn’t look like she was being held against her will. Nor did she look like a homicidal maniac. But she was most definitely dangerous. All long glisteny limbs, aroused nipples and naked skin.
Maybe vacations weren’t such a bad idea after all.
“I say, are you my…my— What do I call you?”
Turned on, was his immediate thought. Tucker cleared his throat…and the wild thoughts careening through his mind. Thoughts of what it would be like to be the man she was waiting for. Shucking his jeans and shirt and climbing over that pile of satin…and right into what she was so willingly offering.
It was clear she had no idea he wasn’t a Blackstone employee. Not that he had much experience in anything like this setup, but his instincts told him she was simply a guest who had been put in this room by mistake and security hadn’t been alerted. Now he had to come up with some way not to mortify her any more than she’d already be when he explained who he really was. He cleared his throat. “Ma’am, I’m terribly sorry, but—”
“I can’t understand what you’re saying, the screen is muffling your words. It’s alright, you know, you can show yourself.” It wasn’t until she took a visibly steadying breath and pushed herself back into her centerfold position that he realized she wasn’t as confident of the situation as she’d first appeared. He also realized that he was still staring at her.
He quickly shifted his gaze, but his body wasn’t so easily diverted. “No, ma’am, you don’t understand,” he tried again. “I’m not your—whoever it is you’re waiting for. I’m—”
She interrupted him with a light, somewhat forced laugh. “Is this part of the plan then? Am I to take the upper hand? Because, I must honestly tell you that I’d been made to understand it would be quite the opposite. At—at least for this first time.” Her voice had faltered near the end. “Come, show yourself. If it’s breaking some rule, I won’t tell. But it would make things easier for me.” Another shaky breath. “Please?”
Tucker sighed, hating the embarrassment he was about to cause. “I’m not with Blackstone’s,” he said clearly. “I’m assisting the LVMPD. There’s been a problem here in the resort. I’m going to need you to cover up and come with me.”
There was a gasp, then a sudden rustle of satin. “This isn’t part of the…the plan then?” she asked weakly.
Tucker took a quick peek. She was wrapped in some thin paper silk-looking thing that was somehow almost more sinfully erotic than her nakedness. “No, ma’am. And I apologize for the interruption. I was told these rooms were empty and I wasn’t expecting to find…what I found.” He glanced through the screen again. She was tying the knot in her robe, so he stepped out from behind the screen, wishing he were just about anywhere else.
“The room I was supposed to be in wasn’t ready, so Marta, that is, my assistant, brought me here. She must not have alerted my director to the shift. What happened?”
She was obviously mortified, but he didn’t know what else to do except act as professional as possible—and deliver her to someone else’s care as soon as possible. “If you’ll follow me, I can explain on the way.”
He turned for the door, pulling his radio out. “I’ve got a guest in room—” He looked at the small plaque next to the door in the hallway. “Twelve-A. Says she was moved here from another room. She’s fine, but I need to know where to bring her.”
WHILE HER INTRUDER spoke with God knew who, Misty tried to get a grip on what was going on here. She’d been so…ready. This intrusion was more than mortifying, it was an unwanted jolt of reality in the middle of the fantasy she’d so doggedly immersed herself in. Dammit, she’d been ready.
She yanked her belt tighter in frustration. Well, okay, as ready as she was ever likely to be. She’d never be able to do this again. She should have known it wasn’t going to work, that something would happen. Embarrassment fueled her frustration, which turned into anger. “I don’t understand, what kind of problem? Why were the police called?” she demanded of him, even though his back was still to her as he listened to the squawk of his radio.
Gripping the fabric closed at her throat and smoothing her other hand over her thighs to keep the paper-thin robe from flapping open, she was about to demand an answer from him again when he clipped his radio to his belt and turned to face her once again. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out as she got her first good look at him.
He was rather tall, very broad across the chest and shoulders. His legs were thick and long, made more so by the straight black jeans and western boots he wore as casually as the men on Wall Street wore pin-stripes. It was too dimly lit to make out his eyes, other than they were dark. Smoky came to mind. His hair was a thick, inky black, cut short in a way that emphasized the Native American heritage clearly defined in the flat, angular planes of his cheeks and lips. Damn, she caught herself thinking, maybe she should have gone for the Warrior Abduction package after all.
“Are you sure you don’t work here?” she blurted before clamping her lips together. Yet another momentary lapse. She seemed to be cursed with them ever since she’d touched down in this godforsaken city.
“You’re not in any danger,” he assured her.
A real shame, that, she couldn’t help but think. Maybe she wasn’t quite back in the land of harsh reality after all. Or maybe clinging to the fantasy was simply less humiliating.
“Is there anything else you need to take with you? I really need to clear you from this part of the building.”
Misty sighed and unwillingly shook free of the last vestiges of the sensual fog she’d been so expertly wrapped in…and focused instead on what he was saying. “Clear out? Is there a fire? I didn’t hear any alarms or—”
“No, ma’am, nothing like that.” He stepped back and motioned to the door. “This way.”
She didn’t see where she had any choice. But now that her mortification and anger were ebbing…along with that delicious aroused state she’d been in, other questions occurred to her. Questions that needed answers before going one more step with him. She might be a transplanted Brit, but she’d quickly learned that New Yorkers adopted a wary attitude for good reason. “Who are you? Are you security here?” Then she remembered he’d said he didn’t work for Blackstone’s. “Can I see some ID?”
He’d already been moving to the door, careful not to look directly at her. She should be thankful for that, and she was, but not enough to blindly trust him just because he was being a gentleman.
He paused and she thought she saw
