Let it Ride. Katherine Garbera
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jazz station playing Ella Fitzgerald singing “Blue Skies.” The sun was setting in the west and her hair was blowing around her shoulders. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back. The warm wind caressed her skin, and for once she didn’t think about being the nice ordinary sister.
“You’re not just a guest at the casino, right?” she asked.
“I own the Golden Dream,” he said.
She tilted her head and glanced at him. He wore a pair of aviator-style sunglasses and he held the wheel easily in his strong hands. His profile was chiseled and raw. There was something very masculine about him that called to everything feminine in her. The tension and pressure she’d felt while waiting for him in the lobby was slowly unwinding.
At this moment in the car with him, with the sun setting and the wind in her hair, she knew she belonged here. She’d never had such a sense anywhere before but in the small garden of her equally small house.
“How does one train to own a casino? Is there a casino school?” she asked.
“There might be. I learned the ropes working at other places on the strip.”
“You must have been employee of the month,” she said.
“Not quite,” he said with a wry grin.
A few more miles passed and she realized they’d left Vegas well behind and there didn’t appear to be any restaurants on the highway unless you counted the small barbecue joint on the side of the road. But he didn’t slow as they approached it.
“Where are we going to dinner?” she asked.
“Somewhere private.”
“Oh,” she said. Excitement tingled in her veins and she laced her fingers together to keep from nervously tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Don’t sound so scared. I’m not the big bad wolf.”
But when he smiled at her with all those teeth in that sexy face, she wished that he was the big bad wolf and that she was on the menu.
Deacon pulled off the highway and followed a road that led to a deserted stretch of land. He brought the car to a stop. The sun had set and the moon was rising over the horizon. When he was younger, the desert had always been a place to get away from the pressures of life in the city and to hide out. He still left the strip behind for the quiet nothingness of the land when things got too crazy.
Tonight his motives were simple. He wanted a chance to get to know Kylie without the pressure of knowing that any public place they went they’d be on camera. And knowing Mac as well as Deacon did, he knew he’d get some sort of critique of his behavior with Kylie.
“Is this the spot?” she asked, nervously finger-combing her hair.
It fell in soft waves around her shoulders. The wind from riding in the convertible had added to the fullness of the long dark curls. He reached out and touched one of them, then wrapped a smooth strand around his finger. God, she was worlds too soft for him.
He had no business taking this sweet young woman to the desert. Out here he always felt as if he could strip away the sophisticated layer he had to add in Vegas. Once he shed that layer, there was nothing left but the tough guy who was raised on the streets and conned his way up to the top.
This woman, with her innocent questions about casino school, had revealed more than she’d ever know with that one query.
“Deacon?”
“Yes.”
“Are we getting out here? Are we going to have a picnic?” she asked. A hint of nervousness permeated her words.
“Yes to both.”
“Can I help?”
“No. Tonight is just for you,” he said as he climbed out of the car. “Why don’t you flip through the CDs and find one you like, while I take care of everything.”
He removed the cashmere blanket from the trunk and quickly set up their picnic dinner. He opened the bottle of wine to let it breathe and then put out the china plates.
The dinner the chef had provided was still warm from the bags it had been packed in. He heard the throaty sounds of Louis Armstrong come from the car and then Kylie appeared at his side.
He got her seated on the blanket and served her dinner. She sat nervously next to him picking at her food. “Relax,” he said at last.
“I’m trying. This just isn’t my scene,” she said, gesturing to the picnic items.
“Not the outdoorsy type?” he asked. Truth be told, he wasn’t much of a outdoorsy guy. He could survive, because where he’d come from, you learned to do that early on. But he preferred the city. That jungle was his life’s blood.
It was a clear night, and the sky was filled with stars. She set her plate on the blanket next to her, then leaned back and looked up at the sky.
He realized that when she wouldn’t look at him was when she revealed the most about herself.
“Not that, so much as the whole date thing,” she said at last.
“Why not?”
“My mother says it’s because of my divorce.”
She was divorced. He hadn’t planned on his potential wife having been down the aisle once before. He needed to find out more about this. “Is your mother right?”
She shrugged, took a sip of wine and stared at the openness around them. He realized she wasn’t going to say any more. But he had big plans for her. And the bit of cleavage revealed by the neckline of her dress made it damned hard to concentrate on getting information about her past from her.
There was a sadness in her eyes that made him want to cradle her in his arms and promise that she’d never feel sad again. Of course, he knew that was a promise he couldn’t keep, but still she made him want to take vows that would keep her safe. “What happened to end your marriage?”
“You don’t want to hear about that.”
“But I do. I’m very interested in everything that made you into the woman you are today.”
“You don’t have to try so hard.”
He set his wineglass down, not sure he liked where this was going. He wasn’t really trying hard to do anything except keep himself from touching her body and finding out if she really was as soft as he imagined. And from kissing her full lips to ascertain if they were as luscious as they looked.
“Try so hard at what?”
“Hitting on me,” she said.
“Angel, you’re not even close.”
“I’ve heard that before.” She crossed her arms over and gave a look so prim it took all his willpower not to kiss it off.
He took a deep swallow of his wine and wished it was a double Scotch, instead. “No wonder you don’t date.”
“What do you mean?” she asked defensively.
“Exactly what you think it means. You’re a pain in the ass.”
“That’s more like it,” she said.
“What is?”
“Honesty. I know I’ve got more barriers than Nellis Air Force Base, but you have to understand that smooth talking is not going to turn my head.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because my ex-husband taught me a lesson about truth and men I’ll never forget.”
He didn’t really want to hear about the other men in Kylie’s life. Though he suspected there hadn’t been many. She’d confessed to not dating, and there was a look about her that warned men away. He waited for her to go on.
She sighed