Las Vegas Nights. Cat Schield
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For the past five years, since she’d left her acting career behind in Los Angeles and moved to Las Vegas to run Fontaine Richesse, Logan had watched her disappoint one suitor after another. He’d decided she was a coldhearted woman who enjoyed tormenting men, and kept his own desires firmly in check. A challenge when she took great pleasure in teasing him.
Shifting his focus to what had brought him to Harper’s office this morning, he gave her an accounting of what he’d found during his consultation with his team regarding her security system.
“There won’t be any problem having the cameras adjusted before your soft opening,” he concluded.
“Good.” She’d been making notes as he spoke. “One less thing to worry about.” She glanced at her watch. “If there’s nothing else, I have a meeting in ten minutes.” A line appeared between her brows as she muttered, “That’s providing he bothers to show up this time.”
“Actually, I did have one more thing,” Logan said. “A favor, actually.”
He caught Scarlett’s sudden interest in his peripheral vision. She leaned her elbows on the table and watched intently. He would have preferred to make his request to Harper in private, but with her hotel opening only ten days away, her time was limited.
“My niece is in town for the rest of the summer and I wondered if she could shadow you for a couple weeks. Observe a businesswoman in action.”
Harper, the oldest of the three women by a year, was Ross Fontaine’s only legitimate child. She had the training and the ambition to take over for her grandfather when he stepped down in two years. Harper’s mother came from old East Coast money and had insisted her daughter be raised in New York City and educated at an Ivy League school. Her style was elegant and professional, from her smooth chignon to her black designer pumps.
“You’re the perfect role model,” he finished.
“The perfect role model,” Scarlett echoed, her throaty voice rich with laughter. “The ultimate professional.”
Logan glared at her, realizing he’d laid it on a bit thick. But the task his sister and brother-in-law had handed him was outside of Logan’s expertise.
“I’d love to help,” Harper retorted. “As soon as the hotel opens.”
“I was hoping you could start showing her the ropes sooner.”
“I don’t know how I can....” Harper sent a hopeful look in Scarlett’s direction. “What about you?”
“My schedule is wide-open,” Scarlett said, her gaze as steady and watchful as a psychiatrist’s. “I’d be happy to help.”
This was not at all what Logan had in mind. His relationship with Harper was professional and cordial. What happened between him and Scarlett could only be called acrimonious. His niece was already a troublesome seventeen-year-old. Under Scarlett’s influence, the girl would become completely unmanageable.
“Unless Logan doesn’t think I’m role-model material,” Scarlett continued when he didn’t immediately jump on her offer. Her ability to read his mind with unnerving accuracy gave her an unwelcome advantage over him.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Harper appeared oblivious to her sister’s subtext. “Besides, your hotel is operational. She’ll get a much better sense of how things run. Now, if you two will excuse me, I have an internationally famous pain in the ass to meet with.”
Logan stared after Harper, cursing his bad timing. He should never have brought up his problem within earshot of Scarlett.
“Tell me about your niece,” Scarlett prompted.
“I don’t need your help.” Being subtle was not the way to handle Scarlett.
“No,” she said in a sugarcoated tone, “you don’t want my help.” She added coffee to her cup, lifted the rim to her mouth and blew across the surface. “There’s a difference.”
Captivated by the small O formed by her bright red lips, he took far too long to respond to her gibe. “Very well,” he agreed. “I don’t want your help.”
“How old is she?”
Logan took a couple seconds to grind his teeth. Despite being trapped between frustration with his niece and the woman sitting across the table from him, he told her what she wanted to know. “Madison is seventeen. She’s my sister’s youngest.” And in the past three months had driven Paula and her husband, Randolph, past the edge of patience.
“Madison? As in the capital of Wisconsin?”
“As in Madison Avenue.” Logan winced. “Her father owns a large ad agency in New York City.”
And Paula was a partner in a prestigious law firm. Madison had inherited both brains and ambition from her parents. She’d graduated second in her class and had been accepted to four prestigious universities. If she’d wanted, she could’ve swiftly climbed any corporate ladder she chose. Instead, to both her parents’ horror, the teenager had decided to become an actress.
“And he’s hoping she’ll follow in his footsteps? From your sour expression I’m guessing that’s not what she wants to do.”
“She’s refusing to go to college. She turns eighteen in two weeks and is determined to move to L.A.”
Scarlett’s curiosity sharpened. “What’s wrong with L.A.?”
“It’s not the city, it’s her chosen career path.”
“Instead of me dragging it out of you one question at a time, why don’t you just tell me what’s really going on. And why you wanted her to shadow Harper.”
Sharing family troubles with outsiders went against the grain, but he desperately needed help. Anyone’s help. Even Scarlett’s.
“Madison ran away to Los Angeles over spring break. She’s determined to become an actress.”
Scarlett’s full lips twitched. Over the years he’d noticed how well she could read people. Normally he concealed how easily she riled his temper and his hormones, but in this case his sarcastic tone had given too much away.
“The scandal that must have caused your family,” she deadpanned.
“She’s only seventeen.”
“And she could’ve fallen into someone’s evil clutches.”
Logan didn’t appreciate that she was having fun at his expense. “Thankfully that didn’t happen.”
“What did happen?”
Not a damn thing. Madison had moved in with a boy she’d met in New York City the summer before and signed up to take an acting class. She’d even gotten a callback for a commercial.
“Her father found her before she got into trouble and brought her back to New York.”
“Why don’t they just let her follow her dream?” Scarlett poured herself a little more coffee. “Being an actress isn’t the worst job in the world.”
“Paula and Ran don’t think it’s the proper career for a girl as bright and capable of going places as Madison,” he explained. “They want her to go to college and get a degree.”
Other than a brief narrowing of her eyes, Scarlett’s expression remained tranquil. “I didn’t go to college and I think I’m doing all right.”
So said the former child actress whose exploits had kept the paparazzi awash in scandalous photographs for several years. Scarlett’s support of Madison’s acting dreams was exactly why he hadn’t asked her for help.
“You also had a billionaire grandfather bring you to Las Vegas and hand you a hotel to run.”
He didn’t realize how insulting that sounded until her seductive charm vanished in a flash of annoyance.