“What do you mean?” Sam asked.
“See, you’re already slipping. You didn’t even ask me about my interaction with her.”
“I determined she wasn’t a physical threat, so I left.”
“A physical threat, no. But a threat? Yes.”
“What happened?” she asked.
“Agree to come with me this evening, and I’ll tell you.”
“I could track her down within minutes and ask her myself. What. Happened?”
The harshness of her words was reminiscent of anger. Sam was angry with herself. My pointing out the fact that she had slipped in her job wasn’t working in my favor. It was only serving to prove her point.
All I wanted to do was get her out with me and to open her back up a little bit. I enjoyed what I saw when we were vulnerable with one another. All I wanted was to experience that again.
Even if it wasn’t during sex.
“Say you’ll come out tonight,” I said.
“You’re being manipulative, and I don’t respond to that. I’ll track her down myself,” Sam said.
“Someone sent her here to write a botched story on me.”
“What does that mean?”
“Someone gave her a misleading hot tip about my coming to Vegas with the wife of someone from a company I’ve purchased this year. She was manipulated into coming to Vegas to try and destroy my public image.”
“Did she happen to tell you where this ‘hot tip’ came from?” she asked.
“No, but she told me she would squash the story about my being in Vegas. Gretch doesn’t take very well to be manipulated, either.”
“Seems like we have a lot in common,” she said with a murmur. “I’ll have to look into who gave her that tip.”
“Well, while you do that, I’m gonna hit up one of the casinos. See you later tonight.”
I pushed away from the doorframe and went to grab my wallet. I couldn’t hear Sam moving around, and a part of me really thought she was going to let me wander around Vegas on my own. I slid my suit coat onto my arms and pushed into the alcove of our rooms, resigning myself to a lonely night of watching over my shoulder just to keep up appearances.
Then Sam slid from her room, wearing a dress I hadn’t seen before on her.
It was a royal blue dress that fell perfectly to her knees. Her heels were blood red as I raked my eyes up her form, taking in the way she placed lipstick on her lips. She rolled them around, spreading the makeup on as she reached up for the bun in her hair.
She shook her head out, allowing her waves to cascade down to her shoulders.
“How the hell did you change so quickly?” I asked.
“Trick of the trade,” she said. “Lead the way, asshole.”
I grinned as we made our way to the car. I opened her door for her, and she stepped in, her fluid legs making her seem more graceful than I’d ever witnessed. We headed toward The Bellagio as Sam watched the world pass us by outside, and my eyes roamed over her body again. Now that I knew what was underneath her clothes, it was hard to keep my distance. I wanted to slide next to her and slide my arm around her waist. I wanted to pull her strong curves into my stronger muscles. I wanted to pull her onto my lap and slide my cock into her body, bypassing the removal of clothes as I took her in the back of our limousine.
I figured I could treat her to a night fit for all the women I’d slept with.
I led her into the casino, and we made our way to the restaurant. I ordered the most expensive bottle of wine I knew she would like. The wine came to the table and the waiter poured me a glass, but when he went to pour Sam a glass, she stopped him.
“No, thank you,” she said politely.
“Are you sure? It’s a fantastic bottle of wine,” I said.
“No. Thank you,” she said calmly.
The entire dinner was like that. She seemed to enjoy the food, humming every so often and eating a little faster than I imagined her to eat. But she kept her distance. The conversation was minimal at best, and soon, I stopped trying to ask her questions. I was beginning to look like an idiot, and if there was one thing I never enjoyed, it was looking like an idiot.
Fine. If she was going to play her cards this way, then I had my own set of cards to show her.