Gold (All that Glitters #2)(16)

Good God! Maybe it was no big deal.

She wasn’t normally blinded by luxury. Her father was an incredibly successful Hollywood director. Her family always had money, but this extravagance for someone he had just met surprised her.

She tilted her head up and let the shock pass over her. She was worthy of this. She was f*cking Bryna Turner. This was the treatment she deserved and the treatment she would continue to expect. This was her game after all.

“I spent half of my summer in France. Of course, I enjoyed their food.” She sent him a radiant smile.

He seemed to be judging her reaction to the whole thing and was pleased that she wasn’t freaking. Perhaps she had passed her first test.

A waiter appeared a minute later and showed them to their seats against the glass windows where a single rose sat in a vase on the table. She tried to refrain from crinkling her nose at the flower. Jude Rose had made her hate her once favorite flower. She should have realized all those thorns were there for a reason.

“I’ve never been here before,” she confided.

“Well then, you’re in for a treat,” Hugh said. “The chef has prepared a special menu for us—five courses, all original creations.”

Bryna raised her eyebrows. He was bringing out the big guns early. Is he trying to impress me, or is this normal behavior?

Their first course was paired with win that complemented the dish, and it was then when she finally felt like she could lead the conversation to more important things.

“So, this is all incredible,” she murmured. “How is this even feasible?”

He laughed softly. “Anything is possible. I thought you would enjoy it.”

“I am. I was just curious, what exactly do you do?”

She knew it was the fatal question. Do or die. It was the one that would seal her fate as a gold-digging slut-bag whore. But she’d asked it anyway, completely on purpose. She didn’t want to be in over her head. She had chosen this, and she wanted to make sure Hugh wasn’t about to walk away at the first sign.

Hugh raised his eyebrows. “You didn’t look me up?”

“I already knew of WC Resorts. When I saw your business card, I knew who you were,” she told him.

“Yet you didn’t call right away.” Surprise slipped into his voice.

She liked it. He knew that his name elicited a certain reaction, and she had deviated from that. Good.

“Well, I wasn’t sure I wanted to.”

“What changed your mind?”

“You did. I figured any man who was confident enough to leave his card with a girl deserved a phone call. It usually works the other way around,” she teased.

“I figured a girl who was confident enough to call me back deserved the Eiffel Tower.” His eyes were alight with humor. “It normally works the other way around.”

She laughed lightly. “All it takes is a phone call?”

“For you,” he said pointedly.

“Fair.” She smiled at the compliment.

Clearly, he thought she was special enough to give her the star treatment, to offer her the Eiffel Tower.

“Besides taking me out to dinner, what does a resort owner’s life look like?” she asked.

“All business. Little time for pleasure,” he said the last word delicately. “I keep the business running, visit the various locations, meet with investors—that kind of thing.”

“I see. You’re not in Vegas all the time?”

“No. I live in Vail and work out of the resort there. I’m usually only in Vegas once, maybe twice a month,” he said.

“I see.” She made a mental note about that. It would only make this whole situation easier for her. Between cheer, classes, and her rather active social life, fitting in a digging situation would be difficult. This seemed perfect.

“What about you?”

“What about me? I live here. I’m here all the time,” she said, playing coy.

“What do you do here?”

She sighed. Time to take a cue from history. She looked up at him from under her thick black lashes and smiled. “Do you really want to know?”

“I’m interested in you,” he told her.

“Come on. Don’t you like the mystery of it all?” It was so easy to slide back into the routine. “Isn’t it more fun this way?”

Hugh eyed her curiously. “You’re going to be a lot of trouble, aren’t you?”

She gave him the most innocent look she could muster. “Me?” A smirk touched her lips, and she lost all pretense. “Not unless your idea of trouble is a lot of fun.”

Turned out his idea of trouble was a lot of fun.

Bryna’s body slammed back into the wall of the mirrored elevator. Hugh covered her, and his lips landed on hers without asking for permission. He claimed her like he had paid for this kiss with dinner. She didn’t mind. His kisses were hot as sin. And she felt a sin coming on.

Her body heated to his touch. After an evening of clever banter and sexual tension that could have been cut with a spoon, it felt good to finally have his mouth on hers, to taste him.

His tongue ran along her bottom lip before entering her mouth, and she sighed with pleasure. This was what it was supposed to feel like—pure blissful tension and sexual cravings crashing down between them. Nothing like the stupidity that came with necessity from being with Andrew and none of the feelings of being with anyone else. Just the knowledge that, here, she was in control.