Sapphire in the lobby. I’ll let Trish know you’ll be late.
Sophie dropped the phone back into her clutch with an eye roll. Two minutes late. She hadn’t even made it to the bar yet, and already she was getting a lecture. The elevator arrived with a chime, and Sophie sighed. Naturally, out of the eight possible elevator doors, the one that opened was at the far end from where she was standing.
Sound the judgmental alarm, big sister, she thought. I might be a whole three minutes late.
Thanks to the painful boots, Sophie’s gait was more of a constipated shuffle than an actual walk. She was barely two-thirds of the way toward the open elevator when the doors started to close again.
“Oh, come on!”
Really? Of all the cities, Las Vegas hadn’t had high heels in mind when they’d set up the elevator timing? But the Vegas gods apparently heard her dismay, because, as if on command, the doors reopened just as she reached them.
Finally something going her way. She shuffled into the dimly lit elevator and stumbled.
Oh wow. Okay, so two things were going her way. It wasn’t the Vegas gods who had held the elevator for her. It had been another type of god entirely.
The tall, handsome variety.
Sophie was vaguely aware that she was gaping, but some men were simply meant to be ogled.
The perfectly tailored suit was definitely designer, and the subtle cologne smelled like money. His body had broad shoulders and a lean torso—the hallmark of a well-used gym membership.
The short cut of his brown hair only emphasized the classic masculinity of the square jaw and straight nose.
The eyes were a startling pale gray. Scratch that. Silver. And cold.
Sophie stiffened as she realized the physical appreciation was all one-way. Far from being admiring, his gaze was downright icy, and the rest of his face was completely expressionless. She instinctively disliked men who couldn’t muster a simple, polite smile for strangers, especially when she was drooling like Cujo.
Still, his indifference was nothing a little flash of leg couldn’t fix.
Sophie slipped into one of her more appealing characters. The one that had elderly men calling her “little lady,” and the younger generation buying her martinis and jewelry.
Slowly, she slid her hand down her side and fiddled with the hem of her skirt in shy modesty, as if, Oops, she just now realized her tiny skirt barely covered her lady bits.
Knowing that his eyes would have drifted down to her thighs before gentlemanly manners insisted he look back at her face, she let her lips turn upward into a bashful smile and pulled at the tip of her hair self-consciously.
It was all done in a split second, the movements perfectly manufactured to imply that she had absolutely no idea how darling she looked.
Sophie eyed her prey to see how he was reacting to her routine.
Her smile slipped.
He hadn’t taken the bait. He wasn’t even looking at her. He was staring at the elevator doors with a pinched expression as though he couldn’t wait to be out of a small confined space with someone so unsavory.
She narrowed her eyes. Fine, then. So he wasn’t a seduction candidate. There’d be plenty of horndogs prowling around the Vegas Strip who would be interested in a little harmless rebound sex.
This guy’s idea of sex was probably the equivalent of a nap. Efficient missionary position. Bra on. Disdain for messy body fluids. Yawn.
He reminded her of Brynn. They had that same uptight Oh crap, I lost a tree trunk up my ass expression. Still, she couldn’t leave him alone. Not completely. The man’s rigid posture and sullen mouth just begged to be provoked. Sophie took a step closer, hiding a smile as he shifted farther away from her.
“Hi there!” she chirped, knowing that her chipper tone would irritate him.
Silence.
She tried again. “Thanks so much for holding the elevator for me. As you can see, these boots here aren’t exactly made for walkin’—”
Sophie’s sentence broke off.
The elevator jolted sharply and everything went pitch-black before lurching downward in a faster-than-normal descent.
Ohmigod ohmigod.
The narrow platform soles of her boots were no match for Armageddon, and Sophie was thrown off-balance.
Directly into the arms of the Gray Suit.
She buried her face against his chest, her nails clutching at his neck like a terrified kitten. Please, God, if you make this death trap stop plummeting I swear I’ll stop pestering this grumpy man.
The elevator shuddered again and then stopped.
She remained attached to the stranger as he seemed the only secure thing in sight. She inhaled the reassuring scent of Rich Man and relished the way his breath ruffled her hair. Vaguely she became aware that her nails were still clenched around the back of his neck, but she couldn’t bring herself to move away from his warmth just yet.
He finally cleared his throat and pushed her upright with a rough grip on her shoulders. She whimpered slightly at the withdrawal of physical support, her mind still blank with terror.