The Moonlight Serenade

by Ava Miles

  Her time with him was her own form of rebellion.

  At least he thought that was true. He still didn’t know anything about her experience with Dustin’s father. That gaping hole kept him awake some nights. The more he cared about her, the more he wanted to know what the fucker had done to hurt her. Why he had abandoned her and one of the best kids around. Since Rhett’s own father had been a complete asshole, he didn’t spin any Pollyanna tales about the magic of fatherhood. Some men simply weren’t suited for it. His phone beeped again.

  Give me a few minutes. I’ll be there soon as I can.

  He tidied up his and Rye’s glasses. Checked out his visage in the parlor’s mirror. He’d taken off his carmine red leather vest since he thought she’d be more comfortable with his loose white chambray shirt. While his pants were suede, they were chocolate brown and pretty tame for him. He’d chosen a gray cowboy hat with a silver band. Again, still in keeping with his style, but not too over-the-top.

  When he hit the tables tomorrow, he’d wear his new alligator boots and white leather pants and vest—no shirt—with a zebra-striped cowboy hat. Jane and Elizabeth loved the outfit, and since Elizabeth had started tweeting about his clothes, much to his fans’ enjoyment, they were starting to pick out what he wore. Oh, those gals…

  He texted to make sure his poker babes were covered for the evening. Usually they preferred to hole up in their own suite before a tourney. Despite the image they presented, they were not party girls. Quite the contrary. They would be watching video on Rhett’s key competitors, looking for any betting strategies or tells—even though everyone was prepared for tomorrow. Himself included.

  A discreet knock sounded on the door, and he raced over to open it. He felt rooted to the floor when he saw her. She stood in the hallway in a black suit with white piping on the edges, looking ready to step onto an old movie set.

  When she looked like this, sometimes he was afraid to touch her.

  “Hello, Rhett,” she said with a hesitant smile.

  “Hey, sugar,” he said, stepping back to let her inside.

  Once the door clicked, they lunged at each other. His mouth fused with hers in a wild, drugging kiss. He felt her hands working their way down to his belt buckle.

  “I need you,” she panted against his chest. “Right now.”

  He didn’t hesitate. He hiked up her skirt and pulled her panties out of the way as she undid his pants. Her hands on his hot flesh had him groaning. Dipping his knees, he pushed into her hard. She groaned, and he could tell she was already on the edge—just like she usually was their first time together after an absence. His slid in high, kissing her neck, and she shattered, crying out. He locked himself in place to keep from coming. This was going to last. He always made their first time together last. Forcing his eyes closed, he reached for control as she pulsed around him.

  When he felt her caress the back of his neck—like she always did to signal she’d come back to herself—he boosted her up onto his waist and carried her into the bedroom.

  Laying her on the bed, he focused on unbuttoning her jacket and spreading it open.

  “I’ve been thinking about this for days,” she said, her voice lush and low in the quiet room. “I need more.”

  Her words gratified a primal part of him. His woman needed him.

  “I know what you need,” he said, pulling out of her and undressing them both.

  He felt her arms clasp around him as he kissed her sweetly. The edge wasn’t gone for her. He could feel it in the way her body vibrated against him. Smoothing down her torso, he took her up and over again. When she finally lowered the hand over her eyes—something she was prone to do when she experienced her pleasure, he’d come to realize—he slid back into her.

  “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this,” she whispered again, joining him in the dance. “Or you. I’m worried I’m becoming a sex maniac.”

  He laughed hoarsely, but the feel of her soft skin against him prevented a wicked reply. Coming onto his knees, he raised her bottom up and increased the pressure of his thrusts. Soon they were both crying out, hands fisted together like they couldn’t bear to come without the other.

  He savored the stillness he found with her afterward, something he’d never experienced with anyone else. That place held some kind of power, inspiring the reverence he’d felt as a boy whenever his mama brought him to the white church with the spiky steeple.

  He cuddled her close and held her to him. When she raised herself up on her elbow, he met her eyes and smiled. “Hello, honey.”

  “Hi,” she said, a return smile flickering on her lips. “I missed you.”

  He smoothed a lock of her short black hair behind her ears. “I missed you too. You texted.”

  Her face scrunched like she was unhappy he’d called it out there. Well, too bad. “I did. It was only a soccer goal. You didn’t have to text back.”

  “Of course I did,” he said. “Especially when I asked for it.”

  “Hmmm….” she said as though she wasn’t sure what else to say about the matter.

  Progress, he decided. But then he wondered to what end. Mac was waiting for him to respond about a drink in the bar, and he and Abbie would have to pretend their family dinner wasn’t bookended between sexcapades.

  “You look troubled,” she said, tracing his brow.

  “Mac said you were working too hard,” he decided to mention. “Something on your mind, honey?”

  She gave a shrug, more like teenage Dustin than cool-as-cream Abbie. “It’s my way of keeping myself on track. You’re…distracting.”

  He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning. “Am I now?”

  “Don’t sound so smug,” she said, batting him on the chest. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “Honey,” he drawled, “when a man takes you against a hotel door, he pretty much realizes he’s distracting. That is, unless he’s dumber than dirt. Which I’m not.” That made him think about Vandy again. “Did you know I have a college education? I met Rye Crenshaw and his boys at Vanderbilt.”

  Her green eyes widened. “I didn’t know that. I…wow. Vanderbilt, huh? When? What is your degree in?”

  His chest puffed up as he told her the tale, and he had a weird feeling in his chest when she said, “I knew you were smart, but…”

  “It’s not exactly in keeping with my good ol’ boy reputation, although it tickles me some when people assume a World Series poker champion is stupid. Like they think anyone can do it.”

  “I didn’t know it bothered you,” she said.

  “I said it tickles me, honey,” he corrected, rubbing her back. “Not the same thing.”

  “But why go out of your way to perpetuate that image if it’s not true?” she asked.

  He heard a sliver of judgment in her voice, and it raised his hackles. He knew he embarrassed her, but she’d never hinted at it out loud.

  “It’s called a feint or ruse,” he said. “Best to have people underestimate me.”

  “Mac doesn’t do it that way, and he still wins.”

  He took a breath to settle himself. “No, he intimidates straight away. We joined the circuit from different parts of the country, honey. Maven started in Atlantic City while I started in the South. Plus, we’re different people, and back then, I dressed like that because I wanted to make a statement. I still do.” For some reason, that was important to say.

  She raised up and pulled the sheet toward her. “As long as I’ve known you, you’ve pretended to be some wild man, and yet with me…”

  His throat tightened.

  “You’re different with me,” she said, looking at his chest. “You always have been.”

  “You’re a lady,” he said softly. “I treat you with respect. Like you deserve.”

  “Sometimes I wonder who you really are,” she whispered. “The man I’m with in moments like these or the one out there on the circuit flanked by two poker babes.”

  She’d never
said, but she didn’t approve of Jane and Elizabeth. Not that she was unkind to them. They just stayed out of one another’s hair, and he’d thought it for the best. Maybe he’d been wrong about that.

  “Sometimes I wonder who you are too,” he said, turning onto his side to face her. “Outside, you’re the perfectly controlled and responsible single mama, sister, and professional, but with me… Honey, there’s a little bit of wildcat in you too.”

  She flinched.

  “That’s not a mark against you,” he immediately said. “It was a compliment.”

  Rising from the bed, she clutched the sheet. “I’m sure you meant it that way. I should get back. Mac wanted to have a drink with you before dinner.”

  He didn’t know how to fix whatever was going on in her head, so he grabbed her hand and kissed it.

  “I’ll see you later then,” he said and watched her dress and leave him behind.

  Like he feared she would eventually leave him for good.

  Chapter 8

  Abbie clutched the napkin in her lap, watching as Dustin and Mac chortled in response to Rhett’s joke about his short ribs looking like the ones on a Texas armadillo.

  Sometimes she didn’t understand his humor, but she usually made the effort to laugh. Tonight she couldn’t get into the swing of things. They were an hour into dinner, and she felt like she was walled off from the others by a plane of glass.

  How dare he accuse her of being two different people? She wasn’t wild. She was only having fun, exploring her sexuality after it had been turned against her. It was a sight different from pretending to be someone else half the time, hamming it up for the media.

  “Would you pass the salt, Abbie?” Rhett asked, glancing her way. “You’re mighty quiet. If you’d gotten the short ribs, I’d blame it on the armadillo resemblance, but you have that nice chicken salad. You all right?”

  “It was a long day,” she said politely, wanting to kick him in the shins for calling her out in front of Dustin and Mac. He darn well knew she was upset with him.

  “Mom’s been working like a crazy woman lately, Uncle Rhett,” Dustin exclaimed. “I’d swear she’s possessed or something. Uncle Mac says she’s been rearranging the flowers so much at the hotel that they’re wilting earlier than usual. And she’s making me work like crazy too. I’ve never cleaned my room so much in all my life.”

  “The arrangements didn’t look right to me at the moment,” she said, feeling the need to defend herself. “Plus, if a flower snaps or wilts under the pressure, then it wasn’t tough enough in the first place.”

  Everyone turned and looked at her. She cleared her throat. Was she still talking about flowers? Rhett’s gaze suggested he thought otherwise.

  Abbie picked at her salad, unable to hold his gaze. “As for you, young man. You hadn’t emptied your laundry hamper in weeks. Your soccer clothes were rank.”

  “Back where I’m from, ‘rank’ has a lot of different uses.” Rhett wiped his mouth with his napkin, his lips twitching. “But your mama probably wouldn’t want to hear them.”

  “I do,” Dustin said, hero worship visible in his eyes. Did Rhett know how much her son looked up to him? It reminded her how she’d been playing with fire. If Dustin found out…well, he’d start hoping for things that would never happen. She couldn’t allow that.

  Rhett gave him a wink. “I’ll tell you later, bubba. Isn’t that hamburger cold yet? I’m stealing one of your fries. Look out.”

  Sure enough, his hand dove in like an airplane, and Dustin started laughing as he slapped at it.

  Abbie speared a forkful of greens, trying to talk herself into taking a bite. She had no appetite. When she glanced up, she caught Mac watching her. He was worried about her, she knew, but she prayed he didn’t suspect the reason for her disquiet involved Rhett. If he suspected anything, he hadn’t said. But that was Mac. He’d let her work it out herself. She’d have to come to him for advice if they were going to talk about her time with Rhett, and she had no intention to do that.

  Enduring the dinner took the last of her energy. When Rhett insisted on paying the bill, she breathed a sigh of relief that it was over. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and forget their earlier interaction. She’d already said she was tired. She could bow out. Rhett wouldn’t insist she come to him. As for seeing him tomorrow night, she’d play it by ear. Right now, things didn’t feel light and carefree.

  But just when they were about to get on the elevator to go to their rooms, Rhett reached out and stopped her. “Mac and Dustin are going to go on up, but there’s something I want to show you, Abbie.”

  “You’ll love it, Mom,” Dustin said with a grin. “Don’t stay out too late, kids.”

  Mac laughed and punched the elevator call button. “I’ll make sure the munchkin goes to bed on time. Have fun, Abbie.”

  “What?” she asked.

  The door closed in her face.

  She turned to Rhett. “You told them you were going to show me something? Are you out of your mind? I told you—”

  “I know what you said,” Rhett interjected, leading her back toward the lobby. “When you see where I’m taking you, it will make more sense. Mac and Dustin didn’t want to go, although I extended the invitation to them nonetheless.”

  Fuming was an unnatural reaction for her, but there was no denying that was exactly what she was doing. “I don’t want to go anywhere right now, Rhett. I only want to take a shower and go to bed.”

  “Humor me,” he said, gazing into her eyes. “Please, Abbie.”

  When he asked like that, looking at her so sweetly, it was hard to refuse. “Fine. But this better not take long.”

  “Follow me,” Rhett said, and they walked outside to the hotel entrance.

  “There’s Rhett Butler Blaylock,” she heard someone exclaim and then there was a camera flash followed by another.

  She bristled. Being photographed alone with Rhett made her uncomfortable. There were certain implications, and the media had never been shy about making logical leaps. When a black sedan pulled up, she gaped at Rhett as he opened the passenger door. “We’re driving?”

  “Not far,” he said, gesturing for her to get in. The valet had just emerged from the driver’s seat. “Trust me.”

  Casinos were entertainment entities in and of themselves. The competitors—and their retinues—never left a venue while a tourney was going on.

  “It’s a really nice surprise, Abbie,” Rhett said. “Trust me.”

  More camera flashes reflected off the car, and since she was making a spectacle, she ducked into the car and let him close the door. Coming around to the other side, he tipped the valet. Then he got into the driver’s seat and immediately put the car into drive. He drove them out of the casino and onto a highway called CT-2.

  “Where are we going, Rhett?” she asked.

  “I racked my brain for something to make up for earlier,” he said. “I know you’re upset, and I hate that. Abbie, I’m sorry about what I said earlier.”

  An apology and a make-up surprise? Somehow she hadn’t expected that. “I’m sorry too. I don’t want…” She trailed off. If she told him the unvarnished truth about how she felt, she’d be making herself even more vulnerable. She hadn’t yet come to terms with the fact that he made her forget the control she’d cultivated for her entire adult life. It scared the dickens out of her.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I don’t want any bad feelings between us,” she managed to say instead, clutching her seat belt.

  “Me either,” he said. “Let’s hope my surprise raises your spirits.”

  They fell silent, and she paid attention to the signs illuminated by the headlights. They crossed the Shetucket River into a quaint town called Norwich. For the life of her, she couldn’t imagine where he was taking her. When he pulled onto Mohegan Park Drive, there was a truck idling in front of them with its lights on.

  “Give me a moment,” Rhett said as he put the car in park. Before she cou
ld say a word, he bounded out of the car. He stopped in front of the truck’s driver’s-side window, talked to the man at the wheel for a few moments, and then came running back. “He’s going to let us in. The casino arranged a pass for us last minute since the park closes at sunset.”

  Moments later, they were following the truck to a parking lot deeper inside the park. When Rhett finally stopped the car, he turned to face her. “It’s a full moon tonight. I thought you might like to walk in the moonlight. This place has a very famous rose garden, covering about two acres. Of course, they’re dormant now, but there’s a nice path for strolling.”

  He’d brought her to a park with a rose garden? She cleared her throat, trying to dislodge the emotion clogging it. “I didn’t bring a coat.”

  “Mac brought it down earlier,” Rhett said. “He and Dustin weren’t eager to come to the park for a moonlight walk, but they both thought you’d enjoy it.”

  Fear speared her chest. “How did you explain it to them?”

  “I said it might boost your energy after all the work you’ve been doing, and that I needed to clear my head before the tourney tomorrow,” he told her, handing her coat to her. “Mac has seen me leave the hotel before to take a walk.”

  “I thought you always partied into dawn,” she said, following him out of the car.

  “I haven’t done as much of that these past few years, and usually not the night before a tourney starts. Maybe the day before.” He laughed. “I’m a country boy at heart, you know. I like being outside, and the moon is pretty spectacular tonight. I saw it out of my hotel window last night, which is what gave me the idea after you left me. All I needed to do was find the perfect place, and that’s what the hotel’s concierge is for.”

  Plus, Rhett was a high-roller at the tournament. They’d do anything to make him happy. She knew all about that from working at Mac’s hotels. They did the same for their guests.