“Seems like it would make sense,” she said. Terri wondered why the hotel was so rigid. As long as the shifts were covered, did it matter which bartender was on duty?
“Anything else?” Now that she’d gotten him talking, she wanted to hear more. Customers were a good ruler of how a business fulfilled its duties. But employees were the heartbeat of the place. If she was now a partner in this hotel—and all the others—she wanted to know what was working...and even more important, what wasn’t.
He laughed a little. “Writing a book?”
“No, just nosy.”
All around them the casino was hopping, and at the end of the bar, two men sat sipping beers and playing video poker.
“Okay, why not? This almost feels therapeutic.” He had to think about it again. “Well, why can’t there be cocktail waiters as well as waitresses? Guys could do the job, too.”
“Good point,” she said, wondering why no one, including her, had ever thought about it.
“And the employee break room?” He shook his head as he warmed to his theme. “Sad. One little fridge and a coffeepot. Oh, and a vending machine with cookies and chips.”
“That does sound sad,” she said, laughing. “Actually, it sounds like the employee break room at the bank where I work.”
“Hey,” Brandon said, holding out a hand. “We are survivors of mediocre food and lumpy couches.”
She shook his hand and made a mental note to write down everything he’d told her. She could talk to Cooper about this next time she saw him. Wow. Was this what it felt like to be in charge? To have power?
At that thought, she nearly laughed out loud. She didn’t have any power. She was a stranger in a strange land and didn’t know what to do first.
“Terri Ferguson?”
Turning at the voice right behind her, Terri smiled at the man watching her. He had short blond hair, brown eyes and was wearing an exceptionally well-cut suit. “Yes, I’m Terri Ferguson.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said, holding out one hand. “I’m Dave Carey, Cooper’s executive assistant.”
“Oh.” She smiled wider and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, too.”
When he released her hand, Dave looked at the bartender and said, “So, what are you and the new owner of the StarFire talking about?”
“New owner?” Brandon’s voice was soft, worried. “Terri Ferguson. They told us you’d be arriving soon. I’m sorry, I didn’t know—”
“There’s no way you could have known, Brandon,” she said, trying to ease the panic in his eyes.
“Is there a problem?” Dave asked, shifting his gaze back and forth as if sensing the sudden tension.
“No, of course not,” Terri said quickly. No doubt Brandon was frantically rethinking their conversation and wondering if he’d said something that was going to turn around and bite him. His gaze shifted briefly to Dave then back to her with a silent plea in his eyes and she knew he’d rather she didn’t mention what they’d been talking about.
Smiling, she turned to Dave. “Brandon’s been really helpful. He was just telling me about the movie theater on the third floor.” She shook her head. “Apparently, I didn’t get far enough in my wandering. I couldn’t believe you have your own theater.”
“It’s not my theater now, Ms. Ferguson. It’s yours.”
“Terri, please,” she said and ignored what he’d said. Until she got accustomed to all of this it was easier on her to not really acknowledge that she was an owner of this fabulous place. “So, how did you know where to find me?”
Dave eased onto a bar stool, then pointed to several spots along the ceiling. “Wasn’t difficult. Surveillance cameras. They’re all over the hotel and casino.”
Cameras. Of course. She hadn’t considered that and she should have. Honestly, even the bank in Ogden had security cams everywhere but the bathrooms. Naturally, a luxury hotel with a crowded casino would have cameras everywhere. Why hadn’t she considered that earlier? She’d thought it was her secret that she’d wandered all over the hotel. Now she knew Dave had seen her. Had Cooper watched her, too? Had he bothered to look?
Perfect. A minute ago she’d hated the idea of Dave watching her every move and now she was disappointed thinking that Cooper hadn’t? She didn’t need to be thinking about Cooper right now.
“So you have been observing me the whole time? That’s a little creepy.”
Brandon moved off to serve another customer, but not before sending Terri a quiet thank you with his eyes.
“You make it sound like I’m a stalker,” Dave said with a disarming smile. “You can relax on that score. I happened to be going over a security issue and saw you sitting here at the main bar. Thought I’d take the opportunity to meet you in person.”
Okay, that made sense and eased that deer-in-the-headlights feel that had briefly gripped her. Terri laughed. “I guess you are a little busy to be watching me meander through the casino.”
“Never too busy to watch a pretty woman,” he said, then quickly added, “in a nonstalker way.”
Smiling, and relaxing in his company, Terri picked up her wine and took a sip. “I appreciate that. But it’s still a little creepy to have so many cameras documenting everything that happens. I mean, I get why they’re needed, it’s just...”
Dave nodded sagely. “I understand. It seems these days that there are always tiny incursions on privacy.”
“Exactly.” It was a shame Cooper Hayes wasn’t as easy to talk to as his assistant. And it was a shame that Dave Carey didn’t give her the same tingles that Cooper did.
“Still, I think most people are willing to put up with creepy if it means they feel safer.”
“I suppose,” Terri agreed. “Or maybe it’s because they don’t really look up and notice those cameras focused down on them.”
“Maybe you’re right.” He gave a shrug then changed the subject. “We’ll have to have a long conversation about the pros and cons sometime. But for right now, what do you think of the StarFire?”
“It’s beautiful,” she admitted shamelessly. “I took a little tour of it by myself. There’s way too much to see in an hour or two, but I wanted to try to get a feel for it.”
“And did you? Get a feel?”
His tone was almost flirtatious and she wanted to tell him that her body was too busy burning for Cooper to be interested in someone else. Dave seemed nice, but he didn’t give her the same zip of interest that Cooper had.
Terri laughed and shook her head. “I don’t think that’s even possible right now.”
“I get it.” Dave signaled to Brandon and when the bartender came back, ordered a draft beer. “It must be hard for you, coming into all of this so unexpectedly.”
Was that sympathetic or patronizing? Hard to tell. But he’d been so nice, Terri gave him the benefit of the doubt. “It’s very strange. In so many ways I can’t even count them all. I think my mom’s in even deeper shock than I am.”
“Your adoptive mother didn’t know who your birth father was?”
“Nope. There weren’t a lot of open adoptions twenty-eight years ago. She and my dad were just glad to get me.” Terri thought about that for a long second or two, then smiled at Dave. “I have a wonderful family. Jacob Evans did me a big favor by putting me up for adoption.”
Reaching out, he gave her hand a quick squeeze, then released her. Nope, no zip of heat. Too bad, she thought. An attraction to Dave would have been much easier to deal with.
“I’m sure he would have been glad to know it.”
A pang of regret for the man she’d never know echoed inside her. “Did you know Jacob well?”
“Oh, yes. For more than a decade.” Dave took a sip of his beer. “He wasn’t an easy man, but he was a brilliant businessman. I think Cooper will miss his input.” He paused then said, “But you’ll be able to step into you
r father’s shoes there, won’t you? I mean, taking on his responsibilities in the company.”
Nerve wracking words, but Terri was up for it. She was a fast learner. Stepping into upper management position at such a well-established company wouldn’t be easy. But it wasn’t impossible, either.
“It’s a lot,” she said, lifting her wineglass for another sip. “But I’ll catch on.”
“Oh, of course you will,” Dave said. “No one expects you to know everything right away. And I’m happy to help any way I can.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.” Terri took another sip and studied Dave over the rim of her glass. He was handsome, polished, friendly, but she didn’t get the same surge of something hot and tempting from him as she did from Cooper. It would probably be much easier working with Dave, since her hormones wouldn’t be distracted, so if he was willing to help her out, she’d be grateful.
“You’ve met Cooper, I know.”
“Yes, he showed me to my suite.”
“I’m impressed,” he said, laughing. “Getting Cooper to take ten minutes away from the company is a real accomplishment. He gets busy, wrapped up in his work. With a corporation this size, there’s always something to be handled. Some problem or challenge that has to be met. He’s constantly talking about just how much work there is to do and he never stops. Which means I don’t, either. Cooper expects the same kind of commitment he makes, from everyone around him.” Dave glanced down the bar to where Brandon was filling a cocktail waitress’s tray. “He doesn’t have much time for anything but the job. So if he seems to be ignoring you, try not to take it personally.” He turned back to Terri and she read sympathy in his eyes. “I’ll be here, ready to stand in for Cooper whenever I can. Help ease you into your new position.”
“Thank you.” A workaholic partner who would expect the same from her. Well, Terri wasn’t afraid of work. True, she didn’t know anything at all about the hotel business, but she was smart and capable. She would learn.
And, she would prove to Cooper Hayes that she was more than just Jacob Evans’s surprise daughter. If Cooper was too busy to be bothered with her, then she’d take Dave’s help to find her feet here. She’d been given the chance at something wonderful—she’d be crazy to turn away from it.
Bells erupted. A woman in her sixties with short, graying blond hair and a T-shirt that read Don’t bother me, I’m reading, shrieked and a crowd of people surrounded her as she shouted, “I won! I won! Oh, my God!”
Terri smiled at the woman’s excitement and just beneath the thunderous noise, she heard Dave say, “People come from all over the world, hoping to get lucky in Las Vegas. But you got lucky before you even arrived, didn’t you?”
She smiled at him and gave a quick look at the casino and the thousands of people milling around. It was all so new. All so promising. All she had to do was work with a man who turned her knees to jelly and carve out a role for herself in this company.
Lucky? That’s how it looked, she admitted silently. But she wondered if that was really true.
* * *
Two days later Terri was alone on the balcony of her suite, watching the sun begin to set. She kept a safe distance between herself and the railing where a sheet of Plexiglas provided protection from the wind, and still she had a spectacular view. A palace of a suite. Anything she wanted with a simple phone call to room service or the concierge. And yet she couldn’t settle. Couldn’t make herself relax on the couch, lose herself in a movie, relax in that glory of a tub. Heck, she couldn’t even call Jan. Her insides were jumpy; her mind was racing. And nothing was going to ease it.
For two days she’d immersed herself in the hotel business. There was so much she didn’t know, it was staggering. Dave had been as good as his word. He’d taken her to the office floor and introduced her to so many people, their faces became a blur and their names forgotten almost as soon as she heard them.
She’d sat in on a planning meeting and tried to keep her mind on what was being discussed while meeting Cooper’s icy gaze. He had studied her as if trying to figure her out, then as soon as the meeting was over, he disappeared rather than spend any one-on-one time with her. Which irritated her on so many levels Terri couldn’t begin to count them all. If not for Dave Carey, Terri would still be wandering aimlessly through her new life.
Her brain was filled with things she’d never be able to keep straight. Plans for new hotels and scheduled board meetings on expansion of a company that was already global. And she knew that she’d only seen the tip of the iceberg that was Hayes Corporation.
Nerves rattled her in spite of how kind Dave had been. Why wasn’t Cooper the one to help her adjust to all of this? She was his partner, after all.
Why was he avoiding her?
“And more important,” she murmured, “why is it bothering you that he is?”
Was he deliberately ignoring her, trying to make her so uncomfortable that she’d simply leave without learning more about her legacy? Or did he think her so unimportant she didn’t rate any extra time?
“Well, either way, it’s insulting,” she mumbled. Curling her fingers around the wide iron railing, she let the residual heat from the metal slide into her skin while the cool October wind rushed through her hair like cold fingers. “Whether he likes it or not—heck, whether I like it or not—I’m his partner now. I think I deserve better than being ignored.”
The more she thought of it, the higher the flames of her indignation flared. Had Cooper assigned Dave to her? As if she were some long lost relative to be bought off with a tour and a nice glass of wine? Was Dave patronizing her on Cooper’s behalf? If that was it, Cooper was in for a surprise.
“Okay, sure, I’m not a tycoon. I don’t know anything about the hotel business,” she admitted, squeezing that railing. Asking herself why she hadn’t gotten a degree in business instead. At least that would have served her better in this situation. Staring off at the distant mountains, watching them go purple with the sunset, she shook her head. “I’m here, though. And my...father...wanted me here.”
Okay, that really wasn’t the reason she’d come. She hadn’t known her father so it felt hypocritical somehow to mourn him or to do something she didn’t want to do simply to honor his wishes. She was here for herself. She hadn’t really known that she was unsatisfied with her life before, because it was all she’d known and she’d accepted it. But now, out of the blue, she’d been handed the opportunity to completely shake up her life. How could she not at least try?
“I’m going to be the best partner ever and Cooper is just going to have to get used to having me around.”
When a knock on the door sounded, she practically raced through the living room, desperate for anything to focus on besides her own whirling thoughts.
She opened the door and stopped dead. Cooper Hayes, big as life and twice as gorgeous, stood there, looking down at her. Instantly, she wished she were wearing her high heels instead of slip-on flats. Being several inches shorter than he was made her feel at a disadvantage. Of course, so did the fact that she was happy to see him—in spite of being so irritated with him only moments before—and he looked as though he wished he were anywhere but there.
“Cooper.”
His black suit was tailored to perfection and he wore a midnight-blue tie shot through with silver over a white dress shirt. The tie had been loosened and the top collar button undone. For Cooper, she figured this was casual wear.
One hand braced on the door frame, he pushed the other through his hair and, fascinated, Terri watched those thick strands fall perfectly into place. She almost sighed and then wanted to kick herself for it.
“What’re you doing here?”
He scrubbed one hand across his face. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Why the change? You’ve ignored me for two days.”
He scowled. “I was working.”
; “Right. And now all of a sudden you’re not?”
“Look, it’s time we talked. That’s all. Are you going to argue with me about it or just let me in?”
She considered it.
“Well?” he asked.
“I’m thinking.”
Shaking his head, he snorted. “We can argue later, okay? Let’s talk now.”
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “About what, specifically?”
Instead of answering, he said, “You held your own in the planning meeting today.”
That was a lie and she knew it. With so many facts and figures being tossed around, Terri had been too humbled to say much at all. Oh, when asked directly, she’d given her opinion, but that hadn’t happened often. Most of the employees were taking their cues from Cooper, and he hadn’t exactly been hanging on her every word.
“Not really,” she said. “I just didn’t stumble on my words.”
“It was more than that.” He pushed away from the doorjamb. “Have you eaten?”
“Not yet. It’s a little early and...”
He looked as irritated as he sounded. And yet, there was something about the energy bristling around him that made him even hotter than before. His jaw was shadowed with whiskers, those ice-blue eyes were narrowed on her and with that carefully shaggy haircut, he looked like a well-dressed pirate.
With that thought firmly in mind, it didn’t take much for Terri’s brain to imagine him in tight leather pants, shirtless, swinging a cutlass through the air as he held her pinned tightly to his side. Okay, fine. Maybe she was reading too many romance novels if she was mentally putting Cooper Hayes onto the cover of one.
He snapped his fingers in front of her face and Terri jolted. “Excuse me?”
He shrugged. “You zoned out.”
Okay, yes, she had and she didn’t want to think about why. “Right. Anyway, it’s early. I was going to call room service in a while.”
“No need.” He held one hand out to her. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
Tempt Me in Vegas Page 5
