“If you’d let me finish,” Terri interrupted. Eli looked at her, stunned that she would so effortlessly put him in his place. When he was quiet again, she said, “Thank you.”
Shifting her gaze to Cooper, she saw a flicker of admiration in his eyes. But she couldn’t think about that at the moment. Instead, she focused on the notes she’d brought with her to the meeting.
“In looking at some of our top hotels—” Yes, she’d said our and that was a stretch for her. But Terri thought it was important to remind everyone here that whether they approved or not, she was a full partner in the Hayes Corporation.
While she had their attention, she continued. “The main thing I noticed was that the hotels are exclusive to the point that ordinary mortals could never afford to stay there.”
The blonde in red gave a dramatic sigh and tapped her long, red nails against the table top. “That is rather the point of a five-star luxury getaway.”
“Agreed.” Terri barely looked at her, thus dismissing her. “And my point is that we’re cutting ourselves off from most of the population.”
“And your suggestion is, to what,” another man farther down the table asked, “hold a half-off sale every other week?”
Cooper’s features remained blank. He remained silent. And Terri knew it was because he was waiting to see how she’d handle herself.
“No, that’s not the idea,” Terri said, giving the rude man a bright smile just to make him feel lousy. “But we’ll save that for later, okay?” Looking from face to face, she said, “My idea is to build a second Hayes Hotel in London—as a test case of sorts. We can call it Hayes 2. With a stylized number two to differentiate between this one and the five-star.”
“To what purpose?” Eli asked with a sigh.
“Affordable luxury,” Terri said and every head in the room turned to look at her. She wasn’t cowed. “We offer this affordable luxury to families. To honeymooners. To seniors off exploring the world.”
A few mutters, but no one stopped her. Success of a sort, Terri decided, and kept going.
“At Hayes 2, we still give the A-plus service we’re known for, but we also make it family friendly.” She took a breath. “At the London hotel, we could work with the tourism industry already there. With every visit we can offer double-decker tours of London in the famous red buses. Or half off tickets on the London Eye—”
A couple of people were watching her with interest now and Terri deliberately avoided looking at Cooper. She didn’t want to know what he thought of any of this before she’d had time to finish.
“We’re not known for family vacations,” Eli said tightly.
“Doesn’t mean we can’t be,” Terri told him, then shifted her gaze around the table, avoiding Cooper. Some of them looked interested; others not so much. But she hadn’t lost them completely. And now that she was talking about her idea, she warmed to it and her voice and body language helped sell it.
“If we offer families a safe, beautiful place to stay, they’ll come. The adults will get that taste of luxury, but in a safe place that welcomes their children. Seniors would enjoy a plush vacation site without draining their retirement accounts. And if London works out, and I think it will, we can do this all over the world.”
She splayed her hands on the folder in front of her. “Everywhere there’s a Hayes hotel, we build a Hayes 2. We become the premium place to stay for everyone, not just the uber-wealthy.”
Silence. That could be good. Or bad. It was hard to tell, just looking at the faces around her, what they were thinking. But no one had shrieked that’s ridiculous and stomped off.
That had to be a plus.
“We’ve never considered this before,” Eli mused, tapping his index finger against his upper lip.
“Maybe we should have.” Cooper spoke up and instantly, everyone’s attention was on him. “It’s an interesting idea,” he continued. “We’ll need some hard numbers, though. I want to know just how many families vacation together in big cities. What they do, how much they spend.” He swiveled his head and pinned a man in his forties. “Ethan, get me as much as you can by tomorrow.”
“On it.”
“I want location suggestions. In London.” He gave the blonde in red a nod. “Sharon, you’re on that.”
“By tomorrow,” she promised.
“And we meet again tomorrow afternoon to discuss the findings. Three o’clock here.”
Murmurs of agreement blended with the soft scrape of chair legs against carpeted floors. Cooper kept his gaze locked with Terri’s as everyone else filed out of the meeting room.
“You surprise me.”
“Good. That’s almost as nice to hear as ‘unexpected’ and ‘honest.’”
He snorted, shook his head and leaned back in the black leather chair. “How’d you come up with this family thing?”
She tipped her head to one side and looked at him for a long second or two. “In the real world, ‘family’ isn’t a ‘thing.’ It just is.”
“Uh-huh.” His gaze pinned her. “So what made you come up with it?”
Sighing a little, she stood up, walked to the end of the table and took a seat beside him. “You know I’ve been wandering through the hotel, looking around, talking to people.”
He nodded.
“Well, I was at the pool, talking to Travis the lifeguard—”
“The lifeguard.”
“That’s right. Anyway, he was saying how the pool was rarely busy because the guests don’t really want to get their hair wet or something—” What she didn’t say was, she’d seen it for herself. Yes, October was cool, even in the desert, but warm enough for the “beautiful people” to stretch out on chaises beside the pool. When she was there, a sole man had been swimming laps.
“Travis has a lot to say...”
“Don’t get all huffy,” she said quickly. “I asked him.”
He frowned. “What the hell is huffy? Never mind. Go on.”
“Anyway, there are some kids here, but the pool’s so deep it’s really not child friendly.”
“We have a kid’s pool,” he argued.
“Please.” Shaking her head sadly, she said, “It’s like the size of a hot tub. Kids need room to play. With slides and water toys and—”
He held up one hand. “I get it. So from this, you decided we should go into the family hotel business?”
Terri shrugged. “I’m from Utah. People there have lots of kids. And they take vacations. People with kids like nice hotels, too. But if the kids are bored, no fun for anyone.”
“I didn’t say it was a bad idea.”
“You didn’t say it was a good one, either.”
“Does it matter to you what I think of it?”
“Well, yes.” She leaned back in the chair and slowly swiveled it back and forth. “We’re partners, right?”
He studied her and those cool-as-ice eyes gave nothing away. All Terri knew for sure was that she’d survived the meeting, and that Cooper was still making her feel things she probably shouldn’t. But oh, the burn and sizzle in her blood felt good anyway. And on that score...she needed to know something. “Vega seems nice.”
He snorted, pushed out of his chair and walked across the room to the small refrigerator installed in a wet bar/coffee station. “No. Celeste is many things but I wouldn’t say ‘nice’ was in the mix.”
“She’s beautiful.” Terri watched him and her gaze dropped unerringly to his butt. A really excellent behind.
“Absolutely.”
“You know her well?” None of your business, Terri. But she couldn’t help herself.
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Are you asking if we’re lovers?”
Well, she preferred blunt. “I guess I am.”
“We used to be. Now we’re not.”
“Okay. Good to know.
” Really good. Because there was just no way Terri Ferguson from Ogden, Utah, could compete with Celeste Vega, supermodel. Not that a single kiss meant that anything was going on between them. Although the fact that she wanted more than that one kiss might. But the point was, Celeste Vega was out of the picture.
Okay, back to what they’d been talking about. “So did you think it was a good idea or not?”
“It’s interesting,” he allowed thoughtfully. “We’ve never focused on families as guests.”
“I know. I looked at about a hundred of the files.” She stood up and walked around the corner of the table. “Hayes Paris is lovely. Really. But if you had a Hayes 2 there, you could tie it in with Paris Disney. Give the families that visit a real experience. And gondola rides in Venice and skiing lessons in Switzerland and—” His mouth tightened. “You hate it.”
“No. I don’t.”
“And yet, you don’t look happy about it.”
“I’m not a big smiler, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“Why not? You should be happy.”
“Is that right?” He tipped his head to one side and gave her a cool stare that didn’t even slow her down.
“Well, yeah. You’re a bazillionaire, you’re gorgeous, you live on top of a palace, probably have hot and cold running women. Why aren’t you happy?”
If anything, his frown deepened, so maybe she’d struck a nerve. And she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
“I don’t have hot and cold running women,” he muttered.
She was glad to hear it. “Okay...but the rest is true.”
“Is there a reason why you’re concerned about my level of happiness?”
“I’m a humanitarian?”
His lips twitched briefly. “Yeah, that must be it.”
The conversation had shifted from business to personal and Terri knew she shouldn’t, but she wanted more. “When did you lose your father?”
He blinked. “Well, that came out of left field.”
“I’m sorry.” She pushed her hair back from her face. “I don’t even know why I asked that. But I’ve been thinking a lot lately about fathers—my dad and Jacob Evans. So I was wondering about your father.”
He nodded and bent down to open the fridge. After another second or two of admiring his behind, Terri deliberately shifted her gaze to avoid the chance of drooling. So instead, she looked around the room. As meeting rooms went, it was, of course, palatial. With gray walls, navy blue trim and a table big enough to comfortably sit twenty people.
When Cooper stood up again, he was holding two water bottles. He carried them back and handed one to her. Twisting the cap off his, he said, “My dad died ten years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me, too.” He looked up to a row of pictures on the wall opposite them. “My dad bought this hotel forty years ago.”
“Really?” She took a sip of her water and set it down just before Cooper took her hand and led her close to the framed black-and-white photos.
“There it is. Or was,” Cooper amended wryly. “The StarFire. Six floors of average rooms and a casino the size of my living room.” He smiled looking at the photo and Terri studied it with him.
In the grainy image she saw a man in his thirties, hands in his pockets, grinning at the photographer with a look of pride on his face. The hotel was nothing like its current incarnation. There was no dancing fountain out front to dazzle tourists. No wide, fancy entryway hustling with bellhops. But, looking at Cooper’s father, she could see the promise of what would come shining in his eyes.
“A year after he bought it, Dad was deep into remodeling—” He paused. “Not into this, but updating, improving the casino. Anyway, he needed an investor. Jacob had money and wanted in on the ground floor. So he and Dad became partners in Hayes Corporation and the rest is history, I guess.”
“It’s come a long way.”
“Really has,” he agreed. “And now we’re worldwide. At least Dad lived long enough to see that happen.”
She turned her head to look at his profile as he stared at his father’s picture. “You miss him.”
“Every damn day.” His voice was low and filled with more emotion than Terri had ever heard from him.
She gave his hand a squeeze in solidarity. “I know just how that feels. My dad was smart and wickedly funny and sometimes I ache to hear his voice again. To hear ‘Hi, Princess,’ when I call. To get a hug. To hear him laugh.”
Cooper looked down at her as his grip on her hand tightened. For a second or two they simply stared at each other. Survivors of a loss that still haunted each of them.
“My dad would have liked you,” Cooper finally said.
“Why?”
“Because you don’t play games. There’s no BS with you and that’s what he was like, too.”
Terri smiled. “You keep complimenting me.”
He grinned briefly. “I don’t know that most women would call that a compliment.”
“I do.”
“I know you do,” he murmured, staring down into her eyes. “I’m trying to sort that out.”
Terri smiled up at him. “Are you saying I’m not only unexpected, but a mystery?”
One corner of his mouth tilted up. “I suppose I am.”
“What a nice thing to say.” Terri felt that flutter of something warm and oh so nice fill her chest. He not only looked great, he smelled wonderful. And the longer she stood here next to him, the more of a temptation he became.
He admitted quietly, “You’re making me think things I shouldn’t.”
“Why shouldn’t you?”
“It would make things even more complicated than they already are.”
“And we don’t need more complications,” she finished for him.
“Might be worth it, though,” he mused, tugging her a little closer.
“We should probably find out,” Terri said, moving into his arms, tipping her face up to his.
“Research, research,” he muttered and smiled briefly before claiming her mouth in a kiss that was instantly soul-searing.
Terri wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tightly as his tongue tangled with hers. Every cell in her body was putting on a party hat and hanging streamers. Her stomach did a wild spin and tumble and it felt as though her blood was heating, thickening in her veins. Complications be damned. Her mind shut down and her body happily took over.
His hands roamed up and down her back and Terri loved the rush of warmth that he left in his wake. Then she was grateful—grateful that she’d worn a simple yellow dress with a full skirt and a tight waist. Cooper swept the hem of her skirt up and then slid his hand beneath the thin elastic band of her lace panties.
She tore her mouth from his and her head fell back as he cupped the center of her, stroking that one wonderful spot where sensations gathered expectantly. Again and again, his thumb moved over that hard, tight spot and she trembled in response. She held on to him as she rode the waves of what he was making her feel. He dropped his head to kiss her neck, the line of her throat, the tip of his tongue stroking her skin.
“Cooper...”
“Come,” he whispered against her throat as he pushed her higher, both of them breathing hard and fast. “Just let go, Terri.”
A moment later she did. She couldn’t have stopped the flash of release even if she’d tried. Her body quaked helplessly; her hips rocked into his hand and her fingers dug into his shoulder as she looked for purchase in a suddenly spinning world.
The climax seemed to roll on and on and Cooper kept it going, his fingers, pushing her along, not giving her time to breathe as jolt after jolt rippled through her until she finally slumped bonelessly against him.
He pulled his hand free, smoothed her skirt back into place, then cradled her tightly to him, lowering his face to
hers for another kiss. This one was as hungry as the last, telling Terri that what was simmering between them was far from over.
“Okay,” she whispered at last, “that was...worth a complication or two.”
“Good,” he said. “Because I’ve got more complications in mind.”
She looked up at him and saw the need flashing in his eyes. Saw the tightness in his jaw and felt tension radiating from his body. She felt it, too. Now that she’d had a small sample of what he could do to her with a touch, she wanted more.
The ornate clock hanging on the far wall began to chime softly and Terri gasped. “I have to go.”
Wryly, he said, “Not the reaction I was hoping for.”
“No.” She laughed, smoothed her hair and tried to ignore the fact that her body was still humming. “Would you ask someone to put those files I brought with me back in my office?” My office. Funny how naturally that had come out. She picked up her bottle of water and took a long drink. Wow. Orgasms—and irresistible men—could really make your throat dry. “I’d do it, but I don’t want to be late.”
“Sure. And late where?”
“I told Debra down at reception that I would be there at two.” Terri moved for the door quickly. “She’s going to show me around, walk me through the reservation process.”
“Why?”
She stopped. “Why what?”
“Why do you need to know how reservations work?”
“Well, if I’m going to do this, I want to learn as much as I can.” She threw a quick look at the clock again. “Really have to go. Bye.”
She stopped when he called her name. Looking back at him from the door, she waited.
“Dinner tonight. At the Sky restaurant. Then we’ll take in Darci Ryan’s show in the Shooting Star amphitheater.”
Her heart jumped. “That sounds suspiciously like a date. What about complications?”
“Think we’ve already proven we’re ready to take the risk, don’t you?”
That hum inside her grew brighter, hotter. “We’re in Las Vegas. What better place for a gamble?”
That amazing smile flashed briefly again. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”
“Okay.” Nodding, she went through the door, closed it behind her and for a couple of fast seconds, leaned back against it to catch her breath. Her legs were still trembling, her heartbeat thundering in her chest and her breath was uneven.
Tempt Me in Vegas Page 9
