by Lisa Childs
So later that week Juliette was disappointed that the woman had checked out before her business conference ended. She was even more surprised that instead of finding money as a tip, she found a note lying atop a glittering mound of a gown and some sky-high heels and long, dangling glittery earrings. The note read:
No cash for a tip, but take these as thanks. Had my heart broken in them and will never wear again.
Juliette wasn’t so sure that was the case. The woman she’d met had seemed too strong and self-reliant to care much if her heart had been broken. She’d probably left her the items instead of cash because she’d known the cash would have just gone toward those medical bills. The shoes and earrings and that glittery gown were something Juliette never would have bought for herself. One, she couldn’t have afforded them. And two, she wouldn’t have needed them since she had no place to wear them. But lying beneath the note was a ticket granting her entry to the conference awards black tie dinner.
Because of her mom’s long illness, Juliette had skipped her high school prom a couple of years ago. It hadn’t mattered much to her then—not as much as it had meant to her mother, who’d felt so bad that Juliette hadn’t attended it. But it wasn’t as if Juliette had had a date anyway. And even if she had, she wouldn’t have wanted to miss a minute left of her mother’s limited time.
Juliette had already forgotten her father because he had died when she was very young. At least now her parents, who’d been high school sweethearts, were together again.
And Juliette was alone. Should she dress up and give herself the prom she’d missed? But instead of goofing around with high school kids who didn’t understand how precious life was, she would be socializing with adults, with accomplished businesspeople.
The idea thrilled her too much for her to resist. The guest had been like a fairy godmother leaving behind that dress and heels and earrings. All that was missing were the carriage and the horses. But Juliette didn’t need a pumpkin and some mice. She had her own vehicle.
When her shift ended, she left the hotel in her maid’s drab uniform with her tips tucked inside her backpack. Her friend, who was going to cosmetology school, was thrilled to do her hair and makeup, so just a few short hours later, Juliette returned to the hotel where she worked. But not even her coworkers recognized her as she swept into the ballroom wearing those impossibly high and dainty heels as well as the long, nude-colored glittery gown. Her hair was half up and half down in some complicated style that defied gravity. And when she moved, the long dangling earrings brushed against her neck. For the first time in her life, Juliette felt like a princess. Even then she’d suspected it would be the last time she would ever feel like this.
So she’d vowed then and there to make the most of this magical evening. To experience everything that she could—because she knew very well how short life could be. Her ball wasn’t exactly what she’d expected, though. Her fairy godmother must not have been the only one who’d cut the conference short, because the ballroom was not crowded, which made him impossible to miss.
He was younger than most of the other men in the room, and by far the most handsome in his black tuxedo. He was lean and muscular and just the right height that with these heels on, she would be able to stare into his eyes. Eyes that she knew were green and sharp with his keen intelligence. He wasn’t much older than she was, but he already had his MBA.
Blake Colton. The only male heir of the wealthy branch of the Colton family. He was the prince of Red Ridge. And Juliette was...
For the night, Cinderella.
She felt the moment he noticed her—because her pulse quickened, and her skin began to tingle. She didn’t even need to look up to know that he was coming toward her. Her heart beat faster and faster as he drew nearer to her.
“Hello,” a deep voice murmured.
She turned and stared right into his eyes. And she knew in that moment, she never wanted to look away. She didn’t just see him; she saw herself in his eyes—the way she wanted to be: beautiful, interesting, happy.
He sucked in a breath, and she knew that he felt it, too—that instant and intense attraction between them. He extended a hand to her, and it shook slightly. “I—I’m Blake Colton.”
She knew who he was. Hell, everybody in Red Ridge knew who he was. But he didn’t know that she was from Red Ridge. She could have been from anywhere—could have been anyone. And for tonight, she could pretend that she was.
But her first instinct was to be honest, so she murmured, “I’m Juliette...” And she put her hand in his.
He cocked his head, and a lock of dark blond hair tumbled across his forehead. He was obviously waiting for her last name.
But instead of giving it to him, she just smiled.
He chuckled. “You’re going to be mysterious,” he said.
Her smile widened. “I’m going to be smart.”
Just in case she got caught crashing the event, she didn’t want to get fired from her job. Technically, since he was a Colton, and she worked for the Colton Plaza Hotel, he was her boss. He could even fire her.
“You don’t trust me,” he said.
“I don’t know you,” she said.
He uttered a sigh, as if that was a relief—that she didn’t know him. But then he said, “Let’s change that. Let’s get to know each other.” He entwined their fingers and tugged her along with him as he headed out of the ballroom.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
He stopped near the bank of elevators and pressed the up button. While he didn’t live in the hotel, he had a suite reserved on the twenty-first floor. Was this why? Because he could pick up women as easily as he’d picked up her?
He turned back to her. “I want to see you under the stars,” he said. “There’s a bar on the roof, and a band. A better one than the conference has. I suspect that’s where everyone has gone.”
So he hadn’t just assumed she’d go to his room. That was good. But she had to acknowledge a flash of disappointment. She wouldn’t have been upset at being invited to see his suite. The night wasn’t over yet. She’d just left the ball, and she didn’t mind since she was leaving with the prince. The elevator doors swooshed open to a full car of rowdy-sounding guests. They must have been abandoning the quieter bar in the lobby for the rooftop lounge.
She stepped back, willing to wait for the next elevator. But Blake pulled her inside with him. As crowded as it was, they had to stand very close to each other—so close that they touched everywhere. Arm, hip, thigh...
A guest jostled Juliette, and her heel twisted, nearly twisting her ankle, as well, but Blake’s arm slid around her waist, pulling her more tightly against him. Even after the doors opened and they exited onto the roof, Blake kept his arm around her.
He led her onto the dance floor and pulled her closer yet as he held her in his arms. They danced slowly—slower even than the beat of the music. It was as if Blake, too, wanted to savor every minute of the evening like Juliette did.
He stared at her so intently that she lifted a hand to her face and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Had her makeup run down her face? She usually didn’t wear this much, but her friend had applied it heavily, to make Juliette look older—like the accomplished businesswoman her fairy godmother had been.
Blake lifted her hand from her face and replaced it with his, sliding his thumb along her jaw. “You are so beautiful—” he uttered a wistful sigh “—more beautiful than the stars themselves...”
She smiled. Her prince was definitely charming. Not that he was hers...except maybe for this night. A night she intended to make the most of—while it lasted.
They danced until the band stopped for a break. Then Blake, his arm still around her, began to steer her toward the rooftop bar.
But Juliette saw who the bartender was, a young man she’d turned down for a date several times. If he recogn
ized her and—given how he always stared at her—he probably would, she knew he would blow her cover and destroy her evening. So she dug in her heels and propelled them to a stop.
“Don’t you want a drink after all that dancing?” Blake asked.
“Uh, yes...” Despite the cool autumn air blowing around the roof top, she was hot and flushed, but that was more from his closeness than from the dancing. “But not here...”
Blake glanced down at her. “Then where?”
She knew what he would think, but she didn’t care. She didn’t want her ball to end at midnight. She was greedier than Cinderella. She wanted longer than a few hours and more than a few dances. She wanted Blake. “Your room.”
He stared into her eyes, and as he did, his pupils dilated, swallowing the green. Then, his arm around her, he led her back to the elevators. But a line had already formed for them. So he pushed open the door to the stairs. “It’s just one flight down,” he assured her.
But when her heel slipped on one of the steps, he swung her up in his arms. “We can’t have you breaking an ankle,” he murmured.
“I can take off the shoes,” she offered. She didn’t want to break an ankle, either, because when this evening was over, she would have to go back to her real life and her two jobs and mountain of bills.
“I have you,” he assured her.
A wistful sigh slipped through her lips. She wished he had her, but he didn’t even know her. If he did, he wouldn’t be carrying her; he would be asking her for extra towels. But she wasn’t going to worry about that now. She was just going to enjoy being treated like a princess. So she linked her arms around his neck and snuggled against him, brushing her lips over his throat.
His pulse leaped beneath her mouth, and he tensed. “Now I might slip,” he murmured. But he was already on the landing, pushing open the door with his shoulder. A few strides down the hall and he stopped outside a door. “You’ll need to take the key card from my pocket,” he said, and his voice sounded strange, strangled.
She smiled and slid one hand over his ass.
He nearly jumped and cleared his throat. “Not that pocket. Inside jacket pocket.”
So she moved her hand between them, pushing aside his jacket to run her fingers down his dress shirt and over the rippling muscles beneath the silk.
“You need to find that key,” he said through gritted teeth, “quickly.”
“Why?”
He showed her why—with his mouth. He lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers before deepening the kiss.
Passion coursed through Juliette, and she kissed him back with all the desire she felt for him. Her hands moved through his short, spiky dark gold hair as she held his head to hers.
His arms tightened around her, and he shuddered slightly. Lifting his mouth from hers, he panted for breath and murmured, “The key card...”
She fumbled inside his jacket until she found it. When she pulled it out, the card nearly slipped from her fingers. Blake caught it and swiped it through the lock. Then he pushed open the door and carried her over the threshold.
The significance of the gesture must have sobered him a little because he set her on her feet and closed the door. And as he did, he ran his hand through the hair she’d tousled. “I—I got carried away,” he murmured, his face flushed.
“Uh, technically I was the one who got carried away,” she said. “Or carried down...the stairs.”
His sexy mouth curved into a grin. But the humor didn’t entirely reach his green eyes; he still looked troubled. Maybe he’d changed his mind about bringing her to his room. He left her standing by the door as he headed to the bar on the other side of the large suite.
“Don’t worry,” she assured him. “I know you carrying me over the threshold doesn’t make me your bride.”
He shuddered at the thought.
She’d been so hot earlier—in his arms, with his mouth on hers. But now she was chilled.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that I want nothing to do with marriage. My dad has had more than his share of marriages and I don’t think any of them made him happy.” His mouth pulled down into a frown now. “Actually I don’t think anything makes him happy...except maybe his company and his money...”
“I’m sure that you do,” she said. “That he loves you very much...” He had to be so proud of Blake; she’d heard that instead of going to work for Colton Energy with his oldest sister, Blake had launched his own successful start-up company straight out of business school.
He snorted. “You don’t know my father,” he said. “He doesn’t love anyone but himself.”
She’d heard that Fenwick Colton was one selfish son of a bitch. But how could he not love his own child?
She’d been feeling sorry for herself until now—until realizing that even though she’d lost her parents, at least she’d had no doubt that she had made them happy and that they had loved her.
His jaw was tense, a muscle ticking in his cheek. “I’m not going to make the mistakes he has. No marriage for me. No kids. Then nobody will feel like they don’t matter as much as business does to me—because that is all that’s going to ever matter to me.”
He was warning her, but it wasn’t a warning that she needed. She had no intention of getting married or having kids, either. She was taking criminal justice courses at community college because she wanted to be a cop, specifically a K9 cop. Her other job was helping out at the Red Ridge canine training center, and she loved working with the dogs.
“Maybe I’m more like my dad than I realized,” he murmured. Along with Blake’s words, she heard the pain and resentment in his voice. And she felt his pain, as well.
She stepped away from the door, crossing the room to where he stood by the bar with the wall of windows behind him, looking down on Red Ridge. Like she’d always thought he would look down on her.
But Blake Colton wasn’t the spoiled, privileged prince she’d thought he would be. He was vulnerable and charming and incredibly handsome. He sighed and blew out a ragged breath. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t be thinking about anything but how lucky I am.”
She’d always thought he’d been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But while he didn’t have to worry about money, he had more emotional concerns.
He stepped closer and touched her chin. Sliding his fingertips along her jaw, he tipped her face up toward his. “I’m the luckiest man in Red Ridge that you came back to my room with me.”
Her lips curved into a smile. And there was the charm again. Her prince...
She linked her arms around his neck again and pulled his head down for her kiss. She’d just felt his vulnerability, his pain, and she sought to soothe it with her lips and her passion. That kiss led to more—to making love the entire evening—over and over again.
But just before dawn, when Juliette had heard the creak and clatter of a cart in the corridor, she’d remembered who she was and that she had a shift to begin soon. So she’d slipped out of the arms of her sleeping prince, back into her dress and heels and into the hall.
Within minutes the dress and heels had been stowed in her locker, and she’d been back in her drab uniform of a Colton Plaza Hotel maid. Hours later, Blake had passed her in the hall while she was wearing that uniform, and he hadn’t noticed her at all.
And she’d realized the night that had seemed so special to her was just a dream born of a silly fantasy. She was no Cinderella and Blake Colton was no prince charming. He would never try to find her and propose. He’d made it all too clear what he thought of marriage and that he never intended to make the mistakes his father had made—with women or children.
So when she’d missed her period and taken that pregnancy test, she’d been reluctant to seek him out with the news that he was going to be the father he’d sworn he never wanted to become. She’d known he would be f
urious with her—maybe even think she’d tricked him.
But before she’d been able to build up her courage to confront him, she’d seen in the Red Ridge Gazette “People” section that he’d left Red Ridge and not just for a vacation. He intended to launch his start-up company in other countries and call it Blake Colton International.
International...
So why was he back in town?
He wanted to talk to Juliette. Why? What did he want from her? Their child? He’d vowed he’d never wanted to be a father. That was why, even when Elle had been urging her to tell him, Juliette had hesitated to seek him out. She hadn’t wanted him to reject his child.
But he hadn’t looked at Pandora like he was going to reject her. Juliette closed her eyes as fear overwhelmed her. Why had he wanted to see their daughter now—when she’d just witnessed a crime?
Now Juliette had to worry about losing Pandora to her father as well as to a killer.
Chapter 4
Blake paced the suite on the twenty-first floor of the Colton Plaza Hotel. This was the same room where he’d spent that incredible evening with Juliette. He hadn’t known her last name then. And after she’d slipped away from him, he hadn’t even known if Juliette was her real first name or if she’d just been a Shakespeare fan. He’d had no idea who she really was. Hell, he still didn’t know who she was or even if she would show up like he’d requested.
He stopped at the windows that looked down onto the lights of Red Ridge. He’d turned on only one of the lamps in the room, so his reflection stared back at him in the glass.
And he had to be honest. He hadn’t requested that she come; he’d demanded. Maybe he was more like his old man than he’d thought—than he’d ever hoped to be. But then, he had every reason to make demands of Juliette. She’d been lying to him—that night all those years ago and every day since, when she’d kept his daughter from him.
