Friends with Benefits
Page 7
“Yeah,” she said with a friendly pat on his back. “I’m sorry, Carter.”
The words didn’t quite make up for the reality of Las Vegas’s so-called elite society. Aging men with baked-on fake tans and women who wore enough makeup to make drag queens look like ladies who lunch. The gala was everything Carter hated about Vegas. But she had to be there to do damage control, and this stuff was a part of her job even if she weren’t trying to sell the casinos. Plus, if she didn’t go to these events, what had all her shopping been for?
“Well, I’d give you the tour, but you know everything already,” he told her, gesturing to the house at large.
“Breakfast?” she suggested, then led him into the kitchen. She slid the bagel slices into his futuristic toaster. Its severely sloped sides made it look like a bullet and it fit in his ultramodern kitchen.
While the bagels toasted, she leaned back on the counter and met his eyes. “So what’s your plan for the day? Want to do something?”
“I’ve got work stuff right now.”
“On a Saturday?”
He shoved a hand into his pocket. “I can help you unpack, but then I need to work if we’re going out tonight.”
“What are you working on?”
“You really want to know?” he asked, regarding her over the top of his coffee cup.
She nodded. “Of course.”
“As you know, we’re set to release a new program soon, but we’re having some problems.”
“A new software for casinos?”
“Yeah, it’s a program that analyzes the hands played and win data from table games. It would help casino owners determine what kinds of incentives to offer for play and tell them if they’re making their money back on their current incentives based on money made at the tables.”
“That would be awesome!” Alexa grinned. “Why didn’t you tell me about it?”
The bagels popped up so she plated them and set them on the island between her and Carter with the tub of cream cheese.
He took the sesame bagel, just like she’d assumed, and spread a very precise layer of cream cheese over the top, making sure it touched the entire surface of the bagel and was uniform in thickness all the way around. She bit the side of her lip to stop from smiling at his typically precise behavior.
“I didn’t not tell you,” he explained with a shrug. “It’s just work. I try and fail at different stuff all the time.”
“Well, we’re fake-engaged now so I need to know this stuff. You used to tell me about your work all the time. Before you got all tech mogul on me.” Maybe they’d both become too obsessed with their work over the years. More probably, though, the time they’d spent together had tapered off as they’d built their careers so that when they were together it was the last thing they wanted to talk about.
“You used to talk about the casinos all the time, too.” He gave her a mock salute before biting into his bagel.
One of the movers, the burly bearded one, poked his head into the kitchen to let them know the job was finished. Alexa grabbed her purse and shuffled off a huge tip for them.
The man held up the fistful of money with a wide smile. “Anytime you all need movers, you let me know. I’ll be happy to do it.”
Then he saw himself out.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Carter said. “They probably made more on this job than they do in two months.”
Alexa shrugged. “They were nice and didn’t bang my stuff around.”
Carter gave her a look. “Let’s go unpack.”
* * *
After unpacking and getting ready, Alexa met Carter downstairs. She stopped halfway down the steps when she saw him because he looked nothing like the guy in the hoodie from earlier. In a nontraditional navy tux, he looked like Ryan Gosling at the Oscars, his sandy blond hair slicked back off his face and his glasses replaced with contacts. The lapels of the jacket were shiny as well as his bow tie and the openings of his pockets. He looked expensive and confident, and it was going to be a long night.
“I ordered us a car,” he informed her. “There’s not a version of me in any timeline or universe that doesn’t need to drink irresponsibly tonight.”
She took the last step to the floor. “One might argue that ordering a car is actually drinking responsibly.”
He raised an eyebrow.
Then he took a look at all of her, and instinctively, she turned in a full circle to show off the dress she’d bought months ago for this occasion. It was a sleeveless bronze Badgley Mischka with horizontal sequins, and it clung to every inch of her before flaring into a gentle trumpet skirt. “Good enough?”
“Yeah, good enough,” he laughed. “You look unreal and you know it.”
“Thank you. You look good, too.”
Their eyes met then, a quiet acknowledgment that they’d never had an exchange like this before where they admitted to each other that they found the other attractive. There had always been teasing and joking, but the out-in-the-open part was the difference. All those lines they’d drawn were being erased one by one. More to the point, they were lines that she’d drawn because she wasn’t going to be the one who led Carter on. She’d been very careful about that over the years. She wasn’t good for him.
“Who was your original date to this thing?” he asked, moving to the front door.
She thought about lying, but she didn’t ever lie to Carter. She might not tell him everything because she certainly didn’t want to know who he was out with every night, but she didn’t lie. “Hugh Matteson.”
He nodded, recognizing the name of the retired football player who now owned a couple of restaurants in town. “Too bad, he would have been a good pull.”
Opening the door for her, he stepped aside as she went through.
“I’m aware,” she agreed. “And he was gracious when I called to cancel. Even congratulated me on the engagement.”
A black town car waited at the curb and Carter helped her in. It was a short drive to the Revel casino, the sister casino of the one they’d been to last night. It was also a silent ride. For her own part, Alexa felt awkwardness pulling at the edges of their comfortable camaraderie. Even more so than last night when they’d gone out for the first time as engaged.
She glanced down at the ring on her finger, sparkling and beautiful and perfect. As they embarked on their first public appearance as a real couple, a small part of her wondered how she’d feel if it wasn’t all fake. Would Carter be smiling at her now instead of typing away at his phone? Would her stomach be full of butterflies instead of weighty resolve, though she couldn’t deny that there were some butterflies? Maybe they’d dance under the soft light of the ballroom’s numerous chandeliers until the sun came up, never too tired to gaze into each other’s eyes.
But that wasn’t real life; that was a fairy-tale world that Alexa knew didn’t exist. From the day her parents died, she’d learned not to dwell in daydreams. Real life was there to be lived.
The car came to a stop and Carter held his hand out for her, the expression on his face so carefully blank she knew he was mentally preparing for what for him would be a genuinely torturous evening.
He dutifully escorted her into the Lafite Ballroom, where rich red carpet and matching inlay on the walls made the expansive rectangle somehow feel warm and decadent. Twinkling candelabra chandeliers caught the copious gold embellishments in the floor and ceiling, creating the kind of drama the night demanded.
The party was already a crush considering tickets were a pricey thousand dollars a head. Couples crowded together on the dance floor, diners chatted among the ivory linen–covered tables, and groups milled about around the strategically placed open bars in the four corners of the room. The same low thrum of excitement pulsed in her chest like it had the other night at Elysium. It might be tacky and crass and an overpriced school dance, but she live
d for the energy of making a deal. She’d make the sale for her uncle one way or another, and if that meant she had to manipulate and cajole every creep in the room, she’d do it gladly. Sure, she didn’t want to sell the casinos at all, but the thrill of making money was a drug she never denied herself.
“You ready?” she asked Carter.
A muscle in his angled jaw twitched. “Yeah,” he finally said.
Then he leaned down to kiss her. It was just the quickest of pecks to show the world they were together, but it sent a white-hot jolt of awareness through her chest. It also triggered a fair amount of alarm because she was in grave danger of losing sight of the lines herself. With every touch, kiss, laugh, they were heading further into what was an actual relationship. Something she didn’t know how to extricate herself from smoothly.
He stepped away, looking just the slightest bit smug at the surprise she knew was on her face. She took a deep breath to collect herself.
Far too quickly, they were greeted by her uncle and his companion, a gentleman named Arthur Hendricks, a shipping magnate who apparently liked to look at breasts and was also looking to diversify. Her uncle noticed and his eyes flickered dangerously as they met hers.
She shook her head to dissuade him from calling attention to it, because Arthur Hendricks was just the kind of easily maneuvered blowhard they could sell a casino to.
CHAPTER NINE
CARTER HAD ASSUMED he’d have a shitty time at the gala, but it had already exceeded his expectations. Watching this douchebag with his comb-over and over-tan skin stare at Alexa’s tits for the past ten minutes was not only a chore, but a lesson in restraint. He had no idea how John was doing it, but Alexa had clearly telegraphed for them to shut their mouths and that’s what he was doing, so shut that his teeth were grinding.
When a call came in from work, he nearly audibly sighed at the excuse to escape. A voice mail from Greg, his right-hand guy, had informed him that someone was leaking the code to their new software to another security company. He found a seat at their empty table and called Henry Mueller, his board secretary.
“Carter,” Henry boomed jovially, “Congratulations on your engagement! I thought you guys were just messing around, but this is wonderful news.”
“I’m just doing it to help Alexa’s reputation, Henry,” Carter explained.
“Well, either way, that’s good news for us. Have you set a date for the wedding?”
Was Henry having a stroke? “We’re not actually engaged,” Carter said again. “We’re just doing this for a month to clean up Alexa’s reputation so she can sell her casinos.”
“I heard you,” Henry laughed.
“Okaaay,” Carter said, slowly, confused. But he didn’t have time to explain further. “Listen, we might have a problem.”
Carter gave him the express version of what was going on with the leak, wondering what this would mean for the new office.
“Well, we anticipate this kind of thing, obviously,” Henry began, his voice calm. “But we should go ahead and announce the new office to change the narrative before the press has a field day with the leak. In the meantime, I’ve been talking to some other board members and we agreed that it wouldn’t be the worst thing for you if this engagement were real.”
Carter snorted. “Henry, it’s 2019. I don’t need to be married to run a company.”
He caught Alexa’s eye then, and if he’d worried that she needed his assistance dealing with that shipping creep, he was sorely mistaken. They were laughing as if they were old friends. As usual, she had the man in the palm of her hand. That was the thing about Alexa: she never let you know what she was actually thinking, too busy making sure you were having too good of a time to actually wonder why her smile sometimes never quite reached her eyes.
“No,” Henry agreed. “But investors like stability and now that you’re engaged, the stock price is going up. So you can imagine what would happen if you were to get unengaged right when you’re opening a new office and rolling out a new product?”
Carter sighed. Alexa wasn’t going to like this news. Hell, he wasn’t sure he liked this news, but she was the one who’d gotten them into this mess. “So you think I should stay engaged indefinitely.”
“Of course, married would be better, but engaged is good, too.”
Alexa turned then, looking for him in the crowd and sending him a commiserating smile when she found him. He returned the gesture with a nod, his damn bow tie clenching even tighter around his neck. He never forgot how damned beautiful she was, but sometimes that crooked smile was like a punch to the gut compounded with a pulsing electrical shock to his cock.
“I’ll take those suggestions under advisement,” Carter told Henry before ending the call.
A black-tie waiter walked by and Carter grabbed a flute of champagne from his silver tray, downing it in single pass. It wasn’t the scotch he usually preferred, but then, they weren’t pouring five-hundred-dollar bottles of that for the general public.
Pulling out his cuffs, he returned to Alexa and her uncle, who had moved on to a group that included the owner of the Tropicana and the CEO of Elysium.
“Ah,” Larry Green said, “there’s the other half. I was just apologizing to Alexa for that unfortunate video leak.”
Under different circumstances, Carter would have punched the Elysium owner in the face since it was on his instruction that the video had leaked in the first place, but tonight apparently wasn’t about who he wanted to punch. As it was, he already planned to pull his contract team from the man’s casino as well as continued support for the software every single computer in his building used. The inconvenience would be paramount and Carter couldn’t wait. Larry Green could suck a dick as far as he was concerned. He was going to bury the fucker.
“It’s so difficult to find trustworthy employees these days,” Larry continued, with absolutely no sign of guilt or shame for the fact that he was lying through his teeth.
Carter could tell that John wasn’t happy either, but they all knew a charity gala was not the time or the place for a scene. No, his revenge would be much longer and more satisfying.
“No need to apologize,” Carter said smoothly, putting an arm around Alexa’s waist to bring her closer. “It was the push we needed to announce our engagement.”
Alexa smiled up at him, every bit of the wide-eyed dewy expression an act that made him twitchy. Alexa had always been the only person in his life that he could be absolutely himself with, and the fact that their whole relationship was now tainted with this bullshit ruse was irritating. He was already wishing that she would look at him like that for real, which was idiotic and dangerous.
“There never seemed to be a right time to tell the world,” Alexa sighed, lovingly straightening his lapel. “We wanted to enjoy it by ourselves a little while longer.”
She leaned up to give him a peck on the cheek then and he whispered in her ear, “End this.”
Giving his hand a squeeze, she returned her attention to the men with a wide grin and waggling eyebrows. “Excuse us for a moment, gentlemen, I’m afraid I need a moment alone with my fiancé,” she gushed flirtatiously, letting her reputation allude to why they were leaving the conversation. She was relentless.
She led him to a quiet corner, and after making sure no one was paying attention, she ducked behind some heavy drapes. The darkness coupled with the muted background noise was a definite improvement, and he felt a good bit of tension subside.
“What are we doing back here?” he asked, vaguely amused.
“You looked like you needed a minute,” she explained, pulling her phone out of her small black purse. “Would you rather go outside? Because there are a lot of people out there, too.”
He shook his head. It was just like Alexa to know exactly what he needed without making a big deal about it. “Does behind this curtain still count as public?”
“Good,” he grunted, pulling her roughly against him and setting his lips to hers.
She responded, but whatever she said was lost in the kiss. The feel of her lips on his again was intense and lush and like a secret in the dark. Embers of lust smoldered into fire as her hands worked their way under his coat and up his back, her manicured nails scoring his skin. That she wanted him just as badly as he wanted her fueled some beast inside him, the one who used to be an insecure kid in love with his friend and finally knew what it was like to get what he wanted. That beast wanted to open the drapes and declare that she was his.
He hiked up her skirt and found her completely bare, already wet and waiting for him. He let two fingers slowly and deliberately caress through her slick folds, letting her know that he saw her. Knew that they could deny themselves all they wanted, but this desire was always going to be between them.
“Carter,” she panted, squirming against his hand, greedy with need.
“I know sex is against the rules,” he murmured wickedly in her ear, “but that isn’t even the best thing on the menu.”
The desire to torture was high and before she had any idea what was about to happen, he slid a small vibrator into her.
She squeaked and met his eyes, hers wide with surprise. “What are you—”
He pulled out his phone and opened the app that controlled the toy. Pressing the vibrate button on the screen, he drew them out of the drapes and back into the ballroom.
“You made the rules,” he reminded her, giving her a light kiss on the forehead to soothe the ire so clearly telegraphed in her slammed brow and severe frown. “But you forgot I’m really good at games.”