Menanichoch, Maryland
December 17th
Sixteen years ago
Alexandra took a seat on a barstool and let out a sigh as she lifted her stiletto-shod feet from the floor. The heels were gorgeous, but she couldn’t imagine wearing four-inch spikes on a regular basis. They hurt. And her date was bothered that she was as tall as he was when wearing them. He should have told her there was a height code and she’d have saved money on the shoes.
As a broke, twenty-five-year-old grad student, she wasn’t cut out for being the plus one at company holiday parties for professional men in their thirties, but Kendall had begged her to make it a double date, and the guy was handsome and had promised a gourmet meal, good wine, and dancing.
The food was good, and she’d enjoyed the wine served with dinner, but once the complimentary wine was gone, Russ had opted to skip the dancing in favor of gambling.
Alexandra had watched him at the blackjack table for a half hour before sheer boredom took over. She’d returned to the ballroom where the private party was being held, thinking she’d join in on the dancing, but it was a slow song, and Kendall was pressed tight to her date with a dreamy expression on her face.
Kendall had been dating the engineer for two months, and she was certain he was the one. Kendall was Alexandra’s sister in all but blood, which meant she had been on the Kendall- coaster too many times to count and had little faith Brent Forbes was really the one, but Kendall was happy right now, and that was all that mattered.
Deciding to leave the couple alone, Alexandra had gone to the quieter of the two bars that served the private party and was relieved to get off her feet.
The bartender was young—closer to Alexandra’s age than her date was—and had darker coloring and features that hinted at Native American heritage, which made sense given this was a tribal casino.
The casino was the venue for the holiday party because the majority owner of the engineering firm her date worked for was a Menanichoch tribal member. Joseph Talon was now a US senator, but someone in the family was CEO.
Or at least she thought that was what Kendall had said when she began her campaign to get Alexandra to play wing woman tonight. She hadn’t really paid attention because she’d been deep in the throes of a research paper that would make or break her first semester of graduate school.
Really, it should be illegal to talk to someone during the last weeks of any semester of graduate school, with fines doubled for theoretical physics students.
No. Tripled.
She’d said yes because the party was the day after her last paper was due and a free meal sounded about right for her budget. Plus, Russ had been fun when he came to their apartment for movie night with Brent a few weeks ago.
It hadn’t been meant to be a setup—after all, Alexandra had only joined them for pizza as a study break—but Russ had told Brent he was interested, and the idea of her joining the three of them at the holiday party had been launched.
She didn’t have time to date. She wouldn’t for the next several years. But she’d decided she could spare one evening over winter break.
So now here she was, alone at the bar, her date more interested in cards than dancing. Of course, that hadn’t stopped him from giving her a key for the hotel room he’d booked at the casino’s resort.
Not just no, but hell no.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked as he set a beverage napkin in front of her.
She frowned. This was a cash bar, and she was broke to the point where she’d be snitching drink garnishes for a fruit salad if she hadn’t just had a four-course meal. “Club soda?”
“Is that a question?”
“How much?”
“Depends on if you want it with lime juice, mint, and white rum.”
“A mojito would be amazing, but out of my budget. Club soda with a lime wedge, please?”
“You’re with Talon & Drake?”
She shook her head. “My date is, though.”
He winked at her. “I’ll put it on the company tab, then.”
She smiled. “Better yet, put it on my date’s room.” She gave him the room number, not even feeling slightly bad about it. He’d abandoned her without a second thought. She’d charge a taxi to his room if she could.
The bartender muddled the mint with a flourish and proceeded to assemble an excellent mojito. She added a hefty tip and signed the bill, then turned on her stool and sipped her drink as she watched the dancers.
The slow song had ended, and a current hit by Green Day had her considering joining the dancers, but one look at her shoes changed her mind. Sure, she could dance barefoot, but then when Russ returned, he’d be happy she was shorter than him again, and she was feeling just pissy enough to want to avoid that.
A man in a tailored suit approached the bar. His gaze swept over her as he neared, and she felt a zing of attraction fill the space between them.
He was utterly gorgeous. Thick, dark hair, light brown skin. Thirtyish. He moved with confidence. Like an adult. A handsome, successful man.
This wasn’t a boy. Nor was he a student.
She spent most of her time with students. Undergrad and grad, they ranged in age from teenage geniuses to men years older than her, but sometimes it felt like the academic environment trapped them all in a state that was out of sync with the rest of the world. There were students and there were professors, and only the latter group were the adults in the room.
Which was ridiculous.
It probably stemmed from her own insecurity due to the judgments people made based on her looks. She was tall, blonde, and stacked, which meant she had to fight to be taken seriously in the real world. In grad school, students and professors alike knew there was no way she’d be in the program if she didn’t have the brain for it. So it was a safe zone of sorts, but she’d still spent her first semester doing everything she could to prove she belonged.
Deep down, she’d known Russ had only invited her to this party because of the aforementioned hair color and oversized breasts, which would, she presumed, impress certain coworkers. For her part, she’d agreed for the free dinner, not because she was eager to get to know him, so she couldn’t really complain. They both had superficial reasons for being on this date.
But she didn’t know what was worse, that he’d been so confident she’d jump into bed with him that he’d reserved a hotel room, or that he was still thinking he’d get laid after abandoning her for a blackjack table. He was probably bragging to the other players about bagging the blonde right now.
She wasn’t a person to him. She was a trophy, like catching a really big tuna and posing for pictures to show the world what a great fisherman he was. And he probably thought she was too young and silly to pick up on that.
Anger burned all over again.
She fixed her gaze on the handsome man who now stood one barstool away and ordered a drink. This complete stranger had better odds of getting her into bed tonight than her date, and she never screwed around with strangers.
While he waited for his drink, he turned and caught her stare. He gave her an easy smile. “You work for Talon & Drake?” He scanned her again, and his thick, dark brows furrowed with skepticism.
Okay, so maybe not. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No, I’m afraid my blonde hair makes it impossible for me to math. No engineering for little me.”
He snickered. “Huh. I’m told that having a penis makes it impossible to detect sarcasm, but still, I’m hearing notes of something in your very logical statement about the correlation between hair color and the ability to compute.”
“Maybe you don’t have a penis, then.”
He grinned, turned to the side, and made a show of pulling on his waistband and looking down. “Whew. Still there.” He turned back to her. “I was asking because I haven’t seen you before, and I feel certain I’d have noticed you in the office.”
“There are several East Coast branches at this party. Maybe I work at one you aren’t familiar with.”
“Nope.”
“Nope? You know everyone at every office?”
“Not by name. But again, I’d have noticed you.”
“Maybe I’m new.”
“Nah. You see, you’ve given yourself away because you don’t recognize me. So, are you crashing the party, or is your date the dumbest man on the planet to leave you alone?”
He sure had a high opinion of himself. He couldn’t be much older than thirty. How important could he be in a company like Talon & Drake? It was an engineering firm, not a tech startup. “My date could be a woman.”
“Still dumb to leave you alone.”
“You think I need a babysitter?”
“No, I think you’re bored and maybe a little pissed.”
“Honestly? More than a little.”
“Who’s your date?”
“Russ Spaulding.”
The man grunted but said nothing. Probably not a good idea to diss on a coworker. For all she knew, Russ could be this guy’s boss.
She sipped her drink to prevent herself from saying something she’d regret. It wouldn’t be fair to either man.
She was the trophy date who got a free meal. Kendall was having fun. Classes were done, and she didn’t even need to fret that she wasn’t studying right now.
Plus, she had a free drink. “You work for Talon & Drake long?”
He shrugged. “Long enough.”
That was a nonanswer. “You like it?”
“Sure.”
“You ever meet the senator who owns it?”
“I have.”
“You vote for him?”
He looked at her askance. “Secret ballots are a constitutional right.”
“Ah. So that’s a no.”
He laughed. “I can’t vote in Maryland.”
“Ahh. Convicted felon. I get it. Don’t worry. I’ll keep your secret.”
The man tilted his head back and let out a full laugh. It was warm, and she felt a buzz at having triggered it. “No. I live in New York most of the time. That’s where I vote.”
“Most of the time? You have multiple houses?”
“I stay with family when I’m in the area.” He nodded toward a very tall man who was approaching the bar. “Speaking of, I should get back.”
The tall man had dark hair, but his skin was several shades lighter. The two men didn’t look related, but that didn’t mean anything.
“It was nice meeting you,” the man said as he picked up two drinks from the bar. “Find me if Spaulding loses his shirt. I’ll see to it you get home safe.”
She sipped her drink as she watched him walk away. Nice ass. And the tall guy was fine too. He looked to be closer to Alexandra’s age. His gaze landed on her, and he smiled, but not with interest. Not like the man she’d just been chatting with.
His look was simple curiosity.
She wanted to ask the bartender if he knew who the men were, but it would be ridiculous. There were over three hundred guests at this party, employees of Talon & Drake and plus ones like her. The odds that the bartender would know anyone was slim.
She finished her drink and set the empty glass on the bar. It was magically refilled, but she hesitated before taking it.
“On the house. Don’t tell anyone.”
She drew a line across her closed lips, then added, “Thank you.”
She sipped her fresh drink and tried to decide what to do. Wait for Kendall to tire of dancing and get a ride home with her? Or take the stranger up on his offer and see if he’d spring for a cab?
She would never go out on a date this far from home without cash for a cab again. It had never occurred to her she could be stranded in Menanichoch, a forty-minute drive from the apartment she shared with Kendall.
Just when she was working up the courage to interrupt Kendall’s fun, Russ reentered the room. She watched him as he stood in the doorway, scanning the crowd. Finally, he spotted her and made a beeline in her direction.
He was only a few feet away when he said, “Hey, gorgeous. I was wondering where you went off to.”
“Oh. Did you notice I was gone?” She’d left him at the card table over thirty minutes ago.
“Sure. I didn’t have my good luck charm.”
“And yet you still kept playing.”
“Well, sure. Had to try to win it all back. I knew you’d be having fun in here with Kendall and Brent.”
“Yeah, because couples really love it when a third person moves in on their slow dance.”
Russ’s brow furrowed. “Cranky, are we, babe?”
Lord, now he was treating her like she was a toddler without a nap. “I’m not cranky. I’m angry. And bored. I want to go home.”
“What’s the rush? It’s still early.”
“No. It’s not. We finished dinner an hour ago, then you played cards and expected me to watch like some sort of groupie.”
Russ turned to the bartender and ordered a drink.
She gritted her teeth. “Russ, you’re driving. You can’t have another drink. I want to go home.”
“You know I got us a hotel room, sweetheart.”
Did he even remember her name? Sweetheart. Gorgeous. Babe. She wouldn’t mind the terms if she believed he knew her actual name.
“I’m not staying here tonight. Give me money for a cab.”
“C’mon. Let’s have a drink. Maybe dance a little and discuss it.”
She huffed out a sigh. “I’m too tired to dance.” She nodded toward an empty table at the edge of the crowd. “Let’s sit. I’ll finish my drink, then you can get me a cab, or Kendall and Brent can give me a ride home.”
She had a free drink to finish and wanted to get the kiss-off conversation over with here, so he would never come back to the apartment with Brent again.
Before they sat down, however, she decided to visit the ladies’ room. Let him stew by himself for a little bit and see how it felt.