Rich, Rugged...Royal. Cynthia Rutledge
the elevator button.
“Let me get that,” a familiar deep voice murmured.
Lauren glanced up and her eyes widened in surprise. The last she’d seen Alex, he’d been surrounded by several young women who seemed to be hanging on his every word. “Are you calling it a night, too?”
“I’m not staying at the hotel,” he said.
The elevator door opened and he waved his hand for her to precede him, then followed. “I just thought it’d be a good idea if I walked you to your room.”
Lauren frowned. She may have laughed a lot when they were dancing, but she’d only had a couple of glasses of wine and was totally sober. “I can make it to my room on my own just fine. I don’t need an escort.”
“I didn’t say you did.” He shot her a wink. “This is solely for my pleasure.”
Though she liked being with him, liked talking to him, Lauren wasn’t sure having him walk her to her room was a good idea.
“You know, if it makes any difference, I don’t bite.”
His grin was so infectious that Lauren couldn’t help but play along. The door slid shut and Lauren punched her floor. “How can I be certain of that?”
“Because—” he took a step closer “—if I did bite, I would have taken a nibble or two out of you on the dance floor.”
Without a word of warning, he moved closer and his fingers delved through the warm, silky mass at the nape of her neck and his thumbs grazed the soft skin beneath her jaw.
Her breath caught in her throat. Time seemed suspended as their gazes met, his reflecting the same flare of heat that burned in her veins.
“I want to walk you to your room,” he said again.
Lauren drew a steadying breath and shook her head. She wasn’t sure she trusted him. Or was it herself? “You’re way too—”
“Irresistible?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of persistent.” The elevator door opened on her floor and she moved forward onto the plush carpet.
Alex stepped off the elevator and the door closed behind him. “Everyone has a few faults.”
“Being impulsive has never been one of mine,” she said.
He picked up her hand and drew a lazy pattern on her palm with his index finger. “I’d give up if you told me to get lost.”
His touch made it difficult for Lauren to breathe, much less think clearly. “I’m not sure—”
“Maybe this will help you decide.”
He tugged her toward him, reached with his right hand to pull her chin up and covered her mouth with his own.
His lips were warm and sensual, the scent of him musky and all male. The late evening stubble on his cheeks lightly chafed her skin, eliciting a stirring of desire in her blood. Her heart beat hard and fast in her chest. He lifted his head and met her gaze, his eyes dark and intense.
Lauren exhaled a slow breath as they stared at each other. She wanted this man in a way that defied logic. All she knew for certain was that the feeling was honest and true.
Now, all she had to do was decide whether to trust her instincts….
The ring of her cell phone jarred Lauren back to the present. For a second she felt cheated, as if the unexpected phone call had interrupted something important. Until she remembered, that night in her hotel room she and Alex hadn’t been interrupted…by a phone call or anything else. It had just been the two of them, undisturbed, all night long.
Chapter Two
Lauren glanced around the trendy St. Louis coffee shop and wondered if any of the other patron’s lives were in such a mess.
“My life is spiraling out of control,” Lauren said with a sigh to her friend, Sara Michaels.
Sara sipped her Italian soda and focused her gaze on Lauren, her blue eyes curious but not alarmed. She lifted a perfectly shaped brow. “Don’t tell me Nordstrom decided to not put their coats on sale this week?”
“I wish that’s all it was,” Lauren said with a sigh. “Unfortunately it’s way more serious.”
Surprise flitted across Sara’s face. “What’s going on, Lauren?”
Lauren hesitated. Now that the moment was at hand, the words wouldn’t come. The Christian singer was her best friend and Lauren’s moral compass. Though she had no doubt her friend would be shocked and disappointed, Lauren knew Sara would be just the one to help her sort through her tangled emotions.
Goodness knows Lauren couldn’t count on her parents for that kind of help. If only she could follow her mother’s suggestion and simply forget the guy. But the problem was Lauren couldn’t forget him. The memory of their time together was as vivid now as it had been when he’d dropped her off at the airport and they’d said their goodbyes.
“Lauren?” Sara flashed an encouraging smile.
Lauren traced a crack on the tabletop with one finger and forced a casual tone. “Have you ever done something you knew at the time was wrong, but you went ahead and did it anyway?”
A strange expression crossed Sara’s face. Instead of answering immediately, she took a sip of her soda and her eyes took on a faraway look. After a long moment, she nodded.
“I don’t need specifics.” Lauren leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. “But whatever it was, if you had it to do all over again, would you?”
“At the time I thought it was justified,” Sara said. “But I was young. In retrospect it was definitely the wrong thing to do.”
Lauren wasn’t sure what Sara’s sin had been, but knowing her friend’s propensity for doing the right thing, whatever it was couldn’t have been all that bad. Nothing on the order of a one-night stand. Still, it was good to know that Sara could understand how a person could stray from the straight and narrow.
“I did something recently.” Lauren waved a hand in the air, being deliberately vague. “Even at the time I knew it was wrong. But I went ahead and did it anyway.”
“And now you’re sorry.” Sara’s voice softened with understanding. She leaned forward and gave Lauren’s hand a squeeze. “At one time or another we all do things like that, things we’re not proud of, things we regret.”
Lauren stifled a groan. Sara had missed the point. It wasn’t regret that haunted her thoughts, but the absence of regret.
“The thing is, I don’t feel bad,” Lauren said. “I know I should, but I don’t. And, worst of all, given the chance I’m sure I’d do it again.”
A frown furrowed Sara’s brow. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s my mother,” Lauren said. “I’m starting to think I’m just like her.”
Sara’s gaze shifted to the bulging sacks of clothes next to Lauren’s chair. When Lauren got wound up, nothing soothed her like walking down the aisles of a department store perusing the merchandise, trying on clothes, mixing and matching. Sara, like the rest of Lauren’s friends, understood that shopping was her way of dealing with stress.
Lauren nudged at the sacks with the toe of one shoe. The only thing she regretted about the clothes was that she’d have to take most of them back. The high rent she paid on her luxury town house took most of her paycheck and her credit card couldn’t handle much more.
“Lauren.” Sara’s voice was low and filled with compassion. “You haven’t been yourself since you got back from Chicago. Did something happen there?”
“Chicago