A Win-Win Proposition (Case Brothers 2)

“Bob.” He gave a curt nod as he crushed the man’s hand in a firm handshake. “This is Missy Ward,” he added. “Bob Stokes.”

Missy murmured a polite greeting that was scarcely acknowledged by the man. Her gaze shifted past the interruption toward the roulette table. Sebastian felt her sigh as Bob launched into a detailed description of his new driver and how it had improved his golf game.

“Sorry, I don’t golf,” Sebastian said, turning down an invitation to join the man at his club. “If you want to talk about drivers, catch up with my father. He’s the enthusiast.”

“You don’t golf?”

Sebastian was too busy running a multimillion-dollar corporation to putter around on the links like so many of his colleagues. He’d always believed that the boss should work harder than any of his employees. His father had never shared that opinion. Brandon had only worked as hard as he had to. That partially explained why the company’s profits had been so erratic during his father’s stewardship.

Steering Missy around Bob, they resumed their trek toward the roulette wheel. Five steps later, he was waylaid again.

“You came,” the petite brunette exclaimed. Ignoring Missy completely, she rose on tiptoe and kissed Sebastian on both cheeks. “Wait until I tell Gina that Sebastian Case came to my fundraiser. Stay here while I fetch her.”

“We’re heading for the roulette table,” Sebastian told her.

“We?” The brunette blinked her bright-blue eyes in confusion.

Sebastian turned to Missy. “Missy Ward. Communications director for Case Consolidated Holdings. Tanya Hart.”

The brunette frowned at Missy as if trying to place her. “Nice to meet you.” Suddenly she began waving to someone across the room. “Don’t move,” she commanded.

As Tanya sped off into the crowd, Missy said, “Remind me again why I’m here.”

“You need to meet the movers and shakers in this town.”

“Well, apparently, they’re not terribly interested in meeting me.”

From her mild tone, she sounded unaffected by the brush-offs she’d received, but the corners of her lips tightened, betraying her misery.

“They will be.” He gave the words a fierce punch. “Let’s go lose some money.”

A bright smile emerged. “You mean win some money, don’t you?”

Sebastian avoided eye contact with everyone as they approached the tables set up for gambling and focused his entire attention on Missy. How had he not anticipated this evening might be uncomfortable for her? Maybe because he’d seized the opportunity to spend some time away from the office with her. Maybe because he’d never seen these people through someone else’s eyes.

He bought five thousand dollars’ worth of chips and nudged the stack directly in front of Missy. “Time to see if your luck is still holding,” he told her.

As eager as she’d been to play five minutes earlier, she now backed away from the table.

“That’s a lot of money,” she said, her gaze fixed on the pile of chips.

“It’s no more than you gambled in Vegas on a single turn of the wheel.”

“That was different.”

“How exactly?” He leaned his hand on the table so he could peer at her expression.

“That was my money.”

“Think of it as a donation to charity.” He pushed five one hundred dollar chips onto black. “Care to make a side bet with me?”

She nudged a single chip onto the red, her gaze flicking toward him with interest. “What did you have in mind?”

“If I win, you spend the night at my house.”

The ball began its circuit of the wheel. Missy didn’t seem to breathe as the circling silver blur slowed.

“We can’t do that. I’m your employee, remember?”