Kiss Me, Baby - Vegas, Baby

Her touch flooded my body with warmth, and beyond the electricity and blazing lust, I felt an overwhelming sense of contentment. Kissing her was like coming home, and I knew this beauty was meant to be mine.

But before I could act on my newfound clarity, she was gone, stumbling into the hotel with a group of tipsy girls. After my stupor cleared, I considered running after her, but I was afraid to scare her. Instead, I’d use my connections to learn as much as I could about her and make a plan.

The valet had my car idling in front of the hotel, so I jumped inside and started for home. A lot of hotel owners lived on-site, but when Becket and I inherited our trust funds and The Artemis at twenty-one, I decided that I didn’t want to raise her at the hotel, so I bought a house fifteen minutes from the Strip. I kept the penthouse apartment in case I needed to grab a nap or crash after a late night. Although now that Delia was seventeen and about to leave for college, I’d been considering moving into the penthouse permanently. That idea blew away the moment my lips touched my mystery woman.

I’d had my daughter at twenty, the result of a youthful indiscretion. Since her mom had no desire to be a part of her life, I’d raised Delia on my own. I was thirty-seven, with an almost college-age daughter, so while I’d been open to finding someone to spend the rest of my life with, I was done with the diapers, late-night feedings, dance recitals, coaching softball, etc. I had no desire for more children. Once again, my beauty had changed my world in an instant. Suddenly, I saw us filling our house with little ones, raising our family, and growing old together.

I hit a button on my steering wheel and said, “Call Knox.”

The sound of dialing filled the car, then a few rings, before Knox picked up.

“Parker,” he greeted. “What can I do for you?”

“I need some information on a guest,” I informed him.

“Don’t you have your own head of security?

“She’s a guest at your hotel, not mine.”

Knox made a tsking noise, and I could practically see him shaking his head and giving me his steely-eyed stare. “You’re asking me to violate the privacy of a guest? I would never do that.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes. “You think I don’t know about everything you’ve done in the past five years? Drew and my brother try to deny it, but they gossip almost as much as their wives.”

“True.”

I laughed at his exasperated tone. Knox was a hard-ass and impossible to crack unless he was willing or it had to do with his wife. Which gave me the perfect weapon so I didn’t have to beg.

“She’s it, man. I need to know how to find her.”

Knox sighed and grumbled something under his breath. “Give me some specifics.”

I gave him a description, the time she entered, and told him she was with a group of women. Then I waited silently, listening to the click-click of the keyboard. Finally, as I was passing through the gate to my driveway, he spoke up.

“Amelia Flores. Twenty-five. License says she’s from Mesa, Arizona. Here until Sunday. And she has one of our event rooms booked for a bachelorette party tomorrow night.”

My breath caught in my throat, and I was grateful I’d already pulled into my garage and put the car in park. The thought that she might be engaged put a sour taste in my mouth and made me want to find her fiancé and bury him somewhere no one would ever find the body. It would mean she was off-limits. Then the thought that she wasn’t married yet crept into my mind, and I knew I’d fight for her.

Knox must have picked up on my train of thought by my silence. “I don’t think she’s the bride. Most of the activities they have planned are booked in her name.”

“How do you figure?” I asked, confused at his conclusion from the evidence at hand.

There was some murmuring and rustling on the other end of the phone before a female voice came over the line. “The bride doesn’t plan her own bachelorette party, Zack,” Knox’s wife, Addilyn, explained. “That’s usually the job of the maid of honor.”

Relief eased the tension in my body, and I exhaled slowly. “Thanks, Addilyn.”

“Sure!” she chirped.

A second later, Knox was back. “You serious about this girl?” he queried.

“Absolutely. Never been more certain of anything in my life.” Now I just had to figure out a way to find her and get her alone so I could convince her that we belonged together.

“Have the VIP party room at your restaurant open tomorrow night,” he instructed, reading my mind again. “I’ll talk to Drew, and we’ll find an excuse to have her event moved to The Crescent Moon.”