The Wager. Metsy Hingle

meet you in the hotel’s dining room.”

      “All right,” she said.

      After opening her car door for her, he waited until Laura had started the engine and strapped on her seat belt. Then he tapped on her window. Frowning, she eased down the car’s window. “Did you forget something?”

      “Just this.” Leaning through the window, he gave her a long, slow kiss. “Good night.”

      “Good night,” she whispered.

      For a long time after the taillights of the convertible had disappeared, Josh stood in the dimly lit garage and thought about the explosive kiss they’d shared. “Dammit, Logan,” he muttered as he stalked off toward the elevator. Laura Harte was forbidden fruit—Olivia Jardine’s granddaughter and the key to his regaining the Princess. He had no business lusting after her because lust had a way of messing up a man’s mind. So what if she kissed like a dream and just thinking about her had him rock-hard and aching? He’d get over it. No way did he intend to let a few hormones stand in the way of his plans. Laura Harte was a means to an end. Nothing more.

      But later, much, much later, while he tossed and turned, unable to sleep, he kept remembering ghost-blue eyes dark with desire, the feel of satin-soft lips, the scent of flowers and sunshine.

      Six

      “Thanks to the tourist traffic generated by the wine crush in the Valley, our occupancy rate for October is running at ninety-five percent. That puts us up nearly ten percent over last year at this same time period.”

      Laura focused her attention on Tina Sawyer, the sharp brunette that she’d hired eight months ago as the hotel’s director of marketing. The other woman had been doing a fabulous job, which was evident from her report to the department heads at the hotel’s weekly meeting.

      “Our holiday campaign blitz is already under way and the print ads are scheduled to start running on the first of November,” Tina continued.

      Try as she might, Laura found herself only half listening to Tina’s report, her thoughts once again drifting to Josh. Despite a restless night in which she’d warned herself repeatedly not to read anything into that wild kiss that the two of them had shared, Laura hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind.

      “I want to see you again. It’s personal.”

      A burst of longing arrowed through her as she recalled the husky tone of his voice, the hot gleam in his eyes. He’d looked at her as though he’d wanted to swallow her whole. Biting down on her lower lip, Laura acknowledged if only to herself that for one crazy moment last night she had wanted him. And what did that say about her? While she would like to believe it was the loneliness she’d felt these past months that had caused her to react so out of the norm, deep down inside she wasn’t at all sure. She could imagine what her mother would have to say on the subject—no doubt something romantic about fate or destiny, Laura thought absently. A sharp pang hit her as reality came crashing back. She’d never know what her mother would have thought of Josh because her mother was dead. The jarring reminder sobered her. As Nick came to his feet, she realized she’d been in la-la land over Josh for most of the meeting. Silently, Laura promised herself to make up for the lapse in attention once Josh was gone.

      “I think that about covers it for this morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you,” Nick said from his position at the head of the conference room table. “Have a super day, and as always, if you have any problems, you know where my office is.”

      Amid the scrape of chairs and buzz of conversation, Laura stood and turned toward Tina, who was busy filing her notes away in a folder. “That was a good report, Tina. Very concise and informative. You’re doing a great job.”

      “Thanks,” the other woman said, a mile-wide smile on her face. “I just hope Mr. Baldwin is pleased.”

      “Mr. Baldwin is very pleased,” Nick said as he joined them.