Vegas, Baby: The Complete Series by Fiona Davenport

6

Anna

As soon as I spotted the predatory gleam in Julian’s eyes, I realized what I’d just given away. Crap. The situation I now found myself in was a big part of the reason I’d done my best to stay away from the sexy magician. Deep down in my gut, I’d known I wouldn’t be able to push him away without explaining the source of my fear of getting involved with a man who lived his life in the limelight. Since it was the last thing I wanted to talk about, I pressed my lips together as I stared up at him, hoping that a miracle would happen and he’d let the subject drop. Even though we weren’t all that familiar with each other, I knew better, and Julian was quick to prove me right.

“As happy as I am to have you confirm that you’ve noticed my sexiness, I don’t consider myself to be truly famous. It’s not as though I’m recognized everywhere I go,” he pointed out as he ran his hand down my spine in a soothing gesture I also found incredibly arousing. His lips curved up in a slight grin of male satisfaction, and I knew the sexy jerk hadn’t missed my reaction to his touch.

I narrowed my eyes at him and argued, “There’s a giant neon billboard with your picture on it hanging smack dab on the Strip. You’re famous enough for it to count.”

“I couldn’t care less what the world thinks about me,” he growled before brushing his mouth over mine. It didn’t matter that the kiss was quick, the impact on my senses was instantaneous. It felt as though every nerve ending in my body was begging for more. “Your opinion is the only one that matters.”

My fingers trembled as I reached up to touch my lips. “Why?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know why, Anna.” He cupped my chin with his palm, stroking my cheek with his thumb. “Not when you’ve already admitted to feeling this thing, the same as me. We’re moving forward. Together. Not backward.”

It felt as though butterflies took flight in my belly upon hearing the steely determination in his tone. As much as I tried to convince myself that a relationship with him was impossible, I still wanted it with every fiber of my being. I gave him the barest nod of my head, and he continued, “I took my dad’s advice on investments when I started earning decent money, and I’ve amassed quite the nest egg over the years. I’m not as rich as some, but I’m willing to concede the fact that I have money. Not as much as Drew, but it doesn’t seem as though you hold his wealth against him from what I’ve seen this past month.”

My lips had curved up in a small smile when he mentioned his dad because it was unexpectedly adorable, but they pressed together in a tight line when he compared my reactions to him and Drew. Julian was correct, I didn’t have any issues with my boss’s wealth. Maybe it wasn’t entirely fair to Julian that I was holding him to a different standard, but Drew was only my boss while he was...more. It was time for me to stop lying to myself and admit that no matter how hard I’d tried to fight my attraction, I hadn’t succeeded. And if I wanted to move forward like Julian said, then I needed to open up to him about why I’ve been fighting this thing between us so hard.

“I don’t care how wealthy Drew is. He seems cool enough, but he’s Autumn’s problem. Not mine.”

Julian’s eyes filled with male satisfaction at my admission. “You can’t say the same thing about me, can you?”

I dropped my forehead against his chest and mumbled, “No, darn it. Even with as hard as I’ve tried, I can’t.”

His arms tightened around me, pulling me closer before he brushed a kiss against the top of my head. “Thank fuck you’re finally willing to admit it. That means you’re going to stop fighting what’s happening here and tell me why you’ve been avoiding me this whole time?”

I heaved a deep sigh and nodded, keeping my face buried in his broad chest as I answered, “My very first job was with a public relations firm with a lot of celebrity clients. Nobody expected me to handle any of them directly because it wasn’t in my job description. I was basically a glorified gopher, but then one of their biggest clients took...a shine to me, I guess you could say.”

Julian was close enough for me to feel his body tense as he growled, “I’m sure he did.”

“I didn’t see it at first. As far as the whole world knew—me included—the guy was happily married to his equally famous wife. My boss grumbled about it when he insisted that I be assigned to the team who handled him, but she didn’t hesitate to give in to his request because she was all about keeping the client happy. I didn’t start to second-guess my luck until she made an odd comment one day about how much easier her job would be since I signed a non-disclosure agreement when I started working there.”

“That fucking bitch,” he bit out, tilting my head back to look into my eyes. Whatever he saw there made him swear some more before he walked me over to the couch and settled me on his lap. “Let me guess, the celebrity client’s marriage wasn’t as happy as everyone thought because he was a cheating bastard.”

“Yes.” I thought about everything I had learned back then. “But also no since it was more of a case of them having an open marriage as long as they didn’t publicly embarrass each other. She had apparently had just as many lovers as him from what he told me when I turned him down flat. He thought I’d be more open to his advances if I knew his marriage was a sham they’d gone through with to help their careers before they were A-listers.”

“He didn’t understand you at all.” His hand stroked up and down my spine. “If he had, he would’ve known you have too much integrity to do something like that, no matter what the situation.”

My head jerked up, and I searched for any sign of deception in his gorgeous face. All I found was utter sincerity, though. “How could you possibly know that? We never even really spoke to each other until you pulled your kidnapping stunt during your show yesterday.”

“Sweetheart.” He quirked a brow as though that one word was an actual answer, but I needed more.

“No, really. How did you know?”

His lips curved up in a smug grin. “While you’ve been trying to avoid me, I’ve spent the past month watching and learning about you.”

“I should probably be worried that you just admitted to basically stalking me and followed it up by kidnapping me.” I laughed softly and shook my head, feeling flattered instead.

“You don’t ever have to worry about me hurting you.” Julian ran his fingers through my hair, twirling a lock around his index finger and tugging on it gently. “So finish telling me the story.”

I refused to think about what his promise meant until I got through the rest of what had happened before I came to Vegas and took my job at the Lennox. “Stuff blew up in the client’s face when the woman he was sleeping with while he was hitting on me turned up pregnant. She got an abortion, but she wanted to go public about the whole mess—probably because she was an aspiring actress and figured having her name linked with his, even negatively, would give her career a push. She was probably right about that, but my job wasn’t to worry about her. It was to protect the client’s image, no matter what.”

“And you took your job seriously, didn’t you?” he asked with an understanding gleam in his eyes.

“Yup.” I swallowed down the knot in my throat and forced the words out. “The whole situation sucked, but I was the one who came up with the plan that made the client come out looking squeaky clean. His bodyguard agreed to claim paternity if the story ever came out, the wife befriended his ex-mistress—at least in the public eye—and the girl ended up landing the role of a lifetime that catapulted her career a good five to ten years ahead of where it should’ve been. Everyone was thrilled with the outcome...except me. I felt like I’d betrayed everything I believed in, so I pushed for a letter of recommendation to help me land the job here and quit.”

“I can understand why you’d be leery of falling for someone in the limelight,” he conceded, lifting my hand to press his against his chest, directly over his heart. “But there’s something you need to know about me, Anna. I’ll never cheat on you. My parents have been married for more than thirty years, and my dad never hid from me that my mom is the most important person in his world. I grew up seeing their love for each other every single day, and I promised myself that I would have the same kind of relationship with my wife when I found her.” His thumb stroked over my ring finger, making my heart beat wildly in my chest. “I love magic, but I don’t care about being a celebrity. I took the job at the Lennox so it would be easier to settle down when I found what I was looking for, and I’ve never been happier about my decision than when I spotted you on your first day here...even though you made me hunt you down.”

Whoa. He couldn’t possibly mean what I thought he was saying...could he?