A Madaris Bride for Christmas

She was beautiful. Sensually stunning. Picture-perfect.

She stood leaning against the balcony rail, wearing a sexy green dress and chocolate-colored stilettos, her hair blowing in the breeze. From her expression, as she stared down below, he could tell she was fascinated by the bright lights of the Strip.

Was she a guest at the hotel? He scanned the balcony connected to a tri-level observation deck. It appeared she was alone. Something about her pulled at him. She looked happy, peaceful, but lonely.

Lee didn’t know the woman yet he felt as if he could read her perfectly. He stood and watched her, totally mesmerized. A slow heat flowed through him and pooled in his groin—she was arousing him in a way no other woman had. What was there about her that made every muscle in his stomach tie into knots? Made full awareness of her fill his every pore?

Granted, he hadn’t dated in a while because of his stringent work schedule, but still, there was something about this particular woman that had lust rushing through his veins.

Nothing like this had ever happened to him before.

He checked his watch. It was getting late, but he had to meet that woman and find out why he found her so captivating.

Anticipation filled him as he made his way off the terrace and toward the elevator bank.

* * *

She simply loved it here, Carly thought. Bright lights lit the Strip and each hotel seemed to compete to shine the brightest.

It was hard to believe she had gotten the job of pastry chef at the Grand MD’s Peyton’s Place restaurant a little more than a month ago. The hotel had been gracious enough to give her time to resign from her job in Miami and remain in Florida long enough to pack up her things and attend Heather’s wedding.

Initially, she had missed South Beach and wondered if she would ever get acclimated to Vegas’s dry summer heat. But she had discovered that in addition to being a fun city with its infamous Strip, Vegas was also a nice place to live.

Her house was in a residential area of town not far from shopping. Because she had everything she needed right at her fingertips she rarely came into town on her days off.

Except for today.

Today was her twenty-eighth birthday, and she had decided to celebrate with a night on the town. She had even treated herself to a night at the Grand MD. It had to be the most beautiful hotel she had ever seen. Her room on the fiftieth floor was to die for and the service was excellent.

Carly had stumbled across this particular balcony a few weeks ago while on break. She loved the view, and it had become her favorite. There had been several other couples here earlier, enjoying the view as well, but they had departed, leaving her alone. She didn’t mind. It was the story of her life.

Carly forced the depressing thought from her mind. After all, it was her birthday and she intended to have fun. So far it had been a beautiful day. Before leaving home this morning she’d gotten calls from Aunt Ruthie and Heather. They had remembered, and they were the only two people in her life that counted.

There was a party going on in one of the ballrooms upstairs. She could hear the music playing, a Marvin Gaye classic. She felt like dancing. What the heck. It was her birthday and she had every right to be silly if she wanted to.

Turning from the rail, she waltzed across the floor. She closed her eyes and pretended she was at a party, celebrating her birthday in style, dancing around a ballroom filled with tall, dark, handsome men. One would come forward, claim her hand and ask—

“May I have this dance?”

At the sound of the deep, husky voice, Carly’s eyes flew open and she stared into the most gorgeous pair of dark eyes she’d ever seen. And there was a very handsome face to go along with those eyes. Where on earth had he come from? She blinked, wondering if she was still clutched in the throes of her fantasy. She had to be.

“Are you real?” she asked, making sure she hadn’t conjured him up in her mind.

He smiled and the sight of the dimple in his chin nearly brought her to her knees. It definitely caused every hormone in her body to sizzle.

“Yes, I’m real. Now, how about that dance,” he said, taking her hand in his. A different song was playing now, this one by Luther Vandross.

Carly nodded her consent and he pulled her into his arms. The man was a total stranger. Had it not been her birthday, she would not have allowed him to hold her. But she had already decided that it was okay for her to act silly today. And it wasn’t every day that such a good-looking man asked her to dance. Not only was he handsome, but he smelled good too. And to top it off, they danced well together. The way their bodies swayed and moved against each other had her fighting a desire she hadn’t felt in close to four years.

A desire that had never been this strong.

She was reminded how it felt to be held by a man, in powerful arms. Every part of her body tuned in to the solid hardness of his. It was staggering; she was mindful of his every movement, the steady sound of his breathing, the way his arms encircled her waist.

Carly looked up at him to find him staring down at her. His predatory look made her insides simmer. Swallowing deeply, she said softly, “Where did you come from?”

He smiled again and she felt a tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach. “From my terrace.”

She nodded. He was a guest at the hotel.

“What about you? Are you a guest here?” he asked.

“Yes.” She wasn’t lying. She had checked into the hotel that day. There was no need to tell him she also worked here. “It’s a beautiful hotel.”

“I think so too. I’m Lee, by the way.”

“I’m Carly.”

His smile widened. “Nice meeting you, Carly. Is there a reason you were dancing alone?”

Her face warmed as she wondered if he thought she’d looked ridiculous. “It’s my birthday and—”

“Happy birthday,” he said.

She smiled up at him. “Thanks. I was having my own private party of one.”

He tilted his head. “That’s no fun. A beautiful woman should never party alone.”

He was smooth, she thought. As smooth as he was handsome. And she’d noticed he wasn’t wearing a ring. She knew some men didn’t cherish the sanctity of marriage vows, but she did.

“For me that’s no problem. I’m a loner anyway,” she said.

“Why?”

She doubted he wanted to listen to her sob story. She had few friends and had learned early on that the only person she could truly trust was herself. “I prefer things that way. What about you?”

“A loner?” He shrugged. “I couldn’t be a loner even if I wanted to. My family’s too big.”

“Really?” she asked. She couldn’t help but envy anyone who belonged to a large family.

“Yes, really.”

The Luther Vandross song ended and they slowly parted. “You’re an excellent dancer,” he said.

“So are you.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s getting late and—”

“You’re calling it an early night on your birthday?”

She chuckled. “Afraid so. I’m checking out of the hotel in the morning.”

“I see. Well, thanks for the dance.”

“No, I should be thanking you. It was nice meeting you. I hope you continue to enjoy the Grand MD.”

His smile widened. “Oh, I’m sure that I will.”

Carly’s gaze held his. She wasn’t sure why she did what she did next. It could have been his scent surrounding her or his overpowering masculinity or his handsomeness—any of them could have been responsible for obliterating any semblance of her common sense.

Before she could talk herself out of doing so, she leaned up on her tiptoes. She only intended to plant a light kiss on his lips, but the moment their mouths touched they were caught in a barrage of desires they could no longer downplay. He pulled her into his arms. Her body pressed against his, and she felt every single inch of him. She moaned at the feel of his arousal against her.

She was surprised by how easily she was stimulated. She was usually in total control of her emotions, which was why, her ex-boyfriend had claimed, he’d sought out another woman. He’d said she was cold and passionless. If that was true, then what was happening here?

It could be the way Lee had taken control of her mouth, kissing her with a hunger she hadn’t known was possible, cupping the back of her head to make sure their mouths stayed locked the way he wanted.

She knew if he kept this up she would beg him to take her to his room or she would be hauling him off to hers. Acting silly on your birthday was one thing, but going all-out loco was another.

While she still could, she broke off the kiss, drew in a deep breath, smiled and stepped back. “It was nice meeting you, Lee.”

She watched him lick his lips as if he had enjoyed the taste of her. “It was nice meeting you as well, Carly.”

She turned to leave and made it to the sliding glass door before he said, “It’s a minute before midnight. Leave one of your shoes behind, and I bet I’ll find you.”

Carly threw her head back and laughed. “I’m a loner, remember?”

“And what about that kiss?”

Good question. “I was tempted, and since it was my birthday, I yielded,” she said honestly.

He shoved his hands into his pockets, a sensuous smile spread across his lips. “When it comes to me, you can yield to temptation anytime.”

“I’ll remember that.”

And before he could say anything else, she slipped through the glass door, refusing to yield to temptation by looking back.

Long moments after Carly left, Lee continued to stare at the door she had slipped through. What the hell had just happened? The woman had blown his mind with a kiss he was convinced would remain in his memory forever.

He licked his lips again. Her taste was still there. How? Why? And what had sent him flying across the terrace to catch two elevators to meet this woman who had taken his breath away from a distance?

Her name is Carly.

At least that was the name she’d given. Even without knowing her last name, he could track her down, if he took a mind to do so. But as much as he was tempted by that thought, now was not the time. He had too much on his plate to get caught up in romantic entanglements.

He was putting together the biggest deal of his life. When Carly checked out of the hotel tomorrow he would never see her again. And maybe that was for the best. She had warned him that she was a loner, although he couldn’t help but be curious about why.

There had been something about her—other than her ingrained sexiness—that had touched him. A woman of her beauty should not be alone, especially not on her birthday. He was glad that he had shared a part of it with her.

When he had stepped out on the balcony and had seen her waltzing with her eyes closed, he had stood and stared. There might have been a dark, moonless sky overhead but she had looked totally enchanting beneath it. Her hair had tumbled around a beautiful cocoa-colored face. She had high cheekbones, beautifully arched brows and a mouth so sensuous his body had hardened just looking at it.

And that dress. It had clung to her hips, showing off curves and a great pair of legs. It had also revealed enough cleavage to tantalize and enough thighs to entice. He had found himself moving toward her and asking for a dance. When she had snapped her eyes open and he gazed down at her, he’d fallen under her spell. A spell that hadn’t broken, even now.

The kiss had been the sinker. He hadn’t expected it, but damn, had he enjoyed it. Heat burned his insides remembering how easily his tongue had slid inside her mouth. For the first time in a long time, he had felt unrestrained passion and an unexplained connection for a woman.

As he walked toward the door, he consoled himself with the knowledge that once he finalized the financing on hotel number three he would have plenty of time to date. Maybe he’d even think about settling down, starting a family that could share the wealth he was creating.

His mind returned to the work waiting for him in his office and he pushed all thoughts of Carly aside.

Chapter 2

She had kissed a stranger.

The intensity of that bizarre action weighed heavily on Carly’s mind the next day as she folded laundry. She could claim the “birthday silliness” defense all she wanted, but the bottom line was that it was so unlike her that the excuse didn’t pass muster. And then there was the undeniable fact she couldn’t let go of.

She had enjoyed it.

Carly would even admit that she had enjoyed it so much she hadn’t thought of anything else since. Even when she’d gone back to her hotel room and dressed for bed, a part of her had wondered what would have happened had she left one of her shoes behind. Would he have tried to find her?

She frowned at her thoughts. She wasn’t Cinderella and he wasn’t a prince...although he had certainly been dashing. However, she didn’t deal with fairy tales. This was the real world, and in the real world men like Lee whatever-his-last-name-was probably preyed on women nutty enough to act silly on their birthdays. There was no doubt in her mind that had she invited him up to her room he would have accepted the invitation. After they parted ways, he’d probably wandered around the hotel looking for another woman to pick up. With his looks, there was no doubt he would have been successful.

So why couldn’t she put the kiss behind her?

She knew the answer. The reason she couldn’t forget it was because it had been just that—unforgettable. Never had she been kissed that way, so intensely, so thoroughly. French-kissing a woman undoubtedly came naturally to Lee; he obviously had a lot of experience.

Last night that expert kiss had invaded her sleep. She had dreamed they hadn’t stopped with the kiss, that he had followed her back to her hotel room, that he had undressed her, undressed himself and then pulled her down on the bed. She had awakened more than once from her own loud moans as she’d envisioned him taking her nipples into his mouth and sucking hard on them, envisioned his hand slipping between her legs.

Then, when he had replaced his hand with his mouth, detonating an explosion of passion through her, she had screamed out in her sleep.

Her dream had gone way too far. Really? An orgasm? She could only imagine what the people in the hotel room next to her thought.

She’d heard of women’s dreams feeling so real they climaxed, but she’d never experienced such a thing for herself. Heck, nothing of that magnitude had even happened to her in real life, definitely not with Nathaniel.

Even with all of her dreams, she had quickly dressed and packed after waking up. Since her hotel bill had been prepaid, she’d skipped the checkout desk and gone straight to the parking garage, where she got into her car and drove off.

Carly was glad that she didn’t have to go back to work until tomorrow night. And since she worked in the restaurant’s kitchen and was never seen by patrons, she didn’t have to worry about her path crossing with Lee’s. In fact, she was confident she would never see him again. She fought off the disappointment of that thought, knowing it was for the best. The man tempted her to do things she wouldn’t ordinarily do. That was the last thing she needed.

She wanted to concentrate on her new job and be the best pastry chef she could be. There were a lot of opportunities at the Grand MD and she figured hard work would bring her closer to her dream of one day owning her own café. Ever since she’d moved to town, she’d been eyeing a piece of land within fifteen minutes of where she lived, not far from the mall. She could definitely see a restaurant with her name on it sitting right on that spot. The price was more than she could afford with all the student loans she was still paying back. But within a year she would have saved enough for a down payment, and she was hoping the property would still be available.

Leaving the laundry room, she planned out the few chores she needed to finish before she went shopping. Her aunt and Heather had sent her gift cards with instructions to buy something nice for herself. She smiled at their thoughtfulness and brushed aside the hurt that her mother hadn’t bothered to call. She never did.

Carly had long ago accepted the fact that Gail Briggs Thrasher believed Carly to be a mistake she’d made at sixteen that she wanted to forget. With Aunt Ruthie’s help, Carly’s mother had not only finished high school but had gone off to college as well. Only thing was, Gail eventually decided she didn’t want to be a mother to her illegitimate child. Knowing she was never wanted had bothered Carly while growing up, but she had stopped letting it be the downer it once was.

Her aunt Ruthie was a very religious woman and she believed that one day Carly would get all the happiness that had ever been missing from her life. A part of Carly hoped her aunt was right.

A few hours later, Carly sat down to the computer at her desk and pulled up the online copy of the Miami Herald. She’d promised herself she’d forget about what she’d heard that night in the alley four months ago, but she hadn’t been able to stop checking periodically for any mention of what she thought had happened. So far, Carly hadn’t connected any reports of missing people to the events she’d heard. Heather was convinced Carly had dreamed the entire thing, and now a part of Carly wondered if perhaps Heather was right.

But she couldn’t eradicate the memory of that man’s deep, raspy voice. Even if she never saw the man she believed had pulled the trigger, she was convinced she would recognize his voice.

If she continued to check the internet for another month or so and nothing appeared in the online newspaper then maybe she could finally let it go.

* * *

Lee stepped out of his shower thinking that so far the day had gone just the way he’d planned. His five important guests had arrived and were checked into the guest suites on the seventieth floor, which had an exclusive elevator for privacy.

The sheikhs and their wives had flown into Texas, spending a few days at Jake’s Whispering Pines Ranch. The women had been left behind with Jake’s wife, Diamond, to fly to Los Angeles to shop. They would be joining their husbands in Vegas tomorrow. The three men had arrived this morning in Jake’s private plane. Kyle and his wife, Kimara, had been the first to arrive at eight that morning, and Mitch Farrell and his wife, Gina, had arrived within an hour or so of the Garwoods.

The Garwoods and Farrells had visited the hotel before, when they’d attended the Grand MD’s Vegas grand opening, but Lee could tell from the looks on their faces that they were still impressed with what they’d seen during this visit. Of course Jake had been to the hotel several times since they’d opened their doors, but it was the sheikhs’ first time at the Grand MD in Vegas. Although they had visited the hotel in Dubai, they had already commented several times on how beautiful the Vegas hotel was.

Both sheikhs had attended college in the United States and had been visitors to Vegas a number of times before, staying at several of the other hotels on the Strip. Lee had overheard Sheikh Yasir whisper to Jake just how magnificent he thought the Grand MD was. The design, different from the one in Dubai, was impressive.

So much so that Lee and Angelo owned private residences on the seventy-third floor of the hotel. Both were huge and provided all the comforts of home, including their own private pools and entertainment rooms for parties. Their balconies provided a panoramic view of the city and beyond.

Although Lee would always have a deep affinity for Houston and he still got homesick at times, he would be the first to admit that Las Vegas had grown on him. He loved the Strip and enjoyed mingling with the millions of people who visited the city every year with plenty of money to spend. His job was to make sure some of that spending cash came the way of the Grand MD.

He had entertainers lined up three years in advance, including stand-up comedians, musicians and magicians. All the shows were sold out until the middle of next year. Since the Grand MD was the new kid on the Strip and had something for everyone, the shows had helped the hotel receive record-breaking reservations.

Reservations from guests like the woman he’d met last night.

Not only had Carly been on his mind this morning but she had remained on his mind all last night...even while he slept. To think this much about a woman was unlike him. He didn’t have the reputation his cousins Blade and Clayton had acquired prior to getting married, but he had dated enough women to suit him. Beautiful women. Stunning women.

None had been as unforgettable as Carly.

Memories kept invading his mind. Their dance. Their kiss. Why had he been tempted to go down to the lobby and wait for her to check out today just to see her again? Doing so would have been a mistake and he’d talked himself out of it, but it hadn’t been easy. Why did the thought of their paths never crossing again bother him?

Slipping into a pair of sweats, Lee had just pulled a T-shirt over his head when the suite’s doorbell rang. He pushed a button to check the video camera and saw it was Angelo. He spoke into the speaker. “Enter your code and come on in.”

By the time Lee walked out of his bedroom Angelo was walking through the door.

He and DeAngelo Di Meglio had met years ago when a close Madaris friend, Colonel Ashton Sinclair, had introduced everyone to his cousin MacKenzie Standfield, an attorney living in Oklahoma. Mac, as she was often called, was partner in a law firm with two other women—Samari Di Meglio and Peyton Mahoney.

Mac had married Lee’s cousin Luke a few years back; Samari, who was Angelo’s sister, was married to Lee’s cousin Blade, and almost two years ago Angelo had married Peyton. Half American and half Italian, Angelo and Samari came from a family dynasty of attorneys in New York.

“Looks like everyone has settled in,” Angelo said, sitting down in a nearby chair. “That’s good. Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a busy day.”

Lee knew that to be true. Their breakfast meeting was scheduled for nine and would include an in-depth presentation and video. They would break for lunch at noon before resuming the meeting at one. Dinner would be a private gathering tomorrow night at the hotel’s most elegant restaurant.

“I understand you chose Peyton’s Place for our dinner party tomorrow night,” Angelo said, smiling.

“I figured you’d like that,” Lee said, grinning. Angelo had named the hotel’s elegant restaurant after his wife. “Diamond suggested it, and I agreed it would be perfect. By the way, did Peyton come with you?”

“Yes, and so did Sam,” he said of his sister. “Blade will join her here tomorrow. Sam and Peyton went shopping,” he said of his sister and wife. Angelo chuckled. “Let me rephrase that. Sam went shopping and dragged Peyton along.”

Lee nodded, smiling. Everyone knew how much Peyton hated going shopping, especially with Sam. He was glad to hear Blade would be making a visit to the hotel.

“Want something to drink?” he asked Angelo.

“Yes, I’ll take a beer if you have one.”

“I do,” Lee said, heading for the kitchen that he rarely used. There was no need to cook when there were eight restaurants and six cafés in the hotel. He would be the first to admit that room service was spoiling him. To counter all those calories, he worked out at the gym every morning and, in some instances, again at night. “Here you go.”

Angelo followed him and slid onto the stool at the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. “Thanks,” he said, twisting off the bottle cap at the same time as Lee twisted off his. Both men took a long drink. “Good stuff.”

Lee agreed. He leaned back against his refrigerator. “I need to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Have you ever met a woman you became attracted to immediately?”

Angelo smiled. “Yes. Peyton. When Sam brought her home from college for a visit. I wanted her bad.”