Against the Edge. Kat Martin

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      His cell rang again. Claire watched his expression, read his determination to find his son. She thought of the way he had tried to comfort her. She hadn’t expected his sympathy. Ben Slocum didn’t strike her as a sympathetic man. But he had surprised her at Bridger’s apartment. Surprised her here. There was no mistaking his concern.

      He ended the call. “That was Sol. Troy Bennett worked as a crane operator in Vegas. He lived with a woman, an exotic dancer named Sadie Summers. His old VISA bills show he left town about six months ago and came to L.A.”

      “How does your friend Sol know all that?”

      Ben’s mouth edged up. “Sol doesn’t say and I don’t ask. But I need to talk to Sadie Summers.”

      He started for the bedroom, but Claire caught his arm. “I’m going with you, Ben. We’re in this together. I promised Laura.”

      “Fine, get on the phone and charter us a plane out of Santa Monica. It’s only a little over an hour flight. If we get going, we can be back late tonight.”

      Claire didn’t argue. She had money in the bank, enough to rent the plane. She got on the internet and found a charter company, arranged for a flight from the Santa Monica airport to McCarran Field.

      “We’re all set,” she called out as she walked down the hall. “The plane’ll be ready to leave in an hour.” Ben’s door stood open. She stopped in the opening. He stood beside the bed, naked to the waist, a yellow oxford-cloth shirt lying on the bedspread ready to be put on.

      Claire just stared. Her heart was pounding, the blood rushing to her head. It was impossible to look away from all those perfect muscles. Impossible to keep from thinking of sex, which she hadn’t had since her breakup with her former boyfriend, Michael Sullivan, five months ago.

      Rarely before that, since he was gone so much.

      “Keep looking at me like that, angel, and we’re going to have to add a couple hours to our departure.”

      She stared into those ice-blue eyes that were anything but cold and felt light-headed. “A couple of hours?”

      “I’d prefer to take the rest of the day, but we have things to do.”

      Her face heated up. “Oh. Oh, my God.” Turning, she hurried back down the hall, embarrassment washing through her. She couldn’t believe she had gawked at him that way. It wasn’t like her to let a man’s appearance affect her. She was interested in brains, not brawn. Well, usually.

      In her bedroom, she grabbed a small overnight bag out of her closet, tossed in a change of underwear, a clean T-shirt, a sweater, her makeup bag and travel kit. By the time she walked into the living room, her composure had returned.

      Ben was unplugging his laptop, putting it in its case.

      Claire lifted her chin. “If you didn’t want to be stared at, you shouldn’t have left your door open.”

      Ben’s mouth edged up. “Actually, I didn’t mind at all. In fact, I’m hoping you’ll return the favor.”

      Heat slid through her as she thought of those amazing eyes running over her half-naked body. She wondered if he found her attractive. What kind of woman appealed to a hard man like Ben?

      “As you rightly pointed out,” she said, staring at him down the length of her nose, “we don’t have time for those kinds of distractions.”

      “Yeah, unfortunately.” He grabbed his laptop case and the black canvas duffel he’d brought with him, though clearly he’d only packed enough for the night. “I doubt we’ll be staying, but you never know what might turn up.”

      She grabbed her overnight bag and they headed out the door.

      Less than two hours later, she climbed down off the wing of their chartered Cessna 310 and crossed the tarmac next to Ben, toward the rental car she had arranged. The sun had set, but the lights of the casinos were so bright it didn’t seem dark in Las Vegas.

      “Since you insisted on paying for the plane,” she said, “I used my card for the car.”

      Ben flicked her a glance. “A liberated woman. I figured.”

      But she wasn’t sure he liked it. The guy had macho stamped in invisible letters on his forehead. Macho men weren’t usually attracted to independent women. She told herself it didn’t bother her.

      They climbed into the Toyota Corolla she had rented from Hertz. Ben plugged the address he had for Sadie Summers into the GPS and started the car. It occurred to her that if the meeting went anything like it had at Warner Construction, Ben would probably make more progress with the stripper if he went alone.

      Claire didn’t suggest it.

      Six

      It was chilly in Las Vegas but the cool fall weather didn’t deter the millions of tourists who prowled the casino strip. Ben avoided Las Vegas Boulevard, taking a less-crowded route from the airport to an address on the west side of town. A couple of times as he drove along, his glance strayed to Claire.

      Ben knew women and there’d been no mistaking the sexual interest in those big green eyes when she had caught him half-naked in his bedroom. He hadn’t missed the way her breath quickened, the pulse that throbbed at the base of her throat. It was good to know the growing attraction he felt for her was returned.

      But Sam was the priority for both of them, and even if the time were right, he wasn’t sure the lady would invite him into her bed. Claire was uptight and reserved. She wasn’t the type to have sex with a man she barely knew.

      On his side, Ben didn’t want the problems that came with sexual intimacy. He wasn’t good at the morning-after niceties. As far as he was concerned, by morning both parties had gotten what they wanted and it was over.

      He was pretty sure that wasn’t the way Claire approached a physical relationship. She’d want more, and he wasn’t the kind of guy who could give it to her.

      Still, just thinking about stripping off those conservative clothes and discovering the woman beneath sent his blood pumping south, and inside his jeans he started getting hard. Shifting against his growing arousal, he turned on the radio and concentrated on following the directions to the address he had punched into the GPS.

      It turned out to be an apartment in a low-rent section of Vegas. Two stories, white with black trim, a couple of scrawny trees in front. A light shone on a play area with swings and a sandbox that sat inside a chain-link fence next to the building.

      “Maybe I should wait in the car,” Claire said as he turned off the engine, which surprised him since she had always insisted on going everywhere he did. One look at her face and he knew what she was thinking.

      “The horny redhead at the construction site wasn’t my type and the last thing I want is to be alone with a stripper.” She’d been uptight since their encounter in the hall that morning. It was nice to see her smile.

      “Okay.”

      They got out of the car and made their way up to the porch. Ben knocked on the door and a minute later it swung open. Sadie Summers was a brassy blonde with СКАЧАТЬ