What Matters Most: The Billionaire Bargains, Book 2 (7 page)

“A million dollars.”

Yeah, right, he had a million dollars. She laughed and nodded. “Okay, one million dollars for me to recreate last night for you.”

“Deal.” He reached for the front of her sheet and hooked a finger at the top between her breasts. “Starting right here and now.”

She clutched the sheet tighter. “Oh, no. That wasn’t the first thing we did when we got here.”

He sighed and dropped his hand. “I really am an idiot then.”

She smiled. “Sorry. If we’re going to do this, I think we need to go in chronological order.”

He didn’t look as enthusiastic about that idea as he had about removing her sheet. But he had no idea just how much fun they’d had even before they’d gotten to the bed.

“Fine. What did we do first?”

“We went shopping.”

Chapter Three

Shopping didn’t sound like Reese, but when he picked the silky red dress off the floor, he definitely remembered buying it.

He hadn’t wanted to take any time for anything besides heading to the airport and getting on the jet for fear she’d change her mind, so they’d left the church in wedding dress and tux and he’d promised to buy her everything she needed in Vegas.

He hadn’t been able to wait to get Reese out of that dress though—and not just so he could fully appreciate what was underneath, but because every minute of looking at her dressed up to marry Jeff had made him crazier and crazier. He’d asked to talk with Madeline the moment he and Reese had stepped into the Bellagio. Madeline knew him well and had taken one head-to-toe perusal of Reese and had promised to send some appropriate outfits to choose from.

Reese had put the red dress on and he’d insisted it was the one. The fabric was silky and hugged her body like a second skin. It was low enough in front to hint at the gorgeous breasts beneath without being too much. It dipped low enough in back that he could put his hand on her back as they walked and touch bare silky skin. And it rode high enough on her thighs to show off her beautiful legs and let him stroke her bare knee when they sat close. It had thin straps that left her arms bare, which also meant she had to keep close to him with his arm around her to keep from getting chilled.

Madeline had taken the price tags off of it and Reese had nothing else with her, so she’d been stuck and had to say yes. Madeline had also sent up some toiletries for Reese and she’d been won over by the luxurious soap, shampoo and lotion.

Tony had tipped Madeline extravagantly.

The red dress now hung from Reese’s fingers. “I’d wear this again but we spilled martini on it and ripped the seam a bit.”

He wanted to know
everything
about ripping that seam.

“New night, new dress,” he said. He started for the phone by the bed.

“Hey, Tony?”

He looked over at her. “Yeah?”

“Could you, um, put some pants on?”

He had a towel around him, but nothing was going to be able to hide his reaction to her.

“You sure? You seem to be enjoying the view.”

She wasn’t hiding the fact that she was looking him over, and he felt his cock stir in response.

“Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “Too bad you don’t remember last night and are a little hung over this morning. We could be far past getting dresses and going out on the town. We could…stay in tonight.”

He turned to face her fully, giving her a good look. “I’m not hung over.”

“I don’t know that for sure,” she said. “You might just be saying that to get laid.”

Get laid. That was graphic from the sweet lips he’d been fantasizing about, but damn if it didn’t make him hard.

“I promise you. Tequila wipes out my short term memory but—”

She sighed regretfully again and turned toward the bathroom. “Sorry. “

She didn’t really sound sorry. She sounded flirtatious.

“You’ll have to start over and, hopefully, get back to this point.”

“You’re going to torture me for a while about this, aren’t you?” he called after her.

“Oh, absolutely.” The bathroom door closed behind her.

Tony couldn’t help his grin. She was feisty and he really liked that. She sure didn’t seem broken hearted about her non-wedding.

His chest tightened.

She’d had a wedding. Apparently.

Holy shit. He was married to Reese Sutherland. Reese Sutherland was now Reese Steele.

And he didn’t even know her middle name. If she even had one.

Tony dragged a hand through his hair. This was a fucking mess. Not a bad mess necessarily. After all, he was
married
to Reese. But this was going to be hard to explain to his family. And friends. Particularly one friend named Jeff.

Not that Jeff really deserved an explanation. Jeff had fucked all of this up long before Tony had come along.

But, yeah, this was a bit over-the-top, even for him.

Still, he had to grin imagining his brother’s face when he told him. It would definitely have to be in person so he didn’t miss it.

Tony picked up the room phone and dialed the number for Madeline.

“Hi, Madeline, Tony Steele.”

“Good evening, Mr. Steele.”

Tony glanced at the clock. It was indeed nearing five in the evening. Wow. It had been a long time since he’d slept past noon. It must have been a good night.

“Good evening. We are going out again tonight and I was wondering if I could have a few more outfits sent up.”

“Of course. For the same woman as last night?”

Tony cringed. Unfortunately, the question wasn’t inappropriate. There had been a couple of times that he’d checked in with one woman on his arm and checked out with another.

“Yes. My wife, Reese.” Wow, he really liked how that sounded.

There was a moment of complete silence as Madeline absorbed the information.

She cleared her throat. “Congratulations, Mr. Steele. I wasn’t aware that you’d gotten married.”

Tony grinned at the obvious amazement in Madeline’s voice. “Well, it’s a relatively new development.”

“This is your honeymoon then?”

Tony thought about that. Hey, yeah, this was his honeymoon. He was grinning like an idiot when he said, “It is.”

“Then allow me to send up some congratulatory room service as well,” Madeline said. “And how many dresses?”

How many nights were they going to be in Vegas? Because when they weren’t out on the town, Reese sure wasn’t going to be needing any clothes.

“Send up three or four. We haven’t made definite plans.”

“Very good. Someone will be up in a few minutes.”

Feeling very good about himself and the entire situation he’d found himself in, Tony sat back down on the bed and propped himself up with pillows to wait for his wife to emerge.

She’d already showered. Her hair had been damp, her face devoid of makeup and she’d smelled like the soap Madeline had sent up yesterday.

His body clenched as he remembered that he’d been nice and close to get a good breath of Reese’s scent when he’d awakened.

Damn, he’d handled that badly.

Well, he had the whole night to make it up to her.

Actually—Tony linked his hands together behind his head and let the bone-deep satisfaction sink in—he had the rest of his life.

An hour and a half later, Tony Steele stepped off the elevator holding hands with his wife.

His gorgeous, amazing, funny, sweet
wife.

Tonight she was dressed in black and he’d literally tripped over his own feet when she’d stepped out of the bathroom in the dress. It was considerably…smaller…than her wedding dress had been. Smaller than the uniform she wore at the club. And the dress from last night.

There was a lot of skin showing tonight.

Which was absolutely fine. Tony had nothing but the highest appreciation for Reese’s skin.

What was
not
absolutely fine was that they were now
leaving
the hotel suite.

His wait-naked-on-the-bed plan had been interrupted when Madeline’s assistant had showed up with dresses and room service. Tony had knocked on the bathroom door but Reese had asked him to pass the dresses and a piece of spinach quiche through the crack in the door.

He’d eaten, he’d turned on an episode of NCIS, he’d logged into his email.

And he’d finally realized that she wasn’t coming out until it was time to walk out the door.

He’d showered in the second of the three bathrooms in the suite and dressed in black pants and a dark gray button-down shirt with a black tie. While he and Jeff had been planning to kick back and relax in Vegas, their friends’ private clubs required a nicer dress code than the casinos. Even the high-end poker games Tony liked to play in had a dress code. They would all have let him in. Tony was well-known and, frankly, had the money to do whatever he wanted. But he liked to look the part.

So, with Reese, he could choose to hang out in the more touristy areas and really dress down. He could take her to a couple of shows and on a tour of the casinos, maybe show off his ability at the blackjack table. But he wanted to wow her. He’d admit it. He wanted to give her a good time that included expensive dresses and the best food and drink and show off that he knew the owners of the swanky clubs.

He frowned as a thought occurred. Jeff had probably done all of that. Jeff loved to flash his money. He loved to impress people with what he had and could do. Tony knew that Jeff had lavished Reese with gifts.

Tony probably hadn’t shown her anything new or impressive last night.

“Come to think of it,” he said, as he waited for their limo to pull up in front. “I don’t need to relive last night. Let’s make tonight different.”

Reese looked up at him with a knowing smile. “You don’t really want me to rant and rave about how you don’t remember anything about our first date, our first kiss, your proposal or our wedding do you?”

He groaned. “That’s not fair. All of those things happened in the same night.”

She laughed lightly and stepped toward the limo. “You know, I have a feeling that you pretty much get your way all the time in all things. This might be good for you.”

He reached to open the door for her, waving the chauffeur and bellman off. He was sticking as close to Reese as he could get all night.

“I know I did a tequila shot off your stomach, and I know that I got my hand into your panties at a club, and I know I
did
kiss you…and more,” he said as he helped her into the car and slid in next to her. “I’d say I got my way pretty well.”

She turned on the seat, the motion pulling the hem of her dress up tantalizingly high on her thigh. She gave him a smile that made all of his blood route south.

“You getting your way was a side effect.”

“A side effect of what?” He so wanted to pull the skirt the rest of the way up and then pull her into his lap.

“A side effect of me getting
my
way.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”

“You don’t remember that?” she asked. “We got on the plane and you said, ‘whatever happens from here is up to you’.”

He did actually remember saying that. “Yes. I remember.” In fact, the moment he’d stepped onto the elevator with Reese, the night before had come back to him—up to the point where he’d licked salt from Reese’s wrist and then sucked tequila off of her stomach. He even remembered doing it the first two times.

From there, it was a blur. Honestly—though he hoped he wouldn’t have to admit this to her—he couldn’t tell if the flashes of music, drinking, making out and sex were memories from his time with Reese or were memories of other nights in Vegas.

Which made him a complete asshole and very happy that he would no longer have any nights in Vegas, or anywhere else, without Reese.

Monogamy wasn’t a problem. He just hadn’t been in a relationship requiring monogamy for a very long time. The women he spent time with—naked time and otherwise—weren’t interested in commitment either.

“You told me that—”

“First and foremost, you are my
friend
,” Tony said, filling in the words he’d said the day before. “I don’t expect anything from this trip except to make you feel better about everything that went down with Jeff.”

She nodded. “I got to call all the shots.”

He remembered that too, now with startling clarity. He’d helped her into the limo last night and asked what she wanted to do. And he’d tried really hard not to have any expectations.

He also clearly remembered her turning to him and saying, “Let’s dance.”

So they had. He’d taken her to Matt’s club, an exclusive club hidden from most Vegas visitors. It was the kind of place you had to be invited to—Tony and Jeff both had standing invitations—and you had to know how to get there. There were no signs or phone book listings.