bet!"
"Exactly what I was doing. Betting. It's my profession, remember? But you were busy remembering that you have another life and other commitments that come before an affair with a man you met one weekend in Las Vegas, weren't you?"
"Jordan, it was the truth! I didn't just dream up this buffet party on Monday morning as an excuse not to go back to Vegas tonight!"
"No, I believe you," he gritted, and then went on perceptively. "I'm sure this party was planned long in advance and it really did just slip your mind for a while. But you remembered as soon as you got back here because this is where the most important part of your life takes place, isn't it, Alyssa? This is your real world. You just come to Vegas to play once in a while, but you always hurry back home to your job and your friends and your 'previous commitments' when you've finished playing. Only this time you made a mistake, sweetheart This time you left behind a man who doesn't want to be a weekend playmate for you. I'm not going to let you casually adjust your time with me so that it doesn't conflict with your
'previous engagements.'"
"Will you stop saying that!"
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"Previous engagements? They're your words, remember? They were on the note you had the hotel clerk give me."
"Can't we talk about this later?" Alyssa pleaded helplessly, feeling at a total loss. She had been priding herself on how well she could juggle her two separate worlds, but now they had collided, and she didn't know what to do.
"Sure," he shot back with caustic indifference. "We can talk about it after dinner." He glanced toward the buffet "What is for dinner, by the way? I'm starving."
"Jordan," she squeaked. "You can't stay here for dinner! I've got my boss and everyone I work with out there on that porch!"
"Not anymore." He smiled blandly, glancing past her shoulder toward open sliding-glass doors. "One of them has just come inside. Good evening," he went on politely to someone standing behind her. "I'm Jordan Kyle. I appear to be the late arrival."
"You're in luck," David McGregor proclaimed jovially as he came forward to shake the newcomer's hand. "We've barely begun to make inroads on Alyssa's terrific food. David McGregor. I'm Alyssa's boss at Yeoman Research."
For an instant of endless vertigo, Alyssa watched in horror asJordanand her boss shook hands. It had happened. Her fantasy life and her real life had met. My God, she thought dazedly. What have I done?
Visions of her career going down in flames left her momentarily paralyzed. If McGregor realized he was greeting a professional gambler and that Alyssa had spent a weekend with him inLas Vegas. . . that she had spent several weekends in Vegas . . .
Desperately, she pushed aside the image of mounting disaster. Nothing short of sheer inspiration would save her now. To her unending astonishment, it came.
"I'm so glad you could make it, after all,Jordan," she managed with a brilliant smile that would have done credit to a professional actress. "I know Mr. McGregor and the others will enjoy meeting you."
She turned away from the wicked light inJordan's golden eyes to say very brightly to her boss, "Jordan's a very busy man, and I was afraid he wouldn't be able to get here. An expert in probability theory, you know. One of the best in his field. I'm sure you'll enjoy talking to him. He's been recently engaged in a hush-hush research project over inNevada."
"Oh, so you're in the same field as Alyssa, are you?" David McGregor nodded wisely at the younger man.
"Why, yes, as a matter of fact,"Jordanreturned smoothly, his gleaming gaze still on Alyssa's desperately composed features. "We have several parallel interests."
Oh, God. Was that a promise of vengeance she saw in that threatening gaze? "Wouldn't you like a drink, Jordan?" Anything to distract him, even temporarily. "Come on into the kitchen and I'll fix you something."
"That sounds
"Exactly what I was doing. Betting. It's my profession, remember? But you were busy remembering that you have another life and other commitments that come before an affair with a man you met one weekend in Las Vegas, weren't you?"
"Jordan, it was the truth! I didn't just dream up this buffet party on Monday morning as an excuse not to go back to Vegas tonight!"
"No, I believe you," he gritted, and then went on perceptively. "I'm sure this party was planned long in advance and it really did just slip your mind for a while. But you remembered as soon as you got back here because this is where the most important part of your life takes place, isn't it, Alyssa? This is your real world. You just come to Vegas to play once in a while, but you always hurry back home to your job and your friends and your 'previous commitments' when you've finished playing. Only this time you made a mistake, sweetheart This time you left behind a man who doesn't want to be a weekend playmate for you. I'm not going to let you casually adjust your time with me so that it doesn't conflict with your
'previous engagements.'"
"Will you stop saying that!"
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"Previous engagements? They're your words, remember? They were on the note you had the hotel clerk give me."
"Can't we talk about this later?" Alyssa pleaded helplessly, feeling at a total loss. She had been priding herself on how well she could juggle her two separate worlds, but now they had collided, and she didn't know what to do.
"Sure," he shot back with caustic indifference. "We can talk about it after dinner." He glanced toward the buffet "What is for dinner, by the way? I'm starving."
"Jordan," she squeaked. "You can't stay here for dinner! I've got my boss and everyone I work with out there on that porch!"
"Not anymore." He smiled blandly, glancing past her shoulder toward open sliding-glass doors. "One of them has just come inside. Good evening," he went on politely to someone standing behind her. "I'm Jordan Kyle. I appear to be the late arrival."
"You're in luck," David McGregor proclaimed jovially as he came forward to shake the newcomer's hand. "We've barely begun to make inroads on Alyssa's terrific food. David McGregor. I'm Alyssa's boss at Yeoman Research."
For an instant of endless vertigo, Alyssa watched in horror asJordanand her boss shook hands. It had happened. Her fantasy life and her real life had met. My God, she thought dazedly. What have I done?
Visions of her career going down in flames left her momentarily paralyzed. If McGregor realized he was greeting a professional gambler and that Alyssa had spent a weekend with him inLas Vegas. . . that she had spent several weekends in Vegas . . .
Desperately, she pushed aside the image of mounting disaster. Nothing short of sheer inspiration would save her now. To her unending astonishment, it came.
"I'm so glad you could make it, after all,Jordan," she managed with a brilliant smile that would have done credit to a professional actress. "I know Mr. McGregor and the others will enjoy meeting you."
She turned away from the wicked light inJordan's golden eyes to say very brightly to her boss, "Jordan's a very busy man, and I was afraid he wouldn't be able to get here. An expert in probability theory, you know. One of the best in his field. I'm sure you'll enjoy talking to him. He's been recently engaged in a hush-hush research project over inNevada."
"Oh, so you're in the same field as Alyssa, are you?" David McGregor nodded wisely at the younger man.
"Why, yes, as a matter of fact,"Jordanreturned smoothly, his gleaming gaze still on Alyssa's desperately composed features. "We have several parallel interests."
Oh, God. Was that a promise of vengeance she saw in that threatening gaze? "Wouldn't you like a drink, Jordan?" Anything to distract him, even temporarily. "Come on into the kitchen and I'll fix you something."
"That sounds
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