AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Very funny. Not a new beginning. And yes, it’s called sex, or so I’m told. At first, I thought he’d want to talk about his winnings or his gambling—the stuffyoutold me he would want to talk about. You’re the one who told me to go to his room.”
Sailor shook her head. “No, I told you tolistento him. I never said you had to listen to him in his room, with all your clothes off.”
“In my defense,” Alessandra started, “my clothes were on when we were talking. And I had no intention of having sex with him, despite our past. It was twenty years ago, for Pete’s sake! But he was nice, and there was wine, and he started playing with my hair. And you know me… I’m always so focused on work, worried about losing my job, and I didn’t want to think about it. I thought at the moment, why not? Why can’t I have some fun? It’s just one night.”
Sailor nodded. “You’re not a ‘it’s just one night’ sort of person, Alessandra. Did you spend the night with him?”
“No. I left right afterward,” Alessandra said sheepishly.
“What the hell? What did you say? Did you tell him why?”
“I just said, ‘see you tomorrow’ and left. There was no way I was going to hang around and actually sleep with him. Geez. It was just a spontaneous thing. Spend the night? No. For Gods’ sake. That would totally give him the wrong idea.”
“Alessandra, you’re not spontaneous; you’re a planner and a thinker. If you left quickly, you should ask yourself why. It’s not that I care one way or the other; I’m actually happy you took some time to enjoy yourself. It’s just that I don’t see you having sex with some guy from your past unless you still have feelings for him. And I wonder if you left right after because you didn’t want to face that possibility.”
“I don’t have any feelings for Beau Brooks, Sailor. I really don’t. I just needed, you know, to not think for once. And I did know he’d be great in bed. But there’s no way I’d let myself have feelings for someone who is a professional gambler, a risk-taker, and who would, no doubt, disappoint me in the end. Who already did just that to me. I’m not that dumb.”
“No, you’re not dumb. But youarestubborn; maybe too stubborn to realize that maybe the reason you slept with him—and didn’t want to stay afterward—could be because you feel a real connection, even after all those years.”
“Listen, Sailor. There’s no real connection to be had between me and Beau Brooks. It’s impossible. He’s a gambler who needs to lose money in order for me to keep my job. That’s it. I wanted to have fun, to quit thinking about the next week, so I had sex with him. I wish I hadn’t, because now he’ll probably expect the same thing tonight after the concert. And anything other than last night’s one-night stand isn’t going to happen.”
“Does he know that?” Sailor asked.
“He will, soon enough.”
While Alessandra was talking to Sailor, Beau was having a conversation with his brother Aaron, who apparently was unusually curious about Beau’s activities. Aaron had spent the last twenty-four hours playing in a private poker game with a group of mostly wealthy Parisian businessmen.
“You should come, Beau. It’s a wild game, and they seem to want to spend their money on nothing other than poker. Guy goes all-in with 7-8 offsuit and a gutshot straight draw. Of course, I call. On that one, he pulls it out on the river.”
“Ugh.” He knew how frustrating it was to have the best hand, only to be beaten by an opponent playing badly—and who wins on the last card.
“Yes, ugh,” Aaron replied, “but I’ll play that guy all day long. In fact, I did, and it was quite a profitable day. How are you doing at The Benson?”
“Ahead. By a lot. It’s a beautiful resort. And of course, there’s the beautiful CEO running it.”
“Hanging out with Alessandra, huh? Did they run out of casino hosts to cater to your every need?”
“Mine got sick, so Alessandra stepped in. I’d actually forgotten that you may have gambled with her dad. Brian Caro?” Beau asked. Since Beau was ten years younger than Aaron, their group of friends differed.
“Yes. Sad situation, that one. Wait. But it didn’t seem to impact her at all. She’s a resort executive now. Good for her. And you say she’s still beautiful? I thought you weren’t interested in her.” Beau knew his brother’s intuition was always right on target. It’s one of the many reasons Aaron was such a good poker player.
“I thought I wasn’t. But yes, we’ve spent some time together…”
“What sort of time together have you spent?”
“Not getting into that, Aaron. Suffice it to say, she’s just as intriguing as she ever was. I’ll admit it, you were right. She’s probably one of the most intriguing women I’ve ever spent time with,” Beau said, inflecting his voice slightly and emphasizing the ‘spent time with’ phrase.
“I’ve never heard you describe a woman as intriguing before—at least, not since Alessandra twenty years ago. Beautiful, yes. You always have a beautiful woman around. But intriguing…? No. Maybe with this reconnection, Alessandra will be the woman who settles you down, just like Mom did for Dad.”
He was tempted to remind Aaron of the fact that Redman had never really settled down—had been gone too much, hadn’t paid enough attention to his family—but he didn’t want to be argumentative.
Instead, he said, “I wouldn’t say Mom settled him down. I don’t think Dad’s the settle down type. And neither are we. If it was a more serious relationship with Alessandra, I’d only end up disappointing her. I did that once, and I don’t want to do it again. Plus, she’s so focused on her career, I’m pretty sure there would be no place for a relationship on her end, either.”
Aaron’s voice changed to a more serious tone. He clearly understood what Beau had implied. “I know Dad wasn’t the perfect husband. But despite that, Mom was the love of his life. You might be too young to remember, but they had so much fun together. I know you didn’t see that very much, but it’s true. I don’t think it would ever work for me, but maybe you can find someone like Dad found Mom.”
“I don’t even know if Alessandra’s forgiven me for ghosting her before. I don’t even know if she’s looking for any sort of serious relationship. And a relationship with me? Sometimes I think she’s only interested so I’ll lose money and increase her profits.”
“Then I guess you’ll just need to find out.”
Beau reflected on the conversation with his brother. The way Alessandra had responded to him the night before seemed to indicate she was interested—more than interested, in fact. But she’d left him right after their encounter with barely even a goodbye. What did that mean?
He decided he would find out tonight, one way or another.
