Tempting the Tycoon

Chapter 2

Or, was she afraid of him? Did she take his offer personally, think he was interested in her as a woman as well as a bartender? Was that the real reason why she turned him—his proposition—down? That could very well be.

“Don’t kid yourself, Alex. Everything boils down to sex. Just like right now. You’re taking her refusal personally. You think she turned you down, not just your offer.”

Alexios narrowed his eyes on his brother. For a party-boy, Orrin could be very perceptive at times. And that was disconcerting, especially now, when he’d hit the nail directly on the head. So he fell back on his usual response when his brother’s barbs came too close to the truth.

“Shut up, Orrin.”

Naturally his brother didn’t take offense. Simply sat back and clasped his hands over his stomach. And watched the couples on the dance floor. Without looking away, he asked Alexios, “So, I repeat, what’s the game plan?”

 Shooting one more glance toward the bar and then back at Orrin he said slowly, “The game plan? It’s simple, really.” Here he paused, tossed the idea around in his head one more time before saying, “I find out why she said no. And then I take that obstacle out of her way. Because she’s the best person for the job. Guaranteed.”

His brother flicked a look in the bar’s direction before meeting his gaze again. And smiled, nodding.

With the decision made not to take No for an answer, Alexios set out to put his plan into motion the very next morning. He’d stayed up late the night before surfing the internet for information on the Hughes family, but had come up with very little in the way of usable material.

Ms. Hughes had graduated from UNLV with a Bachelor’s in Hospitality Management, a fact that surprised him and set the cogs in his brain to working overtime. He could use that knowledge at a later date. But what interested him even more than that tidbit was the fact that she didn’t own Jimmy’s Bar at all. Her father did. Her living father. Which fact opened up a whole new set of possibilities, some shadier than others.

Although the Vergas were realizing the American Dream of starting a family business and making it successful, you couldn’t live in Las Vegas and not be aware of its Mob history and connections. And though he would never do anything illegal, since his father would skin him alive and feed him to the white tigers at the Mirage if he did so, Alexios wasn’t above using underhanded methods to get what he wanted. Or rather, whom. And that was Sydney Hughes.

 Once he’d seen what she could do for business behind the bar, his mind had been blown with the possibility that she could do the same for the Midas lounge. And then when he’d met her last night and she’d unequivocally turned his offer down, his mind had been blown in a completely different direction. No woman turned down a Verga brother. Ever. And she didn’t turn down a lucrative, one-of-a-kind offer, either.

 After spending a restless night, where images of his packed lounge segued into visions of tanned arms and honey-blonde hair twined about him, Alexios woke unrefreshed but with new determination. Ms. Sydney Hughes would be working for him by the end of the day. No doubt about it.

Intent on his objective, he strode through the Midas’ nearly empty lobby, straightening his black tie and sliding on sunglasses as he headed out the revolving front door, where one of the valets had already brought his black, BMW 650i coupe around after his call. The morning heat, though not as excruciating as it would be later, still body-slammed him as he exited the hotel.

“Morning, Tim,” he greeted the youth who held open the driver’s door. He could already feel the blast of cold air gushing from the car’s vents, and welcomed it.