Billionaire Flawed 2(39)

But then it looked as though he and his friends were moving on, and they gathered their things and paid their tab and walked out the door. The good looking one lingered, though, and he caught Danielle’s eye and waved her over.

“Yeah?” Danielle asked as she went to speak with him by the front door.

“What’s your name?”

Danielle tapped a manicured nail against the small plastic nametag she wore to the left of her chocolate colored cleavage. “Danielle.”

“I saw that, but don’t most women in Vegas have fake names? What’s your real name?”

Danielle laughed. “Where are you from?”

“Hidden Hills,” the man said. “It’s near Los Angeles.”

“Well I don’t know who is feeding info to Hidden Hills, but Danielle is my real name.”

“All right, Danielle. Well, I think you should marry me.”

That was the part she had thought she hadn’t understood. She leaned forward and shook her head. “Excuse me?”

“I think we should get married. You are absolutely stunning.”

“I’m not going to marry you.”

The man laughed. “Why not?”

“I don’t even know your name.”

The man held his hand out. “Ray,” he said. She shook it. His hand was strong, but not rough.

“Okay, Ray. Well, my answer is no.”

“Hey, I really need to run right now, but I think we should talk more about it. What time do you get off?”

“One.”

“In the morning?”

“Yeah.”

Ray whistled through his front teeth. “Rough gig,” he said.

Danielle laughed. “It’s alright.”

“Well, listen. I have a penthouse in the… well shit, I don’t remember the name. But we’ll be drinking like crazy and generally raising Hell. I can have someone pick you up and bring you over, and we can get to know each other.”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll send someone, and come if you want. Alright?”

Danielle didn’t know what he meant about sending someone, but she just nodded. “Okay then,” she said, and Ray smiled and then turned and left.

Danielle wasn’t sure what was going on, but, somehow, she felt an attraction for Ray. He was obviously nice to look at. Taller than she was and wide in a muscular way, with broad shoulders. He had been dressed in expensive clothes, but she had spent most of her time around him imaging what he looked like without a shirt on. Maybe going over to his penthouse in some hotel was the perfect opportunity to find if her fantasy shirtless Ray lived up to the real thing.

As her night wore on, and the club became packed, she couldn't push her strange conversation with Ray from her mind. One in the morning rolled around quickly, and she clocked out and headed outside. The club would be open for a few more hours, so she stepped quickly through the entrance and through a sea of people trying to get in. Her car was parked along the side of the building, and she reached for her keys. She had a paper due on Monday, and she didn’t know a single thing about Ray or any of his friends. She didn’t make it a habit to go to strange hotel rooms with men she didn’t know, and she had decided she wasn’t about to now.

And then she saw the stretch limo parked along the side of the building, boldly blocking the traffic that was trying to stream in from the well lit road which ran through the famous Vegas strip. The driver was ignoring the honks and the curse words being thrown at him, and he was holding a piece of paper with Danielle’s name on it.

She had never ridden in a limo before, and thoughts of strange men and papers due vanished. She would take her shot. She smiled at the driver as she neared, and tapped her finger on her name tag.

“Looking for me?” she asked, and then older man nodded.

“Looks like it, Miss,” he said, and he pulled the door open for her.

Danielle half expected Ray to be waiting for her in the limo, but he wasn’t and she felt a wave of disappointment wash over her. There was a bouquet of flowers inside, and a couple of bottles of wine and a glass, so she poured herself some as the car started moving.

Danielle had been raised in New Orleans, about as far from a life which would afford her rides in stretch limousines as she could get. It had just been her and her mom, and her mom had always struggled to keep them in houses, and food on the table.

Danielle had seen education as a way out and had grades that were good enough for her to have offers from six schools. She had ended up at Ryeman College, twenty minutes outside of Vegas.

Vegas was a town built for the wealthy, and Danielle had only ever seen the edges. But riding in a limo, looking through the dimmed windows as the strip passed by, a glass of wine in her hand, it was about as much fun as she had ever had. She only wished she had someone to share it with.