“My place.”
She didn’t understand the reservation in his voice. She’d already dumped her stuff in his penthouse suite in Blackwood Towers. Wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen it. “Good. It’ll give us time to chill before the reception.”
“Yeah.” Tension pinched the corners of his mouth, his fingers inadvertently digging into her waist. “You know how important the reception is, right?”
Ah, so that’s what his funk was about. Making sure she played her part in front of his precious investors.
“I was the number one drama queen in high school.”
He grimaced. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“That came out wrong.” She patted his cheek. “I was a fabulous actress. Best Juliet ever.”
“Wish you hadn’t used the star-crossed lovers as an example.”
“Don’t be such a worrywart. Your investors will love me.”
He eased away and she immediately missed his touch. Crazy.
His gaze traveled from her shoes upward in a slow, sensual sweep that left her skin tingling like he’d just caressed her. “You’re amazing, you know that, right?”
She resisted the urge to squirm under his praise. “I found it in a boutique—”
“I’m not talking about the dress.”
For the first time since they’d met, the powerful aura he wore like a protective cloak fell away and she glimpsed a hint of genuine emotion beneath the tough-guy exterior. It undermined her more than his compliment.
“Not many women would put up with my blackmailing shit and go through all this for the sake of family.” He touched her hand, and before she could second-guess herself, she intertwined her fingers with his. “Loyalty’s important to me. And what you’ve demonstrated…” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it, sending a shiver of longing through her. “Let’s just say I think we’re going to make a good team for however long this marriage lasts.”
And just like that, he ripped apart the cocoon of intimacy surrounding them.
He admired her loyalty. Whoop de-frikkin-do.
He made it sound like she was one of his valued employees. And that more than anything rammed home, despite his murmured platitudes and hot kisses and frequent touches, that this was a simple business transaction.
More of a concern? Why the hell did she care?
“Vegas is that way.” Poppy pointed over her shoulder as Beck steered his Maserati in the opposite direction from which she’d arrived.
“We’re not heading to Vegas.” He floored it, kicking up a plume of red dust in the car’s wake.
“But you said we’re heading to your place.”
“We are.”
Ah…the mysterious desert home. She couldn’t fathom his enigmatic expression as he drove like he had a pack of creditors on his tail.
“I’m surprised you own a place out here.” She didn’t mean to make it sound like he lived in the back of beyond, but that’s how it must’ve sounded, judging by his scowl.
“The glitz of Vegas isn’t me.” He nodded at the majestic red rocks jutting skyward ahead of them. “This place is.”
Poppy glanced around, trying to see the appeal. Grassy fields, various trees interspersed with desert, and those striking red rocks. She’d had no idea why he’d chosen Red Rock Canyon as the site to get married and hadn’t really cared. She didn’t believe in the institution, let alone worry about the location when there was nothing real about this marriage, bar the money.
But now, seeing Beck’s tense expression, she wondered if there was more behind his location choice. “You like the desert?”
“What’s not to like? Land forged under a shallow sea, buried for eons beneath sand dunes, then sculpted by rains and wind.”
“I take it you were top of your class in geography.”
The corners of his mouth twitched.
“I come from a small desert town about a hundred miles from here. When I lobbed in Vegas and scored my first construction deal, I bought land in Red Rock Canyon. Thought it’d be the perfect commute, less than twenty miles from the Strip. Then work took over…” He shrugged, as if it meant little, but she wondered how a desert guy really felt being cooped up in the city. “I don’t get out here very often.”
“So why are we heading there when we need to get ready for the reception tonight?”
His silence unnerved her almost as much as the bleak glance he shot her before refocusing on the road. “Thought you might need a place to get away to if the going gets tough.”
Okay, so that was thoughtful. It would be hard, keeping up the pretense of being happily married, but she figured they’d barely see each other anyway, what with his booming business and her managing Party Hard online for Sara.