And that one she intended to sort out in the next couple of days.
“Fine. Madison,” Kristen obediently said. “You lusted after Luc for years. You had your walls plastered with pictures of him, you walked past his house a dozen times a day, and never missed a football game when he was playing. Hell, you had his name tattooed on your ass with a heart around it.”
Madison thinned her lips. The tattoo was going, along with the memories.
“And you had a poster of the Backstreet Boys pinned over your bed,” Madison countered, taking another gulp of her coffee, wincing as it scalded her tongue. “Big deal.”
Kristen refused to be diverted. “But the Backstreet Boys didn’t take my virginity on my eighteenth birthday and then walk away with the comment that I should find someone else to obsess over,” she pointed out. “And I didn’t leave Vegas swearing to return one day and make them pay for humiliating me.”
With a weary groan, Madison planted her elbow on the bar, her chin resting on her palm. “You always did have an overactive imagination.”
“I also have enough intelligence to know that this trip to Vegas isn’t just a whim.”
“Why not? It’s been years since I’ve been home.”
“Because there’s no reason to be here. Your mother died shortly after you left and you don’t have any other family,” Kristen said, as usual not bothering to tiptoe around the fact that Madison’s mother had taken off with one of her lovers who’d then crashed their car just outside Denver. “And if you wanted to see me, you know you only have to call and I’ll fly to join you wherever you are.”
“It’s still where I was born,” Madison stubbornly tried to hold her ground against the merciless interrogation. “Maybe I was feeling nostalgic.”
“Bullshit. You have a fabulous life in New York.”
“True.”
Kristen moved to place her hands flat on the bar, her expression warning she was ready to continue her cross-examination until Madison cracked.
“Tell me the truth,” she commanded. “Why are you in Vegas?”
Madison gave a resigned shake of her head. Hell, Kristen no doubt terrified poor juries into submission.
“To put the past behind me,” she grudgingly admitted.
“Luc?”
“Yes.” Madison made a sound of frustration. “I know it’s stupid, but I can’t get him out of my head.”
“Not really surprising. He’s always been drop-dead gorgeous,” Kristen admitted. “Of course, I’ve heard that he’s now supposedly reformed.”
“Reformed?”
“He stopped hopping from bed to bed.”
Madison made a sound of disbelief. “Yeah, right. And I’m about to sprout wings and fly to the moon.”
“Oh my god.” Kristen widened her eyes in shock at Madison’s bitter tone. “You’re still in love with him.”
“No,” Madison snapped. “I was never in love with the bastard. But he’s like a virus that’s infected my life. I’m here to purge him once and for all.”
***
The charity event being held at the upscale hotel was like any other charity event.
A mediocre dinner that cost the social elite five hundred dollars a plate. An auction where they were expected to overbid on ridiculous items that no one wanted. Followed by a dance where bored husbands flirted with the scantily-dressed barmaids, and equally bored wives exchanged vicious gossip.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t risk offending the hostess who’d arranged the event for a new science building at the local university, or endangered muskrats, or whatever happened to be the current flavor of the month. Not when her husband was an investor in Luc’s real estate company.
Much to everyone’s astonishment, including his own, Luc had walked away from his father’s casino empire five years ago. He was done trying to earn the old man’s respect, choosing instead to try and halt the steady decline of the city he loved.
Buying corporate buildings and new construction in foreclosure, he used his contacts spread throughout the world to flip the properties and bring in new businesses.