Last Name - Dr. Rebecca Sharp Page 0,23

she connected the dots.

“But then you saved me,” she said with a strangled voice.

“I did.” I nodded. “And then I wanted to make sure that asshole was banned from the casino for how he treated you, so I made sure the cameras got a good view of my face before I took you outside.”

“I saw you look up,” she murmured, her eyes shifting as though she were looking back through her memories. “I wondered what you were doing.”

“It wasn’t a big deal… it wouldn’t have been…” I cleared my throat.

“If you hadn’t come back with me,” she finished my thought.

I nodded. “That morning, I woke up. I realized what happened… what we’d done…” Even in the dim lighting, I saw her cheeks turn pink. “I left to get us some coffee and food and something for the hangover. I wasn’t thinking,” I broke off with a huff. “I’d forgotten how this all started. Where I was. Hell, I forgot most everything except that you were waiting for me. I definitely wasn’t thinking they’d be looking for me now.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “But no number of years erases the bitter sting of losing six-figures to a card-counter.”

Her gasp sliced through the air.

“So, when I went downstairs, I was immediately tagged and escorted off the premises by security,” I finished. “I tried, but they didn’t give a shit that you were waiting or that I needed to talk to you; they wouldn’t even let me leave a message at the front desk.”

“That’s why you disappeared.”

“I’m sorry, Carrie,” I told her hoarsely. “I know casinos—even more now than I did back then. I know their security. I know their policies. And I knew there was no way I was getting back inside that fortress to see you. I thought my best chance of finding you was hiring someone to do it.”

“Who knew your best chance of finding me was actually firing someone?” she deadpanned.

Our soft laughter drifted out onto the stillness of the lake where it settled into the cool night.

I caught the way she shivered and I swore under my breath, reaching for the drawer on the firepit.

“No, James, you don’t have to do that,” she insisted. “Please, I should go anyway—”

The fire popped and sparked, disagreeing with her just as much as I did.

I rose up and stepped closer to her, watching her eyes widen with the instinct to bolt.

“Carrie,” I murmured. “Just stay for a little. Relax.” I wanted to reach out and comfort her, but I knew that would only make it worse. “What’s the worst that can happen? We wake up married?”

She glared at me.

“Too soon?” I asked with a laugh. “Sorry.”

It took a second, but the tension in her expression faded as the heat pulsed around us, warming her—and warming her to me.

“I’m sorry for this situation,” I told her gently.

She sighed. “It’s not your fault. I don’t know what I was thinking… I don’t know… how it happened.”

I cleared my throat and poked at the fire. “From what I can tell, our Chinese Uber driver didn’t understand that we were doing a scavenger hunt. He thought we wanted to get married.”

“Yeah…”

The way she stared at the fire, as though she wanted to climb inside it and let the flames cleanse this mistake from her, didn’t sit well with me. I knew marrying a stranger—even a wealthy one—wasn’t high on most peoples’ life goals, but it was more than that. She was running from more than that.

And I wanted to know what.

“Why Tahoe?” I started slowly.

Her head tipped toward me curiously but she answered, “I saw a picture on Pinterest of the lake.” She chuckled to herself. “And I thought, how could someone not find happiness there?”

“And have you?”

The remnant of her smile cracked. “More or less.”

It was her determination that kept me enthralled. Determined to do what was best for her—for her happiness. Even that night in Vegas, I’d met far too many women who would’ve been incapacitated by the drama of distress realizing their friends had left them behind. But not Carrie. She rolled with it.

She rolled with me.

She’d focused forward rather than looking back. And more and more, I found that to be a rare thing in this world. Especially on someone as beautiful as her.

And even though she’d ended up with more than she’d bargained or bet on—both of us had.

“Why the big change?” I forged on. “Why did you leave your fiancé?”

Pain creased her brow, and I wanted