be more open to his advances if I knew his marriage was a sham they’d gone through with to help their careers before they were A-listers.”
“He didn’t understand you at all.” His hand stroked up and down my spine. “If he had, he would’ve known you have too much integrity to do something like that, no matter what the situation.”
My head jerked up, and I searched for any sign of deception in his gorgeous face. All I found was utter sincerity, though. “How could you possibly know that? We never even really spoke to each other until you pulled your kidnapping stunt during your show yesterday.”
“Sweetheart.” He quirked a brow as though that one word was an actual answer, but I needed more.
“No, really. How did you know?”
His lips curved up in a smug grin. “While you’ve been trying to avoid me, I’ve spent the past month watching and learning about you.”
“I should probably be worried that you just admitted to basically stalking me and followed it up by kidnapping me.” I laughed softly and shook my head, feeling flattered instead.
“You don’t ever have to worry about me hurting you.” Julian ran his fingers through my hair, twirling a lock around his index finger and tugging on it gently. “So finish telling me the story.”
I refused to think about what his promise meant until I got through the rest of what had happened before I came to Vegas and took my job at the Lennox. “Stuff blew up in the client’s face when the woman he was sleeping with while he was hitting on me turned up pregnant. She got an abortion, but she wanted to go public about the whole mess—probably because she was an aspiring actress and figured having her name linked with his, even negatively, would give her career a push. She was probably right about that, but my job wasn’t to worry about her. It was to protect the client’s image, no matter what.”
“And you took your job seriously, didn’t you?” he asked with an understanding gleam in his eyes.
“Yup.” I swallowed down the knot in my throat and forced the words out. “The whole situation sucked, but I was the one who came up with the plan that made the client come out looking squeaky clean. His bodyguard agreed to claim paternity if the story ever came out, the wife befriended his ex-mistress—at least in the public eye—and the girl ended up landing the role of a lifetime that catapulted her career a good five to ten years ahead of where it should’ve been. Everyone was thrilled with the outcome...except me. I felt like I’d betrayed everything I believed in, so I pushed for a letter of recommendation to help me land the job here and quit.”
“I can understand why you’d be leery of falling for someone in the limelight,” he conceded, lifting my hand to press his against his chest, directly over his heart. “But there’s something you need to know about me, Anna. I’ll never cheat on you. My parents have been married for more than thirty years, and my dad never hid from me that my mom is the most important person in his world. I grew up seeing their love for each other every single day, and I promised myself that I would have the same kind of relationship with my wife when I found her.” His thumb stroked over my ring finger, making my heart beat wildly in my chest. “I love magic, but I don’t care about being a celebrity. I took the job at the Lennox so it would be easier to settle down when I found what I was looking for, and I’ve never been happier about my decision than when I spotted you on your first day here...even though you made me hunt you down.”
Whoa. He couldn’t possibly mean what I thought he was saying...could he?
7
Julian
Anna looked stunned at my declaration. “I don’t understand,” she mumbled with a shake of her head.
I chuckled and gave her a quick kiss. “I guess I wasn’t clear enough. You’re everything I’ve been waiting for all my life, sweetheart. I’m not going to let you go. I’m going to marry you, have babies with you, and spend the rest of my life with you.” Her jaw dropped, and she blinked owlishly, looking overwhelmed. “How about we start simple? The first step toward our future is me making love to you.” I sealed my mouth over hers before she could respond.
Anna