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“You put it far better than I could,” I assured Allegra when she turned to look at me after explaining our cover story to the square-jawed, tall, handsome man who had arrived unexpectedly early to pick his date up.

Earlier, he’d flashed me a smile when he looked in my direction after stepping out of his chauffeured limo, and had already extended an arm out as he walked toward me. He had an interested glint in his blue eyes, and was saying something about his luck turning now that he had apparently scored me as a date for the evening.

“No, sorry,” I said as I shook my head and gave him a regretful smile and then looked around me for help, preferably from Allegra, who had just walked into the area, after having left momentarily to take a call. She’d called out to him when she realized the man had mistaken me for his date for the evening.

“Bryce, darling, she’s not your date tonight!” Allegra fairly shouted, leveraging her booming voice to full effect.

“Really?” he’d asked in a genuinely disappointed voice. He’d pretended to pout, and as he did, his charming dimple deepened. If I’d been so inclined …

After Allegra had explained things to him, I walked away from them and stepped closer to a tall woman who’d been standing about ten feet away from us while she completed a call.

“He’s hot, isn’t he?” she asked, sotto voce, as she drew closer to me.

Allegra was frantically waving her arms around as she continued to apologize to Bryce about his date being delayed by something. He stood about six feet two-to-three inches, so he towered over Allegra. In my heels, I reached his eye-level, approximately.

“Yeah, if you like the type,” I answered her under my breath, as I nonchalantly ran my hands through the sides of my hair and then fluffed it out a bit. It had been hot in Vegas the whole day, and the heat had raged into night. We’d been standing on the outer edge of the driveway of the casino/resort that Allegra’s office/welcome lounge was attached to for a good twenty minutes now. I’d grown more twitchy and nervous as we got closer to “go time.” Some hair was beginning to stick to my back.