I walked into the gallery, ignoring the questions. I didn’t need to call attention to us; I just needed the good photos to be captured. At some point, I’d do interviews. But first, I needed to give the impression it would happen on my time.
“Where’s Cassius?” I asked as we entered.
“He hasn’t arrived yet,” Lucas said. “He said something about coming later in the evening.”
“Of course,” I said with a sigh. If I were to give my brother the benefit of the doubt, I’d say that he was just arriving fashionably late. If?—
“Adrian Vale?”
A woman’s voice broke through my thoughts, piercing the conversation between me and my brothers. I found the source of the voice immediately, and…
Holy shit.
I had seen many attractive women in my life, but there were few that reached that special tier of beauty, the kind that almost made me want to consider them my Queen of Diamonds. Not in the literal sense; I was never getting married, never settling down with one woman. But some just had that appearance and that magnetic charm that almost made me briefly question if I wanted to change my life trajectory.
Whoever this was, she was one of them.
She had a bronzed skin color that suggested either Hispanic or Mediterranean descent; I always had a thing for foreign girls, or at least girls of that heritage. Trite as it might have been, there was something exotic about that, and it was even more rewarding that I usually got to fuck them. She had perfectly curly black hair, piercing brown eyes, and a small but very confident smile that said she would get what she wanted.
If anything, I admired the chutzpah of someone willing to break up a conversation between the three of us. A nice rack, propped up by a nice green dress, made things a bit more forgiving.
“Can I help you?” I said. “Because I’d sure like to.”
“Charming, and yes, you can, but probably not in the way you wish,” she said. “My name is Delilah Reyes. I am a reporter fortheLas Vegas Times.Can I speak to you on the record about tonight’s charity?”
I smiled at her, staring her down, trying to get her to flinch. I had a certain smile I pulled out when I saw a woman I wanted to fuck; for ninety percent of women, they all but said yes in that moment; another nine percent said yes shortly after; and one percent had no fucking idea what they were missing out on.
“Nice smile, but it has not answered my question.”
“We will get to you when the time is appropriate, journalist,” Dante interjected. “In the meantime?—”
“The time is appropriate,” I said. Perhaps I was a little too captivated for my own good, but I trusted I could keep my wits about me. I’d encountered plenty of immensely attractive journalists that, ultimately, I’d never gotten to bed. That was fine; I’d also encountered plenty I had. The ones who weren’t going to fuck me, I picked up on quick enough. I was polite enough, but as closed up as a delivery box at that point.
“Thank you. Lucas, Dante, if you don’t mind? I will speak to you both when I am done.”
Wow.
This girl really had some confidence. I knew that a trademark of any good journalist was a certain source of fearlessness, of willingness to confront the powerful and the corrupt with questions so blunt they’d make a police officer squirm, but even this was unusual. Most might get me alone, but most would at least wait for the three of us to finish talking.
“Go on,” I said. “See if you can get Cassius down here faster. Man’s turned into a whipped slave at this rate.”
Delilah gave me a dirty scowl for that comment; was it offensive in some fashion? Ah, well. We’d find out soon enough if she was someone to be reckoned with.
“So, Delilah,” I said, pronouncing her name slowly, tasting it in my mouth. Fuck, it was good. “What are you here for?”
“I’m working on a column about Las Vegas society,” she said as we moved past several patrons. “Your family is rapidly becoming a major part of the Vegas universe. It felt appropriate to interview you here, when much of Vegas comes to you.”
“Indeed,” I began, “I would have you know that?—”
“But before we get started, I really need to ask you something off the record, away from everyone. Now.”
Now? Now.
OK, fine. I was curious. This woman was either stupid or incredibly brave; it strangely made her even more attractive. It was not sexually invigorating to fuck someone who did everything you said to; there had to be a little push and pull. And fuck, if this Delilah was as confident in her job as she seemed, how good would she be in bed?
OK, more than fine. I’d play Delilah’s game. I had a feeling that when I finally did fuck her, I might be in a sexual coma for a day or two. Hispanic and Mediterranean women did have a way of fucking like their life depended on it.
We moved to a corner of the auction that was not particularly crowded. We were still in view of anyone who cared to look, but no one would hear us.
