One Night Only: An After Dark Novella Read online

  One Night Only

  An After Dark Novella

  Lauren Blakely

  Little Dog Press

  Contents

  Also by Lauren Blakely

  About

  One Night Only

  1. Ivy

  2. Ivy

  3. Callum

  4. Stone

  5. Ivy

  6. Callum

  7. Ivy

  8. Callum

  9. Ivy

  10. Callum

  11. Callum

  12. Stone

  13. Ivy

  14. Ivy

  15. Ivy

  16. Callum

  17. Ivy

  18. Stone

  19. Ivy

  20. Callum

  21. Stone

  22. Jackson

  Epilogue

  Also by Lauren Blakely

  Contact

  Copyright © 2020 by Lauren Blakely

  Cover Design by Helen Williams.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This contemporary romance is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. This book is licensed for your personal use only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with, especially if you enjoy sexy romance novels with alpha males. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Also by Lauren Blakely

  Big Rock Series

  Big Rock

  Mister O

  Well Hung

  Full Package

  Joy Ride

  Hard Wood

  The Guys Who Got Away Series

  Dear Sexy Ex-Boyfriend

  The What If Guy

  The Gift Series

  The Engagement Gift

  The Virgin Gift

  The Decadent Gift

  The Extravagant Series

  One Night Only

  Only One Touch

  The Heartbreakers Series

  Once Upon a Real Good Time

  Once Upon a Sure Thing

  Once Upon a Wild Fling

  Boyfriend Material

  Asking For a Friend

  Sex and Other Shiny Objects

  One Night Stand-In

  Lucky In Love Series

  Best Laid Plans

  The Feel Good Factor

  Nobody Does It Better

  Unzipped

  Always Satisfied Series

  Satisfaction Guaranteed

  Instant Gratification

  Overnight Service

  Never Have I Ever

  Special Delivery

  The Sexy Suit Series

  Lucky Suit

  Birthday Suit

  From Paris With Love

  Wanderlust

  Part-Time Lover

  One Love Series

  The Sexy One

  The Only One

  The Hot One

  The Knocked Up Plan

  Come As You Are

  Sports Romance

  Most Valuable Playboy

  Most Likely to Score

  Standalones

  Stud Finder

  The V Card

  The Real Deal

  Unbreak My Heart

  The Break-Up Album

  21 Stolen Kisses

  Out of Bounds

  The Caught Up in Love Series:

  The Swoony New Reboot of the Contemporary Romance Series

  The Pretending Plot (previously called Pretending He’s Mine)

  The Dating Proposal

  The Second Chance Plan (previously called Caught Up In Us)

  The Private Rehearsal (previously called Playing With Her Heart)

  Stars In Their Eyes Duet

  My Charming Rival

  My Sexy Rival

  The No Regrets Series

  The Start of Us

  The Thrill of It

  Every Second With You

  The Seductive Nights Series

  First Night (Julia and Clay, prequel novella)

  Night After Night (Julia and Clay, book one)

  After This Night (Julia and Clay, book two)

  One More Night (Julia and Clay, book three)

  A Wildly Seductive Night (Julia and Clay novella, book 3.5)

  The Joy Delivered Duet

  Nights With Him (A standalone novel about Michelle and Jack)

  Forbidden Nights (A standalone novel about Nate and Casey)

  The Sinful Nights Series

  Sweet Sinful Nights

  Sinful Desire

  Sinful Longing

  Sinful Love

  The Fighting Fire Series

  Burn For Me (Smith and Jamie)

  Melt for Him (Megan and Becker)

  Consumed By You (Travis and Cara)

  The Jewel Series

  A two-book sexy contemporary romance series

  The Sapphire Affair

  The Sapphire Heist

  About

  A delicious new After Dark novella featuring a strong, protective bodyguard and the beautiful, brilliant hotel heiress he protects…

  I shouldn’t want my bodyguard the way I do. His job is to protect me. It’s not to fulfill all my filthy wishes.

  And so I resist him, fighting the enticing pull of the strong, powerful man who watches over me.

  Until the night we combust in my penthouse suite.

  It won’t happen again, we say the next day.

  Besides, my mission is singular — pull off the event of a lifetime — a one-night only concert with one of the world’s biggest rock stars.

  A man my bodyguard happens to know.

  And a good bodyguard knows all sorts of things about his client. Turns out he knows my secret desires, and he wants to make them come true. Including a VIP engagement so I can experience both men at the same time…

  I want to say yes, but what if I fall even more in love with the man whose mission is to keep me safe?

  ONE NIGHT ONLY is a red-hot, sexy love story with a toe-curling, sheet-grabbing MFM sequence.

  One Night Only

  An After Dark Novella

  By Lauren Blakely

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  1

  Ivy

  I can feel his eyes on me.

  Usually, they’re everyplace else.

  That’s what he’s paid to do, after all. They see everything. They anticipate. They know.

  But in this moment, his eyes are on me, and it heats me up.

  I can’t let on, of course.

  But then, I’m good at not letting on what his dark gaze does to my body.

  A second later, Callum looks away, his gaze elsewhere, scanning surroundings, always watching.

  That’s his job.

  Mine is to promote, to chat, to talk
up this place I love, so I focus on leading a private group of VIPs, not on checking out the man who I hired to be near me most of my evenings. Callum Blackwell is a regular presence in my work life, and he makes that part of it feel less like work and more like . . . possibility.

  Like sparks.

  Like a pulse beating in overtime.

  The red soles of my black heels click against the mosaic floor, and I gesture to the imported marble beneath my shoes. “As you can see, the Bellagio has nothing on us,” I say, a note of pride in my voice as I escort my board on a personalized tour of the recently revamped hotel my sister and I own and run.

  The Extravagant, after years in disarray, is finally living up to its name and its legacy of luxury.

  I couldn’t be prouder to show off the hotel’s renovations, turning it into a shining jewel on the Strip.

  Jewel being intentional.

  That’s how we want it to be seen. Precious, gorgeous, mesmerizing.

  The crew of VIPs shuffles behind me, smiling, oohing and aahing, tossing out the occasional question. I answer them all, then stop at the centerpiece of the lobby redo just beyond the opulent front desk.

  A giant sculpture.

  I gesture to a gorgeous collection of handspun glass crafted to look like a life-size jewelry box, dripping with replicas of diamond necklaces, sapphire earrings, and ruby bracelets. “This is our theme: beauty in all its forms. Everything in this hotel must be beautiful. That’s the image we want to project here at The Extravagant,” I say, standing beside the lush display.

  One of the longtime board members, who knew my parents, offers a kind smile as she tucks her jet-black strands of hair behind her ear. “It’s the Carmichael way,” Marjorie says, and her words, that statement, feel like a warm hug.

  I swallow back the temporary lump in my throat. Memories of them always bring a swell of emotions. “Indeed. Sage and I are pleased to carry it on to a new generation of guests,” I say, all chin up, lipstick on, as my mother would have said.

  Callum nods, almost imperceptibly. He never met my parents, but he damn well knows they’re why I do what I do.

  Why I work hard from morning till night.

  A reedy man with horn-rimmed glasses clears his throat, chiming in. “And what sort of plans do you have to lure in new guests?” He’s another one of our longtime Carmichael Hotels board members.

  “Great question, Jeremy,” I say, and the answer is easy. Because the answer is the why behind this change my sister and I planned when we reimagined the flagship hotel we inherited a few years ago. She’s the business powerhouse, eating numbers for breakfast, while I’m the public face, fashioning the image for this twin-owned skyscraper I call both business and home. “Beauty. We plan to emphasize the beauty, and the cachet of it,” I tell the group. “And we’ll center our goals around that. Let me tell you the specifics.”

  I detail the strategy as I guide them through the glittering casino, past poker tables flush with gamblers and swank restaurants that are already drawing in new crowds, and to the end of the cavernous concourse. The whole time, the unmistakable presence of Callum, mere feet behind me, beats like a thrumming in my veins. This awareness of him is almost like breathing now. It’s every second I’ve felt it since he took over my detail one year ago.

  No one spends more time with me than that man with the carved cheekbones, the chiseled jaw, and the intense dark brown eyes that seem to know me, to see inside me.

  He’s custom-made for protection, and he looks the part. His dark tailored suit hugs his big body in all the right places. Just the perfect amount of tight on his arms, his thighs, and his ass. Sometimes men that broad, that tall, don’t look great in suits, but with the body of Dwayne Johnson, Callum sure as hell does.

  And those lips. They look so damn kissable.

  Shake it off, Ivy.

  I stop in front of the players’ lounge, its brushed platinum sign designed by a local artist. I field a few final questions.

  Marjorie sweeps out a hand behind us to indicate the tour we’ve just finished. “We’re hoping this early embrace of the new branding and design goes as well as you envision. I think I speak for the whole board, though, when I say we’d like to see the guest numbers continue to rise over the next several months and beyond. Do you have any big plans to make a splash and draw in crowds going forward?”

  I smile, my best professional I’ve got this grin. “We do, as a matter of fact. I’m putting together the finishing touches on a series of must-see events right here with worldwide entertainment stars, and I hope to share those very soon with all of you.”

  She nods approvingly. “Color me intrigued. Can’t wait.”

  “I promise it won’t be long. And I’m so glad you’re all delighted with the new look and feel of the hotel,” I say to the group.

  I shake hands, thank them, and say goodbye.

  As they weave their way through the casino, I take a moment to enjoy the ambience of The Extravagant, to drink in the lush surroundings. Portions of this hotel have been shut down for the last few months as we’ve revamped. But now we’re open again, all nine hundred rooms, twelve restaurants, seven bars, and two clubs.

  Open and ready, I hope, for a new wave of business.

  This project has consumed me. It’s stolen all my breath and my mind and my heart. Ripping apart and restoring a massive hotel has been nothing short of exhausting and energizing—often both at the same damn time.

  But as the last of the board members disappear beyond the tables, I can breathe again.

  Relief at last comes over me, the blissful feeling that another high-wire day is ending and night is unfurling ahead of me. Nighttime is my favorite time of day, when I can relax and unwind in my suite with a book or a bath or a massage.

  My indulgences are simple and, frankly, all I’ll allow.

  I have time for little else.

  Maybe tonight I’ll partake of a cocktail and a lavender bath bomb.

  Until I head upstairs, though, it’s just Callum and me and this pull I feel toward my bodyguard. A pull I’ve never acted on for so many reasons.

  Partly because I rely on him for protection, but also for . . . more.

  In the last year, Callum has become my sounding board, my confidante. He’s wise, direct, and pulls no punches.

  A co-CEO needs that.

  I meet his dark gaze. “So, tell me. What did you think?”

  He shrugs a shoulder, scratches his stubbled jaw, and takes a few seconds to answer. “It wasn’t bad.”

  I narrow my brow. “Oh, stop.”

  He gestures flippantly to the lobby. “If you’re into that kind of thing. Fancy hotel, high rollers, pretty art.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” I say petulantly, but I’m smiling, since I know he’s teasing.

  “Oh, it’s not?” he asks, deadpan.

  I shoot him a searing stare. “You know it’s not.”

  “I could have sworn it was,” he says, toying with me as he does sometimes. I swear he knows exactly how to rile me up.

  I might have been groomed for this job since I was born. I might have lived in this hotel since before I could walk. But I’ve only been running it for a few years now, and I want to do right by my family. I want my parents, may they rest in peace, to be proud of my sister and me. “Impressing the board is no easy feat. Did I pull it off? I need to know. I want to know for real. No teasing this time.”

  Perhaps sensing the earnestness in my question, he sets a strong hand on my bare arm, sending a spark over my skin. I swallow, trying to tamp down the intensity of my reaction to this simple touch.

  I ought to be accustomed to his touch by now. To a hand on my back. On my elbow. To the occasional arm around me.

  I ought to be immune.

  I am not. Not in the least.

  I glance down at his big hand covering my skin. My mind races with images—images I must ignore. That hand on my waist. My breasts. Lower still …

  Callum nods dow
n the hall, indicating let’s walk. We are good at that. Walking and talking. It’s the way we spend our afternoons and evenings here on the property, traversing it, cutting from conference room to suite, from bar to restaurant, checking out everything on the premises, him having my back the whole time.

  So, I focus on that rather than on the goose bumps rising on my skin from his touch. I smooth a hand down my black sheath dress as if that’ll rid me of this longing for him.

  News flash: it doesn’t.

  “You were great, Ivy. Of course they were impressed.”

  I look at his profile, the slight curve of his grin. “You think so?” I can’t mask my excitement, or my nerves. “I wanted to show off all these changes. I know they’ve seen the new lobby and so on, but I want them to be wowed by our vision, by how everything has come together.”

  “They were absolutely wowed.” His tone is reassuring, certain.