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times.

    With a heavy sigh, he turned around and hit the button to call another elevator. “Good for you, sweetheart. Congratulations.”

    “What do you mean, good for me? It’s good for
you!
”

    “What are you talking about? We were finished. That was your ten bucks. Which means it’s your twenty thousand.”

    “No! I’d have won it for you at the craps table if I hadn’t gotten so wound up in the moment. That was stupid.” She smiled brightly. “But this makes up for it, right?”

    Tony couldn’t believe it. She was giving the money to him?

    He felt an edge of excitement, but he wasn’t ready to accept the fact that this was really happening. She’d been drinking, which, as she’d already demonstrated, made her do dumb things. Still, when he studied her face for any reservation she might have, he just didn’t see any.

    “Twenty thousand is a lot of money,” he said. “I never would have known you won it if you hadn’t said something. Why did you?”

    “Because if I hadn’t, twenty thousand dollars’ worth of guilt would have followed me around for the rest of my life. I don’t like feeling guilty. Take this money off my hands.
Please.
”

    Even though she said it dramatically, he didn’t miss the smile that played across her lips, and his own excitement escalated. “You really want to give me this money? No strings attached?”

    “It may have been my ten dollars, but I was still playing for you. And think about it. What were the odds that the first machine I saw had a jackpot of exactly the amount you needed? It was fate, Tony. Fate!”

    He’d never believed in fate before, but she was right. What were the odds? The funniest little shiver crept across his shoulders, telling him that maybe it was time to quit questioning the why of it and just enjoy the fact that this evening had turned out way,
way
better than he’d ever expected.

    He matched her smile. Then he started to laugh. With a whoop of excitement, he put his arms around Heather, picked her up, and spun her around. When he set her down again, she was laughing, too, and her cheeks were flushed pink.

    “You’re going to buy the bar,” she said breathlessly.

    “Thanks to you.”

    “I got lucky.”

    “It’s not luck, remember? It’s fate.”

    “But you told me you don’t believe in fate.”

    “In the past few minutes,” he said, “I’ve been reevaluating a lot of things.”

    Not the least of which was the woman he held right now.

    How many women would have chased him down to give him twenty thousand dollars when she could have kept it for herself without him ever knowing?

    None of the women he usually went out with.

    As he stared down at Heather, something seemed to shift inside him. He noticed for the first time how clear and blue her eyes were as they sparked with excitement; how her broad, brilliant smile caused tiny crinkles around her mouth; and how her skin felt so soft beneath his hands.

    He stroked her arms, assuring himself that this whole thing wasn’t a figment of his imagination. That
she
wasn’t a figment of his imagination. He remembered thinking earlier that she wasn’t his kind of woman, but for the life of him, he couldn’t see why now.

    Maybe it was the alcohol he’d had, or the roller-coaster ride this evening had become, or the fact that she’d walked into his life and made all his dreams come true. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to let her go. Instead, he grabbed her by the shoulders, dragged her up next to him, and kissed her.

Chapter 4

    W hen Tony’s lips landed on Heather’s, she couldn’t have been more shocked. But her gasp of surprise was immediately stifled as he curled his hand around her neck and pulled her to him, engulfing her mouth with his. She put her hand blindly against his chest and caught his shirt in her fist, her other hand winding automatically around his neck. She clung to him helplessly, losing herself in the pleasure of it.

    This was it. This was