Free Luck Be A Lady (Destiny Bay Romances-The Ranchers Book 5) by Helen Conrad Page A

Cody’s laughing gaze, and before she knew what she was doing she was laughing, too.
    When he reached out to cover her hand with his, she let him for a moment.
    “You like?” he asked softly as Pierre left.
    What could she say? Kelly couldn’t deny that this was fun. “I like,” she admitted.
    He moved closer. He was about to say something, but a flurry on the casino floor drew their attention before he had the chance.
    A vision in red flash and golden glitz was bustling their way, calling out as she came. Feathers and plumes seemed to sail behind her. She had blue-black hair, crimson lips, and blue eyes that glittered.
    “Cody! Darling,” she cried, waving her arms. “The flowers are magnificent!” Throwing her arms around his neck, she kissed him hard and hot on the mouth. “How can I thank you enough, darling?” It was ob vious that she was playing to the crowd on the casino floor as much as to Cody. She wanted everyone within earshot to know that he’d sent flowers to her.
    Kelly edged back in her seat, trying to get out of range of the plumes as they whipped about behind the woman. Surely this was Sugar Delfinio, whose hotel room Cody had trapped her in.
    The glorious creature turned and trained her sights on Kelly. “And who is this?” she said dramatically. She looked down, eyebrows raised even higher than they’d been painted. “A sweet little cousin from out of town, perhaps?”
    Cody seemed to have recovered from the kiss. Kelly had to admire his recuperative powers—that thing had been a doozy.  
    He leaned between them and smiled. “Sugar, this is Kelly Mc- Cormick. She’s the one who so recently saved my hide... and just possibly my life.”
    “What?” Sugar’s face registered disbelief, sur prise, joy. It was clear that this changed everything. Before Kelly had a chance to defend herself, the arms were around her neck as well, and a big, moist kiss that made her ears ring was planted on her cheek.
    “Darling, you’ve done all of mankind a favor by sav ing Cody for the rest of us.”
    Kelly tried to laugh as she extricated herself from Sugar’s embrace. “I didn’t realize he was so important to the national welfare,” she murmured.
    “Oh no, darling, you see the thing is...” Sugar glanced around, grabbed a vacant chair from a poker table and plopped herself companionably close to Kelly, reaching for a bread stick from the center of the table. “The thing is, I spend most of my time with men so ancient they creak when they walk.” She took a tremendous, crunching bite, then waved the bread stick to emphasize her point. “They’ve got money, of course. Plenty of it. And they take me out to wonder ful places. But they can’t stay awake long enough to get through dinner, much less anything else. And every now and then, when I get so bored I could fall asleep right along with them...” She threw a grin across the table. “Well, I just go see Cody to remind myself of what a real man is like.”
    “Not much money,” Cody said, pretending mod esty. “But she loves me, anyway.”
    Kelly watched them banter back and forth. There was an obvious affection between them, though it didn’t seem especially serious. But they were from the same world. They were comfortable with each other. They both had the code words down pat. They spoke the same language.
    She didn’t feel so much an outsider as an explorer. They were both ready to draw her in with them. She just wasn’t sure she wanted to go.
    Sugar dashed off to catch her show as Pierre ap peared with the scallops en brochette. Just before serving, he doused them in brandy and set them ablaze.
    “You’ve heard the old joke about the rookie CIA agent who kept getting handed files stamped Burn before Reading, haven’t you?” Cody asked, watching her eyes widen at the sight of their twin fires. “This is similar, only it’s Burn before Eating.”
    “Better it than us,” she said, making no particular sense, but it didn’t