Desert Heat

by Elizabeth Reyes

  “No!” she said, reaching for it and praying it wasn’t from Max. “I just . . .” It wasn’t Max, but she still got caught up reading it.

  We’re heading out now. Send me the address or name of the place. See you in a few.

  “You just what, Bethany?”

  He wasn’t looking into the mirror anymore, and the expression on his face was the same as the day he’d accused her of lying. The same as earlier when he asked her about her habit of shoving her phone away whenever she saw him coming. She really had to work on her poker face, but this time she could actually use it to her advantage. She texted the name of the place where they were meeting to Jerry. With a smirk she put the phone down and ran her hands over his now very tense abs and chest and brought her arms all the way around his neck. “I just have some things going on tonight, and I don’t want any texts or calls ruining the surprise.” He eased up a little, staring at her, but didn’t say anything. “You’ll see what I mean when we get there. Trust me.”

  Those last two words nearly twisted her mouth into a pretzel as she said them, considering how much she was keeping from him. She could only pray she’d be able to tell him everything soon. She just needed at least one thing done first.

  Giving in to her embrace, he hugged her back, squeezing her tight before kissing her very sweetly. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Work has me wound real tight lately. We’re not any closer to closing that case, and having to cancel on you so much has been making me a little crazy. I don’t mean to sound so paranoid.”

  “It’s okay,” she said, running her finger over his bottom lip. “Maybe after tonight, no more surprises. At least until you close that case. This way I don’t have to be so sneaky. I didn’t realize being sneaky around a homicide detective trained to pick up on deception would require such skill.” She laughed nervously at the hidden irony. “A skill I’m obviously lacking.”

  His sudden huge smile made her feel better about his once again doing the apologizing when she knew damn well he had every reason to be suspicious. She did stink at this sneaking-around thing, and obviously Damian was very well trained at picking up the stench of dishonesty.

  “It’s probably the one thing you’re not very good at,” he said, smacking her behind lightly. “But I’m glad. I don’t want you to be good at lying to me.”

  “Never,” she said, choking back any glimmer of unease. At least she could say, with all honesty, “I’d have to try really hard to get anything by you.” Before he could read too much into that, because it was something her subconscious was screaming at her, she added, “So it’s settled, after tonight, no more surprises for you.”

  He smiled, kissing her once again, then pulling away to look in the mirror again. “You sure about this? I’m assuming you’re taking me to some kind of club. I’m just trying to figure out what kind dresses like this.”

  She frowned but nodded. “Yes, this is perfect, and I’m not saying another word about where we’re going. Now let’s go.”

  Feeling a little disappointed, she grabbed her small clutch and put her phone in it. Damian was right. She did suck at this. He’d figured out part of the surprise. Now if she could just get him there before he figured out the rest.

  * * *

  They arrived at Mi Vida Hermosa, and she was glad she knew the doorman, because the line to get in was outrageous. Way back when she first got her gig as a Zumba girl, the other instructors had brought her here once a week to practice and put together new routines, but they didn’t want it to feel like work. Once she picked up her second and third job, there was no more time for this, and she hadn’t been back in months.

  She’d arranged this days ago, giving them Jerry’s and Janis’s names, and had texted Jerry to just walk up to the front of the line and let them know he was on the list. Just as she and Damian would, they’d bypass the line and walk right in.

  She’d purposely steered clear of wearing a shorter skirt with ruffles, like those so many of the girls in line wore, so that Damian wouldn’t immediately figure out where she was taking him. Her longer, hip-hugging skirt with slits up both sides didn’t scream salsa quite as loudly, but it was still sexy as heck. Proof of this was how quickly it’d come off her as soon as Damian set foot in her apartment when he’d picked her up. He attacked her with a growl the moment he saw her.

  They left Damian’s car with the valet attendant and walked along the enormous line of people waiting to get in. Damian’s head fell back now as they neared the front of the line, and he could hear the music, not to mention seeing how the people in line were dressed—a sure giveaway. “Salsa, babe?” He squeezed her hand with a smile. “I don’t know how to salsa.”

  “It’s easy, Damian,” she said, squeezing his hand back. “And I promise you won’t be the only one here new to it. There are a lot of beginners that come here to learn or just have fun.”

  They reached the door where Rigo, the handsome door guy and a friend she hadn’t seen in months, stood checking a few girls in. He looked up and did a double-take when he saw her, then smiled. “Hey, chica! How are you?” He held his arms open. “C’mere!”

  Bethany let go of Damian’s hand to hug Rigo. “Ay, mami,” he said hugging her tight and rubbing her back. “You look so good.” He pulled away and checked her out from top to bottom, still holding both her hands, then let go of one and twirled her around. “Look at you. Dayum!”

  She’d forgotten how touchy-feely and over-the-top Rigo could be. But it was good to see him again. She kept saying she had to come back and visit with him, but her schedule just never gave her a chance.

  With one of her hands free now, Damian quickly slipped his hand back into it and squeezed a bit harder than when he was being playful. That was her cue. “Rigo, this is my boyfriend, Damian.” She glanced back at Damian, his rigid expression so telling of what he must be thinking.

  Rigo lifted a brow, checking Damian out from top to bottom, but she knew it wasn’t for the reasons Damian would probably think. “Nice to meet you, Damian.” Rigo held out his hand.

  Damian shook it, at the same time pulling Bethany closer to him. “Likewise,” he said without so much as a smile.

  Rigo smirked, looking back at Bethany, and she lifted a menacing brow, warning him to behave, since he’d obviously picked up on Damian’s chilly reception.

  Unhooking the rope that blocked the entrance to the club, Rigo motioned for them to go right in. “Cuidado in there,” Rigo said as she walked past him ahead of Damian, then leaned into her, lowering his voice. “Es un poco celoso, no?”

  Bethany shook her head. “No,” she said with a smile, but kept walking.

  She felt Damian’s face near her ear as they walked into the club. “Sí,” he said, surprising her that he’d heard.

  She turned to him with a smirk. “Well, you have no reason to be jealous.”

  “Are you kidding me? With his fucking hands all over you like that? He didn’t get that—”

  “Damian,” she said, leaning against him as they walked through the crowd.

  “No, I’m serious,” Damian continued, sounding more irritated as the scene outside seemed to be getting to him the more he thought about it. “Douchebags like that guy act like—”

  She touched his face to calm him. “Baby, he’s gay.” Damian stared at her, a bit stunned.

  He looked as if he was about to comment on that, but something behind her caught Damian’s attention. “Whaaaa?” he asked, with a big smile, then shook his head.

  She turned to see Jerry dancing toward them with a beer in his hand. “Ready to get down?”

  Bethany laughed, surprised to see how well Jerry moved his hips. Janis came up from behind. Jerry’s hand held one of hers and he held a drink in the other. “This is cool,” Jerry said, taking a sip of his beer. “I haven’t been salsa dancing in a while, but I have a few times.”

  With a teasing smile, Bethany made sure Damian knew. “This is who texted me earlier, and I was trying to keep you from se
eing who it was from.”

  Damian’s smile waned a little; he looked a bit remorseful now. Pulling her against him with one strong arm around her waist, he kissed her temple. “Again, I’m sorry about what an ass I’ve been lately.”

  She smiled, trying not to let on how much she hated that he felt so guilty about not trusting her. She also hated to think that because of her, he might start questioning his natural instincts. It was just a matter of time before she’d be able to come clean, but the more time passed and the more he apologized for his valid suspicions, the harder it was to sleep at night.

  No matter how tempted she was at times to tell him, she knew she couldn’t. No way was she getting him involved and telling was all it would take. She’d tell him everything. But not until it was all over, because if she was losing sleep now over her guilty conscience, she knew it would be a million times worse if she told him and somehow his name was smeared with her mess. It would just have to wait.

  Shaking it off, she took his hand from her waist. “Let’s go dance.”

  “Whoa,” he said, tugging at her hand. “I think I need a drink before I get out there.”

  “The bar in that corner is not as crowded as this one,” Jerry informed them, still dancing in place. “We’ll be right here when you get back.”

  Taking his advice, Damian and Bethany headed toward the less-crowded bar in the darker corner of the club. The rhythm of the song blaring loudly made her want to move her own hips. It was one of her favorites, and one she often used in her Zumba class.

  While the bar wasn’t nearly as crowded as the main one, it was still too crowded for both of them to step all the way to the front. “I’ll wait here,” she said, letting go of his hand just outside the crowd that surrounded the bar.

  “Amaretto sour?” he asked, and she winked, with a smile.

  Swaying her hips to the song, she stood there enjoying the music until she noticed out of the corner of her eye a guy in white watching her. She stopped swaying her hips so much, not wanting to give the guy the idea she was hoping to be asked to dance. Rigo was right. She did need to be careful with Damian. He’d already made it very clear how he felt about this kind of stuff.

  Even with the distraction of the blinking light in her clutch, she could still feel the guy staring at her as she pulled her phone out, refusing to look in that direction. She had a couple of texts. She read the first one, from her sister.

  We got a letter from the bank. They returned the check we sent them and it says we have ten days to send them the entire amount past due to bring the account current or they’ll start the foreclosure process.

  Bethany’s heart sank. “They can’t do that,” she whispered under her breath.

  She turned to see where Damian was, because the other text was from Max. Damian was still at the bar paying the bartender, so she clicked on Max’s text quickly.

  I always knew you were a resourceful one.

  Bethany reread it, not understanding what it meant. Resourceful? The last text she had from him, the one she’d shoved back into her bag before being able to read it in its entirety, hadn’t made sense either. She scrolled back up, feeling a little irritated about the constant texts from Max that had nothing to do with what she really wanted to know. It was always some blithering nonsense like this that she was sure he sent with the hope of drawing her into a chat. Maybe together both texts would make sense. She reread Max’s previous text.

  It crossed my mind but I can’t believe I never seriously considered you might do this.

  Rereading the most recent text, she still wasn’t sure what he could be talking about. Just as she was about to glance back at the bar to see where Damian was, her phone buzzed in her hand, making her flinch suddenly. She clicked on it and read.

  Did you tell your new sugar daddy EVERYTHING?

  Instantly her heart jumped. He knew about Damian. But how? Then she thought of the guy staring at her earlier. She jerked her head up, certain she knew who the guy who had been staring at her so hard was, but he was gone. Her eyes scanned the area frantically. With her heart beating nearly out of her chest, she took a deep breath, trying to gather herself. Was she just being paranoid?

  She glanced back down at her phone to reread the text. “Hey.”

  Nearly jumping out of her skin, she gasped, bringing her hand to her chest. Damian stared at her, concerned, then glanced down at her phone, and she quickly turned the screen away from him. As concerned as his expression remained, a brow slowly lifted as he brought his attention back to her face. “Something wrong?”

  Chapter 19

  Talking himself down, because he’d already almost blown it twice tonight, Damian took long breaths as he patiently waited for Bethany’s response. But there was no fucking way he was letting this go. She’d been on her phone again, and once again she was jumpy as shit. This time she hadn’t shoved her phone back in her purse, but clearly she hadn’t wanted him to see whatever it was she’d been reading.

  She waved the phone at him for a second before dropping it back into her small purse, and Damian studied her closely as she tried to shrug it off. “My sister,” she said, then took a deep breath. “She just texted me some not-so-good news.” She took the drink he held out for her. Downing nearly half the glass, she smacked her lips and smiled. “I needed that.”

  “Why, what’s going on? What kind of bad news? Is everyone okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She nodded. “Everyone’s fine. It’s just some financial stuff I’ve been dealing with.” She waved her hand in front of her and shook her head, slipping her purse under her arm. “It’s nothing I want to discuss tonight. Trust me, Damian,” she added as her hand slid into his. “You don’t wanna hear about it. It’s all this boring stuff. Just a few bills we’re behind on is all. I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”

  He started walking alongside her but slowed, tugging at her hand. “Well, wait. Maybe it’s something I can help you with.”

  Immediately she shook her head adamantly. “No, no way.”

  “Why not?” he asked, feeling frustrated. He already hated that she was stuck living in that crappy apartment, but now she was also dealing with bills from back home, and he had more than enough to move her out of that shithole and possibly pay off whatever bills had her looking so worried just moments ago. “You said it was bad news. Let me help you.”

  “No!” she said, making no attempt to hide the agitation anymore. “Can we please just forget about it and go dance?”

  This entire night had gotten off to a shaky start. Clearly this was going to be a challenge, but if these bills her family was behind on had Bethany so agitated she seemed almost ready to snap, Damian was going to help her with them. He’d talk her into it one way or another. Bethany had been looking forward to this for weeks. He’d drop this for now. Smiling, he kissed her softly. “Okay. Let’s go find Jerry and finish up our drinks. Then I get to see that sweet ass of yours move for me like it did in your Zumba class.”

  It took a few moments, but slowly she came back from that dark place she’d begun to sink into. With another long swig of what was left of her drink, an evil smile spread across her face, and she sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “We’ll see if you can keep up.”

  They found Jerry and Janis and stood off to the side of the dance floor watching the dancers. Some of those guys moved their hips faster than the women, and there was an awful lot of dirty dancing going on. “I don’t know about this.”

  “You don’t have to dance as fast as they do,” Bethany assured him, “And look.” She motioned casually at one guy doing the two-step in the middle of all the spinning going on around him. “They’re not all good at it.”

  Damian laughed. “I don’t think I’ll be that bad.”

  “Good,” she said, smiling, then looking down at his bottle. “You almost done with that?”

  He took the final swig and braced himself. They waited for the next song, since Bethany said the current one was nearly over, and then a
ll four of them made their way onto the dance floor as the next song mixed in. Immediately Bethany’s hips and arms were moving just as skillfully as those of the other women on the dance floor, who seemed to be pros at this. It didn’t surprise him. He’d seen her in her Zumba class. She was a natural, and damn, she looked sexy doing it.

  It was happening again, as it did so often with Bethany. Damian didn’t even try to fight it anymore. Watching her, especially doing something like this, moving her beautiful body so perfectly to the rhythm, could quickly put him in a trance. Although he was certain now how he felt about her, even if her body weren’t as beautifully shaped as it was, he’d still fall into her spell. Most of the time it was her eyes and smile that had him feeling this way anyway. He wasn’t even paying attention to his own moves; he was too busy smiling stupidly as he watched her dance.

  Dancing up to him, she swayed against him, as he’d seen so many of the other couples do earlier. After several minutes of her swaying her body against his, Damian had to wonder how the fuck these guys did this without going rock hard in the process. Just watching her had begun to get a rise out of him. Now having her soft but very firm body pressed up against him and looking into her sensual eyes, he felt ready to throw her over his shoulder and take her home that minute.

  He pressed his hips up against her now in an effort to conceal what was undeniably out there now. Her eyes opened wide, but sparkled at the feel of him up against her. “You can’t move away from me now,” he whispered in her ear.

  “I don’t want to,” she whispered back, grinding into him even harder.

  Glad the music was so damn loud, he groaned in reaction to her grinding him like that, not to mention feeling her breasts against his chest. He leaned into her ear again and said, “We gotta move into a dark corner so I can take care of this.”

  Her shocked eyes looked up at him. “Here?”