by Virna DePaul
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Jamie turned to see a woman standing by his side. Her nametag identified her only as “Denise.” She had long, straight auburn hair and huge green eyes surrounded by mile long eyelashes. She wore an expensive looking grey business suit that was cut to fit her curves. The shirt underneath allowed just a peek of lace above a sexy, perfect looking cleavage. She wore a delicate silver chain with a solitary jade pendant that skimmed her cleavage lightly. There was a matching bracelet around her right wrist and silver ring on her right hand.
Overall, the woman’s look was elegant and sexy at the same time.
“The ring’s breathtaking,” Jamie agreed.
“Are you thinking of proposing?” the woman asked him.
“Nope. I’m not dating anyone right now.”
“Oh well, that’s too bad,” she said with a flirty smile.
He thought about Lucy, who was beautiful, intelligent, impetuous, hotheaded, stubborn, and sexy. She also wasn’t even willing to try to be part of Jamie’s world, didn’t believe she could ever find her place there.
He took in the woman in front of him. Maybe he was still upset at Lucy for stripping. Maybe he was just reading Denise correctly—that she’d be the type of woman who’d be able to thrive, when necessary, in the highest of society. Whatever the reason, he thought about asking her out. To prove to himself and Lucy that she didn’t need to push him away—because he was moving the fuck on.
In the end, he didn’t do it.
Because no matter how angry Lucy had made him last night, he got it.
She still wanted him. And that terrified her. That was the reason she’d done what she did.
And the fact remained, he still wanted her.
He just didn’t know what he was going to do about it.
One thing was for sure—she didn’t want commitment. Maybe it was time he finally let that possibility go. If he did, would she let him in her bed? Would he be okay with taking her there, knowing that’s all it would ever be between them—sex?
For once, his body won the silent battle with his mind.
If she wanted him, why not let her have him?
And let him have her, even if it was just temporary.
It would be better than never having her. Never getting to kiss or touch her again. And maybe, just maybe, by finally having her, he’d be able to get her out of his system and move on for real.
An hour later, Jamie met Gabe, Eric, and Cole for lunch back at the hotel. Ryan and Luke had gone to take a helicopter ride over Hoover Dam and Rhys and Max were getting ready for their big opening night.
The guys were already at the restaurant when he got there. Jamie couldn’t help but smile a little at the miserable shape Gabe and Eric both seemed to be in. Reminded him of their college days.
“Hey, it’s the show-stopper,” Gabe called out. “Gonna tell us what you did with the stripper? You’ve been avoiding my texts.”
“Story for another time,” Jamie said, jutting out his jaw in a signal that he didn’t want to talk about what had happened the night before. “What did you do, go back to our suite and clean out the mini-bar?” he asked, changing the subject and deflecting the attention off him and his insane antics last night.
Gabe raised his eyebrows at him, but didn’t push it. “More like we hit the blackjack tables and availed ourselves of free shots all night long,” Gabe told him. “Just thinking about it is making my stomach churn.”
“I think I won though,” Eric said. “Now I can pay for my honeymoon,” he joked. Money was not an issue for him or his family, who was almost as rich as Jamie’s.
Jamie ordered an iced tea and then said, “You’ve met my sister, right? I really don’t think two dollars is going to cover it.”
Eric groaned. “Don’t remind me. She’s already got one whole day during our honeymoon planned for us to shop.”
When they finished eating, Gabe and Eric went off to “win another two dollars” at the tables. When they were gone Cole turned serious. “Are you doing okay?”
“Sure, why?” Jamie asked.
Cole looked like he wasn’t sure if he should say anything or not. Finally, he said, “It’s not every day you carry some woman off the stage, especially mid-strip tease. Or maybe I’m wrong. Hell, maybe you’ve gotten in touch with your kinky side and—”
“You’re not wrong,” Jamie said quietly. “The woman I carried off stage? It was Lucy.”
Cole whistled. “Are you shitting me?”
“Nope.”
“The fiery professor you were so into before she dumped your ass?”
“That’s the one.”
“Fuck, no wonder you went bat shit crazy.”
“Yeah, well…” Jamie cleared this throat.
“If you weren’t such a good guy, I’d make you squirm, but you should know--she didn’t come back once you left.”
* * *
As she got ready to attend the magic theater grand opening, Lucy agonized for over an hour over what to wear. When she realized she was worried about wearing something too revealing and how Jamie might react to that, she let out a little growl and picked the skimpiest outfit she’d brought with her. Then she spent another hour on her hair and re-did her make-up twice before her cell phone rang.
It was Grace.
“Max and Rhys decided to meet us at the theater. Opening night jitters. Want us to come pick you up?”
“Sounds good,” Lucy said.
“Okay, meet you in the lobby in five.”
When they got there, Grace was dressed in an elegant blue dress and looking gorgeous as usual. Melina had on a black cocktail dress that she rocked despite the fact she’d recently had twin babies. When Melina saw Lucy, she whistled. “With you around, Lucy, it’s amazing I ever got married.”
“Why do you say that?” Lucy asked her.
Grace grinned. “Because you’re so damn beautiful.”
“So are you and Melina, Grace.”
“Well, you have this sexuality that just oozes out your pores. I swear when we’d go out men would barely notice me because they couldn’t take their eyes off you.”
“Totally,” Melina agreed.
Lucy rolled her eyes as they got into the back of the limo that was waiting for them. “Right,” she said with a chuckle. “Well, maybe that’s because when it came to the three of us, it was easy for men to spot the easy lay.”
Grace gasped. “Have you lost your mind?”
Melina frowned. “What’s that about?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t ‘nothing’ us, Lucy. Out with it.”
“There’s nothing…” As Melina and Grace continued to glare at her, Lucy gave in. “Jamie’s upset with me.” Granted, that’s what she’d wanted—to drive a wedge between them. But now that that had happened, it was almost more than she could bear.
Lucy told Melina and Grace what had happened the night before. About getting up and stripping on stage in front of the entire nightclub. About Jamie, hauling ass and storming the stage to grab her and take her away. “He lost it when he saw me up there.”
“Of course he lost it,” Melina said. “You were stripping. In public! God, you were about to show your breasts and hoo-hoo to his friends! He was probably so jealous he couldn’t stand it.”
“Why would he be jealous? There’s nothing between us.” Right. Say it enough times and maybe you’ll believe it, Lucy.
“Nothing but explosive chemistry and unresolved feelings,” Grace snorted, calling Lucy on her bullshit.
Not about to give in, Lucy shook her head. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I broke up with him. He let me. He knows just as well as I do that I wouldn’t fit into his world.”
“His world? You’re barking up the wrong tree, Lucy. You make it sound like he lives on another planet.”
“He might as well. He has a private jet, for God’s sake.”
“Correction,” Melina said. “His family’s
company has a jet, one he very nicely used to take you to see your sister. And I’m not sure what him being rich and reacting to seeing you strip have in common.”
Memories of Mason filled her mind. She’d loved her high school boyfriend, only she’d proven to be something he didn’t want in his life. Something that embarrassed him. Lucy shrugged. “Let’s forget Mister Billionaire Former Professor, shall we, and talk about Rhys and Max’s big night. I’m excited to see what they have up their sleeves.”
Lucy didn’t miss the look Melina and Grace shared, but thankfully they went along with Lucy changing the subject.
The new theater was only a ten-minute drive from Lucy’s hotel. Several splashy signs outside advertised the grand opening. Grace told Lucy that this first show had already been sold out for over a month.
The Dalton Magic Show had changed its focus, and rumors were buzzing that the new act would be something fantastic. Entertaining. Sexy. The guest list tonight was limited to the media, who’s-who in entertainment, a few Las Vegas dignitaries, and close friends of Rhys and Max Dalton, the sexy identical twins whose magic show was about to blow the lid off all magic shows.
Lucy had watched both her best friends fall one after the other for a Dalton brother—first Melina and Rhys found love and marriage and babies together, then Grace and Max did the same. Well, not the marriage and babies part—at least, not yet.
Too bad the Dalton twins weren’t triplets. She could use someone special to help get her mind off Jamie.
The theater sported a dramatic entryway with red velvet curtains and vaulted ceilings that opened up into a large theatre that seated over a thousand people. Next to the theater was a more intimate lounge, with a full bar and cushy high-backed red velvet chairs arranged around dark cherry wood tables, where patrons could have drinks and appetizers before the show.
“Come on,” Grace said. “Drinks are on me.”
The waiter gave them menus and took their drink orders. Lucy’s dirty martini had just arrived when she heard Jamie’s voice. Automatically, she turned around. He was wearing a black sports coat and a crisp electric blue shirt. Her heart started pounding double-time and she almost couldn’t resist the desire to walk up to him. To apologize for having upset him. To tell him she’d only been trying to push him away when all she wanted was to pull him closer.
Knowing she was about to cave, she immediately excused herself to go to the bathroom. She dabbed at her face with a wet towel, took deep breaths, and told herself to get it together. When she returned, Jamie was talking to Melina and Grace, so Lucy headed to the bar.
“Hello there,” a male voice said.
Lucy turned to look at the man leaning against the bar beside her. He was gorgeous, and just her type. He had longish, shaggy black hair and pretty deep green eyes. He had a sexy and nicely trimmed goatee and a trim little mustache. He wore a black sleeveless T-shirt and his muscular arms were covered in colorful tattoos, and to top it off he wore round plugs in his ears. She wondered if he was pierced and where.
He held out a hand. On his wrist he wore black leather bracelets with silver studs on them, and his long fingers were adorned with skull shaped silver rings. “I’m Damien. Damien Cruz.”
Lucy took his hand and he held it a little longer than necessary after shaking it. When he let go, she leaned back against the bar and faced him. He smiled, and a deep dimple flashed on the left side of his face.
If she was looking for someone to take her mind off Jamie, she suspected she’d just hit the mother lode. She hadn’t had sex since breaking things off with Jericho, and this man was a perfect specimen.
She was about to ask if he was alone when she heard someone clear his throat.
She turned to see Jamie behind her.
“Melina and Grace have gone inside. The show’s about to start,” he said. “Max and Rhys seated us together. Do you want to go in?”
She tucked her hair behind her ears, suddenly not sure what she should be doing with her hands. Other than putting them all over him.
“Um, yeah,” she said. She turned back to Damien Cruz and said, “It was nice meeting you.”
He reached into his shirt pocket, retrieved and held out a room key for the MGM Grand, and said, “If you want to see even more of me, I’ll be there after midnight.”
Well, that was certainly bold of him. It made things crystal clear right from the start.
Uncomplicated, unlike her very complicated feelings for Jamie.
Lucy stared at the key card for a few seconds, undecided. She sensed Jamie beside her. Thought about how much she wanted him.
Then took the hotel key.
While she’d been deciding whether to take Damien’s hotel key, Jamie had ordered a shot. He picked it up and swigged it back. His throat muscles rippled. He set the glass down on the bar, never taking his gaze from hers. Desire slowly rolled through her, making her tremble.
“You ready now?” he asked.
She lifted her chin and brushed past him, hyper aware when he followed very closely behind her.
Once they took their seats, Max and Rhys welcomed everyone to the show and thanked them for coming. They introduced their chef and mentioned Jamie as one of their business partners. They put the spotlight on Melina, introducing her as Rhys’s beautiful wife, and on Grace, who Max called the love of his life. Then they left the stage and everyone waited for the show to begin.
“Excited?”
A rush of arousal thrummed through her at the sound of Jamie’s voice in her ear. At the way his breath hushed against the sensitive skin on her neck. At how his scent filled her nostrils. Damn it, it wasn’t a good sign that no sooner had she taken Damien’s room key than she’d put the guy completely out of her mind. Her entire being was focused on the man beside her.
“I’m assuming you mean, am I excited to watch the show?” she said, forcing a mocking tone into her words. She kept her eyes focused up front—on the dark and empty stage. But then she couldn’t help it—she let her gaze slide over Jamie, taking in how his jacket fit him to perfection, how the blue of his dress shirt collar showed off the tanned skin on his face and neck, how his eyes glittered golden even in the dim light of the theater, and how his seal-brown hair looked slightly disheveled, as if a lover had recently run her hands through it. She loved the way his hair felt when she grabbed it, pressing his head closer so that she could…
No. She couldn’t go there. Not now. Not tonight.
Think about Damien. The tattoos. The key card he gave you.
“Yeah, I’m asking if you’re excited about the show. But does something else have you excited? Thinking about the guy with the tattoos who handed you his hotel key?” Jamie asked.
“What do you care? After what I did last night, I’m surprised you even want to sit with me. I must—I must disgust you.”
His expression sobered. “You’re wrong. Is that why you didn’t get back on stage? Because you didn’t want to disgust me?”
She hesitated, then said, “I didn’t want to upset you. Not any more than I already had.”
“But upsetting me was the whole point, wasn’t it?”
No way was she confirming that but clearly she didn’t need to.
He knew, just like he always seemed to know what went on inside her head.
When she said nothing, he continued, “I respect you more than you’ll ever know. And despite your attempt to push me away, Lucy, I still want you. But I got your message loud and clear last night. We will never have a future together. I accept that. But if you’re thinking of using that room key because you need something, you don’t have to go to a stranger. I can give it to you. And it would be my pleasure to do so. One night. No strings attached.”
Wait—what had he just said? Was he seriously offering a one-night stand? Offering to give her his entire body—complete with penetration—for a night, and one night only? But he’d held off before, so why now? Had her actions on stage finally convinced him that she’d never fit into his
life? Could it have been that easy?
She stared at him in shock but before she could respond, the house lights went out, plunging the theater into complete darkness, and it was too late. Way too late.
The music started and strobe lights started flashing around the space above the seats. Even with Jamie’s shocking words bouncing around in her head, Lucy gasped at the spectacle happening around her. Smoke and mirrors, she reminded herself. Magic was about illusion…misdirection…mystery. The answers were there, just shrouded in optical illusions and brilliant tricks. But she didn’t care about the logic of the moment. No…the magic was in the mystery. Every time a strobe light went off, it illuminated a different woman, suspended directly over the audience. Each woman was writhing, dancing, seemingly flying without ropes or hoops or any other means of holding them in the air.
And their bodies… The women appeared to be wearing nothing but glimmering, shimmering paint in various sensual colors. Lucy gasped when a strobe light illuminated a woman suspended directly in front of her and Jamie. The light flashed again, and the woman maneuvered her body in a way that brought her close enough that either Lucy or Jamie could have reached out and touched her.
For several minutes, the female bodies above them twisted and swayed in mind-boggling, breathtaking positions. At some point, Lucy realized she was breathing hard and that she’d somehow put her hand on Jamie’s knee.
She automatically tried to jerk her hand away.
But before she could, Jamie covered her hand with his.
One night. No strings attached.
His offer was a temptation she couldn’t put from her mind.
It felt so good to be touching him again. He was warm and strong and God she was getting goose bumps all over just thinking about his hand touching other parts of her body…
He rubbed small circles on the back of her hand with his thumb, sending jolts of electricity all the way up her arm and down her spine. The show was enthralling, but doubly so when combined with Jamie’s touch.
He turned his hand over, so his palm was facing up, and before she knew what was happening, she was caressing it with feather light touches of her thumb and fingers. She had the overwhelming urge to pick up his hand and kiss it, to run her tongue along his lifeline…