He entered the cabana slowly, without his usual hip-shot swagger, and carrying a gift bag with the resort’s logo. Chance wore a resort tee, too. Which was so not his usual look. Guess being locked out of his room didn’t leave him with many options. “I know the camera crew is gone, but is there any chance Jenny’s still hanging around?”
“No.” Her lips thinned together, considering. “I mean, evidently she’s like herpes. I’m not sure we can every truly be rid of her. But she’s not here now.”
“Just you and me, huh?”
Anda pushed the blanket aside and stood up. “And about a hundred pounds of guilt and baggage.”
He set down the bag, leaned against the cabinet and crossed his ankles. “How about you unload yours, and then I’ll do mine, and we’ll see where we end up?”
Ohhh. He was actually going to let her explain? That was…mostly great. Anda still wasn’t sure that she entirely deserved to be forgiven for her rash, stupid, hurtful plan. But all those years working her butt off had taught her tenacity. All she’d wanted for so long was the chance to fix things with Chance.
She wouldn’t waste this one.
“How about I start by apologizing?”
Chance waved off her offer. “Nah. Because I did some thinking over a weird, blackout breakfast. Plus, I got some nudges from Don, who is practically Yoda. I think maybe we both screwed up. Maybe even for the right reasons. So lay it out for me.”
Anda wanted to pace as she got her thoughts in order. She stood still, though. Kept her eyes locked on Chance. Now that it was light? He needed to see, in her face, all that she felt. Be able to read the truth in her every expression and blink.
“Everything I said last night was true. I thought you cut me from the show. It shattered me, losing you.”
He inclined his head in a slow nod. “For the record? Ditto.”
Okay. That was a strong start. Going back to the beginning, though, was where it might all fall apart.
She twisted her hands together, wishing it was Chance’s hands intertwined with hers. “I had dinner with Jenny a few weeks ago. Your name came up. It was obvious I hadn’t moved on. She told me that a hot fling would jump-start me back into life. Reminded me that I had the gift certificate to the hotel and that I should come out here and, you know, get back on the horse.”
“It was all her idea.”
There was no way she’d let herself off the hook that easily. “Yes…but I agreed to it. I’m responsible for my own decision-making.”
“Hey, there’s no harm in moving on after a break-up. I didn’t expect you to hole up in your room and go celibate while you pined for me.”
Except that was exactly what she’d done. “Chance, I didn’t want anyone but you. I thought Jenny was helping me finally accept the inevitable. I didn’t know that she planned to film anything. It seemed like she was being supportive, offering to come with me.”
“What happened when we met in the bar?”
Uh oh. “That’s where I screwed up. I did come up with the idea to have revenge sex with you and then dump you. Just so you’d know how it felt.”
“Because I’d supposedly hurt you so badly by kicking you off the show?”
“Yes. But I believed you last night when you said you didn’t do it. And I was conflicted even before you told me. As soon as we started spending time together, I couldn’t deny how much I cared. How much fun we had. Even though I still thought you discarded me like a used Kleenex, I wanted to be with you. How pathetic is that?”
“Not pathetic. I think we both knew, deep down. We recognized how right we are for each other. Fighting it didn’t make it go away.”
“It sure didn’t.”
“I screwed up, too. I didn’t fight for you. I should’ve gone looking for you as soon as the show ended to ask you what happened. I…well, the truth is that I’ve never been in love before. So, I didn’t do it right. Starting the best relationship of my life on a reality show didn’t give a real stable foundation. If it weren’t for my sister and Don banging some sense into my head, I wouldn’t be here now.”
“Man of Her Dreams was just the door we walked through to find each other. We can discard everything else about it.”
“Well, I’ll be talking to my lawyer about how much they can use from this week.” Chance straightened up. Moved closer to put his hands on her shoulders. And feeling his touch again shot hope through her heart. “But here’s the thing, Anda. You are worth fighting for.”
Was this really happening? But whether he needed to hear it or not, Anda needed to say she was sorry. Because she regretted her choice to enact an eye for an eye style of punishment. It was immature, and frankly, not the kind of person she wanted to be.
“Can I apologize now? For the whole revenge sex plot? It was plain dumb and unkind. I’m so sorry.”
“You did what you did because you were hurt. I didn’t go looking for you because I was hurt. So we both made mistakes.”
“Nothing about last night was a mistake,” she said urgently. Oh God, Chance had to believe that what they’d shared was real.
“No. You’re right. If it weren’t for the blackout, I wouldn’t have told you that I was falling in love with you. Guess it scared me straight. I couldn’t risk losing you again.”
It sounded like he forgave her. “Does this mean I didn’t stomp all over your feelings for me?”
“Anda, a fire truck could pull up and unload its hose on me, and it still couldn’t extinguish the spark of love I’ve got growing for you. I think Fate gave us a do-over by putting us both here this week. And now we get to decide if we want a do-over to the do-over. Just us. Not Fate, not the network, not anybody else weighing in and trying to push us around.”
“I would love that. I want everything we said last night to be real. Supporting each other while we start new careers. Meeting our families. Going on normal dates.”
He let go, and grabbed the gift bag. “I asked you a question this morning. Then we were, ah, interrupted before you could answer.”
“Interrupted? Derailed is more like it.”
Chance pulled out a beautiful white hoop with almost a spiderweb of lace across the top. Three tiers of white feathers and beads hung down from it, like a chandelier. “This is a dreamcatcher. In Native American mythology, it entangles nightmares and evil, and good dreams slide down the feathers into us.”
“Oh, that’s a lovely custom.” She stroked a hand through the softness.
“I thought we could hang it over our bed.” Chance waggled it a little. Then raised his eyebrows into a hopeful expression. “If you do want to move in with me.”
“A little extra protection is just what we need,” she agreed. “You know, for the last seven months, when I couldn’t fall asleep I’d rework our original morning in bed to where you asked me to stay with you. Every single time, I said yes. So I’m saying yes now.”
“Really?”
Anda jumped up, latching her legs around his waist. “Of course. Because you really are the man of my dreams, Chance.”
ABOUT CHRISTI BARTH
USA TODAY bestselling author Christi Barth earned a Masters degree in vocal performance and embarked upon a career on the stage. A love of romance then drew her to wedding planning. Ultimately she succumbed to her lifelong love of books and now writes award-winning contemporary romance, including the Naked Men and Aisle Bound series.
Christi can always be found either whipping up gourmet meals (for fun, honest!) or with her nose in a book. She lives in Maryland with the best husband in the world.
To learn of Christi’s next release, get early peeks at covers and other exciting behind-the-scenes tidbits, please visit her website or sign up for her newsletter. But there’s even more fun to be had if you follow her on:
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BOOKS BY CHRISTI BARTH
Bad Boys Gone Good Trilogy
Bad For Her
Never Been Good
Naked Men Series
Risking It All
Wanting It All
Giving It All
Trying It All
Having It All – coming soon!
Bad Decisions Series
The Opposite of Right
The Reverse of Perfection
The Other Side of Wrong
The Aisle Bound Series
Planning For Love
A Fine Romance
Friends To Lovers
A Matchless Romance
Aisle Bound Box Set
The Shore Secrets Trilogy
Up To Me
All For You
Back To Us
Beach Duet
Love At High Tide
Love On The Boardwalk
Check My Heart
Act Like We’re In Love
Carolina Heat
Cruising Toward Love
Never Too Late
Christmas novellas
Ask Her At Christmas
Tinsel My Heart
Night & Day
By Bethany Lopez
CHAPTER 1
Simone
I looked around the dimly lit bar. It was a good crowd tonight. The customers were happy. Mostly drunk, but happy … and the girls were really on their game. Diamond’s routine to the new Halsey hit had the guys in the front row practically drooling in their draft beers.
Every once in a while, on a night like this, I missed being on stage. Then I’d catch sight of a particularly wasted dude in his sixties with his hand indiscreetly down his pants, and the moment passed.
“Simone.”
I turned my head toward the bar to see Carlos, one of the bartenders, calling me over.
I eased off of the wall I’d been leaning on, partially hidden in the dark, and sauntered over to him.
Sure, I was a manager now, and my clothes stayed on, but I still had an image to project. The same image that had gotten me this far in an industry that ate women alive. Untouchable, supreme bitch of the club, the one woman all the men wanted, but couldn’t have.
I’d almost broken a guy’s wrist once when he’d grabbed my ass after a show and Big Mike, the owner, had fucking loved it. He called me his secret weapon, his prized possession.
Of course, no one owned me but myself and everyone knew it … including Big Mike. But, I was a draw and as long as I was, Big Mike would do just about anything to keep me around, including agreeing to promote me.
I’d been working here almost six years, which made me one of the senior girls, so no one said shit when I became the boss. They were used to me calling the shots already.
“What’s up?” I asked Carlos when I was close enough for him to hear me.
“Micah’s on break and Gina just went to the bathroom, you think you could run and get me a fifth of Johnny Walker out of the back?”
“Black?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” Carlos said and went back to helping customers, of which there were many.
I hurried into the back, down the corridor, and out the door as comfortable in heels as I’d be in flip-flops. Our dry storage was actually in a separate room that you could only get to from outside of the club.
I unlocked and pulled open the door, careful to prop it open with the doorstop. The door had been broken for ages and if it shut behind you, you were stuck until the next time someone opened it. I’d been on Big Mike to get it fixed, but he was allergic to anything that cost money.
I grabbed the bottle, annotated it on the inventory sheet, and left the storeroom, shutting the door firmly behind me and making sure I locked it.
As I headed back inside, I wondered how long Micah had been on break. Even with Gina, Carlos wasn’t going to be able to keep the customers happy for long. Micah was the lead bartender, the bane of my existence, and the man who’d broken my heart.
“Seems like his breaks are getting longer and longer,” I muttered bitterly, brushing off the possibility that I was so annoyed because he’d been taking his breaks lately with a certain redhead.
“Here you go, Carlos,” I called as I put the bottle behind the counter.
I got quickly out of the way, surveying the room as I walked the club.
Emerald was currently up and when I heard the chorus of the song, I grinned, knowing she was about to rip her dress down the front and would have these men eating out of the palm of her hand, and throwing bills at her, in mere seconds.
I’d shown her how to use scissors to cut a starter in the bosom of her dress, so when it was time to rip it off, it would come off smoothly and not throw off her mojo by getting snagged, or worse have her up there trying to get it to rip and looking like an idiot when it stayed intact.
I swear you could hear that rip clear across the Strip and the crowd went wild.
When I turned toward the corner booth, my gaze landed on Micah and Ginger, and my grin fled.
Ginger was everything I wasn’t … tiny, sweet, kind, always ready to lend a helping hand, and had a twinkling fairy laugh. I wanted to hate her on principle alone and hang her by her toes for spending time with Micah.
It’d be like torturing a puppy, and even I wasn’t that much of a bitch.
I spun on my heel, intent on checking out the dressing room and giving myself a minute to regain my composure.
I hated that Micah still affected me the way he did. It had been almost a year since our weekend together at the Bellagio. The weekend where I’d forgotten all my rules and had thrown caution to the wind. We spent two days entangled in each other, enjoying room service and getting to know each other inside and out.
I’d thought I’d finally met the one. We’d connected on a deeper level and I’d gotten swept up.
Forgetting everything except what had occurred within that room, I’d told him I was falling for him … and he’d laughed in my face.
Since then, I’d tried to keep my distance, while he constantly tried to get me to give him another chance.
“Simone.”
This time, I didn’t turn, because I knew it was Micah calling my name.
“Hey, boss, wait up.”
He threw the “boss” in there because he knew I’d have to listen since we were both on the clock.
“What, Micah? Aren’t you about done with your break?” I asked, arching my brow as I took him in.
Damn, he looked good.
He always looked good. That was the problem. The attraction I had for him was off the charts, which was what had gotten me in trouble in the first place.
His dark hair was short on the sides and longer on top, with a styled, yet floppy thing going on. Plus, he’d recently started growing out a beard, which he kept neat and trimmed, and only made him look ten times better than usual.
Which meant he was panty-dropping hot.
To say he worked his looks to his advantage and made a killing in tips would be an understatement. We all worked here for a reason and cashing in on the attributes the good Lord gave us was only part of it.
“It’s been twenty-five minutes, Simone, I’m actually getting back early. Not that I’d expect you to give me props for that.”
“You’re right, I won’t congratulate you for doing your job. What do you need?” I tried to keep my tone even, but Micah always brought out the worst in me.
“I was hoping we could talk later,” he said, his eyes dropping a moment before coming back to mine. Like he was shy, or nervous, or something … yeah, right.
“The answer is the same as every other time you’ve asked. Unless you want to talk to me at work, I’m not available.”
“C’mon, Simone. You can’t avoid me forever. We need to clear the air … put this shit behind us.”
“This shit.” I huffed out a breath. “You mean my vulnerability. The fact that I dared to have feelings and you threw them back in my face. Is that the shit you speak of?”
“God, Simone, just let me explain.”
I leaned in closer, my hear
t pounding and a familiar feeling of embarrassment and pain in my stomach.
“Fuck you, Micah. Oh, that’s right, I already did, and there’s no fucking way I’ll ever let you make a fool of me again. Now, get back to work.”
CHAPTER 2
Micah
Jesus, she’s fucking magnificent.
I watched her walk away. Her posture was rigid, but her ass looked amazing thanks to the killer stilettos she was wearing.
Even in a strip club, Simone turned heads and made me wish for more.
She didn’t have to be on stage, taking her clothes off or shaking what the good Lord gave her; all she had to do was enter your orbit, and you were mesmerized.
I’d wanted Simone since the day I’d interviewed for the bartending gig and saw her on stage practicing with some of the other girls. I’d nearly fallen out of my chair when my gaze had landed on her, unable to believe that a woman like that actually existed.
The fact that she had a strict no customer/no co-worker policy only made her more appealing. Hell, I don’t think I saw her with anyone my first three years on the job, which is why I’d figured I had no chance at all with her.
She’d surprised the hell out of me the night of the end-of-year party at the Bellagio. And, after spending the whole weekend with her, tangled in the sheets and really getting to know each other, I’d felt like the luckiest man alive.
Still, I’d never thought it would go farther.
This was Simone, after all.
The woman ate glass for breakfast and could crush a man’s balls with a single look.
When she’d said she was falling in love with me, I’d figured she was fucking with me and laughed. It was more self-preservation than anything. I didn’t want her to think I expected more from her, and honestly, I wasn’t ready myself to progress further and potentially get my heart stomped on. I’d assumed when the weekend was over things would go back to the way they were.
I was so sure this was the case, that it took a few minutes for the pain on her face to register. The way her shoulders sagged, then snapped back like a steel rod was in her spine, as she erected the wall back around her.
Blackout: A Romance Anthology Page 24