by Jana Mercy
“Uhm, we don’t intrude on employees’ personal lives.” She choked back the lump in her throat, choked back the urge to rip out the woman’s hair—not that she’d manage to do anything but get her butt kicked if she tried. “You’d have to ask him.”
The woman smiled. “I think I will. He’s quite yummy, isn’t he?”
Sophia followed the woman’s gaze to where Gray mixed drinks for three women standing at the bar and eyeing him. They found him “quite yummy” too. For that matter, he was quite yummy.
As if sensing her gaze, he glanced in her direction and paused mid-motion.
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
Sophia looked away, only to crash into the redhead’s scrutiny. Sophia gritted her teeth. She was being toyed with.
“Yes. Yummy. We hire only the best.” God, she sounded pathetic. An idiot would realize she had feelings for Gray. The redhead’s gaze held way too much intelligence for her not to see right through Sophia’s overly bright tone. She drew her shoulders up straight, looked the woman square in the eyes and smiled. “You really should catch our show Saturday night. He’s going to be on stage.”
“To strip?”
Sophia hadn’t thought anything could faze the woman but her eyes rounded with disbelief and her voice went several pitches higher. Good, she liked seeing the redhead wasn’t as impervious as she looked. “Yes, it’ll be a real treat.”
“You ain’t saying.” The woman smiled a look similar to what the cat that swallowed the canary must have resembled. “Erickson taking off his clothes on stage. Now this I have to see.”
She’d called Gray by name. “We’ll look forward to seeing you Saturday night.”
“Hell yeah, I’ll be here.” The redhead slapped her hand against the table, hard. Surprisingly, the table didn’t crash to the floor but the other women at the table practically leaped out of their seats. “Bet I have some buddies that’ll want to see this too.”
Her long red curls caught in the light when she threw her head back and burst out laughing.
Sophia covered her frown with a pasted-on smile and said her goodbyes, moved to another table and ran through her spiel. Having actually spoken with the redhead hadn’t given her any reassurance. Just the opposite.
But, oh yeah, she could see why a man like Gray would be attracted to her. Why any man would. A real life redheaded Lara Croft.
“Sophia?”
Speaking of the devil. Turning, she stared into his eyes. Eyes full of questions. And guilt. Something definitely transpired between him and the redhead. The dog. And so quickly after bedding, er, sofa-ing her. Sure hadn’t taken him long to find his next lay. If that’s what he’d done, she reminded herself not to convict him without sufficient evidence.
Unable to speak without letting her green-eyed monster roar with jealousy, Sophia averted her attention back to the stage.
“Look at me,” Gray demanded.
She couldn’t do more than watch Geronimo hoot and holler on stage and ignore that her eyes stung.
“I’m an Indian outlaw,” the current stripper mouthed while he shook his tomahawk in the air.
“I was just talking to her.”
Sure he was and the Indians had kicked the cowboys’ butts.
“Sophia, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
If he hadn’t looked so guilty, she might believe him.
“Talk to me, damn it. Part of my job is to keep the customers happy. All my customers are women, you know that.”
Sophia nodded. He was right. Flirting with women was part of his job. But the redhead was more than a customer. Gray knew her. She knew Gray. Biblically?
No, she didn’t want to know the answer to that.
Hell, she already knew the answer. Yes. Darn it.
“What would you have me do? To have told her to get lost? That wouldn’t be good business.”
“Who?” she asked just to be contrary. After all, she hadn’t said a word about anything or anyone. But he’d known. Because he was a guilty dog. And would he stop being so logical? Stop making so much sense? She didn’t want to let go of her anger. She needed it to wrap protectively around her heart.
“So-fee-ah.” His frustration echoed in his tone.
“What?”
“I didn’t flirt back.”
“Back?” She latched onto his choice of words. “So, she issued an invitation?”
Not that she hadn’t known. She’d seen the suggestive way the woman smiled at Gray. The way she whispered in his ear.
The guilty one ran his hand through his dark hair. Images from this afternoon when it had been her hands snaking through the silky strands flashed. Darn. She didn’t need those kinds of thoughts right now. Not if she wanted to resist him.
“Of sorts but not the kind you’re assuming.”
“Oh really? Just what kind of invitation was she issuing?” She quirked her brow.
Indecision crept into his expression. “Does it matter? I’m working in a male strip club. I’m going to be propositioned, Sophia. If I’m really good at my job, lots of women will proposition me. That is what you want, for me to do my job so well Heavenly Hunks will have lots of repeat business, right?”
Damn his logic. “Do you know her?”
“Yes but before you say anything, just remember I can’t tell her not to come here just because I know her.” He told the truth. She could see it in his eyes. “I’ll be polite to her and every other woman for the simple reason it’s my job.”
She hesitated. The man’s reason left her without argument. Which she found frustrating in and of itself. She wanted to be angry at him for the exchange with the redhead bombshell but he was right. He had only been doing his job.
Just one of the follies of sleeping with a man who made his living by working in a strip club.
She was being ridiculous and petty. They never agreed to an exclusive relationship anyway.
Actually, they never discussed their relationship at all. Did she even want to discuss it? Sex with Gray was a complete aberration from everything about her life up to the point of when she’d come to Nashville. If she went back to Atlanta, a relationship with Gray would never work. Best thing for her to do was to enjoy every moment she had with him and to quit analyzing their relationship so closely. It wasn’t as if she didn’t already have plenty of fodder for analyzing. Her aunt’s books were positively lethal.
“Okay.” She met his gaze and had to steady herself at the eagerness for forgiveness in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I overreacted. I wasn’t prepared for the sight of a beautiful woman hitting on you and seeing returned interest in your eyes.”
He flashed a quick grin. “Jealous?”
“Yes.” She hated admitting it. And hated even worse that he didn’t deny interest in the woman.
“Don’t be.” He touched her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. “You’re the only woman I want.”
For right now. His unspoken words hung between them.
Her heart flip-flopped and, if she’d not known before, the truth became crystal clear.
Whether she wanted him to or not, whether he’d fit into her life or not, Gray meant much more to her than just a short fling.
* * * * *
“Come on, Joey.” Gray ignored the knowing wink from the bouncer at the employee only entrance and looked back at his grinning coworker. “We don’t have all night.”
Joey’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Why? You afraid your girlfriend’s going to catch us together?”
Damn straight but he wasn’t telling her that.
“Let’s just say I’m not looking forward to explaining why I’m back here with you.”
“Why not just use the same ploy we usually use and pretend we’re making out? That’s always worked in the past.”
Why indeed?
“Because of Sophia.”
“Because of the case, you mean?”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “She’s important to the case and we can’t rock the boat.”
> Joey laughed but didn’t comment.
“I’m out of here.” She didn’t need him with her. They weren’t doing reconnaissance work. Joey needed a good feel of the layout of the building before Saturday night. Just in case. Although he fully expected her to do some snooping as well. Not that she’d find anything. He’d already given the place several going-overs and had found very little useful information.
“Leaving so soon?” she teased, ridiculously fluttering her eyelashes at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay and play, Erickson?”
“Just remember,” he warned. “If you get caught, you’re on your own.”
* * * * *
“Are you still upset?” Gray asked Sophia much later while he finished restocking his supplies. He glanced at where she waited, propped against the inside of the bar.
Joey hadn’t gotten caught or had covered well since no one mentioned a redhead backstage. She left the club soon after returning to the main area of the club. Best as Gray could tell, Sophia didn’t know about his brief disappearance backstage. He planned to keep it that way.
“Not really.” Sophia toyed with a napkin holder on the bar.
“But you have doubts?”
“A lot of women flirt with you. There was something different about the redhead. You looked at her with interest.” Her shoulders hunched and she didn’t meet his eyes. “Not that I blame you, she’s gorgeous.”
Gray flexed his jaw, trying to figure out the best way to explain why he’d been looking at Joey. Somehow, he doubted admitting the truth would help. That if his hunch was right her aunt’s club was a front for a drug ring and that he was here to bring that ring down. With the redhead’s help. And although Joey was a coworker, yes, he’d had sex with her. But that had been a long time ago and hadn’t meant anything to him. Nope, the explicit truth wouldn’t get him back into Sophia’s good graces and that’s where he wanted to be. For the case. Nothing more. Except maybe more sex. Okay, the case and more sex.
“All closed up and I’m headed out.” Robbie the Rocket interrupted when he came through the backstage door.
Gray nodded in the man’s direction and couldn’t help but think the guy was way too chipper for this time of night. Maybe it was just his own foul mood at thoughts that after he and Sophia had finally had sex, Joey would choose tonight to show and screw things up.
Still, Sophia was talking to him and he’d grovel or do just about anything to feel her thighs around him again—um, to solve this case. Anything to solve the case, not to have sex with Sophia.
“Night, Robbie,” Sophia called. “Lock the back door on your way out, please.”
“Will do, Miss Sophia.” The man winked, saluted and left through a back hallway.
“Miss Sophia?” Sophia looked taken back.
“The guys have been calling you that since right after you first arrived.” Gray closed the distance between them now that they were truly alone in the club. He had some making up, sucking up, kissing her ass to do. Anything for the case.
“Oh. Makes me feel ancient.” She didn’t touch him. Not for a caress. Not to push him away. “Who was she?”
He sighed. Oh yeah, he’d be doing some groveling. “Does it matter?”
“Do you find her attractive?”
“Not anymore.” Gray could have kicked himself the moment the words left his stupid mouth.
“Meaning you did at one time?” Frank curiosity shone in her violet eyes. Along with a cool reserve that he’d not seen since before he’d kissed her. She was trying to shut him out. After this afternoon? Hell no.
“Yes.” He wouldn’t lie. Not unless he had too. He lifted his shoulders in a half shrug. “I’ve had sex with her but not in a long time. Is that what you wanted to hear, Sophia?” Sophia’s mouth clamped shut. “Because I personally think some things are better left unsaid.” Even in the low light, he could tell her face paled. Shit. He shouldn’t have lost his cool. “She means nothing to me.” He wasn’t sure why it was so important she understood but it was. “Never really did. We used each other for sex.”
Her head whipped up. “Great. You have a history of meaningless sex with a gorgeous woman who flirted with you tonight. Now that makes me feel better,” she insisted with a great deal of passion. “Do you wish you were still with her?”
“No.”
“How could you not?”
Enough was enough. He pulled Sophia to him. “How could you ask after this afternoon? Yesterday afternoon? I’m not sure what to say, Sophia. Not sure what you want me to say. I don’t want to be with her. If I did, I would be.”
Sophia opened her mouth to protest. Gray gave up trying to convince her verbally. If she wouldn’t listen to what his words were telling her, maybe she’d listen to what his kiss said. His mouth covered hers.
At first, she held perfectly still in his embrace. Which he considered a plus since he’d half expected her to push him away. Or hit him over the head again. With a need that burned deep, he kissed her. The moment she relaxed against him, Gray took the kiss to a deeper level. Keeping the movements of his lips gentle but demanding, he pried her lips apart and thrust his tongue inside.
She tasted like strawberries. Sweet, sweet strawberries. Had she been eating candy? He supped the sugary sweetness from the recesses of her mouth and would swear something zapped him. Talk about an electrifying kiss.
With each flick of his tongue, Sophia’s body melted into his a little more. Finally, she acquiesced and slipped her hands around his neck. Smugness and humility assaulted him at the way she accepted his caress. He lifted his mouth, hovering close to her lips. “Does that feel like the kiss of a man who wants to be with anyone other than the woman in his arms?”
Her chest rose and fell with ragged breaths as she stared at him before answering. “No.”
“Because it’s not.” He dropped another kiss on her full lips. “Let’s go upstairs.”
She hesitated.
Damn, he didn’t know what else to say. He wanted Sophia. Of all the suggestive looks he’d received from the multitude of women who came to the club, none had even slightly sexually interested him. Only Sophia. “Forgive me for whatever it is I should’ve handled different that’s upset you.”
Her eyes closed.
“I want you,” he whispered.
“I want you too.” Her soft answer tore into his chest and grasped hold of his heart. “And it scares me.”
He touched her face and gently held her, searching for the right words to ease her mind about Joey, to tell her how she, Sophia, made him feel. And, he realized he couldn’t possibly find them since he couldn’t label the way he reacted to everything about her. “I’ll never do anything to intentionally hurt you.”
Her eyes remained closed and he felt the tremble that shook through her.
“Do you believe me?”
She nodded.
“Then trust me to do what’s right. I can’t make promises of what the future holds. All I can give is the here and now.” He dropped a kiss onto her right eyelid, causing her eyes to blink open. “It’s all I have, Sophia but my present belongs to you.”
It scared the hell out of him that he couldn’t imagine a future without her but knew that when everything came into the open she wasn’t going to be happy with him. Not when she didn’t even know who he really was.
A man who would likely put her aunt behind bars.
Sophia too, if she was involved or tried to stand in the way of his case.
Trust him, he said.
She shouldn’t trust him because when all was said and done, he’d betray that trust and she would be hurt.
* * * * *
Sophia pulled back to stare at Gray in the lowered lighting. The shadows darkening his face had little to do with the club’s dimness. “Gray?”
Tension rolled off him but he smiled. Sort of. “Let’s go upstairs.”
She started to agree but had another idea. A better idea. If Gray would play along. This idea was a fan
tasy she longed to fulfill. It had been on her mind ever since his first strip lesson.
“No.” They both needed to relax. To get past this first little bump in their relationship or affair or whatever it was they were having. What better way than a little fantasy role-playing?
He raked a hand through his midnight hair, the disarrayed locks absurdly sexy. “Sophia.”
She shook her head, smiling. “Not that. Look around.” She motioned at the empty club. “I’d like to stay right here. With you.”
Interest flared. “Oh?”
“Yes.” She loved how his tension visibly eased. Loved how much better she felt letting go of the green monster within.
Gray tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Just what do you have in mind, boss lady?”
“I want to act out a fantasy.”
His throat worked. “A fantasy?”
“I want to pretend to be one of your customers.” She grinned, enjoying the heated anticipation in his eyes.
“I’m listening.”
“I want to order a drink.”
“Anything in particular you’d like?”
Her fingertips trailed down the strong lines of his throat, thrilling at the way his pulse raced. “What would you suggest?”
“Screaming Orgasm?” Gray’s breathing labored. His chest rose and fell in excited fervor. Good. Sophia wanted him totally enraptured in their role-playing.
“Mmm, sounds like just what I need to quench my…thirst.”
“I love my job.”
Sophia laughed and she pressed her palm against his thundering heart. “I’d say you’re going to have to work really hard tonight.” She batted her lashes. “Hope that’s not a problem.”
“No problem.” He grinned. “Think it’ll earn me extra tips?”
“Depends what kind of tips you’re referring too.” She brushed her breasts against his chest, letting him know what tips she meant. The cotton of her bra provided friction against her already sensitive nipples. How was it possible for one man to make her feel so sexy? So decadent? So daring? So unlike the shell of a person she’d always been?
“I think I’m more into fringe benefits than monetary compensation.”