by Jana Mercy
Gray’s gut pitched at her words and he fought to keep his fists from clenching. “Who are you?”
“Sophia’s fiancé.”
Gray’s stomach plummeted somewhere beneath his slick black dance shoes. Shoes he should have kicked off at some point during his performance but hadn’t.
“Ex-fiancé,” Sophia corrected, her face screwing up as she shot the man a glance. “Ex-fiancé,” she repeated with emphasis.
“That’s your Atlanta boy toy?” Madame G peered into the closet. Her eyes widened in delight when she raked her gaze over Nate. “I thought you said he was boring. If that’s boring, sign me up for a long stretch of boredom.”
Pretty boy glared at Sophia. “You called me boring?” His tone bordered on incredulous.
“Ohhhkay.” Sophia stepped out of the newcomer’s loose embrace. About damn time. “It seems we have a lot to talk about. Why not adjourn to one of the tables where we can be more comfortable?”
Sophia didn’t appear comfortable. More like she wanted to crawl onto one of the back storage shelves and hide. Permanently. Well hell.
“Do whatever it is you need to do. I’m going to go dress.” He turned away from the couple in the closet, ignored the curious looks from his coworkers and Madame G and stalked toward the dressing room.
“Gray, wait.” Sophia ran after him. Her fingers grasped onto his arms. Tingles of awareness shot through him. He locked his jaw tightly together and waited for her to continue. “Nate and I haven’t been engaged for almost a month.”
“Fine,” he ground out.
“I gave his ring back the week before I came to Nashville. I knew I couldn’t marry him before I met you but even if I hadn’t already known, I do now.” Spilling from her lips in rapid succession, her words jumbled together.
“Why?”
“You know why.”
He really didn’t want to look into her eyes but he turned toward her and noticed they still had quite the captive audience. Great. He gritted his teeth and prayed for patience. “Why the closet?”
“I wanted to talk in private.”
Yeah, he gathered that much. “Why not take him to the office?”
“I don’t know.” Her face went blank as if she never even considered that logical choice. That made him feel some better. But only a little.
“Why is he here?” She hadn’t been struggling or telling the guy to get lost. She’d been locked in an embrace with Mr. GQ.
“That’s what I was trying to find out. In the closet. Without all of Heavenly Hunks listening in.”
Too bad she wasn’t telling him everything. Her guilty eyes gave her away. “What else?” he demanded. “What are you hiding? Don’t lie to me.” She took a step back, almost flinching. “What the hell is going on, Sophia? And why has your ex-fiancé driven four hours to see you?”
Her feet shuffled but she finally met his gaze. “I’m sure he flew in as driving would waste too much of his time. He came to take me back to Atlanta but—”
Gray slapped a support beam with the flat of his hand, eliciting another flinch from Sophia. Sucking in the stale air of the club, he mentally pulled his emotions under control. “I’m going to get dressed.”
Chapter Fifteen
“I don’t know who you are, mister but that’s about enough.” Nate stepped up behind Sophia and placed a protective hand low on her back.
She turned to look at him and saw the menacing man the business world spoke of for the first time ever.
Great, now he shows emotion.
Not that it made a difference. Nate was her friend. Nothing more. Still, she didn’t need Gray and Nate cockfighting over her. “That’s enough.”
“I agree.” Gray spun away from her and stumbled over a misplaced chair. A loud, frustrated sigh pursed through his lips, along with a curse that would make a sailor blush.
“What did you do to that boy?” Elvis’ high black pompadour came into Sophia’s peripheral vision. He eyed where a still-cursing Gray crouched over the chair.
“We were just talking,” Sophia insisted.
Cane in hand to steady herself, Aunt Genevieve cackled from behind Elvis. “That’s my Sophia. Always knocking men off their feet.”
Nate snorted, showing more of a sense of humor than Sophia had thought he possessed. She shot him a grim look. Now wasn’t the time for him to develop one.
“Okay, so I knocked him out cold this week,” she admitted to the amused group. “It was an accident. Just as this was an accident. And Gray stripping on stage, that was an accident too. Never should have happened.”
“Looked like he was having fun to me.” Nate shrugged nonchalantly. “Isn’t stripping on stage for a bunch of excited women every man’s fantasy?”
“Do what?” Momentarily forgetting Gray, Sophia gawked at Nate. He wasn’t serious.
No glasses could block the challenge in his blue eyes. “You heard me. I know a lot of guys who would pay a small fortune to go on stage and have women act foolish over him.”
Okay, he probably did know men who would do that but that didn’t explain why he said it looked like fun to him.
“You’re one of those men?” she asked, positive he’d tell her she’d misunderstood. Nate the always serious businessman wouldn’t think stripping on stage classified as fun. Actually, she hadn’t thought the word even belonged in his vocabulary. Who knew?
“Believe it or not, I do have a few fantasies left unfulfilled.” He glanced meaningfully at her and Sophia inwardly cringed. “Like any other person, I’m allowed to have fun on occasion.”
“Excuse me but where’s the real Nathanial Fleming?” She eyed him suspiciously, sure aliens had abducted the man she once agreed to marry.
He frowned. “I’m not all business, Sophia. Despite what you may think.”
“Since when?”
“You know there’s an amateur strip off tonight during the show.” Aunt Genevieve spoke up before Nate could reply to Sophia’s question. She batted her long lashes at him. “Why don’t you enter?” She brushed a finger over his immaculately suited shoulder. “You’d be a shoo-in.”
“Really?” Interest shone on Nate’s face. Interest for blooming sake. Aunt Genevieve in full Madame G mode gave the Atlanta businessman the once-over with her assessing violet gaze. Apparently, she liked what she saw.
“Oh yeah. You should enter. You’d win hands down and clothes off if you can move that body as well as you make an old woman’s insides heat up.” Maintaining a tight grip on her cane, Aunt Genevieve waved her free hand back and forth, fanning her face. “You’ve got me burning with the worst hot flush I’ve had in years.”
Her aunt was laying it on thickly. She probably told that to every good-looking guy in an effort to up the stakes in the amateur competition.
Elvis winked outrageously at Sophia, fully aware of what Aunt Genevieve was up to. Undoubtedly he’d seen her in action many times over the twenty plus years they worked together.
Sophia remained speechless while her aunt went on.
“There’s an entry fee but it’s nominal. No big deal to a man of your means.” Lashes dipped low to fan across high cheekbones while Madame G tossed out more temptation. “And the winner gets a thousand dollar prize.”
Like that would entice a man with Nate’s resources. Sophia rolled her eyes. No way would Nathaniel Fleming, III take off his clothes for Strip or Treat. Not in this lifetime.
“A thousand dollars? Hmm. That is tempting,” Nate mused, causing Sophia’s jaw to drop.
Aliens. Definitely aliens. Had to be. Nothing else could explain Nate’s strange behavior.
Gray cursed from where he observed their exchange and Sophia shifted her attention. How could she have forgotten he watched while she babbled with an alien who looked like Nate?
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’ve been better,” he mumbled. “What is it about you that keeps knocking me off balance?”
She shrugged. “Maybe I’m a curse?
Regardless, you’ve got to quit doing this.”
“What?” The one word garbled.
“Falling at my feet.”
“What every woman wants,” Aunt Genevieve piped up much to Elvis and Nate’s amusement.
“Girl should take up wrestling. She’d show that Stone Cold a thing or two.” Elvis bragged. “Girl’s got a punch like a prize bull buttin’ down a barn door. Packs a wallop.”
Sophia felt trapped in some crazy movie—or as part of a three-ring circus act.
“You didn’t hit me again while I wasn’t looking, did you?” Gray put his hand to his head. “Maybe I just thought I made an ass of myself by tripping over a chair.”
“No.”
He winced. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
He stood up, brushed imaginary dust off himself. Although to those watching he was making civil conversation, Sophia knew he was upset. How had such a perfect morning turned so wrong?
She’d awakened with his arms around her and felt so right, so loved. As if for the first time in her life she really belonged somewhere.
“I didn’t think you were afraid of anything.”
“It’s just a turn of phrase.”
“Yes, I know.” Her gaze locked tight with Gray’s. Steely silver turned cloudy, unsure.
“I’m sorry I acted like an ass.”
“No problem.”
“I should go rest before tonight’s show.”
Since when had Gray needed rest? The man was a fountain of stamina. So why the line? Did he need to call someone? The same someone who called in the middle of the night and always made Gray tense? Someone Gray might work for on the side to funnel drugs and money through her aunt’s club.
“Oh.” Sophia searched his face, gauging his expression.
Uncertainty filled his eyes and she longed for the silvery warmth of how he looked at her when they made love this morning.
Made love. Her mind roared. Could it be true? Could Gray love her? God, she wanted to believe. It hadn’t been just sex.
Not for her. And she wanted to believe not for him.
“Shall I go help?” she asked, knowing he knew what she asked.
“Most definitely.” Okay, so she shouldn’t have suspected anything. He wouldn’t want her to go with him if he had to call someone about money laundering or drugs. She grabbed at any straw that hinted he was innocent? Was it so wrong to want to believe in him?
“Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit.” Elvis slapped his hands onto his love handles.
Sophia winced. She’d totally forgotten she and Gray had an audience. An avid one.
“Okay, looks like this is one of those instances where more than two is a crowd.” Nate grabbed Aunt Genevieve’s elbow and guided her back toward the stage, shooing Elvis and the others as he did.
Panic filled Sophia.
“Nate, don’t leave.” He couldn’t go. She had to find out what he knew and what she needed to do to protect her aunt. To find out if Gray was involved. And, if he was, how she could protect him too.
“The club, I mean,” she clarified.
“I’m not.” Nate turned toward her and smiled. He looked years younger than she’d ever seen him appear in Atlanta. “I’ve got to sweet talk your aunt into finding me a costume for tonight’s competition. You know me.” He shrugged. “I always play to win.”
Sophia blinked. What Alice in Wonderland hole had she fallen into?
“I’ll see you later,” Nate added when he tossed Sophia one last look before launching into conversation with Aunt Genevieve.
“You love him?”
Gray’s question shocked her. Was that what he’d thought when he’d seen her with Nate? And what about Nate? He’d accepted her leaving with Gray awfully easily for a man who supposedly still wanted to marry her.
“No.” She quickly denied, then corrected herself. “Well, yes.” His face paled beneath his tan. “But not like you mean.” Sophia placed her hand on his shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“Fine. Other than being embarrassed that I tripped over a chair. In front of you and your GQ boy, at that.”
“I ended things with Nate before I came to Nashville.”
“Why’s he here? I can’t think of a single reason other than he wants you back.”
Should she tell him the truth? Everything Nate suspected?
Nate’s words haunted her. Someone was tampering with her aunt’s books, covering up the transfer of funds, probably hiding a drug ring and Lord only knew what else. As much as she tried to ignore the possible connection, she had to consider the likelihood Gray was a criminal.
What if he already knew about the club’s problems and she’d be tipping him off if she said anything? As if it weren’t bad enough that she hadn’t instigated an investigation. She might as well be sleeping with the enemy.
“You’re not going on stage tonight,” she said. Sophia wasn’t sure where her words came from but she didn’t want him on that stage. She got bad vibes about tonight. Very bad vibes. Gray doing Strip or Treat could only lead to heartache.
He scrunched his forehead, staring at her like she’d lost her mind. He draped his arm around her and led her toward the back hallway. “It’s not up for argument, you need me to strip, so I’ll strip.”
“Gray, what if I made a mistake and convinced you to strip when I really didn’t want you to strip but I didn’t know I didn’t want you to strip?”
“What?”
“I don’t want you to strip.”
“Quit being ridiculous. We both know you need me to do Strip or Treat.”
She couldn’t read his eyes but his face bespoke of steely determination. He planned to strip regardless of anything she said.
“Why wouldn’t you want me to?” He looked confused.
“You’re a gorgeous man. I don’t want you taking your clothes off in front of a bunch of woman.”
“Jealous?” The corners of his lips notched upwards and he looked more like the man she’d fallen for over the past few days. The man who made her heart go pitter-patter.
“Insanely so.” She smiled despite her misgivings and hoped he didn’t see right through her. And hoped even more that her heart was right and Gray could be trusted.
If only she could convince her suspicious mind.
* * * * *
“How’s Gray holding up for tonight’s performance?” Aunt Genevieve asked when Sophia walked into the back storage room a little over an hour later.
“According to him, he’s just fine.”
“Where’s he?”
“Said he had an errand to run.” Sophia shrugged, trying to hide her concern. Gray had acted really strangely before he took off. He’d gotten another phone call on his cell phone. A call that made him ditch plans to sneak in more than a kiss this afternoon. “Maybe to pick up some aspirin.”
Or substances much more lethal. And illegal.
“Looks like a healthy enough fellow to me.”
Sophia’s gaze shot to Nate. He stood at a rack of costumes. Her aunt sat in a folding chair assisting in his perusal of the costumes. She held an ornate walking stick in her hands, toying with the handle.
“You’re not really going to strip tonight, are you?” she asked.
“Of course, he is,” Aunt Genevieve assured, waving the tip of the cane in Sophia’s direction.
“What if the Tattler gets a hold of this? ‘Renowned Atlanta Business Tycoon Bares All in Nashville Strip Club’.” Sophia cringed at the possible repercussions.
Aunt Genevieve wrinkled her forehead. “Sophia, quit trying to talk men out of stripping tonight.”
Ignoring her aunt, she glared at Nate’s stubborn jaw set. “You don’t want to do this. Why you’re even saying you do is beyond me.”
“Sure, I want to. And if the Tattler gets wind of this, just think of the free publicity for the club and for Fleming, Inc.”
For Fleming? He’d want that kind of media attention for his one true love? His company. Now
, she knew one of them was on something and it wasn’t just Pop Rocks candy. “What about your colleagues?”
He shrugged. Looking totally unconcerned, he baffled her further by saying, “What about them? They’ll be jealous I had hundreds of women trying to put their hands down my pants.”
“Way to show ’em.” Aunt Genevieve beamed, clapping her hands together in glee that Nate paid no heed to Sophia’s warning.
Sophia shot a silencing glare. Not a harsh one, just enough to let her aunt know Nate had lost his mind and she shouldn’t encourage the insane.
“Nate,” she paused, searching for the right words. “Are you sure you’re okay? This isn’t like you.”
“You’re the one who said I needed a life. Do something out of character, you advised. Here’s my chance.” His blue eyes bored into her. “Why are you knocking it? It’s what you’re doing in Nashville. Why not me too?”
Sophia’s mouth clamped close. He was right, sort of but— Sophia shook her head. “You’re serious?”
“Have you ever known me not to be?”
“Not counting today, you mean?” She’d glimpsed more amusement on his face in the past hour than during all the previous months she’d known him.
“Maybe you aren’t the only one ready for a change.”
She stared in amazement.
“Sounds to me like you two should have come to Tennessee a long time ago.”
Her gaze shot to her aunt. “And why are you down here still? I distinctly recall that before we left the hospital this morning, your doctor ordered you to rest.”
“Bossy little thing, isn’t she?” Aunt Genevieve winked at Nate.
“I’d have sworn she wasn’t if you’d asked me before today,” Nate mused, shaking his head.
“Well, that makes two of us thrown for a loop,” Sophia reminded him.
“Sometimes being thrown for a loop can be a good thing.”
Had her aunt ever spoken wiser words?
“Come on.” She hooked her arm with Nate’s. “Help me get my aunt upstairs and I’ll help you find a costume. Although, I want it on record that I still think you should reconsider.”
“Point noted and you’ve got yourself a deal.”