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She strutted into a room with a glass bar area that was just a tease. There was no alcohol served here, just water and soda, but the woman threw back a Sprite like it was a shot of tequila.
“Where have you been all my life?”
The high pitched, slightly slurred pick up line came from behind me. I pried my eyes from the bar and faced the petite blonde who slumped against the doorway. She clearly had a few drinks before she came to the club or brought the party with her. She fit the bill of what I usually went for—she even dropped her baby blue eyes to my crotch and licked her blood red lips. I normally would have found the corny introduction and boldness that radiated from her charming. Sexy as hell. There was something to be said about a woman who cut to the chase. My usual disclaimer would have been unnecessary because the look in her pale eyes told me she was searching for something hard, sinfully memorable, and temporary.
“There's this room downstairs-”
“Let me stop you right there,” I cut her off with the most genial smile I could muster. The smoke must have been doing something to my head, because I was turning down exactly what I'd come here for. “You seem great, but I have my eye on someone else.”
She let out a huff of annoyance and tossed her gaze around the room. Most people were partnered off or hovering around someone interesting. Everyone but my brunette in the black dress. She landed on her and her eyes bulged from her skull.
“Her?” Complete and utter shock dripped from the word—and a disdain that told me they knew each other and were far from friends.
I didn't owe the blonde an explanation and I didn't know the mystery woman at all, but I felt a sudden urge to protect her. To not only claim her but to let the fuming, jilted frenemy know that she didn't stand a chance.
“Isn't she gorgeous?” I beamed. I didn't wait for an answer, heading toward the brunette just as she turned in our direction. She looked past me to the other woman, then back at me, then back at her. Her eyes widened in surprise as she followed my path to the stool beside hers.
Her brow furrowed in the cutest way. “You must be lost.”
“I'm right where I'm supposed to be,” I answered smoothly. It sounded like a line. She frowned like it sounded like a line...but something inside me whispered that it was more. I wanted more from this woman. Luckily, the volume of the music intensified, drowning that crazy talk out.
She gave me another once over, this one decidedly less sexy than the first. “Designer jeans-”
“A keen eye for fashion,” I winked, anticipating whatever biting jab she was about to throw my way.
She gestured at herself like a game show presenter who was sick of smiling that Colgate smile. “This is my sister's dress. I have the exact opposite of a keen eye for fashion. Now Lara on the other hand-”
When I raised an eyebrow-Who the hell is Lara?-she tilted her head in the direction of the doorway. The blonde I'd passed on was still standing there, shooting daggers at my head.
“She's very into fashion,” she explained. “And into you. I'm sure she'd be all about doing whatever it is you came here to do.”
“Whatever it is I came here to do?” I repeated with a grin. “You can't even say the word.”
She cradled her drink, avoiding my gaze for a moment. She gathered herself so she could keep pretending like she wanted to be here. “Not sure what you mean.”
“I think you know exactly what I mean.” I leaned in like I was going to tell her a secret, but it was really just a ploy to get closer to her. Her scent, her innocence, her tireless efforts to act like she was in her element when I could see the worry in her eyes...it was intriguing and sexy as hell.
“Fuck,” I said quietly. There was nothing quiet or discreet about what she was doing to me. Sitting was officially uncomfortable and with one glance down, it was easy to see why. Her eyes never left mine though, my word twitching its way across her pretty features. It rounded her eyes, traced the lines in her forehead, danced across her flaring nostrils, then settled on her kiss bruised lips. She didn't repeat it, but I saw the heat rush to her cheeks. She fidgeted in her seat and I wondered how wet she was.
She cleared her throat. “To each their own. I didn't come here for...that.”
“What did you come here for?” I probed.
She gave me a long, steady look. I was used to people cowering or shying from my gaze, but she knocked me off balance. With this woman, the fact that I was wealthy meant very little. She was suspicious of my charm. I'd thought the husky whisper when her lips brushing against my ear earlier was her way of showing she was interested, but she was an enigma. One moment she was biting her lip like she was struggling to suppress a moan, and the next she was looking right through me.
She ignored my question. “What do you want?”
I could have played the game a few more minutes, charmed a smile out of her. I decided to go with honesty. “I want to take you downstairs and make you forget any and everything but me...and all the ways I’m gonna fuck you.”
Chapter Three: Penny
I'd clearly lost my mind.
It must have been the fog of delirium that choked out all rational thought. It turned our surroundings into something ethereal and mysterious. Stripped down, The Red Door Club was just a warehouse, sectioned off into rooms that I wouldn't want to see under a UV light. But the bar was sultry, multicolored and unfortunately, little more than decoration, vases glittering behind the glass. The music that had been annoying from the door had grown on me, pairing well with the stage and a sleek, stripper’s pole that stretched to the ceiling. Stripper’s poles weren't supposed to be sleek. And guys with impossibly good looks and bright eyes that made my world spin off its axis weren’t supposed to choose me over girls that looked like Lara. Girls who filled out their dresses and demanded attention.
But he shot Lara down. And if I didn't know any better, I'd say that he was into me.
And then moans fluttered in from the hallway and I remembered.
