Focusing on anything except Stephanie was impossible. I hadn’t gotten anything done since we’d arrived at Stilettos. I’d been alternating between staring at my laptop screen blankly and watching her move around the room.
She was safe. I had her covered, men posted all around the club, outside, all with a picture of Ryan. It didn’t matter, though. When it came to her, I didn’t trust anyone to keep her safe but me.
That wasn’t the only reason I couldn’t get shit done. There was also the fact that she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on. While she worked the floor, she wore an electric blue barely-there dress. The fabric looked like it was wrapped around her curvy figure, giving glimpses of her golden flesh beneath. She was also wearing sky-high heels and black stockings with a seam that traveled up the back, leading the eye right to her delectable ass.
The woman was built, lots of tits and ass, soft thighs. My gaze lifted to her hair. I fucking loved her red hair. I always had. It was wild and full and looked so damn soft.
I shifted in my seat and sat back, not even bothering to pretend I was working anymore. I watched as one of the other girls walked over to her and said something. Stephanie looked at someone across the room, and I watched her put on a smile, one that I knew was fake as hell. It was sultry and sexy, but it was fake. It was the smile she used when she worked, a smile she could hide behind.
I’d seen her dance for other men before, many times. I hated every moment of it, but I had no right to tell her not to do it. I also knew I had nothing to worry about. She wasn’t interested in any of them. Stephanie hadn’t dated, hadn’t even had a casual fuck, since she escaped Ryan.
And as I watched her dance, the way she moved, the look on her face…she was detached on a deep level. Yeah, she put on a good show, and anyone who didn’t know her wouldn’t see it, but she wasn’t there. I doubted she was even in this room.
Jesus, she was locked up tight, too damned tight, and I wanted more than anything for her to let me in.
I stayed where I was until her shift finished, and then stood and walked to the bar to meet her after she collected her bag. I didn’t miss the way her eyes flared when she saw me, the way they got brighter. She was happy to see me. There was no other way to interpret it, or the subtle curve of her lips that she tried to hide by dipping her chin.
“You didn’t have to wait,” she said when I was standing in front of her.
I held her green gaze and gently brushed her hair off her shoulder, letting my fingers graze the side of her neck softly. She sucked in a breath, her eyes getting brighter. She liked my touch. I realized it last night, and I planned on touching her whenever I could. Nothing demanding, nothing lingering, but I wanted her to get used to me, to my touching her, and this was the only way I knew how. “I wanted to.”
Color hit her cheeks.
“You ready to go?”
She nodded and I placed my hand on her lower back lightly and led her from the club. Another innocent touch. I felt her shiver under my palm and I glanced at her to make sure she was okay. Another small curl of lips told me she was, so did the high color still on her cheeks.
Fuck. My gut tightened.
How could that innocent little display be so hot?
My car was waiting outside, and one of my men climbed out and rushed around to open the door for us. Stephanie offered the guy a warm smile and slid in. I followed, keeping about a foot between us. I resisted reaching over and taking her hand, and holding it tight in mine.
“So did you get the work done you needed to?” she asked, glancing over at me, not fully meeting my eyes.
I hated that. I leaned back, doing my best to look relaxed when in reality I was close to jumping out of my skin. “Yeah.” I smiled. “Well, maybe not everything. There was this redhead walking around distracting the fuck out of me.”
Her head jerked up, her gaze slicing up to mine, and more color darkened her cheeks. She opened her mouth then closed it again.
“Hungry?” I didn’t need her to say anything. I didn’t want her to think too much about it, to analyze what was happening, to overthink what I’d said. But I wasn’t going to keep that shit to myself anymore. I wanted her to know, to prepare for what was coming, because she knew deep down what I wanted from her. I just had to wait for her to get used to it.
“Yeah, I am actually,” she said, her fingers curling and uncurling in her lap.
“Good.” I took out my phone and fired a text off to Arthur, telling him he could finish for the day and I’d heat our meals myself. “I’m in the mood for a night in. What about you?”
She glanced out the window for a second then back to me. “You’ve been so great, Tomas. Please, don’t put yourself out for me. You don’t have to entertain me if there’s something else you’d rather be doing.”
Christ, she really wasn’t getting it, was she? I sat back, making my body relax when my shoulders were tense as hell. I glanced at her. “There’s nowhere I need to be and nowhere I’d rather be tonight than with you.”
She blushed again.
I looked away. I knew I could be intense, especially when I wanted something, and I sure as fuck didn’t want to intimidate her. I was rewarded with the sound of her shaky exhale.
Stephanie
I climbed out of the shower and carefully selected my outfit. The emerald green dress was short and low in the front, hiding nothing, but I wasn’t trying to be subtle.
Tomas had done a lot for me, was still doing a lot for me. I owed him my life. No, he hadn’t asked for anything in return, but I didn’t want him seeing me as weak, as damaged goods.
My worldly possessions didn’t amount to much. I had nothing of value I could give him, and it wasn’t like the man need money. But everyone knew that Tomas Mendoza didn’t do anything for free. I didn’t want to be the exception for a lot of reasons, but more than anything I didn’t want him to pity me.
I stared at myself in the mirror. Once again, the only thing I had to offer was me.
Tomas wanted me. He’d made that much clear.
“There’s nowhere I need to be and nowhere I’d rather be tonight than with you.”
So tonight I’d give him what he wanted.
Nerves assaulted me and my knees actually went weak, and not in the good way.
You can do this.
I hadn’t had sex in a long time, and the sex I had had…I didn’t want to think about it, or Ryan. But, for Tomas, I would get through it. I’d just close my eyes and blank my mind.
I fluffed up my hair, grabbed the little sample of lube I’d gotten from a magazine ages ago, curling it in my fist, slid on my heels, and headed down.
I could hear him talking in his office when I reached the ground floor. His door was open, and going by the one-sided conversation, he was on the phone.
“I don’t care. Turn the fucking city inside out,” he said. “And don’t call me again, not until you have something.”
I knew he was talking about Ryan, that he had men searching for him. He was doing so much for me. I hated that he had to. That me being here had forced him to rearrange his life, that it had to be costing him. Those men he had out searching weren’t doing it for free. How would I ever repay him for everything he’d done for me?
I looked down at myself.
This was a start.
He talked for a few more minutes, and as soon as I heard him finish his call, I squared my shoulders and tapped on the door. He looked up as I walked in, his dark gaze moving over me from the wild hair to the short skirt, and he stilled.
I was no expert at seduction but I was a dancer, which meant I knew how to move, so I put some extra swing in my hips and, fighting down my nerves, strode toward him until I was standing right in front on him.
Tomas looked down at me, his eyes searching mine. “You need something, Angel?”
I smiled in a way I hoped was seductive and prayed he didn’t see how badly I was shaking or how terrified I was. I dropped my hands to his belt buckle and started undoing it. It wasn’t easy with the pack of lube in my hand, but I managed it. “Yeah, I need something,” I said, keeping the smile on my face, and hoped like hell it didn’t look as frozen as it felt.
“You want me to fuck you?” he said bluntly, without pause, voice unreadable.
I swallowed and dipped my chin, and worked at keeping my hands from shaking as I pulled his belt free.
His head tilted to the side. “Why?”
I blinked up at him. “What?”
“Why do you want me to fuck you, Stephanie?”
I dropped my hands away from the button of his pants and curled my trembling fingers into fists, my nails digging into the palm of one hand, the little packet making a crinkling sound in the other. “Why does anyone want sex?”
His almost black eyes, that dark gaze, dropped to my mouth, down to my clenched fist, then back up to my eyes. “So if I put my hand up your dress, inside your panties, I’ll find you nice and wet?”
I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t wet. I was too nervous to be turned on.
He took my hand, lifted it, and uncurled my fingers, revealing the lube. “Or were you just planning on using this?”
“Lots of people need it when they have sex,” I said, face burning.
He nodded. “Yeah, they do.” He tossed the lube on his desk and started moving his thumb over my palm. “But you brought it with you because you don’t want to have sex, not with me, not tonight.”
I wanted to vanish, disappear where I stood. “Yes, I…no, I…”
“You’re white as a ghost. You’re trembling.” He let out a rough breath. “The last thing you are is turned on.”
I straightened my spine and grabbed for the front of his pants again. “Don’t tell me what I am. I know what I’m doing.”
He grabbed my hands in his larger ones, holding them still. “Go to bed, Stephanie,” he said gently.
What the hell was going on? “But I thought…I thought you wanted this,” I said before I could stop myself.
He curled his fingers around the side of my throat, thumb sliding over my jaw. “Oh, I do. I want you, pretty girl, so fucking bad, but right now this isn’t what you want. Do you really think I’m the kind of man to fuck a woman when she doesn’t want it? When her body and mind would rather be anywhere else but in my bed?”
Oh God. I pulled my hands free and stumbled back a step. “I’m sorry…I thought…”
“What did you think? That I was only here for you because I wanted something in return? That you owed me?”
I couldn’t meet his eyes. That was exactly what I thought, what I’d convinced myself was the truth. The alternative—that Tomas actually cared for me—had been too hard for me to believe.
He cursed. “You thought you owed me?”
I didn’t answer. There was no use lying. He could see the truth on my face, in my eyes when I finally looked up at him.
I expected him to be angry, but instead he shook his head, eyes growing more intense. “Everything I’ve done for you, I’d do again in a heartbeat. I don’t expect, I don’t want anything in return. I fucking hate that the shit you’ve been through has put that idea in your head.” His gaze moved over my face. “I know why you insisted on dancing for me this last year, Steph. I knew from the start. You were too afraid to ask for what you needed. I went with it because I knew you wouldn’t accept my help without giving me something in return. It’s the same reason you’re standing here offering yourself to me instead of believing that you’re worth everything I’ve done and so much more.” He shook his head. “We’re past that now. You’re past that.” He closed the gap between us and tucked my hair behind my ear. “You are worth it, Stephanie.” He licked his lips. “And when I fuck you, it’ll be because you’re so damn desperate for me you ache from it. Not because you think you owe me, but because no one else can ease that ache but me. Understand?”
My breath was coming in ragged pants by the time he finished talking, and all I could do was nod.
He gently turned me toward the door. “Now go to bed,” he said softly. “And I’ll see you in the morning.”
Goose bumps lifted across my skin at the sound of that soft voice, and as I walked out the door on shaky legs, my skin tingling, feeling too tight, and being extremely aware of the slickness between my thighs as they slid together, I realized that I was turned on.
I was so turned on I ached.