Sarah gasped turning in her chair just enough to see Bobby’s muscled back beginning to disappear around a corner.
“Bobby!”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“Who sent these?” Like she didn’t already know, but for some reason she had to hear it.
“The same guy who’s been out front all week. The one you told us not to let in.”
Sarah wasn’t sure what her face had shown, but Bobby sagged and took a few steps forward, reaching for her flowers.
“Shit, Sar. You didn’t tell us not to accept gifts.”
He had barely grasped the vase before she had her hand on his arm.
“No. It’s fine, Bobby. Thanks.”
He straightened, looking at her as if she’d lost her mind, which indeed she had. She read the card again, a war between her heart and mind battling behind her breastbone, because her mind had apparently come down to thwack her heart into submission. She pressed a hand against the thumping and knew what she had to do, regardless of how she felt.
“Bobby?”
“Mmm?”
She didn’t dare look at the bouncer, didn’t want him to see whatever would be shining in her eyes. There were enough rumors going around already, thanks to Jonesy and big-mouth Liza.
“Tell him…“ Each word cost her deeply as she felt her heart give one last bid for its desire to be recognized. “…I can’t.”
“That’s it?”
“He’ll understand.”
This time she sat perfectly still as Bobby left, afraid to even breathe, lest she take it back. It was for the best. The right thing to do and all that. She picked up the eye-liner and started to work defining eyes that were bleary now from unshed tears.
“You know, a stripper gets a lot of invitations over her career. Few are worth taking.”
The one woman Sarah could not ignore sat down beside her. Tessa Gavin had been stripping for nearly twenty years. She’d gotten her start in almost the same way as Sarah, at private parties where age didn’t matter, but had not come to it of her own free will as Sarah had. For whatever reason, Tessa had taken Sarah under her wing from the moment she’d been hired, barely legal and completely naive. Tessa had stood up for her with Tony and taught her not to be afraid of who she was, or of her own sexuality.
Tessa’s friendship and advice had been priceless, and since everyone knew Tessa’s years as a stripper were nearly over, the torch had been passed to Sarah. This meant that Sarah felt the weight of that responsibility right alongside the gratitude for receiving such a generous gift, but she so did not want to discuss this particular subject with Tessa, whose eyes seemed to see everything. Especially things Sarah would rather keep hidden.
She ran a hand over Sarah’s thigh. Her touch felt soothing and almost maternal, which Sarah relished. She let out a sigh, turning to face whatever it was Tessa wanted to say. Then she’d safely relegate whatever it was to the back of her mind and forget it.
“There’s been a lot of talk since Monday night.”
Tessa hadn’t been there that night, so Sarah knew that whatever she thought she knew was all hearsay.
“Was he really as magnificent as all the girls are saying?”
A girlish gleam took Tessa’s eyes captive and Sarah thought maybe Tessa’d be far more suited to the mysterious man who’d laid claim to her heart, her soul, and her every dream, all in one fell swoop. A man who’d scattered her wits so far that she hadn’t even gotten his name.
“I hear he’s outside. Maybe you’d be more his type.”
Tessa laughed, but Sarah didn’t think it sounded all that cheerful.
“I’ve had my shot at love, Sarah. It blew up in my face.” She sighed. “But then what do you expect when the love of your life is already married and quite happy to simply keep you as his dirty little secret?”
For a second her eyes went misty and Sarah ached for her. She gave her friend’s hand a squeeze, which seemed to bring her back to the present.
“Anyway, that was my story. From what I’ve heard, Sarah, you captured the attention of his mind, not just his dick. That’s rare. Why are you so afraid to see what happens? He must have offered you something more if he’s still hanging around outside, even though you’ve refused to see him.”
Sarah firmed her defenses, folded her arms across her chest and focused her gaze intently on Tessa’s startlingly blue eyes.
“I don’t know the first thing about him, not even his name, for instance. He could be just as married as your love, and didn’t you just imply being a mistress was not all it’s cracked up to be?”
Tessa laughed again, patting Sarah’s leg.
“So I did. But I did not say to make huge assumptions and cut yourself off at the knees. I’ve known you for years, Sarah and I’ve never known you to take a man to your bed. Aren’t you lonely?”
“Not that lonely,” she answered flatly.
“Ah. Bad experience?”
“Experiences, emphasis on the plural.”
Tessa folded her own arms and leaned back, scrutinizing Sarah a little too closely in her opinion. She fidgeted under the close scrutiny.
“You’re far too young to have given up, and I speak as someone who’s faced the worst life has to offer. My step-daddy started raping me when I was six. I’ve been sold to men, used by them, beaten, forced to do things that would turn your stomach if I told you. Still, I wouldn’t choose alone for anything.”
She took both Sarah’s hands in hers, leaning close.
“Once you’ve closed your heart, what else is there? People spend lifetimes searching for the meaning of life. Dumb-asses. I’ll tell you exactly what it is.” She stood and cupped Sarah’s cheeks, tilting her head up to meet her gaze. “Love, Sarah. There is no greater adventure, more pure experience, or worthy pursuit than love. Nothing is so bad it’s not worth the risk if love is waiting at the other end.”
She smiled like a woman who knew. Sarah was gripped by such raw jealousy that she nearly slapped the smile from her face. This shocked her, because she’d been and done a lot of things in her life so far, but physical violence had never even tempted her. Stunned by what she’d just felt, she didn’t even notice the tear that slipped down her own cheek while watching Tessa walk away.
* * * *
Drago closed his fingers around the leather steering wheel. He’d been sitting in the black sports car, air blasting, for a half hour, staring at the townhouse with the small front yard and the smaller child playing in it. She seemed to be hosting a tea party for an assortment of bears and dolls, her long dark hair pulled back in a satin bow.
The bow he’d tied around the vase. The bow he had attached to his plea.
He’d felt vindicated finding her house, if for no other reason than to alert her to the fact that for a mere thousand dollars she had no anonymity. He’d been in a half-aroused, half-crazed state for a week, the only thought in his mind, getting to her and convincing her that an affair with him would be worth it. He’d been solely focused on himself, what he wanted, what his body needed. He’d never once considered her outside of the pleasure he intended to bring her.
Was it possible she was married?
He knew women had children all the time outside the sanctity of matrimony, but after arriving and seeing the girl, he started going through every moment of Monday night and the fact that she was married fit perfectly with her evident attraction yet obvious refusal to act on it.
Her marital status hadn’t even occurred to him then, only the mutual attraction held consequence. However, taking this new information into account, things seemed to make sense. He watched the child pick a flower from one of the overflowing beds and place it behind her doll’s ear then pour more tea for a floppy rabbit.
It was a scene right out of a fairytale and, much though he hated to admit it, Drago was enchanted. The longer he sat in the car, the more fantasies he started spinning. Fantasies that gave him a wife and a family. Fantasies where when he left the car, the ch
ild would run into his arms with delightful tales about her party. Fantasies where his Phoenix came out the door next to wrap her sweet body around his.
It was a beautiful life.
Drago squeezed the wheel once more. It just wasn’t his life.
He had a choice to make, turn around, leave Vegas and never look back, or go to her and risk another rejection. This one would be permanent, the way things looked, but to even entertain leaving was sheer stupidity. He knew damn well he could never walk away if there was even the slightest possibility she could still be his.
He slid out of the low-slung Alfa, tugged down his jacket—though why he was wearing a suit in hundred-degree weather was an issue he’d bring up at his next therapy session—and crossed the street.
“Excuse me.”
The child looked up with eager brown eyes and the smile of the innocent on her lips.
“Is your mama here?”
She shook her head so hard the ribbon slipped in her hair. “No.” She stepped back from the table and moved one of her dolls. “But you can have tea if you want to wait.”
Drago was torn between being charmed and horrified. Did the woman not watch the news? This child was ripe for plucking and apparently had no qualms about inviting strangers for tea. “Are you supposed to invite strangers in?”
She seemed to be considering this, one eye closed and her lower lip tucked securely between her teeth.
“No. But Growls will bite you if you’re mean.”
Opening the wrought iron gate, he smiled at the teddy bear in the chair beside her. As he stepped inside the courtyard, however, he heard a very serious growling from the side and slightly behind him. He suddenly thought maybe he’d jumped to a conclusion about the identity of Growls. Frozen mid-step, he watched the child walk around him, hands fisted on her tiny hips.
“Hush, Growls.”
Drago turned very slowly to find a big bear of a dog sitting barely two steps away. The child, barely a head taller than the dog, had her arms slung around his neck. The two made quite a pair. Drago decided the best move was to go slowly back outside the gate. He even started in that direction, but he was distracted when the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life stepped through the front door of the townhouse.
“Lacey, what’s going…”
She froze, eyes locked with his. Drago realized that he hadn’t the slightest clue who his Phoenix was. In the club, he’d felt worthy of her, felt that the pleasure he could bring her, the things he could buy for her, made him worthy. She wore a simple sun dress, pink with deeper pink tulips scattered across the fabric, leaving her shoulders and back bare. Her hair, a deep brown, sun-kissed with golden-red streaks, hung to her waist. Her eyes had grown huge with recognition and a faint blush made her cheeks glow. Taking it all in, here in her front yard, he knew he wasn’t worthy of kissing the ground she walked on.
“I’m sorry. I’ve made a terrible mistake.”
He turned to leave, heart shattering in his chest over the truth that he would surely be alone the rest of his life because no woman would ever come close to everything she’d been to him in the past week. Moving through the gate, he felt dead inside, as if the sun had burnt out and there would only be darkness from now on. He’d never thought of himself as dramatic before. Things rarely moved him, and he’d often been referred to as blasé. Friends and colleagues had been known to comment on his placid attitude toward life, but from the second she’d taken that stage Monday night, the earth had shifted beneath his feet, turning him into a man he hardly recognized and couldn’t entirely figure out. The type of man who spewed poetry and wrote love songs. The type of man setting himself up to have his heart torn from his chest and stomped over.
He almost made it to his car when he heard her. He could have pretended he hadn’t, could have gotten in and driven away, but a part of him so badly wanted her to tell him he was wrong, that she wasn’t already taken, that even though she was apparently a gift from the gods, she somehow found him worthy. So he stood frozen in the street, waiting to see if she’d crush him or save him, praying for salvation, but fearing the blow he expected.
* * * *
Sarah wasn’t sure why she was chasing him down the street, but she’d seen in his eyes right before he turned around that something had changed his mind about her. He wouldn’t be back after this, and though that was what she’d spent the better part of a week trying to convince herself of, her legs were carrying her down the street, her voice was calling him and her heart was begging him to turn around and change his mind again. When she finally caught up to him, he stood facing his car. She stood behind him. Only one question mattered at the moment, so she vocalized it.
“Why are you leaving?”
He didn’t turn, but she saw his spine go rigid.
“Your child?”
“Lacey?”
He sort of half-laughed, his hands resting on the roof of the little car that seemed a preposterous choice for a man so large.
“Are there others?”
Sarah felt as if he’d slapped her. He suddenly didn’t want her because she might have a child? She folded her arms against the chill seeping into her bones despite the summer’s heat.
“Mmm.” She was suddenly pissed and decided he deserved to twist in the wind a bit. “Two others. And I’m expecting my fourth.”
At that, he turned, shock and horror etched into his beautiful features. Features that here in the sunlight gave her the opportunity to really appreciate. For the first time she saw how magnificent he truly appeared. Such a strong jaw. Chiseled. She laughed to herself, finally understanding what that meant. He had about three days hair growth on that fine jaw today and his silver eyes glittered in the sun. He seemed much taller, now that she stood before him barefoot. It nearly intimidated her. Sable hair that looked like fine silk hung halfway down his back in a braid.
He looked like a warrior from a forgotten time. God, how she wanted to jump him, to rip her panties off and throw her legs around his waist, demanding that he take her right here on the street. Wouldn’t that just serve Mrs. Larson right for complaining to the Tenant Association for Sarah leaving her Christmas decorations up past January first?
“I’m sorry. I never would have...” His voice rasped, so thick with emotion that he seemed to choke on it. He closed his eyes, and before she had a chance to respond, he grabbed her and pulled her body close to his. His mouth covered hers and she lost control of her knees. He swept her close to his body, so it didn’t matter and slid his tongue into her mouth in a soul-deep possession that she couldn’t resist if she tried.
His tongue stole over hers, leaving liquid fire in its wake. She sucked him, remembering with longing the last kiss they’d shared and wanting so much more. She’d grown wet in the space of a heartbeat and would have given almost anything to have him touch her intimately right here on the freaking street, stroking and caressing her until she screamed his name and left her body limp.
When he finally broke the kiss, she was breathless and brain dead.
“Not true. I still would have,” he ground out, breathing hard. “I’d like to say I was better than that, but apparently not. I still want you. I want you so God-damned much I’ve been hard for a week. Does your husband know how you look on that stage? If he does, he doesn’t deserve you. No man worth the air he breathes would let his woman look like that for other men.”
He slumped closer, touching her cheek tenderly. When he spoke again, it was just as passionate, but softer. Sarah felt her insides melting, the resulting flood taking out every wall she’d built around her heart.
“God, angel, if you were mine I’d keep you so sated and so happy you’d never want for attention from other men. I’d keep you so supplied in material possessions you’d never want for anything, and I’d love you. Love you more than any man deserves to love, but I would. It kills me to think of you here with some man who can’t possibly love you like that, not if he lets you…”
A
s the shock wore off and she got some control over her body, she pressed her fingers over his lips. That whole Jerry Maguire moment flashing back to her, only this man had her at Not true, I still would.
“I’m not married. Lacey’s not mine.”
He searched her eyes for a long moment as if trying to recalculate the theory of relativity. Finally she smiled. “You need to let me go. I can’t leave her alone this long.”
He shook his head as if he couldn’t comprehend her words, then straightened, releasing her and tugging at the ridiculous suit jacket. She wondered if he’d dressed up for her. Sweet, but not necessary. She held out a hand to him. “Come back to the house with me.” Wordlessly, he followed, and this time when Growls made her signature sound, Sarah simply snapped her fingers and the dog instantly lay back down.
“Lacey, sweetheart, do you want more cookies?”
“Is he your friend, too? He wanted Mommy.”
Sarah smiled, squatted beside Lacey and kissed the girl’s forehead. Looking up over her shoulder at her warrior god, Hercules, she answered, “Yes, I think he is.”
Warmed and surprised by how good that admission felt, when she stood again, she tipped her head back to meet his eyes, carefully touching his cheek. The contact burned to her soul, but it was a sweet agony. “Just who are you, anyway?”
He gave her a sly smile, seductively answering, “I’m the man who’s going to love you tonight, angel. In fact, I have every intention of loving you until the world stops spinning. On top of that, if I can find a way to continue loving you in the next lifetime, I’m up for that as well.”
Chapter 5
Drago blinked, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness inside, after being in the blinding sun so long. Standing in the foyer, sightless for all intents and purposes he surrendered himself to his other senses, taking in the welcoming scent of cinnamon and apples and the relief of cooler air against his skin. As his eyes started to focus, he saw a charming cottage laid out before him. Plants and antique table lamps, overstuffed floral furniture, shawls sprawled over a sofa, toys scattered on the floor and a large, floppy stuffed dog that looked as though he’d been well loved in his day, sitting in the chair.
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