“Thanks. Be out in a sec.” Holding the bustier in place with one hand, she closed the door, but not before catching the fire in his eyes.
Jason Tennant might be made of stone, but he was starting to become putty in her hands.
Jason shoved a hand through his hair as he paced the viewing room and waited for Claude. Something was seriously wrong with him. Sloan had had several assistants since Jason had worked for him, and none of them had affected him the way Claude did. They’d never even remotely tempted him. Granted, they hadn’t been anything like Claude. There was something about her that ignited a blast furnace in his belly, filling him with a primal desire he hadn’t felt in many years.
Her smile, the perfume that surrounded her, the silky softness of her skin, her confidence, her quick tongue…all of it melded into an amazing package that intrigued him.
But he wasn’t so bewitched that he didn’t understand she knew what she was doing. She was flirting right back and obviously enjoying it. He smiled. Actually, that made him like her even more. A few of Sloan’s assistants, the last one especially, had seemed afraid of him. Maybe because of his size. Maybe because they knew he’d do whatever Sloan told him to. Maybe because they could sense he was a man on the verge of losing it.
Claude appeared to not only like the banter between them, she’d basically been encouraging it. And didn’t seem the least bit scared. He ran a hand through his hair. Whether it was bravado or she truly felt that way, her confidence only added to her sex appeal. Didn’t hurt that she was by far the most beautiful woman he’d seen in Vegas—and considering beautiful women in this town were as plentiful as fish in a well-stocked pond, that was saying something.
Claude carried herself like a queen. Her feline shifter side came through in every graceful step, every delicate twist of her neck. There was no way she’d needed him for balance in those boots. She’d just found a reason to touch him.
He sat down on the couch and cued up the DVD player with the disk from last night’s show. Sloan recorded every show, usually watching them the next morning to see what could be improved. As much as Jason hated the man, it was plain to see how Sloan had built the empire he had. Perseverance, dedication and hard work. Along with an appalling lack of ethics and a healthy dose of gray magic.
No wonder the man wanted an immortality spell.
“Ready for me?”
Jason looked up as Claude entered, back in her wrap dress and slightly more sensible heels. Her hair hung like a curtain of ebony silk around her shoulders. “Yeah. All I have to do is hit play.”
Smiling like she was reading more into his words than he meant, she sat beside him. “All right, go ahead. I’m ready to learn.”
He hit the button, then handed her the remote as the show played across the screen. “Just hit pause if you have a question about something. Besides learning your marks, the key thing you need to know is timing.”
She tapped pause the second Jason walked onstage. She turned to look at him. “You’re part of the act?”
He rolled his eyes slightly. If his Special Ops buddies ever saw him in the studded leather getup he wore onstage, he would never live it down. Fortunately, none of them were Sloan’s target audience. “Yes. There are quite a few lifts in the show, plus Sloan thinks it helps appeal to the female demographic.”
She pursed her mouth as she shifted her gaze to the screen again. “I’d say he’s right. What is that you’re wearing? Looks like a leather wrestling singlet crossed with some kind of bedazzled bondage gear.”
Jason grunted and sat back, arms crossed. “I hate that thing.”
She patted his knee. “Now, now. It’s pretty hot. And it’s still more clothing than I get to wear.” She pointed with the remote. “Look at that outfit she’s got on. It’s basically fishnets, a thong and bra. And those dominatrix boots again.”
Which he wasn’t going to complain about.
For the next hour and a half, she sat at his side, glued to the screen. Her concentration surprised him. She seemed serious about learning. Maybe his story about the last assistant had made more of an impact than he’d thought. Every time Claude hit pause, her question was intelligent and oddly attuned to everything he’d learned about staging the sort of massive production Sloan put on. The kind of details it had taken him months to pick up on.
He kept his thoughts to himself until she was done watching.
As Sloan walked off the stage to massive applause, she tapped the stop button and set the remote on the coffee table. “That’s a lot to remember. And I have to do that by tomorrow night?”
He nodded. “We’ll run through it this afternoon with Sloan a few times, so that should help, then you and I can work on any parts you still feel unsure about for the rest of the day. Plus, we have all day tomorrow. Trust me when I say he doesn’t want you doing anything to screw up the show any more than you do.”
“And if I do?”
He hesitated. “Don’t.”
Her mouth thinned to a tight line.
“He’ll probably forgive a few mistakes your first time.” Or not. Jason almost squeezed her hand to reassure her, but didn’t want to add to her nerves with an unwanted advance. “You seem to have a better working knowledge of stage direction than any of his other assistants.”
She stared at her hands for a moment. “I worked for a little bit as a showgirl.”
“That explains a lot.” And not just about what she knew about staging. The way she carried herself, the air of confidence that surrounded her…it was the missing piece in the Claude puzzle.
Sloan walked in. “Are you ready, Claudia? Because it’s time to go rehearse, and I expect you to get this routine down. My audience expects perfection, and so do I. I will not be made a fool of in my own show. Understood?”
She got to her feet, chin lifted, body stiff with that ever-present confidence. “I’m a professional. It’s why you hired me. Please don’t insinuate that I am anything less.”
Jason stifled a laugh. The woman was something else to come back at Sloan like that. Although it might get her booted early, which would be a damn shame. He stood, prepared to defend her.
Sloan raised his eyebrows like he’d been expecting her to cringe and stutter. He looked at Jason. “And she fit into the costume?”
“Better than your last assistant.”
“Hmph.” Sloan returned his gaze to Claude. “And you’ll be able to shift into animal form on cue? I was told you can take on the form of a leopard, but I will absolutely need to see for myself—”
Claude put one hand on her hip. “Are you suggesting I lied on my résumé?”
A glimmer of frustration shone in Sloan’s eyes. Claude was pushing him, and while it was fun to watch, Jason didn’t want her getting fired before she’d started. He jumped in. “You want me to tell the driver you’re ready?”
“No,” Sloan snapped. “He’s already waiting downstairs.” Without another word, he stalked out of the room.
Claude started after him, but Jason grabbed her hand. “Hey, don’t push him. He’s not a nice man. I’ve seen him accidentally on purpose let assistants get burned or hung up in the chains a little too long.” He tilted his head. “I love how you give it right back to him, but I don’t want to see you get hurt or fired.”
For a moment, something dark crossed her face, then it vanished and she smiled. “Thanks. I guess I should know better than to sass my new boss, huh? Any other advice?”
“Just that when Sloan is onstage, he goes by Cristos and nothing else. Call him Sloan in front of the lights too many times and things get ugly.”
“Cristos, got it.” She hesitated, then went up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for having my back. I owe you one.”
Rehearsals at the Silver Slipper’s Burlesque Review had been brutal because of the physical toll on the body. Rehearsals for Cristos the Incredible were brutal because Cristos was an ass. Claude’s face ached from holding the smile he insisted upon. Which was a
bout all she’d done so far. Smile and point. Gesture and smile. Shimmy and smile. Smile and smile and smile and—
“CLAUDIA. Are you listening to me?”
“Sorry, Cristos, I was practicing my smile.” She grinned wider to show him just how much she’d been practicing. Actually, smiling wasn’t that difficult when she looked at Jason. His costume wasn’t much more than a crisscross of leather straps and buckles attached to a pair of very snug, very short shorts. There wasn’t much of him she couldn’t see.
And he looked exactly like she’d expected a gargoyle to look. Hard as stone and chiseled from marble. A living, breathing sculpture. She cleared her throat as she suddenly realized she was purring.
Cristos frowned and tapped his wand against the side of the large glass box that had been designed to resemble an enormous shard of ice. “You’ve got the basic movements down. It’s time to see how quickly you can transform. In the box.”
She caught Jason’s eye. He stood beside the contraption. The angry expression on his face softened as his gaze shifted from Cristos to her. The man didn’t like Sloan any more than she did, that was plain. But then why had he been willing to steal something as valuable as the Queen of Hearts for Sloan? Did Jason need this job that badly? The man would probably make a damn fine Collector.
Making a mental note to ask Romero about that possibility, she stepped into the glass box. “What’s my cue?”
“After Jason closes the door, he’ll spin the box once, then step away as I take three paces to the left. When I hit my mark, I’ll throw a fireball at the box. You’ll have roughly three seconds while it’s engulfed in flames. After that, you’re out of time.”
Great. Fire. Not one of her favorite things. “If I singe a whisker,” she muttered.
“What was that, Claudia?”
She forced her practiced smile into place. “I said three seconds is plenty of time. What happens after that?”
“Jason will open the door. In your cat form, you leap onto his shoulders. He does a little walk around the stage to show you off, then you go back into the box. Another fireball, and abracadabra, you’re human again.”
“Got it.” She glanced at Jason. “I’ll try to keep my claws in.”
He patted the leather epaulets on his shoulders. “That’s what these are for, but don’t worry about it. You can’t hurt me.”
That’s what he thought. She stepped into the box.
Jason approached and whispered, “If something goes wrong, I can break this thing apart and get you out. Just yell for me, okay?”
She nodded.
He shut the door, gave her one last look, then grabbed the hidden handholds on the closest side and turned the box a full three hundred and sixty degrees while she smiled and waved at the make-believe audience. Jason stepped away, and Sloan moved into position.
Sloan raised his hand above his head, and a swirling ball of fire formed in his palm. It grew to the size of a grapefruit. He showed it to the empty auditorium, then yelled some made-up magical word and launched it at the box.
She dropped to her hands and knees as flames shot up the sides, destroying her visibility and instantly increasing the temperature. She concentrated on her leopard form. The familiar shift of bones and senses followed in a rapid flash. She panted as the heat around her built. Her animal instincts screamed for her to run.
A second later, the fire died. Cristos yelled another magical word, arms out wide to display to the crowd the amazing feat he’d just accomplished.
Claude growled, showing off her teeth. Cristos might have supplied the fire, but without her ability to shift, there wouldn’t have been much of a trick. Jason opened the door, letting in a blast of fresh air, and gestured toward her.
She sprang onto his back, doing her best to keep from digging her sizable claws into him, only to realize they weren’t penetrating his skin anyway. Must be a gargoyle thing.
He stretched out his arms and walked from one end of the stage to the other then back again. She snarled a few times for good measure, imagining the crowd would really get a thrill thinking she could leap down and kill one of them in the blink of an eye.
Which she could.
Returning to the box, Jason crouched by the side, and she jumped off. Once she was back inside, he shut the door and Cristos repeated the fireball spell. Hidden by flames, she transformed back into her costumed human form and stood smiling as the fire died away.
Jason let her out. They both bowed, then jogged off the stage hand in hand to prep the next effect. He grinned at her. “You were amazing.”
“Thanks. I thought I might have cut you, but…”
He glanced at his shoulder. “Takes more than claws to cut through gargoyle hide.”
Cristos walked toward them, clapping slowly. “Very good, Claudia. I wasn’t sure about you, but that was well done.” He stopped clapping and put his hands on his hips, a hint of a smile curving his mouth. “The growling was a nice touch. Can you do that a bit more when you’re on his shoulders? Maybe paw the air? Show off those claws? The audience loves a good scare.”
“Of course, Cristos.” She sketched a little bow. “It’s your show.”
Cristos managed a full smile that lasted all of two seconds before he was strictly business again. “Jason, teach her the setup for the levitation illusion. I want to run through each one with you both, then you can take over and make sure she’s got her timing and marks down.”
Jason nodded. “Will do.” When Cristos had gone back to the other side of the stage to talk to someone about lighting, Jason took a break from showing her which props went with what trick. “Looks like you won him over. Hard to do, but that goodwill rarely lasts. He can turn on you with one wrong move. Still, it’s impressive that you got him to like you so quickly.”
“Thanks.” This time her smile came naturally. Being back onstage held a certain thrill, but that wasn’t why she was here. After Cristos left them alone, she’d be able to work on Jason a little more, see if she could get him to trust her enough so that, eventually, he’d tell her what he’d done with the priceless ruby her boss so desperately wanted back.
To say Claude had impressed him with her work ethic and stoic attitude would have been an understatement. Jason had yet to see one of Sloan’s assistants work so hard or so long without complaining or begging for a break. Even Sloan had been impressed, something as easy to do as teaching a blind man to recognize colors. He nodded to Claude. “What do you want to work on first?”
“Jason!” Sloan’s voice echoed across the open sound stage, interrupting Claude.
“Damn it,” Jason muttered. “I thought he’d left.” He’d been looking forward to time alone with her more than he’d realized. “Be right back. Take a break.”
She nodded, wiping a shimmer of perspiration off her brow. “I’ll be right here.”
He reluctantly left her and strode toward Sloan. “What now?”
Sloan’s jaw ticked, and Jason knew it was because of the tone he’d used and didn’t care. Sloan’s gaze shifted to Claude. “She might be the best one I’ve had yet.” His eyes slid back to Jason. “Keep her happy or I won’t be.”
Jason snorted. Like he was the one who made the assistants miserable. “That’s what you wanted to tell me?”
“No. What I wanted to tell you was that I expect the scales on my desk in the morning.”
Jason’s anger returned full force. “And how do you think I’m going to make that happen? Just walk up to a lamai demon and ask them if they’ll hold still so I can pull a few scales off them? It’s not that easy. Not to mention I’m training yet another new assistant for your show.”
“Fortunately for you, Claudia seems like a fast learner.” Sloan brushed a piece of lint off the sleeve of his red velvet jacket. “How you get the scales isn’t my problem. Just make sure it gets done.” He turned on his heel and walked away, raising a finger in the air. “On my desk in the morning.”
Clenching his fists at his sides, Jas
on stared after him. “That stupid—”
“Everything okay?”
At the sound of Claude’s voice, he tried to regain his good mood. “It’s…nothing.”
She frowned. “It’s clearly something.” She looked in the direction Sloan had gone. “Is he unhappy with something I did?”
“No, it’s nothing to do with you. He wants me to do something for him that is next to impossible.”
Her hand found its way onto his arm, her touch warm and reassuring. “What is it? Maybe I can help? You’ve done so much for me today, I’d be happy to help you if I could.”
He growled softly, still glaring after Sloan. “That’s generous of you, but no. I’ll handle it myself.”
Using more strength than he would have guessed she had, she turned him to face her. “Hey, we have to work together. I don’t know what your relationship was like with Sloan’s other assistants, but this is a pretty complicated show that involves us being as in tune with each other as possible. Those lifts in the second half? In at least two of those, you could seriously injure me just by having your hand in the wrong place at the wrong time. I need to trust you just like you need to trust me.”
“I would never drop you.”
“Not even if you were distracted?”
He narrowed his eyes slightly and sighed. “What Sloan wants me to do is dangerous. Getting you involved would be stupid. There’s no reason for you not to trust me. I’m protecting you.”
She laughed. “Oh, Jason. That’s sweet, but I don’t need protection.” She held her hand up, and her fingernails morphed into two-inch-long claws. “I’ve got that handled.”
He paused. Even considering bringing her along was idiotic, but it would be nice to have her there. It would certainly be better cover to look like he was on a date at Hellhounds than going into the bar alone.
She poked his chest with a claw. “I know you’re thinking about it, whatever it is.”
Sin City Collectors Boxed Set: Queen of Hearts, Dead Man's Hand, Double or Nothing Page 3
