“What was that about?”
Luke jumped as Ellie’s wary voice wafted from behind. A quick spurt of guilt erupted in his gut as he wondered just how much of the conversation she’d heard. Turning his head to explain, he opened his mouth, then closed it. His voice died in his throat.
Ellie looked…hot. So fucking hot it was practically criminal. She wore a short red dress that clung to every curve of her lithe body, from her small round breasts to her shapely thighs to that firm ass he still couldn’t get over. Everything about the dress screamed danger. The treacherously low neckline. The ruby-red silk. The way it stopped just below her thighs and revealed long shapely legs and feet strapped in a pair of flat sandals. Christ, was she trying to kill him?
It took a second for him to snap out of it and move his gaze north, but what he saw there was just as enticing. Her long brown hair was loose, flowing down her shoulders in waves, and the makeup she’d worn during the performance was scrubbed off. Her face looked fresh and clean, save for the shiny pink lip gloss that had his mouth tingling. He wondered how those shimmering lips would feel wrapped around his cock.
“Are you going to answer the question?” she interrupted his inappropriate thoughts, frowning. “What were you and Viv talking about?”
“I was just telling Vivian where I plan on taking you tonight,” he lied.
Her taut features relaxed. Slightly. “That’s all?”
He ignored another burst of guilt, adding, “And then she warned me to take good care of you otherwise she’d kick my ass.”
Ellie’s face relaxed completely. “Oh. Sounds like Viv, all right.” She paused. “So where are you taking me?”
“Dinner at your favorite—” he tried not to cringe, “—seafood restaurant. And then that carnival on the boardwalk. The owner of the motel told me it’s a big thing around here.”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t call a Ferris wheel and popcorn stand a big thing.”
He stood up and slung his hands in the waistband of his faded jeans. “Do you want to go somewhere else?”
“No. I love carnivals, regardless of how crappy.” She flashed a small grin that warmed his insides. “So, you ready to go?”
She took a step closer and the silky material of her dress swirled around her legs. Forcing himself not to ogle her again he nodded. “Let me just pay for my beer.”
He dug into his back pocket and removed a five-dollar bill, then dropped it on the table and turned to Ellie. He spoke before he could stop himself. “Did I tell you how amazing you look in that dress?”
“You just did.” She grinned again and this time it warmed more than his insides.
With his semi-hard cock straining against the fly of his jeans, he shot her a rueful look. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
***
“Luke knows you’re here.” Vivian didn’t give Josh a chance to reply as she flew through the front door and dropped her purse on the black end table near the couch. She’d forgotten her cell phone at home and, although she could’ve lived without it for a night, the conversation with Luke at the club had rattled her. So much that she’d felt the need to come home and talk to Josh about it.
It was almost comical, the amount of guilt currently weighing down her shoulders like a block of concrete. She was forty-four years old yet she felt like a disobedient schoolgirl who needed to be reprimanded by the headmaster. Lying to Ellie made her feel like slime. No, like a wad of chewing gum under someone’s shoe.
How had she let Josh convince her to keep his presence a secret? She should’ve called Ellie the second he showed up on her doorstep. Instead, she’d allowed him to stay in her home and get under her skin. To take her on a date, for God’s sake. And damn it, it had been a really good date.
They’d talked non-stop during dinner about everything from law to philosophy. There hadn’t been a single awkward silence and she was almost ashamed to admit that Josh Dawson was more mature than most of the men she’d dated in the past. Maybe even more mature than her.
The evening had gone so well she’d had to fight the temptation to blow off work and spend more time with him. Of course, after her conversation with Luke Russell, she really wished she’d given in to that temptation and never gone to the club.
“You told him?” Josh said in surprise. He was sitting on her couch, flipping through a thick legal document. On the coffee table sat a stack of files he’d had his secretary FedEx to Vivian’s house.
“He saw us,” she corrected, sinking down next to Josh. “Apparently Luke was driving by as we were leaving for dinner.”
Josh set the document on the table. “Oh.”
“Oh? That’s all you have to say? It doesn’t bother you that Luke knows you’re staying here…that we’re, you know, together?”