“They are,” Josh muttered to himself. With a dismissive wave of his hand, he added, “Thanks, Alice. Leave the info here and start heading home, okay?”
With a nod, Alice took a few steps forward, dropped the papers on his desk and turned for the door. The second the petite blonde left the office he let out a long breath. Vivian. So that’s where she’d gone. Well. He’d just killed two birds with one stone, hadn’t he? In his search for Ellie, he’d stumbled upon another woman who’d conveniently run away from him.
The last time he’d seen Vivian was at Ellie’s engagement party, when he’d had his tongue in her mouth and his hands on her tits. He wasn’t sure how they’d even ended up in each other’s arms. A little too much champagne on both their parts, of course, but he knew it was more than that.
Maybe it was wrong to lust over a woman almost fifteen years his senior, but damn it, he’d been attracted to Vivian from the moment he met her. He was twenty-six, just opening up his law practice, and Vivian, well, she was forty and the sexiest woman he’d ever seen. A woman who also happened to be dropping her twenty-year-old daughter off at college. Josh hadn’t asked her out simply because he knew she’d say no, but after that explosive kiss they’d shared two years later…he’d hoped something more might come of it. It hadn’t.
After a two-month love affair with Vivian’s answering machine, he’d finally learned from Viv’s daughter that her mother had left town. Not the type of man to chase after a woman who obviously didn’t want him, Josh gave up. Put Vivian Kendrick out of his mind and tried to move on. Even dated a few women in his quest to erase his feelings for her.
He thought he’d succeeded, that he no longer had a single residual emotion left for Vivian.
Obviously he’d thought wrong.
“Boss?”
He lifted his head and found Alice in the doorway again. “Yes?”
“I just wanted to let you know I’m leaving for the night.” She hesitated. “Is everything all right? You look kind of, I don’t know, flustered.”
“Everything’s fine.” Then, as an afterthought, he added, “Actually, no, something came up. I need to go out of town. When you come in tomorrow, could you please cancel my appointments for the next week or so?”
“I’ll do it first thing in the morning.”
After Alice left, Josh leaned forward and grabbed the papers she’d left on his desk. He scanned the first one thoughtfully. San Valdez. Sounded like a nice little town. Too bad there was nothing nice about it.
He didn’t know what had gotten into his sister but he wasn’t about to let her get away with dancing in some sleazy burlesque show. Though Luke was probably one of the few people who knew how to control Ellie, Josh wasn’t sure his best friend could do this alone.
Pushing the chair back, he stood up. It was settled. He’d fly down to San Valdez tomorrow, just to keep an eye on things and get a handle on the situation.
It had nothing to do with the fact that Vivian was there. Of course not. That would just be ridiculous. Pathetic, even. Nope, doesn’t matter that Viv’s there.
He was still trying to convince himself of that as he left the office and headed for the elevator.
***
Ellie spotted Luke the second he walked into the club. Instantly, she straightened her back, squared her shoulders, and lifted her chin in preparation for a fight.
He was here to coerce her to go home again, and no way would she give in to his bullying. No matter how good he looked right now, in his faded jeans and blue polo shirt. She wasn’t going to let him push her around.
She usually performed two shows a night, one earlier in the evening, the second around ten and lasting until midnight, when the club was at full capacity. The first show had just ended, and there had been no doubt in her mind that Luke would be showing up soon. So she’d dashed to the dressing room after the performance and quickly changed into her regular clothes, then scrubbed all the makeup from her face. She’d have to reapply all the face gook when she came back to the club for the second show, but the hassle was worth it. This time she wanted to be comfortable when Luke ordered her around. It was hard to be taken seriously when you wore nothing but a corset.
“Is that him?” Vivian murmured, following Ellie’s gaze.
The two women stood at the bar, their eyes trained on the darkened doorway of Vivian’s club. At a nearby table, a group of rowdy locals filled the room with loud laughter and slurred chatter, but Ellie barely heard them. Her gaze was focused on the dark-haired man who’d just walked through the door.
She nodded. “Yep. My brother’s henchman.”
Appreciation filled Vivian’s gaze. “If I were twenty years younger, I’d definitely fuck him.”
“Viv!”
“Well, I would.” Vivian made a tsking sound. “It’s such a shame that he’s so hot.”
“Why is that a shame?”
“Because I’m supposed to dislike him. He’s trying to take my favorite dancer away.”