And as I reached back and unclasped my bra, I saw him start to walk toward me.
I turned away, not wanting him to see the victory in my smile, and disguised the maneuver by doing a quick tour around the stage, strutting my stuff and making sure all those men got a nice look at what they couldn’t touch. Then, with a flourish, I tossed the bra to a balding man who looked ready to drool.
Stockings next, I thought, as I slipped out of the shoes. I kicked up, resting my calf against the pole. Then I stroked my fingers up my own leg, unclipped the garter, and tugged the stocking off.
The men in the audience were holding out bills and, not being stupid, I took a little time to make a circuit around the stage and collect my tips before moving on to the next stocking.
I tried to keep my eyes on the men. To keep that eye contact that I knew dancers used to make sure the tips were stellar. But I couldn’t do it. I didn’t care about these men or their money. All I wanted was Tyler, but he’d disappeared. No matter where I looked, I couldn’t find him or the brunette, and something hard and tight knotted in my belly.
I felt a little sick, but I kept on, moving in time to some song I didn’t recognize.
I kicked up my other leg, getting ready to start the same show with the other, but as soon as I did, there he was.
I froze as a psych book full of emotions pummeled me. Relief, excitement, desire—and irritation.
“What are you doing?” I asked, as he stepped up onto the stage, to the hoots and catcalls and general grumbling of the men below.
He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. He tossed his jacket over my shoulders, grabbed me around the waist, and hauled me bodily offstage. I didn’t shout and didn’t fight back—I was too damn shocked. And from the silence that had settled around my stage, I think the customers felt exactly the same.
“Go,” Tyler said, and it took me only a second to realize he was talking to another girl that I recognized as one of the waitresses. Her eyes were wide, and I had a feeling that she was getting an unexpected promotion. But she scurried up the stairs and wrapped her body around the pole.
The men who’d been looking shocked in my direction turned to her, and I was all but forgotten.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked, as he held my arm in a vise grip and led me toward the back. Across the room, I saw Evan standing beside Cole, their expressions unreadable.
I drew in a breath, and hoped to hell this had worked.
I relaxed just slightly as he led me into the employees only area. Tyler said nothing as he dragged me down the hall to his office. He shoved the door open. “In,” he said, that single syllable managing to convey a whole menagerie of emotions.
I complied.
“I’m sorry,” I said, when he shut the door and stalked toward me. “I wanted—”
I didn’t get to finish. His hands fisted around the lapel of his jacket, and he yanked me toward him, then crushed his mouth over mine, effectively silencing me. Not to mention making me forget what the hell I was trying to say anyway.
He twirled me around, then slammed us both up against the wall in a violent, wild claiming.
The kiss burned frantic and hot and had my head spinning and my body humming, although that might have had more to do with the fact that he’d spread the jacket wide and his hands were over my breasts, touching and stroking as if he couldn’t get enough of me.
I knew damn well I couldn’t get enough of him.
I closed my eyes, my body melting beneath him, as my mouth claimed him, as our tongues tasted each other, teased each other.
He robbed me of thought, of reason. And as I stood there, trapped between him and the wall, I could barely remember my name, much less why I’d come to Destiny. In that moment, he was my entire world, and even as something in my mind screamed for me to get a grip, to remember that he’d conned me—that he was a criminal—all I wanted to do was lose myself forever in this moment.