“We open this weekend, so you don’t have much time to decide.”
“I feel like I never had a choice. The second you showed up in Denver, this was all bound to happen because you always get your way.”
I shook my head slightly. “Not always.” We both knew that.
Her eyes sparked with charcoal flecks and she took a step closer so that she could bend down and put her hands on the arms of my chair. She leaned closer and closer until her mouth was hovering a mere millimeter away from mine. When she spoke, the words danced across my lips and tasted like victory and fate.
“No, not always.” Her lips pressed into mine and I had to curl my hands around the arms of the chair to keep from grabbing at her.
She teased the clamped seam of my lips with her tongue and lightly scraped her teeth across my bottom lip. I wanted to toss her backward on the desk and bury myself inside her with no finesse, just pure, animalistic lust. She brushed her lips back and forth and laughed lightly as I bit down on my already injured tongue to keep from reacting. If I mauled her now, it would undo any progress I might have made with her.
She pulled back and reached out to run her finger over each of the high arches of my eyebrows. It was the softest, gentlest touch I had ever felt from another human being and it made me focus on her pulse even more heavily than the one in my veins.
“Fine. I’m in. I’ll write you a check.”
I couldn’t speak, and if I tried, all I would be able to say to her was that she needed to get naked so I could taste her. She was going to kill me if she didn’t surrender soon. I was going to get up and move away from all the temptation she emanated when she moved her hand so that it was cupping my cheek.
“Oh, and one more thing . . .” The smile she gave me had my hard-on dying and me gulping in legitimate fear at the degree of mischief and trouble I saw in it. “I don’t have a place to stay since I left Denver in such a hurry. You don’t mind me coming to stay with you until I get situated, do you? If not, I can always call up one of my old friends, or one of my old customers from the club.”
She practically purred the last words, and I felt my resolve to keep things professional turn into a cement block in my gut. Shit. What was I supposed to do with that? Avoiding touching her, breathing her in, dreaming about her naked at work was one thing. Trying to keep my desire in my pants while she was in my private space, my retreat away from this world, would be impossible. But she had me backed into a corner and she knew it.
“You can stay with me for as long as you need to, Key.”
Both her eyebrows shot up and she licked her bottom lip. She was already launching her first salvos at me. She was a fighter just like me . . . she just used different weapons. Hers were infinitely more effective.
“Shouldn’t be a problem if we’re just going to be business associates, right?”
I groaned and muttered every dirty word I could think of in a language I knew she wouldn’t understand.
“Right.”
She gave me a fake smile that showed all her teeth and the challenge shone in her eyes. She was always fierce and ready to fight me. It shouldn’t be the kind of turn-on that it was.
“It’s good to be home. I have plans, Nassir, big plans.”
I sighed. “It’s good to have you home, Keelyn.”
She flicked her wild hair and pushed off the chair as she sauntered toward the door. “Let’s see how long you think that.”
The elevator swallowed her up as she left the office and I didn’t exhale until she was out of sight. She was going to torture me. She was going to taunt me. She was going to try to break me. I should’ve warned her that I was forged in fire and that the flames of torment felt like nothing more than rays of sunshine to me. I was going to let her burn herself out and then scoop up the ashes.
Then she would be mine.
Chapter 5
Keelyn
I wasn’t sure what to do with myself after I walked out of Nassir’s office. I was shaking, both from being so close to him and from the gauntlet I’d boldly thrown down. Every single time I thought I had the upper hand with him, he twisted things in a different direction that left me reeling. Business partners, my ass. I was going to make him regret even suggesting he could keep his hands off of me after all this time. There wasn’t much I excelled at in this life, but making men stupid and weak with lust was sure as shit at the top of the list.
I don’t know what kind of insanity had prompted me to ask him to let me stay at his place until I was settled. Walking into the devil’s lair willingly wasn’t the brightest plan I had ever concocted and I loathed that everything inside of me went molten and liquid when I saw the regret and anger in his eyes as his gaze landed on the healing cut on my forehead. He should feel bad—it was his fault—but there was something about the way remorse looked on such a powerful and commanding man that tugged at places deep down inside of me. And good Lord, the healing bruises high and dark on both his chiseled cheekbones made me want to grab his face in my hands and kiss each injury better. I hadn’t even been back home for a day and already the man was making my mind and body go crazy.
I went where I always went when I was lost in the Point. Back to the place that had been my home and my sanctuary for so long. Plus, it was within walking distance from Nassir’s new club, so I didn’t have to call a cab or ask Chuck for a ride. I pushed open the doors to the newly remodeled Spanky’s, the club newly christened as the Empire, and almost stumbled over my own feet.
The place looked completely different from the inside out. There was no longer eye-burning pink splashed across every surface. The dingy carpet on the floor was no longer stained with blood, and God only knew what else, on it. All the chairs had been replaced by sleek, black leather booths, and the garish neon lighting had been pulled out and replaced with a soft, vintage glow that made both the girls onstage and the customers look better. It was still very much a strip club. There was no escaping the multitude of boobs and scantily clad women that filled the place wall to wall. There was no mistaking the familiar lustful ambience and overly eager throb of the crowd who were avidly watching the talent. However, now it was a classy strip club and it looked and felt expensive. A pang of regret shot through me that I had left before I was able to see the place that had been my home for so long rise from the ashes into something so beautiful. If I’d had my way and had been able to put my money into something in the Point, it would be a place just like this. A place where girls could take their clothes off, make a living, and be proud of it.