Page 77 of Killer Kiss

She tugged at the cropped black sports top, pulling it down over her belly self-consciously. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“No, what? Was this the wrong thing to wear? I didn’t know what to wear for a stripper class since you…”

“Since we what? Dance naked?”

“Well, yeah.”

I shook my head. “It’s a pole class. Not a fucking get-naked class. Wear what you want. Eve should be here any minute. Go wait over there. I’ve got things to do.”

I left the door open for her and stalked back across the room to where the vacuum sat waiting for me. I stomped on the power button and shoved the stick across the room, cringing at the chunky sounds of food and dirt and glitter being sucked up through the head.

I was so aware of Ophelia’s eyes on me. I didn’t dare turn around for fear I wouldn’t be able to control myself. It would be so easy to go storming across the other side of the room, pick her up from that chair, and carry her into one of the private rooms.

I wanted to taste her again.

Which was fucking stupid.

I should be charging her for that. Not craving her moans, her scent, the way her body felt beneath mine.

I shoved the vacuum harder and faster, pushing it farther and farther away from the woman who seemed put on this earth just to distract me.

When I finally ran out of spaces to vacuum, I had no choice but to switch it off.

“Will Eve be here soon? The class should have started ten minutes ago.”

I paused, frowning to peer over at the clock on the wall. “Eve’s never late.”

“Well, she is today. That clock isn’t wrong. Unless I got the class time confused…”

But she hadn’t. The class was at seven, and it was definitely past that now. “Give me a second.”

I pulled my phone out, realizing there was a ton of missed calls I hadn’t heard because I’d left the stupid thing on Do Not Disturb after my nap. “Shit,” I muttered, hitting Eve’s number and calling her back.

“Finally!” Eve answered, exasperation in her tone.

“Are you ever going to answer the phone like a normal person?” I parroted her words from earlier back at her. “The words you were looking for are, ‘Hi, Augie, thanks for returning my call.’ But whatever. Where are you?”

“Lyric and I are stuck in some sort of traffic jam in the city. We went shopping today, but there was an accident and they’ve closed the entire road back to the suburbs. We’re all having to back up and get out another way, but it’s taking forever. We aren’t going to get there until right on opening, probably.”

I glanced over at Ophelia, sitting on a chair watching me quietly. “Okay, well, that’s all very well and good, but what about your dance class?”

“Did someone turn up?” Eve asked excitedly. “Really?”

She sounded so thrilled I didn’t even have the heart to tell her it was only Ophelia, and she’d only come because I’d kind of guilted her into it a few days earlier. “Yeah, there’s someone here.”

“Someone came for dance class!” she squealed to Lyric, who let out a whoop from somewhere in Eve’s car.

“I’ll just tell her to come back next week then?” I asked.

“Wait, no! Don’t do that. I don’t want her to be disappointed. She might not come back at all. You take the class.”

I blinked and stared over at the woman who’d had her thighs wrapped around my head not even twenty-four hours earlier. “What? Yeah, no. I’m not doing that.”

“Augie, please! You have to!”

I twisted around and lowered my voice. “I don’t even do pole! How am I supposed to teach Oph—” I slammed my lips shut.

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