Page 11 of Casey's Hero

Levi pulled it down to his nose and inhaled deeply. “Oh, yeah. One hundred percent female.” He stuffed the shirt in his pocket and clapped his hands. “More!”

“More!” the others repeated.

Candy’s moss-green eyes narrowed.

In that moment, it came to him. Candy was the little wedding planner he’d met earlier. Jacob straightened. What the hell was she doing working as a stripper?

CHAPTER 3

Casey had neverin her life performed in front of a crowd, had never worn a bikini at the beach, and had never had so many men staring at her like wolves ready for their next meal. It was at once terrifying and exhilarating.

Her body was on fire from her ride on the poor man who’d helped her out of the cake. And, if she wasn’t mistaken, he was just as affected as she was. Her gaze went to the hard ridge behind the fly of his jeans.

Heat traveled up her neck into her cheeks.

Oh, yeah. She’d gotten him that far, all by pretending to ride him like a horse. Or, as the song went, a cowboy. Now that she was on a table in front of them, she was at her most vulnerable. She’d never been a good dancer. Dressed as a stripper, she would be expected to bump and grind with overly exaggerated hip movements and, maybe, touching her toes to give them a view of her rounded bottom. Hell, she didn’t have the body to pull this off. Her hips were too broad, and her thighs touched. Not to mention, her breasts were overflowing the tiny white bathing suit bra she’d worn beneath the midriff shirt.

Casey twitched her hips back and forth the way she thought strippers would. Gripping the Velcro tabs on the sides of hershorts, she hesitated. Beneath the shorts was nothing more than a G-string up the crease of her butt cheeks with a tiny triangle of material covering her front.

She dropped her hands to her sides and shook her head. No. She couldn’t do it.

“Take it off!” the men yelled as one.

She caught Jacob’s stare.

He shook his head. “Don’t do it, Candy,” he said softly.

The guys didn’t seem to hear him.

One started the chant, “Take it off!” The others joined in. “Take it off!”

She was supposed to be a stripper. To do it right, she had to take it off.

Again, Jacob shook his head.

Casey’s eyes narrowed. Did he think she wouldn’t, just because he’d told her not to?

Her gaze swept the small crowd of rowdy men, smiling, laughing and nudging each other with their elbows to get closer to her and the table she danced on. What did she have to lose? They thought she was the blond-haired stripper named Candy. When they saw her the next day, she’d be back to her usual brown-haired, neatly prim and proper wedding planner, Casey. The two women were so diametrically opposed, they’d never guess. Her fingers found the tabs. Her gaze met Jacob’s, and she yanked the shorts off her hips and swung them around her head. Aiming for him, she let loose.

Jacob’s hand shot up into the air and caught the shorts in his fist.

Casey lifted her chin, swallowing her pride and turned her back to him and the men, showing her ass in the G-string. Then she bent to touch her toes, giving them what they’d come for and thanking her lucky stars that she’d chosen that morning to shave her legs all the way up to her hoo-hah.

Fingers touched her bottom as bills were tucked into her G-string, startling her into straightening too fast. Unsteady as she was on the platform heels, she wobbled, teetered and tumbled toward the ground.

Arms reached out to catch her. She fell hard against a black T-shirt, her face smashed into a rock-hard chest. When she glanced up to see who’d caught her, she was glad to see it was her cake rescuer, Jacob.

Changing her voice to sound like a Candy, she said, “My hero.” She batted her heavily lashed eyelids.

Jacob stared down into her eyes. “Those shoes are killers.”

She gave him what she hoped was a coquettish smile. “You like them?”

“No.” His gaze shifted from her eyes to the other side of the patio in the direction of the bar and the front entrance. His brow furrowed. “Damn.” He set her on her feet. “Gotta go. I’m sure the guys will take good care of you.” He hurried past her, breaking into a jog.

Casey looked from Jacob to the men and back. Without him to catch her when she fell, she felt exposed and vulnerable. When the men started toward her with money in their hands, Casey turned and ran after Jacob.

“Hey, babe,” Teller called out. “Where ya going?”

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