Page 122 of Sin With Me

Chapter1

Emma

Tonight,I promised myself, would be the last time I ever made a bet with my best friend. Standing nearly naked back stage of a strip club was definitely not the sort of place I’d ever imagined to find myself. The two jewels covering my nipples glittered in the light, and my bedazzled private parts were beginning to itch. My attire gave me a new appreciation for the term ‘vajazzled.’

What have I gotten myselfinto?

“Stop shaking like a leaf. You’re going to rock this joint!” My best friend Grace was lucky I loved her like a sister – otherwise she’d be on the receiving end of myfist.

“This is the last time I’m listening to you. I swear if Tristan or Julian find out about this, I’ll be in the dog house for months. They’ll have me followed everywhere!”

“They won’t find out. Your brothers wouldn’t be found dead in a place like this, Emma.”

“That’s not making me feel any better! If this ever gets out, I’m holding you personally responsible. Remind me again why I’mhere?”

“Because you said I’d never stick to one man, and I proved you wrong. Our one year anniversary is officially today. Enjoy, Em!”

And Grace chose to celebrate by dragging me out here. “Shouldn’t you be with Hunter?”

“He’s working and then meeting an out-of-town friend. They haven’t seen each other in months. Besides, Hunter said he’d make it up to me next weekend.”

Great!

I had only one person I could truly blame for this – me. I was the one who had decided to play a frickin’ matchmaker, desperate for my best friend to find ‘the one’ she’d claimed each man to be, yet never expecting her to fall head over heels for Hunter. I gave it one month tops, maybe two. Yet here we were, a year later, with me regretting those words. I’d been lucky enough to drag this bet out for months, but now it was time to payup.

And with a swift push on my back I found myself wobbling onto the dark stage. I swore under my breath, wishing I weren’t so susceptible to my friend’s crazy ideas. I might have seemed like a wild one, but this was way over the top, even for me. Yet Grace, knowing very well the kind of life I’d led for the past two years, insisted it would be good for me to let loose and experience life beyond the walls of Manhattan. When we made the bet, she failed to mention I’d end up in a run-down strip club that hosted tumbleweeds in its parking lot. At least there weren’t too many men here; or was I mistaken? Had the room filled during the time Grace was helping me glue jewels to my lady parts backstage? What if it had? My eyes still hadn’t adjusted to the darkness, so I couldn’ttell.

As I began contemplating how to get back at her and the two other betrayers I called friends, who were sitting in the small audience, the silence in the club started to unnerve me. Either there was no one else here, or I was really that bad. I hadn’t even moved a hip or flashed the jewel line running down the crack of my ass in disguise of a panty line, and I swear I could hear the mice I’d seen earlier by the bar nibbling on leftovers.

A white spot light flashed onto my face. It skimmed the crowd in front of me, confirming that there was not an empty seat left in the audience. Knowing I was the focal point of the room, I felt my body drizzle with the heat of embarrassment.

Fuck it! I may as well try mybest.

That was my motto – nothing less than the best for Emma – and if you preach it, you better practice it. Music sounded from the speakers above, and I began moving my body to its smooth rhythm, making my way toward center stage and the freshly waxed metal pole in the middle. I’d taken a few pole dancing classes for the fun of it – okay, maybe more than a few – but my friends didn’t know that little secret. Maybe that’s why I’d jumped in on the bet. Perhaps I secretly knew that once Grace took Hunter home, her life would be changed and she’d forget about the bet I was about to fulfill. But then again, I’d never normally get a chance to do anything this crazy in my life. My over-protective brothers and the family’s company reputation wouldn’t allow it. As a private investigator at Cross Enterprises, I had a duty to act in a certain way. Prudence was expected of me, yet I wanted nothing to do with it. It may have been arrogant, but I blamed my caring brothers for this. As the youngest child and only girl, sometimes it seemed I had three fathers instead of one – my two brothers acting twice more cautious around me than mydad.

I let the thought pass through. If I was going to complete this dance and not get booed off the stage, I’d need to stop thinking about the people I deep-down held responsible for my actions. For me, the quiet rebellion had never stopped. What was the point? I’d lost enough in my life, and now I was determined to live it up until I joined David in his everlasting peace.

Grasping the pole with my right hand, I stepped around it. The light shifted, flashing across the floor and that’s when I noticed that the room was full. Well, for an establishment the size of this run-down hole, that was still only a few dozen people.

Holy crap! I can’t do this!A wave of nerves flew from my bare chest down the middle of my stomach to my sparkling area of jewels. I didn’t fail. I never failed. I had to do this to prove to myself that I was as brave and daring and exciting as my reputation of a fearless private investigator. Granted, I rarely got to go out into the field, but when I did, nothing and no one could stop me. There was no case I hadn’t solved or wouldn’t takeon.

A few whistles sounded from my friends in the front row, bringing me back to theroom.

As I made another circle around, a pair of beautifully light eyes at a table in the corner caught my attention. He was sitting by himself, with a bottle of water in hishand.

Who drinks water at abar?

The man wore a plaid shirt and a cowboy hat that must have been covering his face earlier. There was no way I would have missed those sky blue eyes otherwise, even from a mile away. And with the dark complexion, he looked like a perfect mix of beautiful genes. The primitive way he looked at me, as if he’d never seen a woman before, warmed my insides and heated my cheeks. I was used to the “You’re so hot I want to fuck you now” looks from men. I dismissed most of them, but there was something different about this guy. His eyes held respect as he devoured my body with his gaze. I even thought I’d seen his jaw twitch – like he wanted to cover me up instead of removing the gems to see my bare flesh.

Gently swaying my hip his way, I let go of the pole and slowly made my way to the side stage. Aware that he’d get a good look at my best asset and its decoration down the middle in less than three seconds, I held his gaze. I wanted to see his reaction, and I wondered whether he’d appreciate the view as much as any other man would. I crouched lower, holding my palm over my front, covering my opening as my knees spread apart to the side, and then slowly, as if possessed by a snake, I curled my body upward.

No other man in the room mattered any longer. It was just me and the cowboy – who frowned, stood up, andleft.

What thehell?

I sashayed back toward the pole and climbed up as part of the routine I’d practiced, knowing that my friends’ jaws were probably on the floor by now. Grasping the pole, I swung my legs up and above my head, twining them around the metal rod, and let the rest of my body, including my perky tits, fall back gracefully as I looked through the crowd upside down, searching for the mystery man. Finally I caught him by the bar, downing a shot. The raw charm that drew me to him disappeared and was replaced by a simple need to know more about the man who had captured my interest for longer than a minute. What had him so angered? Why was hehere?

I finished my dance, and the crowd, otherwise known as a group of half-drunk and bearded men who’d left the foam on their facial hair for later, whistled and cheered.

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