Page 145 of Tempt Her

With the lingerie she wears around the shop, you can avoid the sight of Stacey like you can miss a lightning streak across the clear night sky.

I glance back at them by the open doors and then clock Luke; he’s stuck in a velvet chair in the reception room. He’s trying to stay off his ankle, and that’s got him trapped like a sexy target, an easy hit for the women and men swarming around him.

I wink at him, and he rolls his eyes. Some young woman is draped over the arm of his chair, and he’s trying to be aloof, but she ain’t getting the memo.

“Silas is in Greece with the love of his life,” Cade answers Stacey, and I turn back to listen. “He’s proposing to Eily this week. I helped him design the ring.”

“What?” Stacey’s eyes shock open. “Silas Van de May isfinallysettling down? Well, that just dills my pickle.”

Cade winks. “Oh, it dills Redix’s pickle too. And mine. Wealllike Eily.”

“So it’s thefourof you?”

They talk like best friends, and I’m happy Stacey has one like Cade; she doesn’t judge us.

Hell, she ain’t too different than us.

“Maybe.” Cade shrugs. “You know how it is. We have to talk about it first and make sure we can make four people work.” Cade glances around, then asks me, “Speaking of, where’s Ford?”

“He’s upstairs,” I answer her. “Talking with Luca Mercier.”

That name makes eyes sparkle, including Cade’s, and I love it. How none of us deny when someone’s attractive, but we can leave it there. We know where our hearts and bodies lie.

Stacey tells Cade, side whispering, “He wants a private demonstration this Saturday.” Then her blue eyes startle. “Shit, I shouldn’t have said that. I gotta get used to keeping my client’s secrets.”

Cade laughs. “Girl, I ain’t sayinganything. Besides, Luca is Redix’s best friend. We knowalmosteverything about him. And I’m jealous. I’d demonstrate how to peel a banana for Luca Mercier. And speaking of bananas….” She nods toward the bodyguards by the door. “I didn’t know HGR Security hired men packin’ likethat.”

I roll my eyes and laugh. Stacey does, too, telling her, “Grant and Jace are sweet once you get them talking, which ain’t easy. I’ve cracked walnuts softer than them.”

“Please,” I rumble, “can we stop talking about bodyguards, bananas and nuts?” Stacey stops laughing, worried she pissed me off. “Baby, you’re making me horny.”

Cade laughs. “You’re in the perfect place for it.”

The three of us exchange wildly inappropriate jokes for a while until we hear the tender cries of a newborn baby.

Cade stops instantly and glances toward the door. Redix is swaying with their daughter, keeping her content while his eyes find Cade’s, speaking their private language.

“She’s hungry,” Cade tells us.

“Go to the sunroom in the back,” Stacey tells her. “No one’s there, and you can feed her in private.”

“Thanks,” Cade replies. “And then we’ll need to take her home after that.”

She hugs Stacey, and it catches in my throat when I hear Stacey whisper in Cade’s ear, “Thank you. Thank you for helping those victims, for finding those women, and for helping me find myself again.”

Emotion swirls deep in Stacey’s voice. She doesn’t let on how the trial gets to her sometimes, the details and accusations we’re all learning about Gentry Evans. It makes me amazed Stacey survived him. Deep down, I suspect, she was next on his hit list. Like he knew she was on to him, and he was going to end her before she could catch him.

But with these two women working together? The evil fuck didn’t stand a chance.

“You’re welcome,” Cade whispers back. “Thank you for your help. I don’t think we could’ve done it without you.”

“Lunch next week?” Stacey asks her.

Cade kisses her cheek. “It’s a slutty sister date.”

After she leaves, Stacey and I mingle more. She stops to help Vale, her store manager, when the line for purchases gets long. I get another round of bourbons for Luke and me before grabbing the velvet chair beside him.

“Ohhhh,” the leggy brunette draped over Luke turns to me, “and who do we have here?”

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