Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) (5 page)

What he
got was Vi with another Coke. “I told her. I gave her the note.”

“And.”

Vi shrugged.
“And nothing.”

“She
did not say nothing.”

“Nothing
for your ears.”

There
was a burst of raucous laughter from the stage area, the new girl had taken a
tumble.

He went
for his wallet. Vi put her hand out and grinned. “You know I’m splitting this
with her.”

He
grunted. “I don’t care what you do with it, take another message. Ask her, yes
or no?”

Vi
sauntered off before he could suggest his money might burn a hole in her bra if
she held onto it too long before finding Lux.

He
watched the new girl humiliate herself. She was pretty in a blonde, fake tan,
big teeth kind of way. Lux was a brunette. He much preferred her less brash
style and when Vi came back, he raised his brows at her expectantly.

“Told
her.”

“Is
this how flirting works? I pay you to do something and you do it so
incompetently I’m forced into paying up again?”

“I
liked you better when you sat there and oozed a miasma of gloom.”

“Miasma
of gloom?” That was a new one.

She
shrugged. “I read a lot.”

He
locked onto Vi’s eyes with the kind of contact that made people squirm, got him
called too intense. “What did she say?”

Violet
blinked twice and curled her cherry red lip. “I could tell you but then I’d
have to kill you.”

Good
God, this woman had armor-plating under her tiny skirt. He’d obviously
underestimated her, showed his hand too soon. He went for his wallet again. He
could do this all night if it’s what it took.

He
wasn’t ready for a warm hand to fold over his and lower it to the tabletop. There
was no way to be ready for the vision of Lux in silver snakeskin. Hell, what
was that she was wearing? Bare legs, most of her torso naked. What there was of
the outfit wrapped around her tight little body, cupping her breasts, skimming
her ribs and hips, leaving everything to his imagination.

All he
got out was a strangled. “Wow,” and she let go his hand.

Vi
laughed. “I see you’ve got this covered, Lux, girl. Don’t let Lou catch you out
here.”

He
pulled it together to say, “Please don’t break the rules on my account. I don’t
want to cause you trouble.”

“Don’t
you think that horse bolted?” Lux said. She had his envelope. She had a husky
voice, like she’d been shouting all night. It curled around his face and made
him want to breathe deep. “What’s this about?”

All
that creamy skin up close, the big bright eyes he couldn’t see from the stage,
the perfect bow of her pink lips. She was like adrenaline injected into his
brain stem. She crackled through his spine, fizzed in his lungs and drilled
holes in his senses.

“I,
ah.”

She lifted
a hand in an answer me gesture like he was wasting her time.

He
shook his head, closed his eyes momentarily to collect himself before he looked
at her again. “Yes or no?”

“Thank
you for the flowers. They’re lovely. But by sending them here, you caused me a
problem.”

“What
kind of problem?”

She
took a breath that swelled her sweet breasts and made a sound of exasperation
when she let it go. “Are you going to ask me my shoe size as well?”

He
shook his head.

“How
about you take it on face value that your flowers caused me issues backstage.”

“You
had to say I was your boyfriend.” That word boyfriend was somehow as erotically
charged in his mouth as the swish of Lux’s glossy ponytailed hair against her
shoulder. “You don’t want people in your business.”

She
gave a sharp nod that felt like approval, like she’d thought about patting his
stray puppy self on his goofy head.

“And I
got the message.” She put the envelope on the table, it was unopened. She slid
it toward him. “You’re welcome. Put please don’t try to make something out of
this. I did what anyone would do.”

“No,
that’s not true. You’re the only one who checked to see if I was breathing.”

“I
kicked you. I didn’t go
Nurse Jackie
on you.”

“You
got me home and you cleaned me up and you had no reason to do any of that after
I was so insufferable.”

“You’re
not drunk tonight.” Her eyes went to the untouched bourbon and the half-filled Coke
glass.

“No,
I’m done with that.” She smiled but angled her face away. She didn’t believe it
and he had nothing to support proof of concept. “And I do need to make
something out of this.” He tapped the envelope. Inside was an invitation for a
meal out and his cell number. “I want to thank you face to face. I want to
invite you to dinner to show you my appreciation.”

“I’ve
got half of what you gave Violet as a token of your appreciation, plus a
dressing room full of flowers. I think that’s enough.”

Oh no,
she wasn’t dismissing him like that. “Let me take you out to eat. Yes or no,
Lux? Anytime, anywhere you want to go.”

She put
her hand on her bare hip and his eyes went to the line of muscle there. All the
spit in his mouth dried up. “You think this is a game, Reid? That you can play
with me? That because I’m an exotic dancer you can dangle money in front of me
and that’s all it takes to have me. You want to give me money, do it like
everyone else does, sit at the stage and I’ll dance for you. Otherwise you’re
just like the asshole in the alley, only better dressed.”

He
snapped his eyes to hers. “I’m nothing like that guy. I didn’t mean you to think
I was buying you. I’m not. This is not what I wanted. I want to make it up to
you.”

She
sighed. “You don’t understand how it works here, and I don’t date customers.”

“It
wouldn’t be a date.”

“What
would it be?”

“It
would be me taking you out to eat to say thank you for saving me.”

“I
didn’t save you.”

But she
could. He shook his head. He didn’t know where that thought came from. “Please
let me take you out for a meal. You name the time and the restaurant.”

“I’m a
dancer, not a prostitute. “

“You’re
an athlete and now you’re insulting me. I said a meal and I meant it.”

She
looked at her shoes, so Reid did too, his eyes running over the swell of muscle
in her thigh, the even circle of her kneecap, the bunch of her calve and the
slim turn of her ankle strapped in shoes that must’ve taken lessons to walk in.

“I
don’t go out with customers, Reid.”

If that
was her real objection it was easy fixed. “So I’m never coming to Lucky’s
again.”

Her
hands went to her hips and she popped her weight to one leg. “Let me get this
straight. If I agree to eat with you, you’ll agree to quit drinking at Lucky’s.”

“That’s
right.”

She
smiled. She didn’t smile on stage. He’d have been walking around with a mortal
injury for weeks if she had. “Thank you for the flowers and the tips.”

What?
No!

She
spun around and made for the bar area. He got out of the booth and took a few
steps after her. She was stopped by a group of men, shifting back when one of
them made to touch her. What was he going to do if he got close to her? She’d
brushed him off again. Of course she would, she knew him as a drunk, a loser
customer of Lucky’s who’d never even had the courtesy to tip her before
tonight.

But it
wasn’t enough and he wanted more of her smoky voice politely putting him down,
more of her glittery eyes and not to be pushed attitude.

He
watched her disappear off the floor. He watched her dance, with his heart in
his throat and his hands fisted. He didn’t like this feeling she made pulse in
him. It wasn’t like anything he’d felt before. For a start he’d been semi-hard
since he stood at his desk at home and wrote that note, now he doubted he
could’ve stood straight without discomfort.

He
waited for her to look at him, to throw him some challenge, some acknowledgement
from the stage. She danced three songs and never glanced his way, as if she’d
already forgotten him, and he was surprised how much that cut.

Vi tried
to sell him whiskey, rum, beer, vodka, but he stuck to Coke. She told him not
to take getting shot down hard.

He
beckoned her closer and she leaned down so he had a damn good view of her
cleavage. “Do I I
ook like a man who crashed and
burned?”

He was
exactly that man, but Vi didn’t know that and Reid knew more about poker and
blackjack than simply counting cards. This time Vi laughed.

“I’d
like to take you and all the dancers in this shift out for a meal.”

She
rolled her eyes. “You want to take all of us out, together?”

He
nodded once.

“You’re
kidding?”

He gave
her a not kidding eyebrow twitch.

“What
if she won’t come?”

He
nodded again. “If she won’t come, then I gave it my best shot.” And he’d have
to find some other way to start redeeming himself.

SIX

“Oh no.” Zarley waved her hands in front of her face. “No, no, no,
no.” It only made Vi laugh harder. She’d been laughing since she came into the
dressing room with Reid’s damn note, and now she was back with his group offer.
He was preposterous.

“He’s
not, absolutely not, taking us out.”

“That
very fine man can sure as glitter sticks take me out,” said Lizabeth.

“Me
too. Ages since I’ve had a good steak,” said Kathryn. She slapped her concave
stomach as though it was missing the benefits of a chargrill.

“I’m
certainly not going anywhere with him,” said Melinda.

Kathryn
tossed her hair. “Knock me down with a feather.”

“He
doesn’t mean me, does he?”

That
was the new girl whose stage name was Tiffany. She looked to Vi who nodded. “All
of us. He’s not joking around. I think he’s loaded.”

He was
clearly loaded. “I think he’s a dealer.” Who else would live like Reid did? That
luxurious unfurnished apartment that was all gym and games, bath and bed. Which
didn’t explain why he was a drunk and not an addict. Not that she needed Reid
to make sense. She didn’t need anything from him, and certainly not flowers and
dates.

“So we
eat and run,” said Lizabeth. “We’d be together. What harm can it do? Why are
you so against this? You said he was trying to make up for being a douche that
night in the alley.”

“He is.
I just. It’s just.” Even Melinda had stopped changing, to look at Zarley. She
was half
Flashdance
, one hot pink leg warmer on, one off. She felt
herself blushing. She liked these girls but they didn’t know about her past and
she didn’t want them all over her present, and admitting what happened with
Reid was too much detail, plus there was no reason to embarrass him.

She’d
knelt at his feet for heaven’s sake and he’d had an erection, even though he
could barely stand upright. Cara knew how that night had gone down, had
listened to Zarley tell the story of it with her normal fidgeting stunned to
stillness, and no one else needed to. “He sent the flowers, okay.”

“Hah,
knew it wasn’t some mystery boyfriend,” said Kathryn.

“Why’d
you go telling us that porky?” said Lizabeth at the same time as Melinda said,
“You lied.”

“Because
I didn’t want this.” She slapped both hands on her thighs. It was a nervous
gesture she used to make before attempting a difficult vault, before the points
scoring started, at the height of her anxiety about messing the skill up. “I
didn’t want this fuss, you all up in my business and a big deal made of it.”

“Well
done,” said Melinda, dryly.

“Wait,
wait, wait.” Lizabeth plucked an oriental lily from the three dozen Reid had
delivered. “It’s okay that you know about Kathryn’s quizzes and my little health
scare and Mel’s cheating heart.”

“Hey,”
said Melinda. “You’re calling a suspected pregnancy a health scare.”

Lizabeth
ignored Melinda and twirled the flower. “But when your life walks in this door
and gives us hay fever you don’t share.”

The new
girl sneezed, which thoroughly underlined the point.

Put
like that, Zarley felt stupid keeping her secret. What did it matter if she
told them Reid got sick, that she’d taken him home to his lonely drug den where
he’d passed out?

It
mattered. It just mattered. She’d had a lifetime of too many people knowing too
many intimate details about her: height, weight, mood, diet, right down to when
she was ovulating. She didn’t wish that on anyone else.

“He
sent the flowers because he saw what happened in the alley with that guy, and was
an asshole about it. But I don’t want this to go any further. He wanted to take
me out to apologize and I said no.”

“That’s
why you were out on the floor,” said Kathryn. She took the lily out of
Lizabeth’s hand and put it back in the beer jug that served as a vase. “At
least it wasn’t roses.”

“Now he
thinks he can get me to go out with him if he takes us all. He tried to bargain
with me. Said he wouldn’t drink here anymore if I went out with him.”

“You’ve
seen him up close, does he smell bad, does he drool, touch himself all the
time? How bad could it be to let the guy buy you a meal?” said Kathryn.

Zarley
snapped her fingers. “He thinks he can buy me.”

“True,”
said Vi. “Wallet stuffed with cash. I think I could’ve taken more from him.” She
pursed her lips in annoyance.

“Drug
money,” said Melinda and it broke the tension, they all laughed. “It probably
is, and that’s not funny.”

“I
think it’s hella funny and I can’t see what’s wrong with us all having a spend
of Mr. Back Booth’s drug money for a nice meal,” said Lizabeth.

Zarley
tensed all the way to her toes. “No, please. He’s trying to manipulate me.”

Lizabeth
looked to Vi. “Does the offer stand without her?”

“I
checked. It does.”

Lizabeth
clapped her hands together then made as if she was diving. “Then I’m in.”

Kathryn
mock backstroked. “Me too.”

“Why
the heck not?” said Vi. “You might as well come too, Therese.”

Ah,
that was Tiffany’s real name. “Suit yourselves, I’m not going.”

Zarley
turned away to sort her costumes while the rest of them discussed it and Melinda
pointedly hogged the mirror. It quickly proved impossible to line up a date and
time they were all available until Vi suggested supper and it was agreed they’d
go right now, tonight at closing, in case Reid backed off the offer.

After
that there was much coming and going from Vi as she negotiated with Reid and
much yelling from Lou for someone, someone, anyone to please make love to a
pole before he had another birthday, and for Vi to get her tush back on the
floor or find another club to hostess at. Lou was all talk, he’d never sack Vi,
she was as much an institution here as he was.

Reid wasn’t
all talk. He didn’t throw up an excuse or leave and not come back. Lizabeth
knew a place open twenty-four hours with a whatever you liked menu. Reid sent
back a message to say he was delighted they’d taken up his offer and would Lux
please reconsider.

“He
actually used the word delighted?” Kathryn asked Vi on one of her many
backstage flits.

“He
did. He’s a little weird. Not a regular Joe. He has that glowering thing going on
and I’m not sure if he has a sense of humor.”

“Think
he’s married?”

“No
ring.” Vi shrugged. They all knew that didn’t mean anything.

“You’re
really doing this, even though it will only encourage him and that’s not what I
want,” Zarley said, while around her the girls were changing into their street
clothes, taking a little more care with their makeup and hair than usual.

“It’s
free pancakes and bacon, Zar. We don’t like him we walk away. We don’t want him
out the front, we tell Lou to bar him,” said Vi. “He drank nothing but Coke
tonight. Lou will bar him anyway if he keeps that nonsense up.”

Zarley
shook her head and shouldered her bag. She quit the club with Melinda, leaving
the others to their primping. Reid was waiting on the street when they emerged
from Lucky’s. His face lit up with a smile that made Zarley stop dead so
Melinda walked into her.

Melinda
grunted and sidestepped. “Damn, it’s going to rain,” she said, looking up as if
the thunderous, low-hanging sky was the reason Zarley had two lead feet.

But
Zarley had never seen Reid smile before. It took ten years off his face. He
looked almost boyish. It made her wonder for the first time how old he was, not
as old as she’d thought judging by his usual scowl.

“I
hoped you’d change your mind. I’ve got a car coming,” he said, then stuck his
hand out to Melinda. “I’m Reid.”

“I’m
delighted, but I’m going home,” Melinda said, playing up his word, avoiding his
hand.

Reid
didn’t appear to care. “Let me pay for your cab.” He strode to the curb and
flagged one down.

Melinda
stood there as the cab pulled up. “Why would you do that?”

“It’s
late and you’re tired and I want to,” he said, but he wasn’t looking at
Melinda. He was looking at Zarley and he was further gluing her feet to the
pavement with this new manipulation.

Melinda
looked Reid up and down. “I guess it’s no different from a tip, okay then.” He
opened the back door of the cab and Melinda scrambled in, then he handed the
driver a couple of bills and by the time Melinda’s ride pulled away, the others
had piled out Lucky’s front door.

They
crowded Reid, Vi handling the introductions. Reid smiling like he’d entered the
candy store and had an unlimited budget and a genius metabolism. He’d hired a
car for them. Who would do that?
Crap
. She could be halfway home by now.

“Goodnight,”
she said, and it stopped their chatter. Any minute now the sky was going to open
up and wash the world. “Have fun.”

“You’re
seriously not coming,” said Kathryn.

“Nope,”
she said.

“Let me
get you a cab,” said Reid. She might’ve expected that, but she’d been braced
for him to pressure her into going with the group. Before she could decline his
cab offer, his car pulled up, a big black SUV.

“We can
drop her off,” said Lizabeth, as if this was her expedition.

“No.” Last
thing she wanted was Reid knowing where she lived. “That’s not a good idea.”

The
girls started scrambling into the SUV, Lizabeth snagging shotgun. Reid stood
apart, watching Zarley with that intense stare.

She
bounced her bag, pulled the strap higher onto her shoulder. “Why are you doing
this?”

“I was
hoping to show you I wasn’t a threat. That I didn’t want anything from you. I
didn’t intend to be inappropriate.”

There
was a shriek of laughter from the SUV, followed by a rumble of male protestation
and a blast of music, and then the rain started.

Zarley
pulled the hood of her jacket up. “I think they’ve got inappropriate covered. Thank
you again for the flowers. Goodnight.”

“Please
let me drop you somewhere. I won’t look. You can blindfold me.”

She
took a breath, he really was a good-looking guy, and not drunk, not sick, he
was so much more appealing, so the idea of him in a blindfold, at her mercy,
hmm. “You won’t look?” She glanced at her trainers, splashed with rain. It was
ridiculous.

“You know
where I live,” he said with an indignant huff.

She
looked him up and down and failed at making the gesture snarky like Melinda
had. He was tall, lean, with wide shoulders and a stance that said go around me
I’m not moving. “You don’t think you’re safe from me?”

He lowered
his chin. “I’m not the one who went all Black Widow in the alley.”

She
laughed. She couldn’t help it. Reid kept smiling and they were both getting wet.

He
pushed dark hair away from his face. “The way out of this is to let me buy you supper,
breakfast, coffee, whatever.”

She’d
had worse offers, from less interesting men. And he really had bent himself
into a pretzel over this.

“Come
on, Lux. You don’t ever have to see me again after this.”

“Promise?”
He’d better keep that promise, because liking him might become a problem.

He put
a large spread hand to his chest. “Cross my pickled heart.”

He did
have a sense of humor.

She got
in the SUV and Reid squished in beside her, his thigh aligned with hers, his
arm over the back of the seat to make more room. Her shoulder was wedged
against his chest and it didn’t make her feel uncomfortable. She thought about
him wearing a blindfold all the way to the diner, and she dried her rain-wet
clothes from the inside out.