Romance in Vegas - Showgirl! (11 page)

She came to dinner at six o'clock promptly.
He always noticed things like that. Walking up to him, she kissed
him on the cheek quickly then went to look at the view. The sun was
setting and the sky color held a vibrant pink hue. Like her cheeks,
he thought as he watched her. She wore simple jeans and her Welcome
to Vegas t-shirt and sandals.

Might as well say it, he thought. "Dani, I
wanted to talk to you about the performance."

Whirling around to face him, she said, "Did
you not like it?"

He smiled. "Of course I liked it. Everyone in
town liked it. That's what we're here to discuss."

She looked disappointed then. "All right.
Let's discuss."

Again, Dani sat in his favorite chair. He sat
across from her. "How would you like to do that routine at every
eleven o'clock showing?"

"The hair flipping wild one?" she asked in
confusion.

"That would be it. I liked it. And so did
everyone else. It had this raw sexual appeal. I think it would be
good for the casino. But," he added, "I don't want you to feel like
you have to do this. It's really up to you."

She thought for a minute.

"Can I get you a drink?"

"Yes, please."

He poured them both a drink and sat back
down.

"I guess I could do it. But won't the other
girls be upset?"

"Not when I increase their salaries, they
won't. Any other questions?"

"Should I work with Nat on it?"

"That's a good question. It might take the
spark out of it. Let me talk to him, and we'll let you know."

Nodding, she took a drink of her whiskey.

A waiter from one of his restaurants brought
dinner. He'd ordered her favorite, filet mignon, baked potato,
salad, green beans and lots of rolls and butter. She said very
little during dinner, and he thought she might still be thinking
about the routine.

"Dani," he said, while she was polishing off
a cheesecake, "last night, did you say you went to the cafeteria
before bedtime?"

She nodded.

"What did you eat? I have a doctor friend who
said the nightmares might be caused by eating too much before
bedtime."

"Well, I had a brownie. A cheesecake. Some
stuff like pie, I'm not sure what it's called. Then chocolate chip
cookies."

He laughed. "Well tonight, don't gorge
yourself like that." Then he grew serious. "We need to get rid of
the bad dreams. You should only have good dreams in your life,
Dani."

She looked at him gratefully, and finished
her dessert.

Al clicked in a CD of romantic tunes, before
he stood by her and held out his hand. "Shall we?"

She was so lithe in his arms, so graceful, as
he pulled her tighter and the music rolled on. Resting her head on
his chest, she sighed, and he was instantly hard.

His hands roved her backside, pushed her up
against his hardness, and he couldn't stop himself from groaning as
he kissed her sweet neck. Her hair smelled faintly of roses, and
her skin, jasmine. He lost himself in her, immersed himself,
feeling her hair, her soft skin and her quick response.

Yes, she was responsive, this woman, so much
so he had to hold himself back, always. Now, he brought one hand up
to her breast and felt her nipple contract. "That's what I mean,"
he whispered in her ear, "when you're looking at yourself, see what
I see."

She made a soft sound, before she unzipped
her jeans.

"No--" he began.

"Yes, please," she urged, as she pulled his
hand between her legs.

His fingers felt the soft lace there, slid
along it then moved it away. She made another faint sound. He
caressed, then moved inside of her wetness, but realized he could
only get one of his fingers in her. "Oh God," he whispered, "you've
never been with anyone before, have you?"

He was having a hard time controlling
himself, as she continued making the sounds, ignoring his question,
and he felt her contracting around his finger as she gasped. "The
feeling," she whispered against his cheek, "it's almost gone..."
and she contracted again, closing her eyes as he pulled back to
look at her.

His fingers moved to her bud, rolling it
around, massaging it, and she gasped, pressing against him. She
stiffened, crying out, and he waited seconds until she was done,
and moved his hand to her back. Holding her, he gazed at her long
flowing curly red hair, pink cheeks and lips, now slightly parted.
"Beautiful," he whispered, still staring at her, "just fucking
beautiful."

Chapter 10

Dani slept for a while, after a guard walked
her to her suite, but then she was awake at four o'clock in the
morning. This often happened to her, and she didn't know why. She
thought about Al and the night before and she grew warm with the
memories. She understood now about the needs Kim often talked
about.

Finally, she gave up and dressed in a shirt,
jeans and sandals. Smiling at the roses, she went out to roam the
casino.

Robert saw her first. He clicked and zoomed
in with his camera. "She's on the move. Wonder if I should call
Scaletti. Damn, she's foxy."

Les leaned over and said, "Wasn't that just
for the screaming episodes?"

"Well," Robert said finally, "I'll just
follow her around. Not a hard assignment." The three of them
sitting in surveillance laughed at that.

She stopped by the restroom about an hour
later to see if Nola was there, but someone else was on duty. And
there was a woman with a blue uniform with no pockets. The woman
washed her hands and arms. "I feel like a junkie for Christ sake,"
she said disgustedly.

Dani walked up and looked at her arms, which
were bruised all the way to her upper arm. "What happened?"

The woman snorted. "I work in soft count. The
boxes do it to me. You know, the pull. Hey, don't you work here?
I'm Linda."

Flashing her a smile, Dani said, "Yes. I'm a
dancer who can't sleep."

"Want to get something to eat? I was just
going down to the cafeteria."

"Sure."

While she ate a plate of scrambled eggs,
bacon, toast, fruit and coffee, Dani got to know the count team.
Linda, the woman in the restroom, was pretty, around twenty-five
with dark hair, Maude was an older lady with grey hair, Freddy and
Michael looked oriental to her, around thirty, maybe Vietnamese,
but she felt too shy to ask them.

Linda said, "Ugh, what a day. Did you see
that woman at the end of zone five?"

Laughing, Freddy said, "She kept insisting we
were changing the machines so she'd lose."

"So," Dani said between bites, "what do you
think is the best part of your job?"

"Probably getting a paycheck," Maude said
with a frown.

She noticed Michael wasn't talking, just sat
shoveling food in his mouth. He looked angry.

"The best part is noon, when we get to go
home," Freddy said, and he added, "so Dani, what's the best part of
your job?"

She sat back and wiped her mouth. "Well, so
far it's been the women. They're really friendly. And I love the
music. I've always wanted to dance. Kim and I went to Chez Vous the
other night. It was really fun."

"That's where I know you from," Maude said
enthusiastically, "you were in the papers." Then she paused and lit
a cigarette. "Are you Scaletti's girlfriend or what?"

Dani gave her the thousand watt smile. "Or
what."

They all laughed.

When Dani walked by the cage on the main
floor, she saw Marie. "Hey," she called to her, "what's going
on?"

Marie came out the door to see her. "A little
change of scenery for me. The hours are killing me though. Four to
twelve. Hard to get up that early."

"So, do you like it?" Dani asked
dubiously.

"It's different. I've spent five years
backstage, so it's nice to be on the floor for a change, working
with the customers."

She added, "I wondered how you did after the
wild dance. Any leg cramps or anything?"

"No, thanks," Dani said warmly, surprised the
woman would remember. "I'm drinking my water. But Al wants me to do
the wild dance at the eleven o'clock show from now on."

"Really? Wow. It did generate publicity,
that's for sure. I'm surprised you don't have geek stalkers coming
out of the woodwork."

Dani smiled. "No, nothing yet."

"We had one for a while. He was after one of
the girls. That's why Al's so protective of us...I mean them,
now."

"What happened?"

"The guy kept sending the dancer notes, found
out her suite number, showed up one time, pushed his way into her
room and roughed her up pretty bad. I thought Al would have a
stroke or something. He put his best men on it. They found him.
Never heard from the guy after that. Plus the word was out on the
street. Don't mess with Scaletti's girls."

Worried now, and wondering if he would be mad
at her for roaming around the casino in the early morning, Dani
said good-bye to Marie after hugging her.

Meanwhile, Robert in surveillance was busy
snapping still photos of Dani in the lunchroom, walking on the
floor of the casino, chatting with Marie at the cage, and entering
her room again.

She and Kim spoke later in the morning on the
way to the stage.

"Did he call you yet?" Dani asked her.

"Yes, he called four times since we said
good-bye yesterday."

"Think the long distance thing will
work?"

But a voice interrupted. "Why sweetie, you
all talking about Tony?"

They turned back to see Lorali following
them.

"Yeah," Kim replied, flinging her towel over
her shoulder, "what of it?"

"He's such a ladies man, wouldn't you say?"
Lorali said sweetly. "And he loves to be waited on, if you know
what I mean. Why, I was just with him the other night, when he
first got here."

As they reached the stage, Kim angrily threw
her towel on a rack. "Really?" she said icily, staring at Lorali.
"Well guess what? You weren't with him the night after that, or
when he left town."

Lorali just smiled and began her warm
ups.

Kim hissed to Dani, "I'm going to kill that
man. He never told me he was with that bitch. I'm going to just--"
then she sighed in frustration and started her stretches.

About an hour later, Al came in for his
inspection. Dani noticed he always loosened his tie when he came
in, and wondered why. His eyes were far away as he put his feet on
the seat back. "Go ahead."

One by one, they paraded and he either nodded
or didn't say anything.

Lorali breezed out on the stage. He studied
her. "You're overdoing it, Lor. Tone it down a bit." And her eyes
were slits as she walked back past Kim.

Dani tried to remember everything Nat had
taught her, as she hadn't practiced in two days. Even though he
didn't say anything, she could feel his gaze riveted on her the
whole time.

He came up on the stage when they were done,
conferred with Nat, and walked up to her. "I spoke with Nat and we
are in agreement that there will be a very loose structure to your
eleven o'clock show. That way, you will have some freedom
to...well, do whatever."

The scent of his aftershave came to her, and
her eyes met his. Her face flushed as she remembered the night
before. But he was calm and professional, as always, in front of
the other women. "Is that all right?" he asked politely.

She nodded, and he left.

After the morning rehearsal, she found Kim,
who still looked furious. They walked to the lunchroom. "What are
you going to do?" Dani asked her.

"He's already called twice. I let it go to
voice mail. He can kiss my ass."

"I hate to see you drop him," Dani said, "he
seems like a nice guy."

"She's right," Kim said, flicking her hair
back, "he is a womanizer. I don't know what I was thinking. He's
not a nice guy."

Entering her room, exhausted after two
rehearsals, and not looking forward to the dress rehearsal at five,
Dani plopped down on the sofa. And she wondered how she would wing
another performance at eleven. Would the same needs drive her? Or
would she be criticized and ridiculed in the newspapers, with them
saying she'd lost her touch?

Her cell phone rang, and she was too tired to
answer it. But it was persistently ringing now, so she finally
answered and sat on the sofa again. "Yes?"

"Dani, it's Tony."

"Hi Tony. How are you? Did you have a good
flight home?"

"Yeah, yeah, thanks. Hey listen, I can't get
in touch with Kim. Is anything wrong?"

She debated. Kim was her friend, and she
wouldn't want to divulge any secrets. "Well, um, you might want to
think back to the first night you were here."

"Yeah?"

"Well, you know how girls talk."

"Oh shit. The blonde. Figures she'd be like
that. Kim doesn't understand. I didn't do anything with that
blonde. She was just too nasty."

Dani smiled, but didn't say anything.

"Can you help me out?" he pleaded. "I'm way
over here." And he added, "I'd do it for you."

"I'll bet," she laughed. "Okay, let me see
what I can do."

She phoned Kim. "He's getting desperate," she
told her, "calling me. Said he didn't do anything with Lorali."

Kim sniffed. "All right. Let me think about
it. I just hate the game playing. I don't mean sex games, that's
different. But the life games, the head games, I can't get into
it."

They clicked off, and Dani gazed at the roses
and the card attached. "Call me," she said. Maybe please call me
would be better, she thought.

She wondered if Al was playing games with
her. It's true, she didn't have much experience in the world,
especially sexually, but she thought she probably wouldn't
recognize a game if it came up and hit her in the face.