Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
I took her hand, dwarfed it in my massive palm, and drew her a step closer. She smelled of lavender and vanilla, and sweat. Sweet, fucking sweat. Goddamn. That was the smell of sex, if ever there was one. “Jax.”
“Jax?” She quirked an eyebrow. “Is that even a name?”
“Is teaching pole dancing even a profession?” I asked.
She whipped her hand out of my grip then turned and strode off, her heels thumping down on the boards as if she could pulverize them with her anger. She moved like a queen, not a princess, with measured sways of that ass, frustration aside.
“You’re a teacher here.” I said, loudly, as she cut off the music. My statement rang in the studio, up against the gray wall behind the array of poles, and the mirror at the far end.
“What of it?” Riley asked and grabbed a towel off a stack of chairs in the corner.
Christ, if I wasn’t careful, I’d wind up picturing her in one of those chairs, grinding on me, working herself back and forth, back and forth—Great job not picturing it. Business, jackass, business.
“I need to speak with the person in charge,” I said. “Now.”
“What for?”
“My business is private,” I replied. “Riley, I’m sure you can understand when I tell you it’s an urgent matter.” I wasn’t exactly the sugar-stick kinda guy, but I had enough charm at hand to woo any woman and wheedle any business owner out of their investments.
“Urgent?” Riley spun, those hazel-flecked eyes wide with mock surprise. She toweled her neck and her hair, then her stomach and her collarbones. She did it without breaking eye contact. Did this woman realize how fucking sexy she was? Probably.
She wasn’t in her twenties, or maybe she was, either way, this Riley chick wasn’t a girl—she was a woman. All fucking woman. Or she’d never have tempted me in the first place.
She bent and dragged the towel up one leg to the inside of her thigh, snapped her focus onto me again, eyes narrowed. “You’ll have to come back tomorrow, unfortunately.”
“No.”
“Yes,” she said. “This dance studio closes at nine p.m. and it’s—” Riley cut off and checked the clock on the wall at the far end of the room. “It’s fifteen minutes past. Sorry.” She shrugged.
I crossed the distance between us, fast and purposeful, partly drawn by her and partly pushed by, well, whatever the fuck about her didn’t make me yawn. I halted in front of her, mere inches between us, and looked down my nose, only slightly crooked from where it’d been broken. “I didn’t come here to mince words with teachers, understand? I’m a businessman, and time is money. Either give me the owner’s number or—” I broke off, glanced to the left, then frowned.
Up against the corner, packed tight as if to avoid notice, was a pile of pillows and a duvet.
Riley snapped her fingers at me. “Hey! Hey, dude, you don’t get to make demands in here. This place is closed, and you have to leave before I call the cops.”
“Call the cops?” I switched my gaze back to her face. “You wouldn’t do that.”
“Wouldn’t I?”
Christ, I enjoyed the challenge in her expression. The strength. “No, Riley, you wouldn’t.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because you’re illegally squatting in this building, and if you called them, you’d be removed.” I grinned.
“It’s a commercial building,” Riley replied, reflecting my shit-eating grin right back at me. “It’s not illegal to squat in a commercial building.”
“But it must bite, right? It must suck to have to sleep here every night and clean up before the classes come in, in the morning. How long’s it been since you showered?” I asked.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m just saying, you look like you could use a hot, soapy shower. Water trickling down your skin, your spine.”
She bit her lip. Apparently, I’d hit a nerve there. There was nothing women loved more than warmth, cleanliness, and beauty—unless it was to sacrifice all of that to be a dirty girl for the right man.
“I—this is all beside the point. Dude, uh, Jax, you have to go.”
“All right,” I said and made my decision.
I’d come here to buy this studio as part of my conquest across Miami. I’d own every bit of land I could get my hands on, turn studios like this into another strip club or restaurant, but I’d have to set aside that goal for tonight.
This woman wasn’t safe here.
“OK, so why aren’t you leaving?” she asked and folded her arms across those ample breasts.
“Call me old school, but I’d be loath to leave a damsel in distress behind.”
Riley lifted one shoulder and glanced around, past me, then behind herself at the chair and the stereo. “Good thing there aren’t any of those around.”
“Let’s get this clear and fast. I’m not leaving unless you come with me, and honey, you can call the damn cops, call the army if you want, all I’ll do is call my buddies higher up the line and have the cavalry turn around and meander back the way they came.” I scissored my fingers in a walking motion in mid-air.