“I wasn’t aware I had a choice.”She faced the bartender.“Moscow Mule please.”
The woman gave her a succinct nod and walked off.
“You didn’t.”Dusan stepped closer.
Lance moved between them, bending over the bar to order himself a beer, then he stepped back and kept her slightly behind him.
“So what is this for?”She gestured around the room.“I’m assuming there’s something about a charity, which is why you have all these high rollers in one room.
“Yes, we are saving the whales or something like that.”
She accepted her drink with a thankful nod and put the hammered copper mule mug to her lips and enjoyed her first sip.
“You expecting someone to out us as cops or something?”She pushed away from the bar and stepped up to the man, noting how his ever-present bodyguards shifted closer.
“Surely you don’t think I wouldn’t test all theories.You’re an unknown and I have had a man following your man there and I’ve not seen you, or he hasn’t, around.”A narrowing of his cold gaze as he took another healthy gulp.“Until recently.”
Behind her, she heard the top of Lance’s beer bottle get popped off but she didn’t look away from Dusan.The man was definitely a predator.Looking for the slightest hint of weakness.
Rolling her shoulders in a slow motion, she took another sip, even though all she wished to do was suck it down and get out from under his intense stare.
“Is this the goateed man who spends his every Wednesday at Red Box, getting a handy from one of the staff, followed by his visit to a married woman on Thursday when you have her husband running errands out of town, and Friday he hovers around a school?I don’t even want to think why he would be near an elementary school, but then again, given what your son is into, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised.On the weekends he flits between five women and Monday and Tuesday when he’s not technically on duty for you, he’s in a whorehouse on Sycamore.Perhaps he’s expending too much of his energy fucking a shit ton of men and women to properly do his job.If I’ve seen him, he damn well should have seen me.Not my fault if he hasn’t.”
Lance stepped in, arm slipping around her waist.“I want to dance, baby.”
He tugged her away from the shark-flat gaze of Dusan and onto the floor.
“I’ve got my drink in hand,” she said lightly.
“Why do you insist on pushing him?”He wrapped her tight to his chest, the chill from the beer bottle in his hand along her spine.
“He asked me a question.”Her own drink was at his side but she settled her head against his torso, comforted by the steady beat of his heart.
“We’re trying to stop him from getting even more suspicious, Jasmine.”
“You say that like it’s going to change anything.We’re here to see if any of these members of the brass or any of the city council people recognize me or you.More likely me as I am the unknown.”
They barely moved as the slow, sensual jazz played around them.His thumb stroked along her skin, heating it where the bottle cooled it.
She enjoyed the slow dance and drank her mule.
“Can we at least try not to get taken out back and literally be turned into food for the fishes?There are sharks here, you know.”Lance’s gaze tugged at her heart.
He maneuvered them to the edge, where they placed their empty drinks on a tray.The music kicked up a bit and he drew back so he could look her in the eyes.She read the intention in his eyes before he said anything and she smirked.
Jasmine lifted her left eyebrow.“You damn well better come correct if you’re about to take me out to tango.”
“Baby, haven’t you learned it yet?I’ve got all the moves.”
An honest laugh tumbled from her as he spun her around and moved them back out to the floor.For the first time since they’d arrived, she was actually excited about what was coming next.
* * * *
Lance drained the bottle of water before capping it and tossing it into the recycling bin at the end of the bar.He moved the bowtie at his neck slightly and scanned the room for his woman.They’d done two tango dances and he was harder than the floor he stood upon.Nothing about her other than pure sensuality and he wanted it all for himself.Didn’t want to share.Didn’t want to have to hold back.
When she’d walked out of the room in her black dress he’d been amazed by the beauty, he’d not even considered what a dress with two slits in the front where her legs were would be like during a Latin dance.
Now I know.
