Page 31 of Sexy

“Because,” I whisper, “I don’t want to have this conversation standing in a hallway.”

“Five minutes, you said. I’ve got you on the clock.” He opens the door and I step in.

His suite is nice. There’s a small foyer with a table and a door to a closet and a second bathroom. I’m familiar with the floor plan. “This is quite a perk we give you. Free room? It must be nice living in a luxury hotel.”

“It is. Get to the point.”

I walk towards the living area and take it all in. He’s got a laptop open on the coffee table and tons of papers scattered around. He pushes past me and starts gathering them up and then tucks them away in an end-table drawer like he can’t get rid of them fast enough.

“I have to admit, the story the girls tell is sad.”

“Yeah, well, that’s because they are sad people. They go to strip shows looking for a piece of ass and then act surprised when it’s just sex? Come on. They’re not pissed because I fucked them. They’re pissed because I only did it once.”

Chapter Twelve

“Yeah,” I say, about to get sarcastic. But I realize it’s true. He’s… hot. I mean, let’s face it. Fletcher Novak has a six-pack, thighs that make you moan just thinking about them gripping your hips, fingers and hands that know just where to touch you, and a cock the size of a cucumber. So instead of being sarcastic, I just sigh and say, “You’re probably right.”

“What?” he asks, thrown by my surrender. “You believe me?” He stares me in the eyes and I get a little lost in the blue.

“What’s not to believe? You’re… desirable,” I say, coming up with a better word than hot. “They got hurt. And I’m sure you were up front with them, since I got the Novak treatment this morning and you were perfectly clear with me. So yeah, I believe you. But that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, Fletcher. I can’t win here. You’re gonna call a lawyer if I take action and they’re gonna… well, who the hell knows what they might do. Tell the media? Write a letter to my father? Try to sue us for letting you assault them?”

“I didn’t assault them, Tiffy. I slept with them. And it takes two to do that shit, right? So why is it always the man’s fault? Why do I have to pay for doing the same thing they did? Why am I the bad guy when they came on to me? Hell, I didn’t even have to go looking for them. They found me.”

And he’s right. Every bit of it is right. “It’s a double standard. I get it. But that’s not the point. The point is, you can’t do that shit and work for this company. My father would blow a blood vessel if he knew you were acting this way.”

“I’m a fucking male stripper. This is how I’m supposed to act.”

“Well, none of the other guys in the show have a pack of angry women slapping them in the face in the casino restaurant. That’s you. And I’m sorry, but I’m gonna have to—”

“I want to keep this job, Tiffy. I’m not kidding. I want to keep this job for a little bit longer and I won’t let you force me out without a fight.”

“What’s that mean?” Seriously, can he be any more cryptic?

He stares at me for a second, like he’s not sure what to say. But the indecision passes just as fast, and his answer pours out of his mouth like all the other lies. “I’m the one who decides to leave, Tiffy. And if I broke your rules, then you’d have cause to get rid of me. But I didn’t. We both know that. So I’m staying and that’s the end of it.”

I walk away. I have no good way out of this. I need to just be a professional and do the job I was hired to do.

“Hey,” he says roughly, coming up behind me. “I saw you today.”

“What?” I ask back, looking over my shoulder at him. “Saw what?”

“You at the table with Cole. He’s the guy, right? You like him, don’t you? You took notes this morning and then you used them on him at lunch. I saw the whole thing.”

“We’re not talking about me, Fletcher. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You fucked me this morning.”

Shit.

“You liked it. And”—he chuckles—“you understood that it was just fun, right?”

“So what?” Dammit. Now he’s gonna threaten me. He’s gonna say, Tiffy, I’ll tell your father what a disappointment you are. I’ll tell him you fucked a complete stranger on the roof of his hotel and you came three times.

Jesus Christ. Why the hell did I ever do that?

Fletcher Novak will use this against me for eternity. Why didn’t I think of all this before I let my vagina have a party with him?

“So let’s make a deal.”