Page 34 of Glorious Sinner

I slid my thumb under her bottom lip. Her lips were red. They were that color all the time, even without lipstick. Like candy apples. “I like your moves.”

Her gaze dropped to my groin, to the obvious bulge there. “I noticed.”

I smirked. “I always try to make a lasting impression.”

She nodded. “You don’t have to worry about anything on that front.” She tilted her head. “I hope you don’t walk around like that in front of poor Arthur. He’d be mortified.”

I chuckled. Arthur had seen far worse in his time with me, but I chose not to share that with her. Christ, I wanted to suck on that bottom lip. “I’m not too worried, since I only have this problem when I’m around you.”

Her tongue darted out, licking her lip and grazing the tip of my thumb at the same time. I was hard when I walked in here; now I was rock solid.

“Tomas—”

My phone started ringing. I growled.

She grinned again. “You should probably get that.”

As much as I didn’t want to, she was right. I had men all over this city searching for her husband and I wanted to know the moment they found him. I pulled it from my pocket and put it to my ear. “Mendoza.”

“We all set for tonight?” Stephanie’s boss, Raul, said down the line.

“I was just about to tell her. You make the arrangements?”

“Yeah,” Raul said. “Steph will be safe here. I’ll make sure of that.”

“Thanks for your help with this. I appreciate it.”

Raul made a gruff sound. “She’s one of my girls. You don’t need to thank me,” he said, not sounding happy.

Not a surprise. The guy didn’t have much love for me and he’d had even less since I’d been coming into his club to see Stephanie the past year. I got it, but he’d just have to get over it because she was my girl now.

“See you at ten,” I said and hung up.

Steph was looking up at me. “Where are you going at ten?”

“We are going to Stilettos. I thought you might like to dance.”

Her face lit up. “Really?”

I nodded.

She threw her arms around me. “Thank fuck for that. I’ve been going stir crazy.”

My lips twitched. “Thought so.” I leaned in and kissed her thoroughly, because I had to, and when I lifted my head, her eyes were a little dazed. I liked that, too, a lot.

Her fingernails lightly grazed the back of my neck. “A shift at the club is exactly what I need.”

“Not a shift. You’ve got two dances on stage. No lap dances, and you’re not to go anywhere near the private rooms.”

Another graze of those nails. Fuck, I loved when she did that. “If you say so,” she said. “I know you’re trying to keep me safe. I don’t want to make it harder on you.”

“It has nothing to do with your safety, Angel.”

Her brows rose.

“I think you’ve picked up on the fact that I’m no saint.” I cupped the side of her face. “The last year, I sat back and watched you dance for assholes and said nothing because that was your job and it wasn’t my place. You have to know that went against every part of my nature.” I held her wide gaze. “But things have changed. Woman, I’ve watched you come. I’ve had my hands on you, my mouth. You think I can sit back and watch my girl with someone else, even if it’s your job?” I pressed a kiss to her lips to soften what I was saying. “I’ll give you anything, but I can’t give you that.”

Her mouth opened, closed. “What does Raul say about that?”