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She turned to see Jamie behind her.
“Melina and Grace have gone inside. The show’s about to start,” he said. “Max and Rhys seated us together. Do you want to go in?”
She tucked her hair behind her ears, suddenly not sure what she should be doing with her hands. Other than putting them all over him.
“Um, yeah,” she said. She turned back to Damien Cruz and said, “It was nice meeting you.”
He reached into his shirt pocket, retrieved and held out a room key for the MGM Grand, and said, “If you want to see even more of me, I’ll be there after midnight.”
Well, that was certainly bold of him. It made things crystal clear right from the start.
Uncomplicated, unlike her very complicated feelings for Jamie.
Lucy stared at the key card for a few seconds, undecided. She sensed Jamie beside her. Thought about how much she wanted him.
Then took the hotel key.
While she’d been deciding whether to take Damien’s hotel key, Jamie had ordered a shot. He picked it up and swigged it back. His throat muscles rippled. He set the glass down on the bar, never taking his gaze from hers. Desire slowly rolled through her, making her tremble.
“You ready now?” he asked.
She lifted her chin and brushed past him, hyper aware when he followed very closely behind her.
Once they took their seats, Max and Rhys welcomed everyone to the show and thanked them for coming. They introduced their chef and mentioned Jamie as one of their business partners. They put the spotlight on Melina, introducing her as Rhys’s beautiful wife, and on Grace, who Max called the love of his life. Then they left the stage and everyone waited for the show to begin.
“Excited?”
A rush of arousal thrummed through her at the sound of Jamie’s voice in her ear. At the way his breath hushed against the sensitive skin on her neck. At how his scent filled her nostrils. Damn it, it wasn’t a good sign that no sooner had she taken Damien’s room key than she’d put the guy completely out of her mind. Her entire being was focused on the man beside her.
“I’m assuming you mean, am I excited to watch the show?” she said, forcing a mocking tone into her words. She kept her eyes focused up front—on the dark and empty stage. But then she couldn’t help it—she let her gaze slide over Jamie, taking in how his jacket fit him to perfection, how the blue of his dress shirt collar showed off the tanned skin on his face and neck, how his eyes glittered golden even in the dim light of the theater, and how his seal-brown hair looked slightly disheveled, as if a lover had recently run her hands through it. She loved the way his hair felt when she grabbed it, pressing his head closer so that she could…
No. She couldn’t go there. Not now. Not tonight.
Think about Damien. The tattoos. The key card he gave you.
“Yeah, I’m asking if you’re excited about the show. But does something else have you excited? Thinking about the guy with the tattoos who handed you his hotel key?” Jamie asked.
“What do you care? After what I did last night, I’m surprised you even want to sit with me. I must—I must disgust you.”
His expression sobered. “You’re wrong. Is that why you didn’t get back on stage? Because you didn’t want to disgust me?”
She hesitated, then said, “I didn’t want to upset you. Not any more than I already had.”
“But upsetting me was the whole point, wasn’t it?”
No way was she confirming that but clearly she didn’t need to.
He knew, just like he always seemed to know what went on inside her head.
When she said nothing, he continued, “I respect you more than you’ll ever know. And despite your attempt to push me away, Lucy, I still want you. But I got your message loud and clear last night. We will never have a future together. I accept that. But if you’re thinking of using that room key because you need something, you don’t have to go to a stranger. I can give it to you. And it would be my pleasure to do so. One night. No strings attached.”
Wait—what had he just said? Was he seriously offering a one-night stand? Offering to give her his entire body—complete with penetration—for a night, and one night only? But he’d held off before, so why now? Had her actions on stage finally convinced him that she’d never fit into his life? Could it have been that easy?
She stared at him in shock but before she could respond, the house lights went out, plunging the theater into complete darkness, and it was too late. Way too late.
The music started and strobe lights started flashing around the space above the seats. Even with Jamie’s shocking words bouncing around in her head, Lucy gasped at the spectacle happening around her. Smoke and mirrors, she reminded herself. Magic was about illusion…misdirection…mystery. The answers were there, just shrouded in optical illusions and brilliant tricks. But she didn’t care about the logic of the moment. No…the magic was in the mystery. Every time a strobe light went off, it illuminated a different woman, suspended directly over the audience. Each woman was writhing, dancing, seemingly flying without ropes or hoops or any other means of holding them in the air.
And their bodies… The women appeared to be wearing nothing but glimmering, shimmering paint in various sensual colors. Lucy gasped when a strobe light illuminated a woman suspended directly in front of her and Jamie. The light flashed again, and the woman maneuvered her body in a way that brought her close enough that either Lucy or Jamie could have reached out and touched her.
