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She stepped around him and stalked to the house. With Gavin’s words ringing in her ears, the last person she wanted to see was Angel. He walked through the front door looking like something out ofGQmagazine. Today, he wore a slate gray suit. The top two buttons of his shirt were undone and mirrored aviator sunglasses shielded his eyes, but she didn’t need to see them since his smile spoke volumes.
“Carmen.”
His voice was smooth and intimate and pissed her off even as it turned her on. The memories dancing through her mind were proof positive that she was as wild and reckless as Gavin said she was. It didn’t help that the memory of Angel leaning down to smell her made her nipples tingle. Some women would have been mortified, but it turned her on. A man who liked the way a woman’s pussy smelled was a man who sought to taste and therefore savor. Angel would kill between the sheets. She regretted not taking him up on his offer of no-strings sex. It would have been dirty, raunchy, and glorious. So what if she did two different guys a day apart? She wasn’t going to run for office or apply to be a nun so what did she care? She blamed Vinny for training her to be monogamous.
She went to the Red Diamond to reclaim her womanhood and feel a modicum of power after having her life manipulated and torn apart by Vega. She went on stage to work out her demons and let it all hang out. Angel ruined that. He ruined it by tempting her, by making her wonder if hooking up with a crime lord wasn’t the worst thing in the world. He made her question her sanity by turning him down. Over the past couple of days, she speculated more than she cared to admit about what might have happened if she gave Angel the green light, and now here he was, in her face, taunting her by looking like a million dollars.
“Hey,” she said dismissively and tried to go around him.
He blocked her way. “What’s the rush?”
She gritted her teeth. “I have somewhere to be.”
He took off his sunglasses to show gleaming blue eyes. “Great. Tell me where and I’ll make sure to be there.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m sure you have more important things to do than stalk me through the city.”
He grinned. “I can work and stalk at the same time. I’m talented like that.”
“Is that what you were doing at the Red Diamond? Working? You weren’t there to ogle strippers?”
“They’re dancers, not strippers. I would’ve thought you of all people would use the correct terminology.”
She made a big show of looking at her diamond encrusted watch. “Time is money, Angel.”
“Right. And you know all about that.”
She frowned. “What does that mean?”
Angel swung his sunglasses idly between two fingers. “You’ve made some lucrative investments in this town.”
She froze. “Excuse me?”
“Local businesses, real estate, but most interesting to me is Red Diamond, the most successful gentlemen’s club in Las Vegas.” He paused for a beat and then finished, “And also a hot spot for underworld information and blackmail.”
He knew. “What did you do to Kiki?” She wouldn’t have given that information willingly…
“She’s fine.”
“What did you do to her?”
Angel kept swinging his glasses casually, as if their discussion was as mundane as the weather. “I drugged her.”
She couldn’t believe her ears. “You what?”
“I drugged her.”
“Why?”
“I needed to know who her partner was.”
“How dare you! You have no right—”
“It’s my business to know who’s behind a business that blackmails influential people. It’s also my business to know who has financed so many projects in the valley and desperately wants to remain silent.” He cocked his head to the side. “Why so secretive, Carmen?”
“None of your business,” she hissed.
“Hiding your intelligence so everyone underestimates you?”
