Page 19 of Dancing With Temptation

“If you say so.” She pulled his arm over her shoulders and snuggled into his chest. “Tell me what you’ve been up to. Was it China you went to this time?”

“No, Egypt, to pick some new products out for my rare antiques shop in London. Then Turkey for the rare manuscripts shop in Paris. And a quick trip to Serbia to visit a friend before I came back here.” He picked up the remote, but he didn’t turn the TV on. “I’d like things to be different between us, Roxie, but I know what you need from me is friendship. Maybe one day things will be different, but for now, being your friend is acceptable.”

“Good.” She paused, then looked up at him. “Did you find any of those dresses we talked about the last time you were here? The caftans?”

“I did, and I will give them to you later. For now, let’s just watch some trashy movies and have a drink.” He flicked the TV on then, putting the matter to rest immediately. He’d said what he wanted to say and that was enough for him.

Roxie didn’t push it, they both knew her heart wasn’t in the right place and that was good enough. She couldn’t even bring herself to tell him about Lincoln. Even if that man was the reason she needed Nick’s friendship so much tonight. Nick knew all of her friends, she’d even told him about a few of her clients, but she didn’t say a peep about Lincoln.

That was worrisome for a thousand reasons, but she didn’t want to face any of them so she kept her mouth shut and let him choose a film to watch. He picked out one about some woman in England finding a Viking boat in her backyard during World War II. It was more interesting than she’d thought it would be but when her eyes grew heavy, she couldn’t fight to keep them open.

She felt much too safe for the first time in months, much too comfortable to fight the sleep that pulled at her with heavy arms. There was no Nathan calling her a whore here, no men stalking her to get to Nathan here, and certainly no Lincoln driving her crazy with his mercurial moods to put her on edge.

Though to be fair, Lincoln was a lot calmer at his house, and a lot nicer than he was at his office. He wasn’t such a dick at home, but mmm, she loved his dick. Her mind drifted off into blankness for the longest time as sleep took her. She didn’t feel it when Nick slid out from under her, or when he picked her up and put her in a bed. She had no clue when he turned out the light and left the room either. She slept, deep, peaceful, and without nightmares.

She woke up sometime before dawn fully broke, but still felt rested. After a good stretch and quick trip to the bathroom, she gathered her shoes, left Nick a note on his fridge, and drove back to the motel. It had been a good night, a fun night, followed by some much-needed rest. She’d almost fucked things up when she made a pass at him, but oh well. That was the kind of friend Nick was, the kind that forgave easily.

What she was going to do about Lincoln slipped from her mind as she drove back to the hotel she called home for now. For the first time in over a week, she didn’t even check all her mirrors as she drove. She just enjoyed the cool morning air from her open window and watched the sunrise. The smell of saltwater and hot tarmac might be gross to some, but to Roxie, it smelled like freedom.

Sure, Myrtle Beach was a summer town, a place for tourists to let go and act like idiots, but to her, it was home now. It was thousands of miles away from the life she’d left behind, the memories she left behind, but it was the place that let her do that. No questions asked, no explanations needed.

Now, if only she could approach this situation with Lincoln the same way. She pulled into her allotted parking spot and let herself into her room on the ground floor. Lincoln would never fit into this kind of place, but then, the Chloe she used to be wouldn’t have either. Life had a way of hardening you like that, bringing out the best and worst as it saw fit. Maybe she needed to approach this thing with Lincoln much harder than she had been, she thought as she flopped down onto her springy bed. Maybe he needed to know that the sweet little sub could be one hard bitch to deal with when she was pissed off. Because, apparently, he hadn’t figured that part out yet.

With a smug smile that could beat Lincoln’s any day of the week, Roxie leaned back and started to plan. She’d have him on his knees promising to never see another woman again before she was through with him.

10

Lincoln

Lincoln didn’t usually worry about what a woman thought about him, or if she thought about him at all, but since that night of the charity event all he’d got from Roxie were short texts and no phone calls. He wasn’t sure what the problem was, but he knew something wasn’t right. Not that he called her to find out anything either.

He had to fly back to New York to settle some business up there, but he was only gone for two days. He arranged to meet with her when he got back mid-week and really didn’t think too hard about it. She was a woman, a lot of shit was happening in her life, so she probably had things to deal with that didn’t include him. If she wanted to talk to him about it, he’d be glad to listen, but he wasn’t going to push her right now.

She was the kind of woman who knew what she wanted out of life and worked hard to get it. Having a man pushing her to talk about her thoughts and feelings was probably the last thing she wanted. And not a part of their contract, as he could clearly hear her say in his head. When she wasn’t at his place by 5:30 he sent her a text demanding to know where she was.

It took her fifteen minutes to reply but when she did, he frowned.

“Pick me up at my place. I have something in mind.”

Mysterious. He liked mysterious. Especially when he knew Roxie’s ideas always led to something fun. That made him smile as he pulled up to a parking spot outside her hotel and waited on her. What could she possibly have in mind tonight?

She came out the door before he’d even put the car into park, dressed in a slinky black dress shot through with silver threads. She wore a very nice pair of black stockings with two thick lines going up the back. He saw them when she turned to lock the door and his eyebrows lifted. He loved those stockings. No doubt about it.

She handed him a black mask as soon as she got in the car, a soft velvet number that would cover his eyes and nose and matched the one she had in her hand.

“What’s this for?” He asked. He hadn’t been expecting to take her out, but if that’s what she wanted he’d take her wherever she wanted to go. Especially if it meant he’d get to look at the amazing cleavage she had on display.

“It’s a surprise.” She gave him a mysterious wink and put her seatbelt on.

“Okay, but I need to know the address at least.”

“It’s a private place, members only. Kind of like my old job.”

She smiled the same as she always did, talked with ease, but something about her seemed brittle that he couldn’t explain. Maybe she was nervous about being out with him, or maybe she’d just had a shitty day. She’d relax, he was sure of it.

“Oh, did you get that dress dry-cleaned? Naomi wanted to pay for it.” He mentioned in an off-hand way as he pulled into traffic since she’d put the address into the GPS. He felt the way she went stiff and he could have sworn he heard her growl.

A quick glance showed she was staring through the windshield with studied aloofness. Fuck. What had he said wrong?