in that honeyed drawl against her ear that made her forget that she was always just a bit awkward around men. “Let me take care of you.”
“Um...” A million thoughts were racing through her mind, but then all those thoughts melted into a pile of goo as he pushed her back against the cushions.
A familiar song that she’d heard so many times when she’d been young came across the stereo system. The kind her and her high-school friends had giggled at but which the school would never play at a dance.
Sandy and her friends began to shriek as the group of exotic dancers began to move together in a choreographed, erotic dance.
And as that Latino god began to move, his hips rolling, she suddenly understood why they didn’t play that song at high-school dances. Why her parents hated that song. As she sat there on the couch, her friends screaming around her and that gorgeous specimen of a man’s dark eyes locked on her, only her, he grinned at her, as if knowing she was completely aroused by him. He rolled his hips and peeled his shirt off, revealing a tattoo on a muscle-hardened chest, and she realized what she’d been missing. Why she’d been uptight. When was the last time she’d been with someone?
It had been a long time.
Kiri’s leg began to tap in a nervous twitch she’d had since she was a kid, when she’d been the chubby geek that no one had paid attention to.
He moved toward her and laid a strong hand against her leg, settling the incessant tapping. His touch burned and set her blood on fire, her body reacting to the pure magnetism and sex he was exuding.
And for some reason he was focused on her.
He’s being paid to do this. This is what Sandy wanted.
And that’s what she was telling herself as he moved closer to her, pushing her back against the pillows, dancing just for her. He placed her hands on his narrow hips as he moved above her.
“Um...” slipped past her lips and she was mesmerized. Even though she knew it was all an act, this man held her in complete rapture. His deep, dark eyes were locked on hers and there was something about him that completely sucked her in.
Then he turned his back to her as the song ended and Kiri still sat there stunned. The Bellini she had been holding was no longer slushy but melted as she’d been gripping the glass so tightly before he’d taken it from her, deposited it on a table and placed her cool hands on his warm-skinned hips. Her heart was racing and it felt like she was on fire.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so turned on, so enthralled by a man. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d had sex. It had been during her residency and with Chad, the man who had broken her heart, but for the life of her all those moments with Chad were obliterated. All she saw was this gorgeous man in front of her. All she could think about was having him. That much she knew.
The last several years she’d been so focused on becoming a pediatric surgeon she’d thrown every last piece of herself into becoming the best darned surgeon in the program. So much so she’d forgotten how much she missed connecting with another person.
Just wanting a simple touch.
A kiss.
And more.
I have to get out of here.
The exotic dancers were now focused on Sandy, which was good. She left her glass of sludgy, melted Bellini on the side table and slipped out of the villa, putting some distance between her and the bachelorette party as fast as her little legs could carry her before she did something she’d completely regret.
* * *
“That was a good show tonight. Don’t you think, Alejandro?”
“What?” Alejandro asked. He hadn’t been really listening to Fernando, one of the dancers in his troupe, as they sat in the lounge of the hotel after entertaining that group of women at the bachelorette party. His thoughts were strictly on the beautiful woman he’d given the private dance to at the beginning. The one who had slipped out of the party when his back had been turned.
The one who was now sitting alone at the bar, nursing a glass of wine. Alejandro couldn’t take his eyes off her. She had curves in all the right places and though she was short, her legs looked long and were crossed in a ladylike way and she was swirling her one foot around.
Maybe it was the tight black dress or the stilettos that accentuated her beauty; either way, he couldn’t tear his eyes from her gorgeous legs.
“Yo, Alejandro? Snap out of it.” Fernando waved a hand in front of his face.
“What?” Alejandro said again.
“I asked you if you thought it went well tonight. I was a bit surprised when Ricky decided to fly us in from Miami to Las Vegas, but now, with this cut from that bachelorette party and being put up at this swanky hotel until tomorrow night, I’m never going to question a thing he says again.”
“Yeah, yeah, for sure.” Alejandro got up from the table where he’d been sitting with his fellow dancers. “I think I’m going to stick around here tonight, rather than go out.”
“You sure, bro?” another of them asked.
Alejandro nodded. “Yeah. I’m tired.”
And he really didn’t want to spend the large cut he’d just received on gambling and drinking tonight. Not when this was the last bit of the money he needed to pay off his student loans. This was finally his freedom from exotic dancing.
His freedom from Ricky.
He’d made it all through medical school without his older brothers finding out about what he did. They’d offered to help him pay for medical school, but they had sacrificed enough for him so he’d told them he worked down at the docks, gutting fish, and had been adamant he’d pay his own way through medical school. They didn’t need to know he’d started as a dance host in a seedy samba bar before being discovered by Ricky and moving into this. Next week he was starting a residency in transplant surgery in Miami in the pediatric department of Buena Vista Hospital and he wouldn’t have to dance again.
This had been his last dance and he’d never had a client walk out on him before. It was bothering him a bit.
As his friends left the bar to seek other pleasures for the rest of the night, Alejandro drummed up enough courage to go over and talk to her. He hoped he wouldn’t offend her. That was the last thing he wanted to do.
He’d been a little unnerved when he’d been sent out to retrieve her from the villa courtyard. When he’d seen her, he’d been stunned by her beauty. She was curvy, but he liked a woman who was curvy. Her long black hair had shimmered in the moonlight and those large, dark eyes made him melt just a bit.
There were a lot of beautiful women he’d been drawn to over his years of dancing, but nothing like this. It was like a bolt of pure, electric attraction. He wanted to run his hands over her body, taste her lips, touch her silky hair. He was asking for trouble just approaching her, because clients were against his rules, but he had to know why she’d been so disgusted with him.
Walk away, Alejandro.
“I’ll have a mineral water
