Julienne wasn’t sure which. She only knew she was more aware of her body than ever before, a combination of her new clothes, the erotic performances and the fantasy man sitting out of reach above her.
Scanning the program for some clue to when the performance would end, she found her answer in a jolting rock beat from the seventies. The “Living Theater” performance, which meant she only had to survive the eighties and nineties before heading to the bar for a cooling sip of champagne to relieve her overheated body.
Naughty girls feel naughty.
She’d have to say one thing for The Naughty Handbook and self-hypnosis—they were a powerful combination. Thinking about sex left her hovering on the edge of a sexual excitement that had skyrocketed through the performance. She couldn’t ever remember being so affected by any show she’d ever seen at the Risqué. Was this what Ramón had meant by a “hair-curling” performance?
If anything would curl her hair, the actors beckoning their audience onstage to join them in a liberating striptease might just do it. Even under the influence of self-hypnosis, she couldn’t even consider accepting such a provocative invitation.
Then again, Julienne didn’t have to, because a pair of strong hands physically ejected her from her seat. She was on her feet and heading down the aisle before realizing what was happening.
“Ramón? Katriona.” Digging in her heels, she made a stand. “What are you doing here? What are you doing?” She tried to shrug off the hand Ramón had fastened around her arm.
He wouldn’t let go. “Half these actors are my clients, sweetheart, and you’re my latest creation. I want to show you off.” He tried to tug her toward the stage as they were blocking the aisle, causing a traffic jam of spectators who were intent upon getting on that stage to liberate or be liberated.
She resisted. “I can’t, Ramón. Let me go.”
Katriona may have dressed in an exquisite white chiffon that accentuated both her height and regal bustline, but that didn’t negate the fact that she’d entered this world as the opposite sex, growing to be somewhere around six foot two with shoulders as wide as a linebacker’s. Her hands on Julienne’s back propelled her into motion again, no questions asked.
All the sexual heat that had just been rushing through Julienne dissolved into a mingled mess of adrenaline and embarrassment as she was herded onto the stage.
Naughty girls go for it.
And Julienne planned to, all right. She was going right for her seat before this crowd of stripping, bare-assed maniacs started liberating her. She spun around…she may have been going for her seat, but she accidentally got a handful of some actor’s crotch, a tidy handful if she were to judge.
The actor gave her a grateful kiss on the cheek before leaving Julienne standing stock-still, blushing so furiously she must be as red as her dress.
Time to add a new key phrase to her self-hypnosis sessions—naughty girls don’t lose their cool.
Deep breath. Don’t look out at the audience. Another deep breath. Move. Then she started gyrating to the music, blending in with the crazed crowd, all the while making her way back to the stairs that circled the orchestra pit and led off the stage. And thanking all the angels in heaven that even if anyone she knew sat in the audience, they’d never recognize the new her.
How Julienne survived the eighties and the nineties was a mystery, because she couldn’t remember a thing about the final acts or the finale. In fact, her cheeks still burned when she left her seat for the lobby. And of course, she was trying so hard to avoid Ramón and Katriona, before they dragged her backstage to meet the man whose parts she’d grabbed, that she barreled right into someone.
Whipcord lean arms reached out to steady her, anchored her against a very tall, very physically fit man. One quick intake of breath later, a breath tinged with a deliciously spicy male scent, and Julienne lifted her gaze to the blackest, most potent eyes she’d ever seen.
It took only a moment, a fluttering heartbeat, for her to realize those black-velvet eyes were framed by very tanned skin, blond hair and a chiseled jaw she’d have known anywhere, even if she hadn’t spent the past two hours covertly staring at him.
Nicholas Fairfax.
She must have looked shell-shocked because those potent eyes crinkled with amusement and he grinned, a charming grin that lit up his face and cast the lobby and the crowd around them into obscurity.
“I should apologize,” he said in a rich, cultured voice that sent a shiver right to her toes. “But as I’m holding you in my arms, I can’t say I’m sorry I ran into you.”
Unless he’d intentionally stepped in front of her, she’d technically run into him, but he was very gallant to accept responsibility for their collision.
Naughty girls don’t lose their cool.
The key phrase echoed in her memory when she needed it most, and Julienne laughed, she actually laughed, a throaty, sexy sound she didn’t even recognize as coming from her mouth.
“I’m not sorry, either. Actually, I was aiming for you, just to see if you’d catch me.”
You go, girl.
His black eyes flashed. She might be breaking new ground by flirting, but clearly Nicholas Fairfax was in his element. His grip tightened, just enough to put her off-balance so she relied on him to hold her upright, just enough to feel the impressive reaction of his groin against her stomach.
More parts. Only these parts sent a blush into her cheeks, made her gaze up to the grinning cupids overhead in a vain attempt to hide her reaction.
He apparently noticed, because he asked, “Are you interested in architecture?”
She nodded.
“This place is about to undergo a major restoration.”
She met that potent black gaze again, couldn’t quite believe how his glance, a glance for heaven’s sake, sizzled through her like a power surge. “That’s why I’m here tonight. I wanted to see it one last time.”
“Afraid you won’t recognize the place?” Then he smiled, a blinding sort of smile that radiated so much testosterone she could barely catch her breath.
Stepping back, he broke the connection between them, allowed her to regain her balance. But he didn’t let go of her hand. He brought it to his lips instead, a gentlemanly gesture that drew all her attention to the place where his warm skin touched hers. “I promise that won’t be the case, beautiful, because I’m heading the design team. Nick Fairfax.”
Julienne blinked as he brushed his mouth across her skin. Had Nicholas Fairfax—Nick—brilliant restoration architect and naughty boy extraordinaire, just called her beautiful?
The glint in his sultry eyes answered that question positively but before she could absorb such an amazing thought or push an introduction past her lips, she heard a familiar, and very unwelcome, voice yell, “Jules.”
Turning toward the sound, she found Ramón and Katriona weaving through the crowd toward them. In barely the time it took her to inhale a steadying breath, Julienne saw Ramón’s gaze pivot to the hand Nick Fairfax still held against his lips. Katriona didn’t
