“Oh, you’re there! Listen, I don’t know what you’re doing tonight, but—”
“I’m not doing anything. I’ve had—it’s been one of those days, you know?”
“All the more reason to go with us. Have a drink, listen to some hot music—”
“Get picked up by some hot guy,” a female voice in the background said, to another round of giggles.
“That’s the last thing I need,” Aimee said. “I mean, is that all I’m good for? To go to a club where the music’s so loud I won’t be able to think? To let a guy pick me up, buy me a drink—”
“Yeah. I know. It’s a meat market out there—but sometimes, well, sometimes that can be fun. You know. No BS. Just an evening of fun and games.”
“It’s bad enough men think that’s what we’re all about. That we’re useless except in the kitchen or the bedroom. We don’t have to play into their stupid fantasy.”
Silence. Then Jen cleared her throat. “Okay,” she said carefully, “so just forget that I—”
“Not that I couldn’t be some jerk’s idea of a centerfold playmate, if I wanted.”
“Uh, Aimee, look, I have to run, so—”
“I could go to this club with you. Dance, drink, let some guy pick me up for a night of mind-blowing sex!”
The telephone line hummed with silence again. Then Jen spoke.
“So, uh, are you saying you want to go with us?”
Aimee took a deep, deep breath. “You’re damned right I am,” she said.
Twenty minutes later, dressed in a red silk dress she’d bought on sale and never had a reason to wear, ditto for a pair of strappy gold sandals, Aimee took a last look in the mirror, gave her image a quick salute, then headed out the door.
Chapter Two
LUCAS’S CLUB was everything Damian had promised.
Like most hot Manhattan nightspots, it was in a neighborhood that had once been grungy and commercial and now was grungy and upscale. Streets that had once been relegated to the nitty-gritty of daily life now came alive after dark. Warehouses had given way to expensive, exclusive clubs.
Lucas’s place was located in a dark brick building with shuttered windows. There was no sign to indicate that what had once been a factory was now Le Club Hot.
No sign. No published telephone number. You either knew the club existed or you didn’t, which went a long way toward sorting out the clientele, Nicolo thought wryly as he opened a heavy, brass-hinged door and stepped, with Damian, into what might have been the small lobby of an upscale hotel.
The behemoth who greeted them was not someone you’d ever find behind a reception desk. They gave him their names, he checked a list, then smiled.
He pressed a button, and the wall ahead of them slid back.
“Wow,” Damian said softly.
Nicolo had to agree. “Wow” summed it up.
The first thing you noticed was the noise. Music, heavy on bass, went straight into your blood.
Then you realized that the room you’d walked into was huge.
The designer had carefully left the exposed overhead pipes and old brick walls but everything else—the lighting, the endless Lucite bar, the elevated dance floor and the music—was dazzlingly modern.
“You could play American football in here,” Damian murmured. “Especially since the place comes equipped with so many cheerleaders.”
He grinned, and Nicolo grinned back at him. It was true. The room was filled with people, more than half of them women. Young. Stunning. Sexy. Faces recognizable from European and American magazine covers and movies.
What an idiot he’d been, letting what happened this afternoon get him worked up. Damian had it right. This was what he needed. Lights. Music.
Women.
This was the way to relax.
“Barbieri! Aristedes!”
Lucas was making his way through the crowd toward them. The men exchanged handshakes and then Lucas rolled his eyes and grabbed them both in a bear hug.
“Ugly as always,” he said, raising his voice over the pulsating beat of the music, “but not to worry. I’ve told a bunch of lies about you both and made you sound so interesting that people are willing to meet you, despite your looks.”
The three of them grinned. Then Lucas pointed toward a suspended, transparent staircase.
“My table’s up there,” he shouted. “On the mezzanine. It’s quieter…and the view is óptimo!”
He was right. The table overlooked the dance floor and the sound level dropped from deafening to ear-shattering.
And the view was, indeed, excellent.
“What scenery,” Damian said.
He meant, of course, the women. Nicolo nodded in agreement. He’d already acknowledged that the scenery was spectacular. All those lithe, gyrating bodies. The lovely faces…
Was there a woman on the dance floor with eyes the color of violets? With hair the honey-gold of a tigress?
“Nicolo? Which do you prefer?”
Nicolo blinked. Lucas and Damian were looking at him, along with a girl in gold hot pants and a skimpy black tank top.
“To drink,” Lucas said, with a little laugh. “Whiskey? Champagne? The club special? It’s a Mojito. You know, rum, lime juice—”
“Whiskey,” Nicolo said, and told himself to stop being a fool and start having a good time.
But that was a problem.
It turned out you couldn’t have a good time just by telling yourself to have one. You had to relax before you had fun, and now that the woman with the violet eyes had pushed her way into his head, he knew damned well “fun” wasn’t going to happen.
No matter how much he tried.
He ate. He drank. He listened while Lucas and Damian caught up on old times. The three of them hadn’t seen each other in months; there was a lot to talk about and he forced himself to join in the conversation.
After a while, his thoughts drifted. To the woman. To how he’d dealt with her. The more he thought, the angrier he became.
At her.
At himself.
What kind of man let a woman make a fool of him?
“Nicolo?”
