that’s the gist of it.”
The gleam of devilment grew brighter. “You want to save me from myself.”
“Aw, hell, Keely.” He figured she was going to roast him for this attempt to do the right thing. “It’s not that topless dancing is so terrible. I know you think I’m some sort of prude, but I’m not. And I understand that you’ve always wanted to kick the status quo in the butt. But isn’t this getting a little old? I should think you’d have moved on to something else by now.”
“I’m not even thirty!”
“Damn close.”
“Ten whole months away, buster.”
“See, it’s the perfect time to make a change.” He was thinking she looked years younger than thirty. Because they’d grown up together he knew exactly how old she was, but a stranger would think she was in her early twenties. No doubt her body would look good on stage for a long time to come, but he didn’t intend to say that. He didn’t even want to think that.
“And what sort of job should I do?” she asked, tapping the toe of her sandal against the pavement.
“I’m not sure.” He rubbed the back of his neck. Now that he’d jumped into this white-knight routine, he didn’t know how to proceed. “Maybe we could kick around some ideas.”
“And when could we do that? You have a wedding to attend, as I recall, and I need to make a living.”
And there was the heart of the matter. If she was looking for a job, she was probably short on cash. He couldn’t very well tell a woman like Keely to forget about the money she’d make dancing topless and take a job flipping burgers instead. She’d laugh in his face. He wasn’t going to convert her to a different lifestyle during one conversation on the street corner.
He stalled, trying to think what to do. “How long have you been in Vegas?”
“Just got here yesterday.”
“Okay.” He thought quickly. One step at a time. “I understand the economic realities. You just came to town and you need a job, but could you hold off for the weekend so we could talk about it? I could cover your expenses for the next few days.”
“You mean, pay for my room and board? I don’t think so.”
“Then how about this? Cancel your room reservation and move in with me for the weekend. Would that save you enough so you wouldn’t have to work right away?”
“You want me to share your hotel room?” She eyed him with interest.
That look triggered a vivid memory. She’d kissed him with the passion of a woman that night in the barn, even at the tender age of sixteen. “Strictly as friends,” he said quickly. “It’s a minisuite. I’ll take the couch and you can have the bed. This isn’t a proposition, Keely.”
“Are you sure?” The mischief had returned to her green eyes. “I realize you’re not in the habit of kicking over the traces, but we’re not in Saguaro Junction anymore. No one from back home has to hear about this. And we all know what a naughty girl I am.”
Warmth flooded through him. She really had a knack for saying exactly what would bring a reaction. “That’s the kind of thinking you need to get away from,” he said. “Life is about more than sex.” At the moment he couldn’t think what else it was about, but he’d get his bearings again soon.
“Let me make sure I understand. You’re inviting me to stay in your room for the weekend, but you have no intention of us fooling around. Instead, you’re going to do some career counseling for me.”
“That’s right.” Not that fooling around with Keely didn’t hold some appeal. But she apparently thought that’s all she was good for, and he didn’t want to reinforce that notion.
She frowned in confusion. “I asked you if you had a wife back home and you said no. But is there a serious girlfriend? Because I can imagine you would be totally loyal once you committed yourself to somebody.”
“No serious girlfriend.” Come to think of it, he hadn’t even had a date in months.
“Noah, are you gay?”
He choked. As he was coughing and sputtering, he shook his head and gasped out his denial.
She ticked off her conclusions on the tips of her fingers. “You’re not committed to anyone, you’re not gay, and you don’t want to have sex with me, even if no one back home would ever find out.”
“That’s right.” He did want to have sex with her, always had, but that was a white lie he could live with.
“Then you surely must be a saint who has dropped down out of the sky to save me from my wicked ways. Okay, I accept.”
He cleared his throat and tried to look more confident than he felt. “That’s great.” Now that she’d pointed out to him that only a saint could be expected to resist her, he’d begun to think this whole idea was doomed. But if he could somehow find the strength to keep his hands off her, then maybe she’d develop a new image of herself. And that was worth doing. After all, his brother was marrying her sister. She would be family soon.
“We should probably go pick up your stuff,” he said. “Is your hotel far from here?”
She looked suddenly worried. “Uh, the thing is, they, um…lost my luggage. You know how that happens. I don’t have any stuff.”
“Oh.” So it was worse than he thought. Obviously she was making up the story about lost luggage, so that must mean she was staying in some fleabag motel and didn’t want him to know it. Worse yet, her belongings were pitiful enough to be embarrassing to her. As together as she looked now, the outfit she wore was probably the only decent thing she owned.
Knowing that fact renewed his resolve to pull her out of this nosedive she was in. “Okay, then!” he said with more heartiness than the situation called for. He sounded like a damn used-car salesman. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Let’s walk on back to my hotel. Then I can advance you a little money if you want to go shopping for a few clothes later.”
“We’ll see about that. But before we leave here I want to duck inside and let them know I won’t be keeping the appointment. I don’t want a black mark beside my name, in case I need to come back someday.”
“I’ll go with you.”
She smiled at him. “I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Why not?”
“In this neighborhood, if some guy is tagging around after a woman, looking like he’s keeping track of her, people might think he’s her pimp.”
As he wondered how she’d become so knowledgeable about such things, ice water shot through his veins. “Keely, please tell me that you’ve never—”
“No. I’ve never. I may be a naughty girl, but I’ve never been that naughty.”
He sighed with relief.
“Yet.”
His
