You were around for the first nineteen years of my life. You should know by now how much I love to tease people. Especially people like you.” She fluttered a hand at him. “Hold down the sidewalk. I’ll be back before you know it.”
He watched her walk through the entrance into the cavelike interior of the club. That Keely. She always could get him going.
Then he blinked as if coming out of a trance. He had just arranged to spend the weekend sleeping in a hotel suite with Keely Branscom.
What the hell had he been thinking? He’d arrived in this place feeling on edge and sexually deprived. Now he’d invited the sexiest woman he’d ever known to stay with him in extremely close quarters. Less than four hours into his Vegas stay, and the city had him right where it wanted him.
2
KEELY HAD MADE a career of acting on impulse. This particular impulse—to play along with Noah’s outrageous plan to save her—could be lots of fun, especially if she turned the tables and took him for a walk on the wild side, instead. So why this sudden attack of nerves?
Maybe she was still dealing with the news that her sister and Jonas were getting married. That situation would definitely take some getting used to. Yeah, it was the sudden word of their wedding that had her spooked.
Surely she wasn’t still into Noah the way she had been at sixteen. And seducing him here in Vegas would be an awesome way to get revenge for the way he’d brusquely pushed her away at that tender age. But in order for that revenge to be sweet, she had to be certain she was completely over him. Well, she was. Of course she was.
Shaking off her uneasiness, she walked into the sparsely populated bar and glanced at the blond woman gyrating on the small stage. No, that wasn’t the one. Her interview subject was a brunette.
“Would you like a table?” A thin man dressed in a white shirt and tight black pants appeared at her elbow.
“No, thanks. I’m Keely Branscom and I’m here to talk with Suzanne.”
“Oh!” The man grew more animated. “You’re the reporter from Attitude! She’s in the back. Please sit down. I’ll go get her.”
Keely pulled out a chair at the nearest round cocktail table and sat. This might take longer than she figured. No doubt Noah would be outside having a conniption, thinking she was secretly filling out a job application. But she couldn’t be rude and leave without speaking to Suzanne.
The sound system in the bar wasn’t very good, but the blonde on the stage was an excellent dancer. Keely counted five men in the place, all of them with their attention glued to the stage. She’d love to believe they were admiring the skill of the performance, but after years of reporting on the guy/gal scene for Attitude!, she could reasonably conclude they were fixated on the dancer’s chest instead of her footwork.
In general, a man’s motivation was pretty simple, which was one reason she was so intrigued by Noah’s offer to reform her. His motivation was more complex. She really believed he didn’t intend for them to have sex. Well, he just might have to reevaluate that decision.
“Ms. Branscom?”
Keely glanced away from the stage and saw that a curvy brunette in purple spandex stood next to the table. Keely pushed back her chair. “Suzanne?”
“That’s me.” Suzanne held out her hand.
Keely stood and shook her hand. She had to practically shout to be heard over the pounding music. “Please call me Keely. Listen, it turns out now isn’t a very good time for me to do the interview, after all. I wonder if we could reschedule.”
“I guess so.” Suzanne raised her voice and leaned closer to Keely. “The only thing is, I have, like, this horrific exam coming up in my psych class, so I need to spend most of my free time, like, inhaling the textbook. And tonight I’m dancing.”
“Right.” Keely was glad they weren’t conducting the interview like this. It would give her a headache in no time. She wasn’t sure when she’d stopped loving loud music.
She quickly considered how to work around Suzanne’s schedule and her own interesting situation with Noah. He’d probably have some wedding-related thing going on tonight, so she might be able to slip over here.
“Do you get a break tonight?” she asked.
“Sure.” Suzanne raised her voice as the music’s volume increased. “About ten-thirty!”
Keely had to shout, too. “Are you planning to study during your break?”
“Nah! I’ll probably kick back! I only get about fifteen minutes!”
Blissfully, the music changed tempo and became softer. “If you’re willing, I could do the interview then.” Keely couldn’t get over how young Suzanne looked. Yet she was twenty-two, three years older than Keely had been when she’d posed for the centerfold.
“Tonight would be cool, but are you sure that’s enough time?”
“Maybe not, but we’ll get a start, anyway.”
Suzanne glanced over at the stage. “Joy, she’d like to be interviewed, too. She’s not going to college, like me, but she’s going to beauty school. Does that count?”
“Sure does. Anybody who’s dancing to earn tuition fits into the article.”
“Cool. That’s her on stage now.” Suzanne watched for a moment and unconsciously began to wiggle in time with the music. “She has some dynamite moves.”
“Yes, she does.”
“That guy over there in the black T-shirt is her boyfriend. I am, like, so jealous. He is totally hot.”
“He is?” Keely could only locate one person in a black T-shirt, and he didn’t look like anything special. For one thing, she was getting sick of shaved heads and multiple piercings. And baggy pants did nothing for her these days, either. Plus, he looked more like a kid than a man.
“Yeah, he’s awesome.” Suzanne gazed at him in rapture. “Totally.”
Keely glanced from Suzanne to the kid and reminded herself that this was her magazine’s target audience. She needed to do a better job of relating. “He is pretty cute,” she said. Cute was as far as she would go. And cute didn’t do it for her anymore, unfortunately.
But someone who did do it for her stood right outside, waiting. “Well, Suzanne, I’ll see you tonight, then,” she said.
“Maybe Joy can come by so you can talk to her, too.”
“That would be great. Thanks.” Keely shook hands with Suzanne and hurried outside.
Noah was lounging against the side of the building, but he looked wary, not relaxed. He straightened and walked toward her. “I was beginning to wonder if something happened.”
“Sorry. It took a while to find the person I needed.” She gazed at him with new appreciation. Now here was an example of hot. His clothes might not be trendy, but they were classic turn-ons, at least for her. She’d grown up admiring the way a pearl-buttoned
