The Art of Sin (14 page)

     “Yale.”

     Matt’s craggy laughter reverberated throughout the room. “You have to stick around. Who would believe a stripper from Yale? Maybe you should change your act. Put on that cap and gown stuff, be an Ivy League stripper.” He laughed once more. “That would turn the women on. Brains and brawn.”  

     Grady thought of some pithy reply, but decided against it. He had enough sense to know not to push Matt Harrison, unless he wanted to end up hurt … or dead.

     “Can I have some time to consider your offer?” Grady requested.

     “Sure.” Matt’s face sobered and his dark eyes focused on Grady. “You know, I don’t let people get the better of me, and I sure as hell would never have figured you to be the type to challenge me, but I like your style, Grady. If you can keep your mouth shut, and prove you’re trustworthy, I might just be able to use a guy like you.”

     “Use me how?” Grady apprehensively pressed.

     “Let’s just say, when your dancing career is over, I might want to keep you in my employ. I got some good friends who are always looking for a smart guy to help out.”

     Grady was dumbfounded. He had never expected Matt to make such an offer. A few minutes before he had been frightened the man was going to kill him.

     Grady relaxed the tension in his shoulders. “I’ll think about that, too.”

     Matt gave Grady’s chest and lean legs a thorough going over with his intrusive eyes. “I’m glad that’s settled. You’ve got a lot of potential, kid. Don’t fuck it up.” Matt opened the dressing room door and stepped into the hall.

     Listening to his boss’s footfalls growing fainter, Grady’s rage boiled over. He thought of the man ogling his body and knew why Matt wanted to keep him around. It wasn’t for the money or his brains. Grady had been propositioned enough by men in the past to recognize that look. He concluded he had to get out of that club, before Matt Harrison tried to take something Grady was not willing to give.

Chapter 12

     It was after midnight when Grady arrived, sweating and panting for breath, at the black gate of the house on Esplanade Avenue. He had just left the club after his last performance when an overzealous fan followed him outside, asking to kiss his G-string. He had run the few blocks to the house, wanting to get away from her. Exhausted from his two acts and his sprint from the French Quarter carrying his duffel and garment bags, he wearily made his way through the gate.

    
Hell of a night!

     Safely inside his apartment, he was resting against the door when he spied a pink envelope on his living room floor. After depositing his bags on his bed, he opened the sealed envelope and smiled when he saw the distinct flowing script of a woman’s handwriting. As he read the brief message, he realized the pink note was not from Al, but from Suzie. She had wanted to extend him an invitation to her apartment for dinner to, as she called it, “get to know each other.”

     Grady groaned, crumpling the pink paper in his hand.

     A gentle knocking on his front door startled him. Guessing it was Suzie coming to follow up her note with a more personal invitation, Grady threw the balled up paper to the floor. Making his way to the door, Grady’s irritation grew. After Matt’s leering gazes, being chased from the club, and then coming home to find Suzie pursuing him with dinner invitations, he had just about had his fill of unwanted advances.

     “Can this night get any worse,” he muttered.

     Angrily yanking the heavy door open, he expected to see Suzie dressed in some provocative negligee. Instead, Al was standing before him, wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans, and flip-flops.

     “You all right?” she asked, taking in the stunned look on his face.

     “What are you doing up? Don’t you have cases in the morning?”

     “The one case I had got cancelled, so I’m off tomorrow.” She peeked into his apartment. “Am I interrupting something?”   

     “No, come on in.”

     He smelled the scent of lavender in her hair as she walked in the door, and his insides twitched with that recurrent sense of longing. When she reached the center of his living room, Al turned to him. It was then he noticed the slight frown on her thin, pink lips.

     “About last night ….”

     Grady cringed and shut the door. “Please, don’t remind me.” He held up his hand. “I made an ass of myself. I shouldn’t have knocked on your door in the middle of the night. I completely regret everything I said and did.” He moved over to his sofa. “I still have the hangover to prove I was out of my mind at the time.” He sank down into the brown sofa cushion.

     She shoved her hands in her back pockets and her frown deepened. “Oh, okay.”

     “What is it?”

     She removed her hands from her pockets and dashed to the front door. “Never mind,” she mumbled, reaching for the knob.      

     “No, wait.” Grady jumped from the sofa and slapped his thick hand on the door, stopping her. “What were you going to say?”

     She nervously appraised his wide, muscular chest and then her eyes rose to his face. “Last night you said you thought I had condescending eyes. Did you mean that? Do you think I look at you that way?”

     Grady’s body sagged a little, but he kept his hand on the door, never moving away from her. “No, of course not. I was drunk, Allison. I said a lot of stupid things.”

     “People usually say what they mean when they’re drunk.”

     He studied the creaminess of her skin, and without thinking, gathered up a tendril of her long blonde hair. The silkiness of her hair amazed him. He had never known anything could feel so soft.

     “From the moment we met, I have felt like I was never good enough for you. You always seemed so … disappointed when you looked at me. That was until the other day in the car, when I kissed you. It was the first time I knew you wanted me as much as I wanted you.”

     Her frown was back, and so was the anger in her eyes. “You’re a tenant, Grady. We can’t get involved.”

     “Because of those stupid rules of yours?”

     She grabbed for the doorknob. “No, because in four months you’ll be gone.”

     He held the door, keeping her from opening it. “I won’t be gone.”

     Al arched one eyebrow at him. “You won’t?”

     “I’ve been offered a permanent job dancing at the club, but I think I may give finance another go. See if I can find a job here in New Orleans.” He lowered his head to her. “However, that would all depend on ….”

     Al did not retreat when he inched closer. “On what?” she softly implored.

     He smiled, his lips closing in on hers. “You.” 

     She angrily pushed him away. “What about that comment about me being afraid of letting someone in my life? Do you still believe that?”

     He shook his head. “No. I was drunk and I was … jealous.”

     “Of Geoff?” She sucked in an uneasy breath. “He told me you went to his office. He believes you’re out to blackmail both of us.”

     Grady apprehensively searched her features. “You know I would never do that to you.”

     Al dropped her eyes. “Last night, you said … you said your life was fine until you came here and met me. Is that true?”

     Grady had to stop and think for a moment. “Did I say that?”

     “Right after you called Geoff a pompous peacock.”

     He leveled his eyes on her. “He is, you know?”

     “I know. I also knew he was married when we started, but I could never ask him to leave his wife and daughters.”

     “Why not?”

     Al sighed and lowered her head. “Because I know how it feels to have your father walk out on you. I didn’t want to cause his daughters that kind of pain.”

     Grady set his hand beneath her chin and lifted her eyes to him. “He should never have put you in that position. If he loved you, he would have left them.” He paused. “Do you love him?”

     “No.” She slapped away his hand.

     Grady put his hands on the door behind her, trapping her inside of his arms. “Then why stay with him?”

     Her eyes tore into him. “Because he doesn’t complicate my life.”

     Grady smirked, happy to get a rise out of her. “And I do? Is that it?”

     Al lightly punched his chest. “Yes.”

     “Good,” Grady whispered, right before he kissed her.

     It was the softness of her lips that first shocked him. He had never kissed such soft lips and wondered why she tasted so much better than every other woman he had known. Then, as he wrapped his arms around her, the fragility of her tiny figure inflamed his desire. His kiss became more frenzied as his hands began to roam up and down her back. When his mouth slid down her chin and nipped along her neck, Al tipped her head back.

     “This isn’t why I came to see you, Grady.”

     “Why did you come?”

     She ran her hands up his wide chest. “I was worried about you. Worried about what you thought of me after seeing Geoff. I didn’t want you to think—”

     He gripped her small bottom and lifted her from the floor. “You know what I think?”

     She slipped her arms around his neck. “I’m afraid to ask.”

     “I think I really need to show you my bedroom.” 

     “I’ve seen your bedroom before, Grady.”

     “Yeah, but have you ever slept in it?”

     She peered into his eyes. “If we do this, it can only be for tonight.”

     He held her close. “What if I want more?”

     Al kicked off her flip-flops and hooked her legs around his hips. “Why don’t we just see how tonight goes?”

     He carried her to the open bedroom door. “That’s a lot of pressure to put on a guy.”    

     “I want to see how you perform under pressure,” she giggled against his neck.

     “I like the sound of that.” He hurriedly carried her into the bedroom, and then he fell with her in his arms on the large sleigh bed.

     “The sound of what?”

     Grady reached for her T-shirt. “The sound of your laugh.” He lifted her shirt over her head and his hands eagerly stroked the soft skin on her stomach and chest. “The first time I heard you giggle like that you were with Geoff, and it infuriated me.”

     He kissed her stomach while he unclasped her bra. Just when he was about to slip the bra from her shoulders, his sore pinkie caught in the blue comforter.

     “Damn it,” he cried out, yanking his hand back.

     She sat up and examined his finger. “You should have it taped.”

     He traced the outline of her slender shoulders with his left hand. “Later.” He eased the bra from her body and then tossed it to the floor.

     Caressing her right breast, he kissed her nipple and then grazed it with his teeth. Moaning, Al raked her fingers through his hair. Insistently, she tugged at his sweaty T-shirt, and Grady lifted his arms to help her. After wrestling off his shirt, Al threw it over the edge of the bed. Her fingertips glided over his tanned chest and abs, making Grady tremble. She gently worked her way down to the crotch of his jeans. Cupping her hand against his erection, she nipped at his neck.

     “Take off those pants. I want to see all of you,” she breathlessly begged.

     Standing from the bed, Grady hurriedly wiggled out of his jeans and briefs. After dropping his clothes to the floor, he was about to climb back on the bed when Al stopped him.

     “No, let me look at you.”

     Her eyes slowly traversed every contour of his thick shoulders, carved chest, and washboard abs. When her line of sight settled over his erection, that sly smile he adored curled the edges of her pink lips.

     “You are a beautiful man,” she professed in a voice just above a whisper.

     For all the hours he had spent on the stage, dancing for women, it was the first time he actually felt sexy, and not ashamed of a woman’s lustful gaze.

     “I like hearing you say that.”

     He could feel himself getting harder just by looking at that damned smile of hers. Anxious to hold her, he was about to climb back on the bed when he remembered the condoms in his wallet. While he was reaching for his pants, Al sat up.

     “What are you doing?”

     “Getting condoms.” He opened his wallet and selected two foil packets.

     Al tilted her head to the side, watching him. “Do you always carry condoms around in your wallet?”

     Grady frowned at her, perplexed by the question. “Of course.”

     “Are you one of those men who has a girl in every town?”

     Grady dropped his wallet to the floor and came back to the bed.

     He placed the condoms on his bedside table. “After Emma, it was a real long time before I was even with another woman. The few one-night stands I did have only made me want a relationship even more.”

     She lay back in the bed. “Were they all like Cathy?”

     He sat on the bed and ran his fingers along the curve of her slim waist. “In a way. They were all women who wanted me more than I wanted them, but none of them ever intrigued me like you. From the moment I met you, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

     “Ever since I saw you dancing in that club,” she murmured into his chest as his fingers unzipped her jeans, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, either.”

     Grady gripped the sides of her jeans and eased them down her hips. “Did I turn you on, Allison?” He shoved her jeans away, dropping them over the edge of the bed.

     “I hate to admit it, but yes.” 

     He reached inside the waistband of her white cotton panties. “Why do you hate to admit that?” He hooked his fingers along the edge of her panties and slowly worked them down her legs. When she was finally naked, he delighted in her creamy white skin, the slender muscles in her thighs, and the curve of her narrow hips.

     “I was convinced that wanting a man was wrong. I thought it made me weak.”

     Grady dipped his hand between her legs. “Still feel you don’t want a man?”

     “The only man I want right now is you,” she breathed. 

     He tempted her folds, relishing her wet flesh. “After tonight, I promise you’ll never want anyone else.”

     Al gripped his shoulder, bracing against the storm of sensations he was creating with his fingers. She opened her legs wider for him and moaned when he slid inside of her. As he slowly eased in and out, his thumb brushed against her clit.

     She bit into his shoulder, arching into his chest. “You’re killing me.”

     She was so sensitive to his touch. Grady found her irresistible like this. Raising her knees, he lowered his head between her legs, anxious to taste her, desperate to make her scream. When his tongue first lapped against her clit, she shuddered in his hands. As he clamped his mouth over her, she bucked against the bed and cried out.