Behaving Badly in Vegas (Vegas Love #3)

19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Charli

Hunter pissed me the fuck off.

How could I have ever thought there could be something between us? He’d shown me who he was over and over again. Everyone warned me he was an asshole.

Surprise… he was!

The way he stared into my eyes and caressed my cheek, I thought he was going to kiss me. Thought he might be seeing me as more than the nanny.

And then he ruined it.

I made my way to the parking garage and hopped in my old pickup truck without a destination in mind. I didn’t care where I went as long as it was away from my boss.

Boss.

Yes, I needed to get that through my thick head.

The little moments we shared were nothing. They were natural consequences of two people being in the same space for an extended amount of time. There would be no more cooking him dinner or dropping off his dry cleaning. That’s what a girlfriend was for, and I certainly wasn’t that. I was the fucking nanny. My only job was caring for Carina. From now on, if it didn’t directly affect her, I wouldn’t be doing it.

I’d keep it strictly professional.

Should have from the very beginning.

Driving through the downtown traffic, I found myself in the employee lot behind Oasis. It was my second home. Where I spent most of my time before I fell, and everything went to shit. The people here were like family to me.

I couldn’t complain to my brother about Hunter. I’d been warned. Multiple times. Telling him would only lead to I told you so and being chastised like a child. And there was no way I could admit I was falling for the jerk face. Subjecting myself to Tom’s criticism was as bad, if not worse, than putting up with Hunter’s disrespectful words.

Jasmine was my best friend in Vegas. She’d listen without judgment.

The show didn’t start for another two hours. Hopefully, Jasmine was working tonight. A group of us rotated shows because it would be physically impossible to perform two shows a day, three on Saturday. If my replacement was here instead of Jasmine, I think I’d puke. She was a reminder of my failure. Her position was temporary and conditional upon my return.

I was coming back. There weren’t any other options for me.

After staring at the building for ten minutes, I got out of the truck, walked to the back entrance, and hit the buzzer. Big Mike opened the door and gave me a bear hug. “Hey, Charli. Are you back?”

I shook my head. “Not yet. Is Jasmine here?”

He motioned down the long hallway. “She’s in the dressing room.”

“Thanks.” The back entrance was a stark contrast to the glitz and glamour of the front theater. It was dark and dusty, with props strewn about. Light and sound people rushed by with headphones, making last-minute checks. Performers milled around half dressed, engaged in preshow rituals, some practicing and others sneaking in a few minutes of meditation. The air buzzed with anticipation .

If the audience ever got a look behind the scenes, they’d get a shock. We were an eclectic group of people, weird and bizarre, who all had a passion for performing, but when the curtain went up, everything gelled into something nothing less than magical. It was an illusion, produced with lights, music, and extravagant costumes.

I loved it.

Every little thing about this place was what I lived for, and I missed it terribly.

I poked my head into the third dressing room on the right. “Hey, bitch.”

Jasmine’s hand stopped midswipe of her metallic-green eyeshadow as she screeched, “Charli!” She abandoned her makeup brush and ran to me. We collided and smashed together, arms wrapped around each other and swayed back and forth. “I’ve missed you so much!”

My eyes misted. “I’ve missed you too.” I hadn’t been back since my accident. The pain of not being able to perform was too much.

She held on to my shoulders and inspected me from head to toe. “How are you?”

“I got the all clear from the doctor, but I’m so out of shape. Now that I have the green light, I’m hoping to be back in a few months.”

She squeezed my bicep. “They are puny.”

I slapped her hand away with a laugh. “They aren’t puny, but my legs and core aren’t what they used to be.” I kept up my workouts while in rehab, but there’s only so much you can do with a messed-up knee. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

Jasmine held a hand to her chest. “I’m so glad. If I have to share a dressing room with Zaria much longer, I’m going to rip every feather from her headpiece and shove them down her throat. Her area is a complete mess and all she does is talk, talk, talk. Sometimes, a girl needs some peace and quiet, you know?”

I did know. Six of us shared this dressing room, but never all at the same time. It depended on what shows we were doing and how much time there was between performances. With two aerialists per show, my preferred partner was Jasmine .

We clicked right from the beginning. She’d been working here for two years when I started and became a mentor to me. She taught me the art of seduction and that a truly spectacular routine was about more than the cool tricks I could do but the way I made the audience feel. Jasmine was a pole dancer before coming to Oasis, and let me tell you, she had seduction down to a science without removing a single piece of clothing.

The show was called Deep Desires. It was a fantasy, a tease, a sensual experience without the sex and nudity. It wasn’t exactly what I thought I’d be doing when I moved to Vegas, but after my audition, they hired me on the spot. The offer was too good to pass up. Not many people got to make a living by pursuing their dream but I was one of the lucky ones. If it were up to my parents, I’d be teaching third grade in Colorado. I couldn’t think of anything worse.

Jasmine sat back at her vanity and continued applying her winged eyeshadow. “You should come by the training facility and get some practice in. I can show you this new move I’ve been working on.”

I straddled a chair and leaned on the back of it. “I’d love that, but I’m not sure I’d be able to get off work.”

“Work?” She lifted a penciled brow.

“Yes, work. Oasis cut my disability check. I had to get a job.”

“Well, that sucks,” she said as she carefully glued rhinestones from the outside corner of her eye to the tip of her eyebrow. “What kind of job did you get?”

“I’m a live-in nanny for a six-month-old baby girl.”

She blinked at me through the mirror. “And how’s that, Miss I’m Not Ready For Kids Yet?”

I sighed. “It’s actually really good. The pay is amazing, and my boss is hot as hell.”

She clapped her hands together excitedly. “Ooooh! I’m loving this plot twist. Single, hot daddy falls for the nanny who is all kinds of flexible and sexy. I’d read that book. Can you imagine the things they would do in bed?”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t imagine exactly what we could do in bed. Right up until he rejected me and made me feel stupid. “Only this isn’t a book; it’s my life. He’s a jerk, but once in a while, I get a glimmer of the man he could be.”

“That’s even better. You could be the woman who reforms his bad-boy ways.”

I laughed. I’d never thought of Hunter as a bad boy , but if you looked up asshole in the dictionary there was no doubt his picture would be right there. “I don’t want to reform him.” Okay, maybe I did a little bit. “And even if I did, I think it’s a dead issue. I thought for a minute he was going to kiss me, but then he told me I had the night off and, basically, to go find some random dude to fuck.”

“Ouch! That’s harsh. Do you like him?”

“More than I should. He’s my boss.”

She wiggled her fingers at me. “Technicalities. If you like this guy, then you have to act completely unaffected by him.”

“That seems counterproductive. How will he like me if I act like I’m not interested?”

Jasmine turned and took my hands in hers. “Oh, my sweet Charli, men like a chase. They want what they can’t have. It’s an evolutionary instinct to conquer. Take Nick, for example. He came to the show night after night to see me. Left flowers in my dressing room with cute little notes. Every time I ignored him, he stepped it up another notch. It made him crazy, and he tried harder. Men like something they have to work for, they don’t want it handed to them on a silver platter.”

“And now you’re married with two sons,” I concluded.

“I made him work for it, but yes. Let me tell you, it wasn’t easy to keep pushing him away. I wanted to run right into his arms every time I read one of his cheesy notes. Now he appreciates what he has because I wasn’t easy to get. He knows I’m independent and wouldn’t hesitate to leave him if he treated me poorly.”

“You think this strategy will work with Hunter?”

She fanned herself. “God, even his name is hot. If you like him, then it’s worth a try.”

I hugged her over the top of the chair. “Thank you. I totally needed this pep talk. I’ve missed you like crazy. ”

“Miss you too, bitch. Call me and we’ll set up a time to meet at the training facility. I can watch the baby while you practice.”

“That would be awesome.”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted Hunter to fall for me or not, but either way I was done letting him think he had any effect on me. From now on, my focus was only Carina.

I had my mind made up. I only hoped my heart would listen.

It was quiet when I got back to the apartment. I quickly checked on Carina, who was fast asleep, then went to my room. I lay back on the bed with pillows propped behind me and flicked on the television. Flipping through the channels, I settled on a murder-mystery show about a guy who disappeared outside a pizza shop in Seattle, never to be heard from again. It was mindless, and after the events of the evening, mindless was exactly what I needed.

A half hour into the show, a light knock came at my open door. Since I’d moved in, Hunter had never come to my room, so I figured it had something to do with Carina. I turned down the volume on the television. “What’s up?”

Wearing a pair of plaid pajama bottoms and a plain black T-shirt, he leaned against the door. In the last week, I’d never seen him look so casual and comfortable. It instantly softened some of his hard lines, making him seem younger and more approachable. “Just checking in. You’re home early.”

His words seemed innocent enough, but I saw them for what they were. Probing. “Yep.”

“Where’d you go?”

He’d lost his right to know where I went with his crass accusations and insinuations. “Does it matter? ”

“Shit,” he muttered and blew out a measured breath. “I shouldn’t have said what I said earlier. It was wrong.”

“And rude,” I added. “If this is your attempt at an apology, it’s lame.”

“Lame?” He chuckled. “I suppose it is. I’m sorry for being rude and lame.”

“Apology appreciated. Is there anything else?”

“It’s been a stressful week,” he said, as if it excused his behavior. “You’ve been the only thing that’s kept me from pulling my hair out, knowing that if nothing else, Carina was being well-cared for.” Hunter pushed off the door and sat on the edge of my bed, although I hadn’t invited him to do so.

I scooted back an inch. I could still feel his almost kiss feathering against my lips, and I didn’t trust myself. “Even though I almost started your kitchen on fire.”

He growled as he ran a big hand through his hair. “No harm, no foul. I’m hoping you scared yourself enough that it won’t happen again.”

“I did.” I still didn’t know how he figured it out, but now didn’t seem like the time to ask. “It won’t happen again.”

“So, where did you go?”

I folded my arms across my chest. “I don’t owe you an explanation. You’re not my father.”

“Oh, trust me, I’m very well aware.” His eyes moved from my face to my small breasts that were pushed up from my arms.

It wasn’t my imagination. The attraction was an electric current that zipped between us. Thinking I would be able to resist him was useless. My arms relaxed and I leaned back on the pillows. “What do you really want to know?”

“Did you go see Ben?”

I shook my head, letting my long hair brush against my bare shoulders.

“Another guy?” he questioned, his jaw tense .

The man looked as if he were about to erupt. I could have told him a lascivious story that made his blood boil, but what would be the point? “I went to Oasis.”

His brows furrowed. “Getting ready to leave me already?”

“Not yet. Why? Are you going to miss me?” It was a bold question I had no business asking.

Hunter ran the back of his fingers down the side of my face. “I may. I’m getting used to having you around.”

A tingle raced down my spine, and my resolve weakened. “Then give me a reason to stay.”

“Careful what you ask for, dollface.” His eyes pierced mine so deep, I swear he could see into my soul.

I should have backed away. I should have run. I should have done something to preserve myself, but I didn’t. Instead, I leaned into his touch. “I’m not afraid.”

“You should be. I’m not a good man.”

“I don’t believe you.”

He growled. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Then those fingers that’d been dancing along my cheek wrapped around the back of my neck and pulled me in.

The moment our lips touched the air crackled with energy. His mouth moved over mine possessively, his tongue pushing between my lips. My breath caught in my throat, taken aback by the force that was Hunter Dorsey.

He knew what he wanted… and it was me.