Midnight Ballerina (17 page)

“WHAT WERE YOU doing out there?” I demanded.

I couldn’t think straight when I dragged her off of the stage and into my office, which is probably why I ended up kissing the hell out of her, but I couldn’t say I regretted it. No, there was no way in hell I felt that way about it. Kissing Monroe was like something I’d never experienced before, and actually calmed me down about a bit, a serene feeling washing over me when her lips pressed against mine and she opened her mouth willingly so I could finally taste her.

“I was planning on this being my only time,” she answered quietly, snapping my attention away from thoughts about the kiss. “Randy kind of sprang it on me, and I just figured, why not. It’s not like I was naked—”

“Just stop.” I held up a hand to interrupt her, letting go of her wrist, and I felt like an asshole when I watched her gingerly rub the sensitive skin. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” I reached out to trace the inside of her wrist with my thumb, not failing to notice the goosebumps breaking out all over her skin. I was glad to see that I seemed to have the same effect on her that she did me.

“I didn’t like seeing you on that stage. You should’ve never been up there.”

She let out a small sigh, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly, which only caused the scrap of material she had on to shift slightly and give me even more of an eyeful. I certainly didn’t mind. Not to mention the skirt thing that she was wearing. I’d seen what was going on behind it and my mouth was still watering from that glimpse of her rounded ass, the creamy skin contrasting sharply against the black material. I shook my head, trying to concentrate on what I was trying to get out.

“I think you should just head home for the night. You’re officially done at Pure now.”

“Fine,” she huffed, moving her arms to place her hands on her hips. “But don’t think you can just go dragging me around and demanding I don’t do things simply because you don’t like them. That’s not how you treat people, Miller. You are not a caveman.” She stomped her heeled foot and I smirked, but the look was quickly wiped off my face once she continued on. “Do you know what I’ve been put through here? First, I have to deal with the lovely
Bianca
, who is the biggest bitch with a capital B that I’ve ever met in my life. She tried to make my life a living hell every night that I worked, but I put a smile on my face and dealt with it. Then Randy, don’t even get me started on him. Do you even know what’s going on at your own business? I really hope you don’t, because I don’t think you’re that kind of guy, but something really needs to be done about it. You’re lucky some undercover cop hasn’t nailed you yet.”

“Whoa, whoa. Back up a step.” I closed the gap between us and grabbed both of her flailing hands, bringing them to a stop at her sides, but didn’t let go. “What in the hell are you talking about with Randy?”

“Oh. So, you don’t know.” She exhaled a breath, looking relieved that I was clueless about whatever she was talking about. I’d sensed that something was going on with Randy but I wasn’t sure what and planned on getting to the bottom of it soon. Seemed I was going to hear about it a lot sooner. “Well…he took me into a room one night, basically locking me in there, and there was this VIP customer, I guess. Said he wanted a private show and if things went further…well, you know.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked in a low voice, my body starting to shake from the fire that was building in me at the thought of what Randy had done to Monroe. What if she had ended up with an asshole that didn’t take no for an answer? I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities, which only caused the anger to build even more. “He did that to you? I knew something was going on, but I never expected that. Damnit.” I let go of Monroe’s hands because I needed to funnel some of the rage out of me, and my fist found the first thing it could connect with. Some of the drywall cracked when my knuckles pounded into it, but I felt myself slightly calming down as I shook my throbbing hand and squeezed my eyes shut, counting in my head.

“What are you doing?” Monroe asked cautiously. “Are you okay?” She placed her hand on my back and some of the tension released at her touch. She kept it there, rubbing in small circles.

“I was counting.”

“Counting?”

“I don’t have the best temper, something I think I probably owe to my dad. I figured out counting helps. I had to do it all the time when I was a kid after I kept getting into loads of trouble, acting out nonstop, and Mamaw took me to see someone about it.”

“You were a troublemaker? I just can’t picture that.”

“Yup.” I blew out a breath. “Randy doing that behind my back pisses me off, but the fact that he put
you
in that situation….” I trailed off, shaking my head and surprising the hell out of both of us when I turned around and wrapped both arms around her, pulling her tight against my chest and burying my nose in her hair. She relaxed into me, and I loved the feeling of her in my arms, so I didn’t let go. “I’m just glad nothing happened to you.”

We stayed like that for what felt like an hour; her ear pressed against my chest, my face buried in her hair. I didn’t want it to end but I knew it had to and I groaned when she moved away.

“There’s more,” she whispered, and then proceeded to tell me all about what she’d witnessed, and everything that she knew. She even tried to defend Randy, saying she wasn’t a hundred percent certain he was involved. But it didn’t matter, I knew.

“I
need
you to leave now. I have to handle Randy. Maybe we can pick up where we left off on Monday, figure this out.” Her lips turned down and I could tell that she was disappointed.

“Don’t you have a girlfriend? Sara or Kara or something like that. The blonde that was here earlier? I’m not that type of girl, Miller. I won’t be the
other woman.
”

“You mean Tara?” She pursed her lips, nodding her head once and I was pretty sure I saw a hint of jealously run across her face. It took everything in me not to grin. “No, we’ve gone out a few times but never anything more. She’s like a daughter to Mamaw, so she’s around all the time.”

“Okay,” she answered simply and I wanted to forget about what I said. I didn’t want to wait until Monday, but I had shit to deal with now, shit that couldn’t be put off for any amount of time.

“All right, well get going. Maybe you can leave a little early to head back to your family’s now.”

“Oh, I’m not going back home for Thanksgiving. I’m planning on just hanging out at home and relaxing.”

“You’re not? Do you have any friends coming over?”

“No, just me and my book friends.”

“Well, then you can come to dinner at my house. No one should be alone on the holidays. I’m sure you’re going to be missing your family.”

“Oh no, no, no. That is so not happening. You don’t have to feel sorry for me, Miller. I’m going to be just fine.”

“I’m not inviting you because I feel sorry for you. I want you to come. My family will love you.”

“Absolutely not. I don’t know what is going on between us.” She waved her hands and I stopped them with mine, lacing our fingers together. “But I’m not showing up at your Thanksgiving dinner. No way, José.”

My eyebrows lifted slightly and I was debating on arguing with her about it or not, but I decided against it. I would figure something else out.

“Fine, then I guess I’ll see you on Monday.”

“Okay,” she said in a small voice when I let go of her hand, and I felt the same way, but I needed to take care of Randy.

“And even though I would love to have you show up in
this
.” I grabbed at the material of her skirt, my thumb grazing her bare stomach. “I would probably have to beat the shit out of every single one of the guys for looking at you and then they wouldn’t be able to get any work done.”

“All right, if you say so,” she responded dryly. “I’ll see you on Monday then.” And then she waved bye to me and unfortunately I had to let her go.

Next time, there was no way in hell I would be able to.

I WATCHED MONROE leave my office for the second time that night, and I couldn’t believe I let her. When I walked out of my office, getting ready to head home for the night, and saw her up on the stage, my whole body froze. It was like being at the scene of an accident where you know you should look away, but just can’t. Not that there was anything disastrous about her performance, far from it. The way she gracefully moved across the stage was the most sensual thing I’d ever seen in my life. She didn’t dance like the other girls and it wasn’t the normal type of thing you saw at the club; it was more artistic and everyone was captivated, including me. Then I realized just how captivated all the assholes around me were, their mouths hanging open as they watched her tiny, barely-clothed body dancing around the stage, and I about flipped my lid. I couldn’t let her get on that pole because then I would’ve lost my shit.

Luckily, I was able to stop her and drag her back to my office before she got the chance to do too much damage. Because how she looked tonight was for my eyes only, though I doubted she would see it that way. I don’t think she realized how gorgeous she looked in that getup Randy put her in, living up to the midnight ballerina nickname I had given her perfectly.

Her light complexion playing against the black material, her hair swept off of her neck begging for me to kiss the smooth, sensitive skin, and that glimpse I got of what was going on in the back—I didn’t realize I had that much self-control.

The things I wanted to do to Monroe in my office were way beyond those kisses and simple touches I allowed myself. I wanted to take her on my desk, right then and there, living out every fantasy I’d had about her since seeing her that first night, but I didn’t. I would’ve freaked her the hell out. I could tell she was inexperienced. I don’t know how inexperienced, but I was sure she couldn’t handle me. Not yet.

I needed to take it slow with Monroe and I was okay with that. It was unbelievable how back and forth I was with her. One minute I wanted her, couldn’t stand not being around her, and then I was thinking I should just leave her alone, remembering my strict policy of not dating the employees at Pure. And then I was back to wanting her more than anyone I had ever wanted in my life. It was confusing as shit.

So, I let Monroe leave, but just for tonight. I needed to. I’d let my temper get out of hand for just a split second in front of her and that was more than enough. I was able to reel it in until she left, but now I was seething.

I whipped open the door to my office and went on the hunt for Randy. I knew something was up with that asshole lately. Why in the hell should he care how often I was here? And now I understood why. He didn’t want to get caught red-handed, basically pimping out the girls like prostitutes.

According to Monroe, Bianca was the only one that she knew was working for Randy in the back rooms. Really, it didn’t surprise me. I told Randy to keep an eye out for Bianca because she seemed to be getting a little too touchy feely with the customers and apparently he turned that around and put it to good use for himself. I wondered how long it had been going on and the wool had been pulled over my eyes.