Seducing Zeb (Tarnished Saints Series) (16 page)

“Honey
, I don’t think those girls really need costumes,” said Aunt Cappy.

Zeb loved
how naïve Cat was, and it made him attracted to her even more. He knew he should tell her exactly what she’d agreed to, but didn’t have the heart to do it just yet when she was so proud of getting a new job.

“I was going to ask you for a ride over there tonight, Zeb, but I guess you won’t be coming.”
Cat held her mouth firm and crossed her arms over her chest.

And t
here she was again, asking him about coming. Why’d she always have to say that?

“You may be wrong about that, Cat. And I wouldn’t miss this for the world. As soon as Thomas is done fixing the car, we’ll go.”

“All done,” said Thomas, slamming the hood and wiping his hands in a rag.

“Good.
Then let’s get going. I have a job and I don’t plan on being late.” Cat headed out of the barn and Cappy stood up and swatted Zeb across the head.

“Ow, what was that for?” he asked
, ducking away from her in order not to be swatted again.

“Because you’re a nin
compoop, that’s why. You should have told her about the strippers.” Cappy stood with a scowl on her face and her hands on her hips.

“If you want to tell her, go ahead,” Zeb said.

“That’s not my position to tell her,” said Cappy. “But if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop all this nonsense and just accept Cat into your life and give up being a bachelor once and for all.” She stormed out of the barn before Zeb could answer.

“Can
I borrow something to wear?” Zeb asked Thomas.

“Are you really going
to keep up this charade?” Thomas was the most sensible of all the brothers, and even a bit old-fashioned at times. And he obviously didn’t have a sense of adventure.

“For now.
At least until after I take Cat to Burleys and she realizes the mistake she’s made by taking that job.”

“So you’re really not going to tell her about the strippers?”

“I won’t have to. She’ll figure it out once we walk in. Then I’ll be there to save her and take her out of there. Don’t worry, I’ll be there and won’t let anything happen to her. I don’t want to do this contest anymore, but it’s going to have to be Cat’s call to stop the contest. Because there is no way in hell I’m going to bow out of a challenge, just like you said. It’s not in my vocabulary.

Besides,
I have a feeling that after tonight Cat will be the one coming to me and begging me to stop this whole thing, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“You’d better hope so,” said Thomas in his all-knowing way.
“Because if you keep walking around looking like that and driving cars like this, your bachelorhood is going to be over anyway. And then when you and Cat break up, you’re going to die a lonely old man with regrets for not coming to terms with this whole thing while you had everything a man craves right in the palm of your hand.”

* * *

By the time they finally arrived at Burley’s it was well past nine o’clock and Cat had told Burley she’d be there by eight to meet the girls and talk to them before they went on the stage.

But it took Zeb so long to pick out something to wear from Thomas’s limited wardrobe that she thought they’d never leave. As it was, he ended up with a pair of jeans and a button-down checkered long-sleeved shirt
. It was a working man’s outfit, and nothing that Zeb would ever have chosen to wear if he didn’t have to.

And then he played and fussed with his hair so long that Cat was starting to think
they’d never leave.

“You don’t have to be in such a foul mood,” said Zeb, pulling up and parking in the lot.

It was crowded tonight for some reason, and Cat figured it was because Nate and his new band would be playing right after the girl’s did their routine.

“I’m just aggravated because you fussed with your appearance so long that we’ve probably missed the girls’ dancing. And I told Burley I’d be here ahead of time and watch the show and tell him what I thought could be improved.”

“Well, if you’d had let me use gel, we could have been here an hour ago.” He flipped down the visor and tried to see himself in the dirty mirror.

“You are incorrigible,” she said
, and opened the door to get out. She was wearing a plain button-down white blouse and a pair of jeans that were too sizes to big for her and without a belt. She had her hair up in a bun yet, not wanting to waste time by taking it down and having to brush out the tangles. She knew she looked horrible and probably smelled bad since Zeb wouldn’t let her wear any of her perfumes.

She was tired of this game and only wanted to go back to the way things were, but she wasn’t going to be the one to call it quits. If she did that, she’d be admitting Zeb was right about her  - which was far from the truth.
And she’d also be more or less calling it quits to their marriage as well. And while Zeb irked her at times, she wasn’t ready to let go of him for good. He kind of grew on her with each passing day, and she started to like having him around, as oddly enough even though they bickered, it still felt right to her.

“Wait, Cat.” Zeb reached out and grabbed her arm to keep her from going. Her eyes shot downward and her heart skipped a beat ju
st by having his hand on her. She loved the feel of contact between them.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Honey, I really don’t think you should go in there.”

“I told you, you
can’t stop me. Now take your hand off of me.”

“I can’t let you do that. I need to tell you something first.”

“Whatever it is can wait til later because I’m already very late. Now please release me. If I’m not mistaken, the contract I signed said we couldn’t kiss or hug and I’m sure this falls somewhere under your ridiculous bi-laws.”

“You
did read the contract? And still signed it?” He let go of her arm. He seemed very surprised by the whole ordeal. Little did he know she was also a speed-reader and though she skimmed the contents of the contract quickly, she’d understood exactly everything she was agreeing to before she’d signed it.

“I’m not stupid
, Zeb, no matter what you think.” She made her way quickly to the front door. The heels she wore were old and hard to walk in, and she kept feeling the back strap slipping and was surprised she could keep them on at all.

“Wait up, sweetie. I don’t think this is the type of place you should be walking into alone.” Zeb ran up behind her and grabbed the door as she opened it, walking into the building in front of her, blocking her view. She heard some sexy music and also men whistling and shouting and wondered what was going on.

“Move over, Zeb, I can’t see the stage.”

“Exactly,” she heard him mumble and didn’t understand what he meant.

She pushed past him and stopped when her eyes focused on the dancers and suddenly she understood why everyone was acting so strangely toward her all night. There were six dancers, all topless with tiny little g-strings that covered a patch in front of their groins so small that she knew they had to have been shaved completely. One gyrated her hips at the end of the stage and a dozen hands reached up slipping money into her g-string. Two other of the female dancers embraced each other and actually kissed, while one spun around the pole upside down with her legs spread wide and her boobs jiggling. And the last one sat atop a patron’s lap on the stage doing a lap dance in front of everyone.

“Oh!” was all she could say.

“Now you see why I didn’t want you to come here, Cat?”

“And you couldn’t tell me this earlier?” she spat.

“I tried to tell you, sweetie. We all did. But you didn’t give us a chance. Well, not really.”

“
I would think you would have tried a little harder.” She turned to leave, but there were a few burly men coming in the door and before she knew it she was being pushed toward the stage.

“There you are, Cat,” came the gruff voice of Burley. “Now get up there and show these girls how it’s done in Vegas, will ya?”

“No, Mr. Burley there seems to be –”

It was too late. Burley shoved her up the stairs and onto the stage and before she knew it, she was standing
next to a stripper with the lights shining directly at her.

“Cat, get down from there,” she heard Zeb call out from somewhere in the room, but she couldn’t see him. Then all the men started pushing forward and waving their hands at her.

“Take it off,” yelled one of them holding a dollar bill toward her.

“Shake those tits,” said another
man who sounded drunk. Then one of the girls pushed her toward the men and their hands reached out for her.

“Get away,” she said, picking up her foot to kick at them, and when she did the strap holding
her shoe broke and the shoe went flying into the crowd.

That got more cheers from the men
. One of the strippers reached over to unbutton her shirt and when she pushed her away, her shirt popped open exposing her bra. And when she jumped back, the pants she wore that were too big slipped off and fell to the ground. Thank God she wore panties today instead of her usual thong, and only because of this stupid competition did she decide to change them.

“God damn it, Burley, get out of the way,” she heard Zeb shout and then she heard the sound of a fist smashing into flesh. The men in front of her continued to grab for her and she felt humiliated and ready to burst out crying.

“Come on, Cat, we’re getting you the hell out of here,” said Zeb, shooting up the stairs to the stage and putting his arm around her. They were headed back down the stairs to leave when the crowd started shouting their disappointment. Suddenly Cat felt the release of Zeb’s hand on her and turned to see all six of the strippers pulling him back on stage.

“Zeb, so good to see you again,” said one of the girls ripping his shirt right from his body.

“Ginger, not tonight,” she heard Zeb say softly and wondered what that meant.

“Dance with us,” said one of the other girls grinding up against him.

“Strip for us, baby like you used to,” came another plead from one of the strippers, and Cat’s mouth opened wide in surprise when she saw the girl starting to undo Zeb’s pants right there in front of everyone.

“Licorice, Cinnamon, I said, no. I’m a married man now.”

“Sure you are, said the first girl he’d called Ginger, reaching up and grabbing his face in her hands and licking his cheek and then plastering a big kiss on his mouth.

Cat had all she was going to take. She marched back up on the stage and ripped the girl named Ginger away from him and threw her off the stage into the crowd. The men
went wild and started cheering. Coins hit the floor around her feet and dollar bills flew through the air when she pushed the other two away as well.

“No one is going to touch my husband, is that understood?” she ground out, looking over to the other two girls who just backed away.

“Cat, I can’t believe this,” said Zeb looking at her with those sexy eyes and that half grin that told her he wasn’t being totally truthful. Another bill floated by in the air and Zeb reached out his hand and snatched it up. “Holy crap, someone just threw a hundred dollar bill at us. That’s the most I’ve ever got from . . . ”

She knew he was going to say stripping, and she also knew if they didn’t get out of there soon there was going to be a fight on their hands a
nd it was going to get ugly. So she reached out and grabbed Zeb by the shoulders, loving the feel of his bare skin beneath her fingers. She pulled him forward and plastered the biggest kiss on his lips, and then backed away and saw the shit-eating grin on his face.

“You bastard!” she spat, and swung her fist
next, clipping him square in the eye.

The crowd started getting way too rowdy, and the next thing she knew Nate was behind her, pulling her and Zeb off the stage.

“Here,” he said, handing her the keys to the Mercedes. “The Mercedes is out back. You two get the hell out of here now before you cause any more trouble.”

“I’m not finished,” said Cat, but Zeb’s grip on her arm said differently as he
pulled the keys out of her hand and dragged her across the room.

“Thanks
, Nate,” she heard him call over his shoulder as they headed out the back door.

Zeb couldn’t believe what just happened. Nor could he believe the way his eye was smarting from Cat’s punch.

“Get in,” he said, opening the driver’s door and pushing her inside. The top was down and Zeb couldn’t believe Nate would leave his car open like this in a place like Burley’s. He was lucky the damned thing hadn’t been rifled through or stolen by now.

“Taylor, get back here.” It was the voice of Burley.

Then he heard the sound of sirens and saw Judas and his deputy’s car come sc
reeching up and stopping in front of the man. Judas jumped out and looked over to Zeb.

“Did Burley do that to you?” he asked, his left hand going for his gun since his right arm was still in a slin
g. His deputy jumped out with his gun already drawn.