Take Me Home: Home is Where the Heat Is, Book 3 (3 page)

The limo slowed and Shawna’s heart jumped into her throat. “We’re here.”

Cash took one last look at her pussy and smiled. Wiping her with the meager material of her thong, he groaned. “You lucked out for now.”

He helped her sit up and straightened her clothes. Stuffing her thong in his jeans pocket, he leaned in and kissed her hard. “I’m keeping this until later.” The limo came to a full stop and he pulled away. Straightening his shoulders, he grabbed her hand. “Come on. Let’s get this over with. The sooner I get you back to my room, the better.”

Shawna followed him out, glad for his strong grip to center her. She’d be reeling for hours. Numerous curious eyes followed their progress and she wondered if her hot cheeks told them anything about her delectable limo ride.

Brushing the thought away, she focused on the crowd.
StyleU
models were in full bloom. The Odyssey Club hosted all of their company parties. It was sleek and dark and sexy. She’d been around long enough to know the guest list would be chockablock full of the fashion industry’s best. The lines outside confirmed it.

Chloe must have leaked that their newest hot model would be making an appearance tonight, and everyone who was anyone would be here to witness his premiere.

“This is going to be a long night.” The bite of a brewing headache prickled her skull. She looked at Cash, hoping he’d be different than most of Chloe’s “finds”. She’d hate to see him get lost in this world. “You have to play the part, but that doesn’t mean you have to become it. You’ll be offered everything from money, drugs and sex tonight. Remember where you came from and what you want from this and you’ll do fine.”

“Will do.” He leaned in close. “Heck, I plan to think of all the things I’m going to do to you when we get out of here. You should do the same. That’ll be our incentive to make this a quickly successful night.”

Shawna glanced at the gorgeous people waiting in line, the handsome bouncers that let them in, the nearly naked, perfect waitresses serving every concoction for every taste, and the exotic guests with beautiful features. They were surrounded by beauty, and Cash was one of them. His idea sounded good in theory, but she was a realist.

He might have found her enticing in the limo. A city fuck. Something new. Once he was sucked into
StyleU
’s world, he’d forget she even existed. She wasn’t a fool. She’d seen it too many times. Maybe not personally, but she knew there were hundreds of hometown beaus and girls left with broken hearts when their loved ones left them behind for the big time.

“You just put your handsome smile on and make every lady here think she’s the only piece of ass on the planet.” This was the first time she’d ever hated her job. She had to throw him to the wolves no matter how good he’d made her feel, or how much she wanted him all to herself.

It had taken years to get where she was on the ever-changing
StyleU
ladder, and she couldn’t let Cash fog her brain. He might be a fantastic fuck, but he’d also be gone. Her job wouldn’t be if she played it smart.

“Make friends. Flirt. Put on your cowboy chaps and rustle up some excitement,” she encouraged. “New York has seen it all, but Chloe believes you’re going to bring something fresh to
StyleU
, and so do I. The more they love you, the more we pay. We’re talking higher-paying sessions, maybe an exclusive deal. I know you think you’re doing this as a one-time fluke, but you should consider the future. The money you make from this won’t last forever. Why not make it big right now so you have options later? You don’t have to screw anyone you don’t want to, you just have to make them believe you will.”

“Pimpin’ me out already?” His eyes darkened. “Didn’t take long for you to jump train tracks.”

“I’ve been pimping you since before you arrived, Cash.” She hardened her heart for what she had to say next. Yeah, he’d been great. Yes, he was gorgeous, and what woman wouldn’t want a sample of what he’d promised later? Hell, what woman wouldn’t want to claw out the eyes of anyone close enough to look at him for too long? But for right now, he was her job. “These next few hours are as much your job as they are mine. So smile big and make every person here feel the way you made me feel a few minutes ago.”

Anger and maybe a hint of understanding touched his features. “I don’t think I’m made for this city stampede.”

For the first time in forever, she felt the same. She’d come from equally simple beginnings. A quiet country home, family values, a porch swing… Somewhere in the mix, she’d fallen for the city life. Hell, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d lain in the grass and watched the clouds float by. “Do it for your gram, Cash. That’s how I always got through it. Focusing on the end goal.”

His hand smoothed around to the small of her back as they entered the Odyssey. “What’s your end goal?”

Thankfully the crowd and loud music engulfed them, because she didn’t know how to answer that. Before down-to-earth, homegrown Cash had crashed into her life and reminded her of simpler things, the end goal had been simple. Editor-in-chief. From there, the world. Something big, something lasting.

She grabbed a drink from a passing waitress and swallowed it in seconds. Shouting over the music, she smiled. “To make you a huge success.”

He scowled, but they were sucked in by
StyleU
people, and it gave her the escape she needed to find another drink.

Chapter Five

Cash accepted a glass of ice water from Shawna and drained it. The club was packed, and he couldn’t draw a breath without thick perfume or cologne clogging his throat. The music was deafening, and he leaned close. “We’ve been here for over an hour already. How long do we have to stay?”

Shawna sipped at a bright orange drink, her body shifting in rhythm with the deep bass reverberating through the floor. “Long enough for Chloe to send a few more important people your way. Making a buzz is key in this business. It means curiosity, and curiosity of what
StyleU
is up to spreads quickly if we hit the right circles. I might have my issues with Chloe as a boss, but she’s deadly in the fashion world. She knows her game. You are a draw. She’s smart enough to exploit that.”

Cash got it. He really did. What he didn’t get was how Shawna managed to flip the switch so easily. He could still taste her on his lips, wanted her like there was no tomorrow. The fact that she was in complete professional mode branded his ass. Hell, if he hadn’t heard her moans and felt the shudders in her pussy, he’d swear they hadn’t half fucked in the limo. “Say when. I’m outta here the second you say so.”

“Relax,” she insisted. “It’s going to be a long night.”

“It has been already.”

Then she did something he didn’t expect. Like a curtain drawing on the last stage of a play, she went black. For the first time, he really saw the city Shawna instead of the one he’d been drawn to from the start. She stiffened, her eyes icy as she looked at the crowd. “Cash, you signed a contract. You’re going to be paid very well for a few of these appearances, a few hot photo sessions, and the right to plaster your sexy ass all over the world on our newest issue’s cover. It’s not like we’re curing cancer here, and we’re getting paid better to do this than most scientists. Suck it up. It is what it is. You’re beautiful, and every woman who sees you on that magazine cover is going to fuck their husbands, or boyfriends, or BOBs with your image in their heads.”

Cash grabbed her arm and steered her toward a corner farthest from the dance floor. There weren’t any less people, but he could hear a fraction better. “I know my role in all of this. You don’t have to git all professional,” he snapped. “And who the fuck is Bob?”

She drained her drink and gave it to a waitress as she passed. When she turned back, he could see her laughing, even if he couldn’t hear it. She leaned in close, her voice loud. “A battery-operated boyfriend.”

Yeah, talk about shifting his attention to more important things. When she would have pulled away, he snaked an arm around her waist. “Wait a sec. You’re talking toys?”

“Toys. Dildos. Vibrators.” Her hands came up to his chest with slight pressure. “All things to imagine what they want to do with or to you. More specifically, what they wish you’d do to them. Hell, when you grace the cover of
StyleU
, probably half the gay male population will be jerking off to your picture.”

The last was said with enough of a smirk that he got the feeling she was teasing him. He hoped. “That’s not incentive, you know.”

She shrugged. “It’s the truth.”

“Do you have one?”

She’d turned to flag down a waitress but swiveled in his hold at the question. “Have one what?”

He shifted his hand down her back to the curve of her ass, then lower, to the back of her thigh. Eating her had been heaven, but he couldn’t wait to feel her around his cock. He’d thought of little else tonight, and even if her head was in business mode, he felt he needed to remind her of what they could share after the tortures of work. “Do you have a BOB?”

“No.”

She tried to turn away again, but he pinned her to his chest, turning her so no one could see his hand slide under her skirt to the naked swell of her ass. “You’re lying.”

Her mouth parted on a sigh, her eyelids going heavy. “Yes.”

In seconds she’d shifted from work mode to fuck-me-where-I-stand, and he couldn’t ignore the change. Leaning in close, he nibbled at her earlobe. “That’s something I’d kill to see.”

“What?” she squeaked, trying to pull back to look at him.

“You,” he stated. “Spread out on your bed, fucking yourself with a rubber cock.”

She shuddered in his arms, tucking close as he kissed her neck.

“Does it vibrate?”

She nodded.

“And you rub it over your clit, don’t you?”

Another nod.

“I’m hard as a rock just thinking about it.” There was no use hiding his interest. Everything
Shawna
intrigued him “Ever used it for a lover? Let them watch?”

“No.”

“Why not?” This time when she tried to turn away, he let her, but kept her close so he could pull her ass back against his thighs. Sliding his hand under her shirt, he caressed her stomach. “I’d come watching you do it. I’d love every minute, wishing it was my cock wet and hot and making you moan.”

She leaned into him heavily, her hand digging into his thigh. “You have a way with words, cowboy, no doubt about it.”

“Good.” There were too many people crushed in tight for anyone to really see anything, and he slid his hand down her midsection to her thigh before traveling upward to the juncture of her legs. “As long as you know I want you, and that you’re wet. That’s all I could ask for.”

“Oh, I’m wet, all right.” She arched slightly, rubbing her ass down his quickly growing cock. “But our job is about to kill this delicious moment.”

Before he could ask what she meant, Chloe weaved her way between the people blocking them from the masses. She stared at Shawna for a long moment. “Enjoying yourself?”

“Actually—” Shawna stiffened, “—I’m making sure Kalen from
Concepts
is getting a good show. She’s at the bar, in the red top, watching like the vulture she is.”

“Really?” Chloe’s eyebrows arched. She looked behind her, scanning the bar.

The moment her boss turned away, Shawna ripped his hand from her crotch and sent him a play-along-or-you’re-dead scowl. Cash was lost, but when Chloe looked back at them, he shot her what he hoped passed as an innocent smile.

“What’s she doing here?” Chloe snapped.

“Since she’s been watching me like a hawk,” Shawna offered, “I’d say she finagled her way in somehow and is trying to get the scoop on Cash.”

The women continued to chat work and Cash tuned out. What the fuck did he care? He had Shawna’s scent on his fingers, and she was too busy to know what it was doing to him. Grabbing a passing waitress, he smiled. She was as tall as he was, and her tank top and skirt only covered ten percent of her body. “You’ll be my new favorite person in New York if you’ll bring me a long, strong whiskey. The faster the better.”

“You got it, honey.” She gave him a wink. “But you could have asked for so much more.”

Man, this was a horny-ass town. He’d behaved most of the night, but the double whammy of wanting Shawna, and Chloe’s demanding presence, had his head spinning. He needed a bracer. More because he suddenly felt like Shawna’s actions, and reactions, even the sexual ones, were for
StyleU
’s benefit. He couldn’t figure her out. One minute she was soft and sexy, the next, city-bitch cold.

The waitress brought him his whiskey and shoved a napkin in his pocket. She winked and leaned close to whisper, “Your drink is compliments of the lady at the bar. So is the note.”

Cash downed the amber liquor, gritting his teeth against the burn. He scanned the bar and found the woman Shawna and Chloe were talking about staring back at him. She raised her wineglass, her gaze moving from his boots to his mouth with slow, appreciative deliberation. When their eyes locked again, she smiled.

Digging the note out of his pocket, Cash set his glass aside. Penned in a simple, clear script were the words
I’ll triple what StyleU offered you
and a phone number.

Cash tucked the note in his pocket and glanced at Shawna and Chloe. More Shawna. He knew what this shoot meant to her, what she hoped to gain. Chloe was a friend, but she was heartless in the magazine world. Shawna was a different story.

Fuck, he didn’t know what to think of her. Honesty came first in his book, but something kept him from showing her the note. It deserved a response, so he’d keep it until he knew how to deal with it.

Shawna and Chloe were a different matter. Dealing with them would take more brainpower. They looked at this as business. Why shouldn’t he?

“Cash?”

Shawna’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. She was looking at him expectantly. “Sorry, what did you say?”

She pointed at the dance floor. “Time for more work.”

Chloe was already in the middle of the floor, waving him over impatiently. Two women stood with her. He recognized them as
StyleU
’s models by their height, proportions and quilt-work body parts.

Cash pulled Shawna along with him. “How much longer?”

She shrugged. Cold. “As long as it takes to satisfy Chloe.”

“Fuck Chloe,” he snapped. He stopped halfway to where Chloe stood and jerked Shawna close. “I’m getting tired of the seesaw shifts of your attitude. I thought you were in my corner. I thought you understood that this is all out of my corral.”

“And I thought you wanted to help your gram.” She purred, rubbing against him. “What’s a little flirting and bump and grind for one night?”

Fuck. It sounded ridiculous in his head, but he felt like he’d been fed to the wolves. Like he was a piece of meat, and she was a part of it. “You knew that woman was watching us? You know Chloe’s gonna have those women all over me for the crowd to see?”

“Yes and yes.”

Her breathing was staggered, her body arched in to him. Everything from her body language, even the soft, half-mast of her eyelids said she was aroused. “So this, your reactions to me, are all for show?”

“Hardly,” she scoffed. To her credit, she met his gaze head-on. “I want you so badly if there was a dark corner we could disappear into for a quickie, I’d do it. But I already told you. Work first, play later.” She stood on tiptoes, her lips close to his ear. “You’re not in my future. When your session is done here, you walk away with a whopping check and your life goes back to normal. For me, the next few weeks will determine where I go from here.”

Understanding hit like cold water. What did she take from this? Everything or nothing, in her mind. She had to play the game the same as he did for the end goal. He held up his hands in surrender. “You win. I’ll play by your rules. But…”

“But what?”

“If I do what you ask—” he paused, waiting to make sure she was paying close attention, “—then you have to do what I want later.”

She tipped her head, biting at her lip as she considered his demand. Then she smiled a slow, ridiculously sexy smile that made his cock swell. He liked that look on her.

After a long moment, she nodded.

Whether she was doing it for the job or because she wanted him, he was going to make the most of his time in New York. And he planned to make Shawna a good portion of the time spent. He’d just have to skirt the traffic, chaos and she-wolves dirtier than the rattlers at home.

Shooting a glance at the woman at the bar, he nodded to let her know he’d understood her note. Shawna was into him for what he could do for her career, and an orgasm or two. If Gram’s future could be chalked up to that kind of criteria, then he could keep his options open.

If Shawna fit into them, great.