“Your friends are in there making fun of you for running out like a scared little boy. Drink up and go defend yourself.”
“I don’t need to defend myself.” He raised the glass to his lips. “Least of all to the guys in there.” As he tipped the glass to drink, the light from the flashing Surf’s Up neon sign shot like a laser beam through the bottom of the glass and in the blink of the flash, he caught sight of what looked like the remains of a roofie dissolving in the bottom. His cop antennae shot up. Why the conniving little—had she marked him from the get-go? Sucker fool, he’d fallen right into her trap. Anger slithered through him. He should arrest her right here. Damn if he was going to let this scam artist play him.
He lowered the glass and looked down at her, catching the desperate look in her big ocean colored eyes. Color had leeched from her previously rosy cheeks, and a thin sheen of perspiration gave her skin a sultry glow. She looked scared. No, scratch that; she looked terrified. What was she up to?
A war waged within. The cop part of him, the part that swore to protect and serve, was ready to haul her in, but the man part of him was intrigued. If he arrested her, he doubted he’d ever learn her motives. If he went along with her scam…
He sipped the water and as he did, he moved past her and pretended to chug the rest, but actually poured it into the trashcan in front of him. He turned with the empty glass and handed it to her. “Thanks.”
Her eyes widened and as she took the glass, she looked like she wanted to say something. A warning? Having second thoughts about drugging him? Anger swept through him again. He was nothing more than a mark. His ego stung and it pissed him off that she’d gotten under his skin in there. He thought he’d gotten under hers, too. He should arrest her.
Sweeping her with a long disapproving look, he would have thought knowing what he knew combined with her career choice would temper his physical reaction to her. That wasn’t the case. The ache in his groin hadn’t waned. The opposite occurred. His desire for her had become painful. “Why do you like flashing your tits for strangers?”
“Why are you such an ass?” She threw back.
He smirked. “You disappoint me.”
Her brows rose. “You don’t know me.”
“Maybe not. Even based on our brief acquaintance, I think you’re better than what you do inside the club.”
She shrugged, the edge of the wrap falling off a bare shoulder. His dick flared.
“I don’t have a problem with my chosen profession,” she said. “I’m not being forced to work here, I chose to. So take your snobby cop attitude and go home.”
Flynn didn’t let it go. “You’re not like them. There’s something different about you. Stay here long enough and you’ll end up like every other stripper in the Tenderloin.”
She cocked her head to the side and graced him with a brilliant smile. “You’re right, I’m not like the rest of them, but you’re wrong about the second part of your statement. Because I’m not like them, I won’t become one of them.” She nudged him in the chest with her shoulder. “But thanks for looking out for me.”
What a paradox. One minute she was telling him to hit the road and the next she was all smiles and flirty. He moved closer. Her scent engulfed him. Damn if he didn’t want to lay her down and—he stopped thinking about what he wanted to do.
Flynn had never minced words when it came to what he wanted. He wasn’t about to start now. Especially when he wanted the little girl standing in front of him in a bad way. Never mind he should arrest her for trying to drug him. His dick wanted what it wanted. “I want to fuck you six ways to sundown, Wild Style, and that doesn’t make me happy.”
Her lips parted, exposing her white teeth. The tip of her pink tongue touched the bow of her top lip. “Not happy about it because you’re a by-the-book cop and I’m a stripper who showed her tits to your friends in there? Or not happy about it because you know I won’t let you fuck me six ways to sundown? ”
Flynn growled and pushed her against the side of the building. Pulling his hands off her because she felt too good and he might do something stupid, he placed his hands on the wall, palms flattened on either side of her head, and leaned into her. “Because the guys I work with have seen your tits and I haven’t.”
Without missing a beat, she dropped the pink wrap down around her elbows and stood like Venus in the surf before him, her fucking luscious tits sitting way up high, the pink nipples hard, begging for his lips to stroke them. Breath whooshed from his chest as if he’d been hit. Setting his jaw, he fisted his hands against the concrete, fighting the painful urge to ravish them.
Catching his gaze, she raised her chin defiantly. “Are you still not happy?”
Yeah, he was unhappy all right. More like pissed off. He yanked up the wrap and covered her; as he did, his hands swept the bottom swell of her breasts. She gasped, and he felt the thud of her heartbeat against his palm. His thumb slowly stroked a pebble-hard nipple.
“Don’t mess with me, tiny dancer, you’ll regret it,” he warned.
“How?” she breathed.
“I’ll split you apart and make you beg for more.” He dropped his lips to the base of her throat and inhaled her sweet scent. “And I’ll be gone before you wake up.”
Her warm breasts heaved against his hands. “Is that how you court a lady?”
“You’re not a lady and I don’t court.”
“If you don’t court, what do you do?”
“I fuck.”
“Then just fuck me.”
Flynn stood for a long hard moment. He wanted to fuck her, was going to fuck her, he decided, and in doing so find out why she’d drugged him.
He grabbed her wrists and dragged her behind him into the club. “Get whatever it is you need to get, and let’s get out of here.” Flynn watched her walk uncertainly from him. He made straight for the private room and pulled Simon aside.
“Look, I don’t want to be a buzz kill, but that little number just tried to slip me something. I’m going to play it off.”
“What the hell?” Simon said, shocked.
“I don’t know if she was put up to it or is acting on her own.” Flynn dug out his wallet and handed Simon a wad of bills. “If you need more for the rounds, I’m good for it.”
Simon took the cash and put it in his jeans pocket. “Do me a solid when you get out of here, Simon. Run this place and see who owns it and if there’s any dirt. Text me what you come up with and I’ll touch base in the morning.”
“Keep your phone on so I can find you if I need you.”
“Thanks, man.”
Flynn strode from the room to the front of the club to find Wild Style waiting by the door. As he approached, he swayed as if the effects of the drug were kicking in.
Izzy’s heart beat like a drum as she watched the cop sway through the crowd. What had she done? What if he had a bad reaction? She shouldn’t have done this. There were other ways to get the information she needed. Weren’t there?
“C’mon on, sweet thing, let’s blow this Popsicle stand,” he slurred.
He dropped his arm around her shoulder and, leaning heavily on her, walked outside.
“Hey, look,” she said. “I think you should go back inside with your friends.”
“Cabby!” he yelled.
One magically appeared. “C’mon, tiny dancer,” he said, pulling her with him as he stepped with an unsteady gait.
“No, really. Let’s go back.”
He yanked open the door, pushed her in, then followed, shutting the door behind them. Izzy’s heart pounded. She didn’t know what to do! Even if she wanted to go through with this, she had no plan of action.