Nope.
Not by a long shot.
On the little stage, the blonde had made herself the center of a man sandwich, grinding her ass back into the package of the guy behind her while grabbing the crotch of the dude in front of her. The music was Top Forty and getting louder by the second. If Amanda wasn’t my future wife, maybe I’d even admire what she was doing because hey, public sex was hot. After all, I’d done Lacey in the middle of a crowded club and that’d been fuckin’ amazing.
But this was some trashy shit, not the same at all. These guys were paid to grope her and act like they enjoyed it. Couldn’t she tell?
Suddenly, a soft voice sounded over my shoulder. Even with raucous cries of the crowd, Lacey’s voice was like a bell in my ear, soft and sweet.
“Hi.”
I turned, eating up that curvy form. Shit, she was beautiful, enticingly shy, and completely out of place. Hell, she was even shaking a little, this joint got under her skin. And yet I found it sexy. I’ve known lots of women, younger and older. But something about that sweetness, about the female’s giving nature, made me come to attention.
But this wasn’t the time to let it show.
“Hey,” I drawled lazily. “What’s up?”
Lacey cleared her throat, all nerves, uncomfortable as multi-colored lights painted that curvy form in rainbows.
“How are you?” she asked, looking down then up again.
I almost laughed. We were in the middle of a crowded club, half-naked strippers gyrating all around. And yet the female as so innocent, asking “how are you?” like this was just another party.
So I went with it.
“Good,” I drawled. “Could be better, but good, considering.”
She blushed.
“I know, this is a little weird right?” she asked, gesturing to the naked figures on stage. One guy literally popped his dick out then, and the brunette jerked her eyes away, fixing them on mine, lips trembling.
I almost laughed.
“Real weird, sweetheart,” I agreed over the din. “Real weird. Not too many co-ed bachelor parties these days, but what do I know?” I shrugged. “This is my first time getting married.”
Lacey blushed again wildly. Because yeah, I’m an engaged man. To her mom, for what it’s worth.
But she bit her lip, trying to move forwards.
“Jake, I wanted to ask you,” she said, taking a deep breath. “What’s going on between us?”
The words rushed out of her in a whoof, like they’d been bottled for ages. “We can’t keep doing this,” came her soft voice.
Holy shit, were we going to have this conversation now? Right here, with a disco ball flashing and blaring music? With guests all around?
But the thing is, no one could hear, and frankly, no one cared. People were too busy doing their own thing, ogling naked bodies, getting freaky and enjoying themselves.
So I looked the brunette straight in the eye.
“No shit,” was my deep growl. “We can’t keep going on like this.”
Because it was true. What were we doing? Who falls for their future stepdaughter? This is shit that only happens in movies.
And Lacey agreed. Taking a deep breath, she looked me in the eye again.
“So what’s next?” came her soft voice.
She edged closer then, that sweet perfume wafting into my nostrils. Shit, the woman smelled good, all purity and innocence compared to the trash around us. “Because I’m going crazy, Jake. I really am. Something has to give.”
But I didn’t have any answers. Because what the fuck was I gonna do? On the one hand, I needed Amanda’s rolodex, and the fastest way to get access was by marrying her. As depraved as it sounds, I run a multi-billion dollar business, and I’m not above doing shit like this to make the dollars roll.
But now there was Lacey. I never expected to meet this sweetness, everything about the woman blowing me out of the water.
So I shrugged nonchalantly.
“We’ll see,” was my low rumble. “We’ll see.”
I didn’t even know what the fuck I was talking about. I was way over my head with this girl. Yeah, this all started on a whim, but now we were swimming in the deep end, waves as high as a two-story building, threatening to crush us in one fell swoop.
But Lacey wasn’t satisfied.
“So you don’t have a plan?” came her low words.
I shrugged my shoulders, relaxed to the max. But every inch tingled, sizzling with awareness of the female.
“Naw, no plan,” I drawled carelessly. “Sometimes you just have to roll with it, baby girl. Can’t plan for everything.”
And she pulled back then, like I was poison.
“You can’t say that,” were her low words. “You can’t do that.”
I shrugged again.
“I’m forty-five honey. Been doin’ what I like for a long while,” came my lazy drawl. “Old dogs don’t got new tricks.”
And that was it. The girl whipped around so fast that those curls flew in the air, skirt swirling.