Private Dancer. Kimberly Dean

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СКАЧАТЬ knew that preachers’ kids could go one of two ways. They either toed the line or went a little wild. Being lashed down with rules and bound by strict expectations could drive anyone to act out, to rebel and experiment with the wrong kind.

      He wondered which way Alicia Wheeler went.

      ‘She’s clean as a whistle,’ Remy said, practically reading his mind. ‘From what I could find, she’s always been a good girl. A model of good behaviour, right down to those succulent toes.’

      Her toes weren’t what Bas wanted to suck on.

      ‘Any vices or kinks? Anything we can use?’

      Remy shook his head, but his gaze was locked onto the pretty brunette, too. He’d done the background checks on everyone in the crowd they could identify. He probably knew what kind of perfume she used, what size bra she wore and if there were any toys in her bedstand. ‘She got top grades. She volunteers. Doesn’t smoke or do drugs. She doesn’t have so much as a parking ticket on her record.’

      ‘Kind of makes you want to shake up her structured little life, doesn’t it?’

      A sound came from deep in his friend’s throat.

      ‘What about sex?’ Bas pressed.

      ‘She dates the Joe Schmo to her father’s right. I doubt he’s even found a way into her pants yet.’ Remy shook his head. ‘Makes you sad for the girl, doesn’t it? Look at that body. She needs someone who can ride her good and long, someone who could make her moan.’

      Maybe someone who could break the chains that were holding her back?

      ‘Let me take care of this,’ Remy said. ‘I could have this crowd gone by tomorrow.’

      Bas didn’t think they were quite to that stage. Yet.

      ‘I’ve got something else in mind.’

      The operations manager sent him a quick look, but then followed his gaze back across the street. Back to sexy, repressed Alicia.

      ‘Dancers need to dance,’ Bas said softly.

      He knew a weak link when he saw one.

      The Satin Club was the classiest and most exclusive gentlemen’s club in town. It was also his baby. He’d built it from the ground up, and nobody was going to tear it down, harass his clients or threaten his girls. Protecting it was his job, but he couldn’t attack a church outright. There was no winning that kind of battle.

      No, this might take a bit more finesse.

      And that’s where the sweet-looking Ms Wheeler came in.

      She might not approve of the naked gymnastics their girls performed, but she appreciated art. She appreciated physical movement and expression. As a dancer, there would be empathy there.

      Strip away the nudity and the voyeurs. Ignore the money that exchanged hands and all the extra-curricular activities that happened behind the red satin curtains. At the heart of the Satin Club was movement of the human body. The female body. The beat, the rhythm, the instinctual response to the sound of music.

      The freedom.

      Oh, yeah, as prim and proper as Alicia Wheeler seemed, she’d respond to the core of what happened here. Good girl or not, she’d respond to the dance.

      ‘Let’s go introduce ourselves,’ Bas said.

      It was time to see what would happen if all that repression was unleashed.

      ***

      Alicia watched Sebastian Crowe and Remy Hunt approach like two black panthers stalking their prey. Whenever her father decided to stage one of these protests, she always made sure to do her homework. She studied up on the city’s laws on assembling and permits. She determined the most effective, yet safest places to gather. Most importantly, she learned all she could about the people they were about to aggravate – because people were always aggravated when her father started one of his campaigns.

      What she’d learned about these two had made her antennae go up.

      Despite appearances, she didn’t like confrontations. She hadn’t wanted to tangle with these two, but her father had insisted. A den of iniquity, he’d called it.

      The lion’s den was more like it.

      ‘Heathens! Lust worshippers! Bow down and repent before the Saviour!’

      Grimacing, Alicia worked her way through the crowd towards her father. She wished that Paul hadn’t bought the speakers. They had her teetering on the edge of a migraine. ‘Dad, stop yelling. They’re coming to speak with you.’

      He ignored her completely. ‘Admit your sins! Beg for forgiveness!’

      She cast a glance at Colin, silently asking for help, but he lifted his hands in defeat. She sighed. If anyone disliked confrontations more than she, it was her boyfriend. If she wanted to even call him that.

      That was another problem, but this one was more pressing.

      She wrapped her fingers around her father’s shoulder. ‘Please stop.’

      A frown momentarily settled on his face. He’d become thinner in recent months. The gauntness almost made him look fragile, but there was a glint in his eyes when the two representatives of the Satin Club began to cross the street. Eight days of this, and he’d finally got a response.

      Alicia clutched the top edge of her sign. Please be civil. Everyone, please be civil.

      ‘God knows,’ her father spat at the two men. ‘The Lord sees what you do in that depraved –’

      The words were cut off abruptly when the bigger of their two visitors reached out and simply took the microphone out of her father’s hand like a parent taking a toy from a naughty child. He shook his head and made a show of turning the device off. Alicia looked quickly at her father. Red was starting to creep up his neck. He opened his mouth to speak.

      ‘Reverend Wheeler.’ The man in the sunglasses shoved out his hand in greeting before he could get out another word. ‘I’m Sebastian Crowe, owner of the Satin Club.’

      The words were pleasant, but there was enough steel underneath to make a shiver go down Alicia’s spine.

      Her father looked at the outstretched hand in distaste. If he took it, he’d be consorting with the enemy. If he denied it, he might lose the chance to convert the misled. Conflict was clear on his face, but he accepted the handshake. It lasted all of a second before contact was broken.

      Sebastian Crowe folded his arms over his chest. ‘I understand you’ve taken an interest in my club.’

      Alicia edged further away, but froze when Remy Hunt’s dark gaze snapped to her. She stared at him, surprised and breathing a bit too hard. He was even bigger up close. Big, shadowy and daunting. She was unsettled that she’d captured his attention. There was something untamed about the look he was giving her, something primal and overtly … sexual. Her fingers tightened until the cardboard sign scraped her palms.

      Instead СКАЧАТЬ