Holding Strong
Page 60

He needed to put some space, emotional and mental if not physical, between them pronto. “Mostly I don’t take dates to weddings because it’s a good place to score.”
“Really?” Looking intrigued instead of insulted, she said, “Tell me.”
“What?”
Her eyebrows wiggled. “Details. You pick up women at weddings...one at a time?”
Shit. “One at a time.”
“Okay, you pick them up and take them to your place? Isn’t that dicey? I mean, not that they might molest you.” Her soft, husky laugh did crazy things to him. “That’s the point, right? But how do you get rid of them afterward?”
Another glance at Denver showed no end in sight. He and Leese were now seated at a table. Double damn. Vanity waited, her gaze searching his, occasionally dropping over his body, so he had to answer. “I don’t bring chicks to my place.”
“Chicks,” she said with a smile that mocked him. “So where do you take these chicks?”
And now she was making fun of him. He leaned in, annoyed enough to be blatant. “In a closet or the men’s room usually.”
“Eww. Really?” She reached past him, her breasts brushing his biceps, and retrieved her glass. “I mean, a closet...maybe. But the bathroom? Foul.”
“The walls are usually clean enough.”
“So.” She swirled the ice. “I take it these are quickies, yes? I mean, surely there can’t be much foreplay in a public bathroom. It’s a disappointing image, I guess because I had this vision in my... Never mind.”
Oh, hell no. “What?”
She looked him over. “All that wolf and howling gossip.” She lifted a bare shoulder that made her breasts move softly. “Guess I never envisioned you as a minute man.”
Stack locked his teeth. “I’m not.”
“You just said you are.”
“That is,” he growled, overly enunciating, “I only am when it’s the right way to be.”
“Always choosing the best path? I see. So there are times when some speedy action in a bathroom is the proper course?”
He leaned closer still, his gaze holding hers. “When the woman is so hot for it she’s begging, yeah, a few minutes is long enough to get her off.”
Someone bumped his arm and he turned to see both Denver and Leese standing there. Denver looked startled, Leese disgusted.
Well, hell.
Vanity said, “Hello, boys. All done with your chitchat?”
Denver’s gaze bounced back and forth between them before settling on Stack. “I hate to interrupt, but—”
“Yeah, give me a minute.”
“He’s the minute man, you know,” Vanity said sotto voce.
“That’s enough from you.”
She tried to look innocent, but another twitching smile ruined it.
Stack turned his frown on Leese. He wasn’t about to budge until that dude was long gone.
Denver said, “I’ll grab us a table.”
“If his lady friends come over,” Vanity called after him, “tell them he’ll be right there.”
Bemused, Denver looked back and forth between them again. “Sure.”
And he took off, the coward.
Leese stuck around, and it annoyed Stack enough that he said, “What?”
“He’s surly,” Vanity explained with a gentle pat to Leese’s forearm. “Something about quickies in a closet.”
Not amused, Leese said, “I’ll see you around?”
“I’m sure you will.” And then softer, with concern, “Are you okay to drive?”
That caused old Leese to straighten. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.” And he walked out stiff-legged while trying to hide his discomfort. Pride, Stack knew, could be a bitch.
“That poor man,” Vanity said.
Though Stack almost thought the same thing, he didn’t like hearing it from her. He also knew it was the very last thing Leese—or any fighter—would want her thinking. “Jesus.” He stood. “You want a date for the wedding?”
“Well, I did,” she clarified. And before he could say more, she added, “I already assumed you didn’t want any one woman getting clingy. I also don’t want any man getting clingy.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m well-to-do. Don’t know if you knew that.”
As in wealthy?
“Anyhow,” she went on as if she hadn’t just said something so startling. “It gives guys ideas.”