Against The Night

“So what about the hunk?” Babs asked, eyeing her over the rim of her coffee cup.

Amy’s blond brows went up.  “What about him?”

“He was certainly giving you the eye.”

Amy just shrugged.  “When you’re up there naked, they all give you the eye.”

“This was different–and don’t tell me you didn’t notice.”

Oh, she’d noticed all right.

“I asked Tate about him.  Says his name is John Riggs.  He’s an ex-Army Ranger.  Does P.I. work and pretty much anything else he can make a buck at.”  Babs rolled her eyes.  “What a hunk.”

Her face went warm.  Just hearing the words brought his image to mind: dark brown hair and eyes such a deep brown they looked black, strong jaw roughened by the shadow of a beard.  He was the kind of guy who should have DANGEROUS stamped on his forehead.

She could feel the heat in those dark eyes all the way across the room.  It was what that hot look did to her that was startling.  The Kitty Cat Club was filled with men every night.  None of them made her stomach float up the way a single look from John Riggs had.  Two nights in a row, he’d sat in the shadows watching, his fierce gaze singularly focused on her.  At the same time he seemed aware of every other person in the room.

“He got his man tonight,” Amy said.  “We won’t be seeing him again.”

Babs sipped her coffee.  “Wanna make a little bet?”

Amy glanced up.  “You don’t think he’ll come back because of me?”

“I’ve been doing this for almost three years.  One thing you learn to recognize is when a man has an interest.  And let me tell you, honey, John Riggs has a major interest in you.”

Her stomach contracted.  If she closed her eyes, she could almost feel the heat in those dark eyes burning into her.  “You’re crazy.  He was here on business, that’s all.”

“Five bucks?”

Amy laughed.  “You’re on.”

Johnnie watched the little dancer walk away.  There was something off about Angel Fontaine, something he had picked up the first time she had walked up to his table and taken his order for a drink.  One stage, she was confident, just another exotic dancer doing her job.  But once she was out of the lights, she became a different person, shy and uncertain, barely able to make conversation with a man.

All evening, he had watched her.  That she was new to the job was clear, but it was more than that.  Some bone-deep difference that intrigued him.  He liked solving puzzles.  He wanted to solve the puzzle of Angel Fontaine.

On top of that, she was beautiful, blond, and sexy, and he had a weakness for sexy blondes.  He wanted her.  There was no denying it.  But he also wanted to know her story, her secret.  Find out what that subtle incongruity was that drew him like a bug to a light bulb.

And he thought that she wanted him, too, though it was an attraction she clearly didn’t want to feel.

He chuckled, took a sip of his beer.  Well, that was just too bad.  He wasn’t about to let her off the hook so easy.  He was going to find out Angel’s secret.  He had a hunch once he knew what it was, she would trust him enough to let their mutual attraction progress to its logical end.

He wasn’t in any hurry.  If the stakes were high enough, Johnnie could be a very patient man.

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