Stripped Bare (Stripped #1)(15)

Michelle had been right. He wanted to be unique, get ahead of the game. Beat someone else to the success.

“Do you know what the other clubs around you are doing?” I sipped my coffee then tilted my head to the side.

“I don’t make it a habit to go and watch men strip naked,” he drawled. “Unless they’re being paid by me.”

I sighed and sat back. That was his first problem. He had no idea what anyone else was doing. He’d done no market research. This was going to take a long time.

“I need you to go to other clubs and see what they’re doing.”

Both of his eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”

“You can look shocked all you like, Mr. Rykman. This is basic research. For all I know, there’s another club rebranding in two weeks, so yours needs to happen before that. Maybe someone else has a custom cocktail. I need to see what’s in it to make sure this one doesn’t come close. Maybe they have theme nights. What themes? How often? What days? Are they popular?”

“All right. I see your point. And I have to do this?”

“Of course. I don’t know what you do on a regular basis here, do I? What’s your current marketing plan? How much do you spend on advertising? This is all information Michelle didn’t share with me, because you probably discussed it verbally and she didn’t write it down.” The woman had an eidetic memory, I was sure. “Unless you can provide me with it all in the next six hours, your Monday night will be spent in someon else’s strip club.”

He looked at me for a long moment before something flashed in his eyes. “Are you coming with me?”

“I didn’t plan on it.”

“So, you’re happy to make me do it, but you’re not planning on it yourself?”

“That...sounds one hundred percent accurate.”

“What if I go alone and get derailed by a female club?” His lips twitched in amusement. “That’d be far more entertaining for me.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “Your business, Mr. Rykman. Not mine.”

He craned his neck to look behind the booth at the bar and then slid across the seat to me. Thank god my purse was between us, but he was still too close for comfort. And not because I was creeped out, but because, well, my heart was pounding a little too loudly. I couldn’t move because I was sitting on the edge of the seat, but he didn’t touch me.

He might as well have been.

My skin burned like he was.

“Ms. O’Halloran...I’ve hired you. It most definitely is your business.”

I turned my face to look at him. Mistake. Big mistake. His eyes were hypnotic, almost, and once I’d looked at him, I couldn’t look away.

“Fine. I’ll come with you. Three hours, three clubs. But it’s completely professional.”

“Are you worried it would turn personal?” He quirked an eyebrow. Again.

I hated that—mostly because he looked so damn hot doing it.

I shifted my body so I was facing him, trying to ignore how f*cking good he looked. Seriously. It had to be illegal.

“We’re victims of circumstance, Mr. Rykman. As far as I’m concerned, our previous...dalliance...never happened.”

“Really, angel?” He twirled a lock of my hair around his finger and leaned in so his breath skittered across my skin. “Because, for something that never happened, I can remember all too well how good your tight * felt when you came all over my cock. Twice.”

I swallowed. So could I. And so could my *. She was ready to do it again, right there, right then, the greedy little slut.

I squeezed my thighs together in the hope he wouldn’t notice. “That’s inappropriate.”

“You brought it up.”

I... Shit. I did, didn’t I? “Then I apologize. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

But it was still inappropriate. So was my throbbing clit. Fuck.

His lips quirked to one side. “Apology accepted but unnecessary.” He picked my notebook up and ran his tongue over his upper lip as he read.

I knew that it was deliberate, but it didn’t stop my gaze from dropping to the slow way it swept over his lip.

I cleared my throat and looked at the stage, which ran down the middle of the club. Completing this contract was going to be harder than I’d thought.

Screwed.

That’s what I was. Screwed as f*ck.

If Michelle hadn’t been in such a shit spot, I’d have called her and gotten out of this, but I couldn’t. I was trapped in this situation all because I had decided to make an on-the-spot proposal three weeks ago—one he had taken.

Now look.

I had to work with this man for as long as it took to get his club marketed as something phenomenal. This handsome, powerful, commanding man.

Well, he could dirty-talk me all he liked. He could bring up our night at every turn. I wouldn’t give in. I’d made myself the promise to focus on work and nothing else.

I trusted too easily and fell in love too quickly. My love life was one long trail of heartbreaks.

Yes—West Rykman could no doubt seduce the pants off any adult female in the world, but he wouldn’t do it me again.

“Ms. O’Halloran?” he asked, interrupting my thoughts, making me turn back to him. “Eight o’clock tonight? They don’t get going until then.”