Pier Lights Read Online Free PDF

than that.” She
slid her fingers into the waistband of his elasticized black
pants.
    Dio didn’t stop her. It had been some time
since he took some bimbo back to her place. Never home. He would
never take them home. Even if it was just Sandy, the touch helped
him prepare for the show. It turned him on, only enough, as he
watched her tease. When she teased far enough he considered hauling
her to a back room, he leaned down, pulled his mask up just enough,
and kissed her neck, not enough to leave a mark, but close. Her
body relaxed, her head dropped back.
    And he walked away.
    If she wanted to tease, he could play that
game. He chuckled as she cursed him.
     
    Caroline gave up. It was after one in the
morning and she shouldn’t have let herself sit out there and wait
for him for so long. The ocean air had turned chilly. Sick was the
last thing she needed. She’d danced sick plenty often. Unless you
were near death as a ballerina, you danced. Otherwise, those just
below you swooped in fast, got a chance to prove they could do it
if you couldn’t. She wouldn’t take that chance. She danced sick.
She danced in hellish pain. She danced. And she never let it show
on her face.
    The girl at the club the night before had
irked her to no end as she whined like she’d never had cramps
before and never had to work through them. Caroline barely kept
herself from telling her to shut up and get the hell over it. She
managed to hold her tongue. The girl got Hayes to let her go home
early.
    Baby.
    Caroline never danced anymore without pain.
Never. That was part of dance, of the job of dance. You get over it
and get through it and that’s how you get on top, where she was, or
had been, very nearly on top.
    Pain or not, though, some things kept you
from getting there.
    It didn’t matter anymore. She would get
there this time. All the way there.
    Although tonight, she wouldn’t mind being on
top in a fully different way. Maybe next time Mr. Big Sword showed
himself, she would make that intention known.
     
    Payback was pure hell.
    The new girl was off tonight. He would miss
her again. It had to be payback for giving in to Sandy’s level of
torment. Dio tried to stay above that level, above the nastiness
and jealousy and game playing in the club. Most nights it worked.
Some nights, though, his frustration took hold and he gave in to
it. Like he had tonight.
    It was payback.
    The thought of not seeing her again made his
own performance far more lackluster than it should have been. Hayes
bitched at him. Dio didn’t argue. It wasn’t the first time. Far
from it. But no one had the skill he had. No one could jump in and
fill the role if Hayes got rid of him. And his act mattered more
than his looks. That’s what women came to see, and Hayes knew it
well enough. They liked the danger of it. The glimmer. The fear.
The thrill.
    No one could provide that in the same
way.
    One of these next nights, the new girl would
be there long enough to see it. And he may be damned to hell for
it, but Dio was going to make sure she had the thought of going
home with him, more than the thought. He wanted her to lust after
him more than she had after any man in the world.
    And then he’d say no. She was a coworker. He
didn’t do coworkers. Just the thought of it would add more spark to
his shows.
    He would damn sure go to hell for how turned
on the idea made him.
    So be it.

 
     
     
    ~5~
     
     
    Caroline woke up thinking of him. What was
wrong with her? It was just a guy with a sword. So what? The guys
at the club, her fellow performers, were also well built, not quite
as well, but well enough, and talented with their bodies. The one
she hadn’t seen yet she’d heard was the biggest draw, but he only
worked a few nights and his next night wouldn’t be till
Saturday.
    Damn she was turned on. The big sword had
flooded her thoughts far too late into the early morning. If she
was a guy, she knew she’d be hard as hell. And she hadn’t even had
her