CHAPTER ONE

JULIE

I knew I was looking hot as hell.

My tight black dress was intended to be that way because confidence was the key to successfully pulling off the job I was about to do. The dress showed off my legs and made flirting seem as natural as possible, even while my eyes were already scoping out the club and trying to find the way towards the top floor.

That top floor? That was my goal—and if a short dress and a flirty attitude made me just like all the other women here and wouldn’t get me any extra attention, then I was all for it.

I had all the time in the world to change into a loose shirt and binge on ice cream and Netflix once I was done.

I checked my watch. According to my sources the club owner didn’t come in until around eleven, which meant I still had about an hour to pull this off. Time to start.

I turned to the man beside me, who was busy regaling me with a story about some heroic thing he did some years ago. This was after bragging about his cars and houses, too. I gave him a brilliant smile, rendering him effectively distracted. Then, before he could speak again, I excused myself and slipped down towards one of the narrow hallways, breathing a little bit easier when the club music died down. I wasn’t a big fan of places like this to begin with, but I had a job to do.

And I needed to do it fast.

A quick peek at the end, and I finally saw the stairs. Bingo.

One last look around determined I was still alone. Good. I took a deep breath.

Then I climbed the stairs as quietly as I could.

*****

I was in the club owner’s office in no time, and I had to give him points for keeping the door unlocked—and for having a library full of books in it. It took me a few minutes to browse his wonderful collection before snapping out of it and realizing I needed to get this done and get out of here fast.

Now where on earth was that necklace?

My cousin, Mallory, had “borrowed” my necklace and lost it somewhere here—according to her. What she was doing here in the nightclub when she should have been with her fiancé, I had no idea. But I had to find that necklace because it was very precious to me.

Fifteen minutes later, a search throughout the owner’s drawers didn’t produce any results. I was about to resort to getting down on the floor and searching the carpet when I heard it—the sound of the knob turning.

Oh, no.

I ducked down immediately, crawling inelegantly to hide under the desk as the door closed and laughter filled the room. Great. I could hear a female voice and a male voice, but couldn’t hear what they were murmuring to each other. My heart rate sped up. Was I going to get busted?

Oh, God. Was I going to get arrested?

A bump on the desk had me freezing. Then freezing turned to complete stilling at what followed next.

The woman moaned—a high, tinkling sound that unmistakably meant pleasure more than anything else. I heard clothes rustling, and lead filled my stomach as I realized what that meant.

Another moan, followed by a groan—this one from the man, deep and low and utterly guttural. It made my toes tingle, and I didn’t like it.

Then the man spoke, and the tingles turned to a full-blown heat spreading in my stomach.

“You like that, sweetheart?”

He sounded…sexy.

“Yes, Scott. Please.”

“Tell me what you want.”

“Touch me, Scott. Oh, yeah, just like that…”

“You’re delicious. I can’t wait to fuck you.”

Oh, my God! This couldn’t be happening!

Another bump on the desk and my horror escalated as I deduced the woman was probably sitting on top of the desk now with the man kissing the life out of her. Was she spreading her legs for him? Was he undressing her and kissing her with that naughty mouth? Was he—

Another moan, another groan. Panic hit me as another thought occurred.

Had Mallory come here to…?

I covered my ears. But it didn’t muffle the voices at all.

And it certainly didn’t erase all the erotic images flashing through my mind the entire time.

*****

Well, they didn’t have sex. But Scott did finger his “sweetheart” out and made her explode, and I had to cover my ears harder through the whole process. By God, but the woman was loud.

To my surprise, Scott declined the woman’s offer of a blowjob, saying that his cock inside her mouth could wait. Unable to help myself, I rolled my eyes under the desk as the woman left. Couldn’t the woman see that was a lie? He was obviously done with her.

I was now pretty sure this was the club owner who wasn’t supposed to be in this early, and the man who could make a woman moan like no other.

Now added to the resume: womanizing sweet-talker. I could hear him talking to another woman on the phone, promising her he would be visiting for the weekend.

Such naïve women.

I waited him out, pretty sure he would be leaving in a few minutes to check out the club scene, as was apparently his habit. Once he was gone, I was going to search the place again, then escape as soon as I could…

My thoughts trailed off when a shadow fell in front of me. Then, shoes.

Dumbfounded, my gaze trailed up, taking in the sight of slacks encasing hard, muscled thighs, and a dark-blue dress shirt that hugged what had to be the broadest chest and shoulders I’d seen in a while. His arms all but bulged out with his sleek muscles. I looked further up, found a very emphasized jaw and full, sensual lips. A straight nose, a shock of bronze hair…and very blue eyes looking down at me hard. It was the face of sin itself.

It was also a face I recognized.

Shock hit me. It was Scott McCall, the famous race car driver.

And at the moment, he didn’t look pleased.

“What the hell are you doing under my desk?”