When his eyes reached hers again, there was a smile on her face and heat in her cheeks. There was a look, the one he’d caught more than once from her that was not at all sisterly or family-friendly. A look he always ignored for both their sakes.
“Luca won’t let himself have a good time if he’s worried.” Which was probably true, but he tossed that in there knowing that Chloe would want her oldest sibling to let loose.
He could see her thinking.
Dante softened his hold on her and lowered his fingers to her elbow. “Please. It’s just information. You’ll know where we are all night, can see if we’re headed your way.”
Her eyes shot to his.
“Which we won’t do! Emergencies only. I promise,” he quickly added.
“If I see you coming and it’s not an emergency, I’ll stop sharing and we’ll move to another location. There is more than one male strip club in this town.”
Yes!
He blew out a breath.
Chloe turned toward the hallway and Dante pressed his hand to the small of her back.
A man walked past and looked her over. Dante found his other hand coming up to her hip with possessiveness, as if he had the right to touch her.
The man walked by and looked the other way.
Only at the door to the restroom did Dante let her go. “Meet you out here.”
Then, because using the bathroom had been an excuse, he simply stood to the side and waited.
As he did, he lifted his hands in front of him and saw a slight shake.
“Whoa.”
Chloe and Salena emerged a few minutes later.
Fresh lipstick and mischievous smiles.
“After you.”
He took up position behind them.
When did Chloe’s ass become so . . .
Dante swallowed hard and forced his eyes somewhere else.
Back at the table, everyone was standing and gathering their things.
Luca held Brooke, was speaking only to her.
Dante took the opportunity to help Chloe with her coat.
She turned to him, a little closer than he liked with this many people around.
“I sent a friend request. You have ten minutes to do the same or I delete it.”
“Grazie, bella.” He winked, stepped back.
“Have fun,” Mayson called out.
“Not too much fun,” Luca countered.
The women filed away from the table.
Salena turned toward them. “What happens in Vegas . . . Ciao!”
Luca moaned.
Dante reached for his phone, found Chloe’s invitation to follow, and accepted. Then followed through with letting her keep tabs on him.
“Okay, gentlemen. It’s time to get my brother less than stable on his feet to forget about what his bride is doing tonight.”
“I don’t know.”
Gio pulled Luca away from the table.
Dante and Mayson followed.
“Would you feel better if I told you I have tabs on the ladies?” Dante asked.
Luca turned on a dime. “You what?”
Dante raised a hand. “Chloe and I have a pact. GPS. Emergency only.”
Gio patted Dante on the back. “I knew I could count on you.”
Luca nodded a few times, continued to walk out of the restaurant. “All right, then. Yeah.” He clapped his hands together. “Where should we start?”
CHAPTER THREE
Salena slid back to their table, her hair tossed in so many directions you’d think she’d just had sex in the hallway. “Oh my God, that was awesome.”
“Do we want to know?” Carmen asked.
They’d moved from the Magic Mike show to a smaller club where they had a much more intimate show at their fingertips.
“Rafael’s lap dance was better than my last naked experience with my ex.” She pulled a business card from her bra and waved it in the air. “I might have to call him later.”
Chloe snapped the paper from her hands. “And start the antibiotics in the morning? Please. If he has these in his pocket, he gives them out every night.”
Salena rolled her eyes as if it didn’t matter.
As dizzy from the alcohol as Chloe was, she wasn’t about to let her friend hook up with a male stripper from Vegas.
The owner of the Bellagio, maybe, a stripper, no.
She found herself pondering the logic of her thoughts and finding them deeply flawed.
The music was loud, and the tables filled with women in groups like theirs who were just as tipsy, heading toward hammered.
The men working the club circulated from table to table, smiling, sitting on a lap, offering a dance or a little corner private lap dance like Salena had just dropped forty bucks on.
Chloe reached for her drink, found it nearly empty, and frowned. “Who is sucking down my cocktails?”
Brooke started laughing.
Chloe waved a finger her way and reached for the bottle they’d ordered for the table and mixed herself another one. When she did, she filled Brooke’s glass.
Carmen quickly picked it up and put half of the contents into hers. “We can’t have anyone tossing their cookies on the way back to the hotel.”
Salena grabbed a bottle of water and lifted it in the air. “Water! Water is key.”
Rafael walked by, winked at Salena. “Bridal party?”
As if the “Bride” sash wasn’t a big enough clue.
“Yes, and I do believe our bride hasn’t had a lap dance yet,” Carmen pointed out as she reached for her purse.
Brooke immediately lost her grin. “Oh . . . I don’t think—”
“That’s right, don’t think. Bachelorette party is a permission slip.”
Brooke lifted a hand and covered her eyes. But she was smiling.
Rafael turned his south-of-the-border charm over to Brooke’s side of the table. “Shall we head to the back?”
“No!” she all but shouted.
Not that the man needed a dark corner to make a woman blush.
For ten minutes he slid his body all around her, his tight butt and sculpted torso up close and very personal without being completely inappropriate.
Salena signaled for Chloe to lean closer.
“It was better in the back.”
She had questions, ones that would have to wait.
Once he was done, he whispered something in Brooke’s ear, took the money Carmen was paying him, winked, and walked away.
“Oh my God.” Brooke was blushing.
Salena lifted her drink in the air. “We need to do this more often.”
A woman at the other table leaned over and clicked her glass to Salena’s. “I agree.”
The announcer walked onstage, and the lights dimmed. “Okay, ladies, I hope you’re ready to save a horse and ride the cowboys tonight.”
A cheer went up.
Chloe grabbed her purse and yelled over the noise. “I have to use the bathroom.”
Without any takers to join her, she found her wobbly feet and moved her way slowly through the crowd of women to the back of the club.
The one thing that was nice about the strip club environment was that the men in the joint were employees and not patrons trying to pick the ladies up. As far as going to the bathroom alone in Vegas went, this was probably the safest place to do so.
Once there, she found a stall and took the opportunity to look at her phone. The first thing she checked was Dante’s location.