Tease Me by Dawn Atkins Page B

really was out of her depth. More proof he shouldn’t let things get out of hand.
    “Better soak your feet when we get home,” he said. “There are salts in the bathroom.”
    “Salts, sure…Jackson…I…”
    “Let’s just move on.” He smiled a reassuring smile.Without her foot in his palm, his hand felt empty. He’d liked the weight of it there, the heft of her leg, being connected to her that way. He almost wished he had a foot fetish. Anything but what he was feeling—fresh, clean desire. Something he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
    Heidi picked up the glass in front of her, the bubbles clear and round as tiny marbles, and drank, exposing her pretty throat to him. Abruptly, she set down the drink, winced and grabbed her jaw.
    “What’s the matter?”
    “I broke a tooth this morning.”
    “Sounds like you need my dentist.”
    “I can’t afford dental work right now.”
    “Dr. Dave takes payments. He’s a friend of mine. Teeth troubles only get worse.” He was always hounding the girls to get in. Some of them would happily plunk down thousands for bonding and bleaching, but ignored toothaches and bleeding gums. “The number’s at home. In the meantime—” he fished a packet of Tylenol from the first-aid kit and handed it to her “—take these for the pain.”
    She swallowed the pills, licking moisture from her lips in a way that had him limping out of the break room as though he was the one with the blisters.
    He kept an eye on her the rest of the night. She made up for her inexperience with effort, he noticed, whipping from table to table, zipping around the lap dances, as if the dancer sliding her body against the seated man—hands glued to the chair arms, since the customers weren’t allowed to touch the dancers—was merely chatting about the weather. Ignoring the erotic action all around her, she slapped down cocktail napkins, took orders with a big smile and dashed off sporting her baggy costume.
    He could tell she was worn out, but whenever shecaught him looking at her, she beamed, hiding it. She was…spunky. And determined. She made him smile. Perked him up. He’d thought all that energy and motion would annoy him. Instead, it made his blood kick up. He’d been sluggish, he realized, out of it. Asleep at the wheel of his life.
    He could still feel her heel in his palm, her toes on his cock, and hear her moan in his head.
    After the bar closed, he went about his end-of-night tasks, looking over the receipts, talking through the liquor orders, checking the dancers’ schedule for the coming nights, and when he finished, he found Heidi asleep, curled in a ball in one of the round upholstered chairs. Her shoes were off and that god-awful skirt had slid high on her thigh. She looked like a child who’d collapsed with exhaustion trying to stay up past her bedtime.
    He squatted so he was at eye level with her. “Heidi?”
    She opened her eyes, blinked in confusion, then rubbed her face with both hands. “I dozed off. Sorry.” She pushed to a sit and put her feet on the floor.
    “No wonder. It’s the middle of the night. I’m ready to go.”
    She nodded, picked up her little purse, slipped on her shoes with a grimace and pushed to her feet, ignoring his proffered hand. She started off at a quick march that instantly collapsed into a limp.
    “Here.” He extended an arm as if to put it around her, but she smiled foggily. “I’ve got it. I’ll just…” She braced herself against him and peeled off her shoes with another wince. “Much better.” She strode forward on feet that were bare except for a few flapping Band-Aids. She seemed determined not to show any distress. Why did she insist on making it so tough on herself?
    He sighed and caught up with her. At the car, he lifted the cover on her side and opened her door.
    She dropped into the seat and leaned her head back. As he rolled up the cover, he watched her. She was wiped out. She wasn’t cut out for Moons. She needed an