Tempt Me by R. G. Alexander

girl’s blouse, unintentionally causing her to choke. “Kelly, please. I told you in confidence. I’ll get you an autographed picture, I promise. I’ll buy you those matching tutus we passed in the shop. Anything. Ive, tell her to be reasonable.”
    The woman named Kelly turned, laughing even as she pried Angelique’s fingers off her shirt. “Relax, Ang. We aren’t going to kidnap him or anything. And stop tempting me with tutus. Think about how brilliant this is—we could charge people. Why not? They have haunted tours and vampire tours . . . We could do this .”
    He’d been enjoying the show, but he couldn’t resist interjecting a note of reason. He didn’t think Bethany or BD would appreciate becoming a stop on the tourist route. “By this , do you mean trespass on private property in the middle of the night and look in other people’s windows?”
    Three surprised shrieks had him wincing, coming closer, and raising his hands apologetically. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
    The smaller one, Ive, recovered first. “Are you him? Angelique, what were you talking about? He’s not too pretty at all. More the rough and dangerous type. He looks like he just came out on the winning end of a boxing match . . . or a highly physical session in the bedroom. Bebe , he’s absolutely perfect.”
    “You forgot to mention he’s practically naked, Ive. Jackpot!”
    He caught Angelique’s horrified gaze and started to laugh. He wasn’t sure how she did it, but she continuously took him by surprise. After their last encounter, he hadn’t thought anything could embarrass the bold, fearless beauty. Her blush was disarming. Enchanting. And funny as hell.
    She covered her face with her hands and peered through her fingers. “Gabriel? What are you doing here?”
    He crossed his arms. “Me? I’m an invited guest. What are you doing here? And who do you have with you?”
    “Wait—this isn’t Bone Daddy? This is Gabriel? The Gabriel?”
    He could feel his smile growing. He couldn’t help it. “ The Gabriel? Well, I’m the only one I know. Why? Has she been talking about me?”
    “Has she been talking about yo—”
    He watched as Ive whipped Kelly around and stopped her midsentence. “Kel? Remember those discussions we’ve had about over-sharing?”
    “Of course I do.”
    The other woman stared at her in meaningful silence until Kelly grasped her meaning. “Oh. Oh, damn.” She turned to Angelique. “I’m sorry. I’m horrible. I shouldn’t do shots. Get me away from the umbrella drinks and all I do is talk and talk and talk. Do you think that was why the stripper asked if I wanted to be gagged? I thought he was just being kinky.”
    Gabriel snorted, deciding it was time to get the conversation back on track. “The taxi driver is looking impatient, and he’s probably charging you a fortune.” He smirked. “He might even be calling the voodoo police. If you’d like, I could give you three a ride home.”
    Of course, he’d have to swipe Bethany’s keys, but he’d deal with the fallout later. He just wanted to spend more time with Angelique, though he didn’t want to think about why right now.
    “No, no. We have to go. Come on, girls. I think we’ve made enough regrets for the night. For the year.” Angelique swayed on her feet as she spoke, and he came closer, ready to catch her.
    Her friends weren’t faring much better. And they had horrible poker faces. The blonde nudged the woman beside her. “Look, we have to take the taxi back to the hotel. We’re exhausted. But Angelique doesn’t have a way home. You could take her, Gabriel. Just you two. Together. Alone in her apartment. Without us.”
    Did one of them just wink at him?
    Angelique groaned and dropped her chin to her chest, her long curls spilling over her shoulders and hiding her face. “When the world stops spinning I am going to get you both back, you know.”
    They walked down the drive, leaving Angelique behind, and