“What’s that supposed to mean?” He frowned.
Phil shook her head. “Ignore that. Just let me do my job.”
He came in close. “Don’t be disobedient, Officer Zorn. You won’t enjoy my disciplinary methods.”
Excitement speared her senseless. In the same breath she wanted to make him sweat, to make him hurt, to deny him for making her feel so wanton. She lowered her eyes and thrust out her chest. “Just how would you discipline me, Lieutenant?”
Ty grinned. “I’d start off spanking that fanny of yours until it was bright pink and you begged me to stop.”
Her body parts warmed at his provocative suggestion. Stepping up to the bar, she handed Bud her drink orders but kept her gaze on Ty. “Then what would you do?”
“I’d torment you with my tongue until you promised to be a good girl.”
“But, Lieutenant Jamerson. I’m not a good girl.”
Ty’s voice lowered to a husky whisper. “And I’m a bad, bad man.”
Heat speared her pussy and Phil caught her breath. She knew he was bad, to the core. An unexpected desire to tame him took hold.
Ty Jamerson was not the type of man to tame. Maybe for a night, two at best, then he’d be out howling at the moon for his next conquest. The thought of dominating Ty Jamerson held a thrill she couldn’t shake. Too bad he was her boss. Too bad he played daddy with little Lola. Too bad, when all was said and done, that she
was
a good girl. A good girl too afraid to walk on the wild side.
Her drinks were up. “Maybe in another life, Ty, but not in this one.” Raising the tray above her head, she walked as quickly past her boss as she could without dumping the drinks.
Jase’s brunette friend ran her hand along Phil’s thigh as she set down her tray. She flinched.
“I want you to dance for me,” Jase’s friend said.
Jase raised his drink. “I’d like to watch. How much, Miss Kitty?”
Fear and excitement riveted her limbs. It never occurred to her a woman would want a lap dance. “I don’t know. But whatever the usual charge, multiply it by three.” Phil had a feeling her time for a lap dance was going to be sooner than later, but she never expected it would be for a woman.
Besides, how could she decline? If there was even the remotest possibility either one of these women were involved in the kidnappings she would see it through. The thought of Jase, however, as a spectator or participant rattled her sense of propriety more than dancing for two women. Her brain registered the pros and cons and her modesty lost the contest. She had a job to do.
“I’ll call over the GM and set it up.” Jase stood. Grinning like the village idiot, he headed toward Ty at the bar.
Phil swallowed hard. Ty wasn’t going to like this. She wondered what Jase was up to other than the obvious. He’d maneuvered the woman seamlessly; he was good.
Hurrying to deliver the rest of her drink orders, Phil watched Jase and Ty attempt to conceal an argument. Ty’s eyes flashed and his hands fisted. It dawned on her he was telling Jase no.
Her spine stiffened. Her tray emptied, she marched up to the two men and faced Jase. “Excuse me, sir, when would you like that lap dance for your friend?”
Ty sputtered and said, “He changed his mind.”
Jase’s eyes darkened. While Ty was his superior, there was an easy camaraderie between the two men that belied supervisor and subordinate.
“Actually, I didn’t. Kat, if you’re up for it, my friend is most eager.”
Kat smiled and waved to Bud. “Hey, Bud, have Tiffany cover my tables for the next fifteen minutes.”
He winked. Phil turned to Ty. “Lead the way.”
Ty scowled. “Fine, you two can play your little games, but I’ll be the bouncer inside.”
Phil smiled. “Oh, I just bet you will.” As she spoke the words, she wondered why he had such a problem with this. If anyone wanted this case put to bed, it was Ty. Why not capitalize on every opportunity?
As she followed him toward the private rooms in the back part of the club, and she had a moment to think about what she just jumped into, nervousness raced through her body. She should be glad she wasn’t dancing for a man. Somehow that seemed more demeaning. Man or woman, no touching was allowed. She reminded herself she was doing this for a just cause.
CHAPTER TEN
A
s if she stripped every night, Phil sauntered into the dimly lit dance room, a sultry smile hovering on her lips. The same one she’d practiced for hours this afternoon in front of a full-length mirror. Even while she struggled to portray the vision of a veteran dancer, her stomach flipped so tempestuously that she fought back the urge to vomit. Then, her stiletto snagged on the carpet, and Phil choked back a scream, afraid she would lose her balance and fall flat on her face. With an effort she maintained her composure.
Jase sat, arms spread out and looking a bit too comfortable, a shit-eating grin plastered across his handsome face and an amour snuggled in on each side of him. Ty scowled in the corner. Phil’s gaze skittered away from him and she summoned Kat. Trepidation hacked up and down her spine like an ice pick on a block of ice and she prayed her father wasn’t watching from the heavens. Swallowing hard, she forced her feet to move forward. You can do this, Phil; be Kat,
become
Kat.
“Is there special music you’d like me to dance to?” she asked softly.
Jase grinned wider. “Babe, anything you dance to works for me.” The brunette swatted him and licked her lips. The blonde smiled at Ty, who continued to scowl in the corner. Phil didn’t miss the glare he sent Jase’s way, though. She almost smiled herself. She suspected Jase was going to get disciplined.
Phil decided she didn’t care about the music, either, so she left it up to fate. Before pressing the play button on the CD changer, she turned the lights down lower.
“No touching the dancer,” Ty’s husky voice instructed.
While she knew technically he was supposed to be invisible, Phil felt only Ty’s eyes on her. She wondered if she was supposed to strip naked. Then she remembered Candi’s words her first night:
The most they expect is a thong or G-string, and pasties, anything more is a bonus. And remember, bonuses are paid with Washingtons.
She gritted her teeth, wishing she’d had the foresight to borrow a pair of pasties from Candi. Too late now.
Pressing the tuner button, Phil took a deep breath. A slow sultry jazz riff drifted into the room from the speakers hidden in the walls. Phil closed her eyes and told herself this wasn’t about her modesty or sex, or being bad, it was about finding three kidnapped women and bringing them home safe.
“C’mon, girl!” the brunette hissed.
“You’re wasting our money standing there,” the blonde added.
“
My money,
ladies, and she can take a minute,” Jase said. Phil dared not grace him with a thankful smile. She faced Jase and his paramours. Ty stood at an angle in the corner, not ten feet from her. His face was shadowed, but she sensed his scowl, felt his disdain. He was putting her in the same category as his mother. She didn’t deserve that.
The music swelled and so did her pride. She wasn’t a drug addict and she wasn’t a whore. She was a good girl gone bad for the night, and all for a cause. A damn noble cause at that.
She could do this. She
would
do this. And despite her acrimony toward her boss at the moment, the reality was Ty was the only man alive she would willingly dance for. She’d just pretend it was for him. Phil took one graceful step forward, then another, her hips swaying suggestively. She smiled slow and sexy, hoping if either one of the women were connected to the kidnapper someone would take her as bait. Her eyes widened as her heel dug into the thick pile of the carpet and she flew face-first into Jase’s lap.
Mortified, she pushed off him and scrambled to her feet. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” The heat of her blush scorched her skin. She was a fool to think she could pull this off. She was a klutz of the highest order. The matching smirks on the women’s faces was not encouraging.
Ty stepped forward, but something inside Phil snapped. She waved him off. She wasn’t a fool who needed rescuing. Maybe once a long time ago she needed rescuing, but not now. She was a cop, hell, a woman, a woman who could do anything she set her mind to. Her pride shoved her good girl aside and let the bad girl loose.
“I’ve seen better at a peep show,” the brunette said, standing up and striding toward the door. The blonde mirrored the brunette’s sullen expression and followed in her wake.
Phil sprang in front of the retreating blonde, and like Delilah before Sampson, she raised her arms high up in the air, slowly undulating her hips and moving in a slow seductive swirl around the women. “Don’t go, Blondie. I’ll make you forget those peep shows.” Phil prayed no one would detect the tremor in the back of her voice. The blonde stood still, her blue eyes glittered maliciously.
“Go ahead,” the woman challenged. In a slow twirl, Phil swayed to the slow sexy music, thrusting her hips forward, stopping a breath away from the blonde’s hips before pulling back. She twirled, thrust, and parried. Blondie’s eyelids fluttered seductively, seemingly appeased for the moment.
From the shadows, furious, Ty watched Phil blow it. He’d hoped her stumble face-first into Jase’s crotch would have been enough. But the minx was determined. He had to give her props for effort. Not only had she gotten the blonde’s attention, she had everyone else’s, including his.
Ty’s eyes raked her long lithe body, from her red-painted toes peeking out from high leather heels to her delicate ankles to her shapely calves, then farther up to her firm thighs, where his heated gaze lingered. The flair of her softly rounded hips flexed with her movements, the belly button jewel flickering in the lowlight of the room. He remembered the velvety tautness of her skin, and his fingers ached to caress her belly.
Her full breasts swayed, beckoning him to touch.
His pants tightened uncomfortably as she undulated around the blonde, subtly pushing her back toward Jase and the brunette, who had returned to her seat. She ran her hands up her waist to her breasts, cupping their fullness in her hands and pushing them toward the trio as an offering. Ty’s jaw clenched and unclenched.
Maneuvering herself between the blonde and Jase, Phil rested her stiletto-clad foot on the sofa next to Jase’s arm. With a sexy dip, she dropped her ass down and thrust her pussy in his face and then pulled back. Ty imagined the hot scent of her. He frowned. Jase grinned.
The brunette’s dark eyes sparkled. Licking her lips, she sat forward. Her nostrils flared and she dipped her nose toward Phil’s hips. Ty’s cock stiffened. He cursed. He did not want to be aroused.
Phil spun around and with her legs spread, she bent forward, pushing her tempting little ass in Jase’s face and wiggled it, enticing him further. The brunette reached out, but before Ty could move, Jase pulled her hand back.
Phil’s ass ground at the air. She ran her hands up the back of her smooth thighs and lifted her little skirt, showing off her tight cheeks. Ty swallowed hard and imagined grabbing those luscious cheeks with his hands, pulling them apart, and thrusting so deep into her she would scream for the entire world to hear. The tempo quickened and so did Phil’s ass. She turned, her long legs gracefully moving to the music and her hands tracing her curves.
She stepped back toward Jase, and this time she placed one knee on each side of him. Her pussy was even with his face and she lifted her skirt, giving him a whiff of her innermost perfume. Ty ground his teeth as Jase’s knuckles whitened, digging his fingers into the fabric of the sofa.
As Phil continued to undulate in Jase’s face, she reached up and untied the front of her top. Coyly, she inched it down, showing more of her flesh. Ty strained to see a nipple. He wanted her to turn more toward him, he wanted to see all of her. From his vantage point he could tell she was dancing with her eyes closed, no emotion played across her smooth features. He wondered if she placed herself somewhere far from where she really was. He wondered if she enjoyed it. Did she fantasize that she was dancing for someone special? Him maybe?
The music drove a harder beat and Phil picked up her movements. Gracefully she pivoted, giving Jase and Ty a full view of her ass. With her back to Jase, she dipped down and rubbed her full cheeks slow and hard against Jase’s lap.
Ty’s mouth watered and his dick flinched hard against him. The room was suddenly hot.
“Turn around,” Jase ordered.
Ty was going to kill him.
Phil spun around.
“Show me your tits,” Jase hoarsely demanded.
Ty growled low, the music drowning out his protest. Before killing Jase he was going to torture him first.
Trailing her fingertips across her full mounds, Phil slowly untied the fabric restraining her breasts.
Ty held his breath.
Phil let the fabric fall from her fingertips. Like living entities, her tits sprang free. Jase and Ty both nodded in appreciation. Caramel-colored nipples topped honey-hued skin standing up firm and high.
Blood surged to Ty’s groin, the bittersweet pain of wanting her and being restricted was almost unbearable.
He was about to come in his pants. Philamina was any man’s wet dream.
Jase grabbed the blonde and pulled her onto his lap. Phil swirled around, presenting Ty with her back. When she started to slide down her skirt, Ty almost lost control. His reaction disturbed him. He’d stood in many a private room and watched dozens of lap dances. And while he couldn’t say he’d never been aroused, it had been on a minor scale compared to the way his dick throbbed right now.
He had eyes only for Phil. He waited, wanting to see all of her, just as badly as he didn’t want Jase to see any of her.
He shook his head. What the hell was wrong with him? Over the years he, Jase, and Reese had shared informants, countless bottles of JD, and their women. Until now he had no problem with it. He scowled.
How the hell could he stop her? He licked his dry lips. His fists opened and closed at his side. Her long, lithe body moved in a slow, mesmerizing grind to the sweltering rip of the sax, and her scorching skin beckoned him to touch. He could almost feel the soft thrust of her hips beneath him.