Waking Up to You Overexposed - By Leslie Kelly Page 0,146

on. She took her time—there was lots of it. Over the next hour, she got ready for her night. The chatter of women’s voices from the greenroom couldn’t drown out the sound of lots of footsteps walking in the lounge above her head. Customers were already pouring in, performers already onstage judging by the low bass beat she could almost feel reverberating in her chest.

The whole place felt alive and vibrant. Exactly the way she felt when she was here. The only other time she felt as good was when she was with Nick. What on earth was she going to do if he couldn’t take her working here anymore?

“Don’t think about it,” she reminded herself as she glanced at her watch. She’d been here over an hour and he still hadn’t come in. Which was making her very jittery.

Izzie forced everything else out of her head and finished putting on her makeup. Her audience might not see much of her face, but that didn’t mean she didn’t cover the stage makeup basics. She was puffing anti-shine powder on her cheeks when she heard a knock on her door. “Come in.” Almost holding her breath, she let it out with a pleased sigh when she saw Nick. “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself,” he said. He pushed the door shut behind him, bent down and kissed her on the mouth. Quick, hard...hot and sexy. “Been needing that,” he said when he finally straightened.

“Me, too.

“Want more later.”

She grinned. “Me, too.”

“Things are already heating up upstairs, but I wanted to see you before it got too crazy.”

Izzie turned away, slowly lifting the powder puff to her face again. “Do you think it’ll be too busy again for you to be there during my numbers?”

Nick met her eyes in the mirror. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “I can’t promise anything.”

He was still hesitant, she heard it in his voice. Nick was avoiding having to acknowledge how he really felt—was going to feel—about her stripping. Izzie wanted to cry, sensing she knew what that answer would be.

He’d hate it. Sure, he’d been fine with her taking her clothes off when she was a stranger. But now that they were lovers? Well, if he was like every other male of the species, he was going to turn into the caveman he’d once jokingly pretended to be and get all overbearing. He’d want her to quit, he’d be surly and pouty until she did.

There weren’t many men who’d be able to take having their girlfriend strip down to a G-string in front of a bunch of strangers...why should she expect Nick to be any different?

“I’m doing my best, Iz.”

“Okay,” she murmured, blinking rapidly against unexpected moisture in her eyes, welling up not because she didn’t understand, she did. But because she so feared what this was going to mean when it finally came to a head between them.

“Oh, God, somebody get a bucket!”

Hearing the loud shout from the corridor outside her dressing room, Izzie immediately rose to her feet.

“Catch her!”

Nick flinched. “Wait here while I see what’s going on.”

She just rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”

Following him out, she immediately saw a small crowd of a half-dozen dancers gathered around someone who was lying on the floor. Nick pushed through them, and immediately bent down. “Leah, what happened? Are you okay?”

“She’s sick,” someone said. “Like, all over the floor sick.”

Poor Leah. She’d been ill last weekend, and now again. Izzie briefly wondered if the poor kid was hiding an unexpected pregnancy or something. Then, as the crowd parted and she saw Leah’s face, she discounted that idea.

The pretty blonde looked like she was in misery. Her face was ghost-white, slicked with sweat, and she appeared too weak to even stand on her own. She looked absolutely nothing like the pretty young thing Izzie had run into a little over an hour ago. She had to have been hit with some kind of fast-moving bug.

Nick didn’t waste time asking questions. He bent to lift the dancer, easily cradling her in his arms as if she was a child, and carried her into the greenroom down the hall. “Somebody get her a cold cloth.”

One of the dancers rushed off to do as Nick said. The rest of them crowded around. Izzie couldn’t say whether their avid interest was more on Leah’s behalf, or because of the incredible sight Nick made playing hero. His muscular arms bulged and flexed, but he spoke so softly—gently—to Leah as he gently laid her on the lumpy sofa