Her Perfect Gift by Theodora Taylor Read Free Book Online Page B

wouldn’t hear her.
    Lacey rolled her eyes. “Well, I can’t believe you left two babies alone in your apartment to talk with a man who’s only interested in other men, so we’re even.”
    Candy’s face screwed up. “He’s gay? How do you know that?”
    Lacey shook her head. “Candy, please go open the club doors. I’ll be up later with Spidey and Ben to re-explain to you the terms of the co-op babysitting agreement and we’ll have a discussion about whether you want to remain a member.”
    Candy who’d been smiling so sweetly at Dex just a minute ago, suddenly morphed into a neck-rolling stereotype. “Don’t tell me how to raise my child!” She shot a pointed look at Suro who stood surveying the situation with a cool, assessing eye. “We under new ownership now. And he might not let you run us like old Tony did!”
    Lacey looked like she was about two seconds from slapping the much taller woman. But instead she repeated, “Open up the club and return to your apartment. I will be there soon to talk to you.”
    Candy opened her mouth to argue further, but her sense of job preservation must have won out, because she ended up just huffing out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
    As soon as she was gone, Lacey’s fierce boss persona disappeared and she was once again the tired woman Suro had seen coming down the stairs.
    “Seriously, what are you doing here?” she asked, as if he were no better than Candy and trying her patience.
    What are you doing here?
    He slammed into her, his lips taking possession of hers before her back had even hit the wall. But even with his body pressed flush against the soft lusciousness of hers, he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck, trying to bring her closer.
    The office, the strip club, his plans—all fell away as he lost himself in her softness, which felt even better than he remembered. It had been three long months of explicit dreams and being forced to quell his ongoing desire for her with his own hand, and now he was burning out of control.
    As was she, he soon realized. She not only kissed him back with just as much fervor, rubbing her lush body against his, but her hands were everywhere, in his hair, under his shirt, even on the calf of his left leg.
    But then Suro realized she couldn’t possibly kiss him like this and get her hands to his calf at the same time. Also, whatever had been patting on his calf just moments before was now full on climbing it.
    He abruptly broke off the passionate kiss and looked down to find the little black baby who had been on the other side of the room just a minute ago, crawling up his leg like a koala. And suddenly it became clear why his nickname was Spidey.
     
     
    WHAT WAS HAPPENING? What was happening? What was happening? Lacey barely had a chance to process that Suro was here, standing in her office in the strip club where she worked, before he was kissing her, flash-bombing all her senses and making her forget her job, her situation, and the fact that her one-night stand had not only paid her daughter’s tuition, but had also just shown up out of the blue to purchase the strip club she worked at. While he was kissing her, none of that mattered. The only things that existed were her and Suro and the fevered kiss they were sharing.
    But then Spidey brought them both back down to earth as he steadily inched his way up Suro’s leg. Just when she thought this situation couldn’t get any more surreal…
    “I’m sorry,” she said. “He likes to climb.”
    But before she could reach down to pick up the child, Suro did, settling the little boy at his waist and handing him his smartphone to play with before turning his attention back to Lacey.
    “You should be sorry, Lacey.”
    Lacey didn’t need ESP to figure out that he wasn’t talking about Spidey.
    “I’m sorry about that, too,” she said. “But again, what are you doing here? You bought the club? And I’m assuming you’re the one who paid off Sparkle’s