Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) by Ainslie Paton Read Free Book Online Page A

out
here.”
    He
pulled it together to say, “Please don’t break the rules on my account. I don’t
want to cause you trouble.”
    “Don’t
you think that horse bolted?” Lux said. She had his envelope. She had a husky
voice, like she’d been shouting all night. It curled around his face and made
him want to breathe deep. “What’s this about?”
    All
that creamy skin up close, the big bright eyes he couldn’t see from the stage,
the perfect bow of her pink lips. She was like adrenaline injected into his
brain stem. She crackled through his spine, fizzed in his lungs and drilled
holes in his senses.
    “I,
ah.”
    She lifted
a hand in an answer me gesture like he was wasting her time.
    He
shook his head, closed his eyes momentarily to collect himself before he looked
at her again. “Yes or no?”
    “Thank
you for the flowers. They’re lovely. But by sending them here, you caused me a
problem.”
    “What
kind of problem?”
    She
took a breath that swelled her sweet breasts and made a sound of exasperation
when she let it go. “Are you going to ask me my shoe size as well?”
    He
shook his head.
    “How
about you take it on face value that your flowers caused me issues backstage.”
    “You
had to say I was your boyfriend.” That word boyfriend was somehow as erotically
charged in his mouth as the swish of Lux’s glossy ponytailed hair against her
shoulder. “You don’t want people in your business.”
    She
gave a sharp nod that felt like approval, like she’d thought about patting his
stray puppy self on his goofy head.
    “And I
got the message.” She put the envelope on the table, it was unopened. She slid
it toward him. “You’re welcome. Put please don’t try to make something out of
this. I did what anyone would do.”
    “No,
that’s not true. You’re the only one who checked to see if I was breathing.”
    “I
kicked you. I didn’t go Nurse Jackie on you.”
    “You
got me home and you cleaned me up and you had no reason to do any of that after
I was so insufferable.”
    “You’re
not drunk tonight.” Her eyes went to the untouched bourbon and the half-filled Coke
glass.
    “No,
I’m done with that.” She smiled but angled her face away. She didn’t believe it
and he had nothing to support proof of concept. “And I do need to make
something out of this.” He tapped the envelope. Inside was an invitation for a
meal out and his cell number. “I want to thank you face to face. I want to
invite you to dinner to show you my appreciation.”
    “I’ve
got half of what you gave Violet as a token of your appreciation, plus a
dressing room full of flowers. I think that’s enough.”
    Oh no,
she wasn’t dismissing him like that. “Let me take you out to eat. Yes or no,
Lux? Anytime, anywhere you want to go.”
    She put
her hand on her bare hip and his eyes went to the line of muscle there. All the
spit in his mouth dried up. “You think this is a game, Reid? That you can play
with me? That because I’m an exotic dancer you can dangle money in front of me
and that’s all it takes to have me. You want to give me money, do it like
everyone else does, sit at the stage and I’ll dance for you. Otherwise you’re
just like the asshole in the alley, only better dressed.”
    He
snapped his eyes to hers. “I’m nothing like that guy. I didn’t mean you to think
I was buying you. I’m not. This is not what I wanted. I want to make it up to
you.”
    She
sighed. “You don’t understand how it works here, and I don’t date customers.”
    “It
wouldn’t be a date.”
    “What
would it be?”
    “It
would be me taking you out to eat to say thank you for saving me.”
    “I
didn’t save you.”
    But she
could. He shook his head. He didn’t know where that thought came from. “Please
let me take you out for a meal. You name the time and the restaurant.”
    “I’m a
dancer, not a prostitute. “
    “You’re
an athlete and now you’re insulting me. I said a meal and I meant