Somehow, she’d known Vera was behind it all. “What happened?”
He shrugged again. “I thought it was love. We got married, and because I refused to use any of her or her family’s money or influence, I had to continue to work damn hard at the club. She didn’t like being second place, as she saw it, and she thought that having an affair, and rubbing my face in it, would make me see things her way. Instead, it made me see things more clearly. So I left.
“I thought she’d be happy that I didn’t want anything from her in the divorce. Karl wanted me to go after damages, but I just wanted out. I went into the marriage with nothing more than the club, and that was all I wanted when I left. Unfortunately, Vera took that as another insult. Our divorce was final just over a year ago, and three months ago she pulled some strings and had the bank call in my loan.”
He explained to Samair how he needed one big event to raise a lump sum to pay off the loan by the fifteenth of the month—one day away—in order to keep the club.
“Did it work? Did the party bring in enough to keep the club?” No wonder he’d been so closed off. Ever since she met him, he’d been dealing not only with a childhood that would make it hard for anyone to give trust, but an ex-wife who was determined to make him pay for her mistakes.
Val shook his head. “Not entirely. The show brought in a lot of money, but not enough to clear the loan.”
“Oh, Val!” Her stomach sank and she reached for him. Samair thought about everything he’d told her as she held his hand in both of hers. Then a thought hit her.
Had he just been using her?
He stared at her, as if he knew what she was debating in her mind.
Yes, she decided, he had used her.
But she’d been the one to seek him out; she’d also been the one to reiterate the fact that their relationship was strictly sexual when the emotions got too close to the surface. He’d played by the rules she’d set, and he also made sure that he was doing something good for her in return. He might’ve used her to bring money into the club for himself, but there was no denying that it had been good for her, too. She’d have never been able to do a launch for Trouble like that herself, and after everything else, he still hadn’t made enough to keep his club.
“That sucks!” she said succinctly.
“It’s all right.” He smiled at her. “One of the lawyers in Karl’s office has been drooling over my bike for months, so I sold it to him.”
“You sold your Harley?”
“It was either that, or lose the club to Vera.”
“Vera,” Samair said. She chewed on her bottom lip and met Val’s gaze.
“The bitch from hell who tried to take it all from me. Including you.”
“You know, some might think it’s not nice to call her a bitch from hell, no matter what she did.”
“I call ’em like I see ’em.”
She ducked her head and watched him from beneath her lashes. “And how do you see me?”
He reached out, gripped her hips, and pulled until she was flat on her back and he was stretched out over the top of her on the cramped love seat. His hands framed her face and he looked deep into her eyes. “I see you as mine for a long time to come.”
Then he kissed her.
Epilogue
S
amair jumped to her feet and let out a piercing rebel yell that echoed through the large auditorium. Val stood next to her with an indulgent grin in place as Samair clapped so hard her hands burned.
On stage in front of them, a spritely redhead took another bow with a man on each side of her. The curtain dropped, then raised again and the three took one last bow.
“She was amazing, don’t you think?” Samair turned to Val, bursting with pride and pleasure for her friend.
“She was.” He nodded. “And so were the costumes.”
She elbowed him in the ribs.
Joey’s debut performance with the newly formed dance troupe Outside the Box wasn’t the only thing they were celebrating that night. After only four months, Trouble was operating in the black.
It helped that Val had a storage room at Risqué that they’d cleared out and turned into a small studio, and that since she lived with him now, she didn’t have any rent to pay. Her parents still saw it as a hobby, not a business, and certainly not a career. But it didn’t matter to her.
Brett understood, and even Cherish was coming around after getting a custom-made bustier-style gown for a Christmas gift. It wasn’t until her sister wore the gown to a New Year’s Eve party and saw everyone’s envy that Cherish realized what she had, but that was okay, too. Samair had learned that everyone needed to learn things in their own time, and in their own way.
“Let’s get going,” she said to Val, who was already urging her toward the door.
“There’s no hurry. Everything will be ready when we get there. You’ve terrorized my staff so much that they wouldn’t dare mess this up. Besides that, we’re all proud of her, too.”
Val and the rest of the staff at Risqué were throwing Joey a surprise good-bye party in the private bachelor room under the stairs at the club. Samair knew that it would all be ready when they got there. That wasn’t why she was in a hurry.
She threaded her arm into the crook of his and pressed her breast against him. “Did I tell you I’m not wearing any panties?”
He looked down at her, his eyes darkening as amusement shifted to heat. “Really?”
“Really.” She pressed closer and flashed him a promising smile. “And I’ve never had sex in a car before.”