Bait the Hook Read online

  I knew that Mimi saw bringing Jocelyn and Ryan together as the crowning achievement of her matchmaking efforts, thus far. And, unless I missed my mark, there’d be wedding bells very soon. Mimi had suggested as much to me, and things seemed to be going even better than extremely well for Jocelyn and Ryan.

  Just thinking about it made me undeniably happy, and a case of the warm fuzzies took up residence in my belly. Jocelyn was a great girl, and Ryan was one of the most decent human beings I’d ever met. If I were being honest, he was the measuring stick against which all other men fell short.

  It was a good thing I didn’t have those kinds of feelings for him, or Jizzie would have to watch her cute little backside! Ryan was more like an older, protective brother -one who just happened to be younger than my thirty-seven years. I couldn’t have wished for two better people to find each other in this crazy, mixed up world.

  Being in the presence of them both at the same time was like standing next to sun. Their energy was scorching hot and spilled out all over everyone who was in close enough proximity to them. They never failed to uplift people’s spirits and turn the air positive with excitement. They were delightful, invigorating and stimulating to behold. I bet they would make a great dance team. And even though I wished, for myself, what those two had found together, it was impossible for me to be jealous of them.

  Mimi and I had grown extraordinarily fond of Jocelyn in the fairly short amount of time that she’d been with Hardwood’s. And Ryan was the reason we were even able to get Hardwood’s up and running to begin with. Without his financial support, and his business acumen, Mimi could never have purchased the building. He was more than just a pocket book though. He was our very dear friend. We both had a great deal of love and respect in our hearts for Ryan.

  As we sat there together, musing about the good fortune that had brought us all back together, and brought Jocelyn into the Hardwood’s family with us, a firm and unexpected knock sounded at the door to Mimi’s office, startling us both from our reveries.

  Dot Matrix: Chapter 3

  The door began to swing inward and the top of a perfectly styled, silky, chocolate brown head of hair began to poke through the small opening.

  That was all the warning I got before the rest of that perfect face and body, attached to that perfect head of hair, materialized before us.

  Marcus.

  Unless I was expecting him, and had a chance to prepare, seeing Marcus was always like a swift kick, right to my diaphragm, forcefully propelling all of the air from my body and making me light headed and tingly all over.

  No man had any right to look that damn appealing. It was a crime against all women, I thought with disgust at my own shallow weakness.

  The even bigger crime was that he knew exactly what effect he had on us, and wasn’t afraid to add to the already powerful cocktail of his good looks and fabulous physique, with intelligence, charm and wit. It was a devastating, nearly impossible to resist combination. Marcus was the nip to my cat.

  I tried hard to school my features, and to get my breathing back under control, after the unexpected shock of seeing him make an appearance at the Burlesque this early in the day. I failed –or at least I only partially succeeded.

  Marcus was a waiter. Hardwood’s wasn’t open during the day. He didn’t need to show up for dining room prep until eight tonight.

  Yes, I knew his schedule. Sue me. Eight o’ clock was still many hours away. What the hell was he doing here? Besides making me lose my freaking composure…

  “Well hey there Marcus,” Mimi chimed in. Her cheerful voice was at complete odds with my grumpy thoughts as she gave me a sly, sideways glance. Obviously my lack of composure had not gone unnoticed by Mimi. “What a surprise to see you here this early. What can we do you for?” she asked helpfully as she tossed an affectionate wink at the charismatic young man.

  “Hey Mimi,” Marcus gave a nod to her, as a broad, genuine smile washed over his handsome features. He then turned said handsome features towards me, inclining his head.

  “Dee-li-lahhh,” he drawled, practically purring my name as he addressed me directly, in a lower, richer, more intense octave than he’d used while speaking to Mimi.

  Then he pinned me to my seat with a wickedly flirtatious and pulse-raising glance, accompanied by a lop-sided smirk, which was fully calculated to reduce my panties to a molten puddle where I sat.

  Lord, have mercy. I needed to fan my cheeks.

  His voice fairly stroked and rubbed against my insides and sent an embarrassing shiver of gooseflesh washing over my skin. I swallowed hard and cleared my throat with a nervous cough before responding.

  “Marcus,” I returned, in a brusque tone, with a highly professional, and exceptionally dismissive nod in his direction, before turning back to Mimi’s computer screen and attempting to look very busy. I only just managed to register Mimi’s barely audible snicker. Traitor, I thought, spitefully.

  “You needed something, Marcus?” questioned Mimi, with a lift of her brows, driving his attention back to her and, thankfully, away from me.

  Saved! I thought, with a level of relief that was quite frankly embarrassing to me, as a trickle of sweat melted down my overheated temple. Marcus’s direct, focused attention had a way of making my skin burn and my nerves fray, that I don’t think I’d experienced with any other man before, and definitely not with any younger man.

  I was no stranger to being in charge of men, or ordering them about with unquestionable authority, so the idea that I didn’t quite know how to handle this one was a very foreign and disconcerting concept to me. I felt out of sorts in his presence and could never seem to call up my normal, confident, dominating personality when he was around.

  I was not at all used to being unsure around men. I was always in control. Always. I had fought very long and very hard to become so. Men were obedient to my every command, or I had no use for them, especially in bed.

  I, however, had no trouble thinking of a couple fun uses for Marcus, uses I immediately felt guilty for, because he was way too young for me to be thinking those things about. He’s still in school, I reminded myself with a mental slap, feeling like a total letch.

  “I’ve got a break coming up,” Marcus said to Mimi, interrupting my unwelcome thoughts. “I was wondering if I could pick up some extra hours?” He asked hopefully.

  I watched as a frown of concentration slid over my friend’s features and her eyes lost their focus.

  It always amazed me how many things Mimi could keep track of, in her head, at once. She was undoubtedly calling up a mental employee schedule and assessing it for holes or gaps. But when Mimi’s focus came back, I thought I detected a slight glimmer in her eye that gave me cause for dread. I knew Mimi well enough, by now, to know when she was beginning to plot, and she was definitely up to something.

  “I’d like to help you out Marcus. I really would.” Mimi began, in a voice that sounded very empathetic, yet decidedly crafty, to me. Though, it would probably have escaped anyone else’s notice.

  “We’ve had so much extra business these last few months,” Mimi kept going, in a voice that recalled much of her excitement from earlier. “I’m sure you’re well aware of all the new wait staff and kitchen staff we’ve hired,” Mimi plowed on, then paused, awaiting a response from Marcus, who followed his cue to perfection.

  “Yes, I had noticed,” supplied Marcus, in the affirmative, including a quick head nod that made his hair gleam brilliantly in the morning sunlight. Sigh.

  Mimi went on, “Our schedule for waiters is pretty packed. I could maybe slide you a few extra hours,” she offered, “and make sure you’re the first person called if someone can’t make a shift…” she trailed off then.

  Marcus breathed a heavy sigh, and his beautiful features took on a disappointed cast - making him look no less amazing, I noticed with disgust - before he replied in a defeated voice that seriously tugged at my heartstrings.

  “I was really hoping to pick up ano
ther 20 or so hours,” he admitted dejectedly and dropped his gaze to the floor. “I could really use the extra cash while school’s out,” he continued, while rising to his feet. “Loans are coming due soon.”

  When Marcus’s face rose back up and he made direct, devastating eye contact with Mimi, his look was imploring and beseeching. He appeared so tragic and forlorn that I had this unreasonable urge to get up and console him.

  I wanted to wrap my arms around him and give him any and all comfort and support I had to offer. I wanted to sooth him by sliding my hands over his firm, broad back and placing kisses on his... Stop right there! I silently admonished myself, not liking the dangerously curved track the train of my thoughts was headed down. Next stop: total derailment.

  Jesus he was good, I realized, shaking my head to clear it and stifling a chuckle when it finally occurred to me what an absolute snake charmer Marcus was. Putting on a show like that, for Mimi – of all people - and trying to get her to cave in to his sad act and give him the work.

  This wasn’t Mimi’s first rodeo though. I knew my friend was likely to have seen through his little act way before I had, and probably even before it had even occurred to him to try and put one on. Mimi was canny, always one step ahead in the game, and not one to fall prey to that sort of emotional manipulation. I envied that about her and was glad she was on my side and had my back.

  “Well…,” Mimi began, drawing the word out, as she tapped a finger on her chin and appeared to be concentrating again. “Maybe I do have some extra work for you,” she continued, making it sound like a question.

  That little glimmer was back in full effect now, I noted, as I watched Mimi pretending to look pensive. She was obviously playing Marcus. Whatever little plot Mimi was cooking up, she was definitely leading Marcus straight into the swirling cauldron of her machinations. He was lucky that Mimi only plotted for good.

  But why was that thought not dispelling any of my own worries?

  “How good are you at dancing?” asked Mimi with a devious upturn to one side of her lips and a wicked slant to one eyebrow.

  That’s why. What in the Sam hell was Mimi up to?

  “Ummmm…” replied Marcus, frowning in obvious confusion.

  That was the least eloquent thing I’d ever heard come out of his deliciously sculpted mouth. He actually looked a little taken aback. I’d never seen him be anything other than supremely confident. His vulnerability was kind of a turn on, I had to admit. But then, everything Marcus did was a turn on for me. I finished that thought uncharitably.

  “I have this idea for a new dance routine,” began Mimi, getting up from the settee and motioning for Marcus to take the seat she’d vacated. “I’ve been kicking it around for a while,” she continued, pacing in front of us.

  Her voice faded into the background as Marcus brushed by my chair, favoring my body with a smoldering perusal as he did so. The heat from his body, combined with the heat of his stare, caressed the standing hairs on my arms as he moved past, making me shiver and causing my nipples to harden into firmly aroused points. My core began to throb traitorously, and my belly was doing a good job of convincing me I had vertigo.

  Mimi’s pacing had taken her to Marcus’s previous position, by the door, and I focused my attention on her as I felt and heard Marcus sit down behind me, just a few highly charged feet away.

  I could feel his gravitational pull. I sensed his eyes were boring holes into my back, though I knew his attention must also be directed at Mimi, and not at me, since Mimi was about to unfold her plans for his immediate future.

  I didn’t like the satisfied smirk that Mimi was sporting on her triumphant face, as she continued to speak. I felt, somehow, that it did not bode well for me.

  I was probably just being paranoid though.

  “The only problem,” said Mimi, as a frown marred her forehead, “is that we’re short on men.” These last few words found her gaze fixed on Marcus with lazer-like precision. There was no mistaking Mimi’s desire for Marcus be the man to mitigate said shortage.

  “I have no experience on a stage,” Marcus admitted to Mimi, in a negating fashion, which made me think he was about to decline her offer. “And aside from occasionally grinding my body up against someone soft and curvy, on a packed dance floor, no experience dancing either.”

  I almost moaned aloud at his last words, while I imagined being that someone soft and curvy and feeling every inch of him pressed up against my backside. His hands grasping my hips and pulling me in close, his ragged breaths heating my neck…

  Mimi’s next words cut through the haze of my unwelcome and overheated daydream.

  “You wouldn’t need to do much. You’d really be more of a prop for Dottie.”

  SAY WHAT?!!! I was stunned. I was in total shock, utterly stupefied. Though, really, I knew I shouldn’t have been. I knew she’d been up to something!

  My jaw hung slack, catching flies with my wide open mouth. I sat there, blinking rapidly, as I tried to gather my wits together to oppose my inclusion in this crazy scheme of hers. But before I could, Marcus spoke up.

  “I’ll do it,” he stated firmly, as I heard him rise from his seat behind me.

  He was suddenly in front of me, looking down on me with a hungry grin, and blocking Mimi’s view, giving her his back.

  “I look forward to doing it with you,” he told me, raising a hand towards my face as I sat there in stunned silence. “Catwoman,” he added in a whisper, as one of his fingers slid gently over the pointy corner of the cat glasses I’d forgotten I was wearing.

  And then he turned and walked out.

  END OF THIS SAMPLE

  Also by Kat Crimson

  Best Friends to Lovers

  Seduced By 2

  After the Ménage is Over (Vol II)

  Getting Bent (Vol III)

  Best Friends to Lovers Box Set (Vol I-III)

  Growing Pains (Vol IV)

  Back Stage Pass (Vol V)

  Hardwood’s Harlots Burlesque Romance

  Jizziebelle: Belle of the Burlesque (Book 1)

  Dot Matrix: Mistress of the Stage (Book 2)

  Standalone Shorts

  Bait the Hook

  Project Revenge: Punishment for the Cheater

  My Bloody Valentine

  The Return of Ophelia

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  About the Author

  Kat Crimson uses her wit and her wiles to infiltrate the minds of her characters, creating a new wave of cerebral erotica, engaging the brains, the hearts and the loins of her readers in equal measure. She adds depth and dimension to what was once considered to be a genre comprised only of talentless perverts. Simply not true.

  Kat Crimson is a warrior for the cause, on a mission to prove that erotica can arouse the mind as much as the middle bits and that kink can be quality.

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