Page 49 of Sexy Dare (The Sexy 1)

“You see? You’re uptight for no reason.” She had a dawning realization. “I know you didn’t like it when I came to the club with your mother, but you have to know I’m not going to miss this performance.”

He closed his eyes and groaned. “I don’t want to worry about your safety while being concerned the night goes off as planned.”

She shrugged. “Then leave that worry to my bodyguard over there.” She gestured to Renault, who’d returned to his corner. “And you worry about your business.”

“I just have a bad feeling about you being in the crowded club.” He met her gaze, a plea in his expression, but she wasn’t going to give in.

“As long as I’m with you and protected, I’ll be safe.” She kissed him on the cheek, not wanting him to worry.

She worried enough for both of them, but she refused to miss his big night.

* * *

The days before Club TEN29’s big concert took a lot of time and planning and kept Jason out late every night. It reached the point where he barely saw Faith, who was sleeping when he came home and gone when he woke up in the morning. Now that he was back to working normal shifts, his hours were the complete opposite of hers. But he was determined to make this shift in the club’s vision all it could be, and if that meant sacrificing his personal life, so be it.

He hadn’t lied to Faith when he’d told her he had an uneasy feeling something was going to go down on the night of the concert. Her brother couldn’t stay hidden forever. He wouldn’t, not if he wanted his money. He was going to come after her when she was vulnerable, and where would she be more susceptible than in a club loaded with people?

But he couldn’t keep her prisoner, which meant she would be coming to the club. So he’d have to split his focus in order to make sure she was safe … and he would because, when it came down to it, she meant everything to him.

Faith had slipped behind the carefully constructed walls he’d erected and become part of his family, part of his life, and integral to his well-being. He’d never have believed it could happen and yet it had. If he lost her now, he’d hurt as badly as he had when he’d lost Levi. Now that she was in, he was never letting her go.

Levi, he thought, would want him to live his life. To honor him in all ways, not dwell on the past and never climb out of the horror they’d experienced. Although he hadn’t realized it before, he understood that now. Faith showed him he could have a future. Not one defined by Robert Dare’s mistakes or by tragic loss.

Now he just had to get Faith’s brother out of her life, and then he could tell her how he felt and hope she believed how far he’d come.

* * *

Izzy called Faith and invited her to go dress shopping with Jason’s sister, Sienna, for Club TEN29’s big concert event. It took a lot of arguing for her to get Jason to accept the fact that she could go to department stores and boutiques and be safe. She’d had to agree to have Renault trailing her every step of the way, and she felt sorry for the big man watching three women laugh their way through trying on at least fifty dresses before even hitting the shoe department in the store.

For the first time since she’d moved to New York, she was free to do what she wanted with friends, or at least with Jason’s female relatives, who felt like they could be her friends. The day brought her face-to-face with what she’d been missing in her life, and she promised herself when Colton was caught, she would build a full life for herself.

They had finished their shopping, loaded the bags into the trunk of Izzy’s SUV, and were now sitting around a table in a restaurant in Midtown.

Because Sienna was breastfeeding, she had a club soda in front of her, but Izzy and Faith had mimosas. They all ordered Oriental salads, and while waiting, they talked.

“To a successful day,” Sienna said, raising her alcohol-free glass.

“Hear, hear.” Izzy touched her glass to Sienna’s and the three of them each did the same.

“Izzy, I can’t thank you enough for letting me put my business card on the table at Noah’s party. I have been inundated with calls. Even moms whose kids’ birthdays aren’t until the summer wanted me to schedule them on my calendar.”

The pretty blonde smiled and raised her glass again. “To growing your business.”

“Thank you.”

“So,” Sienna said. “What’s really going on between you and my brother? And don’t tell me you’re just friends.” Her eyes glittered with mischief.

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