“Maybe the girls weren’t interested in being featured in a magazine article.”

“That’s bullshit. The article would have gotten them some attention. Gotten them out of that shit-hole of a life, maybe. And what woman wouldn’t want to be featured in a national magazine?”

“I wouldn’t,” I said, my back already up at the “shit-hole” comment. My first year as a detective, I’d put away a rapist who was targeting exotic dancers. That’s when I’d met Candy. She wasn’t a vic, but she’d been dancing the nights of two of the attacks, and she had a good eye, a solid memory for faces, and a habit of eavesdropping on the clientele.

Like several of the other dancers at the club, she was a single mom, high school dropout. She was raising a kid, studying to take the GED, and doing her damnedest to make a good life for herself.

The job was solid—paid the bills and gave her time to study and be with her little boy. In the past three years, she’d earned the diploma, then started taking business classes at the community college. She’d moved from the dance floor to management, and gotten herself engaged to the bartender she’d been eyeing since his first day on the job, not to mention very happily knocked up with kid number two. She’d carved out a life for herself—a good one—and it all centered on that job.

Sure, there were some clubs that treated the girls like shit, the customers worse, and ran a few profitable-yet-illegal side operations out of the back. But that wasn’t where Candy worked, and it wasn’t what she wanted. She was a dancer with dreams of owning her own club, and never in a million years would she have agreed to be the focus of a magazine article that suggested that either the club was sleazy, or that she was struggling through a life of slime. She was just a woman doing her best for herself and her kid, and I respected the hell out of her for it. Murray Donovan, I could tell, didn’t.

“I wouldn’t have anything to do with an article like that,” I repeated, just to emphasize the point.

“Hell no, you wouldn’t. I can tell just by looking at you. You’ve got too much class,” he added, ruffling my feathers even more. “What do you do, baby?”

“I make it a habit of breaking the nose of assholes who call me baby.”

He snorted. “That’s what I mean. You’ve got too much spunk—too much drive—to whore yourself out like that.”

Honestly, that nose-breaking thing was looking better and better.

“Come on, seriously. What do you do?”

“I work in a government office.”

“Well, there you go,” he said, in the kind of voice that suggested I’d just corroborated the theory of gravity. “Upstanding. Respectable. Honest work. You wouldn’t take a job serving drinks topless or sliding up and down a pole.”

“Wouldn’t I?” My voice was icy. My stare even more so.

“Would you?”

“It’s my body, and if I can make more in a four hour shift dancing with a pole than I can pulling eight hours behind a desk, why wouldn’t I? Especially if I was working my way through school or had a kid to feed.”

“Nah, you’re just being contrary. I like that in a woman.”

Oh, dear god, just shoot me now.

I glanced feverishly around the room, hoping to see Tyler seething in a corner, about to come and rescue me. I knew he’d seen the two of us together, because I’d caught him looking our direction when I’d first slid into Murray’s arms. But there was no sign of a knight riding to my rescue now.

Tyler Sharp either had serious willpower, or just didn’t give a damn.

I really hoped it was the first.

I suffered through another five minutes, then excused myself to go to the ladies’ room. I didn’t need the facilities, but I dampened a towel and pressed it to the back of my neck. It was my trick for calming myself down. I can’t say that it was working particularly well at the moment.

Still on edge from my unpleasant turn with Murray, I headed back out. My plan was to go home and regroup in the morning. Instead, I bumped into Reggie, aka the Ass Pincher.

Fuck.

“There you are,” he said, bathing me in the scent of old beer. “I thought you’d escaped.”

“I thought I had, too,” I said, with a smile that was both cold and simpering. All around me people were laughing and dancing and having a good time. And here I was, stuck in my own version of hell.

“Another dance?”

“No. Thanks, but no.”

He moved closer. I took a step back.

“I thought we hit it off.”

“We really didn’t.”

He laughed as if I’d just said the funniest thing in the world, then slid his arm around my waist.

I jerked away. “Watch the hands, buddy.”

“You are so fucking beautiful.”

“You’re going to want to take a step back,” I said, somehow managing to speak despite my gritted teeth.

“What I want is to taste you.”

My hand curled into a fist. “Dammit—”

“I’d do what the lady says.”

Tyler.

I jerked free of the Ass Pincher even as Tyler yanked him away from me.

“I mean it, Reggie,” Tyler said. The charm that had colored his voice earlier was gone, replaced by a steel-edged hardness.

“I—I didn’t realize she was with you, Tyler. Honestly. I mean, she danced with me, and—”

“Sloane shares my interest in supporting charitable causes.”

“What?” Reggie’s brow furrowed. “But this isn’t a charity event, and—” His mouth snapped shut as anger and insult flashed across his face. “I’m the charity? Now, you listen to me, Sharp. No way am I—”

“Yes,” Tyler said smoothly. “You are going. And right now.”

Reggie’s eyes cut to me. “You can do better.”

“Than you? Oh, most definitely.”

It was a low blow, but the guy was a prick, and I felt nothing but satisfaction when I saw the angry red start to creep up his neck. “Fuck it,” he said. “You two deserve each other.”

Tyler turned to me, ignoring Reggie’s retreating back. “First thing that man ever said that’s made any sense at all.”

“I could have gotten rid of him myself.”

“I believe that.” He glanced down at my still-clenched hand. “But I didn’t think Angie would appreciate it if you laid him out. Fancy hotels like this add an up charge to the cleaning fee when blood is involved.”

I laughed. I also relaxed. “Fair enough. And I suppose I should thank you for the rescue. Even though it took you long enough.”

“Is that a criticism?“His hand slipped around my waist, but rather than jerk out of his embrace as I had with Reggie, I had to force myself not to press closer.

“Just an observation.”

He eased us toward the dance floor, then started to sway with the low, slow strains of music. I felt light, as if Tyler’s hands were the only things keeping me anchored.

“I’m glad to hear it,” he said. “Still, I suppose I lost some of my chivalry street cred.”

“A bit.” My voice sounded breathy, and I wanted to close my eyes and melt from the heat that his palm pressed against my naked back was generating.

I’d gotten lost in the swirl of sensations and emotions, and I stumbled blindly, trying to find some sort of rope to draw me back to myself, but failing miserably. I’m not the kind of woman who falls apart in the arms of a man, but right then, I was unraveling. And my dark and scary secret was that I liked the way it felt.

“I suppose I’ll have to earn it back.” His words, whispered at my ear, skittered across my skin like an electric current. They were only sounds, with no meaning attached to them at all. Just the low, sexy tones of his voice.

“Hmm?” I asked stupidly. “Earn what back?”

He chuckled, as if he knew damn well that he was the source of my confusion. “Chivalry. You said I lost some street cred.”

“Oh. Right.” I managed to gather myself, then tilted my face up to look at him. I saw desire behind the blue fire of his eyes, and I wrapped it around me, reveling in its warmth. “I guess you will. I mean, what’s a knight without his chivalrous reputation?”