Read Online Can't Take the Heat by Jackie Barbosa - Free Book Online

life.
    No, some of those memories aren’t exactly happy ones, but I wouldn’t be better off without them.
    “So,” Jett says, lifting a slice from the tray. She loops her fingers under the cheese to catch it as she places the pizza on her plate. “Do you want to go by your house after we’re done?”
    A lump forms in my throat, but I nod. And then I wash down that lump with the best pizza on planet earth.

    “You can’t be serious.” Wes had never known Aaron Castro to be anything but serious when it came to business, but there was a first time for everything. “We’re booked through the next eighteen months, and you should know it. They’re all your acts.”
    Aaron, who somehow managed to look more professional in a short-sleeved dress shirt—no tie—and jeans than most men looked in a three-piece suit with pinstripes, chuckled and shook his head. “That’s how I know we can make it work. I booked Purl with you, which means I can unbook it. There are other venues for that show, but you’ve got the best stage on the Strip for Mystique , and that’s why I’m giving you first crack at it.”
    Wes studied his friend and business associate, trying to figure the angles. Aaron had never once steered Barrows wrong when it came to talent. Every show he’d ever brought them had been a hit, to the point that Wes no longer considered using any other booking agent. But this proposal was way the hell out of the ordinary, and there had to be more to it than just Aaron’s confidence in the act he was pitching. An act that just happened to star a woman who, based on the photographs arrayed on the desk in front of him, was an exceptionally striking and voluptuous redhead. Right up Aaron’s alley, if Wes’s recollection of the women he’d seen dangling on the man’s arm was any indication.
    Those were angles—or more accurately, curves—Wes would be working if he were in his friend’s shoes.
    “I don’t know, Aaron. We’ve already started promoting the sale of tickets for Purl , and now you want me to put a total unknown in its place? Inside of three months? Not to mention that this is a magic show. They’re a dime a dozen these days.”
    “I promise, Mystique is different.”
    “Well, yes,” Wes admitted, picking up the photograph that depicted the show’s star in the altogether. The lovely Ms. M—M was her stage name—stood facing the camera, her gaze unflinching and unashamed. Although her red hair curled artfully over her full breasts, covering her nipples, the rest of her body was on full display. A brightly colored tattoo in the shape of a flame started above the small triangle of hair at the juncture of her thighs and spread outward and upward, across her hips and around her belly button, ending just beneath her breasts. It was a striking effect, and Wes couldn’t help wondering whether the tattoo was permanent or not.
    One thing was certain, however. The carpet matched the drapes.
    “No one would mistake her for Penn or Teller,” he said dryly.
    Aaron grinned. “And I won’t deny that that’s part of the reason I think she’s going to be a huge star. Let’s face it: most illusionists aren’t about to win any beauty contests. But it’s so much more than that. The show is flat-out phenomenal.”
    “But what’s the hurry? Why can’t this show wait in line with everybody else?”
    For the first time Wes could recall, his friend couldn’t meet his eyes. “Because this one’s special.”
    Wes glanced at the photo again. Oh, yeah, Aaron was all over the angles on this one. “So I see.”
    “Look,” Aaron said, his brown eyes narrowing with impatience, “if you don’t know me well enough to know I wouldn’t steer you wrong, even for personal reasons, then maybe we should stop doing business together. All I ask is that you come see the show. If you disagree with my assessment…no harm, no foul. I’ll find somewhere else. But I don’t think you’re going to disagree. I think you’re