Read Online Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) by Ainslie Paton - Free Book Online Page A

maybe it was a slimy thing to have admitted to.
    “He’s
right.” Lavinia slid the menu between the salt and pepper shakers. “Mata Hari
was a spy. Josephine was the bomb. First black movie star, got a medal of honor
for working for the French Resistance in World War Two, and that woman refused
to dance for segregated audiences. She stood on stage with Dr. King.”
    Reid
went on. “Channing Tatum, Lady Gaga, Chris Pratt, Dita Von Teese, Diablo Cody.”
    “She
wrote Juno and United States of Tara ,” said Vi.
    “All reportedly
strippers at one time. You do not have to be ashamed of what you do, clothed or
unclothed.”
    “You’re
just being a man,” said Cinnamon.
    “If I
was being a man I might react like Tiff’s father. I’m being a realist, no
bullshit, no moral judgments. I don’t believe God is going to get you for this.
I think if you’ve got an asset you have a responsibility to use it to the best advantage.”
    “So
you’d have no trouble dating a stripper,” said Lux. “Treating her with respect.
Taking her home to meet Mom?”
    Fuck,
if only that was an invitation. No hesitation. “None.”
    Lux
shook her head in disbelief. “That’s bullshit.”
    It was
on the tip of his tongue to say try me, when the waitress arrived with the
coffee pot. Everyone wanted a refill. Reid just wanted Lux to meet his eyes
again.
    “What
do you do for money, Reid?”
    He
turned to Vi. He could say any old thing, it wouldn’t matter. “I’m an unemployed
bum.”
    “So
you’re not a dealer?”
    He
laughed. “You think I’m a drug dealer?” He glanced at Lux. She was stirring
sugar into her coffee, but her eyes flicked up to his.
    Vi
shoved her hand in front of his face. “You have money, you have free time, you
hang out at Lucky’s.” She ticked those points off finger by finger. “You know
about stripper history. You don’t look like a sad bean counter, or a roofer, or
a salesman.”
    “I’m
totally a drug dealer.”
    A cone
of silence descended on their table. Apparently that wasn’t funny. “If I was a
dealer, don’t you think I’d fuck myself up with my own product?”
    “Didn’t
say you were good at it,” Vi grumbled.
    “I’m
not a dealer. I promise I’m not. I had a great job I loved, but I screwed it up
and got fired, that’s why I’ve been moping around Lucky’s, drowning my sorrows.”
He fixed on his brunette dream girl who’d unwittingly given him another reason
to keep showing up. “But I told Lux if she came out with us, I’d straighten up,
so you won’t be seeing me around anymore.”
    The
suggestion of a smile tugged at Lux’s lips. It did strange things to his pulse.
    “Hold
on.” Cinnamon made a TV hostess arm wave over the table. “You told Lux you’d
quit boozing if she went out with you, this is not the same thing.”
    “It’s
not, but this is Lux’s choice.” Like it was her choice not to tell the whole
story. Did she do it to protect him from embarrassment? She had no idea how
well he had embarrassing himself checked off already.
    “That
girl is a damn fool,” said Lavinia. “Of all of us she could be earning bank, in
clubs where the dancers are treated right and the big money shows up, private
parties, the works, but she won’t take the chance. There’s this club, Madame
Amour, they have a competition with prize money. Lux could take it out if she
wanted to. She won’t even try.”
    “You
don’t strike me as the scared type, Lux?”
    Lux
folded her arms, the action sending his eyes straight to her chest. “You’re
buying my breakfast, not my life story.”
    He blinked
hard, had to bite back a response. He wanted to order everyone out of the room
so he could go one on one with Lux about wasting her talent. But he wasn’t in a
conference room, he was in a diner surprisingly lively for nearly 4 a.m. He shifted,
and it was only when his spine hit the chair’s back he realized he’d been
leaning way forward. When he did that at Plus, Sarina would