Read Online Tempting Me: A Bad Boy Romance by Roxy Sinclaire, Natasha Tanner - Free Book Online Page B

something to do with this. She lives for trouble and would love to see me rattled by Aria working at the club. She is always on me about women and relationships, and how I’m missing out on the best part of life.
    It’s lucky I’m good at what I do because at this point, all I’m doing is going through the motions. I can feel the energy leaving the crowd. They came here to see something new from Ryan Temptation and instead they are getting a listless and uninspired performance that will have Mickey putting me on the Sunday afternoon shift.
    The worst part of it is that Aria is witness to the entire act. I am like a deer in the headlights beneath her gaze. I do my best to get back into the moment and give all of these women what they came here for. I unzip my jeans and remove them like a snake shedding its skin, slow and sinuous. This gets the crowd going again but it is far from the performance I was hoping for. For the first time since I started dancing, I am grateful when the music ends and I can leave the stage.
    I dodge Mickey who is glowering at me. If it weren’t for the fact that he has to save the night and gear the ladies up for the next act, I know he would have chewed me out for my lackluster performance.
    I need to talk to Aria and find out what she is doing here. She must have left her fiancé and is either afraid to tell her parents, or they have cut her off. From what she told me the other night, they are very rigid in their beliefs. I gathered that her father is quite ready to play the whole, “I’m going to write you out of the will” card. Did Aria actually walk away from everything? I knew there was something about her that I liked from the get go. A beautiful woman with both pride and principles … a girl like that is a true diamond in the rough.
    I plop down on the same stool I did last night. Theresa is making a point of ignoring me, which leaves Aria to take my drink order.
    “I’ll have a …”
    “Let me guess; a Macallan 18 … no ice,” she interrupts.
    She remembers what I like to drink. There may be hope for us yet. Then I remind myself that I’m not interested in hope; I’m interested in getting my life back. But Aria looking incredibly cute behind the bar with her little black apron, and her hair pulled up in a high ponytail, isn’t making it easy on me. All I can think about is what it will look like when I pull the elastic out and it falls in waves down her back.
    “I’m surprised to see you here,” I tell her and reach out to take her hand.
    She pulls back from me and turns to the bottles behind the bar.
    “I’m surprised, but it’s a good surprise. I knew you had it in you,” I persist.
    She turns back to me, and the beginnings of a smile hint at the curve of her lips.
    “Thank you, Ryan,” she says with a huge smile on her face.

 
    Chapter 9
    Aria
     
    I know it shouldn’t matter, but it does. Ryan saying how proud he is of me for trying to make it on my own really means a lot. He is a man who came from nothing and has been surviving on his own since he was seventeen. His respect means a lot to me. Theresa’s support means almost as much. In truth, it might even mean more. I wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for her help last night. 
    Even tonight, when I’m stuck here behind the bar doing cleanup, I feel good about the choice I made. My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out to see that it’s my father calling. I am ashamed of myself for the flicker of hope I feel at the possibility that he has changed his mind. Might he actually let me go back to my apartment until I have a better job and more money saved?
    I might even invite Theresa to come and stay with me to pay her back for all the generosity she has shown me.
    My father quickly brings an end to my day dreaming like a splash of ice water to my face.
    “Aria, have you come to your senses? Are you ready to return to Texas and marry Xavier?”
    “Dad, I told you, I caught him with another