Love in Montana (De La Fuente Family 1)

Her feet were strapped into the dark purple satin high heel sandals, her favorite color, as she turned away so that Bea couldn’t see the truth on her face. Sylvia replied, “Dating the boss doesn’t make for a good working relationship.”

Bea laughed. “You’re joking right. Sometimes I think their clothes will incinerate with the looks they give each other.”

Sylvia happened to agree but the conversation needed to be nipped in the bud before she blurted out something she’d been told in confidence.

“I need to get out there.” It was the last thing she felt like doing and, really, she had started to lose her reason for dancing at the club since she’d first spent time with Eric.

Perhaps it was his idea of Poles that had put a damper on her work there. No one had come between her and her dreams before and she couldn’t believe he had.

“You need to stop daydreaming and get out there,” Bea observed.

“I know.” Sylvia sighed, wishing her life wasn’t so complicated.

With two jobs and her heart involved with a man who she wasn’t sure would be around in six months time, she was tired. Exhausted would be a better word to use. She rarely had any free time and it had now started to play heavily on her body.

Trying not to think further than that night, she offered Bea a small smile as she left the room and headed toward the stage.

The club had been packed when she’d walked through on her arrival so at least the tips should be more than usual, which was a plus. She just hoped that the guy who she suspected of sending the notes wasn’t around. He gave her the creeps, whether or not he was the one responsible.

“About time,” Robert snarled. He worked behind the scenes and growled at everyone. She’d never seen anything but annoyance on his face or in his eyes.

“I’m not late.” There were two minutes until her stint on stage, providing the clock on the wall behind Robert held the correct time.

He ignored her as usual and indicated with his hand for her to get her butt on stage.

The initial part of her routine took a lot out of her because all she wanted to do was run back to the dressing room and hurl with stage fright. It always took her between thirty to sixty seconds to ease into her routine. To feel relaxed and able to forget she had an audience. She needed to forget so that she could dance for herself.

Her outfit today was of a Vegas showgirl. The shorts showed off the curve of her ass, and they sparkled brightly with the silver sequins that coated them. The bra matched and barely covered her nipples, so she prayed the audience wouldn’t get more of a show than she had planned.

Swinging her leg around the pole, Sylvia nodded to Robert and the music began, Happy Pills by Norah Jones. She loved this song, and the music had a great beat for her routine.

Her body flexed and shifted against the pole while the audience went silent and watched her. The nerves were her constant companion, so she closed her eyes and imagined herself dancing with Eric as the only member of the audience.

Her legs wrapped around the pole as she pulled herself higher, her right leg curved high and gripped the steel before she arched her back and went hands free.

The audience stayed silent, and as her eyes snapped open, she viewed the licking of lips as they watched her. Her skin crawled so she glanced away and hurried to finish her routine.

Happy Pills came to an end and just before the lights went off, she spotted the guy glaring at her at the side of the stage.

She stumbled back, her mind spinning from the emotions assaulting her…fear…nervousness…repulsion at the looks of desire on the men’s faces. Her e

yes widened in shock as she stepped back again, her heel finding nothing but air and then she tumbled into the darkened crowd as she cried out.

The landing was jarring and just before her lights went out, she caught sight of him as he hovered over her.

Chapter Eleven

The past thirty minutes, as Eric and Zane dashed to the emergency room, had caused a fear in him that hadn’t let up. Eric wasn’t all that sure he liked it.

Zane, for once, had realized the seriousness of the situation after the call from Bea. She’d been frantic and had no idea how to get a hold of Eric, which was why she’d made her first ever call to Zane. His friend had hid his disappointment that the call had been because of Sylvia being injured and not to talk to him.

Eric had never seen his friend so infatuated with a woman before, and he started to wonder what the hell they’d drank because Zane wasn’t the only one besotted.

Which was why he’d dashed to the hospital with Zane in tow.

All Zane had been able to get from Bea’s frantic call had been that she was unconscious and the paramedics had been called.

They’d arrived within minutes of her being taken in to a cubicle to be examined so he’d missed seeing her, which clawed his gut. He wanted the right to be in the room with her. If he’d been thinking on arrival, he’d have said she was his fiancée to be with her. A sure sign he was in over his head with her.