Taming the VIP Playboy

“He told me he was going to try to steal you away. He heard from some of your more famous students that you are one hell of a dancer and I think he wants to add a stage show to his clubs.”

“The Kiwi Klubs are world-famous. I mean, everyone has heard of them.”

“I know. It would be a position with a lot of exposure for you.”

“Are you unhappy with me?” she asked.

“Not at all,” he said. “But it’s a good opportunity and I didn’t feel right not letting you know.”

“I couldn’t leave Luna Azul,” she said. “Not after all you guys did for me.”

Cam handed her a business card. “You make the decision that’s right for you. That’s what we did when we went to bat for you. After you talk to him let me know what he offered, we might be able to match his offer.”

Cam left a few minutes later and she sat down on a stool in the back of the rehearsal room. She wasn’t looking to travel the world and be a choreographer for the Kiwi Klubs. But it couldn’t hurt to talk to him. Especially if things weren’t going well between her and Nate.

She needed to have options and to keep them open. Working at Luna Azul was one of the best things that had ever happened to her—hell, it was the best thing. Period. But she knew that if Nate and she didn’t make it she wasn’t going to be as happy here.

She looked at the business card and wondered what Russell Holloway would say if she called him. She was confused. Life was easier when all she had to do was think about dancing and about the moves that the choreographer had taught her.

She realized how unpredictable life was. She’d had an inkling of it when she’d been forced out of her safe world of competitive dance and when she’d seen her sister give birth to her son all alone.

But this was different. This was her having to make a decision and deal with the consequences. In a way, the impulsive leaping was easier. There was no time to debate the outcome.

But that was what she did all afternoon. Debated with herself. She stared at that card. Even dialed the number more than once and hung up before the call connected. She had no idea what to say to Russell Holloway. Mainly because the one person she could turn to for advice wasn’t around for her to get it from. She wanted to know what Nate thought. He was more than a lover to her, he was also a trusted friend and she knew she didn’t want to lose him in both areas of her life.

Nate was having a pretty crappy day by the time he got to the club and Cam’s office. “What’s up?”

“Just some news about Jen. But what’s going on with you?”

Nate furrowed his brow. “Speeding ticket, Lori O’Neil is demanding I go out with her tonight or she’s going to stop mentioning the club in her celebrity blog and I have to fly to New York to film guest spots on two different shows.”

“Sucks to be you and have to go out with a beautiful woman and be on TV.”

Nate glared at his brother. “Don’t. Don’t try to shame me into remembering that I have a great life and that I don’t have anything to complain about.”

Cam shrugged those big shoulders of his. “I guess I don’t have to then. Seems you know that you have nothing to bitch about.”

“Yeah, I know it but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m having a really pissy day.”

Cam laughed. “I’ll give you that.”

Nate threw himself down in one of the large leather guest chairs in Cam’s office. On the paneled wall was a portrait of Cam standing in the foyer of their boyhood home dressed in a tuxedo. “Don’t you wonder why Dad had those paintings of us done?”

Cam shook his head. “He wanted to create a legacy for us to pass on to our children.”

“Are you thinking of having a family?” Nate asked his brother. That very thought—a family of his own—had been on his mind too often lately. “I always believed us Stern men made better bachelors than husbands.”

Cam shrugged. “I feel the same. I mean business is a lot easier to figure out than a woman.”

Nate laughed. “Tell me about it. Who are you dating?”

“None of your business.”

“A secret love?”

“Not really. Not love. Just sex.”

Was that what Nate had with Jen? Was it just really good sex? “Have you ever been in love, Cam?”

“One time,” his brother admitted. “But it was a long time ago and I was young.”

“What did it feel like?”

Cam quirked one eyebrow at him.

“I know that’s a silly question but I’m not sure if I know how to love. I mean you and Justin are my brothers and we’re blood so I know I can count on you. But a woman…how do I know if I love her or not?”