The Wrong Brother's Temptation novel Chapter 230

Chapter 230

Sienna

“Everybody take your positions!” Bob clapped his hands together like a conductor two minutes from curtain, weaving down the line of us frantically:

“Come on, ladies, chop chop, we don’t have all night!”

We shuffled into formation behind the enormous black curtain, and I could feel the heavy velvet of it brushing against my bare arm.

It was cool and slightly dusty, smelling faintly of stage smoke and old perfume that had probably soaked into the fabric over years of exactly this kind of night.

“Remember,” Bob continued while moving down the line, adjusting a strap here, smoothing a stray hair there with the brisk efficiency of a man fixing props rather than people, “smile, own the stage, and for the love of the Goddess, do NOT trip on the steps like last week’s disaster. We are trying to run a professional establishment here, not a circus.”

“That was one time,” the girl two spots down from me muttered, adjusting her mask.

“It was memorable,” Bob quipped, without breaking stride.

“How memorable,” I whispered to the girl beside me, genuinely curious despite everything, because apparently my brain still had room to be nosy even while standing backstage at a strip club and about to perform in front of the very man I was trying to hide from.

“There was a whole ice sculpture involved,” she whispered back. “Don’t ask.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

I tugged at my dress for what felt like the hundredth time, the hem refusing to gain even an extra inch no matter how hard I pulled, and reached into my purse with shaking fingers.

Jane’s perfume bottle was still somehow half full despite everything I’d already put it through tonight.

Twisting the lid, I bathed myself again in it again while simultaneously praying it would be enough to keep Connor oblivious to my presence.

Then I also proceeded to take the night dose of scent dampening meds to be on the safer side.

I saw a curly haired girl staring at me and I mumbled. “I don’t want to risk having a bad breath”

“You smell like a candle store exploded,” the girl beside me whispered, wrinkling her nose.

She gave me a look that suggested she didn’t believe that for one second, and glanced pointedly at the bottle still in my hand. “How come I never saw you before in any acts?”

I blurted out whatever excuse came to mind. “I am a last minute addition to the team. Bob wanted more girls”

I put the bottle away without caring to elaborate further.

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Thankfully, the curtain shifted, light spilling in through the gap, and there wasn’t time for her to interrogate me further as Bob stepped forward onto the stage.

I couldn’t see him from behind the curtain, but I heard the microphone crackle to life.

His voice suddenly transformed, dripping with showmanship spirit.

“Ladies and gentlemen! Esteemed guests, honored friends!” His voice rolled easily over what sounded like a packed room, as the murmur of conversation dipped in response.

“Tonight, we have put together something truly special. I have spent the last three weeks…”

He took a dramatic pause before continuing, “…three weeks, mind you, sleepless nights, more coffee than any human body should legally be allowed to consume, blood, sweat, and I’m fairly sure actual tears at one point in curating an experience worthy of the incredible audience gathered here tonight.”

Polite applause rippled through the room in response.

“So please,” Bob continued, “sit back and relax. Enjoy the finest hospitality this city has to offer. And let my incredibly talented performers show you exactly why we are the very best in the business.”

The girl who had taken my spot, glanced back at us and gave us a confident smile. I wasn’t sure if she’d actually told me her real name or if I’d simply never asked.

So I started calling her Blondie in my head.

Blondie mouthed good luck, and then found me specifically. Her eyes crinkled above her mask, and she gave me a slow wink, and tapped over her bosom where she had hidden that small glass vial under her bra.

That action made my stomach twist with fresh dread.

Curly saw my crumpled face and offered some advice. “You’ll be fine. Just don’t look directly at anyone. Look slightly above their heads. It works.”

I only nodded at her.

“And now,” Bob announced, his loud and booming voice making the stage tremble slightly under my feet, “without further delay, please welcome my girls!”

The applause swelled properly this time, and the curtain began to rise.

I curled my fingers into fists as blinding, white lights aimed directly at the stage shone upon us all.

The seating beyond dissolved into a wall of shadow, and I stumbled slightly on the uneven step up, but quickly caught myself against the girl in front of me, and muttered a quick apology.

Luckily for me, she was taller than I was so I tucked in behind her, using her height as a shield for exactly as long as I could manage.

Blondie stepped forward first, bowing gracefully to the scattered applause, and the rest of us followed in a ragged little wave down the line.

I bowed too, mostly on instinct and because everyone else was doing it and I wouldn’t want to just stand around stupidly.

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