Bedding The Bad Boy (Dalton Brothers Novels) by Virna DePaul

focused on Grace when she’d shown her garter.
    Second, Grace was showing said garter while wearing a mind-boggling short skirt. Her outfit was come fuck me wear most places, but especially in Vegas.
    That meant even though Grace had been ready to ask for his help last night, she was now more than ready to give herself to another man. It was one thing for her to trust and respect Max enough to ask such an intimate favor, quite another to see him as just another dick that might get the job done. If that’s all she saw him as—
    But even as Max’s anger continued to build, he saw the strain underneath her game face. No, coming to him last night hadn’t been easy for her. And the only reason she was here right now was because Lucy had encouraged her —Melina had said as much when she’d told Max where to find them.
    Neither Grace nor Lucy had seen him when he’d arrived. And now he stood behind them as they faced the jerk-off—what was his name? Blake. Probably a fake name to go with the fake persona. Under the neon lights of the nightclub, the tan line on the man’s ring finger told him everything he needed to know. Max pulled some bills out of his pocket, handed the money to a passing cocktail waitress, then scooped two martinis off her tray. She gave him a crooked look, but then shrugged and walked off.
    He came around from behind the girls’ table and held the drinks out—one for Lucy, and one for Grace.
    “Hi, Dixie. Sorry I’m late with the drinks. Took forever to get them from the bartender,” he said, smiling broadly at Grace, who looked puzzled, and—though she hid it quickly—pleased to see him.
    “Max,” she said slowly. “What are you—”
    “Oh, sorry, babe. Did I get you the wrong martini?” He turned to the married jerk-wad and took his hand, shaking it before the man could walk away. “Hi. I’m Max Dalton. I’m the headliner at the Portofino. This is my date, Dixie. And you are?”
    Next to him, he heard Lucy snort and mutter under her breath.
    “Just leaving,” the man said. He pulled his hand out of Max’s tightening grip, turned and walked off. Leaving Max alone with one visibly annoyed and probably horny woman and another who was laughing hard enough to pee her pants.
    “Dixie,” Lucy said. “I totally get it. Grace is a sweetheart and she’s from the south. Heart of Dixie.”
    “You read my mind.” Max winked at Lucy then turned to Grace. “The guy was married,” he said. “And he’d tried picking up on three different women before you caught his attention with…” He stroked the outside of Grace’s thigh, tracing his hand up from her knee, past the tip of her stockings. Then, with one finger, he lightly flicked the garter strap.
    Grace gasped.
    Without taking his gaze off Grace, he said, “Lucy, you know I adore you, but Grace and I have something we need to discuss. Think you could make yourself scarce for a while?”
    “Um, yeah. Sure. I’ll be at the bar. Grace? Find me when you’re done, um, talking to Max.”
    After Lucy left, Max took his hand off Grace’s oh-so-sexy thigh and sat on Lucy’s stool. “We didn’t finish our conversation last night,” he said, getting right to the point.
    “Oh, we finished it,” she said. “I’ve moved on.”
    “So I heard,” he said.
    Her face flamed, but she tilted her chin up, apparently not willing to be intimidated by him. “You did not overhear our conversation on the baby monitor.”
    He just looked at her.
    Exhaling loudly, she rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. But you did not hear the entire conversation.” She scrunched up her nose, which he found adorable. “Did you?”
    “Answer this question first. Why are you willing to settle for having a child with a man you don’t love?”
    Her brow furrowed. “ That’s what you sent Lucy away to discuss?”
    He shrugged. “It’s a bleak way of going about making a family.”
    “Not all of us are about passion, Shugah.”
    “Do you realize you only call me