Free {Nauti Boys 5} - Nauti Deceptions by Lora Leigh

might not be able to handle it.”
    “Uh-huh,” Alex murmured. “Explains the beard burn under your jaw.”
    Rogue’s hand flashed to the incriminating mark, and she felt the heat flood her face. Dammit. She knew she had covered that with makeup.
    He laughed in response. “Good makeup job, but I watch Janey try to hide the marks too damned often not to know what you’re hiding there. Tell him to shave before he comes around next time.”
    At that, he dropped a quick kiss on his fiancιe’s lips and strode from the office as Rogue plopped onto the couch facing Janey’s desk.
    “I hate him,” she muttered as she flashed Janey a mocking glare.
    Janey laughed as she took a seat beside Rogue on the couch. “Yeah, he has that effect on people sometimes.”
    Janey tilted her head to look beneath Rogue’s jaw again as Rogue narrowed her eyes and stared back at her broodingly.
    “It’s just beard burn,” Rogue muttered. “It will go away soon.”
    “What is it about the men around here that they just can’t get past marking their women?” Janey asked then.
    Rogue snorted. “I’ve seen the marks you leave on Alex, Janey. I swear I think you’re trying to have him for a midnight snack.”
    Janey’s lips pursed with a wicked little smile. “Sometimes.”
    Rogue shook her head as a feeling of loss swept through her. She was jealous of her friend. Janey had with Alex what Rogue had only dreamed of having with Zeke in the past five years.
    Why the hell was she so focused on this single man to the point that no other would do? What was it about Zeke Mayes and his total reluctance to touch her that kept her dangling on that ever-present string of attraction to him? Whatever it was, it was going to have to stop.
    “I’m not his woman anyway.” She shrugged as she rose from the couch, picked up her pack, and headed for the door that led into the restaurant itself. “According to him, why, little ole me is much too young for his big, bad sheriffy ass. Seems he wants more of a woman than it appears I am.”
    She tossed Janey a careless smile, but it hurt. No, it didn’t just hurt, it pissed her off. She could have had a dozen lovers in the past five years. She didn’t have to sleep alone. She didn’t have to drift through the days waiting to see one man above all others.
    She wasn’t ugly. No one would have to put a bag over her head to fuck her.
    Rogue jerked open the door and closed it behind her before taking a deep, cleansing breath. She had work to do. Three days a week she was the manager, and it just so happened that she had to pick the three hardest days of the week.
    That meant she had a lot of work to do. First off was dressing for the role. She moved to the small employee’s lounge at the back and the dressing room there. The waiters and waitresses had uniforms, but Rogue dressed as she pleased. She dressed to draw attention and send tongues wagging. Janey swore that half the clientele showed up just to see what Rogue would wear next. Tonight, she was in a wild mood. Wild, but subtle. Subtle meant everything when it came to a particular mood, she thought with a tight little smile as she pulled the well-pressed clothing from within her pack.
    The schoolgirl’s checkered skirt was short but demure. It covered her ass. That was modest, but this one actually went a few inches lower and covered the tops of her thighs as well. The pleats were full and, if she turned a certain way, would flare out enticingly. With it, she wore a see-through white blouse, a shimmering gray camisole, and beneath that, a lacy black bra. Stockings and gray stilettos finished the outfit.
    An hour later the curls that cascaded around her face were pulled up to the crown of her head and secured with a thin scarf that trailed behind her head. Makeup, a quick application of bronze lipstick, and she looked subtly enticing, sexy, and wicked.
    And she knew exactly who would see her looking just young, fresh, and eager to be debauched. She