Free Tempting Me: A Bad Boy Romance by Roxy Sinclaire, Natasha Tanner

woman. How can you still want me to marry him?”
    “I know you are disappointed in Xavier. I am too. But this behavior is not uncommon in men, and technically you are not married. Xavier will learn to practice discretion and show you proper respect. I spoke about this with him this morning and he agrees with me and is very apologetic about what he did. He has assured me it won’t happen again.”
    I am beyond hurt by what my father is saying and also left speechless by the cruelty and disrespect he is showing me.
    “Xavier mentioned to me that you were at a male strip club and he was feeling insecure about your commitment to the relationship. This helps explain his actions.”
    I can’t remain silent anymore. I won’t have Xavier blaming me for what he did. “It most certainly doesn’t explain anything. You think that my going to a club makes it okay for him to have sex with my best friend? Did he tell you they invited me to join them?”
    “Stop being dramatic, Aria. You are normally such a practical girl. You need to think about your future and the family business. If you walk away from this engagement, it hurts your mother and me. It also has a tremendous effect on our company. Your actions do not only affect you.”
    I feel sick to my stomach at his casual viciousness. Being practical is what brought me to this crossroads. And I question if he is being honest with me about the business. Xavier’s father is the head of the law firm that represents our company, not an investor or rival company. At most, my departure might mean the necessity of finding new lawyers, not the layoffs of hundreds or thousands of workers.
    “I’m not a pawn, Father. It’s time for me to take ownership of my life. You’ll just have to find another way to get ahead in business that doesn’t involve whoring out your only daughter.”
    “We are done discussing this. What I said yesterday stands. If you are not back at the end of the week and you don’t marry Xavier, your mother and I will be forced to cut you off.”
    I want to throw my phone across the bar but now that I’m a working girl, all I can think of is how many drinks I will have to serve before I can replace it. I’m glad Theresa and Ryan weren’t here to overhear the call with my father. Ryan went to change but said he’d be back to take us to a late dinner.
    His dance didn’t go as well as he’d planned but I think he still made a lot in tips. I wonder what it would be like to dance for men the way he does for women. Then I remind myself that no man has seen me naked and I don’t care how much money you can make. There is no way I would turn to stripping to cover the bills.
    “You done cleaning?” Theresa asks.
    She is back from taking the garbage out. She said tomorrow it’s my turn to do trash duty and that I may want to get some mace. Not because of muggers, but because of the rats.
    “The rats aren’t afraid of anything and will come at you if you interrupt their dinner.”
    I run to the restroom to freshen myself up. I tell myself I’m not doing it for Ryan, but really, who am I kidding. I would never date him though. Not after the way he treated me the other night. That and all the stories Theresa has shared with me about him and women. She says the longest relationship he has had lasted until lunch the second day. I guess I really should thank him for blowing me off. Otherwise I might have done something that I would regret.
    Knowing all of this doesn’t change the fact that I want him to find me desirable, though. I take my hair out of the elastic and brush it out over my shoulders. My skin is glowing from the exertion of working behind the bar all night. I wish I had brought something to change into but when Theresa and I left for work, I didn’t think I’d be having dinner with the one and only Ryan Temptation. I suppress a giggle and remind myself that there are quite a few women here tonight that would give their right arm to be in my place.