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that.
Not yet. Maybe not ever.
Some dreams were better off dead.
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Holly%20Lisle%20-%20Last%20Girl%20Dancing%20(v1.0).html chapter 3
After her odd exit, Hank wasn't sure what to expect, but Jess was right on
time arriving at the dojo that evening. She got out of her car, and he shook
his head at her idea of dressing for a night of sleaze. She was wearing a
denim shirt with the tails out, and a short denim skirt, and high, high heels
that would put her right at eye level with him. Her hair was loose, and it
fell in neat lines to her shoulders.
She had nowhere near enough makeup on.
Except for the shoes, she failed spectacularly to look trashy. The makeup
would have to be half an inch thicker, the skirt four inches shorter, and the
denim shirt a whole lot more unbuttoned to get her to that point.
She looked good, though. She had great legs. Long, muscled, tight, sleek,
tapered. He'd always been an ass man, and he was deeply appreciative of good
tits but he could get behind a great set of legs, too. He considered himself
well-
rounded that way.
"Good evening, Mr. Kamian. Are you going to say anything, or are you going to
glare at me?" she asked.
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"Um& could we drop the 'Mr. Kamian, Detective Brubaker' thing? I wasn't
glaring, I swear," he said, embarrassed that he'd been staring, and at the
same time relieved that she'd misinterpreted it. "You look very nice. Though
the denim shirt isn't really club wear," he added.
"Club wear doesn't offer a lot of places to hide a weapon," she said. "And&
yes.
Call me Jess."
"Hank," he said. "And thanks." He sighed. "I'm sorry about& whatever I said
this morning "
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. "I'm sorry I let it bother me. I
didn't have a great time in school, and right around that time I ended up
walking away from something I'd spent my whole life to that point thinking I
wanted. I don't like to dwell on it, and I don't like to talk about it."
"Then I won't bring up your educational experiences again."
He wouldn't either. Not directly, anyway. But he was for damned sure going to
find out what she had going on inside her head.
She said, "Thanks." He noticed that she was studying his outfit. He'd gone
with tan slacks, loafers, and a dressy shirt that he'd had to go out and buy
for the occasion. He told himself he wanted to look like a typical strip-club
customer, but he'd known even as he'd thought it that it wasn't true. He could
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have gone
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on his list for the night wearing a scruffy shirt and jeans, and as long as he
paid, they'd have let him through the door.
He was dressing up because of her.
"We ought to go in my car," he said.
"You don't like my ride?"
She had a '69 Pontiac Trans Am, original paint white with blue stripes that
was in good shape, and he was tempted to drool all over her ride, even if it
could have used a good bath and some fixing up.
"Good car," he said. "But you don't get to drive us to strip clubs."
She laughed, conceding the point, and strolled around to the passenger side of
his car, a nondescript older Nissan that he'd hung on to because it was
reliable and he hadn't been trying to impress anyone. He went to open the door
for her, and noticed that she walked like she'd been born wearing five-inch
heels. He didn't get it. In his experience, only women who spent a lot of time
in heels that high could walk in them gracefully, and, also in his experience,
very few detectives traipsed around in stilettos.
More mystery, more proof that something was going on with her that she'd kept
secret from everyone who worked with her. And maybe even from herself.
That smooth high-heeled saunter did fascinating things to her ass, though.
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It was going to be a long night.
He drove her one block from his dojo to the first place on Jim's recommended
list, a dive currently named Kat's Place. Hank paid the cover to the bouncer,
who took the money while trying to look down Jess's shirt.
Inside, they bought the requisite drinks and carried them to a table along the
side wall facing the door. The interior of the place was typical for the area:
dark, grimy, loud. The girl onstage at the moment was about three quarters of
the way through the first dance of her set she still had on a miniskirt and a
G-string, but nothing else. She was one of the ones who thought she could
strut around the runway, wiggle her ass a little, and flip her hair a lot, and
men would go wild for her. Hank sized her up in about two seconds and
dismissed her, noticing that most of the customers had done the same. He and
Jess engaged in a brief, almost wordless, struggle over who got the chair
facing the door. "I'm armed," Jess finally whispered in his ear, and he
conceded the strategic seat.
They bought their required second round of drinks from a dancer working the
room. And Hank watched Jess studying the dancer on the stage. "She sucks,"
Jess said after a minute.
"She might," Hank said. "She sure as hell isn't earning a living wage with her
dancing."
Jess made a face at him. "Any idea how often this place gets raided?"
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"This is the fourth club in here in the last two years. The previous three
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