A Second Chance at Forever Read Free Page A

shown up on his doorstep, changing the course of his life with a few simple words he couldn’t forget. I’m very sorry, sir…
    Tonight was the night his four-year-old daughter had died. Karen, his wife, had lived for a few months in a coma. He still woke up every morning expecting his wife to be there beside him, expecting to hear the slap of his daughter’s feet across the hard wood floor as she ran through the house. Every morning he still felt the sting when he found himself alone in an empty house. He needed to escape this weekend and everything it represented. Needed to forget the pain of the memories that seeped out of the walls of his condominium in Manhattan.
    That was why he’d come back to Vegas. Why he’d allowed Chris and Rick to drag him down here. What he wanted more than anything was to forget. A few days to let loose, to assuage a few long-forgotten needs. To feel like a man again. If luck found him, a few days to forget the painful emptiness his life had become.
    Candy came to a stop in front of Alex, then bent over, resting her hands on his thighs, instantly grabbing his attention. Up close and personal. God, he hadn’t been this close to a woman in a year, twelve long months. She smelled…delicious, her essence a soft, fruity fragrance that swirled around his head.
    “I hear it’s your birthday.” Her words were little more than a breathy whisper, soft and alluring. Her voice wrapped around him, making his entire body sit up and take notice.
    He swallowed hard. He’d been painfully aroused since he’d watched her on stage. For the second time in as many nights she’d pulled him in and rendered him defenseless. “I’m afraid my friend lied. My birthday isn’t for another couple of months.”
    She winked. “Well then, we’ll just have to celebrate early.”
    Then she began to sway to the music. He forgot how to breathe. Her hips rocked, her body so near he could touch her. She twisted, turned her back to him. Her sweet rear-end did a low bump and grind. Twice she dipped low enough to brush his throbbing-to-life erection. It was all he could do not to pull her down onto his lap.
    As she swiveled in a slow circle to face him again, he raked a hand through his hair and trailed his gaze over her curves, from her slender shoulders to the width of her hips. Damn! What was it about this woman? She wasn’t doing anything any other stripper in the club wasn’t doing, including the blonde in Rick’s lap. He didn’t normally fall for that sort of blatant ploy, had never in his life felt the need to come to a place like this. It wasn’t his style. There was something to be said about the art of subtlety.
    No, there was something about her . It was in her eyes, almond shaped and bright blue, rimmed with long dark lashes that tempted him every time she peeked up at him. He’d known a girl with eyes like those once, the color of the Caribbean Sea on a clear day. No way could Candy be Angela, though. Angela Lewis had been a bookworm who graduated class Valedictorian. She would never be in a place like this, taking her clothes off for a crowd of drunken men.
    No way could his best friend’s little sister arouse him like this either. On the outside, Candy moved in a way designed to entice a man’s desire. Her hips twisted, shifted, swayed. More than once she thrust her breasts in his face. On the outside, those eyes revealed an innocence that contradicted the way she flaunted her body. Like he was getting a glimpse at her , at who she was when she wasn’t being Candy.
    It intrigued the hell out of him.
    When she spun and her gaze met his again, something electric zipped between them. She bit her lower lip. Not playful or even sexual as he’d expected from a well seasoned stripper, but shy and reserved.
    The same looks she’d given him from the stage these last two nights. Like whatever flowed between them wasn’t the simple exchange of customer and temptress. As an Assistant District Attorney for