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Chapter One

“I look like an X-rated Mrs Claus!” Holly North did a double take at her brazen ith mirror

“That’s the point”

“I don’t think Santa would approve”

“Au contraire I have it on good authority Santa loves naughty girls way et for Christmas”

“I can’t wear this My niles are practically showing” Holly yanked up the red leather bustier

Ivy jerked the bustier back down “Leave it Custo a free peep show”

Holly gaped at her friend, Ivy Lane, owner of Sugar Pluestured to the skintight leather pants, the shelf-like bustier that displayed her boobs like Christmas ornaments, and the four-inch poinsettia-red stilettos “Noto buy that I’ the costume”

“It’s all in the attitude, sweetued the black leather pants to Holly’s hipbones “Actually it’s in the hips Swivel ’em, baby”

“Great” Holly stared at the exposed section of her stoapped She turned sideways Truthfully, she didn’t look half-bad Pilates three ti like a bowl full of jelly

Still…as she stared at the ser in the lass ofin public dressed this way?

“Just cop an attitude Rule nu like an accountant”

“But I am an accountant” Ivy was her best pal—and top client When Holly had impulsively stopped by to drop off quarterly tax forms, Ivy had pleaded with Holly to cover Mistress Christmas’s shift Not only was the real Mistress sick, half of the bartenders and bouncers were out sick too

Since Sugar Plums was a Christ the holidays And since Holly was a sucker, she had a hard ti the word no to her desperate friend

But a teeny part of her was excited to break out of the boring

“You are a daeous woman” Ivy slathered on the flattery as thick as Tom and Jerry batter “You shouldn’t hide this hot, curvy body under tweed, wool and prionna eat you up”

Holly’s eyes widened “But you said I wouldn’t actually have to get on stage and dance I can’t strut around like a holiday donizes me?”

“Trust hed “Anyway, you don’t have to strip And it’s not like I expect you to do lap dances We’ll announce you, you’ll walk across the stage and then you’ll le with the customers”

“That’s all?” she asked skeptically

“Yep You can co rooms and chill between Divinity’s and Candy Cane’s sets, if you want” Ivy ru to herself

“Aha!” She waved a red velvet ive you an air of mystery and a measure of privacy”

“Fine” Holly slid the mask over her face, careful not to smear the artfully applied h her hair The minute that sinfully soft velvet caressed her skin, Holly’s modesty miraculously vanished

Wow She didn’t look like Holly North, respectable accountant; she looked…like a complete sexpot

Oh yeah This could be fun Freeing

Getting in the holiday spirit, Holly smiled coyly at Ivy in the mirror “Hand litter across e? Or would that be too much?”

Detective Nick West sipped his Artic Ale and scrutinized the interior of Sugar Plums Classy joint Dark, but clean The place could use a few more bouncers—security was a bit lax in his opinion

The sound systehts flashed in tie was eeously priced drinks in hand, their hungry gazes glued to the trio of brass stripper poles center stage as a disco ball spun, casting a kaleidoscope of color across the white walls

To the left was a screened-off area that Nick assumed was for lap dances—not that he knew about those firsthand Strip clubs had never been his thing, even in his younger years when he was raising hell in Wyo with his notoriously wild McKay cousins And luckily, early on in his career, Adult-oriented businesses or AOBs—weren’t on his patrol assignments

To the right was another small but open rooht guys sat in front of the glowing blue screens, in a daze, poking buttons and feeding reedy bill slots like junkies

What a waste A spark of anger reminded him why he was here Last week his friend Rudy Donner had spent an evening at Sugar Plu a lap dance, the stripper known as Mistress Christed his drink and lifted fifteen hundred bucks fro up in his car, cold, hungover and dead broke Poor Rudy had been too ees