Then I saw a gleam of silver in Denver’s hand. “Double hell no.”
Denver opened his hand to reveal a pair of tweezers. “You just have a few stray hairs around your brows.”
By now I was seriously contemplating making a run for it, but Denver’s next words stopped me.
“Do it for Emma.”
I sighed. If only he’d given any other reason in the world.
Denver was grinning, knowing he’d won.
Damn, shit, fuck. “Give me those,” I growled to Austin. “I’m not having you guys carve me up like a Thanksgiving turkey.”
Austin tried to hide his amusement as I grabbed the razor and shaving cream and headed over to the sink.
“Be careful around your nipples,” Denver said helpfully as I took off my shirt.
I tried to ignore them as I splashed water on my chest and then smeared the shaving cream around.
“Light, gentle strokes,” Denver said before I silenced him with a glare through the mirror.
Austin wasn’t as easy to silence. “If you want to, you could do your pubes. I don’t think they’ll show on the cover, but you never know.” I gave him the finger and continued to drag the razor across my pecs.
The area around my nipples took the longest time—going slowly there seemed like a good idea—but then I was done. Before I could reach for a towel, Denver said, “Armpits.”
I scowled. “Women don’t care about that.”
“It’s for a romance cover. Men in romance novels always smell good, let the woman come first, and don’t have unruly hair any place except on their head—if it’s a motorcycle gang romance.” Austin and I both stared at him, and he said, “What? I read a few romances to support Emma. Now it’s your turn to support her, so shave your damn pits.”
“I hate you.”
“Whatever you say.” Denver grinned as I applied shaving cream under my arms.
When I was done, I rinsed myself off, but I still felt sticky and gross.
“Rub this into your skin.” Austin tossed me a small bottle.
“Why do you have body oil with you?”
He shrugged. “We’re strippers.” That seemed to be his answer to a lot of things.
Reluctantly, I poured some oil into my hand and smoothed it over my chest, abs, and biceps. The recently shaved skin did feel really smooth—sort of like a woman’s leg, only harder. “Anything else? Should I perhaps brush on a coat of shellac?”
“If you have any, that’d be great,” Austin said.
“Just one more thing left to do.” Denver approached me with the tweezers.
“I already said no.”
“It’s just three or four little hairs that have gone astray. I’ll be finished in thirty seconds.”
“Or he’ll be blind in thirty seconds,” Austin quipped. “Either way, his chest’ll look great.”
“I’m not doing it.” I backed toward the door, but Austin and Denver flanked me, no doubt using their hive mind to silently communicate battle strategies. I hesitated. One-on-one, I was well matched with either twin. We’d roughhoused enough over the years to know that. But two against one wasn’t a fair fight. Though perhaps the oil would help—maybe their hands would slide right off my slippery skin.
Then Denver said three little words to me—words that were impossible to ignore. “It’s for Emma.”
Shit. And here I’d thought Austin was the evil twin. “All right,” I muttered.
I felt extremely foolish when I returned to the dance studio shirtless, with my skin gleaming. Veronica had left, for which I was extremely grateful. No way was I going to be able to strike a sexy pose with her around.
And I had to admit—the look on Emma’s face took away some of my irritation. She couldn’t take her eyes off me. She was probably immune to seeing the twins bare-chested since that was such a regular occurrence. Her reaction to my bare torso was gratifying and made my cock twitch.
My annoyance continued to fade until Austin turned to me. “Do 25 push-ups.”
“Who are you, my drill sergeant?”
“It’ll fill your muscles with blood and make them look bigger. Do 50, in fact.”
Man, he was bossy. I dropped to the ground and started the push-ups before he increased the number to 100. It was hard to believe anyone voluntarily hired him as a personal trainer. I saw Emma avidly watching and sucked in my stomach, exaggerating my movements. Austin noticed and chuckled.
He had me do a few more arm and upper body exercises before he declared me good to go.
“Sure you don’t want me to run a marathon or two first?” I grumbled.
But then Emma said, “You look incredible,” and I forgot to be grumpy. The flash of what may have been jealousy on Austin’s face was a bonus.
“Can we get on with it?” Knox growled.
I took my place and blinked. The stage lights were incredibly bright. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Just try to look hot,” Denver suggested. That wouldn’t be difficult given that the damn stage lights were putting out heat like crazy.