I adjust my red feathered mask so that I can see clearly. The club is getting packed and fast. I am running on adrenaline. It’s all I can do to keep up. My fifteen-minute break can’t come fast enough. I steal a glance at the line; a group of three is all that’s left for now. I check my screen to see what table is open.
I handout their required black masks. They already smell a bit intoxicated. Asking them to please follow me, I escort them to their booth and let them know that their server for the evening will be with them shortly. As I turn to leave so I can take my break, one of the guys grabs me firmly by my wrist and rubs himself against my ass. I try to jerk from his hold, but he doesn’t let go. He presses the bulge in his pants further into my backside. He barely gets the words out, “come on gorgeous, I just want to have a little fun,” before Tyler is on him threatening to snap his wrists if he so much as looks at me again.
“Hey man, it’s cool, I get it. You send this cock tease out here to get us horny, so we will spend more on a private dance.”
“What did you just call her? I don’t think I heard you right. You’re in my house boy. I eat li
ttle pussy dicks like you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You’d look real funny trying to dig your head out of your own ass. Ya feel me?” I swear the vein popping out of Tyler's neck is bigger than my arm! I have never had someone feel the need to be protective of me like this before. Something about the primal way he defends me, like he has claimed me, turns me on.
My knees are shaking, and I am giggling in a panicky fit. I don’t want Tyler to punch this asshole. He is clearly just a drunken douche that can’t handle his liquor. Stepping between them, I grab Tyler’s tensed arm and soothingly ask him to walk away. I lead him back to the dancer’s lounge. It’s empty right now. When they aren’t on stage, walking the floor, or giving private dances, the girls hangout in here. It is a small but comfortable room. There is a huge sofa that takes up the center of the room while there is a big screen TV anchored to the wall that shows different camera angles from within the front of the club. I have fifteen minutes until I have to get back out front.
“Does my temper scare you Aria?” He looks down at my trembling knees.
“No, you excite me,” I answer honestly.
He appears surprised by my words.
“Do I turn you on?” He asks as he slides my mask back over my hair. The vein in his neck is pulsing. His smoldering dark eyes take hold of me. He cups my face gently in his large tattooed hands. Taking a deep breath at the base of my neck, he breathes my scent in. “You smell intoxicating, like the sunshine after a storm.”
He steps in even closer, placing his knee between mine. Sliding his hands down the front of my bustier, he pulls on the ribbon that laces up the front. He frees my breasts, cradling them in his hands.
“Do you want this?”
“Yes,” I let out in an exasperated voice.
Just as he is about to graze my nipple with his tongue, the sound of the door slamming shut snaps us both out of the moment. Quickly turning my back to whoever has walked in on us, I begin re-lacing my top.
“Don’t stop on my account. I enjoy a good show.” I am swimming with relief to hear Erin’s voice filling the air. Tyler excuses himself. I can’t even bear to face him as he leaves the room. Once I hear the door shut again, I turn to find Erin staring at me and her expression is asking questions I don’t know the answers to.
“Don’t worry, my lips are sealed. I’m just glad someone is getting to tap that fine piece of man candy. But I want details! I knew you were holding out on me.” She practically pouts as she slides my mask back down onto my face.
“I’ve got to get back to my station.” I walk hurriedly past her as more girls start to come through the door.
“This conversation is not finished Aria!” She winks at me.
I can’t believe I let myself get caught up in the moment like that. It’s clear that I am going to have to distance myself from Tyler in order for this to work. No matter what he says, I can’t afford to be careless. I promised myself I wouldn’t get involved with a guy from Bender’s MC.
Thankfully, I will be working at the tanning salon for the next two days before I have another shift at Indigo. Hopefully, I will be able to dodge Tyler, before I make a mistake I can’t take back. I’m good at that—making mistakes I can’t change.
I send a quick text to Caroline to make sure Jace hasn’t been picking at his stitches while I wait for more patrons to come through the door.
She assures me he’s fine, and I don’t see Tyler the rest of my shift. Once I get home, it doesn’t take sleep long for sleep to claim me.
The ringing of my phone wakes me from my sleep around one A.M. “Baby girl, you’re gonna have to talk to Brian. He showed up at the house a few hours ago. He was drunker than a redneck at a moonshine festival. He’s passed out on the couch now, but he was spouting off a bunch of nonsense. All I could make out was something about moons and stars and your name.”
“Shit! Daddy, what if he gets all nosy and finds a picture of Jace or my address, you have got to get him out of there,” I demand, raising my voice.
“Now look here, you ain’t gonna take that tone with me. You may be grown, but I am still your daddy. You ain’t too big for me to take a switch to them leg’s for using that language on your old man. This here mess is your doing. It’s damn near time you fessed up to that boy.”
“Daddy, you know why I can’t do that, he would hate me,” I tell him, exasperated.
“And Jace, whatcha think he’s gonna think of you once he’s old enough to understand what you have done with your lies?”
Tears stream down my cheeks. “That’s not fair daddy,” I sob into the phone.
“Life’s not fair, but that don’t mean you can keep getting on this way forever. Time to grow up Aria.” Click.
My daddy just hung up on me and it pisses me off to no end that he’s right.