Atonement (Angel's Halo MC 5)

“I need the money,” she murmured after a few moments of just staring down at her feet, which were covered in the sexiest leather boots I had ever set eyes on.

They went up to her thighs, shaping them in a way that shot my heartrate up a few notches. I could only imagine what she was going to do to the middle-aged guys with heart conditions. And the college brats? They would be jizzing themselves before she even finished her first set.

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to hide the fact that my nipples had gone rock-hard at the sight of her in that outfit. It wasn’t that I was a lesbian, or even bisexual, despite my experimental phase. No, Quinn was just that fucking hot, and I was really giving my sexuality a rethought as I watched her inhale sharply, making her tits quiver.

“Why?”

What the hell did she need that would require her to go from working her respectable job at Aggie’s to wanting to bare all her lovely assets to the world in this sleazy place?

The answer to why I still worked there was easy. I liked the excitement of knowing a room full of men wanted me yet couldn’t touch. But Quinn … She was so sweet, so innocent. This place would fuck all that up, would fuck her up, and it hurt to think about that happening to her.

“I’m leaving,” Quinn told me, lifting her chin almost defiantly.

I nodded. “Good idea.” I started to bend to pick up my bag. “Come on; I’ll go with you.”

She swatted at my hand when I would have taken hold of her elbow. “No.” She shook her head, making the silky dark hair of the wig shimmy over her shoulders. Yeah, I was definitely rethinking the whole lesbian angle. Maybe I was bisexual after all.

Maybe I could talk Colt into a threesome with me and his best friend …

Shit. Now I had those images in my head and they wouldn’t go away. Of Colt doing all those naughty things he loved to do to me, while I did a few naughty things of my own to sweet, little Quinn.

“Kelli, I can’t go home. I need th

is job. I need the money.” She stepped back from me when I would have become more forceful. “What I meant is that I’m leaving Creswell Springs. As soon as I have enough money to do it, I’m getting the hell out of here.”

Something in her voice had all the heat she had been producing in me turning to ice. I couldn’t see a single one of her features, but I knew her well enough to guess she was trying not to cry. What had happened that would make her want to pull up all the roots she had to this place and move away? She had so much going for her there. People loved her, cared about whether she was taken care of or not. She had so much. The goddamn world at her fingertips, for fuck’s sake.

So, why did she want to give all that up?

Chapter 13

Quinn

The scent of baby oil was strong as I tried to breathe. It wasn’t just nerves restricting my airways. Topaz had gotten a kick out of dressing me up, and honestly, the outfit we had finally agreed on was the tamer of them all. Still, she’d had a little too much fun playing dress-up stripper, with me as her Barbie doll.

The older chick had shown an excitement that had been slightly contagious as she had put the veil over my face, and then done-up my hair. Then she had taken me out to the main stage and taught me how to use the pole. My muscles were already screaming after working some that had never been used a day in all my twenty-five years. Regardless, Topaz was a natural teacher, and I had caught on fairly quick.

After the stripper pole crash course, she had proceeded to show me how to work the crowd. As I followed her directions, the bartenders and even one of the bouncers had stopped what they were doing to watch. Watching them watch me had given me a new confidence I had never had before, and I found myself liking the attention, when any other time I would have run and hid from it.

I was pumped up and ready to hit the stage for an actual show.

Kelli, however, was trying to drag me out the nearest door.

“Do you understand what you’re doing?” she whispered fiercely to me as she continued to tug on my arm. “If Colt finds out about this, I’m dead. You realize that, right?”

I crossed my arms over my breasts; a hard feat now that they were practically in my throat with the contraption Topaz had lubed me up with baby oil to get me into. “Why would he kill you?” I demanded, keeping my voice low so none of the other girls rushing around to get ready could hear us.

“Because he told me to take care of you while he is gone, and if he finds out I let you do something this crazy, he will totally lose his shit.”

I rolled my eyes at how dramatic she was being about my best friend. I knew good and well Colt would flip out if he ever found out about my second job, but the way she was talking, it was like she expected him to beat her or something. Colt Hannigan would never lay a finger on a woman in anger. He might scare the hell out of them by shouting, and once he had even gotten in my sister Whitney’s face, but even then, there had been no fear that he would hurt her. He might have been dangerous, but he was a good man.

The best, in my eyes.

“I’m pretty sure we can handle him if he finds out about this,” I assured her.

He was probably going to drag me out of there, kicking and screaming. Until that happened, I was going to save as much money as possible.

Kelli finally dropped my arm, stepping closer, dropping her voice even lower than it had been. “What the hell is going on, Quinn? You have to talk to me, babe. Tell me what’s brought on this desperate need for money. Are you in trouble? Do you owe someone?” Her eyes were full of concern, and something else. Something dark that told me, if I was in trouble with someone, she would handle the problem for me.