Drea holds her palm out to me with a smile. “What’s your name, handsome?”
“Dean.”
She leads me into the dim club flanked by Ethan and Will. “Dean Crawford?”
“That’s me.”
“You’re even better looking in person.”
I smirk. “Thanks.”
Inside, the place looks like your typical strip club—neon lights, mirrored walls, leather benches, tables with chairs, three stages toward the front, and a mass of guys who crowd around the girls. Drea steers me into a private room with leather couches. The dark marble floors have a shine to them. A small chandelier suspends from the center of the mirrored ceiling. Everywhere I look, I can see my reflection staring back at me.
Behind a small bar to my right, a blonde woman waits for us, topless. She flashes a sexy smile and welcomes us. Her tits jiggle as she raises a bottle of vodka, looking like the girl next door. She reminds me of Kat.
I should call her again.
Drea points at the couches. “Gentlemen, make yourselves comfortable. I’ll wrangle the girls. Dean, do you have a preference?”
Kat.
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“You already know what we like,” Will says.
Drea nods and walks out of the room.
The bartender saunters over to us with three shot glasses in her hands. I take the glass from her, knocking it back in one gulp. The vodka burns on the way down. It’s been months since I had a drink. What I wouldn’t give to go back to college, even for only a few days. Because then I would get to see Kat every day.
Ethan shakes the bartender from his arm and moves toward me. “You might not believe me, but this place has the best Italian food in the city.”
I roll my eyes at him. “You’re fucking with me, right? We’re in a strip club.”
“No shit,” he says. “I’m serious. You have to try the food.”
The thought of eating in a strip club makes me want to vomit. After another intense workout with our trainer, my stomach hurts too much for me to ignore the hunger pains. Starved, I follow Ethan and Will to the buffet set up at the back of the room. A brunette wearing a spandex black tank top and shorts that could pass as unde
rwear stands behind the table with a plate in her hand, ready to serve us.
Ethan shoves his hand through his dark hair, avoiding her gaze. “I’ll have a little of everything.” He glances over his shoulder at me. “What do you want?”
I look at the girl behind the table. “Whatever he’s having.”
After the server hands us our plates, we sit on the couches and eat our food. By the time Drea reappears with a handful of girls, we’ve already had seconds. One of the girls sets a tray of shot glasses on the table in front of us. I have no intention to drink my share of them.
Leaning back against the leather couch, I pound a few shots before a blonde girl hops onto my lap completely nude. Ugh, as if I don’t feel guilty enough about not telling Kat. I don’t want to look like a pussy in front of my teammates. So, I embrace the lap dance.
Ethan wraps his arm around a brunette with pasties on her nipples. Will has two girls, one on each of his thighs, shoving his face between their breasts.
Will reaches around the girl to his right and taps me. “You can smile when the other guys on the team aren’t around. It won’t kill you, Crawford.”
I glance over at Will and laugh. “Easy for you to say.”
“We’ve all been there,” Will says. “Don’t let Kane get under your skin. He’s like a child. If you keep feeding into his bullshit, he’ll keep fucking with you.”
“Does he do that with every rookie?”
Since the start of training camp, Tyler Kane, our captain, has been up my ass. He’s constantly trying to push me harder, even when I have nothing left to give. It’s like he wants to break me. To prove that I’m not good enough for the NHL. But I worked my ass off to get here. No one and nothing will deter me from getting to where I’m supposed to be in my career.