He's Mine Not Hers

by Gianni Holmes

  I’d become a sucker for that moniker.

  When I found myself reaching for his groin, I pulled away. Now was hardly the time, and with how quickly he usually got off when I touched him, I couldn’t risk him having an “accident” right here before his performance.

  “Hmm,” he hummed in his throat, eyes glazed over. “How come you never kissed me like that before?”

  “Because I was trying to keep my hands off you,” I answered, being the most honest I’d been to both of us since my interest in him cropped up. “But I can only take so much, Jace. You’re driving me insane here.”

  “I’m driving you insane?” he asked, fishing for an ice cube from the glass on the table. “Try wanting you for as long as I’ve wanted you.”

  Before I could respond, Becca returned, and she had a fresh drink in hand. She could go to clubs and bars any day of the week without money because she always found some guy who was willing to buy her a drink. Jason had gotten his good looks from her. She was one of those women who seemed to get better with age, and like Jason she was quite anal about her appearance.

  Two peas in a pod. They were more alike than they probably realized.

  “Jace, you should get all glammed up,” she told him, indicating the entrance to the dressing rooms. “Want me back there to help you?”

  “No!” Jason shot out of the booth at the idea of Becca’s assistance. “I can handle this. I’ll see you after the show.”

  He sauntered off, and my eyes followed him. Guys parted for him to walk on by, and he was either too used to it or too oblivious to react. I felt oddly protective of him in that moment with the way their eyes took in his skimpy attire.

  “God, Lucas, if steam’s already coming out of your ears, how will you get through his performance when men are tucking bills into his thong?”

  Heat traveled up my neck as I dragged my eyes away from Jason. “Probably I shouldn’t have come. He obviously didn’t want me here when he saw me.”

  “But now if you leave, you’ll make him sad,” she replied. “And God forbid you do anything to make that boy sad.”

  I groaned. “I’m not sure I can talk to you about this, Becca.”

  “Why not?”

  Between her nonchalance of my reaction to her kid and Jason’s willingness for me to give in to him, I was running out of excuses not to follow through with my feelings.

  “Because—doesn’t it feel weird?” I asked, grabbing her drink and pouring half into my glass. “I mean, I-I kissed him, Becca. Other things too. Most parents I know would have been upset that their friend is getting sexual with their child.”

  She shrugged. “You’re both consenting adults. Besides, would you back off if I told you that it made me uncomfortable and could you stop thinking about fucking my son?”

  I blanched at her tone and sat back in the seat. “For fuck’s sake, Becca. It’s not like that.”

  “So, would you?”

  I scrubbed at my week-old scruff. “Yes, I wouldn’t take things further if you were unhappy about it.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she replied, taking a long drink from her glass. “Anyway, we’ll have plenty of time to talk about whether or not I think it’s okay for you to date Jason. How are you for work and that pending lawsuit if you don’t pay for the damage you did to the restaurant?”

  I sighed, not wanting to talk about my demise but welcoming the shift from Jason. I didn’t even know that I wanted to date him. “Truth? Everything is all fucked up. They gave me a quote for outfitting the entire kitchen. Apparently fixing what I broke is not an option. I have to get completely new appliances.”

  “Is it going to cost a lot?”

  “More than I’d thought. I also got the quote today for delivery fees and installation. Apparently, some of the appliances they had were brought in from overseas, and my asshole ex-boss wants the same brand of everything.”

  “Why are our bosses such assholes?”

  “And not the type that’s useful for fucking either.” I cringed at the words coming from my mouth. “Sorry, that was rather crude.”

  “Don’t apologize. I’ve said worse about my boss. She’s an evil bitch who won’t raise my salary even though I’ve been working there for years.” She made a face and poked at the ice in her drink with one long purple nail that matched Jason’s. “Rebecca, you have to work on your attitude, honey,” she mimicked in a nasal voice. “And all the time I want to tell her to go fuck herself.”

  “Why don’t you find another job and quit?”

  “Why don’t you?” she fired back. “You know things are tough in getting another job, Lucas, and at least they pay for health insurance. Plus, we’re being evicted, so I can’t afford to lose my job right now.”

  “Evicted? Why?”

  “The guy who owns the building is selling it,” she answered, her face crestfallen. “Jason doesn’t know yet, but I don’t know what we’re going to do. That place was affordable, and it’s close enough to the hub that we don’t have far to travel back and forth from home to our jobs.”

  “Now it makes sense why you’ve been a little different lately.”

  “Different how?” she asked, giving me her full attention.

  I shrugged. “No, nothing.”

  “You can’t do that. Now tell me what you mean by different.”

  I sighed. “It’s just that whenever you’re stressed about something, you tend to get—” I could feel my face heating up. “You know.”

  “Slutty?” She sighed which bothered me because she would usually not care. “I know, and I’m trying to change. I hate that it makes Jason so uncomfortable, but I start panicking about money and the only thing I can think of to stop thinking about it is the next guy who can make me feel good.”

  I reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “But the problem is still there. It doesn’t go away no matter how we pretend.”

  Deep in thought, we turned to the main stage as the hostess, a drag queen with a big fuchsia-colored wig, appeared. While I’d been at the club before during drag shows, I’d never really paid attention to the performances before, but for the first time I took in the fans crowding the stage already waving bills.

  “You fellows stop it,” the hostess announced with a wave of her hand. “I’m not on tonight’s menu, but we’ll see about later.”

  She announced the first act, strutting off the stage and giving us all a healthy view of her naked ass that was fitted with just a piece of string.

  “What’s Jason wearing?” I asked Becca nervously. I’d seen his cute virgin ass, and I wasn’t certain I wanted the whole roomful of men, women, and everyone in between to know quite how round his butt was. I sure as hell didn’t want anybody slapping his ass.

  “I don’t know,” she answered. “But whatever he’ll be wearing, he’s going to slay it as usual, and you’re going to be damn supportive of him too. So, grin and bear it through the jealousy. You get to take him back home tonight because I’m pretty sure I’ll be having company over.”

  It was still uncomfortable to hear Becca talk about us, so I settled in for the night. The performances were rather entertaining, and I could definitely see why the club was packed on drag night.

  Stupid me hadn’t seen fit to ask Jason his drag name. I expected him to be announced by his name, so I completely missed his entry. Becca elbowed me, and when I glanced up, I was confused at first, wondering why she was gesturing to the skinny blond standing on the stage with the microphone in a death grip.

  “That’s our girl!” Becca squealed, and she wasn’t the only one. The men at the front of the stage whistled, hollered, and catcalled.

  “Jason?” I asked.

  “No, hon, that’s our Jasmine Foxx,” Becca corrected. “She looks absolutely stunning. Oh my God, that came from my vagina!”

  I was too preoccupied staring at Jasmine Foxx to shush Becca for being completely inappropriate. Stunning wasn’t sufficient to describe Jason’s alter ego. I didn’t know
where to look. She wore a skintight black-and-purple corset with matching underwear. Purple garters kept her black lace fishnet stockings in place, and the ensemble was topped off with black booties boasting heels so high I winced just looking at her.

  She was captivating, her makeup flawless as usual but even more so uniquely done that I wouldn’t have recognized her hadn’t Becca pointed her out. Her wig was a blonde ponytail with bangs brushing her forehead. It was a delicious contrast of innocence since her outfit painted her as nothing but trouble. Purple and gold dominated her makeup, her pouty lips a combination of the two.

  The lighting hit all the glitter on her body. She seemed ethereal, and quite frankly frozen in terror at the boisterous crowd.

  “Oh my God, she’s choking!” Becca cried. “Lucas, you’ve got to do something.”

  And when your best friend, who happened to also be the mother of the frightened drag queen on stage, instructed you to act, you did, because you realized you were quite possibly in love with said queen. And you didn’t want to piss off the mother.

  “Show us those sexy moves, honey!” someone called out from the crowd.

  I pushed past the crowd despite the protests and men rising to their feet as though they wanted to challenge me. With nothing but an “excuse me,” I walked on, keeping Jasmine Foxx in my sight. She hadn’t so much as twitched since she appeared on stage. Once I was in close distance, I vaulted on top of the stage and swept her up in my arms despite the angry shouts and protests.

  “Hey, you can’t come on the stage!” the hostess cried, trying to block my path, but I sidestepped her right into the fist of a bouncer.

  I stumbled back, still holding Jasmine Foxx, not realizing how close to the edge we were until I was already toppling over. The showgirl in my arms clung to me and screamed.

  All hell broke loose in the club.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jason

  “Jason, will you please get out of the bathroom?”

  “I’m never leaving!” I cried, my back against the door as I sat on the floor, knees drawn up to my chin, indulging in a good bout of crying and self-pitying.

  A hot mess.

  A disaster of a drag queen.

  I could never show my face back in a club again. At least Miss Jasmine Foxx couldn’t. Not after the ruckus we’d started in the nightclub, causing a premature shutdown of the drag performance for the night.

  I’d been dragged away from Lucas as we fell over the stage together, my ass pinched and slapped as men haggled over me like the last bag of fresh oranges at Pike Place Market on a Saturday.

  Everything had happened so quickly, I’d had no time to react until security had swooped into the mix and plucked me from the center of the controversy of who I belonged to. I’d never seen men so territorial before over property they did not own.

  Thankfully, I’d been whisked away to the dressing rooms where I’d been shielded by a group of drag queens who’d empathized with my stage fright. They had been kind and understanding for having their performance canceled for the night thanks to me. Lucas had stumbled in after, sporting a shiner, his shirt torn. The girls had only been too happy to help play nurse to him.

  Since we’d left the club and he’d taken me home with him, I’d locked myself in the bathroom to recover. That had been an hour ago.

  “You can’t hide in there forever, Jace,” he said through the door. “You should know I’m the last person you need to hide from.”

  “I got you hurt,” I groaned.

  “So I failed miserably at playing Sir Galahad. At least let me make up for it by consoling you a little.” I laughed despite my misery, and that played right into his hands. “See, I can make you laugh about it. It will be fine.”

  I didn’t respond, but every minute he knocked on the door pleading with me to come out, my desire to be left alone flatlined. I wasn’t used to exposing this side of me to anyone except for Becca. After checking that we were okay, she had informed us that she wasn’t ready for the night to end yet, so we’d left her at the club watching the hostess of the drag show desperately trying to bring the show back to order.

  “Jace,” he said softly. “Will you please let daddy take care of you?”

  Damn, he knew exactly what to say to me. How could I turn him down when this was the first time he was acknowledging himself as daddy?

  I propped open the bathroom door enough for him to be able to see me but not for him to come in.

  “I need a minute to take this makeup off.”

  He reached into the bathroom to grip my chin gently. “Are you okay?”

  “Honestly, I’m not sure,” I replied, seeing the bruise over his right eye. “I may never show my face again.”

  “Too bad, because I was really liking Miss Foxx.”

  He bit his bottom lip and gave me the sexy eye that had me clutching the door for support. I was lucky he was unaware of his own sex appeal. If he ever decided to use it against me, he would own every bit of me.

  “Weeeeeell.” I dragged out the word, still uncertain. “At least I’m retired for now.”

  “Let’s talk about it.”

  “I need to turn back into Jason first,” I answered. “Can you be a darling and bring me my things, please? It might take a while getting everything off, and sorry in advance for getting glitter everywhere.”

  He leaned in and kissed my perfectly contoured nose. “I’ll be back, and while you’re changing, I’ll make us some of that hot chocolate. I think I have a some of the pudding left too, or if you want ice cream, I can make a quick stop and get that for you.”

  I smiled at him. Maybe my world wasn’t crashing after all. “I love your pudding.”

  “Good. I’ll be back.”

  I spent a whole hour in the bathroom, showering, cleansing, and moisturizing my skin before I joined Lucas in the living room. I hadn’t felt like dressing up, so I was wearing one of his bathrobes which all but swallowed me. I left the smaller towel wrapped around my hair to dry since I didn’t have my blow dryer with me and he didn’t own one.

  “Ooh, comfort food.” I sighed, taking my favorite spot on the sofa. I tucked my feet under my body and accepted the tray he handed me.

  “It’s not too hot,” he replied. “You were in the shower quite a bit.”

  “I wanted to ensure I got everything.” I made a face at him, sipped from the cup, and moaned. “I forgot how good this hot chocolate was.”

  When he didn’t say anything, I glanced at him and he was staring at me with a little smile on his lips.

  “I know my face isn’t really at its best right now,” I told him with a grimace. “Especially after you saw me as Jasmine.”

  “I like your face regardless of what’s on it,” he replied. “You always look great.”

  “Too bad being a showgirl needs more than looks. If I can’t perform on stage, I don’t belong in drag.”

  “Have you ever performed in drag before?”

  I shook my head but waited until I swallowed the piece of pudding in my mouth before answering. “No, but I’ve practiced a lot, and back in London, I had a group of girls as my friends. They’d let me help them with their makeup and taught me what they knew. I thought I’d learned a lot, but apparently learning and performing are two different things.”

  He didn’t comment for a while but allowed me to eat. Miss Puss sauntered in from God knew where and completely ignored me. I felt better she didn’t go to Lucas either but jumped onto the La-Z-Boy recliner in the corner and licked herself. She was really a bitchy cat, not even comforting me anymore when I needed it.

  When I finished eating, Lucas took the tray to the kitchen while I turned on the television. I flipped through the channels and left it on Mall Cop. Maybe a good chick flick was what I needed to cheer me up.

  Lucas returned to the living room, a bottle of unopened Rueben’s in his hand. I was pleased he didn’t sit on another couch, but he did situate himself at the other end.

  “You r
eally think I looked beautiful tonight?” I asked him at the same time I muted the television.

  “Of course. You saw the way those men went crazy when they saw you onstage. You were the sexiest girl tonight, and everyone knew it.”

  I groaned. “If only I hadn’t frozen up.”

  “What happened? You’re always so confident and fierce, as Becca would say. Plus, you entered all those pageants and won, so you’re used to standing before a crowd of people.”

  “That was very different. I was little and just soaking up all the attention from those who told me how pretty I was.”

  “And what was different about tonight?”

  “Everything,” I answered, turning to throw my feet across his lap. He picked up one foot and pressed his fingers into the sole, kneading. I almost lost my train of thought. “Sure I was feeling a little nervous, but that’s usual, so I didn’t pay attention to it. They called my name, I strut onto the stage, take the mic, and everyone’s shouting things at me. I couldn’t block it out to perform. I never expected all the eyes on me.”

  “And you’re just going to quit because it didn’t go according to plan the first time?”

  His question stumped me. I didn’t want to give up. I’d wanted to do this since being exposed to the culture back in London and bonding with the girls. Maybe I was destined only to dance and perform at home before my mirror where no one could see me?

  “You know what I think?” Lucas asked. “You’ve got the full package. I saw you that morning in the kitchen, Jason, and you were really letting it go. You’ve got beauty, charisma, and you’re the sassiest girl I know.”

  I frowned at him. “And how many drag queens have you been personal with that you know all this?”

  “Uh, just you.”

  I chuckled, feeling better already. If I were never certain before, I was sure now. I pulled my foot out of his hand and before I could change my mind climbed onto his lap, straddling him. He stiffened and inhaled deeply, his eyes clashing with mine.