What the fuck did I think I was? A child? Jesus. I rolled my neck and tried to stop hearing myself tell her to admit that she was mine. I couldn’t make myself stop hearing her scream my name or that she was mine. It was one thing for her to offer it. It was a whole other thing for me to demand it. I’d basically told her she couldn’t strip for anyone else and that her body was mine. It was insanity.
No, I thought, shaking my head. Insanity was doing it again and again. Insanity was having a hard time believing that it wasn’t true. Some part of my brain had obviously misfired and I was finding it easy to think of Carolina as mine. Still. In the light of morning, with coffee brewing and a shower behind me.
I was an asshole. There was just something about her. She was so forward with what she wanted. She’d told me that I was her gift to herself. What man wouldn’t go crazy hearing that shit? She wanted to use me and get off on me. Even the thought of it had me sporting a morning wood.
“Fuck.”
Carolina chose that moment to stroll into the kitchen. She moved like a panther on the prowl. Those long nails were ready to sink into me, like they had the night before. Instead of purring and rubbing up against me, though, she went straight for the coffee.
In just the T-shirt I’d worn the day before, her hair was curling wildly on top of her head, her eyes weren’t even really open—and she looked fucking stunning. Those freckles killed me.
She took my mug from my hands and poured coffee into it before taking a long sip and then opening her mouth and fanning at her tongue. Her eyes were wide open now. She glared at me and frowned. “Are you trying to kill me? Who needs Frank Porter to put a hit on their head when they could just drink coffee that you made?”
My mouth fell open and I tried remembering how sweetly she’d been sleeping when I left the bed that morning.
She took another sip and swore. “Hot.”
I choked a bit. “It’s coffee?”
She took another scalding sip and then shook her limbs out. Finally, looking over at me with open eyes, she gave me a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I’m not nice before the coffee kicks in.”
I just stared.
Sauntering over to me, she reached down and pulled off her shirt. Standing naked before me, with marks from our night marking her, she bit her lip. “Let me make it up to you.”
I forgot how to form words as she dropped to her knees in front of me and unbuckled my pants. I was supposed to be at work soon. I was supposed to… The moment my pants were at my knees and Carolina took me into her mouth, I lost all track of time and reality. The woman was a siren.
She let me finish in her mouth and then swallowed as I watched, before standing up and winking at me. “I’m going to take a shower. Are you going?”
I nodded, dumbly.
“See you later.” And then she was gone.
I heard the shower cut on a few seconds later and then singing. Singing. I had no clue what had happened. A few days before, I was fucking a stranger in an alleyway. How did I go from that to, a few days later, there being the fucking little mermaid in my bathroom?
I shook my head and looked at the clock. I was late. I swore and headed out to my truck. I managed to get in and even start it before I swore again and turned it back off. I didn’t know what Carolina’s plans were. I didn’t want her getting hurt while I was gone.
I went back inside and back to the bathroom. I had to stop and watch her for a second, because it was such a stunning sight. The walk-in shower had a clear glass panel that allowed me to see her with the water streaming down her body. All silky curves and tantalizing moves, her body was a work of art as she moved.
She was dancing. Twirling her hips and running her hands down her body like she was still on stage somewhere, ruining men’s abilities to focus ever again without seeing her in their minds.
The singing was awful. I guess she had to have a flaw. She wasn’t even on beat. I hadn’t been able to recognize the song at first, it was so bad. She was enjoying herself, though. She seemed lighter than I’d ever seen her. Not that I’d seen her a lot, or in any good situations, really.
With her back to me, I bit my lip and grinned. It was hot as hell, but also so charming. I watched as she reached up and scrubbed my shampoo into her hair. The thick pile of it sat on top of her head with a crooked tilt and then she did some other foot move and slipped. She caught herself against the wall and laughed.
“If I came back and found you dead in the shower and learned that it was because you were dancing, I’d be really sad.”
Carolina screamed and jumped before spinning to face me. She covered her chest and the apex of her thighs and glared at me. “Vince! What are you doing? How long have you been standing there?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Long enough to know that you have a terrible singing voice. Why are you covering up? You know I’ve seen it all—right? Seen it, tasted it, been in it.”
She lifted her chin slightly and dropped her hands. “Jerk. You scared the hell out of me. And my voice is not terrible. I know it’s not great, but it’s not that bad.”
I stared at her body and almost asked her to cover up again. It was a lot to look at and lust after when I was trying to get to work. I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket, most likely with a call from Tucker already. “It’s bad. I came back in to see what your plans are.”
She crossed her arms under her chest and I swore when it made it look like she’d offered up her breasts on a platter to me. “I figured I’d go to the bank and then head to the club. I do the books at The View and I need to check on everything.”
“You do the books?”
She gave me a look. “Yes, I do the books. You have a problem with that?”
“I’m just surprised, that’s all. You deserve your own bar. As much as you do for that asshole boss of yours, you should be doing it for yourself already.” In my head, I found myself wondering how much money she needed to make her dream come true. I had money saved up from all of my tours and from investing. When I realized what I was doing, I shook my head and promised myself I’d get checked out later because I was clearly losing my mind.
“I do deserve my own bar and I’m close.” She bit her lip and seemed to realize she still had soap in her hair. She leaned back to rinse it and, once again, it was like she was offering up her chest to me.
“You can’t go into work today, though.” I saw her start to argue, and continued on. “Porter was at the club last night. He knows that one of his men was attacked. Someone probably told him you were there. It isn’t safe. He’ll be looking for you there.”
“Well, I’m not just going to sit around your house and count your action movies all day.”
I scoffed. “You have an issue with my action movies?”
She made a face. “How many Steven Seagal movies do you need? You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”
“When did you even see them?”
She smiled. “I took a tour between rounds three and four last night. You passed out and I was awake for a bit. I like the pictures of you when you were younger. You were hot.”
I stood up straighter. “I’m still hot.”
She shrugged and turned her back to me. “Whatever you say.”
“Woman. You want me to come in there and spank your ass again?”
She shot a look at me over her shoulder that said she did. I yanked out my phone and sent a quick text to Tucker to let him know I’d be there soon.
An hour later, I was getting out of my truck at Jade’s house and pulling an unhappy Carolina with me. She hadn’t wanted to come with me, but after sex in the shower, my mind had cleared just enough that I knew she wouldn’t stay put if I left her. So, I dragged her along with me.
Tucker was marching up to me, an angry look on his face, but he stopped when he saw Carolina. “Cookie. You went to the dark side?”
Carolina’s face reddened under her freckles, but she just cocked out a hip and smirked at him. “The dark side ha
s a big dick.”
I choked on nothing and Tucker laughed so loud that I thought Jade’s neighbors were going to complain. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and gave Tucker a wide-eyed look.
He pushed me away from her and pulled her in for a hug. “Welcome to the family. When you’re done with this loser, you’ll still have to stick around. We could use someone like you around the office.”
An almost sad look crossed over her face so fast that Tucker didn’t even see it when he pulled away from her. I caught it, but it was gone so fast I thought I might’ve imagined it.
“So, where’s this Jade? I’m going to go introduce myself and make sure she’s okay with me being here, since you didn’t give her much of a choice.” Another dark look my way.
Tucker nodded to the house. “You go ahead. I’m going to stay behind and talk to Vince for a second.”
I watched Carolina walk off and rubbed my suddenly sweaty palms down my thighs. She’d worn some kind of T-shirt that was torn up and cut off just under her breasts. It hung off one of her shoulders in this way that made me hold my breath, hoping it’d slip just a bit more so I could see her breasts. More leggings molded to her body and I could tell she wasn’t wearing underwear, top or bottom.
I blew out a rough breath and shook my head to clear it. “Fuck.”
Tucker smacked me. “What the fuck, man? You’re two hours late.”
“What do you mean, what the fuck? You just saw what the fuck.”
He held his angry face for a few more seconds and then grinned. “Lauren’s going to kill you. She’s been worried nonstop about Cookie. After you left the office yesterday, she and Mercer were fighting, per usual, but she was extra out of it.”
Had that really just been the day before? “I’ll talk to her and let her know that I’m keeping an eye on Carolina.”
“An eye, both hands, and then some, huh?”
I smacked him that time and then pushed him away. “Go home to your woman.”
“Can’t. Didn’t you hear? We both got doubles today. I’m going over to Jared Ghering’s house right now. After your shift here, you’re going over there.” He scowled again. “Don’t be late that time. I do want to get home to my woman at some point.”
I hated Ghering. He was such a pretentious dick. A state senator, he was always on about how liberals were trying to attack him and his family. So far, the only thing I’d seen was him attacking other people online if they didn’t fall into line with his religious beliefs.
“Fuck me.”
Tucker laughed as he backed towards his truck. “Looks like your girl has that covered, but thanks for the offer.”
I flipped him off and then headed inside. I found Carolina sitting next to Jade on the couch, flicking through a magazine. They both looked up at me like I was interrupting.
“Enjoying yourselves?”
Jade nodded. “Cookie’s going to do my nails after we find a good pattern in here.”
“Yeah, so go back outside and do your thing.” Carolina waved a hand at me dismissively, but then she looked up and winked. “See? I can be bossy, too!”
I laughed and walked back out to do my rounds. They seemed perfectly fine. It was one more reason I knew that Carolina needed that bar. She made everyone feel like they were her friend. She’d do amazingly at drawing people back to her bar time and again.
It was going to be a long day and I was selfishly glad that I was going to have Carolina there with me.
Chapter 16
Cookie
After Jade’s, Vince took me to yet another person’s house that he had to guard. I couldn’t say I was miserable. Jade had been amazing. She was sweet and fun and she was excited about everything. I didn’t think she’d gotten out much. I still gave Vince a hard time about not letting me either go back to his house, or go to work. Of course, I didn’t want to go back to work, but I had to make money. Life didn’t just stop because Frank Porter was a crazy son of a bitch.
Vince didn’t budge, though. So, I was sitting on the decadent patio of a state senator named Jared Ghering who had all the personality of a slug. Jared had insisted that I use the patio and relax on it. Never mind that it was hot outside, or that I was sweating. He wanted to show off his new landscaped backyard and he wanted to show me.
Vince was walking the grounds and had left me with Jared. I was getting angry about being dragged around then. If Jared had been as nice as Jade, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but he wasn’t. He’d done nothing but tell my tits about himself since I sat down. He’d also offered to let me go swimming in his pool about a million times—you know, since I was so hot.
He himself was dressed in just swim trunks. He kept flexing his chest at me and telling me about how he’d had this religious monument erected in the middle of his town and how amazing he’d been to do that for people. I didn’t have an issue with religion, but I could tell that he was someone who used it as a weapon.
After about the tenth time of him telling me about his missionary work, I couldn’t stop myself. I sat up and smiled brightly at him. “I’m a stripper. I take my clothes off for people for a living. I also do lap dances.”
He didn’t skip a beat. “Hmm… You know, Jesus talked to prostitutes and women of all kinds.”
“I didn’t say I was a prostitute.”
“What do you ladies like to be called now? Sex workers?” He shook his head. “I try to keep up, but all of this PC stuff is so much.”
I blew out a breath and forced a smile, not wanting to get Vince in trouble. “I’m just a stripper.”
“You know, if you ever wanted to spend some time with a man of God, and talk, I’m always available. Morning,” he smiled, “or night.”
I wondered if knocking the asshole out with his own patio chair would get Vince in trouble. “Thanks.”
“No, really. You seem nice. I’m sure we could get you back on track in no time.”
I was sure he could. I was also sure that it would only take me letting him fuck me to do it. “You know what, Jared? I appreciate the offer, but I think I’ll pass.”
“At least let me serve you dinner while you’re here.” He pulled out his phone and called someone. “Barbara. Fix two dinners and bring them to the patio.”
I bit my tongue. He was rude and a real shithead, but I was hungry. I’d burned a lot of calories off with Vince in the middle of the night, and that morning. I needed food. I thought about the ice cream at Vince’s house and my stomach growled.
“See. I knew it. You just wait. Barbara makes the best meals. She’s been with my family since I was a little boy.”
I was about ready to find traffic and run into it. “That’s nice.”
“I’ve thought about finding someone else, because she’s old, but it’s so hard to find good help these days. People are so likely to steal from people who have nice things. And no way am I hiring someone from some other country. They don’t have the same standards.”
I’d taken all I could take. I stood up and was about to let the jerk have a piece of my mind when Vince appeared and wrapped his hand around my upper arm.
“How’s it going here?”
Jared looked at Vince’s hand and his lips turned down just slightly. “It’s good. You don’t have to stay around, Vince. Carolina and I are getting along just greatly.”
I watched Vince’s face tense and his stance stiffen. “Actually, I was just going to go to the restroom. Can you show me the way, Vince?”
Jared all but jumped out of his seat. “Nonsense. You let Vince do his muscle thing and I’ll show you. It’s my house, after all. It’s easy to get lost in it, it’s so big, but I’ll wait on you and help.”
I looked to Vince for help, but he looked like he was holding back fury. “Um… Okay. Thanks.”
I started to follow Jared and looked back at Vince. I mouthed to him to help me, but he was glaring daggers at Jared and didn’t see me.
After an uneventful trip to the bathroom, Jared tried to
give me a tour of his house, but I acted like I was faint and made a big deal about getting back outside to the patio. Even if it was hot, I realized that out there I could yell for Vince if I needed anything. Not that I thought Jared would try anything, but it made me feel safer, nonetheless.
Back outside, Barbara, a sweet older lady who was all smiles and charm, put dinner down for us and then bowed before scooting away. I watched after her and then looked down at the indulgent dinner she’d prepared. It seemed like so much work to make her do.
“Do you always eat a crazy dinner like this?”
He smiled. “Always. I keep my figure by working out and having a fast metabolism. How do you keep your shape so… nice?”
I stabbed at a piece of lobster and dipped it in the butter. Just because I felt bad for Barbara didn’t mean I was going to let her hard work go to waste. “I do a lot of pole work. You know, when I strip.”
“Tell me more about that. Do you take off all of your clothes?”
I sat back in my chair and stared at him. “I wouldn’t want you thinking ungodly thoughts, Jared. I shouldn’t tell you all the sordid details.”
He chewed a piece of steak faster than I would’ve liked and then nodded. “You know, normally I would agree. I just want the whole picture, so if I counsel you later on, I can know everything and how to help.”
“I take everything off. Except for all the piercings, of course.”
“Piercings?” He looked at my ears.
“Lower.” I smiled and took another bite of lobster. “A lot lower.”
His face darkened with a blush and he sat back. “You mean, you’re pierced… down there?”
“Yep. I have ten piercings down there. It’s pretty dangerous. Ever seen the movie Teeth? It’s kind of like that.”
The rest of dinner was eaten in silence. I didn’t know if I’d managed to scare Jared off, or not, but he’d at least shut up for a while. I wanted to punch him, or make Vince do that neck choke thing on him so he’d pass out and leave me alone.
Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series Page 57