by Brandy Ayers
Fuck.
Swiping his hands back and forth over his longer than usual hair, Jax recentered his mind. He flipped the picture over onto the floor beside him and started reading her file. Now he recalled the first read through and his initial thought that this girl’s story was different.
For one thing, unlike the other dancers in the file, Harper Ryan had graduated high school as the valedictorian, despite growing up in a rough neighborhood. Father died from liver failure when Harper was eight. Younger sister died a few years ago of a drug overdose. Harper discovered the body. Shortly after the death, Harper dropped out of her sophomore year at the local college to help provide for her orphaned niece.
Jax flipped the page over, revealing her transcripts from her first two years of college. Damn. She’d double majored in criminal justice and psychology. Before dropping out she had maintained a 3.9 GPA, even while carrying more credits at once than most students could handle.
A combination of scholarships, grants, loans, and a part-time job as an office assistant at a local law firm had helped her pay for school. After dropping out, she had taken on a string of low paying jobs to try and support her niece. But according to her credit check, they weren’t enough to pay for the little girl’s care, schooling, and Harper’s loan payments. She defaulted on the loans, and not long after, started working at The Beanstalk.
Bank statements showed she sent most of the money she made to her mother for the care of her niece. The loan was now paid off after three years of taking off her clothes for slimeballs. And though she never held more money in her checking account than was needed to survive, she also wasn’t spending her money on frivolous things.
Reaching the end of the file, Jax flipped to a picture of Harper and her niece, Rose. They shared the same fiery red hair, but the little girl had brown eyes instead of Harper’s distinctive emerald green. In the picture, Harper had those eyes trained on Rose, the little girl’s nose scrunched up mid-laugh. Love poured out of Harper. Looking at that naked affection for a child who wasn’t even her own caused Jax’s chest to tighten. It would’ve been easy for Harper to resent that child. After all, it was because of her that all Harper’s dreams and ambitions had been tossed to the side.
Jax sighed and laid the file on top of the stack before dropping the whole pile back into the safe. He’d only known the woman a handful of hours, knew only what her file contained, and the feel of her body pressed against his. Yet he had a powerful need to protect her. To give her the things she’d had to deny herself for the good of a child. The instincts pulsed through his body with such a strength he found it difficult to sit still.
But they confused him as well.
As a law enforcement officer, the need to protect came as second nature. But this seemed different. It wasn’t the desire to serve his country and its citizens. No. It was almost as if his own survival depended on the wellbeing of Harper Ryan.
Exhaustion like he had never known before swept over Jax. At only twenty-nine, he felt a bone deep weariness. And the stirring of something he’d never considered before. An image of Harper and himself, sitting on the porch of his cabin, sipping coffee and watching children play in the yard flashed before his eyes. A small smile curled the corners of his mouth, but disappeared in the next instant.
Before he could even consider what the future held for himself and Harper, if that were even a possibility, he had to solve The Beanstalk case. Find the girls being tricked into a life of prostitution and abuse. By doing that, he would also be solidifying Harper’s safety.
Jax steeled himself. Resolved to finish the case as quickly as possible. Then, when the smoke cleared, he’d explore things with Harper. Explore her body.
Make her his.
Chapter 4
Harper
It’d been three days since Harper’s short, yet intense, make-out session with Jax against her car. Three of the longest days of her existence. The omnipresent throbbing of her clit whenever Jax stood in her line of vision started to make her consider crazy things. Like clawing his clothes off, pushing him down on the bar, and riding him to completion, not giving a damn who watched. It also made her want to scratch out the eyes of every dancer that hit on him. Which happened way more than she liked.
As pained as Harper was at the mere sight of Jax, he didn’t appear to have the same problem. He barely glanced at her while their shifts overlapped. Definitely didn’t talk to her. But she noticed his eyes scanning the room at all times. Almost as though he was looking for something.
Even with the slight cold shoulder he’d been throwing her way, every single night when she got off work, she’d step out the door to find Jax leaning against the wall. Without a word he followed five steps behind her until they reached her car. He’d watch as she got into the car and drove away, standing guard until she was out of sight. The walk from the club to her car had always left her feeling nervous. What if a drunk customer got a little too pushy in the dark gravel lot, refused to take no for an answer? But with Jax standing vigil, she no longer worried.
Every single night she thought about turning to him, begging him to touch her again, kiss her, whisper dirty things against her skin. But each night she fought the urges back. Remembered that her only purpose at the club was to make enough money to support Rose. Not bang the hot bartender. No matter how amazing it was sure to be. Despite every inch of her being desperate for any part of him to press against her.
“You’re staring. Again.” Kandy leaned over her shoulder, her cigarette-tinged breath washing over Harper. “Though I can’t blame you.”
Jax paced back and forth behind the bar, mixing drinks and setting them on trays for the waitresses. One of the girls leaned over the bar top, propping her enormous tits on her forearms, practically shoving them in his face. Jealousy boiled under Harper’s skin, and she forced herself to look away.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Riiiiight. You haven’t spent the last five minutes staring slack jawed at Sir Bearded Tattooed Hottie over there.” Kandy chuckled under her breath and leaned her chin onto Harper’s bare shoulder. “He watches you every night, you know.”
“No he doesn’t. I’ve checked.” Harper snapped her mouth shut, annoyed with herself that she’d let that admission slip.
“Just during your main performance, before you take your top off. He stops whatever he’s doing and just stands there watching you on the pole. Not that I blame him. You are pretty hypnotizing up there.”
Two sleaze balls of the first degree ambled over to the closest table and looked expectantly at Harper and Kandy. Never one to disappoint, Kandy began swaying and grinding behind Harper, bringing her hands up to caress Harper’s stomach. Half-heartedly, Harper reciprocated, lifting one hand to hook behind Kandy’s head and play with her stiff bleached hair while they both gyrated their hips in sync.
“Kiss her.” The creepier of the two men leaned forward, putting himself just a few inches away from them. His thinning black hair was slicked back with something resembling used motor oil, and sweat stains marred the chest and armpits of his shirt.
“What do you think this is, Community Theater?” Kandy slid her hand up Harper’s torso, circling a finger just below one breast. “This shit ain’t free. You want to see more action, I want to see more green.”
Harper held back a laugh. Kandy didn’t take shit from anyone. With a sneer the man pulled a thick roll of bills from his pocket, pulled a twenty out and dropped it to the ground at Harper’s feet.
“That’s more like it.” Kandy circled Harper until they stood face-to-face. With her back to the two men, Kandy rolled her eyes, almost making Harper giggle. Then the sassy little pixy of a woman turned, and slowly slid down Harper’s body, letting her knees spread wide as she lowered, giving the men an obscene display of her barely covered pussy. At the bottom of her move, Kandy picked up the twenty, then straightened her legs, thrust her ass into Harper, and bent over, letting her enormous boobs d
angle in front of the men as she stood. Once at full standing position again, Kandy leaned her head back, giving Harper access to her mouth. Their lips met in a wet tangle as they kissed for the benefit of the two men.
“Play with her tits.” El Creepo barked.
Harper broke the kiss. This asshole was getting on her nerves, but still, disrespect came with the territory, and if he wanted to pay two women with no attraction to each other to make-out a little, whatever. Harper pinched the thin string of Kandy’s G-string, pulling it away from her friend’s hip. “There seems to be something missing right here.”
The man grumbled, but pulled out two more twenties and shoved them into Kandy’s G-string.
Harper gave the man a wink, pushing her revulsion to the back of her mind. She did as he had asked. Bringing her hands up to Kandy’s obscenely large, fake tits, she cupped them, rolling her nipples between two fingers. Under the guise of nuzzling her friend’s neck, Harper whispered in her ear, “He asks me to finger fuck you and I’m going to shove my heel in his ass.”
Kandy leaned her head back, resting it on Harper’s shoulder and nibbling at her ear. “Doesn’t look like you’re the only one. A certain bartender does not seem to be enjoying this show.”
Harper slid her eyes to the other side of the room. Jax stood behind the bar, his jaw clenched, his knuckles white from the grip he held on the padded edge. The look he shot Harper instantly made her G-string soaked, something that had never happened before while on the job. After days of him barely acknowledging her, seeing his blatant possessiveness thrilled her.
“How much to get on this table and eat her pussy?”
Harper’s attention snapped back to the asshole. “Excuse me?”
Kandy pressed a hand to Harper’s leg in an attempt to soothe her, then turned her head to make eye contact with her. “You want to make Jax crazy?”
Harper glanced up and saw Jax had barely moved. Reluctantly, she nodded to her friend.
“Trust me, just go with it.”
Kandy turned back to the idiot sitting in front of them, and for the first time Harper noticed the man had his dick out and gripped it in his hand.
“Oh, big boy wants a show?” Kandy’s sickly sweet fake baby voice almost made Harper howl with laughter.
The man nodded, the perfect imitation of a bobblehead.
“Mmmmmm.” Kandy snaked her arm behind her back and between their pressed together bodies, cupping her hand on Harper’s inner thigh. To anyone else it would look as if she were fingering Harper. “She’s so wet for it.”
Harper covered her snort of laughter by forcing out a fake, overdone moan.
The man peeled off ten twenty-dollar bills and laid them on the table.
“Oh honey, you want me to eat that pretty cunt?” Kandy looked over her shoulder at Harper, a hint of humor twinkling in her eye.
Harper whimpered in response, afraid if she opened her mouth she would lose it and double over laughing. There was nothing funnier than Kandy getting into the role of dirty little stripper girl, considering how totally opposite it was from her real personality.
Kandy brought her hand out from between Harper’s legs and shoved the two fingers that were supposedly just inside Harper to her mouth. “Oh, Daddy, she tastes so sweet.”
The man laid down another wad of twenties. “Get on the table. Now.”
Kandy turned her back to the man, winked at Harper, and slowly backed her up to the table. Was she really going to eat her out in front of everyone? A little making out, some groping, didn’t bother Harper. But this went way over the line for her, and she hesitated as her hip hit the edge of the table.
Kandy leaned in to kiss at her ear again. “Trust me.”
Harper sucked in a deep breath, nodded slightly and let Kandy crowd her into leaning back on the table. But just as her friend started trailing wet kisses down Harper’s stomach, Kandy disappeared and Jax’s hands were pulling Harper up from the table.
“That’s enough.” The threat in Jax’s voice would be obvious to anyone listening, but apparently the idiot barking orders at them didn’t notice.
“What the fuck, man?”
“This isn’t a piano bar; the girls don’t take requests.” Jax snatched up the cash lying on the table and shoved it at Kandy.
“Hey, that’s mine. I didn’t get what I paid for.” The guy really didn’t get that he walked a thin line between living the rest of his life and Jax snapping his neck.
But much to her surprise, Jax simply glanced down at the man’s pants, which Harper now saw were covered in his own jiz, then back up to the man’s face. “Looks like you got as much you could handle, short stuff.”
Kandy barked out a laugh and turned to the next table, continuing on with her night as though nothing had happened.
Before Harper could follow in her footsteps, she found herself being dragged by the arm to the backroom. Jax pushed the door open and spun Harper around until her back met the cold metal shelving that lined the walls. Glass bottles shook and clinked together from the impact.
“Jax—” She started to yell at him, but his hand quickly covered her mouth, cutting off the words.
“No. Don’t say a fucking word.” He pressed his body against hers, the soft cotton of his T-shirt rubbing against her sensitive nipples. “Do you know what hell the past few days have been, me trying to stay away from you? Give you space? Mind my own business?”
Harper’s eyes widened at the anger and sincerity flaring in his eyes. She shook her head as much as she could under his grip, letting him know she had no clue.
“Every time I see you I want to pick you up and carry you far from here. Steal you and keep you for myself. Then I see these motherfuckers looking at what should be mine.” Jax stopped abruptly, clenching his teeth. “It takes every bit of strength I have to not take them all out. Just kill them all for even getting the honor to glance at you.”
God, why did his words and the ferociousness behind them make her ache between her legs? She squirmed, rubbed her thighs together, needing friction to help ease the pain. She whimpered behind his hand, wanting him to wrap it around her throat while he slammed into her.
“Did that little show out there get you all hot? Do you need to come, darling?”
Harper shook her head, begging him with her eyes to let her speak. The pressure over her mouth eased enough for her to move her lips. “It wasn’t what Kandy did that got me hot. That’s all for the benefit of the customers to get bigger tips. You’re what’s making me need to come.”
“You like when I get a little rough? When I’m so tightly wound and pissed off I could snap?” Jax shoved his knee between her legs, preventing her from rubbing them together any more. She tried to lower herself onto his thick quad, writhe against it until the unbearable ache eased. But he held her firm, not letting up an inch. “Answer me.”
“Yes, I love it. I don’t know why, but I love it. Please, let me come. Make me come.” A part of Harper despised herself for begging this near stranger to get her off, but not enough to make her stop. Something about him drew her in, made her want things she never had before. Even in the days before Goldie’s death, Harper never would have stood for one of her dates talking to her like that, pushing her around. But with Jax it made her knees go weak.
“I’m going to let you come, but I’m not going to help you. You don’t get to have my fingers or tongue inside you after you let two losers watch you get pawed at like that.” He lifted his leg higher, resting his foot on a low shelf so that his thigh sat just an inch below where Harper needed it. “Ride me. Rub yourself against my leg until you come all over me. I want to see a wet spot on my jeans where I made you lose yourself.”
Harper whimpered, but nodded her head. His hold on her upper body released slightly, just enough that she could move her hips back and forth, rubbing herself on his hard thigh. The motion pushed her miniscule G-string to the side until her bare pussy ground against his denim encased muscle.
&nbs
p; Her heart hammered inside her chest, pumping every ounce of blood in her system straight to her peaked nipples and throbbing clit.
“Yeah, that’s right sweetheart. Ride me until those sweet juices run down your leg.” Jax’s eyes stayed glued to hers, and she saw something there, something more than just lust and anger, that scared her and turned her on even more. “Pretty soon I’m going to fill that tight little hole of yours with my cock. You want that? Want me to fill that empty space inside you?”
She couldn’t speak, only nod and grind down harder on him, the clenching of her walls desperately wanting something to hold onto.
“Give me your hand.” Jax pried one of her hands from the death grip she held on his back, bringing it around to grip his sheathed cock. “You feel how hard you’ve made me? This dick is begging me to let him out and shove him in that pretty mouth or that sopping wet pussy. Someday I’ll take your ass with it too. Has a man been there before me? Trained that tight bud for pleasure?”