Tomcats_Book One

by Honey Palomino

  Luckily for me, she’d not protested then and she didn’t protest now. She sat down like it was the most natural thing in the world and when the next song came on, I did what was the most natural thing in the world for me to do — I straddled her thighs and began dancing over her.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “It’s just for you,” I said, winking. “On the house.”

  “That’s what these booths are for? Just dancing?”

  “You have to pay extra if you want more,” I winked.

  “Oh! That’s not what I meant,” she said, a faint blush rising to her cheeks.

  “What did you mean, then?”

  “I don’t know…I’ve never been to a place like this before.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re here now,” I said, straddling her hips with my knees, my crotch inches from her breasts, my cock throbbing hotly with desire for her.

  “You don’t have to do this,” she said.

  I leaned down, whispering in her ear, “I want to.”

  “Oh,” she whispered, her plump lips forming a tiny little ‘o’ that begged me to touch them.

  “Where are you from, Tillie?” I asked.

  “Los Angeles.”

  “On vacation?” I asked.

  “Something like that.”

  “All alone?”

  “Yes,” she nodded, biting her lip as I grabbed her hands again and pressed them to my stomach. “You have so many…muscles.”

  “Thanks,” I said, smiling at her. She was nervous and I found it incredibly charming. Something about her intrigued me. I had a million questions but this hardly seemed like the place for an interrogation.

  “What are you doing later?”

  “Later? It’s almost two in the morning.”

  “The club’s closing soon. Have a drink with me.”

  “Oh,” she said, smiling slowly. “Okay, that sounds nice.”

  “I’m done for the night. I’ll pack up and meet you out front in ten minutes.”

  “Sure, all right,” she replied, her voice shaking with nervousness.

  “Don’t worry, Tillie, I won’t bite,” I said, resisting the urge to finish that sentence with ‘unless you want me to.’ She was clearly anxious and I wanted to put her at ease.

  “I’m not worried,” she said, lifting her chin daringly. I fought the urge to kiss her right then and there. Instead, I finished the dance and pulled her to her feet.

  “Ten minutes.”

  “Ten minutes,” she nodded, watching me walk away. I felt the heat of her gaze following me and my cock twitched with anticipation.

  I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

  CHAPTER 17

  TILLIE

  “I know a quiet little place off the strip a little, away from all this touristy shit,” Richie said, as he led me to his truck, which was absolutely huge — big and black with fat tires so tall he had to help me up into the cab. As I waited for him to run around and get in, I inhaled deeply, the musky scent of his truck smelling exactly like him.

  “So, vacation, huh?” he asked, as he started up the truck.

  I hesitated, wondering how much of my pathetic life story I should reveal right away. For some reason, I wanted to impress him, but there was absolutely nothing impressive about me in any sense of the word. Not yet, anyway.

  “It’s a celebration of sorts, I guess.”

  “What are you celebrating?”

  “Being single.”

  “Oh, I see,” he said. “Nasty divorce?”

  “Not so much, just a long time coming.”

  He nodded, concentrating on the road.

  “How long have you lived in Los Angeles?”

  “A little over thirty years. I moved there from East Texas as soon as I turned eighteen.”

  “East Texas? I don’t hear an accent.”

  “I did away with that as soon as I could,” I answered, thinking about the girl I used to be, with a thick drawl that I’d picked up from my mother, God rest her soul. She’d been gone around ten years now, the booze finally catching up to her.

  “That bad, huh?”

  “That bad,” I nodded. “How long have you lived here?”

  “Born and raised, so almost fifty years.”

  “There’s no way you’re fifty!” I replied, my eyes raking over his body. He looked way too good for fifty, and unlike any fifty year old I’d ever seen.

  “Thanks for the compliment, but I’m afraid that dreaded birthday is just around the corner. Next month, in fact.”

  “A Gemini?”

  “Yep.”

  “Me, too. When’s your birthday?”

  “June nineteenth.”

  “Mine’s the second,” I said, a little thrill shooting through me. I’m a strong believer in astrology and two Gemini’s together is like a spark to a flame. No wonder we’d connected.

  “Sweet,” he nodded. “We’re here.”

  He pulled up to a small nondescript building with a flashing neon sign that looked like a card. The Ace of Spades.

  “My buddy works here,” he said. “They’re open all night.”

  It was dark and quiet with a group of red velvet booths lining the side wall. We slid into one and a man with blonde hair and a thick five o’clock shadow walked up.

  “Richie, what the hell, dude, I haven’t seen you in ages!”

  They shook hands and Richie nodded.

  “Haven’t been much in the partying mood these days, Mike,” he said.

  “Well, glad to see you. What can I get you two?” he asked, smiling over at me.

  “Just a beer for me. Tillie?”

  I’d been drinking for hours but when in Rome, I guess.

  “I’ll have a beer, too,” I shrugged.

  “Two cold ones on their way,” Mike said, leaving us alone.

  Richie turned his full gaze on me again and my stomach flipped. In the car, he’d been focused on the road, but now, there were no more distractions from the club and we were all alone. The electricity between us was almost more than I could handle.

  “Tell me more about yourself, Tillie,” he said.

  “Not much to tell,” I smiled. “Like I said, I grew up in Texas and moved to LA.”

  “And then you got divorced. That’s all I know. What else?”

  I scanned my brain, trying to figure out what to say.

  “I guess you could say I’m trying to figure myself out. Honestly, I lived under my ex-husband’s shadow for a very long time.”

  “How long were you married?”

  “Twenty-five years.”

  “That’s a hell of a long time. Hell, that’s a success story these days.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” I said. “What about you? Ever married?”

  “No, not even close,” he said. “Relationships don’t mix very well with my job.”

  “I’d imagine you’d have the girls throwing themselves at you.”

  “Yeah, key word there is ‘girls’. I used to enjoy that, and took advantage of it in my younger years, but these days, those casual encounters are more work than they’re worth.”

  “So you live alone?”

  “No. I live with three of my best friends.”

  I nodded, again at a loss for words, because he’d not once taken his eyes off me and the heat from his gaze was practically melting my insides. I took a sip of my beer as soon as Mike brought it over, grateful for something to do and grateful for the cool liquid pouring into my overheating flesh.

  “So, did you find what you were looking for?” he asked.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You said you were here to find yourself. Did it work?”

  “Oh!” I replied. “I’m not sure, but I think I’m making progress.”

  He nodded, slowly staring at me, a sly half-grin spreading across his face, those little wrinkles appearing at his temples. I tore my eyes away, unable to take it anymore, but my gaze landed on his hands, which led to his muscular f
orearms, and then up to his biceps, trailing over his chest and down to his —

  “So. This is a nice, quiet place,” I said, the words flying out of my mouth awkwardly and a little too loudly.

  “I used to come here all the time. Mike used to work at the club. We’ve been friends for a long time.”

  “You told him you haven’t been in the partying mood lately. Why not?”

  “Oh,” he said, his eyes darkening. “Been a lot going on.”

  “Like what?”

  “I guess we have something in common. You might say I’m trying to find myself, too.”

  “Did you lose yourself?”

  “Not so much. I just feel like I’m getting older, you know? I won’t always look like this. Gotta think about my future, before it’s too late.”

  “And what does that look like?”

  He hesitated and looked away for the first time. I took the opportunity to take a deep breath, waiting for him to continue. My gaze raked over his face, drinking in his profile, his prominent jaw, the soft black hair that framed his face. The urge to reach out and touch it overwhelmed me and instead I balled my hands up into fists in my lap. I could still feel the oil between my fingers from earlier and a hot blush crept up my cheeks.

  It was such a mind-fuck, really. To already know what his smooth skin felt like under my fingertips and yearn to know more all at the same time. So far, though, he’d been a perfect gentlemen and I wasn’t even sure if he was interested in me, to be honest. The oil rubbing was just part of his act, I reminded myself. He’s used to beautiful women throwing themselves at him. He was probably just trying to be nice. Hell, he probably just felt sorry for me being all alone in Vegas.

  “To be honest, I’m not sure. I’ve got dreams of owning my own club. I know the business inside and out.”

  “That’s a great dream,” I said.

  “Well, we’ll see. I’ve got some things in the works. I don’t want to jinx it, so I won’t say more than that.”

  “Good luck,” I smiled.

  “Thank you,” he said, leaning over and placing his hand on my knee, the heat of his palm searing through my jeans. “I’m going to need it.”

  His touch was so easy, so casual, and yet it made my heart skip a beat. I swallowed hard, my stomach flipping.

  Would he rest his hand on my knee if he wasn’t interested?

  I realized I had no idea how to play this game anymore.

  I was going to need a hell of a lot of work.

  CHAPTER 18

  RICHIE

  She was smokin’ hot. The more time I spent with her, the more attracted I was. Her smile alone was enough to knock me off my feet. In fact, if my ass wasn’t planted on this seat, I’d have been picking myself up off the floor.

  Not only was she beautiful, but damn she was so sweet. Her soft laugh sent my throbbing cock into overdrive. I longed to know what she tasted like, so I did the next best thing. I leaned into her, placing my hand on her knee to test the waters and inhaled deeply.

  Floral.

  Jasmine, maybe? Lavender? Lilac? I wasn’t sure but whatever it was, it was just as lovely as she was.

  I loved the fact that I still wasn’t really confident she was even attracted to me. She was smiling and laughing and being completely polite, but she wasn’t throwing out the usual signals. She wasn’t fawning over me, she wasn’t laughing too loudly at my jokes, she didn’t even put her hand over mine when I placed it on her knee, which really threw me off. She was keeping me guessing, which turned out to be the biggest turn-on.

  And, she wasn’t really opening up much. Most of the time, I’d heard a woman’s entire life story by this point in a date. She’d been asking about me, barely talking about herself at all.

  All of which led me to this — maybe this wasn’t a date at all.

  Suddenly, I felt like I’d been hit upside the head with a reality stick. I pulled my hand away from her knee and put it back in my lap.

  Of course, this wasn’t a date. I’d met her at the club and went out for a drink, but for a woman like her, I’d be crazy to think she counted it as a date. She’d expect much more from a man. At the very least, a real date, with flowers and an arranged pick-up time, dinner, dancing, whatever else the non-Tinder crowd did these days.

  Stripping had ruined me. I’d been so immersed in the culture of the club for so long that I’d slipped, allowed the instant hook-ups and easy self-gratification masquerade as real courtship.

  “So what do you do for work, Tillie?” I asked.

  “I was mostly just a housewife. Not sure what I’ll do now.”

  “You have kids?”

  “No.” Her lips pursed tightly, and I took that as a signal not to question her any further on that subject.

  “Me, either,” I replied. “Pets?”

  “Yes!” She said, her eyes lighting up. “I have two cats. Leo and Milo. I just rescued them a few months ago from the shelter.”

  “Nice,” I replied. “I’d love to get a dog, but I’m rarely home.”

  “If you buy your own club, you’ll be home even less, right?”

  “I suppose.”

  “You don’t sound so confident.”

  “I’m not. Yet.” I hated that, too. I wanted to impress her. I don’t know why impressing a woman I was probably never going to see again once she left town was so important to me, but there I was, feeling like an inadequate failure.

  “I think what you do is so great,” she said. “At first, I thought it was going to be really cheesy and silly, but you make it exciting and fun.”

  “Thank you,” I said, grateful for the compliment. “I put a lot of work into my shows. So do my buddies.”

  “Are there are other clubs like your’s in town?”

  “Yes, and they do much better than our’s,” I said, pushing away the irritation and taking a big slug off my beer. “I’ve been trying to get the owner of our club to make some renovations but he won’t put any money into the place.”

  “That’s too bad,” she said, her gorgeous green eyes gazing over at me with concern. “Is that why you want to start your own club?”

  “My plan is to buy the club from him.”

  “Oh,” she nodded. “That’s a fabulous idea. Then you can do whatever you want.”

  “That’s the idea.”

  “I hope it all works out,” she said.

  “Me, too, thanks,” I replied. And then, much to my dismay, she yawned.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said, throwing her hand over her open mouth. “It’s late.”

  “Let’s get you back to your hotel,” I replied, finishing my beer and standing up. I threw a twenty on the table for Mike and reached out to help Tillie out of the booth. The slide of her palm against mine was like an electric shock and I gasped, our eyes crashing into each other.

  She smiled, so lovely, so enchanting.

  “Must be the carpet,” she shrugged.

  “Right,” I nodded, keeping her hand in mine as we walked out of the bar.

  CHAPTER 19

  TILLIE

  “How long will you be in town?” Richie asked, as he pulled up to the Bellagio. Once he asked that, I realized he wasn’t planning on coming up to my room. The whole drive over, I debated asking him to come up but I didn’t want to seem too brazen. If he’d wanted more, he would have said so, right?

  And of course, why would he want a woman like me, when he could have his pick from a stable of young, attractive women?

  “A few more days,” I replied.

  “I’d like to see you again,” he said.

  My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  “I’d like that,” I nodded.

  “Will you have dinner with me tomorrow night?”

  “Sure,” I nodded.

  “It’s a date then,” he said, nodding. My stomach flipped.

  “Fantastic,” I said, hoping my face wasn’t giving away the elation I was feeling inside. He jumped out of the truck and ran around to open my
door, grabbing my hand again and helping me out like a perfect gentleman. I gazed up at him with a smile that I couldn’t contain.

  “Thanks for the drink and the ride,” I said.

  “My pleasure,” he said. “I’m glad you stumbled into my club. I didn’t expect to see you again.”

  “Me, too,” I said, his hand still holding mine. I looked down at it and never wanted to pull away.

  He leaned down, bending his head towards mine, and gently brushed his lips against mine.

  I don’t know what I did.

  I don’t think I kissed him back.

  I was in such an intense state of shock that I’m pretty sure I just stood there like a wooden board, unmoving and stiff. But although I was frozen solid on the outside, everything inside of me melted like chocolate on a dashboard on a hot day.

  He pulled away, gazing down at me with soft, gentle eyes as he reached up and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

  “Pick you up at seven tomorrow.”

  “See you then,” I whispered, before testing out my ability to still put one foot in front of the other. I walked into the hotel, knowing he was watching me, and hoping like hell I didn’t trip over my own feet.

  I basically skipped to the elevator.

  I had a date!

  A real, bonafide date…

  Mario would be so proud.

  CHAPTER 20

  RICHIE

  Daine walked out of his room in his boxers with Blaze and Fox falling soon after.

  “You’re up early,” Daine said. “Did you make coffee?”

  “Yep, help yourself,” I said.

  “Is that bacon I smell?” Blaze asked.

  “Did someone die? Why are you even awake?” Fox asked.

  “Nobody died,” I said. “Just thought I’d make you guys breakfast.”

  “Are you sick?” Daine asked. “Dude, please don’t tell us you have some terminal disease, I can’t handle that shit this early in the morning.”

  “God, y’all are fucking morbid.”

  “We’ve lived together for years. You’ve never gotten up before us.”