“Harlow, I can’t hold it off much longer.”
I found the energy to rock against him and then he came undone. I actually felt his hot seed pump into me, and it almost brought forward another climax.
I collapsed against him, laying my cheek on his shoulder, completely ignoring the water that would occasionally splash me directly in the face.
His arms were shaking, and we both sank a little lower into the ocean until just our heads were clear of the water.
Neither one of us said a word. There were no words that could possibly even come close to what we just experienced.
I’m pretty sure the little pieces of my heart he’d been collecting since the night we met were no longer just pieces. I’m pretty sure my heart had given itself over to him while our bodies were joined.
Part of me panicked; part of me wanted to snatch it back.
But the fact remained: I couldn’t have it back. It was no longer mine.
Cam now held my heart in the palm of his hands. I wondered if he knew it. If he felt the shift between us while he made love to me. Because that was not sex. No sex could ever come close to that. I wondered if he felt powerful, if he realized the extent of the power he now held over me.
I wasn’t about to ask.
I wasn’t about to make him aware that he now had the total power to completely destroy me. Is this what love felt like? Did it strip a person so bare that it terrified them?
“Hey,” Cam said gently, peeling me off his chest and holding me out to search my face. “That was intense. You okay?”
I nodded.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he vowed, almost like he could read my thoughts.
Or maybe his thoughts mirrored my own.
“I’m not going to hurt you either.”
He gave me a lopsided smile. “You look good in my hat.”
“I know.”
“I think your shorts now belong to the sea.”
There was no doubt in my mind. My heart belonged to Cam.
16
Cam was already behind the bar when I walked into the Mad Hatter. He was wearing his standard uniform of black pants, no shirt, and a bowtie. Tonight his hat was nowhere to be seen and his hair was still partially messy, which reminded me of the way I ran my fingers through it just a couple hours before.
The heat that flooded my limbs over the memory was momentarily cut off when a bimbo with her butt cheeks hanging out of her shorts and a top that probably was actually a bra leaned over the bar and grabbed Cam’s hand.
“Hey there, gorgeous. I need a refill.”
Cam smiled and reached for her glass. “No problem.”
“I’ll take your number too.”
I wasn’t a violent person, but in that split second, I thought about doing some bodily damage.
“Here’s you drink,” he said, handing over her glass. “On the house.”
“What about your number?”
“I’m taken,” he said and moved off down the bar. Her and her nasty butt cheeks stomped away.
Only then did I walk past the bar on my way backstage. Cam caught my eye and winked.
He knew I was watching.
I chuckled under my breath as I weaved through the crowd and backstage. Roxy was at her table, applying makeup to her eyes. “I heard from the cops,” she said, lowering her voice.
“You did?” I leaned in, placing my elbows on her table.
Roxie nodded and then moved over to line her other eye as she spoke. “Apparently, Craig has an ironclad alibi for the other night.”
“What kind of alibi?” An uncomfortable feeling clawed at my insides.
“Apparently he was out of town the night in question. That’s why it took so long for the cops to bring him in. He just got back today.”
“Convenient,” I said, mulling over that information.
“That’s what I said. But apparently he has several witnesses and a bunch of photos of him and the people he was with—including his new girlfriend.”
I made a sound of disgust. “It never ceases to amaze me how dirt bags like him get women.”
“It’s the whole bad boy thing. Every woman thinks she wants one—until she actually has one. Then she can’t run fast enough.”
I guess I couldn’t really say if that were true. My ex in high school was a jerk and spread rumors about me, but he wasn’t really a bad boy. Since then, I pretty much avoided dating at all costs. It all seemed like too much trouble. Until I met Cam.
I wondered what the police were going to do now. What did it mean for our case if they eliminated the only suspect we had?
“Are you as tired as I am?” she asked wearily, setting down her makeup and looking at me.
“Yes. Cam said he was going to stay at our place tonight. Maybe we can get some sleep.”
“Well, I will,” she said, giving me the eye. I felt my cheeks flush and she laughed. “I don’t know how you manage as a stripper, Violet. I really don’t.”
“Do you think Adam would just let me wait tables?” I asked, quieting my voice.
She pinned me with her purple stare. “You want to quit?”
I didn’t know what I wanted. All I knew was the slightly queasy, nervous, shy part of me wasn’t really going away. “I’m not sure. But I like working here.”
“Usually the girls here have to dance.”
“Yeah,” I said. I knew that.
“Have that man of yours give you some sexy lessons,” she called out as I walked to my table.
Oh, he’d given me some lessons. I already knew more about sex and pleasure than I ever thought I would. But that was part of the problem. I only wanted to share that part of myself with him. It seemed wrong somehow to give it to anyone else. Especially after today at the beach.
I took out one of my outfits (the one with the see-through purple stars) and the purple wig. I felt like I needed to really channel Violet tonight to get through the dancing.
I made it through the first couple of hours and dances okay. Whenever I felt like my nerve was slipping, my eyes would seek out Cam. We would lock eyes and I would pretend it was just him and me and my moves were for him.
I managed once again to not bare anything I didn’t want to bare, but by the end of my second dance, some of the men in the back were yelling for me to take it all off.
I retreated off the stage without showing any of my… unmentionables. I wondered how long I could stall before Adam pulled me into his office and gave me the old heave-ho (aka, I get fired).
“Violet,” Adam called, poking his head backstage just as I was heading to my dressing table.
I froze.
Seriously?
That was a lot faster than I thought it would be.
Geez, a couple drunken idiots start complaining and I’m out of a job.
“Yes?” I said, pivoting around to face him.
“My office. Now.”
I felt like I was about to walk the plank. All the girls looked at me as I headed out the door to my doom.
“Adam,” I said, walking in without knocking. “I can do bet—” I started to say, even while I wondered why I was bothering to lie.
“Someone’s requesting a private dance.”
“Excuse me?” I said, my previous sentence dying a swift and painless death.
“We got a guy out front that wants a private lap dance in the VIP room.”
I’d never been in the VIP room. I knew it was there, sure. I’d seen the girls go in and out on a nightly basis. I never asked what went on in there, but I knew it was more risqué than the stage… If it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be a need for a private room.
“I haven’t… I mean… I don’t know what to do,” I said miserably.
He sighed heavily and sat down behind his desk. “I told him no at first. I figured you weren’t ready. But he was persistent. And then he gave me a number. I figured I would give you the option.”
A number? An option? “You aren’t going to make me?”<
br />
“Hell no,” he said. “I may own a strip club, I may make money off girls shaking their tits and showing some skin, but I respect women.”
I don’t know why, but I laughed.
He glared at me and the sound died on my lips. “I’m sorry.”
He grinned. “Please. You don’t think I know how I look? What everyone thinks of me?” He sat back in his leather chair and wiped a hand over the top of his ultra-short hair.
“I may not be a choir boy. Hell, I may have never stepped foot in a church. But I don’t force women. The girls that work for me get better hourly pay than any other strip joint down here. I’ve got bouncers that know the girls come first, and I enforce a strict no-touching policy. You girls don’t have to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with, and I think you know that.” He glared directly at my boobs. “If I were anyone else, you’d already be fired.”
“About that—” I said nervously.
He held up a hand. “We’ll talk about it later.” He looked up, studying me with blue eyes. I never really noticed how blue they were before. “I like you. Roxie likes you. You’ve been good to her. You convinced her to move out and live with you.” He paused. “And somehow you’ve managed to catch and hold the eye of a guy I’ve never seen with the same girl more than a handful of times.”
“Says the man on wife number four,” I muttered, not really caring for his insult of Cam.
He laughed. “Didn’t you hear? She moved out.”
I rolled my eyes. But that was interesting news… I wondered what that meant for him and Roxie. “I can’t imagine why. You’re such a charmer.”
“Two thousand.”
“What?” I said, not following the quick change of conversation.
“He offered to pay you two grand for fifteen minutes in the VIP room.”
My mouth opened. It closed. It fell open again. “Is that normal?”
“I’ve seen some girls walk outta there with a hefty wad of cash, but never that much.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m thinking that little hard-to-get act you got going on the stage has made someone real curious about what’s underneath those clothes.”
“Like they leave anything to the imagination,” I muttered.
“Someone’s got two grand that says they do.”
That was a lot of money. Like a lot. That would almost pay for an entire semester of school. I’d be a fool to turn that down. “What will I have to do?”
“Nothing you don’t want to do.”
“But what will he expect?” Surely that amount of money demanded certain things.
“A lap dance. Basically standing over him, shaking it. You’re going to have to lose your top. I hope you got a thong because that wouldn’t hurt.”
I chewed my lower lip while I weighed my options.
“You can touch him.” Adam continued. “But the same club rules apply. He cannot under any circumstances touch you.”
“He can look, but he can’t touch,” I murmured.
“Exactly.”
Part of me wondered what Cam would say about me going into a private room with another man where I was expected to take off my clothes. But this wasn’t about Cam. It was about me. My willingness to do this and my need for the money.
If I did this one job, I could stop stripping altogether. I could get another job waiting tables. Fifteen minutes of my life for an entire semester of school without stress.
“I’ll do it.”
Adam seemed surprised. “You’re sure?”
I nodded. “I need that money.”
He studied me. “You in some kind of trouble?”
“What? No. Nothing like that. I lost my financial aid for school, and if I don’t come up with the money, I’m going to have to drop out and move home.”
“How much college you have left?”
“Two years.”
“All right. I’ll tell him you’ll do it. I’m going to put Ty at the door. If he even breathes on you funny, you yell for him.”
I nodded and headed for the door.
“Violet,” he called.
I looked over my shoulder.
“Even if you yell for help, you still get paid. The minute he walks into that VIP room, that money is yours.”
“What’s your cut?”
“None. It’s all yours.”
Now I understood why some of the girls always wanted to go to the VIP room.
“How long do I have?”
“Go change, do whatever you need to do, and then get to the room. He’ll be waiting. When your fifteen minutes are up, Ty will tell you.”
I walked out of his office and my eyes went straight to the bar. Cam was watching the door. He looked a little more subdued than usual. I gave him all the smile I could muster and then turned and fled backstage.
I was a coward.
I didn’t want to see the disappointment or the hurt on his face by what I was about to do.
I stared down at my outfits, trying to decide what to wear. Suddenly I wondered what the hell I’d been thinking choosing any of it. It was all tiny. It wouldn’t take long at all to remove.
I decided on the hot-pink bodice with the black satin laces up the front and the tiny black boy shorts with the pink skulls. Maybe I could take my time untying the lace and waste time.
I put it all on, added my black stilettos, and then sat at the mirror, trying to calm my nerves. I lifted my eyeliner but couldn’t apply it because my hand was trembling.
Why would someone—anyone—pay that much money to see me dance? It was beyond ridiculous. Didn’t he have better things to buy? He was probably some colossal nerd who couldn’t get a date. Or maybe he was some pervert who wanted to stare at me while he jerked off.
I was going to be sick.
I lurched up off the chair and stood there like a startled deer in a pair of headlights.
“Whoa, there,” Roxie said, coming up beside me. “Did he fire you?” she demanded. “I will kick his ass.”
“No,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I’m supposed to go to the VIP room.”
“How long?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
“That’s manageable,” she said, pushing me down into the chair again. She picked up a brush and began to style my hair. I let her because I was too busy freaking out.
“Make sure you bend over right in his face. Men are such pigs. They get off on that.”
I nodded.
“And touch yourself. You can do that from across the room so you don’t have to be so close to him. Touch yourself and then touch him. They love that.”
Ew.
“How can you stand it?” I whispered.
The brush paused halfway through my hair. “I shut my mind off and don’t think about it. Or I think about someone I would actually like to dance for.”
“Who is that for you?” I wondered, knowing for me it was Cam.
“Adam,” she said matter-of-factly.
“His wife moved out.”
She glanced at me through the mirror. “I heard.”
She finished with my hair and then patted my shoulder. “You’re done.”
My hair was waving around my shoulders and the purple pop of color accentuated my eyes. “Here I go.” I got up, adjusting my outfit.
“I’ll see you in a few,” she said.
Cam was standing on the other side of the door when I opened it and walked through.
His eyes swept over me. “You’re doing it.”
“It’s two thousand dollars.”
His eyes widened. “Shit.”
I nodded.
“I brought you something.” He held out a shot glass full of vodka.
I didn’t hesitate to down it in one gulp. It burned the whole way down. “Thanks.”
He moved so fast I didn’t see it coming. One minute he was across the hall and the next he was pinning me against the wall with his body. His lips covered mine in an aggressive kiss that set fir
e to my blood.
It was over too fast and he spun away, breathing hard.
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