F*ck Club: Con
Respect the Ladies
Shiloh Walker
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
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Chapter One
More than once, Conner Steele had been told he could charm a tiger out of its stripes.
He took it as a compliment, and more than once he’d used that infamous skill to charm a lady out of her clothes. Or at least out of her panties. He wasn’t particularly concerned if she kept her skirt on. And sometimes, the lady was happy to keep her clothes on…and just go down onto her knees.
He didn’t mind that at all.
The woman in front of him put him in the mind of going down onto his knees.
She was, in his rather expert opinion, a damn queen.
And in typical queen fashion, she had the unique power to wreck the lives of those miserable, lesser beings around her.
Shawntelle Callahan stared at him with an eyebrow arched and a smile on her red-slicked mouth.
“Do I need to repeat the question?” she asked softly.
“Hmmm…” Con cocked his head to the side and then shook it. “Nope. I heard you just fine. It’s just…well, I’m not sure where you’re coming from, but I’m a bartender, Shawntelle. I work the bar. That’s about it.”
Shawntelle crossed her arms over her chest, pursing those raspberry-red lips. “That’s not what I’ve heard.”
“Really?” He gave her a bored look. “I would think that you’d have figured out by now that you can’t believe everything you hear, sugar.”
He nudged her shoulder with his, then nodded to the glasses yet to be washed. “Now, if you don’t mind…we need to get those washed before five o’clock rolls around. We get pretty busy then.”
Shawntelle scowled at him as he cut around her but before she could argue, he moved out from behind the bar and headed for the office in the back.
Ballz & Bellz, the pub he ran with his brother Riley and his best friend Shame, was quiet for the moment, but he could always figure out a reason to duck into the office. Right now, that reason was to escape the newest hire.
Shawntelle Callahan had joined their list of employees three weeks ago.
And since then, she seemed to have affixed herself to his ass—or she’d tried to.
Con didn’t sleep with employees, though.
He didn’t have a lot of rules about sex, but that was one.
Even if Riley hadn’t outright told him not to fuck the employees, he would have avoided such entanglements. Back in college, he’d made assistant manager at the bar near campus and he’d figured out really quickly that flirting with employees could cause problems—especially after he’d started dating two of them at the same time. All it had taken was one of them getting jealous, even though he’d made it clear he didn’t do attachments.
Ever.
So he didn’t sleep with anybody on the job—unless he was on the job. So to speak.
Shutting the door behind him, he ignored his brother’s hard look as he went to turn on the radio, just loud enough to drown out the sounds of their voices. The walls here were like paper.
That done, he turned and looked at Riley. Arms crossed over his chest, he said, “We’ve got a problem.”
“Of course we do. You’re a pain in the ass.” Riley jerked his shoulder in a shrug, looking mildly amused. “But I’ve had a couple decades and change to get used to you.”
“Ha-ha.” Dropping into the chair in front of the desk, he drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair. “The new bartender.”
“Shawntelle.” Riley narrowed his eyes. “She’s hot. And no, you can’t date her. She’s an employee.”
“She tried to hire me.”
Riley’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“You heard me.” Con leaned forward, holding his brother’s gaze with his own. “She tried to hire me.”
“Did you tell her we were…out of business?”
“No.” Con leaned back in his seat once more, filled with an abnormal restlessness that he couldn’t even begin to explain, and started to bounce his knee. “I didn’t want to confirm or deny. She was kind of weird about how she asked, Ry. I didn’t want to give her any rope to try and hang me with.”
“You think she’s a cop?”
Con frowned at him. “It wouldn’t matter. We got immunity.” Just over a month ago, they’d made the decision to pull the plug on their primary source of income. Con had known they’d do it eventually and while he hadn’t really wanted to at the time, he’d understood.
Now that they were done, he could actually admit to himself that he was glad.
While he might miss the sex—and the women…and the sex…okay, and the women—maybe it wasn’t so bad to go to bed with a woman and know that the sole reason they were in bed was because she wanted him.
Not that he’d minded to be paid.
Maybe it had rubbed him raw when his brother had forced him to admit, point blank, that he was, in fact, a whore.
He’d fucked women for money.
For Riley, it had been necessary. Con didn’t fault him for it.
They’d been in a bad place.
But Con had decided he was going to get involved and money hadn’t been the pressing issue for him. Not at the time. He’d done it for the thrill, at first.
But then it hadn’t really been a thrill.
He was still working everything out in his head, but there was a very plain and simple fact—he’d been a whore.
He’d loved sex, and he’d enjoyed the women, and he’d liked the money.
All of those reasons had added up to the fact that he’d been just fine with sleeping with strangers for money.
But they were done with it now, out of necessity. Not just because the cops had discovered what they were doing, either. It had taken a threat to the lives of some of Riley’s clients for them to decide to shut down.
None of them were going back to it after that.
It wasn’t worth it.
Besides, they were doing fine with the income from the pub, now that the debts from their parents untimely deaths were paid off. Now, the primary debt was one that belonged to their younger sister—her medical school bills. Charli insisted she’d take care of them, but neither Con nor Riley wanted her starting out her life in debt.
The pub let them make enough money to get by and still pay a decent sum toward her education, so they were all good.
No reason for him to even consider the offer Shawntelle had made him.
No reason at all.
“Don’t, Con.”
His brother’s words had him looking up.
“Don’t what?”
“I know the look on your face when a woman has you intrigued.” Riley leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. “Un-intrigue yourself.”
Con rolled his eyes. “I’m not intrigued. Sure, she’s hot. But…” He shrugged. “We’re not doing that anymore, rememb
er?”
Chapter Two
“Julia, look…we’re…I’m not doing it anymore.”
The woman sitting on the bench in front of him looked away, her bright-blue eyes focused on the river.
It was hot, the late fall weather more befitting the dead of summer. But that was life in the Ohio valley. Con could feel a damp trickle of sweat rolling down his spine and reached for the bottle of water he’d brought as he waited for her to respond.
“I don’t understand. You said the guy who was bothering your brother was arrested.”
“He was.” Con put the bottle down, resisting the urge to go around the table and hug Julia. She was so quiet and soft, shy and timid. The timidity had gotten better over the past six months and the fact that she’d even called him, asked to meet, meant something.
But as bad as he felt, he knew it was time to step away.
It had been too close—a cop propositioning Shame, then questioning all of them.
Then that Mobley son of a bitch had gone after some of Riley’s women.
“If he was arrested, then why are you stopping?” Julia managed a smile, her eyes almost painfully bright with hope. “I mean, it’s not like anybody is in danger, right? You even said that you were pretty sure he wouldn’t go after anybody you were…talking to.”
Con almost wished he hadn’t explained anything to Julia. He hadn’t, with anybody else. He’d just told them that, due to extenuating circumstances, he was going to have to step back. They’d all understood. He was careful not to keep an ongoing relationship with anybody he thought might try to cause trouble later. Con considered himself an expert in the study of people and it had served him well.
Which was why he’d known he’d have to offer Julia some sort of explanation.
She’d left an abusive husband only after he’d put her in the hospital and caused her to lose the baby she’d been carrying.
That had been two years ago and the counselor she’d been seeing had recommended she try to start dating.
It hadn’t worked very well because Julia panicked anytime a man touched her.
A friend of hers had recommended she hire a prostitute.
That friend had been a client of Shame’s.
It had taken four dates with Con before she’d so much as let him kiss her.
They’d made it into the sack after three months.
He felt like he’d done something good, helping her.
And now he was leaving her to muddle through on her own.
“I just don’t understand why we have to…stop.”
Something about the way she looked at him made dread curl inside him. He’d been worried she might be getting too attached and now he realized maybe that was the problem. How did he fix that?
As he sat there, trying to formulate a response, the skin on the back of his neck prickled.
Slowly, he looked up.
“Shit,” he muttered, eyes landing on the tall, statuesque female heading their way.
Julia froze.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered, fear bleeding into her eyes.
“It’s okay.” He reached out, covering her hand with his. She turned it over, lacing their fingers. “It’s just…somebody I know. Probably coming to hassle me.”
Shawntelle came to a stop by their table less than a minute later, smiling serenely. “Hey, Con. Small world, huh?” Her eyes arrowed in on Julia. “Hello. I’m Shawntelle. I work with Con.”
She shoved out her hand.
Julia looked at Shawntelle for a long moment, then slowly tugged her hand free from Con’s grip to shake. When she finished, she tucked both hands into her lap and sat there, shoulders curved slightly inward.
It pissed Con off, seeing her huddle in on herself like that.
She’d been getting more confidence, finding herself.
“What’s up, Shawntelle?” He didn’t let the temper show in his voice, although he doubted he successfully banked it from his eyes. He had no idea what she was doing there, but he had a weird feeling she’d followed him.
She dropped down next to Julia.
When the other woman edged away, one small inch at a time, Shawntelle either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “So how do you two know each other?”
Con glanced at Julia.
Her cheeks were a hot red.
Calmly, he said, “We met through a friend. And we’re having a personal talk, Shawntelle. You understand.”
“Oh!” She pressed a hand to her chest. “How silly of me.”
Rising, she glanced over at Julia, something flippant on her lips.
But whatever it was, it faded away. Something in her eyes softened as she studied the other woman, but there was a harder expression when she shifted her gaze to Con. “Is everything okay here?”
The protectiveness was something instinctive.
It called to him, made him want to hug her. It also made him…proud. That, of course, pissed him off. No reason for him to be proud of her. Yes, she’d seen the hurt hiding not so far under Julia’s surface. It didn’t take a genius to see it. It just took decency…and clearly Shawntelle had it.
“We’re fine,” he said tersely.
But she didn’t want an answer from him. She reached out, gently touching Julia’s shoulder. “Honey?”
Julia jerked her head up and met Shawntelle’s gaze. Julia, as timid as she too often was, picked up on what Shawntelle was thinking with ease. “We’re friends,” she said calmly, some of the tension dying away.
“Okay.” Shawntelle studied them both a moment longer then turned, heading off down the trail.
Once she was gone, Con focused back on Julia.
But she was getting to her feet, fumbling for her purse strap.
“Julia…”
“I should go.” She managed a weak laugh. “Thanks for coming to talk to me at least.”
“Julia, listen… I’m sorry.” He fought the urge to look over at Shawntelle’s retreating back, skewering her with a death glare. Julia was now even more miserable, even more unhappy.
“It’s okay.” Abruptly, her face changed and she reached out and caught his hand. “This wasn’t supposed to last forever, Con. It was just supposed to help me…feel again. I needed to know men could want me.”
She kissed his cheek and turned to go, pausing just a moment as she caught sight of Shawntelle.
“I got really good at keeping secrets, hiding things.” She worried the strap on her purse more, rubbing the leather up and down. “When you make it a way of life, you kind of learn how to see it in others. Some people wear masks as easy as they breathe.”
He wanted to ask what she meant.
But he had a feeling he already knew.
And before he could make up his mind, Julia was moving down the sidewalk.
Once she was gone from sight, he turned to face Shawntelle.
She hadn’t left.
As though she was waiting for the confrontation, she leaned against her car, parked, naturally, right next to his.
He started toward her, taking the time to focus his thoughts and cool his irritation. It had been well over a week since Shawntelle had tried to tempt him with a lure of money, and the even bigger lure of her body. During that week, she’d gone out of her way to put herself as physically in his way as she could. As if his brother was out to fuck with him, too, Con was on the schedule with her four out of the five days he worked and he was constantly being tempted by the lush curves of her denim-clad ass or the heat of her body as she leaned just close enough when she went to grab a bottle from behind the bar.
Some days, he left B&B thinking he could smell her on his skin.
Other days, he left thinking he was going to snap if he had to listen to one more silky, sexy flirtation. Not that she flirted with him—not directly. She flirted with the guys she served, even a few of the ladies who seemed into it, and she did so without bruising egos or raising expectations.
She did it in a way that made it very clear s
he was just being playful, in a way that made the recipient feel very good indeed.
And it left Con wishing she’d just stop it already and do her fucking job.
Then she’d turn her head and send him a slow, sexy smile that made his blood heat to boiling.
He needed to get laid.
For a man who’d had a diet of regular sex—very regular sex—pretty much from the time he’d turned twenty, the dry spell that had stretched out well over a month now was pure hell.
Shawntelle’s teasing brushes against his arm, his thigh, those slow smiles, all of it, made his condition even worse.
If he wasn’t committed to respecting the promise he’d given his brother, he probably would have already taken one of the calls he’d received over the past few weeks. Might have even told Julia he’d changed his mind.
And he would have pictured Shawntelle under him the whole damn time.
Now, as he prowled around to stand in front of her, he had to jam his hands into his pockets and he took a moment to appreciate the fact that he’d dressed casually, in jeans and a T-shirt. It was easier to hide a hard-on in such clothes. If he’d been wearing a suit, he wouldn’t have been able to hide his hard cock from the woman in front of him.
As it was, if she stared at him much longer, he wouldn’t be able to hide it anyway.
Because he was going to be on her and kissing her and she’d damn well feel his erection grinding into her belly.
To his surprise, Shawntelle didn’t have a teasing comment or a smart-ass retort to offer him.
She simply shifted her gaze to look past his shoulder, her eyes sad.
“Somebody hurt her pretty bad, huh?”
Just like that, the driving hunger he felt went cold. Nothing like a hard reminder about the ugliness that could be done to a person—to a woman—to make him focus. “Yeah.” Cocking his head to the side, he added, “You really didn’t need to invade her space like that. I don’t know what you’re up to, but have some decency.”
F*ck Club: Con Page 1