Nothing was settled. Although she swore she’d slapped Josh when he tried to kiss her, that still didn’t explain why she was out with him in the first place. I still didn’t have the closure I needed when it came to Chelsey, but I couldn’t take it anymore.
She looked so fucking hot in her bra and panties. She was fucking perfect to me, she always had been. And once I tasted her, I was done. I couldn’t have stopped if I wanted to.
Hearing her beg for my cock was too much for me. One, because Chelsey didn’t usually have a filthy mouth, and two, because I could see it in her eyes she wanted me just as badly as I wanted her.
I fucked her like no other—giving myself to her like I never did with any other woman—and it was amazing. I came hard and fast, filling the condom and wishing I was filling her body.
We dressed, and left the room in silence. She said goodbye to Lynn, who kept rolling her eyes at me, and we left her in Marshall’s capable hands. We took my car to her apartment, and I kept looking over at her and watching the lights from oncoming cars move across her skin. I didn’t know what it was we were doing, and even though I knew it was wrong, it felt so right. Being with her—taking her home—it felt right.
The car ride to her place was quiet, and the urge to reach over and taker her hand was strong, but I couldn’t give in. Not yet. Not until I understood her reason for being with Josh that night. I couldn’t let it go. I wanted to, but the pain of needing her and her not being there was still so strong.
I followed her into her apartment, knowing she wasn’t wearing any panties beneath her dress. I hadn’t taken any Viagra since I knew I was done fucking the women in the back room, but already I was rock hard again.
It was nice getting a hard-on and knowing it was because of Chelsey and not the prescription. Knowing it was her body and the way she made me feel. I wouldn’t have to go home and beat-off before bed. My cock wouldn’t be in so much pain that it hurt to touch it.
I was done with all that.
The inside of her apartment was organized, but still felt comfortable. She’d made it feel like home. I imagined it was a lot different from the massive house she grew up in. It was small, and full of love and books. It was Chelsey’s place.
“Make yourself at home. I’ll be right back,” she said, dropping her keys and purse on the kitchen counter.
I nodded and took a seat on the couch. I let my eyes move around the room and took in the pictures. Mostly pictures of Chelsey and a few friends. She was smiling in the pictures, but something wasn’t right. I couldn’t help but feel like maybe she’d spent the last year just as miserable as me.
Water turned on down the hallway, and I looked toward the sound to see a light shining beneath the door. She was in the bathroom. Probably taking a shower. No way could I sit there knowing she was naked down the hall washing me from her skin.
I followed the noise, the sounds of my steps quiet against the hallway floor, until I stood in front of the door. I tried the knob, and the door opened. Stepping into the foggy space, my eyes landed on her naked body blurred behind the shower door.
I dropped my jacket to the floor and peeled my shirt off. I pulled my boots off and then I dropped my pants, taking my boxers down with them. I stood there, naked, with my throbbing cock in my hand. Then I went to the shower door and opened it.
She gasped and spun around. “Blaine. What are you doing?”
I didn’t answer as I stepped into the shower with her and closed the door behind me. Her eyes moved down my body and she bit into her bottom lip, which made me crazy. Using my thumb, I pulled her lip from her teeth and kissed her.
The hot water of the shower moved over us, flushing her soft skin and making it balmy to the touch.
She kissed me back, her tongue mingling with mine as her soft moans filled my mouth.
Pulling back, I rested my forehead against hers and closed my eyes. The moment was too perfect, her smell too sweet.
“I know you liked it rough before, but I’m going to go slow this time. I want to take my time and enjoy every part of you,” I said.
She looked up at me through dark lashes, her wide, doe eyes smiling. She nodded and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me back in for another kiss and I took it. I breathed her in, tasted her like I had all those months ago.
I closed my eyes and forgot about the pain. I forgot about everything but Chelsey. My hands moved over her wet body, touching and feeling everything she was. She pressed her head against the tile and gave me plenty of room to taste her neck and shoulders.
It was perfect… all of it. And when I took her against the wall with her arms and legs wrapped around me, it was slow. I pushed my hardened length into her body, feeling the pull and squeeze of her wetness and loving every second of it. We exploded, her cries echoing throughout the bathroom and marking the memory of the moment in my brain forever.
**********
I STAYED THE NIGHT WITH HER, and we made love once more before the sun came up. She slept in my arms, her face snuggled into my body, and I slept better than I had in a long time.
I woke before her and watched her sleep like a fucking psycho, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to get another moment with her again. I wasn’t sure I wanted another moment with her. Now that the fog of the night had settled, it was day, and with the sun came all the old memories, the old pain.
“Good morning,” I said, when her eyes opened and she was stretching.
“Morning.” Her voice was raspy and sexy from sleep.
“We need to talk.”
She nodded in agreement.
“First, I need to know why you were out with Josh that night.”
I had to stop being an asshole. I needed to take a breather and let her tell me what happened. I could decide when she was done whether or not I believed her.
She started explaining. She told me about the dinner with the mayor and her father’s political aspirations. She explained how her mother pushed her and Josh to go out, and how they went to a movie and she spent the entire night trying to get back home as soon as possible. Then she told me again how Josh kissed her and she slapped him.
Her eyes stayed on mine throughout her entire explanation—unwavering in her truth—and I believed her. A year had been wasted because I hadn’t taken the time to listen, and now, just as simple as that, I believed her.
I wanted to open up to her. I wanted to tell her about how my parents. I wanted her to hold me the way I needed her to the night it happened, but I didn’t. I couldn’t even if I tried. The words had been stuck in my throat for the past year.
I didn’t want her to feel sorry for me. If she was with me, I wanted it to be because it’s what she wanted, not because she felt bad for me.
“What about you?” she asked. “Why did you run off like that? You could’ve at least asked me, Blaine. You could’ve at least—” She stopped.
“I know. I wish I would’ve.”
And I did.
I regretted not going to her and arguing. I regretted the way I ran, but I was hurt, and I didn’t know how to deal with everything that was going on. I’d explain to her later, once I knew she was with me for me and no other reason.
“Can we try again?” I asked, my voice broke with the words.
She looked away with tears forming in her eyes.
“I don’t know if I can,” she breathed.
My heart dropped. I wasn’t sure I could go without her anymore. Especially not after our night together. Chelsey was mine. She’d always been mine and I’d always be hers.
“Why not?”
I was afraid of her answer.
“It took me a long time to get over you, Blaine. To be honest, I’m not sure I’m completely over you. I don’t know if I ever will be. But I know I can’t trust you. I can’t trust you not to bail on me without talking to me. I can’t do the last year over again. I don’t have it in me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, understanding her.
The last yea
r had been hell for me, as well, but I couldn’t lose her again.
“Just think about it, okay? Can you just promise you’ll think about it?”
She smiled sadly and nodded at me. “I will. I just need time.”
“Take all the time you need. I’ll wait for you. Always.”
Then I leaned down and kissed her softly, taking in all she was and storing it in a place deep in my heart.
15
CHELSEY
“LADIES, WELCOME TO THE STAGE,” Eric, the MC, said into the mic. “The teaser! The Pleaser! Jack! Hammer!”
He held the word hammer for what seemed like forever before he spun on his foot, sweeping his arm wide across the stage.
The lights went out and darkness covered the room. The club was packed with screaming women, both young and old, as they waited for Blaine to appear. I stood in the back, and I realized my heart was beating in anticipation of seeing Blaine perform.
Two blue spotlights from the front of the stage lit up the silver curtain hanging from the ceiling, concealing whatever character Blaine was tonight. The music began to play, and that signaled another wave of screams from the women.
When the curtains finally parted Blaine stood there. He was dressed like a sexy cowboy, a pair of jeans hung loosely on his hips. His chest was bare and glistened under the spotlights. His head was bent and he wore a cowboy hat that covered his face.
A remixed version of “Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy” by Big and Rich blared through the speakers, and as the beats changed, colored spotlights flashed across the stage. Blaine began to move across the stage with a sexiness that was undeniable. He moved in a slow, seductive dance, moving toward the crowd of cock-hungry women who reached out their arms for him.
While I didn’t like the idea of other women’s hands on Blaine, I understood why they wanted to touch him. His body was young and tight and it begged to be touched and caressed.
I watched as he stood just within arm’s reach and teased every set of eyes on him as he moved his hands slowly down his chest and stomach until he got to his thighs. I knew what was coming next and watched as he ripped the pants from his legs.
I had to cover my ears this time or risk going deaf because of the uproar. Blaine’s fingers moved over the bulge under the silver G-string he wore, as he moved his hips to the music.
I felt the flush in my neck and cheeks, and my own liquid lust for Blaine warmed my belly and spilled between my thighs. Everyone else fell away and it was only me and Blaine in the room as he danced just for me.
Even though I’d seen Blaine perform at the club a few times now, I still had a hard time accepting this part of him. I found what he did unbelievably sexy, but I was selfish and wanted him to myself.
I hadn’t seen Blaine in a week as I tried to sort through everything that was said and revealed between us. I was still having a hard time getting over what Blaine thought and the way he’d left me because of it.
His jump to conclusions had caused a domino effect that sent me into a darkness I was still trying to escape.
I believed he’d been angry over what he saw, and I believed he’d been hurt and devastated, but I was having a hard time believing his leaving without confronting me was the complete truth. It didn’t seem justified, and I knew in my gut there was something he wasn’t telling me.
The music ended again, and again the club went dark before the house lights came on and Eric, the MC, was on the stage to announce the next performer. I knew the routine and waited nervously for Blaine to come from the back dressed in his jeans.
I knew he’d be bombarded with women wanting him to sign their bras or panties, or in some extreme cases, their boobs. I planned to stay where I was until he either saw me or I knew it was safe enough to brave pulling him to the side.
A group of younger woman, probably in their twenties, moved toward the bar next to me and gushed over Blaine’s performance.
I listened in shock, disgust, and jealousy as they talked about his body and what they wanted him to do to them. They sounded like a group of horny men rather than women.
When I couldn’t stand listening to them anymore, I went to stand somewhere to wait for Blaine. I stopped when I heard one of the girls say something that made my stomach burn.
“Ladies, I’m going to fuck the Jack Hammer tonight.”
My stomach rolled at her words and I couldn’t help but openly stare in their direction.
“Yeah, right. You’re too chicken shit, Kerry.”
She snatched one of the twenty shots the bartender put down in front of them and lifted it toward her lips.
“They call it liquid courage for a reason, bitch.” She smirked at her friend and then threw her head back as she downed the shot.
She shivered and her face twisted sourly as she swallowed the bitter liquor. She sucked the lemon thoroughly before tossing it into the empty shot glass.
“One for courage, two for luck, three for a buzz, and four to get fucked,” she said with a salute before she downed her second shot.
Her idiotic friends cheered her on as she downed another and then another, and I couldn’t look away as a random stranger drank in preparation to have sex with my Blaine. Even if he wasn’t officially mine, he’d always be mine to me.
Her friends whistled and catcalled after her as she made her way through the sea of women and toward the back rooms.
I watched her until a sparkle out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I’d been so caught up in the girls and their offensive talk that I hadn’t realized Blaine was already out.
He was signing a woman’s bra as she drunkenly moved her palm up his bicep. She turned him toward her before she reached up and wrapped her other hand around his neck and pulled on his head until her lips reached his ear.
Rage boiled my blood and I couldn’t function past my own anger and jealousy as I watched her hand move down his arm and yank on his wrist. He didn’t struggle as she pulled him across the club. I swallowed hard when they disappeared down the hallway to the back rooms.
I knew Blaine gave private dances to the women who paid good money for them. I also knew he did more than that. I’d seen it with my own two eyes, but I thought he was done with that. The night at my apartment, he’d promised he was done with having sex with the women.
My whole body went numb thinking about what he could be doing in those back rooms. After all, the girl had said what she wanted to do with Blaine.
A server I didn’t recognize passed in front of me holding a tray of full shot glasses. He turned to move toward the bar and I plucked one of the shots from his tray before he was out of reach. I threw back the harsh shot.
I set the empty glass down on the bar and decided tonight was not the night to confront
Blaine. I made my way toward the exit telling myself I had no right being angry with Blaine for whatever he was about to do.
I’d made the point of letting him know I wasn’t sure I was ready to jump into anything with him after everything that happened between us.
What did I expect him to do? I asked myself as I pushed through the club doors and into the dark, chilly night. Wait for me? Suddenly become a monogamist?
Yes!
That’s exactly what I expected him to do after everything he’d put me through over something he never bothered to ask me about.
I deserved that much from him. In fact, I deserved more. I deserved the benefit of the doubt, his loyalty, and more importantly, his trust. He’d given me none of that then, but now, I sure as hell had the right to expect him to keep his penis in his bedazzled, stripper undies until he knew where I stood.
Turning away from the parking lot, I pushed through the doors and made my way inside. The floor was starting to clear as groups of women made their way back to their tables for the next stripper.
I saw Marshall coming toward me out of the corner of my eye and I knew unless I ran toward the back, there was no way I was going to avoid him.
“Hey, Chelsey
,” he called out to me, attempting to stop me altogether.
Oh, no, it wasn’t happening.
“Hey.” I smiled at him, but didn’t stop.
“Blaine didn’t mention you were coming tonight.” He was walking next to me trying to keep up.
Sorry I didn’t give you or Blaine the heads up you needed to cover up the over-time he puts in, I thought.
“That’s because I didn’t tell Blaine.”
“You looking for him? I can go get him for you?”
He knew where I was going, and he definitely knew why. I could tell by the nervous look on his face and the way his eyes kept moving between me and the back rooms where Blaine was.
“No, but thank you,” I said.
I came to a stop when he stepped in front of me.
“Please, Chelsey,” he begged. “Let me go get him for you.”
“The damage is already done, Marshall. I know what I’m about to walk into. Besides, if you warn Blaine that I’m here, which is what you plan to do, I lose the element of surprise and I’d hate to lose that because I like having it on my side.”
I could see the battle he was waging in his eyes as he debated whether or not he should let me pass. But what he didn’t understand was I was going back there regardless.
“It’s a part of the job, Chelsey. We’ve all done it while working here. It means nothing.”
Hearing his words brought up another thought. “Does Lynn know? Does she know all the perks of the job?”
“Yes, of course she knows.”
And she’s okay with it?
That didn’t sound very much like the Lynn I knew, but then again, love made you do stupid things. I threw away the thought. It didn’t matter either way. Lynn was my friend and I wouldn’t judge her because she’s never judged me. If she wasn’t okay with it, she’d set Marshall straight.
“Good.” I sighed. “I can’t outrun you, so if you plan on telling Blaine I’m here then let’s get this over with. If not, please let me by.”
Jack Hammer (The Stripped Duet Book 2) Page 10