by Nashoda Rose
“Yeah.” And what I liked about Luke was he didn’t ask questions. I was pretty sure he knew about my past in Ireland before my father moved us here, but he never mentioned anything.
But shit with my father had resurfaced after the car accident, and my dad had contacted me when it was all over the media that I was in critical condition. And it sure as hell wasn’t to wish me well.
We hadn’t spoken since I was sixteen and the fuckin’ memories slammed into me when I’d heard his voice. I learned to live with the memories of Emmitt and my mother, because no matter how many shields I put up, they leaked through.
But him… the anger rose again like a raging bull being baited and stabbed.
“The guys are waiting for you in the limo,” Luke said.
I nodded, and we walked toward the back door Savvy had vanished through a couple of minutes ago. It was the right thing to do. Let her go. She was better to escape me now because next time, I might not be so willing.
Luke opened the door, and the cool summer air wafted into me. Fuck, it smelled like Savvy. Like that sweet scent of something flowery and exotic mixed with her coconut shampoo.
“You want a man on her?”
I knew the “her” he was referring to was Savvy, and I wanted to say hell yeah, but it was better I kept myself distant from her. If I put a man on her, shit would change. I’d want to know every-fuckin’-thing about her like why the hell she was looking for a job at a nightclub when the Savvy I remembered wouldn’t like to be put on display like that.
“No.” But just saying no was difficult.
I could ask Deck to look into her as he had more resources than Luke. Deck was a friend of mine and owned Vault’s Unyielding Riot, which according to the law was a security slash investigative company, but Deck and his men dealt with the most unsavory men in the world.
Sex trade, drugs, guns, you name it, Deck and his men had seen it. Most of his guys were ex-special forces or had training like special forces. My cousin Deaglan, who was based most of the time in Ireland, had done some work for Deck. Deaglan flirted with both sides of the law, meaning he also had ties to the unsavory.
I had to let her go. Attachments like her were dangerous.
My father reappearing had uprooted my past and everything I’d worked hard to eradicate from my life. Now I had a chance to hurt him, I didn’t want Savvy anywhere near that. Including Compass.
I stopped beside the limo, and Luke put his hand on the door before I could open it. “If she’s a security risk, I need to know.”
I snorted. “Savvy’s not a security risk. Unless you consider a girl who thinks everyone has good bits a risk.”
Luke’s brows knit. “Good bits?”
“Never mind. I’m pretty sure she won’t be around again.” She definitely didn’t like being told she couldn’t work at the club. There was that little quirk in her brows just like when I told her not to take the job at Logan’s fight. Stubborn yet so fuckin’ sweet. Lethal combination.
I opened the door while Luke walked around the limo to get in the driver side. I slid onto the leather seat beside Logan, and he passed me a beer. We clanged bottles then Ream and Crisis raised theirs, and we did the same.
I sat back as they chatted about the concert and the money raised for the Treasured Children’s Center.
These guys were my family, along with their significant others, Emily, Kat, and Haven. My uncle had been too, but he’d died a number of years ago. He was the one who got me released from juvie after the raid.
Seven days I spent there because my father refused to get me out.
I was sure he had some judge he golfed or played polo with bend the rules so I remained locked up in juvie. I sure as hell was the only one there from the raid. Although, few parents would refuse to bail their kid out for appearing at an underground fight.
Seven days.
Ten fights.
I had swollen knuckles, a bruised jaw and cracked ribs.
The wounds were from the seventeen-year-old bully I went head to head with all fuckin’ week.
My first day there, he’d shoved a kid to the floor in the hallway. I took him to the ground and warned him not to do it again, or he wouldn’t like the consequences.
He didn’t listen.
He also knew when and where to jump me without getting caught. The first time was at night in the washroom when I was brushing my teeth. And it turned out he was a better fighter than me.
We fought the rest of the week. Which stopped his bullying of the other kids, but it was the first time I got the shit kicked out of me.
On day seven, my uncle showed up and got me out. An uncle I’d never met as he and my dad were estranged.
And that was it. I moved in with him and never spoke to my dad again. That was until five months ago.
“So, what did the chick want? Suck your pierced cock?” Crisis asked, laughing.
I stiffened, not liking him talking about Savvy that way. Normally, it wouldn’t bother me, but today it fuckin’ did. “A job,” I said.
Logan’s brows lifted. “Doing what?”
“She wants me to put in a good word with Brett.”
Ream stretched out his legs and crossed his ankles. “Secretary? Fuck, that chick just needs to show up at Brett’s office, and he’ll hire her.”
My jaw clenched. Brett was a player and he didn’t hide the fact. I’d heard he’d had a girlfriend at one time, but ever since I’d known him, he’d played the field. Sometimes a girl would last a few days, a few weeks or even a few months, but nothing permanent. “Not at his office. At Compass. Dancing.”
Crisis laughed. “Fuck. She doesn’t need a good word for that either. You can hire her for Compass.”
They knew I’d invested in the club and they also knew why. I didn’t keep much from the guys except Crisis and Ream didn’t know about my kid brother, Emmitt, and all they knew about my mother was she’d died before my father and I moved to Canada when I was thirteen.
Logan pretty much knew everything.
“I’m not hiring her.”
“Why not?” Crisis asked.
Typical Crisis, needing all the answers. “She’s not a go-go dancer.”
“It’s not stripping. And Compass is high-class,” Ream said.
“He doesn’t like the idea of her dancing in front of leering drunk guys,” Crisis said, smirking.
It took a lot, but I shrugged. “She can do whatever she wants, except work at Compass.”
I met Logan’s eyes as he cleared his throat and he moved the conversation on to the party at Crisis and Haven’s penthouse. It was for those involved with the charity, so Tristan Mason with his girl, Chess, who had adopted a little boy from the center, would be there, as well as Deck, Georgie, and a few other friends. There’d also be the people who donated tons of money and liked to mingle with the few celebrities coming.
I wasn’t a fan of parties, clubs, or big social gatherings. They weren’t my thing. I’d rather go fuckin’ bowling or play some pool with a few friends. Fake smiling, small talk, and mingling, I didn’t do.
I chugged my beer then leaned my head back, closing my eyes. Immediately an image of Savvy slammed into me.
Sexy. Flushed. Beautiful.
Rare. That was what she was.
And what made her even more special was that she still seemed to have no clue how rare she was.
“I can’t believe you didn’t get on your knees and taste some of that while you had the chance,” my bestie Mars said. “Oh, my God, I bet it’s pierced.”
It had been two days since the concert and Killian was never far from my mind. Actually, he’d infiltrated it with his Greek god powers. And Mars wasn’t helping by talking about his cock. Especially as I was pretty sure she was right and it was pierced. There was a tweak in my lower belly, and I crossed my legs under the table.
We were at Compass, and I had yet to tell Mars why we were here, except for a girls’ night out. But it was far more than that.
“Can we not talk about his cock?” I raised my voice so she could hear me over the loud music in the background just as a guy passed our table.
His head turned toward me and he smirked. I quickly looked away and sipped from my straw, but my drink was empty so it made a slurping sound.
She shrugged. “Hey, it’s not like you don’t know him, and he’s freakin’ hot. I can’t even imagine what he’s like in bed. Or against the wall or on the floor. Savvy, you so need to test drive that.”
“I’m not test driving anything.” I’d more than likely never see him again. It wasn’t like we ran in the same circles. Rock star and starving modern dance teacher with rumors like a black cloud hanging over her head didn’t mix. It didn’t matter that the rumors were lies my ex-boyfriend David spread when I’d caught him in our bed with one of his students. But since he was a well-known and respected dancer, his word was pretty much law over mine.
I’d worked for him in his dance studio and we’d lived together. So, walking out on him meant losing my home and my job in one day. The bastard had actually tried to get me to stay at the studio teaching, and when I refused, he started the rumor that I was difficult to work with, among other things.
“Well you need to test drive something and if it isn’t Killian or another guy then definitely a new car. I was scared the other day my feet would fall through the floor.”
I laughed. “It’s not that bad.” But it was. I just couldn’t consider buying anything until I had a job. Mars had no idea how bad it was, but since I no longer had a working cell as of yesterday, she’d know soon enough.
“Fred Flinstone wouldn’t even drive it.”
We were giggling when Olivia arrived with three fruity drinks that had umbrellas sticking out the top. “What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Savvy refused to get on her knees and suck off Kite from Tear Asunder when he asked her to,” Mars blurted.
I rolled my eyes.
“Kite? You met him?” Olivia’s eyes were like saucers. “And he asked you to go down on him?”
“Oh. My. God. Nooo.” I glared at Mars. “Don’t start rumors.”
Olivia plopped the drinks on the table then slid into the booth beside Mars. She was Mars’s friend from Dwight’s Interiors, an interior decorating company where they worked. Olivia was married to a nice guy, lived in the suburbs and was a total sweetheart. She also had gorgeous, thick blonde hair that always looked like she’d just came from the hairdressers, and brilliant blue eyes. She carried extra weight but carried it in all the right places, and I’d seen the guys’ eyes following her when we walked through the club. They watched Mars too, who was Olivia’s complete opposite with dark, shoulder-length hair. And while being slim, she walked with a sexy sway to her hips. But she was conservative in that she wore nothing too revealing.
I stirred my new drink with the straw. “The first part is accurate. I met him. But the second is definitely not.”
“You know he is supposedly into kink.” Mars accentuated the word kink. “And he liked Savvy in high school.”
Olivia’s thin pink lips formed a big round O as her eyes darted from Mars to me. “Wow. You guys went to school with him?”
“Briefly,” I said. “And he didn’t like me.” I directed that to Mars. “He was pissed at me for going to an underground fight.”
“You went to an underground fight? I didn’t even know those were real.” Olivia’s eyes were huge and moving from me to Mars and back again while she sucked on her red-and-white straw.
Mars told Olivia the story. Wide-eyed, she was captivated; Olivia had grown up in a small town in Northern Ontario and going to an illegal fight was completely out of her element.
What I’d never told anyone, even Mars, was about that kiss at the cemetery. I probably would’ve if I hadn’t left town, but when it happened, I’d been upset about my mom, scared about what was going to happen to me, and couldn’t even process what happened with Killian.
Mars and I lost touch for a few months while I was shuffled around by social services to different foster homes until I ended up with Ms. Evert. She was the one who helped nurture the orchid Killian had given me. It finally bloomed a beautiful red, and I still had it sitting on my kitchen windowsill in the same cracked pink pot. It was the only thing that I’d taken with me from home to home. Although, I wouldn’t call them homes; they were more like pit stops until Ms. Evert. But she’d passed away five years ago and even though I hadn’t known her long, she’d been my only family.
“Are you going to date him?” Olivia’s long blonde hair slipped over her shoulder and half laid on the table as she leaned forward sipping her drink.
Mars huffed. “Kite doesn’t date. And I heard he makes the women he fucks sign a nondisclosure agreement. Oh, and he’s never been seen with a girlfriend. Besides, Savvy would never be gagged, tied up, and spanked.”
Olivia choked on her drink and spat out her straw. “He’s into that?”
“Mars, you don’t know that. The media exaggerates.”
Mars shrugged. “Why would they make that up?” She put up her hands. “Just sayin’.”
I’d never done anything like that, and David was pretty routine when it came to sex. Boring might be the optimal word. Looking back, the sex had become nonexistent, not because we were busy teaching at the dance studio, but because he was busy with one of the students who he was now living with.
The idea of Killian tying me up, him naked and hovering above me, those magnificent green eyes smoldering as he thrust his hips and… I sucked too hard on the straw and choked on the cool fruity liquid.
God, I had to stop thinking about him. My emotions were all over the place. Turned-on. Nervous. Excited. And a little pissed off that he wouldn’t put in a good word for me with Brett Westhill.
I couldn’t piece it together why he didn’t want me to work at Compass. It was a classy nightclub and—
“So he flat out refused to speak to Brett about working here?” Mars asked.
I leaned back against the booth’s cerulean blue backrest twirling my glass. “Yeah.”
“Ass,” Mars mumbled.
“Well, I had snuck into his concert, and he doesn’t know how good a dancer I am. He offered me money instead.”
“That was nice. Did you take it?” Olivia asked.
I huffed. “God, no. I’m not taking money from anyone. I’ve made it this far without help.” I’d worked ever since I was sixteen. First job was as a waitress at a diner my foster parents owned. The second I was a cashier at a clothing store, and third was at a coffee shop. Then I worked for Ms. Evert in her greenhouse looking after her flowers.
I loved that job and she paid me well, so I managed to save some money and continue dance classes. It wasn’t until Ms. Evert passed away and I moved back to Toronto that I obtained my teaching certificate and met David at his studio.
Mars plopped her drink on the table. “It’s not like he’d miss it.”
“That’s not the point and you know it. And it wasn’t like we were friends or anything.” He just kissed me and infused himself in me for all eternity. He probably didn’t even remember. But for me, there hadn’t been a guy since who measured up to that kiss.
“So what are you going to do?” Olivia asked.
I nodded to one of the cages on the pedestals that were in the four corners of the dance floor that were for the paid dancers. “Dance in one of those tonight.”
Olivia gasped. “What?”
Mars laughed and slapped the table with her palm.
“If I can’t get an interview, then how can they see how good I am?” My heart pattered faster and faster like someone being walked up to a sacrificial altar. I’d never done anything so daring before. But it seemed I was on a roll this week.
“Are you insane? You’ll get kicked out. Banned.” Olivia blurted the words so loudly that a few guys standing at the bar ten feet away stopped talking and looked over at us. And when they looked, it was with inte
rest as they each smirked, raising their glasses.
I ignored them. Mars smiled. Olivia didn’t even notice them.
“I say do it. What do you have to lose?” Mars looked at my plain black V-neck dress. “But I hope you have something else to wear.”
“She can’t,” Olivia said, then turned to me. “You can’t.”
I took another sip of my drink, hoping the alcohol would settle my nerves. “Compass is the hottest club in the city and has the best dancers. Trevor says they’re paid a lot of money. I could make in three nights what I made in two weeks at the studio.”
“But why can’t you just make them give you an interview,” Olivia murmured, knowing full well that was illogical.
“Olivia,” Mars said, “on paper she has the dance skills, but they don’t want those skills. They want sexy-as-hell-get-men-hard and stay-all-night-buying-drinks skills.” Mars stirred her drink. “But, Savvy if you’re short on cash, I can help out.”
Mars knew this wasn’t my thing. I didn’t like being the center of attention and dancing in a cage on a pedestal put me front and center.
Trying to flirt with the guys was a problem, but I was hoping my dancing skills made up for my lack of flirt ability. What I liked about Compass was the dancers were decently dressed, and the cage offered protection against any fondling or touching by any drunk patrons. I watched one of the girls hook her leg around a bar and arch over backward, her long hair touching the floor. She smiled then winked at one of the guys watching her. An inner thrum of excitement sifted through me at doing something so… well, provocative.
“Can I buy you girls a drink?”
I glanced up at the guy who had been standing at the bar with his buddies. My gaze trailed to the bar and the three friends watching. He was good looking, tall, lean, dressed in dark jeans and a navy, V-neck T-shirt that hugged his broad chest.
“Sure,” Mars said at the same time I said, “No, thank you.”
He glanced at Mars then back to me, his dirty-blond hair falling forward in front of his eyes. He grinned, showing off his perfect white teeth and dazzling smile. No wonder his friends had picked him to come over and ask us. He was cute, but I wasn’t interested in dating or otherwise with any guy. Trusting a guy again wasn’t going to be easy. For now, all I was interested in was getting my life back on track—without a guy in it.