The short corridor was dark and gloomy as always, which had never bothered her before. But since she’d started to receive the unwanted notes, her skin crawled with the thought of him lying in wait in the storeroom that was opposite the dressing room door.
With her breath in her throat, she dashed down the corridor and practically fell into the room much to the shock of the other girls. One of which was Bea, who didn’t look too happy.
A brow rose in question, Bea paused in the middle of getting dressed and waited. Sylvia knew Bea wouldn’t let her disheveled arrival go unnoticed no matter how much she wished that Bea would.
“I thought I was late.” Sylvia shrugged after offering her lame excuse, which Bea, clearly, didn’t buy.
“Spill,” Bea demanded. “Something is going on with you. You’re skittish. If there’s something wrong then I want to help.” Bea moved closer and hesitated before she pulled Sylvia down on the bench seat with her.
Sylvia hid her surprise at the concern she saw on Bea’s face.
“Look,” Bea started, “I know we haven’t really talked before, and that’s on me. You now know the baggage I have following me everywhere I go, so I guess it doesn’t matter as he found me anyway. I guess I’ll always be looking over my shoulder.”
“What about Zane?”
Bea blushed.
“Zane is…” her voice trailed off before a hardness filled her eyes. “It’s complicated, especially as I’m sure he just wants to fuck me.”
Sylvia smiled. “That’s what I used to think about Eric, and now I’m not all that sure.” She patted Bea’s hand. “Zane seemed to be concerned for you the other night. More than someone who just wanted to fuck you would be.”
Bea looked lost in thought so Sylvia tried to use her preoccupation to deflect the subject from herself. It didn’t work.
“You were about to say…” Bea smirked, knowing good and well what Sylvia had been up to.
After a few seconds of debate, Sylvia decided to confide in her, “I’ve been getting weird notes. Here at work.” She sighed. “I don’t know who they’re from but there is a man I suspect. They tend to say the same thing, that he wants me to do a private lap dance for him. He says a bunch of other stuff as well. I’m beautiful. He’d cherish me if I gave him a chance. He’d make sure that I never had to work in the club again.” Her voice wobbled slightly near the end.
He frightened her now, which was why in the dark corridor she’d shot into the dressing room as though her ass was on fire.
“You haven’t told Yuri, have you?” Bea glanced at Sylvia and watched as she shook her head. “I didn’t think so. You need to, Sylvia.”
“No. I’m not telling him. I’m so close to having the money for the down payment I need that I can’t lose this job.” She stood and started to pace back and forth in front of Bea.
“You’re not thinking straight. Yuri won’t fire you because you’re being stalked, and even if he thought about it, there’s no way Talya would let that happen. So stop worrying, and tell the boss.” Bea stood and intercepted Sylvia as she continued to pace. “He can’t help you if he doesn’t know,” Bea added softly.
“Okay.” She inhaled. “I’ll talk to him later, before I leave. I don’t have time now.”
Wanting to forget all about the notes and wondering who watched her every night, Sylvia opened her locker and grabbed her outfit for the night.
It didn’t take her long to dress, and once her purse and clothes were locked up, she adjusted the hem of the short shorts. No matter how much she messed with them, there was no way they were suddenly going to grow and cover her ass.
She huffed out a loud breath in agitation only to hear Bea snicker in the background.
“Your shorts are longer than mine,” Sylvia stated, disgruntled.
“I think Yuri likes your legs as they’re always on display.”
Over her shoulder, Sylvia frowned at Bea who now checked out her own ass in the floor to ceiling mirrors that lined one side of the dressing room.
“Yuri only has eyes for one woman and that isn’t me, as you know.”
“I know.” Bea turned to face her. “What’s going on with those two? They’ve danced around each other for a few months now, since before you started working here. It doesn’t make any sense that they’re still doing it. They’re both single from what I’ve heard.”
Her feet were strapped into the dark purple satin high heel sandals, her favorite color, as she turned away so that Bea couldn’t see the truth on her face. Sylvia replied, “Dating the boss doesn’t make for a good working relationship.”
Bea laughed. “You’re joking right. Sometimes I think their clothes will incinerate with the looks they give each other.”
Sylvia happened to agree but the conversation needed to be nipped in the bud before she blurted out something she’d been told in confidence.
“I need to get out there.” It was the last thing she felt like doing and, really, she had started to lose her reason for dancing at the club since she’d first spent time with Eric.
Perhaps it was his idea of Poles that had put a damper on her work there. No one had come between her and her dreams before and she couldn’t believe he had.
“You need to stop daydreaming and get out there,” Bea observed.
“I know.” Sylvia sighed, wishing her life wasn’t so complicated.
With two jobs and her heart involved with a man who she wasn’t sure would be around in six months time, she was tired. Exhausted would be a better word to use. She rarely had any free time and it had now started to play heavily on her body.
Trying not to think further than that night, she offered Bea a small smile as she left the room and headed toward the stage.
The club had been packed when she’d walked through on her arrival so at least the tips should be more than usual, which was a plus. She just hoped that the guy who she suspected of sending the notes wasn’t around. He gave her the creeps, whether or not he was the one responsible.
“About time,” Robert snarled. He worked behind the scenes and growled at everyone. She’d never seen anything but annoyance on his face or in his eyes.
“I’m not late.” There were two minutes until her stint on stage, providing the clock on the wall behind Robert held the correct time.
He ignored her as usual and indicated with his hand for her to get her butt on stage.
The initial part of her routine took a lot out of her because all she wanted to do was run back to the dressing room and hurl with stage fright. It always took her between thirty to sixty seconds to ease into her routine. To feel relaxed and able to forget she had an audience. She needed to forget so that she could dance for herself.
Her outfit today was of a Vegas showgirl. The shorts showed off the curve of her ass, and they sparkled brightly with the silver sequins that coated them. The bra matched and barely covered her nipples, so she prayed the audience wouldn’t get more of a show than she had planned.
Swinging her leg around the pole, Sylvia nodded to Robert and the music began, Happy Pills by Norah Jones. She loved this song, and the music had a great beat for her routine.
Her body flexed and shifted against the pole while the audience went silent and watched her. The nerves were her constant companion, so she closed her eyes and imagined herself dancing with Eric as the only member of the audience.
Her legs wrapped around the pole as she pulled herself higher, her right leg curved high and gripped the steel before she arched her back and went hands free.
The audience stayed silent, and as her eyes snapped open, she viewed the licking of lips as they watched her. Her skin crawled so she glanced away and hurried to finish her routine.
Happy Pills came to an end and just before the lights went off, she spotted the guy glaring at her at the side of the stage.
She stumbled back, her mind spinning from the emotions assaulting her…fear…nervousness…repulsion at the looks of desire on the men’s faces. Her e
yes widened in shock as she stepped back again, her heel finding nothing but air and then she tumbled into the darkened crowd as she cried out.
The landing was jarring and just before her lights went out, she caught sight of him as he hovered over her.
Chapter Eleven
The past thirty minutes, as Eric and Zane dashed to the emergency room, had caused a fear in him that hadn’t let up. Eric wasn’t all that sure he liked it.
Zane, for once, had realized the seriousness of the situation after the call from Bea. She’d been frantic and had no idea how to get a hold of Eric, which was why she’d made her first ever call to Zane. His friend had hid his disappointment that the call had been because of Sylvia being injured and not to talk to him.
Eric had never seen his friend so infatuated with a woman before, and he started to wonder what the hell they’d drank because Zane wasn’t the only one besotted.
Which was why he’d dashed to the hospital with Zane in tow.
All Zane had been able to get from Bea’s frantic call had been that she was unconscious and the paramedics had been called.
They’d arrived within minutes of her being taken in to a cubicle to be examined so he’d missed seeing her, which clawed his gut. He wanted the right to be in the room with her. If he’d been thinking on arrival, he’d have said she was his fiancée to be with her. A sure sign he was in over his head with her.
The waiting room was quiet with only a few others silently waiting for news about their loved ones. All of them had eyes filled with worry, including Sylvia’s friends. Her friend, Talya, showed up five minutes earlier with Yuri, and, for once, Bea had allowed Zane close and snuggled into his side, her hand swallowed up in his larger one. Eric was the only one without comfort because his woman was the one being treated.
“Who is waiting for news on Sylvia Taylor?” a female voice asked.
Eric’s head shot up; he met the doctor’s eyes, and froze. His body felt as though it was laden down with lead, and then she smiled.
He got his ass in gear and walked over to her along with the others, and waited.
“Is any of her family present?” The doctor queried, a frown marred her brow when she realized there wasn’t. Her gaze landed on Eric when the others stared at him. “She’s your girlfriend?”
He nodded, “Yes,” even though it was stretching the truth slightly. The need to be with her was so strong that he would have stretched the truth further if it meant he’d be in her room soon.
The doctor nodded. “Sylvia has a concussion due to the lump she sustained when she hit the floor. There’s some bruising on the left side of her shoulder blade, which probably looks worse than it is. X-rays came back clear. She’s upset at the thought of staying in over night, but unless there’s someone willing to monitor her for twenty four hours, I can’t release her.”
“We live together and I’ll be there,” Talya offered, and it didn’t go unnoticed that Yuri had his arm around her waist as he kept her in the shelter of his body.
“Let me talk to her. If she will, I want her to come home with me,” Eric said. He glanced at Talya. “I want to look after her.”
She offered him a small smile and nodded.
“When can I see her?”
“You can follow me back there.” The doctor paused. “One at a time.”
She walked off and Eric followed without a second thought because he was so much closer to seeing Sylvia, and then, there she was.
The hospital room was as sterile as the rest of the place, and Sylvia, with her blonde hair splayed out around her, looked lost and so damn alone.
When her eyes landed on him, the joy she obviously felt at seeing him was clear with the way her eyes lit up. That was all he needed to get his feet moving.
“Hey.” Eric leaned over and kissed her brow while trailing his thumb over her cheekbone. “How are you feeling?” He dropped his ass to the chair beside the bed before he climbed on the bed with Sylvia. She looked fragile and the urge to hold her close to take the pain away from her filled him.
He settled on holding her hand, but the sight of a lone tear trickling down her face had him back on his feet and wiping it away. “Hell! I feel so helpless with you right now. I want to take it all away and the feeling is damn alien inside me.”
Sylvia chuckled as another tear fell.
“You’re a big softy at heart.” She grinned.
Eric scowled, and was tempted to scoff at her observation. But the fact was, she was correct. With the people he cared about, he was a different person, and he’d stopped fighting what Sylvia made him feel.
“Not sure I’ve ever been accused of that before.” He placed a light kiss to her sweet lips, and held her gaze when he moved to kiss her nose, each eye, and then back to her lips. She’d become a drug to him, and he constantly wanted another fix.
“Eric,” her voice wobbled, “I want to go home.”
With his thumb he caressed along the seam of her lips, and whispered, “I want you to come home with me. I want to look after you.” He blushed slightly at his confession. Things between them had gotten real, and he was too selfish of an asshole to let anyone else, even her friend, look after her.
“I don’t want to be a burden.”
“Stop right there. You are not a burden. I wouldn’t have offered if I weren’t sure about what I wanted. I need to keep you close to me.” He kissed her nose and smiled. “So that’s sorted.”
Sylvia smiled, and slipped her hand back into his as he sat back in the chair.
“How did you manage to take a tumble,” he asked, and tried to keep his anger from his voice.
He wasn’t angry with Sylvia, at least he didn’t think he was, but he sure as hell was angry at her being on that stage. She hadn’t even told him what she had planned that night, but he hadn’t asked her either.
“It doesn’t matter,” she hedged.
That wouldn’t do. “It does matter. It matters to me, so please talk to me, Sylvia.”
She glanced away. “I thought I saw someone in the audience when I was backing off the stage. I miscalculated and backed into thin air.”
The fact that she wouldn’t meet his gaze told him she’d skimmed the surface of what happened. He didn’t know whether to push right then and there or to leave it until she was feeling more herself.
Her head must hurt pretty badly from hitting the floor. But perhaps if he tried once more…
“Who did you think you saw?”
Sylvia glanced at him before she sighed in resignation and turned to face him. “I’ve been getting notes from someone.”
Confusion filled his mind before it shifted to worry, fear, and then downright anger at her confession. He knew the emotions were clear on his face.
“I keep thinking that it’s this new guy who has started hanging out at the club because he’s always looking at me. Watching. But I don’t really know.”
Fucking hell!
“What has Yuri done to catch this fucker?” His free hand clenched into a fist against his thigh while he used everything in him to keep his hand holding Sylvia’s lax.
“I haven’t told him. I swore Talya to secrecy. I realize I should have told him straightaway. He probably would have gotten to the bottom of it by now. It’s just that I told myself the notes would stop. But they haven’t.”
“Yuri has security cameras around the place. We need to look at them…I also want to see the notes, Sylvia.”
“Okay,” she whispered in a voice full of tears. “I’m sorry. I should have told Yuri. I’d actually planned to talk to him tonight after my shift.” She shrugged and winced. “Just my luck. I left it too late.”
“You’re not going back there until the fucker has been caught. You hear me, Sylvia? I’m trying my fucking hardest to not go all caveman over you, but with this, I can’t have you going there and being in danger while you are. Do you understand?”
“I’ve no wish to go back there. I’ll just have to hope the cottage doesn�
��t get sold before I have the money.”
“I can’t say that I’m not happy you’re getting off the stage because it was like a claw in the gut knowing you danced half dressed for all those men.”
A slight tug on his hand had him leaning closer. When he did, Sylvia reached out and cupped his whisker-covered jaw. “Tonight, I imagined I was dancing for only you. It’s what got me through my routine.” She smiled. “One day I’d like to dance with only you in the audience.”
There was no avoiding the heat that swiftly appeared in his eyes at her confession. “I’d like that,” he said, his voice rough with lust.
He cleared his throat. “Talya, Yuri, and Bea are out in the waiting room. Zane is keeping Bea company.”
Pushing herself up on the hospital bed, Sylvia groaned and sighed when Eric helped her to get comfortable.
“Bea really likes Zane. I think she fears her ex hurting him someway if she lets him get close to her.” Sylvia murmured and it made his heart swell…even with the pain, she was still worried about the people in her life.
“That won’t happen.” He smiled. “I have them to thank for getting me here tonight.”
She raised a brow in question so he continued, “Bea called Zane while they waited for the paramedics. We missed you arriving here by minutes.”
“I hadn’t even thought to wonder how you ended up here.”
Eric kissed her hand, which he still held in his. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else when you needed me.” He laughed. “Enough of this mushy shit. We need to break you out of here.”
Standing, Eric pressed another brief kiss to her brow followed with a quick kiss on her knuckles. “I’m going to send Talya in to see you while I locate your doctor to release you.”
With great reluctance, Eric broke their connection and left the room. As he closed the door, he realized his hands had a slight tremor to them. Seeing Sylvia in the hospital bed had really brought home just how much he cared for her. He’d fooled himself that he could walk away from her, because there wasn’t anything on earth that could keep him away. It scared the shit out of him, but he was a man and he’d deal with it. He didn’t have any choice if he wanted Sylvia in his life.
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