“I have a question,” I say to her, and take a swig of my drink. She’s smiling at me widely, like she’s about to laugh any minute. I lean into her so my mouth is near her ear.
“Are you a virgin?” I ask, expecting her to laugh in my face. But instead I feel her body stiffen, only momentarily. She stands in front of me, her stance nonchalant but on display, knowing it’s a prize that a man would sell his soul to have.
“I can be whatever you want me to be,” she says in a sticky sweet seductive tone, but I feel myself become angry. I grab her wrist and pull her to me.
“Cut the shit, I’m not some old john you can play with. Tell me the truth,” I demand, and her face falls, color starting to spread from her face down the rest of her body.
“Screw you!” she says, storming away. I tell Simon I’ll be back as two strippers just as beautiful as the other two approach.
“Alana!” I yell behind her.
“What do you want from me!” she asks angrily, but the façade has cracked—the mask of seductiveness, showing me what I see in her eyes, behind her long dark lashes, what’s kept her in my head.
“I don’t know!” I admit. Her eyes narrow in on me and I feel myself soften.
“But I can’t get you out of my head,” I tell her honestly before I can stop myself. I expect her to smile but instead she looks at me, scrutinizing me like a science project.
“Then you’re wasting both of our time,” she mumbles, turning away from me again.
“Are you?” I ask her again, loudly. She stops in her tracks.
“Do you think it’s possible to look like this and still be a virgin?” she kids, and I run my hand through my hair trying to see if I’m wrong about his.
“I think you could be anything you want, even what looks like the impossible,” I tell her, and her mouth barely twitches into a smile.
“I get off in an hour. I’ll meet you at the red Maserati out front,” is all that she says before slipping behind the black glass that says Employees only.
“So?” Simon asks with a knowing smile.
“I’ve got to go handle something in an hour,” I tell him, trying to fight my smile.
“Hey, I can’t blame you, after seeing her. I’d follow her down the rabbit hole too.” He grins.
I leave Simon in the capable hands of two gorgeous entertainers. The temperature’s dropped by the time I head outside, an hour passing on the dot. Five minutes pass and I think she’s screwed with me again until she pulls up as promised, her hair in a top knot on her head and a smile on her face. Her eyes even seem to be smiling.
“You ready?” she asks dryly before eyeing me curiously. I walk over and open the door for her to get out. She lets out a frustrated sigh but surprisingly does so without an argument. When I slap her ass she looks back at me with a spark in her eyes and I climb in the driver’s seat before she slides into hers.
“Where are we going?” she asks, sarcasm underneath her tone.
“Live a little?” I say and give her a wink.
“I want to go to bed, and if you’re lucky, maybe it’ll be yours,” she quips, letting her hair down so it falls over her shoulders in waves.
“Anyone ever told you, you have a smart-ass mouth?” I ask her, amused. I don’t tell her the things I want to do with it.
“Is this your car?” I ask, and she thing gives me a Cheshire smile.
“Or one of the dicks back at the club?” I ask her.
“Would it matter?” she spits back at me, and I wonder which one is her—the sweet innocent angel she was on stage or the fiery vixen who’s two seconds away from giving the middle finger to the world.
“Why are you so fucking mean all the time?”
“I’m not mean,” she says flatly. I give her a disbelieving look.
“How long have you worked at that place?”
“Why?” God this girl is frustrating.
“I can’t ask you a simple question?”
“Not long,” she says simply.
“You have a really good voice.”
“I doubt you were listening much.”
“Of course I was listening, everyone in that place was.”
“Because I was wearing barely anything,” she responds quietly.
“There were girls wearing a lot less than you were, there’s more to it than that. You’re good,” I tell her sincerely.
She looks at me skeptically for a second and turns her attention to the window.
We drive the rest of the way in silence, and at first I think she’s being a bitch or too stubborn to talk until I glance over at her and realize she’s asleep. I pull down the block from my house since parking in Wicker is always packed, and call her name but she doesn’t answer. I lean over and see that she’s sleeping like she hasn’t rested in days, and the crazy thing is she looks more like an angel now than she did on that stage.
“Alana,” I say quietly, but she only stirs, slightly shifting her position. I walk over to the passenger side, open the door, and pull her out. I lift her into my arms and she wraps her arms around my neck. I kick the door closed.
I round the block as quickly as I can, shifting her again to open the bottom door and make my way up the stairs. I knock with my foot, hoping Devin’s home. After a few swift kicks on it I hear him shuffling to the door. When he opens it he yawns and gestures to Alana.
“Since when did you start babysitting chicks?” He laughs. I flip him off before heading to my room.
I put her on the bed and then flick my lamp on, and realize my room is a disaster, I start to pick up all my random shit and wonder when I became such a pig. I throw all the crap in the trash and laugh at myself. This is the first girl I’ve brought here that will actually sleep, and I won’t mind it? I take off the suit jacket and slacks Simon insisted I wear and toss them on the chair at my desk. I stretch before climbing into bed. Alana’s balled up, facing opposite of me, her black blouse clinging to her. I’m thankful the short skirt she’s wearing is covering her ass, but it’s clinging to it, showing the perfect outline of her bump. I put my head on the pillow and glance over towards her. She smells like some fruity crap girls wear, the kind that makes you want to lick them. When she’s asleep the wall embedded with barbed wire isn’t up. She stirs, turning towards me, her eyes widening and locked on mine. She smiles and for the first time it’s soft. Her entire expression is. She brings her hand to my face and pulls my chin towards her. Soft lips land on mine. It’s gentle and sweet and unlike the girl I’ve come to know…it’s also foreign and I pull away, surprised. She smiles again but this time it’s a almost sad.
“I like you,” she whispers quietly. I’m completely caught off guard by her admission. So sweet and honest.
“I like you too,” I tell her quietly. My smile is wide and I can’t contain it. Her cheeks turn pink, like she’s embarrassed, and I wonder if this is the real her, the person underneath the attitude, sexy grins, and the lashing out. She bites her lip before lying back on the pillow and closing her eyes.
It’s only been a few seconds but she’s asleep again and it happens so fast that I wonder if she was even really awake for what she just said. Was she talking in her sleep? I shake her, and call her name.