He’d prefer a yes, Sir, but he had no right to push it. Already he was standing on his own boundary lines. “Good, I’m glad we both understand the rules. Now, would you please come stand here so you can look me in the eyes when you lie to me.”
Her breath hitched, but instead of the tears he expected, she battled the emotions bubbling under her skin back. Rather than a boiling pot of upset female, Bodie presented him with a calm, controlled woman in charge of herself. She moved to stand in front of his knees but came no closer.
“Right, now we’ll have some answers.” He reached out and clasped her forearms in a loose grip. The alarm in her eyes when she glanced at him spoke volumes. “So we’ve established you haven’t eaten in some time. Liam will remedy that for you, won’t you, lad?” Without waiting for an affirmative, Braun continued ruthlessly. “At a guess, if you have no money for food, you won’t have the resources to pay for the basics like rent and utilities. How much debt are you in, little one?”
Poor frightened little bird was trembling in his hold. She avoided his gaze with admirable effort, looking everywhere but in his eyes. He’d correct that in just a moment if she decided to lie to him again.
“I-I can’t make my rent next month,” she admitted softly, tugging lightly on her arms as though that would make him release her. “Most of the utilities have been cut off already.”
“For fuck’s sake, Bo,” Liam muttered.
“Quiet, Liam. There’s no judgement here.” Braun slid his hands up her arms to her shoulders, willing her to lift her gaze to his. After a few moments of silence, the little mouse dared to look at him. “There she is, good girl. Keep your eyes on me, darlin’. So, you turned down the offer to dance here for me, yes? How did you figure on making your rent, catching up on your bills?”
The downturn of her mouth said she didn’t have a clue how to get herself out of this hole. Her continued silence solidified his theory.
Something she’d said when she first came into the club stuck with him and he called her on it now. “What strings did you assume would be waiting to tangle you up, Bodie? You could have kept the money, ignored the card and the bracelet, and I’d have been none the wiser. It’s not like I know where you live.”
Her lip curled. “He’d have told you if you asked.”
A pained exclamation erupted from Liam, as though she dealt him a solid kick to the balls. “Jesus, Bo, is that what we’ve come to now? I wouldn’t break your confidence that way and you fucking know it.”
Braun lifted a hand. “You two can hash things back to normal when Boadicea and I are done with this clusterfuck, William. Attention on me, little one, and answer the question please.”
Her breath shuddered out. “If I’d kept the money, you could’ve asked for anything in return. You could have asked for the money back with interest, and I wouldn’t be able to pay it.” She bit her lip and swallowed hard. “Sex is always a commodity. Maybe you’d tell me I’m stuck performing here for you for the next ten years. I don’t know what the strings are when I can’t understand your motives.”
“Clever girl,” he murmured, impressed with her honesty. Maybe she was a quick learner. “Let me say, for the record, there were absolutely no strings involved. After your quarrel with William over here, he’s had a face like someone punched his puppy. I like my staff happy and my customers content, little one. I’ve heard from different people about a very talented dancer showing off her skills in Phoenix, so when I had a meeting there today, I decided to see if I could find you. Struck gold after an hour, and you looked as miserable as this one,” Braun told her with a jerk of his head toward Liam. “My hope was you’d come back here so we could discuss the offer Liam made you a couple weeks ago regards dancing for the club, hence the card and the entry bracelet. If you decided not to return, I would’ve been out a grand, but that’s the way things go.”
“So it was a bribe.”
He grinned, giving her a wink. “Sure it was. Worked, too.”
She almost smiled despite herself, then ducked her head shyly as though she couldn’t possibly bear the intimacy of sharing her amusement with him. But she was temptation and Braun couldn’t stop himself from nudging her chin up with a fingertip.
That mouth of hers was utterly kissable, especially with the corners so sweetly curved. He could spend a great deal of time memorizing every inch of her stunning features with his lips, working his way down the slender column of her throat to her shoulders, and down...down the long length of her body to discover all the secrets she possessed and kept hidden.
If he couldn’t persuade her to explore her submissive side, he wondered if she would be amenable to spending a few nights in his bed...no kink attached.
He released her shoulders and cupped her face instead, stroking his thumbs over the arch of her cheekbones with little more than a featherlight touch. The way her eyes fluttered closed for a few seconds, and she leaned into his left palm informed him she was desperate for the comfort of human contact. Such a shame she was too stubborn—or too afraid—to ask for it.
“Take the money in the spirit with which it was given,” he murmured as she almost purred. Her head was heavy in his hands as she stopped fighting for a few moments and put her trust in him. “The job offer still stands if you want to change your mind, little one, but neither Liam nor I will stand by and watch you starve with no roof over your head.”
Bodie made a soft noise of protest, then jerked away from him. Two hasty steps back put her out of his reach, and the tenuous bond between them stretched. “I can’t dance in front of a crowd of people whipping each other and having sex. I just can’t.”
Braun hummed softly. “Well, the whipping section is over in the second barn, darlin’, so that wouldn’t cause you any distress. You’d be dancing in here. Granted, there’s usually some bondage and a lot of sex happening, but this section of the club is what you might call the social area. You wouldn’t be required to take part unless you made the choice to explore your own sexuality. Even then, it would be at your pace. Nothing happens in my club without consent.”
She flinched when he said the word sexuality. Had she had a bad experience her first time? Or had she indulged her needs with someone Liam didn’t know about? Perhaps the altercation with her mother and the chain fence was the cause of her distress. Whatever the reason, she’d need handling with care so he didn’t scare her off if curiosity got the better of her.
“I’m not going to lecture you on the benefits of BDSM, Boadicea, not now. There’s nothing wrong with vanilla if kink doesn’t do anything for you, but I want you to know you’re safe here at all times. Between the monitors who enforce my rules in every section and the people who abide by them, there’s little room for bad apples to take root.”
A shaky hand lifted to her hair, and she pulled her long black ponytail over her shoulder to worry the sleek locks. Her eyes darted to the money, back to Braun. Indecision was an open book on her features.
Braun leaned forward and snagged the roll off the bar, holding it out to her. “Take it, pay your rent, do whatever you need to with it. That’s what I’ll pay you every weekend you work; if you want to earn what’s here,” he said casually, “that’s fine by me. Do an hour tonight on stage, see if it suits you. If you’re too uncomfortable to make it a regular thing, I’ll honor your decision. Sound fair?”