Cassidy snagged her around the elbow and gave her a firm tug that had her tumbling into Cassidy’s side. “Eric Fischer copping a feel under your bra in the back seat of Aurora’s Chevy giving you a bit of tingly does not count as an orgasm,” Cassidy said in her ear as the music kicked up again.
Mabel Lee sucked in a breath and searched the room through narrowed eyes for Aurora, Layla, and Heather. “She told you about that?”
“Honey, the whole school knew about it. And not because of Aurora. Eric bragged to everyone how he got to second base with the Preacher Montgomery’s daughter. Aurora is the reason your parents never found out. When she heard he’d been running his mouth, she threatened to tenderize his testicle with her stiletto if he didn’t shut it. So, really, you owe her. And you’re not leaving.”
“Ladies!” A smooth-talking man, naked from his leather pants on up, said as he took each of their hands.
“Well, hello,” Cassidy said with a wiggle of her shoulders and a flirty smile.
“Hi,” Mabel Lee said, her voice so low and meek the guy holding her hand leaned in and tilted his ear toward her.
Would it be rude to snatch her hand back? What was the protocol in a place like this? And really, what was on that palm of his?
He surprised her by pressing a gentle kiss to the back of her hand before bowing slightly. But with Cassidy, he twirled her as though they had been on the dance floor together all night. He tucked her right into him, her chestnut hair flying around her face and catching on his slick shoulder.
He read them well. She just wasn’t sure how she felt about being the fair maiden. Sure, in a fairy-tale world when she was five it sounded great. But a small part of her deep inside, hiding under sermons and church etiquette, wanted to be twirled, darn it.
This place tempted her. It drew on every adventure she’d ever fantasized about having. Experiences she hadn’t even told her friends about, because one thing she knew for sure, they’d make it their mission to set in motion every single one.
“You’ve joined us just in the nick of time. The last two tickets of the night go to you,” he said with a grin and a wink, holding two blue tickets in the air.
“Tickets for what,” Cassidy asked, handing one to her.
“In thirty minutes, we’re going to pull one. The winner gets a free dance from the stripper of their choice.”
Mabel pushed the ticket back into Cassidy’s hand. “Ummm, I’m good, but thank you.”
“Oh no, you don’t. Girl, you are so taking this ticket. If there’s anyone here that needs a set of bells, and not the church kind, waving in her face, it’s you.”
She eyed the ticket in Cassidy’s outstretched hand. “I thought we were here for Aurora?”
“No reason we can’t multitask.”
With a sigh, she snatched the ticket and tucked it in her purse.
“Would you look at that?” Cassidy said, draping an arm over her shoulder as the greeter slid away. “No lightning strike. No bursting into flames. Look, Mabel Lee. I’m not asking you to get bombed and go home with one of the dancers. But it’s time to let go for a bit. Have a good time. You can pray for forgiveness at church tomorrow, but tonight…let’s have some fun.”
Aurora’s head shot over the crowd, and she waved her arms at them.
“See how excited Aurora is?” Cassidy whispered next to her. “Give her this night, Mabel Lee. Don’t make her spend it trying to pull you out of that shell you’re anchored in. Please?”
Is that what she was doing? She was so darn uncomfortable that her friends had to spend their time and effort constantly focusing on opening her up?
Yup, that’s what she had been totally doing.
Had being the operative word. She would not ruin Aurora’s night by being so timid that the focus had to be on her and not on the entertainment.
“Fun. I can do this. I can totally do this.” She had to let go at some point, right? What better time than with her crew. If Aurora would threaten to maim Eric in high school, now, almost ten years later, she’d probably commit murder for her.
Okay, best not to think like that. But it was the thought that counted.
A tall wall of muscle sidled past her, jet-black hair waving down his tan back. “Excuse me, ma’am,’ he said with a polite smile and nod. He stopped at a table just a few feet away and set a wide wooden stool in the space between two brunettes with a fiery gleam in their eyes. “Did one of you ladies order some private entertainment?”
“See, look at how polite these guys are. He used his southern manners and everything,” Cassidy pointed out.
The ladies laughed, and the one ran her fingertip along her cleavage in a clear effort to draw his eye.
Mabel Lee wrinkled her nose. The list. Oh, Lord help her.
Cassidy took her hand and all but dragged her to the table where the Aurora, Layla, and Heather had already ordered starter drinks for all of them.
“Yeesh, girl, I didn’t think you were going to make it,” Aurora said, giving her a squeeze. “Listen, you sit right where you won’t miss a single thing.”
The crescent moon-shaped table had been designed to fit along the edge of the curved stage. Five chairs surrounded the outside, and the one in the middle had full view of the scuffed wood floor currently occupied by a rather exuberant dancer with shaggy blonde hair, a lean muscular frame, and a blue G-string that revealed pretty much all.
She gulped hard. “You should sit in the middle; you’re the guest of honor.”
“Nonsense. I know you’re going to take a while to warm up, and that seat is the furthest from the stage. You’ll be more comfortable. Besides, I plan to touch,” Aurora said with a wide grin.
Furthest from the stage?
They didn’t have to tell her twice. She dropped into the chair and tucked her purse in her lap over the blue skirt of her dress. Aurora’s words finally wormed their way through the testosterone fog in her brain. “Wait, there’s touching?”
“Usually with female strippers, no, but the men tend to encourage it,” Layla said as she flagged down a waiter. “I’m not saying to grab a dancer’s junk or anything. Well, unless he invites you to.”
A hard, glistening body sidled over and stepped between Mabel Lee and Layla. “Are you lovely ladies ready for the next round?” he asked with a hand on the back of both of their chairs.
So much skin. They really did have magnificent bodies. They reminded her of the eighteenth-century nudes from college. Muscles rippled over abdomens and there was no shortage of that deep V cutting straight down into their…
“A round of Buttery Nipples with a Cherry Kiss would be great. And after that, I’d adore it if you sent over a pitcher of the Chocolate Brownie Sexcapade,” Aurora said as she closed the little black book that held the drink menu.
Mabel Lee’s internal temperature shot up to a thousand degrees, leaving her swallowing past a parched throat. “And water. Please send water,” she squeaked out.
Her heart rolled in her chest, the beat hard and heavy. The music faded and the lights dimmed casting a hush over the crowd. A light beat started in the background, the sound ricocheting around them making it hard to tell just where it came from.
“Laaadddddiiiiiieeeeesssss!” an exuberant voice drew out over the PA system. “All eyes on the stage. It’s the man you’ve heard about, the man you’ve all been waiting for. Please give a warm welcome to the highly sought after, mysteriously elusive…Viper!”