“Yup, solid business move,” Cassidy agreed.
“And the winning number is…6-9-4-1-9-2!” The emcee shielded his eyes and searched the crowd. “Don’t be shy, ladies. Who’s our lucky winner?”
“Well, that was a bust,” Aurora said. She shrugged, picked up her glass, and took a sip.
“Mine ends with 1-9-1,” Cassidy said. She tossed her ticket down and snapped up straight. “Wait, Mabel Lee got her ticket after me.”
Their gazes landed on her as she gulped down her drink in three long chugs. Setting the empty glass on the table, she sucked the froth of the chocolate drink from her upper lip and raised her ticket in the air.
Blood raced through her veins. Her nails dug into the towel still tucked in her lap, and she smiled at her friends. “Looks like Viper is about to find Jesus.”
3
“Looks like you’re up, Kellen,” Joe said from behind the bar with a nod toward the stage as he swiped spots off a tumbler.
The club had seen hot action and big crowds since it had opened with multiple bartenders performing flashy tricks, but not Joe. A throwback from a day where bartenders leaned across counters and listened to a patron’s sorrows, he was the glue that held the whole operation together and tempered the cocky newcomers who thought they knew it all.
Kellen took one last sip of his Jack and Coke and turned around, knowing the chances of Juliet winning that free dance was slim with how crowded the place was, but it didn’t stop him from hoping.
Hell, even if she did, that didn’t mean she’d pick him.
Craning his neck, he looked their way to find Stephen with his arm around Juliet, smiling and waving him over.
For the first time since his earliest days on stage, his heart raced with excitement. “Looks like I am,” he said, pushing his drink away and sliding off the bar stool.
She didn’t look in his direction, and that pink on her cheeks had just gone scarlet like the flames of hell licked through her from the inside out.
“Ladies,” he said, giving them all a nod, sliding up to Juliet’s other side and propping his hands on the backs of their chairs.
“Well, hello there, Viper. I’m Cassidy,” the brunette with the sleek bob said, reaching out a hand.
“Nice to meet you, Cassidy. How about you introduce me to your friends,” he said, hoping to get Juliet’s real name.
“This is my girl, Aurora,” she said, gesturing to the woman across from her with the blonde curls. “She’s the bride to be. And this is Layla, Heather, and the winner is our girl, Mabel Lee,” she said, her pointed gaze landing on Juliet.
“Nice to meet you all,” he said as he kneeled next to the woman he’d been wondering about and took her small hand in his. “Especially you, Mabel Lee,” he said, letting her name roll over his tongue like a fine wine.
Wide baby-blue eyes shot with yellow bursts met his, and she nodded. “Hi.” The word scraped past her throat in a terrified croak.
He ran his thumb over the back of her soft skin, the way his tan rough hands looked in contrast to her tender and creamy complexion spurting a wave of protectiveness. “You’re scared?”
Her eyes darted toward her friends, and she licked her lips. “Uhh, well, actually—”
“She’s never done this before,” Cassidy said.
“I see that,” he said to Cassidy. Her comment lacked any trace of maliciousness, but it grated on his nerves just the same. He ducked his head and met Mabel Lee’s eyes while giving her a reassuring smile. “I like that about you.”
Mabel Lee bit her lip, clearly not knowing what the sight of her teeth sinking into plump, pink flesh did to a man. “Really?”
“Yeah, really.” He laid her hand on her lap, letting his fingers linger on the thigh at the edge of the soft blue fabric of her dress. Rising to his full height next to her, he had a moment of pause wondering just how he should do this.
The sultry beat of a new and wildly sexual song pumped out of the speakers. Her friends each scraped their chairs back, and the bride-to-be took out her cell, aiming her camera right at them.
He swayed to the rhythm, keeping his movements light, nothing too overly sexual, just getting her warmed up as he moved back and forth, shifting his weight on his feet, letting his hips swing to the beat.
Her timid gaze roamed over him, and fuck if he didn’t swell in his jeans under her avid attention. The sounds of women squealing and cheering grew distant despite the fact that they were seated right dead center in the middle of the chaos.
Tristan sauntered out onto the stage in scrubs with a stethoscope dangling from his neck, and most of the patrons turned the focus on him as he made sure to move across the entire stage, giving them all a shot at being front and center.
White beams from warm lights flashed from the ceiling and over the crowd even as they faded from his view, and he turned his laser focus on her.
Just her.
When she started to turn away, he grazed his finger along her jawline and propped the tip of his finger under her chin. “Don’t be shy, Mabel Lee. You watched a whole lot more than this on stage earlier.”
“I, uh, I wasn’t paying attention,” she said the soft lilt of her voice reminding him of Southern ladies sipping mint juleps on verandas. At least, that’s what they did in the movies. His exposure to true Southern ladies had been limited to Hollywood portrayals, but hey, the movies were based on real life, so it had to have a grain of truth even if it was a practice decades gone.
“Lies, all lies. You saw me, Mabel Lee, just like I saw you,” he said quietly.
Her mouth fell open, forming a near perfect O, and his mind slid into the dirty zone, imagining what it might be like to have those innocent lips wrap around his cock.
At one time, the quantity of women cheering for him, worshipping him mattered. Tonight, it was quality all the way. Now, a decade wiser, the years of hard living and seeking atonement for another’s mistakes kicked his ass in gear, forcing him to grow up.
Grown-up Kellen wanted to set fire to the sexual woman he imagined buried under manners and class.
Reaching for the hem of his tank top, he peeled it up over his abs, rolling his stomach, the muscles flexing with the movement, a move most ladies loved.
A laugh burst from Mabel Lee’s throat.
He stumbled over his next move, and his mouth fell open. Funny? She seriously thought this was funny?
Well, we’ll see what she thinks of a whole lot more skin.
The minute his pecs came into view, laughter bubbled over again.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.
Her palms thwacked against the table over and over with her uncontrollable laughter, and tears spilled over squinted eyes and ran down her cheeks.
“Oh shit, she’s hysterical,” Aurora said.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha… she gasped followed by a high-pitched squeal.
“Maybe we finally broke her,” Layla said with a laugh of her own.
Mabel Lee sucked in a wheezing breath, pressed one hand to her chest, slapped the other on the table, and dropped her cheek onto the wood next to her palm.
He’d experienced a lot of shit in the years he’d been dancing. He’d had women grab his package, try to hire him for threesomes, drip searing hot candle wax on him in an effort to be sexy, and one who even bit him on the ass cheek after pounding a shot of tequila like he was her own personal wedge of lime.