“Why are you still here?” Nikos blurted out as he glanced at his watch. Honey usually left directly after her performance. She never lingered around until now.
“To talk to you,” she said, and Nikos moved over, gesturing for her to take a seat next to him on the half-round sofa.
“What is it?” Nikos asked. “You miss me?”
“You’re insufferable. Did you know that?”
Nikos laughed. He couldn’t help himself.
“Okay, seriously. What do you have to talk to me about?”
“I want to work in the back.”
“No,” Nikos immediately said.
“Nikos.”
He ignored her as he took his drink from the bottle girl. He took a sip of the strong whiskey before he spoke to her again.
“Just because my uncle isn’t here right now doesn’t mean that I can break his rules. He didn’t want you working in the back, and if he found out that you did, that would be my head,” Nikos explained. If he didn’t have to worry about his uncle, he would have no problem letting Honey work in the back. She was a grown woman who could make her own choices.
But he did still have to worry about his uncle. He wasn’t dead. He was in a coma, meaning that at any time he could come back, and Nikos was always aware of that fact. He thought of it with every decision that he made. This power he had now was only temporary.
Honey sighed, clearly annoyed, and Nikos felt bad about that, but there was nothing he could do.
“What about floor performances?” she asked.
“Honey—”
“They’re just floor performances.”
But his uncle hadn’t wanted Honey to do that either because he was a possessive bastard. It even annoyed Nikos to know that his uncle was doing that with a woman that wasn’t even his. Honey wasn’t his uncle’s property, and Nikos hated that he had to give in to that, but there was really nothing he could do.
“We have enough girls doing floor performances,” Nikos said, gesturing to the handful of girls out on the floor that wascurrently performing. But really, it was just an excuse. One more girl out on the floor wouldn’t hurt.
“But none of them can do it as good as me,” Honey said, and Nikos snorted. He knew that Honey was good on stage. Really good. But even that was arrogant to say.
To his reaction, Honey grabbed his wrist and pulled him from the sofa over to a chair near the stage, pushing him down. She made a hand gesture to the DJ, and the upbeat song faded to something slower, and Nikos realized that Honey was going to give him a floor performance.
Before he could think to stop her, his uncle’s warning in his ear, she started to dance. The perfect word to describe Honey was temptation. She danced around like a forbidden fruit you weren’t supposed to eat. The music became her weapon and him her slave as she rolled her hips in front of him, captivating all of his attention, and though she danced only for him, the eyes of other patrons followed her and not the other women on stage. They looked at her with desire and looked at him with envy.
Honey circled him, throwing her arms across his shoulder and dragging her hands along his skin. Each tiny hair on his arm rose as she made her way back in front of him before she softly dropped on his lap. His hands felt heavy with the weight of etiquette and his uncle’s words as Honey swirled her hips on him. He desperately wanted to touch her, but he knew he couldn’t.
Honey got up, and he nearly followed her until she swirled around, dropped her foot between his lap, and brought her finger under his chin, forcing their eyes to connect. There was triumph in her gaze, and Nikos sighed.
He could still feel eyes on them as men walked past, looking at Honey expectantly, probably hoping to get a chance with the dancer who didn’t do floor performances until tonight.
“Okay, okay,” Nikos yielded begrudgingly. “But only floor performances. You can’t go behind the stage.”
Honey smiled, and Nikos was rattled.
“Don’t do that. I can’t take it when you smile,” he said.
Honey arched a brow with suspicion as if she were trying to figure out if he were being honest or flirtatious. But honestly, it was both, but mostly, the former.
“If anyone asks, you threatened to leave,” Nikos said, making sure to cover his bases now rather than later. He didn’t know where his uncle was or if he was coming back, but he knew he wouldn’t be happy to see Honey doing floor performances.
Honey nodded, understanding before she immediately went to leave.
