Honey blinked, surprised, not quite believing what she heard. But, then again, she guessed she shouldn’t have been, and it was probably the answer to why Nikos hadn’t been out there recently for her performances. It wasn’t the first time a boyfriend had asked her to quit. Hell, half of the men she danced out there for usually were so in love with her body that they tried to sell her dreams of taking care of her so she wouldn’t dance anymore. But, for some reason, she didn’t expect this from Nikos, and to be honest, she was disappointed by it.
Everything had been going so well between them, and she didn’t want to ruin it with a conversation like this because,despite this shitty night, she wasn’t going to quit. It was her lifeline to get what she wanted.
“Nikos,” she started, trying to find the right words, but Nikos continued himself.
“You don’t have to do this anymore. I’ll take care of you.”
Honey snorted.
It was as if he were reading a script. Though she guessed this time, the man reading it actually fit the description. Nikos could take care of her. That much had become clearer to her over the past month of dating. Nikos was not hard-pressed for money in the slightest and seemed to have an abundance of it. But she didn’t want to be dependent on anyone. Depending on men had gotten her nowhere in life before, and she definitely didn’t want to do it now when her relationship with Nikos just started, and she wasn’t sure that whatever this was between them would last. She didn’t want to become so dependent on Nikos that she wouldn’t have any means to take care of herself or her son, and even more, she didn’t want to go so high, experiencing the rich life Nikos had, only to be dropped back to the bottom one day when he didn’t want her anymore.
It was a cruel fate that she didn’t want to experience.
“Nikos, this is my job.”
“Do you like this job?”
Honey snorted. “Of course, I don’t like this job. Most people don’t like their jobs. Do you?”
Nikos looked down, but Honey continued.
“It’s a way to make money, and I thought you wouldn’t be like this,” Honey said slightly frustrated that she was even having this conversation. “I thought—”
“I thought I wouldn’t be like this either, but Honey—” His blue eyes made her pause in her exasperation. She finally noticed what she couldn’t notice before—the slight tremble in his hand as he massaged her ankle.
“I wanted to kill that man.”
Her eyes widened.
“I wanted to kill him, and I could if I didn’t know that it would make you upset and you would blame yourself for it.”
From his words, Honey brought her leg down before she jerked forward into his lap, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a hug. Usually, she was much more careful than this. She wouldn’t do something like this when she knew someone could easily barge into the room at any moment and see them, but Nikos’s tone had been serious. He could have killed that man, and she had seen the look in his eyes. He looked murderous up on that stage tonight, far from how he did when he protected her that night in the parking lot.
But then again, that Nikos had been different. He had been someone untouched by the lifestyle his uncle lived, and though she ignored it, she knew that Nikos was a part of that lifestyle now, knew that he had shed blood before, knew that it had probably taken everything in him to not order his men to kill the frat boy.
Nikos held her tight, crushing her into his arms. Though it felt as if she would break, she didn’t mind and only held him back tighter.
“I can take care of you, Honey,” he said.
“I don’t want to depend on you,” Honey murmured into his shoulder. She didn’t want to be difficult, but she had her principles too. Nikos pulled back to look her in the eye.
“I’ll pay you what you usually make here and for your cooking classes.”
Honey rolled her eyes. “I had to fuck you for you to pay for my cooking classes.”
“I would have already offered before, but I knew you wouldn’t accept it.”
Honey looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity in his gaze.
“I’ve always loved seeing you perform. It’s the highlight of my day here. No one dances like you do, Honey,” Nikos said. “But these past few weeks have been hard. It’s been hard seeing other men see you. I know other men have seen your body before. I know that, but now, I want to be the only one who sees you like this. I want your dances to only be for me. I want to erase your body from every man’s eyes in there.”
It wasn’t as if she liked dancing. It was just something she was good at, and when she had been struggling to find a good-paying job, she had resorted to this. She knew it wasn’t a bad offer. Not only would he be paying her the regular pay she got from her stage and floor performances, but he would be paying for her culinary school too. Now, she wouldn’t have to worry about the debt she had gotten over the years from bad credit decisions and her parents taking out loans in her name before she even knew what a loan was.
She wouldn’t have to dance until her feet were blistered and sore. She wouldn’t have to wear her body out on the pole. She wouldn’t have to worry about dealing with grabby, creepy men anymore. They were all pros, and yet, the only thing that made her mind sway was Nikos’s eyes.
“Okay,” Honey acquiesced, still unsure if she made the right decision. This time when Nikos smiled, it reached his eyes, and she found herself smiling too. Nikos held her tighter.
“You only dance for me now,” he bragged jokingly, but the possessiveness in his tone could not be hidden. If it had come from any other man, it would have made her want to run, but coming from Nikos, it made her heart race. Honey hugged him again, and Nikos pressed his face against her neck, breathing in her scent as if he were breathing in the air he needed.
