Voice. Alex.
Smile. Miles.
Body. Fucking creeps.
I can never win. I just end up getting burned over and over again.
From up in the booth, I couldn’t stop watching her. She was trying. God, she was trying so hard. Tray balanced, that polite little smile plastered across her face like armour. But men kept leaning in, kept stopping her path.
One grabbed her wrist, another brushed his hand around her waist, and another blocked her way with a lazy arm. And she let them. Not because she wanted to, but because she had to.
The drinks came late. I knew it wasn’t her fault. She’d been caught in that hellhole of hands, forced to manoeuvre through like prey dodging predators.
When she finally appeared on the stairs, climbing back up, I felt my jaw unclench just a fraction. She made it.
But then she knelt.
Knees to the ground, tray set carefully at our table, each bottle placed with precision. Her hands trembled as she gripped the edge of the table, her shoulders rising and falling too fast. She didn’t look at me. Didn’t look at Alex. She stared at her knees, breaths shallow, like she just run a marathon.
“Jesus Christ,” Alex muttered under his breath. For once, even he wasn’t smirking.
I clenched my fists under the table. Every instinct screamed at me to stand up, go downstairs, and make sure none of those fuckers ever had hands to grab her with again.
But she was already here. Already kneeling in front of me. Already broken by a night I couldn’t fix. I couldn’t do anything about it…
The manager appeared at the edge of the booth, hesitant, like he already knew what kind of reaction he’d get. “Sir,” he said carefully, eyes flicking to me, then Alex, then back down at Aurora. “Customers are asking for her. They’d like—”
“They can want all they fucking want,” Alex cut in, leaning back with a scoff. “She’s not going anywhere.”
The manager blinked, startled. I leaned forward, voice low, final. “I’ll pay whatever you want. Thousands if I have to. She stays here. With us. We want her company.”
The manager looked stunned, like he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Because that wasn’t how this place worked. Men fought for her, requested her, tipped her obscene amounts just for a drink and a smile. But no one had ever dropped a fortune just tokeep her awayfrom the crowd.
The manager swallowed hard, nodding quickly. “I’ll… I’ll inform them she’s unavailable.” And then he scurried off, leaving her where she was, still on the floor, trembling, clutching the edge of the table like it was the only solid thing left in the world.
“Up,” Alex said, softer than I’d ever heard him. He jerked his chin toward the couch. “Go sit. Take a breath.”
She obeyed, slow and hesitant, tugging the tray with her like a shield. She lowered herself onto the couch across from us, tray balanced on her lap. The sight of her bare legs, her skirt riding up, had my chest tightening again.
Without thinking, I shrugged out of my jacket and tossed it across the table. It landed right in her lap.
“Cover yourself,” I said.
She blinked, startled, but her hands closed around it instantly, dragging it down over her thighs like she’d been waiting for permission to hide. Her knuckles stayed white around the fabric, holding on like it was her lifeline.
“And your shirt,” I added. My voice came out rougher than I intended. “Button it.”
Her cheeks flushed, embarrassed, but she nodded. With shaky fingers, she worked each button, all the way up to her collar, until she wasn’t on display anymore. Finally—finally—she looked like she could breathe again.
I slid a bottle of water across the table. “Drink.”
Her hands shook so badly the cap nearly slipped from her grip. But she managed, tipping the bottle to her lips, gulping down slow, uneven sips. Watching her, I felt my chest ease for the first time all night. Because she was calming down, inch by inch. Because she wasn’t down there anymore.
And I wasn’t moving until I was sure she’d stopped shaking. Alex, of all people, didn’t complain either. At first, he hadn’t wanted to come out tonight at all. But now? He leaned back, eyes flicking between her and me, his expression tighter than usual.
Aurora didn’t belong here. I knew it, and Alex knew it. Not in this place. Not in that uniform. Not with men clawing at her like she was a prize. She was too pure for this. Too soft. Too goddamn innocent.
“When does your shift end?” I asked, eyes still on her.
