“With what…?”
He doesn’t answer, instead he slings an arm around my shoulders, and steers me to the door. His arm is heavy, and he smells nice, but I feel edgy like one of the boys might see me and get the wrong idea. Archie winks at the bouncer who takes one look at me and pulls back the red velvet rope blocking the entrance.
“Have a good night you two.”
The second we’re inside, Archie lets go of me. “Easy as pie.”
Dreams is pretty inside. The walls are red, and the matching carpet is so thick, my heels sink into it. There are dancers everywhere in even higher heels, moving with far more grace than I am. Tall, beautiful women with big boobs and even bigger butts. Archie’s head is turning all over the place.
“What now?” I ask.
“We get a drink.” He leads me to a gold, circular bar. On opposite sides of it, women are dancing with the syrupy effortlessness that I know from ballet takes years of practice.
So, this is where Doc wanted me to work… I can admit it’s elegant. The lighting is flattering, and the furniture looks expensive. And all the men are well-dressed, talking amongst themselves or politely watching the dancers.
“This is nicer than I thought,” I tell Archie.
His eyes are glued on the woman twerking to our right. “Yeah, it’s a classy place. What do you want to drink?”
My stomach rumbles. If I have any alcohol, I’ll fall over. “Could I please have a Sprite?”
“Sure.” He calls the bartender over, a pretty blonde with a round face. “Hey, gorgeous, we’ll take a Makers on the rocks and a Sprite.”
She turns to get our drinks and Archie’s attention returns to the twerking woman.
I frown at him. “Aren’t you going to ask about Doc?”
“Kitten, you don’t walk into a place like this and start asking for the boss. We need to chill.”
“Oh, okay.”
As Archie’s eyes follow the shaking butt, I think that things might be moving faster if we weren’t in a strip club. Our drinks arrive and I take the seat beside Archie and watch the girls dance to songs I haven’t heard before. As they move fluidly around the poles, I feel a stir of what Doc first offered me—freedom. If I worked here, I’d be free to dance and drink and maybe become friends with all these women.
I’ve always had girlfriends, but I feel like the women who work in this club would be a lot more fun, and I’d be more fun with them.
A man in his sixties, his tie loose around his neck, wanders up to the bar and immediately gets distracted by the twerking lady. “Hey, Mya! How ’bout a freebie?”
The woman doesn’t look around, but I see a crease appear between her eyebrows. That would be the real problem with working here. I don’t want men like that to touch me. I don’t think it’s even that he’s old or loud. Archie’s handsome and the thought of dancing for him makes my stomach churn.
I watch a pale girl with a sheet of black hair climb into a businessman’s lap. We look similar. I imagine it’s me in the royal blue lingerie and Doc sitting in the businessman’s seat. I would grind up against him, and watch his cold blue eyes burn. His hands would be at his sides but tense, ready to snap around me as soon as he was done letting me play with him. Heat glows between my legs. I want him to look at me that way. To be the only woman he has eyes for. Doc’s face shifts into Bobby’s, and I picture turning like the black-haired girl and pressing my ass into his lap. He would be all eager with just a hint of aggression peeking through…
A dull ache throbs under my ribs. Maybe if I’d stayed at Velvet House and been what the boys wanted me to be… but I can’t think that way. I never could have lived by their rules. Not while Zia Teresa was lying in the hospital and I wasn’t allowed to go see her.
“Good evening.”
I turn. A woman in a leather bustier is glaring at me. She’s super tall and her bone structure is incredible. She looks like Gabrielle Union and Wonder Woman had a baby, though she doesn’t seem nearly as impressed to see me and Archie.
“Hi,” I squeak.
She ignores me, jabbing a finger at Archie. “Haven’t seen you here before.”
He flashes her a wide smile. “First time, sugar.”
“And you brought a girl with you?”
“Ain’t that allowed?”
Wonder Woman glares at me and I offer her a weak smile. “Hi… again…?”
