The guy all but runs to the door. Doc growls after him like an angry dog, then he swings around and beams at me, his face lighting up as though nothing happened. “Tesorina! How’s your shift going, you pretty little slut?”
I try not to swoon. Doc has been, and always will be a huge asshole, but I love his ridiculous way of talking, his gorgeous face, his manic charm. “I’m good? How are you?”
“Better now.” Doc smooths out the hundred-dollar bill and pounds it onto the bar. “After-shift drinks for the girls, Kiara.”
“Thanks, Doc,” Kiara says, with a genuine smile.
Doc points at me. “You. Shift’s over, we’ve got places to be.”
“But drinks,” I protest. “And we have to clean up and balance the till and pack down the bar and—”
“Fuck that, we’re leaving,” Doc says. “Birthday hijinks are in order.”
I still feel the pull to do what he says without question, but a year as Domenico Valente’s girlfriend has given me resistance practice. I put my hands on my hips. “I need to wipe down the bar.”
Doc’s eyes narrow. “I’m the boss and I say the bar can get fucked.”
“You’re not the boss,” I remind him. “Betty is.”
His fierce look flicks to my side. “Make Kiara do it.”
Kiara gives him the finger.
I pull a bottle of Glenfiddich toward me and pour a couple of fingers into a cut crystal tumbler. “Why don’t you drink this and let me clean up in peace?”
Doc takes the toothpick from between his teeth and squints suspiciously at me. “You can’t control me, you know?”
“I know,” I say, sweetly and watch him take his seat at the bar.
We have fun chatting while Kiara and I close down the bar and when the last show of the night starts, we all turn to watch. Morgan, a gorgeous redhead with huge boobs, takes the stage and we watch her wind herself around the pole like silk. I’ve been practicing a little bit, hoping to surprise the guys but she’s on a whole other level.
Eventually, I notice Doc isn’t checking out the show. He’s watching me watch Morgan. “You thinkin’ about getting up there, Tesorina?”
I shake my head. “Eli would kill me.”
It still takes my most possessive lover all his self-control to let me go to work. He’s more comfortable now, but he texts me before and after every shift, and he’s the one who comes in the most to watch me; make sure the customers know who I belong to.
Doc gives a big fake yawn. “Morelli isn’t here, I am. And I wanna watch you work the pole.”
“I know you do.”
Doc fishes in the little toothpick container, pulls out a fresh one, and sticks it in his mouth. He quit smoking a year ago. He says he doesn’t miss cigarettes, but he chews toothpicks constantly. Still, it makes him look so sexy I don’t care. I reach forward and touch his chest. “You’re really beautiful.”
“Thanks.” Doc cups my breast. “I could say the same thing about you, my nineteen-year-old dime piece.”
I swat his hand away. “You need to behave.”
“That’s the last thing I need. I’ve been working for almost forty straight hours. I need a nice long ride on your pussy.” He fixes me with a hard stare. “Remember what Adri and I did to you last week?”
I do remember. I spent the night tied up in Doc’s bedroom while he and Adriano took me one after the other and then at the same time. I put a hand to my burning cheek. “Of course, I remember.”
“Good,” Doc flashes me an evil smile. “I fucked your asshole like it was a pussy and you loved it, didn’t you, you slut?”
Morgan’s show finishes and the club breaks into applause.
“I need to finish closing up the bar,” I say, backing away.
Doc scowls. “Why don’t you have a drink first?”
