Jax's Dilemma:Insurgents Motorcycle Club (Insurgents MC Romance Book 2) (18 page)

“That’s all I want, baby doll. I gotta go and meet up with the other Insurgents. See ya later.”

Gunner walked out of the office and went to the bar. Cherri followed him until she reached the curtain that shut off the backstage area from the bar. She wondered if Jax was going to be one of the Insurgents at the party. It had been two weeks since she’d last seen him, and he’d left madder than hell at her. She couldn’t blame him; she’d teased him, which definitely wasn’t right. She wished she could’ve told him he was the one she wanted to be with in a romantic way, not Gunner.

Gunner was a wonderful man, but he was so much older than she was, and she loved him only as a good friend. For her, passion and desire didn’t exist in her relationship with Gunner, only with Jax. When she and Gunner were together, his touches were nice, but they didn’t ignite the fire as Jax’s touches did when they’d consumed each other a couple of months back. Reliving the memory of their time together helped her cope with the loneliness which often crushed her. She wished things could have been different, but they weren’t. Anyway, she planned on moving on, and it would be much easier to say goodbye to Gunner than it would’ve been to Jax.

Peeking out from the curtain, Cherri saw him, and a wide grin spread over her face as her sparkling eyes took in his fantastic body. It had been too long since they had seen each other. He’d stopped coming to Dream House the past couple of weeks and she suspected he was the indirect cause of her irritability. Clasping her hands over her mouth to stifle her giggles, a burst of energy coursed through her.

Dark hazel eyes focused on the curtain. Closing it to a sliver, her heart pounded against her chest as she watched him dart his eyes around the room—she liked thinking he looked for her. Smoothing her hair down, she straightened her shoulders and stepped into the bar area. She made a beeline for Jax—she had to say hi to him and hear his voice.

Peaches bounding over to Jax stopped Cherri in her tracks, though. When Peaches reached him, she circled her arms around his neck and planted a big kiss on his soft lips. His eyes widened and he did a double-take. After realizing Peaches had a hold of him, he untangled her from him and shoved her back, then spotted Cherri. She stared at him, and their eyes locked for a suspended moment in time. She smiled. At that instant, Gunner came over and hugged her to him. Jax, face dark, eyes fastened on Cherri’s, yanked Peaches back to him, kissing her deeply as his hands ran over her body.

An overwhelming need to flee attacked Cherri as her eyes grew hot and her body felt broken. It sickened her to see Peaches touch Jax’s arms, chest, and lips. Cherri knew too well how good he felt; her fingers had crawled over his taut skin many times. Gunner took Cherri’s hand and led her to his table in the corner, and after sitting down, he dragged her down on his lap. She snuggled her face in his neck, yearning to block out Peaches and Jax.

Emma tapped Cherri on the shoulder. “I need you in the back.” She walked away, disappearing in a crowd of people.

“I have to get backstage to make sure everything’s good,” Cherri said.

“Go on back, baby doll. I’ll be waitin’ here for you when you get a break.” Gunner chugged his beer and ordered another.

“Whoa, honey, don’t you think you should take it easy with the drinking? The night is long, and you don’t want to get wasted. Slow down a bit.” Cherri wrinkled her brow as she fought to suppress her over-protectiveness.

Gunner flushed her closer to him. “Now aren’t you sweet, worrying about your ol’ man like that? Fuck, I haven’t had no one care ’bout me in years. Don’t worry your pretty little head off. I can handle my drinking. Nothin’ new—been doin’ it for years.”

“I know. I’m just saying to slow down a bit, that’s all. Don’t you have to keep an eye out on things tonight? Can’t do it if you’re shit-faced.” She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Gotta run.” She dashed off.

Backstage, some of the dancers lined up for their upcoming dances while others wiped off their drenched bodies as they exited the stage.

“The guys tonight are generous. We should have private parties with them all the time,” Tiffany, one of the strippers, said.

“Make sure you circulate for lap dances. You can make two weeks’ salary just by doing lap dances. The house makes money, and so do you,” Cherri said as she went into her dressing room to get changed for her dance number.

Looking at herself in the mirror, Cherri applied the concealer under her breast to cover the scars. Thankful for the dim lights and the illusions of the night, she doubted anyone could see any hint of deformity on her body. After the makeup dried, she pulled her peach, metallic, one-piece outfit over her body. It had a very low-cut scoop neck that pushed up her breasts, and the middle and side cut-outs showed off her firm body. The outfit narrowed at the crotch, barely covering her mound while a string of fabric fit snugly at her crack, exposing her firm, heart-shaped ass.

It was not an outfit for a public outing, but was perfect for entertaining a bunch of horny men. The entire spandex piece had a silver sheen which made her blue eyes shimmer like lightning bolts. Crystal charms dangled from her pierced belly button and shone like twinkling stars when they caught the light. She finished her look with large crystal hoop earrings and a three-strand crystal collar necklace.

Standing by the stage, Cherri waited for her cue. Her hands shook, her mouth was dry, and a dull ache throbbed behind her eyes. Chiding herself for being silly, she wasn’t sure why she had butterflies twirling around in her stomach since she had danced so many times before. Maybe it was because Jax was in the audience with his penetrating eyes. Bending over, she gulped in deep breaths to calm herself. She wanted to dance for him; it would be her gift to him.

More deep breaths.

He made her crazy. He invaded her thoughts when she went to bed, when she awoke, and several times during the day. As much as she tried to rid her mind of him, he clung to her, almost mocking her. Her attraction to Jax wasn’t fair to Gunner. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him, but it didn’t seem right for him to be tied to a woman whose thoughts, desires, and heart pined for another man. She had to do the grown-up thing and talk to Gunner about it later that night, after all the festivities died down. She owed him as much.

The stage went black, Cherri’s cue to go on. The song she picked—“Whore” by In This Moment—blasted out of the speakers. The lights went on and Cherri twirled her body around the pole, her strong, long legs wrapping around it as she hung down. Her hair, streaked red by the stage lights, brushed the floor. Her body glimmered from the metallic threads and crystal jewels, which picked up different lights surrounding the stage. As she twisted around on the pole, high above the audience, she saw Gunner transfixed, his red face plastered with a grin as his eyes glowed with affection. Cherri nodded in his direction.

Hanging upside-down, her hair cascading like a waterfall, she searched for Jax. He leaned against a tall wooden island, his arms crossed and his sexy biceps bulging. Peaches hung onto his arm, but he didn’t pay any attention to her—the only thing he looked at was Cherri.

Through the low, red lights and the fog machine, she detected the hunger burning in his hazel eyes as they bored into her. After bending her torso back up, she swung around and faced the audience, her eyes locked on his. Together they held each other’s gaze as if no one else was in the room. For Cherri, no one else in the room mattered—she danced only for him.

Flipping backwards, she landed on stage with her back to the spectators. She bent over, her ass cheeks opening, and placed her head between her legs as her hair touched the stage. Still locked on Jax’s eyes, she noticed he nursed a hard-on while lust and raw desire radiated from him. Spinning back around, she laid on her stomach and wiggled around on the floor, her tits almost popping out of their metallic harness. She puckered her lips and blew a kiss to the hooting and whistling men.
Let each of them think it’s for them, but I’m dancing for Jax.
From the way he seized her eyes, shifted his weight, and adjusted his denim-covered dick, he knew her dance was for him. She threw him a smoldering, come-fuck-me look. A half-grin softened his face.

Twirling, swinging, and bending around the pole during her next dance to the music of My Darkest Days’ song, “Porn Star Dancing,” Cherri felt someone watching her. Not Gunner or Jax, but someone else, someone who made her skin crawl. As she slid down the pole, swinging her head around, she scanned the sea of faces. Near the front, he stood there, arms crossed, licking his lips—his beady eyes glued to her.

Someone from her past.

Someone she never wanted to see again.

No, it couldn’t be him.

He lived in Denver.

It can’t be him.

Her heart thumped against her rib cage like it would break through. She held her breath.

The crowd went wild when she ended her routine with the splits. Running off-stage before the lights went off, she had to have some air—she had to breathe.

Cherri locked the door to her dressing room and went to the bathroom to wipe her sweaty body with a washcloth. The coolness of the rag against the heat of her skin made all her nerves jerk to attention. Her muscles screamed from soreness, and her head throbbed from all the smoke and noise during her dance set. Walking back into her dressing room, she sat on the edge of her loveseat, kicking off her five-inch metallic pumps. Curling her toes, she massaged the balls of her feet.

She lay back and closed her eyes as her mind drifted to a different time and place. It was three years before and she’d agreed to be a low-level politician’s mistress. She’d been down on her luck and hadn’t given a shit about anyone for quite a while. Having someone pay for a nice apartment and giving her a car, an expense account, and nice clothes was like she’d won the lottery. For a twenty-year-old used ex-stripper, it’d been a dream come true. It all seemed like a lifetime ago…

He’s coming through the door.
Is it Wednesday already?
Cherri’s gut twitches. The days go by too fast. Her days without him speed by, but the days he spends with her seem like they drag on. Shit, he’ll want to paw her and stick his puny thing in her, taking forever to come.

Looking out over the twinkling city lights and the snow-capped Rocky Mountains silhouetted against the darkening sky, Cherri knows she could’ve never afforded an apartment like this luxurious one. The grunting, pawing, and insufferable attempts to get her lover to orgasm are worth this view. It isn’t all bad—it’s like holding someone for a dance three days a week.

“Hey, honey. We got to talk.” The medium-sized man with the pock-marked face comes over to her and draws her close to him, kissing her neck. She turns her face, squeezing his arm lightly then pulling away.

“What’s up?”

“I found you a good doctor, and I have the money to give you so you can take care of your problem. Just wanted to make sure you don’t think I’m dropping the ball here.”

“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t wanna go through with it. I wanna keep the baby. I’ll take care of it. I won’t bother you.” She stops talking, noticing her lover’s face is beet red—he’s livid.

“Listen, bitch, you’re getting rid of it like we agreed, and that’s final. I don’t need this complication. I’m not even so sure it’s mine.”

She looks out of the floor-to-ceiling windows, noticing the stream of headlights looks like an electric snake curving around the tree-lined boulevard below.

“It’s yours,” she whispers.

“Get rid of it. I’m vying for councilman in Adams County. I don’t need this shit to ruin my chances. It’s hard enough to keep you undercover. Oh, yeah, you’re going to have to do without me for a bit, honey. Not too long, just until the campaign and elections are over. I know it’ll be hard, but it’ll give you a chance to recuperate after your procedure.”

The thrill of not seeing her pompous lover makes her body sing for joy.
Damn, I wish the election would go on forever.

“That’s too bad, but of course, I understand. I want to make things easy for you, not hard.”

“I know you’ll miss my loving, but when everything’s done, we’ll go on a nice trip together and you can have all of me for two weeks. Remember to keep your doctor’s appointment; it’s in a couple of weeks. I don’t want you thinking about any of this. We’ve got plenty of time to start a family. Just make sure you do the right thing. I’m leaving the money here on the table so you’re covered.”

He puts his arm around her waist. She stiffens, not meaning to. He leans in to her and says in her ear, “You’re going to do the right thing, aren’t you, honey? You don’t want me pissed. I can be sweet or a bastard
…
it’s really your choice.” He nibbles her earlobe.

Cherri cringes, remembering his anger when she threatened to tell his wife about them. She had bruises for weeks, and her ribs took a while to heal. She can’t risk that, not with a baby growing inside her.

“I’ll see the doctor. I don’t wanna cause you any trouble. Thanks for paying.” She stares out the window at the city below.

“Good. Since we’ve straightened it out, let’s get naked and have some fun. I gotta be home in a couple of hours. Sorry I can’t stay later, but one of the kids has something going on at school, and I promised my family I’d be there, even though I’d rather be here with you.” He grabs her breasts and massages them, tweaking her nipples roughly.

“You gotta go—that stuff’s important to a kid. It’s the kind of thing that stays with kids their whole life.”

“Let’s get screwing, honey. It’s been a long day, and I need your young, soft body to relax me.”

Cherri walks into the bedroom, grateful he’ll only bother her for two hours.

Thump. Thump.
Cherri sat up with a start. For a minute, she didn’t know where she was. Shaking the fogginess from her brain, she said, “Wait a sec.”

Thump. Thump.

“I said to wait a sec.”