Never to Keep (Accepting Fate #1) (14 page)

“You don’t know what they do with the guys they take to the back. I booked a private ‘session’ with her later. I can’t wait to tell her about my fairytale life while she grinds her ass on me for a couple of bucks. Maybe I’ll make her eat me out.”

That was the most disgusting mental image I’d ever had. “What’s your problem with her?” Petty, judgmental bullshit pissed me off. Not to mention the outright cruelty she had planned for the unsuspecting stripper. “Jealous that no one wants to look at what you have—or should I say
don’t
have?” She didn’t have a chance to respond thanks to the waitress that came to take my order.

“Bro,” Thomas nudged my arm with his elbow to get my attention before continuing, “I know Kristy’s an idiot, but you really need to look at this girl.”

I lifted my eyes just in time to see a skimpy lace bra fall away from the most beautiful pair of breasts I’d ever seen. Breasts I’d seen several times before. “What the fuck!” I yelled.

“I know, right?” Kristy wore a triumphant smile. “Isn’t she hideous?” The pieces clicked into place. The Kristy that had tortured Madison growing up was the same bitch that made my life hell. Madison would probably never speak to me again if she knew I was related to her.

Thomas spoke up. “I think you need to have your eyes checked—that, or make sure you aren’t looking in a fucking mirror.”

“Did you know she’d be here?” It was clear the only reason Kristy had insisted on coming here was to humiliate Madison.

“An old classmate
might
have mentioned he saw her here once…,” she said with the fakest look of innocence I’d ever seen.

“Well, I think she’s fucking hot,” Thomas chimed in. I sat on my hands to keep from punching him. “You may have a huge diamond, but she has huge tits. I’m surprised Finn hasn’t bought you a pair yet. I’m sure Dad would give him the friends and family discount.” He turned to my other brother. “Hey, Finn, see if you can get a picture of her rack, so you can show Dad what you want your wife’s to look like.” Kristy’s face scrunched into a red ball.

“Quit looking at her,” I muttered through clenched teeth barely loud enough for Thomas to hear.

“What’s it to you?” I’d never hear the end of it if I answered him honestly. He studied me for a moment. “Oh. My. God. You fucked her!” Finn’s and Kristy’s eyes darted from me to Thomas and back.

“She must have a magic pussy to get you this riled up.” Thomas laughed. “I might have to go a round or two with her later.” His eyes were now locked on Madison as she hooked a long leg around the silver pole.

“Brother or not, I will kill you,” I growled.

“I can’t believe you fucked that skank,” Kristy whined.

“You need to shut the fuck up. The only skank in this room is you!” I nearly jumped across the wobbly wooden table, so there would be no misunderstanding. I stared into Kristy’s psychopathic eyes as I spoke to Finn. “You need to get your bitch of a wife out of my sight before I do something to land myself in jail.”

“Finn,” she whined, “are you just gonna sit there and let him talk to me that way?”

“Come on, we need to go,” Finn said to his wife.

“What about my private show?” she pouted.

“Don’t worry. It won’t go to waste,” Thomas said.

I glared at Kristy’s retreating back as Finn ushered her out of the club.

I pulled out my cell and dialed, grateful when voicemail picked up. “Hey, sis… Heads up, you need to prepare another speech about professionalism. Oh, and I’m getting ready to spend quite a bit of the money you gave me.” I ended the call and went to find the person in charge of the establishment.

Madison

I walked off the stage, threw on a fuzzy red robe, and picked up my private booking sheet from Bruce. I glanced at it and turned back to the manager. “This can’t be right.” I’d never seen so many boxes checked before.

“Took the order myself; the guy’s a big spender. He took quite a shine to you.”

I went out the side door to find my friend, Lisa, who always went for a smoke during our short breaks. She was like a mentor to me; I wouldn’t have survived this job without her. “Can you decipher this for me please?” I asked as I handed her my glorified purchase order.

“Wow, he went all out for you, babe.” She nodded her head with approval. “Fully nude, and he can touch you anywhere except your lower lady parts without permission.” She gave me a meaningful look. “We are strongly encouraged to give them permission. Management can’t tell you to fuck him because that would be prostitution, but you will if you want to keep your job.”

“I don’t think I can do this.” I was going to be sick.

“Don’t think about what you’re doing. Focus on how fat your bank account is going to be after tonight. The more you give, the more you get.” She looked me over. “You look absolutely green; you need to fix that before you go in there.”

I thought of Peyton and how much we needed the money. I would do anything in the world for her, which apparently included selling my body for cash. If I earned enough tonight, I might not have to go all the way again, at least not for a while.

I prayed he wasn’t a troll as I darted to the dressing room. Maybe if he was a decent lay, it would help me forget about Sawyer. I stripped out of what was left of my costume and exchanged my thick, floor-length robe for a short, silky one. I squared my shoulders and marched through the door to the private room with my head held high.

I nearly tripped over my feet when my gaze met the piercing blue eyes of the man waiting for me. “What are you doing here?” I stood with my arms crossed tightly over my chest.

“Isn’t it obvious?” His eyes drifted to the hem of my short robe as he shifted slightly in the narrow, armless chair designed for lap dances. A fire blazed in my lower belly at his attention.

“Do you frequent strip clubs?” A loud tap came from the other side of the mirrored wall behind me. I dropped my robe in one fluid movement.

“Would it bother you if I said yes?” he asked. I paused for a moment as I thought about the hypocrisy of my reaction. I didn’t like the idea of him looking at other women, but I showed my body to anyone willing to pay the cover charge.

“Never mind,” I said. “It doesn’t matter.” I took a step toward him.

His eyes moved around the room, looking at anything except for me. “Why did you turn down my offer?” he asked.

“Because your mood swings give me whiplash.” There was no point concealing the truth. “I also didn’t think this job would conform to your requirements.”

I presented my back to him and lowered myself to his lap. I looked at our reflection in the mirror only to find him studying my face intently as he stroked my upper arms. “You don’t have to do this,” he said. He abruptly let go of my arms and gave me a slight push to help me stand.

I turned and straddled his lap. “You don’t understand. I do have to do this.” I rocked my hips against his. “Someone’s watching. I’ll lose my job if I don’t give you what you paid for.”

“Why do you work for a place like this?” he asked with a grimace.

“Why are you a teacher?” I arched my back, leaving barely any space between my breasts and his face. He sucked in a sharp breath.

“I wanted to make my mother proud.”

“That wasn’t the answer I expected… I can’t say the same.” He swallowed as I ran my fingers down the buttons of his shirt. “I’m going to turn around to face the mirror. You need to grab my boobs, so they can check that off of the list.”

“Aren’t you worried they’ll hear you?”

“They don’t listen. Plausible deniability in case I decide to whore myself out.”

“Do you do this a lot?” His voice had taken on a fierce undertone. “How many men have you sold yourself to?” His strong hands squeezed my hips almost painfully.

“None,” I said reflexively and then quickly added, “of your business.”

“I won’t fuck you, not like this.” His arms fell limply to his sides. “I don’t want to be one of your johns.”

“You should have thought of that before you paid for every item on the menu. Now man up and grab my fucking tits.” I turned so my back was pressed to his chest. “It’s not like you haven’t done it before,” I muttered under my breath as I braced myself for his touch.

I felt his hard length jerk against my ass when he cupped my breasts gently. His eyes zeroed in on the mirror to the spot where his hands held on to me. He groaned as I rubbed my ass against his lap. “I’m going to come in my pants if you don’t stop.”

“I hope you do. It’ll give me a great excuse not to fuck you.”

“You really don’t want to fuck me, do you?” He sounded genuinely confused.

“I told you I can’t agree to your proposal.”

One strong hand slid slowly down my body and came to rest between my legs. The fingers of his other hand ran up my chest toward my collar bone. He draped my hair over one shoulder and planted tiny kisses up and down the length of my neck.

“I think I can change your mind. Turn around and face me. I don’t want anyone else to see you come.” I had to give him what he asked for if I wanted to keep my job. I followed his order, even though I knew I needed to keep my distance.

I met his eyes as he took my hips in his hands and guided me to straddle his lap. I moaned when his thumb found my clit as his fingers slipped inside of me. “Now tell me: why do you work here?” He nipped at the curve of my neck with just enough strength to let me know he wasn’t playing around and then laved the spot with his tongue.

I almost forgot the answer to his question. “Why does anyone work?”

“You’re going to quit after we’re done here, and then you’re going to agree to my proposition.”

His words broke the trance. I reached between us to still his hand. “Let’s get something straight. You may have purchased a little bit of my time, but you don’t own me.”

“Fine, back to business,” he said sternly. His fingers started moving inside me again. My heart sank. Maybe he really did think of me as a whore and just didn’t want to pay for it. His thumb picked up the pace at the same time he sucked one of my straining nipples into his warm mouth. I was done trying to figure out his game. I would do my job and then walk away. It was the only way to protect myself.

He took the time to build me back up again. I closed my eyes and cleared my head of everything except the physical pleasure. “Come for me. Now!” he ordered when he sensed I was close. I shattered around his hand on command.

The soft buzzer brought me out of my post-orgasmic daze. His time was up. He lifted me in his arms as he stood and then carefully set me on the chair. He retrieved my discarded robe from the floor and covered me before leaving the room.

I went to the en suite powder room to clean up before my next client. Upon my return, I found Ronny, the room monitor, waiting for me with a bottle of cold water. I took it gratefully and chugged half of it down.

“I have to say, that was really hot. If you keep it up, you can probably become a regular,” he said. “That was way better than anything I’ve seen from Poppy. Hell, I might have to buy some time with you.”

The door whined as it opened, and an ominous growl sounded through the small room. Ronny spun around to locate the source. I didn’t have to look to know that Sawyer had returned.

“Thanks for the drink, Ronny,” I said as he retreated to his station. The walls closed in around me when the door clicked shut behind him. Sawyer’s presence sucked the oxygen from the room. I felt the latest shift in his mood. “Why are you back? Where’s my next client?” I pulled my robe tighter.

“I’m your only client tonight.” He moved toward me like a predator on the hunt.

“Bruce doesn’t allow doubleheaders.”

“I have ways of getting what I want.” He took my face in his large hands and tilted my head so I had no choice but to look at him. “I was going to be a gentleman and not press my advantage. I wasn’t going to fuck you.”

“But now?” I asked hesitantly.

“Now that I know the twerp watching us has a hard on for you, he needs to know who you belong to.”

“I told you, I don’t belong to anyone,” I protested.

He turned the chair so it no longer faced the mirror. “Regardless, you’re getting fucked, and he doesn’t get to watch.” The icy distance in his eyes was almost frightening. “If you’re a good girl, I might let you come again.”

Within seconds, his pants and boxers were around his knees. If I’d had any dignity left, it would have been lost when he pulled me down to his lap and impaled me with his straining erection.

As usual, my body had a mind of its own. No matter how much my brain told me to run away, I always found myself running toward him. All the tension left my muscles as his body melded with mine.

“See, you want this just as much as I do. I know I can be an ass, but if you agree to the arrangement, we can both be happy,” he said as he rhythmically pumped his hips.

“Why me? You could have any woman you want.”

“I want
you
.” He emphasized his point with a sharp upward thrust. “I like you.”

I was quickly losing all rational thought. He ran his hands around my body and squeezed my ass.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said with a labored breath. “If you need more than a casual fuck, I’m willing to give it a try.”

Whoa, I wasn’t expecting him to say that. I’d seen two sides of him. I’d been with a sweet, passionate man and a total asshole. Maybe the man I’d met a year ago was the real Sawyer. Maybe his dickhead persona was just a façade, or a defense mechanism. Maybe my body hadn’t been betraying me after all. “You want me to be your girlfriend?”

“More or less,” he breathed. “I’d rather not label it, though.” I didn’t need a label, but I wasn’t going to let him off the hook easily.

“Okay, I’ll be your girlfriend on three conditions.”

He grabbed my hips to still our motion. “Name your terms,” he sighed.

“One—no more of this bipolar mood swing shit. I only want the nice Sawyer. Two—I keep my job here, and you don’t say another word about it. Three—no one can find out as long as you are Peyton’s teacher, especially Peyton. You can come over after she falls asleep, and you have to be gone before she wakes up.”