My dream was to open a dance studio and teach. Sure, I get to do that a few days a week up in Tyler, but it’s tiring to drive there and back on top of dancing nights.
“She doesn’t have to. I know Promise would understand.”
“Mo chathú, you try telling Josephine that. Woman might argue differently. She’s taken to Promise. Been to all the games I’ve been at.”
There’s that name again. More I liked that my sister had gained a support system.
“I didn’t know that,” I whisper, feeling bad about not being able to go to her games, and I was her sister.
“You know your sister doesn’t mind you not being there, right? She brags about how good of a dancer you are,” Styxx murmurs, stepping closer to me.
“Yeah, I know.” I did know. It’s something I’ve talked to Promise about. She understood, but she shouldn’t have to. “I’ll let you get back home,” I say, ready to end this and get to bed. I was exhausted.
“Right.” Styxx nods. “Lock up. I’ll wait.”
He always did. Each night he carried Promise home, he waited for me to lock the doors before heading back to his place. Each time, I always leaned against it and sighed in longing. There was just something about Styxx that had a woman yearning for him. I knew I wanted his hands on me. Wanted to know what his touch felt like. How his lips would feel against my skin.
Yeah, I needed my head examined that’s for sure. I wanted a man I knew I couldn’t have.
CHAPTER 6
STYXX
This woman is going to be the death of me. There’s no way around it.
I don’t get what it is about her that has her under my skin. She just is and there’s no other way to put it. Without even trying, Hope marked her way there, where she’s stayed from the first time I saw her.
The very first time when she was up on the same stage she’s on now. I have to grit my teeth and adjust my dick while watching her dance. This time in ballet slippers. She doesn’t touch the pole, or even the drapes, as she did on opening night. No, she draws the crowd with her moves, slowly moving around the stage to a song talking about her being a good girl.
“She’s good up there,” Harvester notes, taking a seat next to me.
It’s just me tonight. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide from my brothers, but I wanted to watch her dance again. The past two weeks, it’s driven me crazy with how easily she’s gotten to me. I’ve learned over the years of watching each man in my club who has a ol’ lady fall to those women like dominoes.
Before Eabha, I thought about it, though, I didn’t want one. I still didn’t, or so I hadn’t. Now, I can’t get Hope out of my head.
Doesn’t help that I’ve opened the door for her sister. Promise was a damn good kid. Hope’s done a great job with her. The kid has wormed her way into my life and those around her with such ease there’s no telling the girl ‘No’ when all she wants is people around her. Besides, she seems to adore Eabha, and my daughter could never not have enough people in her life who are willing to love her.
I take a sip of my beer, not acknowledging Harvester’s comment. I do that, means I’m admitting she’s the reason I came here tonight.
The club is even more crowded tonight than it has been before. It’s like a damn beehive in this place, all of them swarming to see Hope dance. I know it’s her who draws them all in and not the other dancers. They’re good, but not as good as she is. I don’t like any of this.I don’t like how the men look at her like she’s something to devour. Like she’s theirs they can have. She’s not.
My hand tightens around my beer bottle as I watch a group of suits near the front slip bills onto the stage. The only good thing about that is I knew Hope wouldn’t be getting close for them to touch or slip bills into the cheeky panties she’s wearing now. Harvester made that clear for his headline dancers, they were not to touch the tips on the stage. They were strictly to dance, and that’s it.
“You gonna keep pretending you’re not here for her?” Harvester asks, his voice loud enough for me to hear over the music, but not so loud others could hear.
“Fuck off,” I mutter, but there’s no heat in it as I slug back more of my beer and wave over the waitress to get me another one.
He chuckles. “Just saying, brother. You’ve only been in here once since we opened the new club, and both times, your attention has been solely on her when she’s on stage. The rest of the times, you talk.”
I don’t respond. What can I say? He’s right. When she’s on that stage, she’s got my undivided attention. Even now, as she finishes her dance, I’m watching like some lovesick teenager, sitting in the shadows, watching her move across the stage like she was born to be up there. It’s pathetic, but I can’t seem to stop myself.
“You got one hell of a hardon for her, brother.” Harvester grins and shakes his head. “You know if you want her, the club won’t say anything, though I’d hate to lose her as a dancer.”
I shoot my brother a glare, not about to feed into the comment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.
“Sure you don’t.” He chuckles. “You know, each time she takes the stage, she’s got all of them wrapped around her finger,” Harvester says, gesturing to the crowd. “The other strippers, not the headliners, but the ones who go between them, they’re jealous as hell of her.”
I grunt in response, my eyes still fixed on Hope. A slight flush tinges her cheeks as she disappears, though not before her eyes scan the crowd, and our eyes meet.
