Page 15 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Surgeon

“Why?” she asked, her eyes twinkling.“You’re incredibly handsome. And you’re a doctor. Why can’t there be good-looking librarians?”

“Baby, I’m not saying there can’t be,” Nico said.“I’m just… shocked. That’s all. You don’t exactly fit the stereotype.”

“I might not look like it, but I’m a huge nerd,” she said with a shoulder shrug.“It’s just who I am.”

The three of us entered Sugar, and she said goodbye to us as she headed over to work at the bar. I watched her thoughtfully as she went back to work.“What’s her background?” I asked Nico.“She seems classy.” And hot as fuck.

“I don’t know, really. Carmen might. Nora kind of keeps to herself. She’s friends with Abbi and the other Cinnamon House girls.” He gestured to the stage where a beautiful girl I assumed was Abbi was twirling around a pole. “I think she’s kind of an introvert.”

“That must be hard being a bartender.”

He shook his head.“Nah. She’s great at it. And when you look like she does? Men are happy to do whatever it takes to get to know her.”

I watched as six or seven men immediately moved to the bar area to sit on stools and talk to Nora. She greeted them all with big smiles and spoke quietly to all of them. Their eyes were glued to her body, face, or both the whole time she was talking to them.

Nico was right. She was a pro. I wondered if she wouldbe a good candidate for what I was thinking of approaching him and Carmen about. Without knowing her background, though, I couldn’t be sure. And there was always the chance it could come out that she was a bartender at a strip club. I winced inwardly. Yeah, probably best not to bring her up if Nico thought my idea was good enough to present to Carmen.

Nico had to stop and talk to a couple of other guys, and I found my mind wandering back to the woman who’d just sucked me off in Cayenne. Why did she seem so familiar?

CHAPTER SIX

Jelly

Time went on, and I adjusted to my life working at Sugar and going to school. Now everything was just part of my normal routine. I’d put the night Nico and I had together in the back of my mind months ago, and I now had a good working relationship with him. The only way he treated me differently is that he always requested me to be his hostess when he was at Sugar.

I pulled into the parking lot at Sugar one evening. I’d been able to buy a little used Honda to get around so I didn’t have to ride my bike everywhere anymore. I was going to need it. I’d just gotten a job as a receptionist at a surgeon’s office at West Bay University Hospital. They hadn’t had any part-time nursing positions open, but I was so excited just to get my foot in the door.

I got out and hurried into the club. I knew I was running a bit late. As I walked through, still dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, I hoped I wouldn’t see Carmen. I saw my friends from Cinnamon House, Daisy and Nora, gave them a quick wave, and started to head for the back area to change clothes.

Glory, another of my roommates from Cinnamon House, called out to me before I could get back there.“Jelly! Wait.” She motioned me over to where she stood at the bar getting drinks ready to go out.

With a sigh, I hurried over. The doors hadn’t even officially opened yet, but there were already a few gentlemen claiming tables as some of the minor strippers took their places on theside stages. These were women who danced two or three to a stage to low-key jazz as everyone was getting warmed up for the evening.

“What’s up?” I asked, walking with Glory, a gorgeous, curvy, Latina hostess. Even though I’d lived with her for a good while now, I still didn’t feel as if I knew her very well. It could be because neither of us were exactly the sharing type.

“Carmen came out a bit ago to say that Nico wants you at the premier table tonight. He’s going to have a friend with him who’s been out of town for a while, and he wants to introduce you.”

“Oh.” I wondered why he didn’t want Glory or Daisy. That was more their thing. I met her dark brown eyes.“Why aren’t you or Daisy doing it?”

She gave me a slight smile.“We have met the man. You haven’t. He grew up with Nico, Byron, Reynolds, all of them.” I knew Reynolds because he was in an auction relationship with my best friend, Nadine. Byron was his huge, sexy driver and bodyguard, and then, of course, Nico.

I nodded, but it still didn’t make much sense to me. I figured if it was some big wig, they’d want a more popular hostess.

“And girl, you have to know Nico likes you, right?” I gave her a look but didn’t answer her. I hadn’t exactly shared that I’d given Nico a private try-out in one of the VIP rooms. I figured that might not be the best way to make friends when you’re just starting out somewhere. So, I’d kept it under wraps.

She picked up a heavy tray and started walking it to a table. It looked like she already had three. I needed to hurry up so she and Daisy wouldn’t get stuck with all of them.

“It’s true,” Daisy said in a sing-song voice behind me.“Nico always requests you. But just so you know, this guy is a big deal. He lives here. He just was away on some sort of doctors without borders thing or something like that.” She lowered her voice. “And he’s hot as hell, too.”

“Ah.” I tried to look interested, but I didn’t reallycare about whoever this man was. I mean, weren’t all the guys who came here considered bigwigs? They were all at least millionaires, and a lot of them were hot. I just wanted to get changed into my uniform.“Okay, I’ll be right out.”

I hurried to the back, where I pulled my long black hair up into a tight, high ponytail. I put my makeup on just like Madeline showed me all those weeks ago now, and I put on the uniform that had made me feel a little on the slutty side when I had first started here. I was used to it now, though. I pulled on the dark hose with shiny threads running all through them and finished it off with the heels that took me a couple of weeks to learn how to walk in when I first got here.

I stepped back and looked in the mirror.

“Looking good, bitch,” Madeline said with a half-smile, catching my eye in the mirror she’s seated at. She’s working on getting ready for her stripper sets. She’s a headliner, the most popular one, and has to do three sets each night. Even though she lives in Cinnamon House, Carmen has also approved her to sometimes perform for guys in the VIP rooms, though, from what I can tell, she doesn’t offer any other servicesin those rooms.

A lot of women do, though, both strippers and hostesses. But, besides private non-lap dances, Carmen won’t let anyone living in Cinnamon House give any extras to the men in the exclusive, luxurious gentleman’s club that includes four separate clubs as one. There’s Saffron, a health club and spa only open in the day; Sugar, a very high-end strip club where I work as a hostess; Cinnamon, a gentleman’s club where the men go to socialize and network. It also doubles as an auction house once a month; and then there’s Cayenne, the sex club. It’s the most notorious club in West Bay, and the waiting list to join is a mile long. The Salazars don’t let any of us hostesses or strippers go to Cayenne. Except for a couple of women who are, um, a little sketchy.