Chapter 2
The virces was definitely nervous, stumbling over his words as he told me that his buddies had paid for a lap dance, but that I didn’t have to if I didn’t want to.
It was adorable of him, making me think that his friends had dragged him here and were the series regulars to his one episode guest star.
I felt confident enough in my dancing prowess to give him a good show, but I still wanted it over and done.
It was darker in the suites than the rest of the club, a single cool-white light shining over us as he nervously pulled at the curtain to keep us from being overlooked by the rest of the club patrons.
I really looked at him as he rearranged his frame back on the vinyl booth that sat in all the suites.
He was an attractive guy, Orb or not. His facial features were human, except for being covered in the blue and green scales that all virces shared.
Golden eyes stared back at me, striking and the color made me feel an invisible warmth somehow.
I hadn’t been paying attention before, but I noticed that his lips were scaleless, plump and blue, and he also had four fingers instead of five like a human.
It looked less like he was missing a pinky finger and more like he’d never had one.
He also had gills on the side of his neck that looked rough to the touch, just daring someone to scrape their knuckles across them.
Around his neck was an octagonal jewel shaped from some sort of blue glass, a silver chain charting around the base of his head. When he moved, it almost looked like something was inside the jewel, but it must have been the light.
Why was I focusing on this dude’s hands and neck? Shaking myself, I walked closer to him so that my legs touched his, his opening on instinct as I wedged myself between them. If he’d been able to visibly sweat, I would have definitely been seeing it right about now. This guy was nerves personified.
“First time?” I chuckled playfully, resisting the urge to bend down and stagger my hands on his thighs to really make him sweat.
If this guy was really that much of a fan, I wanted him to enjoy every dollar his buds had spent on me.
With how out of sorts he appeared though, I decided to let him set the pace.
“Just breathe. I don’t bite. That costs extra. ”
“What?” He mumbled, panic widening his gorgeous eyes as he looked around the room, as if he was waiting to find other’s listening in and watching within the shadows of the suite.
“Dude, I’m kidding.” I laughed, breaking my earlier apprehension and laying my hands on his thighs in the hopes of calming him. His breathing hitched, and he followed my hands. I kept them still, not wanting to over excite him. “Everyone’s got a first time at some point. Don’t sweat it.”
He tilted his head back, resting it on the back of the booth. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually this nervous around guys. I’ve just…I didn’t even ask them to do this for me, they sprung it on me after your performance.”
Ahh, that made more sense. He hadn’t been mentally prepared for what his friends had paid for, so he was all over the place about it.
I gave him what I hoped was a comforting nod.
I didn’t mind taking control of the situation.
Because doing so meant I’d have a pretty good chance of controlling when it ended.
“How about just a regular lap dance?” I asked, lifting my hands off of his thighs and standing up straight again, because his chest was still rising and falling rapidly and I didn’t want the guy to pass out.
I didn’t know CPR so he was shit out of luck if he did.
“That’s pretty common, if you’re interested. ”
“Yeah,” He exhaled slowly, tilting his neck as subtle cracks popped in his joints. He was just as eager to get this over with as I was, it seemed. “Yeah, that sounds good.”
“Great,” I wedged myself further in between his legs, straddling his legs as I sat in his lap. A bold move, maybe, but I wanted this guy to at least try to enjoy what I was doing. “Just sit back and relax.”
“O-okay…”
I started lifting myself off his lap, rotating my hips in a seductive little lap dance.
Even though this was the first time I’d given a client a lap dance at the club, it wasn’t my first lap dance in general.
Girls loved it when I broke out my moves in the bedroom, especially during foreplay.
The fact that all my moves were self taught was a feat in of itself.
I’d only become a stripper out of necessity.
But through that necessity I’d found that I was also really fucking good at it.
That was the main reason I hadn’t started looking for new work.
That and the money was fucking incredible.
“Wow,” I heard him say as I kept dancing in his lap, moving my hands up and down his thighs.
Per the rules Evangeline had given us, we were allowed to touch the customers, within reason and consent, of course, but they were under no circumstances allowed to touch the performers.
His nerves must have been settling because I felt his hands trail along my hips, feeling a very awkward but sizable lump in his shorts when our skin made contact. “You’re so beautiful.”
“Easy on the hands, buddy.” I smiled, not wanting to piss him off. He didn’t seem like the type to throw me to the ground in an angry outburst, but you could never be too careful. “Club policy says no touching on your end, sorry.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” His hands flew from my hips in a flash, a weird mix of relief and missing his touch settling in my stomach. I brushed it off as a sign that I needed to get laid. It’d been too long and my body was reacting to any touch it could get.
“It’s all good.” I said, grinding myself off his lap so I could work my body between his legs seductively, dipping my body down from side to side as I used my hands on his thighs as leverage.
Yep, the guy definitely had a boner that was giving me a standing ovation now that my vantage point had changed. “What’s your name?”
If a guy was getting this horned up because of me, I figured I at least deserved to know what he called himself. I watched him gulp nervously before answering me.
“Qwill.” His voice was shaking, eyes glued to the way my hips twisted for him. “My name is Qwill.”
“Nice to meet you, Qwill.” I slid my body up his, sitting on one of his legs instead of his full lap, considering his junk was tenting up and ruining any chance of me sitting there again. “I’m Connor.”
“I know who you are,” He smiled, a lopsided tilt that made my stomach clench, for some reason. God, I really needed to get laid. “I’ve watched your cowboy routine a few times now.”
“Big fan of Cowboy Connor,” I chuckled. “Join the club.” I muttered, despondent and aloof.
“You don’t like doing it?” Man, Qwill was a sharp guy. He didn’t even know me and he already knew my signature subtle sarcasm. “You’d never know by the way you dance.”
“That’s because I’m good at my job.” I said, sliding off his leg and standing up between his legs, letting him get a full view of my ass, separated only by the thin material my shorts were made of. “I don’t mind giving the people what they want. I just didn’t expect for it to pop off, is all.”
I rolled my ass back, daring to get close to where I knew his bulge was, hearing a moan escape him. “Fuck.” He laughed lightly. “I bet the guys can’t keep their hands off you, because I’m sitting here struggling.”
Turning back around, I saw the gleam in his golden eyes, a more confident and playful demeanor finally at play in his face. I smiled back, wincing sarcastically.
“Sorry, dude. I’m straight.”
Shock made his face plummet. “You are?”
Feeling the initial force of an insult between his doubt, I glared at him, ceasing my movements. “Is that an issue?”
“No, I…” Qwill looked at his lap, seeing his prominent hard-on and I could have sworn the scales on his face turned a darker shade of green and blue as he blushed.
I wasn’t aware virces, or other Orbs for that matter, were capable of blushing like humans were.
His hands flew to his crotch, attempting to cover it.
“I’m so sorry if I…made you uncomfortable. ”
“You haven’t,” I assured him, making sure to let out a chortle. “Besides, it’s a dick. I have one, it’s not a big deal. I mean, I’m barely wearing any clothes. I get it.”
All too abruptly, Qwill stood up from his seat, knocking me forward to the point that I had to steel my feet to keep from falling in the floor. Before I could berate him, he gave me the guiltiest look he could.
“Sorry, I just…I think I should go.”
“Why?” I gave him my best puzzled look. All of this overreacting because I was into girls?
Qwill didn’t give me the impression that he was prejudice against straight people, so I figured there was something more that would have warranted this display and I really wanted to know what it was. “Because I’m not into guys? Really?”
“It’s not that,” Qwill said, but the wobble of his voice betrayed that sentiment. “Well, it’s not just that. It’s…”
God, I wish he would just spit it the fuck out.
I had no stakes in finding out the truth from him, his buddies had already prepaid for the service.
But there was this gnawing at my insides desperate to hear him tell me why he was rejecting me after it’d been pretty obvious that he liked me a lot.
I decided to skirt the notion that I was caring a little bit too much about it all.
“I had this fantasy,” He began, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as I crossed my arms across my bare chest. Who the fuck inside this establishment didn’t have a fantasy or a fetish they wished they could further explore?
“Listen, I’ve been here a few times, okay?
Never for this long but I’ve watched you before the Cowboy Connor stuff.
I just had this…idea, that if we were ever together, in the same space—”
“That we’d hit it off and fuck or something?” I fired back, because this was going on a little bit longer than I could handle.
“It’s not the greatest feeling in the world to find out that the guy you’ve jerked off too on more than one occasion, which is embarrassing enough on its own to admit, isn’t even into guys. Let alone realizing that even if he did, there’s no guarantee that he would be into an Orb like me.”
A wave of mismatched emotions hit me as I absorbed his words.
The first, and probably the most confusing out of all of them, was the mention that he’d jerked off thinking about me before.
I wasn’t repulsed or disgusted, I was proud.
Why the fuck was I bursting like a supernova on the inside at that thought?
Secondly, I felt really bad for the guy, thinking about how I would feel if I’d had a crush on a stripper only to find out they weren’t into me.
The fantasy would be kinda ruined, so I could see where he was coming from.
Lastly, I hated that he felt disparaged about himself because a human couldn’t possibly find an Orb attractive.
Granted, I’d never thought about it much before, but Bas dating Kroven had really opened my eyes.
Seeing them together proved that dating an Orb was just like dating a human.
Rolling my shoulders with a sigh, I put up a hand. “Qwill, I’m sorry that I shattered the moment for you. Really, I am. If you sit down, we can pretend I didn’t say anything and I can finish dancing for you. I’m open to that if you are.”
“No, I should go.” Qwill nodded, giving me a small smile. “That’s sweet of you though. Especially after I just admitted that I’ve fucking jerked off thinking about you,” He ran a hand through his river of brown hair. “Fucking great work, Qwill.”
“Hey, that’s the ultimate compliment to me.” I laughed, placing a hand on my chest. “I’m honored.”
“Yeah, well.” He sputtered, still covering his crotch like I hadn’t already seen how gifted the dude was below the belt after writhing all over his lap.
“Thank you for being so cool about this. Here.” He reached into the back of his shorts and pulled out his wallet, prying open a twenty dollar bill, offering it to me until I realized that it was three twenty dollar bills.
“I can’t accept that much for a tip,” I shook my head. “That’s way too much.”
“Please,” Qwill pleaded, shaking the bills between us like a white flag of surrender. “It’ll make me feel like less of a loser for acting like a lovestruck teenager. Please, take it.”
Scoffing with a slight smirk, I took the cash and pinned it inside my shorts, right at the waistband. Qwill’s eyes followed the action, the darkening of his scales returning in a flush.
“Thank you, for the dance, Connor.” He pulled the curtain back to begin his departure, but he hung back, letting his hand fall from the velvet so he could look back at me. “Actually, can I ask something of you?”
“Sure.” I nodded. The dude had gotten pretty personal on me, so I didn’t mind. Honestly, I just felt really bad that I’d ruined his night.
“Can you tell me your real name?”
On instinct, I automatically responded with, “My name is Connor.”
“I know it’s not,” he chuckled. “I know places like this protect their performers by giving them a stage name.” Damn him and his sharp wit, yet again. “I know you don’t owe me anything, but I’d really like to attach a real name to the guy I’ve…to end that fantasy for good.”
My eyes turning to twin marbles of macabre, I thought about his request. If I gave him my real name, I was definitely breaking club policy.
No one but the other performers were allowed to know our real names, for our own safety.
Qwill seemed harmless, and while working at this job I’d learned to not believe everything that you saw, I truly didn’t believe in the depths of my heart that Qwill wanted my name for nefarious purposes.
Smiling, I gave him a final nod. “Thayer. That’s my real name.”
“Thayer.” He purred, closing his eyes to lock it into his memory. When he opened them back to give me a farewell gaze, he smiled. “Have a goodnight, Thayer.”
“It was nice to meet you, Qwill.”
Pulling apart the curtain again, Qwill left without another glance back at me, inwardly chastising myself that I sort of wished he had.
I stood there in the private suite wondering what the fuck was wrong with me, and what the fuck I was going to do about all the upended turmoil wishing to squash my life.