Chapter 30
E WAN
I’m late, and it’s not like me.
I slept four hours last night.
For the most part, I couldn’t sleep. Then I took care of some business in the morning, met with Ezra, had his new stuff delivered, and went to the office in the afternoon before returning home, changing, and heading to her place.
The evening has already set in when I enter her street and peer at her house in the distance.
The lights are on, so she’s still home.
I pull up the car in front of her place, climb out, and walk to her door.
She opens it before I have the chance to ring the bell.
“You’re here,” she says, her cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry. I’m not ready yet. Can you come inside?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Her first impulse is to wrap her arms around my neck and kiss me, but she crushes it at the last moment, only offering me a smile.
She’s right to do that.
We’re not in love or anything.
We just want to have some fun.
So much for thinking this through.
“Please,” she says, showing me to the kitchen. “Make yourself comfortable.”
My eyes dip to my boots.
“No need to take them off,” she says. “You’re all right. I need to clean the floor and the house anyway.”
It looks tidy to me, and I’d hate to leave marks on the floors.
“Are you sure?’
“Positively.”
I look around her place. There are no holiday ornaments.
“No Christmas tree?” I ask, moving toward the kitchen table while she tucks her top into her pants.
They both mold to her body, and my dick quickly remembers how sweet the feeling was to have her naked body pressed to me and her legs open.
Colley’s sweet little school teacher.
Good thing no one knows about this. It would be more than problematic. It could create a deep rift in my family.
Having a serious relationship is one thing, and fucking Colley’s teacher is a whole different matter.
My eyes can’t pull away from her.
I virtually forgot what I asked her when she smiled at me.
“I didn’t have time to put it up.”
To put what up?
I stare at her, draped in silence.
“The Christmas tree,” she says.
“Oh, yeah. The Christmas tree.”
She straightens her back.
“I had no plans for Christmas. But I’ll probably put it up on Saturday.”
I catch a slight hesitation in her voice, as if she wants me to say something. I stay quiet.
Hmm. Saturday. I never thought about that either.
I usually spend Christmas in a bar with some unsavory company.
I resent the idea of staying home in a big ass house with no one around.
I didn’t think Ezra would be in town. Either way, he won’t spend Christmas with me.
He’ll probably spend it with his girl. Who is not his girl.
He’s pretty much like me in that regard.
I have no idea if I’ll spend Christmas with Scarlett.
We shouldn’t do that, though. It’s a special day, and we might put some pressure on ourselves by spending it together and then ruin what we have right now.
So, a bar will be for me.
“You want a cup of coffee?” she asks, and my eyes hover over her face.
She looks amazing. Different. Her hair is like a dark rose in bloom, with silk strands waving and some tips curling.
And her eyes look like Venetian blue glass.
Intense, sparkling, oversaturated.
I imagine her eyes glimmering in front of me, her head pressed against the pillow as I enter her.
A tense swelling happens in my pants.
I hope tonight’s show will be short. I can’t wait to bury myself in her again.
“I’m good. Thanks.”
“Okay. Give me one second.”
She spins around before vanishing out the door, and I take a seat at the table and drag my eyes around her house again.
It’s a pretty place. Small but cute.
What was that guy thinking? The one I almost tossed over the hedge?
What is wrong with these men? It bothers me when I see such a discrepancy between the women who picked them and how the men take them for granted.
Good thing I don’t have a daughter, or I’d constantly be on their backs.
You’re getting someone like her?
She’s tough, industrious, and good-looking, and all you do is fuck with her like she’s nothing?
Talking about being an ignorant, entitled little dick.
And blind.
Obviously blind.
She enters the room, and I shift in my seat to see her better. She wears a knitted beanie, scarf, and gloves, and a plush winter jacket.
She looks like a girl, not like a school teacher or a dancer. And I feel bad that I’m taking her to a fucking club where she’s supposed to pole dance instead of taking her to a tea house and having cookies and tea with her.
I rise to my feet.
“This is the last time you’re dancing for money,” I say resolutely, and her eyes go wide, her smile quivering.
She’s trying to come up with a retort or a comment, but she can’t find her words.
“Let’s go,” I say, showing her to the door like I’m the man of the house. “Do you need to take anything else with you?”
“Uh… Yes. My backpack.”
We both look for it, and I spot it dangling from one of the kitchen chairs.
I pick it up and show her to the exit. She heads that way without a word before we both walk out, and she locks the door.
SCARLETT
I can tell he hates driving me to the club.
I don’t like it either, and while we both agree that this is not for me, he seems more aggravated with it than I am.
For the most part, he’s a good companion, yet when he places a call and speaks to someone about having a bunch of men meeting him at the club, my hackles rise.
That doesn’t sound good.
Hopefully, we won’t end up in the news.
And hopefully, my boss learned his lesson, and he’ll keep his temper under control.
I can’t wait for this evening to be over.
Overall, my day was good. I slept, worked out, did some shopping, and got ready for work. I was busy with my hair and makeup. And I was so caught up in what I was doing that it almost felt like I was in high school.
Those were some good times.
Only I didn’t have a man like Ewan waiting for me and chaperoning me back then.
I always thought super-protective men were psychos, and I could understand their appeal to a degree.
In all fairness, I never met one, so my opinion was based on nothing.
Watching him watch me like I’m some precious little thing makes me realize it’s second nature for him, and it’s not that bad for me.
I may be worried about many things, but being safe is not one of them. I don’t have to be on the lookout and ready to fight back if someone takes a jab at me.
He does it for me.
Or should I say, his attitude makes anyone think twice about doing something stupid.
The club has less audience than last night.
Hopefully, I’m not responsible for the low numbers. That would be a bummer.
We walk into the place like we own it before he accompanies me in the back.
His men occupy a few tables, and that may be the reason why other patrons have felt the need to pick a different venue for their nightly entertainment.
The boss is off today.
Good.
His calling in was unexpected, one of the girls just said to me. The hostess runs the establishment, and she is all smiles, doing her best to accommodate me.
She says I can pick whatever costume I want, my money is in the manager’s office, and I’ll get paid as soon as I’m done.
I look at Ewan, who only flicks his eyebrows up, a faint smile glinting in his gaze.
He probably doesn’t have anything to do with how they run the place this evening, although something tells me that he might even if he didn’t do anything in particular.
“Okay,” Ewan says. “I’ll be outside.”
With that, he gives me a short nod, turns his back to me, and swaggers down the corridor.
One of the girls catches me stare at his broad shoulders.
“He is quite a catch,” she says, smiling. “I wish he was our boss.”
Her last words pull me out of my reverie.
“What do you mean?” I ask as we both walk into the backstage room.
She is already wearing her glittery costume since she is scheduled to dance in a few minutes.
“Have you seen the room outside?” she goes on, glancing at me over her shoulder.
“They’re quiet and minding their own business,” she murmurs, propping her foot against a chair and fastening her shoe around her ankle.
“It was a zoo last night. They were all drunk and crazy. They snatched up one of the newer dancers, and we barely got her out of their hands.”
I fall into my seat, looking at her, wordless.
She straightens up.
“Is that why our boss is gone?”
“He’s not gone. He said he had a family emergency and called in a little earlier. That’s a lie. He has no family.”
“That explains a lot,” I mutter.
She laughs.
“Yeah. Who wants a crazy dude like him to be their family? I’m glad he took the day off. Tonight will be better without him. He guy stresses me out.”
Another girl walks in, wearing a bra and a thong.
“It’s full,” she announces.
The first girl turns to her.
“When that happened?”
“It just did. A bunch of cars pulled in.”
My heart sinks. I hope this doesn’t have to do with us. I thought Ewan’s men were already inside. I thought I recognized a few of them from the restaurant.
“They must come from a party. It’s men and women,” the dancer says, and I sigh, relieved. “It’s gonna be good for us. Tips will be great,” she says, and I share her excitement, at the same time, sad for some reason.
Pushing that weird feeling away, I pull my stuff out, getting ready to change and wear my favorite catsuit.
SCARLETT
Nothing unusual happened this evening.
Things have been all right.
The girls were right. Tips were good, the audience behaved, and Ewan did his best not to snap at anyone.
I don’t think anyone even considered misbehaving tonight.
The atmosphere wasn’t conducive to acting stupid.
Ewan sat at the bar, having a great view of the room, the tables, and the men in the front row.
I don’t know what it was about him sitting there and occasionally talking to the men having drinks at a couple of tables, but no one felt testy enough to start up some trouble.