Chapter 9
CHAPTER
NINE
DUCHESS
My eyes locked with him from across the room, and for a second, it looked like he was pissed. It wasn’t until he stood beside me, grabbing my arm that I knew he was.
“Excuse me?” I exclaimed, suddenly upset.
“What do you think you’re doing back here?”
I yanked my arm away. “What does it look like?”
“I didn’t approve of you being back here.”
“That’s not my problem.”
“Well, I’m makin’ it your problem.”
“Then take it up with your GM.”
“I’ll take it up with you instead.”
“Unlike you,” I stressed with a hint of respect in my tone, “I can’t play hero. I’m here to DJ.”
“Hero?” He jerked back.
“Yeah, that little stunt you just pulled.” I paused for a second, contemplating if I was really going to confess this. “That was pretty admirable.”
He jerked back again. “Was that a compliment?”
“No.” I smirked. “It was just an observation.”
“I told you,” he reminded me in a voice that meant business. “I don’t take kindly to men who like to slap women around.”
“I guess I stand corrected. We through here?”
“I said I don’t want you back here.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “And why is that? You think this is the first time I’ve DJ’ed at a private strip club? Because I hate to break it to you, but I see tits and a pussy every day when I take a shower, so this isn’t anything new. In fact, I’m a huge supporter of sex work, and in another life, I may have sucked dick too.”
He didn’t say anything, and the silence was deafening. I think he was trying to figure out if I was being serious or messing with him. I took it as my cue to exit the conversation and change to the next track I played for everyone. I did the only thing I could do in this situation and that was to use music to express myself. Spinning the song into “You Don’t Own Me” by Saygrace featuring G-Easy, a dance remix.
As soon as I heard the title, I looked up at him, and we locked eyes once again.
With one hand on my pink headphones, I mouthed the lyrics, and I didn’t stop singing until I mouthed most of them to him.
Needing to prove my point, I flipped my long dark hair over my shoulder in that seductive sort of way. I was purposely trying to be sexy to really piss him off. This was an easy task for me to do. I had no problem using my sexuality as a weapon.
After the song was finished, I shifted to “Cure” by Tube and Berger, blaring it through the speakers and burning its way into my body. Music always had the power to speak for me. When words failed, the music spoke volumes.
I leaned back, right up on the loud bass. It vibrated into my body, and I shut my eyes, allowing the music to take over. Fully aware that he was still watching, I swayed my hips and made love to the music. My hands slowly worked their way up my waist to my head, running my fingers seductively through my hair as I lifted it off my glistening neck and rocked my hips back and forth.
There was a strong shift in the air.
The space.
The energy all around me in the DJ booth.
My breathing tethered…
My pulse accelerated…
My heart started pounding out of my chest.
When almost instantly, I was engulfed in his familiar, masculine scent, lingering with bourbon and cigarettes. I backed up into him. I felt his lips slightly glide along the crook of my neck, and I gradually tilted my head.
“You’re playin’ with fire,” he rasped into my ear.
I moved my hips against his, and he wrapped his muscular arm around my waist, tugging me closer to him. Close enough to where there was nothing between us, only the friction of my sinful movements.
The smell of his cologne was intoxicating, luring me in with the beat of the sensual tune still blaring around us.
Slowly, I turned around to look up at him through the slits of my eyes. “Is that a threat?”
“Why? You want it to be?”
“I thought you don’t put your hands on women?”
“Darlin’, you know damn well that raisin’ my hand at you and makin’ you come on it are two different things.”
“It always comes down to sex, doesn’t it? Funny how that works.”
“Says the woman who’s been grinding on my cock.”
“I was just dancing.”
“Is that right?”
“Mm-hmm…” When I placed my hands on his chest, he didn’t think twice about gripping my ass and setting me beside the turntables to step between my legs.
I hitched a breath.
Within seconds, he swept my cheekbone with the back of his fingers. “This is healing nicely, yeah? You ever going to tell me whose handiwork this is?”
“If I did, what are you going to do?”
We never once stopped looking deep into each other’s eyes. He peered down at me while I looked up at him through my long, thick lashes.
“You know what I’d do. It’s why you haven’t told me who it is.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know a damn thing about you. What I do know is it’s still none of your fucking business. I’ve been taking care of myself for a very long time. I don’t need you to be my savior, Jameson. I don’t need you to be anything.”
“What do you need, then?”
“What I need is to go back to work, so if you’re done eye-fucking the shit out of me, I’d like to get on with my night.”
“You want me to be done, then answer my question.”
I argued, “I did. It’s just not the answer you want to hear. But guess what? We don’t always get what we want.”
“How about instead of givin’ me shit, you give me some credit, ya feel me?”
“Unfortunately.” I ground against his hard cock. “I do.”
“What do you expect when your pussy is right there?”
“I thought you were a gentleman.”
“You don’t like gentlemen.”
“Is that right?” I mocked, sitting up higher and leaning into his lips. His mouth was now inches away from mine. “And what kind of man do I like?”
He didn’t move. “You truly are a thing of beauty, and I pride myself on beautiful things.”
“You mean by kidnapping those beautiful things and selling them off to the highest bidder?” I challenged, cocking my head to the side.
“I’d never sell you.” His fingers curled into my inner thigh as his thumb grazed my knee. “You’re worth keepin’.”
“Do I look like a woman who wants to be owned?”
“I’m just tryin’ to protect you, sweetheart.”
“Protect me from what? Men exactly like you? Trust me, Jameson, you’re not the first, nor will you be the last man to try to protect me. Those men… are the reason I started taking care of myself in the first place.”
“I’m the last man you’d need protection from.”
“I’d say you were the first.”
I could take brutal, harsh verbal abuse. It was mild compared to the emotional assault his eyes rained down on me, like a knife carving into my already wounded mind. My heart immediately tightened as if he was physically holding it in the palm of his hand.
Mostly because I was curious as to what could happen, and anxious of what couldn’t...
Where are these feelings coming from?
He narrowed his brazen stare at me and fucking grinned, sensing my conflicting emotions.
“Let go of me,” I murmured so low, not wanting to say it too loud. Trying to find the good in him when all I could see was the bad.
My resolve slowly began to crumble around us like shards of glass slicing into my skin.
At this moment between us, I no longer owned my body…
My heart.
My mind.
It owned me.
And that was the scariest feeling.
“I don’t like you,” I breathed out, needing him to hear it.
“I know,” he stated in a much deeper voice.
I slightly backed away, once again needing to protect myself from him. Before he could reply, I moved out of the way and stood but was stopped short when he gripped the back of my neck and knocked my willpower right out of me.
He didn’t hesitate, yanking my mouth toward his until his were pressed up against mine. His lips instantly parted, beckoning me to do the same, and I couldn’t resist, so I did. His hands cupped the sides of my face as he pushed me until my heels collided with something solid behind me. Propelling my body backward, I slightly gasped, expecting to fall hard on my ass, but he wrapped his strong arm around my waist to break my fall. He eased me back onto what felt like stairs, his muscular frame collapsing on top of mine.
Caging me in with his arms, pinning me beneath him, he whispered against my lips, “You alright?”
I nodded, unable to form any words. My mind was too scrambled with thoughts and emotions I didn’t understand, couldn’t control, and was too scared to label. It was one giant clusterfuck, him being on top of me in such an intimate position, having me at his mercy for the first time. My chest rose and fell faster and faster with each deep breath that escaped my lungs. Digging in deeper and deeper, inch by inch, I crumpled beneath him, and he wasn’t even kissing me again.
Before my mind could catch up,I put my arms around his neck and kissed him instead. He groaned from the depths of his chest like it was all he’d been waiting for. As he pushed me harder against the steps, I kissed him with more force and determination, demanding something I couldn’t quite place. Slipping my tongue into his waiting mouth, I bit his bottom lip, causing him to growl as we immediately tasted the faint copper of his blood.
With his possessive hold around my neck, he kissed me slower.
Every time I felt his hard cock thrust against my wet heat.
Every time I felt his heartbeat against mine.
I felt him all over again.
My eyes widened in shock, and it was the jolt of fire I had to feel to end this between us. Using all my strength, I shoved him off and tried to knee him in the balls, but he got off me before I could. Knowing my intentions.
“That’s not very nice,” he exclaimed.
If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. In fact, it was as if he expected me to react like this once the daze of him wore off.
“I’m not very nice,” I spewed, pushing him off until I was able to stand.
It was only then I realized we were behind the stage where no one could see us. The music changed over to a remix of “Everybody Free” by Rozalla, and the irony was not lost on me. For the rest of the night, I stayed at the DJ booth.
Drowning my thoughts and emotions in the music…
It was the only way I knew how to survive.